‘Anti-semitism is a problem for us all’: Jewish newspaper columnist describes son’s racist tube ordeal

A Jewish newspaper columnist has called upon the public to speak out against anti-Semitism after her son was “screamed at for being Jewish” on the Tube.

Writing in the Daily Telegraph, journalist Angela Epstein questioned why fellow passengers did not challenge the behaviour of a man who called her son – proudly wearing his yarmulke – a “f***ing Jew” on the Northern Line.

Describing her 23-year-old son’s encounter – which has since been reported to the police – she wrote: “As Sam and his girlfriend travelled the Northern Line on a lunchtime train, a complete stranger who appeared to be Muslim, began screaming at him for being Jewish.

“He also called Sam and his “people” murderers for killing “my people”.”

Epstein, who has previously said she prefers to “lie low” as a Jew, added that bystanders on the busy lunchtime train “buried their heads in their free newspapers or peered in fascination at their laps”.

Her son’s attacker subsequently followed him off the Tube and continued hurling abuse.

Epstein said her son “had the good sense to deprive his attacker or the oxygen of confrontation and walked away” – but warned the incident highlighted how the general public is “terrified by the prospect of random extremist violence” and proved that “anti-Semitism is a problem for all of us”.

She also suggested “a pull of the communicating cord” from a fellow traveller might have spared her son the rant.

Highlighting a recent spike in anti-Semitism in London, she said it was “little wonder that as pupils at a Jewish school, [her] younger children have to pass through high wire fences and security checks to get as far as the playground”.

Her well-received comment piece, one of a number she has written for the Telegraph on Judaism, has been praised as “compelling” on social media