Charedi community given £50,000 to help report anti-Semitism

London’s Charedi community has been given £50,000 to improve the reporting of anti-Semitic hate crime, which often passes unrecorded in strictly Orthodox areas.

Minister for Faith and Integration Lord Bourne announced the new funding on a tour of Stamford Hill on Wednesday, where he met students and teachers at Belz Yeshiva and Yesodeh Hatorah Senior School. He was later briefed by the team at volunteer emergency response service, Hatzola.

Bourne said the money would go to volunteer neighbourhood watch group Shomrim as well as to fund True Vision, a brand of hate crime reporting materials owned and operated by the National Police Chiefs’ Council, which began as a local scheme but being expanded to provide resources to any police force.

“We have heard from people within sections of the Orthodox Jewish community that many victims of hate crime are reluctant to report crimes,” said Paul Gianassi, who manages True Vision for the police.

“We are pleased to receive this support for our work as it will enable us to work with communities and our partners to ensure that as many victims as possible choose to report crimes when they happen.”

Bourne said: “We must make sure that the Charedi community like any other feels secure, with its members able to live their lives without fear or harassment and be reassured that the perpetrators of hate-crimes will be punished.

“That’s why we want to help build confidence within the community to come forward and report hate-crime, so that we can better measure the true extent of anti-Semitic hate crime and better support victims to take action through the criminal justice system.”