The Birmingham Jewish community has been 'filled with fear' following a London stabbing which left two Jewish men hospitalised on Wednesday, the chair of the Jewish representative council for Birmingham and the West Midlands has said.
Community Reaction to Golders Green Incident
Ruth Jacobs detailed the 'shock' which rippled through Birmingham after Shloime Rand, 34, and Moshe Shine, 76, were stabbed in Golders Green, London on Wednesday (April 29), in what police declared to be a terror incident.
Speaking to BirminghamLive, Ms Jacobs described how even though the incident was dozens of miles from Birmingham, the lingering sense of 'fear and vulnerability' was apparent in the community following the incident.
'Although it hasn't happened here it fills the community with a sense of fear and vulnerability,' she said, discussing how the stabbing has impacted the feeling of safety in Birmingham.
She went on: 'I don't think we've felt safe for quite a long time but we are very appreciative of the fact West Midlands Police are very carefully looking after the community and the community buildings. We appreciate that very much but that doesn't help for walking in the streets or whatever else might happen as has happened for example with those two men yesterday.'
Call for Community Cohesion
Ms Jacobs continued by sharing how 'community cohesion' is key to draw all people from all walks of life together, making it clear that 'people don't want this sort of behaviour on the streets anywhere in the UK.'
'I think the anti-Semitism is bad at the moment, but the fact is other communities are also experiencing discrimination but it's not spoken about as much because there is so much here going on with the Jewish community,' she said. 'But the important thing is going to be education and greater civic ethics which need to be promoted across our whole society.'
The chair of the Jewish representative council for Birmingham and the West Midlands emphasised how there needs to be a 'different approach' taken from 'everybody' detailing how others must see that 'physical violence expression of hatred is not going to solve anything.'
Ms Jacobs went on: 'No matter of policing or government saying 'this is terrible' and 'we're praying for you' and 'we will make you safe.' There is nothing they can actually do to make us safe physically. What has to happen is a different approach from everybody and the whole of British society, and that's very deep rooted and it's going to take time.'
She added: 'It needs to come from every mosque, every church, every gurdwara, every temple, every place of no faith that people do not want this sort of behaviour on the streets anywhere in the UK and that what are we going to do to stop it and how would we stop it? We have to mind our language, use our heads rather than be just emotively driven.'
Translating Shock into Action
Reflecting once more on the stabbing which occurred earlier this week, Ms Jacobs shared how the Jewish community across the UK is undoubtedly 'shocked' by the incident on Wednesday, however, it is time this 'shock' is translated into actions.
'It is important to say that even since yesterday we have received emails and phone calls to say how shocked people are. But now we have to translate the shock into action otherwise we can be saying we're shocking until kingdom come. We need to translate it into actions and our community needs to feel less vulnerable and isolated and other communities need to reach out to us to help us remove those feelings and we are all standing together for the purpose of making life better for everybody.'
