The Community Security Trust (CST) is a superb charity which supports British Jews suffering from antisemitism and related threats.
The CST is recognised by both the Police and Government as a unique model of best practice in terms of protecting religious groups – the methods which the CST employ to keep people safe are highly regarded and are used as a gold-standard model for a wider range of circumstances as well.
It is shocking that the CST’s 2016 report on anti-Semitic incidents showed a 36% rise in such incidents from 2015; 1,309 anti-Semitic incidents were recorded in 2016, the highest total the CST has ever recorded.
I wholeheartedly condemn discrimination against anyone based on their religion or race and I am immensely proud of the diverse community that we have in Northampton. In Northampton we have a very small Jewish community, with records of a Jewish presence dating back to medieval times, but the modern community celebrated the 150th Anniversary of the Northampton Hebrew Congregation a couple of years ago when the Chief Rabbi attended.
It is critical that politicians support charities such as the CST in helping to defend our communities from such disgraceful attacks and to that end I was happy to see many other politicians – including some supportive Labour politicians – amongst nearly a thousand people at the CST annual dinner in London supporting the great work that they do.
The Government demonstrated its commitment by pledging over £13 million of funding to CST at the dinner.