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The Star of David, the symbol of Jewish identity, and "911" were spray-painted on store fronts in the Hampstead and Belsize Park area and on the South Hampstead Synagogue, according to images shared by Oliver Cooper, a Conservative councillor for Hampstead. "911" refers to a conspiracy theory casting blame on Jewish people for the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
"I am walking around Hampstead documenting all the anti-Semitic graffiti that mars our community this morning, and just got to South Hampstead Synagogue. This is a place of peace and prayer, desecrated by the world's oldest hatred," Cooper said in a tweet.
London police said that they received a report regarding the anti-Semitic graffiti late Saturday, the seventh night of Hanukkah. No arrests had been made as of Sunday afternoon.
"This is clearly a concerning incident and one we are taking seriously," Inspector Kev Hailes said in a statement. "We have liaised with our partners in order to remove the graffiti and various enquiries are underway to find who is responsible."
Hailes added that officers would patrol throughout the surrounding areas to "provide some reassurance to local communities."
Tulip Siddiq, the Labour MP for Hampstead and Kilburn, described the vandalism as "unbelievable, senseless, disgusting antisemitism at the heart of our community." She said on Twitter that she was in contact with Camden Council and Borough Commander Kohli to coordinate cleanup and efforts to find the culprit.
"This is a reminder that antisemitism is still with us," the Board of Deputies of British Jews, a forum for the Jewish community in the UK, said in a tweet.
The incident came the same day an assailant entered the house of a Hassidic rabbi in New York and stabbed five people during a Hanukkah celebration. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) has said that he would direct the State Police's hate crime task force to investigate the attack.
Whom is helping whom? quite a poor effort all round. I loathe Nazis of all kinds, from the 1930s onwards whether they be German, British, Israeli or from anywhere. It is their values I find abhorrent not their religion or their race. Violence begets only more violence. Character maketh man.