🔗 Share this article

A person hurt during the recent attack at a synagogue in Manchester was serving with the CST, an organization credited for averting an more severe tragedy.

Familiar Sight of Helpers

The sight of helpers in the charity's hi-vis vests has become a familiar presence at Jewish synagogues, educational institutions, and other locations in the past few years.

Over many years, the group has also influenced government strategies by tracking and combating anti-Jewish sentiment, while also countering hatred against other groups.

Increasing Anti-Jewish Offenses

In the two years since the October 7th, 2023 violence in Israel and the beginning of the conflict in Gaza, the charity's personnel has grown by approximately 33% amid a surge in antisemitic offenses.

Based on Home Office statistics, there were 3,282 religious hate crimes aimed at Jewish people in the year to March 2024, an increase from 1,543 in the previous year.

Separate data from the CST, based on the number of anti-Jewish events reported to the group, documented over 1,500 such occurrences across the UK in the first half of this year.

Chart displays mean count of hate crimes logged per ten thousand people, grouped by the assumed faith of the victim.

Longstanding Documentation and Preparation

Although it attained non-profit organization in 1994, the CST and its predecessors have been documenting and publishing anti-Jewish event data in the UK since the 1980s.

Currently, its operations include over a hundred members of staff and two thousand committed volunteers who undergo intensive training in subjects ranging from first aid to performing security duties.

Although its members have been hurt in the past, the severe injuries to one of its personnel in Manchester is believed to be the most serious to date.

Leadership Reaction and Security Arrangements

"We pray for his continuing recovery and salute the bravery of all those who helped stop the attacker from getting into the shul," said the organization's top leader.

The organization's deployment at sites often comprises a combination of its own volunteers, such as trained congregants, as well as contracted protection officers.

Being a beneficiary of financial support from the government, the CST distributes an 18 million pound public funds that covers professional security services.

These resources were utilized last year at locations encompassing 200 childcare centers, 260 synagogues, and fifty prominent communal buildings.

The CST itself relies on contributions.

Wider Activities and Partnerships

Less visible is the CST’s broader efforts in training, advising on security, and its established study into antisemitism from origins including far-right extremists and radical Islamists.

These efforts in this sphere have contributed to legal proceedings such as the jailing in 2021 of a man who was then one of the UK’s most active extremist anti-Jewish online broadcasters.

National security forces were alerted to his activity by the CST.

The non-profit also collaborates extensively with partners including a national anti-Muslim hate monitoring project – the UK-wide initiative that documents and measures anti-Muslim incidents in the UK, and which has referred to the CST’s work as "groundbreaking."

Both are in a official collaboration with other anti-hate organizations as part of the Community Alliance to Combat Hate partnership.

Further Initiatives and Public Engagement

The trust's operations, which different groups have utilized, also includes its guide for security procedures for religious sites.

In other areas, it runs customized youth street awareness programs for adolescents in conjunction with Maccabi GB, under the Streetwise programme.

Additional activities includes collaborations with the police and with MPs, while it holds frequent meetings with ministers and contributes to public strategies on anti-Jewish issues.

Although the trust serves the Jewish community, an organization called Shomrim also monitors anti-Jewish sentiment and works on behalf of Haredi Jewish communities.