🔗 Share this article

A person injured during the recent violent incident at a Jewish place of worship in Manchester was serving with the CST, an organization praised for averting an more severe atrocity.

Familiar Presence of Volunteers

The appearance of helpers in the organization's high-visibility vests has become a common sight at Jewish synagogues, educational institutions, and other sites in recent years.

For decades, the organization has also influenced government strategies by monitoring and fighting antisemitism, while also countering hatred against other communities.

Increasing Anti-Jewish Offenses

In the two years since the 7 October 2023 attacks in Israel and the start of the war in Gaza, the charity's personnel has increased by about a third amid a surge in anti-Jewish crimes.

According to government figures, there were over three thousand faith-based offenses targeted at Jewish people in the year to March 2024, up from 1,543 in the previous year.

Separate data from the organization itself, based on the number of antisemitic incidents reported to the group, recorded 1,521 antisemitic incidents across the UK in the first half of this year.

Graph shows average number of hate crimes recorded per 10,000 people, grouped by the assumed faith of the victim.

Established Recording and Training

While it became non-profit organization in the mid-1990s, the CST and its predecessors have been recording and releasing anti-Jewish event figures in the UK since the 1980s.

Today, its operations involve more than 100 employees and two thousand committed helpers who receive intensive instruction in everything from first aid to carrying out protective tasks.

While its volunteers have been hurt in the previous incidents, the serious harm to one of its personnel in Manchester is considered the most serious to date.

Leadership Reaction and Protection Measures

"We pray for his continuing recovery and commend the courage of all those who helped stop the attacker from entering the synagogue," said the CST’s chief executive.

The CST presence at locations often comprises a mixture of its own volunteers, including trained congregants, as well as contracted protection officers.

Being a beneficiary of funding from the Home Office, the CST allocates an £18m public funds that pays for professional security services.

These were deployed last year at locations including 200 childcare centers, 260 Jewish temples, and fifty high-profile communal buildings.

The CST itself relies on donations.

Wider Initiatives and Collaborations

Not as apparent is the trust's broader efforts in education, providing security guidance, and its established research into antisemitism from origins including neo-Nazis and militant Islamist groups.

These efforts in this sphere have contributed to cases including the imprisonment in 2021 of a individual who was then one of the UK’s most prolific extremist anti-Jewish video streamers.

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

The charity also collaborates extensively with partners such as a national anti-Muslim hate monitoring project – the national project that records and tracks anti-Muslim incidents in the UK, and which has described the CST’s work as "innovative."

These organizations are in a official collaboration with other anti-prejudice organizations as part of the CATCH partnership.

Additional Programs and Community Engagement

The trust's operations, which other communities have utilized, also encompasses its manual for protective measures for religious sites.

In other areas, it operates customized youth street awareness courses for teenagers in partnership with Maccabi GB, under the Streetwise initiative.

Additional activities includes collaborations with the police and with elected officials, while it meets regularly with ministers and contributes to public strategies on anti-Jewish issues.

While the CST works across the Hebrew population, an organization called Shomrim also monitors anti-Jewish sentiment and works on behalf of Haredi Jewish groups.