A ‘heartwarming’ visit by King Charles brought smiles to Golders Green on a sunny afternoon – but worries about everyday life as a Jewish person continue amid a rising tide of anti-Semitic incidents
Golders Green locals hailed a ‘special’ day as King Charles came to show his support for the Jewish community – but warned how life would go back to an ‘unsafe, uncomfortable’ new normal once the cameras moved on.
His appearance at a community centre just after midday on Thursday was supposed to be a secret – but crowds filled the streets outside and schoolkids crammed onto the balcony opposite to catch a glimpse of the beaming King.
Some of those watching broke into a spontaneous chorus of ‘hip, hip hooray’ and sang the national anthem as Charles exited the community centre and went into Grodz, the bakery next door.
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Inside, locals told the Mirror afterwards how they “loved” the King and felt his visit was far more “heartwarming” than that of any politician – but said that it was a very brief “shining light of hope” in what has been a harrowing few weeks for the community.
The recent double knife attack, burning of charity ambulances, cruel street taunts for social media and a wave of antisemitic incidents have left Jewish people feeling “particularly betrayed” and “abandoned” by the state, Jewish community activist and student Tali Smus said to the Mirror – and many pondering their future in the UK for the first time in their lives.
She shook hands with the King, telling him: “‘Thank you very much for coming’ – because we appreciated it.”
Tali explained: “Yesterday we saw the King open parliament and say that he was going to tackle antisemitism and guess what, the next day he’s down here in Golders Green meeting with the community. As I said, not just a closed door meeting, he came to see the people. He said hello to us, he interacted with us, and I think that was a shining light of hope for the Jewish community.
“He was very sweet, very kind. He also liked the flag I was holding, which was the Union Jack with the Star of David in the middle. And next to me was a baby, and he even went to shake hands with the baby. It was honestly the first time I’ve interacted with any kind of royalty, and to see it in such a personable way and such a positive way was very heartwarming.”
The sunny scenes were a much-needed contrast to the recent intensifying of a long-standing problem – that of being targeted in public for being visibly Jewish in London.
Tali recalled one incident last year where she was threatened on a train for wearing a Star of David necklace and a yellow ribbon for October 7 hostages, saying: “I was on a train and a guy shouted at me and my friends ‘I really wanna kill you, really wanna beat you up.’ And just nothing happened, no one intervened.”
“He called us baby killers, genociders, rapists… we’re sitting on a train in London, we’ve got nothing to do with what’s happening in the Middle East. We said we don’t have anything got to do with the politics, so why don’t you direct it to us – and he just kept going and kept going.”
“When reported to the police I had a meeting or two with them and then they said there’s nothing that’s racially or religiously aggravated that causes threat, harm or harassment, so we can’t do anything about it. I had photo evidence of people harassing and threatening me.”
Yossi Moses, 39, who has owned the Grodz cafe for four years, revealed that the King was given a piece of challah – a piece of bread that the community does “a blessing every Friday night on”.
He said of the last few weeks: “A lot of people thinking of leaving, a people thinking of moving to Israel, some to other countries. It’s not looking good. I tell my son not to wear the kippah when he leaves school. All you know is going to go in a clash with a few kids who have been brainwashed the day before and being pushed to the train tracks. You don’t know what could happen.”
It was the second time a member of his family had met a British royal, with his great-grandfather speaking to the future King Edward VIII on his visit to Aden in 1921.
As the streets cleared out and life went back to normal, Golders Green residents of many years spoke of their mixed feelings – “very happy” at the King’s visit, but deeply “frightened” at the repeated threats to their way of life.
Tami Joseph, who has lived in England for 31 years and works in the butcher’s opposite said: “I was so happy that everybody was cheering and clapping for him and they want to shake his hands. You can see how much the Jews love the monarchy. And it’s so nice to see.
“Look, we as a Jew we love being here, but unfortunately the situation changed and a lot of people now start thinking about their future and some of them already moved… I don’t like when I’m travelling on the train and I can’t put the Star of David. Any other culture they free to wear whatever they want, no hassle, nobody. But you feel really frightened because you don’t know who’s gonna attack you.”
