Two men from Ilford, London, have been arrested for violently attacking Rabbi Rafi Goodwin outside his shul in Essex on Sunday.
Two men from Ilford, London, have been arrested for violently attacking Rabbi Rafi Goodwin outside his shul in Essex on Sunday.
Two men from Ilford, in east London, have been arrested over an alleged religiously aggravated assault on a rabbi in Essex.
Abderrahman Brahimi, 25, and Souraka Djabouri, 18, from Ilford, east London, had been arrested for the attack on Rafi Goodwin in Chigwell.
Rabbi Rafi Goodwin, a senior rabbi of Chigwell and Hainault United Synagogue in London, was brutally attacked by two youths around the Lime Estates near his shul in Essex, on Sunday afternoon.
Rabbi Goodwin was taken to King George’s Hospital with cuts to the top of his head and around one eye, where was treated for his wounds.
“It is believed that two teenagers stepped out in front of the victim’s vehicle whilst he was driving, they shouted at him and spoke in a derogatory way about his religion before going on to damage his car,” the police department report said.
The victim’s phone was stolen during the attack by two boys, thought to be aged 15-18, who left the scene on foot, police added.
The incident followed pro-Palestinian demonstrations in central London on Saturday as Israel continues to launch strikes on Gaza in retaliation for rocket attacks by Hamas.
On Sunday, London’s Metropolitan Police arrested four people after a convoy of cars bearing Palestinian flags drove through an area of North London with a large Jewish community, broadcasting anti-Semitic messages from a megaphone.
Police said they did not believe the hate incident was ‘related to events taking place overseas or incidents which have taken place elsewhere in the country’.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson condemned the attack in a tweet Sunday. “There is no place for antisemitism in our society. Ahead of Shavuot, I stand with Britain’s Jews who should not have to endure the type of shameful racism we have seen today,” he wrote.
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