King Charles meets Golders Green terror victims in surprise visit to show support for Jewish community

The King has made a surprise visit to Golders Green, where he has met with the victims of last month’s terror attack in a show of support for the Jewish community. Charles was met with shouts of ‘long live the King’ as he met those who came out to see him on Golders Green High Street. His visit comes just weeks after Shloime Rand, 34, was stabbed as he left a synagogue, while Moshe Shine, 76, was stabbed at a bus stop in the predominantly Jewish area of North London. During his visit, Charles visited a Jewish Care charity centre to meet with victims along with Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis and Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley. The chief rabbi told the King they “appreciate it enormously” that he had made the visit. Charles also spoke with members of the Jewish community police force Shomrim, who were involved in responding to the attacks on April 29. He then spent around half an hour meeting wellwishers on Golders Green High Street, with many thanking him for visiting them. There were cries of “long live the King” and one man told Charles he was “always welcome” in the area. The King told him “it’s a dangerous world isn’t it?” and responded “I know” when the member of the public said: “What happened in Golders Green was horrific”. Charles told others further down the long line of people waiting to see him: “I hope I haven’t disrupted your normal activities too much.” The King’s visit comes just hours after his son, Prince Harry spoke out about the “deeply troubling” rise in antisemitism in the UK in a new opinion piece. Harry stressed the importance of “legitimate protest”, adding that he felt compelled to speak out because in his view standing on the sidelines allows “hate and extremism to flourish unchecked”. Writing in The New Statesman, he referenced recent “lethal violence” against the Jewish community in Manchester and in London and said that “hatred directed at people for who they are, or what they believe, is not protest. It is prejudice”. Harry also wrote about the “deep and justified alarm” at the scale of loss in Gaza and Lebanon but argued people must be more “clear” about where their anger is directed.