Rob Rinder recounts how child shouted 'Heil Hitler' at him on streets of London

Rob Rinder has recounted how a young boy shouted "Heil Hitler" at him while he was walking the streets of London.

The broadcasting barrister, who was walking down Carnaby Street at the time, described the Friday evening encounter on social media.

Rinder wrote: "On Carnaby Street last night, a kid on a bike cycled up, saw it was me, looked friendly at first, then offered up his favourite 'lyric': 'Heil Hitler'."

He admitted uncertainty about whether to make the incident public, noting it was the first time he had personally experienced such abuse.

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The confrontation occurred against a backdrop of escalating attacks targeting Jewish people across the capital.

Rinder wrote: "The most striking thing: I wasn't shocked. No threat. No anger. Not a victim. Just: what has he been taught?

"Hatred is learned. We are not defined by it. We answer it by what we teach."

The incident carries particular weight given Rinder's personal connection to the Holocaust.

His maternal grandfather, Morris Malenicky, survived the Nazi genocide, having lost his parents, four sisters and a brother in the Treblinka Camp in Poland in 1940.

The alleged incident comes amid what Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis has described as "a sustained effort to terrorise the Jewish people" and a growing wave of anti-Semitic crime in the capital.

Last week, two Jewish men were stabbed in Golders Green in a terror attack.

In March, arsonists targeted four ambulances belonging to Hatzola, a Jewish non-profit organisation, setting them alight outside a synagogue in the same area.

Subsequent months saw attempted arson attacks on synagogues in both Harrow and Finchley, while a Jewish charity shop in Hendon was also targeted.

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The pattern of violence has left London's Jewish community facing sustained threats across multiple neighbourhoods in north London.

Statistics reveal a dramatic surge in anti-Semitic offences following the Hamas attacks on Israel in October 2023 and the subsequent military response.

Monthly reports of anti-Semitic crimes from London's Jewish community rose from an average of 58 before the conflict to 132 in its immediate aftermath.

Although the figure has since fallen to 96 per month, this remains nearly double pre-war levels.

Rinder recently visited Heaton Park Synagogue in Manchester, where a man drove into pedestrians and attacked worshippers with a knife during Yom Kippur last October.

"The strength of the community there is something you feel immediately," he wrote on Instagram, praising Rabbi Walker's determination to continue the service throughout the attack.

Sir Keir Starmer has suggested pro-Palestine demonstrations could potentially be banned, owing to their effect on Britain's Jewish community.

When questioned about whether he favoured stricter policing of language at marches, or wanted some protests halted entirely, the Prime Minister responded: "I think certainly the first, and I think there are instances for the latter."

He emphasised his desire for "tougher action" against demonstrators using specific phrases at pro-Gaza rallies.

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