Rob Rinder has said that he was the subject of antisemitic abuse in the wake of this week’s Golders Green attacks.
Just days ago, the terror attack in the West London borough saw two Jewish men stabbed by 45-year-old Essa Suleiman.
Suleiman appeared in court on Friday, where he was charged with the attempted murder of Shloime Rand, 34, and Moshe Ben Baila, 76.
Earlier that same day, he had also attempted to kill his friend of 20 yearsat an address in Southwark.
In the aftermath of the attack, barrister and television personality Rinder, 47, took to social media where he described being subjected to an antisemitic outburst.
According to Rinder, who is Jewish, the youth cycled up to him with a shout of ‘Heil Hitler!’
Writing on X, 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.”
‘I wasn’t sure whether to share this. I hadn’t experienced that personally before. The most striking thing: I wasn’t shocked. No threat. No anger. Not a victim. Just: what has he been taught Hatred is learned.’
He finished: ‘We are not defined by it. We answer it by what we teach.’
Earlier in the week, Rinder had spoken out against ‘months of poison’ and the normalisation of antisemitism.
He said: ‘Yesterday I was at Heaton Park Synagogue, remembering Jews murdered by a terrorist.
‘Today, Jews are stabbed on a London street. More terrorism. This does not come out of nowhere. It follows months of poison that downplays antisemitism, treats Jewish fear as suspect and turns public space into a place where that hostility feels normal.’
‘We’re told “antisemitism has no place in our society.” Then act like it,’ he added.
Rinder has long been an outspoken member of the Jewish community, using his platform to speak out against antisemitism.
This included voicing his concerns last year, when Israeli fans were blocked from attending an Aston Villa match in Birmingham in the wake of a terror attack committed against a synagogue in Manchester.
It was a call criticised by Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who described it as ‘the wrong decision.’
Sharing a clip from his segment on Good Morning Britain, Rinder wrote: ‘After the Manchester attacks, Jewish communities were told: “Don’t let fear win.”
He continued: ‘Today, Israeli fans are being banned from Aston Villa “for their own safety.” What message does that send to every Jewish person in Britain?’
In 2022, he was granted an MBE for his services to Holocaust education, along with his mother.
Mum Angela Cohen previously appeared with her son in the 2019 BBC series My Family, The Holocaust And Me, which explored the stories of Jewish families.
Rob had called their mission statement ‘to teach the world what happens when we forget history’.
He also explored his family’s roots in an episode of Who Do You Think You Are?, where he made a series of discoveries about his grandfather, Morris Malenicky, a survivor of two concentration camps.
Collecting the MBE with her son, Cohen said: ‘I think that everything that’s happening in the Ukraine is a lesson that we have to welcome everybody into this country like it happened for my father.’
She went on to say that her father would have been ‘so proud’ to see his daughter and grandson receive royal honours together.
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