Welsh police data: 42% jump in anti-Jewish crimes recorded in 2025

Dyfed-Powys Police recorded 17 crimes classified as anti-Jewish in 2025, a 42 percent increase from the 12 recorded in 2024. The figures come from a Freedom of Information disclosure and cover only the Dyfed-Powys policing area, not all of Wales. Police noted that these numbers may not capture every antisemitic offense recorded under other categories.

The 2021 UK Census counted 2,044 people in Wales who identified as Jewish by religion. This group represents approximately 0.07 percent of the country's total population of 3.1 million. Most live in Cardiff, which hosts a Reform synagogue and an Orthodox synagogue. A Chabad synagogue also serves Llandudno, with smaller groups existing in other cities.

National policing data for Wales between April 2025 and March 2026 showed 6,157 hate crimes. Of these, 325 were motivated by religion, down from 451 in the previous period. The data does not break down which religions were targeted. Separately, the Community Security Trust recorded 25 antisemitic incidents in Wales in 2025, with 13 in North Wales, 8 in South Wales, and two each in Dyfed-Powys and Gwent.

Professor Nathan Abrams of Bangor University, who lives in northwest Wales, said the small size of the Jewish population has not reduced hostility. "The fascination the Welsh have with Jews is inversely proportional to the numbers," Abrams said. "So the absence of Jews hasn't meant the absence of antisemitism or similar attitudes. It's actually the opposite."

Abrams linked much of the tension to the Israel-Palestine conflict and the political stance of Plaid Cymru, a left-leaning nationalist party that is strong in the northwest. The party has campaigned for Palestinian state recognition and called for harsh sanctions against Israel in September 2025. Abrams described a pattern where middle-class supporters, often well-meaning, repeat historical tropes without realizing they are engaging in antisemitism. He noted that working-class residents often dislike the demonstrators more than they support the cause.

The Welsh Local Government Association met with Jewish community representatives to discuss the issue. Representatives reported growing anxiety, including verbal abuse and parents changing their children's behavior in schools. The South Wales Jewish Representative Council stated that the community is "resilient" but that the rise in antisemitism has left many people "shaken and concerned."

Abrams, who recently published Jews in the Welsh Imagination: Medieval Times to the Present, argued that Welsh attitudes toward Jews have cycled back to their origins in the Middle East conflict. He said the complexity of Jewishness remains reduced to that single geopolitical issue, a dynamic that has persisted for 1,600 years.