There have been a record number of anti-Semitic hate crimes in the UK since October 7, when Hamas fighters killed more than 1,400 people in Israel and captured 200 hostages – most of whom they have so far refused to return.

Muslim communities are also feeling vulnerable after their mass demonstrations in support of Palestinians, who have been killed and blockaded inside Gaza by Israeli forces, were called hate marches by UK Home Secretary Suella Braverman.

CGTN visited an area in north London with large Jewish and Muslim communities, who are trying hard not to let the Israel-Hamas conflict drive a wedge between them.

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Grodzinski bakery claims to be the oldest kosher bakery in London. Its Stamford Hill shop is a busy hub for the local Jewish community but it also prides itself on its multiethnic staff, with Muslims and Christians and others all working alongside their Jewish colleagues.

According to both the manager and his customers, the horrific events in Israel and Gaza haven't changed that. 

"We still get on, we still get on with people in the street," said customer Martin, who would only give his anglicized first name. "Black people, Muslim people, Jewish – it hasn't changed around here that much, but we are a bit more checking behind us, a little bit more scared."

Fellow customer Joel felt the same. "I don't see any changes here," he said. "We live together all the time. The taxi drivers are all Muslim and we go every day with them and there are no problems with them."

Islamophobic and anti-Semitic hate crimes have recently risen sharply, but not here in Stamford Hill. This north London neighborhood is home to thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews but it also has a large and well-established Muslim community. On one street alone there is a mosque and Muslim community center facing a Jewish primary school on the other side of the road. 

Tariq Mahmoud regularly comes to pray at the mosque here. "It's OK here, it's 15 years since I've been in this country, I've never had a problem with any community, he said. "Jews, Hindu, Christian, atheists – we don't have any problem, we are living in peace."

There are frustrations and anger in the Muslim community over the conflict, and resentment that pro-Palestinian rallies were dubbed hate marches by the Home Secretary Suella Braverman. 

Munaf Zeena, Chairman of the North London Community Centre," said: "We are very angry, very frustrated. We do feel that we are not being heard, that we are being side-lined."

But Zeena says that hasn't stopped the two communities from cooperating. 

"We have a fantastic record of working together for the last 40 to 50 years. We recognize that the issues of the Middle East which are going on, we are all angry about it in different ways but we live together as one community."

Zeena works closely with Rabbi Herschel Gluck, they co-chair the Muslim Jewish Forum in Stamford Hill. Rabbi Gluck says the strength of the relationship between Jews and Muslims has ensured there is no divide between them.

"The community is still interacting in exactly the same way as prior to the terrible acts on the 7th of October," he said. "We trust each other, we know each other. We see each other not as the other but as members of a community of communities. So therefore the trust and friendship is so deep that even something as horrific as what we have seen over the past few weeks couldn't dent that inherent friendship."

This area has been spared most of the anti-Semitic hate crimes, unlike other predominantly Jewish neighbourhoods like Golders Green.

Rabbi Gluck is also President of the Stamford Hill Shomrim, a group of Jewish volunteers who have formed a Neighborhood Watch-type group. They came together to help police to reduce crime and citizens to feel safe within Jewish communities in north west London.

"These hate crimes are not coming from the Muslim community here," said Gluck, who has access to all of Shomrim's incident reports. "Most of it is coming from non-Muslims and there has been no case of any Muslim who is living here being involved in an anti-Semitic incident."

As the conflict in Israel and Gaza goes on, the strength of these community ties will continue be tested. But as things stand, local people are refusing to break bonds strengthened by decades of friendship and cooperation.

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