Hundreds of members of Finchley Reform Synagogue (FRS) in north London gathered for a defiant Shabbat service on Friday, three days after bottles of what is believed to be petrol were thrown at the building in an attack police are treating as an antisemitic hate crime. Joining the congregation were members of the local Somali Bravanese community — refugees whose own centre was destroyed by arson 13 years ago, and who were sheltered by FRS for four years while a new centre was built. The gesture of return solidarity came as antisemitic incidents in the UK have risen sharply since October 2023, a trend that has also seen four Jewish charity ambulances firebombed nearby and a fatal knife attack on a Manchester synagogue, prompting heightened security across Jewish community sites nationwide.