In Golders Green in northwest London on December 25th, you would not notice it was Christmas Day. Recent census data says the population of the area is about 50 per cent Jewish. Wandering around you’ll find Jewish bakeries, levantine restaurants, boys in yarmulkes. It’s also home to one chapter of the Hatzola, a volunteer-run ambulance service that caters to the local community.

Early on Monday morning, two of these ambulances were burned in an arson attack. Two men aged 47 and 45 have been arrested but at the time of writing no more specifics are confirmed about the suspects, the motivation, or whether it was a terror offence. But prime minister Keir Starmer was not equivocal – this was an act of “horrific” anti-Semitism, he said. Were you to step one foot in Golders Green, you would find it hard to readily disagree with him. This neighbourhood, with Stamford Hill to the east, is the focal point of London’s Jewish life.

What you might not know about Hatzola – the non-profit ambulance service founded in New York in the late 1970s – is that its members were among first responders after the Twin Towers were struck on September 11th, 2001. You also might not know that in London, Hatzola services transported Covid patients and Covid vaccines. Not that it really matters – ambulances shouldn’t........

© The Irish Times