A French freelance photographer apologized on Wednesday for any offense caused by a mock road sign he placed in a Jewish neighborhood of London. The red triangular traffic warning sign, featuring a silhouetted image of a man in Orthodox Jewish clothing and hat, was seen near a synagogue in Stamford Hill. Photographer Franck Allais told Reuters the sign had not been meant as an anti-Semitic slur but was part of a wider art project. He said he had put up about 20 others featuring different characters, such as an elderly woman with a shopping bag. "I have a big, big apology to the Jewish community," he said. He said the project, in the form of traffic warning signs, was about showing the identities of people crossing the road. "It's all about the characters in London who make London so rich and nice," said Allais, whose work has appeared in British newspapers and magazines including Newsweek. A Jewish neighborhood watch group reported the sign to police. Municipal authority Hackney Council said it believed the sign had already been taken down. Stamford Hill is home to Europe's largest haredi community, with an estimated 30,000 living in the area. It has been targeted by far-right supporters in the past and police figures show an increase of more than 60% in anti-Semitic incidents across London last year. "Disgusting; unacceptable," Diane Abbott, the home affairs spokesman for the opposition Labour Party, wrote on Twitter after the sign was first reported. "Despicable, nasty behavior that has absolutely no place in our community," tweeted David Lammy, another London area Labour lawmaker. Last month, the Community Security Trust, which advises Britain's estimated 260,000 Jews on security matters, said it had registered a record 1,309 incidents across the country in 2016, the highest number since it began collecting figures 33 years ago.
