THE number of anti-semitic incidents in Scotland has soared by more than 300% in the last year, Jewish leaders have told the Sunday Herald.

Speaking in the wake of the Paris attacks, the Scottish Council of Jewish Communities said it had recorded 50 anti-semitic incidents between July and September last year. The council's director, Ephraim Borowski, said it recorded just 12 during the duration of 2013 and 13 the previous year.

Police patrols of UK Jewish ­communities have been stepped up after the Paris attacks in which 17 people, including four Jews, were killed by Islamist gunmen.

Borowski said last year's incidents related to social media, graffiti and personal attacks.

He described a report from a man who was wearing a skull cap on the train. He was asked: "Why do you like killing Palestinian children?"

He also said a young woman living in university halls in ­Glasgow had a paper Menorah that was pinned to her door reshaped into a swastika.

He added: "We also had three separate stories of children being taunted at school because they were told: 'You killed Christ'.

"We've had people tell us they say they are going to church rather than synagogue. Another thing that's been reported to us is people hiding their identity.

"People have told us they say they're not Israeli, but Turkish."

Borowski said: "Anti-semitism is a hate crime, and hate crime is hatred of a characteristic or group, so it makes every member of that group feel vulnerable and alienated."

"The attack on the magazine in Paris, however evil [the killers may] have been, was because of what they were doing," he said, referring to the Charlie Hebdo cartoonists who were targeted. "The attack on the [Jewish] supermarket was about who they are. It makes people feel uneasy. That could easily have been their supermarket ... and they could have been the customers."

Following the terror attacks, Police Scotland has urged communities in Scotland to "remain alert".

Detective Chief Constable Iain Livingstone said: "While there is no specific threat to Scottish communities we must not be complacent, as Scotland is not immune from the threat posed by terrorism. Dialogue is ongoing with community and faith leaders."

Last week, a YouGov survey led by the Campaign Against ­Antisemitism showed one in four Britons believed that Jews "chase money more than other people".

A separate poll also revealed that more than half of all British Jews feel that anti-semitism has begun to echo the widespread anti-Jewish hatred of the 1930s.

The regional breakdown suggested Scottish people hold less stereotypical views. A total of 12% of Scots questioned said they thought Jews "think they are better than other people", compared to 24% in London.

Jonathan Sacerdoti, a journalist and spokesman for the campaign, said: "We aren't trying to accuse the nation of anti-semitism. We're hoping people might say, 'How can that be?' I think it's very easy to fall into a trap about having stereo­typical ideas about people you've never spoken to."

Geoffrey Alderman, a ­writer for the Jewish ­Chronicle, said opposition to Israel had "morphed" into anti-semitism. He said: "In the wake of the Paris outrages the most ­important ­statement that was made by anyone was made by the French Prime Minister Manuel Valls, who reiterated a statement he had made a year or so ago that the line dividing anti-Zionism from anti-semitism has been crossed."

A report by the Scottish Government on Religiously Aggravated Offending in Scotland found the number of charges recorded by the Crown Office where conduct was derogatory towards Islam dropped from 80 in 2012/13 to 48 in 2013/14.

There was also a decrease in the charges that referred to Judaism, from 27 in 2012/13 to nine in 2013/14.

In 2013/14 587 charges with a ­religious aggravation were reported - a 15% drop compared to 2012/13 and a 35% decrease since 2011/12.