Soccer (illustrative)
Soccer (illustrative)Reuters

A British soccer team deleted a message from its Twitter account wishing Jewish fans a happy new year after the tweet sparked a torrent of anti-Semitic abuse.

Liverpool Football Club posted the message on Friday, the second day of Rosh Hashanah, which read: "Liverpool FC would like to wish all our Jewish supporters around the world a happy new year. #RoshHashanah. But the club took it down just hours later following complaints over numerous anti-Semitic responses.

A spokesman for Kick It Out, a campaign to fight racism and other forms of prejudice in soccer, lamented the fact that an attempt to reach out to Jewish fans had taken such a negative turn.

"It is encouraging that a football club recognizes these holidays and religious landmarks – Liverpool did the same for Ramadan – but extremely sad when a club does that in a proactive manner and gets these responses," the spokesman told the Guardian. "Premier League clubs appeal to supporters around the world and it would have been nice for Liverpool’s Jewish supporters to see this message from their club, that’s the bigger issue. It should be welcomed that clubs are doing this is in a proactive manner."

The incident follows a dramatic spike in anti-Semitic hate crimes in the UK in the wake of Israel's defensive operation against Gaza terrorists which has left the British Jewish community feeling shaken.