Liverpool have deleted a tweet wishing their Jewish supporters a happy new year after it was met with a series of antisemitic messages on the club’s official account.

The club marked Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year in the Hebrew calendar, with a tweet on Friday that read: “Liverpool FC would like to wish all our Jewish supporters around the world a happy new year. #RoshHashanah”. However, the tweet was removed several hours later.

Liverpool have recognised various religious events and holidays on social media and was one of several clubs to mention Rosh Hashanah on Twitter on Friday. Kick It Out, football’s equality and inclusion organisation, contacted Anfield officials having received a number of complaints about the antisemitic abuse on the club’s site. It has also reported the alleged hate crimes to True Vision, the police’s online reporting facility, and investigations could follow.

A spokesperson for Kick It Out said: “It is encouraging that a football club recognises 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. 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.”

Liverpool removed their tweet independently of any advice from Kick It Out and have defended the response on a site followed by 3.22m people. A club spokesperson said: “Due to a number of offensive comments that were attached to a tweet on the official LFC twitter account, the tweet and comments have since been removed from the account.”

Merseyside police are currently looking into the racist abuse that was directed at the Liverpool striker Mario Balotelli after he tweeted “Man Utd...LOL” after Manchester United fell to a 5-3 defeat at Leicester City on Sunday.