Jewish Community Feels Less Safe Nearly a Year After Synagogue Attack, Rabbi Says

Nearly a year after two men were killed defending their synagogue, Rabbi Daniel Walker says the Jewish community feels less safe than it did immediately after the attack.

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I think we're actually almost in a harder position than we were even immediately after the attack.

Walker, rabbi of Manchester’s Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation, said rising antisemitism and insufficient action to address its underlying causes had deepened the community’s vulnerability. He spoke before a memorial service for the victims and survivors of the attack.

Melvin Cravitz and Adrian Daulby died, while three others were injured, as they tried to protect the synagogue from attacker Jihad al-Shamie on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, on Oct. 2, 2025. Walker described the following year as one of “difficulty and of grief and of pain.”

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The sense of vulnerability has grown. It hasn't diminished.

He said attacks elsewhere had added to the congregation’s distress. The account cited a shooting at a Chanukah celebration in Sydney, arson attacks targeting Jewish people and property in London, including Hatzola ambulances, and the stabbing of two Orthodox Jewish men after morning prayers in Golders Green.

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Something has gone seriously wrong in our society.

A BBC Freedom of Information request found that violent hate crimes against Jewish people, including harassment and assault, rose by nearly two thirds across 33 police forces in England and Wales since 2022. Communities Minister Angela Rayner said the government would not allow hatred to force people from their communities or prevent them from practising their faith freely. Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis and Manchester Mayor Bev Craig were expected at the memorial service.

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Antisemitism is a poison, and we won't stop fighting it until every Jewish person can live their lives fully, and free from fear.