As members of the Jewish community gathered to pray on Yom Kippur, a man drove his car into the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue in Manchester, England, and began stabbing people on Thursday morning. At least two people were killed, and another three are injured. The attacker is dead after being shot by police.
The British government has labeled the attack as terrorism, and two other arrests have been made, Assistant Commissioner Laurence Taylor said in a press conference.
Police believe they know the identity of the attacker, “but for safety reasons at the scene we are unable to confirm at this stage,” Taylor said.
Jews urged to keep synagogue doors closed
The Community Security Trust, a British charity that provides safety, security and advice to the British Jewish community, released a statement asking Jews in the area to stay away from the attacked synagogue.
“We urge people not to congregate outside communal premises and synagogues to keep their doors closed at all times,” they said, per the Jewish Chronicle.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced he would deploy “additional police assets” to synagogues on Thursday to ensure the safety of Jewish communities as they worshipped on their high holy day.
Starmer also thanked local police forces for the speed of their response. The attacker was shot and killed within seven minutes of a call made to emergency services.
One member of the synagogue describes a rise of British antisemitism
Raphi Bloom, a regular attendee of the attacked synagogue, told Sky News, “This attack is a combination of something that the Jewish community has been fearing for two years. We’ve been faced with a tsunami of Jew-hatred since October 7.”
He said he’s seen vandalism, physical attacks, online abuse, mistreatment in the country’s National Health System and antisemitism on British campuses. “We’ve had hate marches every week throughout our streets with disgusting Holocaust images comparing Jews to Nazis, and ultimately almost every Jew in this country thought this day would come,” he said.
But Bloom “never thought it would happen at my synagogue, to my friends, to my Rabbi, in my city,” he said. “But it’s something that we feared would come and has happened because there has been such inaction to tackle this wave of hatred targeting the Jewish community in the U.K. over a conflict two and a half thousand miles away.”
The wave of hatred against his community has been catalyzed by Middle Eastern conflicts involving Israel, Bloom said.
