Nearly a year after the deadly terrorist attack at Heaton Park synagogue in Manchester, the city’s Jewish community feels more vulnerable and less safe than it did immediately after the attack.
Ahead of a public memorial service Monday, Rabbi Daniel Walker said rising antisemitism and a lack of meaningful action to address the underlying problems have left members of the community feeling increasingly exposed. “I think we’re actually almost in a harder position than we were even immediately after the attack,” Walker told the BBC. “I think the sense of vulnerability has grown. It hasn’t diminished.”
Rabbi Daniel Walker at the scene of the Yom Kippur attack
(Photo: Paul Currie / AFP)
The attack took place on October 2, 2025, on Yom Kippur. Melvin Cravitz and Adrian Daulby were killed and three others were injured as they tried to defend the synagogue from attacker Jihad al-Shamie.
Since then, additional attacks in Australia and London, alongside police figures showing a sharp rise in violent hate crimes targeting Jews in England and Wales since 2022, have deepened the community’s sense of fear and distress.
For the Heaton Park congregation, Walker said, the past year has been one “of difficulty and of grief and of pain.”
“Something has gone seriously wrong in our society,” he said. “I think we’re dealing with symptoms. We’re extremely grateful for the increased security, but I don’t think there’s really any evidence of anyone dealing with the core problems. And on the contrary, in many ways, those may have become worse over the last months.”
The memorial service will be held ahead of the Jewish High Holy Days and attended by Britain’s Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis and Manchester Mayor Bev Craig. Relatives of those killed and others affected by the attack are also expected to attend.
Among them is security guard Bernard Agyemang, who was seriously injured after al-Shamie drove into him and then tried to enter the synagogue armed with a knife. Agyemang said he continues to struggle with the trauma and physical pain caused by the attack. “The events of that day will stay with me forever,” he said.
“I still live with the physical injuries and the emotional trauma caused by the attack, and there are days when the memories feel just as vivid as they did a year ago.”
‘Hatikva’ at the Manchester rally
(Video: Tamar Sebok)
The ceremony is being held under heightened security, with an extensive police deployment. The security preparations come in part against the backdrop of an apology in July by Greater Manchester Police Chief Constable Sir Stephen Watson, after it emerged that phones belonging to the attacker had been seized twice in the months before the attack but were not examined.
At the same time, the British government has stressed that it will not allow hatred to drive people from their communities or divide the country.
Angela Rayner told the BBC that the government would “not allow hatred to drive people from their communities, to make them afraid to live and practise their faith freely or to divide our country.”
“Antisemitism is a poison, and we won’t stop fighting it until every Jewish person can live their lives fully, and free from fear,” she said.