Two killed in Yom Kippur attack on synagogue in Manchester, England

JTA – Two people were killed in Manchester, England, on Yom Kippur after a man rammed his car into a group of Jewish worshippers outside of an Orthodox synagogue before getting out and stabbing people.

Police in England have labelled the incident as a terrorist attack. They said the perpetrator was a 35-year-old Syrian-born British citizen named Jihad Al-Shamie.

A police officer shot and killed Al-Shamie at the scene roughly seven minutes after the attack began. Police later determined that the explosives belt he was wearing was fake.

The two men killed on the Heaton Park Congregation Synagogue were identified as Adrian Daulby, 53, and Melvin Cravitz, 66, both members of the local Jewish community. Three others remain in serious condition.

One of the men killed and one of the injured appeared to have shot by police while huddling behind the synagogue’s door to prevent Al-Shamie from entering, police revealed on Friday. They had previously said a member’s quick response to lock the synagogue’s doors and call police helped prevent the attacker from entering the building.

“We are grateful to the member of the public whose quick response to what they witnessed allowed our swift action,” Greater Manchester Police wrote in a statement on Thursday, 2 October.

The attack sent grim shockwaves through the British Jewish community on the Jewish calendar’s holiest day. Some Orthodox Jews, including in Manchester, didn’t learn of the attack until after the holiday ended at sundown.

“This is the day we hoped we would never see, but which deep down, we knew would come,” Sir Ephraim Mirvis, chief rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth, tweeted after the holiday was over.

English Prime Minister Keir Starmer, whose wife is Jewish, left a European Summit meeting in Copenhagen to return to London for an emergency response meeting.

“The fact that this has taken place on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, makes it all the more horrific,” Starmer wrote on X. “My thoughts are with the loved ones of all those affected, and my thanks go to the emergency services and all the first responders.”

He also announced that extra police officers were being deployed to synagogues across England.

Police in London urged pro-Palestinian protesters to cancel a planned demonstration, saying that it would divert policing resources at a time when they were needed to protect Jewish communities. The demonstration went on as planned, drawing criticism from Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood.

“Carrying on in this way does feel un-British. It feels wrong,” she said.

Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation is located in Crumpsall, a northern suburb in Greater Manchester that is home to significant communities of both Jews and Muslims. The bordering town of Prestwich boasts several synagogues. A study from 2021 found that close to 30 000 Jews live throughout Greater Manchester.

The attack comes six years after an attack on a synagogue in Halle, Germany, on Yom Kippur was thwarted by security. The attacker in that case was a far-right extremist who has been sentenced to life in prison.