MANCHESTER – Hundreds of mourners gathered in wind and rain Friday for a vigil that combined grief and defiance in the remembrance of two men who were killed when a knife-wielding assailant attacked their synagogue in the English city of Manchester.
Standing behind the police cordon that still surrounds the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue in the city’s Crumpsall neighborhood, the mourners said they felt forgotten by a society that has allowed antisemitism in the U.K. to grow unchallenged over the last two years.
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Politicians and other leaders have failed to reject anti-Jewish speech or protect Jews from hate crimes, they said.
“We are Jews, but we are English. We have lived in Manchester for 150 years. We belong here," Simon Burton, who works in sales, told The Associated Press. “We feel that, as a community, we are not always listened to. We feel let down."
On Thursday, as people gathered at the synagogue to celebrate Yom Kippur, the most sacred day of the Jewish calendar, the attacker drove his car into people outside the building and stabbed one person to death. A second man appears to have been inadvertently shot by police who confronted the assailant, police said Friday. Three other people were seriously injured.
Assault was declared an act of terrorism
Authorities declared the assault an act of terrorism, though they are still investigating what motivated the attacker, who was identified as a naturalized British citizen of Syrian descent. He was shot dead by police.
“Right now, our hearts are shattered,” Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis said Friday. “What transpired yesterday was an awful blow to us, something which actually we were fearing might happen because of the buildup to this action.”
As evidence of the climate of intolerance that has been allowed to fester in Britain, some people pointed to pro-Palestinian protests in London that went ahead Thursday night, even as Jews around the country grieved over the deaths in Manchester.
Police in London urged organizers to call off a demonstration planned for Saturday to oppose the government’s decision to ban the group Palestine Action, which was labeled a terrorist organization after its members attacked Israeli defense contractors and Royal Air Force aircraft over support for the war in Gaza.
Organizers rejected the request.
“Canceling peaceful protests lets terror win,” the group said in a statement.
Protests and counter-protests have gripped cities across Britain since the Hamas-led attack on Israel almost two years ago.
Pro-Palestinian marches have become louder and angrier amid criticism of Israel’s offensive in Gaza. Some Jews say they feel threatened by chants such as “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” The protests have been largely peaceful.
The Israeli prime minister and his supporters have frequently accused critics of Israel or its conduct of the war in Gaza of antisemitism. Israel's detractors see it as an attempt to stifle even legitimate criticism.
Number of antisemitic incidents has soared
The number of antisemitic incidents reported across the U.K. has soared since the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas on Israel, according to the Community Security Trust, which works to protect the Jewish community. The group recorded 1,521 antisemitic incidents in the first half of this year, up from 965 in the same period of 2023.
But in Crumpsall, neighbors of all faiths banded together Friday to support one another, focused on their mutual disgust at the violence inflicted on their multicultural community during seven minutes on Thursday morning.
“There’s no room for this,” said Sham Raja, a local businessman. “The Jewish community, obviously, they are very upset at what’s happened, and there’s no room for the antisemitic. And also as a British Muslim, I fully support the Jewish community and work with them shoulder to shoulder.”
Josh Aronson, a Jewish man who lives near the synagogue, said people of all faiths turned out to show their solidarity.
“Yesterday I had a story that … one of my neighbors who’s Muslim and another neighbor who’s Christian, and myself, we hugged together and it’s like so they can be in this community,” he said.
But the air of solidarity was shattered during Friday's vigil, when Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy was introduced to the crowd. Lammy was Britain’s foreign secretary until a few weeks ago and is seen as the architect of the government’s decision to criticize the Israeli offensive in Gaza and recognize a Palestinian state.
Lammy was greeted with shouts of “not today” and “shame on you.”
Mark Adlestone, chair of the Jewish Representative Council in Greater Manchester, eventually quieted the crowd, saying, “All right, we’ve heard enough. We know how you feel.”
Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who visited the synagogue Friday, said the attack was designed to “inflict fear” on the Jewish community.
Jews in Manchester seem determined to carry on. Orthodox Jews hurried to do their shopping ahead of the Sabbath, all but tripping over the journalists seeking their views. Were they afraid? Did they see this coming?
Yes, there was grief for those that were lost. Yes, there was fear of rising antisemitism. But there was also defiance.
“We’re not going to cower away,” Issaac Friedlander said. “We’re not going to hide. ... We’re going to carry on with our lives.”
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This version has been changed to correct that the pro-Palestinian protests in London were Thursday night, not Wednesday night.