Hundreds Gather at Heaton Park Synagogue to Honor Attack Victims, as Jewish Leaders Warn of Rising Hate
Hundreds of people filled Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation in Manchester on Monday for a service of remembrance marking the approaching anniversary of the synagogue attack — an occasion shaped as much by grief as by defiance.
The event drew around 800 people, including Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis, U.K. Communities Secretary Angela Rayner, relatives of those killed, survivors, and local congregants. It came nearly a year after a gunman entered the synagogue on Yom Kippur and killed two men who tried to stop him.
Melvin Cravitz and Adrian Daulby died in the attack on Oct. 2, 2025. Andrew Franks, Bernard Agyemang, and Yoni Finlay were injured. The attacker, Jihad al-Shamie, opened fire on the holiest day of the Jewish year.
Two seats remained empty during the service, bearing the names of Cravitz and Daulby. The silence around those empty seats was one of the most powerful moments of the service.
Sherelle Dresner, speaking for Cravitz’s family, described the aftermath as a “lonely” and “overwhelming” new world. “I have heard this new existence be described by survivors and bereaved families of other terrorist attacks as a club that no-one wants to be a part of; a club that no-one would ever choose to belong to,” she said.
Dresner said she had received antisemitic abuse since the attack, and that the messages should worry everyone. “There are people out there justifying his murder and blaming this on his religion,” she said. She also praised those who “put your own lives at risk” on the day, including a woman who ran “towards danger” to help Cravitz.
King Charles, in a message read at the start of the service, said he and his wife held all those affected by the attack in their thoughts and prayers. “Though the months have passed, the sense of shock and sorrow remains undiminished,” he said. “Hatred can never prevail over our shared humanity.”
Chief Rabbi Mirvis told mourners the attacker “came here feeling positive, comfortable in his ways, encouraged and inspired by a tone of deep antisemitism within our society.” He added: “We know so well how hateful thoughts can be translated into hate speech which, in turn, is only one step away from hate crime.”
Before the service, Rabbi Daniel Walker said the Jewish community feels less safe now than it did immediately after the attack. He described rising antisemitism and a lack of action to “deal with core problems” as contributing to a growing sense of vulnerability among members of Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation and British Jews more widely.
Yoni Finlay, wounded by a stray police bullet while helping to barricade the doors, said the community had refused to let an evil act define it. “When I was lying on the floor in the foyer, just through those doors, with four of my organs badly damaged by a bullet that had gone through me, I made myself a promise, that I would not die, this is not where my life was going to end,” he said.
Finlay said the response of those around him had shown him that “rather than being stopped, we were more together than ever.” But he also described a changed reality for Jewish people in Britain. “I don't think things feel safer, I think we certainly live behind ever increasing gates, more security than we've ever had,” he said. “Jewish people are having to hide their identity. Even my own son, who's in college at the moment, has faced death threats.”
Raphi Bloom, chair of the Yom Kippur Commemoration, said the service was “not only about remembrance” but about resilience and “honouring Melvin and Adrian by ensuring that Jewish life continues to flourish.” The wounds remain, he said, “but so does our spirit.” He added: “As Jews we will stand tall, united, proud and strong.”
Angela Rayner told the congregation the Heaton Park attack was one of a series of “sickening terrorist attacks” across the world that reflected an “obsessive, intense hatred of Jews.” She said any attack on Jews is an attack on all, and promised the government would not rest “until every Jewish person is safe.” Rayner called for a “whole of society approach,” saying extremists and those who seek to divide communities had to be confronted.
Alan Levy, who helped barricade the doors against the attacker, and Greater Manchester Police Chief Constable Sir Stephen Watson also addressed the service.
The service was timed to the Jewish calendar rather than the secular anniversary. Though the first anniversary by the secular calendar is not until October, the attack took place on Yom Kippur, which falls in September this year. Rabbi Walker said the community wanted to hold a public memorial before the High Holy Days, both to ensure those affected are remembered by wider society and to call for change.
The gathering took place against a backdrop of heightened concern about antisemitism in Britain. More than once, speakers stressed that remembrance alone is not enough. As Bloom put it: “We will not be intimidated, defined by hatred or driven from the place we have called home for more than two centuries.”