“You have allowed Jew hatred in Manchester on the streets,” the man yelled while pointing at Lammy, receiving some applause, “you are all guilty, we do not want you speaking here today, you do not speak for us”.
The attack, which took place at around 9.30am on Yom Kippur, resulted in the deaths of Jewish community members Melvin Cravitz, 66, and security guard Adrian Daulby, 53. Three other victims remain in the hospital after being stabbed, inadvertently shot by police, or rammed with a car.
The attack has sent shockwaves through Jewish communities across the country and marks the first time in over half a century that Jews in the UK have been killed solely for being Jewish, according to Lord Mann, the government’s independent advisor on antisemitism.
Parts of Lammy’s pre-written speech were met with further derision and groans from audience members huddled under umbrellas in the pouring rain.
Rabbi Daniel Walker on stage in Manchester, one day after two members of his community were killed [Missing Credit]
Commenting on the weather, Rabbi Daniel Walker said: “The skies are weeping, and right they may, because yesterday evil and darkness stalked the roads of Manchester, stalked the steps of my shul, and brought death and sorrow and injury, and that demands a response.
“It demands a physical response and a practical response, but I think it demands a spiritual response as well. My friends, my community members, Adrian and Melvin, died as Jews, for being Jews, and so I beg all of the Jewish community here to please strengthen your lives as Jews.”
Among the others on stage were Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester, Marc Levy, chief executive of the Jewish Representative Council of Greater Manchester and Region (JRC), Mark Adlestone OBE, chair of the JRC, Sir Stephen Watson QPM, chief constable of Greater Manchester Police, and David Walker, bishop of Manchester.
Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer visited the scene with his wife and pledged to do “everything” in his power to protect the Jewish community and that Britain must “once again” confront and defeat rising antisemitism.
Lord Mann told the JC after the vigil that the attack represents “a moment for the whole country”.
“It’s been many, many decades, more than 50 years, that anyone in our country has been killed simply because they’re Jewish,” he said. “In this way it’s never happened before. It has now, so we’ve crossed into a new era, and we need to respond as a country.
“I need to ensure that my advice is sufficiently robust that government, and perhaps parliament as well, plays its role [in responding to the tragedy].”
Christian Wakeford, MP for nearby Bury South, said some of Heaton Park’s congregants were his constituents as well as his personal friends, Rabbi Walker among them.
“You read and see about these attacks elsewhere in the country and across the globe, and it’s heartbreaking then, but when it’s your town, your neighbourhood, your community, your friends – my friends, in this case – I came down as soon as I could to try and show support,” he told the JC.
He said the home secretary’s decision to increase the amount of security outside every synagogue in the wake of the tragedy is only a short-term solution and is unsustainable. “We need to find a long-term answer for this, and we need to find it quickly,” he said.
And, in a message to the non-Jewish people of the UK, he said: “This wasn’t an attack just on Jews, although it was Jew hate on the most holy day of the year, it was an attack on Manchester and an attack on Britain, and it’s up to all of us to ask one question, ‘are we a friend to the Jewish community?’ And if we are, it’s time to stand up and be counted.”
Brian Bell, honorary secretary on the executive committee of Heaton Park shul, was getting ready to head to the synagogue on Thursday morning when he began receiving messages that an incident had happened.
“I didn’t want to jump to conclusions,” he said, “it might not be anything serious. Clearly, as things evolved, the dominant emotion was disbelief, really. Disbelief it was happening on our doorstep.”
A security volunteer for the shul, Bell said they prepare for such an event but “never really expected it to happen.”
In the wake of the tragedy, he said he wished for the wider British Jewish community to “remain strong, resilient and not to be cowed by this type of cowardly attack,” adding that his community “remains determined, resolute and proud of our Jewishness”.
