Heaton Park survivor slams ‘platitudes and inactivity’ among politicians on antisemitism

“He was determined to murder myself, my friends and my family, simply because we were Jewish. The scenes that unfolded in the minutes prior to the police arriving as we battled with all our might ensure that the doors remain closed, and protecting those inside, will stay with us forever.

“Make no mistake, if this monster had got inside, it would have been a massacre,” Levy added. 

He paid tribute to the victims of the attack, Melvin Kravitz and Adrian Daulby, “good people who have never harmed anyone who lost their lives because of this senseless violence”.

“We always knew something like this could happen,” Levy continued, and said that the normalisation of antisemitism in the UK was “a stain on our society”.

He added that it had “been allowed to run riots across the country, with our lived experiences being dismissed and Jews being targeted in schools, universities, cultural spaces, in their workplaces, and sadly even in the NHS.

“Throughout this time, our communal leaders are pleaded with those in positions of power to listen, to understand and to come to our head,” and he lamented that “many times we've just been met with platitudes and inactivity”.

He did, however, pay tribute to Greater Manchester Police and said King Charles’ visit to the congregation in Heaton Park in the aftermath of the attack was “an important moment that meant an awful lot to those who were involved in this tragedy”.

Levy also praised the Manchester community’s resolve in the aftermath of the attack. He said: “We have the dignity to conduct ourselves properly. We did not take to the streets to riot or to call for violence or for any revenge, but we focused on appropriate and meaningful vigils, even on Yom Kippur in the immediate aftermath of the attack, we continue to say prayers in the street when we were evacuated from the synagogue.”

A delegation from Heaton Park accompanied Levy on their visit to London. They included Rabbi Daniel Walker and Yoni Finlay, who was hit with a bullet during the attack. Both were applauded by the crowd.

Mann’s event was also addressed by frontbenchers from across the political spectrum, including Health Secretary Wes Streeting, Shadow communities secretary James Cleverly, Lib Dem Leader Sir Ed Davey and chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group against antisemitism Joani Reid MP as well as religious leaders Rabbi Yoni Birnbaum, Charley Baginsky and Josh Levy.

A second Chanukah reception was held on the parliamentary estate, organised by the Board of Deputies and hosted in Speaker’s House by House of Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle.

The Commons Speaker described antisemitism as “a poison that infects our whole society and it is the collective responsibility of us all, especially in Parliament, that we confront and stop it.”

The menorah at the centre of proceedings was commissioned by former Commons Speaker Michael Martin, was consecrated in 2003 by late Chief Rabbi Lord Sacks and has been used in ceremonies since.

Hoyle also said that he had visited southern Israel in the aftermath of Hamas’ atrocities on October 7 and expressed how deeply it had affected him.

“I have never, ever been as moved as when I went to Israel for the first time and I went down to the Kibbutz after the attack. That horrendous murdering day that took place. The smell of death will be with me forever. I never, ever want to see anything like that again, and we must never allow that to happen again.”

He continued: “Let us hope that the new year will bring peace across the world and more so respect that the Jewish community needs,” but invited those present to celebrate Chanukah and the remainder of the evening.

The event was also addressed by Board of Deputies Phil Rosenberg, who gave a message of resilience: “We will come through the legacy of October 7, of Heaton Park, of Bondi Beach. We'll come to it together, and we'll come back stronger.”

Security minister Dan Jarvis, shadow home secretary Chris Philp and Sir Ed Davey also spoke.

Jarvis said the government would “do everything in our power, to protect Britain's Jewish community”.

Philp said that political leaders must not be scared to call out Islamist extremism as being responsible for terrorist attacks against Jews.

He went on to call for meaningful action against antisemitism, including deporting foreign nationals guilty of antisemitism or extremism.

Sir Ed Davey called for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to be proscribed as a terrorist organisation and said that governments had not “faced up to” the threats it posed.