On a dank Bank Holiday Monday evening, 800 people filed into the Heaton Park Synagogue in Manchester to remember the victims and survivors of the terrorist atrocity which took place there last Yom Kippur.
It was here that Melvin Cravitz and Adrian Daulby were killed, and three others injured, in the course of a heinous attack by Jihad al-Shamie on 2 October 2025.
Even now, nearly one year on, as we took our seats in this airily elegant place of worship with its high ceilings and stained glass windows, it remains hard to compute what happened here on the holiest day of the Jewish calendar.
We know, of course, the painful truth of vicious attacks against Jews around the world. Yet, without sounding too ‘little town of Anatevka’, to quote Fiddler on the Roof, this benign corner of North Manchester seemed, until last year, so far removed from that.
It remains perhaps especially difficult to process for those of us directly connected to Heaton Park. It was here where, nearly 36 years ago as a young bride, I swept – as much as one can in a pudding-bowl dress – up the steps where the terrorist would try to get in, and where my late grandfather was the choirmaster.
Yet on Monday night, how to reconcile bygone images with the very same spot where Jewish blood was spilt because of an unflinching act of evil and hatred?
In fact, there were many surreal moments on this well-organised evening.
Not least was looking down from the ladies’ gallery – where I sat so many times as a child with my late mother – to see Angela Rayner standing in front of the Ark.
Bookmarked by large photos of Cravitz and Daulby, smiling snapshots taken from another time, the communities secretary haltingly pledged her support. That “we will never rest, until every Jewish person is safe.” Lamenting “that the whole community of children and families have to live in a way that many don’t have to”.
On paper – inflected in her broad Manchester brogue and echoing round the lofty walls of the Heaton Park – it sounded plausible, encouraging as she reminded the audience of measures such as more funding to CST and the police.
But given her boss Andy Burnham is poised to announce robust sanctions on Israeli settlements in the West Bank, despite warnings from Jewish leaders (including the Chief Rabbi) that this could increase hatred of Jews in this country, it was a bit hard to swallow. She didn’t receive any applause. Maybe that’s why the Prime Minister didn’t come – despite the attack happening while he was still Mayor of Manchester.
Indeed, as the chair of the Jewish Representative Council Mark Adlestone pointed out, warnings had been previously repeated that antisemitism was becoming normalised and that “the perpetrator suffered from ‘Israel derangement syndrome’, as do so many within the liberal [left]”.
Perhaps this is why, unlike the silence following Rayner’s address, the Chief Constable, Sir Stephen Watson QPM, a man known for his commitment to our community, received applause from the audience.
He too – albeit in a nuanced way – joined the dots, stating: “In a world of moral relativity and cowardice and perverse tendency to point to matters geopolitical in order to seek to justify attacks on innocent Jewish people, I can well understand how vulnerable and isolated our Jewish friends and neighbours feel.”
The Chief Rabbi also acknowledged that the attacker had come “feeling... encouraged and inspired by a tone of deep antisemitism within our society.”
Even Sherelle Dresner, who represented the family of Melvin Cravitz, told an appalled audience she had received antisemitic abuse after the attack. Her recollections of Melvin as a family man were profoundly moving and shattering.
Yet amidst the reflections on the horrors of Jew-hatred were, at the heart of this moving ceremony, reminders of our spirited community.
Yoni Finlay, who was injured along with Andrew Franks and Bernard Agyemang on that terrible day, refused to bow: “An evil person tried to destroy us on Yom Kippur and together we have not let that evil win.”
Above all, Daniel Walker, the Rabbi of Heaton Park, spoke with warmth, elegance and dignity about Adrian and Melvin, treating them the friends and congregants he had known – as his eyes flickered to the seats they once occupied in the synagogue.
Though faltering as he relived the trauma, his unsparing determination to find light in the darkness was inspirational. Though doubtless the trauma will endure in the soul of this hugely impressive and deeply righteous man, he reminded us what should lie at our core as people: the only possible response to evil is more righteousness.
In a message read out at the start of the service, King Charles said: “Hatred can never prevail over our shared humanity.”
As Jews, we of course know that. We had gathered to remember but also to express resilience.
But the ghosts of Heaton Park were there. As we left the event the words “thank you” drifted across the air to the CST and police officers for keeping us secure for the evening.
We were lucky. Unlike two innocent men who had simply wanted to worship there.
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