On the morning of October 2, 2025, as worshippers gathered for Yom Kippur services – the holiest day in the Jewish calendar – a terrorist attack unfolded outside the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue in Crumpsall, north Manchester, in the United Kingom (UK). At approximately 9:31 a.m. [local time], a man rammed a car into pedestrians outside the synagogue, located in the heart of a large Orthodox Jewish community, before exiting the vehicle and stabbing bystanders. The attack killed two members of the Jewish community – Adrian Daulby, 53, and Melvin Cravitz, 66 – and seriously injured three others. Security guards and bystanders prevented the attacker from entering the synagogue, where morning prayers had begun about 30 minutes earlier and a large number of worshippers were present. Armed officers arrived and invoked Operation Plato, the protocol for marauding terrorist attacks. Police neutralised the threat within minutes by shooting and killing the assailant at the scene. The attacker was identified by Britain’s counterterrorism police as Jihad al-Shamie, 35, a British citizen of Syrian, descent who entered the UK as a young child and received citizenship in 2006; he had no prior record with the Police. The attack was declared a terrorist act, citing violence aimed at promoting political, religious, or ideological motives. Three other individuals – two men and a woman senior citizen – were arrested on suspicion of the commission, preparation, and instigation of acts of terrorism, and remain in custody.
This attack occurs amid a broader wave of antisemitism in the UK. In late August and early September 2025, a series of non-violent incidents targeted Jewish communities in Bournemouth and beyond, including an air rifle attack on a visibly Jewish teenager wearing a kippah in Bournemouth’s East Cliff area on August 23. The teen was shot in the forehead by a suspect shouting a slur from a passing car, sustaining superficial injuries, while nearby Jewish homes were vandalised with swastikas. A 26-year-old man from Ferndown was arrested and released on bail, with Dorset Police investigating the incident as a hate crime involving an imitation firearm.
Concurrently, Bournemouth’s Jewish institutions, including a synagogue and nursery defaced with feces, faced desecrations, and a Jewish school was attacked with urine and other liquids between August 15 and September 11, with no arrests in those cases. Meanwhile, in August, a Jewish family faced anti-Semitic assaults.
Since the Hamas attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023, and the ensuing Gaza conflict, antisemitic incidents in the UK have surged, fueled by anti-Israel rhetoric, social media, and protests. This spike, often triggered by escalations in the Israel-Gaza war, has amplified pre-existing tensions, with criticism of Israel frequently conflated with anti-Jewish hatred. British Jews have reported increased vandalism at synagogues and antisemitic comments.
Jewish security groups, such as the Community Security Trust (CST), have raised concerns about this issue. In 2023, CST recorded 4,103 antisemitic incidents across the UK, the highest annual total ever reported, marking a 147 per cent increase from 1,662 incidents in 2022 and an 81 per cent rise from the previous record of 2,261 in 2021. 1,813 incidents in 2019 and 1,684 in 2020. The 2023 surge was driven by an unprecedented wave of antisemitism following the October 7 Hamas attack. Of the 4,103 incidents, 2,699 (66 per cent) occurred on or after Hamas’s attack on Israel, reflecting a 589 per cent increase from the 392 incidents reported in the same period in 2022. October 2023 alone saw 1,330 incidents, exceeding the combined total of the three prior peak months: May 2021 (661), July 2014 (317), and January 2009 (289). This trend persisted, with 3,528 incidents recorded in 2024 and 1,521 in the first half of 2025, averaging over 200 per month.
The ongoing wave of violence, vandalism and abuse demands a strong societal and governmental response to ensure safety and address the growing crisis of antisemitism. The UK government must take a responsible and decisive stand.
