Members of the Jewish community say they have been living in fear of a major attack for almost two years.
Synagogues, schools and other Jewish sites across the country have ramped up security as they faced a surge in antisemitic incidents in the wake of the war in Gaza.
On Thursday, almost two years after Hamas launched its 7 October 2023 attacks, their fears became a reality when a knifeman wearing suspected suicide vest targeted worshippers outside a Manchester synagogue.
Two members of the Jewish community at Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue in Crumpsall were killed in the car and knife attack, which has been declared a terrorist incident. Four more were seriously injured.
Scores more – who had gathered to mark the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, Yom Kippur – barricaded themselves inside the synagogue until the attacker was shot dead by police.
One worshipper, who was on his way to the synagogue this morning when he received a phone call saying there had been an incident, said the Jewish community “knew this was going to happen”.
Raphi Bloom, co-chairman of North West Friends of Israel, said the incident is the “culmination” of a “tsunami of Jew hatred that the Jewish community have been experiencing”.
“We knew this was going to happen,” he told BBC Radio 4’s World at One. “We feared it would happen.
“This hatred has been allowed to go unchecked for far too long and this is the tragic and horrendous culmination of people wishing to target the Jewish community in the UK for a conflict that is happening 2,500 miles away.”
According to the Community Security Trust (CST), a charity which work to protects Jews from terrorism and antisemitism, shows prior to 7 October 2023 they recorded an average of 161 antisemitic incidents a month.
In the first six months of 2025, this monthly average stood at 254 incidents – a 58 per cent increase.
In total, the CST recorded 4,296 antisemitic incidents in 2023 and 3,528 in 2024, the two highest numbers on record.
In February, the government promised £70 million over four years to a security fund for Jewish community sites to fund measures such as “security guards, CCTV and alarm systems”.
A Jewish school near the Crumpsall synagogue is among those that needs “heavy security”, according to local MP Graham Stringer.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s World at One, the Blackley and Middleton South MP said he thinks it is “depressing” and “appalling” that it is felt those children are under such a threat that security has to be paid for at their school.
Discussing the abuse facing Jewish communities in March this year, former home secretary Yvette Cooper said: “Threats to kill sent to synagogues. Individuals spat on or assaulted in the street. Graffiti daubed on religious sites. Antisemitic bullying in schools.
“We all know that fear has grown since the barbaric terrorist attack by Hamas on October 7, 2023.”
Nick Aldworth, a former national coordinator for counter-terrorism policing, said he was “not surprised” about the attack at the synagogue on Yom Kippur, because holy days “bring an additional element of concern”.
He told BBC Radio 4: “I’m not surprised that it’s happened. Yesterday, when I was driving home, there was a feature on Radio 4, which mentioned that today was Yom Kippur – I’d forgotten. My immediate thought was ‘oh, gosh, I hope nothing awful happens’.
“And the reason I say that is because, for years, we’ve recognised that high holy days bring an additional element of concern to the Jewish community and to those of us who have been tasked with protecting those communities.
“And certainly in London I used to be responsible for a massive operation, probably the second biggest operation to New Year’s or Notting Hill Carnival, to actually protect those communities across the high holy day period.
“So I know the same is reflected in Manchester, which may well account for why there’s been such a quick response up there today. But no, I’m not surprised.”
He added that, while the UK’s threat level is currently at “substantial”, meaning an attack is likely, in fact “we often see sectors of our communities being at higher threat levels, and quite often the Jewish community sits at a higher threat level than substantial”.
Head of Counter Terrorism Policing, Assistant Commissioner Laurence Taylor, said police is “mobilising fast” to protect Jewish communities in the wake of the attack.
“An attack on our Jewish community today on Yom Kippur is devastating,” he said.
“Communities across the UK would normally be marking this holy day are now grieving and worried about their safety, and I want to be clear, UK policing is mobilising, and it’s mobilising fast.
“Police forces are stepping up patrols across the country at synagogues and Jewish sites, and more widely, to provide reassurance to all those communities who have been affected by this incident.”
