Police Release Names of Victims in Manchester Synagogue Attack
Manchester police have confirmed the identities of the two men killed during a car and knife assault on a synagogue in northwest England on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar.
The victims were named as Adrian Daulby, 53, and Melvin Cravitz, 66, both local residents. The attack took place outside the Heaton Park Congregation Synagogue in the Crumpsall area. Three other people remain in hospital in serious condition.
According to Greater Manchester Police, the suspect drove a car into pedestrians before attacking worshippers with a knife. Officers shot and killed him seven minutes after the assault began. He was wearing what appeared to be an explosives vest, later determined to be a fake.
The assault occurred as worshippers gathered at an Orthodox synagogue on Yom Kippur, the holiest and most solemn day in the Jewish calendar.
Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis, head of Orthodox Judaism in Britain, condemned the violence as part of “an unrelenting wave of Jew hatred.”
“This is the day we hoped we would never see, but which deep down, we knew would come,” he said on social media.
Police identified the attacker as Jihad Al-Shamie, a 35-year-old British citizen of Syrian descent who arrived in the UK as a child and was naturalised in 2006.
Authorities confirmed the case is being treated as a terrorist attack. Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood stated that Al-Shamie was not previously known to police or to Prevent, the government’s counter-radicalisation programme.
Police said they are still investigating the motive behind the synagogue attack. On Thursday, officers arrested three people—a woman in her 60s and two men in their 30s—on suspicion of preparing or carrying out acts of terrorism.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer condemned the assailant as “vile,” stressing that the attack was motivated by antisemitism.
“He attacked Jews because they are Jews,” Starmer said, vowing to guarantee the safety of Britain’s Jewish community.
“I promise you that over the coming days, you will see the other Britain, the Britain of compassion, of decency, of love… a Britain where you and your family are safe, secure, and belong.”
Rising Antisemitism
The attack comes amid a surge in antisemitic incidents across the UK. The Community Security Trust (CST), a Jewish advocacy group, reported more than 1,500 incidents in the first half of the year—one of the highest figures on record, following the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel and the subsequent conflict in Gaza.
“This is every rabbi’s, every Jewish person’s worst nightmare,” said Rabbi Jonathan Romain of Maidenhead Synagogue, who also heads the Rabbinic Court of Great Britain.
“Not only did this happen on the most sacred day of the Jewish calendar, but also at a time of mass gathering.”
