Jewish Bloc Statement on Manchester killings and its aftermath
JVL Introduction
The Jewish Bloc has issued this statement expressing their sorrow at the killings and their condolences for the families of the victims killed or injured in the attack on the Manchester synagogue. There is a welcome for the support from the local community, including many Muslim people and organisations and also anger at the weaponisation of our grief by arguing that those who stand for justice for Palestinians are a danger to Jews. This is divisive and dangerous. Let the community mourn, let the connections across communities in Manchester be strengthened and not weakened.
LL
Jewish Bloc Statement on the attack on Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue
The Jewish Bloc is horrified and sickened by the murderous attack on the Manchester synagogue yesterday. We send our condolences and love to the families of the victims and all members of the congregation. Nobody should lose their life for where or when they choose to pray.
We were devastated by the news that the Greater Manchester Police operation was responsible for the death of one congregation member and the injury of others, as well as the death of the attacker. It is appalling that shul goers who called the police for help ended up dead at their hands. We stand in solidarity with the families of Adrian Daulby and Melvin Cravitz.
In the immediate aftermath of an attack like this we mourn the victims and offer our support to a community reeling in shock, whether the attack be at a synagogue, school, mosque or nightclub. We are deeply moved by the widespread expressions of sympathy and solidarity we have received from our comrades and friends in the Palestine solidarity movement and a range of Muslim organisations, and are grateful for the support they have offered.
We were shocked when, less than 24 hours after the attack, a relatively new Home Secretary went onto the airwaves to weaponise the fear and grief of our community by resurrecting a slur: that those protesting for Palestine represent a danger to Jews. She is cynically exploiting this tragic event to fulfil a long-standing ambition of successive British Governments: to justify a ban on the mass protests against Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
We are distressed that some of our communal leaders, including the Chief Rabbi of the United Synagogue, have also tried to exploit our grief and fear in order to suppress and silence those organising for Palestine.
Antisemitism, Islamophobia, and violent bigotry are on the rise. We will not speculate on the motives of the attacker but we all recognise and condemn the increase in antisemitic conspiracy theories across social media, as well as the dog-whistle phrases now appearing in the speeches of mainstream politicians.
We are a diverse group of British Jews. Some are secular and some were in synagogues yesterday. Many have links to families and friends who will have attended Heaton Park synagogue yesterday. We will be marching again next Saturday, and will continue to take to the streets until we see an end to this genocide and until Palestine is free. We will continue to strengthen our links of solidarity and mutual support with Muslims and other communities targeted by racism. An attack on one of us is an attack on all of us.
So naive, a jihadist islamist radical (and suspect rapist) murdered Jews because that is what they are programmed to do. They are racist ***** … end of. You anti-zionist Jews supporting them, wanting the destruction of isreal, are also to blame. Yes Netanyahu is a dreadful leader but he was democratically elected, just as our dear leader Margaret Thatcher was, who led the Falklands war (Im a democrat even if I detest my govt or the population decisions such as Brexit). Please accept democracy. Isreal is at war. In war people die. The country is no more a settler colonialist state than Bradford, Leeds or Luton which are majority Islamic. Are the Muslims in those towns settlers …. well yes they are … . are they colonialists?…. well they have gone for positions of power with MPs and councillors so arguably yes… The anti Isreal hypocrisy is incredible. Israel exists and it has EVERY right to defend itself against the daily terrorist attacks. The Palestinian leadership has rejected peace on atleast 7 occasions. These are the facts.
I stand in solidarity and love with all the comments in the statements above. I thank you and applaud you for stating how most of us feel, sick and horror at the terrible attack in Manchester, dismay and disgust at the Home Secretary falling into negative stereotypes over Palestinian supporters and the dangerous assumption grouping all Jews as Zionist supporters of Israel and it’s actions, and the misrepresentation that those who support Palestinian Rights are antisemitic, anti-Jew and unable to sympathise with this recent tragedy while also caring about the genocide in Gaza.
It is shocking to me how shameless the Government is in trying to separate communities into stereotypes, instead of seeing the wide cross-section of society who have compassion beyond their own small peer-group. Most of us are not like most politicians who put themselves and their own intetests first; the vast majority of society care beyond ourselves, whether it is Christians or Muslims caring about this shocking murder, Jews, Christians, Muslims, and those if other faiths and none, caring about the brutalisation and deliberate starvation of a whole people while we also cared for innocent people attacked on October 7th.
Furthermore the Police’s mismanagement and over use of arms and lack of discipline in this recent incident in Manchester was appalling, resulting in deaths and injuries of innocent people they were supposed to help. This is not the United States of America or Israel, though this also seems to be part of the Israeli legacy in training our police despite their horrific track record of human rights abuses in Israel. Armed police are not given the permission to shoot to kill in all circumstances, but should aim to keep the attacker alive to find out his purposes and if this was part of any bigger scheme, the kind of irresponsible policing
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I salute you and yr statement.i was very angry at the weaponising of grief and the attempts to shut down criticism of Israel’s genocidal war.I do not support Jihadist attacks on anyone. Vicious young men running around with guns dispensing summary ‘justice’ are a total threat whatever their uniform or beliefs.
It gives me hope to hear the statements in this article. I was beginning to lose hope that Humanitarian reason was lost. It is interesting to note that this incident removed the important news that the Samud Flotilla was detained by Israel once again in international waters.
I was very glad to hear Zack Polansky on C4 News last night, speaking of his grief and horror at the killings in Manchester, and utterly rejecting the suggestion that support for Palestine and condemnation of the genocide in Gaza has a connection with anti-semitic violence in the UK. As for ‘Solly’s’ comments above….words fail me.
Thank you so much.
I am a Christian. I have travelled on Pilgrimage for many years to The Holyland.
Im heartbroken . I have problem with the Zionist Government in Israel not the Jewish Race . The distinction should be voiced .
excellent clear response. thank you
It horrifies me to conflate Judaism and genocide – the actions of the Israeli state. The two have now moved so far apart I think it is insulting or even antisemitic to call Israel a Jewish state. Its actions are abhorrent and antithetical to the values of my fathers’ faith.
Thank you so must for a beautiful statement in this time of grief, your steadfast support for the Palestinians and your determination to stop the genocide in Gaza 🙏🏾
A genuine and heartfelt message of solidarity, and a gentle reminder that the ‘Jewish community’ is not a homogeneous group of white supremacists who support genocide and Western imperialism.
And I’ll burn a candle for Solly, that he might find some love and light in his heart.
Shalom
Good statement: we needs must do what we can to isolate evil.
I am not a Jew but am proud to be a member of JVL and hope that good perhaps might come from ‘Standing Together’ (Hebrew: Omdim Beyachad; Arabic: Naqif Maʿan) in Israel.
I was unable to join them, but as a token gesture, thinking of JVL along with the representatives of common humanity then heading across the E. Mediterranean, I fasted with you on Yom Kippur. We must answer your call.
What a lovely Statement that is. From lovely people with compassion for their Fellow Human beings in time of grief .
No person should be attacked while going to their place of Worship.Or in their Place of Worship.to pray
I Rememmber.as a Child when we went shopping with our Mum And Nan
And always used to ask a lot of Questions. When we walked Past a Church And would ask What Church is that Mum
As We attended a Catholic Church. And due to my mum converting from Church of England When she married my Dad. We would sometimes go to my Grandmother.Who was Church of England
So when we went past a Synagogue we used to ask our mum who goes there And she told us.that is were Jewish People Worship. If we passed a Mosque we asked our mum who goes there. My Mum said that is were Muslims Worship Comming from a Multicultral City. Mum said there are many Different types of Faith. Who all worship in their own way I remember asking her why is that Mum. My Mum went on to tell me. That one night while in the air raid during WW2 That on the.Wall was written.the words.Faith Hope and Charity
Someone said Were all going to need all whats written there Which someone asked.Why
To whic the person who had said we will need all of them then said said .WE WILL NEED FAITH IN ORDER TO BELIEVE THAT THE ALMIGHTY WILL LOOK AFTER US ALL. And
WE WILL NEED HOPE IN THE HOPE THAT. THE ALMIGHTY HEARS US, IN THE HOPE WE ALL GET OUT ALIVE. As for CHARITY, IF WE DO GET OUT OF HEAR ALIVE. WE CAN ONLY HOPE SOMEONE WILL SHOW US SOME CHARITY AND BE KIND ENOUGH TO
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I am fearful, that pieces like this, play right into Putin’s hands (another Hamas supporter) in destroying democracy by splitting up those on the Left, encouraging the Right – who look as if they are winning.
If you think this will help the wretched ordinary ME Arabs, suffering decades, from a stream of appalling leaders (all anti-West) on the altar of anti-colonialism, you are just wrong. Getting Farrago to replace Starmer?
All societies, tribes, countries, have bad and good actors. In ANY conflict, decency is put under huge strains. An existential one (Ukraine and Israel) especially. Because one is winning, Seems more powerful, does not simply make them the bad guys. A final thought:
“The wrongs and brutalities done by each side to the other have become too numerous to count. It does no good to try to assign blame for the latest war between Israel and Hamas. The war and the specific events that led up to it are just more entries in a ledger written in blood and tears. The stark fact is that there is now no act of vengeance or retribution that Jews and Arabs could do to the other party in the conflict that would allow them to say that accounts had been settled on their side”
Two bad people, Trump and Netanyahu, who will (hopefully) be replaced, but with an alternative plan to another eight decades of killings, must be worth a try, at least a look?
Believe me, I understand only fair treatment of every peace loving Arab is essential to Israeli security. שלום לכולכם
I hate to be the grit in the oyster but the Jewish Bloc statement is insufficient. The attack on Heaton Park Synagogue must be condemned but we must also ask why the killer, presumably motivated by the Genocide in Gaza, sacrificed his life in an attack on a synagogue.
What made him think that there was a connection between a Jewish synagogue and the Genocide? A clue can be found on the synagogue website where it says:
https://www.hphc.org.uk/templates/articlecco_cdo/aid/4932214/jewish/Israel-is-at-War.htm
“In the months that have followed, our heroic IDF soldiers have done all they can to rescue the abducted and combat the terrorists.”
On 19.11.09., I was quoted in the JC as saying on BBC’s Big Questions
“Of course there’s no justification for antisemitism, but there’s also no justification for the Board of Deputies calling rallies in support of the invasion of Lebanon and Gaza in the name of the British Jewish community. That causes antisemitism.”
There has been a consistent policy of the Board and other Zionists groups to associate British Jews with Israel’s war crimes. It is no wonder that some people see Jews as accomplices to the genocide.
Not everyone understands that Jews have become the moral alibi for Starmer and the war criminals who arm the genocidaires. They see synagogues and other communal organisations raising funds for the IDF and lauding lauding them.
What they don’t realise is no one welcomes attacks on diaspora Jews than Netanyahu. It confirms the Zionist belief that Jews should leave and emigrate to Israel.
If the Jewish community doesn’t want anti-Semitism they should not be supporting the genocide or Israel.
Leaving aside the hypocrisy over the attack in Manchester and the silence over the consistent attacks on British mosques as well as Israel’s attacks on mosques & churches.
See my blog https://azvsas.blogspot.com/2025/10/the-murder-of-2-jews-at-manchester.html
I share your sorrow at the death of two British Jews.
However even if it is uncomfortable reading I do believe we need to consider the context. This is what the Synagogue says on its own website.
”Our heroic IDF soldiers have done all they can to rescue the abducted and combat the terrorists”
Note it says “our IDF” not the IDF.
Nothing justifies the murder of innocent civilians in Manchester or Gaza but as a man of faith myself I find it very distressing to see a House of Worship giving uncritical support to an army many people think is guilty of genocide. I would most certainly complain very loudly if a Christian Church issued a statement supporting “our IDF”.
I just keep wondering whether the response nationally could have been different. Yes of course a man committed an atrocity for which there was no justification except presumably through distortion and misplaced aggression in his own mind. And antisemitism, called variously the world’s oldest hatred and a very light sleeper, is always with us and we need to be sufficiently vigilant but not hypervigilant. But one incident, tragic as it was, is not an existential threat to our entire community, still less to the stability of the nation. We’ve been told that some of our fellow-Jews have long been “expecting it”, which makes me, though not a conspiracy theorist, wonder if the incident is one of those “opportune moments” to activate some wider political action long simmering in silence. I find it hard to think of this politically motivated murder as antisemitic, although many will disagree. I can’t quite think of it as directed at Jews simply for being Jews, though I might coin a phrase to think of it as “pseudo-antisemitic”: the victims were Jewish but not because they were Jewish. I conjecture that the murderer, through his background exacerbated by a propensity for violence simply saw any and all Jews (“Yahud”, the word we hear in reports translated as Israelis in English) as, in psychoanalytic terms, “objects” representing genocidal Israelis. The little we know about him doesn’t suggest his disordered thinking was remotely like that of non-Jews of good will confused by Israeli political statements explicitly stating that Israel speaks and acts for all Jews on the planet. His actions were far too … “beyond” … for that. But we didn’t have to start accusing our government of failure, even implying it was about to build death camps, or invoking flights into aliyah. In short, we don’t need to fall into fantasies of persecution with efforts to ameliorate them by compensatory, reactive, unfair accusations. We continue to be vigilant while refusing to accept quasi-hypnotic suggestions forcing msss neurosis upon us all.
To be anti-genocide is not anti-Semitic. I have marched alongside people of all nationalities and faiths. I cannot understand any Jew or any person from any race. creed or nation who can not stand against genocide. We are all Palestinians.
Thank you for this statement, giving this voice, which our government are trying to quash.
Brilliant statement by Jewish Bloc. The Home Secretary should realise that if we can’t hold opposites in tension how can we expect others at the front line to do so. it might help her understand a more authentic view of Britishness.
Thanks Tony Greenstein for highlighting what the shul has on its website. It echoes Ephraim Mirvis referencing “our” soldiers, ie a foreign state’s army. We have to make up our minds, is it antisemitic to blame Jews at large for Israel’s actions(IHRA “definition”), or do we want to support and identify ourselves with a country widely considered by legal scholars and other informed experts as guilty of genocide? If the latter, do we insist no-one mention the fact or hold us to account for it? And if they do either, do we then accuse them of antisemitism? There’s a lot of (elective) muddled thinking around.
The Jewish bloc and JVL are true peacemakers and peace seekers.
Shalom and God bless for giving me hope in such troubled times. Will your statement be covered by mainstream media?
This afternoon in Amsterdam i marched with jews, arabs, socialists, communists and other citizens concerned and appalled by the evil the Israeli state has caused ever since her existence and how the Dutch government is dealing with it and especially her denying the genocide (watch the interview by Aljazeerah with Dick Schoof, the Dutch prime minister wherein he states there is no genocide!).
The protest with according to the police 250,000 people was peaceful.
I wish you, and everyone, peace and happiness and a good march on saturday.
A great statement – thank you. Especially reassuring to those of us who agonised about whether or not to take part in the Defend our Juries action in the aftermath of the terrible events in Manchester. I, alongside many others, decided to do so for the reasons you give and also because taking action soon after the massacre in Manchester would hopefully highlight the essential difference between what we do in these silent protests and the act of terrorism on Saturday. We are not terrorists – Jihad al Shamie was.
The attack in Manchester and the protests against Genocide are clearly completely separate .The right wing press described the attacker as an immigrant.The seated pensioners in Trafalger square are expressing their disgust at Starmer selling F35 parts to Israel to bomb Palestine
Do all commentators believe this statement one made below? The implication I take is as full justification for Hamas’ actions. “From the River to the sea, clear of the pollution…”
“Appalled by the evil the Israeli state has caused ever since her existence”
Just what is needed. Sensible voice that cuts through the rubbish.
I have nothing but admiration for your voice ang your people. I hope we can all live in peace once this genocide has ended.
I wish we could hear your voice of reason more often. It is uncontionable the way politicians use tragedy for their own gain. Racial hatred is abhorrent.
Tragic to read there are so many Jews-British and otherwise- so far removed from their Jewish faith, roots and family that they are actually aligning themselves with the vicious voices of Jew haters around the world should hate Israelis. The IDF ARE ‘our soldiers’…they are our fellow Jews putting their lives on the line to save… some of your grandchildren lives I bet! I have lived in Manchester over 40 years.Ive been spat at, cursed and told to ‘go back to Israel’ over the years.Dear Jews: Europe don’t want us,Britain is sinking…where do you propose we go when sh*t hits the fan?! May you all stay safe,and wake up to reality speedily in our days❤️