We must face hard truths about antisemitism in the UK – the Heaton Park victims are owed it
People attend a protest outside Manchester Cathedral following the terror attack at Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation synagogue in Crumpsall, Manchester, October 2025 (PA Images / Alamy)
4 min read
The appalling terror attack on the Heaton Park synagogue in north Manchester has left the families of Melvin Cravitz and Adrian Daulby in mourning, with three others seriously injured in hospital, and devastated the Jewish community.
But beyond that, it ought to be a shock to the entire country, and a challenge to the values that hold our society together.
This is the first fatal antisemitic attack in living memory in this country, but in truth it is not an isolated case. Just this week, there are two different trials ongoing in different parts of the UK of people accused of planning to kill Jews in other alleged terrorist plots. Were it not for the skill and dedication of police and the security services, the toll of anti-Jewish terror on British soil could be much worse.
Even in football, the suggestion that Israeli fans should be banned from attending a match in Birmingham for their own safety shows how far things have gone
Added to that are recently released Home Office hate crime figures that show Jews are far more likely to be the victims of hate crime than any other religious minority. And just to complete the picture, polling from the Institute for Jewish Policy Research found that in 2024, almost a third of British Jews were personally targeted for antisemitic violence, harassment or abuse, online or in person.
It all amounts to a sense that antisemitism in Britain has spiralled out of control. Jews have been sounding the alarm for the past two years, but it seems that not enough people in authority were listening. The buck always stops with government and the police, but there are many others across civil society who could have done much more.
Calls for death and violence get excused as political speech as long as it is ‘only’ Israelis or “Zionists” who are the targets. Even within just a few days of the Heaton Park attack, after a ceasefire was finally declared in the Middle East, one speaker at a pro-Palestine protest in central London led the crowd in a chant of “Death, death to the IDF”. Wildly antisemitic language gets a free pass on protests and on social media. Professionals posting obscene racism about Jews and Israelis are given a clean bill of health by regulators.
Whichever sector you look at, whether it is schools, universities, hospitals, protests, or media old and new, the ball has been well and truly dropped. Even in football, the suggestion that Israeli fans should be banned from attending a match in Birmingham for their own safety shows how far things have gone. Perhaps the worst aspect is that nobody in the Jewish community is remotely surprised that a Jihadist terror attack of this nature took place. Shocked, yes – but not surprised.
The immediate response of government and policing has been strong and supportive, but the harder challenge comes in the longer-term policy challenges. There is an urgent need for a new counter-extremism strategy and a hate crime action plan, both of which need to address the role that antisemitism plays in different extremist ideologies. Some hard truths need to be recognised about the disproportionate scale of antisemitism in parts of our Muslim communities, and there is a need to find effective and sensitive ways to address this. The balance between the right to protest and the disruption caused by repeated demonstrations, week after week in the same locations, needs to be brought back into line. And there must be much less tolerance for violent incitement and racist boycotts, wherever they occur.
These steps will help to minimise the impact of anti-Jewish hatred, but they will also help to address extremism more widely. It has long been said that the safety of the Jewish community is a barometer of the health of democracy. It is tragic that it has taken the death of two British Jews to make this clear: we owe it to them to do what is necessary to ensure it never happens again.
Dave Rich is director of policy at Community Security Trust
