Hundreds remember Heaton Park synagogue attack victims at memorial event

The Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis and Communities Secretary Angela Rayner are among about 800 people attending a memorial event for the victims and survivors of last year's Heaton Park synagogue attack.

Melvin Cravitz and Adrian Daulby were killed, and three others injured, as they tried to defend their place of worship from attacker Jihad al-Shamie on 2 October 2025.

A service of remembrance began at the synagogue in Manchester at 20:00 BST, with relatives of the bereaved and some of the survivors among the speakers.

Prior to the event, Rabbi Daniel Walker said the Jewish community feels less safe now than it did immediately after the attack.

He said rising antisemitism, combined with a lack of action to "deal with core problems", had left many members of Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation – and British Jews more widely – feeling increasingly vulnerable.

Two seats remain empty for the service, bearing the names of Melvin Cravitz and Adrian Daulby.

In a message read out at the start of the service, King Charles said: "My wife and I hold all those whose lives were so tragically disrupted by that terrible day most closely in our thoughts and prayers.

"Though the months have passed, the sense of shock and sorrow remains undiminished.

"The memory of those who lost their lives, Adrian Daulby and Melvin Cravitz, and of those who were injured, Andrew Franks, Bernard Agyemang and Yoni Finlay, remain especially vivid in my mind."

Raphi Bloom, chair of the Yom Kippur Commemoration, said the service was "not only about remembrance" but was also about resilience and "honouring Melvin and Adrian by ensuring that Jewish life continues to flourish".

He said "the wounds remain, but so does our spirit" and, together, they were sending a simple message that they would not be intimidated, defined by hatred or "driven from the place we have called home for more than two centuries".

Referencing Heaton Park and other "sickening terrorist attacks" across the world, Angela Rayner said: "These acts are a crisis for us all - they reflect the increase we've seen in obsessive, intense hatred of Jews."

"Together we can overcome and defeat antisemitism – and we will never rest, until every Jewish person is safe."

She said this was "a hatred we must stand robustly against, and root out from its very foundations", which meant "taking on extremists and bearing down on those who seek to divide our communities".