J7 Task Force Statement on the Yom Kippur Attack in Manchester

The J7 Large Communities’ Task Force Against Antisemitism, representing the seven largest Diaspora Jewish communities, issued the following statement following Thursday’s deadly attack on Manchester’s Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation, leaving two dead and four wounded.

We are horrified and outraged by the attack on a Manchester synagogue, targeting Jewish people at prayer on the holiest day of the Jewish calendar. Our thoughts are with the families of the two victims, Adrian Daulby, 53, and Melvin Cravitz, 66, and we wish the wounded a full and speedy recovery.

On Yom Kippur, when Jews gather at their places of worship to pray and reflect, our communities around the world prepared for the possibility of the terrorism that hit the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation, a sad reality that has become commonplace.

In the two years since the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel, our communities have confronted the threat of antisemitic violence and terrorism targeting our Jewish institutions. Despite extensive and costly security measures, we still experience antisemitic attacks on our Jewish synagogues, schools, and community institutions. Jewish people are being targeted, harassed, attacked and even murdered. Another constant of this period of tension and anxiety has been an overwhelming hostile environment impacting Jewish people in the workplace, in the classroom, in the media, in cultural spaces and in the streets.

We reaffirm our steadfast solidarity with the British Jewish community, and join our J7 partner, the Board of Deputies of British Jews, in expressing appreciation for the widespread condemnation this act of hate, and their call that more must be done to ensure the security of the community. After yet another attack, it is clear that governments, law enforcement and societies worldwide need to take threats directed against the Jewish community seriously and ensure our safety.

J7 Members:

• Argentina: Delegación de Asociaciones Israelitas Argentinas (DAIA)
• Australia: Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ)
• Canada: Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA)
• France: Conseil Représentatif des Institutions Juives de France (CRIF)
• Germany: Central Council of Jews in Germany
• The United Kingdom: Board of Deputies of British Jews
• The United States: ADL (Anti-Defamation League) and the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations

The J7 Large Communities’ Task Force Against Antisemitism was formed in July 2023 response to increasing rates of antisemitism around the world and comprises major Jewish organizations in Argentina, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States.