A new documentary marks one year since the terror attack outside Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue in Manchester, examining the ongoing fear within the Jewish community and how some are choosing to leave Greater Manchester and the UK because they no longer feel safe.
On October 2, 2025, Jihad Al-Shamie was shot dead by armed police outside the synagogue. The 35-year-old had driven at people outside the building before getting out and attacking members of the public with a knife, including Melvin Cravitz, who died of his injuries. A second man, Adrian Daulby, was also killed after being accidentally hit by a police bullet as he helped barricade the synagogue’s doors shut. The attack took place on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year for the Jewish community.
Heroic Efforts to Stop a Massacre
Twelve months on, survivors, politicians, police and Manchester Evening News staff tell the story of what happened that day and the impact it has had on Greater Manchester and the rest of the UK. Alan Levy, who helped hold the synagogue doors shut, speaks of the moment the attacker fought to get into the building and what was going through his mind as he tried desperately to 'stop a massacre'.
'You know, I think we said before, we're the only faith community you have to go to pray behind big fences and big gates and that,' says Alan. 'You don't see that at a mosque, you don't see it at a church, you don't see it at the temples. Just—it's just for our faith… Why is that right in the 21st century?'
Mayor's Call for Community Cohesion
For Greater Manchester Mayor Bev Craig, the attack on Heaton Park synagogue on a holy day had 'an extra level of hate' to it. The politician spoke candidly about her upbringing in Northern Ireland and knowing 'what it's like for communities to be pitted against each other'.
'I've seen what happens in a community in Belfast when people aren't brought together and don't naturally mix, and how myths and disinformation can spread,' she recalled. 'Growing up on a very Protestant, loyalist council estate, I didn't meet a Catholic until I was 10 or 11. When I met somebody from 'the other side,' as it was described at the time, it was over a museum visit for a cultural activity. If somebody had said to us, 'you're going on a community cohesion course', we all would have said no. But what they said to us is, 'we're taking your school to see the T-Rex in Belfast for the first time; do you want to be part of it?'
'I share that simple story because the more work we do with schools over the things that people have in common, using that as a bridge to get into the hard stuff, the more it helps fix some of these challenges. I'm not naive to the scale of the challenges here—I'm not saying that cohesion work in schools is the only solution to fixing the real and present danger that many in our Jewish community feel under. That requires national government working with regional and local government to deal with properly, but I want us to do both.'
Public Inquiry Announced
On October 12, the Home Secretary announced that a public inquiry into the Heaton Park synagogue terror attack was to take place. Shabana Mahmood said the inquiry will examine the deaths of Mr Cravitz and Mr Daulby.
