European Jewish Association chairman Rabbi Menachem Margolin said on Friday that the deadly terror attack at a synagogue in Manchester on Yom Kippur “proves what we warned of a year ago: Jews in Europe live under constant threat.”
“We called for a state of emergency then, and if leaders had acted, lives might have been spared,” Margolin said. “This is not random violence; it is the result of a climate where demonizing Israel has become acceptable, and Jews everywhere pay the price.”
Police on Thursday identified the suspect in the deadly Yom Kippur attack at a synagogue in Manchester, England, as Jihad al-Shamie, a 35-year-old British citizen of Syrian descent.
Two men were killed when Al-Shamie rammed his car into worshippers outside the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation on Middleton Road before exiting the vehicle and stabbing others on Yom Kippur, Judaism’s holiest day.
British authorities early on Friday identified the fatalities as Adrian Daulby, 53, and Melvin Cravitz, 66.
Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Union Commission, on Thursday expressed solidarity with the Jewish community in the United Kingdom.
“That this attack took place on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, makes it all the more appalling. We must keep fighting antisemitism in all its forms,” she said.
Kaja Kallas, E.U. high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, said that “hate, antisemitism and violence have no place in our society.”
Margolin on Friday urged European capitals “to act immediately” to “protect our synagogues and schools today and change the rhetoric tomorrow.”
“We are witnessing the rise of ‘Israelized antisemitism’, and it is deadly,” he continued. “Security is vital, but without responsibility in politics and media, we will only prepare for the next funeral.”
A version of this article originally appeared in the European Jewish Press.
