03/10/2025
British Messianic Jewish Alliance Statement on Attack at Heaton Park Synagogue
3 October 2025
BMJA Statement on the Heaton Park Synagogue Attack
On Yom Kippur, 2 October 2025, the Jewish community of Manchester was struck by tragedy. Two men, Adrian Daulby (53) and Melvin Cravitz (66), lost their lives when a man drove his car into worshippers before attacking them with a knife outside the Heaton Park Synagogue. Three others were left seriously injured.
The attacker, identified as 35-year-old Jihad Al-Shamie, a British citizen of Syrian descent, was shot dead at the scene by police. Three other suspects have since been arrested.
The UK’s Chief Rabbi condemned the assault as the “tragic result” of an “unrelenting wave of Jew hatred,” while Prime Minister Keir Starmer pledged to the Jewish community that he would do everything in his power to ensure they have “the security you deserve.”
For British Jews, the shock of such violence—on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year—was profound. For Messianic Jews, who live at the intersection of Jewish and Christian life, the grief and sense of vulnerability are keenly felt.
The British Messianic Jewish Alliance (BMJA), founded in 1866 as the oldest continuing association of Jewish disciples of Yeshua, stands in deep solidarity with the Jewish community in the United Kingdom in the wake of the abhorrent attack at Heaton Park Synagogue.
We grieve with those directly affected and with the wider Jewish community for whom this assault on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish year, strikes at the heart of faith and community life. Violence and hatred have no place in our society. Such acts can never be justified and can never be excused.
From our beginnings, when Rev. Dr. Karl Schwartz first gathered Jewish believers in Jesus to strengthen one another in prayer, fellowship, and mutual support, we have known the bonds that unite us as descendants of Abraham and as disciples of Messiah. Today, 159 years later, we reaffirm those bonds with the wider Jewish people, sharing in their joys and sorrows, standing against antisemitism in every form, and bearing witness to the God who calls us to peace, justice, and hope.
The BMJA remains committed to building community, strengthening disciples of Yeshua, and working for the good of all in the United Kingdom.
“Comfort, comfort my people, says your God” (Isaiah 40:1).
British Messianic Jewish Alliance
