One year after the deadly Yom Kippur terrorist attack on Heaton Park Synagogue, survivor Yoni Finlay has warned that his community still does not feel safe, with increased security and fear continuing to shape everyday Jewish life in Manchester.
Finlay was shot while protecting the synagogue’s doors during the 2025 attack, in which Adrian Daulby and Melvin Cravitz were killed. As the community prepares to return to synagogue this Yom Kippur, Jewish institutions remain heavily protected, event locations are routinely withheld from public materials and children continue to attend schools behind extensive security.
“The community doesn’t feel any safer a year on from Heaton Park,” Finlay said. “There are more gates and more security than we have ever had. Any event we have does not have the address displayed on the poster, our kids go to schools that look like fortresses. Every Jewish building has to have security.”
Yet alongside the fear, Finlay describes a strengthening of Jewish identity in the aftermath of the attack. Earlier this year, he joined the March of the Living in Poland, where he spent time with Holocaust survivors and survivors of other antisemitic attacks, an experience he says gave him both a greater sense of pride and a responsibility to confront hatred.
“What I have found is that an attack on us has two effects: antisemitism increases but at the same time Jewish people identify more,” Finlay said. “The bravery and courage shown by every survivor I was privileged to meet will stay with me forever and gives me the strength to keep going.”
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For Finlay, the encounters also reinforced the responsibility of younger generations to carry survivors’ testimony forward and to recognise the consequences of antisemitism before it escalates into violence. He has stressed that this responsibility extends beyond the Jewish community and that challenging antisemitism must be a responsibility shared by society as a whole.
Scott Saunders, CEO of International March of the Living and Founder and Chairman of March of the Living UK, said: “Yoni came on the March having experienced antisemitic violence himself, and spent time with Holocaust survivors who had endured unimaginable hatred but went on to rebuild their lives. His determination to continue living proudly as a Jew reflects something we saw throughout the March: fear and hatred cannot be allowed to determine how Jewish people live their lives.”
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As another Yom Kippur approaches, Finlay acknowledges that returning to Heaton Park Synagogue will not be easy. But one year after the attack, he says the community will once again gather for the same prayers that continued even on the day of the attack.
“I can’t sit here and pretend that this Yom Kippur will be easy, but I know that as a community we will do it.”
Read Yoni Finlay’s full account:
https://motl.org/yoni-finlay-heaton-park-synagogue/
Written in collaboration with March of the Living