Jerusalem, 17 September, 2026 (TPS-IL) — One year after the deadly terrorist attack on Heaton Park Synagogue, survivor Yoni Finlay says his community still doesn’t feel safe, with heightened security and fear continuing to shape daily Jewish life in Manchester.
Finlay was shot while protecting the synagogue’s doors during the 2025 attack, which killed Adrian Daulby and Melvin Cravitz. “There are more gates and more security than we have ever had,” he said. “Our kids go to schools that look like fortresses.”
Alongside the fear, Finlay describes a strengthened Jewish identity. Earlier this year he joined the March of the Living in Poland, meeting Holocaust survivors and other attack survivors.
“An attack on us has two effects: antisemitism increases, but Jewish people identify more strongly as Jews,” he said, adding that confronting antisemitism must be a responsibility shared by society as a whole.