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British Jewish Leaders Call for Comprehensive Gov’t Strategy on Antisemitism Following Deadly Yom Kippur Attack
People react near the scene, after an attack in which a car was driven at pedestrians and stabbings were reported at a synagogue in north Manchester, Britain, on Yom Kippur, Oct. 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Phil Noble
Following the deadly Yom Kippur terrorist attack in Manchester earlier this month, Jewish leaders in Britain are calling on the government to crack down on rising antisemitism, demanding a comprehensive national strategy to protect the community amid an increasingly hostile environment.
On Tuesday, the Board of Deputies of British Jews, the Jewish Leadership Council, and the Union of Jewish Students issued a joint statement proposing a set of guidelines and policy recommendations for the government to tackle anti-Jewish hatred.
Together with other communal organizations, including the Community Security Trust, the document sets out policy priorities in four key areas: policing and security, extremism, civil society, and schools and universities.
Board of Deputies, @JLC_uk and @UJS_UK have today published priorities for a comprehensive strategy to tackle antisemitism.
Full paper is on our website: https://t.co/rekrvqGk6k pic.twitter.com/PjI0O6JpRN
— Board of Deputies of British Jews (@BoardofDeputies) October 28, 2025
Amid a persistent surge in antisemitic incidents, Jewish leaders said this document should serve as a foundation for continued efforts, while calling on the government, experts, and community partners to deepen discussion and collaboration to root out antisemitism in British society.
“Following the awful Yom Kippur attack at Heaton Park Synagogue we have seen a series of welcome announcements from the government,” Phil Rosenberg, president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, said in a statement.
“However, these measures on their own will not be sufficient to meet the long-term society-wide challenge of confronting antisemitic hatred. We need to see a Comprehensive Government Strategy on Antisemitism,” he continued.
On Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement and holiest day of the year in Judaism, a man identified by police as Jihad al-Shamie, 35, drove a car onto the grounds of the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation synagogue in Manchester, northern England, and went on a stabbing spree, leaving two Jewish men dead and at least three others critically injured.
The attack occurred as the congregation gathered to observe Yom Kippur and ended seven minutes later, when police shot the assailant dead.
Shortly after the attack, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced an emergency £10 million boost to Jewish communities to strengthen security at synagogues and schools, marking a record high in funding to safeguard religious institutions.
The Jewish community in Britain has faced a troubling surge in antisemitic incidents and anti-Israel sentiment since the Hamas-led invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
Last month, the British nongovernmental organization Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) released research conducted by YouGov which showed that those characterized as embracing “entrenched” antisemitic attitudes in the UK had grown to 21 percent, the highest figure on record, showing a jump from 16 percent in 2024 and 11 percent in 2021.
The survey came after the Community Security Trust (CST), a nonprofit charity that advises Britain’s Jewish community on security matters, published a report in August showing there were 1,521 antisemitic incidents in the UK from January to June of this year. It marked the second-highest total of incidents ever recorded by CST in the first six months of any year, following the first half of 2024 in which 2,019 antisemitic incidents were recorded.
In total last year, CST recorded 3,528 antisemitic incidents for 2024, the country’s second worst year for antisemitism and an 18 percent drop from 2023’s record of 4,296.
Jewish leaders have consistently called on authorities to take swift action against the rising wave of targeted attacks and anti-Jewish hate crimes they continue to face.
According to government statistics, religious hate crime has reached record levels, with Jewish people targeted more than any other group.
Among the proposed measures and policy guidelines, the joint document unveiled this week calls for sustained visible policing at synagogues and schools, tougher enforcement against violent rhetoric at protests, greater powers for authorities to shut down extremist organizations, and stricter rules to tackle harassment and incitement on university campuses.
Louis Danker, president of the Union of Jewish Students, called for stronger and more coordinated government action to tackle antisemitism and extremism on campuses.
“Extreme student groups have never been so emboldened to glorify terrorism and incite hate,” he said in a statement. “The government must act with urgency to break the culture of impunity, clarify universities’ obligations, and root out antisemitism from our campuses.”
Keith Black, chair of the Jewish Leadership Council, stressed that protecting Jewish life must go beyond physical security measures.
“We need sustained action to combat the root causes of antisemitism and extremism,” Black said in a statement.
“The murder of Melvin Cravitz and Adrian Daulby on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish year, was a devastating blow to our community’s sense of safety and belonging in this country,” he continued.
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UK adopts sweeping measures against antisemitism in schools
(JTA) — The U.K. has adopted sweeping measures to combat antisemitism in English schools, prompting pushback from the country’s largest teachers’ union.
The move came after a new government-commissioned review found that three in five Jewish students reported experiencing antisemitism in English schools. The most common incidents were jokes, stereotypes and comments about Jewish people. About half of respondents who witnessed or experienced antisemitism said the incidents were not reported, most often because they did not think they would be taken seriously.
The government on Wednesday accepted 27 recommendations from the report, including dedicated antisemitism training for leaders and staff, improved recording of antisemitic incidents and moves to build a better understanding of Jewish life, identity and contemporary antisemitism.
The government commissioned the report following a spate of high-profile attacks on Jews in Britain, including an attack on a synagogue in Manchester last year that left two men dead.
The report’s author, Sir David Bell, the vice chancellor of the University of Sunderland and former chief inspector of schools in England, recommended addressing antisemitism distinctly from other forms of racism. He argued that antisemitism was a “uniquely complex” problem because of intertwined racial and religious dimensions, since Jewish identity can encompass both an ethnicity and a religion, along with expressions of prejudice that hold all Jews responsible for the actions of Israel.
The government will also encourage English schools to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism. The definition is supported by many mainstream Jewish organizations and has been adopted by 47 countries, including the U.K., but critics say that it conflates some forms of antisemitism with criticism of Israel.
British Education Secretary Lucy Powell called Bell’s review a “generational moment” and said that “implementation is now my priority.”
However, the National Education Union, the largest union representing teachers, lecturers, teaching assistants and support staff in the United Kingdom and Europe, raised concerns on Wednesday about recommending the IHRA definition for schools. NEU general secretary Daniel Kebede said in a statement that the definition “risks deepening the problem rather than tackling it, and actively undermining efforts to confront antisemitism.”
“The IHRA’s contested framing risks blurring the line between antisemitism and legitimate criticism of the Israeli government and the genocide in Gaza, leaving teachers with uncertainty when they need clarity,” said Kebede. He cited a risk that “children who cannot critically explore issues through classroom discussion will instead seek their answers in online and unsafe groups.”
Kebede also encouraged Britain’s Department for Education to strengthen guidance on all forms of racism, not only antisemitism, saying that 65% of teachers report they have not received any antiracism training in the past year.
The Board of Deputies of British Jews, an umbrella organization for British Jewish communities, celebrated the antisemitism report and the government’s adoption of its proposed measures. The group specifically praised the report’s “clear recommendations that schools and local authorities follow government guidelines by adopting the IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism as a tool to deepen understanding of contemporary antisemitism.”
“We remain concerned about undue external influence on schools driven by narrow political agendas, and tendentious materials seeping into schools and increasing disharmony, and we will continue to press for vigilance against this,” said the Board of Deputies.
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Orthodox Jewish man stabbed in midtown Manhattan
(New York Jewish Week) — An Orthodox Jewish man is in stable condition after being stabbed on Wednesday evening in the Diamond District of midtown Manhattan. Police are investigating the attack as a possible hate crime.
Police told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that the NYPD’s Hate Crimes Task Force is investigating the incident as a possible antisemitic attack, and Manhattan Shomrim — the Jewish community watch group — has asked people to share footage as police search for the suspect. No arrests have been made.
The victim was identified by police as a 26-year-old man, and Orthodox Jewish outlet COLLive identified him as a resident of Crown Heights, the neighborhood that is home to the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic movement’s headquarters.
He was taken to Bellevue Hospital in stable condition. Police said they were called at about 5:50 p.m. on Wednesday after the man was stabbed in the back with “an unknown sharp object” on 47th Street near Fifth Avenue. ABC7 reported that the victim told investigators he believed he was stabbed with a needle or syringe.
According to the Chabad website, which published an interview with the victim, he is a recently ordained Hasidic rabbi named Joseph, who commutes to Midtown each day to wrap tefillin with Jewish merchants. The attacker, Joseph told the website, was a woman who seemed to be following him prior to the stabbing.
The attack comes as Jewish New Yorkers have been targeted in more than half of the hate crimes committed in New York City this year, despite making up about 12% of the city’s population.
In July, an assailant stabbed two men on the Upper West Side, including one who was leaving a synagogue, while yelling “Allahu akbar,” and was charged with committing hate crimes.
Louis Keene contributed reporting.
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VIDEO: A Hasid gives us a tour of Morocco in Yiddish
דער ירושלימער יוטוב־שטערן וועלוול קירשנבוים האָט לעצטנס אַרויסגעשטעלט אַ ווידעאָ אויף ייִדיש פֿון אַ פּרעכטיקן וויזיט, וואָס ער האָט געמאַכט אין מאַראָקאָ. עס באַגלייט אים זײַן חבֿר אַבֿרהם פּרץ.
אינעם ווידעאָ זעט מען ווי קירשנבוים דאַוונט שחרית מיט די אָרטיקע ייִדן און באַזוכט אַ גוט אָפּגעהיטענעם בית־עולם, וווּ עס ליגן באַערדיקט גרויסע צדיקים ווי למשל הרבֿ חיים בן עתר (1696–1743), באַקאַנט ווי דער „אור החיים“. „מענטשן מיינען, אַז נאָר אין אייראָפּע זענען דאָ קבֿרים פֿון צדיקים!“ זאָגט קירשנבוים.
מיר זעען אַ גרויסע, שיינע שיל מיט אַ פֿײַנער אַרכיטעקטור אין קאַזאַבלאַנקאַ; דעם גרויסן אַראַבישן שוק, וווּ קירשנבוים קויפֿט זיך אײַן מלבושים פּונקט ווי די מאַראָקאַנער גייען אָנגעטאָן. ער באַוווּנדערט אויך די שיינע טיי־גלעזער און טשײַניקן, וואָס מע פֿאַרקויפֿט דאָרט, און באַקענט זיך מיט אַ ייִדישן סוחר וואָס האַנדלט מיט זילבער און גאָלד, פּונקט אַזוי ווי זײַן טאַטע און זיידע האָבן געטאָן פֿאַר דור־דורות.
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