‘In the presence of evil’: Manchester synagogue attack survivor on the day that shook British Jews | Antisemitism

IIt was just after 6 a.m. and Yoni Finlay woke up early, nervous. It was Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, and the 39-year-old Mancunian was due to say morning prayers. Shacharislater that morning in front of hundreds of worshipers.

After studying his poem, Finlay buttoned up his white robes and set out for the Heaton Park shul in north Manchester. He greeted familiar faces, exchanged a cheerful hello with security guard Bernard Agyemang, and then sat on stage. bimaand prayed.

“Then we heard an explosion,” he said. He remembers Alan Levy, chairman of the synagogue’s board of trustees, running into the synagogue and saying “close the doors, close the doors.”

Finlay ran to the entrance to see what was happening. Through the reinforced glass, he saw Agyemang’s crumpled body on the ground. When he returned, he saw volunteer security guard Andrew Franks covered in blood.

The moment many in Britain’s Jewish community feared has finally arrived. They were under attack.

Finlay, a father of four, helped barricade the doors as the attacker tried to force his way in. “He was pulling them while we were holding them, and they were bending over,” he said.

He saw his attacker’s knife – “I’ve never seen a blade that big on a knife” – and saw what looked like a bomb strapped to his waist. “He was yelling something about killing children.”

In his first newspaper interview, Finlay told the Guardian that he saw evil as he looked at the knife-wielding man: “I had never felt it before, I had never experienced it, but there was evil. We were in the presence of evil.”

“That was his whole attitude. He was angry. Very, very angry. He just wanted to kill the Jews and was willing to die for it.”

Finlay didn’t know it, but the attacker, Jihad al-Shamie, had called 999, accepting responsibility for the ongoing attack and pledging allegiance to the Islamic State.

Armed police arrived within seven minutes and shot Shamie, a Syrian-born Mancunian, as he charged towards them. He somehow got up and attacked them again. The police fired more shots, killing the attacker.

Finlay felt a “very hard punch to his chest” behind the synagogue door and he fell to the ground.

“I knew right away that I had been shot,” he said. A police bullet entered his left chest and exited his back. The man behind him, 53-year-old Adrian Daulby, was also shot.

Daulby, described by his family as a quiet man and “an extremely strong hero”, was pronounced dead 40 minutes later. Another worshiper, 66-year-old Melvin Cravitz, died in hospital a short time later from stab wounds.

It was the deadliest anti-Semitic attack in recent memory in Britain.

Seven weeks later, Finlay is physically recovering from his injuries after a seven-hour surgery and a two-week hospital stay. But the psychological wounds are still fresh.

“I was told the survivors were criminals,” he said. “Even though it’s a miracle, and I’m so grateful that I’m still here – I thank God every day – but it doesn’t erase the lives that were lost. And that’s hard.”

There was anger in the Jewish community in Manchester and beyond in the days following the attack. Warning signs of a persecution have been clear for two years, they said. Justice minister David Lammy was booed and booed during a vigil where ministers were accused of having blood on their hands.

The number of anti-Semitic incidents recorded by the Community Security Trust (CST) has risen sharply since the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October. Ten years ago, 100 such events per month would have been shocking, but in the first half of 2025, CST was recording more than 200 events every month. In June, July and August, that number rose to 300 per month, according to Dave Rich, CST’s chief policy officer.

He said hostility towards British Jews due to the actions of Benjamin Netanyahu’s Israeli government and the failure of UK ministers to address the issue forcefully had normalized antisemitism in the country.

“People don’t wake up in the morning and think that I’m going to kill Jews, that I’m going to attack a shul. This doesn’t happen in a vacuum. This is a culmination of what happened in the weeks and months and years before that.”

“There is an undercurrent [of antisemitisim] in the country and people are turning to it… The problem is not only the government, but also the way the media portrays it [the Gaza conflict]. “This whole atmosphere allowed something like this to happen.”

The decision to ban Maccabi Tel Aviv fans from a match against Aston Villa in Birmingham this month over security fears plays into this surrender to antisemitism, he said: “How can it be that British citizens, or citizens of another country, Jewish people, can’t go to a certain area in England? We’re in 2025. How’s that been allowed to happen again?

“Shouting anti-Semitic things, holding hate marches, harassing Jews has become normal. Anti-Semitism has been allowed to grow in this country.

“We can’t keep reacting to things that are happening. There has to be real change. We have to stop normalizing antisemitism, and the government is playing a role in that.”

Speaking at the Guardian’s Manchester office, Finlay insisted he was not a politician and did not have all the answers. He is just a “very normal guy”, a public service executive who supports Manchester United, who can be found either on the football field or with his four children, a 16-year-old son and three daughters aged 9, 12 and 14.

Very passionate about volunteer work Circle of FriendshipA charitable organization that supports Jewish children and adults with learning disabilities and other disabilities.

Finlay said he did not want to dwell on the attacker, who was only three kilometers away from his victims. He doesn’t blame the armed officer who hit him, nor does he blame Daulby: “They were doing their jobs. Their actions that day saved lives.”

Heaton Park shul received more than 2,000 messages of support and solidarity in the days following October 2. ‘Silent majority’ who hate discrimination Finlay said many were from the non-Jewish community and Muslims: “They were from every religion, every community. People don’t want violence, they don’t want hate, they want to live together in peace.”

As for the government, Finlay said it would be a mistake to push British Jews behind their already visibly protected communities. “The solution is not to put up more walls and gates, but to go further behind the gates. We’re not dealing with the root cause of this,” he said.

Finlay has weighed carefully whether to speak publicly since the attack, considering the impact of the attack on those affected, including his family, and the sensitivities surrounding the Gaza conflict.

He said he did this because he believed this should be the moment when compassion triumphs over hate.

“I’ve seen evil, and it’s something that’s very powerful in the wrong direction right now. But let’s fight it. Let’s bring light to the world, and it doesn’t take much,” he said.

“Love, care, beautiful. This defeats hate. This ends hatred. We must choose to learn and connect rather than divide. Hope builds bridges, hate builds walls.”