At a memorial service Rabbi Daniel Walker remembered Adrian Daulby and Melvin Cravitz who were killed not far from where he spoke during a terror attack last year
As Rabbi Daniel Walker rose to his feet hundreds of people stood with him and applauded. They were united in grief, remembering the awful events of Yom Kippur terror attack on Heaton Park synagogue.
But at a memorial service tonight they were also determined to celebrate the community’s strength and resilience. Standing not far from the spot where two worshippers Melvin Cravitz and Adrian Daulby, were killed and three others were injured as they tried to defend the synagogue from terrorist Jihad al-Shamie on the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, on October 2 last year, Rabbi Walker paid tribute to his friends, two men he described as ‘very different’.
“I think you can see that,” he said gesturing to the photos hung on the wall behind him. “Melvin with his trademark wry smile, Adrian with his quieter smile.”
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“If you didn’t know Melvin you probably aren’t from Manchester,” he said to laughter. “On the other hand very few of us had the privilege of knowing Adrian. I consider that one of the great privileges of being a rabbi here that I got to know Adrian.
“But what was similar about them was their ability light up a room, their ability to show care and affection to everybody from all walks of life… Remembering them means emulating them.”
In a moving speech of quiet, dignified emotion Rabbi Walker also told how when he was first allowed back inside the synagogue in the days after the attack it appeared as though it had been ‘frozen in time’.
“After we were evacuated we weren’t given a chance to take anything with us,” he said. “So when I came in here I saw the Shul frozen in time as if abandoned.
“It was a painful sight because inevitably the prayer books were open. When we finish using them we close them. To leave them open is an act of disrespect. Seeing them all sitting here open, that was just one of the many things that hurt.”
Rabbi Walker then called on those gathered to stand ‘proud, loud and uncowed as Jews’ and also revealed that the synagogue is writing a new Torah scroll in Adrian and Melvin’s memory.
“We at Heaton Park have for the last year lived by this principle: To remember is to do good,” he added.
Earlier Angela Rayner, Secretary of State State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, told the memorial service the ‘poison’ of antisemitism must never be ‘normalised’ .
She added: “The horror and fear in a place of prayer on the holiest day of the year is a moment none of us should ever forget and in particular we should never forget Melvin and Adrian. Together we can overcome and defeat antisemitism.”
GMP Chief Constable Sir Stephen Watson, who last month apologised for a ‘missed opportunity’ to act before the attack after it emerged the al-Shamie’s phones were seized by officers but crucial data was not examined, admitted the force was ‘not infallible’.
But, he added: “No-one should doubt the perfection of our intent. Our anxiety to give of our very best in all circumstances. And in our fierce determination to stand in defence of you, your families and the wider Jewish community.”
Describing antisemitism was a ‘moral stain that needs to be ruthlessly expunged’ he said that in light of recent attacks he ‘could well understand how vulnerable and isolated’ the Jewish community feels. But he urged those gathered to remember the impeccably observed silences held at football grounds around the country in the wake of the Yom Kippur attack
“That was the roar of the silent majority and the true voice of our country,” he added.
Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis and Greater Manchester Mayor Bev Craig were also among those in attendance. The first anniversary of the attack isn’t until October, but Monday night’s memorial was held to coincide with the religious anniversary date rather than by the secular calendar.
Yom Kippur falls in September this year. Private prayers will be held at the synagogue on that day.
Speaking to the BBC earlier this week Rabbi Walker said the service was also arranged because the community also wanted to hold a public memorial before the Jewish High Holy Days.


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