Yom Kippur is a day of atonement . It is a day for reflecting on one’s sins, asking God for forgiveness and vowing to do better. Since Jews take atonement seriously, that makes it the holiest day of the year.

If you have the slightest relationship to Jewish religious tradition – you’ve got a lurking sense that God might exist, or you just want to keep your mother-in-law happy – it is the one day of the year you will still show up at a synagogue. It’s like Good Friday in terms of solemnity, and Christmas in terms of collective rite.

All of which means that this Yom Kippur morning, when a terrorist attempted to breach the security barrier at Manchester’s Heaton Park synagogue , the building will have been packed. Like many synagogues, it even had a children’s service. At synagogue

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