What I saw as a British rabbi after the Manchester synagogue attack punctured Yom Kippur

We’ve known something like this would happen for years. But that didn’t make it less shocking when it happened.

After attacks on Jewish shops, schools and synagogues across Europe, it felt like a matter of time before something would come to our shores in the United Kingdom. But an attack on a synagogue on Yom Kippur — this is particularly painful. There’s something about violence coming into a sacred place, at a sacred time, that feels particularly violating.

I was leading services as a rabbi at my synagogue in Borehamwood, in the London suburbs. Soon after 10 a.m. someone brought a message from our amazing security guard Vince: There had been an attack in Manchester , and all synagogues were asked to lock their doors. My son was complaining that he wasn’t allowed to play football out