A rabbi today revealed he was not ‘wasting time’ thinking about the motivations of a terrorist who attacked his synagogue leaving two men dead.
Rabbi Daniel Walker said he doesn’t have the ‘mental space’ to think about why Jihad Al-Shamie, 35, targeted the Heaton Park Synagogue, in Manchester, earlier this month.
He told the BBC‘s Today programme that the deaths of Melvin Cravitz, 66, and Adrian Daulby, 53, had left a ‘massive hole’ in his congregation.
But he insisted he refused to be frightened and that he hoped the atrocity would mark a line in the sand, so society could ‘get better’ at tackling hate.
Rabbi Walker described Mr Cravitz and Mr Daulby as ‘very, very special men.’
Inquests into their deaths are due to open in Manchester today.
‘Adrian was a very quiet man, a man of great dignity, always with a smile, always kind, very much loved by his family and his neighbours,’ Rabbi Walker said.
‘Melvin was also a wonderful man, a family man. He was much loved and known by everybody, always happy to help, always with a smile, loved by his neighbours and his friends.
‘They are both going to leave a massive hole. We miss them a lot.’
Rabbi Daniel Walker pictured at a vigil following the attack on his synagogue. He said he would not be ‘wasting time’ on Jihad Al-Shamie’s motivations
Al-Shamie, 35, was shot dead minutes after he went on the rampage, ramming the gates of Heaton Park Synagogue and stabbing worshippers with a knife
Mr Cravitz, from Crumpsall, died in the attack earlier this month
Mr Daulby suffered a fatal gun shot wound after being accidentally shot by a police marksman
The rabbi’s voice cracked and he became emotional as he recounted what happened during the attack, which took place on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar.
He said the first he knew something was wrong was when he heard a ‘very loud bang.’ He later realised this was Al-Shamie, who was a British citizen of Syrian descent, driving his car at security guard Bernard Agyemang before crashing into a wall.
‘Men ran into the main synagogue shouting, ”Close the doors, close the windows, we are being attacked,” Rabbi Walker said.
‘Adrian moved with speed I’ve never seen, his reaction time and instincts…he leapt up and closed the door and quite possibly saved a lot of lives.
‘One thing I will remember about Adrian is that quiet man suddenly becoming this hero that leapt (up) to do the right thing.’
Rabbi Walker said another worshipper, Andrew Franks, who was a volunteer security guard on the day, then tried to intercept Al-Shamie, which delayed him getting inside.
But Mr Franks was stabbed and suffered serious injuries that left him hospitalised for more than two weeks afterwards.
Rabbi Walker described Mr Franks as a ‘very, very brave man.’
Al-Shamie (pictured outside the synagogue) travelled to Britain with his family as a young child and was granted UK citizenship in 2006, when he would have been around 16
Rabbi Daniel Walker and King Charles III view floral tributes during a visit to Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue 18 days after the attack, on October 2
Yoni Finlay, 39, was also mistakenly shot and injured by a bullet fired by an armed police officer
‘He was in the foyer and was very badly injured, thank God he is in the process of recovery,’ he added.
‘The attacker was throwing himself against the doors, all the doors were shaking, so a large number of men came and bolstered the doors and held them to make sure he wasn’t able to break through them.’
Rabbi Walker said he heard Al-Shamie, who it later emerged was on bail for rape, shouting, ”these are killing our children,” in an apparent reference to the war in Gaza.
Police later revealed Al-Shamie had called 999 moments afterwards to declare: ‘I have killed two Jews in the name of Islamic state.’
‘It all happened very fast, it was only a matter of minutes but time definitely slowed down,’ Rabbi Walker added.
He previously described looking at Al-Shamie through the window of the synagogue door and seeing ‘evil and hate’.
Armed officers from Greater Manchester Police (GMP) were on the scene within minutes and a shocking video circulated on social media showed officers shouting at Al-Shamie, who was armed with a knife and wearing what later turned out to be a fake suicide belt, before shooting him dead in the courtyard outside.
Mr Daulby suffered a fatal bullet wound fired from a police gun, while another man, father-of-three Yoni Finlay, 39, was also accidentally shot by officers but survived.
Referring to Al-Shamie, Rabbi Walker said he wasn’t ‘wasting any time on him.’
‘I have no mental space to think about him, or why he did (what he did),’ the rabbi said.
He said anti-semitism was a ‘societal’ not a ‘Jewish problem per se’ and it was up to society to tackle hatred.
Rabbi Walker said he wasn’t frightened to open the synagogue after the attack and revealed that the first service he took afterwards was attended by 1,000 people.
‘We danced and cried at the same time,’ he added.
‘It was standing room only, people came from every synagogue in town to support us.
‘We are resilient, we are going to continue living and the synagogue is still a place of prayer and holiness.’
Asked whether the attack marked a ‘threshold’ or line in the sand, he said: ‘I hope the threshold was crossed and as a society we will get better after this.
‘I would like to see all that support, all of that care and all of that goodness that I know is out there be a more visible part of our society.’
He said initially he and his synagogue had felt ‘very alone’ but ‘very quickly realised we weren’t.’
Rabbi Walker described King Charles’ visit to the synagogue a few days later as the ‘zenith’ of that support.
‘That meant so much to us all, it meant that society cares,’ he added.
