It’s Yom Kippur. The Day of Atonement. The holiest day of the Jewish calendar.

A day when Jews—whether they step foot in a synagogue once a year, every damn day, or not at all—come together, whether physically or spiritually. Some fast. Some pray. But we all bare our souls, seeking forgiveness, wrestling with who we are. It’s our holiest moment, a time when we’re raw, open, and united.

Yet this morning, in Manchester, that sacred moment on this holiest of days was turned into slaughter.

A terrorist unleashed hell. A car-ramming. A stabbing frenzy. Details are still trickling out, and we’re waiting for confirmation of all the details. Apparently two Jews have been murdered, three clinging to life, with multiple serious injuries. Numbers matter for the record, but they don’t capture the gut-punch that is today: Jews were hunted down, targeted for death, while attending synagogue, to pray on their holiest of days.

Let that burn into your brain. Don’t let it escape your thoughts.

The police reacted fast and took the terrorist down with a bullet. Bomb disposal units rolled in, a grim signal this could’ve been even worse. No group’s claimed credit yet, but they don’t need to. The target—a synagogue—and the timing—Yom Kippur—scream their intent louder than any manifesto could.

This wasn’t random. This was a cold, calculated middle finger to the collective souls of all Jews around the world.

If you’ve been paying attention, you’re not shocked, surprised, or confused by what happened. You’re enraged. You’re gutted. But surprised? No.

We’ve been screaming about this for literal years. This was a terror attack on British Jews, and global Jews have been begging the world to listen while antisemitism festers like an open wound.

Globally, antisemitic incidents, including harassment, vandalism, and assault, have been rising for years, with a dramatic and well-documented surge following the October 7 2023 Hamas attacks. In Canada, Jewish Canadians, who make up about 1% of the population, are the most targeted religious group for hate crimes on a per-capita basis, and reported incidents have reached record highs in recent years.

It’s a damn wildfire of Jew Hate. Every number is a smashed window, a swastika scrawled on a wall, a Jewish kid terrorized on their way to school, or an antisemitic slur shouted at a visible Jew. Connect those dots, and you get the blueprint for what happened today in Manchester.

I’m not just sad. I’m shattered. I’m pissed. I’m tired.

I’m thinking of the families who showed up to atone and ended up in a warzone. Parents, grandparents, kids—whose holiest day is now a nightmare etched in blood.

But I’m also thinking of our collective strength, because Jews have seen this before, and will undoubtedly see it again. We are a community that rallies, mourns, and rebuilds, because that’s the only thing you can do in the face of a movement intent on seeing your destruction.

Our synagogues are fortresses now. In Windsor, the police were parked in the parking lot of the Orthodox Synagogue, as they have been every year I can remember on High Holidays, and I’m almost 37. Our prayers come with a glance at the exit. We’ve been here before, and it’s exhausting, but we’re still standing.

This attack is a screaming wake-up call. Fighting antisemitism isn’t a history lesson; it’s a now-or-never battle for Jews globally, and our right to exist.

On Yom Kippur, we say our fates are sealed. This morning, evil tried to seal ours with blood. Our job now? Make sure this doesn’t break us. We live, pray, and stay Jewish, loud and unapologetic, no matter how much they hate us for it.

Am Yisrael Chai. Today, tomorrow, always.

And please, don’t act shocked by this. For two years, we’ve watched people march in global cities, sometimes more than once a week, chanting “globalize the intifada”, justifying attacks on Jews worldwide. We’ve heard chants for Jews to “go back to Europe” and “you don’t belong here.” We’ve heard continual chants for the destruction of Israel and the murder of those who support the existence of Israel as a Jewish state.

The fact of the matter is we’ve let antisemitism run wild and unchecked. This isn’t a surprise or a shock. It’s predictable. It’s happened before. It’ll happen again, unless we stop pretending it’s not our problem, because it is.

And while today is Thursday, the saying still rings true: “First they come for the Saturday people, then the come for the Sunday people.”

---