When hate strikes again, where is the solidarity we were once promised?

As we weep for the Jewish lives brutally stolen on Yom Kippur in Manchester, England, we weep as well for the drastic turn the world has taken against our people in just seven years.

On Yom Kippur, Jihad Al-Shamie, a 35-year-old British citizen of Syrian descent, rammed his car into Jews outside Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue in Manchester and then began stabbing them. Two Jewish community members were killed and three others were seriously injured before the terrorist was shot dead by police.

The Oct. 2 antisemitic attack on the holiest day of the Jewish calendar evoked the feelings of fear, loss and trauma Pittsburgh’s Jewish community felt on Oct. 27, 2018, when an antisemite stormed the Tree of Life building on Shabbat, murdering 11 Jews from three congregations and seriously wounding six others, including first responders.

As we mourned in the days following the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting, and worked toward healing, there was an outpouring of love from around the world. Neighbors of diverse backgrounds stood in solidarity with us. They came out in droves to comfort us and encourage us through our pain. They sent us cards and flowers and homemade crafts. They sent funds to help us rebuild. They told us we were not alone.

They promised us we were stronger than hate.

Here’s what they didn’t do: They didn’t allow a white supremacist rally to be held the very same day in the same city where Jews were murdered by a white supremacist. Looking back, it would have been incomprehensible for such an event to have occurred. People of conscience would not have allowed it.

But things are different now, since Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas’ brutal attack on Israel unleashed, or maybe just revealed, a torrent of anti-Jewish hate simmering just below the surface of society, waiting for an excuse to emerge full-throttled.

The world’s relationship to Jews has changed drastically.

While it was appalling enough that anti-Israel protests were scheduled to occur in Great Britain on Yom Kippur, it was beyond sickening that those demonstrations actually proceeded in the wake of the Manchester attack.

While Al-Shamie’s motive was still being probed by the police at press time, the Guardian reported that he appeared to have “been fixated on the plight of Muslims in parts of the Middle East, particularly in recent years in Gaza.” An X account believed to belong to the attacker had a machine gun as its profile picture, “alongside a white flower, and what appears to be a copy of the Qur’an.”

The Jewish Chronicle of Great Britain reported that the killer’s father “who named his son Jihad, posted a Facebook message on October 7 gushing with praise for the Hamas terrorists. Faraj Al-Shamie wrote about them: ‘Men like these prove that they are men of God and regardless who leads them, they are the real compass of men who are confident of their victory.’”

Police said that Al-Shamie “may have been influenced by extreme Islamist ideology”

In saner times, it would be beyond belief that the organizers of a protest against the U.K.’s ban on a group called Palestine Action would reject a plea from London police to postpone their rally after the Manchester murders. But these are not saner times.

So, instead, an anti-Israel protest took place in Manchester city center that very night. And demonstrators in London, who went ahead with their protest in support of a flotilla supposedly carrying aid to Gaza, clashed with police.

“Large crowds carrying Palestinian flags and placards could be seen on Whitehall into the evening,” BBC reported.

The U.K.’s Chief Rabbi, Sir Ephraim Mirvis, told BBC Radio 4, that the Yom Kippur attack was “something which actually we were fearing might happen because of the build up to this action. … You cannot separate the words on our streets, the actions of people in this way, and what inevitably results, which was yesterday’s terrorist attack.”

We mourn with the Jews of Manchester. We feel their pain in our bones. And although the death toll — thank God — was less than ours in Pittsburgh, we know in some ways their experience has been worse.

We urge the worldwide Jewish community to stand united against antisemitism, in all its forms, to support each other in times of heartbreak, and to continue building bridges with our non-Jewish neighbors to foster understanding and allyship.

None of us should feel like we are standing alone. PJC