{"id":471437,"date":"2025-10-03T15:52:15","date_gmt":"2025-10-03T15:52:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/471437\/"},"modified":"2025-10-03T15:52:15","modified_gmt":"2025-10-03T15:52:15","slug":"belfast-jewish-leader-praises-overwhelming-support-after-manchester-terror-attack-the-irish-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/471437\/","title":{"rendered":"Belfast Jewish leader praises \u2018overwhelming\u2019 support after Manchester terror attack \u2013 The Irish News"},"content":{"rendered":"

The deputy chair of the Belfast Jewish<\/a> community has said he is \u201coverwhelmed\u201d by the level of support they have received in the wake of the Manchester attack.<\/p>\n

Speaking to the Irish News, Michael Black said he has received many messages of support in the hours following Thursday\u2019s terror attack at a Synagogue in Manchester, which left two people dead.<\/p>\n

The attack happened as members of the city\u2019s Jewish community gathered to celebrate Yom Kippur, the Jewish new year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have had a lot of support since yesterday, he said.<\/p>\n

\"Storm<\/a>\"Watch:<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just sitting here responding to all the emails of good wishes.<\/p>\n

It has been very good, it\u2019s overwhelming, in fact.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am surprised that people have taken the time to contact us and send such lovely letters.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking about the feeling around the community since the Manchester attack, Mr. Black says that despite reports of antisemitism elsewhere, he feels that the Belfast community is relatively safe.<\/p>\n

\u201cCompared to what\u2019s happening in, say, London or Manchester, we\u2019re very fortunate here so far that we haven\u2019t suffered what they have,\u201d he said<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to tempt fate but I know what we\u2019ve experienced here, not just the last two years but over a number of years, compared to the bigger centres of Judaism.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got to remember, we\u2019re a very tiny community here, and we\u2019re elderly, and we\u2019re not on social media as such. So we\u2019re not obvious.\u201d<\/p>\n

Belfast\u2019s <\/a>Jewish community has around 54, mostly elderly members remaining, after many of the once thriving community left the city to live elsewhere, including in Manchester, during The Troubles.<\/p>\n

Mr Black said Belfast\u2019s community has links to Jewish families in Manchester who moved during that era and still fly back and forth for events and get-togethers throughout the year. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere were a number of families moved to Manchester,\u201d he said<\/p>\n

\u201cA number of my generation moved there and we have an expats group. Every so often they come over and have a party with us and support us, just because our community is very small now and we want to keep it active.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we are feeling today is nothing compared to what the Manchester community are feeling. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut the sense of connection we have between Belfast and Manchester has added to the shock and also to the feeling of support.\u201d<\/p>\n

Greater Manchester Police said Adrian Daulby, 53, and Melvin Cravitz, 66, died after Jihad Al-Shamie drove into a group of people outside Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue before stabbing a man.<\/p>\n

Three others remain in hospital with serious injuries.<\/p>\n

One of the victims killed in the synagogue attack on Thursday was hit by police gunfire as officers shot the attacker.<\/p>\n

Al-Shamie was shot dead by police seven minutes after officers were alerted to the attack.<\/p>\n

Three people have been arrested on suspicion of planning a terror attack in connection with the killings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The deputy chair of the Belfast Jewish community has said he is \u201coverwhelmed\u201d by the level of support…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":471438,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8813],"tags":[2378,748,393,4884,54713,2465,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-471437","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manchester","8":"tag-belfast","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-jewish","13":"tag-manchester","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115311041121934400","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471437","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=471437"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471437\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/471438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=471437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=471437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=471437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}