On Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish year, Jews gathered in synagogues across Europe for prayer and repentance. In Manchester, England, those prayers were violently interrupted when a terrorist struck a synagogue, killing two people and wounding others. The attacker, a British citizen of Syrian descent, reportedly rammed worshippers with his car before turning to knife attacks. Meanwhile, in Germany, authorities arrested three men linked to Hamas who were allegedly plotting their own assault on Jewish or Israeli institutions.
Two countries. Two stories. One common thread: the war on Jews has once again found expression on European soil.
What is most chilling about the Manchester attack is not merely its brutality, but how unsurprised many people seem to be. Politicians issued the familiar condemnations, standing before cameras to decry hatred and violence, but one wonders if even they believe their reassurances. British MP Graham Stringer described Manchester’s Jewish and Muslim communities as models of “excellent relations.” Yet the cold fact remains that only one religious group in Britain must worship under armed guard, hire private security, and teach its children to scan their surroundings on the way to synagogue.
The statistics are grim. In just the first half of 2025, the Community Security Trust recorded 1,521 antisemitic incidents in the UK—second only to the record-breaking wave of 2,019 in the same period last year. Much of this spike tracks directly to events in the Middle East, where the October 7, 2023 Hamas massacre of Israelis ignited a surge of antisemitic agitation across Europe. Protest slogans like “globalize the intifada” have now been literalized on Europe’s streets.
It is often said that one can criticize Israel without being antisemitic. In theory, perhaps. In practice, Europe today tells a darker story. Anti-Zionism has become the convenient mask for antisemitism, giving ideological cover to old hatreds. Jewish communities are scapegoated for wars they did not start, targeted not for what they do but for who they are.
To their credit, Britain’s leaders avoided the indecency of “balancing” sympathy for murdered Jews with lectures on “Islamophobia.” But the wider European political class continues to falter. Leaders like Emmanuel Macron in France and Keir Starmer in Britain curry favor with anti-Israel blocs by recognizing a Palestinian state in the midst of terror. In doing so, they send a devastating signal: that the violence of Hamas and its sympathizers is rewarded, not resisted.
Make no mistake: this is not only Israel’s war. It is not even solely the Jewish people’s war. The normalization of antisemitic violence corrodes democracy, erodes the rule of law, and emboldens extremists who will not stop with Jews. Europe has seen this before.
Yom Kippur reminds Jews worldwide of the need for repentance and renewal. But for Europe, it should also be a day of reckoning. Expressions of “shock” are not enough. Concrete measures—strong security, prosecution of terrorists and their enablers, and moral clarity against the demonization of Israel—are required.
Because this war on Jews is global. And Europe, once again, is on the front lines.
— CJUI Webmaster