Sydney rabbis mourn Manchester synagogue attack

Australian rabbis have outlined their personal connections to the Manchester synagogue that was the target of a terror attack last week.

Two people were killed and four injured on Yom Kippur in a car-ramming and stabbing attack at the Heaton Park Synagogue that sent shockwaves through the Jewish world. Suspect Jihad al-Shamie was shot dead by officers at the scene.

The Great Synagogue Chief Minister Rabbi Dr Benjamin Elton, who is from Manchester and attended cheder at the synagogue before his Bar Mitzvah, said he was “very distressed, very anxious” when he first heard the news.

“I was going in and out of that shule twice a week for a year. And also I had friends who, it was their shule,” he said. “So Heaton Park Shule was very much a part of my life growing up in Manchester.”

Rabbi Elton told The AJN how he saw the shule’s rabbi, Rabbi Daniel Walker, at a conference just a few weeks ago.