Stopping violent extremism begins with educating our young
The Heaton Park Synagogue attack was a warning not just to Jews but the whole country, the Chief Rabbi says.
There is a well-known truism about antisemitism: that the Jews are the proverbial canary in the coalmine. When a society finds itself in the grip of Jew-hatred, it is a warning sign of a deeper moral decay that will rapidly spread, affecting one and all.
There is no doubting the veracity of the analogy. The terrorist attack at Heaton Park Synagogue in Manchester must serve as a wake-up call for our country and for every nation that cherishes freedom, decency and human dignity. But it is also true that Jews are tired of being the canary. In 2025 we should be regarded not as the early warning system but as miners — no different from anybody else.
For many years successive British governments have helped to provide much-appreciated essential funding so that our synagogues and schools could employ more guards, while charities such as the Community Security Trust have raised funds to build higher walls and install more sophisticated surveillance. For a time these measures made us feel safer. But in the aftermath of the Manchester attack, those walls feel less like protection and more like resignation.
They remind me of an old Jewish fable, set in the apocryphal town of Chelm, said to be home to “wise fools”. A crack appeared in the town’s bridge. At first it was small. People tripped and grazed their knees. Over time the crack widened. Occasionally people would fall through and were badly hurt. Eventually whole carriages began to plunge into the ravine below. Alarmed, the elders of Chelm convened an emergency meeting. After many hours of earnest deliberation, they announced their decision: they would build a hospital at the bottom of the ravine.
Higher walls and more guards are sadly necessary — but they resemble our hospital in the ravine. They treat the symptoms of antisemitism, not the illness itself. Unless we face the roots of this hatred with honesty and courage, there will, God forbid, be more attacks like the one at the Heaton Park Synagogue.
Jews are not the only potential victims. Our entire society is in danger.
Hateful extremism flourishes today because it masquerades as righteous activism. It wears the mask of moral purpose.
We see it on the far left, where advocacy for the welfare of Palestinians permits violent invective against the Jewish state and the glorification of terrorism and murder. We see it on the far right, where demonstrations against immigration curdle into mobs attacking refugee hostels and vandalising mosques. We see it online, where algorithms reward outrage, where lies spread faster than truth and where racism, conspiracy theory and incitement meet all too frequently. And we see it in the scourge of Islamism, a hateful ideology which wears the guise of religious conviction, which has brought an increasing zeal to antisemitism over recent decades and which poses a direct threat to western civilisation.
This is not merely the background noise of modern life; it is the soundtrack to radicalisation and hatred, and we must regard it as such.
Over recent years a great deal of ink has been spilt on the question of how we face down hateful extremism in this country. Lord Walney and Dame Sara Khan, to name but two, have done exhaustive work, studying the problem and making concrete policy recommendations. But both seem to have been left exasperated by the lack of real political will to confront the issue in a meaningful way.
The true test of a nation’s character is surely not how high it can build its walls but how deep its moral foundations run.
That means having the courage to call out hatred wherever it lurks, regardless of the flag in which it is draped or the banner under which it marches. It is all too easy for the left to point a finger at the right, and for the right to point a finger at the left. But that is to miss the point. Extremism exists at both ends of the political spectrum. We are all the poorer if it is used as a political football.
Ours is a society that rightly cherishes freedom of speech as a value, but freedom must always be accompanied by responsibility. When that responsibility is ignored, when activism becomes hatred, when slogans call for violence and when leaders glorify terrorism, we must have a way of shutting it down. When our freedoms are abused and used to undermine our values, alarm bells should ring.
This means holding to account the digital platforms and media outlets that amplify hate. The online world has become the new public square, but it is one in which extremism is rewarded, truth is optional and violence is the logical consequence. We have the technology to monitor and monetise our every preference; surely we can also find the moral and political will to prevent the spread of incitement and lies.
Above all, it means reimagining education. Our young people deserve better than a world of slogans and simplifications. They deserve to be taught the truth, based on immutable facts, and not just the dangers of prejudice but also the values that can defeat it: empathy, curiosity, humility and a shared sense of human values. These should be taught at every school, fostered through critical thinking and celebrated on every social media platform.
We urgently need to have the moral courage to call out the ideologies that undermine our values and to confront hateful extremism before it becomes violent. Where existing legal frameworks are insufficient, they must be strengthened.
The moral test before us is simple: will we continue to build hospitals in the ravine, or will we finally mend the bridge? I pray that the attack on Heaton Park Synagogue will be the moment we chose the latter; the moment we resolved, once and for all, to confront the ideologies of hatred with the full force of our law, our national conscience and our common humanity.
If we do that, then out of tragedy can come renewal and no minority will ever need to play the canary, because the mine will be safe for all.
[This article was first published in The Sunday Times on 12th October 2025.]
