Chief Rabbi says compassion is best response to evil of Manchester bombing

“If your consideration and your compassion, if your support only belongs to your own community… That is treif way of existence. It is an abomination, it is a desecration of God’s name, and it needs to be stamped out.

“The response to this terrorist act has been one through which we recognise the evil of the act of murder — mass murder — and at the same time the necessity for us within our communities to look beyond our communities, to share what we have, to act with compassion and to build a society which is harmonious on every way.”

Monday’s service, which was organised by the Jewish Representative Council of Greater Manchester, was attended by senior representatives of Greater Manchester Police, alongside members of the Manchester Jewish community and the veteran Labour politician, Ivan Lewis, who is defending his Bury South seat in the general election.

Rabbi Mirvis’s prayer in memory of the attack mourned for those who were murdered, and asked God to “grant consolation to their families in the depths of their grief”.

It was distributed to rabbis and Jewish communities around the country, with the recommendation that it be recited over Shabbat.