David Kaufman shrugs his shoulders when asked if he feels safe in Manchester. "It's something we have always lived with," says the 24-year-old as he takes a cig break on the pavement outside the restaurant where he works in Sedgley Park, Prestwich.
"Most Jewish celebrations are about how we survived against the odds."
David is right. Greater Manchester and the UK's Jewish community has long faced discrimination.
But since the October 7 attacks and Israel's war in Gaza antisemitic incidents in the UK have increased significantly, according to research by the Community Security Trust, which provides security and support to Jewish communities in the UK. Last year the CST identified 3,700 incidents.
These figures include the October 2 attack on Heaton Park synagogue in Crumpsall, in which two people were killed and three others seriously injured.
Meanwhile there have been a series of arson attacks at Jewish sites in recent weeks, including at two London synagogues and at a Jewish charity. Four Jewish community ambulances were also set on fire in north London last month.
It's left many Jews fearing for the future and living with a dread that terrorists could strike again.
"Because of the synagogue attack it’s very much 'you don’t know where, you don’t know when it’s going to be, but you are certain it’s going to happen again'," says Yaakov from behind the counter of a shop on Leicester Road in the heart of Salford's Jewish community. "And because there are only two or three busy Jewish streets in Manchester you know it will happen there.
"Because the community is so small everyone knows somebody who was caught up in it [The attack]. God forbid the next time it's my neighbour or my friend."
Antisemitism, says the 24-year-old, has become 'casual'. "It's normal now," he says of the attacks of Jewish properties and people. "It's a regular thing. It seems to be happening every week."
Yaakov wears a kippah. But he says if he goes to different areas outside his community he will now occasionally take it off or hide it. "If I go somewhere a bit shady, I might take off my kippah or put my hood up, but I’d probably do that anyway. I am a bit more vigilant.
"I know a few people who are thinking about leaving. At least in Israel you are around people who care about you, there are people who do something about it. No-one here feels that Keir Starmer really cares about us. That’s the vibe I get at least.
"It’s all for show, for the media. After the synagogue attack there was a couple of weeks of peace and then nothing."
"People just get on with it really, I just just try to get with it," says fellow Leicester Road shop worker Zev, who declines to give his surname, as he tried to explain what it's like living with the fear of discrimination and violence hanging over you. "But with everything that's gone on you just don't know what's round the corner.
"You don't know if you're going to be attacked, you don't know if there's going to be a knife. It can be difficult to live like that.
"A few weeks ago I was listening to someone who was inside the synagogue [when the terror attack happened]. You could see he was still shocked, he wasn't himself. It could happen to anyone. It doesn't make a difference who you are."
One passer-by, who declines to give his name, says antisemitism has 'become normalised'. He told how passing drivers and passengers on Leicester Road regularly shout abuse at Jewish people.
Criticism of the Israeli Government and its politics is fine he says, but when when that becomes equated with Jewish people as a whole that's when it 'tips over' into antisemitism. Another Jewish man, who again declines to give his name, tells how a young relative had his hat taken from his head and thrown into a puddle while walking through a park.
He says his wife no longer feels safe walking along Leicester Road because of passing cars constantly beeping their horns. "Would I feel safe walking up there on my own at night?" he asks, gesturing towards the junction of Bury Old Road to the north of Cheetham Hill. "No, probably not."
Manchester is home to 30,000 Jews, making it the second largest Jewish community in the UK. But Manchester-based journalist and broadcaster Angela Epstein, said the synagogue attack and rise in antisemitic incidents had left many 'looking over our shoulders'.
"Manchester has always been a place you could enjoy and embrace your Judaism, but suddenly there is a sense of second guessing the decisions you make," she said. "That's not to say I wouldn't go to a Jewish community event, or to the deli or synagogue, but there is a prevailing sense of unease.
"I feel a tremendous sense of sadness that this vibrant community should be made to feel as if we are constantly looking over our shoulders."
Rabbi Dovid Lewis of Bowdon Shul in Trafford, said he was now 'far more aware of what’s going on, far more cautious'.
"It's 'Where are my daughters walking? Are the doors properly locked?," he told the Manchester Evening News. "I am not scared but I worry for my children and my community.
“But my family have been here for generations. My grandfather fought for Queen and country in the Second World War. We will not let the antisemites dictate what we do. If I do come to move it will be on my terms, not theirs.
"Some of the members of the synagogue lived through the Second World War or were raised by survivors. For them this is reopening a whole can of nightmares. Some are telling their children not to wear their kippah on the bus or to take off their Star of David. In the summer we used to pray outside, now we don’t.
"But we won’t be cowed. This is not our problem, it's England’s problem. The millions of good upstanding people need to speak up. But I have faith in my religion and in the people of this country."
Raphi Bloom, from the Jewish Representative Council of Greater Manchester, said the Panorama documentary 'really captured how the vast majority of Jewish people are feeling at the moment'. He added: "Over the last two years there has been a tsunami of Jew hate. Jews are the only religious minority in this country who send their children to schools and go community organisations behind high walls and security gates.
"That is an affront and a disgrace in Britain in 2026. And while the Government has been great at providing more money for higher fences and more gates they have failed to deal with the root causes and the chronic nature of it.
"But we are proud Jewish Mancunians and have been 160 years. We are going to stand up for our rights but we need the government and our fellow British citizens to stand with us."
Back in Sedgley Park, David Kaufman is coming to the end of his break. But before he goes back into work he describes how the fear of violence is now a 'fact of life' for British Jews and the small ways that it has made him change his behaviour.
"In Israel they have bomb shelters," he says. "There it's normal. Now we are experiencing it in other countries too.
"I just accept the fact of life and don't try to challenge it."