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A person hurt during the recent attack at a Jewish place of worship in Manchester was working with the CST, an organization credited for preventing an even worse atrocity.

Familiar Sight of Volunteers

The appearance of helpers in the organization's hi-vis vests has become a familiar sight at Jewish synagogues, schools, and other sites in the past few years.

For decades, the organization has also shaped government strategies by tracking and combating anti-Jewish sentiment, while also countering hatred against other groups.

Rising Antisemitic Incidents

Over the past 24 months since the October 7th, 2023 violence in Israel and the start of the war in Gaza, the organization's personnel has grown by approximately 33% against the backdrop of a rise in antisemitic offenses.

Based on Home Office statistics, there were over three thousand religious hate crimes targeted at Jewish people in the year to March 2024, an increase from around 1,500 in the prior 12 months.

Additional statistics from the organization itself, based on the count of antisemitic incidents reported to the charity, recorded over 1,500 antisemitic incidents across the UK in the first half of the current year.

Graph shows mean count of hate crimes logged per 10,000 people, grouped by the assumed faith of the affected individual.

Established Documentation and Training

While it became charity status in the mid-1990s, the CST and its forerunners have been recording and publishing anti-Jewish event figures in the UK since the 1980s.

Today, its activities involve more than 100 members of staff and two thousand committed helpers who undergo comprehensive training in subjects ranging from first aid to performing security tasks.

Although its members have been hurt in the past, the serious harm to one of its personnel in Manchester is considered the gravest yet.

Management Reaction and Security Arrangements

"We pray for his continuing recovery and commend the bravery of all those who helped stop the terrorist from getting into the synagogue," stated the organization's top leader.

The CST presence at locations often includes a combination of its own volunteers, such as trained congregants, as well as contracted protection officers.

Being a beneficiary of funding from the Home Office, the trust allocates an £18m government grant that pays for commercial security guards.

These were deployed last year at locations including two hundred nurseries, 260 Jewish temples, and 50 prominent communal buildings.

The CST itself relies on contributions.

Wider Initiatives and Partnerships

Less visible is the trust's wider work in education, providing security guidance, and its long-standing study into antisemitism from origins such as far-right extremists and militant Islamist groups.

Its work in this sphere have led to legal proceedings including the imprisonment in recent years of a man who was then one of the UK’s most prolific far-right anti-Jewish video streamers.

Counter-terrorism police were notified about his actions by the CST.

The non-profit also works closely with partners such as a national anti-Muslim hate monitoring project – the UK-wide initiative that records and tracks anti-Muslim incidents in the UK, and which has referred to the CST’s work as "innovative."

Both are in a formal partnership with other anti-prejudice organizations as part of the CATCH partnership.

Further Initiatives and Public Engagement

The trust's operations, which other communities have drawn on, also includes its manual for security procedures for religious sites.

In other areas, it operates tailored youth street awareness courses for adolescents in partnership with a sports and wellness charity, under the Streetwise programme.

Additional activities involves partnerships with the law enforcement and with MPs, while it meets regularly with ministers and contributes to government policy on anti-Jewish issues.

While the CST works across the Jewish community, an organization called Shomrim also monitors anti-Jewish sentiment and works on behalf of Haredi Jewish communities.