Spurs Stadium leads the way on Holocaust Memorial Day

In recent years, football clubs have been strong advocates for Holocaust education, and this Holocaust Memorial Day saw Tottenham Hotspur Stadium hosting the annual civic interfaith commemoration for the London Borough of Haringey.

Those involved included Rabbi Sandra Kviat of Crouch End Chavurah and Louise Heilbron, an educator at Finchley Reform Synagogue.

Rabbi Kviat said: “This was a poignant and thoughtful commemoration of the Holocaust with speakers from many backgrounds highlighting the importance of the work of the Multi Faith Forum Haringey, Haringey Council and local places of worship and other groups.”

The event commemorated the six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust, other groups who were persecuted at the hands of the Nazis, including people who were gay or had disabilities, and those killed in subsequent genocides.

The keynote address was given by Helen Stone – the daughter of Holocaust survivor Emmy Golding – who told her mother’s story and gave a presentation titled Courage, Kindness and Candles.

Helen carried a menorah with her, which was rescued on the day after Kristallnacht from the ashes of the synagogue in her mother’s village of Kommern in Germany. Its rescuer was an 11-year-old non-Jewish girl called Maria Klee, who kept it hidden under her mattress and was able to track down Emmy in London 70 years later in order to return it.

Foreign Secretary David Lammy MP spoke via video message, and other speeches came from Catherine West MP, Bambos Charalambous MP, Deputy Mayor of London Joanne McCartney, Cllr Mark Grosskopf, Cllr Peray Ahmet, Cllr Sheila Peacock and Spurs legend Gary Mabbutt.

An HMD workshop at Wightman Road Mosque in Turnpike Lane was due to take place after the event, bringing together pupils from a local Haringey Jewish School, two local state schools with a significant number of Muslim pupils, and the local police, to discuss the importance of Holocaust Memorial Day.

Louise, one of the volunteers behind the project, said: “Our event gives the pupils a unique opportunity to engage with both an Imam and a Rabbi, and together they will light candles in a symbolic act of unity and remembrance. It’s a glimpse of what the future should be —interfaith harmony and mutual respect.”

A deeply moving Holocaust Memorial Day Commemoration was held at Lambeth Palace, organised by the Council of Christians and Jews (CCJ).

Rabbi Charley Baginsky, co-lead of Progressive Judaism, speaking at the CCJ Holocaust Memorial Day event (Photo:James Roberts)[Missing Credit]

Hosted by Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell, on behalf of the Church of England, the event brought together faith leaders and members from across Jewish and Christian denominations in an act of remembrance and unity.

Attendees heard speeches from Martin Stern, a Holocaust survivor, and Daniela Abraham, a second-generation survivor of the Roma genocide during World War Two.

A hugely symbolic moment came with the lighting of six candles – to symbolise the six million Jews murdered in the Shoah and all victims of Nazi persecution – in a vessel created by ceramicist Edmund de Waal, who has authored books on the Holocaust.

The Co-Leads of Progressive Judaism, Rabbi Charley Baginsky and Rabbi Josh Levy, played key roles in the event.

Rabbis Levy led prayers at the event and Rabbi Baginsky delivered closing words, saying: “Today, as we close this ceremony, let us remember that even in the midst of brokenness, there is the potential for renewal. Let us choose to stand together in the belief that a better world is within our reach – a world where kindness, justice, and peace prevail.”

Rabbi Josh Levy, co-lead of Progressive Judaism, addresses the guests at the HMD event, hosted by the CCJ (Photo: James Roberts)[Missing Credit]

“May we always remember that it is through our collective will, our shared humanity, and our unshakeable optimism that we create a future worthy of the lives we honour today.”

Others taking part included Rabbi Elchonon Feldman of Bushey United Synagogue, Masorti Judaism senior rabbi, Jonathan Wittenberg, S&P Sephardi community senior rabbi, Joseph Dweck, Bishop of London Dame, Sarah Mullally DBE, Bishop John Sherrington and Greek Orthodox Archbishop of Great Britain Nikitas Lulias.

Rabbi Feldman, senior rabbi of Bushey United Synagogue, said afterwards: “The CCJ HMD commemoration was a powerful act of testimony. It testified to the horrors that can be unleashed when hate remains unchecked, but it also testified to the united efforts of the Christian and Jewish communities though the excellent work of the CCJ to combat prejudice and build strong bridges of respect and friendship. Long may these efforts continue, and they should be an inspiration to all of us.”

CCJ Co-Director Georgina Bye said: "It's important that we come together as people of different faiths, so that we can mark what has happened in the past and do our best to create a better future."

In Kingston-Upon-Thames, Orthodox and Progressive communities joined forces to arrange workshops for over 900 pupils to mark Holocaust Memorial Day.

In its 19th year, the project was organised by Kingston Liberal Synagogue (KLS) and Kingston, Surbiton and District Synagogue (KSDS), a constituent member of the United Synagogue.

Pupils light candles during the HMD workshops at KSDS[Missing Credit]

Workshops, which were funded by the Royal Borough of Kingston Grant, were held in the synagogues and two of the participating schools.

Each of the workshops, which ran for a week, was attended by around 100 13 to 15-year-old students, who heard from Holocaust survivors and adult descendants and were able to ask questions afterwards.

This was followed by a film, Secret Lives, about people in Nazi-occupied countries, who risked their own lives to hide Jewish people during the Holocaust.

At the end of the workshops, the students reflected on what they had learnt and wrote postcards to the survivors.

After hearing survivor Marcel Ladenheim’s testimony, a pupil from Coombe Girls’ School wrote: “Hearing Marcel’s story has made me think that the Holocaust was even more terrible than they say in history because it was said by someone who had survived how the Nazis were treating Jews. And I think these stories need to be told more, so people are more educated and so that nothing like that happens again.”

Survivor Marcel Ladenheim, who was hidden as a child in France, with school pupils at the HMD event at Kingston, Surbiton and District Synagogue[Missing Credit]

Another pupil, who had been at the same talk, wrote: “These stories need to be shared more, and we need to make sure that we can stop stuff like this happening again because it shouldn’t ever happen or have happened.

“I hope that you (Marcel) are happier now and that it doesn’t impact you all the time, and I hope that you can continue to share this because it is good and helpful.”

These workshops were not just a history lesson, said organisers, but they also encouraged students to consider “what freedoms they value and the importance of respecting differences of race and religion”.

Pupils with speakers David Prager (right), second generation survivor, and Yasha Estraikh (left), at KSDS at the HMD event[Missing Credit]

According to KLS, nearly all the pupils attending were non-Jewish and for many, the workshops were their first experiences inside a synagogue.

Richmond Jewish Community Hub hosted Holocaust survivor and eminent neuroscientist Peter Lantos, who shared his story of being in Bergen Belsen.

Peter Lantos lights a candles at Richmond Jewish Community Hub to mark Holocaust Memorial Day[Missing Credit]

“If we had boarded the first train, with my aunt, we would have gone to the Auschwitz gas chamber, but my mother insisted on going on the second train,” said Lantos, who has written about his experiences in his memoir The Boy Who Refused to Die, which is aimed at young readers, aged nine and upwards.

Liberated by the British Army, he later trained as a doctor in Hungary, before moving to England and becoming a medical academic.

Lantos spoke to 220 people alongside Professor Philip Spencer, Emeritus Professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Kingston University and Richmond Synagogue’s Rabbi Chaim Golker.

Also on the panel was the Mayor of Richmond, Councillor Richard Pine who grew up, 20 years later, outside Bergen Belsen, when his father was stationed with the British Army.

Music connected to the Holocaust was provided by Stephen Levi of Oi Va Voi and fellow musicians, and cheder pupils described their visits to the Holocaust gallery at the Imperial War Museum.

In Manchester, Mark Adlestone OBE, the chair of the Jewish Representative Council of Greater Manchester and Region, attended the Holocaust Memorial Day commemoration at Stockport War Memorial Art Gallery.

Writing afterwards on X, the Rep Council said:”As Jewish communities are targeted with record levels of hate crime, we urge everyone to learn the lessons from the survivors of tolerance and the importance of fighting prejudice….Thank you to those who have worked so hard to mark this important date in the diary.”

Mark Adlestone also attended a poignant memorial arranged by the Maroy of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, where he lit a candle on behalf of the Jewish community.

Mark Addlestone, chair of the JRC, lights a candle at an HMD event arranged by Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham (Photo: X)[Missing Credit]

At St Annes Hebrew Congregation in Lancashire, more than 130 people attended an emotive HMD event.

The keynote speaker was Judith Hayman from the Northern Holocaust Education Group, who talked about her late mother - Charlotte Amdurer's - life in Austria and how, in 1939, she managed to escape to England. In 1940, Charlotte’s sister, Frieda, left for New York.

Judith Hayman tells the story of her mother Charlotte Amdurer, a Holocaust survivor[Missing Credit]

Mark Adlestone OBE DL Chair of the Jewish Representative Council attended, as did the Lord Lieutenant of Lancashire, Mrs Amanda Parker JP, alongside the mayors of the neighbouring Local Authorities, Fylde, Blackpool and Wyre.

Michelle Morris, vice president of the synagogue, said: “It was a very emotional talk given by Judith, and it was encouraging to see the support given to this event particularly from our local dignitaries, non-Jewish neighbours and local interfaith groups.”