Leading lights in Holocaust education and remembrance are among communal personalities featured among the Queen’s Birthday Honours, delayed from June because of the pandemic.
Holocaust Educational Trust chief executive Karen Pollock and her Holocaust Memorial Day Trust counterpart Olivia Marks-Woldman were respectively awarded a CBE and OBE. There were also honours for survivors including Hana Kleiner and Renate Inow.
The government’s handling of controversial proposals for a new Holocaust memorial and education centre in Westminster have been making headlines, but Ms Marks-Woldman saw the awards as “more an acknowledgement of the importance of honouring Holocaust survivors while we still can”.
She also told the JC they reflected “the very significant anniversary this year, marking the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II”, as well as the liberation of Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen.
“I think the world feels very vulnerable to division and very fragile in many ways. We know that identity-based prejudice still exists and in a time of division, that hostility based on somebody’s identity just accelerates.”
As for her own award, she was very excited and “a bit overcome”.
Ms Pollock – previously an MBE – said she was “deeply touched” that the work of HET was being recognised.
“This is a tribute to the Holocaust survivors I have the privilege to work with whose strength, determination and zest for life inspire me every day.
“It is also thanks to the dedication of a brilliant team who work to ensure young people not only learn about the Holocaust but stand up to antisemitism, racism and hatred today.”
Lilian Black – chair of the Holocaust Survivors’ Friendship Association in Yorkshire – said she would accept her OBE “on behalf of the Holocaust refugee and survivor community, especially here in the North of England”.
Lady Zahava Kohn, Ellen Davis and Lili Stern-Pohlmann were others recognised for Holocaust educational contributions. And Jeffrey Pinnick, a former co-ordinator of the Forum for Yom HaShoah, becomes an OBE.
Iranian-born academic and philanthropist Professor David Khalili is knighted for his interfaith activities.
He founded the Maimonides Interfaith Foundation and is a Unesco Goodwill Ambassador.
“I am mindful of the huge amount of work that has yet to be done in the cause of greater global unity and peace,” he told the JC.
“To this end, I accept this honour, both as a recognition of my own work and as a testimony to my family, friends, and colleagues with whom I have the privilege to serve. We can build a better world together.”
Mehri Niknam, who was founding director of the Joseph Interfaith Foundation, becomes an OBE for services to Muslim-Jewish relations.
In the educational field, Jeffrey Leader, director of Pikuach, received an MBE, which he believed recognised his previous work with Ofsted - which had informed guidance for inspectors of faith schools – as well as with various Jewish educational organisations.
“It was a complete surprise and I’m delighted to receive it,” he said, adding that he would celebrate with a Zoom l’chaim.
Rabbi David Meyer, executive director of PaJeS, Partnerships for Jewish Schools, was awarded an OBE for services to education.
The former executive head of Hasmonean High School said he was “humbled” by the award.
“It is gratifying to see that educational services are being recognised and valued, especially at this time when school leaders are facing such exceptional challenges.”
Rabbi Avrohom Sugarman, director of the Haskel School for children with special educational needs in Gateshead, said of his MBE: “Whilst I know how valued and appreciated our school is within the community, it is very moving to receive external recognition for what we have achieved.”
Professor Stefan Reif – an academic in medieval Hebrew studies who founded the Genizah Research Unit at the University of Cambridge – gets an OBE for services to scholarship.
Former Jewish Care CEO Simon Morris becomes an MBE for services to the community.
It was announced in advance that actress Maureen Lipman was to be made a dame, 21 years after her CBE.
The West London Synagogue member, 74, has enjoyed a five-decade career on stage and screen, as well as memorably portraying Beattie, the Jewish grandmother in the British Telecom commercials.
