Jews excluded from Holocaust Memorial Day wreath-laying

Jewish residents of Lowestoft have claimed that they were excluded from the town’s Holocaust Memorial Day wreathe-laying.

Suffolk resident and emeritus fellow at St. Peter’s College, Oxford, Professor Lawrence Goldman, accused council organisers of “dividing and separating” Jewish guests from the memorial at Lowestoft Railway Station.

Lowestoft Town Council organised three events this year to mark HMD – a presentation at a local cinema, a candle decoration class for schoolchildren and the wreath-laying at the station.

A representative from the nearest synagogue was invited to address the small gathering inside a cinema, but no Jewish representatives were asked to speak at the larger ceremony, where dignitaries addressed a crowd about “the Jewish experience” and laid wreaths.

Goldman, who represented nearby Norwich Synagogue, spoke to a small crowd at the East Coast Cinema, which he had thought would be the “main event” but was dismayed to find he wasn’t invited to address those gathered at the station.

Professor Goldman delivered a presentation on HMD in Lowestoft, but was not invited to speak to a larger crowd at the wreath laying memorial (Photo: Goldman)[Missing Credit]

The professor, who spoke at the HMD event at Lowestoft Station last year, was left "incensed" by the event.

Organisers said that he had been invited to the “main event” and that he had prepared a presentation on his family history and asked a klezmer band from Norwich to perform.

The band prepared six songs, but their performance was cut short after just four pieces, and the audience was sparse - Goldman estimated fewer than 20 people attended. The council said 40 people had booked tickets.

After the cinema event, Goldman walked to the train station, where the wreath-laying ceremony commemorated the Kindertransport children who arrived in Lowestoft.

The second event drew a crowd of 75, including local councillors and dignitaries.

At the station, Goldman realised that he and the band - the Jewish representatives – had largely been relegated to a poorly attended “side event”, with no opportunity to address the larger crowd.

“We were told we were performing at the main event, but in reality, we were performing at the side event,” he said.

“The speeches went on and on about how we must not divide the community, but that was exactly what they did. The Jews were divided. The Jews were hived off.”

Meanwhile, another member of Suffolk’s Jewish community expressed “disgust” after a town councillor brought up the war in Gaza during his HMD speech at the larger event.

The resident, who wishes to remain anonymous, said that comments made by Cllr Andy Pearce during the ceremony were “deeply offensive”.

In his speech, Pearce said: "What we commemorate on HMD can become problematic... How can we counter the perception and accusation that we are selectively, politically, or even racially biased in our observance of HMD?”

He also suggested that “our governments are scared to call out genocide if they feel that it would jeopardise diplomatic and military alliances".

Referring to the treatment of the Uyghur minority in China, and the persecution of the Rohingya people in Myanmar, Pearce went on: “Of course, we should not forget the current situation in Gaza - where official statistics report the death toll at around 47,000 over the past 15 months, although some authorities believe the actual figure to be much higher.”

These figures come from the Gaza Health Ministry, which is controlled and operated by Hamas, and critics claim they do not differentiate between civilian and combatant deaths.

Pearce then alluded to “the long shadow and sensitivities of the Holocaust and of the colonial and post-colonial interests”.

This “hugely complicates the process of reaching consensus on whether such a situation should be recognised and treated by the international community as genocide,” he contended.

Councillor Andy Pearce (Photo: Lowestoft Town Council)[Missing Credit]

Speaking to the JC, the councillor said: “I emphatically did not compare the Holocaust to the war in Gaza, and I emphatically did not suggest that Israel was committing genocide, I did not even mention Israel, Hamas, or Palestine by name”.

He added that his speech was "deeply respectful of the occasion.”

“It was made expressly clear that I was making no judgment myself on whether any individual modern-day situation where others have alleged genocide does in fact constitute genocide,” Pearce said.

The Jewish resident has submitted a formal complaint to the town council about Pearce’s comments. He said Pearce “hijacked and politicised the event by introducing the subject of Gaza, and by implication, that Israel is committing genocide.”

The complainant told the JC that the councillor’s comments were “totally inappropriate” and that they “stank”.

Professor Lawrence Goldman spoke to a small audience at East Coast Cinema about his relative Miriam, who survived the Shoah (Photo: Lowestoft Town Council)[Missing Credit]

When he heard Pearce’s comments about Gaza, Goldman left the wreath-laying, saying: “When they started to appropriate Jewish history, I walked out. I was verklempt.

“These people who knew nothing about the Jewish experience were lecturing us about it,” he said.

The town’s mayor, Cllr Nasima Begum, said: “The town council has worked hard to make the day as inclusive as possible to all, specifically inviting members of the Jewish Community to take leading roles in the day’s events, bringing the experience of Hebrew music to a new audience and enabling school children to learn and understand more about what happened in their town as well as asking people to recognise more recent genocides, something I know is supported by the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust. As usual, the town council welcomes comments and will build these into the planning of future events”.

A spokesperson from Lowestoft Town Council added, "The planning for our events in Lowestoft has been a long time in the making as we aimed to make this poignant event inclusive. We are very pleased with the turnout as we expanded our number of events to give more opportunities for local people to gather and reflect.

“Each element of this year’s commemoration had its own focus with the main event taking place at East Coast Cinema. Here the audience reflected on the Holocaust with Professor Lawrence Goldman delivering a moving story of Miriam, a relative of Professor Goldman’s who escaped from Poland to Jamaica due to the persecution of Jewish people in Auschwitz.

"Da Marjanbo followed this, providing emotive music, welcoming the chance to express a range of Hebrew prayers through instrumental music. The event then moved to Lowestoft Railway Station where reflections and poems to remember Lowestoft’s link to the Kindertransport were read and wreaths were laid.”