Courage and Kindness by Rabbi Sandra Kviat
Rabbi Sandra representing Crouch End Chavurah at the annual civic interfaith Holocaust Memorial Day (HMD) commemoration for the London Borough of Haringey
It has been a very poignant week of remembering, sharing memories and educating young people about the Holocaust and subsequent genocides in Bosnia and Rwanda especially.
On Monday the annual Holocaust Memorial Day (HMD) event for Haringey was held at the Tottenham Hotspur stadium in a packed room with older students from four different local schools and sixth-form, as well as local MPs, council members, and Spurs legend Gary Mabbutt.
The keynote address was given by Helen Stone – the daughter of Holocaust survivor Emmy Golding – who told her mother’s story and gave a deeply touching 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.
It was incredibly touching to see all the students from very diverse religious and cultural backgrounds take in the story and ask thoughtful questions afterwards.
On Wednesday child survivor Joan Salter shared her story with the older Chaverim groups, parents, and guests, about her experiences as a very young child during the war, how perilous life was escaping across Europe, and what it was like growing up with this story after the war.
And on Thursday night I shared the story of the escape and survival of my grandfather and the Danish Jews in October 1943 at the National Education Union. I’ve told this story in different settings but to tell it alongside two women my own age, Sara who survived Srebrenica as a baby and Mary Rose, who survived the Rwandan genocide as a young teenager, brought a sense of poignancy, depth and thoughtfulness to the evening. Marie Rose and Sara’s plea to educators to know the facts, to teach with compassion but also with care, and that children in their care might have similar experiences and therefore be deeply affected hit a powerful note.
These are the beautiful words that Bibi Khan MBE from Wightman Road Mosque shared on Monday:
Assalamu Alaikum
May the Peace and Blessings of Almighty God be with us all.
Every year we come together in remembrance of all those murdered in the Holocaust and we think about all the genocides that have occurred since.
Everyone feels the pain and loss so much so that we meet and hold these events but Man has learnt nothing because we make the same mistakes. 80 long years have gone by since the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau the largest concentration camp and where over 1.1 million people lost their lives.
On behalf of Wightman Road Mosque and Haringey Multi Faith Forum I bring the values of compassion, trust and togetherness. These qualities rest deep within our hearts as we pray for peace as we consider the theme for today ‘For a Better Future’ More than ever we need to stand together particularly now as we witness the sickening rise in anti semitism and Islamophobia. Our communities are in pain.
God, in you we place our trust, you know our intentions. We pray for a world full of love and compassion. Show us—give us hope. We all feel vulnerable, we are in fear, we make irrational judgements and we are experiencing the loss of trust in humanity. Without dialogue and compassion there is darkness. Please give us the courage to be the people, friends and loved ones that You created us to be.
For our existence we have to learn, adapt, and grow. Celebrate our differences, remove hatred. We are ONE family. It's in OUR hands. Commitment comes from us, educate us to continue and learn the lessons of remembrance as we pledge to keep this legacy alive—hoping and praying that one day we will learn. Ameen.