20 August 2018

Holocaust survivor Ann Kirk celebrated her 90th birthday with a special Shabbat service at The Liberal Jewish Synagogue (LJS).

Ann read the Haftarah during the service. She was accompanied by husband Bob, who also survived the Shoah, and they cut her birthday cake together during a commemorative Kiddush (pictured).

Ann was born in Berlin, Germany, in 1928. After the Kristallnacht pogrom in 1938, her parents arranged for her to go to England on the Kindertransport. In early 1939, aged just 10, Ann made the journey to Britain alone.

Ann was taken in by two English sisters, Sophie and Millie Levy, who were inspired to help by the words of Rabbi Israel Mattuck, the first rabbi of the LJS and a founder of Liberal Judaism.

Ann met Bob at a club for young Jewish refugees, run by Woburn House. They married in 1950 and are now proud parents, grandparents and, most recently, great-grandparents.

The couple, who live in Northwood, have made a huge contribution to both the LJS and Liberal Judaism as a whole. Ann was technical editor on Liberal Judaism’s Siddur Lev Chadash and Machzor Ruach Chadashah. Bob was chair of Leo Baeck College from 1978 to 1982, having been an officer since 1968. He is also the immediate past president of the LJS, having served from 2007 until 2013.

Today, they work tirelessly to raise awareness of the Holocaust, being speakers for the Jewish Museum, Holocaust Educational Trust and Holocaust Memorial Day Trust.

The Shabbat service was led by Rabbi Alexandra Wright, who gave a moving sermon based on an interview she had conducted with Ann and Bob. In the interview, Ann recounted the horrors of being a child in Nazi Germany, her Kindertransport experiences, the family she sadly lost in the Holocaust and the life she built in Britain.

Alexandra said: “Thank you for all that you continue to bring to the LJS – you carry so much of the history of this community, the memories of our rabbis and congregants; you care deeply for every single aspect of this community: its worship, its classes and community care, its fabric and each and every congregant and visitor with whom you come in touch – young and old. You bring clarity and integrity, memory and vision and for all those things and so much more, we are full of gratitude.

“May you continue to derive comfort, strength, and happiness from all that you undertake and just as you, Ann and Bob, are a blessing to all of us, so may you find blessings in your family, in this community and beyond its walls in all that you do.”

Read the full sermon and interview by Rabbi Alexandra Wright on the currentviewpoint website.