Holocaust Memorial Day 2021 is on Wednesday 27 January. The theme for this year’s event is ‘be the light in the darkness’. It encourages everyone to reflect on the depths humanity can sink to, but also the ways individuals and communities resisted that darkness to ‘be the light’ before, during … Read More
The (socially distanced) swim must go on…
10 September 2020 By Jane Drapkin One of the Covid casualties from my calendar this summer was a trip to the Czech Republic to take part in the third annual Hana Greenfield Memorial Swim. This swim was not only taking place in a beautiful stretch of the river Labe (Elbe), … Read More
NPLS inspires Czech town to buy former rabbinic home
19 August 2020 The town of Kolín, in the Czech Republic, has bought the house the rabbi of the once thriving Jewish community there used to live in – after being inspired by the work of Northwood & Pinner Liberal Synagogue (NPLS) in keeping the memory of its Jews alive. … Read More
Join our special anniversary service to celebrate ‘The Boys’
12 August 2020 East London & Essex Liberal Synagogue (ELELS) and World Jewish Relief have teamed up to hold a special online Friday night service to celebrate the 75th anniversary of ‘The Boys’ arrival in Britain. The Kabbalat Shabbat will commemorate the arrival of the child Holocaust survivors to the … Read More
Exhibition to honour Slovak who saved 1,300 Jews opens in UK
27 January 2020 Northwood & Pinner Liberal Synagogue was the venue for the British launch of the Slovakian Embassy’s exhibition ‘Aron Grünhut – Rescuer of the Jews and Human Rights Defender’. Marking Holocaust Memorial Day, the Ambassador of Slovakia Lubomir Rehak, together with the Deputy Ambassador of Israel Sharon Bar-Li, … Read More
Leicester flame chosen to be part of HMD Commemorative Ceremony
27 January 2020 A flame created by Leicester Progressive Jewish Congregation (LPJC) to honour Greek Jewish victims of the Shoah was one of those chosen to be part of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust’s 75 Memorial Flames project. The Trust – which organises Holocaust Memorial Day – invited faith organisations, … Read More
More children than ever attend Kingston HMD workshops
27 January 2020 More than 1,400 schoolchildren from Kingston-upon-Thames and Surrey have been attending workshops commemorating Holocaust Memorial Day throughout this month. The annual project, now in its 14th year, is run jointly by Kingston, Surbiton and District Synagogue (KSDS – part of the United Synagogue) and Kingston Liberal Synagogue … Read More
Film Review: Jojo Rabbit (5/5)
Ben Combe 16 December 2019 The Nazi aesthetic is, inherently, stupid. Plenty of ink has been spilled over the Nazi’s appropriations of fantastical, mythical and hyper-masculine imagery. In new movie Jojo Rabbit, director Taika Waititi and his team defame history’s greatest monsters by inviting them out into the cold light … Read More
Slovakian Ambassador: ‘NPLS Torah Scroll is an inspiration for unity’
14 November 2019 Northwood & Pinner Liberal Synagogue (NPLS) welcomed Slovakian Ambassador Ľubomír Rehák and press attaché Milan Matlovic to the synagogue for a special event based around the community’s Torah Scroll from the country. NPLS have a Scroll from Spišská Nová Ves, in the east of Slovakia, which survived … Read More
Kingston Civic Service honours victims of the Holocaust
11 November 2019 Kingston Liberal Synagogue (KLS) were joined by local mayors, representatives of other faith communities and school teachers for their annual Civic Service. Falling on Remembrance Day weekend, the service remembered the two World Wars, the 81st anniversary of Kristallnacht and the 30th anniversary of the fall of … Read More