It is challenging to commemorate Yom HaShoah or any major event online, and I wasn’t sure what to expect when the evening approached this past week. I was moved to be in the audience at Methodist Central Hall for the National Holocaust Memorial Day Ceremony in January; would it be the same locked down at home?
I got under a blanket on the sofa with my iPad, candle nearby, and tuned in. Slightly to my surprise, I found myself profoundly drawn into the story of pain and hope which unfolded. I was inspired to see survivors lifting their candles to the camera. I was cheered to see other Christians at the service – including Central London branch Co-chair Canon Anthony Ball. I lit my candle and joined in. Evening turned into night, and the room grew dark around the candle’s light, but I felt connected to the community appearing in little boxes on the screen. In the next day's programming, I was proud to hear CCJ’s story and to watch two Christians, introduced and organised by Senior Programme Manager Rob Thompson, share their thoughts on Holocaust education. I was reminded of the power of remembering: the solidarity it creates and the energy it generates. The act of remembering even triumphed over the isolation of lockdown this year, at least in my case.
As with new ways of marking Yom HaShoah, so with all CCJ’s work at the moment. I look forward to appearing on Zoom in a meeting with CCJ Birmingham this coming week. Director Liz Harris-Sawczenko has had conversations with Jewish and Christian leaders about larger CCJ online events. Thanks to our team’s creativity, we are trialling new ways of strengthening our community through Facebook and other media (please see below for full details). All at once, and not just at CCJ, we are recreating the way we work and relate. But this week, at least, I sensed that we were not just coping, but finding the resources to take us forward. The way forward will not just be a return to the way things were, but will be, I hope, a time of renewal.
We are more aware than ever of the importance of CCJ community. Please do find us on Facebook, if you haven’t already. And continue to be in touch by email and through social media (please send us, for example, your pictures of your painted foundation stones, or recipes, or the views from your window, or anything else).
Earlier this week we heard the sad news that former Co-chair of the CCJ Radlett branch, Norman Sofier, had passed away aged 89. Our thoughts and prayers are with his friends and family in these difficult times.
His daughter Debbie has written an obituary in the Guardian, if you wish to read this in full please click here.
CCJ presents learning session for Yom HaShoah
This week we were privileged to participate in Yom HaShoah UK’s national commemoration ‘Remember Together – We are One’ by delivering a learning session on Christian-Jewish Relations in the Aftermath of the Shoah. On Tuesday a number of Holocaust Education and community organisations presented different sessions in a whole day of learning and commemoration of the Holocaust. Senior Programme Manager Rob Thompson shared a short history of CCJ’s founding during the Holocaust and reflected on the different ways in which CCJ’s founders—including Archbishop William Temple and the Revd James Parkes—campaigned to raise awareness of the Holocaust and to persuade the British government to support Jewish refugees. Rob was then joined by two alumni of CCJ’s Yad Vashem seminars for church leaders: Jackie Holderness, Education Officer at Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, and Megan Cox, Youth Development Officer in the Catholic Archdiocese of Birmingham. We were delighted that Jackie and Megan were able to reflect on their experiences at Yad Vashem with CCJ and some of the inspiring ways in which they are encouraging their Christian communities to remember the Holocaust and engage in positive and meaningful Jewish-Christian relations. Rob concluded with Archbishop Temple’s famous assertion in the House of Lords in March 1943, calling on the British government to respond to the mass murder of the Jews, with the words ‘We stand at the bar of history, of humanity, and of God’. Rob suggested that this can be a powerful motivation in our own continuing Holocaust commemoration as we remember for the sake of the truth of history, our relations as human beings, and our commitment as people of faith.
You can watch again all of the learning sessions for Yom HaShoah here. The CCJ session begins after 48 minutes.
For there is hope for a tree, if it is cut down it can still renew itself, and its branching will not cease; though its root may grow old in the ground and its trunk may die in the dirt; where there is a scent of water it will blossom and generate branches like a sapling.
I have always felt there is much we can learn from the rhythm of nature. Its peacefulness. Its endurance. Its synchrony. And I believe that embodied in this passage from Job is a subtext no less profound. Coupled with Deuteronomy’s comparison of a tree to humankind (Deut 20:19), this passage’s declaration, ‘for there is hope for a tree’, can be seen to carry much contemporary salience.
We are living in challenging times. And these circumstances can stimulate feelings of deflation and of being ‘cut down’. During such moments it is the prospect of hope which can carry the promise of a better future. And in turn bring healing and opportunity for regrowth.
Like a tree, whose ‘branching will not cease’, and which at the ‘scent of water…will blossom’, our society too has within it a resilience. An ability to restore. To find a new peace. And just as this passage outlines how it is the mere ‘scent of water’ which catalyses such transformation, I believe that during this time our society is baring its own metaphorical ‘stream’ which is nurturing our capacity to rebloom. Giving us hope.
Simply reflecting on the past few weeks, the poignancy of this reading from Job has become ever more significant. And the forms in which this ‘stream’ manifests in today’s context…more apparent. As many have, during this time of crisis, I have borne witness to neighbours; communities; organisations; all coming together offering their care and support. I have borne witness to people of different faith backgrounds; all standing together and uniting in solidarity and prayer. I have borne witness to bus drivers, teachers, NHS staff and many others; each putting themselves on the front line to bravely enable the continued functioning of essential services.
And I believe that it is the ripples of these acts of kindness, unity and selflessness which are enabling this source of hope to transpire at this time when we so need it. Nourishing our branches in these moments when our roots and trunk seem fractured and limp, and subsequently enabling the tree to flourish once more. And flourish it can.
Esther Sills Jewish Programme Manager
Hope for a Tree: Jewish-Christians Relations for This Moment
Like everyone, we at CCJ have been reflecting on how we can best continue our work at a time such as this, when face-to-face encounter is not possible and dialogue is therefore a challenge. How best to promote Jewish-Christian relations for this moment? Well, we hope that expressing friendship with our faith neighbours, and learning more about each other, is not wholly dependent on the ability to travel. Imperfect though it may be, for most of us, the digital age brings a privileged access to many ways in which we can engage, share, learn, dialogue, even without leaving the safety of our homes.
So we are proud to introduce ‘Hope for a Tree’—the message on which Esther has reflected above—our developed approach to providing Jewish-Christian relations for this moment. Over the coming weeks our newsletter, website, and social media channels will be updated with new content to enable you to continue engaging in Jewish-Christian relations. We will be providing scripture reflections, book reviews, and resources for further study on particular topics. We will tie in with upcoming special anniversaries and national campaigns, such as the 75th anniversary of VE Day, Pride Month, and Refugee Week. We are also planning some new initiatives and online events for our different networks.
We would like to encourage you to join in with the conversation from home, and so we will be posting questions and content for discussion on our Facebook page, beginning today. This week we are inviting you to share what scripture is sustaining you during lockdown. You can find our Facebook page here. If you don’t have access to Facebook, please do email us and share your comments on our newsletter content or share what issues relating to Jewish-Christian relations you are reflecting on this week (click here to send us an email). Until we can meet again in person, we can still find ways to explore our commitment to learning more about each other’s faith traditions, and grow in friendship together.
Sharing recipes - My Grandmother and Borscht Soup
One of my abiding memories of my paternal grandmother is her famous Borscht soup.
Borscht soup (beetroot soup) was a traditional and popular dish for generations in pre-WW2 Jewish communities across Eastern Europe, adapted from local communities. My grandma was born in Lodz and was lucky to escape Nazi persecution together with her family, shortly after the rise of national socialism. But her family, like many others, missed what they had considered their ‘homeland’ for generations, after arrival in the UK. Hence many of the dishes she continued to cook where those that reminded her of her previous life in Poland.
For my grandmother that was Borscht, among other dishes. We would visit her every Sunday for her famous Borscht soup. But I was too young to appreciate that this was her way of sharing part of our family and Polish Jewish heritage. However I was aware, in the then 70’s, that Borscht wasn’t a popular soup with other families. I loved the aroma of the beets and the deep purple colour of the soup and the way in which she garnished it with sour cream and dill, just like in ‘the homeland’.
The first time I visited Poland was in the 90’s to run a Holocaust Educational Programme. After only a day in Poland I began to realise how much of my grandmother was a reflection of her Polish Jewish heritage. Every restaurant I visited served a form of Borscht and her other signature dish, sweet and sour cucumber salad. It all felt so familiar. By that time my grandmother had passed away, but I still felt a connection with her and her life in Poland, through these culinary delights.
Many years later, I married the son of a Polish Jewish Holocaust survivor. It quickly became evident that his favourite soup was unsurprisingly Borscht. I realised I had to learn quickly how to make it and to make it well!
So here is my Borscht recipe made with love and memories:
Ingredients
1 medium size onion
1 small potato
450g Raw Beetroot
25g Butter
2 pts Vegetable stock
3 tablespoons cider vinegar
I tspn yeast extract
Ground nutmeg to taste
Sour cream and dill to garnish
Method
Use a big cooking pot (preferably one your grandmother brought with her from the Shtetl)
Chop the beets up. Melt the butter and saute the onion. Add potato, beets and stock and bring to the boil. Reduce hear, cover and simmer for ½ hour. Add remaining ingredients and season. Stir in soured cream just before serving and sprinkle with dill. This soup can be served hot or cold. Enjoy!
Elizabeth Harris-Sawczenko CCJ Director
Your Window View
Many thanks to Beryl Cooke for her submission:
The top photo - "The view from my little Juliet balcony facing east"
The bottom photo - "Spot the cowslip organised for me by my daughter in Montreal and delivered by the Garden Centre opposite, just before it had to close. It has been planted in one of the large troughs outside the front entrance to our apartment block, so that everyone can enjoy it, when venturing outside for “exercise”."
Applications for 2020 Yad Vashem Seminar extended until
1 June
The application window for CCJ’s annual seminar at the International School of Holocaust Studies at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem has been extended until 1 June. The seminar—which will take place Monday 12 to Thursday 22 October 2020—is open to ordained Christian clergy and lay church leaders. Now in its 14th year, the seminar is a unique opportunity for church leaders to learn about the Holocaust, pre-war Jewish European life, and post-Holocaust theology from the world’s leading experts. In doing so, participants will become part of our active network of over 250 "alumni" across the UK, committed to passing on Holocaust learning in their churches and communities, championing Christian-Jewish relations, and challenging antisemitism.
For more information on the programme and how to apply, please contact Senior Programme Manager, Rob Thompson, at rob.thompson@ccj.org.uk
Our mailing address is: Mary Sumner House
24 Tufton Street
London
SW1P 3RB
We want you to be comfortable with how we communicate with you, because at the CCJ we take the privacy security of your data very seriously. Our Privacy Policy explains what we do (and don’t do) with the data we collect from you, and your rights in respect of it. You can view the full Privacy Policy on our website, by clicking here.
