The event was a joint initiative between the S&P Sephardi Community, AJEX The Jewish Military Association and The Royal Army Chaplains' Department Jewish Chaplaincy. Over 400 attendees took part in the service, including a strong AJEX contingent, veterans, their families, and members of the wider community.
The service featured tributes and reflections from distinguished military and religious leaders including, Rabbi Joseph Dweck, Senior Rabbi of the S&P Sephardi Community, Rabbi Nir Nadav CF, Regimental Chaplain to 156 Regiment Royal Logistics Corps, Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis, Rabbi Shalom Morris, Rabbi of Bevis Marks Synagogue and Dan Fox, AJEX National Chair, who introduced tributes to Lt Cdr Alan Tyler and Sq Offr Vera Atkins read by JFS and JCOSS Cadets. The wreath was laid by AJEX Chief Executive, Fiona Palmer.
Dan Fox, National Chair of AJEX, which continues to preserve and share the legacy of Jewish service in the British Armed Forces said:
“With the mass of story-telling, both fictional and documentary, that has arisen out of World War Two, it is easy to think of the eventual allied victory as somehow inevitable, as the happy ending that we expect our heroes to get, whatever obstacles are thrown up against them.
But there was nothing inevitable about it. Hitler’s Reich may not have lasted a thousand years, but a decades-long one was foreseeable as allied troops sought to dominate the lands of, seas around and skies above Europe between 1939 and 1945. That, in hindsight, there need never have been any doubt, is why they have our gratitude and admiration, then today and always and is why AJEX continues to tell their stories and ensure their service is never forgotten”.
The service, held in the UK’s oldest synagogue, served as a poignant and powerful reminder of the legacy of Jewish service in WWII and the enduring gratitude owed to those who fought for freedom.
One of the day’s most moving moments came with the attendance of Ruth Brook Klauber, aged 101, a WWII veteran who recently received long-overdue service medals with the assistance of AJEX, D Day and Bergen Belsen Liberator, Veteran Mervyn Kersh, 100, and Holocaust Survivor and Jewish Care Holocaust Survivor Centre member Henny Franks 101, all who have had busy schedules this week for the 80th anniversary. Standard Bearers stood proudly, Cadets from the JCOSS detachment of the JFS CCF attended and a JLGB bugler played The Last Post and Reveille.
Rabbi Nir Nadav said: "Today’s event was the culmination of an idea that has been developing for about a year. I wanted to highlight the contribution of Jewish serving personnel who contributed so much to the success of the Allies against Nazi Germany as part of the Jewish Community’s act of remembrance. Jews were not just victims during the Holocaust.Also, celebrating VE Day is personal for me, as had the Allied forces not succeeded, my grandparents would not have been liberated from the Nazis and I would not be here today."
