Rabbi in call for Holocaust Day change
Maxwell Kusi Obodum • Published 4 Feb 2012 18:00
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RACE relations chiefs have been warned that Reading's future Holocaust Memorial Day vigils must be refocused on the horrors of the Nazi Final Solution.
Rabbi Zvi Solomons told The Chronicle this week that last week's Speak Up, Speak Out service, held at Reading Civic Centre should be "more relevant" next year.
The event, organised for more than six years by Reading Council for Racial Equality (RCRE), included a poignant contribution by Austrian concentration camp survivor Freddie Knoller but it also reflected on other genocides including Rwanda and Kosovo.
But Rabbi Solomons who led a candlelit vigil to remember the victims, said: "While it's important we realise the relevance of the Holocaust on shedding light on the other genocides, the Holocaust was different because it was a mechanised genocide and there's never been another genocide of those proportions.
"This year the event was much
better organised, but hopefully next year, with my participation, we can expand and improve it and make it more relevant to everyone in the borough."
Retiring RCRE director Rajinder Sohpal stressed the Final Solution was prominent throughout the evening and said: "The Jewish community has been involved, and we had a Holocaust survivor speaking. Obviously I look forward to next year if Rabbi Solomons is able to participate more."
Reading Hebrew Congregation's Marcia Perkin, who helped organise the event, defended it and said: "The Holocaust should be the centre but we must still respect other genocides."
Senior Tory councillor Richard Willis boycotted the evening and posted an internet blog accusing the RCRE of using last year's event to "push their own political agenda" by focusing on the Tory-Lib Dem Coalition's decision to slash the group's £98,639 maintenance grant.
But, dubbing him "a bigot", Mr Sohpal said: "He's playing politics with a serious issue and should be ashamed."
Cllr Willis denied the accusation and said: "Nothing I've said undermines the importance of Holocaust Memorial Day.
"We need to make sure it fully respects the victims living and not living and the RCRE used it as a political platform."
This article appeared in Reading Chronicle 04 Feb 12
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