London, 12 April 2018, Yom HaShoah

The Simon Wiesenthal Centre - United Kingdom organized its Ninth Annual Simon Wiesenthal Memorial Lecture at the St. John’s Wood Synagogue in London. The guest speaker was writer and columnist Melanie Phillips on the subject “UK Jews: Time to Leave?”

It was chaired by Dr. Alan Mendoza, President of the Henry Jackson Society, and six candles were lit by host Rabbi Yoni Golker in memory of the six million Holocaust victims.

Left to right: Graham Morris, Shimon Samuels, Alan Mendoza, David Dangoor,
Melanie Phillips, Anthony Yadgaroff, Rabbi Yoni Golker.

Dr. Shimon Samuels, Director for International Relations of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, opened with thanks to David Dangoor and the Board of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre - United Kingdom.

Samuels presented an overview of the state of Jews in France: “Last week, demographers announced that over the past ten years, more that 60,000 French Jews had left France for Israel, Montreal, Miami and the UK.”

He concluded with a question to Ms. Phillips: “In this very complex, a French synagogue, Anshei Shalom, has opened. The atmosphere in France is bleak, but have the French Jews who moved to the UK come to a way station or to a solution?”

Melanie Phillips spoke of the turmoil around Jeremy Corbyn and antisemitism in the Labour Party. She continued with an analysis of extreme right, extreme left and Islamist antisemitism in the UK and beyond.

The event was attended by a public of over four hundred, both Jewish and Gentile.