Standing together in tolerance, acceptance
and respect
RT HON SADIQ KHAN, MAYOR OF LONDON
Sadiq Khan was elected Mayor of London in May
this year, winning the biggest personal mandate
in the history of British politics. Before this, Sadiq
had a distinguished Parliamentary career as the
Member of Parliament for Tooting, a constituency
in south London. He served as a Minister in both
the Department for Communities and Local
Government and the Department for Transport under Prime Minister
Gordon Brown, becoming the first Muslim to attend the British
Cabinet. He later served as the Shadow Secretary of State for
Justice and the Shadow Minister for London, leading the London
Labour Party’s election campaign into the 2015 General Election.
One of the most humbling experiences
I’ve ever had was my very first official
engagement as Mayor of London.
Along with the Chief Rabbi and
many Londoners from the Jewish
community, I joined over a hundred
Holocaust survivors for Yom HaShoah.
It was a privilege to meet Holocaust
survivors and their families and to
hear their remarkable stories - stories
that will stay with me forever. That
day, we stood together to reflect,
honour and remember the six million
Jewish lives that were lost during
the Holocaust and the lives lost in
subsequent genocides.
Events like this are incredibly
important. They help us to ensure
we never forget and that we learn
the lessons of history. And I praise
the great work that the Holocaust
Educational Trust (HET) continues
to do to ensure that young people
learn and understand what happened
during the dark days of the Holocaust.
I really saw this first-hand when, as
the Member of Parliament for Tooting,
I joined local school students on a
trip to Auschwitz-Birkenau as part of
HET’s ground-breaking Lessons from
Auschwitz project.
With antisemitism on the rise again,
this kind of work is now more
important than ever.
Official figures from the Metropolitan
Police show that antisemitic attacks in
London increased by 61 per cent last
year. We now have schools in London
that need security simply because
they are Jewish faith schools. And
many synagogues require protection
every week.
14 – Lessons Learned? Reflections on antisemitism and the Holocaust
Lessons Learned.indd 14
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