Civic, religious and community leaders joined together on Sunday 19 January to renew their commitment to the principles of justice, inclusion, and mutual respect.
Reconciliation 750 was an interfaith event supported by the Mayor of Guildford, Cllr Sallie Barker MBE, the Rabbi of Guildford, Alexander Goldberg and the Bishop of Guildford, The Rt Revd Andrew Watson, and other representatives of the faith communities of Guildford. These included the Imam of Guildford Central Mosque, Imam Redowan Ahmed, and the Hindu Chaplain from University of Surrey, Revd Pt. Meeta Joshi.
The day of reconciliation marked the 750th anniversary of the expulsion of the Jewish people from Guildford.
Bishop Andrew delivered a speech at the Guildhall event.
Speech
"It’s a privilege to be here on this sobering occasion, as we mark the 750th anniversary of a dark day in the history of our town – the expulsion of the Jews from Guildford by order of Queen Eleanor of Provence. That act was the beginning of a broader pattern of discrimination against the Jewish community here in England, culminating in the Edict of Expulsion by King Edward 1st fifteen years’ later. And both Church and State were complicit in fuelling that discrimination, just has often been true in the history of the Western world.
"So why remember an event from quite so long ago? Is what we are marking today just a history lesson from the distant past? Is it just the latest example of ‘WOKE Gone Mad’, as its critics might well dub it, with all of us beating our breasts about the sins of our forebears? Or is the main value here the opportunity to reflect on religious discrimination in all its forms – learning from the past so as to shape a better future?
"Rabbi Alex and I share a passion for Freedom of Religion or Belief around the world: a passion reflected in Alex’s contributions to the United Nations and mine to the House of Lords. And we share that passion because the pattern of what happened here in Guildford in 1275 is being regularly played out in other parts of the world today, whether it’s Jews or Christians or Muslims or Hindus – or indeed atheists – bearing the brunt of religious or secular regimes who marginalise them, discriminate against them, or worse.
"Here in the UK, we are blessed to live in a nation where Freedom of Religion or Belief is largely practised and tolerated. But even here, there is no room for complacency. There is a right, of course, to criticise those who do harm, whatever their religious convictions. A tolerant society isn’t some kind of ‘Get out of Jail Free’ card for any of the communities within it. But we know from history how careful we need to be before ‘othering’ those who are not like us, especially in a society where immigration is high on the political agenda and careless talk costs lives.
"Back to today’s event, though, with its particular focus on antisemitism, which continues to rear its ugly head in the UK, and even here in Guildford, on all too regular occasions: not least in response to the horrors of the past 15 months in Israel, Gaza and beyond – horrors which we hope and pray may come to an end with the ceasefire and hostage return announced earlier this week.
"And together with that hope and prayer, perhaps I could finish my reflections with two positive stories; one from very recent history - the glorious celebrations last November of Alex becoming the first Rabbi of Guildford since the days of Queen Eleanor of Provence – for which, renewed congratulations!; and the other from a little further back – from the experience of my mother as a child, brought up in Oxted, to the east of our county.
"My mother was seven years old at the outbreak of the Second World War, the youngest of five children. Her father was a civil servant, and later gained a knighthood for his work in the Ministry of Health in the years leading up to the creation of the National Health Service. Her mother was a Cambridge graduate, a fluent German speaker and a gifted pianist who had spent a year studying music in Berlin.
"It was in late November 1938 that an appeal was issued on the BBC Home Service, calling for foster homes to be made available to accommodate Jewish child refugees in what became known as the Kindertransport programme. My grandmother and a small committee duly took out a lease on a large house in Oxted, so as to welcome groups of anxious, disoriented Jewish children separated from their parents in the most frightening of circumstances.
"Providentially, a few months’ later, a young German Jewish family - Karl and Senta Kohn and their two-year-old daughter Eva-Maria – arrived in Oxted, and soon became house parents at the new makeshift children’s home.
"The children’s home lasted for a few years, but gradually the Kindertransport children were moved on to local homes and families, and the place was closed. The Kohn family, now with nowhere to go, were invited to live in my grandparents’ house, with Eva-Maria becoming a little sister and friend of my mother’s - soon to be joined by a number of evacuee children from Croydon and then a succession of refugees en route to more permanent housing. Senta proved to be a very good cook; and her legacy lives on in a family favourite: a sponge cake with the delightful name of a ‘Marmel Gugelhupf’, which is shaped like an old-fashioned blancmange with a hole in the middle.
"And that’s quite enough from me: except to say that I am sorry that despite good news stories like those we’ve just heard, the Christian Church has often been the place where antisemitism has taken root, and not just back in 1275. Both Alex and my religious traditions place some kind of corporate responsibility upon us for the sins of the past, especially where the attitudes that underly those sins are still with us. So whilst it may seem a rather strange exercise for those outside of those traditions, I do want to say sorry for my Christian forebears’ complicity in the events of 1275, and many other similar events in the years between then and now.
"And I do so in the wider context of committing myself afresh – as I hope we all will – to a society which celebrates the diversity and religious pluralism of our town and county, and embraces the principles of Freedom of Religion and Belief, which we take for granted at our peril."