Belsen liberators, former Spurs chair and Matt Lucas among those awarded New Year Honours

The final two Jews who helped liberate Bergen-Belsen, the long-time owner of Spurs and comedian Matt Lucas are among those recognised by the King in the New Year Honours List.  

Stanley Fisher from the West Midlands and the 101-year-old Mervyn Kersh both picked up BEMs.

Kersh, a stalwart of the annual Ajex parade, said his award was “a wonderful thing”. But he used the opportunity to express concer over the steep rise in antisemitism, saying: “What’s disappointing is the antisemitism that I see everywhere, hear everywhere, or read.” He observed that efforts to speak about the Holocaust “do not always work”.

Karen Pollock, chief executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust, said: “We are absolutely thrilled to see these great British heroes Mervyn Kersh and Stanley Fisher recognised in His Majesty the King’s New Year Honours list. They fought for the rights and freedoms and the democracy we are so fortunate to live in today, and this is why this country owes them a debt we can never repay.

“Having entered Bergen-Belsen concentration camp following liberation, both men have continued to share their memories of the horrors they witnessed. Both landed on the beaches of Normandy and fought to rid the continent of the Nazis and their evil ideology. This recognition is hugely deserved.”

Businessman Daniel Levy, who stood down as chair of Tottenham Hotspur FC in September this year, is also made CBE, while Little Britain and Come Fly With Me star Matt Lucas, who is also a strong supporter of the Alan Senitt Memorial Trust, receives an OBE for his services to drama. New MBEs include celebrity jeweller Solange Azagury-Partridge, whose parents were Sephardi Jews who grew up in Casablanca, and Karen Emanuel, from London, who receives an OBE as founder and chief executive of Key Production Group, for services to music.

Two big community names have both been honoured— Jewish Care’s president Steven Lewis, who is made MBE, and the chief executive of the Jewish Lads’ and Girls’ Brigade, Neil Martin, who has been ‘upgraded’ to CBE from his earlier award of OBE given nearly a decade ago.

Steven Lewis has been involved with Jewish Care since its formation in 1990 from a merger between the Jewish Welfare Board and the Jewish Blind Society. He was involved with the Jewish Blind Society as one of their inspirational young leaders and served on the working group which merged the two organisations, creating the most significant social welfare charity in Anglo-Jewry.

Lewis, whose colleagues speak of his “legendary” fund-raising skills, also presided over the 2024 merger between Jewish Care and the mental health charity Jami. As a result of the growth and his leadership on fundraising for the organisation, Jewish Care has now raised its annual voluntary income target from £15 million to £20 million.

He says: “I am deeply honoured to receive this recognition. As a proud British Jew, I have been privileged to be involved with Jewish Care for over 35 years, and I have worked with the most incredible team of professionals and lay colleagues. It is a tribute to the superb staff, volunteers, and supporters who make Jewish Care what it is. I share this award with our community and remain committed to ensuring older people, Holocaust survivors, those experiencing mental ill health, carers, and families receive the support, respect and care they deserve.”

Neil Martin – who was absorbing the news of his upgrade from an OBE nine years ago while at the JLGB winter camp, attended by 450 enthusiastic young people – said his new honour was “entirely unexpected. it means a lot, particularly in current times when our community has perhaps felt a bit wobbly. This is not really about me, it’s about British Jewry”.

The award is in recognition of his work with young people and his success in revitalising Holocaust Remembrance Day in the UK. In its citation, JLGB said: “This distinction elevates our chief executive from the OBE he received in 2016, recognising two decades of sustained national impact on young people, interfaith cohesion and Holocaust remembrance.

“Fittingly, 2025 also marks the 20th anniversary of Neil’s appointment as chief executive of JLGB. Over two decades, he has transformed the UK’s oldest Jewish youth charity into an award-winning national exemplar of inclusive, culturally sensitive youth provision – enabling tens of thousands of disadvantaged and minority young people to thrive and contribute to British society without compromising their religious or cultural identity”.

Among his initiatives are the expansion of kosher and Sabbath-compliant Duke of Edinburgh’s Award access, now a rite of passage for more than half of Jewish teenagers each year. Since 2011, Neil has served as chair of Yom HaShoah UK, the Jewish community’s annual Holocaust memorial day, revitalising national Holocaust remembrance and setting new standards for intergenerational commemoration.

In April 2025, he produced the UK’s national 80th anniversary commemoration of the liberation of Bergen-Belsen by the British army.

Another MBE went to Judith Dewinter, previously awarded a BEM for her work with the Myeloma UK charity. This time, as chair of the Royal Free Charity, she has been honoured for services to the NHS.

Dr Bea Lewkowicz, director of the Association of Jewish Refugees’ Refugee Voices Testimony Archive, was among those honoured for their efforts in highlighting the horrors of the Nazi era.

Dr Lewkowicz, who receives an OBE, has played a leading role in recording, preserving and making accessible the voices of Holocaust refugees and survivors, in the UK. Since co-founding the AJR Refugee Voices Archive in 2003, she has helped build the UK’s largest collection of Holocaust testimony and has recently led the development of the Holocaust Testimony UK Portal, a landmark national resource.

Michael Newman OBE, chief executive of AJR, says: “Her work has transformed the way Holocaust testimony is shared in the UK, ensuring that the culture, heritage and traditions of the refugees and survivors are preserved and is perpetuated. Her unwavering commitment to capturing the voices of AJR members and other survivors and to education for future generations makes this honour richly deserved.”

Dr Lewkowicz says: “I feel very honoured to have received this meaningful award for my work in Holocaust education and remembrance. My career has been guided by a belief in the enduring power of testimony. At a time when Holocaust denial and distortion and antisemitism is on the rise, and memory moves into history — I hope that the voices of the survivors will continue to shape Holocaust education, research, and public engagement, now and in the future.”

Among those recognised for their Holocaust remembrance work are Lydia Tischler, a survivor and child psychotherapist, who is made MBE; Erno (Yisrael) Abelesz, from Greater London, receives a BEM for his services to Holocaust education. Also honoured are Michael Marx, a trustee of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, who becomes MBE; and Professor Ruth-Anne Lenga, who receives an OBE. She says: “I would like to extend my appreciation and admiration to UK Holocaust survivors, including the late Sir Ben Helfgott, Leon Greenman, Josef Perl and the ever remarkable Mala Tribich, who have taught me so much over many years. I continue to be humbled by their courage and wisdom”.

Professor Polina Bayvel, the Royal Society Research Professor and Professor of Optical Communications and Networks, University College London, has been made a dame for services to engineering and to optical communications.

Born in Kharkiv, Ukraine, she came to Britain aged 12 in 1978 with her parents, Leopold and Rachel. They were helped to come to Britain by the former Chief Rabbi Lord Jakobovits and his office director Moshe Davis. The family, unusually in that time and place, were religiously observant and when they came to Britain — with entry visas signed by the then Foreign Secretary, David Owen — the young Polina was sent to Hasmonean Girls’ School.

She said of her award: “The recognition is very pleasant but also very humbling. I am very grateful to have the recognition but am particularly pleased for my father, who is 94 — it will make him very happy”. She added that engineering was “not the most glamorous of academic disciplines but it underpins everything we do, so I am glad of the acknowledgment of the work”.

MBEs also went to Simon Friend, a former Jewish Care trustee who is honoured for services to charity; and Michael Mail, the chief executive of the Foundation for Jewish Heritage, which he founded in 2015 to focus on the recognition and value of historic Jewish buildings.

Glasgow-born Mail said he was “absolutely thrilled” with his honour and viewed it as a nod not just to Jewish endeavour, but as a way of preserving British heritage.

Several awards have gone to people who are being honoured for their work with specific communities. They include Mark Glazer, for service in Redbridge; David Lerner, for his work in the Jewish community in Harrow; Arnold Lewis, for his work in the Liverpool Jewish community, and the husband and wife Barry and Maureen Leveton, who have both worked in the 100-strong Norwich Jewish community since their marriage in 1960. All the foregoing will receive a British Empire Medal.

Barry Leveton, who celebrated his 90th birthday earlier this year, said he was “very surprised” to have been nominated, but added that he and his wife felt “very privileged” at the honour.

Lisa Gerson, of Cardiff, is made MBE for her services to optometry, education and social cohesion; Robert Rams is also made an MBE for his political service. Rams says: “It has been an incredible honour to spend over 20 years working in the political world at all levels of government, and I’m deeply humbled to receive this recognition. I’ve been fortunate to work alongside so many dedicated people, and I’m truly grateful for their support, friendship and public service.”

Richard Rosenberg, a chartered accountant from Pinner, receives a BEM for his charity work, specifically for his service to the Teenage Cancer Trust, where he was the longest-serving trustee. Also a long-time fundraiser for Norwood, Richard was inspired to begin a series of challenging bike rides in 2003, when his wife Meryl was diagnosed with cancer. He only rides with his best friend and business partner Laurence Finger and reckons that the pair have raised “millions” for the charities — “but we have never counted!”

Simon Friend, a former Jewish Care trustee, is honoured for services to charity; as is Michael Mail, the chief executive of the Foundation for Jewish Heritage, which he founded in 2015 to focus on the recognition and value of historic Jewish buildings.

Glasgow-born Michael said he was “absolutely thrilled” with his honour and viewed it as a nod to just to Jewish endeavour but a way of preserving British heritage.

Among other awards of interest to the Jewish community are Dr Suzy Lishman, the senior adviser on medical examiners for the Royal College of Pathologists and immediate past president for the Association of Clinical Pathologists. Dr Lishman, who is not Jewish, but considers herself “a strong friend of the Jewish community”, was instrumental in last year’s change in issuing death certificates, the net effect of which has been to speed up burials for Jewish and Muslim communities. Dr Lishman has been made a dame and told JN that she is “so pleased that the work of medical examiners has been recognised”.

Dr Nasser Kurdy, who is one half of the podcast The Rabbi, the Imam and the Power of Dialogue with Rabbi Dovid Lewis, is a Manchester-based orthopaedic surgeon and part-time Muslim religious leader. He has been made MBE for his services to interfaith dialogue.

He says: “I have always been grateful that I walked away from a stabbing to the back of my neck eight years ago. Forgiveness has played a significant part in my recovery and most of what I have done since has been to stand up to hate through reconciliation. I truly believe that to counter the hate narrative we need to be able to stand together despite our differences. As a Jordanian and a Muslim, I am deeply hurt by the current narrative that is pitching Muslims and Jews against each other. I sincerely hope that we can see our way to have a meaningful and respectful dialogue that we so desperately need”.