Chief Rabbi marks Holocaust Memorial Day with AJR tree-planting in Hyde Park

Chief Rabbi Mirvis attended the planting of a tree in Hyde Park to mark Holocaust Memorial Day.

He was at the event as part of the Association of Jewish Refugees (AJR)’s initiative to mark 80 years since its founding.

Joined by the Lord-Lieutenant Robert Voss as-well-as representatives of the German and Austrian Embassies in London, Holocaust educators and local school children, the sapling was planted near the site of the UK’s first public Shoah memorial.

The AJR is running a campaign called “80 Trees for 80 Years”, planting trees to mark eight decades since its founding. One oak, sponsored by Michael Rosenstock, son of AJR’s founding secretary Werner Rosenstock, was planted in Hyde Park on Holocaust Memorial Day itself. The park is home to the first public Holocaust memorial in the UK, and hosts the annual Yom HaShoah ceremony.

Michael Rosenstock said: “My father, who was General Secretary of the AJR for the first 42 years of its existence, would be amazed and humbled if he knew that the organisation was still going strong at the age of 80, with plenty to keep it occupied.”

AJR CEO, Michael Newman OBE said: ““As well as helping to mark the heritage of our members and a place of historic interest associated with them, the planting of this tree enables the AJR to give back to and create a living legacy within the country that became home to the Jewish refugees.”