I was visiting Auschwitz when I was told about the terror attack in Golders Green

We then had to sit the students on the trip down, literally outside the crematoria, and explain, once again, Jews have been attacked and they may need to check in with loved ones

As I write this, the enormity of the last week is still raw.

I have been in places whose names alone invoke unspeakable memories. Krakow, Tarnow, Majdanek. On Wednesday morning, as we were touring Auschwitz-Birkenau, I was standing in the barracks known as the Latrines, a sadistic place specifically constructed by the SS to be serve as a tool of humiliation, disease, and terror.

While there, my colleague tells me that two people have been stabbed in Golders Green, for no other crime than being a Jew.

Of all places to hear the news, it is indescribable.

I stepped outside the barracks, and as so many Jews did in that moment, I checked in with my family and looked at the pictures to see if I recognised those who had been brutally attacked.

Together with the incredible staff of Hasmonean High School we then had to sit the students down, literally outside the crematoria, and explain, once again, that Jews have been attacked and they may need to check in with loved ones.

In my interview with the BBC I was asked what it’s like to have security in Jewish schools. I explained that we need security in every single Jewish institution and at every event. We even needed security whilst touring Majdanek and Auschwitz.
This is not normal.

I ask you, which other community lives like this?

On Thursday morning I switched on the radio and heard Nick Ferrari discussing the attack – and I felt the responsibility to share with the world what I had just witnessed and its connection to what happened in the UK.

As Rafi Garson, one of our incredible guides, said many times, speak up for the kedoshim, our holy brothers and sisters who could not. But I want to stress something else important that he shared with the group in the darkest of all places.

During the Blitz in London, there was a blackout. A law was passed that meant not a single light in any house was permitted, so that the German planes above would have no sight in a populated town. The story goes that a man who was desperate for a cigarette, and after two hours went outside for a smoke. He lit a tiny match.
Unfortunately for him, someone was watching.

The next day he was hauled in front of a judge, and as he stood in the courtroom, he was handed an exorbitant fine.

He pleaded with the judge, “How can this be? I just lit a tiny flame!”

The judge responded, ‘You’ve missed the point. In a blackout, when the world is dark, a tiny flame can result in the decimation of your street, your town, and even your city’.

The world right now is a dark place. At the same time, a small flame can create a huge amount of light. Jewish people all over the UK right now need to stand strong and proud. We need to light a small flame, in our homes, in our families, in our communities. We need to bring more light, love, hope, and joy to the world. That is how we respond in these dark times.

Rabbi Doron Birnbaum is a Rabbi, Educator and Consultant. He hosts the Bridging The Gap podcast.