Local MP addresses Manchester Muslim-Jewish forum as it marks 15th anniversary

The Muslim Jewish Forum of Greater Manchester celebrated its 15th anniversary online this week, with guest speakers recalling the group’s late co-founder Henry Guterman.

While the Forum’s tenth anniversary was celebrated by a dinner attended by religious and civic leaders at Manchester Town Hall, the pandemic meant it moved online this year.

Among the speakers were local MP Afzal Khan and Guterman’s son Mark, who recalled how his dad came to the UK with his family as a refugee from Nazi Germany at the age of 12 after Kristallnacht in 1938.

Henry was a stalwart of Manchester’s Jewish community, serving as president of the Manchester Jewish Representative Council and active in more than 25 organisations. Many of those on the call were on the verge of tears recalling his “devotion to uniting people”.

Manchester is home to the second largest Jewish community in the UK, as well as a large Muslim community, the largest component of which is of Pakistani origin.