OPINION: We light candles for the dead. We fight prejudice for the living

This week marked a painful milestone: the first yahrzeit for the six Jewish hostages murdered by Hamas, Carmel Gat, Eden Yerushalmi, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Alexander Lobanov, Almog Sarusi and Master Sgt Ori Danino. These were not combatants. They were innocent men and women whose lives were extinguished not in battle, but because the terrorists who held them preferred murder over the chance of their victims being rescued. When the IDF drew close to freeing them, Hamas chose to brutally kill them instead. That cruelty is what we remember this week.

But what is a yahrzeit? The word, from Yiddish, means “time of year”. In Jewish tradition, it refers to the annual commemoration of a loved one’s passing, calculated by the Hebrew calendar. It is marked by the recitation of the Mourner’s Kaddish and the lighting of a candle that burns for 24 hours. This ritual of memory is not merely symbolic; it is a commandment to keep alive the flame of those who came before us. It is an act of defiance against forgetting, against erasure, and against the forces of hatred that, in every generation, rise to extinguish Jewish life.

This year, as we lit the yahrzeit candle for those six murdered hostages, two events in Britain reminded us why remembrance must always be coupled with vigilance.

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First, at the micro level, came a small but telling incident reported in Jewish News. A theatre director, Rosanna Mallinson of Akimbo, withdrew permission for her show to be promoted through an interview she gave for that paper in that very paper. Her reasoning? That “current political issue between us” made her uncomfortable with being featured in this publication.

As journalist Caroline Friedman noted, the message was unmistakable. Akimbo would rather face empty seats than risk Jews in the audience. This was not a critique of Israeli policy; it was not a “debate”; it was naked prejudice, the singling out of a Jewish newspaper because it is Jewish. A small act, yes. But it is also a symptom of the hostility Jews across Britain have faced since 7 October, when the oldest hatred once again became socially acceptable.

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Second, at the macro level, we saw the mask slip from the face of an elected official. MP Zarah Sultana declared in the New Left Review that Jeremy Corbyn “capitulated” when he accepted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism. Why? Because the IHRA includes within its examples the demonisation and delegitimisation of Israel, the only Jewish state. Sultana described this as a “serious mistake” and called for a bolder, less conciliatory brand of politics when it comes to Israel and, by extension, the vast majority of Jews in this country. She went further still, insisting she is “loudly and proudly… an anti-Zionist.”

Let us be clear about what this means. To be “loudly and proudly anti-Zionist” is to be loudly and proudly opposed to the existence of a Jewish homeland. It is to advocate, proudly, for the destruction of the one place in the world where Jews have the right to self-determination and safety.

It is, in practice, to stand against the overwhelming majority of Jews in Britain and across the globe. Sultana dresses this up as radical politics, but it is clear what is really is. A Trojan horse, but one whose trick is so transparent it wouldn’t fool even the most naive of Trojans.

And so here we are. A yahrzeit for murdered Jews marked not only by grief for lives stolen in Gaza’s tunnels, but also by reminders that hatred thrives here in Britain. A theatre director barring a Jewish paper from covering her show and a Member of Parliament positioning herself as a proud opponent of Jewish survival in the one state Jews can call their own.

The Book of Proverbs (20:27) tells us: “The soul of man is the candle of God.” Each yahrzeit candle reminds us of the fragility of life, but also of its sanctity. This year, the candles we lit for the six murdered hostages were not only for their stolen lives but also for the 50 hostages still trapped in Gaza, some alive, many already dead. These flames are also for our people everywhere, who face an old hatred in new disguises.

But remembrance alone is not enough. The yahrzeit candle is not only a light for the past; it must also be a torch for the future. We cannot allow the flames of memory to flicker quietly in the corner while antisemitism roars in the public square. We must answer lies with truth, bigotry, with pride, and intimidation with courage.

So let the candle we light for the six murdered hostages be a rallying flame. Let it remind us to speak up, to stand tall, to refuse to be silenced. Let it remind us that Jewish survival has never been passive; it has always been active, proud, and unafraid.

And let it remind the world that we will not bow, we will not vanish, and we will never again allow another 7 October.

The candle burns for them. But it calls us to act.

• Leo Pearlman is a TV producer and co-CEO of Fulwell Entertainment