Rob Rinder and his mother receive MBEs for services to Holocaust education

TV personality Rob Rinder and his mother Angela Cohen were celebrating on Wednesday after being awarded MBEs at Windsor Castle for their services to Holocaust education.

Rinder rose to fame on the ITV show Judge Rinder before becoming a contestant on the BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing.

In November 2020, he and his mother Angela took part in a programme called My Family, the Holocaust and Me, where they travelled to the Nazi death camp Treblinka to visit the area where Cohen’s father’s family were murdered.

The programme garnered huge media coverage and helped promote Holocaust awareness.

Rinder has since spent time supporting charities such as Shelter and Buttle UK.

Over the last few weeks he has been commended for his efforts traveling to Poland’s border with Ukraine to help his Strictly Come Dancing partner’s family flee the war-torn country.

Cohen has been Chairman of the ’45 Aid Society since 2015.

The ’45 Aid Society was formed in 1963 by a group of over 700 orphaned child survivors who came to Britain in 1945 after losing all of their families in the Holocaust of which, Cohen’s father Moishe Malenicky, was one of.

The charity was created to help and support other Holocaust survivors, give back to the community and the country that had welcomed them and teach the lessons of the Holocaust through an extensive education programme.

At the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, Cohen launched an initiative ensuring regular weekly calls to all survivors and their spouses for comfort and support.

Rinder said it was: “a gift to share this with my mum who has taught me always to see the best in humankind.”

Cohen added: “I am humbled to have been given this honour. The ’45 Aid Society and Holocaust education are part of my DNA and I am passionate about the work of ’45 Aid Society. I feel it is my legacy to continue with Holocaust education and awareness.”