Twenty Years On: Remembering Alan Senitt

Twenty years have passed since we lost our beloved son and brother, Alan Senitt. It is a milestone we never wanted to reach, yet one that reminds us just how much one person can leave behind.

Twenty years later, people still ask us what Alan was like. We always give the same answer: he was impossible to forget.

Alan had an infectious smile, boundless energy and an extraordinary ability to make everyone he met feel like they mattered. He could walk into a room full of strangers and leave having made lifelong friends. Whether he was talking to a world leader, a journalist, a community volunteer or someone he’d just met, he treated everyone with the same warmth, respect and genuine interest.

He had a remarkable gift for bringing people together. Even today, we still meet people who tell us Alan inspired a career move or simply changed the course of their lives through a conversation. He made people believe in themselves, often before they believed in themselves.

Alan lived life at full speed. By the age of just 27 he had already led BBYO and the Union of Jewish Students, worked at BICOM, became the first Director of the Co-Existence Trust and was in Washington, DC, working for a US Senator while pursuing a career in public service that many believed would one day take him to the very highest levels of politics.

We often joke that if Alan had become Prime Minister, as so many confidently predicted, perhaps the country wouldn’t have needed quite so many of them over the last twenty years. Looking back now, with the revolving door at Number 10, it’s hard not to smile at the thought. Of course, we’ll never know what might have been, but we do know he had the vision, determination and rare ability to bring people together.

Despite everything he achieved, Alan never judged success by titles or positions. He judged it by people. By whether you had made someone’s day a little better, solved a problem, opened a door or helped someone who needed it.

His life was tragically cut short while defending a friend, and somehow that final act captured exactly who Alan was. He instinctively stood up for others. He believed in fairness, kindness and doing the right thing, even when it wasn’t the easy thing.

As a family, we often find ourselves wondering what Alan would make of the world today. The rise in antisemitism, the division we see across society and the anger that so often replaces conversation would have saddened him deeply. But if there is one thing we know, it is that Alan would never have accepted that nothing could be done. He wouldn’t have been shouting from the sidelines. He would have been picking up the phone, bringing people into a room, challenging hatred and building relationships across communities. That was simply who he was.

Following Alan’s death, we established the Alan Senitt Memorial Trust. It was never about replacing him – that would be impossible. It was creating a positive from a negative. It was about ensuring that the values which defined his life could continue to inspire others. Through our Upstanders Leadership Programme, more than 2,000 young people from different faiths and backgrounds have learned that leadership starts with kindness, courage and standing up for others.

Twenty years on, we still grieve. We always will. But alongside that grief is enormous pride. Pride that Alan’s name is still spoken with such affection. Pride that so many people continue to tell us how he changed their lives. Pride that his legacy is not simply remembered, but lived.

Twenty years later, the thing people remember most isn’t Alan’s CV. It’s how he made them feel. Seen. Encouraged. Believed in. That is a legacy no title could ever match.

To us, he wasn’t the future Prime Minister everyone predicted. He was simply Alan. The son who raided the fridge at midnight, the brother whose big cheesy grin you hated and loved in equal measure, and the one who somehow made every family gathering louder, funnier and happier just by walking through the door.

Alan taught us that one person really can make a difference. In a world that too often rewards division, he believed in dialogue. In a time when people are encouraged to pick sides, Alan chose people.

Twenty years later, we still miss him every single day. But we also smile every single day because we were lucky enough to call him our son, our brother and our Alan.

That is the legacy he left us. And one we will carry with us forever.

Written by the Senitt family to mark the 20th anniversary of Alan’s passing.

To donate to The Alan Senitt Memorial Trust visit www.charityextra/hub/alansenitt