Voice of the Jewish News: Virtual memorial shows us the future

Having to live-stream this year’s Yom HaShoah event no doubt at first felt like a disappointment, not least to the organisers and survivors themselves, yet what took place on Monday evening proved to be quite the opposite of a disappointment.

Over the 90 minutes of the service, there was so much to prompt, move, reflect on and enjoy that this year’s Yom HaShoah UK will be looked back on as one of the best and most widely admired, with more than 30,000 glued to their screens.

It was meant to be 5,000 souls crammed into a stadium, but circumstances meant that far more tuned in than could ever have turned up. In a series of segments, both live and pre-recorded, host Henry Grunwald reminded us why we will never forget.

Among the most hard-hitting moments on a night that Jewish News was proud to media sponsor was Sir Ben Helfgott’s son, Maurice, saying that the fast-falling numbers of survivors did not mean our efforts to educate the wider world would fall by the wayside. On the contrary, it means we will redouble our efforts to do so.

Virtual remembrance and digital commemoration over such a sensitive subject could so easily have gone awry, an awkward 75-year anniversary for survivors who may see few others. Mazeltov to Neil Martin and his team for avoiding that hazard in spectacular fashion.