This is really worth sharing..... Jewish Ethics versus #OyVeyDonaldTrump racism and Islamophobia and the absurdity of Trumpism ( bombastic dilettante executive decrees without think of the consequences and without think them through to who really suffer)
The Chief Rabbi at World Jewish Relief 2017
"President Trump has signed an Executive Order which seeks to discriminate against individuals based on their religion or nationality. We, as Jews, more than any others, know exactly what it's like to be the victims of such discrimination. It is totally unacceptable."
Prince Charles said the world is in danger of forgetting the lessons of the Second World War.
His words came during a fundraising event in London for the World Jewish Relief charity, which is working with people who are fleeing Syria and seeking new lives in Greece, Turkey and the UK.
The prince told the invited guests that he admired the WJR for reaching out beyond its own community to help anyone, regardless of their faith.
He said: "The work of World Jewish Relief enables us to rally together, to do what we can to support people practically, emotionally and spiritually, particularly at a time when the horrific lessons of the last war seem to be in increasing danger of being forgotten."
Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis criticised US President Donald Trump for his "totally unacceptable" travel ban and received applause.
The Chief Rabbi said: "Not much hope from the United States of America, of all countries, where President Trump appears to have signed an executive order which seems to discriminate against individuals based totally on their religion or their nationality.
"We as Jews perhaps more than any others know exactly what it is like to be the victims of such discrimination and it is totally unacceptable."
During his speech Prince Charles also recalled the "indescribable persecution" suffered by Holocaust survivor Ben Helfgott, who faced the horrors of the Buchenwald concentration camp but went on to captain Britain's weightlifting team at the 1956 and 1960 Olympic Games.
The charity was founded in 1933 to support people fleeing persecution from Nazi Europe.
It now supports vulnerable people in 18 countries through activities including disaster relief, employment skills and providing older people with food, medicine and companionship.
Speech By HRH The Price of Wales at the World Jewish Relief
HRH The Prince of Wales Speech at the World Jewish Relief Dinner
Published on 30th January 2017
Ladies and Gentlemen, I cannot tell you how deeply touched I was to be asked and how proud I am to join you this evening for my first event as the new – and rather amateur! – Patron of World Jewish Relief.
As many of you may know, however, my relationship with this marvellous organization goes back quite a few years, as Nigel Layton just mentioned, to 2002, when I had just returned from an official visit to Krakow. During that visit, I was sitting in a café with some elderly Jewish residents – the last remnants of a once-flourishing Jewish community from before the War – who told me how much they worried that, with increasing infirmity and no place where they could gather, their stories, friendships and community risked simply withering away. It occurred to me that a Community Centre might be the answer and so I asked my many Jewish friends who on Earth might be able and willing to help. Almost to a man – and woman! – eyes turned towards World Jewish Relief… How right they were!
I cannot tell you how proud I was therefore to return to Krakow with my darling wife a few years later, in 2008, to open the Centre. Since then, I am so pleased it has been the huge success we all hoped it would be, now counting 608 members and 100,000 annual visitors who frequently express their admiration that such a vibrant Jewish community has re-established itself in a place that witnessed such unspeakable loss and desecration during the darkest days of the twentieth century.
The Krakow project tells, in microcosm, why I think World Jewish Relief is such a vital organization, and why I am so touched that everyone here this evening either is involved, or is interested in becoming involved. It is about doing things, not just talking about them. It is about supporting local communities with what they feel they need and not about imposing solutions from outside. Above all, it is about mobilising the resources of one community to help, not only those who are amongst the global Jewish community who are in desperate need, but also other people, irrespective of their faith.
I have always thought that our own particular Faith is something that empowers and liberates us, not something that constrains us. That is why, in my own life, I have always tried to reach across the boundaries of faith and community; to extend a helping hand wherever one might be needed. This was probably ingrained in me at an early age, partly due I suspect to my grandmother, Princess Alice of Greece, who had courageously sheltered a Jewish family in her apartment in Athens during the Nazi, occupation and who, incidentally is buried Righteous among the Nations, in Jerusalem, where I was so grateful to be able to visit her grave on the Mount of Olives during my recent visit to Israel for the funeral of the late President Shimon Peres. But I think my efforts to reach across the boundaries of faith and community may also have been partly due to the fact that the school I went to in the 1960s, in Scotland, was founded by a remarkable Jewish émigré from Germany, Dr. Kurt Hahn. I well recall being taught at school by several Jewish refugees who had fled from Germany with Dr. Hahn in the 1930s. I have forgotten neither their wisdom nor their dignity. This is also why I have such a strong admiration and respect for others who help in this way, such as the late lamented Lord Weidenfeld who never forgot how Quakers had helped him to escape from Nazi Germany and who, even late into his life, facilitated the evacuation and re-settlement of Iraqi Christians from Mosul, fleeing the barbarism of Da'esh.
So the determination of World Jewish Relief to help those in need, regardless of their faith, is one reason why I have long been drawn to it. It seems to me that, in reaching beyond your own community, you set an example for us all of true compassion and true friendship. Apart from a whole range of humanitarian projects, such as the long-term efforts to help struggling and impoverished Jewish families in the Ukraine, World Jewish Relief is currently working with people who have fled Syria and are now seeking to establish new lives in Greece, Turkey and here in the United Kingdom. The charity also supports young agricultural entrepreneurs in Rwanda, where people – tragically – share with the Jewish community a first-hand knowledge of the evils of genocide. In this way, World Jewish Relief shows us how vital it is to learn lessons from the horrors of the past.
When I arrived here this evening, I had the great pleasure of speaking to Ben Helfgott, a wonderful man whom I first met through my Patronage of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust. Ben, as you might know, survived the horrors of the Buchenwald Concentration Camp. He is a man of extraordinary grace and strength – as you would expect from someone who captained the British weightlifting team at the Olympics in 1956 and in 1960! To meet Ben, and others who, like him, have endured indescribable persecution, is to be reminded of the danger of forgetting the lessons of the past. The work of World Jewish Relief enables us to rally together, to do what we can to support people practically, emotionally and spiritually – particularly at a time when the horrific lessons of the last War seem to be in increasing danger of being forgotten.
Ladies and Gentlemen, I could not be more delighted by my long association with World Jewish Relief or more proud to be with you here this evening as its Patron. I need hardly say that your wonderfully generous support makes the whole different to their crucial work with those most in need.
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