L'Dor Va'Dor

From Generation to Generation

"L'Dor Va'Dor" is a haunting song traditionally sung on Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement. It means "From Generation to Generation" and contains the injunction to pass on, from one generation to the next, the responsibility to do right.

This was the theme of our 28th Anniversary on Sunday 15th October 2023. It was an emotional occasion. 100 members of this warm community gathered to remember those we have lost in the past year, to hear all our news, but also to consider the terrible events taking place in the Middle East.

With four generations present in the Memorial Hall, including 17 of our Holocaust survivor family, we pledged to pass on not only our survivors' stories, but their lesson that hate does not cure hate. 

This is of course no easy task. The October 7th pogrom in Israel was the worst single atrocity to befall the Jewish people since the Shoah. Hamas murdered 1,400 souls; mutilated bodies in unimaginable ways; raped, tortured and kidnapped many more, including people from 41 countries. But we must remember that Hamas is not the Palestinian people. It is a terrorist entity which has taken some 240 people, mostly Jewish Israelis, hostage... and since 2005 when they came to power in Gaza, 2 million Palestinian people.

May we find the strength to preserve our own humanity rather than succumb to hate. This is what our family of Holocaust survivors have taught us. And so whilst on Sunday we wept for the slain, we also came together to commune, to chat, to laugh and to hug.

Scroll down to see some lovely pictures of the occasion, taken by Steve Bradley. But first, watch the beautiful ending to the official ceremony: a performance of "L'Dor Va'Dor' sung by Abbie-Grace Levi, accompanying a montage of our survivor family photographed with their children and grandchildren. We dedicated it to 85 year old great grandmother Yaffa Adar, one of the 199 Israeli hostages taken by Hamas.