Kristallnacht at Martin Place

kristallnachtwilma9th November, 2010 marked the 72nd anniversary of Kristallnacht, or ‘Night of Broken Glass’. That night, 72 years ago, saw Synagogues, Jewish business and Jewish homes attacked and destroyed en masse in German and Austrian towns. 91 Jews lost their lives on that night. Torah scrolls and books of Jewish literature were torched. It was truly a night of terror, and became the event recognized as the beginning of the Holocaust, or Shoah.

Remembering those innocents who lost their lives during the Holocaust, the NSW Council of Christians and Jews held a service at the Martin Place amphitheatre in Sydney on Friday 5th November, 2010. In attendance were members of both the Jewish and Christian communities.
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L-R: Wilma Viswanathan, Dr Maryann Dacy,
Sr Giovanni Farquar, Rabbi Jeremy Lawrence,

Prof Suzanne Rutland

Lead by Rabbi Jeremy Lawrence, Senior Rabbi of the Great Synagogue, Sydney, the service was very moving for all involved. A particularly heart-felt address by Rabbi Lawrence became the heart of a service which included musical input by a glorious choir of girls from the Emmanuel School, as well as items by singer Fay Sussman and instrumentalist Eddie Bronson (pictured below right).

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Girls from the Emmanuel School (pictured left) played an important role, not only in their musical offerings, but also when called on to read out words written by young Jewish children relating the horror and fear they experienced during that time.

Wilma Viswanathan, member of the Executive of the Uniting Church in Australia Working Group on Relations with Other Faiths, was called upon to read a Psalm (pictured above left) before proceedings ended with the sounding of the Shofar.

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Report by Bronwyn Thompson

Photos kindly provided by Bedelia Melville of The Commission for Ecumenism and Inter-Religious Relations, Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney