Mayor: ‘Racism has no place in our community’

Tony Lloyd lights a candle

Greater Manchester interim mayor and Police and Crime Commissioner Tony Lloyd has urged communities to stand together against prejudice and hatred.

Mr Lloyd made the call as Jewish people across the world mark Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, to remember those who lost their lives.

Mr Lloyd said: “The Holocaust was one of the darkest moments in our human history and we must never forget those who lost their lives and those who survived its horrors.

“It should also serve as a reminder of what happens when we allow hatred and persecution to infect our society. Anti-Semitism, like all forms of racism, hate crime and prejudice, has no place in our communities and we must all stand together against those who seek to divide. That is key to building a stronger, tolerant and cohesive Greater Manchester.

“I’m really proud of the contribution that Jewish people in Greater Manchester have made not just to our region but across the globe.”

Each year, Mr Lloyd lights a Yahrzeit candle, a Jewish memorial candle, in memory of Jacob Wygodzki, who was a Polish-Lithuanian Jewish politician who was tortured and killed in Lukiškės Prison in 1941 when the Nazis occupied Vilnius.

Mr Lloyd added: “Every one of the six million people murdered during the Holocaust represents an individual person, an individual story, an individual life lost. We must never lose sight of that and is why I light a candle for Jacob, to remember his individual sacrifice.

“The history of Jewish people has often been dark, but despite this they have shone a light of hope throughout the centuries.”

Yom HaShoah is marked on the 27th of Nisan (April/May) each year, unless that day is adjacent to the Sabbath.

This year, it began on sundown on 4 May and lasted until sundown on the following day. The day was inaugurated in Israel in 1953.