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Bedford UK's local community Interfaith group |
| Bedford Council of Faiths |
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The visit to the Beth Shalom Holocaust Centre near Newark. We welcome those who would like to join us on this visit, especially RE teachers and others similarly concerned. The visit is being supported by the Kessler Foundation and this will be used for transport. Details:- What is the Holocaust Centre, Beth Shalom? (from the website brochure of Beth Shalom) In September 1995, Beth Shalom (House of Peace), Britain's first dedicated Holocaust Memorial and Education Centre, was opened on the edge of Sherwood Forest in North Nottinghamshire. Although famed for other reasons, the countryside provides a peaceful setting, where visitors from around the country and further afield come to learn, to remember and to reflect. Beth Shalom is set in two acres of beautiful gardens, and provides a range of facilities for people of all backgrounds and persuasions to explore the history and implications of the Holocaust. The main features of the Centre are its red brick memorial building, permanent exhibition on the Nazi period and memorial gardens. There are also conference, library, seminar and research facilities used by students, teachers and lay people of all ages and at all levels. Origins In 1981, Stephen and James Smith and their parents went on a family holiday to Israel that would change their lives. There they began to understand a dimension of Christianity that many Christians missed: Christianity began in that country, but today is far removed from its Jewish origins. They soon realised that contemporary anti-Semitism was as Christian as it was evil. Ten Years later, Stephen and James spent a day at Yad Vashem, Jerusalem. There they realised that the Holocaust is not a Jewish problem, but that of anyone brave enough to admit that its consequences are for us all. Respectively 24 and 22 years old, from then on they focused on how they might bring this challenge to a wider audience. Because Britain was not occupied by the Nazis, the vast majority in British society managed to avoid confronting its reality. Stephen and James Smith wanted to confront this. They felt that the conditions which created the possibility of genocide in Germany emerged from a European nation state sharing similar values to its European neighbours; the challenge it seemed is just as real for Britons as Germans and needs to be addressed as such. The Smith brothers' parents had long been running a small non-denominational Christian conference centre in the Nottinghamshire countryside. It was the perfect place; initially thinking it might occupy a few rooms, eventually it became a development in its own right as new spaces were added to accommodate the new facilities. Four years later Beth Shalom came into being as a place of memory of the victims of the Holocaust and as a place to teach future generations about its happening and consequences. Beth Shalom is a way of showing that if the victims' wasted lives are to have any meaning at all, we must not only learn about what happened, but also learn from it. Members of the BCoF visit will be received and guided by Dr Stephen Smith himself, one of the cofounders and masterminds behind this project. Since we have to do a lot of organising in advance, we would like to ask you to indicate your interest and participation very soon. We will need to charge £15.00 per person, which should include transportation, all-inclusive entry and catering. We may have to revise this charge depending on the size of the party going. (Some grants may be available. If you are in need of such a grant, please ask us) Please spread the news among your colleagues and friends! In order to join the Study Outing, please ring or e-mail the Bedford Council of Faiths to ask for a participation form, which we ask you to submit with your remittance. Once you have indicated your firm participation we shall keep you informed of all relevant details. For further information call us on: (01234) 307281 or Email us on: bcof@bcof.org.uk More information on Beth Shalom may be found on their websites: http://www.holocaustcentre.net/ & http://www.bethshalom.com |
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The group consists of representatives from
various religious traditions within the community email: bcof@bcof.org.uk address: c/o 69 Victoria Road, Bedford, MK42 9JR |