Cornwall’s historic Sefer Torah was a star at the Eden Project ( Gan Eden גַּן־עֵדֶן ) on the 11th June. If you missed the programme, you can watch it on BBC iPlayer.

Kehillat Kernow Scroll guest of honour in the Antiques Roadshow will be on BBC1- Sunday, 11 June, 8:00 p.m.

In September last year, the Antiques Roadshow came to the Eden Project in Cornwall. We were invited to take something or things to show there. When we told the producers about our ancient Falmouth Scroll, they asked us to take this. Our little Scroll was treated like a VIP and we were all punch drunk with pride. The resulting footage from the day was edited down to enough material for two programmes and our Scroll will star in the second one to be broadcast.

Memory of six million Jews, each million represented by a unique individual; Stella Szafir of Lodz, Poland, who was murdered at CHELMNO in 1942, aged 16; Andras Ungar of Ujpest, who was murdered at AUSCHWITZ in 1944, aged 8; Stella Bagrova of Ananyev, who was murdered at ANANYEV in 1941, aged 6; Nache Szafir of Czeladz, who was murdered at AUSCHWITZ in 1943, aged 9; Mali Fenichel of Differdange, who was murdered at UNKNOWN, aged 10; Laibsh Mendelovic of Borsha, who was murdered at AUSCHWITZ in 1944, aged 7.

Let us not forget.

Sixty- five pilgrims arrived from the four corners of the Duchy and from Bristol, London, Berkshire, San Francisco and Israel to celebrate the first face-to-face Seder in four years. The service was expertly led by Adam Feldman and Murray Brown and the colourful feast was prepared by some of our talented chefs. Many thanks to Anne and David Hearle for captaining the whole affair. All in all, it was a most meaningful and delightful event.

Authoritarian governments and extremists of all stripes are responsible for widespread cultural destruction through terrorism, war, ethnic cleansing, and other forms of mass violence, of which book and library burnings are also a clear and prime example.

One way of making an ethnicity or culture disappear is to kill all its people; another one is to erase their past, their traditions, their culture, and replace them with the conquerors, which are considered to be better, more powerful, and even the only true ones.

To generate unity and loyalty among members of a group or nation, it is important to convince them that their group, dynasty, clan, religion, ethnicity, fraternity, political party, sports team, is better than the others. Taken to an extreme, this idea can lead to discrimination and even war and genocide.
There have been book and library burnings since ancient times. Even though we might think they have been over for decades, they are still ongoing. This presentation will provide several examples and analyse the motivations for this symbolic act.

It is important to understand that what is at risk with book burning is the preservation and continuation of the common cultural heritage of the world, something that should be defended at all costs.