Jewish organizations on Thursday paid tribute to Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II, the death of Queen Elizabeth II, who passed away at the age of 96.
World Jewish Congress President Ronald S. Lauder said, “The World Jewish Congress and its more than 100 Jewish communities across the globe join the nation and people of the United Kingdom, and British Jewry in mourning the passing of Queen Elizabeth II, during whose 70-year reign Jewish communities in Great Britain, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and across the Commonwealth have flourished and grown in peace and security. Queen Elizabeth’s was a life of service and faith, in which love of country, Commonwealth, God and family was the supreme value.”
“She and her family were beloved symbols of resistance to Nazi tyranny, refusing to leave London during the worst times of the Blitz and standing in solidarity under siege with their compatriots. The young Princess Elizabeth was an inspiration and source of comfort to Anne Frank in her hiding place in Amsterdam and in 2015, she and her late husband, Prince Philip, visited the former Nazi concentration camp of Bergen-Belsen in northern Germany, where Anne Frank died, to commemorate its liberation by British troops. Queen Elizabeth’s refusal to flinch in the face of evil, but instead to fight it with every formidable fiber of her character, will be an inspiration for generations to come,” said Lauder.
“On behalf of Jewish communities across the globe, I extend our deepest condolences to her family, and to the nation and people of the United Kingdom. May her memory and her example be for a blessing,” he concluded.
Chief Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, President of the Conference of European Rabbis (CER), stated, “Together, Chief Rabbi Mirvis and the UK and the UK Jewish community, the Conference of the European Rabbis (CER), its President Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, and the chairman of its Standing Committee Dayan Menachem Gelley join mourning the passing of HM Queen Elizabeth II. Her dignified, devoted leadership will endure as an exemplar model for all. May her family find comfort.”
The European Jewish Congress, the representative organization of European Jewry, said that it is profoundly saddened at the passing of H.M Queen Elizabeth II.
“On behalf of Europe's Jewish communities we convey our deep condolences to the British Royal Family and to the citizens of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth.”
"This is a deeply sad day not only for Jews in the United Kingdom but for all of Europe and very much the end of an era," EJC President Ariel Muzicant said. "Her Majesty the Queen was fondly regarded by her Jewish subjects and came to embody the constancy and traditions of a British society based on values of tolerance and mutual respect. Those values have enabled the post-war British Jewish community to flourish as part of the European family of Jewish communities.”
"Both personally, as a serving soldier as Britain stood alone against the Nazi might in the darkest days of World War II and symbolically as part of the wider Royal Family facing the Blitz with her brave people, Europe's Jews owe a great debt of gratitude to her years of unflinching service to her people. May the Queen's memory be for a blessing," he added.