CCJ and the Leek family are delighted to award the 2023 James Leek Memorial Prize to David Arnold MBE. David is Co-Chair of Manchester CCJ and a past President of the Jewish Representative Council of Greater Manchester & Region. He is a founder-member of Salaam-Shalom Bury and a founder member of the Muslim-Jewish Forum. He has lectured and advised the government on Holocaust education and helped organise a conference of the International Council of Christians and Jews in Manchester in 2012. David has been a tireless advocate for grassroots dialogue in Manchester and for educating within the Jewish community about the changes in Christian understandings of Judaism since the Second Vatican Council.

James Leek was a CCJ Trustee and Branch leader who passed away in April 2021. Many thanks to Hilary Leek and all the Leek family for their generosity in supporting this award in James' memory.

JAMES LEEK MEMORIAL AWARD – THANKS AND APPRECIATION

First, I extend thanks and appreciation to the family of James Leek who created this award to celebrate and perpetuate his invaluable contribution to the work of the Council of Christians and Jews.  I hope you will feel I am worthy to receive this great honour.

Second, it would have been impossible for me to make my modest contribution to the work of CCJ without the constant support, encouragement and advice of two incredible, brilliant friends: Sister Teresa Brittain, a stalwart of the Sisters of Sion and a trustee of CCJ – her profound wisdom is the rock upon which I have come to rely; and the Revd Canon Steve Williams, whose brilliant insights and political nous are matched only by his modesty; without these two great and trusted friends, and without the support of the members of Manchester CCJ, my contribution to our work would be impossible.

All of us are truly blessed to be numbered among the first generation to live during the years in which Christian theology about Judaism has evolved away from the tradition of teaching contempt to the teaching of respect for Jews and Judaism.  This gradual evolution, which began in the aftermath of and in response to the Shoah, now amounts to a revolution.  Furthermore, this blessed revolution in Christian understanding of Judaism and the gradual emergence of mutual trust, respect and even friendship between Christians and Jews, unprecedented in history, is well-known to theologians, academics and scholars, to some of our faith leaders, and to the members of CCJ.

However, the vast majority of our congregations and communities, many members of the clergy, almost all our rabbis, and the vast majority of teachers of Religious Education in mainstream and faith schools are all unaware of these immense, historic changes.

So, the strategic challenge that faces us all, and to which I have dedicated myself, is to disseminate knowledge and understanding of this revolution so that all the members of our communities of faith, including our children and students, can understand, access  and seize this opportunity; which for Christians is: to purge their faith of traditional anti-Judaism in favour of the teaching of respect; and for the Jewish community – to appreciate that as we take this revolution forward, so we begin to lift the existential menace to Jewish faith and life posed by obsolete anti-Jewish prejudices.  Thank you all.