For a while we had been thinking about holding a meeting with an ecological theme, and in May we were finally able to do so. We met at Neve Shalom; Andrew Doubt of St Thomas More Church and Michelle Benn who is attached to the synagogue gave talks on the approach of their faith to the environment. We felt it important to have a speaker from both faiths and it was interesting to see where they differed but also where they overlapped.

As an extra activity we organised a visit to the National Holocaust Centre and Museum in Laxton in September. It was particularly moving to hear former branch member Martin Stern share his own personal testimony as a holocaust survivor with a large audience of schoolchildren of various ages. As well as giving a lot of details about the horrors of the holocaust, Martin stressed one reason he continued to give his testimony was because similar atrocities were being perpetrated in many countries today which made his story more than just an eye-witness account of a historical event. Special thanks are due to Angela and Carol for the effort they put into making the visit happen.

In November we went to St Peter’s Church, Highfields where we screened the film One Life about Sir Nicholas Winton who organised the evacuation of 669 Jewish children from Prague. All of those present found the film very powerful and moving, so much so in fact that there was no discussion afterwards; people just let the film sink in and talked quietly amongst themselves. We weren’t sure we would be able to screen the film, and we were therefore very grateful to the staff at St Peter’s who helped us with all the technicalities involved in getting the film put on.