They’re in the swim as tribute to survivor

A SWIM in the River Elbe was part of a weekend in Kolin involving UK Liberal synagogue congregants which honoured the memory of one of the few survivors from the 500 Jews deported to Nazi death camps from the Czech town.

After liberation, Hana Greenfield moved to England and latterly to Israel, where she pursued her career as a writer and educator.

Mrs Greenfield helped to preserve the memory of Kolin Jewry, instituting an annual essay prize for students on the town’s Jewish heritage. She retained fond recollections of swimming in the Elbe in the 1930s.

This inspired her daughter, Meira Partem, to organise the memorial swim along with Jane Drapkin, a congregant at Northwood and Pinner Liberal Synagogue, which has a Torah scroll from Kolin.

Members of the local swimming club took part and swimmers also included Sue Bard from Edinburgh’s Sukkat Shalom community, who turned 73 on the day of the event.

Mrs Greenfield’s husband Murray was among the supporters, as was NPLS emeritus minister Rabbi Andrew Goldstein, who led services in the 320-yearold synagogue — restored in the 1990s and now primarily used as a concert hall and exhibition space. Two Jewish cemeteries remain as well as a trail of stolpersteine (stumbling stones) Meira Partem and Jane Drapkin

commemorating the town’s Jewish residents.

Kolin Mayor Vit Rakusan, who presented certificates to participants, wants to make the swim an annual event.

Rabbi Goldstein said the interest of Northwood and Pinner Liberal Synagogue, coupled with the support from Kolin civic officials, meant that “a town without Jews is doing more than any other Czech town to keep alive the memory of its Jewish community. And who would have thought a swim in the river would unite Jews and non-Jews in this duty of remembrance?”