Excluding the J word

It is shameful that those responsible for installing historic plaques (My refugee hero dad deserves his blue plaque, 10 September) fail the Jewish community, and the historical truth, by refusing to acknowledge someone famous and heroic was Jewish.

Keller is not a recognizable Jewish name and in this case the word Jewish should have been added in front of “refugee”.

It is not only plaques; in a recent edition of Leeds University’s alumni magazine, a famous academic from a similar background to Keller had an obituary excluding the fact he was a Jewish Holocaust survivor.

As someone involved with a small group that installs donated plaques in memory of famous Jewish people (such as the recent memorial to fireman Harry Errington’s wartime George Cross award, in Rathbone Place, Soho), we always insist the “J” word goes in — to raise the profile, to fight antisemitism, and to show our people have contributed massively out of proportion to our numbers to a civilised, anti-racist and creative society.

Every opportunity missed obstructs and even opposes this struggle.

Martin Sugarman

UK branch, Jewish Society for Historic Preservation

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