Sukkat Shalom Reform Synagogue

Whenever Ray and I go on holiday we always look for Jewish connections where we happen to be. A few weeks ago ago we went to Menton in the South Of France and, of course, we were very aware that there is a large Jewish population in France and many communities in the South, so we didn’t go looking for any unusual places.

I noticed in the local English Newspaper for Monte Carlo that there is a Chabad House in the South of France now….presumably for the more affluent and less adventurous backpacker!!! We also went to the Chagall Art Collection in Nice. I remember seeing the Chagall windows in the Hadassah hospital, Jerusalem, in 1968 and being told that when the Six Day War was about to break out the relevant Israeli Minister phoned Marc Chagall and told him not to worry as the windows were being taken down and stored in the basement of the hospital in case of air strikes. Chagall’s response was “Never mind the windows…save Israel…I will make you more windows”.

So it was wonderful to see the beautiful stained glass windows in his Museum. I must say his paintings were not really to our taste….but what do we know?

However wandering through the main thoroughfare in Menton we came across a couple of trees planted in a small garden. One was in memory of the Allied soldiers who liberated Menton in 1945 and the other was in memory of Yitzhak Rabin.

We took a photo of the plaque as we were quite surprised just to come across it. There is no shul in Menton so we were impressed that this olive tree, which is healthy and strong, was planted there. A tribute to a wonderful man.

On the day we went to Nice we had lunch by the old port and Ray mentioned there was a fort nearby with a memorial to the French Jews from the South of France who were taken to Auschwitz.

Although it was a steep climb and the lift was out of order, we were determined to visit it.

The Memorial itself is very moving. As you can see from the photos one pillar is for the Heroes of the Resistance and the other is in memory of the Victims of Persecution. In the two urns are ashes from Auschwitz itself.

The Memorial needs some work to repair the lettering which is fading badly. I do hope this will be done.

However, we found not only the Memorial but the Nice Jewish Cemetery. We spent a few minutes wandering through and found that the Community there stretches back a very long way.

We paused for a while. We thought “ there but for Winston Churchill and the English Channel would have been our parents….”

It always strikes me that wherever we travel in the world, our heritage and history makes itself known to us as some point. Indeed, we are a people of the Diaspora and it comes to remind us of our past time and again. It always makes me feel that wherever we go, we are never far from home.