Patrick Comerford
In the Jewish calendar, Shabbat Chol Hamoed Sukkot begins at sunset this evening and end at sunset tomorrow evening. This is the Shabbat that falls in the middle of the week-long festival of Sukkot, known as the ‘Intermediate Shabbat’. It is a significant Shabbat that features special Torah readings from the Book of Exodus, discussing Moses’s request to see God’s glory and God’s proclamation of his attributes. The Haftarah reading is from the Book of Ezekiel, prophesying the war of Gog and Magog, and the Book of Ecclesiastes is also read in some synagogues.
On a warm sunny autumn morning last week, I visited the Holocaust Memorial Stone in Bourton Park, Buckingham. The memorial has become the venue for the Holocaust Memorial Day ceremony in Buckingham each year.
The Holocaust Memorial Stone was installed at the east end of Bourton Park in 2021. Several years ago, Ruth Newell, a past mayor, initiated a fundraising drive to place a Holocaust memorial in one of the town’s parks. What began as a small initiative grew into a significant community event.
Buckingham Town Council commissioned Louis Francis, a local stonemason and master letter carver, to engrave the Holocaust Memorial Day emblem and the lettering. The stone is bedrock, sourced from the Brackley Road cemetery in Buckingham. It was transported, as a gesture to the community, by a local firm Paragon Tool Hire.
The Holocaust Day ceremony earlier this year (27 January 2025) was led by the Mayor of Buckingham, with readings from Ruth Newell, a former mayor, and from Stan Cohen, a representative of the Milton Keynes Synagogue. The service included readings, survivors’ stories and moments of silence, with time to pause and reflect on the immense loss and the vital lessons learned from this tragic period in history.
Around 25 primary school students from Bourton Meadow Academy showcased their recent work on the Holocaust, following a visit to Bletchley Park. Staff and sixth form students from Furze Down School contributed a vibrant hand-painted banner to the event, with bright colours and thoughtful designs symbolising hope and resilience.
Buckinghamshire has a total of 1,688 Jewish people, according to census figures, making up 0.3% of the population. There are at least two Jewish communities in Buckinghamshire, represented by the Milton Keynes and District Reform Synagogue, based in north Milton Keynes, and the South Bucks Jewish Community, which holds its services and events near Amersham.
After visiting the Holocaust memorial I went for a long walk by the banks of the River Great Ouse and through Bourton Park. It was a sunny day, and it was still within the Ten Days of Awe, the High Holy Days that ended with Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, last week (2 October 2025).
It is the most popular of Buckingham’s three main parks, with plenty of space to explore nature, exercise and play. The river and a series of ponds create a diverse eco-system including otters, kingfishers and dragonflies as well as wildflower and meadow areas.
Bourton Park’s hard-surface paths are accessible and suitable for running or long walks, and the park is the home of Buckingham Parkrun and Junior Parkrun. The Trim Trail has outdoor exercise equipment for pull-ups, hurdles, sit-ups and more. There is a multi-use games area for basketball and football and a table tennis table. A fenced area caters for toddlers, while a senior play area has a zip wire, balance trail and spinners.
As I walked by River Great Ouse in the park, with a vast number of weeping willows along the river bank, I found myself repeating the opening words of Psalm 137, so often associated with Holocaust commemorations:
1 By the rivers of Babylon –
there we sat down and there we wept
when we remembered Zion.
2 On the willows there
we hung up our harps.
3 For there our captors
asked us for songs,
and our tormentors asked for mirth, saying,
‘Sing us one of the songs of Zion!’
4 How could we sing the Lord’s song
in a foreign land?
5 If I forget you, O Jerusalem,
let my right hand wither!
6 Let my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth,
if I do not remember you,
if I do not set Jerusalem
above my highest joy.
Shabbat Shalom, שבת שלום
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