25 May 2011
On the final morning of the States-led delegation to Israel (25 May), Economic Minister, Senator Alan Maclean was today (25 May) invited to lead the party in paying their respects to victims of the Holocaust by laying a ceremonial wreath in Jerusalem’s Yad Vashem National Holocaust Museum.
Albert Bedane
Whilst at the memorial, Senators Maclean and Cohen visited the commemorative plaque to Albert Bedane who hid Mary Erica Richardson, a Dutch Jewess, for nearly 2 years, during the latter part of the occupation in Jersey. On 4 January 2000, Albert Bedane was recognised as one of the Righteous among the Nations, the highest such award given by the State of Israel.
Senator Maclean commented, “It was an honour to be asked to lay a wreath at the National Holocaust Museum and it was made especially poignant by the memory of the heroic acts of Albert Bedane and the 22 women and men who defied the German authorities during the occupation of Jersey and died as a consequence in concentration camps.
Dead Sea Scrolls
The delegation was also received by the curator of Jerusalem’s Israel Museum. The museum is the country’s largest cultural institution and is best known for the Shrine of the Book, which houses the famous Dead Sea Scrolls.
The invitation to attend the memorial follows a full programme of engagements with the Israeli government and meetings with the high tech, e-commerce, clean technology and financial services sectors in this rapidly growing economy.
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