Reverend Ernest Levy
Reverend Ernest Levy OBE, one of Scotland’s most prominent Jewish leaders, and Holocaust survivor has died at the age of 84.
Born in 1925, in Bratislava, in the then Czechoslovakia, his family fled to Hungary to escape the Slovak fascists.
At the age of 19 he was taken away to Auschwitz from his home in Budapest, and he was also one of the few survivors of the Belsen camp.
In 1961 Levy moved from Hungary to Scotland, where he met his wife, and where he became cantor of the Giffnock and Newlands Synagogue in Glasgow. He and his wife went on to have two children.
The Holocaust survivor believed that it was very important for young Jews to be taught about the horrors that Jewish community faced in the run up to and during the Second World War, and he was a frequent speaker at Holocaust memorial events.
In 2002 Ernest Levy was awarded an OBE
My son Timothy met Ernest when he requested to film his Testimony for a college project. Ernest graciously consented to be filmed even though his health was poor.
Timothy told me that he felt privileged to have been able to spend time talking to Ernest, who he said,was one of the most genuine and optimistic people he had met.
I would like to send my condolences to Ernest’s family.
Ernest Levy was a close friend of my late Mother, Rene Balkin. He supported my mother through her difficult and drawn out illness. It was a priviledge to have known him and I wish his family long life.