david.perlMy father was on the British New Year’s honours list for services to Queen and country. He has been awarded a British Empire Medal. It was for his work with the Holocaust Education Trust in promoting racial tolerance and religious harmony.
The irony is my father is pretty judgemental. He dislikes many Eastern Europeans that he says are the cause of many of the problems in the UK (even though he is from Hungary, which last time i checked is in Eastern Europe)
He has never accepted my wife as she was not born Jewish, despite converting into the religion at her instigation. Last year he told me it is one of his biggest hurts, that i chose to marry out of his religion. I have little to do with my religion of birth any more. My mother was little better. She told a Sikh friend off for eating food at our wedding assuming he was a helper and not a guest.
I cant say i feel much pride as i believe his work is more about gaining narcissistic supply rather than an absolute belief in fostering racial harmony and a desire to make the world a more compassionate place.
The work i am doing through the ManKind project has tolerance, diversity and inclusivity as a central theme. For sure it was never modelled growing up.
