DISAPPOINTING though it was that Prince Charles was unable to attend, the unveiling of the statue of Licoricia of Winchester on Jewry Street was a great day for the city.
Many thoughtful people will have wondered over the years about the name, Jewry Street, and why there was no physical remains of the community that gave the street its name. That absence was symbolic in its own right as the Winchester community was destroyed when Jews, having expended their usefulness to King Edward I, were expelled in 1290.
The new statue is righting that wrong and reminds us that here in the UK we too have succumbed to the evil of anti-semitism. Licoricia was herself murdered in 1277 at her home in Jewry Street just down the road from the statue. Few people know that in the Middle Ages Jewish people in this country had by law to wear a badge, possibly a yellow star, identifying them as Jewish, a chilling precursor of Nazi Germany in the 1930s and 40s.
Licoricia reminds us that history is not made by white men and so her statue will forever be a breath of fresh air.
SEE ALSO: Licoricia statue unveiled in Winchester without Prince Charles
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