By Yori Yalon

MK Isaac Herzog (Labor) and the Jerusalem Foundation will inaugurate a large statue of former British Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill at the Yael Garden near Jerusalem’s Old City on Sunday.

The bronze statue of Sir Winston Churchilll will be placed in the Yael Garden, near Jerusalem’s Old City. – Photo: Sasson Tiram

Expected at the event is Churchill’s grandson, Lord Randolph Churchill, who will arrive from London. Also present will be Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat, Jerusalem Foundation president Mark Sofer, British Consul-General Sir Vincent Fean, British Ambassador Matthew Gould, and Israel’s Ambassador in London Daniel Taub.

The statue was made by internationally acclaimed Croatian-born Jewish sculptor Oscar Nemon, who, concerned about the Nazi threat, left Europe in 1938 and settled in England. Most of his family was killed in Europe in the Holocaust. Nemon, who died in England in 1985 at the age of 79, made more than a dozen statues of Churchill, which have been placed around the world.

The project was conceived by Herzog and the British trustee of the Jerusalem Foundation in England, Anthony Rosenfelder, after attending a reading of historian Martin Gilbert’s book “Churchill and the Jews.” Gilbert’s book covers Churchill’s close ties to the Jews and the empathy he had towards them during their struggle to form a country of their own.

“During times like these, when the free world is faced with the threat of a nuclear Iran and global terrorism, it is important to preserve Churchill’s legacy, having led the world to victory against the Nazi tyrant, in Jerusalem, the city of peace of freedom,” Herzog told Israel Hayom.

“The statue was made by an artist who was a Holocaust survivor, one of the greatest 20th century artists in Europe. Churchill let the man personally sculpt his face. Four such statues have been placed in capitals around the world, and now in Israel’s capital, Jerusalem, as well.”

View original Israel Hayom publication at: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=6294