Last week, the Dean and Chapter attended a high-profile interfaith event in the city of Winchester, to witness the unveiling of a statue of medieval England’s most prominent Jewish woman, Licoricia.
Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis and a representative of the Royal Family joined more than 1,000 people to see the statue of Licoricia of Winchester being inaugurated. Christian, Muslim, Sikh and Buddhist community leaders, alongside members of the County and City Councils, also came out to show their support for the project.
The Lord Lieutenant and local school children unveiled the statue which was followed by a prayer from Chief Rabbi Mirvis.
Addressing the event, Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis spoke of the “sustained horrific persecution of Jews in this country leading ultimately to the expulsion of the Jews from England in 1290.”
Widowed twice, Licoricia was a major financier to King Henry III and his Queen, Eleanor. In later life, her financial contributions helped build Westminster Abbey and its ornate shrine to Edward the Confessor.
The project to install the statue, crafted by sculptor Ian Rank-Broadley, was launched to help mark the presence of a medieval Jewish community in England’s former capital city.
The reveal marked the culmination of over five years of hard work coupled with a substantial fundraising campaign which will now support educational programmes as part of Licoricia’s legacy.
The Very Revd Catherine Ogle, Dean of Winchester reflected on the event, “I was delighted to be present at the unveiling of this statue of Licoricia of Winchester on such a significant day for the city. It’s appropriate that representatives from the different faith communities and leading figures from Winchester and Hampshire came together to celebrate not just this sculpture but the contribution of the Jewish community to our city. Chapter is proud to support this project and to recognise the most important Jewish woman in medieval England.
This is a timely opportunity for the Church to voice support for the Jewish community, and for members of other faith communities, to promote tolerance and the value of diversity, and the continuing importance of strong inter-faith understanding.
The statue aims to educate people about Winchester’s important but little-known medieval Jewish community and celebrate Licoricia as a role model for women today. She has been described as a potentate and was certainly one of the leading personalities in the Jewish community at the time. She brought up her family as a single parent, conducted her business, and prospered in what could be a very hostile society, leading up to the expulsion of the Jews from England, in 1290. I hope this statue will be an inspiration for future generations, especially the shared text from both Jewish and Christian scripture, ‘Love thy neighbour as thyself’.”
