Prince Charles speaks at a pre-Hanukkah reception at Buckingham Palace, Dec. 5, 2019. Photo: Board of Deputies of British Jews.

At a Buckingham Palace gathering on Thursday, the UK’s Prince Charles hailed the “special and precious” connection between the royal family and British Jews.

The pre-Hannukah reception was attended by around 400 people representing Jewish community and volunteer groups from across the UK.

“It is a great delight to welcome you this evening to Buckingham Palace, as the festival of Hanukkah approaches, and to celebrate with you the contribution of our Jewish community to the health, wealth and happiness of the United Kingdom,” the Prince of Wales said. “In every walk of life, in every field of endeavor, our nation could have had no more generous citizens, and no more faithful friends.”

“I say this from a particular and personal perspective because I have grown up being deeply touched by the fact that British synagogues have, for centuries, remembered my family in your weekly prayers,” he noted. “And as you remember my family, so we too remember and celebrate you.”

“In my own small way, I have sought to recognize the contribution of the Jewish community by various means, whether in attending or hosting receptions for the Kindertransport Association, or for Holocaust survivors, or attending events for the National Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, of which I am Patron, or helping to build a Jewish Community Centre in Krakow — where I was privileged to fix a mezuzah to the doorpost — or in agreeing without a moment’s hesitation to become Patron of World Jewish Relief,” Prince Charles stated

“If I may say so, ladies and gentlemen, I see this as the least I can do to try to repay, in some small way, the immense blessings the Jewish people have brought to this land and, indeed, to humanity,” he added.