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Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 1926 – 2022

Eyes of world on Queen’s State funeral

BY DAVID SAFFER

The eyes of the world will be on Westminster Abbey for the State funeral of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II on Monday.

King Charles III will head the Royal family in mourning. World leaders will be among 2,200 people at the ceremony in the heart of London which will be woven into the rich tapestry of British history.

Metropolitan Police have begun the biggest security operation in the country’s history to ensure safety as the nation bids a final farewell to its former monarch.

King Charles, Princess Anne, Prince Andrew and Prince Edward followed by Prince William and Prince Harry, walked behind the Queen’s coffin carried on a gun carriage, which was used by her parents, during the 38-minute walk from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Hall yesterday.

An estimated one million people are expected to pay their respects in the coming days to Queen Elizabeth who is Lying-inState at the historic site.

For millions watching on television and other platforms seeing the king’s son’s side by side was reminiscent of their mother, Diana, Princess of Wales’ funeral 25 years ago. Last year, the brothers were separated at Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh’s funeral. Yesterday’s image signalled unity.

The Princess Royal’s husband Vice-Admiral Sir Tim Laurence, her son Peter Phillips, the Queen’s cousin, the Duke of Gloucester and nephew the Earl of Snowdon also participated.

Some one thousand members of the armed forces took part in ceremonial dress as bandsmen played sombre music. Guns were fired in Hyde Park and Big Ben tolled each minute of the walk.

Camilla, the Queen Consort, Catherine, the Princess of Wales, Sophie, Countess of Wessex and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex travelled by car to Westminster.

Thousands lined the streets for the procession in an impeccably solemn atmosphere. Silence greeted the procession with occasional moments of applause to the late Queen.

The Queen’s coffin is on a raised platform draped in the Royal Standard with the Orb and Sceptre on top. Each corner of the platform is guarded around the clock by units from the Sovereign’s Bodyguard, the Household Division, or Yeoman Warders of the Tower of London.

The public can pay their respects until Monday, 6.30am. Strict guidelines are in place.

Recent days have seen an outpouring

Elizabeth II’s coffin leaves Holyrood Palace, Edinburgh of sympathy from the public as the King travelled to Scotland and Northern Ireland. He visits Wales tomorrow.

President Isaac Herzog and First Lady Michal Herzog will represent the State of Israel at the funeral alongside other world leaders, paying respects to the Royal Family and the British people.

They will fly to the United Kingdom on Sunday to express condolences to Charles

PHOTO CREDIT: TARAS YOUNG

III, the Royal Family and British people.

During the two-day visit, President Herzog will attend a reception hosted by King Charles for heads of state and royal families attending the funeral. The President will file past her coffin Lying-in-State.

Police and the army will ensure an estimated two million people lining the streets can watch the funeral procession safely. Some 10,000 officers will be on duty.

From the Editor’s desk

Last Thursday was a unique day to say the least.

It’s always busy on deadline day but this was a new scenario- as our paper was almost ready to go to print, news came out that the Queen had taken very ill and her family had all raced to her bedside.

I strongly suspected she had already passed away as her family were scrambling to her bedside. After long discussions the team collectively eventually made the decision to do a front page wishing Her Majesty a heartfelt refuah shalema with quotes from around the world from world leaders.

Yet just an hour after we sent the paper to the printers, official news came out that Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II had died.

In a panic I called the printers who said they had not printed yet and we had another 20 minutes.

It’s amazing what you can do in that time and full credit to my team for redoing the front page so quickly, enabling us to be the first printed newspaper in the UK with news of the Queen’s death on our front page.

The end of the Elizabethan era came about so suddenly, despite the fact that she was 96. Many people simply assumed she would go on and on so it indeed came as a huge shock to everyone that Her Majesty had passed away.

I met the Queen once, at a Garden Party at Buckingham Palace. It was striking how petite she was in real life yet she walked with tremendous purpose and speed and had a real presence about her as I recited the customary blessing made on royalty.

A few things have struck me the last few days. The reaction to her death from the vast amount of people across the world is probably unparalleled in history. I doubt any other King or Queen or even an American President would get the sheer amount of column inches and airtime, the huge volume of people talking about them, travelling to see the funeral procession or camping out for days just to get a glimpse of the coffin.

Imagine the reaction when Mashiach arrives? If this is what the Queen of England gets we should drool with excitement over the prospects of the end of days, when our people are all reunited in Israel once more. Our rabbis of old said that it’s good to see royalty to compare not just with Mashiach but also with Hashem. If people are prepared to camp out for 10 days on the Mall for a human ruler, we should take to heart as we approach the days of Rosh Hashanah how Hashem is always close, always listening if we simply reach out and talk to him! We can pray in any language at any point of the day.

Her Majesty was an exceptional woman who dedicated herself to her people for 70 years. She was an extraordinary character who interacted on many occasions with Jews including bestowing honours on some of them.

She truly set an example of what it means to be an icon in today’s world in a modest way, and she should be rightly applauded.

She brought honour and majesty to this country in her life and it is only appropriate that she gets the same in her death, as this Monday’s funeral will show and all the build up has proven.

With regards to human rulers we must wish King Charles III all the very best as he begins his rule.

He is a man who has had his challenges over the years, some of his own making. Yet he has been to Israel and attended many Jewish events over the years, he even has his own Yamulke with his crest upon it. Whilst it was certainly strange listening to the updated prayer for the royal family, we

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PHOTO CREDIT: JANE BROWN

must take all the world reaction to heart as we approach this Rosh Hashanah and remember this was all decided last Rosh Hashanah. We will certainly have more meaning over Rosh Hashanah in shul when we say in our prayers Long Live the King!

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