CELEBRITY TV judge Robert Rinder gave inspirational speech on Jewish life and the importance of Holocaust eduction as he visited a school last week.

The barrister and day time TV star was the special guest speaker at the second Chaim Ferster Memorial Lecture.

Organised by North West Friends of Israel and held at the King David School, the event attracted more than 500 attendees.

There Mr Rinder delivered a talk that was both humorous and emotional, delving in to the modern Jewish Zeitgeist and psyche, and sharing his own experiences as a third generation survivor descendant, and a Jewish man in the public eye.

He told the audience: "We are contrarians and we celebrate life above all else.

"It's for no one else to define our struggle, our strength, or our identity."

The importance of Holocaust education was also discussed by Mr Rinder, whose grandfather survived life in a ghetto and concentration camps in Nazi occupied Poland before escaping to the UK.

Moreover, the event also saw talks from two participants of Prestwich-based charity, The Fed's, 'My Voice' project.

The international project sees Holocaust survivors and refugees record their life stories in book format, and was praised at the event as "a vital tool in holocaust education and in combating holocaust denial".

My Voice participants Ike Altemann and Marianne Philipps read excerpts from their books, relating their memories of Kristallnacht, the concentration camps, liberation, and ultimately, the families and lives they would go on to build in England.