At the turn of the year, she was recognised in the Queen’s 2005 New Year’s Honours List with an MBE for her services to Holocaust and genocide remembrance and education, and later that year she stepped down from her formal role at the Centre after ten years full-time service.
“What were we praying for? Freedom for the oppressed. Beth Shalom is their place, not our place now. It belongs to the World,” Marina said in an interview at the time. “If you were to ask me what image summed up the past ten years, I wouldn’t be able to tell you, because you’re all a part of it. The last ten years is just about people. About people with big needs and small needs, but most of all it’s about the vast amount of love that I find in humankind.” She added, “I meant to do what I did … I do want to see this work carried on. My dearest wish is that it should grow in strength in the years to come, that lives be completely changed to stand against racial hatred. It’s been a very fulfilling ten years, learning about sufferings and the courage of the human spirit; about students, their openness, and their sensitivity. And at the end of it, when words fail, love is the most important thing.”
On working with her sons, Marina commented in the same interview, “It’s been a revelation to see how they have come from being my offspring into being men of stature…. I greatly appreciated working with people of such calibre.”
