The founder of the country's largest inter-faith day of social action has been recognised in the Kings Birthday Honours.
Laura Marks OBE has been made a Commander of the British Empire (CBE) for services to inter-faith relations, to Holocaust and genocide education and commemoration, and to women’s empowerment.
Founder of Mitzvah Day International, Ms Marks, who lives in Primrose Hill, was made an Officer of the British Empire in 2015.
A Ham&High columnist for the past two years, Ms Marks said she was "immensely grateful" to have received the award.
"The reason I got the citation for three different things is because I have amazing people around me making things happen," she said.
"In all cases I'm working with people who believe in the causes I believe in. The causes I believe in are so integral to society now that there's a lot of people who really want to do something about them.
"We're living in an age where I feel at the moment we are swimming against the tide but the fact that so many many people are prepared to engage in it and the fact that my CBE recognises that is really important."
Mitzvah Day, supported by the Ham & High, has grown from an inaugural event involving just over 100 people at the Britannia hotel, in Belsize Park, in 2005 to a worldwide initiative marked by thousands of people globally.
A former South Hampstead High School pupil, Ms Marks set up the charity after attending a mitzvah day at a synagogue in Hollywood, USA, where she lived for a time with her TV producer husband Dan Patterson, co-creator of comedy shows Mock the Week and Whose Line Is It Anyway?
Since then the mother-of-three has co-founded Nisa-Nashim, a Muslim-Jewish women's network.
In 2016, she became Chair of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, a UK charity that supports and promotes Holocaust Memorial Day by working to educate people about the dangers of hatred.
In 2020 she relaunched the Alliance of Jewish Women and heads the Jewish Women's Faith Forum, which is multi-faith.
She said that a "seriously poignant" moment for her was that Holocaust survivor, Olympian and champion weightlifter Sir Ben Helfgott died the day of honours announcement on Friday (June 16).
"He didn't give me his legacy at all but I feel I'm part of that legacy that says that all of these massive issues really cannot be forgotten,
we can't sweep them under the carpet," she said.
"We are living in a world which is increasingly full of hate and polarisation and all of these issues and causes are about that.
"That's what's so lovely not just about getting the CBE but that it's about these three causes which are very different but they are all really
about making the world fairer, making the world more inclusive, and making the world safer and that's why I care about them."
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