Statement concerning the Stitch Their Names Together Exhibition at Leeds Minster

Leeds Minster announces that the Stitch Their Names Together exhibition, which was scheduled to continue until this coming Sunday, has now closed.

As an act of remembrance of men, women and children killed in Gaza since October 2023 names of those killed have been stitched on panels. Those names have come from the published list from the Gaza Health Authority.

As the exhibition was scheduled to open we were contacted by the Leeds Jewish Representative Council suggesting that, amongst the 16,800 names, there was likely to be 12 names of known Hamas fighters. We immediately checked if those 12 names were in fact on the 90 panels in Leeds Minster and were able to confirm that they were not and so the opening of the exhibition went ahead as planned.

Today we received further information from the Leeds Jewish Representative Council indicating that they had evidence suggesting that there are the names of at least 18 known Hamas fighters contained in the exhibition in the Minster. Having received this information, we immediately decided to close the exhibition to the public.

Leeds Minster categorically condemns all violence and in particular the killing of civilians and the taking of hostages, by Hamas, on October 7th 2023.

Leeds Minster seeks to work with all faith groups within the city and acknowledges that by hosting this exhibition we have harmed our relationship with some in the Jewish community for which we apologize and now seek to rebuild trust.

The Revd Canon Paul Maybury
On behalf of Leeds Minster

10.00am 18 September 2026