King Charles was put through his paces on the dancefloor as he took the stepsister of Holocaust victim Anne Frank for a twirl while visiting a Jewish community centre in north London.
Eva Schloss, 93, who survived Nazi concentration camps and has spent decades promoting peace among humanity, partnered the king during a celebration of Hanukah.
“He was sweet, he really took part, he seemed to enjoy it but it is unusual for him not to make a speech,” Schloss said later. “But he was very relaxed and he enjoyed it, I was trying to get a dance with him.”
The king toured the JW3 community centre on Finchley Road speaking to schoolchildren packing presents and food hampers for families around Camden, refugees baking gingerbread biscuits and survivors of the Holocaust.
In a speech during which she presented the king with a Chanukiah of eight candelabras, Dame Vivien Duffield said she founded JW3 to give the Jewish community in London a place to gather to protect and celebrate their heritage.
Schloss said: “Unfortunately, there is still antisemitism, people say Jewish people should go to Israel, this is England, but I hope we are getting over these prejudices.
JW3’s chief executive, Raymond Simonson, who accompanied the king on his tour of the centre, said the monarch arrived with a car boot full of rice and tinned tuna to go into the donation packets.
“There are 200 households we support around the Camden area and they don’t have enough food at Christmas and now they have food from the king as well as from our volunteers.
“Most people in the British Jewish community come from refugee stock and the fact of being accepted and meeting the monarch, it’s an endorsement of the community’s place in British society.”
