Spiel

Justin Bieber and Anne Frank: Why the fuss?

Jennifer Lipman — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 15:41:47 +0100

Dear Kitty (as Anne Frank never wrote),

"I'm soo sick of being stuck in hiding, because my dad keeps telling me to turn down the volume on my Justin Bieber CD. If only I could get out to go and see him on tour…"

Clearly, Anne– the teenage diarist forced into hiding by the Nazis, who eventually died at Bergen Belsen – had more serious considerations than the average 21st century western teenager. In her diary, perhaps one of the most well-known examples of Holocaust-era testimony, she wrote of an everyday existence blighted by fear, death and hatred.

How tragic, knowing what became of her, to read her words: "Although I'm only fourteen, I know quite well what I want, I know who is right and who is wrong. I have my opinions, my own ideas and principles."

Yet those who have read Anne's diary will recall that, for all that her life was unlike many young people then and since, she was in many ways a typical teenager - frustrated by her mother, confused about boys. She could be petulant, she could be irrational. In another life, it's not a stretch to imagine she might have been – as Bieber claimed this week – a fan of some fairly atrocious music. One of the many tragedies of her story is that she never got the chance to be embarrassed by her teenage passions.

Bieber is facing opprobrium for writing in the Anne Frank House guestbook that "Anne was a great girl. Hopefully she would have been a belieber."

The correct response to a tale of persecution - to wonder whether the victim would have liked your latest video? Not to most of us, attuned to the sensitivities of discussing the Holocaust. As Karen Pollock, chief executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust, noted, his message left her "a bit lost for words".

Gillian Walnes, co-founder of the Anne Frank Trust UK, issued a sterner rebuke. "This is a place where Anne Frank spent two years," she said. "Now 70 years later a pop singer is trying to hijack this for his own self-aggrandisement."

She has a point, not least that Justin Bieber didn't reach stratospheric levels of success without being a shameless self-publicist. If his visit had been purely a visit – rather than, at least in part, a publicity stunt – we wouldn't even have heard about it.

Of course it trivialises the Holocaust to talk about whether one of its most famous victims would have been a fan of a singer with ridiculous hair; far more crucial to reflect on the piles of human hair, seized by the Nazis from their helpless victims, preserved at Auschwitz and other concentration camps. Of course the legacy of a girl who died before her 16th birthday for no other reason than being born a Jew, deserves more than contemplation as to how she would have spent her weekends if they'd been hers to spend.

Yet look on almost every news site around today. Yes, there are headlines about Bieber. But there are also headlines about Anne Frank, and the Holocaust – articles that his mostly tween fanbase would be unlikely to peruse without Bieber's photograph accompanying them. Anne is even a trending topic on Twitter.

And it matters. It matters because in 2009 a survey revealed that one in 20 British kids thought Hitler was a football coach, and because in a decade, there won't even be survivors left to talk to them at schools, or grandparents around to share their memories. It matters because when Baroness Thatcher died, the interest of a confused generation was piqued mainly by a tweet from Harry Styles. It matters because children listen far more to their role-models than they do to well-meaning teachers.

We can lament that as a sign of a generation brought up on reality TV and 140 characters of trash, or we can see it as an opportunity, and look to these "stars", with their poor spelling and ignorant remarks, and recruit them to spread the word about important issues. They'll do it if it gives them good publicity; teachers and organisations should seize on that.

We'll never know whether Anne Frank would have been a "belieber" and, if we had the chance, I'd hope it wouldn't be the first question we'd put to her. But if even one 14-year-old asks his parents or teachers today about why she lived in an attic, or reads her moving diary, then we'll have Justin Bieber and his ridiculous remark to thank.

Land of the Locust Eaters

Simon Rocker — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 18:01:24 +0000

The swarm of locusts which, showing no respect for borders, arrived in Israel this week from Egypt has triggered a good deal of online comment about whether you can eat them or not (though how you catch them I don't know - perhaps with an aeroplane with a very large net).

If you want to know about the kashrut of locusts, then I commend the blog of Rabbi Natan Slifkin, aka the Zoo Rabbi here.

Goodbye to all that

Jenni Frazer — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 14:09:34 +0000

Today is our last day in Furnival Street; our last day in the City. The JC is moving and as the paper does so, years worth of memories of life in this maddening, rackety building, come flooding back.

When I joined as a (very) junior reporter there was a hierarchy which almost defies belief today. It was hard to work out who was who, from the ancient man who, apparently as a messenger of 14, had actually brought the Balfour Declaration to the paper for publication, to the several defiantly foreign men who mangled the English language in their speech, but who produced beautiful copy.

There was an antique Dickensian whose clothes were so old they were dark green with age; he, it was rumoured, had once been Green Flag, a legendary travel editor. Our actual travel editor, when I arrived, was known far and wide as The Captain, a tribute to his near heroic appetite for cruises.

Those who manned our front desk were uniformly odd. There was one who had once been the deputy mayor of Hackney, whose conversation with the one-eyed Moshe Dayan has gone down in JC history: "'Ere, there's a bloke dahn 'ere with an eyepatch, says he knows the editor." There was a messenger (we had messengers in those days) known as Jockey Joe, a cheery Romany who relieved many of the staff of money for dodgy bets. Another messenger spoke fluent Korean, was an expert in origami, and wrote children's books. We also had a beloved handyman whose contribution to clearing our pipes was to pour hydrochloric acid down them - astonishing that the building did not fall about our ears after this stunt.

There have been romances, ancient and modern; there have been editors who liked to sleep, and those to whom the notion of sleep seemed crazy. Of one editor it was said that he took his head off when he got home and placed it on charge, overnight.

Once we had a room full of sub-editors with vacuum pipes above them; onion-skin thin copy paper was wrapped into one of the vacuum tubes, which then whooshed through the pipes to the composing room in the basement. Downstairs the comps practised the black art of the print, hammering the hot metal into place and laughing at the junior reporters. Long strips of copy hung about the place, fragrant with the smell of cow gum.

On the first floor we had a proofreading department, presided over by a gently-spoken non-Jewish countryman who had mastered every arcane Jewish expression and title. "No, my maid," he would tell me. "They don't have troops in the Jewish Lads' Brigade." Who knew? Over in classified, another philosemitic non-Jew ruled what went into adverts, taking especial care that young men advertising for a flatmate didn't disguise their wish for a female friend. On George's watch, that was not allowed.

Each of the editors had his (they were all men, except for the women's editor, who didn't count) own office, with a light outside the door. A red light meant no entry unless one wished for imminent death. For at least one editor it meant he was taking his afternoon shloff.

Up in the art room, a skylight permitted a direct view of Robert Maxwell, the newspaper tycoon, flying his helicopter to and from the neighbouring Daily Mirror building. And once we had a party on the roof, beach umbrellas and all, to welcome the King and Queen of Jordan.

Next door to our building is a long-established City pub. Sometimes we would proof pages there; at any rate, the editors usually knew where to find us. It is called The Castle, though we long wanted to re-name it The Egg and Onion.

At 172 years old, the JC has survived by adapting, and we will certainly do that in our new home. But Furnival Street, it is fair to say, will never be the same. We will all miss it.

Eighth plague hits Egypt

Jennifer Lipman — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 11:52:21 +0000

Here’s a mad pre-Pesach coincidence for you.

Reports are emerging of a plague of locusts descending on modern Egypt – a catastrophe that, as you most likely know, marked the eighth stage in the ten biblical plagues visited upon Egypt ahead of the Exodus.

Time magazine has the story:

"Folks in Giza, Egypt — home of the famous pyramids — are presently grappling with just such a plague, having to fend off upwards of 30 million locusts according to official estimates."

With less than three weeks to go until seder, it’s certainly ironic timing. As yet, however, there have been no reports of rivers of blood, frog invasions or bizarre spells of daytime darkness. If anyone hears of a bloke called Moses wandering about Egypt, though...

A new voice in Israel

Simon Rocker — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 12:32:52 +0000

Diaspora Jews generally pay little attention to what Israeli politicians say in the Knesset.

But one speech has won the admiration of many in the Jewish world.

It was the maiden parliamentary address by Ruth Calderon, one of the MK’s for Yair Lapid’s new Yesh Atid party.

Dr Calderon is the founder of secular study centres where Israelis of all kinds can study Torah, Talmud and other rabbinic texts in an independent and pluralist setting.

Her passionate belief that classical Jewish literature is the heritage of all Jews has made her inspiration to those looking for ways to straddle the religious-secular divide.

As she told the Knesset, “I am convinced that studying the great works of He Hebrew and Jewish culture are crucial to construct a new Hebrew culture for Israel.”

The Torah, she said, “is not the property of one movement or another, it is a gift that every one of us received”.

How good a politician is we will have to wait and see. But there is no greater calling in Judaism than to be a teacher and she is one of the finest teaching today.

You can see her speech, with English subtitles,
Here.

Gove’s Philistines

Simon Rocker — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 16:37:03 +0000

The Department for Education’s decision to ignore Jewish protests and refuse to recognise Hebrew as an official language for primary school teaching can only be described as an act of philistinism.

It makes absolutely no sense to include Latin and ancient Greek (along with French, Spanish, Italian, German and Spanish) on the list of seven – but not Hebrew.

Hebrew has long been considered one of the foundation languages of Western civilisation; as long as ago as the sixteenth century, Henry VIII instituted Regius chairs in Hebrew at Oxford and Cambridge.

The Department for Education argues that there will be nothing to stop schools offering more than one language – but they must teach at least one of the official seven.

Ideally, it might be desirable for children at primary school to learn more than one language – and there are some at Jewish schools who do.

But it is better that children learn at least one language properly than two patchily. And if Jewish schools – which have been attempting to improve their standards of Hebrew – want to concentrate on Ivrit, they should be free to do so.

I find it hard to believe that Education Secretary Michael Gove had much, if anything to do, with his officials’ narrow-mindedness. But he should step in now and reverse it.

Moreover, restricting the list of recognised languages to a paltry seven represents a central diktat which flies in the face of all the rhetoric about parental and local school choice.

Rabbi David Hartman

Simon Rocker — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 13:36:01 +0000

The death of Rabbi David Hartman in Israel on Sunday has deprived the Jewish world of one of its most forward-looking thinkers.

The Shalom Hartman Institute he founded endeavoured to find bridges between rabbinic tradition and the pluralism of contemporary Jewish life.

Rabbi Hartman was one of the speakers at Traditional Alternatives, the symposium of Orthodox thought in London staged in 1989 shortly before Jonathan Sacks was appointed Chief Rabbi.

But, sadly, I am not sure he would have been included in such an event were it to have been held 20 years on.

Israel, the Nazis and yet another comparison

Jennifer Lipman — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 12:44:58 +0000

Ah, those charming folk at the Muslim Public Affairs Committee.

Not content with thanking MP David Ward – he of the nicely-timed comparison between the Nazis then, and Israel now – "for his bravery and for standing up for the truth", MPAC UK have gone a step further and tweeted the following:

"Ever thought about the differences between #Nazism and #Zionism ? A picture speaks a thousand words."

Lovely.

Inquiring minds

Jenni Frazer — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 09:44:42 +0000

Let us unpick the events of the week so far. On Sunday, it was Holocaust Memorial Day: a yearly event initiated by the British government to mark, in line with many other countries, the attempted complete annihilation of a people. It is right and proper that HMD is used as an educational tool to mark other genocides. It is not right and proper to make a moral equivalence between what happened to the Jews between 1933 and 1945, and what is happening today in Israel, Gaza and the West Bank.

On Holocaust Memorial Day the editors at the Sunday Times chose to publish two curiosities: a peculiar magazine story about David Irving, the Holocaust denier, and the tours he is running in concentration camps; and the by-now bizarre cartoon from Gerald Scarfe, featuring a bloodthirsty Benjamin Netanyahu building a wall and using murdered Palestinians for its cement.

Scarfe himself has said he very much regretted the timing of the publication, claiming he did not know that it was HMD. But even if it had not been the anniversary, the cartoon was not just offensive - but missed the point in its comment on the Israeli elections. Netanyahu did not win an overwhelming victory and nor did the anti-peace camp forces in Israel.

Leaving aside the question of whether or not the cartoon was antisemitic, I wonder at the initial response of the Sunday Times editors who chose to defend Scarfe by pointing to the Irving story. This is as if to say, oh, we were critical of Israel but here's another piece where we were nice about Jews. So that's all right, then.

Meanwhile, in another part of the forest, the LibDem MP David Ward is either too stupid or too malicious to understand the impact of his remarks about "the Jews" who had failed to learn the lessons of history. Buying in completely to this moral equivalence argument which has now become the belief of choice for the chatterati, Ward drew a comparison with what had happened in Europe to what he believed was currently being perpetrated by Israel against the Palestinians. Not only did he not appear to understand the implications of what he had said, only hours after signing the HMD Book of Remembrance, he continued to maintain his argument.

On Sunday night the BBC screened a quietly powerful documentary to mark Holocaust Memorial Day, a film made by Lisa Bryer, producer of The Last King of Scotland, about her aunt, Henia. Henia was the perfect illustration of a Holocaust survivor. If there was a ghetto or a concentration camp or a death march, Henia had been there, survivng in ways even she did not know how. And yet, despite all the truly terrible experiences Henia had undergone, even she was shocked and horrified at what she saw at the gates of Bergen Belsen: the rotting piles of decomposing bodies, the mountain of corpses.

If David Ward or Gerald Scarfe could point to a parallel horror in Israel, their criticism might - just might - have a kernel of legitimacy. But of course they cannot; and to try to compare such experiences, or tot up death numbers as Jonathan Dimbleby did at the weekend, is futile.

What is most distressing about this week's events is the growing acceptance of questions such as "Does Israel deserve a future?" as was voiced on the BBC's Any Questions, and nobody even blinks. The essence of HMD is being distorted and manipulated and we must genuinely wonder about our place in this country.

Spot the difference?

Marcus Dysch — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 15:39:56 +0000

The comments made by the Board of Deputies president Vivian Wineman in relation to the Jewish Leadership Council this week were shocking and bizarre.

Mr Wineman is the leading elected representative of the British Jewish community.

It is impossible to imagine what was going through his head when he joked about the wealth and “bank balances” of senior JLC members.

What is perhaps even more remarkable is that he spoke in such a way despite also chairing the JLC’s council of members.

There was no apology from Mr Wineman this week, just a denial that he had “denigrated” the JLC.

Less than a year ago Board vice-president Jonathan Arkush told a similar plenary meeting that the JLC was “unelected, unaccountable and...unacceptable" – two of those points are fact, the third is merely open to debate.

On that occasion Mick Davis, the JLC chairman, attacked Mr Arkush, claiming his comments had been an “unwarranted and egregious attack”. Board treasurer Laurence Brass and then joint vice-president Jerry Lewis said Mr Arkush should "consider taking a break from communal politics".

A week later Mr Arkush wrote to deputies to apologise, saying his comments were “inappropriate” and blaming their utterance on his being “unwell”. He was removed from a liaison committee set up to aid the two organisations, and discovered his ticket to represent the Board at the Aipac conference in Washington had swiftly disappeared.

Now the Board president makes remarks that are arguably far more cutting, inflammatory and insulting – acknowledging the JLC’s lack of democracy and joking about the wealth of its members.

Yet there has been no apology from Mr Wineman, no calls for him to resign, and no intervention from Mr Davis.

Why?

What’s the difference between the two cases?

I think we should be told.

Nothing like a good argument

Simon Rocker — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 12:30:02 +0000

The British-born Israeli Talmud scholar Daniel Sperber – who is speaking at South Hampstead Synagogue on Sunday night – is one of the most eminent Orthodox academics.

But Orthodoxy and academia haven’t always sat easily together. The relationship and tensions between Orthodox thinking and university research will be the focus of a new programme in London, “Arguments for Heaven's Sake”, of which Rabbi Sperber will be giving the inaugural lecture. It is sponsored by the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies and the Friends of Louis Jacobs.

Over the next few months Oxford will also be hosting a number of international scholars for a related programme exploring questions raised by the work of Rabbi Louis Jacobs, who tried to reconcile academic scholarship and traditional Judaism, though, of course, not in a way which always met the approval of the Orthodox establishment.

Professor Sperber's lecture is entitled "Tradition, Continuity and Innovation: Opposing Halachic Concerns". The London programme also includes a panel discussion on modern Orthodoxy next month at Jewish Book Week featuring Bible scholar James Kugel.

For more about the project, see the Oxford centre website.

A changed Board?

Marcus Dysch — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 12:09:43 +0000

I've been attending and reporting on Board of Deputies meetings for a couple of years.

At my first meeting the biggest surprise came when I discovered that, far from being the august, grand debating chamber of the community that I had expected it to be, the Board plenary was more akin to a shouty shul council meeting a with a bit of a Vicar of Dibley-style shambles thrown in.

I've since discussed those impressions with Board veterans, newcomers and outsiders alike, and have heard many of them express similar views.

Today I came across an excellent blog by Hampstead Synagogue deputy Amanda Ruback.

Elected last May, Amanda has found the Board "a tough nut to crack".

She points out:

At first it was just the behaviour more suited to a primary school playground at Plenaries that floored me – all the shouting and ‘Points of Order’ and debates that weren’t debates – I felt like I was the only person that found this alien and I wondered whether the Deputies that seemed to thrive in that setting acted in the same way in other aspects of their lives.

Quite.

Amanda's blog is well worth a read on the Changing the Board website. It is in full here.

I must say, in fairness, that Sunday's debate on the Oxfam project was as civilised and well-organised as any I've seen at the Board. Deputies debated sensibly, politely and intelligently. I know that doesn't sound like much of an achievement, but compared to past discussions I've witnessed there, it was a marked difference.

These are steps in the right direction for sure, but Amanda's experiences suggest there is still some work to be done. Let us all hope the evident changes taking place at the Board help raise the standard of debate and behaviour to levels of which we can, as a community, all be proud.

Taking care of business

Simon Rocker — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 15:10:58 +0000

Israel's Sephardi Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar has just issued a strong ruling on business ethics which you can find more about on the Failed Messiah blog.

I have written an article about the gap left by the collapse of the Jewish Association for Business Ethics in this week's paper.

My Jewish identity

Jenni Frazer — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 12:54:10 +0000

I have been thinking recently about the question of Jewish identity, a matter sparked by our current joint project with JW3, the Jewish Community Centre for London. We set people the task of trying to define their Jewishness in an unenviable 50 words, which is a lot harder than it sounds.

Being Jewish in Britain is sometimes the easiest thing in the world, sometimes the most difficult. At any given moment we can fade into the wallpaper if we choose, blending with the general population. At other times we may decide to be out and loud, in-your-face Jews, full-on. It's a bit of a tightrope act.

Here's my take, anyway. Not for a time capsule, just for what I'm feeling at the moment.

Survival; difference; making a difference; belonging; longing; a sense of history, a sense of place; knowing who I am and who I am not; laughing, fighting and aggravating, but understanding that in the end, we only have each other; and hope.

And yes, I know that's not 50 words.

The Board and Oxfam - a wholly unnecessary row

Marcus Dysch — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 16:00:15 +0000

So here we are again: the Board of Deputies once more finds itself mired in internal strife - and largely because its elected leaders tried to do the right thing.

We could spend an age debating – not for the first time – whether the Board stumbled into this embarrassing mess through weak leadership, a misunderstanding of its deputies’ concerns, its own complex democratic process, or a mixture of all three.

What is clear is that the Grow Tatzmiach joint campaign with Oxfam will help starving people – and that cannot be a bad thing.

But there is a deep and long-running problem at the Board and other great institutions of Anglo-Jewry: how to deal with issues that touch on Israel.

There seems a perennial struggle to decide which answer should carry most weight – should it be “is this good for us?”, or “is this good for Israel?”, which defines an organisation’s modus operandi?

Some of the grassroots anger is understandable – it is, after all, only five months since the meeting at which Board president Vivian Wineman and chief executive Jon Benjamin questioned Oxfam’s chief executive and Middle East director over the charity’s stance on Israel.

Mr Wineman said at the time that the NGO had been “receptive” to the Board’s position, and it is understood that the August meeting was seen as a turning point in relations between the organisations.

But explain that to deputies who hold long grudges when it comes to those they believe to be “anti-Israel”. For many deputies it is a simple matter of “you are either with us or against us”. The most vociferous among them have little time for discussing nuances or debating the ins and outs of issues such as settlements or labelling policy.

Jonathan Hoffman’s claim that Oxfam is “institutionally anti-Israel” is rather wide of the mark. The charity is evidently not in the same league of visceral Israel hatred as some employees at Amnesty International or War on Want, which is quite blatantly an anti-Israel organisation under any definition of the term.

The Board leaders stand accused by their own deputies of gross naivety at jumping into bed with a charity which some claim is attempting to “launder its reputation” with British Jews.

One deputy likened senior vice-president Laura Marks’ actions to those of Neville Chamberlain in 1938 – quite some claim, and quite some exaggeration.

There are other issues bubbling under the surface here as well – in particular the changing demographics of the Board. Among the strongest support for Grow Tatzmiach is that coming from the younger end of the deputies spectrum.

Union of Jewish Students representatives and Liberal Judaism’s youth group Netzer have expressed support for over-looking Oxfam’s Israel approach and pushing forward with the food campaign.

The younger sections of the community tend to sensibly put forward different arguments to older dyed-in-the-wool deputies in cases such as these. Put our relationships and work in Britain further to the fore, they say, and for once leave arguments around Israel for another day.

It’s a fair point. Issues over Israel threaten to overshadow the Board’s valuable work on day-to-day matters in this country.

No doubt the plenary meeting on Sunday week will descend into the typically undignified, ranty, shouting, abusive pantomime that so often dogs Board meetings. Mr Wineman has already repeatedly begged deputies to remain calm and polite. I fear his request will fall on deaf ears.

Once more, the leading body of Anglo-Jewry is likely to be turned into a laughing stock, both within our own community and quite possibly, worse still, in the eyes of British non-Jews.

150 years of the London Underground

Jennifer Lipman — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 17:01:22 +0000

This week marks the sesquicentenary – or 150th birthday - of the tube.

Yes, even though it sometimes seems like the engineering of the Northern Line predates the battle of Hastings, or that bewildered travellers have been trying to circumnavigate the Circle Line since the time of Columbus, the tube is actually only 15 decades old.

The first journey on what we now know of as London Underground took place on January 9 1863, between Paddington and Farringdon Street on the Metropolitan Line. Historians believe that was the last time there was good service on all London Underground lines.

Tube enthusiasts might find plenty to adore about London's transport network. Personally, I'm not always a fan, but I do love the vintage posters from the days when taking the tube was a leisure activity, rather than an exercise in armpit-avoidance and diagonal newspaper reading.

For two wonderful examples of the artwork, we can look no further than the posters of Harry Blacker, the Jewish cartoonist known as "Nero", who also designed posters for BP and the Post Office.

The first, "Zoo nights" is from 1939, the second is from the year before and is called "AAA Championships" (Photos courtesy of London Transport Museum). Lovely.

Beans, not burgers

Simon Rocker — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 10:47:25 +0000

Should the 21st century ideal of kashrut include giving up eating meat altogether? A recent article in the JC has reignited the debate between veggies and fleishniks.

In a letter in this week’s JC, Masorti’s Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg, puts the meat-free case.

“I care deeply about kashrut. I appreciate the importance of shechitah as truly intended — the way to respect animals and cause them the minimum of suffering at their death. Were the right to practise shechitah again in jeopardy in the UK, I would of course join the community in defending it.

“At the same time I am a non-meat-eater by strong and increasing conviction. Kosher slaughter does not on its own address all the issues involved in the production of meat. Key among these is the principle of tsa’ar ba’alei chayim, avoiding animal suffering, which most rabbinic authorities regard as a Torah-based injunction. There are also wider ecological and economic concerns in regarding meat as a staple food.

“Vegetarians have no less responsibility in ensuring that dairy products and eggs are sourced in ways which do not entail cruelty. We are all answerable as consumers for the conditions in which those who produce our food work. My true ideal is therefore to keep kashrut within the wider Jewish ethical values of avoiding animal suffering, minimising waste, trading justly, respecting the world as God’s creation and working to mitigate poverty and hunger.”

But for a carnivore's view, see Geoffrey Alderman’s comment piece.

Out of touch in Stamford Hill

Simon Rocker — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 12:17:37 +0000

The United Synagogue’s decision to allow women to chair synagogues has been largely welcomed but not everyone is applauding.

In the Jewish Tribune, the Stamford Hill- based Charedi weekly, columnist Ben Yitzchok calls it a "most regrettable and major step backwards”.

He speculates that it was taken before Chief Rabbi-designate Ephraim Mirvis came to office because Rabbi Mirvis would have “refused to take the halachically objectionable decision, so it was conveniently arranged before his appointment”.

Which is nonsense. Rabbi Mirvis is on record as saying that he was delighted by the move and had championed it for many years.

Masorti on the fence over gay marriage

Simon Rocker — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 10:28:07 +0000

The Reform and Liberal movements have both welcomed the government’s promise to press ahead with the introduction of gay marriage.

The Chief Rabbi has made his opposition known, but he has certainly not been as vocal about it as Catholic leaders.

But the Masorti movement remains undecided. It did release a statement this week in which its senior rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg said: “Gay people have long been subject to misjudgment, humiliation and exclusion, especially in religious life. A key Conservative responsum advocates full inclusion of gay people in all areas of Jewish life and leadership.

“We believe in marriage as an ideally lifelong, loving, unique and faithful commitment made before God. We supported civil partnerships between gay people. We are in discussion on how such bonds of loving commitment can best be expressed in traditional religious ceremonies.”

The statement noticeably avoids any actual reference to the government’s proposal. But clearly the whole issue is under discussion and it remains to be seen whether Masorti here will follow the American Conservative movement in allowing religious ceremonies for gay couples.

Under the government’s plans, religious organisations which do not want to hold gay ceremonies will retain the freedom not to. But some religious groups fear the legislation will not be watertight and they could be open to challenge to anti-discrimination claims in the courts.

Jon Benjamin, chief executive of the Board of Deputies, says: “It remains our position that different parts of the community will clearly have different approaches to the issue and our concern is that no community should be compelled to conduct ceremonies that they are not comfortable holding.

“The Prime Minister and Culture Secretary’s assurances on this point are welcome and we expect the opt out clauses to be watertight so that nuisance claims cannot be made, forcing communal organisations into expensive litigation to protect their rights.”

Mazel Tov: a royal baby for Wills and Kate

Jennifer Lipman — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 16:24:31 +0000

The wait is over. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are expecting their first child. According to St James's Palace: "The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are very pleased to announce that the Duchess of Cambridge is expecting a baby".

With no word yet on whether the royal infant will be a boy or a girl, it's perhaps too premature to engage in a "will-they-won't-they" debate over whether they will choose to circumcise their offspring , as was once a royal tradition.

But how did the Jewish communtiy react in 1982, when William was born? Well, as the JC reported on June 25 1982, we were rather excited.

"Sir Immanuel Jakobovits, the Chief Rabbi, and Mr Greville Janner, QC, MP, president of the Board of Deputies, have both sent congratulatory messages to Buckingham Palace on the birth of a son to the Prince and Princess of Wales.

Mr Janner sent a telegram wishing the Royal Family "a hearty mazel tov" on behalf of the Jewish community, while Sir Immanuel extended "heartfelt felicitations” on the birth which gave "boundless joy to millions." The Anglo-Jewish Association and Ajex have also sent greetings for the future well-being of the new prince."

A view from Tel Aviv

Danny Caro — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 11:08:28 +0000

A must-read piece from someone I know only as a footballer. Until now ...

I have never done this before, so forgive me if its rambling and doesn't make perfect sense. I am not usually one to let people in general know how I feel, but I just needed to get a few things off my chest.

I think I have always felt that I as a Jew was very different to other people I met. I certainly wouldn't say I felt I was better than them, but I definitely felt like I wasn’t one of them.
...
I grew up in a typical middle class home in North West London, never really having to worry about much. The concept of anti-Semitism only ever got as bad as some of the kids from the local comprehensive snarling in my general direction. When you compare it is an upbringing to almost all previous generations before me I would say I must have had it far better than almost all those before me, yet I could never shake the feeling that I was still very different.

As I grew older and I started to explore my own identity a little more I realised how much of a strong connection I had to Israel. Whilst I never partook in any type of strong political movement at university, I was always astonished at the strength of hatred that seemed to be directed towards this country that I felt so close too. Anti-Israel demonstrations on campus existed frequently, whilst the Jewish society always tried to create coexistent type rallies.

READ FULL ARTICLE HERE

New York after the storm

Jennifer Lipman — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 10:24:34 +0000

I filled the My Week slot this week with a piece recalling my trip to Manhattan after the hurricane hit, and during election week. All told, an interesting time to be there.

● I'm on holiday in Manhattan and Sunday starts with a time-honoured New York tradition - a leisurely brunch with friends. We have booked at a place in the Village, and despite being without electricity for days thanks to Hurricane Sandy, the restaurant is up and running by the weekend.

● Walking in downtown Manhattan, although not as far as the flooded areas, it is clear the storm has had a serious effect. The streets are eerily quiet, with the papers filled with stories of misery and miracle, people charging phones at pop-up sites in parks, and bars advertising post-Sandy reopening dates. Dismayed runners from various countries are jogging all over the city, the annual city marathon having been cancelled at the 11th hour. A friend who helped clean up the worst hit areas reports over Shabbat lunch how gefilte fish was handed out to the needy by Orthodox Jews. We try to imagine how desperate we'd have to be to feast on what was once a staple heimishe delicacy.

● Later, we head to Broadway for a play about evangelical Christians falling from grace. The superb production stars Paul Rudd, of Clueless fame. In an amusing twist, Alicia Silverstone, his co-star in the film - much of which I can still quote - is appearing in another show on the very same street. At 36, with a son called Bear Blu, she still looks and sounds exactly as she did in her days as Jewish princess Cher Horowitz.

● With the subway still not fully operational, we spend much of the week walking around, heading to Aroma on the Upper West Side on Monday for a spot of lunch in the company of iPad- and Mac-toting hipsters. The espresso bar is part of an American invasion by Israeli eateries; downtown, Max Brenner's chocolate factory-inspired restaurants are also popular.

● Tuesday brings the presidential election, with the Rockefeller Center lit up in red and blue, with podiums on either side ready to be raised as the electoral college results come in. Four years ago, a friend and I stayed up until the early hours to watch Obama claim victory; this year, I am at an election party organised by a left-leaning youth foundation. It is like Purim - every time Romney's name comes up on the big screen, people boo and hiss, no matter whether he has just lost a state. After the result is called, we dash to Times Square, where frenzied crowds of both locals and tourists are gathering, shouting variations on "Oh-Ba-Mah" and "Four More Years". Amid the hubbub, my fiancé manages to earn a spot dispensing wisdom about the election for a Kenyan television channel.

● After a week of post-hurricane calm but cold, Wednesday brings a snow storm, in which I learn just how challenging it can be to flag down a cab in Manhattan. But an autumnal Central Park, all vivid reds and oranges, is beautiful with an additional white coating. As we bid goodbye to the city, the streets are already clear of snow - a reminder that New York and its citizens are ever resilient. Back in London for Shabbat, I am entertained and well-fed at the homes of two of my three sisters. Saturday afternoon is spent in the company of my grandpa and my adorable nephew, who at two months old is rapidly becoming the focal point of any family gathering. All in all, a lovely end to a fabulous week.

Racism on the terraces - the shame of Beitar Jerusalem

Marcus Dysch — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 12:06:40 +0000

A fascinating new short documentary looks at the vile racist abuse regularly displayed by the “fans” of Israeli football club Beitar Jerusalem.

American sports journalist Jeremy Schaap investigates the history of Beitar’s “La Familia” ultras who hound Arab players throughout the Israeli leagues.

The ESPN film also features footage of the sickening attack carried out by Beitar followers at a shopping centre in the Israeli capital earlier this year.

Club chairman Itzik Kornfein explains how the fans’ militancy has led to Beitar never buying Arab or Muslim players. Beitar is the only club in Israel’s top division never to have had an Arab player.

Schaap interviews Arabs and Muslims from Israeli Premier League sides including Bnei Saknin and hears of the racist abuse and violence directed at them.

Salim Tuama – who played 13 times for Israel and has made hundreds of appearances for Hapoel Tel Aviv – explains how even his feats for the national side could not protect him from the Islamaphobic bile spouted from the terraces at Beitar.

Schaap also looks at the Israeli Football Association’s lacklustre attempts to punish Beitar for their fans’ actions.

The film is a must-watch for genuine fans disgusted by the rise of racism in football across Europe.

There is no place in the beautiful game for racism of any nature. Beitar’s “fans” are a stain on Israeli football. Their abuse has been allowed to flourish for too long. They must be dealt with firmly, and fast.

E:60 "BEITAR JERUSALEM" ~ JEREMY SCHAAP from Bluefoot Entertainment on Vimeo.

We have an archbishop, but not a chief rabbi

Simon Rocker — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 17:24:40 +0000

The new Archbishop of Canterbury will be formally named tomorrow - who is expected to be the Bishop of Durham, Justin Welby.

It took the Anglican Church eight months to choose their next head after Rowan Williams announced he was stepping down in March.

It was almost two years ago - December 2010 - that Lord Sacks announced his retirement as chief rabbi and his successor has still not been found.

Making the case for the Bible

Simon Rocker — Thu, 11 Oct 2012 12:03:46 +0100

It’s back to Bereshit this week as the Torah reading cycle begins anew. While the stories may be familiar, what has kept them fresh is the belief that there are always new insights to be gleaned.

And as a source of new thinking, Israeli author Yoram Hazony’s book The Philosophy of Hebrew Scripture comes highly recommended. “A paradigm-shifting work of immense significance,” says Chief Rabbi Lord Sacks.

Hazony argues that the Tanach has been wrongly omitted from the Western philosophical tradition of inquiry into ethics and understanding the human condition.

There is still time to book a seat at a discussion between Hazony and the Chief Rabbi about the book at the Natural History Museum in London on October. You can register here.

You can watch a preview presentation about the book on Youtube.

Claire Danes and the boycotter's dilemma

Jennifer Lipman — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 13:10:05 +0100

I'm 90 per cent of the way through the first series of Homeland, and I'm as hooked as everyone said I would be (nb: do not tell me what happens, I'll get there eventually). Its almighty awards grab at the Emmy awards on Sunday has confirmed it not only as the programme of choice for the masses, but the top pick of the critics too.

Must be tough for the Israel boycotters out there, of course, that the hit show of the year started life as an Israeli series about Israeli soldiers captured in war while fighting for the survival of the Jewish state.

Inconvenient, perhaps, that Homeland's writer, Gideon Raff, is an Israeli, and that episodes of the eagerly awaited second series have again been filmed in Israel.

The icing on the cake? Claire Danes, the show's star actress, gave an interview to the New York Times style magazine this week, gushing about how much she loved Israel.

"The night life is incredibly alive, and there is an extremely positive and generous spirit towards us," she said. ""We went to Jerusalem and Masada and all these absolutely edifying and riveting places."

She did acknowledge the conflict, commenting: "The tension was palpable… but I didn't ever feel particularly threatened… It has been a lot more fun and cosmopolitan than I had anticipated."

To add insult to an injury, the interview was accompanied by a photo shoot in Jaffa. Claire Danes, modelling fashionable clothes in a cosmopolitan city where Arabs and Jews live side by side.

But of course, if you support a cultural boycott of Israel, you couldn't possibly tune in to season two, could you now?

You can run but you can't hide

Jennifer Lipman — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 16:20:28 +0100

As I have written before, if there is one area involving women and Judaism that seems stuck in a ghastly status quo it is divorce, and the requirement for a man to grant his former wife a get to free her from the chains of a failed marriage.

One case that has attracted a fair bit of media attention in recent months is that of Tamar Friedman, a chained wife whose husband (a senior aide to a congressman) has been targeted in a high-profile social media campaign.

Showing an admirable "you can run but you can't hide" approach, the latest move of her supporters (the Organization for the Resolution of Agunot) has been to place an advert on the Washington DC transport system.

According to the Washington Jewish Week it could be the first of many.

Good for them, and I hope the negative attention will push Mr Friedman to do the right thing. The sad thing is that such tactics are necessary in the first place.

Brian Coleman arrested and bailed

Marcus Dysch — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 10:12:55 +0100

I’ve been writing about Brian Coleman for almost seven years.

In that time I’ve reported on his rants, his rudeness to the public and reporters, and his work to defend Israel.

I’ve also heard, but not reported, plenty of more salacious incidents from his past.

But never, ever, did I imagine this could happen.

I’ve heard eye-witness reports of yesterday’s alleged incident in North Finchley. If the details are true, then Mr Coleman could be in big trouble.

But, in the interests of fairness, we should also remember he hasn’t been charged with any offence. This case is a long, long way from coming to court, and even further from seeing Mr Coleman convicted of anything.

Indeed, there may be a fair argument that what happened outside the café was a case of six of one, half a dozen of the other. It now falls to the police to unravel the facts from fiction.

Nonetheless, for a man who is a senior councillor, former mayor and ex-assembly member to be arrested in such a fashion and questioned by police represents a serious problem for both him and Barnet Conservative party.

It is hard to see for how much longer Brian Coleman can continue to retain any credibility as a politician.

Then again, he is a man accustomed to controversy. I doubt we have heard the last of him yet.

Conspiracy theories, Mossad and the tragic Al-Hilli murder

Jennifer Lipman — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 11:10:48 +0100

Everyone loves a good conspiracy theory, right? Aliens in Roswell, the moon landing that never was, Elvis alive and living in the countryside; we all like to stretch our imagination beyond the realms of what is possible or plausible.

Invariably, one notion that tends to figure high on the list for the conspiracy theorists is the "it's the Jews wot dunnit" scenario.

Throughout history, conspiracy theorists have chosen to speculate about the shadowy Jews and blame them for any and every scandal or disaster imaginable, from the medieval blood libels to the Protocols of the Elders of Zion or the Jewish grasp on politics, world finance and the media.

As David Aaronovitch notes in his book, Voodoo Histories: How Conspiracy Theory Has Shaped Modern History:

"Since 12 September 2001 there have been theories linking Israelis / Jews / Zionists (the names always indicating the same people) to the worst terrorist incident in history."

So it was somewhat ironic to read in the Evening Standard, on the 11th anniversary of September 11, this throwaway line in a piece investigating the tragic and brutal murders in rural France of three members of the Al-Hilli family and a cyclist.

"Perhaps more far-fetched still, Israel's notoriously uncompromising state security agency, Mossad, is said to have shown an interest in Al-Hilli, although nobody has a clue why."

A closer look, and it seems other newspapers are following this line too.

"The French police are also having to steer a course through a minefield of rumours, conflicting reports and wild conspiracy theories, including the suggestion that Saad was a spy who had recently visited Tehran and the massacre was a hit by Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency implicated in attacks on Iranian scientists," explains The Scotsman.

Are they? If so, I'd like to hear this from the French police.

If in doubt, it's got to be Mossad? So far as I can tell, the speculation about this is largely blogger-based, in that Mossad's name features heavily in the comments sections of reports on the killings.

"This is Mossad 100%," writes "Truthteller" below the story on The Week's website. "The French cyclist was a nuclear scientist and prime target of hitmen. Iran-related murder".

Or this, from "zzoo" on the Daily Mail site: "This looks very much like a Mossad hit. Israel must have thought Saad al Hilli was working on missile technology, and decided to kill him and his family."

Or "Odininasgaard" on Yahoo! News. "The professionalism of this murder makes me wonder if the MOSSAD knows something about this foul deed."

Is this how Mossad is "said to have shown an interest" in the Al-Hillis? Perhaps the Standard knows something I – and most newspapers – do not? If so, by all means provide the evidence for such speculation. But if not, and it just seemed to make sense – hey, he was of Iraqi descent, it's suspicious, must be those darn Israelis – then at least have the decency to put the allegation in context, as the Express did.

"It has also been claimed that the killings have all the hallmarks of action by Israel's assassins in Mossad but Western experts believe it unlikely that they would try to murder children."

Hopefully the investigators will get to the bottom of this tragedy, and the two girls will be able to rebuild their shattered lives. This is a horrible, nightmarish case, and questions abound. Perhaps it was a political assassination, but before we claim so, let's wait for the evidence.

Questions are not the same as ancient conspiracy theories, rolled out time and again to point a finger at the Jews.

In praise of the endangered

Jenni Frazer — Thu, 06 Sep 2012 15:01:38 +0100

Maybe it is a metaphor for life. But I am increasingly worried about the fate of the apostrophe and its place — and do, please note, how that three-letter word is displayed — in the firmament.

We are long past, it seems to me, the amusement at the so-called "greengrocer's apostrophe", wherein sellers of fruit and veg decorated their shops and market stalls with notices suggesting there were "apples' and oranges'" for sale.

No, things have degenerated. Lynne Truss couldn't publish her best-selling comic look at grammar and punctuation, "Eats Shoots and Leaves" today. Because unfortunately more and more people, even including those who are supposed to have had an education, are putting an apostrophe in a word to denote a plural. Thus such horrors as the "Israeli's" or "the Nazi's" when the - well, I hesitate to call them "writer" — means more than one such person.

I have just received an email from The Times. It refers to "the four Briton's" who were shot in Annecy, in France. If even The Times, with all its plethora of sub-editors and its resident grammatical pedant, Oliver Kamm, can commit this abomination, then all is lost. Apostrophe supporters of the world, unite. And remember, possession is nine points of the law...