Biased or spot on?
Melanie Phillips (JC, August 3) accuses the Board of Deputies —picking on senior vice-president Sheila Gewolb in particular — of “promulgating some of the very falsehoods that incite people to hate Israel and the Jews…”
She should take a hard look in the mirror. While some people’s animosity towards Israel is unquestionably an extension of their general disdain for Jews, for many others — including many Jews — sympathy for the Palestinian plight stems from a (very Jewish) commitment to equality and universal human rights.
To deride this as “Palestinianism” (a term brimming with scorn) is no less demonising and delegitimising of authentic Palestinian aspirations than when calumnies are directed at Israel. If the denial of self-determination of the Jews is racism and if — on a misreading of the Macpherson principle — it is for Jews alone, as the putative victims, to determine if it is racist, then where will that leave Melanie Phillips and her fellow travellers, not to mention the Jewish world as a whole, when the Palestinians claim that denying their self-determination is racist?
Contrary to her protestations, there is nothing more likely to incite people to hate Israel and the Jews than to heed her very biased and myopic advice.
(Dr) Tony Klug
tonyklug@compuserve.com
Melanie Phillips is spot on with her criticism of the Board of Deputies senior vice-president’s seemingly unilateral but uninformed statement condemning Israel’s recently adopted “nation state”law.
As a deputy, I have made it known to the Board, and my constituency, that, not in my name does this honorary officer’s misguided and self-satisfying publicly reported utterance, speak for me.
I believe it does not lie within the remit of the Board and its honorary officers to act in any way that can be construed to be detrimental to, and undermine, the State of Israel.
Leila Cumber
Deputy, Wembley United Synagogue
Labour pains
It was during the 1950s, after leaving school at the age of 16, that I began to truly understand the difference between my nationality (British ); religion ( Judaism ); and political ideology.
My first job in the adult world; signing professional football forms (with Fulham); cricket; athletics; boxing; music; and theatre, were all important in my life at the time, then came two years’ military active service in Egypt.
Personally, I had never experienced antisemitism, but knew of others who had. I had no doubt or confusion — never have —that my nationality is British. I am English by birth. My religion is Judaism. I am third-generation Jewish immigrant (refugee). My parents and siblings are all British Jews.
Fairly quickly, ( in my teens ), having lived in London, Cornwall, Nottingham, then back in London from 1949, I realised that, politically, the Labour Party had never forgiven Israel for “coming in” off the kibbutz and not developing into the 20th-century socialist ideal.
Worst of all, for true socialists, it had become the Jewish nation state. “Anti-Israelism” naturally morphs into anti-semitism. Hence, Corbyn’s Labour Party of 2018.
Harry Levy
Pinner
Mazeltov to Margaret Hodge MP, for confronting Jeremy Corbyn and humiliating her persecutors. But it’s not their antisemitism that is the main threat to us and to all the UK. It’s their Marxism, and their Stalinist suppression of dissent.
Andrew M Rosemarine
Salford
Churches’ indifference
What is the reason for the leaders of the churches, Anglican, Roman Catholic, Free Church, who are conspicuous by their absence and silence concerning the definite increase of antisemitism especially in the Labour Party?
Where is their prophetic voice of solidarity, from their experience of the Bible, for the despair and fear of the Jewish people who have made such a great contribution in all levels of our society? It is impossible to separate the events of the Bible with Jewish people living in the land of Israel and here in Britain. The former PM Harold Wilson was very clear in his views when he wrote The Chariots of Israel.
It seems as if the Bishops in the House of Lords do not realise that foundations of the Christian faith are based on the Torah of Moses, the Psalms of David and the message of the Prophets? Are they not aware that Jesus and his mother were Jewish, that circumcision on the 8th day and participation in the feasts of Israel in particular all originate in Judaism . The Communion service is related to the Passover celebration — a festival of freedom. All 12 Apostles from Galilee and Jerusalem were born in the land of Israel.
In the 19th century, Bishop John Lightfoot, from Durham, in his sermons emphasised “the miraculous preservation of Israel through history”. And in the 20th century Dean Inge of St Paul’s Cathedral said: “The Jewish people will stand at the graveside of all his persecutors”.
The Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn’s parents were dedicated Methodists especially on social issues. When he was sent to Sunday School he must have heard the famous story of Jesus and the encounter with the woman at the well. In this conversation, he emphasised the “Salvation of the Jews”.
This tremendous truth is valid for today. Christianity has an immense debt to the Jewish people.
Rev Gerald Gotzen
Torquay
Own goal?
Not for the first time, the headline on your front page (JC, August 3) has scored a significant own-goal on behalf of those who would propagate antisemitic stereotypes.
The JC is displayed prominently for the whole week on newsstands in major retailers including Marks and Spencer, Sainsbury, Tesco, Waitrose and W H Smith. Tens of thousands of non-Jews must have casually noticed that a Jew who cheated people out of £14.5 million is apparently still held in esteem by the Jewish community.
At a time when there is a deeply troubling rise in antisemitism, does our own newspaper need to add to this by reinforcing the image of Jews as money-grabbing swindlers.
This story should have been saved for an inside page. It is about time the JC stopped behaving like a tabloid and instead considered the interests of the Jewish community it purports to serve.
Rena Greenaway
Edgware
Bad choice of words?
Has the so-called “International” Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of Jew hate been adopted by Arab countries?
In her book, Uprooted, the co-founder of Harif, Lyn Julius, claims that, following Israel’s establishment, Jews in Arab lands were persecuted and subsequently forced to leave “purely for sharing the same religion and ethnicity as the Israelis.”
She accuses the Arabs of blatant antisemitism for refusing to differentiate between Jews and Zionism, between Jews and Israel. Yet, by defining the denial of Israel’s right to exist as being decisively antisemitic (as opposed to being anti-Israeli) are the drafters of the IHRA’s definition guilty of the same offence?
David Chesler
Edgware
Aliyah is the answer
Promoting aliya to the land of Israel or funding Jewish education in the diaspora is a dilemma that raises profound questions — not least as to what Jews are all about and what Judaism is, or should be, all about.
Jewish Agency Chairman Ze’ev Bielski prioritised Jewish education in the diaspora over aliyah. Anshel Pfeffer (Aug 3) says he was right. But was he? I think , maybe not.
My Rabbi teaches that Judaism is primarily a covenant between God and the Jewish people over land — very specifically, and only, the land of Israel.
My Rabbi is right.
Live outside the land of Israel — there is no covenant, or, that is what it seems.
Devout prayer, attention to halacha and mitzvot, it seems they all count for little when carried out outside the land.
To our dismay, in pogrom and holocaust, both observant and secular Jews were all destroyed in their hour of need. God does not seem to have been close.
In stark contrast, God does seem to have been close to Jews, secular and religious, who have fought to restore His land. The miracles that have been poured upon Israel have destroyed all faith in atheism!
If I were Isaac Herzog, the new Jewish Agency Chairman, I would call in diaspora Rabbis, of all denominations, and request they preach aliyah.
Geoffrey Ben-Nathan
g.ben-nathan@sky.com
Prominent persons
John Ware (JC, August 3) refers to a knighted barrister as a prominent Jew, even though he often signs letters in the Guardian attacking both the Jewish community and Israel. Hostile journalists and politicians also refer to him and his friends as prominent Jews. Surely a prominent Jew is one who holds a leading position within the community, and not someone who has made it in society.
Mark Drukker
Reading, Berkshire
Gay conundrum
Can Rabbi Romain explain how any child can be described as gay, never mind the “probably at least ten per cent” of Charedi children as he asserts in his column (JC August 3, )
Albert Blumenfeld,
Weymouth
