This Sunday is Accession Day, marking 70 years exactly since the Queen assumed the throne on 6 February 1952. At the time, she was famously in Kenya with her husband Philip when she heard about the death of her father, King George VI.
The seminal day fires the starting gun on her Platinum Jubilee, the culmination of which will be the four-day bank holiday weekend in early June. No monarch has ever reached this landmark before, the Queen having overtaken her great-great-grandmother, Queen Victoria, as the longest-reigning sovereign in 2015.
Seven decades as Head of State mean that she’s the only monarch most of us have ever known. The length of her reign is truly remarkable. It spans 14 Prime Ministers, 14 US Presidents, six Archbishops of Canterbury and four Chief Rabbis.
Royal Jubilees are special occasions — the essayist Walter Bagehot famously wrote: “A royal family sweetens politics by the seasonable addition of nice and pretty events.”
The roots of Jubilees are in the Torah. In the Parasha of Behar in Vayikra, it talks about the Jubilee year falling in the 50th year after seven cycles of seven years, each featuring a sabbatical year, when land and property were returned and debts relieved. When I worked at the Palace during the Diamond Jubilee, I discussed this Biblical provenance with Rev Bill Scott, the Queen’s Chaplain.
The first Jubilee was George III’s Golden Jubilee in 1809, and the Jewish community in Britain marked the occasion with a service at the Great Synagogue. Money was raised for the relief of persons who had been imprisoned for small debts. When Queen Victoria celebrated her Golden Jubilee in 1887, followed by the Diamond Jubilee ten years later, the community again took part in celebrations. One entry in Queen Victoria’s diaries records her Private Secretary Sir Arthur Bigge reporting: “The Chief Rabbi has applied...to know whether your Majesty approves of public services of Thanksgiving being held on the occasion of the Diamond Jubilee.”
Our Queen’s previous three Jubilees ( Silver, Golden and Diamond) have all featured Jewish participation.
During the Diamond Jubilee in 2012, a small group of Jewish leaders were invited to a special multi-faith event at Lambeth Palace. Each of the nine major faith communities was able to present an object of significance to their religion to the Queen. Borrowing an item from Jack Lunzer, the Jewish community displayed the Valmdonna Codex, the only Hebrew book that can be dated to before the expulsion of the Jews in 1290.
Another memorable occasion was an event in the Buckingham Palace Ballroom, at which the Board of Deputies and other so-called “privileged bodies”, which have a particular status because of their history, were able to express Jubilee greetings to the Queen. The Board of Deputies president wished her “To 120”, which left the Royal press corps slightly bemused. Thankfully I was able to enlighten them.
Over her 70-year reign there have been some memorable engagements with our community. These range from a dinner in 1970 to mark the centenary of the United Synagogue and a Palace reception in 2006 to celebrate the 350th anniversary since the resettlement of the community. The Queen has also carried out engagements for Norwood and the Council of Christians and Jews, two charities of which she is Patron. In 1997, she unveiled a monument to Raoul Wallenberg, which was attended by President Ezer Weizman, as part of his State Visit.
Whilst the Foreign Office have not sent her to Israel, she has met numerous Israeli Ambassadors when they present their letters of credentials and had a special kinship with Chaim Herzog, the sixth President of Israel, between 1983 and 1993. When he visited the Palace, the monarch reportedly told him proudly she was descended from King David, to which he replied: “Welcome to the family.”
Through investitures (when honours are given), receptions, garden parties and other engagements, she has met countless Jewish people through the course of her everyday business. As part of the fabric of British society, Jewish people have met the Queen in her everyday business. Jews have written about her, dressed her through fashion labels, photographed her and painted her (most recently Australian-Jewish artist Ralph Heimans). One of the Maids of Honour at her Coronation even went on to marry the legendary Jewish property developer Max Rayne.
Whilst the community has declined numerically over the course of her reign from approximately half a million to about 300,000, it has made a big impact. From business and politics to arts and the sciences, Jews have been change-makers over the course of the Elizabethan period. The period as a whole has seen monumental changes in history, including the first man on the moon, the birth of the internet and the transition from Empire to Commonwealth. There have been huge social changes, one of which is growing secularisation. When the Queen came to the throne, a third of the population thought that the monarchy had been ordained by God. Perhaps this is appropriate for someone whose name Elizabeth is thought to derive from the Hebrew words, shava (oath) and el (God).
So what has been the significance of all of this? It’s widely agreed, even by many Guardian-istas, that the Queen has been good for the country. The corollary of that is that she has been a positive force for the Jewish community. Just as she has been the nation’s Queen and, of course, she has been “our Queen” as British Jews. By my counts, we’ve said a prayer for her 3,640 times on Shabbats during the 70 years in Shuls all over the country.
The constitutional expert Vernon Bogdanor defines one of the monarchy’s strengths as “interpreting the country to itself”. In a sense, The Queen has allowed our community to perform a similar function.
Judaism and Monarchy are two ancient creeds that are oft written off. King Farouk of Egypt once famously said: “Soon there will be only five Kings left — the King of England, the King of Spades, The King of Clubs, the King of Hearts, and the King of Diamonds.”
The durability of the British monarchy has been personified by the Queen, and similarly Judaism is an ancient faith that needs to continually reinvent itself.
The common ground does not end there. Both place charity and volunteering at the heart of what they do (the Royal support for charities is an integral part of the “welfare monarchy”). It’s no wonder that the Queen has so many admirers in our community.
As we enter this special Platinum Jubilee, the country, weary from two years of lockdowns and restrictions, is desperate for a celebration. The Jewish community, along with others, will light beacons, hold street parties and other events. Woody Allen once said that “99 percent of life is showing up” and The Queen scores highly on that scale. She has always been there, through thick and thin, a containing presence for the nation amidst triumph and tragedy. The best of her — stability, consistency, service and duty — is the best of us. As the matriarch of the nation, we can all raise a glass to her.
Zaki Cooper is Co-Founder of Integra Group. He worked at Buckingham Palace on the strategic communications of the Diamond Jubilee.
