Robert Rinder, the lawyer who made his name as television’s “Judge Rinder” delves into his family history next week, for the BBC’s Who Do You Think You Are?, retracing his grandfather and great-grandfather’s “deep, dark” roots.
As the grandson of a Holocaust survivor named Morris Malenicky, Rinder says that though he was aware of the outlines of his grandfather’s story, “the show really coloured it in.”
He sees the journey as “an extraordinary gift of an experience, to be able to tell the story and important for our community as well. It tells the story of two critical moments in the first part of the history of the twentieth century of diaspora Jews. The first moments of political antisemitism in Russia moving towards the middle of the century.”
During the programme, he retraces his grandfather’s steps by travelling to Piotrkow, Poland, where Morris was born, through to Buchenwald in Germany and finally to Windermere in the Lake District.
He says the experience was incredibly poignant. “This experience really breathed ruach (life) into people I’d only heard of and it gave them a sense of clarity and place.
“There were enormous amounts of detail that I wasn’t aware of. To be physically in a place that’s so full of Jewish life for centuries that was just wiped out with the blink of an eye was really profound”.
“There’s a moment in which I am standing with the survivor Ben Helfgott after he told me what it was like to be in the camps that my grandfather was in. For him to tell me what my grandfather looked like when he first came across him in that appalling place and for him to have held hands with me and walk out was incredibly moving.”
Rinder grew up in Southgate, in a small but “very close” Jewish family. “Jewish identity is absolutely essential to who I am and I have no qualms about talking about it, I‘m incredibly proud of my religion,” he says.
“An old friend and I often go to Golders Green, buy a beer and a schwarma, go to the kosher butcher and pick up the JC,” he says.
His family get together for Friday night dinner every week and he tries to make it as often as he can.
Rinder, a defence barrister before his television career, attributes his career choice to his grandfather’s journey. “The reason I was motivated to do law and my outlook towards people is absolutely informed by my grandfather’s experience and the experiences that he had”.
He believes that part of the reason for there being “so many Jewish lawyers” is rooted in Jewish history.
“I think it’s because of what can happen when the state is permitted to do things without individuals to stand up and intervene. Both my cousin (also a defence barrister) and I were influenced by our grandfather and by the relationship between the power of the state and the individual.”
Rinder’s career has drawn comparisons with American TV host Judge Judy, who is also Jewish. He says that though they are yet to meet, he hopes they “will one day have a Friday night together.”
He is keen to mention the UK’s role in his grandfather’s story. Through a Jewish charity called the Central British Fund, Morris was one of the 300 orphaned refugee children housed in Windermere after the war. As a result, throughout his life in England, Morris retained “a complete love of his country and democracy under the rule of law.”
The second half of the programme explores the mysterious life of Rinder’s great-grandfather, Israel Medalyer who spent the last fourteen years of his life in Friern Barnet Hospital, then an institute for people with mental health problems. He learns that his great-grandfather suffered from childhood trauma, similar to Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, after he was separated from his family during a pogrom in his home in Talsi, Latvia. Rinder travels to the Latvian town to discover more.
For him, the most important facet of the film was that it gives a voice to people who were “nothing but names and memories. Our Jewish faith is all about naming people, as we see with Yizkor and Kaddish. The programme is not just about naming them but showing something about their character.
“Very few Holocaust survivors tell their story in a single narrative, stories emerge from time to time but so much is left out. This was just such a profound gift to be able to give to my family.”
In Latvia, he reflects on the experiences of the two men. Though both ended up in England, they faced different tribulations
“The reason that I love the country I come from is because of the experiences both these men went through. And it’s a joy and a privilege to think about that, and I guess despite the darkness we’ve been through, I feel like I’ve come through a tunnel. Surprisingly I feel perhaps peculiarly optimistic.”
Robert Rinder’s episode of Who Do You Think You Are? can be seen on August 13 on BBC One
