A few weeks ago, I was outraged in a Jewish WhatsApp group alight with the fury of Jews being excluded from events to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the Battle of Cable Street. This, after all, was an historical event in which Jews played a major role, blocking – alongside Irish dockworkers, communists, socialists and trade unionists – the route to Mosley's 3,000 “Blackshirts” fascists, who had planned to march through the heavily Jewish-populated East End. It was like seeing a movie with one of its lead protagonists left off the credits. Forgotten, perhaps. Erased, more likely.
Unite the Union claimed it had erroneously omitted mention of the Jewish community and scheduled its anniversary event on Shabbat, the day before the October 4 anniversary; the trade union apologised, adding Jews to its website when the error was pointed out.
But the feeling of being excluded is one Jews are all too familiar with. And we are not the type to keep our outrage confined to kvetching on a WhatsApp group.
Within days, outraged community members had mobilised and organised a festival of their own, Cable Street 90, to be held by the Board of Deputies to commemorate the history of the UK’s Jews and to remind us of how we fought for what’s right and to protect ourselves, and of our resilience.
Soon, a star-studded programme of events offering music, film, theatre, visual art, talks, walking tours and family events across East London would be opened up to bookings, featuring among others Tracy-Ann Oberman, Howard Jacobson, and a one-off performance by Oi Va Voi this Thursday intended as a “celebration of survival, community and joy”.
The British band know first-hand what it is like to be cancelled and to bounce back in defiance. When two of their shows were cancelled due to pressure by activists last year, they refused to be silenced, reemerging with a new song, that ramped up their Jewish sound. You have a problem with a Jewish band with an Israeli singer? Here, have Back to My Roots, featuring even more klezmer, and the call of a shofar for good measure.
Oi Va Voi's drummer and co-founder Josh Breslaw told me at the time: “On this song, we turned the dial right up on who Oi Va Voi are – our Jewish heritage. It felt like what we needed to do at this time. It's loud and proud.” He added that they were “not just crawling under a rock because bullies say you need to”.
Jews do not crawl under a rock, however much our opponents might like us to. Cancellations across the arts in the wake of October 7 – including those of comedy shows by Philip Simon and Rachel Creeger – led to community-led organisations Friends in the Arts (FIA), Jewish Arts Foundation and JDal springing up with initiatives to support Jewish creatives. Meanwhile, JK Rowling’s agent Neil Blair is launching a new international publishing venture to promote Jewish and Israeli authors, High Line Publishing Studio, in response to a “lack of diversity in publishing in New York and London with respect to Israeli and Jewish voices” which “increased exponentially after October 7”, he told The Wall Street Journal.
None of this is new to us. Showing resilience is what Jews have done throughout history, when we have been excluded – see Hollywood, which immigrant Jews played a central role in building in the early 20th century when antisemitism restricted Jewish access to other areas; the new film industry had fewer barriers to entry.
You see it everywhere today, too. Jews under threat post-October 7? Mothers and fathers in the community volunteer for security duty at their children’s schools and their shuls, and record numbers sign up to CST. Personal trainers step up to offer classes in Krav Maga and knife self-defence in north London.
There is a bittersweet story of how, while golfing together, President Ronald Reagan told actor Tom Selleck that he left a country club in the 1950s because of its policy of refusing Jewish members. After leaving that racist club the president was said to have been invited to join the predominantly Jewish Hillcrest Country Club across town, which he did.
If anyone is going to exclude us, they should know that we will make our own way regardless. We will not be cowed – and we will sing that loud and clear at Thursday’s show.
Oi Va Voi play on October 1
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