Care and the community
Prime Minister Andy Burnham is full of praise for Jewish Care – and on this, at least, I won’t quarrel with him. My own family’s experience leaves us no less full of praise. The facilities are second to none, the care is magnificent, and the staff genuinely embody the “One Big Family” philosophy. The Prime Minister is right to credit Jewish values and our sense of community for much of this.
What he conveniently omits is who paid for it. Hundreds of millions of pounds in private charitable donations built the gold standard that is Jewish Care – the generosity of extraordinary families, and a community that takes its responsibilities seriously. It would have cost the Prime Minister nothing to say so. That he didn’t is disappointing, though perhaps not surprising: praising philanthropy would mean acknowledging a community capable of looking after itself, rather than one waiting for him.
More troubling still is how he weaves his praise for Jewish Care into claims about his government’s commitment to letting British Jews live, in his words, “a full Jewish life”. Here the omission isn’t just disappointing – it’s revealing. A full Jewish life cannot co-exist with a government that keeps finding new ways to demonise Israel. You cannot toast our care homes on Monday and undermine the Jewish state on Tuesday and call it support.
The prime minister might like to learn that a full Jewish life includes philanthropy and Israel, not just photo opportunities at the former. Recognition and rhetoric are cheap. Recognition that means something – and support that matches it – are what’s actually owed.
Shimon Cohen
London N2
Jewish Studies
Contrary to Dominic Green’s claim that Jewish Studies emerged from the identity-politics movements of the 1960s (The terrible waste that is Jewish Studies, JC, August 7), the field has much deeper roots.
Modern Jewish Studies arose in 19th-century Germany through the Wissenschaft des Judentums movement, while in Britain Cecil Roth held the Readership in Jewish Studies at Oxford from 1939 to 1964.
For many of us, his combination of rigorous scholarship, willingness to challenge orthodoxies, and commitment to public engagement remains a model.
Nor did Roth exempt Israel from critical scrutiny. Writing in 1949, just one year after the state’s founding, he argued that Jews should have “one supreme loyalty” to “that which is righteous”, and that “to oppose the policy of the government, whether the government of Israel or that of any other state, because it is a wrong and unethical policy is the duty of the Jew, because he is a Jew”.
This was not the view of a detached critic or boycotter. Roth made aliyah in 1964 and is buried in Jerusalem. His example reminds us that critical enquiry and a deep commitment to Jewish life, including in Israel, have long gone hand in hand within Jewish Studies.
Professor Jay Prosser
Deputy Director of the Centre for Jewish Studies, University of Leeds
Candidate choice
Jews bear grudges better than any people in this world. It’s time that people in the professional political class work on this. Yes, Joshua Bonehill-Paine had abhorrent views, yes he caused harm, but he decided to grow as a human being. He should be allowed to grow and the professional political class, instead of baying for blood, should trust one of our very few reliable friends in politics, Kemi Badenoch, to make the right decisions.
Ashley Barnett
Ramat Bet Shemesh
I have difficulty in following why the Board of Deputies and other “representative” Jewish bodies believe they are entitled to ask for deselection of a candidate. Matters of election, be they local or parliamentary, are for the local voter. On the other hand, If a candidate manifests, either now, or in the past, views which they consider repugnant they are entitled to say this, and if possible pursue the candidate for an explanation.
In the present circumstances they have been given that opportunity to meet him, but declined to take it up.
Are these the same leaders who accept that education is the best way to combat antisemitism, or are they incapable of putting proper questions ? No experienced person wishing to expose repugnant beliefs will ask questions unless they have some idea of the answer, a trick I learnt many years ago.
Barrington Black,
London.NW3.
A time for applause
Simon Rocker writes of his discomfort with clapping in shul (The trend for rounds of applause in shul makes regulars like me unhappy-clappy, JC August 7). I share that but have thought about it over the years. I remember watching some of the enthronement of Archbishop Rowan Williams at Canterbury in 2003 and being taken aback by the spontaneous and loud applause during the solemn service and the same happened for his successors. I was also surprised when there was enthusiastic applause for King Charles at his Coronation in Westminster Abbey.
We could say that those congregations lack yasher koach or other appropriate words, and we want them to remain in use, and to pass to future generations, but I’ve also wondered if perhaps my discomfort means I am behind the times.
However, I feel very strongly that bar and batmitzvahs are not performances, even though in some ways they are very public, but far more, ideally at least, they are about laying foundations for the future. With that in mind, and while I could never imagine myself or my colleagues using those words, I remember being in shul in Vancouver some years ago, where, clearly, they had a problem with clapping, and the rabbi said to the congregation, “when you pay for admission, you can applaud”.
Something for us to continue to think about.
Rabbi Amanda Golby
London N3
I have many cherished memories of my father, fortunately, but one that still gives me great pleasure is when he walked into shul, after a very serious cancer operation and recuperation period, to spontaneous applause. I had never heard such a response, and more than two decades later, it is something that has never been repeated.
Sometimes the unexpected is so welcome and spiritually uplifting.
Marilyn Brenner
Staines-Upon-Thames
Divine help
As many regions are in a drought, praying for rain is an imperative, so I would suggest that the addition of the prayer mashiv ha’ruach be used in the Amidah immediately.
Laurie Rosenberg
Woodford Green
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