Statements of solidarity
The recent spate of arson attacks on Jewish property has compelled me to write. It is not that I, as someone outside the community, could ever fully know the level of fear present within it, but because this is really the only means I have to express my deep sorrow and frustration at what is happening across British society today. Those of us who have spent years seeking to raise awareness of the scourge of antisemitism, and warning of where the innuendos, tropes, and even more blatant political hostility would lead, are filled with regret and shame that we have not been as effective as we had hoped; for this I feel the need to apologise, it was not enough. However, this is not the time to walk away from the challenges we face, it is a time to pick ourselves up, stand tall, and continue to speak out with courage and resolve in our communities.
The Revd Bruce Thompson
Oxfordshire
As a stale, pale male who has allowed the benefit of his parents’ enthusiasm for Catholicism to lapse (in the main), I am ready to receive condemnation by several sectors of society for my views. However, my dilettante attitude to religion aside, I write to beg any British Jew to reconsider any decision to emigrate.
A country without a Jewish population is the poorer for it. Only the intellectually destitute could conflate Judaism with Israeli government policy, but then, the intellectually destitute are the same people who believed in apartheid, miscegenation, eugenics and almost any other simplistic but populist theme.
I was very fortunate that in Sixties Britain my “small c” conservative parents were open-minded and liberal in their friends and their intellectual choices. The most-used cookbook of my childhood was a well-thumbed copy of Florence Greenberg’s recipes; my younger brother and I were chaperoned across London by a gay male friend.
House guests included lesbian couples and a mixed marriage Jewish-Muslim pair. Yet we were totally unaware that this was perhaps not the usual Home Counties experience.
We were taught to be polite and to respect everyone regardless of age, sex, gender, colour or religion.
Putting aside extreme views from any corner (we must not forget the historical actions of Christians in this context) it is certain that the same could hold today – if only parents, teachers, religious leaders and politicians encouraged us to see one another as human first and the detail of what or how the other person eats, drinks or worships as an interesting point of difference.
I hope and pray that the dividing lines of religious and cultural extremism can yet be set aside to allow all of us to savour the bouillabaisse of a tolerant and multiplicitous social mix.
Dr James Palmer
Shropshire
Farage fears
I’m shocked that the JC is giving a voice to Nigel Farage (Community is living in danger – it’s a national disgrace, JC April 24). He has been accused of antisemitism and racism at Dulwich College by former pupils, and it’s really problematic that a Jewish newspaper would offer him the space to claim he’s a defender of Jewish safety. By giving him space, the media are responsible for Reform performing well in the polls. Most Jewish people I know would not welcome a Reform government, in fact we’d fear it. Farage was one of the architects of the Leave campaign, which was based on jingoism and lies. He has refused to apologise for antisemitic bullying at school, and the JC publishes him?
Dr Ruth Novaczek
London N19
Defending the settlements
Why does Stan Labovitch (Letters, April 17) think that approving 34 new West Bank settlements is “unethical” and contributes to world-wide antisemitism?
I would say that ignorance of the facts, and promotion of falsehoods does that, by not knowing that under the Oslo Accords Jewish settlement anywhere in Area C is permitted, so what is his problem? Isn’t he aware that rampant illegal Palestinian settlement in Area C has proceeded apace for years, because successive Israeli governments have been too fearful of “world opinion” to stop it?
“Settler violence” has become today’s blood libel against the Jews, and while it does unfortunately exist, it is provoked and dwarfed by the unprovoked terrorism meted out by West Bank Arabs against Jews on a daily basis, and is the response by a few Jewish youths.
It is high time that the term “West Bank” is consigned to the dustbin of history. We should revert to Judea and Samaria, the name of the region for 2,000 years, instead of using the name the invading Jordanians in 1948 gave it for the sole purpose of erasing its Jewish history and identity.
Stephen Green
NW6
A remarkable surgeon
We were sad to read that our distinguished colleague, Prof Harold Ellis, has died (Obituary, April 17).
Mention is rightly made of his textbook Clinical Anatomy. However, In addition, his classic surgery textbook, Lecture Notes on General Surgery, originally written with Roy Calne (who died in 2024), was highly popular with medical students on both sides of the Atlantic, and noted for its clarity and fresh approach.
It is testimony to him that the 14th edition (2023), now under new editors and available on kindle, is still marketed as Ellis and Calne Lecture Notes on General Surgery.
In parallel with his surgical and educational roles Professor Ellis found time to make frequent contributions to medical history. He was a prolific contributor to the British Journal of Hospital Medicine, publishing no less than 51 articles.
There were succinct biographies of the well-known – such as Florence Nightingale – but there were others about forgotten surgical pioneers such as Grave, Mikulicz and Wilks.
Military medicine was another interest, exploring Nelson and the Battle of Trafalgar, and how modern approaches to this subject resulted from the Battle of Gettysburg.
Professor Ellis was very active in support of Israel and Israeli medicine. He was President of the British Fellowship of the Israel Medical Association.
In the weeks leading to the Six-Day War he was active in soliciting donations, at Westminster Hospital, for Israeli causes.
He supported Jewish medical students and would address their meetings. He was a regular attendee at the London Jewish Medical Society. When the Jewish medical groups merged to form the Jewish Medical Association UK (JMA), he remained a life member and well into his nineties Professor Ellis came to the JMA Henry Cohen lectures.
His memory is an example and a blessing.
Mervyn Jaswon NW11
David Katz NW3
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