Letters
The JC Letters Page, 7th December 2018
Alexander Goldberg, Mark Goldberg, Shimon Cohen, Neville Landau, Kay Bagon, Dr Anthony Joseph and Michael Zaidner share their views with JC readers
December 6, 2018 10:17
4 min read
Alexander Goldberg, Mark Goldberg, Shimon Cohen, Neville Landau, Kay Bagon, Dr Anthony Joseph and Michael Zaidner share their views with JC readers
December 6, 2018 10:17I would like to take issue with Monica Porter’s defence of Hungary’s wartime leader, and ally of Nazi Germany, Miklos Horthy (Letters, November 30).
The historic record shows Horthy to be responsible for the deportation and murder of Jews, even before Hungary was occupied by the Germans in March 1944. Horthy agreed to the deportation of more than 20,000 Jews deemed by the state to be non-Hungarian in the summer of 1941 to the Ukraine in the full knowledge of the fate that awaited them.
In January 1942, 1,000 Jews were murdered by Hungarian military and gendarmerie in what is today Nova Sad, Serbia. Furthermore, the US Holocaust Memorial Museum has stated that, following the occupation in March 1944, the assistance of Horthy’s “Hungarian civil administration and law enforcement officials was essential” and that they acted “with an efficiency that surprised even the Germans”.
The regime’s support was needed by Adolf Eichmann who brought with him a team of only 20. In the end, 437,402 Hungarian Jews were deported, mainly to Auschwitz, over a period of time of only a few months. The glossing over of Horthy’s record is used by nativist politicians in Hungary such as Victor Orban in reviving the reputation of former Hungarian nationalists. It is a dangerous development and one we should all be concerned about.
Alexander Goldberg
University of Surrey
Steven Harvey (Letters, November, 30) tries to exculpate Israel from accusations of unjust convictions and harsh sentencing reported “throughout the Middle East”.
Has he considered the recent cases of Elor Azaria, an IDF sergeant who served nine months in jail for the cold-blooded killing of a disarmed Palestinian assailant, and Ahed Tamimi, an unarmed Palestinian teenager sentenced to eight months for slapping a heavily-armed Israeli soldier during an incursion into her home and shortly after her cousin had been shot in the head?
What sentences does he think would have been handed down had Ahed Tamimi been Jewish and Elor Azaria Palestinian?
Mark Goldberg
London NW11
Over the past two weeks, there have been consecutive letters on animal slaughter. Dr Stanley Jacobs’s (November 23) colourful and emotive account of carrying dead animals on public transport is fanciful in the extreme.
As a regular visitor and indeed tour guide at abattoirs, I do not recognise Dr Jacobs’s account at all.
Actually, our visitors always comment on the tranquillity at the abattoir and calmness of animals. For Dr Jacobs to claim that animals are in “palpable terror” as they know that they are about to be “dragged to death”, is simply not realistic.
“Organic kosher” raised by Paul Spector (November 30), is another misnomer. For years, animals brought up on the same farm as organic produce but slaughtered by shechita have not been classed as organic due to a bizarre legal technicality. This is currently the subject of a decision by the European Court of Justice and the Attorney General has advised that the law should be interpreted differently.
The shechita process demands that special care is taken to ensure that the animals are extremely well-treated and calm ahead of slaughter.
Shechita is a slow and methodical process as any animal or bird which is even slightly harmed prior to slaughter is not considered suitable for kosher consumption. All our operators are fully licensed and vetted regularly to ensure that the highest animal welfare standards are maintained at every aspect of the process.
Shimon Cohen
Campaign Director, Shechita UK
On this 80th anniversary of Kindertransport, we can take pride in the actions of our community, through organisations such as what is now World Jewish Relief and through the actions of individual members of the community.
I take pride in the participation of members of my own family: my grandparents Barnet and Sarah Usick, who gave the use of their house in Woodberry Down to refugee children, and Sarah Usick’s brother Max Stone, who adopted an 11-year-old Kindertransport boy.
Beyond our community, there were great individual acts of humanity from such as Clement Attlee and the parents of Richard and David Attenborough who took Jewish refugee children into their homes.
I have less pride in the actions of the British government which, although, commendably, allowed the transport to proceed, made it very clear that no public funds were to be used to support the children and that their stay would be strictly temporary.
Do we learn lessons from the past? Evidently not. While the admirable Lord Alf Dubbs, himself a Kindertransport child, struggles to gain support in his efforts to persuade the government to allow an increase in the number of refugee children allowed into the UK, the resistance echoes that evident 80 years ago.
Neville Landau
London, SW19
Jonathan Freedland (JC, November 30) writes that Israel and the diaspora Jewish community are divided over their approach to Donald Trump.
This is not surprising, since America’s support is far more crucial to Israel than it is to the diaspora.
When Trump moved the US embassy to Jerusalem is was a clear endorsement of Israel’s capital city. His withdrawal from the nuclear agreement with Iran, and the consequent increased sanctions, are lauded in Israel, whose citizens feared that Obama had sold out on them.
It goes without saying that the billions of dollars of military aid provided by the US are vital to Israel, while the US presence in the region is a deterrent against Islamic radicals taking control.
So, to an Israeli, Trump is clearly a friend. The diaspora can afford to be more discerning.
Kay Bagon
Radlett, Herts
I would like to endorse Professor Colin Shindler’s positive commentary on Rabbi John Levi’s work: These are the names (JC, November 30), which is the fruit of his meticulous researching into the Jewish contribution to the growth and development of Australia,
Your readers might also care to know that they can learn more from John’s major contribution to the topic through reading about his collaborative research with the late Dr George Bergman.
In 1974, they published Australian Genesis: Jewish convicts and settlers 1788-1860 and it has been amended and reissued in this century by Melbourne University Press. Another similarly well-researched contribution on the theme was published by the late Lysbeth Cohen with the title, Beginning with Esther.
Dr Anthony Joseph,
Corresponding Member for UK, Australian Jewish Historical Society,
Smethwick, West Midlands
I read with interest Gloria Tessler’s obituary of Sir Louis Blom-Cooper (JC, November 30).
I would point out, however, that QB VII — the novel about the Dering case — was written by Leon Uris and not by Sir Louis
Michael Zaidner
Bushey Heath, Herts