Entering the Lists

Home , Tariq Ali

VOLUME 3 No. 3 MARCH 2003 tSiS journal ^^^^1 ^^^^1 ^ Association of Jewish Refugees Entering the lists At the end of 2002 the Independent asked were on a par with sharing a lice-infested mendacity of the deep-dyed Israel- 52 public figures - from Tariq Ali to bunk in the gulag. Ali, the patrician baiters, the decibels of their Michael Winner - to list their heroes and onetime barricade-builder in Grosvenor vituperation keep rising. A favourite villains of the year. The villains named Square turned all-purpose pundit, shows tactic of theirs is the 'double standards' 3nd shamed in the paper's columns cavalier disregard for the meaning of charge (i.e. why should Iraq be barred extended from such transient celebrities words, the basic raw material of punditry. from acquiring nuclear weapons if Israel 3s conman Peter Foster and butler Paul Having demeaned the term refusenik, he has them?). This contention leaves out Durrell to the likes of George Bush and waters down the connotation of of account the pivotal fact that the Ariel Sharon. The last named two untermenschen by attaching that loan Jewish state was almost strangled at received six 'villain' nominations each word from Hitler's vocabulary to birth by its Arab neighbours, whose out, since President Bush also figured as Sharon's perception ofthe Mestinians. combined population today is 20 times hero' on one entry, the Israeli that of Israel. (If one adds non- premier won the villainy stakes Arab Muslim states like Iran and by a short head. Not that the 52 Pakistan to the equation, Israel "lovers and shakers' showed total bias: three actually listed is outnumbered 50 to one.) Osama bin Laden as their devil, More crucially, it ignores the 3nd one each nominated geopolitical reality that even a Saddam Hussein and Robert nuclear-armed Israel could Mugabe. Still, the fact remains never hope to suborn the 22 •J^t Ariel Sharon topped the states in the Arab League - tlevils' league table. while the latter, led by an A- bomb-happy Saddam Hussein, Astonishingly, no one named could obliterate Israel. the Iranian, Syrian and Saudi heads of Tom Stoppard Woody Allen state, who financesuicid e bombings, or The fact is that two years into Sharon's The unthinking refusal of many 'ê mullahs who sentenced a Nigerian premiership, Palestinian students attend bystanders to take this on board is one of adulteress' to death by stoning, or the Israeli universities and Palestinian the woes that currently beset us. head of Cairo TV responsible for voters elect Knesset members who Another is the fact that some ofthe most Greening The Protocols of the Elders potentially affect the shape of the cerebrally endowed of our co '^fZion. incoming government. Of course, religionists - Chomsky, Hobsbawm - It would not have been so bad if at least Palestinians in the Territories are have squeezed their brains into the vice ^^le of Sharon's accusers had nominated suffering death and hardship, but they are of Marxism, and consequently reject the Israeli opposition candidate Amron casualties in a war for whose outbreak Zionism as 'bourgeois-imperialist'. A M'tzna as their hero, but none Sharon bears less culpability than Arafat. third is that Jewish-born luminaries 'Mentioned the fact that, uniquely in the Tariq Ali seems to think that his with the double qualification that their *1iddle East, an Israeli prime minister background entitles him to pontificate brains have not been addled by Marxist ^ actually be voted out of office. about the Middle East. He, who currently dogma and that they enjoy 'street cred' - Tariq Ali made Noam Chomsky his peddles pacifist nostrums to resolve the Tom Stoppard, Woody Allen - seem ^''o - picking a Jew who, professing to Iraq crisis, has in the past done little to indifferent to the fate of Israel. ^^^ Israel as Washington's catspaw, resolve the crisis in our northern cities. Would that we still had an Isaiah ûld not shed a single tear over its Where was he when disaffected Berlin in our midst who could plead the des^traction . In his encomium on Pakistanis in Bradford made a public case for the existence of a Jewish state Ch,omsky , Tariq Ali gives him the bonfire of Salman Rushdie's Satanic before the bar of public opinion. Is it too •^•"etentious appellation refusenik - as if Verses and, a decade later, burnt buildings much to hope that someone of the ûpying a professorial chair at the in their own city? calibre of Simon Schama will step into Massachusett: s Institute of Technology But even if we can show up the the breach? AJR JOURNAL MARCH 2003

Schizophrenia AJR supports third under dreaming Holocaust spires Memorial Day Richard Grunberger Ronald Channing The other night, BB2's Arts Review discussed Christopher Hampton's The For the third year in succession, the Talking Cure (currently showing at the University of Sussex marked Holocaust At Camden's Holocaust memorial are, National Theatre). This is a play about Memorial Day with a full programme on left to right. Rabbi Janet Burden, who the formative stage in the development recited memorial prayers, playwright campus of talks, films and discussions, of psychoanalysis and focuses on the Julia Pascal, the Mayor, and children of attracting students and lecturers of all fraught relationship between Sigmund the Kindertransport, Bertha Leverton and disciplines from this and the Freud and Carl Jung. Ruth Fallman , neighbouring University of Brighton, as However, the discussion, which should I well as teachers from local schools. This Wiener Library, the publication of a have been about the merits of the play, year's programme, centred on the memorial book entitled Before They was sidetracked early on when Tom theme 'Survivors and Refugees, 1933- Perished: Photographs Found in Paulin denied Jung any standing as a 2000', was introduced by Sussex's Vice Auschwitz was complemented by an thinker. Jeanette Winterson tried to Chancellor, Prof Aiasdair Smith, and address given by the German defend the Swiss psychologist but was Brighton's Vice Chancellor, Prof Sir Ambassador, HE Thomas Matussek. This slapped down by Paulin, who rubbished David Watson, who presented an was followed by a moving recollection Jung's ideas about the 'racial address on the German-American by Auschwitz survivor and author Arno subconscious' and his theory of philosopher Hannah Arendt. Lustiger and a commentary on archetypes as so much mumbo-jumbo. Holocaust survivor Janina Fischler photographs drawn from the book by Then the Oxford don landed his killer Martinho's eye-witness testimony of the Dr Hanno Loewy of the Fritz Bauer blow: he quoted Jung's deeply ambiguous dissolufion of the Lodz ghetto was Institute in Frankfurt. attitude to Nazism. followed by that of Professor Abdul At the Jewish Museum, Finchley, the One part of me was pleased to note that LalEad, a refugee from Afghanistan. exhibition Am I My Brother's Keeper?, Paulin has not forgiven those European Headmaster Anthony Edkins led a which explores the subject of rescue in intellectuals who committed la trahison discussion group on the challenges the Holocaust, occasioned an opening des clercs by compounding with Nazi posed by presenting the moral lecture by Prof Mark Roseman on the ideology in the 1930s. Another part of me dilemmas inherent in the Holocaust to Wannsee Conference in January 1942 was puzzled as to how this attitude children with limited horizons. and its infiuence on what became squared with Paulin's lapse into Sussex's Centre for German-Jewish known as the 'final solufion'. Goebbels-style demonisation of Israeli Studies, under its Director, Prof Edward Senior AJR staff attended a Holocaust soldiers and Nazi-style rhetoric calling Timms, are especially pleased that this commemoration event organised bV for the murder of Orthodox settlers from pioneering venture continues to receive the London Borough of Camdei the USA. the generous support of the AJR, dedicated to the national them^ Someone who is as sensitive as Paulin furthering the relafionship established 'Children and the Holocaust'. AmonS is to the erosion of humanitarian values between the two organisations by the those speaking in the Council chambe' by the poison of prewar racism cannot be late Max Kochmann, former AJR were two children of th^ oblivious to the alarming overlap Chairman and chairman of the Centre's Kindertransport, Bertha Leverton an'' between anti-Zionism and antisemitism. support committee. Ruth Fallman, a former pupil of th^ This overlap has existed since the 1920s, Earlier in the week, AJR's Head of Berlin School for the Deaf, Julia Pascal' when the Muslim Brotherhood first Community Relations, Ronald playwright and writer on the Holocaust preached jihad, and Amin al Husseini, the Channing, discussed the significance of Rabbi Janet Burden, Councillor Rog^ Mufti of Jerusalem, incited a pogrom in Holocaust Memorial Day and the work Robinson, whose Dutch family perishe** Hebron in response to Jewish of the AJR with presenter Estelle Lovatt in the Holocaust, and the Mayor " immigration. on north London's Shalom radio. At the Camden. However justified the Palestinians may be in demanding national self- determination, they forfeit such a claim AJR Journal Richard Grunberger Editor-in-Chief JACKMAN • by denying the same right to the Jews. Ronald Channing Executive Editor And how sincere can protestations to the Howard Spier Editorial and Production SILVERMAN contrary be when Arab anti-Zionists - AJR Journal, 1 Hampstead Gate, COMMERCIAL PROPERTY CONSULTANTS whether secularists like Arafat and la Frognal, London NW3 6AL Saddam or Islamists - subscribe to the Tel: 020 7431 6161 Fax: 020 7431 8454 e-mail: [email protected] 26 Conduit Street, London WIR 9TA same image of the Jew as delineated in wvvw.ajr.org.uk Telephone: 020 7409 0771 Fax: 020 7493 80l' the Protocols ofthe Elders of Zion ? AJR JOURNAL MARCH 2003

Roll of dishonour Richard Grunberger NEWTONS Leading Hampstead Solicitors The Albrecht Diirer exhibition at the destroying Jewish religious institutions advise on British Museum features a portrait ofthe and secular Hebrew culture. Property, Wills, Family Trusts artist's patron, Pirkheimer, who also One would have expected Hitler's and Charitable Trusts befriended the great Humanist scholar genocide to substantiate the case for a French and German spoken Johannes Reuchlin. A philosemite, Jewish state beyond peradventure. But Home visits arranged Reuchlin produced the first Hebrew this, alas, did not hold imiversally true - grammar and dictionary widely available not even among Jews. Although anti- 22 Fitzjohn's Avenue, •n Renaissance Europe. Zionist Jews were always numerically London NWS 5NB insignificant, they made up for their Reuchlin achieved additional Tel: 020 7435 5351 paucity by their celebrity status. Their prominence through combating/o/jaMwes Fax: 020 7435 8881 rfejferkom, a converted Jew, who, at the number included the sometime First Lady behest of the Dominican friars of of Poland, Madame Gomulka, Yergeni Cologne, scoured the Rhineland Primakov, architect of the Soviet-Iraqi confiscating and publicly biu^ing copies alliance, Gaddafi's chum Bruno Kreisky, of the Talmud on the grounds that it and the ANC leaders/oe Slovo and Ronnie uicited hatred against Christianity. Kasrils, to both of whom Nelson Mandela CONSULTANT Three centuries later Germany gave government posts. Slovo died too to long established English soon after his elevation to make his mark witnessed another instance of a Solicitors (bi-lingual German) as a spokesman for anti-Zionism. Kasrils, (converted) Jew denigrating his ancestral would be happy to assist clients on the other hand, still holds office in the Heritage when Karl Marx equated the with English, German and current Mbeki cabinet, and has a high ^thos of Judaism with that of greed- Austrian problems. profile among calumniators of Israel.

Breaking the cycle of violence Emma Klein

'Jihad' and 'Amalek' are terms which embodiment of evil. While Haman reverberate across the centuries. clearly sought the destruction of the Intrinsic to Islam and Judaism Jews of King Ahasuerus's realm, the respectively, they also reflect a group glee with which Jews throughout the dynamic common to many cultures. generations have symbolically drowned This is the split between the desire to out his name and the rejoicing which nurture and protect one's own and the accompanied the wholesale slaughter of urge to project all the negativity one his family and followers, suggest that he refuses to acknowledge onto the other, and they are seen as less than human. the outsider. The war against Amalek, the The Pentateuch contains many Pentateuch warns, will be pursued from injunctions to blot out the name of generation to generation. Moreover, it is of violence? Might it be possible to find a Amalek, the archetypal enemy who this struggle with Amalek that the new perspective on the war against attacked the Israelites as they were renowned medieval biblical Amalek and the concept of Jihad? In his coming out of Egypt, smiting the commentator, Maimonides, cites as one book The Eternal Journey, Rabbi weakest and the most vulnerable. Jihad, of the few instances when war is Jonathan Wittenberg cites the Hassidic a term all too fi^equentlyemploye d in our justified. Indeed, Hitler, Arafat and tradition which interprets the words of day, is believed to have been coined by others are not infirequently labelled as the Pentateuch as 'to you Amalek', the prophet Mohamed. It is understood Amalek reincarnate. Similarly, while meaning Amalek is within you - within as a holy war against the so-called Islam's dispute with the Jews may be all of us. 'The war against Amalek'- 'infidel' - popularly perceived in the West traced back to the days of the Prophet, Wittenberg concludes, 'means fighting as all who fail to follow the tenets of the constant stream of vilification and evil both within ourselves and without- Islam. September 11 2001, the most demonisation of Jews spewed out by the If we ignore the former, we too quickly devastating example of Jihad to date, Arab media today provides ample become like Amalek.' witnessed the harnessing of modern justification and incitement for acts of Wittenberg's words found an echo in a technology to this ideology. 'martyrdom' in the name of Jihad. recent lecture by the Israeli-born Psychoanalytic literature dwells at Psychotherapist Jenny Beddington, Islamist Sara Sviri. Speaking on 'The length on the twin tendencies of experienced in conflict resolution, Greater Jihad', Sviri claimed that 'the idealisation and demonisation, which explains one major motive for idea conveyed by this term is that the flourish in a climate of religious or demonising the other as 'an inability to true jihad is not the one against infidels nationalist fanaticism. In his book Terror forgive and move on from past but the one against one's own innef and Transformation, James W Jones grievances. The history remains in the Self. To struggle with the externa' speaks ofthe 'conjunction of an idealised present.' Irrespective of historic "other" is easier than to struggle wit'' nationalism and religion', which context, she points out, such splitting the inner "other".' sanctifies violence against the outsider can occur whenever a group feels And from the crucible of conflict, ^ who is perceived as a threat. Any threatened by a culture with different glimmer of hope was afforded by th^ unwanted feelings of unworthiness, values - for example differing case of a Palestinian suicide bomber wh" which arise firom contact with this perceptions on the role of women, only partially succeeded in detonating idealised concept of nation or religious differing sexual mores or different his explosives and was taken to precept, are projected outwards onto political systems. Equally, where groups hospital in Israel where he received tn others, who consequently become are very similar and feel threatened by best medical treatment alongsin^ debased, subhuman and worthy of loss of power and identity, the same survivors of other bombing incident^' extinction. splitting may occur in an effort to 'Not all Jews are bad', he declared "" , How relevant is this dynamic to the preserve separateness and identity. 'In leaving hospital. 'You can have a ^ , world of the scriptures? Certainly the extreme cases of splitting, where hatred Arab in the same way as a bad Jew.' ^^ biblical Amalek and his own predominates, violence is used to keep this context, encounter with the 'othe* j descendants, Agag, the Amalekite king the group separate and feeling powerful, can be seen to offer the most effecti* whom King Saul was enjoined to to eliminate the other group and to means of laying the foundations oi destroy, and Haman, the villain of the settle past and other conflicts.' process, which might eventually lead^ Purim story, are portrayed as the Is there any way of breaking this cycle the transformation of perception. AJR JOURNAL MARCH 2003

Esther Rantzen relives journey of Czech children on TV AJR phones jammed with calls Ronald Channing

Following the broadcast on Carlton month-old baby which accompanied parents' names, remarking how Television of Winton's Children, a it was of herself! fortunate he was not to have been moving documentary produced and Following three weeks in Prague, in similarly commemorated. Rudy and reported by Esther Rantzen, the AJR which he worked from a hotel Esther stood together on the station received well over 100 enquiries. bedroom on his self-imposed task to platforms from where most of the Prompted by the AJR's telephone save as many children as possible. Sir children had bid their parents a final number, which was given at the end Nicholas returned to London where goodbye, before travelling on of the programme, the largest he worked late every night to find through Dresden into Holland. Here category of enquirers were non- homes and the £50 required to fund they were given a warm greeting and Jewish people who recalled each child's entry. The popular good food, and then taken from the friendships with children who came photographic magazine Picture Post, Hook of Holland by ferry to Harwich to Britain as German-speaking Jewish founded by the Hungarian-born and train to Liverpool Street Station, where, amid scenes of 'chaos' - freely refugees, whom they had lodged, German Jewish refugee Stefan admitted to by Sir Nicholas - children 9one to school with, or just Lorant, published Sir Nicholas's were matched up with their befriended. The passage of time letters seeking assistance. sponsors. rneant the friends had lost contact, Among the children who gave their Out the programme had re recollections to Esther Rantzen were Sitting with Esther in the Wessely awakened a desire to renew their Lord Alf Dubs, Vera Schaufeld, Lady family's former flat, in which he had former relationships. Milena Grenfell-Baines, Kathe spent his last day with his parents, Many others were keen to trace lost Strenitz (last month's AJR Journal Rudy confessed that there were relatives. Those with a Czech profilee). Vera Gissing and Rudy memories too much to bear and "too connection were directed to the Wessely, a 77-year-old retired many ghosts" for him to return to Archives of the Czech Jewish university lecturer with whom Esther Prague once again. From the Czech community shown in the film. Sadly, returned to Prague, a city he had last Jewish community's archives he other enquirers sought to establish seen at the age of 14. learned that his father, a judge who the fate of relatives who had perished At the Pinchas Synagogue (now a was imprisoned in the small fortress 'n Auschwitz or in another death museum), with the names of 80,000 in Theresienstadt, and his mother c^mp. Most encouraging was a call victims of the Nazis inscribed on its had been reunited for their final rrom a lady who, having recognised a walls, most of the victims taken to journey to Auschwitz. Photograph of her elder brother, Theresienstadt then transported to "It defies all understanding," said ^educed that the picture of a four- Auschwitz, Rudy pointed out his Esther Rantzen.

Crimes Against Humanity: Holocaust Memorial Day at Imperial War Museum ^f particular relevance to the Imperial ghetto. The film is far more than a handful of years later the sanatorium ''ar Museum's Holocaust exhibition is personal odyssey: it looks at the was razed to the ground by the Nazis and the newly opened permanent exhibition surviving Jewish communities of its occupants deported to the Crimes Against Humanity: An Eastern Europe and at the shadow the extermination camps. "Exploration of Genocide and Ethnic Holocaust has cast over so many lives. The Hidden Children (2001) teUs the "^lolence. Its central element is a In a personal appearance at the story of three Jewish children whose Specially commissioned 30-minute film screening of her film, Ms Hamermesh parents sent them to Christian families ^Wch runs continuously throughout the argued strongly for conciliation between to save their lives. After the war the ^V- The film is not recommended for Poles and Jews. children emerged from their hiding j^hildren under 16. A small interactive Children Must Laugh is a half-hour re- places forced to face an unknown future Earning centre provides an opportunity edited version of a 1936 film recording in an unfriendly world. Silence (1998) is a ."^ explore the histories of particular the work of the well-known Medem short animated filmabou t a Jewish child Stances of mass murder and genocide, sanatorium for children from the hidden by her grandmother in the •in tills year's Holocaust Memorial Day Warsaw Ghetto slums. This fi"ankly Terezin ghetto. Angel of Bergen-Belsen: thef the Museum was also devoted to a propagandistic film, made by the Luba and the Diamond Children (1998) ^ber of moving fihns on the theme Bundist party, highlighted the clearly recounts the story of Luba Trysynska, a oi' Children and the Holocaust'. positive results of spending time at the Polish Jew who for several months , ^ Loving the Dead (1991), film-maker sanatorium - heralding, it was said, a concealed 54 children fi'omth e guards at •^ Hamermesh returned to Poland in bright future for the Jewish children of the extermination camp. ^ch of her mother, who died in the Poland. With the heaviest irony, just a HS AJR JOURNAL MARCH 2003

that the Roman Empire collapsed when the movement of people "^LETTERS^ The Editor reserves the right from the East eventually reached to shorten correspondence an unsustainable level. TO THE 1 submitted for publication { Admittedly the Renaissance EDITOM followed - but I haven't got a mtm thousand years to wait for its second coming. EDITORIAL LINE DISPUTED Sir - Amazed at the anti-Israel Laszio Roman Sir -1 fully endorse the aims of the AJR leanings of the people who write to London N22 and therefore wish to remain a the journal, I should like to express member But I do disagree so much my and Nicole's appreciation to you GERMANY SENDS OUT MIXED with your editor, who appears to for keeping sane amidst Jewish Jew- SIGNALS monopolise the journal with his haters. For those who say they are at Sir - Recently there has been a spate uncompromising political liberty to criticise Israel so severely, of books to illustrate how the orientation. here is a quote from the New York Germans too suffered during the Gertrude Evans Times: 'Criticizing Israel is not anti- Second Worid War Gunther Grass London SW7 Semitic ... But singling out Israel for has written about the sinking of the opprobrium and international KdF cruise ship Wilhelm Gustloff off Sir - I enjoy reading AJR Journal sanction - out of all proportion to any the Baltic near Konigsberg in because of, and sometimes despite, other party in the Middle East - is February 1945. The ship was the editor's stance - same as I happen anti-Semitic ...'(16 October 2002). torpedoed by a Russian submarine to enjoy reading the Da;7y Telegraph with the loss of some 700 passengers despite its stance on a number of Ernest David being evacuated to the west of topics, and, at other times - Israel, for (Ex-Director, AJR) Germany - it was heavily overioaded. instance - because of it. Which only The German press demanded the trial proves, I suppose, that we can all Sir -1 would venture to suggest that by an international war crimes agree at times to disagree - a among the letters published in this tribunal ofthe Russian captain, who, supposedly English virtue. journal there is an over- it seems, is still alive. The hubbub Robert Miller representation from the Guardian- died down when it was disclosed that Leatherhead reading (and -believing!) minority. It among the passengers were some is true, of course, that we are more 3,000 armed marines - making the Sir - Readers like myself feel that 'the likely to put pen to paper when we ship a legitimate target - and that a Jews' are not a nation and that we do strongly disagree. Therefore, to substantial number of the other not live in an international Jewish maintain a semblance of balance, passengers were Volksdeutsche, who spiritual community, which I call may I endorse most of the views had been encouraged to migrate to national semitism. Nor does being of expressed in your front-page articles Poland in 1939/40 to take over farms and say how sorry I feel for those who Jewish stock mean citizenship of from forcibly evicted Polish citizens. honestly believe that: Israel. It may be your definition of One German magazine whicf^ yourself, and your presumption that (1) A majority of Jews in Israel (as well recently ran articles on the expulsiof^ other definitions are false, that lead as in the diaspora) would fail to of Sudeten Germans frof^ to ructions. There are many degrees support peace with the Czechoslovakia after the Secono and variations of assimilation. Palestinians if, in return, the Worid War made no mention of th^ Perhaps in Berlin, which did not vote Palestinians credibly offered and disruptive actions of those German^ for the Nazis, it was different from delivered peace with Israel. leading to the invasion o' Vienna. (2) Saddam Hussein has no chemical, Czechoslovakia in 1938. Peter Zander biological (or 'dirty' nuclear Professor Friedrich's attitude '^ London W1 weapons) and in any event would regrettably too common, usuaHV refrain from deploying them. culminating in the horrors of t^^ Sir - Sadly we have Jews like (3) The USA is an 'evil empire' and bombing of Dresden. More details^ Harold Pinter and Gerald Kaufman must be opposed and research would have shown that thi MP who spread hate against Israel, condemned. bombing was militarily justified'' but I believe letters from V Baruch, (4)Unrestricted migration into given that at that stage Dresden W^ ^ K Strenitz and V Ross represent the Europe, from mainly Muslim one of the most important ra' majority of readers. Richard countries, by people whose life in junctions and marshalling yards use'' Grunberger is an excellent editor. those countries is in no way to shuttle troops and equipme'\ Clare Parker threatened is desirable. I believe between the two fronts. As an \n\s^ AJR JOURNAL MARCH 2003

river port, it was of strategic REFUGEE FOLKLORE importance. The Heinkel Sir - Much as I admire the serious ARE YOU ON A LOW Flugzeugwerft serviced war planes. subjects you cover in your excellent INCOMEANDINNEED Herbert Haberberg journal, don't you think that just OF HOMECARE HELP? Barnet, Herts occasionally you might offer your readers something lighter - for AJR might be able to offer instance an anecdote from the eariy financial assistance. GOOD FOR THE JEWS? years? Sample: Viennese lady to her Members who might not Sir - Ironic, isn't it, that under a Jewish landlord: 'There is a train in my room, otherwise be able to afford chancellor, Bruno Kreisky, the and if you do not give me another homecare please contact: Austrians still maintained that they cei I i ng, I wi 11 u nd ress' (£s ist ein Zug in Estelle Brookner, Secretary Were victims of Nazi Germany and meinem Zimmer und wenn Sie mir AJR Social Services Dept therefore hardly paid any nicht eine andere Decke geben, Tel: 020 7431 6161 reparations at all. Then, with the werde ich ausziehen.) advent of Haider, the country F Reichmann seemed to accept responsibility, and Finstock, Oxon paid at least some of its financial Companions debts to Holocaust victims. Out of UNEASY LIES THE HEAD evil came some good. However, how of London Sir - Your correspondent Francis Incofporating 9ood for the Jews was Kreisky - and Steiner (January issue) is quite right: Hampstead Home Care how good would Joe Lieberman be this is an allusion to the trial of Queen 'f. by some miracle, he became US A long established company Elizabeth's physician, the marrano president? providing care in your home Rodrigo Lopez, in The Merchant of Peter Phillips Assistance with personal care Venice. The play was written in the Loudwater, Herts General household duties same decade as the trial of 1594, in Respite care which Lopez was vilified as a Jew and Medical appointment service which ended with his (politically JUSTICE DENIED •OUR CARE IS YOUR CARE' corrupt) conviction and execution for Sir - Your editorial (November 2002) 020 7483 0212/0213 allegedly attempting to poison the Asserts: Today's French wince at the Queen. The reference occurs in a recollection of their wartime conduct speech by the crudest Jew-baiter of •••'• Not as far as the persecution of the play, Gratiano, in the trial scene in <^ SPRING Jews is concerned! Rather than feel Act IV Scene 1: GROVE Sorry for the victims, they feel sorry 214 Finchley Road tor the perpetrators. Brought to trial ... thy currish spirit London NW3 ^t last, M. Papon, who sent hundreds Govern'd a wolf. who. hang'd for London's Most Luxurious to their deaths, has been released. human slaughter. Even from the gallows did his fell RETIREMENT HOME Frank Bright soul fleet. • Entertainment-Activities Ipswich And. whilst thou layst in thy • Stress Free Living unhallow'd dam. • 24 Hour Staffing • Excellent Cuisine • Full En-Suite Facilities ''RITZ MULIAR Infused itself in thee; for thy desires 'r - As a former school friend of Fritz Are wolvish, bloody, starved and Call for more information ravenous. ^^liar, may I set the record straight or a personal tour ^^ee RG's Interface, November issue)? The themes adumbrated here are 020 8446 2117 of ntz grew up as a Jew, the son of a those of the transmigration of or 020 7794 4455 ^wish father and a gentile mother human into animal souls and vice [email protected] allowing the Anschluss his mother, versa, and of the decline of humanity 'ther to protect him or genuinely to to the level of beasts. By making the ^°rne clean, attested that his real beast a wolf (lupus), Shakespeare is Simon R Rhodes M.Ch.S. ^ther was not Jewish. Whereupon a punning on Lopez's name. But of STATE REGISTERED CHIROPODIST Surgeries at: ^artbroken Muliar Sr emigrated to course Gratiano does not speak for 67 Kilburn High Road, NW6 (opp M&S) the great playwright, who had eariier /•^ USA, where he soon died of a Telephone 020 7624 1576 made Shylock passionately assert his •"oken heart. Now rehabilitated as 3 Queens Close (off Green Lane) status as a human being in the 'Hath rail f'^ Aryan, Fritz was drafted into the Edgware, Middx HA87PU ^^hrmacht. not a Jew eyes?' speech. Telephone 020 8905 3264 Jussi Brainin SS Prawer Visiting chiropody service available Oxon Queen's College, Oxford AJRJOURNAL MARCH 2003

ceramics, turquoise mosaics and gold. Aztec wars were never territorial RG'S INTGRFACe NOTES but were fought in the relentless pursuit of human sacrifices, as the Mishpochology (1) The Jewish number of sacrificial vessels and altars Museum in Frankfurt is marking the centenary of Carlo Levi with an Gloria Tessler testifies. Thus Aztecs bear with them exhibition of 60 paintings. Although an atmosphere of monolithic The powerful ritualism of the Aztecs Levi was first and foremost a painter, structures, pyramids, ritual cruelty - has influenced many artists, including he had trained as a doctor and gained all the negative primitivism that Henry Moore, and art movements. international fame with the Western civilisation tried to eradicate. publication of Christ Stopped at Eboli Aztec culture rose to prominence What survives is an art that is solid and (1948), an account of his internal exile around 1325, dominating central totalitarian. Squat figures as an anti-fascist. Two cousins of his, Mexico from the Gulf coast to the similarly involved in resistance representing deities moving between Pacific. The Aztecs first settled in activists and famous as writers, were the worlds are consistently the heavy Tenochtitlan, now Mexico City, and Primo Levi and Natalia Ginzburg. Mayan type. their empire reigned supreme for two Mishpochology (2) The film actor centuries until the Conquistadors Daniel Day Lewis, a strong Oscar seized the territory in 1519, fusing contender for his performance in primitive skills and beliefs with Scorsese's Gangs of New York, has a European Christian sophistication. penchant for portraying Irish characters. This obviously has to do Aztecs at the Royal Academy of with his father, the poet Cecil Day Arts is claimed to be the largest and Lewis, but he also benefited from a most comprehensive survey of this Jewish genetic input. Daniel's mother culture ever mounted. Over 60 per was the actress Jill Balcon, the cent of the works have been loaned daughter of Sir Michael Balcon, the from Mexico, and several have never head of Ealing Studios. Daniel's current wife, moreover, is the been seen in public before. daughter of Arthur Miller. The Aztec universe was divided into Film Festivals (1) The Stockholm three levels: Topan, the upper world, Head of a youth c. 1500 Photo: Michel Zabe International Film Festival has given a the world of men, and Mictlan, the Lifetime Achievement Award to the underworld. Its beliefs are the stuff of More appealing are the animal stage and screen actor Erland nightmares. Spirits and entities sculptures, particularly the coiled Josephson. Josephson played the abound, such as Cihuateotl, the snake or the rabbit or dog made out of Jewish antique dealer in Ingmar malevolent spirit of women who died stone, using precious stones like Bergman's classic Fanny and in childbirth, said to have haunted obsidian. A drunken youth is depicted Alexander and appeared in the same director's Scenes from a Marriage and with red shells for eyes representing crossroads at night to capture the Face to Face. He also worked with souls of children. In their celebration drunkenness. Alcohol, banned by the Andrei Tarkovsky and Istvan Szabo. of the cycle of life, death and the Aztecs, was derived from fermented Film Festivals (2) For the last fe« natural world, the Aztecs followed a juice of the maguey cactus. There is a years New York has staged a particular irony in some of this art, rigid hierarchy: kingship, war and Sephardic Film Festival. One of the human sacrifice. such as the wise old man with the body highlights of the current festival was Yet the Aztecs used art not for its of a youth. The Aztecs were puritan The Last Jewish Town, a documentary own sake but to serve religion, and frowned on nudity, frequently about the town of Guba in Azerbaijan, which still has 4,500 Jewish propitiate the gods and acknowledge clothing their female statues. A female nude statue might have worn real hair inhabitants. They claim descent from the provenance of the earth and earth the tribe of Benjamin, one of the ten and a green stone was placed in her gods. There were animal counterparts lost tribes, and practise an archaic to the gods: the eagle and jaguar were heart area. lifestyle which includes shamanism associated with the sun. Their creative Most powerful is a life-sized and strictly defined roles for meo style derived from the religions and terracotta sculpture of Mictlantecuhtl, and women. artefacts of earlier cultures, such as the Lord of Death, a half-flayed man Literary prize Norman Lebrecht. Teotihuacan and the Toltecs of Tula. with his rib cage exposed and his liver former music columnist of the Daily The Teotihuacans gained power fi-om hanging out. A terrifying figure - but Telegraph, won the Whitbread Ne*' the trade in obsidian, used in much of he has the endearing face of a cartoon Fiction Prize for his novel The Soni Aztec art, as are stone, wood, character. ofNames.

8 AJR JOURNAL MARCH 2003

The password words and expressions to speak for themselves. It is fascinating to watch LAISSEZ-PASSER Lerner tell his story in Hebrew and then Directed by Bernard Tavernier REVIEWS to listen to the translation into On selected release French for Lanzmann. There are of three hours the audience leaves the additional subtitles in English for the The conduct of the French under cinema with the very smell of wartime cinema audience. German occupation has been hotly Paris - a sour compound of drains, fear Sobibor contains no archival footage debated over the last half-century. The and inadequate nourishment - in of the Holocaust. Nor does it attempt Nazis pursued a two-track approach. its nostrils. On the one hand, they left the French to recreate the uprising at that specific Nor does the film gloss over the under no illusion that they were a time of day by any means other than antisemitism rampant in wartime subject nation; on the other, they Yehuda Lerner's eyewitness account. France. After an air raid a passer-by allowed them minimal cultural The second half of the film is composed surveying the damage emotes: Typical! autonomy to foster collaborationism almost entirely of Lerner relating his The RAF hit the Renault plant, but they and impress neutral opinion. memories of Jewish prisoners staging a spared Citroen - which is Jewish- hastily planned revolt against their Nazi This policy produced a spurious owned!' In another sequence, a captors. Lanzmann's unflinching gaze golden age in the theatre, while film collaborator boasts of having acquired hardly moves from the stoic face of studios kept working flat out the furniture of Harry Baur (the famous Lerner, whose story of survival is an producing expertly crafted soporific Jewish actor murdered by the Nazis). affront to the shameful notion that fTiovies. Laissez-passer is set against Nonetheless, I admit to wallowing in Jews accepted their fate without a that background of twofold make- nostalgia throughout the film thanks struggle. On the day and time given to believe; it shows the inner workings of to the script's constant mention of the title of the film, a plan was set in a dream factory where everyone Baur, Prevert, Clouzot and other all- motion, whose success was based by pretends that art can blot out reality. time greats of French cinema. the conspirators on the predictability of Some readers may remember the Richard Grunberger German punctuality. Without this the enthusiastic postwar reception for revolt would have failed. fârcel Carne's mammoth Les Enfants Lanzmann's slow-moving camera du Paradis - and the questions it A simple film captures shots of modern-day rural and prompted. Had the film aimed to urban Poland while, at another time, he Persuade the French that the SOBIBOR, OCTOBER 14, 1943, 4 PM focuses on a field of geese, as Lerner Occupation regime respected their Directed by Claude Lanzmann describes the pathological Nazi culture, or did Carne primarily engage a Institute of Contemporary Arts, mentality. The geese were reared in cast of thousands to stop Frenchmen London some camps and provoked into Deing shipped to Germany as labour Claude Lanzmann came upon the story quacking during the extermination conscripts? of the Sobibor concentration camp sessions so that the cries of The protagonists of Laissez-passer while researching his monumental film suffering of those being killed would ^re inextricably caught in a similar Shoah. This led to an interview in 1979 not be heard. dilemma. If they bring the highest with Yehuda Lerner, one of the leaders I saw this remarkable film on a degree of perfectionism to their work, of the revolt in Sobibor The French Sunday afternoon when, despite The ^re they thereby lightening the director decided that an independent Mall being closed to cars, the ICA Wartime burden on their fellow film - 95 minutes long, compared with cinema was completely full and the countrymen, or are they doing the the nine-hour Shoah documentary - audience, consisting of many young Nazis' bidding by masking nasty reality was justified, 16 years after the and non-Jewish people, watched in ^nder a tinsel of fake glamour? The film production of Shoah. There can be no reverential silence. 'inally answers this question when its doubt that it was. âin protagonist quits his job to join Martin Hasseck Sobibor is a simple film with little ^êmaqu/s. camerawork, no music, and no Somewhat disappointingly, we are cinematic manipulafions. It is this, A case of unrequited love ôt shown this dramatic development, together with Lanzmann's brilliance, °^t are told of it in the epilogue. The that makes it simultaneously IMPOSSIBLE LOVE: ASCHER LEVY'S ••eason for this deliberate low-key heartbreaking, powerful and joyous. It LONGING FOR GERMANY ^Pproach is that Laissez-passer is a is an unsentimental celebration of Roman Frister '^'storically true account, and lacks the Jewish perseverance. In the film Yehuda Weidenfeld and Nicholson £20 ••^rnulative build-up up of tension a Lerner tells his remarkable story, from 'îon writer would have imposed his arrival in one camp to his For a suitcase containing documents On it. subsequent escape from eight camps, spanning five generafions of a German- ^*i's is not to deny its very prior to his role in the uprising. Jewish family to fall into the hands of a Considerable virtues, the first of which Lanzmann keeps the camera trained writer who was himself a Holocaust '^ absolute verisimilitude. At the end constantly on Lerner, allowing his survivor, is surely a rare case of AJR JOURNAL MARCH 2003 serendipity. And if the Levy family had homosexuality and marriage to a that I, a cantor... should be involved in been able, posthumously, to seek a gentile made him the 'black sheep' of such a vital task as ensuring the smooth chronicler, they could have found none the family, did, however, achieve some transport of military personnel and better Roman Frister has succeeded posthumous recognifion. supplies to the battle front. It served admirably in reconstructing the history It was not only the advent of the them right! Who ever heard of enlisfing of a family, which, from humble Nazis that brought to an end the Levy cantors to repair railways?' beginnings, was to become one of the line. Ascher's grandsons had no sons. One of the author's most telling most prosperous among the Jews in Many of his great-granddaughters, observations touches upon his return Pomerania, and in resurrecting a however, survived, by abandoning to Munich in the 1950s. In place of the vanished way of being - the 'impossible family tradition and moving to omnipresent badges, especially those love'of the title. Palestine, where they became active bearing a swastika, worn by all and It was Jacob Levy the innkeeper, Zionists. They were joined there during sundry in Hitler's Munich, many formerly Jackel the peddlar, who first the 1950s by Siegfried's childless Germans now boasted about the felt this overwhelming love for the widow, Lisbeth, who had preserved the number of Jews they had saved during fatherland surge in his heart, on family documents in a suitcase which, the Nazi era: 'It led me to ask myself this learning of Napoleon's defeat at the after her death, was consigned to the question: "So where are the Germans hands ofthe Prussian army. His son, the Jaffa flea market. who exterminated six million Jews? Ascher Levy of the subtitle, his Emma Klein Have they all disappeared, together grandsons, Bernhard and Julius, and, with their badges?'" to a great extent, even his great- In materials relafing to the Holocaust grandsons, were shaped by this almost Refuge in humour instances of humour amid descriptions obsessive patriotism which, for of the indescribable are not unknown. IN AND OUT OF HARMONY: TALES generations, had characterised many Here, humour amidst tragedy is OF A CANTOR IN THE HITLER ERA 'Germans of the Mosaic persuasion'. virtually an artform. Charles Lowy Not that the Levys were anything but Howard Spier Lomont Publishing, devout Jews. Nor were they and their £8.00 + £1.50 p8,p associates unaware that their (lowy@leonardlowy. co. uk) 'impossible love' was unrequited. Recognition of the pervading Annely Juda Fine Art undercurrents of antisemitism, Strictly speaking, these are not tales, 23 Dering Street however, did little to erode their but autobiographical episodes, 23 in (off New Bond Street) passion for their country. Levys fought number and each averaging three or Tel: 020 7629 7578 four pages in length. All are told with distinction in both the Franco- Fax: 020 7491 2139 Prussian War of 1870 and in the Kaiser's with detachment, modesty and, army. Admittedly, Bernhard Levy would especially, humour CONTEMPORARY PAINTING eventually acknowledge the 'narrow Charles Lowy was born in 1911 in AND SCULPTURE rickety bridge' connecting his twin Bratislava (then Pressburg). His father loyalties, but, like others in his family, came from Hungary, his mother's would never think of living differently. family from Holland. In 1937 he was Zionism, certainly, was considered appointed cantor in a Munich anathema, as opposed to making synagogue. Following Kristallnacht, he WANTED TO BUY donations to impecunious Jews who fled to Hungary, eventually becoming lived in the 'Holy Land'. Indeed, Ascher assistant chief cantor at the splendid German and Levy's journey there in 1871, together Dohany Street synagogue. He spent the English Books with his cousin, Morris Gottschalk, a years 1942-45 performing forced labour for the German army In 1947, successful Berlin stockbroker, and Established bookdealer knowing little English, he arrived in Heinrich Graetz, the renowned (AJR member) historian, is vividly recorded, as are the Glasgow, where he was appointed always welcomes efforts of the trio to fund an cantor of the Queen's Park Synagogue. invitations to view educational foundation in Jerusalem. Eleven years later he became cantor of Nonetheless, Herzl's Judenstaat was the Hampstead Synagogue in London's and purchase dismissed with contempt by most of Pennington Park Road. He died valuable books the Levys in the same way as Mein in 1998. For an immediate response, Kampf. which appeared 30 or 40 years It is despite the horrific background please contact: later. It was Ascher's grandson, he depicts - or more probably because Robert Hornung Siegfried, the only one to survive the of it - that the author has frequent 2 Mount View, Ealing, Second World War, who observed resort to humour of the recognisably London W5 IPR that the two works were 'like two 'Jewish' self-parodying variety. Email: [email protected] Tel: 020 8998 0546 ends of one stick'. Another grandson, At one stage, Charles Lowy worked (Spm to 9pm is best) the artist Rudolf Levy, whose on the railways. It amused him 'to think

10 AJR JOURNAL MARCH 2003

Eric Kaufman and his wife Gerda live in and re-established his cereal trading their comfortable home, tucked away in business in London with Eric working a northwest London suburb. He had just PROFILE for him. returned firom a visit to Berlin to view Eric recalls the newspapers' poor Ronald Channing an exhibition on the life and work of one understanding of Nazi Germany. of his relatives. Nothing remarkable Although The Times favoured about that, you might conclude, but this Eric Kaufman appeasement, the Morning Post printed month Eric celebrates his 90th birthday more accurate reports. Eric spoke at the A sprightly man and dapper dresser, he League of Nations Youth Union and appears all of 20 years younger, and argued with fascist supporters at Hyde maintains many interests and a zest Park Corner and Tower Hill. Joining for life. the 33 Club for Refiigees at the West Surprisingly, Eric reveals that he was London Synagogue in 1936 proved a bom in West Hampstead on 24 March smart move as, in the following year, 1913. His father had quit his native he met Gerda Philipp and they married Mannheim to see something of the in 1942. World and joined relatives who had Seeing the inevitability of war, Eric already established a business trading volunteered to join the Auxiliary Fire in cereals in England. While on a visit to Service and was attached to stations in Germany in 1912, he met and married a Hendon and Golders Green. In 1940 lady from Miinster and returned to their firm's office in the City of London London with his bride. In 1915, was destroyed in the Blitz, where Eric, following the torpedoing of the serving as a fireman, discovered the Lusitania, Eric's father was interned destruction himself. The Blitz with other 'enemy aliens' on the Isle of continued for 57 nights before the Man. Before the war's end, Eric's Luftwaffe turned its devastating attacks •nother was offered, and accepted, an on the Coventrys and Plymouths. Eric opportunity, through the Quakers, to became a full-time fire service •"etum to Germany with her son in administrator in Golders Green and exchange for British civilian prisoners influence. Now aged 17, Eric was then in Pinner. of War, in the mistaken hope that it apprenticed in an accounts department, After the war the Kaufmans kept their Would hasten her husband's release. a year later obtaining a transfer to a business, though in austerity Britain As a five-year-old German boy Netherlands branch where, everything was either licensed or speaking only English, Eric found unfortunately, his new boss became an rationed. When his father died in 1962, himself "thrown out" of the hotel in enthusiastic Dutch Nazi! Eric and his brother carried on until Eric ^hich his grandmother lodged, by Returning to Dusseldorf in 1932, he retired in 1987 at the age of 74. But with German officers on leave fi'omth e front witnessed street battles between the his many interests - including philately, ' as a British spy! He was sent to an aunt Communists, Social Democrats and genealogy, art, theatre, travel and 'n Beriin "bang in the middle ofthe 1918 Nazis. Even venturing onto the street reading, especially twentieth-century German revolution". Eric also clearly brought its dangers. "One lived and political biography - Eric found he had remembers occupying French soldiers feared what was going to happen," he "more to do than ever before." Having ^'^ching down the street to requisition remembers. Having obtained his British decided to research the history of his ^^commodation for officers. passport, on 15 July 1933 he left for mother's family, the Flechtheims, Eric fn 1919 Eric's father was finally England. He was accompanied by his believes he can trace them back to 1648! ""^leased from intemment and reunited mother, who attempted to alert the An exhibition in Dusseldorf marking the ^th his wife and child. When he joined British Government to what the Nazis 50th anniversary of the death of his "^^ family grain business in 1921, they meant for the fate of the Jews, by mother's cousin, Alfred Flechtheim, a 'ôved to Dusseldorf. One of fiveJewis h contacting a niece of Sir Herbert leading art dealer, only served to Children in his class, Eric recalls never Samuel, the former Home Secretary, increase his interest. Experiencing antisemitism; he was before returning to Germany. Eric takes pride in their son Andrew ^'îtzvah, and well aware of his Eric's father, whose passport had been (present Chairman of the AJR), his wife ^^wish identity. taken from him by the Gestapo, secured Susie, and their grandchildren. Eric and ê value of the mark plummeted in its return only by the intervention of a Gerda still count "quite a few other JJe hyperinflation of 1923. By 1930 the sympathetic Nazi official. In 1934, German-Jewish refugees" among their ^^tional Socialists had gained 107 seats dismissed from his business, with his circle and correspond with German and "^ the Reichstag and Jews were possessions sold, he embarked for Jewish friends in Europe and the "^êasingly aware of the Nazis' rising England with his wife and younger son, United States.

11 Meetings easier during the week and a chat in each other's houses, for West Midlands usually in Sutton or New Maiden.) Rabbi Tann's talk on 'The Lighter Side of Anne Poloway Judaism' was very amusing and enjoyed Next meeting: Thursday, 13 March by all. The programme of forthcoming meetings was discussed. Something Brighton & Hove Sarid in late very different would for the next celebration of Tu Bishvat Hull updated on AJR activities meeting in April - some would go to a Our meeting, attended by 19 concert at the Symphony Hall, while The theme of our meeting was a belated members with three apologies for others would go to see Fiddler on the celebration of Tu Bishvat, the New Year absence, was held at the home of Roof at the theatre. That the concert for Trees. Members read out passages Harold Rose. AJR's Northern Groups and theatre outings are both on associated with the festival and a JNF Co-ordinator Susanne Green gave us weekdays reflects the fact that having video was shown. The high point of the an update on AJR activities, including most of our meetings on Sundays makes morning was - as is usual at Jewish the Refugee Voices project and the travelling difficult as there are fewer parties - the food. Fifteen types of nuts appointment of Barbara Dorrity as buses. The May meeting, a tea party, and firuits that are grown on trees or Northern Region Social Worker. On will be in my house. bushes in Israel were prepared and served by Myrna Glass and Fausta learning of the 1 June annual get- Henny Rednall together, to be held for the firsttim e at Shelton - a memorable selection indeed and enjoyed by all present. Beth Shalom, and the availability of Essex: sinking of enemy vessel bus transportation, all expressed their We heard the amazing story of Sidney Next meeting: Monday, 24 March: intention of attending. Graham, who joined the Haganah with hosting Southern Region get-together Bob Rosner two friends in 1947. Members of a group of 200 immigrants, and 30 volunteers, History of Council of Christians and Pleasant afternoon in Harrogate they crossed the treacherous waters to Jews outlined in Pinner Our first meeting in 2003 was a most Palestine in an old fishing trawler in Jonathan Gorsky, Education Officer of pleasant afternoon. Our 'mentor'. order to avoid the Royal Navy. On arrival the Council of Christians and Jews, gave Northern Groups Co-ordinator in Palestine, Sidney, who had trained as a a most stimulating talk on the progress Susanne Green, brought us up to date wireless operator for the Royal Navy, made by the Council since its foundation with forthcoming events, not only in became an employee ofthe new state of in the dark days of the Second World the North but also in London. We were Israel. He made his name when on one War. There were, for instance, the joined by Ruth Simmonds - her first occasion he discovered the presence of diplomatic difficulties of keeping both meeting - and Barbara Dorrity, the an enemy vessel, which was orthodox Jews and Roman Catholics on recently appointed Northern Region subsequently sunk by the Israelis. board. With leaders such as Sister Social Worker, who told us about her Julie Franks Margaret Shepherd, the sympathetic role in the community. education of young people offered the Next meeting: Tuesday, 11 March, Inge Little (nee Steinweg) greatest success for an understanding 10.30 am. Michael Rosen (Israel future when they learned to listen to Embassy): 'Israel Update' Next meeting: Monday, 17 March, each other and engage in common 2.30 pm at 1 Masham Close projects. Harrogate. Existing friends and South London: behind the scenes Walter Weg potential new ones will be very at Jewish Renaissance welcome. Janet Levin, editor of the quarterly Next meeting: Thursday, 6 March. magazine Jewish Renaissance, told us 2 pm. Daniel Finkelstein (Associate Glasgow get-together that neither she nor any contributors Editor of The Times and grandson o* At a get-together 30 people enjoyed an receive any payment; the income from the founder of the Wiener Library)- interesting talk by Rabbi Pete Tobias readers and advertisers is used for 'Voyages Around My Grandparents' and a delicious afternoon tea. At our printing and other expenses; committee next meeting, entitled 'Taste of the meetings are held in her house; the Leeds HSFA: 'Shema is for All' Past', on Sunday 30 March, members computer is in her loft. We were given Following the successful conclusion o' will be asked to bring along or think complimentary copies of the magazine, the business part of the AGM, Rabl" about their favourite food or recipe which contained, among many other Douglas Charing, of the Leeds Jewis" (vegetarian or dairy) remembered things, fascinating articles on 'Judaism Education Bureau, spoke on the subje^ from the Continent, and hopefully a and Buddhism' and 'The Jews of India'. 'Shema is for All'. He outlined tb« lively discussion will follow! (Members' note: Our group meets development of religious instructio'' Hilary Anson, Claire Singerman, every two months, but some members from earlier indoctrination *" Angela Shapiro meet in the months in between for tea comparative religion and discusse

12 AJRJOURNAL MARCH 2003 multi-faith/world religion-teaching as it is now. Rabbi Charing's main AJR HOLIDAY FOR KT-AJR occupation is promoting Judaism NORTHERN MEMBERS MONTHLY MEETINGS AT through lecturing and publishing Sunday 18 May 2003- CLEVE ROAD illustrated books on Judaism. He visits Friday 23 May 2003 Monday 3 March 2003 schools throughout the country, 11.45 am for 12.15 pm informing them about Judaism and the THE FERNLEA HOTEL 11/17 SOUTH PROMENADE Jerzy Landau Holocaust as part of the curriculum on ST ANNES-ON-SEA, LANCS F18 1 LU different religions. In his experience, will speak on £250 per person (£13 supplement for sea 'Saved by Myself - Lifestory' church schools are keen to teach about view or deluxe room) to include dinner, World religions while Jewish schools bed, breakfast, outing and entertainment Lunch £5 are less so. He stressed how important Call Ruth Finestone on Reservations required it was for schools to impart correct 020 7431 6161 as soon as possible as Please telephone knowledge about religions in order to numbers are limited 020 7328 0208 combat stereotyping. Ruth Steme THE LUNCHEON CLUB IVIEET OLD FRIENDS- Next meeting: Sunday 23 March at MAKE NEW ONES the home of Bob Rosner. Dina Anthony Streatfeild (Christies) Come and join us for a fantastic LeBoutilier will play her will speak on reminiscences tape 7 days holiday at the Cumberland •Looted Art" Hotel in Bournemouth.

North London in-house affair Wednesday 19 March 2003 Monday 30 June - Monday 7 July £410 plus £30 single room Our speaker was Dr Anthony 11.45 am for 12.15 pm supplement including Grenville on the subject 'Researching The Paul Balint AJR Day Centre transport, sandwich lunch on the AJR and Further Plans' - very much 15 Cleve Road NW6 3RL outward journey, half board, an in-house affair. He explained how outings and entertainment. he became involved in the research Early reservations please! project which led to the recent Lunch now only £5 Call Carol Rossen or Joan Attman Continental Britons exhibition. It Please telephone Sylvia or Susie on 020 7431 6161 as soon as possible as numbers are limited Seems there were particular problems on 020 7328 0208 and demand is high. •n that earlier files starting in 1941 had heen lost. The main sources of current research were copies of AJR Joumal Paul Balint AJR Day Centre 15 Cleve Road, West Hampstead, NW6 j going back to 1946. Dr Grenville, an Tel: 020 7328 0208 Enthralling speaker, is working on a Project encompassing the social Monday - Thursday 9.30 am - 3.30 pm, Sunday 2 pm - 5.30 pm history of refugees. MARCH Afternoon Entertainment: Herbert Haberberg Mon 3 KT Lunch - Kards & Games Klub Tue 4 Paul Coleman ^ext meeting: Thursday 27 March, Wed 5 Hounslow Community Opera 10.30 am. .\imette SavUle ARCM: Thur 6 Jenny Kossew - Accordionist Sun 9 DAY CENTRE CLOSED '^ound the World by Piano' Mon 10 Kards & Games Klub ^-^st Midlands next meeting: Tue 11 Amanda Palmer Wed 12 Katinka Seiner Wednesday 19 March. For Thur 13 Nicola Smedley ''^tails, contact Bob Norton on Sun 16 DAY CENTRE OPEN ^1159212494 Mon 17 Kards & Games Klub Tue 18 Ronnie Goldberg Wed 19 LUNCHEON CLUB Appointment of Thur 20 Opdahl Trio Northern Region Sun 23 DAY CENTRE CLOSED Social Worker Mon 24 Kards & Games Klub Tue 25 Ann Kenton-Barker - Spring Bouquet 'n the February issue we gave an Wed 26 Amanda Palmer '"correct telephone/fax number Thur 27 Mike Mirandi for Barbara Dorrity. The correct lumber is 0161 440 9926. PLEASE NOTE: THE DAY CENTRE IS OPEN ONLY ONE SUNDAY IN EVERY MONTH - PLEASE SEE PROGRAMME ABOVE.

13 AJR JOURNAL MARCH 2003

Deaths Huttrer. Felix Huttrer, cherished 'DROP IN' AJR Seder Night husband of Mary (Putzi), nee Brainin. Second Night Seder Service Born Vienna 16.12.25, died 10.1.03. The ADVICE SERVICE to be conducted by Rev. Fine most wonderful father to Paul and NEW ARRANGEMENTS Thursday 17 April 2003 Caroline, and grandfather to Adam, Alegra, Victoria and Chantal. Desperately Members requiring The Paul Balint AJR Day Centre 15 Cleve Road, missed by us all. benefit advice London NW6 Rothenberg. The AJR regrets the please telephone passing of Helmut Rothenberg. A fuller Linda Kasmir on Please telephone tribute will appear in the next issue. 020 7328 0208 for reservations 020 7431 6161 £23 per person Miscellaneous Services to make an appointment at Limited space available for Manicure & Pedicure in the comfort AJR, 1 Hampstead Gate, ofyour own home. Tel: 02083430976. wheelchairs la Frognal, NW3 6AL 6 pm for 6.30 pm prompt start Day Centre Shirley Lever at the Paul Balint AJR Day Centre. New Clothes for sale, ACACIA LODGE dresses, underwear, cardigans, etc. Mrs Pringsheim, S.R.N. MATRON Caring Carers Tuesday 11 Meu-ch 9.45-11.45 am. For Elderly, Retired and Convalescent (Licensed by Borougti of Bamet) The experts in live-in Home Care. AGM AND NATIONAL GET-TOGETHER • Single and Double Rooms. • Ensuite facilities, CH in all rooms. We can provide long or short term WILL TAKE PLACE AT BETH SHALOM • Gardens, TV and reading rooms. assignments from our professional HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL CENTRE, • Nurse on duty 24 hours. • Long and short term and respite, and reliable care team. NEWARK, NOniNGHAMSHIRE including trial period if required. ON SUNDAY 1 JUNE 2003 From £350 per week Please call our Care Manager 020 8445 1244/020 8446 2820 office hours 020 8455 1335 other times for a no obligation chat on: ADVERTISEMENT RATES 37-39 Torrington Park, North Finchley, 020 7372 9041 FAMILY EVENTS London N12 9TB First 15 words free of charge, Fax: 020 7372 9038 £2.00 per 5 words thereafter. CLASSIFIED, SEARCH NOTICES Leo Baeck Housing Association Ltd £2.00 per 5 words. BOX NUMBERS - £3.00 extra Clara Nehab House DISPLAY ADVERTS Residential Care Home per single column inch 55mm £12.00 BELSIZE SQUARE All single rooms with en suite bath/shower COPY DATE • 5 weeks prior to publication Short stays/Respite and 24 hour Permanent Care SYNAGOGUE Large attractive gardens Ground Floor Lounge and Dining rooms 51 Belsize Square, NW3 4HX Lift access to all floors Easy access to local shops and public transport We offer a traditional style of religious service with Cantor Choir and organ Enquiries and further information Further details can be obtained from please contact: The Manager Clara Nehab House the synagogue secretary 13-19 Leeside Crescent Telephone 020 7794 3949 HUM MNE London NWII ODA Minister: Rabbi Rodney J Mariner Phone: 020 8455 2286 If you are lonely, or your family are worried Cantor: Rev Lawrence H Fine about you alone, consider moving into one of Regular Services our three Progressive Jewish Abbeyfield SWITCH ON ELECTRICS Friday evenings at 6.45 pm Homes for able bodied pensioners Saturday mornings at 10 am Rewires and all household Religion School: Sundays at 10 am to 1 pm PEGGY UNG HOUSE electrical work Nursery School: 9.15 am to 12.15 pm V*/alm Lane, Willesden PHONE PAUL: 020 8200 3518 Belsize under 3's: 9.30 am to 11.30 am Space donated by Pafra Limited LILY MONTAGU HOUSE Orchard Drive, Edgware ALTERATIONS BELMONT LODGE OF ANY KIND TO LADIES' FASHIONS Belmont Road, Bushey I also design and make children's clothes BELSIZE SQUARE SYNAGOGUE West Hampstead area we have a few vacancies, both permanent 51 Belsize Square, London NW3 and short-stay 020 7328 6571 Our communal hall is available for COSTS ARE EXTREMELY REASONABLE cultural and social functions For information: checl< our website - www.JewishAbbeyfield.org.ul< - or phone BELSIZE SQUARE APARTMENTS Tel: 020 7794 3949 ^ 24 BELSIZE SQUARE, NW3 ANN KIRK DINA LECKER FAY MARKS Tel: 020 7794 4307 or 020 7435 2557 01923821923 02084292317 020 84215002 The AJR does not accept for Peggy for Betmont for Lily Modern Self-catering Holiday Rooms, Lang House Lodge Moreagu House Resident Housekeeper, Moderate Terms responsibility for the standard of Near Swiss Cottage Station services offered by advertisers

14 AJR JOURNAL MARCH 2003

Obituary - Lionel Simmons Central Office for Holocaust Claims Lionel Simmons, a journalist and on his wartime experiences, he held Michael Newman musical connoisseur, who has died at strong views on proposals to bomb the age of 80, had a distinguished Auschwitz or the railway lines which led Urgent: Repayment of bank charges career with the Jewish Chronicle. For to it. The poor accuracy of aerial It has been brought to the attention of several years he acted as honorary bombing at the time meant that it was the Central Office for Holocaust Claims proof-reader for AJR Information, virtually impossible to find the site, that Holocaust survivors are being always ready to draw on his wide especially at night, and then to drop targeted and charged for receiving knowledge of Judaism, communal high explosives within miles of it, let advice on the procedures involved in affairs and European history. Born in alone on its gas chambers and having bank charges returned. London's East End in 1922, the son of incinerators. Members are reminded that the Central a Dutch Ashkenazi father and a Turkish After the war, he won a history Office for Holocaust Claims provides Sephardi mother, he attended the scholarship to Magdalen College, this service free of charge and the Jews' Free School in Stepney, later Oxford, and in 1953 began writing for reason that the banks have now moving to Hasmonean School under the Jewish Chronicle on post-war offered to repay charges (which they Rabbi Solomon Schonfeld. Anglo-Jewry. Appointed their first are not required to do by law), is due to During the war he served in Bomber universities correspondent, in the mid- the efforts of this office. We strongly Command as a navigator and was 1970s he reviewed music and records, advise that there is no need to pay for mentioned in dispatches for one of but retired as regional obituaries editor. money that is in fact owed to you. many missions over Germany. Based RDC Slovak Compensation Fund A SKK 850 million (approximately £13.5 Arts and Events Diary - March million) fund has been established by the government of the Slovak Republic to provide compensation to Jewish Museum, Finchley 1-30 MARCH JEWISH ARTS FESTIVAL, Holocaust victims and to 'finance 'NCLUDING JEWISH BOOK WEEK, Mon 3 Dr Ian King, 'Kurt Tucholsky, projects concerning the social and 1-9 MARCH. EVENTS INCLUDE: Fighter against Fascism'. Club 43 cultural needs of the Jewish Jhur 6, 7 pm. Professor Richard Evans, Fri 7 Professor Ruth Kluger, author of community in Slovakia.' "istory on Trial'. The role trials from Welter Leben, will read from her 'Nuremberg onwards have played in the autobiography Landscape of Memory: The Council for the Compensation of Writing of history, and the impact of legal A Holocaust Girlhood Remembered. Holocaust Victims in the Slovak ^"d moral judgements on our Institute of Germanic Studies, 29 Russell Republic will pay compensation to Understanding of the Shoah. Royal National Square. 6 pm ôtel, Bedford Way, London WCl, those Holocaust victims (or their heirs) Mon 10 Charles Dreyfus MA, Year 1, telephone 020 8201 8206 whose properties were aryanised AUC,AD'.CIub43 Sunday 9, l pm. Josh Cohen, Jacqueline during the Second World War on the Mon 17 No lecture (hall not available). "°se, 'Interrupting Auschwitz'. Is it territory of the wartime Slovak state Club 43 Possible to write literature or make art and that part of Slovakia that was °day that can provide an ethics for the Sun 23 Nicholas Winton: The Power of 'awarded' to Hungary in 1938 by a contemporary world? Royal National Hotel Good. Phoenix Cinema, East Finchley, London N2.1.30 pm German and Italian brokered 1^°" 10 'Berthold Goldschmidt 1903- settlement. '96, Refugee Composer in Britain'. Talk Mon 24 Pastor Uwe Vetter (German ^y Bernard Keeffe. Wiener Library, 6.45 pm. Lutheran Church, London), 'Jewish Views of Application forms and further iicketweb 08700 600 100 the Resurrection in the New Testament'. information are available by contacting Club 43 â 12 Holocaust and Rescue: the Council at: Kancelaria Rady, P.O. Box •^Potence or Indifference? Anglo- Mon 31 Private Function: 60th Anniversary 115, 820 05 Bratislava 25, Slovak êwry 1938-1945'. Pamela Shatzkes. Event (for members and invited guests Republic. The Council's website is only). Club 43 îsh Museum, Finchley. 8 pm. Tickets www.holocaustslovakia.sk and they "20 83491143 ORGANISATION CONTACTS can be reached by email at ^^f 27 The British Jew Suss (1934)'. Club 43 Belsize Square Synagogue. kancrada(Sstonline.sk. The deadline ûre and film excerpts with Dr Susan Meetings 7.45 pm. Contact Hans Seelig for applications is 31 August 2003. y 9^'- London Jewish Cultural Centre, telephone 01442 254360 Ôpm. Tickets 020 7431 0345 Further help Jewish Museum, Camden Town, Written enquiries should be sent to °^ April 2003 'By the Rivers of Babylon: 129-131 Albert Street, London NWl Central Office for Holocaust Claims ^ ^ Story of the Jews of Iraq'. Major new telephone 020 7284 1997 (UK), 1 Hampstead Gate, la Frognal, ^"'bition following the successful Jewish Museum, Finchley, Sternberg Co '^tinental Britons exhibition. Jewish Centre, 80 East End Road, London N3 London NW3 6AL. For assistance with M useuni , Camden Town telephone83491143 the completion of application forms, To 1^ Vo-mr Hashoah Am I My Brother's Wiener Library, 4 Devonshire Street please telephone 020 7431 6161 for an êper?' Rescue in the Holocaust. London Wl telephone 020 7636 7247 appointment.

15 AJR JOURNAL MARCH 2003

Legacy of the Jews of Leipzig Part 1 Newsround Andrea Lorz Israeli cosmonaut lost Last September, I spent two weeks in Leipzig and the organisation of the life- Israel's first man in space, 48-year-old Col London, Manchester and Hebden saving Kindertransports from Leipzig to Ilan Ramon, the son of a Holocaust Bridge visiting former residents of London. survivor, lost his life with six American Leipzig. The personal contacts were all These are two areas in which we have fellow astronauts when the US space the more important to me as these as yet nothing in the Museum to show shuttle Columbia broke apart while returning to earth from a scientific space former citizens of Leipzig have been visitors. So there remains much to be mission. Ramon, who carried with him a most helpful in my efforts to build up a done to create a complete historical picture of an imaginary cosmos drawn by Jewish Documentation Centre in representation of this chapter of events. a young Auschwitz prisoner, leaves a wife Leipzig's Stadtgeschichtliches Museum. Given that Leipzig's Jewish community and fouryoung children. They have also helped by making my was one of the most prominent in German government and Jewish project more widely known. But no Germany, this is all the more important. community open new chapter letters or telephone calls, however What are the principal landmarks in The German government and the heartfelt, can replace personal contact. the development of the Jewish German Jewish community have reached So I take this opportunity to thank most community in Leipzig, officially founded a landmark agreement. The accord, warmly those who contributed to the on 2 June 1847 as the Israelitische signed on Holocaust Memorial Day. preparation and successful outcome of Religionsgemeinde zu Leipzig? The first establishes the first legal partnership my visit. written reference to a Jewish settlement between the Jewish community and the government since the Second World I was very moved by the warm in Leipzig and the existence of a War, in the spirit of similar agreements welcome I received everjrwhere, with synagogue dates to around 1230. The with the Catholic and Lutheran churches the ensuing conversations taking me last mention of the Jewish community in Germany will financially support the right back into the childhood and youth medieval times occurs in the mid- German-Jewish cultural heritage and of my hosts. The closer the fifteenth century. We do not know assist Jews in integrating polifically conversations came to the Nazi years whether the Jews were then expelled and socially. in Leipzig, leading up to the enforced from the city, as elsewhere. Wife of European Bank President emigration, the more painful I Only in 1837 were the Jews of Leipzig causes uproar among Dutch Jews found them. and Dresden permitted by law to practise Gretta Duizenberg, the wife of the We passed from uniformly loving their religion in the Kingdom of Saxony. President of the European Central Bank, memories of happy childhood years in Full citizenship was granted them only has told a Dutch newspaper that Th^ Leipzig to the bitter experiences of after 1868. Once the residential Israeli occupafion of the Palestinian^ territories is worse than the Na^' discrimination, persecution and restrictions on Jews were lifted, trade occupation ofthe Netherlands'. enforced emigration. This experience of and industry in Leipzig flourished. Their marginalisation and exclusion was industry and dedication caused the Jews Germans honoured by Jewi*'' incomprehensible to the children for to rise to prominence in many fields. community Seven Germans have received awafd^ whom Leipzig had hitherto been their They significantly influenced Leipzig's from the Jewish community's histof) hometown. development as a university town and a council in honour of their work *" I was also able to visit the editors ofthe centre of trade, music and culture, were preserve Jewish history and heritage. Tl' AJR Joumal, World Jewish Relief, the active in its social life, and the imposing awards were presented on HolocaiJ' Wiener Library, and the Art Loss office buildings they erected graced the Memorial Day. The seven are: Ha'' Register. My special thanks go to city's skyline. Eberhard-Berkemann, Heinrich Dittm^'' Richard Grunberger, Ronald Channing One could cite innumerable names to CarIa and Erika Pick, Irene Corbac"' and Anthony Grenville, who gave represent the multiplicity of the Gerhard Jochem and Susanne Rieger generously of their time for detailed achievements of Leipzig's Jews in art and Anne Frank diaries to be exhibited ' discussions with me, answered my culture, medicine, science and Washington questions patiently, and showed great commerce, as in the city's society as a The diaries of Anne Frank are to leave t''* interest in matters relating to Leipzig. whole. Entrepreneurs, scientists, Netherlands for the first time. They ^ go on show at the US Holocaust Musei''^ doctors, artists and businessmen all felt We discussed not only the in Washington DC in June. strengthening of contacts with former committed to the good of their city. t^ Holocaust denier refused visa citizens of Leipzig, but also the Dr Lorz is the Director of the Jewish Australia development of Leipzig's Jewish Documentation Centre in the Leipzig CityTh e Holocaust denier David Irving i<^ community after 1945 and the Museum. The article was translated from thebee n refused a visa to Australia i(f Museum's need for exhibits that German by Marianne Herz. The second andth e third time. Irving said that document - to take just two examples - final part will appear in the April issue of wanted to visit the country to prom" the achievements of Jewish doctors in AJR Journal his latest book.

PUBUSHED B» THt ASSOCIATION Of JEWISH REFUGEES IN GfttAT BRITAIN. 1 HAMPSTEAD GATE. lAfROGNAl. LONDON NW3 6AL TEL; 020 7431 6161 FAX: 020 7431 8454