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ESTMINSTER Volume XI No.1 UARTERLY January 2020 Walter Rothschild and his zebra-drawn carriage outside the Albert Hall The Eccentric Walter Rothschild The Disputation of Paris Synagogues of Siena and Florence Humour in the Bible Lifecycle events Westminster Welcomes its New Members Inside this issue Thomas Karshan & Sarah Savitt Sarah Moshel David Romain & Camila Klich Don Valledor Karen & David Gorfil Mayer Rothschild Joanna Kaye Imola Nemes Rabbis Benji & Leah Jordan Polina Gruzer From the Rabbi 3 Ines Chung Halpern Sunny Iyer Jasmine Modiano Joe Crossley 4 Flora Solomon Gillian Solnick & Rory Farrell Sergey Sukhikh Michelle Jaffe-Pierce Jeremy Miles Notre Dame Treasures 5 Sharon Hutson-Wyler & George Hutson Charlotte Nahum Elias Canetti 6 Amy Anzel Amelia Walker Lisa Snutch Hebrew Corner 7 Births Disputation of Paris 8 Eli Levy - a son for Carey & Yoav on 14th August Walter Rothschild 10 Zena Karshan-Savitt - a daughter for Sarah & Thomas on 16th August th Leo & Maxim Lobel - twin sons for Claudia & Mark on 8 October Evelyn Friedlander z”l 12 Infant Blessings 13 st Ilana Alexander z”l David, Daniel, Samuel and Raphael Raba on 31 August Two Italian Synagogues 14 B’nei Mitzvah Jacob & Sasha Sandelson on 14th September 15 Amusement Arcade Luke Meyohas on 21st September Raphael Halabi on 26th October The Jews of Norwich 16 Marriages & Blessings Book Review 18 Eve & Eli Rosenberg on 22nd August Poetry Page 19 Ashley Tabor & George King on 23rd August Greg Lassman & Romina Richardson on 26th August Humour in the Bible 20 Danny Strauss & Sunny Iyer on 6th September Vitalia Merkulova & Simon Gold on 15th September Korah 21 Miranda Lerner & Ben Dean on 11th October Editorial 22 Deaths Letters 22 Rachel Laddie on 25th September Evelyn Friedlander on 2nd October Education Report 23 Ilana Alexander on 5th October Condolences We offer sincere condolences to Miles Laddie on the death of his mother Rabbi Ariel, Michal and Noam Friedlander on the death of their mother Sharon Good and Daniel Alexander on the death of their mother 2 From the Rabbi question is resolved in the Talmud as dwells. We see that our job, for each of follows:- us, is to give light to others. The human lighting and arranging of the The miracle is only that just one candle Ner Tamid, the perennial light, is needed can give, can devote itself to others, and primarily, not for its practical light but to it will not go out first, but it will give testimony - Edut -to humans that illuminate longest. In giving, we gain the Divine presence dwells among us. from others; we contribute to an The Talmud goes on to say that it exponential economy rather than a provides this testimony because the light sparse one. In giving, we establish in the that is being described in the Torah is the world a currency of kindness that will one light that is used to light all the last forever, for all generations, like that Let us bring the light. The world at times others in the Menorah and yet it is the light. We will pass it on to those who are can feel darker. Right now, the shorter, light that lasts the longest. with us and come after us. The light that dimmer days may bring us down. At the This Rabbinic answer as to why we need we bring provides testimony of time of writing, our country is mired in to bring the light ourselves is itself community and resilience, and this is some murkiness. Furthermore, we have puzzling. We are told that the act of where we find not only testimony to the seen in recent years a rise in hateful lighting this single candle is not needed Eternal, but the inspiration to bring ethno-nationalism and a resurgence of so much for practical light but actually to greater divinity to our world - one cannot discriminatory discourse and violent provide testimony that the Divine dwells replicate a top-down miracle. action against minorities, including anti- with us. Yet, then, we might ask: if what Semitism. What’s more, we are as aware Focus on bringing light to others. Put this is needed is testimony that the Divine as ever of our concern for our loved ones, at the heart of your life. Sustain yourself dwells with us, wouldn’t that divine their waning health and their loneliness - on those memories of such goodness - for column of light coming from the sky be and our own. At times the world can feel they will last. They can outlast all. Build much better testimony? Wouldn’t a darker and we may call out for some sort your life and our world from this better world be much better testimony of miracle. kindness. for belief in the good? With the festival of Hanukkah just Re-adjust your focus. The good is there. behind us, we find a related Rabbinic The good will last. It may not be clearly teaching not to look for light to suddenly Focus on bringing visible right now in the looking out into shine from God but rather to bring it light to others. the world; it is there in the staying close. ourselves. In Chapter 24 of Leviticus we Put this at the heart It is there in a persistent commitment to hear this about the Menorah, the dwelling with others, to doing one’s best candelabrum that we associate with of your life. Sustain to bring light, and to receive it. Hanukkah ‘Command the people of yourself on those I have seen this light in our community. Israel to bring to you pure, beaten, olive Ilana Alexander used to describe the oil to light an eternal light on the memories of such members who looked after her as Menorah’ and the next verse says, ‘Aaron goodness - for they ‘angels’, and, in the face of such should arrange this light just by the Veil darkness, this community also cared for of the Testimony in the Tent of Meeting will last. the Linseys. Help us to bring more light; from evening until morning in front of to develop the strategy and resources to the Eternal continually’. This is what we can learn from the train a cohort of volunteers to visit the In the Talmud our Rabbis essentially ask, Talmud. We need to readjust our focus. lonely; and do let us know if you would ‘well if there is a long-lasting light that is In this world we do not rely on a divine like to be calling and visiting. When the needed right in front of the Eternal in the column of light. Our Rabbis elsewhere world can feel darker, our Judaism centre of the Tent of Meeting, why teach us that the shechina, the Divine teaches us to bring the light. Presence, comes to dwell when ten doesn’t the Eternal take care of that detail themselves? After all isn’t God the people come together in community, or source of both light and eternity?’. In the when two people come together to learn; words of the Talmud, ‘for the people to we need to bring the light, it’s not the light this light why is it needed? Didn’t other way round, if we wait for the Divine Rabbi Benji Stanley the people of Israel, all the forty years Presence to be completely manifest that they walked in the wilderness, walk before stepping forward, we might be exclusively in divine light- a cloud by day, waiting rather a long time. We look at and a pillar of light by night?’. that menorah and we learn the need to give light to others. We not only learn the Why do the people need to bring the need, we see the everyday possibility. We light? Why doesn’t the Divine? The see that this kindness is where the Divine 3 Anglo-Jewish History well as others both close to and far away dinner party, she complained to him about Flora Solomon from her - as he later became the founder the company's salary policies. She had (1895-1984) of Amnesty International. In 1939 he took learned that staff often did not eat lunch the surname of Benenson, acceding to his there because they could not afford it. She dying Grandfather’s wishes. said to Marks, ‘It's firms like Marks & Spencer that give Jews a bad name’. He At Christmas 1923 Harold Solomon, responded by giving her the job of looking whom Peter adored, suffered a serious after staff welfare! riding accident outside Jerusalem and was confined to a wheelchair. The family In her new position, she pioneered the returned to London, where the marriage development of the staff welfare system - collapsed. In 1927 Flora became the including subsidised medical services. mistress of the former Russian leader These practices directly influenced the Alexander Kerensky. In her Labour concept of the Welfare State and autobiography, Baku to Baker Street the creation of the British National Health (written with Barnet Litvinoff, 1984), Service in 1948. As a result, Marks & littered with the names of the prominent Spencer acquired the reputation of being from Eleanor Roosevelt to Chaim the working man's paradise. Not content Weizmann, she confessed to being an with her welfare work, the next episode in unsatisfactory mother; indeed she was to her life saw her founding the Blackmore cause Peter much anguish throughout her Press, a British printing house. life. Harold died in Switzerland, the day But now Flora Solomon’s life became before Peter's ninth birthday. The boy was much more complicated. She was a long- With so many different aspects to Flora inconsolable: Flora wrote of her son's time friend of British intelligence officer Solomon’s fascinating life, it was difficult relationship with his father, ‘He had been Kim Philby and she was the matchmaker to decide which of them should be treated the limbs the man on the first floor never between him and his second wife Aileen.