ESTMINSTER UARTERLY Volume X No.3 July 2019

Ghetto Theatre by David Bomberg (Ben Uri Collection)

The Spanish Inquisition David Bomberg The Salamons in Barbados A Bar Mitzvah in New York

From the Rabbi

help our professional team set up for the easy answers. We must recognise this evening. He loved animals and was and offer to be together in times of

always keen to help people. He had trouble. Indeed, after Achrei Mot comes

volunteered in an orphanage in Ethiopia. Parshat Kedoshim, the section on He had worked especially hard to go to Holiness, and our tradition teaches us university and was looking forward to that sanctity existswhen we come

this prospect. together.

Amelie celebrated her Bat Mitzvah a year I am grateful to this community. I am

and a half ago, reading from one of our grateful for all your letters of support to Czech Scrolls and giving her thoughts on the family, and for your encouragement We create moments together that we will the Torah portion. She did so with great and support of me and our team. I am remember for the rest of our lives and insight, poise, and maturity. As I got to grateful for your genuine care and love. I that will echo across generations. In know her, she talked to me about her am grateful for the way members have services, and in learning, through baby love of her family and her love of reading, supported the family, bringing their blessings and B’nei Mitzvah, we bring especially of history, and how she valued expertise to specific requests the family families closer together, and we bring the logic and perspective that reading can made. I am grateful for the way lay families closer to the rest of our give you. She was a sharp thinker and leaders have stepped up to create a space community. We bring people closer to was willing to challenge herself and in which our older children could ask themselves, as they reflect on who they others on issues that matter, including questions in confronting this. I are and what’s important, enabling discrimination and animal rights. appreciate having such a dedicated growth and self-realisation. Our professional team and Executive here community offers an oasis of this that we prioritised and shared everything closeness in the wonderful, though also Never has the that needed to be done. I am most of all disconnected and hectic, metropolis of community been so full of admiration for the courage of London. Never has our community been Angelina, Matthew, David and Ethan in so important. important facing what has happened, and living We recently experienced exceptional with the beautiful memories of Amelie and Daniel. difficulty. Above all, the Linsey family, Amelie and Daniel were both beloved members of our community, enthusiastic members of the community, Never has community been so important. have faced, and are facing this extreme and most of all, loving, thoughtful, In the face of such brutality and hurt, our difficulty. Amelie Linsey, fifteen years supportive family members- children and values are all the more needed. We must old, and Daniel Linsey, nineteen years siblings. They epitomised the value that truly and authentically believe that love, old, were killed along with more than Aaron and his descendants are said to care, peace, and community will prevail. 250 other innocent people in the attacks have brought to the world. Hillel says: Be We must stand together and gather in Sri Lanka on Sunday 21st April. Their among the disciples of Aaron, loving others in the world to stand for these father Matthew returned home himself peace and pursuing peace, loving people values too. This community has never from Sri Lanka the day afterwards to his and bringing them close to Torah (Pirkei been so important. We support each wife Angelina and their two other Avot 1:12). It is their qualities that we other during joyful and difficult times. As children, David, who is twenty-one, and need in the world and in our lives more El Male Rachamim, the ancient prayer Ethan who is twelve. On your behalf as a than ever right now, and that we, as a for the deceased says, ‘let their souls be community, I have spent much time with community, will bring in their honour. woven into the weave of life’, bitzror them, guiding them through these ha’chayim. For anyone still wanting to It was poignant that the first Shabbat extraordinarily difficult grieving rituals, contribute to the foundation set up in after their loss brought the annual Torah and we continue to support them, memory of Amelie and Daniel to help reading Acharey Mot, meaning ‘after helping them with whatever they need, families whose lives have been death’ that the Torah portion takes and simply being present and available. overturned in Sri Lanka you can do so places after Aaron loses two of his here, https://www.justgiving.com/ We will always remember Amelie and children in a cruel and violent way. crowdfunding/amelieanddaniel Daniel and aspire to live by the light of Aaron’s immediate response is silence. their examples. Daniel at age nineteen The Kotzer Rebbe in the nineteenth was enthusiastically learning, developing century taught that ‘nothing screams out and helping others. Just last Purim he like silence’ and indeed this silence in the came in during the day, before the middle of The Five Books shouts out to evening of the service and celebration, to us. It speaks of inexpressible shock, grief, Rabbi Benji Stanley ask me questions based on his research loss - and love. The Torah acknowledges of the festival and to read about festivals that extreme difficulty comes without in our library. He was then very keen to 3

Anglo-Jewish History 1 Shell for whom he later became Managing was later to lead to many confrontations Jews in the City Director. He was knighted in 1920, after with those opposed to hunting and blood Bernard Waley-Cohen Shell had played an important part in the sports, the Press joining in avidly with war. He bought for his growing family the unflattering portraits and accounts of his (1914-1991) large house in Hampstead, neighbouring business transactions. Kenwood House, Caen Wood Towers, and Not long after he had resumed his city life, later a country home near Exmoor. Bernard was appointed vice-chairman of After Clifton, Bernard went to Magdalene the Palestine Corporation and the Union College, Cambridge, reading Modern Bank of Israel. His distinction as a City

History, and then joined Lloyds, becoming servant led to his election as Alderman of an underwriter. He was a broad- the Portsoken Ward and then at the early shouldered, athletic young man, with age of thirty-five, as a lieutenant for the

aspirations to join the Navy, but an eye City of London, leading to his accident while out riding put an end to appointment as Sheriff. He referred that. Instead he had to earn a living, in proudly to his ancestor Sir David

spite of his family wealth. Unable to enlist Salomon, the first Jewish Lord Mayor, because of the injury, when war broke out following in Sir David’s footsteps when he he became an executive officer attached to too was created first KBE and then Lord the Port of London Emergency Service Mayor himself, the seventh Jew and the and also Commander of the Exmoor second youngest individual to hold the

Patrol of the Home Guard. He was one of post. During his term of office, he The two families from whom Sir Bernard the few descendants of the Cohen dynasty introduced a Midsummer Banquet, now Waley-Cohen took his name were among to marry within the faith – the Rev. an important and enjoyable part of the the prominent long-standing Anglo- Ephraim Levine later recalled that his City calendar. Jewish families often known as The father was overjoyed; ‘he came dancing

Cousinhood. Nathaniel Cohen had into the room to tell me the news, and to married Julia Waley, and his son Robert see Sir Robert dancing was quite a was the first to put the two names spectacle’. He married Joyce Nathan,

together, though Robert’s son, Bernard, daughter of Major Nathan, a senior added the hyphen. In his book partner in a city law firm; she was a The Cousinhood, Chaim Bermant wrote, highly intelligent woman, went to St Felix

speaking of Robert who was, he said, not School, Southwold, and Girton College, an observant Jew but liked to say the Cambridge, and then worked at the Priestly Blessing, ‘with his Prayer Shawl Ministry of Fuel and Power, where

over his head and arms outstretched, he Bernard was also employed alongside looked like some dark avenging angel, Harold Wilson. They had met at London except that angels in Jewish lore were parties before she went to Cambridge and

created to receive orders, whereas Cohen his friends said he wooed her until she Lady Waley-Cohen believed he was born to give them. He was old enough to receive his proposal. (1920-2013) was nature’s own managing director.’

Robert was educated at Clifton College, in Bernard was appointed Joyce Waley-Cohen proved herself to be Polack’s House - founded by his great- one of the most distinctive Lady uncle Lionel Cohen - to which he later sent vice-chairman of the Mayoresses, holding elegant parties at both his sons; he had married Alice Mansion House, always beautifully Beddington of the wealthy Moses family. Palestine Corporation dressed and a most gracious hostess. She Alice was a keen horsewoman, an interest and the Union Bank of coped efficiently with her duties in the of both families and their descendants, City, her home in Somerset and that in but according to the biographer of her Israel London, while bringing up their four husband, Robert Henriques, ‘had no children. She believed strongly in a full notion of keeping house and could After the war he turned to banking, a field education for girls (though she was in scarcely look after herself.’ She turned out in which he made both his name and his favour of single-sex schools), holding to be an inveterate gambler. fortune, combining his life in the City with many posts in the educational field Bernard Waley-Cohen and his twin sister his love of country life. He spent as much including the presidency of the Hetty, were Robert and Alice’s first time as possible on his farm in the West Independent Schools Information Service. children, born in 1914. Robert, usually Country, and became chairman of the At the same time she was chairman of known as Bob, was by now working for Devon and Somerset Staghounds. This Westminster Children’s Hospital and a

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J.P. Like her husband, she rode to in Somerset so ‘his friends could be hounds, was a keen gardener and loved brought together to remember me and country crafts. speak of me not in any mournful sense but more in the sense that they have enjoyed The duties of Lord Mayor of London my friendship as much as I have enjoyed suited Bernard Waley-Cohen, demanding theirs’. the full extent of his energies, not only in the City but abroad, in order to pursue the Philippa Bernard links between London, the Far East and New Zealand and Australia. Wherever he went he took with him his mayoral chain of office and his robes, to show his respect for the position he held. At the end of his Late one night in a prestigious law firm, term he was created the first Baronet a new trainee discovers the Senior Waley-Cohen. Partner standing in front of the This was by no means the end of shredder, holding a document and Bernard’s public service. He became looking puzzled. chairman of University College, London, ‘Can you help me to work this thing?’ the first university to accept Jews, Master The Lord Mayor’s Coach enquires the stereotypically of the Clothworkers Company, on the technophobic Partner. Board of Clifton College, with a serving interest in the College of Arms, the St. ‘Of course’ beams the eager trainee - Paul’s Cathedral Appeal and the Marshall desperate to impress. Aid Commemorative Commission. He The trainee feeds the document into also managed to find time to breed and the shredder and they both watch, win prizes for pedigree Devon cattle. smiling, as it descends into the Bermant says, ‘His eyes light up and his stationery afterlife. voice softens at any mention of country City of London Coat of Arms life or country pursuits’. At this point, the Partner turns to the trainee, Bernard Waley-Cohen was not a particularly devout Jew, but he always ‘Right, I’ll just need two copies please…’ Other Jewish Lord Mayors of London:- held his religion and his ancestry in the highest esteem. He believed strongly in ______loyalty to the Jewish cause, and at the same time paid much attention to inter- 1855 David Salomons faith relations. Not a particularly 1865 Benjamin Phillips attractive figure in his later years, he was respected greatly in the City with an 1902 Marcus Samuel affable and compassionate personality. 1943 Samuel Joseph He and Joyce had four children: Rosalind Burdon, married to businessman and 1998 Lord Levene Morris and Sam are sitting at the back former New Zealand politician and 2008 Lord Luder of the Shul. Every few minutes, Sam Cabinet Minister, The Hon. Philip shuffles his feet and winces in pain. Burdon; Sir Stephen Waley-Cohen, a 2013 Fiona Woolf ‘What’s the matter?’ whispers Morris. theatrical producer who inherited the title; Joanna Waley-Cohen, an academic ‘My feet are killing me. My shoes are and specialist in China, and Robert Waley- In 1942 an extraordinary election took too small’ Cohen, an entrepreneur and chairman of place for the 1943 Mayoralty between ‘So why did you get them – why not buy Cheltenham Race Course, whose son is two Jewish Sheriffs, Sir Samuel Joseph the right size?’ the amateur jockey Sam Waley-Cohen. and Sir Frank Pollitzer. Sir Frank had earlier withdrawn due to his age, but My son crashed my car, my daughter Sir Bernard Waley-Cohen died in 1991 in was encouraged to stand again. There has abandoned her studies, even Somerset and is buried in Willesden was a certain amount of crude anti- though it cost me a fortune to send her Jewish Cemetery. He stipulated that his Semitism voiced during the election, but to University and I am about to be funeral should be modest, with no Sir Samuel won. He was the father of made redundant. But when I take my memorial service, but he asked for two the Cabinet Minister Sir Keith Joseph. shoes off, life feels wonderful!’ parties to be held, one in London and one

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culture David Bomberg Isaac Rosenberg, won him the Henry they paid our fares home, glad to get rid of Tonks Prize. He also produced his most us!' (1890-1957) ambitious and innovative painting so far, He decided to go to Palestine in 1923 Vision of Ezekiel. He worked as a life where he and Alice stayed for four years model in order to earn his keep and was and settled in Jerusalem, where they able to travel to Paris in 1913 after his remained until the autumn of 1927, renting expulsion from the Slade because of his a house in the hills. This period was a increasingly radical style, influenced by crucial turning point for him, painting Cubism and Futurism. In Paris he met landscapes in the open air. Whilst there, he Picasso, Modigliani and Kisling. His early went on a six-month expedition to Petra. paintings were very angular and geometric. He embarked on a focused study of the scenery in and around Jerusalem. He developed a love of working directly from nature, and landscape painting became the major part of his output for the rest of his career. A one-man exhibition of paintings of Palestine and Petra followed. At this time, he and Alice separated. Self Portrait 1931 His wanderlust then took him in 1929 to Cubist, Abstract Expressionist, Vorticist, Spain; here he spent most of his time in Modernist, Futurist, Fauvist, this Toledo. After a short while back in Racehorses 1913 Ben Uri Collection extraordinary artist was expelled from the England he visited Cuenca, Ronda, the

Slade School of Art in 1913 because he Asturian mountains, Morocco and Cyprus - He became a member of the London refused to conform to any particular genre. his greatest period of painting and drawing Group in whose first exhibition he showed One wonders what drove him. Despite his in landscape. He returned to London, ill five of his works. He also organised the many friends he was basically an with jaundice. He then took up with Lillian Jewish section of a show at the isolationist, turning down an invitation Holt, a painter and later a founding Whitechapel Gallery – Twentieth Century from Wyndham Lewis to become a formal member of the Borough Group. Art: A Review of Modern Movements. member of the Vorticists group. Bomberg was one of the most audacious of the The outbreak of the First World War exceptional generation of artists who brought an abrupt end to a dynamic phase studied at the Slade. in British Art. Partly prompted by financial circumstances, Bomberg enlisted in the Born in Birmingham, the fifth of eleven Royal Engineers in 1915 - transferring to children of Polish Jewish parents, David the King’s Royal Rifle Corps the following Bomberg’s work was neglected in his year - and his experiences of the horror of lifetime, probably because he was war profoundly changed his perspective. unclassifiable. Today, he is recognised as The death of his brother in the trenches, as one of the leading British artists of the well as that of Isaac Rosenberg, affected twentieth century, with a prolific output. him deeply. His work became less angular, In 1885 his family had moved to softer and more rounded. The following Photograph of David Bomberg, Whitechapel and in 1905, at the age of year he married Alice Mayes - about taken in Jerusalem, 1924 fifteen he was apprenticed to Paul Fischer, whom there is little or no information. He a lithographer. However, he left him in received a commission from the Canadian At about this time Bomberg was 1908 to join the City and Guilds School for War Memorial Fund for a large painting, introduced to Arthur Willey who was evening classes and also Westminster Sappers at Work, which he completed in buying pictures for three collectors in School of Art where he was instructed by 1919 and which is in the National Gallery Bradford. Willey bought many paintings Walter Sickert. When he was twenty-one, of Canada in Ottawa. from Bomberg; this was one of the rare he was awarded a place at the Slade with David Bomberg was demobbed in 1919 and times that he ever had any substantial the help of John Singer Sargent and the in 1922, he and Alice went to stay in patronage or sales during his lifetime. It Jewish Education Aid Society. He was one Lugano with Ben and Winifred Nicholson. was these sales that made possible the of the Whitechapel Boys, a group of Jewish But the trip was a ‘great fiasco’ according ensuing trips to Russia and Spain. He artists most of whom had attended the to Alice: 'David hated being hauled out in spent six months in Russia and eighteen Slade. Among his contemporaries there the snow on painting expeditions, expected months in Spain. This seems to have were Mark Gertler, Paul Nash, Christopher to play the maestro and teach them how to imbued his work with a more vigorous Nevinson and Stanley Spencer. His pencil paint. Finally, there was a show-down and style with looser brushwork. portrait of his friend, the poet and artist,

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Encouraged by his sister Kitty and her הבּרוּ קוֹרנר husband James Newmark, both Bomberg and Lillian joined the Communist party in 1933. Bomberg painted banners for Hebrew Corner demonstrations and attended mass unemployment rallies. In July they visited Russia for five months and The Knesset is the Israeli parliament. gradually grew disillusioned with the The word ‘Knesset’ does not appear in Communists’ effect on art. On their the Bible but we see it later in the return to London they resigned from the Koran in the Arabic language. Their Party. word was Kinshtain which, in Aramaic, means a gathering or assembly. Today, In 1934, he and Lillian went to Spain, Bomb Store 1942 the members of the Israeli parliament living first at Cuenca and then Ronda in are called Members of the Knesset. Andalucia. This was an ideal place for that he was unable to obtain a teaching Bomberg, who wanted to define nature's The name Knesset was chosen because post in any of the most prestigious fundamental dynamism. Here, Dinora, the founders of the State of Israel saw a London art schools. In 1944 he went on a his only child was born. However, the great resemblance between their own painting expedition to Exmoor and South onset of internal dissensions in Spain generation and that of the people who Devon before returning to the became so alarming that the family came back from Babylon after the Polytechnic. He also taught drawing, one rushed to Santander in time to catch a exile. According to tradition, the Great day a week, at the Bartlett School of boat for England just before the outbreak Knesset was founded then. Writing in Architecture. of the Civil War. the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz, Elon David Bomberg was a complicated Gilad remarks that the Great Knesset He held a one-man exhibition at character and in 1952 he went to stay was not established at the time of the London’s Cooling Gallery in the June of with his daughter for a year, having fallen return from the Babylonian exile or 1936, which was treated with disdain by out with Lillian. While he was there, he else that it was perhaps given another most critics - and which did not sell painted Mother of Venus. Then, name. anything. He then started painting reconciled, he and Lillian moved back to portraits of himself and his immediate In the books of Ezra and Nehemiah Ronda where they tried to found a school family. In 1940 he and Lillian married. there is no mention of the Great of painting and drawing – this did not Knesset. The Sanhedrin, not the Although his application as a War Artist succeed and Lillian returned to London Knesset, was the name of the had been refused twice, Bomberg finally without him. rabbinical institution after the became an official War Artist during destruction of the Second Temple. It World War II. He was commissioned by his art remained was founded by Yochanan ben Zakkai the War Artists Committee to produce a who left Jerusalem and obtained painting of an underground bomb store. overlooked in Britain Roman permission to establish a Fascinated by the bombs stacked in the Pharisaic academy at Yavneh. The disused mines, he produced a large In his final years Bomberg resented the academy at Yavneh was recognised by number of images, all showing his fact that his art remained overlooked in Rome as the official leadership of the consciousness of the bombs' destructive Britain, despite the fact that his Jewish people. purpose. The painting was rejected by the landscapes and figure paintings included Committee - but they did then accept The sages took practical action to some of his most powerful works. He three bomb store drawings. Bomberg implement a post-Temple, non-priestly continued to live in Spain - with suffered increasingly from long periods of form of Judaism. The emphasis was remittances from his wife and his sister - depression, during which he was unable on education, steadfast love and until 1957 when he collapsed. He was to paint, but encouraged by Lillian, he knowledge of God and not on sacrifice. taken to hospital in Gibraltar and from began a series of flower paintings. He The title Rabbi came into general use. thence to St. Thomas’s Hospital in also taught drawing to gun crews in Hyde London where he died penniless - It was the historical form of assembly Park, and held various part-time teaching tragically unaware that he would later that influenced the founders of Israel, posts at Hammersmith, Battersea and become known as one of Britain’s after the British took over Palestine. Clapham. foremost artists. The first cycle of elections took place After the War his career was dominated and the first assembly was in 1920, by teaching and his inspirational drawing when the committee, under the British classes at the Borough Polytechnic from Claire Connick Mandate, represented a form of 1943 to 1946 attracted many young government of the pre-State of Israel. students, including Leon Kossoff and

Frank Auerbach. However, he felt bitter Ilana Alexander 7 Jewish History Among the early Hebraists of the time Martinez but little notice was taken of The Spanish were Yehudah HaLevi who became his efforts. The death of the King left known as one of the first great Hebrew Martinez free to resume his efforts. He Inquisition poets, and Menahem ben Saruq who ordered the synagogues of Seville to be compiled the first-ever Hebrew destroyed and claimed that the Crown dictionary. had no authority over him and that he was subject only to the Catholic Church. The intellectual achievements of the He ignored orders to rebuild the Sephardim enriched the lives of non- synagogues and to stop preaching Jews as well. In addition to contributions against the Jews. Violence finally of original work, they translated Greek erupted on June 6th when around 4,000 and Arabic texts, which proved Jews in Seville were murdered, their instrumental in bringing the fields of houses attacked and destroyed; those science, medicine and philosophy - much who weren't killed were terrified into of the basis of Renaissance learning - to converting in an attempt avoid the the rest of Europe. However, gradually slaughter. Muslim control began to turn upon the Spanish Jews, and in 1066, a date important for Spain as well as for

Isabella of Castile (1451-1504) England, a Muslim mob stormed the royal palace in Granada, crucified the Jewish vizier Joseph ibn Naghrela and Although 1492 is usually considered the massacred most of the Jewish population year of the commencement of the of the city. More than 1,500 Jewish Spanish Inquisition, the oppression of families, numbering 4,000 persons, were the Jews of Spain actually began much murdered in just one day. earlier. After the destruction of the

Second Temple, many Jews fled Gradually the Jewish population of Spain eastward, escaping Roman control, and began to realise that their only hope of settled in the Iberian Peninsula. The release from oppression and violence Tomás de Torquemada (1420-1498) Spanish community in the Middle Ages was to become Christian, at least in was the largest in Europe. It was name. These converted Jews were This violence against the Jews originated composed of a well-ordered, wealthy sometimes known as New Christians, in in Castile, and acted as a catalyst for group of Jews, educated, cultured and of contradistinction to the original Old further violence continuing through intellectual distinction. Christians, or as Marranos. This name other cities and towns within three may owe its origin to various months, as city after city followed the By the eighth century, the Berber interpretations of Hebrew, Arabic or example set in Seville, and Jews faced Muslims had conquered nearly all of the Spanish, but it certainly at one time either conversion and baptism or death. Peninsula. Under Muslim rule, Spain meant ‘swine’, considered an appropriate As this fanaticism and persecution flourished, and Jews and Christians were epithet for a converted Jew. As the action spread throughout the rest of the granted the status of dhimmi - a taken against Jews increased the number Kingdom of Castile, there was no historical term referring to non-Muslims of conversos grew until they often accountability held for the murders and living in an Islamic state with legal outnumbered even the old Christians. sacking of the Jewish houses, and protection. Though this still did not With the populace as well as the estimates claim that there were 50,000 afford them equal rights with Muslims, authorities aware of their origins, even a victims. Many of the Marranos, during this ‘Golden Age’ of Spain, Jews generation later, these converted Jews apparently converted to Christianity, rose to great prominence in society, found themselves the objects of terrible continued to preserve their Jewish business, and government. The violence. traditions and family customs, and to conditions in Spain improved so much worship in secret. under Muslim rule that Jews from all The tragedy of 1391, when many Jews across Europe came to live there during were killed, would not have been Although the persecution of Spanish this Jewish renaissance. Here they possible without Ferrand Martinez, Jews had been a feature of the Catholic flourished in business and in the fields of Archdeacon of Ecija, a province of church in the fourteenth and early astronomy, philosophy, mathematics, Seville, whose actions ignited this fifteenth centuries, it was not until 1478 science, medicine, and religious study. appalling outbreak against the Jewish that Pope Sixtus IV issued the Bull Exigit The same period also witnessed a people. Martinez used political anti- sinceras devotionis affectus (Sincere resurgence of Hebrew poetry and Judaism to stir up the people against Devotion Is Required). In 1469, Prince literature from a traditional and them, and Henry of Trastamara - who Ferdinand of Aragon had married his liturgical language to a living language, became King of Castile when he killed his cousin, the Castilian heiress Isabella. able to be used to describe everyday life. half-brother, Pedro I - tried to control Five years later, Isabella ascended her

8 country’s throne. It was a formidable Mass at daybreak and a breakfast feast children Jewish names, circumcising their alliance, both of personalities and of prepared for all who joined in. The sons, and many other Jewish traditions political destinies. ceremony of public penitence then began even including blessing their children and with a procession of prisoners, who bore not eating pork. The Bull authorized the King and Queen elaborate visual symbols on their to choose a team of higher clergy as well The cruelties of the Inquisition grew even garments and bodies. These symbols were as laymen, for the purpose of conducting more violent after the appointment of called sanbenito, and were made of yellow investigations regarding matters of faith. Torquemada. His name has ever since sackcloth. They served to identify the The first two Inquisitors - both been associated with torture. In 1492 at specific acts of treason of the accused, Dominicans - were appointed two years Torquemada’s urging, Ferdinand and whose identities were kept secret until the later, and the Grand Inquisition started in Isabella issued an edict giving Spanish very last moment. In addition, the Seville. The purpose was the need to root Jews the choice of exile or baptism; as a prisoners usually had no idea what the out heretics who ‘daily return to the result, more than 160,000 Jews were outcome of their trial had been or their superstitious and perfidious sect of the expelled from Spain, many moving to sentencing. The prisoners were taken Jews. Not only have they persisted in Holland - a safe haven - and some secretly outside the city walls to a place called the their blind and obstinate heresy, but their to England (where Jews were not quemadero or burning place. There the children and descendants do likewise’. permitted to live.) sentences were read. Prisoners who were Many of the Marranos were wealthy, a acquitted or whose sentence was The number of Jews killed during the feature much to the taste of Ferdinand, suspended would fall on their knees in Inquisition varies considerably. It was and they included many of the nobility thanksgiving but the condemned would be only formally abolished in the early who had intermarried with the original punished by burning at the stake. The nineteenth century, and many urban Jews. Many fled to Cadiz, hoping to avoid auto-da-fé was also a form of penitence myths have arisen since. It is usually the first pogroms, but orders were sent for the public viewers, because they too assumed that between 3,000 and 5,000 out to all dukes, counts, grandmasters, were engaging in a process of were put to death, but varying numbers knights and alcades (magistrates) to reconciliation and by being involved were have been put forward ranging from surrender all Marranos in their lands and given the chance to confront their sins and millions to a few hundred. The Church to confiscate their property. Any who be forgiven by the Church. The wealth of has at various times attempted to justify refused were threatened with those condemned to death was seized by its actions, claiming that it was its Holy excommunication and their properties the royal treasury. Duty to do away with heresy. So has the seized. At the castle of Triana near Seville Jewish community in Spain, in going the Tribunals began. In 1483, Ferdinand ‘underground’ to avoid the persecutions. and Isabella established a State Council to A book published in 1995 by Benzion administer the Inquisition, with the Netanyahu (father of the Prime Minister Dominican Friar Tomás de Torquemada of Israel) developed a theory according to acting as its president. which the Marranos converted to The most brutal feature of the Inquisition Christianity, not under compulsion, but was the establishment of the auto da fé out of a desire to integrate into Christian (act of faith). It involved a Catholic Mass, society. However, as New Christians they prayer, a public procession of those found continued to be persecuted due to racism, guilty, and a reading of their sentences. A Auto-da-Fé - Jewish Encyclopedia and not purely for religious reasons, as session usually began with the public was previously believed. He argued that proclamation of a grace period of forty what was new in the fifteenth century was A dispensation was offered to all days. Anyone who was guilty or knew of the Spanish monarchy’s practice of Marranos who were observing Jewish someone who was guilty was urged to defining Jews not religiously, but racially, customs to appear before the court confess. If the accused were charged, they by the principle of limpieza de sangre, voluntarily in return for which they were were presumed guilty. Officials could purity of blood; which served as a model promised absolution and their life and apply torture during the trial. Inquisitors for twentieth century racial theories. property held safe. But when they did so were required to hear and record all Netanyahu rejected the idea that the they were ordered first to betray their testimony while proceedings were kept Marranos lived double lives, claiming that fellows and then were finally dragged into secret, and the identity of witnesses was this theory arose from Inquisition the prisons of the Inquisition. A list of not known to the accused. documents. The many debates and ‘sins’ was issued by which these Marranos discussions about the Spanish Inquisition Preparations for an auto-da-fé began a might be recognised. They included may have tended to obscure one of the month in advance, and only occurred celebrating the Sabbath, eating meat most infamous persecutions in history when the Inquisition authorities believed during Lent, not eating on the Day of against the Jewish people, outdone in there were enough prisoners in a given Atonement, celebrating Passover with horror only by the Holocaust. community or city. An all-night vigil unleavened bread and bitter herbs, would be held with prayers, ending in marrying as Jews and giving their Philippa Bernard

9 Around the World The Hidden Jews of community to the Jewish community due to usury, caused tensions to rise again.

Mallorca - A Story of On 2nd August 1391, 300 Jews were massacred and even Christians who were Discovery and Renewal sheltering Jews were killed. Despite that

calamity, things settled for another generation as the community settled back into a comfortable life, well What does a few days in Mallorca integrated with the local people. But conjure up for you? Relaxing by the pool, persecution came back with a vengeance. walks along the beach, lazy lunches and Jafuda ben Cresques In 1435, a rumour was spread that Jews afternoon siestas for sure, but had crucified a Saracen during Holy discovering a little known and Our very first stop brought to life both Week. This was used as the catalyst for fascinating history of a Jewish Mallorca’s important historical role and attacks and forced conversions that saw community that is enjoying a revival? the way in which the Jewish community the Jewish community effectively wiped Probably not. This is the story of how my had played a central part in this history. out. family connected with a lovely and Dani brought us to the statue of Jafuda inspiring New Jersey man who has made Faced with forced conversion or death, ben Cresques. Jafuda came from a Mallorca his home and the Jews of the Jews were gathered together by the family of cartographers. Together with Mallorca his passion. Rabbi who led them to be converted as a his father, Cresques ben Abraham, they group. This mass conversion took place It all started when my sister Caroline and probably produced one of the most at the Church of Santa Eulalia which we I booked an AirBnB for a few days away famous medieval maps, the Catalan saw on the tour. As a result of the over half term with our families. I Atlas. At the time, Mallorca was a major conversions, in the year 1435, Mallorca spotted an advertisement for a tour of stopping point on the trading routes, was the first place in all of Spain to Jewish Mallorca. Of course, I knew dating back to Roman and Phoenician abolish the practice of Judaism. In 1492, about the illustrious history of the Jewish times, so a skilled cartographer would when the Catholic Monarchs decreed community in places like Toledo, Seville have been much in demand. that all Jews had to leave Spain, there and Cordoba. But I had never heard of a The history of Jews in Mallorca dates were no more Jews living in Mallorca. Jewish community in Mallorca. back a thousand years. Indeed, in its Intrigued, we got in touch with our guide Since the community had converted early days, Mallorca was seen as a place and reserved our places. principally for survival reasons rather of refuge from the persecutions on than due to a change in religious belief, The day dawned bright and sunny and mainland Spain in the eleventh and these new converts continued to follow we headed from our poolside retreat to twelfth centuries. The thirteenth century the ‘Law of Moses’, as it was called then, Palma. We were greeted by a smiling Spanish rulers actually protected the in secret at great personal risk. Dani American guy, Dani Rotstein. How did a Jewish Community, who were allowed to showed us courtyards hidden behind big man from New Jersey come to find follow their own customs and to work as gates that allowed them to carry on some himself giving tours of a Jewish usurers without fear of retribution either of their practices. However, they were community on a small island off the from the King or from attacks by other constantly being watched by the coast of Spain? He explained how his communities. At the time, Christians Mallorquin Inquisition, set up in 1488, love of Spain had started with a Junior were not allowed to lend money and whose headquarters sat in the same place Year Abroad. After years in the rat race of charge interest to other Christians. as the current Plaza Mayor until 1823. New York City, he decided to return to Therefore, the King allowed the Jews to For example, the authorities used to walk Spain in search of life at a slower pace. become the Crown’s money lenders and through the neighbourhood on Shabbat He landed an interview with a TV this was one of the many reasons that looking for chimneys that hadn’t been lit production facility in Mallorca. He had they were protected. – a sign of a Jewish family observing this never visited the island before the day of This all started to change towards the day of rest. Just next to the Plaza, where his interview. Armed with a job offer, he end of the thirteenth century when two the Black House used to stand, one can relocated. He learned of a tiny Jewish German Christians who had been see a very small sign that says ‘Slope of community of other expats and then refused the possibility of converting to the Inquisition’ in Spanish, alluding to discovered to his amazement the story of Judaism elsewhere, were accepted for the stairs which the condemned used in native Mallorquins who can trace their conversion by the Mallorcan community. the processions leading to their public roots to the medieval Jews of Mallorca. The local Bishop was furious and fined executions. He fell in love with his new surroundings the Jewish community heavily and and with the people of the Jewish The community members’ efforts to hide confiscated some of their goods. community that had a very particular their Jewish activities were not enough and little-known story to tell. Things settled down for a while, but the and in 1688 they were discovered and mounting indebtedness of the Christian denounced. About forty members of the

10

crypto-Jewish community led by their Dani told us all these stories and many honorary rabbi at the time, Rafael Valls, more on a magical three-hour walking tried to escape with an English captain tour of the quiet streets in a beautiful area and his boat. A terrible storm came up of Mallorca. He showed us where the that evening making it impossible for synagogues had been – including one them to set sail. Upon re-entering the city An Ensaimada hidden behind a bakery, with two exits for they were caught and forced to implicate safety, and another now converted into a the rest of their community members who beautiful church. We ended the tour at a showed us a culinary example of this had decided to stay behind. For three small and very poorly sign-posted commitment - ensaimades. These were years the group that had tried to escape museum. Along the way, Dani regaled us originally a Jewish cake, made with olive were tortured in the secret prisons of the with tales that wove together centuries of oil, but they switched to using pork fat or Inquisition until 1691 when they were all history and the minutiae of day-to-day life saim to signal that in all aspects of their burned at the stake outside the city lives, they were renouncing their heritage. underneath the Bellver Castle in a place To this day, it is almost impossible to find called Plaza Gomila. ensaimades made without pork fat. But This past August, the City Hall finally Dani told us that, with a few days’ notice, erected a small but poignant memorial in he could get one for us. As another signal their memory. Three martyrs on that of their determination to move away from fateful day of 6th May, 1691 decided not to their Jewish faith, the Chuetas would renounce their faith and kiss the cross make a point of working during Shabbat. offered to them and were subsequently To this day, ‘doing Sabbath’ is local slang burned alive in front of 30,000 people. for having to do chores. Despite their Their names were Rafael Valls, Caterina determination to demonstrate their Tarongi, and her brother Rafael Tarongi. commitment to the Catholic faith, these The Museum In May 2018, a street was named in fifteen Chueta families, were not accepted Caterina’s honour in what Dani described by the Christian Community. They were Dani is now at the heart of this Jewish as a moving ceremony by the City Hall. ostracised and marked out to the extent revival in Mallorca. He sits on the Board that they could only marry within their of the Synagogue and has helped launch

own community of approximately 20,000 Limmud Mallorca which has now people. Dani told the story of a leading celebrated its second successful year of member of the Chueta community who events. His love for the local community

married a non-Chueta. His non-Chueta and his passion to tell their story shines wife’s family came to the Church service through on these tours. For Dani, this isn’t dressed entirely in black. just a tourist experience, this is his life and

a commitment to reconnecting with our These native Mallorquins were always history, ensuring that it is a living and treated as ‘the other’ for not having pure vibrant community to honour the past and Unveiling the name of blood. In fact a list was produced during celebrate our future. Caterina Tarongi Street the Holocaust and the entire group was

almost sent to Germany even though they After their execution, the last names of were some of the most devout and those murdered were hung in the Santo practising Catholics. Luckily, the Domingo Church for generations of Mallorquin clergy intercepted the request. families to come and remember them. They massively inflated the number of

These fifteen families were identified - Chuetas to the extent that one third of the fifteen last names that are still associated community was linked to them – at which with these ‘fake Catholics’ - and to this day point the threat of deportation was are known and singled out for particular dropped. attention. Around thirty years ago, some of these Once they had been discovered, the Chuetas started to reconnect with their Dani Rotstein remaining crypto-Jews recommitted to Jewish heritage. Some of them the Catholic faith and went out of their reconverted back to Judaism formally, but way to demonstrate their commitment to others felt that there was no need to Christianity. They became known as the convert as they were direct descendants of Chuetas or Xuetas - a word that means Jewish forebears. This sentiment was Julia Levy pork eaters - to mark their commitment to reinforced by part, but not all of the sever all ties with their Jewish roots. Dani orthodox Jewish community.

11 Around the World The Salamons’ A-Z Lowdown on Barbados - Quirks and All!

A Sovereign Island in the Lesser Antilles, 34 km (21 miles) in length and up to 23 km (14 miles) wide.

A is for the ATLANTIC OCEAN at Bathsheba, one of a few Jewish names to be found on the Island. The east coast is much wilder than the west Caribbean coast, with big waves to surf (for those who do) and wonderful long walks on the beaches or along the cliffs. The ANIMAL FLOWER CAVE is to be found at the northern-most tip of

the Island and whilst we didn’t actually go down into the cave (you take your life in your hands walking down the very steep steps) the views were spectacular and worth the one- hour drive on winding lanes through the sugar cane fields.

ADOPT A SHELTER. Ian Gilbert, the son of a Nidhe Israel Synagogue (NIS) member told us about a friend of his from school who, as a young man, convinced the Government to let him upkeep all the bus shelters on the Island and in return, he sells advertising and keeps the profit - so enterprising!

B is for the BOARDWALK at Hastings Beach, about 2 km long and which we tried to walk most days. B is also for BRIGHTON FARMERS MARKET on Saturday mornings, a fete and social gathering where eating breakfast at 7 am is equally important to the weekly shop. The local and indigenous BREADFRUIT, made into mash pies or fried and eaten like (yummy) chips, and for BARBADOS BLACK- BELLY SHEEP that look very much like goats. And for BANKS BEER, the local brew, very welcome on a hot day.

C is for the CARIBBEAN SEA at CARLISLE BAY, for CHEFETTE, Barbados’s version of fast food, and for the CLIFF, very likely the most expensive restaurant on the island and a celeb spot. It’s also for the colourful CHATTEL HOUSES , wooden dwellings strongly associated with Barbados’ heritage, CUTTERS (Bajan sandwiches), COCONUTS and COCONUT WATER which you can buy by the roadside, and for COCKERELS, which are to be seen and heard everywhere you go on the Island. D is for DOVES of all colours, and DRIVE-IN movies, which we actually didn’t get to experience (yet!).

E is for EARTHWORKS, a wonderful local pottery, owned and run by a member of the Jewish community, David Spieler. It’s a great place to visit and to buy beautiful pieces that truly reflect the beauty of the island.

F is the National FLAG of Barbados. The blue represents the sea and sky, the gold the sand of the island's beaches. The central symbol represents the Trident of the mythical sea god, Neptune, its shaft is broken, symbolising Barbados' break from Britain. Also for FLYING FISH, the National Bajan fish, and lots and lots of other FISH we’ve never eaten, such as Barracuda, Marlin, Congolese, Mahi Mahi; and for the 2019 FILM FESTIVAL where we were lucky enough to go twice and where we heard the Barbados Prime Minister speak.

G is for the local GREEN MONKEY which came to visit us every day on our porch between 4.30-5.30. Also for GARRISON, the historic British military base, home to the famous Savannah race course where plantation owners used to race their horses. It is also for the GRAPEFRUIT TREE, thought locally to have been first developed in Barbados.

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H is for HUNTE’S GARDEN, an enchanting place to explore. The legendary horticulturalist Anthony Hunte sometimes even greets visitors himself, with welcoming stories and a refreshing glass of rum punch. It’s also for HUMMINGBIRDS and for Bajan HOT PEPPER SAUCE which is smothered on to most food. I is for INDEPENDENCE. Barbados has enjoyed independence from British colonial rule since 1966. J is for the JEWISH COMMUNITY in Barbados, who welcomed us so warmly, and the Barbados JEWISH MUSEUM which traces the history of the Bajan Jews back to the 1600s and the earliest days of settlement on the Island.

K is for the KENSINGTON OVAL STADIUM and the ‘Windies’ v England Test match which we were lucky enough to attend - although the result wasn’t what we hoped for. L is for LA CUCARACHA, the taxi-horn blasts heard at all times of the day and night … and for LOUIS ARMSTRONG’S What a wonderful World, very much the theme and motto of our hosts, the Orans, President of the Barbados Jewish Community.

M is for MASSY, the local supermarket where you can buy virtually any Waitrose product! and for the scary MAN-O’-WAR we found on the Atlantic coast. It’s also for the local MONGOOSE. We were told it’s good luck to have one scurry across the road in front of you. N is for NIDHE ISRAEL SYNAGOGUE in Bridgetown, a historic building renovated by the Community in 1987 to its past glory, and used by the Community during the height of the tourist season.

O is for OISTINS, the fish market and restaurant strip in the south of the Island. Friday nights rock! P is for PLANTATIONS, PALM TREES and POTHOLES - beware, they are deep and numerous. Q is for QUEENS PARK where the magnificent Baobab Tree, one of the largest trees on the island, is located. QUAYSIDE CENTRE in Hastings where Thomas enjoyed a good Espresso and Renee a Frappacino.

R is for RUM and also for the RUM SHOPS. It is likely that the Island is the birthplace of the drink; the sugar cane crop is documented from the mid 1640s. There are many Rum Museums to visit and local shops (rum stores) where you can enjoy a tipple. And ROUNDABOUTS, so many on the Island! S is for SPEIGHTSTOWN, the second largest town on the Island, where the Bridge of Tides mural is to be found. Research is currently being undertaken on a Lost Synagogue from the 17th Century.

T is for the beautiful Hawksbill and Leatherback TURTLES and the Barbados Sea TURTLE Project, which has been involved in their conservation for the past twenty-five years. It’s also for TUK BANDS - usually brightly attired musicians playing a bass drum, kettle drum and penny-whistle. U is for UMBRELLA and for the Bridgetown UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE SITE, which also incorporates the most beautiful Jewish 17th Century Mikveh and Cemetery, where skull-and-bones tombstones can be found. V is for VACATION and good VIBES. Barbados is the perfect holiday destination for R&R and to recharge the batteries. We are the living proof!

W is for our visit to the George WASHINGTON HOUSE in Bridgetown, the home of GW during his short stay on the Island when he was in his late teens. Y is for the Barbados members-only and famous YACHT CLUB, and Z is for ZEBRA CROSSINGS which, unbelievably, are often to be found immediately upon exiting the numerous roundabouts!

13

Anglo-Jewish History

850 were chosen to come and assembled Sophie learned to cook Jewish food (the Lingfield House at Prague Airport, where nine British home was strictly kosher). bombers were waiting to take them to The children were taught English, kept safety. They landed at a remote airfield in pets, enjoyed music and acting, sports Wales, where they were met by Alice and games and were taken on seaside Goldberger and Leonard Montefiore, and holidays. At first Alice found it an uphill were cared for to begin with, at task to gain their trust and confidence. Troutbeck Bridge near Windermere in Sdelka Husserl, one of the very youngest, the Lake District; then it was felt that now living in London, tells of her life- small groups of houses or hostels would long fear of Alsatian dogs, even when be more suitable. seen from a bus, because they remind her The children who came to Lingfield were of the guard dogs at Terezin. The

very young, from about four to nine children’s early drawings, many of them Alice Goldberger OBE years, many of them very damaged. They preserved in the Holocaust Museum in (1897-1986) had been on the last bomber to leave New York, show distress and misery, but Prague; two or three had come from after a very short time they were painting The West London Synagogue, then under Displaced Persons Camps, where they pictures of themselves playing, singing the leadership of Rabbi Harold Reinhart, had hoped to be found by relatives, and and dancing, looking after their animals played an important part in caring for some had spent their first years in and obviously enjoying the happy times refugees in the terrible years of the

Holocaust. Rabbi Reinhart was responsible for offering homes and ministerial positions to the German

Rabbis deprived of their homes and their congregations. Many of the Reform Synagogues in this country owe their existence to those ministers finding sanctuary here. The efforts of the members of Upper Berkeley Street concentrated particularly on the children. The unimaginable traumas that they had experienced at such a young age would take years to fade. Rabbi Reinhart spoke privately to many of his members. This was not a job for a committee; it needed a personal touch. Terezin. They came from Czechslovakia, at Lingfield. They reported their progress What was essential, Reinhart felt, was a Hungary, Germany, Austria, Italy and frequently to the Lingfield Committee at house in a quiet neighbourhood, not too Poland. Most had lost their parents and Berkeley Street who passed on their far from London, with a capable, caring were totally without any means of stories to the Council. One such account woman to act as Matron, where these comfort or support. Harold Reinhart announced that during the previous year damaged boys and girls could begin to found in Alice Goldberger the perfect the twenty Lingfield House chickens had pick up the pieces of their interrupted answer to their needs. Born in 1897, she laid 2,212 eggs! Soon they were well lives. The Council agreed to vote the sum was a German refugee herself and had enough settled to attend the local school of £6,000 for the purchase of a hostel, worked there before the war in several and some were reunited with their but it was Sir Benjamin Drage who came child centres. She came to Britain in 1939 families. Two of the refugees married to the rescue. He offered his beautiful and was interned as an enemy alien on and went to live in Australia. house, Weir Courtney, near Lingfield in the Isle of Man where she set up a Surrey, for the use of some of these war- At West London funds were urgently children’s facility. When released she was torn children. It was a large house set in needed to maintain the home – it was the appointed superintendent of Anna fine gardens and it came to represent only one not under the direct control of Freud’s War Nurseries, helping to look safety and sanctuary for the refugees. the Central British Fund - and a Hostel after the children of British working Committee was now set up under the The British Government had decided, mothers. As Matron of Lingfield she gave chairmanship of Mrs. Gladys Pinto, even before the war had ended, to allow the children the affection and care they which established the yearly Lingfield some 1,000 children who had survived so badly needed. She was helped by a Bazaar, a joint effort which took place the camps, to come to Britain under the Catholic refugee, Sophie Wutsch, who every November in the Synagogue’s Stern auspices of the Jewish Refugee became her right-hand woman and Hall, raising many thousands of pounds. Movement and the Central British Fund. stayed with her for most of their lives.

14

Annual Bazaar and especially the work of Alice and her helpers, will always Beatriz Nuñez derive comfort from this small corner of light in the darkness of the Holocaust. It is often assumed that during the 360-odd years between the banishment of the Jews from England under Edward I in 1290 and the resettlement in 1665, there were no Jews in this country. This is not so. We know that some stayed on, living quietly as Eamonn Andrews presenting Christians. Not many of these shadowy Alice’s ‘Life’ in 1978 figures are known to us. But one Jewish woman flits through the pages When Lingfield House finally closed, the of Anglo-Jewish history and has left Annual Bazaar continued raising funds Weir Courtney, Lingfield 1945 behind a brief glimpse of how she lived for the charities supported by the through this difficult time. congregation. Alice Goldberger stayed Beatriz Nuñez was a member of a with ‘her’ children, and in 1948 they distinguished Jewish family. Born took a house nearer London at Isleworth Beatriz Fernandes in 1568, she married in Middlesex and renamed it Lingfield Henrique Nuñez, a physician, who set House. up home in Bristol, with a small In October 1978, Alice appeared on BBC community of his fellow-religionists Television’s This is Your Life with and held services in his house. Great Eamonn Andrews as host, when several care was needed as these were secret of the children appeared on the Jews, unable to admit their faith to the programme. Rabbi Hugo Gryn also took outside world. Henrique and his family part. He had not lived at Lingfield but kept in touch with their relatives had often visited and took a particular overseas and were thus able to find out interest in the children. Many tears were the dates of the Festivals and to shed by those who took part in that ‘Five People under a Vine’ celebrate them accordingly. Sephardi programme and by those who watched. Jews, they welcomed any other Jews in

Two Italian sisters were rediscovered by England who had need of shelter and their mother because of the publicity. association with like-minded Jewish families. Alice took the children to worship at West London every Sabbath and High Beatriz kept an observant home and Holy Day Festivals, and will always be taught the newly-arrived Marranos remembered, not only by the children about Jewish observance and history, she cared for but by all those who knew as well as prayers in Hebrew. She her. When the children were older and herself was strict in her observance of began to disperse, West London the Jewish tradition. If she needed to Synagogue installed Alice (and Sophie) travel to London, where others of her faith and family were living – also in a large flat in Hampstead. She moved ‘The Sweetshop’ finally to Osmond House, the Jewish secretly - she informed the innkeepers care home, and died at the age of eighty- at the taverns where she was to stay and paid for new cooking utensils to be eight in 1986. In the obituary printed in Watercolours painted for Alice purchased so that she would not the Synagogue Review, Rabbi Hugo by Lingfield Children. infringe any dietary laws. At Pesach Gryn wrote of her that she became (Holocaust Museum New York) parent, teacher, play leader and ‘best she made the matzos for the whole friend’ to all of the Lingfield children, community, and held a Seder in her home for anyone in Bristol wishing to and to the end of her life she stayed in touch, worried about and, more than attend. anything else, loved them. Beatriz and her family left England to Lingfield House and the children who live in France and there is a record that a Beatriz Nuñez was martyred at an lived there have now passed into the West London Synagogue’s history, but auto-da-fé in Madrid, a sad end for a those who remember the children, the noble Jewish housewife.

15 Anglo -Jewish History Baron d’Aguilar had two daughters, Georgina and the way of reward, financial or otherwise. Caroline, but after five years Sarah died, It was described in a contemporary

of and Ephraim soon married again, this account as ‘a perfect dunghill’.

Starvation Farm time to Rebecca, widow of another da No self-respecting woman could be Costa. She too had a huge fortune from expected to tolerate such behaviour or her previous marriage. such living conditions – for the house was

The D’Aguilar family lived well. They had almost as badly kept as the farm – so his a handsome home in Broad Street wife and daughters soon left him to find a Buildings, near Liverpool Street, cared for more congenial way of life. There was no

by twenty servants, with several carriages. shortage of money and they wanted for Ephraim also had a country home at nothing. But the head of the household Twickenham. However he had invested would permit no interference in his

heavily in America and the coming of the affairs. For some inexplicable reason he War of Independence caused the Baron continued to contribute to the welfare of heavy losses. He decided to change his his fellow Jews, in spite of never spending

Lady Ashburton way of life, leaving the luxurious home the a penny on himself. He was a liberal family had enjoyed, much to the chagrin patron of public institutions and had the of his wife. There was still ample money curious habit of offering shelter in his When Lady Ashburton bought Kent available, and they moved to Bethnal own home to homeless women and House, or rather the derelict site where Green. The house there was hardly used children, clothing and feeding them, the first Kent House had stood, in about as D‘Aguilar was becoming increasingly offering them a wage if they wished to 1870, few of her noble friends and moody and unpleasant. His wife and earn their keep as his servants. What else relations knew that she was the great daughters found him difficult to live with, went on in the dilapidated farm house is granddaughter of one of the most and a separation soon followed. not recorded. eccentric Sephardi Jews in London. Baron Ephraim Lopes Pereira d’Aguilar was the But although Twickenham too was shut second Baron d’Aguilar, a Barony of the up, like the house at Bethnal Green,

Holy Roman Empire. His father, the first Ephraim was not short of somewhere to Baron, was Portuguese, having left that live. He had another country estate at country because of religious persecution. Sydenham, a town house in Aldersgate

In Vienna he handled the duties on Street, and another in Camden Street in tobacco and made a great deal of money Islington. Not far away he bought a piece out of it. He was appointed treasurer to of land near to where Camden Passage is

the Empress Maria Theresa who granted now, which he turned into a farmyard. him his title. He took his son, Ephraim, By now the Baron had abandoned any by now nearly twenty years old, along pretensions to his life as a gentleman. He with his eleven other children, with him was slovenly, even ragged, in his when he came to London in 1756. They appearance, dirty and bedraggled as he became members of the Spanish and went about the farm. The place was in Portuguese synagogue, which benefited terrible condition, like its owner, and his handsomely from the immensely wealthy neglect of his animals earned his property To the amazement of the D'Aguilar D’Aguilar family. the name of Starvation Farm. The cows family, after twenty years’ estrangement, Ephraim played a leading part in the were thin and in a poor state, ill fed and the Baron suddenly decided to call on his affairs of the Bevis Marks Synagogue. He little cared for. The farmyard was never wife. He visited her on several occasions held the offices of Parnas (warden) and cleaned and the pigs often had to and finally, suggesting a reconciliation, he Gubbay (treasurer), donating consume the poultry to obtain a decent moved in with her. But it was not long handsomely to the congregation. meal. Ephraim himself, in spite of being before he reverted to his old habits, Unfortunately his later behaviour and brought up as an orthodox Jew, saw no behaving to his wife and daughters with eccentricity caused him to quarrel with reason not to use the plentiful bacon and his old arrogant uncivilised habits. He the leaders of the community and he pork for his own consumption. Passers- ordered his wife’s servants about, relinquished his affiliation. by shouted insults at him when they saw behaved with cruel treatment to the the state of the animals, though he took women refusing to listen to any words of Soon after their arrival in London the no notice. He preferred to see to the complaint. On one occasion he locked his Baron died, his son inheriting the title animals himself or at least to watch as his wife in her room, forcing her to escape and a large estate. He became naturalised servants did. He loved to think of himself through a window. Finally she could take and married Sarah, the daughter of Moses as master of all he surveyed, though the no more and left to take up residence with Mendes da Costa, who brought to the produce of the farm brought him little in relatives in Hackney. marriage another large fortune. They

16 Community

Lady D’Aguilar sued for divorce and the fortune of some £200,000. In his last From the Third Floor case came before the King’s Bench. The years he suffered from an internal case is of particular interest as it was the illness, but true to his nature, refused to Early in the history of the Czech Memorial first petition for divorce between Jews to allow a fire to be lit in his house. His Scrolls Trust, the Treasurer of the London come before the English court. The case daughters tried to call on him but he Library, Lewis Golden, a distinguished was heard before Lord Justice Stowell. refused to see them, cursing them loudly member of Westminster Synagogue, Objections were made that the marriage and forbidding them to enter his presented the Library with a Scroll from the was illegal as it had not been performed in presence. In addition to the large sum collection from Czechoslovakia. It was cared church, but Lord Stowell upheld the left to the daughters, the farm fetched for, catalogued and - although kept in the safe validity of the marriage and granted the only £128 at auction, though his jewels - was available for anyone who wished to see divorce. His remarks concerning the rights brought £30,000. When the house was it. However, its use was limited and the of Jews in English law laid a precedent cleared huge amounts of Cochineal and Library decided to return it. On 9th April a which had considerable bearing on later Indigo were found, purchased many small group of representatives of the Library litigation. He said, ‘The marriages of the years before. They were worth £10,000. and of the Trust gathered at the Library’s Jews are expressly protected by the home in St. James’s Square for the In an account of Baron d'Aguilar the Marriage Acts and persons of that ceremonial return. Several of the Library Jewish Chronicle called him ‘a most persuasion are as much entitled to the staff were present, together with Jeffrey singular character. A combination of justice of the country as those of any other. Ohrenstein, Head of the Trust and some of vice and virtue; of misanthropy and Jews have the same rights of succession to those involved with the project. It was a benevolence; of cruelty and kindness; of property and of administration as other moving occasion, and the Trust will pass the avarice and liberality’. He gave his subjects.’ Scroll on to another deserving home. daughters no religious education, and The Baron was present in court, though he he married them off with no regard to made no intervention during the their religion or upbringing. Both The Chief Rabbi, Ephraim Mirvis, has proceedings. The case was decided married into the English nobility. accepted the gift of a Scroll from unanimously in favour of his wife, and her Westminster’s collection of Czech Scrolls. The The Baron’s daughter Georgina married husband was judged to have behaved Scrolls Trust was delighted that the leader of Vice Admiral Keith Stewart of outrageously even to show his face in the the Orthodox Community in this Country has Glasserton MP, with whom she had four court room. Finally he had the temerity to accepted for his own use a Scroll, rescued sons. Their third son, James Alexander, ask that costs should be shared equally from the former Czechoslovakia by also a Member of Parliament, married between the plaintiff and the defendant. Westminster Synagogue - preserved and Margaret Mackenzie. It was their ‘Pray, gentlemen,’ he said, ‘make her pay restored to its original glory - which is now younger daughter Louisa who married half the expenses, for I am a very poor fully kosher. On 22nd May some forty guests William Bingham Baring, second Baron man, and it would be cruelty to distress gathered at Chief Rabbi Mirvis’s home in Ashburton, and became the chatelaine me!’ Needless to say his plea was refused. Hendon for the presentation. Several of Kent House, a very different home members of Westminster Synagogue, Baron D’Aguilar died at the house in from Starvation Farm. including the Chairman of the Czech Aldersgate in 1802, and was buried at the Philippa Bernard Memorial Scrolls Trust, were present; so too old Jewish cemetery in Mile End, leaving a were both of our Synagogue’s Rabbis and

several Rabbis from other Progressive Synagogues, as well as members of the Chief Rabbi’s staff and many friends. The

Chairman, Jeffrey Ohrenstein, explained to the guests something of the history of the Scrolls and Chief Rabbi Mirvis told of his

absorbing interest in the project; he frequently encourages others to visit the Scrolls. He recounted his visit to Kent House to see for himself. Then guests were invited to see Scroll No. 1458, laid out in its new recipient’s Library, where there is his own Aron Kodesh to house it. A splendid ‘banquet’ was laid out for the guests, providing, as Chief Rabbi Mirvis put it, ‘food for the spirit and for the body!’ It was a very warm, friendly and moving evening, assembling together Jewish representatives from nearly all shades of the community, gathered to welcome the most essential feature of Jewish life.

17 Anglo-Jewish History Although originally confining their work the B'nai B'rith Rehabilitation Fund, The B’nai B’rith to matters concerning American Jewry, it which was supported by other German- was not long before the group’s leaders speaking Lodges in New York, Israel, became aware of oppression and tragedy Switzerland, South Africa and Australia. of Jews in other countries, the cruel The work continued after the war and treatment of Jews in Romania, a cholera when the movement in Britain celebrated epidemic in Palestine and disabilities in its Golden Jubilee in 1960 there were Switzerland. The movement spread to twenty-seven lodges with 2,500 members. Canada, then Egypt and to Jerusalem. It created the B’nai B’rith Housing Society Discussions took place regarding the and the B’nai B’rith Hillel Foundation. group’s expansion to Britain, and the First Over those years it had played an Lodge of England was founded in 1910 at important part in helping Jews in many the home of Charles G. Montefiore in the different fields. In its early years it City of London. Two years later another lobbied Parliament on Sunday Trading, was established in Manchester with Israel helped to found the Anti-Defamation Sieff and Chaim Weizmann on its council; Committee, supplied food to Jewish they were to have considerable influence B’nai B’rith (Sons of the Covenant) is the internees on the Isle of Man, helped in on B’nai B’rith’s attitude to Zionism. oldest Jewish fraternal organisation in the setting up the Balfour Declaration, and world. It was founded in 1843 in America Throughout the First World War, the sent banned publications to Russian by a small group of German immigrants organisation continued its charitable and scientists. who met in Sinsheimer’s Café on the philanthropic work, with the number of As the years went on, more assistance was Lower East Side in New York. They spoke lodges expanding throughout the country, needed. A lecture committee was Yiddish, calling their newly formed and by 1925 there were six lodges and established to provide lecturers on Jewish association Söhne des Bundes, and their District 15 – the umbrella body – was matters to the general public, kosher original aim was to improve the created, later to become B’nai B’rith UK. meals were offered to students at Oxford ‘deplorable condition of Jews in this, our With the suffrage movement having and the group participated in the Jewish newly adopted country’. They based the achieved votes for women in 1929, B’nai Day School Movement, the Discharged structure of the rapidly growing B’rith too opened its membership to Prisoners’ Aid Society, the B ‘nai B’rith organisation on the masonic system of women - though with their own lodges. Music Festival and the Enterprise Scheme lodges and their first action was to They finally found equality in the setting of 1989. The work goes on and new introduce an insurance policy which up of unity lodges and all forms of members of all ages are always welcome. would award members’ widows the sum Judaism - with their rabbis - are welcome. The movement believes it is vital to of $30 towards funeral expenses and a The last barriers were finally overcome promote Jewish heritage and culture, to grant of one dollar a week for the rest of with the setting up of the B’nai B’rith advocate and defend the rights of the their lives. Their children also received Youth Organisation in 1940, so that young Jewish people in the UK, in Israel and an allowance and their sons were taught a people too could participate in the aims throughout the world and to support their trade. and ideals for which the movement own charities. The British President, Alan The new group's purpose, as described in stands. Miller, says, ‘B’nai B’rith has a long and its constitution, called for the setting up well-established history which focuses on With the coming of war there was much of the traditional functions performed by advocacy, human rights, charitable work for Jewish organisations to do. By now Jewish societies in Europe, such as and Jewish Culture and Heritage, not only there were eighteen lodges in Britain with visiting the sick, helping widows and in the United Kingdom, but also in more than a thousand members. Help orphans, and communicating with other Europe and worldwide. Our social was offered to refugees, particularly Jews around the world. They soon activities play an important part in the life children, coming to this country from adopted English, instead of Yiddish, as of our Lodge membership and provide the occupied nations in Europe. Composed the group’s language, changing their basis for our wider activities. B’nai B’rith mainly of German refugees, the ‘1943 name accordingly. offers a warm welcome to those who join Section’ was later renamed the Leo Baeck our family, whatever your age, be it In 1851, B’nai B’rith erected Covenant Lodge. Rabbi Leo Baeck arrived in younger or older or whether you are Hall in New York City as the first Jewish London in July 1945 from Theresienstadt. single or married or just good friends. We community centre in the United States, He was welcomed with open arms and are an inclusive membership organisation and also what is widely considered to be agreed to become Honorary Life that brings together Jews from across the the first Jewish public library in America, President of the new Lodge. Leo Baeck whole spectrum’. soon followed by the Maimonides Library was not only an academic, but also a and later the Cleveland Jewish Orphan businessman and that is why he chaired Philippa Bernard Home.

18 Poetry Page

LIFE’S FUNDAMENTAL PARADOXES

Paradise and Time

The sky is always clear, always deep there Always the same, the same blue Always still, unlike the sea... The sun and the moon are side by side there Time does not separate them over there Paradise beyond Time where nothing evolves Paradise beyond the inevitability of death in the reality of time Paradise, the constant present Adam is expelled from Punished for an irreversible, momentous betrayal A traumatic climax but one which awakens to consciousness Allowing to reach the moral ground justifying one’s creation And Adam, now mortal, expelled from Eden The childlike world of immature life Discovers the world subjected to Time’s laws The world where man dies and life goes on…

Colette Littman

19 Anglo-Jewish History Dr Louis Loewe inconsiderable knowledge of Arabic, West London Synagogue was refused Coptic, Nubian, Turkish, Persian and admission to the Board of Deputies), and 1809-1888 Circassian, though he turned down the he found Loewe much of the same mind - offer of the post of Rabbi at Kassel, a hardly surprising in view of his orthodox rapidly growing community where a new upbringing and education. In fact when

Synagogue had just been built, Loewe was put forward for the position of accommodating more than a thousand Chair of Hebrew at University College, he worshippers. was not appointed, due to the intervention

of Sir Isaac Lyon Goldsmid, a leading Loewe’s first important visit to the Middle founder of the College who was much in East took place in 1836 when he travelled favour of reform and no friend of under the auspices of the Duke of Sussex Montefiore. and Admiral Sir Sidney Smith. He visited

Greece and Palestine as well as several The correspondence between Loewe and North African countries, including Egypt Montefiore was extensive, and one of where he was able to help the Viceroy, Loewe’s duties, apart from editing the

Mohammed Ali Pasha, with the translation Diary, was to preserve and archive the Some distinguished men and women - of an inscription, in return for which he letters - Raphael Loewe notes the existence scholars in their own right - are was granted leave to undertake any of a ‘kind of diplomatic bag travelling remembered by the memoirs they have research he wished. At one time he was between London and Ramsgate, written about others. James Boswell is an obliged to dress as a Bedouin to avoid presumably by rail rather than simply obvious example, known today for his possible assault. He later told how his through the Post Office.’ biography of Dr. Johnson. Another is Dr. children, at Purim, would play ‘Bedouins’ One of the most important missions on Louis Loewe who edited and published the in memory of that occasion. which Loewe accompanied Montefiore was two volumes of the Diaries of Sir Moses After this three-year excursion Loewe went the visit, in 1840, to Damascus on behalf of Montefiore and his Wife. Dr. Loewe, to study in the Vatican Library, and it was the British government. This was the however, was a brilliant scholar, linguist, in Rome that he celebrated Passover with subject of the accusations of blood libel theologian and numismatist. He was also Sir Moses and Lady Montefiore. They had against the Jews of Damascus, and even the first principal of Jews’ College in met before, at the Montefiores’ home at after the matter appeared to have died London. Ramsgate. It was to be the beginning of a down, they travelled there again in 1847 - Louis Loewe was born in 1809 in Prussian fruitful and fascinating series of journeys - apparently at short notice - for Montefiore Silesia, to a family of orthodox Jews. He eleven in all - to Palestine, Russia, wrote, ‘I hope you will not be had an excellent education, both in Jewish Constantinople, Romania and Rome, with inconvenienced for the short time you have subjects at the Yeshivah of Lissa and later Loewe acting as interpreter and secretary. to prepare for the journey - we can arrange in secular colleges, learning German, the papers as we travel as I believe with The friendship between the two men grew French, Latin, Greek, Spanish and Italian, you there is not a moment to be lost.’ They rapidly, until Loewe was almost ‘one of the and finally obtaining his doctorate at the wanted to remove a notice on the wall of family’. Montefiore appreciated not only University of Berlin. He was also by this the Capuchin church implying that the libel Loewe’s skill in language, but also his time a considerable scholar of had been true, and having failed, similar wishes to improve the living numismatics. Montefiore continued to dwell on the standards of his fellow Jews, most subject, writing to Loewe, ‘I shall ask Lord Apart from his knowledge of European and particularly in Palestine. Loewe was Palmerston (Foreign Secretary) to grant Classical languages, he was anxious to frequently invited to dine with the me an interview . . . pray give me your learn Oriental languages, coming to Montefiores both at Ramsgate and in advice as to what I should say to him and London in 1835 where he was sponsored London. In The Century of Moses what to ask him for’. by the Duke of Sussex, whose interest in Montefiore, edited by Sonia and V.D. Jews and Judaism was well known. This Lipman, the essay on Loewe by his great Montefiore relied greatly on Loewe’s advice led to introductions to a circle of grandson, Raphael Loewe, says that while on many occasions, sometimes at his aristocratic and scholarly friends, which in Loewe was of a retiring nature, offices at the Allied Insurance Company turn enabled him to study and research Montefiore’s diary makes it clear that the where he was President, and sometimes at into public as well as private collections. older man was ‘glad to have as his the dinner table, with both their wives He spent some time at the Universities of colleague someone who, whilst accepting present. Sometimes he asked for letters to Oxford and Cambridge where, being a Jew, substantial delegated responsibility, was in be written in Hebrew or Russian or Arabic, he was unable to take a degree or hold a no way concerned to steal the limelight.’ depending on the recipient, and Loewe was teaching post. He was the first Ashkenazi charged with administering some of Montefiore was very much against the Jew to preach in the Bevis Marks Montefiore’s generous financial gifts, being possibility of reform in English Judaism Synagogue. He then went to Paris where entrusted with large sums of money with (his was the casting vote against, when the he was able to improve his not which he was scrupulously efficient.

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Comment

On the occasion of Sir Moses’ one wanted equality in participation and hundredth birthday, Louis Loewe was in A Bar Mitzvah leadership and the pursuit of social charge of the elaborate arrangements at in New York justice. As here, at Westminster the country home in Ramsgate. He Synagogue, before the Shabbat service, describes in the Diary, ‘There, in the right- there is a session to discuss the day’s hand corner of a large high-backed, old- Torah reading, while enjoying a cup of fashioned chintz sofa sits a patriarchal coffee and a croissant. figure supported by pillows. This Also, as with WS, there is a thriving impressive picture of age, tended by love morning school (theirs is on Sunday). and respect, is lighted from the right by a The children have an hour of Hebrew, stream of sunshine, which pours through followed by an hour studying Jewish the upper panes of a large angular bay thought, culture, history and tradition. window and rests gently upon a grand During this second hour, parents are head, full of character, fringed with a invited to join in and absorb the topics short, closely cut, snow-white beard. One that the children are learning. Sadly, the hand of Sir Moses is thrown negligently Tots programme does not have a across a tall arm of the sofa, the other Every Synagogue has its own minhagim sufficient number of little ones to warrant rests upon the ample skirts of a purple silk (customs). Ours is no exception. For a class at present. However, they are dressing gown.’ When Sir Moses lay dying instance, we do not walk across the hoping to restart this - as Tiny Scholars - in 1885, he asked Loewe to promise never Sanctuary in front of the Ark but prefer very soon. to leave him. He promised, remaining congregants to use the appropriate near the grave at the mausoleum in corridor entrances. I have recently The Free Synagogue of Flushing occupies Ramsgate ‘till it was completely filled up attended two B’nei Mitvah - one in this a glorious Victorian-style building. The and a slab had been placed over it. I then country and one in America - with the stained-glass windows were made in what lighted two candles and placed them at celebrations encompassing slightly was then Czechoslovakia, and the the head of the grave.’ different minhagim in each of them. magnificent domed ceiling is also of stained glass and has a Magen David at At the first one, held at Alyth Gardens, the Torah Scroll was handed to the Bar the centre. The interior is decorated in Mitzvah’s father who passed it to the warm tones and the Aron Kodesh is very imposing. boy’s mother who then gave it to the Bar Mitzvah. Then it was he who had the As with many cities, the demographics

honour of parading the precious Scroll have changed. The Free Synagogue of through the congregation. At the most Flushing, once in the centre of an area recent one, the parents were instructed mainly populated by Jews, now finds

to drape the Bar Mitzvah’s Tallit around itself totally surrounded by China Town – his shoulders - this being the first time a China Town which is even larger and he would wear it. Both these ideas busier than the famous China Town of

touched me deeply - this tradition of Manhattan! I sincerely hope that handing on from one generation to the notwithstanding, it will continue to thrive In 1844 Loewe had married Emma next; the passing on of a very special - and if the American branch of my family Silberstein. They had four sons and four sense of belonging – going back through has anything to do with the outcome, it daughters, living, after Louis’s the ages. certainly will. naturalisation, in Maida Vale. He became This second Bar Mitzvah took place in a Claire Connick a Trustee, and later Principal, of the Lady very interesting Synagogue. As the Judith Montefiore College in Ramsgate. oldest liberal Reform Synagogue in the Among other works he compiled A Queens area of New York, the Free Dictionary of the Circassian Language Synagogue of Flushing has served its and A Series of Conversations at community for over 100 years. Its Jerusalem between a Patriarch of the building is listed on the New York State Greek Church and a Chief Rabbi of the Register and the National Register of Jews, concerning the malicious charge Historic Places - which I suppose against the Jews of using Christian blood. corresponds to our English Heritage His edition of the Montefiore Diaries is listing. It was founded in 1917, by the still an important source of material about Hebrew Women’s Aid Society, on the Sir Moses and Lady Montefiore. lines of the philosophy of the first Free Dr. Louis Loewe died in 1888 and is Synagogue - the Stephen Wise Free buried in Willesden Cemetery. Synagogue in Manhattan. The women

21 Editorial

A section of the recent Venice Biennale was shown in the Venice Jewish Museum, in the Canton Scuola of the Ghetto. We were particularly interested to read about this installation, mounted by Edmund de Waal, the distinguished potter and author of The Hare with the Amber Eyes. Mr. de Waal visited Westminster Synagogue some time ago to talk about his book, the history of his family, the Ephrussis, who lived in Vienna before the war and lost so much after the Nazi invasion of Austria. For the Biennale Mr. de Waal constructed a porcelain pavilion coated with gold leaf, on which are inscribed the names of the lost libraries of the world, including that of his great-grandfather, Viktor von Ephrussi. In a future edition of the Quarterly we hope to feature more about these lost libraries, which include those of Timbuktu, Aleppo, Mosul and Alexandria.

The Synagogue has been presented with a most beautiful Haggadah by a member of Or Chadash, Niklas von Mehren. A dedication will be placed in the front and then this fine gift will be added to the Haggadah section in the Reinhart Library. There is an English translation throughout the Haggadah, as well as a Dvar Torah / Commentary at the back, in English. The handsome illustrations throughout the book are by Yaeli Vogel. Yaeli is an Israeli-born artist, now based in New York, who brings her unique contemporary artistic vision and expressionistic technique to a wide variety of subjects including weddings, Jerusalem, Biblical images and nature. Yaeli works across multiple media including acrylics and watercolours. This Haggadah is a fine example of her work.

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We hope our readers will enjoy the amusing piece about their trip, sent to us by Renee and Thomas. We think it brings a welcome light-hearted touch to the Quarterly.

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There were some amusing responses to our April Fools’ piece. We reproduce a couple here.

Valery Rees writes:

Reading all the way through another wonderful edition of Westminster Quarterly, I am delighted to learn that I have been selected, by virtue of my current office, to membership of the newly formed rowing team. We shall no doubt all develop the strength required for extra special hagbah of the heaviest scroll. And any troublesome congregants can be invited to join the crew on short expeditions to make a nice splash on the Thames.

Please pass on a special welcome to the coach, who must have recently joined us, though I have no recollection of his application for membership coming before the Executive. But perhaps he is related to Raol Pilfo? and this from Jon Zecharia:

Hahaha! I definitely chuckled with this one! Will start getting the Westminst-oars ready!

22

Community Matters with whom Shalom communicates in currently in production and scheduled to Education Report Yiddish) and her continual verbal air later this year. I can’t wait! sparring with a somewhat hubristic The third show, Hostages (B’nei Aruba, Rebbitzin who is a neighbour at the care in Hebrew), begins the night before a life- home in which she resides. Nick saving operation on the Prime Minister of Undoubtedly part of the show’s broad Israel. Four masked men enter the house Young appeal and value is in providing a of the surgeon due to operate, holding all Head of window onto a world that is poorly family members hostage at knife point Education understood, even within the Jewish before demanding that she kills the PM. community. The number of Orthodox The action unfolds over ten episodes full and Ultra-Orthodox Jews who love this of twists and subplots as one discovers show is testament to its sensitivity and the link between the family, the

authenticity. There are two series to kidnappers and the Prime Minister. As My commitments to work, family and to watch on Netflix, and an American the drama unfolds, one is able to identify Manchester United leave me little spare adaptation coming soon, but such has with the hostages and with those who are time, so it suits me perfectly to be able to been the response since the show arrived holding them - and nothing is as watch TV on demand and to be highly on Netflix, that there is a clamour for a straightforward as it seems. This series is selective. However, over recent months I third series, five years since the second probably the closest of the three to being have found three excellent original series was made. Star Michael Aloni (who a ‘page turner’ novel that you simply can’t Israeli dramas that have been available plays Akiva) recently said that the cast put down. Acclaimed actress Ayelet Zurer on Netflix, each of which offers the are all ready for a third series, so I hope it is enthralling as the surgeon and opportunity to tap into the zeitgeist of will happen. matriarch who shows extraordinary modern-day Israel. As we head towards bravery and humanity in the most The second television show, Fauda, is the summer holidays, a period when you challenging of situations, while Jonah one that I’ve told many people is simply have a little more time to switch off from Lotan plays the leader of the kidnappers the best TV show that I’ve ever seen. the day-to-day routine to seek out who is far more than he appears, with ‘Fauda’ means ‘chaos’ in Arabic, and is a something to enjoy on a screen at your charisma and nuance. show that follows the fortunes of a special leisure, I wanted to share those unit of the Israeli army that works There are also two series of Hostages recommendations with you. undercover in the Palestinian territories. available and, like Shtisel, this has been The first is Shtisel, which is essentially a The story begins as Doron Kavilio (played adapted for US TV. drama set amongst the Ultra-Orthodox by Lior Raz) is persuaded to return to the We are spoilt for choice when it comes to Haredi community in Jerusalem’s Geula unit that he formerly led (which still entertainment on the small screen, but I district close to Mea Shearim. The series includes his brother-in-law) for one final can say that even for the most discerning, follows the fortunes of the fictional mission to hunt down a Hamas arch- all three of these Israeli dramas are Shtisel family anchored around patriarch terrorist known as ‘The Panther’ and highly entertaining, to varying extents Shalom Shtisel, recently become a whom he thought he had killed years educational, definitely enriching and widower. We also get to know his previously. The story was written by Raz entirely worth watching! children, grandchildren, friends and himself, along with Avi Issacharof, based associates but especially focusing on his on their experiences in the Israeli As you may be aware, I am leaving the youngest son Akiva, who is yet to marry Defence Force and this show has been Synagogue at the end of the academic or settle into a job but happens to be a commended for its unsparing year to take on new challenges. It has prodigiously talented artist. The premise authenticity which is widely been a great privilege to serve, and there of a family drama based on the Ultra- acknowledged to have been the key to its will be a sense of personal sadness when I Orthodox may not sound especially huge popularity amongst both Israelis leave, having developed relationships appealing, but this show has by now and Palestinians. Wikipedia lists it as that I cherish throughout the community. charmed a considerable following being a political thriller, an espionage My heartfelt thanks go to Claire Connick throughout the Jewish world and beyond. thriller, a psychological thriller and and Philippa Bernard for creating this The characters are beautifully drawn and action-packed. It is all of that and more. exceptionally enriching publication for us the plots intricately constructed out of It is utterly compelling and raw, with the every quarter, which has also proven to the everyday dilemmas that they face only thing preventing me from shunting be a valuable channel of communication regarding personal relationships, family, aside all other commitments to devour a for me down the years. Of course I also money - the kind of situations that we complete series in a day, being that each send huge thanks to the membership and can all relate to. There is also humour as episode is so powerful that one needs the staff of the Synagogue for their well as great poignancy. One of the time to process it. wonderful support, and warmest wishes highlights has to be the character of for the future. There are two series currently on Netflix, Shalom’s feisty mother, (a doting great- but the good news is that a third is Nick grandmother and Holocaust survivor

23

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