JANUARY 2021 JOURNAL 75Th Anniversary Issue
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
JANUARY 2021 JOURNAL 75th Anniversary Issue 1 AJR Journal | January 2021 2 AJR Journal | January 2021 VOLUME 21 NO.1 JANUARY 2021 Welcome to our 75th Anniversary Issue The Association of Jewish Refugees The outer pages of your AJR Journal look a little different this month as we decided to share with you some of the pages from our first ever issue, published in January 1946. We believe that these pages Baroness Julia Neuberger, Sir David Attenborough, Dame Esther Rantzen and Dr Helen Fry are among the many contributors to this special issue. illustrate better than anything else how far we have all come. Another, very prominent, child of a Finally, as well as marking the 75th refugee is Baroness Julia Neuberger, anniversary of the Journal, 2021 is also the With the end of WW2, a new world was who writes about her mother Alice 80th anniversary of the AJR itself. We will be born. The peace agreements that brought Schwab’s love for writing the original marking this special anniversary throughout the conflict to an end implemented Art Notes columns. Our current art the year - look out for some exciting decisions that continue to affect our world correspondent Gloria Tessler then takes up announcements in next month’s issue. today and impact on its future. In 1946 the tale. These personal insights perfectly the state of Israel was conceived, albeit complement a formal look back at our past Jo Briggs not formally confirmed until 1948, the editors and significant contributors. independence of India was designed and 75 years of the AJR Journal ......................4-5 Chinese Communists gained a decisive Not strictly related to our 75th anniversary A half open door .......................................... 6 upper hand in their fight for power. It was but equally essential reading is the report Keeping a connection ................................... 7 a pivotal year in modern history in which on our recent Kinder refugees: then and Our movers and shapers .............................. 8 countries were reborn and created, national now event. Expertly presented by Dame A lady who risked everything ....................... 9 Art Notes revisited ...................................... 10 and ideological boundaries were redrawn Esther Rantzen and featuring Sir David The AJR and the Wiener ............................ 11 and people across the globe began to Attenborough, Lord Alf Dubs and Sir What else happened in 1946 ................12-13 rebuild their lives. Plus of course the AJR Erich Reich, among others, this was a Letters to the Editor ...............................14-15 Journal was born. wonderful programme. We urge you The power of good .................................... 16 to watch in full on the AJR’s YouTube Letter from Israel ....................................... 17 First and foremost in this special channel if you can. Reviews ...................................................... 18 commemorative issue is a wonderful piece Looking for................................................. 19 Obituaries .............................................20-21 written by our former Consultant Editor Toby Simpson, Director of the Wiener Events ........................................................ 22 Anthony Grenville. Tony was at the helm Library, reflects on our 75 year of the Journal when we celebrated our partnership. Plus we take a look at other 60th, 65th and 70th anniversaries, so we events and activities that happened in or Please note that the views expressed are delighted he agreed to make such a around January 1946, some of which may throughout this publication are not prominent guest appearance in this issue. well surprise you. necessarily the views of the AJR. Another of our favourite writers, Victor Ross, We hope you enjoy reading this very AJR Team shared his reflections. Victor’s name has special issue. As the acclaimed historian Chief Executive Michael Newman regularly appeared within these pages since Dr Helen Fry recently wrote to us: “The Finance Director David Kaye our early days and our current readers hugely AJR Journal is an important forum for Heads of Department Community & Volunteer Services Carol Hart enjoy reading his witty and honest columns. the voices of Jewish ex-refugees and HR & Administration Karen Markham Holocaust survivors. It also provides a Educational Grants & Projects Alex Maws A new contributor, David Busse, recalls special connection between its members Social Services Nicole Valens his curiosity about the copies of AJR and the Second Generation. Its articles and AJR Journal Information (the Journal’s original name) news updates reveal a vibrant and active Editor Jo Briggs on the family coffee table, as his parents community that keeps the history and Editorial Assistant Lilian Levy overtly said little about their backgrounds. memories of the past alive.” Contributing Editor David Herman 3 AJR Journal | January 2021 Seventy-five years of theAJR Journal This month we celebrate a continuity; the years in office of its three stage still unused to mass immigration – significant anniversary: the 75th long-serving editors, Werner Rosenstock remained to be defined. year since AJR Information, as it (1946-82), Richard Grunberger (1988- 2005, together with Ronald Channing) By 1956, the Journal’s tenth anniversary, it was then called, was first published and Anthony Grenville (2006-17), together was clear that most refugees – by no means in January 1946. The first month of amount to nearly seventy years. Rosenstock all, of course – took a predominantly positive the first year of peace since 1939 was at first assisted by Ernst Lowenthal, who view of British society and were broadly left for Germany later in 1946, and Herbert was no doubt an auspicious time content to assimilate into it, while preserving Freeden, who left for Israel in 1950. Murray their own cultural identity. That tenth for the start of a new venture; but Mindlin and Cäsar C. Aronsfeld bridged the anniversary coincided with the tercentenary few would have guessed that the gap between Rosenstock and Grunberger. of the readmission of Jews to England in fledgling publication, the voice Grenville concentrated on writing his articles, 1656, over 350 years after they had been while Howard Spier undertook the task of of what was then still a relatively expelled by Edward I. A front-page article preparing each edition for publication. Jo in the Journal, with the title ‘300 Years of small, insecurely settled and Briggs took on the editorship from Spier Freedom under the Law’, paid tribute to impoverished group of refugees, in 2016, and has created an attractive, Britain as a haven for the oppressed: ‘In would be going from strength to more colourful publication. Since Grenville’s the 300 years since Cromwell, England has retirement at the end of 2017, the role confident strength seventy-five been a cherished refuge to all who suffered of Consultant Editor has fallen to David persecution—to none more so than to Jews.’ years later. Herman, like his predecessor the son of The article did not overlook the limitations refugees, whose erudite and stylish articles of British hospitality, such as the legislation, The Journal has certainly benefited from continue to inform and entertain our readers. starting with the Aliens Act of 1905, that being linked with the AJR itself. That restricted the admission of immigrants, organisational backing has allowed it to Amidst the huge diversity of material covered especially Jews. It also recognised that the survive and flourish when publications by in the Journal over the years, two themes Britain where the refugees from Nazism the German-speaking refugees from Nazism stand out. The first is the relationship between had settled was no longer ‘the power of in other countries have ceased to publish. As the refugees from Nazism and Britain. From Victorian splendour’. ‘Yet’, it concluded, ‘the Martin Mauthner noted in our November the outset, the Journal advocated their great-hearted traditions were still alive.’ 2020 issue, even Aufbau, the prestigious and integration into British society. This was not widely read publication of the refugees in the so much a pro-British stance as a matter of In the following decade, the Journal USA, ‘faded away in 2004’. The American sheer practicality: the AJR realised early on supported the Thank-You Britain Fund, Federation of Jews from Central Europe, the that the atrocities perpetrated by the Nazis organised by the AJR – on the initiative American equivalent to the AJR, had long made it impossible for the great majority of our longstanding contributor Victor predeceased Aufbau, whereas the AJR has of the Jewish refugees ever to return to Ross – to raise money for a project that continued to serve its own community down Germany or Austria. In its wartime circulars, would benefit the United Kingdom, as the decades, as has its Journal. the predecessors of the Journal, the AJR a token of the refugees’ gratitude. The bitterly opposed proposals that the refugees project was controversial, reflecting the That community, principally composed should be repatriated to their native lands, if differing attitudes towards Britain among of the Jewish refugees from the German- necessary against their will. the refugees, some of whom felt that they speaking lands, has proudly maintained its had little enough to thank the British for. own distinct identity, though it enjoys close When that proposal was rejected by Prime But by 1965, over 3,000 refugee donors relations with British Jewry. As the Journal Minister Winston Churchill in the House of had contributed no less than £96,000 (some stated in 1956: ‘In times when Jewish Commons in May 1945 and the threat of £2,000,000 in today’s money). The money periodicals often suffer an early death, forced repatriation lifted, the AJR moved on was donated to the British Academy, to 10 years is a long period. Looking for an to the next phase: the naturalisation of the fund a Research Fellowship that is still being explanation of this continuity, one reason refugees, which was a precondition of their awarded to outstanding scholars. stands out: the strong sense of solidarity by secure settlement in Britain.