AJ R Information
Volume XLVIII No. 10 October 1993
£3 (to non-members)
Don't miss ... Defining our Identity President Berta Are Jewish and Israeli Greetings p8 Word Spiel pi6 synonymous?
Israel- PLO fter the Israeli bombardment that killed over a one really envisage a situation in which Israel will not accord hundred Lebanese a reader wrote to the be referred to as the 'Jewish State' by the rest of the Thoughts AIndependent that she was ashamed to be world? Thirdly: why is it that so-called hyphenated Jewish. Her cri de coeur prompted a co-religionist to sections of the USA population include Irish-Ameri s late as write that distinction must be drawn between Jews cans, Polish-Americans etc., but no English-Ameri August it and Israelis. cans? Answer: the English were the original (white) Awould have This exchange raises several questions which admit of Americans. Their Englishness notwithstanding, the taken a brave man no easy, clear answers. Also one must bear in mind Pilgrim Fathers, however, had deliberately cut their indeed to hazard a that 93% of the Israeli public approved of Rabin's Hnks with King James's England. The Jewish Pioneers forecast about the action - a far larger proportion than supported the in Palestine had Ukewise deliberately cut all links with September signing invasion of Lebanon eleven years ago. Do we deduce Czarist Russia - but not with the Jews of the Pale, on the White from this that 9 out of 10 Israelis lack common who they hoped would one day follow them. To this House Lawn. How humanity? Can Jewish readers of The Independent day Israel sees itself as the potential home of all the much braver are stand above the battle — as cynics would say — becauseJew s in the world — though in reality it would be Rabin and Perez — they live here rather than in Kiryat Sh'mona? Drawing impossible for the State to accommodate nine million and even Arafat - a clear-cut distinction between Jews and Israelis immigrants. Not that the need seems likely to arise as in their endeavours resembles attempts at squaring the circle. At the far as North America and Western Europe - home to to reverse a blood- simplest level there is the persistence of prayer; the two-thirds of Diaspora Jewry - are concerned. But suffused tide that majority of Jews worldwide intone 'Next Year in that still leaves a number of larger or smaller Jewish has been flowing Jerusalem' at each Passover. communities for whom Israel may turn out to be an for close on a Then there is the degree to which one's self- indispensible haven. Russia still teems with bigots century. We must perception is shaped by the perception of others. Can who blame the Jews for everything from the murder of all pray — and, in the Romanovs to the supremacy of the dollar; the our limited way, Ukraine is gripped by Demjanjuk fever; scapegoats act — that another are in demand across Eastern Europe; South Africa Middle East faces ethnic turmoil. miracle on a par If things take a drastic turn for the worse in those with the creation countries, or in volatile South America, even Jews of Israel in 1948 hitherto reluctant to leave will faute de mieux have to becomes reality. go to Israel. That miracle is peace - shalom — Following this line of reasoning we arrive at a two- which all Israehs track approach to Jewish identity. One track have invoked daily accommodates us who, living where we do, can afford throughout their to draw a distinction between ourselves and Israel. war-shadowed The other will comprise fellow Jews inhabiting lives, n unstable countries they might have to flee for the safe haven of Israel. Such an attitude is manifestly untenable. Even though the question 'Who is a Jew' Notice has not been conclusively settled, Jewry can be Part 14 of Ralph described without recourse to religious or ethnic Blumenau's criteria as a community of fate. And fate has decreed History series will that Israel, whose democratic framework still stands despite the battering of five wars in as many decades, appear in the The Avenue of the Sphinxes at Liaor Temple. (See Wayfarer in November issue. Pharaohland p. 3.) is integral to Jewish self-perception. D AJR INFORMATION OCTOBER 1993
ACJR Sth AGM Profile The Association of Children of Jewish Refugees (ACJR) will be holding its Sth Annual General Meeting at 7.30 p.m. on President Berta For the next four years she taught at the Saturday, 16 October at the Mapam Jewish school in Hamburg Carolinen premises, 37 Broadhurst Gardens, London Sadly, Berta Sterly passed atvay shortly Strasse. It was through this job that she was, NW6. The ACJR is a thriving, energetic after this profile ivent to press. It tvas subsequently, to find her way to Britain. group whose membership is constantly decided that it should stand as a tribute to Some of Berta's former students went to growing. Enquiries about the AGM, or the her and her life's tvork. boarding school in Kent. One of their ACJR in general, should be addressed to parents, whilst on a visit, suggested to the Box No. 1250 at the AJR offices from where Headmistress that she employ Berta as a it will be forwarded. D Domestic Science teacher. The Headmis tress agreed and, in 1938, Berta took up her new position. Luckily, her parents also Friends of Akim Concert managed to gain entry permits via the Since our own concert, planned for 17 Liberal Synagogue in St John's Wood and October, is unfortunately not taking place came to London in 1939. members may wish instead to attend the Berta taught in Kent until 1942, when she Musical Evening of the Friends of Akim moved to London and took up a position as which will take place on Sunday, 24 a cutter in Great Tichfield Street, at the October 1993 at the Theatre of University heart of the West End garment district. College School, Frognal, London NW3. Unfortunately, her mother died soon after A champagne reception will be held at wards so Berta moved to her father's home 6.30 p.m., rhe concert starts at 7.15 p.m. in Hampstead Garden Suburb and opened a Akim (The Israel Association for the Habi dressmaking workshop. Before long she tation of the Mentally Handicapped) is the Berta Sterly. I'hoto: Newman. was recommended to the Headmaster of the Israeli equivalent of our Royal Society for Hampstead Garden Suburb Institute and the Mentally Handicapped (Mencap). The very Monday night for the last 50 for the next 21 years taught classes in design proceeds of the concert will go towards years a group of people of refugee and dressmaking. background have joined together to supporting this worthy Israeli charity. E Helmut and Berta married in 1948 and listen to lectures and talks and discuss the The Programme includes performances were together for 31 years until Helmut's issues of the day with friends who share a by the British Tuba Quartet, Rhonda Kess, death in 1979. similar perspective on world events. They playing Mozart's piano sonata in F (K332), When Berta became President ofthe 1943 call themselves the 1943 Club. and a selection of songs by soprano Con Club it had around a hundred members. The Sterlys, Berta (nee Wagener) and stance Novice. Now numbers have dwindled to just over Helmut, joined the club in 1950, when Tickets, calling for a minimum donation 40. However, it is still a demanding Hans Jaeger was its Chairman. Berta of £12.50, can be obtained from Mr W. position. Until recently Berta would recruit became the club Secretary soon afterwards. Raychbart, Friends of Akim, 32 Raffles speakers by personally attending talks, Mr Jaeger died in 1975 and Dr Irving House, Brampton Grove, London lectures and other events all over London Zeligmann stepped into the breach as Hon. NW4 4AH. Telephone: 081-202 4022. D and approaching those whom she con Secretary. When he died in 1979 the sidered of interest to address the 1943 Club. members elected Mrs Sterly as the club's Nowadays she is becoming a little restricted President. She has held this position ever in her movements and so recruits speakers since. by word of mouth, on the recommendation PARTNER Berta Sterly was born in Hamburg, where of people she trusts. As can be seen by her father owned a printing shop. After glancing at the 1943 Club's calendar of In long established English Solicitors leaving school she trained as a social events, which appears regularly in AJR (bi-lingual German) would be happy worker. It seemed like a natural progression Information, she is still doing a fine job. to assist clients with English, German when, during the 1920s, she became a n M.N. and Austrian problems. Contact policewoman. In this period she gained a great deal of personal experience and came Henry Ebner into contact with the seamier side of life. 'It was often interesting', she says of this time, HILARY'S AGENCY Specialists in Long and Short-Term at 'but rarely pleasant'. However, the police Live-in Care force at that time offered little scope for Myers Ebner & Deaner RESPITE AND EMERGENCY CARE someone with an educational bent, so she CARE FOR THE ELDERLY 103 Shepherds Bush Road HOUSEKEEPERS left to continue her education, taking a London W6 7LP RECUPERATION CARE degree in Education and Textile Technology MATERNITY NURSES NANNIES AND MOTHER'S HELPS Telephone 071 602 4631 at Hamburg University in 1934. (Although EMERGENCY MOTHERS she was officially barred from higher educa Caring and Experienced Staff Available ALL LEGAL WORK UNDERTAKEN tion by Nazi legislation her tutor. Professor We will be happy to discuss your Flitner, made a special plea on her behalf as requirements an outstanding student.) PLEASE PHONE 081-559-1110 AJR INFORMATION OCTOBER 1993
A wayfarer in Pharaohland twenty-five, beat back an attempt to sell me one, too, ('you'd look even more handsome in it'), and allowed him to beg a pen (pronounced bin) off us. We felt we had a bargain. Back at the boat we found out that others had paid fifteen apiece. In Cairo our tour was put up in the Mena House Hotel, once a palace and the venue of Churchill's stay in Egypt during the war, and where Begin and Sadat made peace. Relaxing in the swimming pool there, idly floating on my back, I suddenly saw the three Giza Pyramids looming over me in the searing sun of which they were a sacred symbol. Was Giza Goshen? Did our ances tors labour on these proud Pharaonic mor tuary skyscrapers? It was like an historic vision. We walked there in the heat; they Columns in the form of papyrus, Luxor Temple. Photo: Private. had looked so near but were a respectable distance away and rhe Sphynx, signifying uth and I sit in an open kind of ancestors who presumably helped to build the Dreaming Pharaoh, perhaps him whom carriage; the dust whirls behind us; those palaces of death, the royal tombs Joseph knew, was even further away in the the great river flows beside us. We are known as Pyramids, and in between times desert. Alas, the tourist razzmatazz of camel R rides and googah stands is such a spoiler. dedicated walkers, but the heat has beaten those Hebrews probably bargained for poor us. No taxi came along, there was no public dear life. I vowed to come back, and did so with the transport, so we rode in state along the The Egyptians do not hold with the help of the Egyptian Culture Ministry, palm-fringed Luxor/Karnak 'corniche' to stories of forced labour and overseers' investigating Tutankhamun. Bizarrely, at the modern hotel in a small town where whips. They 'remember' that the building of his famous tomb I had a run-in with the 4,000 years are like yesterday. their super-State was a labour of love. The Germans. Accompanied by an Antiquities At the gates to the hotel's approach road truth probably lies half-way. It is now inspector, Ruth and I made our way past a the gharry stops. The driver, a cross believed that there were many volunteer long queue of middle-aged Wunderkinder. between a friendly Yasser Arafat and an craftsmen and artists involved in the crea Then I heard it. 'Typisch, ivasf Mal African, makes us understand that he can tion of the grandeur that was, but they ivieder vorne.' ('Typical, once again at the take us no further. Taxis yes, horses no. I almost certainly had labour conscription as head of the queue'). I don't know whether don't blame the management, not after we well. And slavery was known in all civilisa this was anti-Sem or anti-Brit. I let them had faced the spavined animal's rear end for tions throughout antiquity. have it: 'Das geht Sie Uberhaupt nichts an. half an hour. The man stretches out his About the bargaining: at first I stayed Ich arbeite hier'. ('None of your business; I hand. Ruth gives him three Egyptian aloof whereas Ruth gingerly tried her luck. work here.') It was the truth, if only pro- pounds (the then cost of a taxi). The hand It is like gambling ... it gets you eventually tem. They looked sheepish, but we only had remains extended. when everybody else is at it. After all, one eyes for the refulgent mural paintings of a 'Bucksheesh', he says. We place a further wants to take some of those wonderful ruler in the Judgment Hall of the Dead and pound. The hand is still outstretched. Buck (fake) papyruses home. But the prices they for the sarcophagus containing his earthly sheesh', he repeats. ask ... a hundred times the value. And you remains. We indicate he has had his bucksheesh. hear from fellow travellers how they The Greek super-tourist and Father of Bucksheesh for horse', he says. Even he screwed them down. History, Herodotus (c. 480^25 BC), wrote has to laugh. I give him another pound. The Let me tell you about Kom Ombo (pro 'Egypt is the gift of the Nile'. True, and now horse leaves a visiting card and we walk nounced Koom Oomboo). It is a place on the wonderful river is a gift to any visitor through the heat, still quite a distance, to the the way to Aswan and is overtopped by the who has eyes to see, and so are the world's hotel. ruins of a temple sacred to the crocodile god most comprehensive rehcs of a past which, That was in the halcyon days, only the Sobek. It contains numerous embalmed in a way, is ours as much as theirs. other day as it were, when Egypt was safe corpses of the reptiles. In the dusty street n John Rossall for all comers, a feast for the eyes and for below the temple the traders are dedicated •^he imagination. to selling Arab gowns. Pc or not pc, they The incredible monuments, the teeming look like embroidered nightshirts and all JACKMAN• daily life, the wonderful colours, we went to the fool Europeans were vying with each See them twice . . . once on a purely holiday other to buy them. SILVERMAN ^ile boat trip and once on our own, Ruth wanted one for an impending on COMMERCIAL PROPERTY CONSLLTANTS researching the short life and dramatic board party. 'A hundred', the trader said. death of a Pharaoh. I am ensconced in the 'Fifty', Ruth countered. 'Seventy', he came romance of history and I do not like back. I suddenly joined in. 'Ten', I offered. °3tgaining. In no time did I learn to bargain 'Crazy', he shouted, 'I've got to live; my ^ith the best (worst?) of them. Perhaps it is family'. We walked away, he came after us. 26 Conduit Street. London WIR 9T.A Telephone: 071 409 0771 Fax: 071 493 8017 ^•^ter all in the genes passed down from my 'Thirty then, just for you'. We bought at AJR INFORMATION OCTOBER 1993
Review
of British hospitality, tolerance and Australia on the Dunera, where they were Friendly enemies hberalism. robbed and maltreated by the crew. Eds. David Cesarani and Tony Kushner. THE The editors of the volume under review Finally, the editors say in their conclu INTERNMENT OF ALIENS IN 20th CENTURY find the above account excessively sanitized, sion, the anti-alienism in Britain which they BRITAIN, 111 pp. Frank Cass Publications, and in their own contributions they put the trace back to the 1860s is a continuing 1993. £25 hardback, £13.50 paperback. story of internment into a much more strand today, so that during the Gulf War hilst nobody has ever claimed sinister setting. They regard anti-alienism the same injustices were perpetrated by the that the internment of Jewish not as a peripheral but as a central feature of indiscriminate internment of 176 Iraqis and Wrefugees in May and June of British politics ever since the 1860s. Land other Arabs, some of whom were unpoliti 1940 was anything other than a disturbing marks are the Aliens' Act of 1905; the cal or even opposed to Saddam Hussein. and upsetting experience, most of the inter indiscriminate internment or deportation of In 1960 AJR Information published a nees have made fairly light of it after (and Germans and Austrians during the First collection of reminiscences by internees that often even during) the event. True, it was World War; the deportation of 26,000 of were on the whole light-hearted and lacking shocking and alarming that, having escaped them after the war; and the exclusion in anger or bitterness. But injustices, mud from Nazi persecution, refugees were provisions ofthe Aliens Act of 1919 and the dles, violation of civil rights, and undemo rounded up and interned because it was felt Aliens Order of 1920. Only after the cratic procedures certainly did take place, that they might be Nazi spies or sympath Kristallnacht were Jewish refugees more and these must be protested. And the editors izers; true, they were separated from their freely admitted, so that by the outbreak of are right when they say that the story of the families and for the first few weeks could the Second World War Britain had admitted internments should not be judged by com not even communicate with them; true, the some 55,000 Jewish and several thousand parison with the horrors of concentration loss of liberty is always an indignity. non-Jewish refugees. camps, but by comparison with what we have a right to expect from a country which But once the shock and distress had worn 27,000 aliens were interned during the claims to protect civil liberties. off, many internees were really quite 'under Second World War. They were not, of standing': under the stress of the Blitzkrieg course, all refugees: they included residents And yet it seems to this reviewer that across the Channel, the government could from Germany and Austria who were not there is something awry when the book take no risks with possible Fifth Colum refugees, and also about 4,200 Italians. The makes illiberalism and injustice so much nists; the regime in most of the camps was most 'dangerous' (Category A) Italians and more central than the idea, conveyed by so really quite benign; Nazis and anti-Nazis Germans were to be deported to Australia many Jewish ex-internees, that in the end were, for the most part, quickly segregated; on the Arandora Star; in the event several they were more impressed by the liberalism and the internees were soon able to organize Category B (doubtful) and even Category C and fairness which ended their ordeal. This a lively social and cultural life for them (harmless) detainees were included. When, reviewer is inclined to align himself with the selves. Besides, the whole experience did not in July 1940, the Arandora Star was torpe quotation in the book from Lord Beloff: last long. Public opinion on the whole doed by the Germans, 175 of the 479 'The reaction of the refugees themselves became uneasy at the injustice of interning Germans and 486 out of the 734 Italians proved considerably more understanding 'friendly enemy aliens', and Members of were drowned. The survivors were rescued than that of the historians who were not Parliament made representations on their by a Canadian destroyer and brought back even born at that time, or were infants then'. behalf. Tribunals were soon set up to look to Britain, only to be reembarked for D Ralph Blumenau into each case and worked with exemplary fairness. Already by the autumn of 1940 releases began and the process was soon completed. 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McKellan had a point: as outsiders Jews Genet) and belles-lettres (Maugham, Pink triangle, yellow and gays share a history of ostracism and - Forster, Proust, Gide). Marcel Proust was, star lesser or greater — persecution. On the other of course, both Jewish and gay, as were hand, they are separated by an unbridgeable Gertrude Stein and Egon Friedell. l^eflections on Judaism and homosexuality gulf in their attitude to human procreation. If the ex-Chief Rabbi's adherence to While homosexuals cheerfully embrace Leviticus 20.13 'Thou shalt not suffer a man her a protracted debate about barrenness, Judaism puts such a premium to lie with mankind as with womankind ... whether homosexuality is the on fruitfulness that the celibacy of Catholic it is an abomination' leads him to advocate A product of environment or heredity, priests, Greek-Orthodox monks or Hindu engineering to 'breed out' the so-called gay nurture or nature, the discovery of a 'gay swamis is totally alien to its character. gene, he runs the risk of depriving the world gene' seems to have tilted the scale decis There is also a perception in some minds of future Leonardos. When gay activists, for ively towards the latter. Within days of the that, in consequence of their experience of their part, dub Nazi gas chambers an announcement of this discovery Lord victimisation, both Jews and gays are par 'earlier, cruder example of genetic engineer Jakobovits, the ex-Chief Rabbi, restated the ticularly sensitive and artistic. If Jewish ing' [Guardian, 27 July 1993) they drain Orthodox Jewish position on homo sensitivity has been somewhat exaggerated words of their true meaning. For victims of sexuality by likening it to kleptomania, — thugs like KGB chief Yagoda and assorted real or alleged homophobia to invoke the adultery and murder. (This catalogue of US gangsters spring to mind — homosexuals spectre of Auschwitz in this self-dramatising black sins, incidentally, shows Orthodox have figured among history's malefactors manner is just another nauseous example of opinion to be widely at variance with from Ivan the Terrible's oprichniki through a widespread contemporary syndrome contemporary social mores: while murder Frederick the Great and Edgar Hoover to Robert Hughes has dubbed 'the culture of and kleptomania — pace Lady Barnett's sad Captain Rohm and the SA top brass. complaint'. When it came to the crunch end — are still abhorred, adultery merely It is, nonetheless, true that both Jews and Jews were existential Nazi victims - while prompts some mild tut-tutting nowadays.) gays have enriched human culture to an 'air gays have to do to take the wind out of Lord Jakobovits's statement elicited a extent out of all proportion to their the sails of homophobes is beget children (as pained response from Ian McKellan who numbers. Jews gave the world the modern James I of England, Louis XIII of France couched his message as 'pink triangle to trinity Marx-Freud-Einstein and a stagger and Oscar Wilde actually did). yellow star'. In other words the country's ing number of Nobel Prize winners; homo n R.G. leading homosexual intimated to its leading sexuals have been prominent in art (Leo Jew that since both groups had endured nardo, Michelangelo, Caravaggio) music Nazi terror he ought to have expressed (Tschaikovski, Britten, Tippett) drama solidarity instead of condemnation. (Coward, Rattigan, Tennessee Williams, FOR BETTER OR FOR WORSE ...a lewish view il«iSiaiMfflfflSi#^.i«{i«iS,iliglJiH«l*feSii^^ .j4.s,i.j;;i*%«^iMi
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LANDAU, BAKER & CO GERMAN BOOKS Chartered Accountants We are always buying: Registered Auditors Books, Autographs, Judaica Albany House, 324/326 Regent Street, Please contact London W1R5AA Antiquariat Metropolis Company Audits, Individuals and Partnership Accounts and Taxation Leerbachstr. 85 Wages; Acquisitions Systems and other specialist work W-6000 Frankfurt a/M Initial free consultation. Competitive Fees. Tel: 0104969559451 Telephone: 071 636 2727 Fax: 071 436 0727 REGULAR VISITS TO LONDON ^^^^^S^IIf AJR INFORMATION OCTOBER 1993 A child of our time 2^^te^j£^fe was born in January 1945 in the Buda pest ghetto in a celUar so dark that my ANTON RAPHAEL MENGS BOUQUET I mother could not see the sex of her child, Sir — Neither the sumptuous catalogue, nor Sir - May I congratulate you on the form and had to use her sense of touch to find out. any other material available at Kenwood and content of AJR Information? Not only When she did, she named me Katyi in these days, mention the fact that Anton is it an excellent journalistic effort - it is also tribute to the advancing Russians. Bombs Raphael Mengs, whose pictures are at a most valuable source of knowledge for were raining down on the city, but to the present shown in a special exhibition there, Jewish people. surviving Jews this precipitation spelt a new was Jewish. I wonder why, because his Westminster Gardens Dr Andrew Short beginning. Jewishness forms an integral part of his and Marsham Street, SWl My mother had fled to Hungary from his equally interesting father's amazing life Slovakia and for years fought to avoid stories. MEMORIES detection by the fascist authorities. Soon after she married, the Germans marched in Lawrence Drive, Bedrich Rohan Sir — I would like to hear from former pupils and the Hungarians transferred all Jewish Ickenham, Middx. at the Jewish School in the Klopstock army conscripts, including my father, to Strasse, Berlin, who remember a song start forced labour camps. My mother's papers TERMINOLOGICAL INEXACTITUDE ing 'Ja, das ist das Leben in der Penneljeden were discovered as forgeries, and she was Morgen gibt es Krach . . . Sir — I really must take Mr Ralph Blumenau thrown into gaol. Classified as an 'intellec to task. To call the Jews - whoever they are Our classroom was in the basement. tual criminal', she spent most of her preg — a nation or even a race, is pure Nazi-style The Paddocks L Hacker (nee Eick) nancy there - helped by one particular racism. The Jews as a nation exist only as Wembley Park, Middx woman, an accessory to murder and later Israelis, and as a race only in the diseased hanged. My father, too, had several close minds of race theories. THE LANGUAGE OF PC brushes with death: first, in the shape of the No 'race' having lived in Europe through Sir — English dictionaries may no longer Hungarians from whom he escaped twice the last 2,000 years can call itself pure. In contain 'to jew'; the prejudice, however, (taking several fellow Jews with him), then modern Europe Jews legally cannot be persists. Michael Argyle thus sums up his the Germans whom he next encountered, anything else than members of the Mosaic ode on benevolence (oddly reminiscent of and finally the Russians who took him to be religous community, a denomination on a strength through joy) Cooperation: The a njemetzki offisir. Having at last accepted par with Catholics, Protestants, Mohamme Basis of Sociability (1991, Routledge, p. that my father was a Jew, one Russian dans, Hindus etc. 248): 'Research on helping behaviour by nonetheless led him away at gun point, only It follows that the terms self-hating Jew social psychologists is more in line with it transpired, to heap on him food and or — as you called Karl Marx — baptised Jew Christian ethics than with the Jewish provisions. What has always struck me are contraditions in term. Anyone leaving approach of tit-for-tat'. about my parents' story was not just their the Jewish religion is no longer a Jew, In a recent searching paper on the mean great good fortune but how hard they had whatever else he might become afterwards. ing of biblical precepts for secular morality, to work for it. In those terrible days, one, Connaught Avenue E. H. Kenneth Oswald Hanfling [Philosophy, April 1993) two or even three lucky breaks were not Grimsby also regards the ethics of Jesus as unproble- enough; you had to get every subsequent matical, if Utopian; not once does it occur to move right as well. Thus it was that all my FRIENDLY FIRE CASUALTY him that Jews, Jewish Bibles and Jewish grandparents perished in Auschwitz - my Sir - Apropos of 'execrable taste' and exegesis exist and that secular morality is maternal grandmother betrayed, probably 'deplorable lack of sensitivity': in a recent not constrained by Christian bigotry. by the Hausmeisterin, after a successful programme about Jews on TV a co-religio For a predominantly Christian and post- spell of hiding. nist, deploring the wastage of Jews from the Christian culture to jew and not to jew After the war my father rebuilt his family community by lapsing or intermarriage, remain universal archetypes. This antisemi business manufacturing tapestries and other likened this loss to 'continuing Hitler's tism is aided and abetted by Jewish roman items of embroidery with the blessing of the work for him'. Ouergh! tics who are fascinated by Jesus as a Jew. authorities who were already plotting the Romilly Street, Peter Zander St. Swithun Street, Gertrud Walton communist takeover and nationalisation. London Wl Winchester This was preceded by a degermanisation programme which entailed changing all BRICKBAT German family names. The more assimi Sir - 'Whoppers out of Wapping' is yet BELSIZE SQUARE SYNAGOGUE lated the Jews, the more Magyar the names another example of the violent (this time 51 Belsize Square, London, N.W.S they adopted. But a Hungarian name did anonymous) anti-German contributions not appeal much to my father, remembering Our communal hall is available appearing regularly in your paper. that at the beginning ofthe century Hungar for cultural ians had beaten his uncle to death while he Incidentally in the article the name and social functions. Honecker is misspelt twice! How one had been travelling on a train, indulging his For details apply to: hobby of writing Hungarian verse. My yearns for the excellent magazine of the Secretary, Synagogue Office. Rosenstock era. father therefore changed his name from Be/size Lane Edwin Scott Tel: 071-794 3949 Goldberger to Gordon - whether from London NW3 Zionist sympathies (inspired by A. D. Gor- AJR INFORMATION OCTOBER 1993 don) or from Anglophilia, both of which he friends' homes too. Most of my parents' was so persecuted in the nearby Albertgasse had in abundance, I am not sure. friends were fellow immigrants from gymnasium by both staff and schoolmates No-one could have had a happier child Hungary and so they never forgot the art of that he had to change schools. In our school, hood than my younger sister and I had in mulatieren - in the blackout during the Suez too, many of the pupils had Nazi parents; Budapest - nor a more comfortable one. At campaign. Finally, naive as it may sound one girl's uncle, I remember, dared not a Jewish nursery school we learned about today, there were the joys of Zionism. These return from Egypt at all. The History the holidays and I recall my father placing a were early days and the creation of the state teacher, with a half-Jewish brother-in-law, Chanukia in the window of our city home — was celebrated daily in song and dance both did her best to raise the issue of the something which would be impossible a few at school and by the population at large. Holocaust but her words, for the most part, years later. With hindsight I can think of Nonetheless in 1955, when he lost even either fell on deaf ears or elicited some only one sinister aspect of our young lives in his menial job and by now, 54 years old, alarming responses. When I tried to reason Budapest: at some point our teachers must had little prospect of finding another, and with one of the best pupils, a girl from have become too frightened not to instruct with credit exhausted at the makolet, my Carinthia, she told me without a hint of us in the pervading doctrine because I seem father felt he had to concede defeat. He regret 'you are wasting your breath, anti to remember running like all the other therefore returned to the only other country semitism is in our blood.' I suppose this is a children to the poster of 'uncle Stalin', where we had friends and relatives — variation on the Austrian theme mir san mir visible all over the city, to kiss it. Austria. These same relatives had met our (we are who we are). But it was at university In January 1951 we were finally permit train from Budapest in 1951 and had urged that I heard the most public antisemitic ted to emigrate to Israel. Having confiscated us to get off in Vienna and join them. But in remarks, made by the Professor of old my father's business, the Communists had those days my parents would not hear of the German law, a Catholic priest, to an no further use for bourgeois like us and idea. In 1958 my mother, sister and I arrived audience of about one thousand in the Were also probably glad to get rid of Jews. in Vienna and were beside ourselves with auditorium Maximum. Sneering at Jewish Besides, the Soviets had voted for the joy at being reunited with our father after a scholarship he spoke as if it were still 1944, creation of Israel. At the Hungarian border three-year separation. But my mother was not 1964. the guards stripped us and took everything beside herself for another reason: she had My parents did everything to make our - even our children's books. Once on board caught sight of Austrian soldiers in their adolescence in Vienna happy. My mother the 'Galila' my father took time to tell us the familiar uniforms. Her reaction was to took us to the opera, plays, concerts, truth about 'uncle Stalin' and to explain prove justified because while antisemitism museums and exhibitions. My father took about the Jewish state where we need not was no longer politically correct we were to us hiking and skiing. We also went on rear men in uniform as they were our encounter it everywhere. When my mother, holidays throughout this scenic country, friends. No sooner did we arrive in Jerusa- her German still impeccable after 20 years, often with other Jewish families. On week 'cm than further explanations were started a job at the University of Vienna days my sister and I went swimming in the required, this time about men wearing furry teaching German to foreigners, her boss, a Dianabad in winter and the Gansehiiufl in olack hats and coats, and ringlets on their convert, advised her under no circum summer with friends from Hakoah and faces. stances to reveal her religion to anyone. My other Jewish clubs, most of whose members father, too, learnt the hard way not to We settled in Tel Aviv - or, as one of my were recent arrivals from Hungary; for mention his background to his business parents' friends used to call it, 'Tel am W'. cultural films we frequented Urania, and to associates. Once when he challenged an These were hard times in Israel. Olim were acquire dancing skills we enrolled at Willi antisemite with declaration of his own arriving in their hundreds of thousands and Elmaier's. But the fact remained that we Jewishness he was told 'Don't try to kid me, there was neither work nor accommodation were living in a country where even Jews I can smell them a mile off!' tor them. The welfare state was still a long were antisemitic. Many friends and *ay off; the first wave of immigrants for My sister and I were relatively sheltered acquaintences would not tell their own ^hom Israel was in a postion to provide was because the girls' gymnasium in Josephstadt children that they were Jewish and most ^he one to arrive after the Hungarian where we lived had a Headmistress and issues of the Gemeinde contained notices Uprising. Expert though he was in his field, another teacher with sufficient Jewish back listing persons who had officially left the '^y father was denied a job at the Arts and ground to have had to spend the war years Jewish community. I would have had to do Crafts Co-operative, run in those days by abroad. Even so I was harassed by other likewise, my Headmistress told me, when I j-'ayan's wife, because he lacked the all- teachers, at least one of whom, my form suggested to her that my religion was a important protekzia. So my mother worked teacher for a while, was known to have been private matter and should be left off my ^ ten to twelve hour day preparing high- an active Nazi party member. Things could Matura Zeugnis ('A' level certificate). school children for their English matricula have been worse though. Our doctor's son All this made it a foregone conclusion tion. We shared a small rented flat with that both my sister and I would leave tiother family and, because my mother Vienna: in fact, we both married English flight at home, there was no room for us men. I find England both weird and . "ildren. There was no choice but to put us id PHYSIOTHERAPY wonderful. It really has an island culture, ^to a children's home even though we were different from that of any other country I °% six and seven at the time. It had a Chartered (German) Physiotherapist is have lived in. It is also the most civilised. If 1 ^dicated staff but many violent and dis- available for domiciliary work. Exper ienced in orthopaedic treatment for the do feel a debt of gratitude to Austria it is for . toed children. However, there were good elderly, post operative rehabilitation. the first-class education which I received •^es as well. In the summer holidays we Lymphatic drainage, therapeutic massage, there. Perhaps it is not too ironic, then, that iild not get enough of the beach and in and treatment for stroke patients. Andrea I teach German language and literature for a Ose days in Tel Aviv we waded through Langfritz, 071 289 7716 living. ^^^ to reach not just the sea but our D £. K. Mclean AJR INFORMATION OCTOBER 1993 With best wishes from the Ackerman Group Pic Greetings Best wishes and great success, Family Anderman ur members will be aware that Best wishes, Annely Juda Fine Art, 23 Dering this year's Annual Charity Street, London WIR 9AA OConcert has had to be cancelled Best wishes for continued success, Madeleine due to unforeseen difficulties. and Henry Brook Obviously, this also means the Greetings from Gertrude Burns cancellation of the Souvenir Concert Brochure. However, advertisers who Wishing the AjR every success, Tony Burstein intended to take space in the brochure (Car Hire) have very kindly agreed to allow their With best wishes, from Diana and Tony Dobrin messages to appear in this issue of AJR Wishing the AjR all possible success, Marion and Information. Our thanks go to all those Fred Durst who have refused to let an ill wind chill their warm generosity. D Edion Machinery Ltd wish everyone all the best Best wishes from Frank and Lilo Folk BLICK ROTHENBERG ( 1 lAKTliKlil)A( ( ()l XTAXTS Pafra Wish the AJR every success 12 YORK GATE LONDON NWl 405 FACSIMILE: 071-<)35 6852 TELEX: 2'>8<)8: TELEPHONE: 071-486 0111 synthetic adhesives Pafra Limited adhesive applicators Bentalls Basildon biopreservation Essex SS14 3BU I AJR INFORMATION OCTOBER 1993 Best wishes from Daniel, johnathon, Lawrence, Best wishes from all the Lisbonas of Aldoda Ltd, Adam, Mark, Allisa and Gaby Field London NW3 We wish all ofAjR's activities every success, Best wishes to AjR for a successful future from Harry Hannah and Walter Goldsmith and Zelda Lowit R. Holt & Co. Ltd, 98 Hatton Garden, London Ruth and Ludwig Mandel wish the AjR every success Best wishes from Arnold Harwell and family Markson Pianos send good wishes for the future Greetings from Interphone Security Group Pic, Maurice and Anne Newman and boys David and Sales, installation, maintenance and rental of door johnny wish the AjR all the best entry security systems and warden-call systems. Phone: 081-208 2311. Fax: 081-208 0747 We are proud to be associated with such a superb organisation, David Rosenfelder (Rosenfelder Edgar tvens and family wish the AjR every success Associates) Jacob Charitable Trust With the compliments of Team Valley Brush Co. Ltd, With our best wishes for future success, Whickham Industrial Estate, Newcastle upon Tyne, Lys and Henry Kenley NEt6 3BY Jackie and Brenda Lipowicz wish you every success Best wishes from Delia and Fred Worms P.F.E. Express Limited AND HERMANS The Costumiers to the Entertainment Industry APPROVAL CERTIFICATE No 911934 are delighted to be associated with such a worth-while cause Wish the AJR every International Freight Forwarders JAPAN ' KOREA - TAIWAN - HONG KONG - success INDONESIA ~ SINGAPORE - MALA YSIA - THAILAND - INDIA - SRI LANKA - PHILIPPINES MAURITIUS HaadOmct FvHKStow* Office Airport Otfice 9 Kendsl Court 31J Trelann^ House UniT 24 I Hurricane Way Tt>e Dock Burlding 52t Wickfora London HeathrOMr Airport Essex SS 11 8YB Suffolk IPt 1 8TU Hounslow. Middx TW6 3QT Tel 0268 561425 Tel 0394-675349 Tel 087 759-2500 fax 0268561446 Fax 0394-673127 Fax 081-759-9533 T!x 995521 I !•) Sh.itte4-iin .AvcniK-. L.«i,tm VICJH ! s the Italian Tenor delivered a soul ful rendition of the Neapolitan song ACore n' 'grata the whole audience was enraptured. A frail lady with a zimmer- frame produced an inhaler from her hand bag and took a series of deep breaths. When the song came to an end the rest of the audience clapped and cheered enthusiasti cally while she turned to me and said: 'That was lovely, I'd take him home with me if I could'. The Tenor's name is Domenico Colonna. He and three of his fellow students from t-rom the left: Devon Harrison, Vasiliki Ukans and Gilmour MacLeod. Far right: Domenico Colonna. Photos: Newman. Trinity College of Music make up the Trinity Quartet who performed at the Paul extraordinarily warm welcome. Devon also received accolades. The accompanyist, Balint AJR Day Centre on 18 August. Day Anthony Harrison, a Baritone who had the Gilmour MacLeod, earned great praise for Centre audiences are used to high quality hall ringing with excerpts from Schubert, his own arrangements of two Gershwin entertainment, but this quartet received an and Vasiliki Fikaris, the group's soprano, classics, including a dreamy version of I'm in the mood for love. Charting the course After the hour long show the whole Tcolders Green t audience was overwhelmed and many came 'backstage' to offer their personal thanks to lthough those members who have these young musicians for a wonderful already visited the AJR's new offices performance. As another Day Centre Ain Frognal will be aware that finding member put it: 'A really good show can take them isn't that difficult — once you know years off you. I feel like dancing now'. the way — there have been a number of D A1.N. enquiries which suggest that there is still an element of confusion about our exact whereabouts. In order to clarify this situa tion we are publishing our map of the area again. In addition we are reprinting the written directions: Where Frognal meets Finchley Road AJR MEALS ON WHEELS there is a Lloyd's bank. On the opposite A wide variety of high quality l 10 AJR INFORMATION OCTOBER 1993 AJR Social Services Update: The acquisdon of visas for travelling ority who have assured us that Life Certifi into other countries is dependent on the cates may be signed at any local police I. DUAL NATIONALITY country being visited and it is advisable station. The following is an extract from a ollowing the item 'Special Report — to contact the authorities of the country letter we received from the Association of Pension News', in the June issue of our concerned to determine whether visas Chief Police Officers: Fjournal, some members telephoned to will be required . . .' '... I have now written to my colleague ask what would be the effect if one made the We regret we are unable to give further Chief Constables reminding them that, change from British Nationality to British/ advice on the matter of dual nationality — if during a meeting of the ACPO General German nationality. Accordingly our Social you have any inquiries you may write direct Purposes Committee, the matter of Services Department wrote to the Home to the Home Office at: police officers signing Certificates of Office for advice and they replied as The Home Office, Immigration and Life was discussed and it was agreed to follows: Nationality Department, Nationality Div endorse the provision of this facility ... '. . . Under the generally accepted ision, 3rd Floor, India Buildings, Water We suggest that you take a copy of this 'Master Nationality Rule' when a dual Street, Liverpool L2 OQN D article with you when visiting a police citizen is in one of the countries whose station to have your Life Certificate signed, citizenship he possesses, the authorities in case of a refusal. However, if there are of that countr\- have the right to treat 2. LEBENSBESCHEINIGUNG/ any further problems please telephone AJR him as if he possessed only the citizen BESTATIGUNG (Life Certificate) Social Services and we will take up the ship of that country, and the represen he Majority of our members who matter with the appropriate authority. D tative of the other country whose citi receive a pension from Germany or zenship he possesses will be unable to Austria have been in the habit of AJR Social Services Updates appear on an afford him any assistance or protection T having their Life Certificate certified at the ad hoc basis. If you require further infor against those authorities. local police station. However, we have mation on any ofthe subjects raised, or on British citizenship is not, therefore, lost recently had complaints that some police any other matter relating to this field, AJR on the acquisition of another officers have refused to do so. We have Social Service department can be contacted citizenship. taken up this matter with the police auth on 071-431 6161. PAUL BALINT AJR Monday 11 A Musical Trio - Sandra Simday 24 A Selection of Musical Anders & Peter Tarl Delicacies from the DAY CENTRE accompanied by Giles Classics 8c Beyond - Turner (Piano) Malcolm Miller & Friends 15 Cleve Road, London NW6 3RL Tuesday 12 The Two R'S Cabaret - Monday 25 A Party Afternoon with Tel. 071 328 0208 Richard Moody (Tenor) Dorothy Sayers (Piano 8c accompanied by Robert Accordion) Douglas (Piano) Tuesday 26 Melody Hour - David Open Tuesday and Thursday 9.30 a.m.- Wednesday 13 European Songtime - Jedwab (Tenor) & Avri) 7 p.m., Monday and Wednesday 9.30 a.m.- Ariane Prussner (Soprano) Kaye (Soprano) 3.30 p.m., Sunday 2 p.m.-7 p.m. accompanied by Elizabeth accompanied by Piano Upchurch (Piano) Wednesday 27 'Sang und Klang" - Angela 'Chic-To-Chic' - Mixed Morning Activities - Bridge, kalookie, Thursday 14 & Nicholas Arratoon Programme of Light scrabble, chess, etc., keep fit, discussion accompanied by Maurice Operetta & Musical - group, choir {Mondays), art class {Tuesdays Hermele (Piano) Bahiya Callan (Soprano) & and Thursdays). Thursday 28 Music for a While - John Richard Moody (Tenor) Freeman (Bass) & Helen accompanied by Gael Ford Blake (Soprano) with Piano (Piano) Aftemoon entertainment — accompaniment Sunday 17 One-Plus-Two presents Sunday 31 East Meets West in Music OCTOBER Singalongs for You - - Naoko Matsubara & Sunday 3 Autumn Serenade — Jane Bill Moses (Keyboard) Suzuyo Kuriyama (Piano) Faulkner (Violin) Monday 18 DUO-KINNOR Entertain accompanied by Geoffrey with a Pot-Pourri of Music Whirworth (Piano) - Madeleine Whitelaw Monday 4 A Little Light Music - (Piano) & David NOVEMBER Victoria Cooper (Soprano) Richmond (Piano) Monday 1 Musical Miscellany - jane accompanied by Sruart Tuesday 19 Share A Tune — Judy Rosenberg accompanied by Wild (Piano) Magnus & Gillian Sonin Annerte Saville (Piano &c Tuesday 5 'Just When You Thought It (Piano Duo) Accordion) Was Safe To Sign Your Wednesday 20 Opera, Pops Sc Piano Tuesday 2 A Winter Recital for Cello Name' — Alan Conway Lollipops - John Freeman 8c Piano - Richard (Graphologist) (Bass) accompanied by Jenkinson Wednesday 6 Students from the Trinit>' Robert Schuck (Piano) Wednesday 3 French Soprano Florence College of Music Entertain Thursday 21 The Ellerdale Trio - Sarah Daguerre Entertains with Thursday 7 CLOSED Down (Piano), Melanie Piano Accompaniment by Sunday 10 The Sugarinanos - Jane Woodcock (Cello) & William Hancox Marciano & Roberta Martin Smith Thursday 4 The Trinity College of Sugarman (Violin) Music Entertains II AJR INFORMATION OCTOBER 1993 FAMILY EVENTS CLASSIFIED Miscellaneous Barmitzvah Compan ion/Carers Electrician City and Guilds quali Rosenthal On Saturday, 2 Experienced carer available, also fied. All domestic work undertaken SPECIAL LECTURE October Edward Rosenthal, elder during unsociable hours, to look Y. Steinreich. Tel: 081-455 5262. grandson of Mr and Mrs Smirh of after elderly and disabled relatives. Manicure and pedicure in the com Lord Bullock will speak on Kingsbury. References available. Modest rates. fort of your own home. Telephone: Deaths Tel.: 081-209 1224. 081-455 7582. Frank James Frank (Julius Frank AJR meals-on-wheels services needs Hitler and the Holocaust volunteer escorts to carry meals For quality curtains and blinds at furter), born 4 February, 1911 in realistic prices. Ring for free home Vienna, died 25 August, 1993 in from our van to clients. Would suit fit, patient and tolerant people. estimate - B. Gould 071-289 0246 7.30 p.m. on Thursday 14 October, 1993 London after a long illness very or 081-958 7436. at Logan Hail, 20 Bedford Way, WCI. bravely borne. He will be sadly Please ring Ruth Finestone on 071- missed and always remembered for 328 0208. Lady Architectural Consultant can Tickets £2.50 at door. Reservations: his wonderful friendship and kind Live-in companion required for advise you on improving any part of Yad Vaihem Charitable Trust, 4th floor elderly orthodox Jewish gentleman your home — reasonable rates. Tel: Woburn House, Tavistock Square, ness by his old friends Mia Gutten- London WCI OEP. stein and Herta Taylor. - own room and facilities - West 071-586 6323. Hampstead. Telephone: 071-607 Ramsay Margaret Ramsay, nee Retired Businessman fit and active, Held, beloved wife of the late Rudi 2948. Responsible, sympathetic lady will with car, seeks part-time work. 081- Ramsay, died on September 15, 883 7979. 1993, aged 91. Deeply mourned by 'Granny-sit', evenings and week The AJR does not accept her daughter Ellen Ehrlich and ends or other. Telephone: 071-372 Keilkissen gesucht. New or second responsibility for the family and her many friends in 5590 after 7.00 p.m. ask for ref: hand. Angebot erbeten. Tel: 071- A.M.O. 435 0231. standard of service Manchester. rendered by advertisers. Selo Walter Selo died peacefully one week before his 73rd birthday. He is mourned by his wife, two sons IRENE FASHIONS and their families, his sister and formerly of Swiss Cottage. ADVERTISEMENT RATES other relations in America and his Sizes 10 to 50 hips FAMILY EVENTS good friends. NEW AUTUMN AND WINTER COLLECTION OF First 15 words free of charge, £2.00 per 5 words thereafter. Sterly Berta Sterly (nee Wagener) CONTINENTAL AND ENGUSH FASHIONS born in Hamburg, February 1904, Everything to appeal to the 'woman of taste' at affordable prices CLASSIFIED died peacefully in London August £2.00 per five words. 1993, aged 89. She will always be For an early appointment kindly ring before I I a.m. or after 7 p.m. 081-346 9057. remembered by her sister Heddy, BOX NUMBERS family and friends. £3.00 extra. DISPLAY, SEARCH NOTICES COULD YOU BE ANTHONY J. NEWTON per single column inch 16 ems (3 columns per page) £8.00 A BEFRIENDER? 12 ems (4 columns per page) £7.00 1. AJR members who are &C0 Isolated and alone would appreciate visitors. SOLICITORS R.&G. 2. Our meals-on-wheels service 22 Fitzjohns Avenue, Hampstead, NWS 5NB needs escorts to deliver meals (ELECTRICAL INSTALLATIONS) from the van to members. LTD. Volunteers need to be fit and ALL LEGAL WORK UNDERTAKEN patient! 199b Belsize Road, NW6 3. Paul Balint AJR Day Centre Telephone: 071 435 5351/071 794 9696 would like more helpers on 624 2646/328 2646 Tuesdays and Thursdays 3.30 to 7.00 pm. Enquiries and Members: E.C.A. information about these voluntary SHELTERED FLAT N.I.C.E.LC. jobs from Laura Howe, AJR BELSIZE SQUARE offices on: 071-431 6161, Leo Baecl( IHousing Association Tuesday to Friday. APARTMENTS at 11 Fitzjohns Avenue NWS, near 24 BELSIZE SQUARE, N.W.3 Swiss Cottage. ALTERATIONS Tel: 071-794 4307 or 071-435 2557 OF ANY KIND TO Bed-sitting room, kitchenette, FOR FAST EFFICIENT FRIDGE LADIES' FASHIONS bathroom, entrance hall, resident & FREEZER REPAIRS I also design and make MODERN SELF-CATERING HOLIDAY warden. 7-day service ROOMS, RESIDENT HOUSEKEEPER children's clothes All parts guaranteed MODERATE TERMS. Contact Mr A. Flynn: 081-958 NEAR SWISS COTTAGE STATION 5678 West Hampstead area J. B. Services (Hon. Administrator/Treasurer) 071-328 6571 Tel. 081-202 4248 until 9 pm SWITCH ON TORRINGTON HOMES AUDLEY ELECTRICS DAWSON HOUSE HOTEL MRS. PRINGSHEIM, S.R.N., REST HOME MATRON Rewires and all household For Elderly, Retired and Convalescent (Hendon) • Free Street Parking in front of the Hotel electrical work. • Full Central Heating • Free Laundry (Licensed by Borough of Barnet} for Elderly Retired Gentlefolk ' Single and Double Rooms. PHONE PAUL: 081-200 3518 • Free Dutch-Style Continental Breakfast Single and Double Rooms with wash * H/C Basins and CH in all rooms. basins and central heating. TV lounge * Gardens, TV and reading rooms. C. H. WILSON 72 CANFIELO GARDENS * Nurse on duty 24 hours. and dining-room overlooking lovely * Long and sfiort term, including trial garden. Carpenter Near Underground Sta. Finchley Rd, period if required. 24-hour care—long and short term. Painter and Decorator From £250 per week French Polisher Licensed by the Borough of Barnet LONDON, N.W.6 081-445 1244 Office hours Antique Furniture Repaired Enquiries 081-202 2773/8967 Tel: 071-624 0079 081-455 1335 other times Tel: 081-452 8324 39 Torrington Park, N.12 Car: 0831 103707 12 AJR INFORMATION OCTOBER 1993 Alice Schwab All the works on display will be for sale. The Tate Gallery, as is well-known, is SB's Column desperately short of space and, until a major solution can be found, they have adopted a ungary between the wars. The pohcy of rotating their exhibits in order to cultural vitality of this relatively show more of their vast collection. Now Hsmall country made a particular they have given rooms of their own to two impact on German-speaking regions some ur members will be pleased to know artists, David Bomberg and Edward Wads- 60 years ago when many representatives of that Susan Lackner, the sculptress, worth. They were fellow students at the Hungaro-Judaica achieved international Oparticipated in the 5 Women Artists Slade, but Bomberg refused to join Wads- renown. It was the time when the dramatic Plus exhibition at the Heifer Gallery (until worth's Vorticist movement although he works of Molnar, Lengyel and Herczeg 30 September). One of her exhibits was a was clearly influenced in his early work by swept the stage, when Koermendi and dehghtful wooden carving of a weasel. the abstraction of the machine age. After the Karinthy wrote their bestsellers, when The 318th exhibition of watercolours by war Bomberg turned to landscape, first to young Georg Solti made his debut in the Royal Watercolour Society is at the Palestine and then to the Andalusian town Budapest and operetta composers Emmer Bankside Galler)- (until 24 October). Infor of Ronda and its gorge. The exhibition of ich Kalman and Paul Abraham were the mal tours of the exhibition are being held on Bomberg's work in Room 16 (until 6 most popular men in that field. Singers 5, 12 and 19 October, starting at 1 pm. December) is really impressive, as is that of Gitta Alpar and Martha Eggerth had their The National Gallery has received a Wadsworth in Room 19 (until 3 January). first successes, Rosi Barszony danced, and magnificent donation from the Dr Mor Reno Wideson, now aged 70, lives in film actors Szoke Szakal, Ernst Verebes timer and Theresa Sackler Foundation as a London but has spent many years capturing and Franziska Gaal amused audiences in gift to the people of the United Kingdom. the essence of Cyprus in photography. their most original German. Long-running The donation is being used to meet the cost These photographs are now on show at the comedies were written by the two Lacis— of the refurbishment of Room 34, one of the Commonwealth Institute (until 31 Fodor and Bus-Fekete - and the Gabor grandest rooms in the Gallery, which is October). His book, Images of a Lifetime, is sisters occupied the gossip columns. To being restored to its original splendour. The available at the exhibition. It contains day, the resurrected state is thriving once Sackler Room will become the primary nearly 500 photographs and a text taken more: Budapest has two opera houses, and British gallery, where masterpieces by from notes in his personal diaries. works by Bartok, Kodaly (who died in Gainsborough, Reynolds, Lawrence, The Old Royal Observatory at Green 1967) and Ligeti can be heard at inter Constable and Turner, will be shown. wich has recently been re-opened after a £2 national music festivals. Who remembers Woolton Pie, Air Raid miUion transformation. It is well worth a Birthday. Soprano Ljuba Welitsch, the Soup and other 'dehcacies' ofthe war years! visit, especially if thinking of something for Bulgarian-born opera singer, had her SOth The Imperial War Museum is mounting an the children, with hands-on science stations, birthday. One of the popular members of exhibition The Wartime Kitchen and Gar a sound and light show in the famous the Vienna State Opera, she was a famous den (ijntil 2 May 1994) to coincide with a Telescope Dome, a digital clock showing Tosca and Donna Anna and a most fasci BBC2 programme to be screened in the GMT to within a hundredth of a second and nating Salome, a part she sang at Covent autumn. The exhibition shows the conver the world's finest collection of time pieces, Garden when the Vienna Opera ensemble sion of flower gardens into vegetable plots, telescopes and scientific instruments. visited London in 1947. the expansion of the allotment movement, The Art of Pamela Kay is the title of an Obituaries. With the death at 84 of Fred the work of the Women's Land Army and exhibition at the Catto Gallery (until 3 Liewehr, Vienna's Burgtheater has lost its changes 'down on the farm'. October). Examples of her work will be doyen who, over a period of 60 years had The Ben Uri Art Society is holding its available at the gallery after the exhibition played hundreds of roles from classical Annual Open Exhibition (11-24 October). closes. On show are oils, pastels, pencil heroes to the great character parts. His Entry is open.to amateur and professional drawings and watercolours. Particularly clear, sonorous voice enabled him to artists who support the Society's aims and striking are the lovely flower paintings expand into the field of operetta, and he objectives. The entries are being judged by a (prices £250-£6,250). Her published book excelled at the Vienna Volksoper as Eisen jury of experts and prizes are being given. on her work is available at the gallery. D stein in 'Fledermaus', as well as in the first Austrian production of the musical 'Kiss me Kate'. He was the last Burg actor to VERSE AND WORSE have combined traditional style with FAX TO JERUSALEM modern production techniques. - The John Denham death of Hans Beirer took place in Berlin at Cyril Stein of Ladbroke fame the age of 82; a Wagner tenor at the Asks with a bookie's well-honed tact - Gallery 'Deutsche Oper' and a long-standing — And in all Anglo-Jewry's name — member of the Bayreuth ensemble, par That Ms Aloni should be sacked 50 Mill Lane, West Hampstead ticularly as Stolzing, Tristan and Parsifal, Or Shas withdraw from Rabin's pact London NW6 1NJ 071-794 2635 he still sang in 1989 and will be remem bered as a real "trouper". - Hans Hopf, who I wish to purchase paintings FAX FROM JERUSALEM and drawings by German, recently died in Munich, aged 76, had a Sage after sage deeply deplores Austrian or British Artists, powerful tenor voice and very special Reliance placed on dinosaurs pre-war or earlier, also poetical expression. He sang all over Ger paintings of Jewish interest. 'Are Darwinists demented midgets many, but mainly at the Bavarian National To think earth's age exceeds four digits?' Opera, n AjR INFORMATION OCTOBER 1993 NEED A BREAK? CAMPS Retirement by the sea INTERNMENT-P.O.W.- During September and Come to sunny Hove October we can make 2 rooms FORCED LABOUR-KZ available in our Homes for I wish to buy cards, envelopes and folded post Are you finding it hard to cope short-term care. marked letters from all camps of both world wars. alone . . .? For a happy and secure Please send, registered mail, stating price, to: Friendly atmosphere. Kosher retirement start a new life at Marigold 14 Rosslyn Hill, London NW3 continental food, rooms with PETER C. RICKENBACK House, a small, friendly kosher home private facilities. close to the sea, synagogue and shops. Please contact: j Ruth Fryett Happy atmosphere in homely I Otto Schiff Housing Association surroundings, 24 hour personal care, Telephone: 081-209 0022 good kosher food, special diets, level ground, bus stop outside, one hour from COMPANIONS central London. Long-term, convalescence, holiday stays East-Germany OF LONDON from £200 per week. A specialist home care service Marigold House Residential Care and Berlin to assist the elderly, people Home, 72 New Church Road, Hove, We give immediate attention. with disabilities, help during East Sussex. Tel: Mrs Jacqui Clewes We process and buy properties/claims. and after illness, childcare 0273 778759-771957 and household needs. For a service tailored to your individual needs We pay cash. by Companions who care - Please call F. GOLDMAN We have proven track records and furnish documentation. 071-483 0212 Curtains made to measure. Select material in 071-483 0213 your own home. Tracks, blinds supplied and fitted. Write to: 110 Gloucester Avenue, Telephone: 081-205 9232 Nagel & Partner Primrose HIII, Uhiandstrasse 156- 10719 Berlin London NWl 8JA Phone:030-882 56 31 (Ennp Agy) Fax:030-881 39 16 CAR HIRE Comfortable, air conditioned car with helpful driver. Airports, stations, coast, etc. Fully insured. Tony Burstein 081-204 0567. Car 0831 461066. Israel's Very finest Wines BELSIZE SQUARE COMPENSATION CLAIMS GERMANY SYNAGOGUE SHIPPED BY Under a new Agreement regular hardship 51 BELSIZE SQUARE, NW3 payments will be made to victims of the Holocaust who were hitherto unable to HOUSE OF We offer a traditional style of apply for or received only inadequate religious service with Cantor, compensation payments. HALLGARTEN Choir and organ Claims may be filed by persecutees who were held in concentration camps for at least six months. Those who were confined YARDEN and GAMLA Further details can be obtained from in ghettos or lived in hiding for at least our synagogue secretary eighteen months are also entitled to claim. AVAILABLE NOW On instructions our Office will assist you to prepare your Application and pursue the Telephone 071-794-3949 Please write or phone for matter with the authorities. full information Minister: Rabbi Rodney J. Mariner For further information please contact: Cantor: Rev Lawrence H. Fine DALLOW ROAD ICS—Claims Regular services: Friday evenings at 6.30 pm, 146-154 Kilburn High Road LUTON BEDS Saturday mornings at 10 am London NW6 4JD LU1 1UR Tel: 071-328 7251 (Ext 107) Religion school: Sundays at 10 am to 1 pm 0582 22538 Fax: 071-624 5002 Space donated by Pafra Limited 14 AJR INFORMATION OCTOBER 1993 Obituaries Birthday Meir Faerber deported from Germany as an alien he Fred Grubel - 85 became an official at the Prussian Ministry Meir (Marcel) Faerber, Czech-born journa of the Interior. When Fred Grubel celebrated his eightieth Hst, and playwright, founder-president of Criticism of Reich Interior Minister Frick birthday in October 1988, the then Presi the Israel 'Association of German-language led to his dismissal and after a spell in a dent ofthe Leo Baeck Institute, the late Max authors' has died, aged 85. Gestapo prison he fled, via Italy,to the USA. Gruenewald, paid him a forceful and ele Born in Moravska Ostrava, the son of a In Washington he worked as a government gant tribute. Fred's friends and colleagues rabbi he had studied in Brno and gone into advisor, especially to the Department of certainly cannot improve on this. He will industry after graduation. An active Zio Justice. In 1945 he was chosen to join the forgive them therefore if five years later they nist, he emigrated to Palestine in 1934 and US prosecution team at Nuremberg. take the shghtly unusual step of referring readers of AjR Information to that article became one of the editors of the German- The chief of the American contingent was (volume XLIII, No. 11, November 1988). language daily Yedioth Chadashoth, and a Robert Jackson, a rather private man who One of his most successful achievements, contributor to many Jewish periodicals in lacked many of the talents of a successful however, was not recorded previously in Europe and the USA. courtroom advocate. In these circumstances this journal: an international conference on After World War II, Meir Faerber became Kempner's forensic gifts and his ability to the Jews in Nazi Germany. Fittingly, it took one of the leading bridge-builders in Ger gauge German public opinion proved place in Berlin, in 1985, on the fortieth man—Israeh cultural relations. Close con invaluable. anniversary of the liberation of Europe, tacts with his pubhshers, the Bleicher Ver After Nuremberg, where he prepared the with both the president and chancellor of lag, enabled him to open the door for other case against Goring and Frick, he was the German Federal Republic in attendance Israeli German-language authors, and pro involved in the Wilhelmstrassen-Prozess; in at some of the functions. The great success mote Holocaust awareness among the 1947 he had a major coup with the dis of this, the largest convention of the Leo younger generation of Germany. covery of the Wannsee Protocol adumbrat Baeck Institute ever, owed much to the His oeuvre included an anthology of the ing the destruction of Europe's eleven organisational talents that Fred displayed German-language literature of Israel, a million Jews. during nearly twenty-five years as Director number of novels, collections of short From the 1950s onwards he worked as a stories and poems, as well as the plays. Shot of the New York LBI. Some three years ago restitution lawyer, legal consultant to the he relinquished his task in a retirement tvhilst Escaping (on the murder of Walter Israeli government, and author of such Rathenau) and Motives Unknown. which was never to be, to become the works as SS im Kreuzverhor, 1964, and Institute's Vice-President. Certainly his D K. Baum Edith Stein und Anne Frank - Zwei von activity' has not diminished. The first com Robert Kempner Hunderttausend, 1968. In 1985, fortieth prehensive history of German Jewry, digest anniversary of Nuremberg, he dismissed ing post-war German-Jewish historiogra Robert Kempner who died, aged 93, criticism that it had imposed the law of the phy, to be published in English, German achieved considerable prominence as one of victor on the vanquished. 'Those who are and Hebrew (general editor: Michael the chief public prosecutors at the Nurem against Nuremberg today are those who Meyer) was his concern. He was instrumen berg war crimes trial. Born at Freiburg, he want war, friends or successors of the war tal in raising the necessary funds and he is studied law and worked as a judge. After an criminals, or right-wing extremists.' Never still administrator of this project. This four- unsuccessful attempt in 1931 to have Hitler were truer words spoken! D volume edition should be completed in 1995, the fiftieth anniversary of the founda Are you recovering from an illness or about to tion of the Leo Baeck Institute. Fred have an operation? Grubel's dedicated work continues. D FOR THOSE YOU CARE MOST ABOUT Springdene A modern nursing home with 26 yrs of excellence in health care to the community. Licensed by Barnet area health authority and recognised by BUPA & PPP. Why not recuperate at HYDROTHERAPY & PHYSIOTHERAPY cares provided by full time chartered physiotherapists for inpatients and outpatients. SPRINGDENE 55 Oakleigh Parl( North, Whetstone, NURSING HOME London N.20 31 Totteridge Common, London N20 081-446 2117 SPRINGVIEW 6-10 Crescent Road, Enfield. Our LONDON'S PREMIER CONVALESCENT HOME connpletely nev^' purpose built hotel style retirement home. All rooms with bathroom en-suite from £305 S 081-959 4221 - FAX: 081-959 4223 per week. 081-446 2117. 15 AJR INFORMATION OCTOBER 1993 humour, as in 'one man's meat is another PROGENITOR Word shpiel man's poissori"; in a similar vein 'Voila cet The hat broadbrimmed, rs Thatcher's 'The Lady is not for Anglais avec son sang-froid habituel' has Flatcrowned, furtrimmed, Turning' was a pun her speech- been rendered as 'Look at that Englishman The sidelocks curled. writer Ronald Miller constructed with his usual bloody cold'. M White-flecked beard whorled, from the title of his fellow-playwright Linguistically Anglo-German, we have Grandfather with wig-wearing wife. Christopher Fry's The Lady is not for our own homophonic folklore of the Unknown to me he left this life Burning. Along the same lines a recent 'Could-I-see-the-meter?' 'But-I-am-the- In dimly distant Hungary profile in the Independent on Education MieterV variety. To bring it up to date one Around the time that I was three. Minister Baroness Blatch was headed 'The could describe the Taggart series on TV as Lady is for Learning'. Scotch Mist, and the musical Lust at the Were we descended from Khazars Punning is a variety of wordplay, which is Haymarket as imposing a heavy Last on Who, from the Sultan's and the Czar's itself as old as civilisation. In Bereshis, the sensitive theatre-goers. Clashing religions forced to choose. First Book of Moses, the name Adam With these verbal jokes I hark after a Instead elected to be Jews? contains the roots of the Hebrew words for tradition that extracted risque amusement I ask it for my daddy's eyes, red, earth and blood. Whether Ancient from subverting the German Classics. The As I beheld them with surprise, Greek affords similar examples is beyond subversives coarsened Schiller's line Louise Pince nez-enhanced, were watery blue, my ken, but Latin certainly does. The 6th du bist so Mass, du scheinst zu beben, in His skin and hair of gingery hue. century Pope Gregory called fair-haired Kabale und Liebe, to read Louise du p t English slaves displayed in Rome non Angli, so Mass, du s tZibeben. Likewise Lohen And is, perhaps, the family name - sed angeli (not Angles, but angels), and the grin's vow Ewig will ich Elsa dienen was Last link to which I can lay claim - Dominican Order {Dominicanes), a sort of turned into the early commercial Ewig will Derived from Griinberg in Silesia, medieval thought police, gloried in the ich Olsardinen. Still in the realm of opera The garden dear to Maria Theresa? nickname Domini canes (the dogs of God). there was the mis-translation of Verdi's La Did we seek other Habsburg lands Shakespeare carried on the tradition with Forza del Destino as Die Macht des Schick- When the Empress' garden left her hands? Et tu, Brute in Julius Caesar. In Hamlet the sels — a Yiddishism which afforded as much Griinberg is now Zielona Gora, Prince, hearing someone had lost his reason, innocent pleasure as the curt request 'Vil Change is earth's law — but for the asks the gravedigger 'Upon what grounds?' lach vill ach' overheard at the booking Torah. D and is told 'Why, here in Denmark'. office of Vienna South Railway Station. So much for puns. What about homo Would that it were possible to infiltrate THIS ENGLAND phones - similar-sounding words with similar verbal hybrids into modern English different speUings and meanings (hke bough usage! I look forward to the day when a and bow, for instance)? These form a marriage bureau will advertise itself as Er particularly rich source of bilingual and Sie Rescue, doctors' brass plates will be i3Blffiffi!tHgi|MJfcftS9iit3SS]amflffi«WSIB engraved with the caveat Farshteit a krenk, and the firm responsible for Johnsons' baby Search Notices lotion will market a range of products under the brand-name mamme-loschen. C R.G. MIDDLE EAST LATEST Salomon and Charlotte Sllbiger (nee Hollander) wfio owned a Gastwirtschaft in Konigshijtte (now Cfiorzow) between 1904 and 1926. Would anyone with information about the location of the 40 Years Ago business or where they lived with their son Wilhelm Silbiger please contact Dr Colin Selby, this Month Prospect House, 4 Prospect Place, Beechen Cliff, Bath, Avon BA2 4QP. (information about Jewish organisations in Poland who may be able to help Cultural Activities would also be appreciated). Anglo-Jewry's cultural maturity was the Edith Gollmann formerly of Vienna, then London and later in South America. Please contact Dr A. subject of some pertinent reflexions in the Short, 70 Westminster Gardens, Marsham Street, second issue of the 'Jewish Quarterly." London SWl 4JG. Criticising those 'loudest' critics who had Suche fijr eine Dissertation informationen zu Dr doubted whether a serious cultural Norbert Hoffmann, 1891 in Wien geboren, magazine of this kind could long survive, Rechtsanwalt, 1938 nach England emigriert: the editor, Mr. J. Sontag, asked what they Hoffman war der Herausgeber der Wiener had done, or were prepared to do, to help judischen Zeitschrift Menorah (1923-1932). break down apathy and indifference: 'One Isabella Gartner, Universitat Innsbruck, Institut fijr is left with the uneasy suspicion that at the Germanistik, Zeitungsarchiv, Innrain 52, A-6020 back of their minds lies a deep-rooted Innsbruck. disbelief in the possibility of popular Reproduced with the kind permission of Private Eye The Mayor of Steyr and the Komitee education and, perhaps too, in their own magazine Mauthausen Aktive Steyr wish to invite Jewish ability to contribute towards it.' emigrants to the launch of the book The History of the Jews of Steyr on 9 November, 1993. Jewish artists at and visitors to the Members of the families Kamenovic, Pollak and International Festival of Music and Drama Skalla are thought to be living in London. If they, at Edinburgh were welcomed at a reception GERMAN BOOKS or other ex-residents of Steyr, wish to receive an organised by the local B'nai B'rith. The BOUGHT official invitation for a two day visit to the town reception, the first of its kind, is to become please contact: Komitee Mauthausen Aktive an annual event. A. W. MYTZE Steyr, Mag. Waltraud Neuhauser, AJR \nformatior\, Oaober 1953 Gugerlehnerstrasse 31, A-4400 Steyr, Austria. 1 The Riding, London NWl 1. Published by the Association of Jewish Refugees in Great Britain, 1 Hampstead Gate, 1A Frognal, London NWS 6AL Telephone 071-431 6161 Fax: 071-431 8454 Printed In Greal Britain by Black Bear Press Limited, Cambridge