ESTMINSTER UARTERLY Volume XII No.2 April 2021

It gives me great pleasure to see several new faces on our Board of Management

Cartoon by Harry Blacker aka NERO

Jewish Cartoonists The Queen’s Gold David Lionel Salomons The Magen David

From the Rabbi

seeing and caring for a human being is a I have been moved to hear from many of world-forming act. We learn that each you, how this community has saved the

human is, or at least can be, especially last year for you and provided a structure

good. At times when people are and a moment in which to turn off and demeaned and suffering, when the connect to others through spiritual present and future might seem bleak, we services and learning. You have told me it

see light in reorienting ourselves towards has allowed you to find awe on Yom

people and towards the act of caring for Kippur, and light in Chanukah. We have each other. seen new initiatives emerge, and perhaps most importantly, a raft of new leaders in

the community, joining our Executive

We have seen this year and steering us forward. In these difficult times, we have turned to the beginnings of a each other more than ever, building community in which connection and care. So this Pesach we everyone who would can truly see so much light, for now and for the future, as we move from darkness Our most famous baby was born in a sort like a conversation gets to light. of lockdown, and a brutal, murderous one, and anyone who one at that. We hear, regarding baby Pesach Sameach. Moses that his mother, Yocheved, gave would like to volunteer birth to a son, and saw that he was good, in doing this sacred and hid him for three months. Why does the Torah tell us that she saw that her work can do so too son was good? Isn’t it obvious that every mother would look at their child and see goodness? The textual detail, as ever, This increasing shift towards people and evokes multiple responses in our towards caring, has been good to see over tradition. this last year - since a couple weeks Rabbi Benji Stanley before Pesach last year we went into The Italian commentator, Seforno, in the lockdown. One initial response of our sixteenth century, shares the view that community back then was a huge perhaps baby Moses was especially number of volunteers stepping up to call handsome - but again, what parent, other members of the community - more doesn’t think this of their child? Ramban, than a couple of hundred - to see how in thirteenth century Spain, suggests that they were doing, and whether any help it was somehow evident that Moses was needed. Care, or to use the term of would be a special person, one who our tradition, Chesed - the act of would be saved and would contribute to spending time with others - is too salvation. precious to confine to Rabbis. We have The Torah, in telling us that ‘she saw the seen this year the beginnings of a child that he was good’ actually provides community in which everyone who would a literary echo that points to baby Moses like a conversation gets one, and anyone being entirely special in the most who would like to volunteer in doing this common, everyday way. Our Rabbis, in sacred work (of building caring the Talmud, Tractate Sota, tell us that relationships) can do so too. light filled the room when Moses was The appointment of Danine Irwin as our born. The first time that something was part time Chesed manager is a strong seen ‘and it was good’ is with light at the step forward in continuing to grow our very beginning of creation. Indeed, the volunteer Chesed team, the quality of majestic positivity of creation is training and support, and - all in all - the articulated by the repeated act of the quality of kindness in our community. Divine speaking, creating, seeing - and Please do be in touch if you would like a seeing that ‘it was good’. chat, or to volunteer to get to know The echo of this goodness at the others. beginning of Exodus teaches us that

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Around the World School (the 1932 building still stands on The Jewish Museum the left of the courtyard), a playground, a of Shanghai library and a mikvah. It was copied from the London Synagogues of Bevis Marks and Lauderdale Road and was built by Sir Jacob Elias Sassoon - a Sephardi from Baghdad - in memory of his wife Rachel. It opened in March 1920 and was consecrated by Rabbi W. Hirsch. However, shortly before its dedication, Jacob also died, so the Synagogue was dedicated to him as well as to his wife. (In 1900, Sir Jacob had endowed Hong The main hall of the Museum Kong's Ohel Leah Synagogue, dedicated to There were once several synagogues in Moishe Synagogue and was first opened to his mother.) Shanghai. Now there are only two, and the public in 2007. The central hall of the one of those - the old Ohel Moishe In 1920, the second wave of immigrants Museum features the original Synagogue Synagogue - is now a museum. were Russian Jews and in 1928 they Sanctuary. invited Rabbi Meir Ashkenazi to head In the same treaty that ceded Hong Kong their community. He stayed as their Island to the British as reparations for the spiritual leader until 1949, when he left for Opium War (1839-1842), Shanghai and New York. So now there were two distinct four other Treaty Ports along China's sectors - the Sephardim and the eastern coast opened to foreign traders. Ashkenazim. The first Jew recorded as having passed through Shanghai was a British soldier in 1841. However, the first Jewish settlers did not begin to arrive in Shanghai until 1848. With all the feeling against the current Chinese regime, it is good to be able to record that the atmosphere was very different in earlier times.

There have been three distinct waves of The Ark curtain is embroidered with a Jewish settlers in Shanghai. The first tribute from the Israeli Consulate wave into Shanghai was that of Sephardic General Jews from Baghdad and Bombay. The most successful of these - the Sassoons and the Hardoons - built several of the The Exhibition highlights documents, city's greatest business empires. Many of photographs, films, and personal items the city's landmark buildings - including Plaque on the Museum wall tracing the lives of some of the thousands Sassoon House, the Metropole Hotel, of Jews who had taken refuge in Shanghai Grosvenor House, the Embankment From 1938 on came the third wave when over the years. Building, Hamilton House and Cathay approximately 20,000 Jewish refugees Mansions - bear witness to their from Germany and Austria escaped to influence. Shanghai, the only place in the world that did not require a visa to enter. Between In the 1870s, the Baghdadi Jewish 1939 and 1940, approximately 1,000 community rented space for religious Polish Jews also escaped Nazi persecution worship, and in 1887 they created the by moving to Shanghai. Beth El Synagogue on Peking Road, a major thoroughfare in the English By the end of WWII, Shanghai was home settlement. That remained the Jewish to approximately 24,000 Jews. After the centre until 1920, when the Ohel Rachel end of the war in 1945 and with the Synagogue was erected. An imposing founding of the People’s Republic of China building, the Ohel Rachel Synagogue held in 1949, the community dwindled, with The first floor Exhibition up to 700 people in its cavernous many Jews emigrating to Israel, the sanctuary. Marble pillars flanked a huge United States, Australia, and Hong Kong. Claire Connick Ark which once held thirty Torah Scrolls. The Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum, The site hosted the Shanghai Jewish was created on the former site of the Ohel

4 Anglo-Jewish history

The Queen’s Gold was fined for some transgression, such as Edward I. the death of little St. Hugh of Lincoln for By this time the Jews of England were which the Jews were blamed. almost bereft of their former wealth. The

The Queen’s Gold was not solely for the Court and aristocracy, together with the Queen to spend as she wished. It was at Church, had either borrowed or taken the discretion of the King to order how vast sums with little hope of it being

and by whom it was spent. He used some repaid. Without their financial status they of it to build a special withdrawing were of little use to the Crown and several chamber for the Queen in the Palace of English towns were beginning to find

Westminster, some towards a church for them a burden. Bristol was told to take in the Dominican Order at Canterbury, and the Jews of Gloucester. Winchelsea was some for splendid jewels for her to wear informed that Jews were to live only in Eleanor of Provence (1223-1291) on special occasions. But Eleanor was not the ancient cities they had formerly only a woman of strong will and occupied. The Jewish community of determination; she was also financially Marlborough was moved to Devizes. On 14th January 1236, Eleanor, daughter astute and unwilling to accept her of Ramon Berenguer IV, Count of husband’s direction as to how her money Provence, was married in Canterbury to should be spent. John Francis, Keeper of King Henry III of England. She had the Queen’s Gold, was soon told by the never seen him prior to the wedding and Queen herself how to spend a large sum had never set foot in his kingdom. She of money taken from Aaron of London in was dressed in a shimmering golden payment of a fine. It was to be allocated dress, and was thirteen years old. In to the Queen’s Wardrobe (the personal London the same day, Eleanor was spending money of Her Majesty herself), crowned Queen Consort of England. The and Eleanor began to appoint her own new queen was noted for her intelligence, officers to handle her finances. Her her beauty and her taste. In spite of her Letters Patent took away from her youth the marriage turned out a happy husband (and later her son, Edward I) the one, though Henry’s bride was unpopular Edward I right to control how and where the and hated the Londoners, who returned Queen’s Gold was to be taken and spent. In 1275 Edward visited his mother and the feeling. gave her permission to make her will and

The Queen was extravagant in her tastes to enter a convent at Amesbury. She and she and Henry were frequently either demanded that all Jews be removed from in debt or desperately seeking additional lands she had acquired as her dowry upon income. A large part of Eleanor’s finances her marriage. This included many of derived from the Queen’s Gold. This was England’s towns, further amalgamations an additional levy of 10% paid to her on being instituted: Worcester to Hereford, voluntary fines due to the King. This Cambridge to Norwich. Other dower payment was customary in England in the towns such as Guildford, Andover and twelfth century and was awarded to Bath, came under restriction. This was Eleanor immediately after her marriage, followed the next year by the Statute of forming a significant part of her total the Jewry which allowed them to live only income. Some debtors questioned the in towns with archae (the chests validity of the levy, but one group who Henry III containing legal documents concerning could not do so was the Jews, owned and Jews). Gradually, under the Queen’s controlled by the King influence, Jews - usually located in the In 1255 a quarrel broke out between the cities and larger towns - were being Whenever the King or his Consort were in citizens of London and the Queen (never deprived of their livelihood, their need of money it was the Jews who were the best of friends) over fines levied on prosperity and even their homes. It was ruthlessly dunned, whether they could them concerning moneys due to the to take only another few years before they afford to pay or not. The richest Jews in Queen. The Sheriffs of the city were were banned from England altogether. It England – Abraham of Wallingford, imprisoned in the Marshalsea Prison and is interesting to speculate that if the Aaron of York, Aaron of London – were only released, by order of the Queen, King’s mother had been a more tolerant constantly forced to pay out large sums to provided the fines were paid. Eventually, woman, the Expulsion might never have the royal exchequer and each time the probably to keep the peace, Eleanor happened. Queen took her share. When a Jew died, agreed to forego the Queen’s Gold levy on a third part of his possessions was forfeit fines, for her own lifetime only, not for Philippa Bernard to the Crown and again the Queen her successors. Her husband, Henry III, profited. Sometimes a whole community died in 1272, to be succeeded by her son, 5 Anglo-Jewish History David Lionel him a lifelong interest in watchmaking, president and treasurer, but because he and he later became a member of the was not a professional electrical engineer,

Salomons Clockmakers' Company. He also amassed a he was judged ineligible for its presidency. large collection of pieces by the French He wrote a textbook, Electric Light 1851-1925 watchmaker Breguet, and in 1921 he Installations, and eleven editions of this

published a 230-page study of Breguet. were issued during the 1880s and 1890s. Salomons would say, 'To carry a fine Salomons was first chairman of the City of Breguet watch is to feel that you have the London Electric Lighting Company,

brains of a genius in your pocket’. established in 1891 with an electric- lighting franchise for the City of London His collection eventually numbered more and the St Saviour's district of Southwark. than 120 items, but its centrepiece was the 'Marie Antoinette', commissioned as a gift He also contributed to the social life of the

for her, but not completed until many area. In 1879 he and his sister Laura years after her death. Salomons saw it in a hosted a grand fancy-dress ball at shop just off Regent Street on a wet day in Broomhill. The Courier called it 'one of the

May 1917 and persuaded himself that he most successful... ever held in the district'. could afford it. Dancing started at 8.30 and continued until 2.00 am with music provided by the In 1923 he loaned his collection to the band of the Royal Horse Guards. There Musée Galliera in Paris for a centenary were over 170 guests. exhibition. On his death, the core of the collection went to the L.A. Mayer Institute One wonders whether the apparently in Jerusalem. indefatigable Salomons ever slept or even

rested. Another of his passionate interests

A fascinating man of multiple interests and was tandem and four-in-hand driving. He talents, David Lionel Salomons inherited built a tricycle powered by a two horse- his title - by Special Remainder* - from his power electric motor, and he later uncle, Sir David Salomons, the first imported from France the second petrol- Baronet, in 1869. Sir David Salomons, who driven car to appear in England. He married Emma Montefiore, had been a organized trial demonstrations of early leading figure in the nineteenth century automobiles from 1895, and as president struggle for Jewish emancipation in the of the Self-Propelled Traffic Association United Kingdom. He was the first Jewish (wonderful title!) was instrumental in

Sheriff of the City of London, and Lord removing the legal restrictions which until Mayor of London. 1896 compelled horseless carriages to be preceded by a man waving a red flag. In the year that David Lionel succeeded his The Marie Antoinette watch uncle at Broomhill, he graduated in

Natural Sciences at Gonville & Caius

College, Cambridge, and the following year In 1874 he was made a magistrate, and the was called to the Bar of the Middle Temple, same year he stood (unsuccessfully) as the last restrictions on Jewish (and other Liberal candidate for Mid-Kent. non-Anglican) access to the older In addition to his title, he inherited the universities having been finally removed in Broomhill estate, near Tunbridge Wells 1871. David Lionel had briefly attended and there he installed private workshops, University College, London. One of its laboratories, and electricity. Then he built founders (in 1826) had been his near a waterworks at Broomhill and fitted a relative, Isaac Lyon Goldsmid. telescope to its water-tower. Within a few However, Salomons’ principal interest was years he had thousands of tools in his science and technology. From the earliest workshop and was constantly devising age, the young David had played with experiments. He took out Patents for clockwork engines, building blocks, and railway signalling, electric lamps, current tools. In his early teens, he wandered, meters, electric circuits, electric magnets, fascinated, around London’s tool shops pressure gauges, vacuum tubes, electric and while still a teenager, he became torches and electromotor apparatus. He friendly with a watchmaker from whom he was one of the founders of the Institution A Spy cartoon of 1908 learnt practical mechanics. This created in of Electrical Engineers, serving as vice-

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elected president of the Society of Engineers and honorary colonel of the Kent Fortress Royal Engineers. He was master of the Coopers' Company in 1893. In 1882, Salomons married Laura Julia Stern, the younger daughter of Hermann

de Stern, a London banker, and by royal licence, he adopted the surname of Goldsmid-Stern-Salomons. They had five children, four girls and a boy. Their only rd son Reginald, commanded the 3 Kent Fortress Field Company as a captain In his Peugeot car, a photograph taken during World War I. He died in October at the 1895 Exhibition 1915 during the Gallipoli Campaign when HMS Hythe, carrying his company to Salomons was a founder of the Royal Suvla Bay, was sunk in a collision. He has Automobile Club and wrote pamphlets, In a café in North London, a group of no known grave and is commemorated on articles, and lectures on motor cars, elderly men were having their daily the Helles Memorial at Sedd el Bahr, in including a chapter - The motor stable coffee meeting and discussing the state Turkey. As he had died, the baronetcy and its management - in the volume on of the world. As usual the topic was became extinct on the death of his father. motoring edited by Lord Northcliffe for quite depressing. the Badminton Library series. Suddenly, one of them said, ‘You know Another subject which took Salomons’ what? I’m an optimist’. interest was aviation. He also had a His companions were amazed and one of practical and theoretical interest in them said, ’If you’re such an optimist, radium, and made donations of why do you always look so worried?’ radioactive equipment to several hospitals. ‘What?’ he replied, ‘You think it’s easy, being an optimist?’ A great philanthropist, he gave endowments to Cambridge colleges and to academic societies. His broad tastes included contemporary art and he served on the jury of the Universal Exhibition of 1900 in Paris. He paid for the pavilion for Capt. David Reginald Goldsmid-Stern- Salomons the exhibition of contemporary British art at the Venice Exhibition of 1909.

Salomons was awarded a fellowship of the David Lionel Salomons died in 1925, at Royal Astronomical, Chemical, and the age of seventy-four, following an Geological Societies and of the Physical operation. He is buried in his family's Society of London. He was a gold private chapel ground at Lower Green, medallist of the Royal Photographic Tunbridge Wells. Society, an associate member of the

Institution of Civil Engineers and an If 5762 was the year according to the honorary member of the International Jewish calendar Society of Electricians. In 1901 he was Claire Connick And 4700 was the year according to the Chinese calendar

What was 1062?

Answer:

The number of years the Jews went without Chinese food.

* A Special Remainder allows the descent of a peerage and its passing (Jews go out to eat Chinese food; do in directions which are a variation you ever see Chinese going out to eat At the wheel of another of his large from the normal. Jewish food?) collection of vehicles 7 Anglo-Jewish History brother, Prince Henry, Duke of Duke of York, was an advocate for the Augustus Frederick Cumberland, who in 1771 had married continued repression of Catholic the commoner Anne Horton. Royal representation. Augustus also favoured Duke of Sussex Assent was given to the Act on 1 April the removal of civil disabilities of (1773 -1843) 1772, and it was only then that the King dissenters, the abolition of the corn laws learned that another brother, Prince and parliamentary reform.

William Henry, Duke of Gloucester and However, it is his preoccupation with the Edinburgh, had in 1766 secretly Jewish question that is most intriguing. married Maria, the illegitimate daughter Once Catholics in England had been of Sir Edward Walpole. Both alliances granted full political and civil rights, the were considered highly unsuitable by the Duke took up the fight for the Jews too King. to be granted such rights. A Bill was The fear of a Catholic influence on the presented to Parliament in 1833 which is

royal family due to the marriage taking reported in Hansard: place in Italy caused the couple to The Duke of Sussex presented a Petition arrange another ceremony in London, in favour of the Jewish Civil Disabilities using the names of Augustus Frederick Bill, signed by 7,000 inhabitants of the and Augusta Murray. The following year city of Westminster. He should give the the marriage was declared void by the measure his utmost support, on the King. There were two children, who took same principles on which he supported the family name of d’Este. In 1801 their Catholic Emancipation. He thought it parents ceased to live together. George III and Queen Charlotte had the right of every Church, whatever its fifteen children, of whom thirteen tenets, provided it was not subversive of survived into adulthood. The majority the society in which it existed, to enjoy were not exactly worthy characters, but every privilege of citizenship in common one, Augustus Frederick, deserves a with other members of the community. place in the history of Anglo-Jewry. He The Jews had been for a number of was the ninth child and the sixth son, years in this country, during which they born at what is now Buckingham Palace; had invariably proved themselves loyal he was a delicate boy, suffering from subjects, and obedient to the laws; they asthma, who lived most of his early life had subscribed liberally to the abroad, where he attended Göttingen charitable institutions of the country - University. had exhibited habits of laudable industry, and were grateful and useful Augustus’s health was a cause for members of society. It was not for him concern, making it difficult for him to Lady Augusta Murray to occupy their Lordships' time by any join the fighting forces. He might have reference to the Jewish religion, but of been considered for the Church, but his In 1809 the Prince was created Duke of this he was sure, that in persecuting residence on the Continent gave him an Sussex, a title which became extinct after them we should be by no means acting interest in the arts, religion and his death, though his son tried in the spirit of our own religion. intellectual pursuits. He also involved unsuccessfully to accede to the dukedom. himself in social philosophy and radical It was not until Prince Harry was created The Bill, having passed through the thinking, which did not exactly endear Duke of Sussex in 2018 that the title was Commons, was rejected by the Lords. It him to his family. revived. was not until 18th August 1846, that the Religious Opinions Relief While in Rome - a more suitable climate Meanwhile, Augustus immersed himself Act removed some of the minor for his health - Augustus met and fell in in matters unacceptable to the King and disabilities that affected British Jews and love with the daughter of a Scottish the Court. His political views were dissenters from the Established Church, noble family, Lady Augusta Murray. liberal and progressive. He was anxious and 1858 that a freely elected Jew could Without the permission of his father the to improve the situation of sectors of take his seat. That first Jewish MP was King, the two married in Rome in an society he considered ill-used: the Lionel de Rothschild, a close friend of English ceremony in 1793. It was King abolition of the slave trade was of the Duke. George himself who had proposed the particular interest to him, which met Act which said that no descendant with considerable animosity from the Augustus’s affection for Judaism was not of King George II, male or female, could wealthy slave-owners. Another was confined to political affairs. His interest marry without the consent of the Catholic emancipation, which involved in social history, religion and ancient reigning monarch. This was a direct him in several speeches in the House of culture prompted him to investigate result of the marriage of his Lords. His brother, Prince Frederick,

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further. He sought out someone who was enhanced by the publication of his library of some 50,000 volumes, among could teach him Hebrew so that he might second Hebrew grammar. He had which were about 1,000 editions of the investigate for himself the language and published an earlier one, called A Bible, a fourteenth century Tanakh, an history of the Jewish people. The man he Compendious Hebrew Grammar, in Italian Pentateuch and also from Italy, found was the Rev. Solomon Lyon of 1799. The second work had substantial the Great Rabbinic Bible. This edition, Cambridge. pre-publication backing. The now in the British Library, consists of Gentleman’s Magazine announced in the masoretic text of the Hebrew

June 1815 that the four volumes were in Bible, masoretic notes, Onkelos’s Aramaic Valpy’s Press in London, and that the translation and various rabbinic first volume would be the grammar. The commentaries including Rashi’s and

heralded second part or lexicon Abraham ibn Ezra’s. This edition was the announced on the title page - and called first to include the Masorah (corpus of The Gate of Heaven in the preface rules on the pronunciation, reading and

(although this title also seems to refer spelling of the scriptural text that ensured to the whole work) - does not appear to the correct transmission of the Hebrew have been published. The subscription Bible).

list was headed by the Duke of Sussex, In 1831 the Duke married again, also by then a supporter of Anglo-Jewish illegally, this time to Lady Cecilia, causes, to whom Lyon dedicated the daughter of the Earl of Arran and widow book, writing: ‘Your Royal Highness of Sir George Buggin. Like her Lyon was born in Bohemia but came to having added to your numerous predecessor she was not appointed the ancient Jewish community of branches of knowledge that of the Duchess of Sussex, though she did Portsmouth in about 1780 where he went Hebrew language - your pious become Duchess of Inverness. into the jewellery trade, married and had endeavours in diffusing the contents of Unwelcome at court during his father’s two children. He then moved to the Holy Bible through all quarters of time, and that of his brother George IV, Cambridge, then a small university town the globe...’ The Duke owned and used he did return to favour when William III full of Anglican clergymen. Hebrew was a well-worn Hebrew pocket Bible. came to the throne. When Queen Victoria taught at the University in the married her cousin Albert, she chose seventeenth century by a Jew, Isaac Augustus Frederick to give her away. Abendana, but after a quarrel he transferred to Oxford. The Vice- The Duke died of erysipelas in 1843 at

Chancellor was worried about the Kensington Palace, refusing to be buried numbers of young students who in the royal vaults at Windsor as his wife exchanged their books and clothes for would have been excluded. Instead he trinkets sold by Jewish pedlars. was interred in the cemetery at Kensal Hebrew was an essential part of the Green. theology degree taken by a majority of

Cambridge students, and the vacancy for Professor of Hebrew was taken by

Solomon Lyon. Here he was to spend the next seventeen years as a teacher of Cecilia, Duchess of Inverness Hebrew. To understand how he fitted into this Christian and traditional English environment it is useful to Augustus was an able and know how the University was organised. knowledgeable speaker, much in It has been described as a place which demand as an after-dinner speaker and functioned largely as an Anglican chairman of charitable organisations, seminary, while teaching more Jewish and non-Jewish. He became mathematics than theology. Most Grand Master of the Freemasons, undergraduates were the sons of President of the Society of Arts and of Anglican clergymen and the majority the Royal Society. He liked to give Philippa Bernard became clergymen themselves. elaborate dinners and receptions at his Lyon’s reputation as a scholar and rooms in Kensington Palace. His teacher led to his appointment, possibly Jewish interests included financial on the recommendation of Solomon support for the Jews’ Hospital and Herschell, the Chief Rabbi at the time, Orphan Asylum (later Norwood) as well as a teacher of Hebrew to the Duke, and as a number of Jewish books in his fine

9 Jewish History Nazi Germany, which Marie attended as set-up, staying for a month before Marie Schmolka representative of her country. returning to England to arrange the English end of the operation. While (1893-1940) One Englishwoman who immediately Winton’s name is rightly remembered for responded to Marie’s plea for help was his work with the Kindertransport, his Doreen Warriner, a Lecturer in friend and mentor, Marie Schmolka, is economics at University College in hardly known. London. Already aware of the events occurring in Europe, she went to Prague By the beginning of 1939 it was clear, as in 1938. Upon her arrival, as she herself Germany annexed the ‘Protectorate of recalled with ‘no definite object’, Moravia and Bohemia’ that it was the Warriner came into contact with the first Jewish children that were most at risk, of five most main endangered groups at and attention turned to a new project,

that time, whose positions had become the Kindertransport. However, the main untenable as a result of the German protagonists of the Committee for The story of the Kindertransport will for onslaught, the Social Democrats (SPD), Refugees, including Marie, were soon ever be associated with the name of the Nazis’ worst political enemies. arrested and imprisoned. Doreen came Nicholas Winton who helped to save so Warriner not only arranged for several to look for her, but all she could find was many Jewish children from Nazi- large groups of SPDs to escape the ill- broken glass in Marie’s home in the old occupied Europe. But he was not the fated country, but personally city. Marie was diabetic, but the only one who had a hand in the rescue – accompanied them on trains headed out Gestapo, perfectly aware of her plight, nor was he the first to conceive the plan. of Czechoslovakia via Slovakia and subjected her to long hours of Many women from Germany, Hungary Poland, before returning, more often interrogations, holding her for two and Czechoslovakia, Jewish and non- than not alone in the early hours of the months before she was finally released Jewish, were aware in the 1930s, after morning, to her lodgings in Prague. In and still under German control, was sent Hitler’s rise to power, of what was to this, whether unwittingly or not, she laid by Adolf Eichmann to Paris to improve come, and set about preparing plans to the groundwork for a more significant emigration regulations. While she was save as many children as they could from chapter of wartime history – the kept in Paris the war broke out and she Nazi oppression. evacuation of Jewish children. was finally able to flee to London. One, whose story has come to light only Here, she managed to continue her work in recent times, was Marie Schmolka. for the refugees, working out of Marie came from a Czech Jewish family, Bloomsbury House, the centre for the living in Prague. She was born in 1893, a joint operations undertaken by Czechs, strong character, more like a man than a immigrant Germans, Zionists and woman, her mother would say. She was Quakers. Many of these brave organisers intelligent and efficient, working in a were women, some of their names still bank where she was appointed Deputy unknown. One who did become famous Manager. She married Leopold was Mary Sheepshanks, the pacifist, Schmolka, a Prague lawyer much older feminist, journalist and social worker than herself, but he died five years later, (not the novelist of the same name). leaving three grown-up children from a Mary offered Marie a home in London, previous marriage, who remained close and it was while she was still living with to Marie. Politically she had always Marie was finding it hard to get help Mary that in 1940 she had a heart attack supported the left, the Social Democrats, from the European nations. Britain and died at the age of forty-six. Her and was helped, after her husband died, would only take unaccompanied cremation was at Golders Green where by the Czech branch of WIZO to visit the children, so, together with Warriner and the eulogy was given by Jan Masaryk, Middle East and Egypt. She was other humanitarian helpers, she began then Foreign Minister of Czechoslovakia. attracted after her journey to become putting together lists of children who A memorial tree planted in the grounds active in social work, and was soon might be able to be saved if only they has now disappeared. After Marie’s death involved, after the Nazis came to power, could find transport to England. The two the WIZO group of Czechs in exile in assisting German Jewish refugees who women, along with others who wanted to changed its name to The Marie Schmolka fled to Czechoslovakia. She joined help, sought assistance from English Society in her memory. WIZO, meeting its founder Rebecca Sieff. friends, among them a young English Philippa Bernard In 1938 a conference was convened at stockbroker, Nicholas Winton. To begin

Évian-les-Bains in France, to address the with it was the political refugee children problem of German and Austrian Jewish who were the objects of their assistance. refugees wishing to flee persecution by Winton came to Prague to organise the

10 The Arts

Book Review understanding of those given The final chapters of the book are a more responsibility for the rehabilitation of the straightforward narrative of how the ‘displaced persons’, simply sorting them Wedgwood was acquired and sailed to by pre-war nationality without regard to Italy, its journey to Palestine and the their underlying religion or ethnicity is passengers’ reception on arrival. Even staggering to a twenty-first century reader. then we encounter a chapter devoted to the voyages of two other ships, the Fede The People on Nevertheless, heroes emerge. Rabbi and Felice, from a different Italian port, the Beach – Abraham Klausner, a US Army chaplain, Journeys to La Spezia. In mitigation I found it one of used his position far more to support Freedom After the most interesting in the book for its camp survivors than to minister to forces the Holocaust descriptions of the tussles with the personnel. Yehuda Arazi, leader of the occupying British authorities trying to by Rosie Aliyah Bet underground organisation for prevent survivors emigrating to Palestine Whitehouse immigration into Palestine, then largely as well as the relationship of those forces prohibited, and Ada Sereni, an Italian to the Italian population. Jewess, were key figures in getting Jewish survivors into and then out of Italy. Given I hope these criticisms do not put you off. On 18 June 1946, more than a thousand that Britain was running Palestine under The book deserves to be read for recording Holocaust survivors gathered on the beach its post First World War mandate, there is the survivors’ journeys, their successes in of the small northern Italian port of Vado considerable irony that they were building fulfilling lives from the poorest of to board a ship that was to take them to a significantly assisted by the Jewish foundations and the efforts of those who new life in Palestine. The Wedgwood set Brigade of the British Army, permitted to made it possible for them to have the sail the following morning and arrived at display Magen Davids on their uniforms opportunity to do so. In her travels, Ms Haifa eight days later. and posted to Italy towards the end of Whitehouse comes across a number of 1944. The significance of Italy as a conduit people seeking to record the part their Ms Whitehouse discovered the story of the to Palestine, of which I had not been localities played in supporting the Wedgwood from a press clipping when aware, comes across clearly. Holocaust survivors and her identification revising a guidebook to Liguria. Intrigued, and encouragement of them is to be but finding no other information readily welcomed. But most of all the book accessible, she set out to discover as much one cannot fail to be provides a valuable insight into the as she could about the ship’s passengers shocked by the detail of turmoil of immediate post war Europe, the and, if possible, to track down survivors to the brutality of the importance of the vision of a land of their learn how they reached the relative own to those Jews who had lost so much sanctuary of ship and new land – relative riots in Krakow and how hard it was for them to reach it. because the conditions on the former were primitive and uncomfortable and life in On the dust cover, Simon Sebag Palestine for newcomers with no money or Montefiore describes the book as ‘part Edward Glover possessions was initially far from easy. travel writing, part investigative However, describing the ‘Journeys to journalism’, a fair description which

Freedom’ does much more than that. It highlights a weakness of the volume for also touches on many aspects of Jewish this reader, despite the importance of its life in central and eastern Europe before, contents. during and immediately after the Second The first two sections of the book are World War. largely taken up with the stories of Part of the ground covered may have a individual survivors/passengers. certain familiarity to readers with a However, they also include Ms general knowledge of the Holocaust but Whitehouse’s travels to find them and there is much, particularly in respect of its there are digressions along the way. While aftermath, that was fresh to this reviewer. there is a logic to devoting individual For some years I have been aware in chapters to survivors from different general terms of how unwelcome camp locations, they include more than that, at survivors were made to feel when times overlap and are not always easy to returning to their home towns. However, follow. On a number of occasions, I found one cannot fail to be shocked by the detail myself reading with fingers in other pages. of the brutality of the riots in Krakow or An index would have been helpful as well the pogrom in Kielce in July 1946 in which as more informative maps placed forty-two Jews were killed. The lack of together.

11 The Arts forbade it, is evident from the ethnic descendants would have converted to Book Review variations among Jews. Whether any Islam in the seventh century CE. This extant populations are the immediate hypothesis is used by Sand to assert the descendants of the Israelites is debatable. Palestinians are the true descendants of

The Invention Perhaps the Jews of the Yemen may have the Judeans and, therefore, bona fide of the Jewish a claim to be closer to the Judeans than Jews. The fact is we don’t have sufficient People most of us, but how would you prove this? evidence for how many Jews were exiled

by Sand asserts most present day Ashkenazi under the Romans, but what is certain is Jews are descended from the so-called the notion that the exile was a fabrication Shlomo Sand Khazar mass conversion in the eighth and by Christians to illustrate God’s ninth centuries of the CE. The Khazar punishment for the crime of killing Jesus Empire was located in central and is pure fiction. The Tanakh mentions exile northern Caucasus. The evidence for this as a motif of the Jewish experience, and Verso 2009 is far from conclusive, and genetic studies the Prophet Jeremiah gives a graphic have found the Ashkenazim have a strong account of the destruction of the First genetic connection to Eastern, Temple by Nebuchadnezzar in 576 BCE, Mediterranean and Southern European and the subsequent exile of the Children The Invention of the Jewish People by populations. of Israel. This occurred centuries before Shlomo Sand, first published in Hebrew the emergence of Christianity. in 2008, and in English the following There has been some interesting work year, ranks as one of those books, like done into the origins of the Levites. Dr. Sand calls into question whether Israel is Orwell’s 1984, Rushdie’s Satanic Verses, Doron Behar has established Levite a true democracy. He does not fully define Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code and ancestors were living in Iran 2900 years the term ‘democracy’ but cites Britain and David Goldberg’s This is Not the Way: ago and were in Europe about 1750 years the Netherlands as representing liberal Jews, Judaism and the State of Israel, ago. This places a sizeable Jewish democracies. They are pluralist, non- that was guaranteed to provoke a strong population in the near East 750 years racial societies, and Israel according to reaction. Take one quote from Sand’s before the alleged Khazaria conversion. Sand is far from this ideal. One wonders book: ‘Jewish democracy is an oxymoron’ where Professor Sand has been living all and one can immediately sense what these years. Israel contains an incredibly underpins the Professor’s agenda. He a polemic against diverse population: Christians, Moslems, gives an exhaustive analysis of what he Zionism, against the Druze, Ultra-orthodox Jews, Progressive claims is the myth of the Jews being a Jews and secular Jews; you can’t be more homogenous people, the lie he wishes to status of Israel as a pluralist than that. And unlike other nail, accusing Israeli Zionist historians of sovereign nation Middle Eastern national states, Israel has, purposely distorting the past in order to through its democratic institutions, justify the creation of a Jewish nationalist checks and balances to ensure the State is state. Israeli historiography has Also, Dr Ostrer, a medical geneticist, has accountable for its actions. To suggest manufactured a history of the Jews that stated genetics do not support the Khazar because Israel is a Jewish state ipso facto Sand rejects, believing that he is one of hypothesis. So why would Sand ignore the cannot be democratic is farcical. North the few historians, to paraphrase Ranke: counter evidence? The answer is to Korea’s official political title is the to tell it as it is! What Sand fails to undermine the legitimacy of the State of Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, appreciate is that all national history is a Israel; to propagate the idea the Jews are and is that an oxymoron, Professor Sand? mixture of actual events and folk myth; not a homogenous people, and that the The Jews are not a race, and neither for one can see this clearly in the national Palestinians have de facto a more valid that matter are the English, Germans, histories of Europe. It is hardly surprising claim to the land. The Invention of the Italian or citizens of other nation states. therefore that Jewish history should also Jewish People is a polemic against Anthropologists may classify humanity contain folk memories that have been Zionism, against the status of Israel as a into broad definitions of racial types: passed down from generation to sovereign nation and an attack on the caucasoid, negroid and mongoloid. Does generation. credibility of historians who are accused the fact that Jews reflect the diversity of of deliberately ignoring the evidence that One of Sand’s arguments concerns the humanity diminish, as Sand asserts, their calls into question the existence of a origins of modern Jewry. He rejects the right to peoplehood? Emphatically not. Jewish nation. idea that we are of the same racial stock Jews share a rich historical, religious, as the ancient Israelites. It would, indeed, Sand argues that with the destruction of cultural, linguistic heritage that is distinct be very surprising if any Jew living today the Second Temple in 70 CE Jews were from other cultures. Whether your could trace his/her ancestry to the not exiled from Jerusalem. He claims the forebears converted to Judaism 200 Patriarchs. That conversion to Judaism majority were farmers who remained tied hundred years ago or ten years ago is happened in the past, before Christianity to the land and many of their irrelevant to whether you belong to the

12 Anglo-Jewish History Jewish people. Israel was established to enable Jews to realise their potential for Coin Clipping self-determination, to preserve their heritage, to live within a safe On 17th November, 1278, all the Jews of England were arrested and their homes environment, and for some to fulfil the searched on suspicion of coin clipping and counterfeiting. There are believed to have promise of Torah. The Law of Return been about 3,000 Jews in England at the time. Of these some 680 were imprisoned exists to give Jews - irrespective of race, in the Tower of London, and more than 300 were executed the following year. colour or political persuasion - a home in which they can be free from persecution. Two years earlier the Statute of the Jews had been issued at Worcester, under which Jewish history is indelibly marked by the Jews, like the Christians, were forbidden to lend money at interest. All insecurity. Our antecedents have had to outstanding arrangements of this kind were to be completed and no further such flee pogroms, seeking refuge in countries loans were permitted. This meant that the majority of the Jewish population in that were more tolerant. The Shoah left England, who had previously relied on moneylending as their livelihood, were no right-thinking person in any doubt completely deprived of income. They had as a result to take to the land as farmer/ that the Jewish People had a legitimate tenants or become artisans, neither of which were to their liking nor to their claim to a homeland. Six million died in capabilities. The places where they might live were severely restricted. All Jews, the Holocaust, and none of those involved from the age of seven upward, had to wear the yellow badge and those over twelve in genocide questioned whether Mr X was had to pay a poll tax. descended from a Palestinian Jew of the The Jews met together in protest, but this had no effect, and even though their first century CE or whether his family wealth had virtually vanished, the King still continued to levy heavy taxes, which of converted more recently. To the course the community could not pay. Some managed by dealing in precious stones, indoctrinated agents of mass murder of others by trading in corn and wool or selling what they could from the land. Many Jews - irrespective of nationality, physical were forced into crime by hunger and deprivation, others converted to Christianity. physiognomy, and culture - they were a people bound together by a shared There was one other (illegal) way to try to obtain an income; this was by clipping the history; something Sand finds difficult to coin of the realm. Clipping is the removal of metal from the edges of coins by either comprehend. But what of the shaving them with a knife or cutting pieces off with shears. Some who resorted to Palestinians’ right to self-determination? counterfeiting the coins sometimes clipped their own fake coins in order to make Sand, in one of his more insightful their counterfeits appear more genuine. The precious metal clippings could be saved moments, realises the impracticality of a up and melted into bullion. This could also be achieved by ‘sweating’ the coins – bi-national state that would effectively, shaking silver coins in a bag and collecting the dust they left behind. Clipping and over time, see the eclipse of the Jewish counterfeiting were both deemed capital offences. This meant that if convicted coin state. Like many Jews he believes peace crime suspects could be sentenced to death. will only be achieved by Israel ceding the The King’s investigators seem to have treated Jews more harshly when looking into occupied territories. This is nothing new; the crime of coin clipping, and a special judicial commission was set up to go further it has been the premise for a lasting peace into the matter. So it was that the sweeping measures against the community for decades. It is for the Palestinian resulted in such drastic punishment for large numbers of Jews. Some converted, as Authority to negotiate with the Israeli Christians were treated more leniently, and the assumption of guilt in any who were Government, to secure for themselves a found in possession of tools suitable for clipping persuaded many to betray Jews to homeland they so earnestly desire. The the authorities. rapprochement between Israel and the Gulf States and - hopefully - Saudi Arabia One particular case involved Rabbi Meir of London who had written of some English in the near future, may be a timely boost Jews who were asked by the Christian residents of their city (apparently London) to to the search for a lasting peace. swear that they would not clip coins. The Jews swore not to clip coins and then clipped them anyway, justifying themselves to other Jews by citing the Talmudic Shlomo Sand’s most valid comments ruling that an oath given with mental reservations is not binding. Rabbi Meir wrote relate to a future peace between about these coin clippers, 'Cut off their hands! . . . How much blood has been spilled Palestinians and Israelis, even though by these and others like them who invalidate the currency.’ these are not original. Perhaps he should stick with his area of specialism, French history, where his evident political bias would not be so blatant.

A nineteenth century Russian painting of Peter Beyfus Jewish coin clipping

13

Judaica The Magen David century the symbol began to proliferate among the Jewish communities of

Eastern Europe, ultimately being used among those in the Pale of Settlement. A significant motivating factor, according

to scholar Gershom Scholem, was the desire to represent Jewish religion or identity in the same way that the Cross

identified Christians. Herzl's proposed flag, as sketched in his diaries. Although he drew a Star of The Jewish community of Prague was the Tasked with organising the decoration of David, he did not describe it as such. first to use the Star of David as its official the Succah, very many years ago, I had symbol, and from the seventeenth decided to place a Magen David, formed However, David Wolffsohn (1856–1914), century onwards, the six-pointed star from clementines, at the centre of the a businessman prominent in the early became the official seal of many Jewish rear wall. This idea was immediately Zionist movement, was aware that the communities and a general sign of scotched by Rabbi Reinhart, on the basis design proposed by Theodor Herzl was Judaism, but it definitely has no biblical that the Magen David is not originally, gaining no significant support. He wrote, or Talmudic authority. The star was or uniquely, a Jewish symbol. At the behest of our leader Herzl, I came almost universally adopted by Jews in to Basle to make preparations for the It never occurred to me at the time to ask the nineteenth century as a striking and Zionist Congress. Among many other him more about his objection to my idea simple emblem of Judaism in imitation problems that occupied me then was one of decoration, but lately I began to of the cross of Christianity. The yellow that contained something of the essence wonder. So I started to expand my badge that Jews were forced to wear in of the Jewish problem. What flag would knowledge of something which Jews, and Nazi-occupied Europe invested the Star we hang in the Congress Hall? Then an others, nowadays take for granted as of David with a symbolism indicating idea struck me. We have a flag - and it is being specifically Jewish. martyrdom and heroism. blue and white. The Talith with which The symbol originated in antiquity, The hexagram has appeared occasionally we wrap ourselves when we pray: that when, side by side with the five-pointed in Jewish contexts since antiquity, is our symbol. Let us take this Talith star, it served as a magical sign or as a apparently as a decorative motif. For from its bag and unroll it before the eyes decoration, so it definitely was not example, in Israel, there is a stone of Israel and the eyes of all nations. So I limited to use by Jews. In the Middle bearing this shape from the arch of a ordered a blue and white flag with the Ages, the Star of David - to give it its third century synagogue in the Galilee. Shield of David painted upon it. That is English name - appeared with greater Originally, the design may have been how the national flag that flew over frequency among Jews but did not employed simply as an architectural Congress Hall came into being. So, the assume any special religious significance; ornament on synagogues, as it is, for symbol became representative of the it is also found in some medieval example, on the cathedrals of worldwide Zionist community, perhaps cathedrals. Brandenburg and Stendal, and on the due to its usage in some Jewish Marktkirche at Hanover. This form is communities and because of its lack of The term Magen David, (the shield of also found on the ancient synagogue at specifically religious connotations. David), gained currency among medieval Capernaum but it must have been purely Jewish mystics, who attached magical as decoration. powers to King David’s shield just as earlier (non-Jewish) magical traditions Interestingly, the symbol only became had referred to the five-pointed star as representative of the worldwide Zionist the ‘seal of Solomon’. Kabbalists in community, and later the broader Jewish thirteenth century Spain popularized the community, after it was chosen to use of the symbol as a protection against represent the First Zionist Congress in evil spirits. 1897. A year before the congress, Herzl

had written, We have no flag, and we Unlike the Menorah, the Star of David need one. If we desire to lead many men, was never a uniquely Jewish symbol. The we must raise a symbol above their hexagram, being an inherently simple heads. I would suggest a white flag, with Béla Guttmann, member of the geometric construction, has been used in Hakoah Vienna football team seven golden stars. The white field various forms throughout human history, symbolizes our pure new life; the stars which were not exclusively religious. The In the early twentieth century, the are the seven golden hours of our symbol was also used in Christian symbol began to be used to express working-day. For we shall march into churches as a decorative motif many Jewish affiliations in sports. Hakoah the Promised Land carrying the badge centuries before its first known use in a Vienna was a Jewish sports club founded of honour. synagogue. During the nineteenth in Vienna in 1909, whose teams

14 Art competed with the Star of David on their The Woman in Gold that had been given to Maria uniforms, and won the 1925 Austrian Altmann; he gave it to his wife. League soccer championship. In August 1945 Ferdinand had written Similarly, The Philadelphia Sphas a final will that revoked all previous basketball team in Philadelphia (whose ones. It made no reference to the name was an acronym of its founding pictures, which he thought had been

South Philadelphia Hebrew Association) lost forever, but it stated that his wore a large Star of David on their entire estate was left to his nephew jerseys to proclaim proudly their Jewish and two nieces - one of whom was identity. In boxing, Benny Leonard (who Maria Altmann. Ferdinand died in said he felt as though he was fighting for Switzerland in November that year. all Jews) fought with a Star of David embroidered on his trunks in the 1910s. When the beautiful young Adele Bloch- After World War II the golden image World heavyweight boxing champion Bauer sat for Gustav Klimt, in the early of Adele became a pawn in the Max Baer fought with a Star of David on 1900s, she could not possibly have struggle between the Jewish family his trunks as well, notably, for the first imagined the saga that would that had been torn apart by the Nazis, time as he knocked out Nazi Germany eventually unfold surrounding the and the post-war Austrian art world. hero Max Schmeling in 1933; Hitler portrait. In the painting, In 1998 an Austrian investigative never permitted Schmeling to fight a commissioned by her husband journalist discovered that the Galerie Jew again! Ferdinand, Adele is shown wearing a Belvedere contained several works jewelled choker, which he had given stolen from Jewish owners in the war, The Star of David was used by the Nazis her. Adele died in 1925 and when and that the gallery had refused to during the Holocaust to identify Jews. If Klimt’s daughter Maria - who was return the art to their original a Jew was found in public without the Ferdinand’s niece - married opera owners, or even to acknowledge that a star, he could be severely punished. The singer Fritz Altmann, Ferdinand gave theft had taken place. Maria Altmann, requirement to wear the Star of David her his late wife’s choker as a wedding hired the lawyer E. Randol with the word Jude applied to all Jews present. Schoenberg to make a claim against over the age of six in the Reich and in the gallery for the return of five works Following the Anschluss of Austria by the Protectorate of Bohemia and by Klimt. After a seven-year legal Nazi Germany in 1938, Ferdinand fled Moravia, by a decree issued on battle which included a hearing in the from Vienna, first to Paris and then to September 1, 1941 and signed by Supreme Court of the United States, Switzerland, leaving behind much of Reinhard Heydrich, and was gradually an arbitration committee in Vienna his wealth, including his large art introduced in other Nazi-occupied agreed that the painting, and others, collection. The painting of Adele was areas. had been stolen from the family and stolen by the Nazis in 1941, along with that it should be returned to Altmann. the remainder of Ferdinand's assets, after a trumped-up charge of tax The painting became a cause célèbre. evasion was made against him. The The saga of the Portrait of Adele Nazis stripped Adele’s name from the Bloch-Bauer I and the other paintings painting and renamed it Dame in taken from the Bloch-Bauers has Gold. The lawyer acting on behalf of been recounted in three documentary the German state gave the portrait to films: Stealing Klimt (2007), The the Österreichische Galerie Belvedere. Rape of Europa (2007) and Adele's As part of the process of dealing with Wish (2008). The painting's history is So now I begin to understand Rabbi the purported tax evasion, the Nazi also described in the 2012 book The Reinhart’s reluctance to permit the use lawyer convened a meeting of Lady in Gold: The Extraordinary of the Magen David in our Synagogue. museum and gallery directors to Tale of Gustav Klimt's Masterpiece, The Menorah is a much more powerful inspect the works and to give an Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer, by the symbol of our religion and has never indication of which pieces they would journalist Anne-Marie O'Connor. been tainted by its use in any other than like to obtain. After the collection was The story of Adele Bloch-Bauer and a religious one. catalogued, Adolf Hitler used the Maria Altmann also formed the basis Führervorbehalt decree to obtain part of the 2017 novel Stolen Beauty by of the collection at a reduced price. Laurie Lico Albanese. And in January Claire Connick Several other Nazi leaders, including 2015, Altmann's story was dramatised Hermann Göring, also obtained works for the film Woman in Gold starring from the collection and in addition, Helen Mirren as Maria. Göring used the Führervorbehalt decree to obtain the jewelled choker Claire Connick

15 The Arts Jewish Cartoonists various British newspapers. He was an Sallon liked to draw from life, and often ardent socialist and naturally very anti- worked alongside the press

Fascist, but refused to let his personal photographers outside London hotels, The Jewish sense of humour is a world- politics intrude into his work. In 1939 he dashing off a sketch with the stub of a wide phenomenon. It is expressed in joined the staff of The News Chronicle. pencil before his target disappeared. many ways: stand-up comedy, drama, By the 1940s Weisz, who signed his work Winston Churchill thought so highly of music, even poetry. But perhaps the ‘Vicky’, had established himself as Sallon’s brutal caricatures of Hitler and most subtle - and most appreciated - is Britain's leading left-wing other leading Nazis that he had the in the form of caricature and cartoon. cartoonist. Michael Foot called him the drawings copied and airdropped over Almost every British newspaper and best cartoonist in the world. Germany and occupied Europe, placing magazine of the twentieth century Sallon high on Hitler’s personal hit list. employed a resident cartoonist, and many of these were Jewish.

PHILIP ZEC NORMAN JACKSON The first Jewish cartoonist in Britain is

usually considered to be Philip Zec Succeeding Vicky on the Evening ( Zecanovskya), born in 1909 to a Standard, Norman Jackson (always Russian Jewish family in London. Zec signed as Jak) was born in London, and

joined the Daily Mirror at the outbreak trained at the Willesden School of Art. of war in 1939 as its first political His interests lay less on the political cartoonist. The paper gave him spectrum than in a genuine wish to

complete freedom, and he was among make people laugh. His political views – the early political artists to portray the somewhat to the right of centre – Germans, not as buffoons and comics, coincided with those of his newspaper,

but as evil plotters and anti-Jewish leading to some difficulties with the enemies. Churchill called on MI5 to public. One cartoon of 1982 was a investigate Zec's background, which comment on the Northern Ireland

revealed nothing more sinister than the situation, and caused Ken Livingstone, RALPH SALLON fact he had left-wing sympathies and then leader of the Greater London found no evidence of him being involved Ralph Sallon was born in Warsaw, in Council, to withdraw all advertising in subversion. 1899. Fleeing Tsarist persecution, he from the paper. Jak’s obituary in The came to England in 1904. In 1930, Independent read ‘He was, like Carl Sallon became resident caricaturist on Giles before him, a cartoonist of The Jewish Chronicle. He once said that everyday people - from the streets, the ‘a caricature should be an unprejudiced factories, the offices, the services - warts picture, irrespective of any personal, and all.’ racial, religious or political viewpoints’.

In 1943 he began contributing regularly to the Daily Herald, and in 1948 he became staff caricaturist on the Daily

Mirror, where he remained until 1991.

VICTOR WEISZ

Zec was followed at the Daily Mirror by

another Jewish cartoonist, Vicky (Victor Weisz). Born in Berlin, Weisz came to England in 1935, after his father’s

suicide. He was working in the graphics ‘Can’t you do this in a more polite way department of a radical anti-Hitler that I can completely ignore?’ journal, and by 1929 was sports and

theatre cartoonist on the paper. In 1933 it was taken over by the Nazis and by 1935 Vicky had fled to London. Once in Herbert Morrison by Sallon England he was quickly taken on by

16

heard it will forget the story of the found popular success. The brow-beaten, HARRY BLACKER Bricklayer’s Predicament; his published henpecked figure perhaps reflected his Harry Blacker, using the name Nero, was work also includes the ‘helpful’ advice to a own personality as he suffered from another London Jewish boy, and one who visitor to London, supposedly authentic: depression all his life. In Who's Who he frequently used his Jewish background as ‘There is a French widow in every listed his recreations as ‘brooding and subjects for his work. He was born to bedroom affording delightful prospects’. worrying’. Russian immigrant parents in 1910 and At the ‘Hoffnung Music Festival’ Donald grew up in the East End of London. His Swann revised Haydn's Surprise first commissions were for the Radio Symphony to make it considerably more Times, and he went on to design posters surprising. Malcolm Arnold wrote A for Shell-Mex, BP, London Transport, and Grand, Grand Overture, scored for the Post Office. Blacker's humour was full orchestra and vacuum cleaners, and of puns which underlay his faith and the dedicated it to US President Hoover. surrounding culture, and he had an eye Hoffnung died at the age of thirty-four for the pretensions and contradictions of from a cerebral haemorrhage. Jews in social transition. In 1962 he won a Jewish Chronicle competition. He then went on to devote his work to caricature and cartoon, much of his creative energy taken up with remembering his childhood in the East End.

‘One at a time please, one at a time’

‘I know you gave us the money Ken - but, honestly, we don’t have a single job vacancy!’ MEL CALMAN

Mel Calman was born in Stamford Hill in 1938 and was evacuated to Cambridge

where he attended the Perse School. He …instead of the bible we usually present blamed the anti-Semitic atmosphere he to barmitzvah boys I am giving you this found there for the later troubles he found umbrella. At least you will open it once in his life. He tried selling cartoons to or twice during the year Punch with little success. He had better luck with the Daily Express, his work Philippa Bernard

appearing regularly in the William Hickey GERARD HOFFNUNG gossip column. His friend Michael Palin wrote, 'his morose appearance was Born in Germany in 1925, Gerard so at odds with his inquisitive wit that I Hoffnung was sent to London in 1938. used to wonder if he practised looking He studied at Hornsey School of Art, but miserable because he thought it suited he was expelled for his ‘lack of gravity’ in him better'. This appearance, together the Life class. Apart from his art he was a with his depressiveness and taciturnity talented musician and many of his with strangers earned him the nickname hilarious caricatures concern the of Dismal Mel. instruments of the orchestra. Apart from his art and his music, Hoffnung was a It was not until he started producing his gifted raconteur. No-one who has ever caricatures of the ‘little man’ that he

17 Anglo-Jewish History

‘Poppa’ Guttmann single-minded about making the centre a Radcliffe Infirmary. It was while he was The Father of the success. Guttmann fought doggedly for working there that he was asked to take what he believed in, and his staff and his on the job at Stoke Mandeville. Paralympic Games patients were devoted to him - but they At Stoke Mandeville, an important part of were also terrified of him. He exerted a Guttmann’s treatment was to ensure

total, obsessive control over all aspects of that patients maintained some hope of

care at the hospital, whether making progress and returning to their

it was going round in the middle of the previous life. They took part in pursuits

night to make sure that the nurses had to keep them active – a social

turned patients, or checking on the rehabilitation as well as a medical

quality of the cleaners’ work or that of the one. Workshops were set up in the

food served on the wards. hospital, where the patients could do

woodwork and clock- and watch-

Ludwig Guttmann was born on 3rd July repairing.

1899 in Tost, Upper Silesia, Germany -

now Toszek, Poland. He started studying But it was Guttmann’s encouragement of Ludwig Guttmann (1899-1980) medicine at the University of Breslau in sporting activities that was to make the 1918 after he was turned down for greatest impact on the wards. The first

military service on medical grounds. sport was wheelchair polo, using walking Had it not been for one enlightened and Between 1924 and 1928 Guttmann sticks and a puck, but this was soon forceful man, today’s wonderful worked with Europe’s leading neurologist replaced by wheelchair basketball. Paralympic Games that have changed so Professor Otfrid Foerster. In 1928, he was Archery was also popular; it relied on many lives might never have happened. invited to start a neurosurgical unit in upper body strength which meant that In 1943, a young doctor working at the Hamburg but this post only lasted a year paraplegics could compete with their non- Radcliffe Infirmary and at St Hugh’s as Foerster asked him to return to Breslau disabled counterparts, and it was archery College Military Hospital for Head as his first assistant – a job Guttmann felt that was the first competitive sport. Injuries was asked by the Government to he could not refuse. He remained in this become Director of the new National post until 1933 when the Nazis forced all Spinal Injury Centre at the Emergency Jews to leave Aryan hospitals. Medical Services Hospital at Stoke the sports events Mandeville. A strong-minded individual, Under this oppression, Guttmann became he accepted the post on condition that he were run by nurses neurologist to the Jewish Hospital in would be permitted to treat patients in his and physiotherapists Breslau and was elected Medical Director own way with no interference. The of the whole hospital in 1937. whom Guttmann doctor’s name was Ludwig Guttmann, a

German refugee who had arrived in 'expected' to help out On 9th November 1938, (Kristallnacht), England in March, 1939. Guttmann gave orders that any male

person entering the hospital was to be So a special Spinal Unit was opened at Thus were born the Stoke Mandeville treated, ignoring the racial laws specifying Stoke Mandeville Hospital in March 1944. Games. They retained a small-scale and that Jewish doctors could only treat When it opened, it had twenty-four beds almost home-spun quality in the Jewish patients. Like all Jews, and just one patient. Very soon there 1950s: the sports events were run by Guttmann's passport had been were fifty patients. At the time, the nurses and physiotherapists whom confiscated and he was not allowed to treatment for paraplegics in England was Guttmann 'expected' to help out. The travel; however in December 1938 he was still rudimentary. Patients with spinal participating teams were accommodated ordered by von Ribbentrop to travel to injuries had a two-year life expectancy. It in empty hospital wards and were fed and Portugal to treat a friend of the dictator, was not the injury itself that was life- attended to by volunteers from Aylesbury Salazar. On his return he was granted threatening but the twin dangers and the surrounding villages. But there permission to go to England for two days. of pressure sores and urinary tract was little sense yet of the games being an

infections. event that local people would want to Already in contact with the British Society come to watch; the audience was for the Protection of Science and In America in the 1930s, a Dr. Munro had still mostly composed of the friends and Learning, he was offered a grant and begun to transform the treatment of relatives of participants and of the decided to emigrate with his wife and two spinal injuries by ensuring that patients hospital staff. children. So the Guttmann family left were turned every two hours to prevent Germany on 14th March 1939, and went to bedsores; this was a regime that Throughout the 1950s Stoke Mandeville Oxford where they moved into a small Guttmann quickly adopted. He was had been hosting the annual National house and Ludwig obtained a post at Wheelchair Games in June followed by

1 8

the International World Wheelchair pioneers of wheelchair sport. I think this Games in July. The Stoke Mandeville was particularly important in Tokyo, National Games became the annual because at the time the Japanese had this calendar event for all the disabled sports reputation for hiding all their disabled clubs attached to hospitals around the people away in remote homes on the tops country, and participants would come of mountains, out of sight, out of mind. from all over the UK to participate. These Whereas they saw us, the GB team, going games were the first to be held out shopping, dining in restaurants and somewhere other than Stoke having friends who were on their feet. I Mandeville. They are now seen as the think we did make a difference. Between first ‘Paralympic Games’ although at the 1964 at Tokyo and 1968 at Israel the time the term was not used; in fact they Japanese built up a really good table were still called the International Stoke tennis team and developed a purpose- Mandeville Games. So from 1960 on, the built community centre for housing and annual International Games were held at training their Paralympic athletes.’ Stoke Mandeville except in the Olympic year when the Games would take place in the same country as that of the Olympic host and in Rome, in 1960, the International Games were held for the first time in the Olympics venue Sculpture unveiled in 2012 immediately after the Olympic Games.

Sir Ludwig Guttmann died in 1980, at the The Japanese were keen to host a Games following the 1964 Tokyo Olympics after age of eighty in Aylesbury. Sculptor Jacko they had seen the success of the Rome (Mark Jackson) was commissioned to Games and created a positive working create a life-size bronze statue and this was installed at Stoke Mandeville relationship with Stoke Mandeville. This Hospital. Jacko, who is himself a ‘near positive experience was not repeated in Guttman looks on as HM The Queen 1968 when the Olympic Games were held congratulates an Israeli prize- miss’ in spinal injury terms, was severely in Mexico City but financial constraints winner at the official opening of the wounded in a parachuting accident while Stadium in 1969 and issues of accessibility prevented them serving in the Army's elite Parachute hosting the Stoke Mandeville Games. Regiment. Instead, Tel Aviv stepped into the breach At the 1956 Stoke Mandeville Games, as hosts. Guttmann was awarded the Sir Thomas

Fearnley Cup by the International

In an interview, athlete Sally Haynes said Olympic Committee (IOC) for his

‘I remember Tokyo in 1964; the day meritorious achievement in service to the before the ceremony the British team Olympic movement through the social were all taken out onto the grass and and human value derived from

Guttmann was addressing us all. He said wheelchair sports. our prime reason for being here was as ambassadors for Great Britain and as Guttmann became a naturalised British

citizen in 1945. He received an OBE in

1950 and in 1957, he was made an

Associate Officer of the Venerable Order of Saint John. In 1960 he became a CBE

and he was Knighted in 1966. In addition to the sculpture, the In 1961, Guttmann founded the British International Paralympic Committee was Sports Association for the Disabled, presented with a bust of this extraordinary neurosurgeon and it is now which would later become known as the taken to all the summer and winter English Federation of Disability Sport. games. The Stoke Mandeville Stadium Stoke Mandeville Stadium was opened by was renamed Ludwig Guttmann Sports HM The Queen in 1969, as an Guttmann presenting a gold medal to Centre for the Disabled in his honour. international centre of excellence of sport Tony South at the 1968 Summer Paralympics in Tel Aviv for men, women and children with disabilities. Claire Connick

19

Anglo-Jewish History Gradually the Jews of England were undergraduate, Joseph Banks, paid Lyons The Jews of coming under considerable pressure. By to deliver a series of botany lectures at

Cambridge the middle of the thirteenth century their the University of Oxford. Lyons was wealth had considerably diminished, due selected by the Astronomer Royal to to the taxes and loans they had to make to compute astronomical tables for the

the King. The archa of the Cambridge Nautical Almanac. Later, Banks secured community was removed to Ely and in Lyons a position as the astronomer for the 1224 the King took Benjamin’s house, on 1773 North Pole voyage. After his marriage

the site of the present Guildhall, to use as a to Phoebe Pearson he settled in London. jail. There he died of measles at the age of only thirty-six, while preparing a complete In 1275 the Cambridge Jews themselves – edition of Edmond Halley's works Cambridge being a dower town of the sponsored by the Royal Society. Queen, Eleanor of Provence – were banished from the town (see The Queen’s Gold, p.5 ). They were resettled in there were enough Huntingdon, but fifteen years later all the Jews of England were banished by Jews living in the Edward I. town to found a small The Cambridge Traditional Jewish During the years of the Expulsion a few congregation Synagogue Jews are known to have lived in Cambridge, teaching Hebrew at the University, though they could not practise Although there is mention of a Jewish There is evidence to show that there were as Jews, and many were forced to convert community in Cambridge as early as 1073, enough Jews living in the town to found a to retain their posts. When in 1655 the only a few years after William of small congregation. An interesting Jews returned to England, several are Normandy brought the Jewish members of description of a service there was known to have settled in Cambridge, his court from Rouen to England, this published in a provincial paper in 1798; mostly scholars at the University. One, seems to have little historical validity. The the Mr. Lyon referred to in the report was Israel Lyons, had a distinguished career as first Cambridge Jew of whom there is any the Rev. Solomon Lyon. Formerly of a mathematician and a botanist. He was factual information was Theobald of Prague, Lyon taught Hebrew to members actually born in Cambridge, in 1739. He Cambridge, a convert, who supported the of the University; among his pupils were was regarded as a prodigy, especially in sanctity of the young St. William of Benjamin Cohen, Moses Montefiore's mathematics, and Robert Smith, master Norwich, one of the earliest stories of brother-in-law, and lsaac Nathan, the of Trinity College, took him under his wing blood libel relating to England, and was musician. and paid for his attendance. crucial in establishing the legend of the boy The report says: A Jewish Synagogue, a martyr. small building near Mr. Lyon’s academy in The Cambridge community had an archa, Jesus-lane, neatly fitted up, and capable of the chest in the Middle Ages containing holding about 100 persons, was Jewish records and precious possessions, consecrated in the usual manner. The place which indicated a settlement of some was completely filled, when the ceremonies importance. There was certainly a commenced as follows: the two sacred rolls synagogue in the town, and a tradition still containing the Pentateuch (written on exists that the Round Church (one of only parchment according to customary rules) four remaining in England) near St. John’s were brought from the house, under a College had at one time been a synagogue. canopy, to the synagogue, and in the same The parishes of St Sepulchre and of All The Round Church, Cambridge manner carried round the pulpit, during Saints are still known as being ‘in the which time Mr. Lyon, accompanied by the

Jewry’. One or two names have been children and several of the congregation, handed down as living in the town. There Due to his humble Jewish origins, Lyons sung the 16th verse of the 118th psalm, was a Magister Benjamin, sometimes was not permitted to become an official assisted by a band of music; the rolls were referred to as being the same as Benjamin member of the University of Cambridge. then laid upon the pulpit, when a long of Canterbury, a grammarian, and a Nevertheless, his brilliance resulted in his prayer accompanied with music was woman, known as Comitissa, who was publication at the age of nineteen of chanted: the rolls were then carried into fined for allowing her son, Moses, to marry Treatise on Fluxions, and his enthusiasm the ark where they remained during the a Jewish woman from Lincoln, without for botany led to his survey of a Cambridge evening service, after which the form of permission of the King. Flora a few years later. An Oxford consecration began. The rolls were taken

20

from the ark, and carried seven times passing of the Cambridge Reform Act of Waley Cohen and Professor Selig round the pulpit by different persons, 1856, which abolished the obligatory Brodetsky. The Cambridge Hebrew several verses were sung during their Christian oath which had preceded Congregation became the Cambridge procession and between each time a graduation. In 1858 Cohen became the University Jewish Society. different psalm; after which, prayers were first professing Jew to graduate at There are now two active Jewish offered for the Royal family, the Cambridge. congregations in Cambridge. The Beth chancellor, vice-chancellor, and the rest of Shalom congregation was founded in the university, the mayor, the aldermen, 1981, having developed from the and corporation; then followed a prayer, Cambridge Reform Jewish Community in which each name of the subscribers which was established in October 1976. was mentioned, with their several sums The Cambridge Traditional Jewish subscribed to the building of the Congregation occupies the ‘Lyon’s synagogue; then followed the Sabbath synagogue’ 1937 building and is run evening service consisting of various during term time by Jewish students. passages from the psalms and other parts There is also the Cambridge Progressive of the Old Testament, which were all Jewish Community under the chaplaincy chanted. Several gentlemen of the of Professor Nicholas Lange, and several Hebrew religion came from London on Jewish groups within the University. this occasion, whose excellent voices gave universal pleasure. Several of the masters and other gentlemen of the university, Solomon Schechter in the Geniza and many ladies and gentlemen of the town were present, and the whole Another distinguished Jewish scholar spectacle gave satisfaction, as it afforded whose work has become internationally evidence of that toleration which the laws known, was Solomon Schechter. He was of England afford to persons of different born in Romania into an orthodox Jewish religions and sects. family. It is said that he learned to read Hebrew by the time he was three and

by five had mastered the Chumash. He

studied at yeshiva and then went to the Rabbinical College in Vienna. He was The Beth Shalom Synagogue invited to Britain to be tutor of

Rabbinics under Claude Montefiore in London. In 1890, he was appointed to the The ephemeral nature of university life Hebrew faculty at Cambridge, serving as a makes it difficult to establish formal lecturer in Talmudics and reader in Jewish organisations, but Cambridge has Rabbinics. There is still a Schechter always welcomed its links to Judaism and Memorial Lecture, arranged by the the distinction that Jews have brought to students of the University’s Jewish the university. Society.

Schechter’s greatest claim to fame is his discovery in 1897 of the Genizah from Philippa Bernard Arthur Cohen, the first Jewish Cairo, when thousands of medieval graduate Jewish manuscripts were found and brought to Cambridge, under Schechter’s That congregation seems to have faded supervision, where work still continues on for some time until it was re-established their preservation and examination. in 1847 when it worshipped in the University’s Union premises. By now the The Cambridge congregation continued to anti-Jewish legislation which prevented grow, the students helping to maintain Jews from gaining degrees was beginning services, and by 1912 was operating from to be questioned, and in 1849 Magdalene behind a cycle shop opposite Sidney College admitted Arthur Cohen to Sussex College. It was not until 1937 that read Mathematics. He became President it acquired its own purpose-built of the Cambridge Union Society. As a Jew synagogue, helped both financially and he could not take his degree until after the with encouragement from Sir Robert

21 Editorial

The fact that the Quarterly still reaches you, despite all the Covid-19 restrictions, is due to the wonderful efforts of the Kent House staff who magically continue to administer the necessary procedures from lockdown positions. However, the fact that you received the January issue on time is due to the heroic efforts of Gary Sakol, the Executive Director. When the rules forced him to close the building down, the periodical had not yet been posted and the hundreds of copies were waiting to be franked and taken to the Post Office. Brave Gary lugged all these very weighty sacks of printed matter into his car, together with the franking machine, took them home, franked them and then delivered them to the Post Office. We owe him a huge debt of gratitude for actions well beyond the call of duty.

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Littman Library have added the following to their donations to the Reinhart Library:- 1.Maimonides the Universalist: The Ethical Horizons of the Mishneh Torah by Menachem Kellner & David Gillis 2.Collected Essays, Volume 3 by Haym Soloveitchik

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Drone Zone! Following the brilliant distribution of Chanukah gifts to members by our wonderful volunteers, it was decided to deliver ready-prepared Seder plates in time for Pesach. However, the attempt failed when the Charoset started leaking. It has now been decided to use drones to send Cheesecakes to everyone for Shavuot. The chief executive of the delivery company, OLAF LOPRI, says that he hopes for great results!

22 Poetry page

THE PANDEMIC

EXPERIENCING PASSOVER 2020 EXPERIENCING PASSOVER 2020

I knowIt was only among a few us,questions no one asknew relevant it I know only a few questions as relevant Only aIt few moved as important, among us, as no spiritually one knew related it Only a few as important, as spiritually related It progressedYes a few asthrough moving, us, as no timeless one knew it Yes a few as moving, as timeless AsAn the invisible, question silent Jews enemy ask on leaving Passover no nighttrace As the question Jews ask on Passover night No traceA question besides which that of defines death andthem sorrow A question which defines them A questionA trail which of destruction resonate andthrough we knew their about generations it A question which resonate through their generations ButThe what Jewish is that lasting unrelenting mystical serial bond killer The Jewish lasting mystical bond Is it“Why a mythological is this night monster different risen from from all theother depths nights?” of Time “Why is this night different from all other nights?” Is it a creature arrivedA night frombeyond one the of realitythose ‘out of Time of this world’ worlds A night beyond the reality of Time A nightWorlds experienced so distant every that yearit had as to if restfor thein China? first time A night experienced every year as if for the first time Is it as old as man, its twin formed in the matrix of life

A creature bentMagic on is destruction not exclusive homing to childhood in on the human cell Magic is not exclusive to childhood Magic,A habitat a world it usesbeyond and the destroys usual patternto move of on life Magic, a world beyond the usual pattern of life But thereA worldis no room I experienced for death onin life,Passover wars 2020are to the end A world I experienced on Passover 2020 And fearOn travels Corona throughout Passover I the touched world a as screen fast as Covid On Corona Passover I touched a screen A magic screen through which I transcended isolation A magic screen through which I transcended isolation A small magicalNations’ surface thanksleaders to imposed which I strict celebrated lockdowns with other families A small magical surface thanks to which I celebrated with other families A magicLockdowns link which and took their me ruinous all the way side to-effects Jerusalem A magic link which took me all the way to Jerusalem But yetJerusalem Covid will the be enddefeated of the as great were journey its next of kin Jerusalem the end of the great journey Defeated, its existenceThe great added Jewish to medical journey history archives The great Jewish journey A journey throughDefeated countries, but not by continents, a cave dweller’s a journey monster through Time A journey through countries, continents, a journey through Time A journeyNot by Moses some started invading in alienEgypt spitting that very fire night A journey Moses started in Egypt that very night A nightDefeated forever by its different natural from all time all otherarch- rivalnights A night forever different from all other nights Annihilated by the miraculous power of man’s miraculous brain

ColetteColette LittmanLittman Colette Littman

23

WESTMINSTER SYNAGOGUE Kent House, Rutland Gardens, London SW7 1BX

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