NA

NungBEFz il2 suMiviER 1986 EEji-j-t-- The for Judaism, The Manor House, 80 East End Road, Contents London N3 2SY Telephone : 01-346 2288

MANNA is the Journal of the Stemberg Centre for Judaism at the Manor House and of the Manor House Society. 1 Editorial-The Real challengeofwaldheim

MANNA is published quarterly. 3 WhoKilledJesus-Andwhy?

Editor: Rabbi 6 SimonRockerDownandoutofaJobinJewish London Deputy Editor: Rabbi william Wolff Art Editor: Charles Front Editorial Assistant: Elizabeth Sarah 8 BensegalThe Night lwas serenadedwith carols

Editorial Board: Rabbi Colin Eimer, Rabbi Dr. , Rabbi 9 Riva Krutwhat FutureforJews in southAfrica? David Goldberg, Dr. Wendy Green- gross, Reverend Dr. Isaac Levy, Rabbi Dr. , Rabbi Dow 12 Sam G®rvyHowHatikvah-And sam-Were Born Marmur, Rabbi Dr. , Pro- fessor J.B. Segal, Isca Wittenberg. 15 JeffshearJewish FamiliesAreatRiskin Britain views expressed in articles in Ma#ricz do not necessarily reflect the view of the Editorial Board. 16 Alan untermanTalkingto God...AndAbout Him

17 poverty-We Must Get off the Fence Subscription rate: £5 p.a. (four issues) including postage anywhere in the U.K. Abroad: Europe - £8; Israel, Asia, Americas , Australasia -£12. 19 Alexandrawright speech -The ultimate Healer

INKLINGS by Rrdbbi I:ionel Blue will be 19 Letl:ers back in MCL]ma's next i.ssue.

21 DavidGoldberg Lastword

The cover illustration i§ an ink drawing by Suzanne Perlman - `This is tlie Law Moses commanded us...'. An exhibition of Suzanlie Perlman's work will be held at the Manor House from the 6th to the 29th July. EDITORIAL

TIII: REEL IIELLE:NGE: OF] WIALDHEIM

HE ELECTION OF almost equally alarming. and domination. The agenda Kurt Waldheim as Pres- At the Manor House we raises questions about the Tident of Austria is a sad have recently erected a relationship between economic and disturbing event. Its sig- memorial to the victims of the policies and the preservation nificance, however, should Holocaust. At the top of the of civilised values. It asks not be seen primarily in terms slender aluminium column is basic questions about the use of a recrudescence of Nazi the single Hebrew word and abuse of technology. It ideology in Europe. z¢cfoor, remember. The probes our passivity and easy To be sure, there are alarm- memorial has not been placed acceptance of so much we are ing and chilling reminders at the front of the house, the shown or told. Above all it that fascist philosophy still first image to greet visitors, challenges us to reconsider has its takers. From the suc- nor has it been placed in a hid- the purpose and role of man - cess of the far right in recent den spot in the grounds. It aTnd the place of God. An French elections to the stands at the back of the agenda shot through with so emergence of the ultra Manor House, prominently in many difficult and challenging nationalists in South Africa - the background. That location questions. But how else to complete with swastika-like is considered and eloquent, avoid further disasters? emblems and German march- because for all Europeans the The issue raised by the. ing songs - it is apparent that Holocaust stands prominently Holocaust today is not, as Hitlerian tendencies are far in our background. It is the some theologians would from dead. Even at England's unavoidable setting of the sec- suggest, primarily about for- opening match in Mexico, a ond half of the twentieth cen- giveness. Nor is it just about banner was unfurled bearing tury. It creates an agenda the dangers of a revival of the legend "West Ham N.F.". demanding discussion and Nazism and antisemitism. The But those who flocked to action. central issue is whether the vote for Waldheim did not do That agenda poses ques- world is prepared to face and so, in the main, to express tions about achieving and tackle the post-Holocaust nco-Nazi beliefs. As one polit- maintaining truly open gov- agenda, the background from ical commentator observed, ernment committed to which we all have emerged. Waldheim almost certainly scrupulously honest language Austria has voted `no'. benefited from the World and a free press. The agenda Perhaps she is unique only in Jewish Congress accusations, involves tackling such issues having had the opportunity to with many older Austrians as individual responsibility in vote. The Jewish task is not voting for him in protest at the face of immoral actions by merely to supply evidence of the discussion of events they others and in the face of law guilt to an unwilling court. It would far rather forget. The used as a coercive or racist is endlessly to remind the election of Kurt Waldheim is force. The agenda demands world that the past cannot be not primarily a vote to revive discussion as to how to tackle laid to rest merely by forget- the past, rather it is a vote to human prejudice, how to deal ting it. I forget the past, which is with propensities to violence

MANNA SUMMEFi 1986 I

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I Roman rule, was threatening the T_HE EXPLOSIVE QUESTION High Priest's own position as politi- cal representative of the Roman THA:I WILL NOT BE DEFUSED occupation - like Laval in occupied France. Jesus was a threat to the Romans because he declared himself to be the rightful king of Israel, who would fulfil the prophecies and set up the `kingdom of God', ie. an independent theocratic Jewish state. His Thumphal Entry into Jerusalem was a direct challenge to Roman rule and to its quisling Jewish supporters, the Sadducees and Herodians. Consequently, he was arrested and interrogated by `` I ..,.,'`-`, `..\,..`,\,. the . High Priest, who handed him over to the Roman Governor, Pilate, for execution. Pilate, who was in historical fact a brutal and corrupt governor, is white-washed in the Gospels and portrayed as mild and sympathetic to Jesus, in pursuance of the prQ-Roman stance For more than 1900 years the answers given by most Christians to these two Of the Gospels. `a'< questions have been part of anti-semitism's most vicious armoury. In my view, the character known We asked four world famous experts to give us an update. as Barabbas, in some manuscripts called `Jesus Barabbas', was actu- ally Jesus himself. Barabbas repre- sents the split-off political aspect of N MY VIEW, JESUS WAS figure who relied on a miracle from Jesus, ie. the aspect of Jesus which crucified by the Romans for God to defeat the Romans. His the Gospel-writers wished to reject. the same reason that so many I pacifistic sayings were inserted or Consequently, in the co-urse of the other Jews were crucified during the slanted by later editors in order to Gospels, his character is increas- same period - because he was the portray him as utterly harmless to ingly vilified, until in the latest Gos- leader of a messianic movement the Romans. This accords with the aiming at the liberation of the Jews pel, he becomes a mere `bandit'. pro-Roman stance of the Gospels, It was only after Jesus' death that from Roman rule. Standing in the which suppress all evidence of he was turned into an otherworldly way of this obvious conclusion, how- Roman oppression and portray figure, and thus divorced from the ever, are certain strongly-urged con- Roman rule as benevolent and just. struggle against Rome. At this tentions in the Gospels. That Jesus Jesus' alleged conflict with the stage, he began to be portrayed as was a non-political pacifist. That his Jewish religion does not stand up to conflicting with the Jewish religious enemies were not the Romans, but scrutiny. His allegedly `anti- authorities, the Pharisees, who the Jews, whom he offended on Pharisee' teachings are in fact quite were alleged to have plotted to religious, not political, grounds. in accord with Pharisaism. He even bring about his death. Also, the And that he came to offer not liber- uses typical Pharisee sayings such High Priest's antagonism to Jesus ation, but salvation. If these Gospel as, `The Sabbath was made for man, was now misrepresented as being contentions can be shown to be not man for the Sabbath'. His man- religious in character, instead of untenable, and if the motives of the ufactured alleged `offences against Gospel writers in advancing them political. The reasons for Jesus' Pharisaism were not even men- death were transformed by the can be explained, we must fall back tioned at his trial. His `blasphemy' on what is the prz.773a /czcz.c explana- growth of the Christian myth, which in claiming to be the Messiah, was I attribute mainly to Paul.. tion of Jesus' death, given the cir- not blasphemy at all. It was a politi- cumstances of his time. cal offence, for which he was tried Hyam Maccoby I.s czz/ffeor o/ Revolution in Jesus' alleged pacifism is con- in the police-court of the High Judea, The Sacred Executioner, cz#d The tradicted by his violent behaviour in Priest, who was a quisling appointee T\rtyth Maker and Librarian of driving the money-changers out of of the Romans. The Synoptic Gos- College. the Temple, and his distribution of pels never show Jesus claiming swords to his disciples, reported divine status. Such claims are found 0 ANSWER SUCH A only by Luke. It should be con- only in the latest Gospel, that of question correctly one must ceded, however, that he was not a John, based on developed Church not have in mind either militaristic leader like Judas of T doctrine. The High Priest was Judaism or Christianity. What one Galilee, or Bar Kochba. He was of indeed partly responsible for Jesus' must be fully informed about is the the same type of Theudas, death, but this was only because historical circumstances in the described by Josephus as a prophet- Jesus, by proclaiming the end of Continued on next page

MANNA SUMMEF} 1986 3 Roman Empire in the first century himself as the Messiah of the line of Pilate insist on Jesus' innocence, of the Christian Era. At this period David he believed himself to be, or though he is coerced by the crowd, the Empire was stretched to its he would probably have been seized which is inspired by the chief limits, maintained by military might and executed. priests, into executing Jesus. and an elaborate system of political The question of the title now The simplest explanation of government. It embraced not only answers itself . At this time in the Jesus' crucifixion is this: since he countries ruled by consent, but also Roman Empire it was high treason was executed by Rome as a rebel, by conquest, and be delegation. for anyone to claim kingship in any he really was a rebel. The Gospels Israel was officially administered area without the assent of the try to obscure this fact in order to intitially by the heirs of Herod the Emperor and Senate. Eventually avoid Roman wrath in their own Great who died 4 BCE and who had Jesus deliberately committed that time. appointed the Emperor Augustus as high treason when he rode publicly There are two things wrong with Trustee. But it was virtually into Jerusalem just before the Pas- this explanation. Firstly, it makes annexed to the Roman Province of sover as `king of the Jews'. He was nonsense of the teaching material Syria, under a Legate whose seat secretly arrested by the authorities ascribed to Jesus and requires that was at Antioch, and in Judea a acting for Rome so that the Jewish most of it be attributed to sub- Roman Procurator had replaced people should be in complete ignor- sequent Christian invention. Sec- Herod's son Archelaus. No assent of ance of what was taking place. Had ondly, it does not account for the the Jewish people to this change it been otherwise, and especially at fact that the disciples, after Jesus' had been invited or given. But ele- the Passover season, the freedom death, were not rounded up and kil- ments of the Jewish hierarchy and festival, there might well have been led. In subsequent years they lived aristocracy were prepared not only an insurrection. In the dead of night in Jerusalem, never troubled by the to tolerate the regime, but even to Jesus was brought before the anti- Romans, and on the whole pro- be subservient to it, provided their semitic Roman Procurator Pontius tected by them. privileges were respected and the Pilate and sentenced to immediate These objections have persuaded Temple services maintained. The execution. The crime of which he most scholars that the `Roman Romans favoured such an arrange- was guilty was affixed to his cross: opposition only' theory will not ment, and were happy to have sac- `This is Jesus king of the Jews'. work. The most popular view has rifices offered at Jerusalem for the It was all very legal and official; been this: Jesus offended the welfare of Rome. another good day's work for Roman Pharisees by disputing with them Naturally these circumstances over the law and calling them peace and security. But in the event `hypocrites', and he offended the gave deep offence to pious and pat- it was the Roman Empire which riotic Jews. For them Roman rule died. Jesus and Israel live on.I chief priests by attacking their was enslavement, and a blasphemy revenue - the `cleansing of the tem- of the God of Israel. Inevitably ple'. These two groups allied in resistance movements arose, nota- Hugh J. Schonfield I.s ffec az!ffeor o/ The order to persuade Pilate to have bly one under the leadership of the Passover Plot, The Pentecost Revolution a#d him executed. Those Incredible Christians. famous Judas of Galilee. As a con- The weakness of this view is that sequence the whole country became the disputes between Jesus and the like an occupied, police state with Pharisees are intrinsically unlikely, soldiers and spies everywhere. The as they are depicted, and trivial devout in Israel became confident CCORDING TO THE even if true. An example: one Sab- that God would speedily send the Synoptic Gospels, Matthew, bath day Jesus and his disciples ultimate king of Israel, His A Mark and Luke, in his early walked through a Galilean grain- anointed, the Messiah. Books to career Jesus had conflicts with the field. Being hungry, the disciples, this effect multiplied, and the Scribes and Pharisees over the \aLw, not Jesus, plucked some grain and appearance on the scene of the while at the end he clashed with the ate it. The Pharisees immediately prophet like figure of John the Bap- chief priests and elders in ]e;rusalem appeared and accused Jesus (Mark tist was widely held to be a portent for threatening the Temple and 2:23-28). For decades most critical that the Deliverance would not long claiming to be the Messiah. But he scholars have recognized this entire be delayed. was put to death by the Romcz"a for story as an invention of the early When Jesus appeared on the claiming to be `king of the Jews'. church, created in order to justify its scene there was a further develop- A good deal of scholarly own breaking of the Sabbath. A few, ment. He appointed twelve emis- ingenuity has been expended trying committed to believing whatever saries to the Twelve Tribes to call all to make sense of all this - either to they are told, still piously discuss lsrael` to repentance so that the explain how it could be that all the curious habits of Galilean Deliverance would take place, and three groups, Pharisees, chief Pharisees, who spent their Sabbaths God's Kingdom on earth would priests and the Roman administra- camped out in grainfields, but most overthrow and replace the Roman tion, allied to do Jesus in, or to recognize the story for what it is. Kingdom of Iniquity. Jesus choose among them. In assessing The other narratives about Jesus, described himself as the Son of the evidence, it must always be the Pharisees and the law are only Man, an apocalyptic title. He was borne in mind that the Gospels have slightly less likely and equally tri- forced to speak in parables about the intention of shifting responsibil- vial. Jewish scholars like Geza Ver- the Kingdom because of the spies ity from the Romans to the Jews, mes] have recognized for some time and informers who would be in the and they go out of their way, espe- that there is no substantial trans- crowds. And he could not announce cially Matthew and John, to make gression of the law attributed to

4 MANNA SUMMER 1986 Jesus in the Gospels, and that the After Jesus' death it is notewor- you, there are some standing here sapposed conflict with the Pharisees thy that his disciples were harrassed who will not taste death before they must be dropped as a substantial by the chief priesthood but not by see the kingdom of God come with cause of his death, and of recent the Romans or the Pharisees. Acts power' (Mark 9:1). Very soon God years they have been joined by narrates many instances. From would act to save his people Israel many Christian scholars. Josephus we learn that, in the year and establish his kingdom upon That leaves the chief priests as 62, the High Priest Ananus had earth (cf. Matt. 6:10). the principal opponents of Jesus, James the brother of Jesus exe- Ever hesitant to think or speak of cuted. Albinus, the Procurator his own person in messianic terms, :#haen:wt:aT:Et£:I::n±:tku£:£3:SLa:: designate, was informed by `those Jesus nevertheless came to grant independently agreed that seeing who were strict with regard to the himself some kind of positive place the chief priests as the ones behind law', probably the Pharisees, he in the inaugurating of God's reign. Jesus' execution is the best interpre- wrote to Herod Agrippa 11, and Were this not the case, we should tation of the evidence: both that of Ananus was deposed (Antiquities have no way to explain how the the Gospels and that of Josephus, XX:199-203). This helps reveal the Romans saw fit to kill him in the who describes the numerous execu- true source of opposition to Jesus role of pretender, `king of the Jews', tions in the approximate time of and his movement: the chief priest- as testified in all four gospels (Mark Jesus. hood, but not the Romans or 15:2, 26; Matt. 27:11, 37; Luke 23:3, The situation was this: After Pharisees . I 38; John 19:19). Here Jesus' repu- Herod Archelaus was deposed in 6 ted kingship converges upon the CE, and Judea turned over to I Gezavermes, Jesz4s ffe€ Jew, London.1973. divine kingdom. 2 E. P. Sanders, Jesz4§ o#cZ /wczcrism, S.C.M. Roman Prefects, the Prefects in fact Jesus had risked everything for London. 1985. lived in Caesarea, on the coast, and 3 E||is Rivkin, Wfecz/ Crwczfz.cd Jcfus? rtie what he saw as God's promise. As they left the High Priest and his Political Execution of a Charismatic, S.C.M. matters turned out, he was unable advisors in charge of Jerusalem, London. 1986. to actualize messianic reality, i.e., with only a small Roman garrison. no catastrophic deliverance by God The first obligation of the Jewish ever took place and hence his own lea.dership, both to Rome and to the Professor E.P. Salnders is Prof essor of Biblical potential role was aborted. The Exegesis at Oxford and author of Ptlul tmd papz4/czce, was to prevent the out- people of God were not redeemed break of signs of insurrection, which Palestinian Judaism, Paul, the Law and the Jewish People ¢#d Jesus and Judaism. from their gentile enemies, and would lead the Romans to intervene God's righteousness and justice directly and bloodily. They were were not implemented. Upon the very successful for a long period of cross, the Davidic pretender could time, though over thirty years after only demand to know why his Jesus' death things got out of hand. ESUS OF NAZARETH WAS Father had abandoned him (Mark Joseph Caiaphas, the High Priest executed by the Roman 15:34; Matt. 27:46). No avenging when Jesus was crucified, was the J authorities upon a change of hosts of heaven entered the fray, no most successful: he held office for sedition. warrior angels came to the rescue. seventeen or eighteen years. Charis- The key to the fate of Jesus is the There was only silence, and death. matic leaders who gathered a rabble Jewish teaching of messiah and the Jesus of Nazareth was not a false and promised `God's kingdom' were divine kingdom. Although that messiah. He was a failed messiah, very quickly put down, together teaching forbids any dichotomizing executed between two other Jewish with as many of their followers as of religion and politics - such sep- revolutionaries. Crucifixion was the seemed necessary. Jesus was a aration is a relatively modern idea - standard Roman instrument for charismatic preacher and healer, he the teaching fully allows for theolog- dealing with seditionaries and other had a small following, and he talked ical or religious understanding on capital criminals. From a Roman about `the kingdom of God'. In this the one hand and politic or laic perspective, the charge of political circumstance `the High Priest rebel was in Jesus' case quite accu- `Politically'(/czos, people) speaking, integrity onJesus the other.stood Caiaphas and the [Prefect] Pontius rate. And from a Jewish perspec- Pilate cared not a whit how or by within the Pharisee ranks of resis- tive, Jesus could not possibly be whom the kingdom of God would tance to Rome. `Religiously', or construed from the standpoint of be ushered in, but only that the apocalypitically speaking, he set the messianic deliverance. The world Roman emperor and his instru- reign of God against all earthly suf- remains unredeemed. The attribut- ments would not reign over it' (Riv- fering and sin. ing of `messiahship' to Jesus could kin, p.83). They did not regard Evidently, Jesus fully shared his take place only through the Jesus and his followers as militarily people's developing messianic spiritualization that came to take dangerous, nor did they think that expectation. With others he linked captive the Christian community. To they had a concerted plan to over- that expectation to the imminent spiritualize the death of Jesus is throw the government. But talk of coming of the kingdom of God. The completely to betray Jewish mes- `kingdom' was inflammatory, and entire life of this Cfeflsz.d from the sianic-historical consciousness.. the chief spokesman was marked for Galilee embodied his early persua- `expedient demise'. Caiaphas and sion, held in common with the sec- Pilate agreed that he was danger- taries of Qumran, that `the time is ous, though his followers were not, fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is AL. Ftory Edra:nd:1 is emeritus professor of relig- ion studies, Lehigh University, Pennsylvania and so they arranged for his execu- at hand' (Mark 1:14). Later, Jesus and a clergyman in the United Methodist tion. assured his hearers: `Truly, I say to Church.

MANNA SUMMER 1986 HAVE TWICE BEEN UN- communal common sense. At a employed, the first time in a Doom AND OUT time when fear of assimilation is I post-student daze of not know- OF A JOB IN rampant, it hardly seems approp- ing what I wanted to do, the second riate to encourage people to drop time when the magazine I worked out because they are not of the for folded. Altogether, I have `right grade'. notched up two years of drawing JE:WISH Previously for young people who dole. couldn't settle down there was an My first view of a kz.p¢fo in the I-OrooN answer. They could go to Israel. But benefit office gave me an odd com- this is no longer felt to be an option fort-. As though it represented a bro- for those without means. ken taboo. Like many I felt deep Simon Rocker The loss through unemployment down that Jews should rely on s.elf- of, let us say, a thousand people help and that to turn to the state who might otherwise contribute was somehow to `let down the would further tighten the communal people'. Irrational of course. I purse. Perhaps their income makes expected that an obviously jewish little difference. It is usually forgot- Jew would keep out of the dole ten amid satisfaction with Jewish queue, not for pride, but out of a self-support that schools, youth nagging historical fear that the loss clubs and old age homes are heavily of his economic independence dependent on state aid. But then, as might endanger his religious free- the fundraisers say, every half dom. That he would be tolerated as shekel counts. long as he made no claim on society. The community thus has a vested I am not aware of having felt such interest in looking out for its qualms for myself . unemployed. It may not be able to No one knows how many help people find a job, but it can do unemployed Jews there are. more to make them feel `included'. Demography and research are not One girl told me she was aggrieved Anglo-Jewry's favourite pastimes. that so few Jewish groups adver- The revelation of the full extent of tised a reduction for unemployed at this `hidden problem' would proba- their events. I don't know how many bly be as unwelcome to many as the organisations could afford to drop knowledge now that the community their entrance fees, or how many is smaller than they think it ought to people are through financial be. Some, on the other hand, hardship shut off from Jewish con- embarrassed by affluence, would be tact. But it's the ffeoztgfef that mat- relieved to prove some unemploy- ters . ment in our midst: look, they could Loneliness may be the main prob- say, we suffer from this, too. lem. The children of small provin- Several youth workers from Lon- cial communities are moving out don Jewish clubs told me that and into big cities to seek their for- unemployment does not appear to tune. I left Newport, a tiny dwindl- be a major worry for the young - ing congregation, for London, and but it is not unknown. For those my father's sister's family. For six who have trouble finding a job, it is months I was sheltered in a second believed, there is always an uncle or home. Others may have to fend for a cousin or a friend of an uncle's themselves straight away. And friend to throw them a line. I have the number of their rivals - often quietly they slip out of Jewish life. no idea of the situation up north - younger and better qualified - that While unemployed, I found Shab- though one lady working for the the penny drops. Then panic sets in. bat morning something especially to Agz4d¢fe services in Manchester said Then there are the people not look forward to for the synagogues there is much anxiety because of it. ready for early retirement in their offered a change of scene. But There is probably more cause for fifties ... they may be neglected although services were well- concern among the middle-aged. most of all. attended, I was struck how few of The executive who loses his post is It is felt that Anglo-Jewry is so my age were there. Most ffez{/a seem expected to find a new niche pretty absorbed in the belief of its success unable to attract the single adult quickly. But the newly redundant that it is unable to cope with those and there are few other places commonly fail to anticipate the who fall outside its social norms. In where people can meet free of crowded market and are unpre- effect, it abandons them. Status and charge. The stranger, wandering pared - unlike the young - for the prosperity, these promised things. into sfe#/ out of social need more long wait and week after week of Work hard and the reward is clear. than custom, can no longer rely on rejected applications. Often, I If you don't make it, you fail. And if traditional Jewish hospitality in big believe, people take pages of ads in you fail, you're not wanted. London synagogues, though he can newspapers and magazines as sign Let us not debate the morality of do in ffz.cb/s. He may soon be put of plenty. It is not until they realise such a view. Consider it in terms of off. More shocking to my father

MANNA SUMMEP 1986 than my continuing unemployment could easily go to. similar `lay-by' period to mine. It was my lack of Shabbat meal invita- Just after Pesach came my first may take up to a year for a graduate `career' job, with a new magazine. tions, once I had moved out from to decide where he or she wants to my aunt. By the end of the year the magazine go - with less mobility in the mar- Moreover, were it not for housing and job had gone. During this sec- ket, there is less room for trial and benefit it would be impossible for ond spell of enforced leisure, there error. It can be sensible to stop, many young people to live near were moments of feeling `1 am take stock and wait rather than rush most Jewish neighbourhoods. never going to get out of this'. It for the first vacancy. In those cir- My own spells of unemployment was then that I probably could have cumstances, voluntary work with a were not difficult to ride out, but done with some job counselling. communal organisation may be an they cost me time. I noticed how Much of that time is forgettable, intelligent use of time. Perhaps one others had `moved on'. I floated on a long stretch in which I can see and could reasonably expect volunteers the hope that sooner or later some- think of nothing. But I remember to simply step forward. But an thing would turn up. In the cir- the shabby gloom around the dole organised campaign to invite young cumstances that was reasonable. queue. people into communal service on Public school and university edu- Unemployment Benefit Offices short term, specially arranged cated, from a warm middle class are dirty, miserable places, where schemes might prove more success- Jewish family, I was entitled to none people seem perpetually to be stub- ful. In effect, this would be a Jewish of the despair that might haunt bing ash into the floor. The staff mini-community programme, run someone stranded in an industrial look harassed, their clients beaten on voluntary lines. wasteland. down. That any civility survives in For schoolchildren with little or I could draw on the emotional the dole queue often surprises you. no qualifications, the road ahead is support of my parents and my aunt's You are grateful for a gentle word. harder. Whether there is demand family - perhaps too much. I was Sometimes an individual stood enough to justify setting up training comfortable, enjoying the luxury of out from the common dejection. and counselling in youth clubs only indecision, an option not open to One hot summer day in front of me research can tell. It is a problem the mass of unemployed. a pale, perspiring boy, stripped to that youth organisations including Sometimes the very sense that the waist, was turning in a circle, as those within synagogue bodies must unemployment is so widespread can if round an invisible pillar. His thin look at. serve to demotivate you. No hope, shoulders twitched. He was mutter- One or two centres experiment why try? This is one of the ing inaudibly. He might have been with `creative leisure' during the psychological traps. trying to confine his private demon day. There are isolated offers of free After five months in London - in in a ring. Jewish learning. Arguably, develop- my tenth jobless month -I became I began doing some freelance ing such ventures may be most valu- an assistant in a Baker Street writing, odd articles that broke up able of all as models of a more `lei- souvenir shop, selling union jack the drifting days. In August I got a sured' future. pencils and Princess Di spoons to job with another magazine in a dis- Perhaps in most need of help are tourists, mostly American. Had I mal part of Kilburn. That fell the middle-aged who fall victim to been an /vrz.f speaker, I would have through after 3 days leaving me to sudden redundancy. This group had ample chance to practise the the sanity of televised cricket and seems to be the biggest user of the tongue. A New York Lubavitcher allowing me my first trip to Lords. B'nai B'rith Employment Service. once offered me fc/z./I.#. I liked tak- By the beginning of the next year Not least of their worries is the ing money but the work was numb- my freelance work was picking up effect of their insecurity on their ing. It convinced me that working in and I contemplated coming off the families. Among them, too, can be itself cannot be moralised as better dole altogether. When a part-time the most bitter alienation from than not working - to adapt to their post at the Museum of the Jewish Jewish life - they do not know working day, many must be compel- East End was offered me under the where to turn for support. One man led to switch off a large part of their Community Programme scheme, I told me how his friends had failed mind. So much for the dignity of felt my luck turn. him. Sympathy, yes, he got a little, labour. It's the human company that Simply as a location, the Manor but practical aid such as suggested keeps you going. House is the most pleasant place I contacts, none. I had plenty of time for reading in have worked in, its spaciousness a I don't believe that unemploy- the shop. I had begun reading more welcome contrast to a small room in ment will just go away, the seven seriously about Israel a few months a flat. The feeling of having some- lean years giving way to years of before, after the Lebanon war where to go in the morning and the plenty, with jobs for all. broke out. I remember days in my camaraderie around a lively work- Nor must it be thought purely an aunt's flat glued to the radio for place were a refreshing change. inner city affliction. It rears its head news, or in agitated thought. I had Since I naturally sympathised with in Hendon and Golders Green.. after all little else to occupy me. the Museum project, I found dou- The start of the next year, having ble value in my work: it was some- moved to Swiss Cottage, I became thing I could feel for rather than S}rmon Ftodrer was born in Cardiff in 1957. involved in Mapam, which was just do. Within two months, I was From Clifton College he won ari o|)en scholar- nearby. Besides its geographical and ship to New College, Oxford, where he read given my chance with the Jcwz.sfe political attractions, it was one of Chronicle . English. He completed graduate research at the few Jewish places that anyone in York Ur3iversity before taking up a visiting I would imagine that there are sludentship at John Hopkins in Baltimore in my social and economic situation not a few young Jews who face a 1981 .

MANNA SUMMEFt 1986 HE VISIT OF POPE JOHN tend to be interminable. When the Paul 11 to India in February THE NIGHT I assembly dispersed, Mar Clemis T brought inspiration and plea- and I shared a simple supper. He sure to the thriving Christian com- WAS SERENADED spoke of his travels to Rome, to munities of the sub-continent. London, but above all to Israel. Among their many sects the WITH CAROLS When he learned that not only had I Cnanaya are of special interest. lived in Israel, but that I was They were contacted by Rabbi Jewish, he leapt from his chair and Avihail whose work was described Ben Segal embraced me. `This is a happy by David Hulbert in M¢7!7?cz 9 inoment', he exclaimed. He sum- (Autumn 1985). monded his priests, and lined them Christianity is said to have been up in the dining room to sing carols introduced to Southern India by the for my benefit. Apostle Thomas himself. That is not Shortly before midnight Mar improbable, for in Kerala is the Clemis took me to a dais in the Spice Coast to which the monsoon Cathedral. The plain white-washed winds carried sailing vessels before building was filled with worshippers the days of steam. A Jewish pre- from wall to wall. They were a dev- sence in the area was probably more out and attentive congregation as ancient. Solomon's `ivory, apes and they followed the Aramaic liturgy, peacocks' (I Kings 10:22) may have intoning the responses and par- been Indian. Thomas's first convert ticipating in the singing. The hours was, according to legend, a Jewish passed slowly as dawn approached. singing-girl who understood his But suddenly Mar Clemis waved to Aramaic, or Hebrew. And he won me in the middle of his address; he the support of other Jews before he beckoned to me to mount the pul- met martyrdom near Madras, where pit. I spoke a few words, bringing relics of the saint are still to be seen. greetings from Israel and from the It was, however, another Thomas, Jewish people. They were received a native of Cana, perhaps the vil- with solemn shouts of praise. lage of Galilee of the New Testa- In one respect the situation of the ment, perhaps a town in Arabia, Cnanaya has become more difficult who gave Indian Christianity fresh in recent years. They lay great stress vitality. He led, we are told, seventy on the use of Aramaic, rather than families who settled and prospered the local language Malayalam, in around Cranganore and Cochin in the church service. But this runs the region of Kerala in 345. These counter to the recent decree of the are the Cnanaya - wrongly called Vatican Council which encouraged `Canaanites' - and today they use of the vernacular. At least one number around 40,000 souls. Some member of the Cnanaya advocated are Roman Catholic, others Jaco- a novel solution. I visited Mr. bite. But while other Catholics and Thomas on his rubber plantation Jacobites do not intermarry, the outside Trivandrum, capital of the Cnanaya do. They marry only State of Kerala. He outlined his among themselves, and it is of no views with deliberation as he significance whether one partner is pointed to the books in his library. under the jurisdiction of the Pope He had taught himself Hebrew, and or of the Jacobite Catholicus. They he had translated the sz.czdwr into keep to themselves. Some of their Malayalam. Two of his sons are traits are those that characterize a studying at ycsfoz.vof in Israel. And minority, as Jews will readily recog- when I met him he was about to nize. take the final step - conversion to A member of the Jacobite Judaism. Alas, his wife died shortly Cnanaya, Dr. Jacob Vellian, a well- after our meeting, and a year later known scholar and theologian, he followed her to the grave. described their qualities to me - We should watch the progress of their eagerness to study, their been dubbed Jewish Christians. the Cnanaya with sympathetic con- generosity and their efficient com- I visited Mar Clemis, Metropoli- cern.. munal organisation. Equally strik- tan (Archbishop) of the Jacobite ing is their aloofness from the main Cnanaya, on Christmas eve in 1981. body of Indian Christians. They per- Dressed in magnificent red vest- PROFESSOR J 8 SEGAL wczs born !.# IVcw- form religious practices that are ments, he greeted me in the open castle in 1912. He visited Palestine frequently where his father was a distinguished Hebrew peculiar to themselves. At Easter square. It was crowded with men, they eat unleavened bread an9 have University professor. He is Emeritus Profes- women and children who listened to sor of Semitic Languages at London Univer- an evening meal reminiscent of our the speeches of the clergy in reve- sity's School of Oriental and African Studies seder. Small wonder that they have rent silence - and in India speeches and President of .

MANNA SUMMER 1986 WrmT FUTURE FORJEWS IN

RIvfl KRUT

EARIY THIRTY YEARS tions'[, for a journal called Ha- and hard-hitting politics. That it fell ago in South Africa, Sfeczcfe¢r, a volume issued by the on deaf ears then, and is virtually N Rabbi Professor Solomon South African Jewish Ministers' unkown today, is a sad loss to South Rappaport wrote an article called `The Synagogue and Race Rela- Association. His article is brilliantly African Jews and to Judaism. But poised between acute I)hilosophy ironically his argument may have

MANNA SUMMER 1986 even more significance now than in they are given the opportunity to races' do not meet socially, live the 1950s, and certainly merits participate in society, the oppressed together, attend the same schools, repeating. can make tremendous contributions or even get educated according to a The Synagogue in South Africa, to the wellbeing of society as a single syllabus, live under the same argues Rappaport, unlike the whole. laws, or have equal access to jobs Church, has not confronted the Rappaport was writing in the and resources, it is an act of opposi- necessity of dealing with the prob- wake of the Holocaust, and pointed tion merely to see things from a dif- lem of race relations. Because there out the obvious analogies to be ferent perspective. Simply to bcg!.73 were no black Jews in South Africa, drawn between the racial stereotyp- fo scc is an act of revolution itself : to it was not essential for Judaism to ing of the Jews under Hitler, and the look at residential conditions of address racial questions within its ideology of Apartheid. Since then, black South Africans, to drive community. Because, however, analogies between the Jewish through their `townships', infringes there were blacks and whites in the experience and the experience of the law, and social codes embedded Christian community, Christianity black South Africans have in white South African society. To was obliged to consider both its pos- increased. The construction of the ask obvious questions that arise ition in South Africa and its view of Pale of Settlement for Russian from this vision - how can one con- the race question. While this was Jews, for example, isolated the Jews tinue to live like that? - what kind convenient for South African Jews for forced removal, job restriction of government is this that (and perhaps for Jews in other com- and progressive impoverishment in dehumanises the majority of its munities) Rappaport contends that a programme similar to that laid out people? - is little short of revolutio- it was a `striking disadvantage from in the grotesquely named `Home- nary. To persist in asking these ques- the moral and spiritual point of land Policy' in operation in South tions, knowing that such thoughts view. It exempts the Jewish com- Africe since the 1960s. are dangerous, knowing the com- munity in general and the But history is not a turf which can forts so easily at white fingertips - Synagogue in particular from defin- be tilled each season to produce the the `lekker lewe' (Good Life) of a ing its attitude towards the problem same crop. One analogy that was private swimming pool, beer and of race relations and applying the not drawn explicitly by Rappaport rugby, sunny skies, white beaches teachings of Judaism to the question was the comparison between South and fast cars is virtually heroic. of an equitable adjustment between African Jews as white South Afri- Ungar was deported in 1957. Had members of various races'. cans, with gentile German society he been a South African, he would For Rappaport, the dynamism of of the 1930s. And yet, distasteful as have been imprisoned. The white Judaism came from the tension bet- it is to Jews in particular, this com- South African opposition is acutely ween two antithetical ideas - the parison must be made, and has been aware that to oppose the system is looking inward to the particularities made, by Andre Ungar, a Hunga- illegal and dangerous; not to oppose of the Jewish experience; and the rian Holocaust survivor who trained is inhumane. The choice, I would looking outward to universal as a reform rabbi in England and argue, has been felt most acutely humanitarian principles. This, Rap- went to South Africa from 1955-7 to among Jews. In every decade this paport argues, was not a political lead the Port Elizabeth Temple century, Jews have been in the van- statement but a Judaic ethic, and it Israel.2 guard of opposition to Apartheid - bound the South African Jewish Ungar points out that the analogy conspicuous members of liberal and community to the duty of working between European Hitlerism and socialist movements, and massively towards a just society. The teachings South African Apartheid is blind- over-represented as a group among of Judaism, the historical experi- ingly obvious, especially to one like white political prisoners. These ence of the Jewish people, and the himself, a survivor who could now activists face not only the terrifying `revenge myself for my Jewish impo- Jewish existence in the modern prospect of police harrassment and world, all demand this. tence during the 40s' and a `teacher arrest, they are also ostracised by The teachings of Judaism, Rap- of prophetic Judaism and its moral their own community - the general paport insists, at their most implications'. After a short while in white community, and the organised developed stage passionately reject South Africa, Ungar was able to Jewish community. The South Afri- any differentiation of human beings describe the kinds of problems can Jewish establishment distanced according to racial descent. In faced by white South Africans -and itself from, and eventually Judaism itself , religion and ethics by implication, Jewish South Afri- denounced, Ungar's attacks on are everything, while blood and cans as well - if they wanted to regis- Apartheid. In such a context, what race count for nothing in assessing ter their protest. `God knows', he has become of the South African the worth of a person.. Judaism is reminds us, `it is easier and less Jewish community? And what reinforced in this respect by the his- dangerous in South Africa to hate future can they expect? torical experience of the Jewish the black than to hate racism'. people. This has shown how difficult In the context where opposition is Demographic Patterns it is for a people to exist under con- outlawed, where a vast bureaucracy The Jews living in South Africa ditions of oppression, and how once ensures that people `of different today number about 110,000 (1980 fig.) and the community is rapidly dwindling. Projections calculated in

' The Synagogue and Race Relations was 1981 indicate that by the year 2000 the South African Jewish commun- republished in a collection of essays by 2 Andre Ungar, Sowffe Afri.cc! in Eugene Rappaport, Jewish Horizons (Johannes- Heimler (ed) Resistance Against T}Jranny ity will number somewhere between burg,1959), 235-247. (London,1966), 25-62. 62,000 people at the lowest estimate

10 MANNA SUMMER 1986 and 100,000 at the maximum. The that any Jew can claim an Israeli ing political party. It has failed to upper projection regards birth, mor- passport at any time, so Israelis may invoke the absolute moral standards tality and assimilation rates as con- relinquish their passports and take and ethics of Judaism. It has not stant, and looks only at the decrease up South African citizenship to said, to South Africa or to its own through emigration. Emigration facilitate their rights to work there. Jewish community, `Here stands figures are difficult to assess The 1980 census indicates nearly Judaism ...' It is therefore sad, but 7,000 Israelis in South Africa. unsurprising, to witness the prolifer- ieecnatusdeo:genstoTitsifhferi::I:gfooJseronr- Unlike previous Jewish immigrants, ation of anti-semitic slogans in ethnic identity of emigrants, and the and following much more the pat- recent politics, and the familiar con- only `Jewish' figures that are availa- tern of European immigration to nections being made between South ble are those of Jews going to Israel. South Africa at the present time, Africa and Israel, the ANC and the Total Jewish emigration figures are Israeli immigration is largely `target thus guessed at by doubling the work' - people who leave their :oLn?j]raanc;.4CapftalismandaJewish number leaving on cz/I.);¢fe. Even the families in their home countries, or There has now emerged, for the statistician who devised this system who come out as young couples, first time since the 1930s, a secular acknowledges that if it errs, it `con- and return after a few profitable Jewish opposition, called Jews siderably underestimates' the total working years there. The Israelis do Against Apartheid (JAA). Jewish emigrant wave. Moreover, not mix much with the established Although their strength is still when he projected the decrease in Jewish communities where they set- unclear, they appear to have sup- population over the next few tle, and, unlike the overwhelmingly port in Cape Town and Johannes- decades, he took figures from 1970- white-collar, high-finance South burg from some reform rabbis and 4 as the basis of the rate of emigra- African Jewish community, are Jewish politicians. Significantly, one tion and applied that to the period engaged in blue-collar work and in of their spokespeople is Jessica 1980 - 2000, noting the rate from lower level commerce: accountancy Sherman, the daughter of a 1975-9 as being exceptionally high. and shopkeeping. The sheer size of reform rabbi, whom I remember Thus his projected rate of departure the Israeli presence in South Africa as the female Paul Robeson of the ignores the spurs of Soweto 1976 provides easy ammunition for alle- Cape Town black liberation move- and continual social and economic gations of ideological links between ments - trades unions, consumer unrest since then. The last decade Zionism and Apartheid, but the evi- boycotts, women's issues -when I has witnessed an increase in incen- dence suggests that the arms trade was a student in the 1970s. tives to leave South Africa - it now between the two governments has It is groups like JAA, however seems clear that many Jewish white little to do with the presence of an small, that must be allowed to show South Africans who remain are Israeli population resident'in South the way forward for a South African doing so largely because they can- Africa. Jewish future. It is they who are ful- not afford to leave. filling the third mission outlined by The lower projection of 62,000 by A Jewish Future? Solomon Rappaport - providing a the year 2000 took a `medium' emig- It is possible to feel considerable sound basis for a continued Jewish ration rate, and added some vari- sympathy for the South African existence in the diaspora. It is they ables which seem irrefutable: a Jewish community - children of who will reclaim the Hebraic con- decreasing fertility rate, based on refugees from Russia at the turn of cerns for humanism and charity the general decline in fertility rates the century, one generation born in which are presently seen as the exc- among westernised Jews, and the South Africa, and their children lusive province of Christian teach- progressively ageing community in once again migrating to another ings. It is they who will compel South Africa; and a strong increase country. But the community should responsible leaders of Judaism that in assimilation, a trend which was not expect to be treated differently the continued existence of Judaism already discernable in the 1970s, from other whites when majority in the diaspora must go beyond self- and which will no doubt continue as rule comes. As far as the black com- preservation, and must make a the Jewish community declines in munities are concerned, the Jewish genuine , humanitarian contribution number, and as the white commun- attitude to Apartheid has not been to the societies in which Jews live. . ity finds new ideological coherence one of criticism but of co-operation. in the face of a continuing revolu- In the early years of this century, tion which does not distinguish bet- when racism was being instit- ween whites.3 utionalised on the pattern we see In addition to these factors, the today, the Jews were vulnerable to 4 One needs to live in South Africa to get a total number of Jews has been kept anti-semitism. Their response as a proper picture of this. I was, however, artificially high over the last few community was to emphasise their shown a recent leaflet that was distributed decades by the z.mmigration of whiteness and their rights to South at the Johannesburg TRrain Station (black commuter section), making all these allega- Israelis in large numbers. Estimates African citizenship ahead of blacks tions, and some wildly inaccurate addi- here are complicated by the fact and Asians. In its time, that choice, tional comments. if not laudable, is at least under- standable. But in the 1980s, after some decades of prosperity, the RIrva K:rut grew up in South Africa. She has a PhD in History from London University, on 3 Figures taken from AIIie Dubb, Dcmog- Jewish community has not substan- the subject of South African Jews. She pre- rapA!.c Pz.cfwrc, in Marcus Arkin (ed), tially altered its tune. It has, albeit sently works full-time for the Spiro Institute, South African Jewry: A Contemporary Sur- with a few liberal flutterings, consis- and also teaches on the Alyth Adult Education vey (OUP,1984), p.26. tently bent with the wind.of the rul- programme.

MANNA SUMMEFi 1986 ill i-==

coming were steaming away in the HOW kitchen. Other than the sizzling of silvery droplets of water dancing on HA:TIKVAH the hot top of the shining black coal stove and their muffled puffs as they - AND SAM - ended up in tiny wisps of cloud, there was quietness. Everywhere was clean. There was a faint aroma- TRERE BORN tic smell. The earthen kitchen floor had freshly been refurbished with a mush of manure from the spans of Sam Gorvy of oxen farmers who daily came to make their purchases in the assort- ment of colourful small shops WAS BORN IN THE DARK around the square. I was named Shemuel ben ha- hours of the morning of the In the bedroom Dr. Tregaskis Levi - Samuel - a name primarily I 21st of March,1907. soaked a wad of cottonwool with because of its religious connotation In barefooted haste a young black chloroform, set it over the lower and indirectly, also, after the father child had taken a message to Dr. parts of my mother's face and, by of ha-Levi, the celebrated Hebrew Tregaskis to come quickly because the light of a paraffin lamp and can- poet and philosopher of the my mother was about to give birth. dles, delivered me. eleventh and twelfth centuries. And the doctor came as speedily as Seven and a quarter pounds. However, it seems that I may not `Eina!' I must have cried at myi he could push his bicycle over the boast of my biblical name. Samuel, worn, unlit gravel streets which led baby awakening. I cried out very the prophet, was probably not the to our little house facing Church loudly when I received my baby paragon of virtue as students in Square in Heilbron, a czorp in the smack. And, I am told, the doctor Scripture variously claim. Self- Orange Free State, South Africa. said: `What strong lungs you have!' aggrandizement is suggested in The clock of the church in the mid- As it is written, I was circumcised some of his prophecies. dle of the square had just ponder- on the eighth day. At sunrise. My Abraham Isaac Segal arrived in ously struck four. mother's father, Abraham Isaac, Eretz Yisrael, the Holy Land, from The doctor hurried into a home being an exceptionally religious Romania with a sister and a brother blurred by mist. Pots and kettles fil- man and dexterous mohel, elected in 1874, as a boy of 16. Here he led to the brim with water for my to do the operation. became a sopfecr and continued this

12 MANNA SUMMEF} 1986 sacred profession of a scribe in see each other before they showed that, from cholera. The second, South Africa. To this day Torah themselves under the cfez4ppczfo in Leah, our mother, born when scrolls by his hand adorn arks in sfe%/. Our granny thought she had granny was 15, was four at the time Johannesburg synagogues. got by the ban. One morning while of these tragedies. My memory of him is that of a she was sitting upstairs in sfew/, sepa- Poor Feiga was almost demented. deaf, tall, lean, stiff man with a rated by thick curtains from the Who can blame her? Two children long, flowing white beard, intoning view of the men downstairs, as is dead. No husband. No money. A lit- from the rcz/773wcZ or painstakingly the custom, a naughty lady, so tle girl to look after. And pregnant. writing at a window of the dining granny said, peeped through a tear The fourth child was a boy. The room of his new home in Frank fort, and slyly made her also peep. She birth was welcomed with the also a village in the Free State. saw a handsome young man. greatest happiness. "That bczfez4r is going to be your Measuring from his temples was a When Abraham Isaac heard the `cfeoscz#", the lady winked. lock of hair announcing that he was good news he hurried back home `nurtured at the breast of the Law' Granny was delighted. Such a and never left his wife again. I do and that he was `a child faithful unto good-looking bridegroom! How believe they really were fond of the Lord' . exciting! How wonderful ! each other. ' The parchment for his scrolls he Imagine granny's disappointment The year 1896 was one of high had himself prepared from the on the day of the wedding when decision. By then the demand for unblemished kids he had himself under the cfeL4ppczfe she saw standing Torah scrolls by the limited com- sacrificed, as were the geese for his next to her, not the young man she munity in Palestine ahd dwindled quills. fell in love with at first sight that and Abraham Isaac had difficulty I remember him pottering around morning in shul, but Abraham Isaac providing for his growing family. He the kitchen, eternally vigilant that Segal. would emigrate to America. So he the `table utensils and culinary ves- I asked granny why she married gathered up his wife and his seed sels' were being kept kosher strictly so young. She said her mother and, with a heavy heart, bade according to HczJ¢cfez.c tradition, and wanted to see her married during farewell to the land sworn unto his inspecting the salted meat on a her lifetime. I ask you - how old fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. wooden board to make sure that it could her mother have been when Accompanying the party was was purged of every drop of blood, her only child was 13 years old!' Levi, my father-to-be. Nineteen. which, if consumed by man, would Dora goes on to say: `1 was fasci- This clean-cut able-bodied lad was a imbue him with the bestial passions mated listening to granny about her bright agricultural scholar from a of the animal. That is forbidden: `Ye early married life. Often she used to college, primitive thought it was, in shall eat the blood of no manner of pack up a parcel of clothing and off Rosh Pinnah, a town neighbouring flesh' . she would go to her mother. "I do on Safed. I-Iis parents, Jacob and I saw all classes of people wishing not want to be married any more", Penina, wanted him to become a to interview him. They wished to she would grumble to her. "You're a medical doctor and had been in cor- discuss the Bible with him. And widow, you can have him", she respondence about him with a rela- Creation. They craved his know- sulked when she was scolded and tion, a Professor Fireman, at a ledge on the Lord, our God. ordered to go back to her husband. Washington University. `Of course', the professor But I feared him. I cringed when Then, again, while Abraham he turned his hairy face on me. If Isaac was at the yesfej.t;czfo, she would answered. `Send him along. I shall my mother was not near I looked to go out, this time to meet her girl look after him'. my grandmother to soothe me friends. When he came home there Jacob and Penina were relieved. against her bosom. I loved my was no Feiga; there was no food There was no question of money. grandmother. Feiga was her name. cooked and the house was untidy. They were rich. And Penina had Feiga was the only child from the And he had the worry to go and find high hopes for her darling son. He second marriage of a renowned his child-wife somewhere in Safed. was such a pleasure to look at. And theologian in Safed, during the mid- She was playing five-stone with her so clever! Besides Hebrew, he was nineteenth century, Chief Rabbi friends on the flat roof of one of the fluent in French, English and Barach Kahane. He died at sea houses, a popular place in the even- Arabic. He must have a status in while on his way to a distant land ing after a hot summer day. this world, she dreamed. She her- where he had been called to pass And then she had children. Three self was brought up in Odessa where judgment in a serious case of divine girls to start with. That spelt trou- there were lights and there were transgression. He was buried in ble. Her jealous sister-in-law had no fashions; refinements and shows. Tiberias, close by Maimonides, they children and in spite kept nagging Here she was hobbled. Here, where Say. Abraham Isaac with a vague law of rituals proliferated, her family was Feiga was eight years old. the ancient Hebrews about having ensnared by the past. They could She was barely thirteen when her three girls in a row. He must leave afford to send him to the best of uni- widowed mother arranged her mar- Feiga. This he unbelievably did and versities. riage to Abraham Isaac, a youth of went to far-off Morocco. Feiga was With unremitting zeal Jacob had 18. left broken-hearted with three chil- become a very successful farmer. I must now let my sister, Dora, dren and a fourth child on the way. With virility he set about cultivating tell her story: Shortly afterwards the eldest was crops and rearing livestock. He also `Bad enough', Dora says, `that poisoned by a medicine wrongly dis- opened up an hotel and built a marriages were arranged; but then, pensed by a chemist, and the series of rooms for his labourers. also, a couple were not allowed to youngest died within weeks after Continued on next page

MANNA SUMMEFi 1986 13 Now, among the lodgers there By the time Jacob was apprised of merchantmen which called at the often slept a bedraggled wanderer - this change of plan they were far on port to bunker coal and take.on pro- one, Naftali Herz Imber, a soul with their odyssey, through relentless visions, boosted trade and the shop many a hiding-hole in the darker heat and debilitating dysentery, prospered. Two children were born reaches of his chequered career, but along the east coast of Africa, to -first, David and then Dora. one who received the adulation of find that oasis, if not of milk and Meanwhile a sombre cloud was the admiring folk wherever he honey, of nuggets of gold. beginning to loom large over the lit- roamed. With no more prompting Jacob was distraught when tle household. My father was than the whiff from a glass of informed. He had suffered a succes- absenting himself more and more brandy he was, with a teeming and sion of agonizing blows. His elder often from the shop and money was ardent brain, able to release such a son, Gedalya, had emigrated to missing from the till. The business torrent of expressive rhymes that he France. One son-in-law was mur- was faltering. When my mother con- left his company spellbound. dered in Persia. There was the hein- fronted him with these sinister hap- Levi had a singing voice and he ous report that Penina was caught penings, he confessed that he was could play the violin. With the other up in a pogrom and killed in the frequenting the racecourse. I do not boys he frequently spent a convivial massacre while visiting her relatives know how he came to be introduced evening with the itinerant rhymist. in Odessa. to the sport of horse-racing. Could `And Hatikvah?' I asked my He felt forsaken. He felt it have been that the horse as an father in later years. destroyed. adjunct to agriculture, he was famil- `Ah, yes, Hatikvah,' he said, lost He died in 1907, a lonely man. iar with it, and pride in one's own in thought. `Beautiful.' He hum- My brother Jack was given his animal engendered the desire to med: `Ha-ha-tik-vah' his finger a name, and I inherited his magnifi- match it against another - for a baton, `Naftali composed it there cent, artistically engraved walk.ing- wager - that he did not need an and then. We were the first ever to stick, which I treasure. introduction, but naturally gravi- sing it. In our hotel. `Ha-ha-tik-vah But to the indefatigable travellers tated into the game? I shall never ha-na-sa-ah-nah.' His face lit up. charged with great expectations. I know. However it was, it was the `Glorious. But, whoever knew our shall for a moment again revert to bane of my mother's life. She cried Hatikvah, there, then, would be our Dora: and pleaded with him to stop. `Don't worry, Leahka', he used to Hatikvah here, now -our National `They arrived in the golden min- Anthem!' ing town. But -but -there was no say. `One day 1'11 come home with a `Could the unworldly-wise Levi gold in the streets. Only plenty, fortune and well never have to work go with the Segals to America? It is plenty of red dust.' again.' such a venturesome voyage for the Levi, acquainted with horticul- But since the horse that finishes boy alone. And he would be no tural skill from his schooling in first is the winner, his choice, not- encumbrance whatsoever. Rosh Pinah, quickly found employ- withstanding his professional sagac- Certainly. ment as a landscape gardener for ity, rarely did finish first. They were It is a mz.fzi/ofe to do a fellow the affluent to assist in the support being ruined. human being a favour.' of the hard-pressed family. I some- It was 1905. `Let us sell out', she begged. `Let So Levi joined them and they all times wonder if the outlines of some put to sea together. of his handiwork cannot stil be dis- us leave this evil place.' But who knows what kind of cerned in some of the suburbs of He knew she was right, and he lis- ocean voyage! Arduous, to be sure. Johannesburg. tened. What with kc!sferz4f in a fcrc/czfe ship, Soon afterwards, full of enter- The war was long over and he was the gathering of a mz.nycz#! prise, he started a dairy farm, which persuaded to return to Johannes- Leah was then seventeen. proved successful. He now wished burg, the hub, after all, of big busi- I - as a loving son - when I look to marry his dearest Leah. Not so ness in the country. at her wedding photo, I see her as a easy at first. Abraham Isaac had a While looking around the territ- beautiful girl with an elegant figure. different idea for his Leah - at least ory for an opening upon his return, She was compassionate and gentle. a Theodore Herzl, or the like, and he went to see the Orange Free Levi had fallen shatteringly in love Levi was nothing of the sort. Quin- State. There he saw the unending with this dark-haired maiden with a tessentially Levi was not orthodox belts of flourishing maize; the peach complexion. And she with enough for him. He withheld his immense undulating grasslands. Fat him. approval. However, he later yielded cattle grazing in the meadows. So The voyagers reached Port Said. and the happy pair married on the he took my mother Leah, and my There they heard that gold was 24th May, 1899. brother David, and my sister Dora, discovered in Johannesburg, South Then disaster struck. Rinderpest and made them their home in Heil- Africa. broke out and decimated the herd. bron. `So much gold', they understood, Levi had to surrender the farm. The There I was born. Dora relates, `that all you have to Boer War had begun. Under the cir- do is to take a bucket and pick up as cumstances he despaired of starting much gold as you.wish. Just like zat. another business in the vicinity, so So why go to America? That would he realized his meagre assets and Sarri Gorvy was born in South Africa in 1907. be stupid, indeed. So they all with his young bride transferred to He began medical training in Capetown and embarked for South Africa instead,' Port Elizabeth where they fitted out qualified as a dentist in London in 1929. He returned to practice in South Africa befc)re where they now believed their EI a man's store. leaving for good in 1979. He is married with Dorado lay. The passing trade from sailors of three children.

14 MANNA SUMMER 1986 Jewish case reported to them in the involved with a number of parents last five years'. They further com- who have turned young children JE:msH mented that `Jewish people know into depressed individuals because how to look after their children'. all the worries of the parent have HLunlE:s However in a subsequent supple- been transferred to the child. The FTTffiE ment compiled by Norwood and anger towards a partner once a mar- published in the Jewz.sfe Cfero;cz.c/c riage is over, or is undergoing a dif- (3.5.85) the results of a very ficult time, is sometimes too readily AT REK interesting in-house survey were shared with the children who are made public. This showed that in forced to take sides and can be used IN B EN 7°/o of all cases dealt with by Nor- as pawns in the financial game of wood there was serious concern divorce. about the quality of physical care Similarly, the over-protective, Jeff Shear being given to children. The same powerful Jewish mother much loved survey points to a number of other in literature can be a cause of emo- issues which clearly indicate that tional stress. If a child is thought to year old Jasmine Beck ford there are many cases of severe be an under-achiever the pressures THEand DEATrl the subsequent oF FouRinquiry, hardship within the Jewish com- to do well and the difficulty of chaired by Louis Blom-Cooper munity: 38°/o of families being breaking away from the strong ties QE. , was a watershed in the history helped were entirely dependent on of Jewish guilt and duty can be over- of social work. The criticism and state benefits; 13°/o had inadequate bearing. The sense of failure, that is sacking of the two key social work- housing and 140/o had serious mari- covertly and sometimes only too ers who were involved with the case tal problems. Such realities indicate overtly given, is something which a has produced a feeling of unease that the Jewish community is not child can take a lifetime to escape amongst local authority social work- immune from the problems that the from , often unsuccessfully. ers. For many, their shaky claims to wider community has to grapple In dealing with some of these professionalism, based on the pro- with. I wonder how far off from the issues there is an obvious role for tection of children at risk, have American experience we are, about Jewish social workers working been severely tested. which Gerald Bubis has written: within a Jewish agency. A key sen- `Family life in America appears What is clear is that no social tence from the Beck ford report has worker can prevent children being beleaguered. Jewish families, long implications for all working with injured by their parents, except pos- seen as strongholds of stability, are minority groups. `The employment sibly by living with the family on a experiencing signs of disintegration of a key social worker of Swedish permanent basis. At times it is all or collapse'. origin and Anglo-Swedish educa- too easy for our `Victorian value' We know that divorce is now a tional background, supervised by a society to surrender its conscience fact of lfie within the Jewish com- white American trained senior to those working within the caring munity. In America Marcia Levine, social worker ... aroused comment professions. There is then someone from the Jewish Family Association among the black community on the to blame when it all goes wrong. in Ohio, has identified the `multi- paucity of black social workers in Working within a Jewish agency I marriage' family. The complicated social services departments in inner have often been asked if the Jewish pattern of relationships that chil- city areas' . The clear message is that communit'y can afford to be compla- dren are drawn into due to the an understanding of the cultural and cent about such issues. Put more remarriage on more than one occa- religious values of the people one is directly - is child abuse a Jewish sion by one or both natural parents working with is not only helpful but problem? often creates great emotional stress essential. This is necessary not only I do not wish to sound any alarm and confusion. Also the problems of in being able to build up good and bells or get the issues blown up out what to do with the children whilst trusting relationships with clients, of perspective. Many of us building up new relationships often but also in being able to give a remember a timely `#usk z.# pz.sk' at produces feelings within children of realistic assessment of the situation. chcder, or being implored to finish being a burden. Jewish agencies such as Norwood our chicken soup with the help of a Abuse is not just physical but also are able to offer a service to Jewish sharp pinch from our Mother. All emotional. It is often easier to be famillies who may not feel comfort- part of the warm base of the Jewish able to identify the results of physi- able going to the local authority. family. cal violence but the scars caused by The local authority may also be It is extremely difficult to gauge emotional battering may only show grateful for the assistance they are accurately the number of Jewish themselves after years of living getting in monitoring difficult situa- children who have been abused. within an `'impossible and fraught tions. At present Norwood social Each local authority has a list of situation. It is understandable that a workers are monitoring five chil- children whom they consider to be parent will talk over difficult issues dren who are actually on local `at risk'. These figures are not avail- with th.eir children, as parents are authority child abuse registers. This able and they do not record the encouraged to be more open with is in addition to the other cases men- religious or ethnic background of their children. Unfortunately, some tioned previously where there are the children. In a newsletter pub- parents who are bringing up their concerns of physical and emotional lished by Norwood Child Care children alone will talk over inap- abuse within the family. Sometimes (Winter 1984) the NSPCC stated propriate issues because there is no local authorities bend over too far that `there has not been a single one else to confide in. I have been Continued on next page

MANNA SUMMER 1986 15 in leniency towards families from a emerge. in the instruction of students from different background in their wish I have attempted to highlight the non-traditional backgrounds who to appear fair to minority com- fact that whilst child abuse does wished to further their knowledge munities. They sometimes feel exist within Jewish families it seems of, and commitment to, a Jewish unable to confront issues which they to be to a lesser extent than with heritage which they were rediscover- think may have a `cultural' dimen- non-Jewish families. However the ing. One day a young man turned sion. Beverly Warmer, Norwood's difficulty in assessing the emotional up to attend some of the classes. He Director of social work takes up this damage that is caused by guilt and was a rabbinical student at Hebrew Union College on its one year prog- point: `We can take a harder line. duty relationships is something to We know what is Jewish and what is be aware of . Often the abused ramme in Israel. He had decided to an excuse'. Often a Jewish social Jewish child may not be recognised become a Reform rabbi because worker within a voluntary agency until he or she emerges as the dis- that seemed the easiest way to learn can more readily say painful things turbed Jewish teenager or adult. what it was to be a Jew. After a to a family. Jewish social workers working while he gave up his studies at HUC But there are often conflicts bet- within a Jewish agency have a legiti- and became a full-time ycsfez.t/¢fe ween the social worker's role and mate role in working with families bocfewr. He quickly outgrew the community expectations. Some- undergoing stress who may not wish ycsfez.vczfe as well, and after a series times the community would prefer to go outside the community to a of experiments with various to ignore a problem rather than heavily bureaucratised local author- Cfeczsz.cZz.c communities became a Sat- have a child removed from the fan- ity service. Jewish social workers mar Cfeczsz.d. Last I heard of him he ily. In the few cases when Jewish must face up to the task of offering was living in Williamsburg sporting children do have to be removed a flexible, eclectic approach to a beard and pco£, and with the black from their families because of families in distress. More impor- hat, white socks and long black coat abuse, it is important that they are tantly the community as a whole of the Satmarii. placed with a caring Jewish family. would do well to understand the cur- I must admit I was puzzled by the The Beckford report placed much rent issues and pressures which may extent of his speedy transformation, emphasis on providing foster not result in children being abused much as his colleagues and teachers parents of a similar background to but which do indicate that families at HUC must have been when he those of the child. `We stress that it are `at risk'.I joined the yesfez.v¢fo. In response to is the replication of the child's cul- my questions he explained that he tural heritage to the prospective fos- found the continual discussion of ter parents' cultural life that mat- the God idea at HUC dry and Jeff Sheirr was born in Walthamstow in 1954. unsatisfying. It was relationship to ters'. By recruiting its own foster He read History at Leicester University and God, and not to the God idea, that parents Norwood are beginning to completed a Post~graduate Diploma in Social offer such a service and, hopefully, Work at Cardiff. He worked for Redbridge he was seeking. I assume that local authorities will be able to Social Services before becoming the Area among the Satmar CfeczsI.cZz.in he make a reality of the statement that I;Cam Leader of Redbridge Jewish Family Ser- found a community which lived that vice. Jewish children in care have a right relationship, without all the intellec- to live in a Jewish family. tual paraphernalia either of HUC or It is important for any voluntary even the yesfez.1/czfe. The Satmar agency to be a dynamic, innovating ideology with its rejection of moder- force. This particularly applies to BOOKS nity, of Zionism, of secular art and Jewish agencies who must keep up literature, of the world of Gentiles, with the challenges presented to did not worry him. The warmth, car- them by the distinctive patterns of TALKING TO GOD ... ing sense of the everyday penet- family life that are emerging within rated by the divine, easily compen- the community. External forces are AND ABOUT HIM sated for whatever loss of his past re-shaping the value base of the he had sustained. family in degrees and manners little Alan Unterman I was reminded of this student comprehended in the past. when reading this recently pub- There are dangers in simply ape- lished collection of essays. God in the Teachings of Conservative Judaism Although all the contributors are, ing local authority structures. For edited by Seymour Siegel and Elliot Gertel. those working in Jewish services, Ktav, New York.1985. £8.95. Paperback. or were, in some way associated with the Conservative Movement there is a difference between being `And this is the good old Boston, social workers who happen to be their contributions reflect the wider working in a Jewish setting rather The home of the bean and the cod, issues confronted by any believing Where the Lowells talk to the than committed Jews who see them- Jew today. They use the modern Cabots' techniques of philosophy and theol- selves as people working with And the Cabots talk only to God?' Jewish families for Jewish purposes. ogy to grapple with theodicy, trust, It is this latter proposition that is (Toast proposed at Harvard 1910 by providence , anthropomorphism , most important when trying to pro- J. C. Bossidy) the divine unity, the evolution of vide a valid service to the Jewish man's understanding, the pos- community. Organisational growth sibilities of proving that God exists, need not bring with it faceless OME YEARS AGO I WAS the role of ritual in experiencing bureaucracies. A warm and caring teaching at a ycsfez.vczfe in God, the death of God at service can and must be allowed to Jerusalem which specialized Auschwitz, the need for a new struc-

16 MANNA SUMMER 1986 ture in religious language to express ater reality. These insights do not correct analysis of and response to the predicate nature of godliness, remove me from God to a concent- the troubles facing our country. and the renewal of faith in a post- ration on the God idea, do not There is obviously a great deal of Holocaust world. block my responses in prayer, wor- interest in the Jewish view on the For all the intellectual energy, ship, study or meeting but reinforce problems of poverty and work, scholarship, creativity, sensitivity, them. Intellectually, it is true, they because the Jewish community, and faith of the authors, and some do not provide the comfort of con- once poor immigrants, is now gener- of the contributions are of a very sistency, for they leave real ques- ally quite comfortable. Secondly, high standard, the book is still more tions to be grappled with, real ques- because there are significant differ- about the God idea than about tions to be asked of God Himself . ences between Christian and Jewish God. It remains at the level of As the Yiddish saying has it, how- approaches to the nature of the rational distance, and speaks only ever, one does not die from a ques- problem and its solution. tangentially to the Jew who needs to lion.. ` Fun a kashe starbt men nit] . Both Christianity and Rabbinic build existential bridges, that is What I am advocating, therefore, Judaism developed out of the same bridges of the soul and psyche that is not a retreat into unquestioning milieu, that of the Hellenistic and can actually be crossed, in relating faith a la Satmar, for all the warmth Roman near eastern World and the to God. It encourages us to imagine of its cocoon-like support. The suffering and despair which the that one can substitute talking unexamined life is no greater asset peoples suffered as a result of the about God for talking to Him. As to religious belief than it is to any persecution and social turmoil of various contributors themselves other human endeavour, at least if the times. These were times in point out this is like having lectures we take Nietzsche's bo77 mof seri- which religious thinkers brought the in synagogue instead of sermons, or ously: `A casual stroll through a values of the spiritual tradition to like having a Bczr;73z.fzvczfe boy repeat lunatic asylum shows that faith does bear on the social problems of the by rote the words of the prophets not prove anything'. Nevertheless if day, by both searching the Biblical who chastize those who fufil their we do not want to end up always texts and by listening to and observ- religious duties by rote. talking to the conceptual Cabots of ing the people of the time. Certainly Unlike the rational discussion of this world because we over-intellec- the economic structure was such the nature of the divine, the more tualize, we shall have to preserve a that great disparities existed bet- typical Jewish response in thinking mz.czrczsfoz.c orientation in order to ween the wealthy landed aristocra- about God has been 777z.dj'¢sfez.c or ensure we are talking only to tic and priestly castes, and the czggedz.c: suggestive rather than dis- God.I impoverished c!mez. fecz-czrcfz, the cursive, like the Bible itself putting people of the land, and the forward an image, sometimes strik- craftspeople. ing or surprising, rather than a pac- Dr. Alan Untermann is ffac m[.#!.sfer o/ cz# So much for the common Orthodox synagogue in Manchester and a kaged statement. MjdJ'asfo is always background to the problem of former lecturer in Comparative Religion at the unfinished, raising more dust than it University of Manchester. wealth and poverty. What then settles. It parallels the relationship developed was a fundamental differ- of the worshipper to God Himself: ence in emphasis. Christianity hal- tentative, exacting, comprehending lowed the state of poverty as an intrinsically higher spiritual state, only in part, knowing yet unknow- POVERTY - WE MUST ing. If we cannot write 777z.czrczsfe whereas Judaism, in the words of today, we can at least use 77tz.czrczsfe to GET OFF THE FENCE: Rabbi Sacks, saw poverty as an `un- eke out the same themes that we try mitigated evil'. Both traditions were to deal with in rational discussion. Barbara Borts attempting to give the poor a sense The advantage of doing so is that it of dignity and worth in the sight of does not create the illusion of under- God as well as humans. For Christ- standing God, or man's relationship Wealth and R)verty: A Jewish Analysis by ians, one way was to make poverty to Him, or evil and the divine good- Rabbi Dr Jonathan Sacks. the standard by which one could ness, or the stark terror of post- Social Affairs Unit, Board of Deputies, judge true spirituality. Therefore, holocaust hope. The neater the pac- London.1985. 24 p.p. Pamphlet. the religious leaders, the monks and kage of our thought about God the the nuns, took vows of poverty, more we seem to have cut Him HE ANGLO-JEWISH many earning their living in menial down to size, reduced Him to the world is going social, and, service or through mendicancy. limits of our intellectual frontiers. T dare I say, political. In the Judaism had another approach. Critical 77tz.czrczsfez.c thinking allows us wake of the work which the Church As Sacks points out, the rabbis, too, to adventure into the straighter of England has been doing on the felt that `God loves the poor in thought-forms of theology which crisis in the inner cities, the Jewish spirit; and God is the spokesman of are common to Judaism and other world has `begun to surface and to the poor when they are oppressed'. monotheistic faiths, with the pro- present its own views on the current But, he continues, `The rabbis viso that it is not they but 777z.czrczsfe found nothing in the Biblical text to which provides the Jewish way for- ;:Cdfap]o€::tby:eTmh;s3fam¥;£=tpi[s°5:ee:: suggest that an abandonment of ward in theological understanding. the most recent contributions to the worldly goods is desirable; to the My own reaction to the Siegel debate, for debate it is. What is at contrary, asceticism was an implicit and Gertel book is to take from it hand here is a grand controversy disavowal of this world, which God the insights which make sense to me between the various political and created and pronounced to be good. as partial glimpses of an always gre- religious factions of Britain on the Continued on next page

MANNA SUMMEPl 1986 17 Nor did siding with the poor mean those now suffering from poverty. Tc/cgrczpfe of 30th December 1985 . embracing poverty. No poor man However, due to entirely under- Totally absent is any mention of was ever helped by knowing that a standable historical circumstances, the many accounts of rabbis being saint had joined his ranks. . . He was the Jewish community has long urged or urging others to emulate helped only by being given the been in danger of forgetting the God's aspect of compassion. Sacks chance not to be poor.' advice proffered by the sages, that a writes: `Compassion, the substrate This is the crux of the difference comfortable standard of living was a of judgment, must not distort judg- between the two faiths, and one prelude to a life of study, prayer and ment'. That also imples that a judg- reason why Judaism may have good deeds. Our synagogue services ment must not distort compassion. something of value to contribute to are vastly underattended. Our study What of the injunction to rise above the modern debate. The contempor- sessions compcte with bridge and the letter of the law - /I./7£z.777 sfewrczf ary poor seem to be indicating that other interests and attract only feczczz.# - precisely for the principles they would like work, and a wage handfuls of interested people. And of compassion and concern which decent enough to enable them to the level of charity, a praiseworthy are identified with the ;77z.d¢f feczczz.#, have a crack at some of the goodies aspect of Jewish communal life, has the aspect of compassion in God's of our society. Traditional Judaism, drastically dropped. character. The rabbinic tales and with its emphasis on helping the We are in danger of becoming so exhortations ask those who can, to poor to become self-sustaining, may consumed. with the desire for sec- rise above strict requirements to be more in touch with modern aspi- urity and respectability through pos- ever higher levels of piety and good- rations. session that we are in danger of ness which would manifest them- Our tradition was, above all, turning into the stereotype against selves in charity and good deeds. realistic. It realised that there woz4/cZ which we have fought for years. Sacks' pamphlet is a useful trigger be disparities in wealth due to vari- Our attitude towards success may to discussion, but that is the extent ous factors, and that people would be causing unnoticed distress of its use to more liberal minds. I be greedy and selfish. Realisation amongs the unsuccessful, the ban- remain a bit suspicious and cynical. never meant ¢cccpf¢77cc, however, krupt and the unemployed of our Sacks portrays his mode of working and from there, Judaism tried to to be that of presenting the issues people. The tendency to romanti- `... as central without being moderate the evil inclination of cise the Jewish past ignores the real- human beings through teaching and ity of poverty amongst our own authoritarian, unifying without through fecz /czcfe¢fe. Ch arity, inner city dwellers and our elderly. ceasing to be pluralist, and rational fzed¢kczfe, was made an obligation. We are in need of some soul-search- without lacking passion.' He sees Leaving the corners of the field for ing of our own, as much as any the prophetic tradition as having the poor to glean was made an obli- other group in the contemporary been a sort of `opposition party' gation. Hospitality was made an world. which failed to capture `... the obligation. Money was to be made That leads to another point. One imagination of all classes of society. available to help feed the hungry, senses in Sacks' booklet a reserve But prophetic voices, even if not fund schools, provide burial, dower and caution, and a certain manipu- Prophets, continued to be heard in the impoverished bride. The mes- lation of words which leads him the Jewish community, and are still sage was and is clear -the better off often to call a half-full glass a half- being heard - what of the soaring are responsible for the less well off empty one. He feels, for instance, works of the late Rabbi Abraham as individuals and as a community. that one cannot make a Jewish deci- Joshua Heschel? Sacks has also Our tradition did not glorify sion on the right to strike - see sec- ignored the mz.drczsfez.c tradition, wealth. No special merit accrued to tion 9 - whereas some Jewish religi- where rabbis allowed imagination the wealthy - only extra respon- ous leaders have supported the and emotion to flow. This czggedz.c sibilities, and strict admonishments. Trade Union movement and its right strand, combined with a rich Wealth brought its own troubles in to strike as a right enshrined in nor- homiletic tradition, a mL4sczr move- its wake, as Hillel points out in his mative Jewish teaching. It is ment, Cfoczsz.cZz.sin with its folktakes dictum, quoted by Sacks, `the more interesting that Sacks' view sup- and the brave moral and ethical property, the more anxiety.' The ports a certain political leaning of leadership of many non-orthodox true goal was to lead a life of `study, this day. rabbis, shows that the Jewish world prayer and good deeds'. One could The heading to section 14 is has much more to offer the modern argue that the rabbis praised work another example. It shrieks out that secular and non-Jewish world than `. . .impartiality means no bias to the because people had to work, and cautious fence-sitting statements. It cautioned the luckier scholars to poor'. Surely the point is that it also may have opinions, guidance, and mix in the world and be aware of the implies no partiality to the rich - even, dare I say, inspiration which lives which people lived. and that our tradition is, thus, an can benefit the deprived of our One misses in Sacks's paper, and egalitarian one. But the emphasis is world; and those who are truly try- indeed in other current works on surely strange. His strictures about ing to help them.I the topic, a sense of honest reflec- impartiality and balance of claims, tion on the Jewish condition. There make useful ammunition for certain are many admirable aspects in our political theories now current and tradition and in the actual way in lead one to ask whether this pain- which we Jews have generally raised phlet was intended for a specific Rz\bhi Balbim\ Borts is Rabbi of the Radlett our economic status through enter- audience. It is interesting to note and Bushey Reform Synagogue. A native of prise and education, and the Jews the warm review given to it by the California, she trained at the Leo Baeck Col- can offer some practical advice to editor Of The Spectator, in The Daily lege, London

18 MANNA SUMMER 1986 little household tasks for his master, which God breathed into his nostrils SPEECH - but had to remain under the strict became a speaking soul'. TEE UITINITE control of his creator. The legends In the light of both Onkelos's and are no more than fanciful, and yet, Nachmanides' interpretations , then , REAIER in their portrayal of a strikingly pow- one might say that wholeness can be erful figure whose influence achieved by working on that part of extended beyond the Jewish com- the soul which is tied up with lan- Alexandra Wright munity, there may be more than a guaLge.`wholeness' "e conceptis not here of hashlamah,a physical grain of truth. The passage above is chosen from notion. Perhaps the closest one There are some who question the the Maharal's tract on ethical and comes to this idea in modern terms purpose of prayer: if it is right that religious values, Ivefz.vof OJ¢77c first is the `wholeness of self' to which C. God should give a person the thing G. Jung referred and which was for which he prays, why should He published in Prague in 1595. The word #cfz.v means `path'. The sec- symbolized for him by the mandala: not grant it without a prayer? .... ond chapter from which this parag- This circular image represents Then there is the question of why a raph is taken is called, `The Path of the wholeness of the psychic person needs to pray by means of speech, for surely God knows the Worship' and the subject is prayer, ground, or to put it in mythic thoughts of mankind, and one would which includes a lengthy commen- terms, the divinity incarnate think that the thoughts alone would tary on different parts of the liturgy. in mind, be enough. And there are other Our passage focuses on the pur- The Maharal expresses a remark- equally confusing matters, which at pose of prayer. Why should prayer ably psychological insight. In recog- the very least, could be distorted by be a necessary prerequisite to the nizing that mankind is imperfect, he foolish opinions which are held by Divine granting of requests? And if sees language - the very thing that heretics. But the point is this: the prayer is necessary, why should it be distinguishes man from the beasts - purpose of prayer.is to make a per- and in particular the language of son whole in those things in which he recited aloud? Surely the thoughts is not whole, and so God, may He be of mankind are sufficient. For the prayer, as a mode of therapy praised, listens to a person's prayer Maharal, except in exceptional towards wholeness of self . What is and supplication whenever that per- cases, the answer to this question is so extraordinary in this short pas- son, who lacks wholeness, requires an emphatic, no. For another sage, is that the emphasis falls not wholeness. A person is considered to philosopher, Joseph Albo, the on God and whether he requires be a human being because he has a:ur+hor Of I:he Book of Principles- prayer, but on humanity itself and recourse to speech, and without this, and who lived almost a century its needs. Language, in expressing he cannot be considered human in before the Maharal in Spain, a human deficiencies through prayer, the fullest sense of the word ...... slightly different view is taken: can in itself be a way of healing Therefore, a person should make There are certain persons for those deficiencies and bringing good his deficiency through speech, and in this way he prays for that in whom it is sufficient to pray in about a `wholeness of self'. . which he is lacking precisely through thought alone ... There are that which makes him a human still others of so high a degree being, lacking wholeness. that they are granted even Alexamdrz\ Wrlgivt was born in London in what they do not ask for ... 1956. She read English and Architecture at Exeter and trained as a teacher at Bretton Rabbi Judah Loew ben Bazalel, Finally there are those who Hall, Yorkshire. After a brief spell in teaching Netivot Olam, Netiv ha-Avodah, occupy the highest degree, the she entered the Leo Baeck College and Chapter 11. `lovers of God'. They do not graduated in June 1986. She has just been need to pray to God, who appointed associate Rabbi at the , her home congregation. keeps them of His own ABBI JUDAH LOEW, accord, . or the Maharal of Prague In the Maharal's view, prayer can R as he is more popularly bring about wholeness in a person, known, was one of the greatest writ- and that is its purpose. How is that ers and theologians of the sixteenth purpose realized? Through the act century. In his prolific output he dis- of speech, for it is human language played a masterly knowledge of fcz/- that separates mankind from the mudic and midrashic source which animals and endows human beings he coloured with an `atmosphere' with the spiritual aspect of their `STOP WHINING' from the Jewish mystical tradition. existence. This emphasis on lan- In this way, he created an original guage, it should be said, is not origi- and profoundly challenging expres- nal to .the Marahal. Already Sir, sion of Judaism, which remains Onkelos in his Aramaic translation READ YOUR EDITORIAL relevant today. of Genesis 2:7 had translated the in the tenth issue of A4¢7?#fl and, The Maharal is known more phrase `man became-a living soul' as as Chairman of the North West- widely through the legend of the `man became a speaking being'. I ern Reform Synagogue, I feel go/cm, an artificial man, whom the Nachmanides in his commentary to moved - without taking a consensus great Rabbi was supposed to have the same verse expressed the idea in of the congregation or making fashioned out of clay. This pro- philosophical terms. Some hold the 'phone calls to Toronto - to refute totype of the more modern Fran- opinion, he said, that in?n has vari- kenstein was designed to perform ous souls and that `this rational soul Continued on next page

MANNA SUMMER 1986 19 even the remote implication that leadership will not inspire the non- also have much in common across Rabbi Marmur left Alyth through committed to return to their the divide. any Rabbi-congregation dissatisfac- Judaism and boost our member- What is perhaps less apparent is tion. I need not explain to you that ship. that the Christian churches have for Rabbi Marmur is a fine, and excep- We all know that respect, above the most part been painfullly re-con- tionally talented Rabbi and leader; all things, must be earned; it cannot sidering the minister's role through I feel that his close relationship with be demanded as a perk of office. It much of the last three decades. the leadership and members of our is surely unfalr - what isn't? - that a Some of what was regarded as congregation gave him and us a spe- rabbi must first show respect and beyond question is now coming to cial atmosphere for development tolerance for his congregation be seen as rooted, often shallowly and we all felt complimented, if per- before he/she can earn the `dcrccfe and insecurely, in the social condi- sonally sad, that he should be `head ercfz' for the rabbi for which we all tions of particular ages rather then hunted' to fill `one of the leading yearn. in a genuinely theological percep- posts in the Progressive Jewish My, I repeat, purely personal, tion of what it means to be a believ- world. message to your colleagues is: Don't ing, practising, faith-sharing com- I also feel moved to write as a ask us for a job specification since munity. It is probably in this realm member of an RSGB congregation this knowledge should be at the root that the assimilation of the Jewiish and not as chairman or representa- of your vocation. rabbinate/ministry -yes, I am aware tive of others. I have heard the hints Don't complain of inadequate that the two may not be the same - of `low morale' and `dissatisfaction' resources. Whining only brings out to Christian patterns has been most for a few years in lectures and talks defensive aggression. Rather make marked. Perhaps, in fact, both com- by rabbis and have even recently sure that you look like and sound munities have been more suscepti- heard sermons on the subject, with like rabbis deserving of our respect. ble than either would like to think growing distress and frustration. Work towards meeting the to varying social pressures. Obvi- Congregations can be accused and demands, not fighting against theln. ously some sensitivity to our times is villified - after all the occasional We have a tremendous structure of necessary if we are to function at `77cisfee bcr¢cfe' from the pulpit voluntary leadership and workers. all. Whencesoever we may draw our which has nothing to do with our Don't complain of the peculiar prob- spiritual nourishment, we have to fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob lems of volunteer/professional co- live and work in this world. But we but rather speaks of `golden calves', working. Harness the strengths need to be vigilant. and in my youth involved card play- offered. In terms of spiritual `leadership' - ing on Shabbat and driving motor When a rabbi is invited by a con- my inherent distrust of the `Fuhrer- vehicles, is traditional. But any con- gregation to lead/serve them, that prinzip' makes me use the word gregation, or movement, which congregation is asking for leader- hesitantly - this requires us to look wishes to maintain its self-respect ship and learning to maintain and again at many widely accepted stan- will not publicly declare its rabbis to strengthen its Judaism. Dear dards. The `ideal minister' seems to be inadequate. Editor, please ask your colleagues be an amalgam of, say, the cultured I don't believe the `job specifica- to grow up and stop worrying about serenity of the early Georgian `gent- tion' you suggest would surprise the job profiles, conditions, and leman in every parish' , the evangeli- rabbis I met in my Grandfather's salaries. They have chosen to be cal fervour of the early Methodist home or the rabbis he met as a rabbis so ask them to lead us and travelling preacher, the democratic child: an inspiring leader, obedient teach us in such a way that we may openness of the Congregationalist, servant, scholar and officiant at ser- respect and love them and wish to the disciplined scholarship of the vices, counsellor and social worker, return their caring without counting Presbyterian and the sacrificial celi- orator and competent adminis- the cost. bate devotion of the pre-emancipa- trator, fund-raiser, motivator, stu- tion Jesuit. Fuse those in one man Ruth Cohen dent, Jewish thinker, personal faith and his family might well say `Dad's Spaniards Close and good with people. A home and being a bit difficult today'. London NWll. family open to all. Of course, any Diluted to current taste this pro- one rabbi may not achieve ten out duces the omni-competent, tactful, of ten in all subjects. Must we compliant gentleman, or lady, who assume this to be the failing of their is always utterly self-effacing, congregation? Or may we accept though able to stand up firmly that rabbis are human and congrega- NEW TESTAMENT RABBIS against someone else - not us, of tions must tolerate weak perfor- course - when the need be, and mances in some areas? Sir, would be outstandingly good with The Progressive Movements in the children were not (s)he equally this country are dedicated to assist- OUR PAGES POINTTO A so with everyone else; etc. . , etc. . . ing the Leo Baeck College to measure of heartsearching Part of the rabbinic/ministerial achieve its potential but we are in a Y md disquiet about the rab- task for some years may well be to chicken and egg. situation. If the binate, at any rate within Progres- re-shape the gap left by this fearful membership of the Movement sive Judaism. The complaints and paragon so that it may be better fil- doesn't grow we will not provide a uncertainties of rabbis are so similar led. Pastoral care, both of the whole career structure for rabbis. If the to those of the Christian ministry and of the sick, administration, quality of rabbis doesn't improve - that it seems probable that com- finance, oversight of property, sorry, I can't avoid saying it - their ments from congregations would socio-political involvement and

20 MANNA SUMMER 1986 some forms of preaching and teach- Judah had been a Roman province ing are all aspects of the priestly since the time of Pompey, the last ministry to be exercised within and vestiges of Jewish autonomy sur- beyond itself by the people of the vived until the crushing of Bar covenant(s?) and need to be more Kochba's revolt in 135 CE Over widely developed. (Romcz#s 12.3- 1800 years of statelessness followed. 16, 1 Corz.7zzfez.cz#s 12.4-11 and Epfec- IIfr4o€J'' So all that I was saying, in admit- sz.cz#s 4.11-12 for those with a Ivew tedly over-elaborate fashion, was resfczmc#£ handy.) But we still need David Goldberg that the Likud government was the a relatively small, deeply cultivated worst thing to happen to Israel bet- group who have been initiated into ween 1948 and the present -a judg- the sources of our tradition by a pro- WOULDN'T HAVE BE- ment with which the majority of cess which both requires and incul- lieved it, had I not seen it with Israelis themselves would concur. Gates simultaneously a critical my own eyes. There, in the Lib- I As for our guest of honour, his look understanding of and loving absorp- eral Jewish Cemetery at Willesden, of discomfiture when I rose to give tion in the whole corpus: Bible, Tal- attending the funeral of a staunch the vote of thanks, and not -as he mud and/or Christian Fathers, Liberal Jew, was that scourge of had mistakenly assumed - my col- Reformers and the like - and oppo- Progressive Judaism, Rabbi Isaac league John Rayner, was worth the nents, to keep us alert. Such an Bernstein -he who refers to us as `a approach can create a prophetic- cancer' and a `public convenience'. price of admission in itself. rabbinic apostolate able to refre`sh Bravely disregarding the social dis- OR TWO YEARS NOW I the community at its springs of life eases he could have picked up in have ignored Dr. Johnson's while maintaining and developing such surroundings, Rabbi Bernstein advice that only a blockhead the tradition in a continuous F joined in with the mourners and writes except for money, and have engagement wiht its environment. recited a psalm as he followed the contributed to A4czj77z¢, a magazine In the present state of church and coffin to the graveside. Not only which deserves to succeed and s}-nagogue these people are likely to that. At prayers that evening he whose Editor I admire for his wide- exercise their particular ministry in happily acted as sfeczmmes handing ranging talents and that occasional a liturgical context as the place out the prayerbooks, and was u-here the community will have meticulously respectful, not to say quick-footedness without which no- one can long survive in the literary most chance to become aware of its unctuous, in the comments about nature and calling. Such a ministry Progressive Judaism which he made jungle. However, the time has come to concentrate on other priorities, rna.`- at times overlap the fields of during the course of his eulogy. and this willl be my last` Last Word. I man.I. specialists but its practition- What, I can hear you asking, is the can vividly imagine the sighs of ers. ``.ho will live it, though perhaps catch in all this? Well, it has to be relief around the community, and not perform it, full-time, will essen- said that the deceased was one of the expressions of heartfelt tiall}. be in some degree perplexing, the great Anglo-Jewish philan- gratitude. Which only goes to show paradoxical people, hard to thropists, whose generosity to that we Progressives can be as categorize or define. Our theologi- Israeli causes knew no bounds of touchy, as the rest of Anglo-Jewry. Gal centres of learning will need to religious denomination and Having long since learned to accept become more open to all who can included charities with which Rabbi with equanimity that complete benefit by what they can offer and Bernstein is closely involved. So his strangers can fire off letters to the more ready to identify those who new-found conviviality was not, Jew.ish Chropicle questioning ny should be encouraged to travel alas, a case of `Great is the power of sanity, my character, my motives farther and deeper. repentance', but, more prosaically, and my parentage, all because they Many so-called `ministerial skills' evidence that greater still is the don't happen to agree with my views could be moved to the margin to be power of money. about the Middle East, I am picked up at need by those wanting amazed, and amused, that my mild them. The `technologists of minis- WOULDN'T HAVE BE- references to Edgware's opposition try-must yield place to theologians: lieved it, had I not heard it with to RSGB-ULPS merger should people who will seek to relate the I my own ears. have provoked such a storm of out- divine presence and activity dis- At our synagogue's Israel Inde- rage, or that RSGB and ULPS closed and discerned in our peoples' pendence Day Dinner the guest of bureaucrats once joined forces to history to the current state of the honour from the Israeli Embassy counsel the Editor against continu- \t-orld. forsook the usual diplomatic cour- ing with my column. We all like to Is it possible that with modesty, tesies to attack me by name, quot- think that we have a sense of openness and frank friendliness, but ing from a recent snippet in A4#7z#¢ humour, but not when directed ``ithout the self-congratualtion - -Look how charming we are being as part of his broadside. Not surpris- against ourselves. For my part I find ingly, perhaps, having been a Likud that there is so much pomposity, to each other' - that vitiates so appointee, he objected to my hypocrisy and venality in communal much ecumenical endeavour, we remark that the Likud government life that humour is a necessary might in some measure share of 1977-84, was the worst thing to safety valve. So all I can say in miti- resources? have happened to the Jewish State gation is that at least I wrote under since Bar Kochba. His indignant my own name. And if you didn't like Arthur Nelson reaction only confirmed what I have what was published then you should Minister. Methodist Church, long suspected, namely that many have seen some of the snippets Wallasey Circuit Zionists are not all that khowledge- which Tony Bayfield did not dare to able about Jewish history. Although print!

MANNA SUMMEF` 1986 21 The Manor House

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