Henry Sanders 77 Years, After a Long Battle with Cancer, Companionship, Whether for (Ne Helmuth Salomon) 1918-1982 Passed Away 11 August 2004
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VOLUME 4 NO. 12 DECEMBER 2004 QIIQ journal ^^^^1^ «!i^^^^ ^ Association of Jewish Refugees Harking bacl< to ancient stereotypes The antisemitic stereotype of 'the Jew' - legislation against homosexuality and more deeply ingrained on the Continent abortion. In France, Justice Minister than here - is a composite of six traits, five Adolphe Cremieux liberalised the law of which, by strange coincidence, start and, in the USA, Supreme Court judge with the letter c: cupidity, cowardice, Felix Frankfurter played a similar role. conspiracy, cosmopolitanism and Last but not least, the current British concupiscence (i.e. inordinate sexual Chief Justice, the arch-liberal Lord Woolf, appetite). is living refutation of Dr Starkie's ill- The sixth is vengefulness as conveyed considered assertion. by the un-Christian concept of 'an eye for But the clincher in any contemporary an eye, a tooth for a tooth'. English discussion on Jewish vindictiveness is literature features two classic examples of surely the attitude to the Likud brand of the vengeful Jew in Shakespeare's Zionism. One can confidently assert that Shylock demanding his 'pound of flesh' at no time since the creation of the Jewish and Marlowe's Jew of Malta poisoning an state has an absolute majority, either in entire nunnery in retribution for his Victor Gollancz Israel or the Diaspora, favoured an daughter's apostasy. with the bizarre fact that although Wagner intransigent hardline solution to the Both these evocations of the Jewish wrote the poisonous antisemitic tract Z)as Arab-Israeli problem. The fact that the spirit of unforgiving vendetta date back fudentum in der Musik, individual Jews - Likud has been in the ascendant for the 400 years, and more 'recent' literary from Hermann Levi via Bernard Levin to last 25 years has more to do with the constructs like Dickens's Fagin and Daniel Barenboim - have been among the weakness of the Labour Party and the TroUope's Melmont have focused on other most impassioned Wagnerites.) splintering of Israel's political spectrum, undesirable characteristics. I was In the sphere of specific German- than with overwhelming support among therefore touched to the raw to hear the Jewish history one can list two further the electorate. 'telly-don' Dr Starkie (on Radio 4's instances of influential Jews promoting a In the Diaspora, lack of support for an Question Time) trace the Iraq war back to spirit of forgiveness. After the 'eye-for-an-eye' policy is even more Old Testament-inspired vengeful feelings assassination in 1922 of Walter Rathenau, pronounced. A recent fewish Chronicle for 9/11 among Christian fundamentalist the foreign minister of the Weimar headline, 'Two out of three US Jews Americans. Dr Starkie was not content to Republic, his mother appealed to the oppose Bush over Iraq', is indicative. leave it at that. Feeling he had to dot the 'i's court trying his murderers not to invoke After all, the toppling of Saddam had and cross the 't's, he performed a labour of the full severity ofthe law. A little earlier, removed a lavish financer of suicide supererogation by describing the Old during the Bavarian Civil War between bombing, and dispatcher of Scud missiles, Testament as Jewish. White and Red Guards, Ernst Toller, the against Israel. For Britain, no poll results In fact, the whole history of the Jewish commander ofthe latter, had won a exist, but it is a fact that two leading permeation of Westem thought byJewish minor victory which yielded many advocates of a boycott of Israel are Jews, influences points in the opposite prisoners. He immediately ordered the the senior MP Gerald Kaufinan and the direction. The most striking example of release of all captives below the rank of Open University's Professor Steven this occurred in Britain in the immediate officer on the grounds that they had been Rose. Similarly, two out of the three aftermath of the Second World War. At a duped by their superiors. Alas, the freed creators of Guantanamo - a play time when, in reaction to revelations prisoners immediately rejoined the White demanding justice for militant Islamist about Belsen and Auschwitz, anti- Army, which ultimately won the Civil War. (and militantly anti-Israel) detainees held German feeling in this country was In the sphere of jurisprudence too, at the US facility - are Jews: the writer running high, two prominent Jews - the Jewish influence has overwhelmingly Gillian Slovo and the director Nicolas publisher Victor Gollancz and the been exerted towards ameliorating the Kent (see Profile). And, surely, not even musician Yehudi Menuhin - took a stance rigours of the law. In pre-Nazi Germany, Dr Starkie would be able to detect a spirit against Germanophobia and advocated Magnus Hirschfeld and Friedrich Wolf of vindictiveness in the editorials of the reconciliation. (This somehow chimes in campaigned for the repeal of punitive Jewish Chronicle. AJR JOURNAL DECEMBER 2004 Gott moves in France's exposed antisemitism mysterious ways Ronald Channing Richard Grunberger Racism and antisemitism in France are on the majority of antisemitic acts in France the increase and could pose a threat to were carried out neither by supporters of Recently the New Statesman's critic the country's democratic values, says a the far right nor by disaffected youth of Richard Gott lauded Professor government-commissioned report. North African origin. 'Antisemitic acts France is host to Europe's largest Jewish are the work of a far more diverse group Overton's The Dictators: Hitler's community, numbering some 600,000, of French people, who use Jews as their Germany and Stalin's Russia, while and President Chirac only recently made scapegoats', he concluded objecting to a number of other books a strong appeal for racial and religious Mr Rufin went on to deduce that comparing the two tyrants. He wrote: tolerance. Interior Minister Dominique pronounced anti-Zionism amounted to a 'Somewhere, in the ever-popular de Villepin commented that the report's form of antisemitism worthy of equal "parallel lives" genre, a study of revelations were 'utterly unacceptable in reprimand: 'Anti-Zionism legitimises the a country like ours'. Franklin D Roosevelt and Adolf Hitler Palestinian armed struggle, even when it targets innocent civilians. Thus it could surely must exist. One put the In the first nine months of 2004 the number of racist and antisemitic attacks also legitimise violent acts committed in Japanese in concentration camps, the and threats was higher than that France', he said. 'By the same token, other locked up the Jews. One took recorded for the whole of last year - accusations of racism, apartheid and control over America's traditional including 166 attacks and 584 threats Nazism against Israel ...could, by sphere in Latin America, while the against Jews. These included desecration extension, put France's own Jewish other moved decisively into of cemeteries, swastika graffiti on population in danger' Germany's obvious heartland in Jewish-owned property, fire-bombings Mr Rufin proposed legislation of synagogues and verbal abuse in eastern Europe. So how come these combating antisemitism and racist acts schools. and specifically targeted regulations in startling parallels have been largely Contrary to general belief, however, schools: The very foundations of the ignored by historians and publishers?' the results of the report's interviews and French republican model forbid its I assume that Gott penned these analysis of police statistics by the report's citizens to be differentiated according to lines wath satiric intent, but a scintilla author, Jean-Christophe Rutin, show that ethnic or religious criteria,' he said. of nagging doubt remains. Some iconoclasts have a passion for tearing down hero figures from their Life certificates: a new development pedestals. The vandalising three Michael Newman years ago of the Churchill statue in From January 2005 onwards, Austrian embassy as well as the cost of having Parliament Square proved that to members of AJR will be able to have certificates authorised by doctors or some on the anarchist left the greatest their Lebensbescheinigungen (life notary publics. Briton ever was simply an imperialist. certificates) notarised either at the AJR Life certificates will be issued in Never mind that he helped rid the offices in Stanmore or at the AJR Day January and pensioners have six weeks world of Hitler, 'they say', he opposed Centre in West Hampstead. Those to have them signed. As this service is unable to come to either of these being offered for the first time, forms Indian independence and ordered locations can have their certificates completed by the AJR must be returned soldiers to fire on striking miners. signed at an AJR regional group to the Austrian embassy in London and If Churchill presents a target for meeting or during a home visit by an AJR not to the pension authority character assassination, his co- social worker. It will still be possible to (Pensionsversicherungsanstalt,P\j A) architect of victory over Nazism, the go to the Austrian embassy to have in Vienna. abovementioned Roosevelt, certificates signed. Members who are having their forms positively invites attack. Do I hear you This development is in light of notarised must also bring with them for identification an official document such ask why this should be so? The concerns the AJR has raised regarding the difficult journey to the Austrian as a passport or driving licence. answer is simple: it's the nationality, stupid! FDR was American. It is a AJR Journal handicap not even a President Richard Grunberger Editor-in-Chief JACKMAN • Kerry - who incidentally, in classic Ronald Channing Executive Editor immigration fashion, had a Howard Spier Editorial and Production SILVERMAN AJR Journal, Jubilee House, £ COMMERCIAL PROPERTY CONSULTANTS grandfather named Kohn - would have Merrion Avenue, Stanmore, Middlesex HA7 4RL been able to escape for long.