VOLUME 3 No. 12 DECEMBER 2003 SJIEJ journal ^^^^1 jl^^^l Association of Jewish Refugees ^;.-i .f<. *g»t' The false prophet Size has often been quoted as an But there was worse to come. At the untenable position. How long can they indicator of rightness and it is a fact of UN's Islamic Conference no single keep calling down 'a plague on both your life that victory tends to be on the side of representative - even from pro-Western houses' when one party to the conflict - the big battalions. A pre-war panegyric states - dared put his head above the irrespective of whether it is headed by of Stalin's Russia was entitled The parapet to disavow Mahathir Saddam, bin Laden or Mahathir Socialist Sixth ofthe World and, judging Mohamed's melange of the Protocols of Mohamed - asserts that the defence of by the feet that the Islamic Conference the Elders of Zion, Mein Kampf and Islam requires war on the Jews? at the UN embraces 57 states within the Der Sturmer. On the broader front, the world body, one might currently talk abovementioned self-appointed about the Islamic Third of the World defenders of Islam are aiming to turn the (the United Nations has around 180 hitherto relatively limited 'war on terror' members). into a global War of Civilisations. In this In fact, Muslims number 'only' 1,300 war, Christianity, the professed faith of million out of a global population of the West, will be misrepresented by around sbc billion. World Jewry, on the hard-line Islamists as both still imbued other hand, languishes at around the 13 with the lethal spirit ofthe Crusades and million mark. Put bluntly, the worldwide as manipulated by the Jews. ratio of Muslims to Jews is 100 to one. How confused the situation could be is In October Malaysian ex-premier demonstrated by the following. In Mahathir Mohamed addressed the UN's southern Iraq the inhabitants, no doubt Islamic Conference on the topic of that influenced by their clergy, have in some imbalance. He asserted that the few instances taken to referring to Coalition Jews ruled the world by proxy and got soldiers as Jews. Since Poland has others to fight their wars for them - but contributed a contingent to the Ex-premier Dr Mahathir Mohamed ultimately the 1,300 million-strong occupying force, it may well happen that body of Muslims would not be defeated. Nor was the entire West as outraged conscripts from Jedwabne, whose He also claimed that the Jews had by this conjuring up of the mindset that grandfathers massacred their Jewish invented 'Socialism, Communism, led to Auschwitz. President Chirac neighbours in 1941, are now dubbed Democracy and Human Rights' as their showed deplorable hesitation before Jews' by Shia Iraqis. instruments for exercising global condemning it. He was assisted in his But to retum to the wider picture. The domination. obfuscation tactics by Greece, a state so leaders of the Coalition face a daunting Now, to be credited with the invention viscerally hostile to Israel that even the task. The campaign on which they have of democracy and human rights might Malaysian premier's attribution of embarked and which they conceive as a appear a back-handed compliment - but democracy to the Jews - though the war on terror stands in danger of being that is not how it is seen from the honour rightfully belongs to Athens - elevated into a reUgious war. Their task ftindamentahst Islamist perspective, has not made any difference. On the in Iraq is to harmonise the demands of tanian hard-line clerics described the other hand, the US, UK and Italy have democracy with those of religion. If, to recent award of the 2003 Nobel Peace been instant in their condemnation of look at a worst-case scenario, the Shia Prize to a lawyer campaigning for Mahathir's outburst, which must put majority votes to turn their country into ^omen's rights as a European- Jewish critics of the Bush-Blair- a replica of fran, can the will of the uistigated subversion of Islamic values. Berlusconi axis into an increasingly majority be allowed to prevail? AJR JOURNAL DECEMBER 2003 Being nosey about Fagin Richard Grunberger The subject of noses has always held great fascination for me (and not for me alone - think of what Pascal said about the effect of Cleopatra's nose on world history!). I treasure such arcane bits of nasal knowledge as the Danish astronomer Tycho de Brahe's acquisition of a silver nose after a duelling opponent had sliced off part of his proboscis. Sir Sigmund Sternberg was awarded the Legion d'Honneur by the French Altering nose shapes has been a task Ambassador, who paid generous tribute to his efforts in promoting tolerance allotted to makeup experts (and plastic and understanding between peoples of different religious persuasions. In his surgeons) at least since Edmond reply. Sir Sigmund recalled that earlier this year President Jacques Chirac had Rostand wrote the box-office hit declared that France would not tolerate antisemitism. He went on to express Cyrano de Bergerac. Recently the hope that inter-faith dialogue would develop in France in the manner of the practitioners of that art scored a minor Three Faiths Forum of which he was co-founder in Britain. triumph by transforming the retrousse profile of Nicole Kidman into the aquiline likeness of Virginia Woolf in Berlin Holocaust mennorial building setback the film The Hours. The construction of Germany's long- The chairman of the foundation But the major triumph of prosthenic awaited national Holocaust Memorial to responsible for the building of the art on screen surely occurred in 1948 the victims of Europe's murdered Jews memorial, the Speaker of the German when a British studio filmed Dickens's and others, begun this September near the Parliament, Wolfgang Thierse, said that Oliver Twist. In the movie the caftan- Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, was halted alternative chemicals were being sought. clad, greasy-haired Fagin sported a the following month, reports The Times. Foundation member Lea Rosh, who false nose more appropriate to a To protect the memorial's 2,7(X) concrete initiated the idea of a memorial in 1988, medieval gargoyle on a church roof pillars against graffiti, a contractor began said that 'we had to make this decision for than to a human being. The actor using chemicals produced by Degussa AG, the survivors.' The memorial has been appearing in that repellent disguise part-owner of the company which designed by American architect Peter was Alec Guinness, continuing his produced Zyklon B gas used to kill victims Eisenman, winner of an international climb to fame that had started two in extermination camps. competition. years earlier with Great Expectations. We learn from Piers Paul Read's biography of the actor that he was Calling all forces probably the illegitimate son of a To mark its 80th anniversary, AJEX, the Following World War I a British Jewry profligate member of the top drawer Association of Jewish Ex-Service Men and Book of Honour provided details of those Guinness clan. As it happened, a highly Women, is inviting all of Jewish faith who who served during that conflict (it is now respectable Guinness, ennobled as Lord served in HM Forces from 1939 to 1960 to posted on the 'Moving Here' website: Moyne, was wartime British Resident- answer a questionnaire by providing a www.movinghere.org.uk). A record of General in the Middle East. HM summary of their and their family's those who gave their lives in World War II Government's Palestine White Paper of service details (including those now has already been published by AJEX. 1939 - written to appease the Arabs - disabled or deceased). Replies will be For further details on how to register, was in force throughout the war, and inscribed in a special book as a Lord Moyne rigorously enforced the please contact AJEX House, East Bank, comprehensive record of the contribution ban on Jewish immigration. This made London N16 5RT tel 0208 800 2844. made by Jews to the defence ofthe realm. him a hate figure throughout the RDC Yishuv, and in November 1944 two members of the Stern Gang AJR Journal assassinated him in Cairo. Richard Grunbergcr Editor-in-Chief JACKMAN • Ronald Channing Executive Editor Is it entirely fanciful, I wonder, to Howard Spier Editorial and Production SILVERMAN suspect that the image of Fagin AJR Journal, Jubilee House, COMMERCIAL PROPERTY CONSULTANTS Guinness created on screen owed Merrion Avenue, Stanmore, Middlesex HA7 4RL Tel: 020 8385 3070 Fax: 020 8385 3080 something to vengeful feelings stirred e-mail: [email protected] 26 Conduit Street, London WIR 9TA by the murder of his near-relative? vwvw.ajrorg.uk Telephone: 020 7409 0771 Fax: 020 7493 8017 AJR JOURNAL DECEMBER 2003 Great - but not necessarily NEWTONS Booker-approved - books Leading Hampstead Solicitors advise on Richard Grunberger Property, Wills, Family Trusts and Charitable Trusts First the good news about the Big Read. readers' consciousness in their film (or French and German spoken Thanks to the publicity generated by the TV) version. Not that cinematic Home visits arranged BBC competition, book sales nationwide treatment necessarily does a book any have gone up appreciably. 'It has given favours. I can think of at least two 22 Fitzjohn's Avenue, the industry a huge boost,' said a outstanding novels - Louis de Berniere's London NW3 5NB Waterstone spokesperson. (shortlisted) Captain Corelli's Mandolin Tel: 020 7435 5351 Next the bad news: a third of the final and Graham Swift's (unplaced) Fax: 020 7435 8881 21 shortlisted works are children's Waterland - where I thought the film a books a la Winnie-the-Pooh or Harry travesty ofthe book.