Colin ShindlerTHE forthcoming Jewish New Year, 5748, falls appropriately between two other days of celebration—the twentieth anniversary of the Israeli victory in the Six Day War and the fortieth Yom Ha’atzmaut next summer. And indeed, in contrast to the tumultuous and divisive Begin years, the present is a sea of tranquillity. Inflation has dropped from 450 … Read more
Although Ernest Saunders’s (ne Shleyer) resignation from Guinness produced misleading talk in Britain about the “North London Jewish fraternity,” the Boesky scandal in the United States did have a direct connection to the Jewish community. Boesky was the Chairman of the fund campaign of the United Jewish Appeal—Federation of Jewish Philanthropies and a trustee of … Read more
At the beginning of April, an International Spinoza Institute was established in Israel in cooperation with the Hebrew University and Mishkenot Sha’ananim. It has attracted the sponsorship of Mayor Teddy Kollek and Professor Ephraim Katzir as well as many Israeli intellectuals and academics. The embryonic Institute has planned a series of hi-annual conferences up to … Read more
IN 1969, Alexander Solzhenitsyn was expelled from the Russian Writers’ Union. ‘Unlike Akhmatova and Pasternak, he did not acquiesce in the administering of his own last rites. Instead, he mercilessly assaulted the apparatchiks with tho full force of his vitriolic pen. Blow the dust off the clock. Your watches are behind the times. Throw open … Read more
The Thirteenth Jerusalem Prize for work defending “the freedom of individuals in society” will be awarded to the South African writer J. M. Coetzee by Teddy KoIlek on April 9th. Coetzee is the first South African to be awarded the prize and follows in the footsteps of such luminaries as Bertrand Russell, Eugene Ionesco, Ignazio … Read more
Israel’s involvement in nuclear weaponry, whilst recognized for many years, has certainly been brought to the fore by the Vanunu affair. Yet even before Vanunu’s act of apparent treachery, a small but growing number of Israeli citizens had pressed apprehension at the intention of the government to use nuclear energy for generating electricity. Since 1981, … Read more
THE presence of six alleged war criminals in Britain is a serious and emotional. matter. The issue raises important questions, not least about how they arrived and what should be done with them if they are identified as perpetrators of genocide. Why has it taken until 1987 to bring this issue forward in this … Read more
“BRITISH Jewry in the Eighties” a statistical and geographical study by Barry Kosmin and Stanley Waterman, was recently published under the imprint of the Board of Deputies of British Jews. The study confined itself to such matters as births and deaths, membership of synagogues, geographical distribution and other areas which could be safely and dispassionately … Read more
Recently, ITV’s “First Tuesday” showed Barry Cockcroft’s film about the attempt of the Hungarian dissident Laszlo Rajk to discover and indeed understand his father. The latter, the first Laszlo Rajk, was a leader of the underground Communist Party during the Horthy regime. How was it, the son asked, that a man who courageously struggled against … Read more
The Museum of the Jewish East End at the Sternberg Centre in Finchley has aroused a great deal of interest during the short period of its existence. Its central task has been to convey the rich heritage of the East End to the large number of Jewish people who live in North West London. Although … Read more