Imagine waking up one morning to discover that Dracula is Jewish. Imagine, too, that he has been elected unopposed to become leader of the British Conservative Party. Confused? Unless you have been reading the British press during the last fortnight, you would be. The unexpected emergence of the Transylvanian Tendency in British political life has … Read more
Early in August, the octogenarian Rabbi Dr. Louis Jacobs, perhaps the preeminent talmudic scholar in Britain and founder of the Masorti movement [loosely affiliated with the US Conservative movement], attended the aufruf of his granddaughter’s future husband in the coastal resort of Bournemouth. The synagogue, however, looked to the United Synagogue group, from which Jacobs … Read more
Dreamland: Europeans and Jews in the Aftermath of the Great War by Howard M. Sachar (New York 2002) price $30.00 pp 386 ‘If there were a sympathy in choice War, death, or sickness did lay siege to it, Making it momentary as a sound Swift as a shadow, short as any dream’ A quote … Read more
Isaiah Berlin and Vladimir Jabotinsky In his ‘personal impression’ of Chaim Weizmann in 1958, Isaiah Berlin made a passing reference to Vladimir Jabotinsky as ‘the leader of the extreme right wing Zionists’.1 In one sense, such a comment presupposes that a leader must hold the same opinions as his followers. In the case of Jabotinsky, … Read more
It is Jonathan Sacks’s destiny to inhabit several disparate worlds. Sacks is the scholarly British chief rabbi who heads the United Hebrew Congregations of the UK and the British Commonwealth Controversy seems to stalk him. His latest imbroglio relates to the republication of The Dignity of Difference, Sacks’s most recent book – ostensibly an Orthodox … Read more
‘One Palestine, Complete: Jews and Arabs under the British Mandate’ by Tom Segev, translated by Haim Watzman, published by Little Brown and Co., pp 612 Tom Segev writes good books – and this is no exception. Their structure is a hybrid between academic endeavour and journalistic seduction. The outcome is a raising from … Read more
Christopher Hitchens’ articles in the Evening Standard, Barbara Amiel’s reply in the Daily Telegraph and Malcolm Palmer’s reply in the last issue of LJN all show a highly selective reading of the history of the Revisionist Zionist movement and its main characters, Jabotinsky and Begin. Barbara Amiel was right to condemn Christopher Hitchen’s depiction … Read more
The Embarrassment of Zionism As the conference season swings into top gear, there is a plethora of motions condemning the Sharon government. The TUC recently called for probable sanctions against Israel and the Labour Party will follow suit. Yet many Israelis also believe that Sharon has no peace plan and no vision of … Read more
The files just released by the Public Records Office under the 30 year rule indicate that the Government of Edward Heath was unnerved by the possibility of disruptive Jewish demonstrations of cultural events and political visits by Soviet glitterati. Downing Street was quite taken aback in particular at the conveyor belt demonstrations staged by the … Read more
One trenchant critic privately — and pejoratively – refers to him as ‘Jonathan Henry’. Read the ultra-orthodox press in the United States and he is transformed into `Yonoson’. These different labels symbolise the different worlds which the British Chief Rabbi — Professor Jonathan Sacks of the United Hebrew Congregations of the United Kingdom and … Read more