MARGARET THATCHER’S current difficulties seem to herald the end of an era: three foreign secretaries within as many months; the exit of an experienced team from the uppermost echelons of government to the back benches and less important posts; the trouncing of the Tories in the European elections — the first defeat since she entered … Read more
At the end of 1988, full page advertisements appeared in the national press in Britain which exhorted Jews to embrace Jesus Christ as the Messiah and effectively to convert to the Christian faith. The reaction of most Jews was initially one of astonishment that, in this day and age, large sums of money should be … Read more
Mandela was arrested in August 1962, formally for his work in Umkonto we Sizwe, the underground wing of the ANC whose activities were directed at sabotaging installations—often ineptly. Nearly a year later, the entire leadership of Umkonto we Sizwe were surprised by a police raid on the home of Arthur Goldreich in Rivonia near Johannesburg. … Read more
ALL British Jews alive today know that their survival during the Nazi period was determined essentially by geography and little else. Fortunately, the Nazi empire did not expand fast enough or last long enough to realize the finality of the Final Solution. Thus, for those Jews, for whom fate decreed that their forebears would settle … 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
On the 50th anniversary of the Spanish Civil War . . . No Pasaran: the Jews who fought in Spain I came to Spain because I felt I had to. Look at the world situation. We didn’t worry when Mussolini came to power in Italy. We felt bad when Hitler became Chancellor of Germany, but … Read more
The people of Israel are remarkably innovative and Moshe Efrati’s dance company is a good example. It is called Kol Demama—the Voice of Silence. Such a name may conjure up many misleading images—for many of Efrati’s dancers are totally deaf. How do the deaf and the hearing communicate with each other? How do the worlds … Read more
DESPITE the erroneous impression that American Jews were part and parcel of the neoconservative camp, last year’s US presidential elections showed that they remain liberals at heart. Two thirds of US Jewry voted for Mondale, with almost 75 per cent of New York City’s Jews rejecting President Reagan. Another instance of the liberal conscience is … Read more
As we look out on the human condition, our consciences cannot be clean. If they are clean, then it is because we do not are them enough. It is not inevitable that we march in hostile and separate hosts into the common abyss. There is another possibility of an ordered world, illuminated by reason, governed … Read more
The name of Raoul Wallenberg today evokes deep emotions in the hearts of many people. For those who know even the barest details of his courageous exploits in wartime Budapest, now some thirty eight years ago, he is held in almost reverential respect. Hasidei umot ha-olam – truly a Righteous Gentile. And yet only ten … Read more