Anglo-Jewry tends to regard the 1980s as either a mini-renaissance of Jewish culture or the swan-song of a philistine community. Those with an optimistic bent will point to the outstanding East End Festival as evidence of a mini-renaissance. The media coverage and general interest in that festival indicates, above all, that there are many who … Read more
Those readers of THE JEWISH QUARTERLY who had their interest in David Bomberg whetted by the extracts from Richard Cork’s book published in our recent East End issue will be pleased to know that the Tate Gallery is shortly to host a major retrospective of his work. Born in Birmingham in 1890 to Polish-Jewish immigrant … 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
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
This year marks the centenary of the birth of Oscar Kokoschka, one of the great figurative painters of this century. He is perhaps best known for his portraits, painted between 1909 and 1914 in Vienna and Berlin, of actors, musicians, artists and intellectuals—such as the satirist Karl Kraus, the architect Adolf Loos and Herwarth Walden, … Read more
Last summer, Boris Bennett, a successful businessman, passed away at the age of eighty-five. Toan older generation, he was known simply as “Boris the Photographer”. For, in his younger days, Boris was the doyen of Jewish portrait photographers. Many Jewish families who originated from London’s East End possess at least one “Boris” masterpiece. Boris’s technique … Read more