. We have also worked hard this year on ensuring that Jews do not face hatred online, by coming up with proposals to ensure that new Online Harms legislation protects us all from abuse social media platforms. Online is the new frontline in the fight against antisemitism – and not just antisemitism, but misogyny, anti-Muslim hatred, homophobia and racism and bigotry against other religions, ethnicities and minority Rosita sadly passed thewe8th The following article groups. We are workingaway hard toon ensure areMarch. better protected. In the meantime, we was firsthave published in 2016 andselling givestheir a brief into the of this acted to stop antisemites poison glimpse online by working with life Amazon to ensure Holocaust denial works aredid removed from its for platform. extra-ordinary woman who so much Liberal Judaism. Our
MEET ROSITA ROSENBERG
thoughts are with her family and all those friends and associates who We may be the Board of Deputies of British Jews but some of our most important knew her. She will never be forgotten. and successful work has been in support of a group which are neither British nor
R
Jewish. Chinese to terrible persecution, waswar, there for the durationand of Ithe ositaThe (known as Uyghur Zeta toMuslims her are subject notfriends) the only is one to see echoes of the Holocaust in their treatment by the Chinese established a synagogue (of which one of the longest authorities. to the Chinese harrowing interviewChairman), on the Rosita’sa father became standingI wrote members of our Ambassador shul and following Andrew Marr Show and as an organisation we worked tirelessly to persuade MPs to years and Rosita spent her formative also has been involved with support the Genocide Amendment the Tradeimmersed Bill, which would allow Uyghurs in a strong Jewishto Liberal Judaism for all of her adulttolife. around the broken UN system and be able to take their call for justice in a British environment. Her parents were Howget that transpired is an interesting court.
Orthodox, but not terribly observant, keeping kashrut at home and lighting In a year in which the world mourned the racist murder of George Floyd in although the USA, her the Sabbath candles, we felt a responsibility to ensure that our community was one in which Black Jewsas she mother never attended shul and Jews of Colour do not feel alienated. To this end we set up the Commission on didn’t know Hebrew. The family Racial Inclusivity in the Jewish Community with Stephen Bush as Chair. We hope remained in Windsor until 1951, but that the recommendations that the Commission makes will make our community a the buying of kosher meat came to model of inclusivity in the coming years. an end some time before that: Everyone, Jews included, was Despite the tragedy in the world there have been some beacons of lightration. in the past entitled to a bacon The family 12 months. I have seen our community come together like never before. Despite the would swap their bacon ration for physical distance, we have been looking after each other and this is has been so kosher meat, obtained by Rosita’s necessary and heartwarming. We have also seen remarkable progress in Israel’s uncle on his weekly visits to London. relations with its Middle East neighbours. The Abraham Accords were signed He was obliged to take whatever he between Israel the UAE and Bahrain. We also saw an agreement with Morocco. One could get and the quality was of the highlights of my years was lighting the Chanukah candles in an online event questionable. with the ambssadors of the UAE and Bahrain –sometimes something I never thought I would Meanwhile, Rosita’s mother could see. see lovely meat in the butchers’ shops in Windsor and told her husband she was no longer going to buy the expensive, but poor quality, kosher meat! Rosita knew no one when she came back to South London aged 17. She was working in the Executive Civil Service, where on Friday She was born in London, but the day evenings she attended the fantastic before her 6th birthday, war being social club. Her parents worried imminent, she and her sister were about her secular environment, so evacuated and sent to a couple who they made her join a Jewish Youth were strict Roman Catholics! Unsurprisingly, they were very unhappy Club. She traipsed around several, which she found unfriendly (the girls there and persuaded their parents to fetch them home again. Ultimately, this were snooty Jewish princesses and led to the family moving to the relatively the boys only interested in showing off their cars), but when a friend took safe area of Windsor, where the her to a group at South London disparate Jews who found themselves story.
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