CTJC magazine
Chanukah
Kislev 5782 November 2021
CTJC Cambridge Traditional Jewish Congregation Magazine number 132
Contents From the Chair ......................................................................................... 3 From the Editor........................................................................................ 4 Subscriptions and donations ................................................................... 5 Community news ..................................................................................... 7 Communal information ........................................................................... 7 Lighting the streets ................................................................................ 11 Displaying the Miracle ........................................................................... 14 Why do we eat doughnuts on Chanukah? ............................................ 16 Lucky Jews ............................................................................................. 19 Philip Roth the Biography ...................................................................... 22 Recovering the sacred command to love the stranger ......................... 24 Frances Rotblat, role model .................................................................. 29 Conspiracy U .......................................................................................... 32 For the children ..................................................................................... 41 Festival calendar 5781, 2020-21 ............................................................ 42 Views expressed in this magazine do not necessarily represent the views of the Editor, nor of the Committee of the CTJC Cover painting by Béa Langley, aged 9
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From the Chair Jo Landy Welcome to the CTJC Chanukah magazine. I have just looked back at last Chanukah’s newsletter and am happy to note, that unlike like last year, we are not in another lock-down. Long may this situation continue. Another difference from last year is that we have continued to hold services with the Students. COVID precautions (open windows, encouraging mask wearing, etc) have continued alongside outside kiddushim. Many thanks to all who helped organise the Yamim Noraim. We held well attended, safe, socially distanced, smoothly run services. Again, there was additional seating outside. Many of those returning to shul for the first time used this outside space. There has been some movement on plans to rebuild 3 Thompson’s Lane. A new planning application has been submitted to the Council and can be viewed on-line. We have started to organise CTJC’s third away weekend, which will be in February at Gunthorpe Hall. We’ve included a “save the date” invitation in this magazine, and we’ll release full details shortly. Those on the CTJC Committee and the committee organising the event wish to stress that cost should not be a barrier to those who show an interest in attending. Please contact me to discuss a potential subsidy when we have released more details. I would like to take this opportunity of saying that the details of enquiries and any subsidy will be confidential. Lastly Julian and I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a happy Chanukah and a healthy and good Gregorian New Year. חנוכה שמח
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From the Editor Jane Liddell-King Dear All, For most of us Chanukah is a time of celebration, of renewal of Jewish identity and self-respect. But this year we think again of those sick with COVID and of lost loved ones. And even as we recall those secret latkes ingredients passed down the generations, is it possible not to think of those refugees freezing in desperation and forced to sleep in forests while governments use them as political pawns? Perhaps I should apologise for striking such a dark note. In Cambridge we’re the fortunate custodians of a Czech scroll. Although the Pardubice community to which it belonged was destroyed in the deportations to Terezin at Chanukah 1942, the scroll survives and is in use. Thinking of those 1200 people from the Pardubice region clutching their luggage at the station with no idea of where they were going, we have to ask, how are we preventing similar suffering today? And of course, we have to repeat brachot to express our own good fortune. Now, in Cambridge, we have the opportunity to bring about real, transformative change. We have the opportunity to embrace the possibility of a new student centre in which all are welcome. Let’s seize that opportunity, assert a ‘proper’ not nostalgic or inflexible relationship to the past, show leadership, and break new ground. Enjoy your latkes, חנוכה שמח
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Subscriptions and donations 2021/2022 Members are reminded that their subscriptions for the coming year are now due, together with the Board of Deputies levy (£30 which should be paid to each body of which you are a member), the levy to the Chief Rabbi’s Office (£8 which should be paid by each male member), and any donations to the UJIA, the CTJC, or the Cambridge Chaplaincy that you wish to make. Donations to the Community Rabbi Fund will be used to support our promise to contribute to our Rabbi’s activities. The subscription fees for 2021/2022, as agreed at the AGM, are: Full family
£208.00
Associate family
£140.00
Full single
£144.00
Associate single
£92.00
These fees may be varied to suit individual circumstances; the Treasurer will be pleased to be consulted confidentially. Visitors for whom membership is not appropriate are invited to make a donation. The subscription should preferably be paid by direct bank transfer to sort code 20-17-19 account 20199192, in which case please send an explanatory email to the treasurer at treasurer@ctjc.org.uk. Alternatively send a cheque, payable to CTJC, together with this slip indicating how much is being paid in each category, to:
Ben Blaukopf, 174 Gilbert Road, Cambridge CB4 3PB
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Name Address
Subscription Community Rabbi Fund donation CTJC donation Board of Deputies Chief Rabbi’s Office UJIA donation Chaplaincy donation Total
CTJC is a registered charity, number 282849. Payment from tax paid income can be made by means of Gift Aid, which will enable the CTJC to recover the tax paid. A suitable declaration is available from the Secretary at secretary@ctjc.org.uk.
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Community news רפואה שלימה
Refuah shlema
At the time or writing both Brendel Lang and Arie Schechter are unwell. We hope that, by now, they are both much improved.
Please do get in touch with the Editor if you have news you would like to share
Communal information Who does what Chair Treasurer Secretary CTJC community rabbi Magazine CUJS liaison Kiddushim Board of Deputies Gabbai and synagogue Building management
Jo Landy Ben Blaukopf Barry Landy Rabbi Reuven Leigh Jane Liddell-King Jo Landy Jonathan Harris Robert Marks Yoav Git Tim Goldrein
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Services in the Synagogue See the ctjc.org.uk website for times of services during the pandemic. We are currently holding a shortened Shabbat morning service, starting at 09.30am. If you wish to attend please sign up at ctjc.org.uk.
Leyning If you would like to learn to leyn, take a service, or read a haftarah, please contact Yoav or Ben.
Learning, Talmud Shiur Led by Professor Stefan Reif. The shiur is currently held over Zoom, at 5.30pm on mutually convenient evenings. The group is currently studying Masechet Yoma. For more information email chevra@ctjc.org.uk.
Kiddushim Kiddushim really help to make Shabbat morning special. If you would like to sponsor a kiddush, please email kiddushim@ctjc.org.uk.
Kosher meat and groceries Derby Stores (26 Derby St, Newnham, 354391) stock prepacked Kosher groceries and meat, and will buy to order. They get fresh from London midday Thursday, and stay open till 8pm. Sainsbury's in Coldham's Lane also stocks a range of Kosher Goods including frozen chicken legs. Ocado has some Kosher foods in its delivery list.
Hospital visiting Contact Sarah Schechter (329172), Tirzah Bleehen (354320) for coordination if you wish to volunteer to help, or need to organise some visits. Rabbi Reuven Leigh (354603), Barry Landy (570417), and others are prepared to attend hospitals to read prayers. Due to personal privacy concerns the hospital no longer informs us when Jewish patients are admitted. If you wish to be visited, please let one of the above know when you are about to enter hospital.
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Chevra Kadisha The Cambridge Jewish Residents' Association (CJRA) Chevra Kadisha, which follows orthodox rites, is available to members of the CTJC. Contact Brendel Lang, secretary (353301), Robert Marks, treasurer (07791 788 584), or Barry Landy (570417).
Religious events For services, bar mitzvahs, weddings, brit milah etc, contact Rabbi Reuven Leigh (354603) or Barry Landy (570417). For up-to-date community information please visit the CTJC web site: www.ctjc.org.uk.
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Lighting the streets What is the purpose of the Chanukah candles? How can the purpose lead us to a different kind of interfaith work? Rabbi Elazar Symon The Chanukah candles are traditionally lit on the window sill. The common explanation for that is that it is so they can fulfil their role of "Pirsumei Nisa" - spreading the word of the Chanukah miracle (ie that the oil lasted for eight days and the victory over the Greeks). But I have difficulty accepting this explanation. Why is it that we are not interested in similarly advertising other miracles? Why do we not hold our Seder outside so that people should hear about the miracle of the Exodus? Or put speakers facing the street when we read the book of Ester on Purim? On a textual level my question holds: the Talmud mentions that the Chanukah candles should make the Chanukah miracle known (Shabbat 23b). But that is not mentioned in the context of the duty to light them facing the street, nor is it offered as an explanation for the very existence of the mitzvah. Rather it is mentioned as a certain quality this mitzvah holds, underlining its importance when in contradiction with other mitzvot. That same quality is similarly attributed by the Talmud to parts of the Seder (Pesachim 112a) and to the reading of the Megillah on Purim (Megillah 3b). A different and rather simple explanation comes to mind. The reason we light Chanukah candles next to the window is because we want to bring light to the street. We want the public spaces to be safe and beautiful. The Midrash supports this idea by saying the candles are lit between dusk and until the streets are empty "so that people walking in the street may enjoy the light of the candles" (Sechel Tov, Beshalach, 17). This idea can be better understood in contrast with the other candles in our tradition, the Shabbat candles. The latter are lit inside the house, on the table or in the living room, and their purpose is to enhance the Page 11
"Shalom Bayit", the peace of the house. That is very fitting: Shabbat is about family time, about rest, about intimacy. Shabbat is when the famous Jewish home shines with all of its glory. And so when we are told that the Chanukah candles must be lit facing the outside world, we can see it as an invitation: an invitation to take that same inner light and let it light the whole street, to bring intimacy into the public domain, to use the strength of the Jewish home to bring peace not only to the house but to the whole world. In the Chanukah story, the Greeks attempted to put the Jewish light out. The response cannot be just preserving it, that is a given, rather it is letting it shine bright and strong through the windows to the whole wild world. This idea has led me to thoughts about to the role of Interfaith activity. Thankfully, Cambridge is bustling with such activity. Only this Michaelmas I have been lucky enough to participate, as part of my role as Jewish Chaplain, in an interfaith Friday Night Dinner at the students’ center in Thompson's Lane, a Quran and Torah reading group with some Muslim colleagues in the Woolf institute, and very soon a menorah lighting in participation with the Great St. Mary's Church. And there is much more activity, including scriptural reasoning, a multi-faith forum, and various reading groups and events. It is always a question what we are trying to achieve through interfaith work. In my experience, the objectives are usually determined by political factors. The reality of antisemitism and the tension over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, make it vital to create better understanding between people of different faiths. Therefore the goal set for interfaith work is to know each other better and underline the aspects in which we are similar, in the hope of shattering stereotypes and encouraging tolerant behaviour. Simply put, we hope to become friends. But maybe there is something else we could be focusing on: lighting up the streets. Each group in our Cambridge community has as inner light, unique qualities, that can benefit all of us, that can pour lights into our shared spaces. It's time we stopped being shy or modest, and try to bring these qualities forward. And most importantly, it's time we used these qualities to face together challenges in our Cambridge community. We should be asking ourselves questions such as: “What Page 12
can the Jewish community offer the struggle against homelessness?” or “What Jewish perspective can help with the balance between free speech and inclusiveness?” At the same time we should truly believe that other groups have their own contribution, something that we lack yet doesn't contradict or threaten us, but rather completes us. Just as in the middle of the dark winter, the candles of the menorah and the Christmas trees spread their light side by side and make our streets beautiful.
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Displaying the Miracle Pirsumei Nisa By Barry Landy As my friends know very well, I have been a very keen skier for many years, and have very often taken a skiing holiday over the school winter holiday. Inevitably, since Chanukah and Xmas usually occur around the same time, many of these skiing holidays have included Chanukah. As a result, we have lit our Chanukah candles in some very strange circumstances. Quite early in our family skiing career (1975?) we hired a flat in a chalet in Verbier. The chalet contained three self catering flats, and the tour company took us all in a bus from Geneva. Much to my surprise a little way into the journey up pipes a voice "Aren't you Barry Landy?" I could hardly deny it! It turned out that the voice came from a student who had left Cambridge just a few years earlier, and he and a large group of Jewish friends were staying in the flat below ours. For the first and only time on such a holiday we had a minyan for -Shabbat and- for Chanukah too. On another occasion we left home in the middle of Chanukah, when it was still daylight, and knew that we would not arrive in the ski resort until after dawn the next day. It was the third day of Chanukah - how were we going to light our candles? I solved that one in a rather eccentric, and possibly dangerous, fashion. We lit the candles in the car, while waiting in the port car-park for the cross channel ferry. I knew in advance how long the wait was likely to be, and how long the candles burned, and made sure that they would complete their duty before we had to drive onto the boat. I hope the people next to us in the queue enjoyed the (somewhat muted) strains of MaOz Tsur which emanated from our car. This brings me to the title of this article, Pirsumei Nisa. or proclaiming the miracle. The Chanukah candles are lit in a very precise manner; one the first day, two the second, and so on, up to eight the final day; Page 14
moreover, they have to be lit where they can be seen by the public. The purpose of all this is to proclaim the miracle, a public demonstration intended to get people to ask what it is all about so that we can tell of God's greatness. That time in the Channel port car park was indeed Pirsumei Nisa even though no-one asked us any questions (how British!). The strangest time of all occurred in 1987, the year that our eldest son Aron got married. After the wedding, Ros, our youngest son Joshua, and myself went skiing in Meribel. It was Chanukah, and we lit candles before we left - the timing being different from the earlier occasion - and then lit them again the next evening in Meribel. Of course, we placed them in the window where there was a possibility that they might be seen - Pirsumei Nisa! A little while later there was a tentative knock at the door. We opened the door “Are you the flat where there are Chanukah candles?” What a surprise! Then (of course) "Don't I know you?" - it turned out that Joshua and one of the two at the door were acquainted having met at a Bnei Akivah camp. Inevitably, it was the turn of the wedding photos. “But that's Jo Ebner!” What a small world, and all because we displayed our Chanukah candles to fulfil the mitzvah of Pirsumei Nisa. In December 2005 Ros and I left Ushuaia at the Southern tip of South America (near Cape Horn) on a two week cruise to Antarctica. Sometime after booking the cruise (in November 2004), I realised that the whole of Chanukah would happen on the cruise. This presented two prospective problems: firstly, ships do not allow people to light naked flames because of the fire risk; secondly, the problem of sunset. So far as the problem with lighting candles was concerned I purchased an electric menorah over the Internet and arranged to connect it to the power supply via a timeclock so that the lights would go out automatically and I would not have to disconnect them. I reckoned that was the best I could do in the circumstances, and it certainly felt sufficiently yomtov-dik when we lit the lights and sang Maoz Tzur in our cabin. For the first few nights of Chanukah we were able to light after dark, though admittedly that was late in the evening, around Page 15
11.30pm for the sixth night. The last two days of Chanukah we were just North of the Antarctic circle (around 65 degrees South), and although the sun did set (very late indeed, around 11pm) it never became dark at all, which presented us with the problem of when to light the Chanukah candles which are supposed to be lit after dark. After some thought I decided that the right time had to be a little after local midnight, since after that time it can only get lighter. This turned out to be around 1.30am so at that hour on the 1 January, 2006, which happened to be a Shabbat, we left the New Year party and went back to our cabin to make Havdalah and to light the candles for the seventh night of Chanukah. The only time in my life when I have lit Chanukah candles on what is the following day in the secular calendar. That trip was full of wonders, and Pirsumei Nisa to a group of penguins was one of them.
Why do we eat doughnuts on Chanukah? Barry Landy In some ways this is a trick question. My own personal response would be “but we don't” and indeed my parents and grandparents had never met that custom. For them the extra food item on Chanukah was Latkes (potato pancakes). For that the same question would apply "why Latkes?" The usual response would be "because of the miracle of the oil". That however raises lots of secondary questions, but the primary one is whether there was such a miracle at all. Our primary religious source for Chanukah is a strange passage in the Talmud, in Shabbat (21b), which starts “Mai Chanukah?”, or “what is Chanukah?” A very strange question to ask in the Talmud in an environment in which Chanukah was well known. Indeed the immediately prior passage on the same page discusses the order in which the candles are to be lit. Page 16
The other major source is the Book of Maccabees. This is not in the bible and it appears to have been originally written in Greek. These two sources provide an interesting contrast. The Book of Maccabees describes the history in a lot of detail, focusing primarily on the battles against the Seleucids, and the role of the family of the Hasmoneans. In these four books there is no mention of any “miracle of the oil”. By contrast the Talmud passage is very short and focuses primarily on the miracle of the oil and glosses over the contribution of the Hasmonean family. We can deduce that, in view of the subsequent conflict between the Rabbis and the Hasmoneans, who were Cohanim but had usurped the role of High Priest and also taken over the throne, the Rabbis wanted to downplay the military successes of the Hasmoneans. So it would seem that the Talmud passage introduces the "miracle of the oil" as a counterweight to the glorification of military might. One might almost wonder if the whole story had been invented for that purpose, given that the Book of Maccabees does not mention it. Back to the original question! Clearly latkes were not possible before the 16th century as Europe did not have potatoes. Doughnuts for Chanukah were not heard of in England before the late 20th Century, having made it to Israel from the USA (so perhaps I should write "donuts"?) and from Israel back to UK. So for a “long established tradition” it is a remarkably recent arrival. The excellent book “otzar dinim u-minhagim”, published in 1917, lists all the minhagim for the important days of the year. However it doesn’t list latkes or doughnuts as customary food to eat on Chanukah (though it lists games, including the dreidel). It does though record a custom that seems to have completely vanished, which is to eat dairy products, especially milk and cheese, to commemorate the victory over Sisera and the story of Yael. The standard story of course is that because of the “miracle of the oil” we should have oily food on Chanukah; I wonder how far back that really goes? Page 17
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Lucky Jews Jo Landy In a previous edition I reviewed Hadley Freemans’s “House of Glass”, a memoir of a Jewish family. I mentioned that the siblings’ attitudes made me think of my own relations. This is especially true of my stepfather’s father, Jack. He and several of his close Jewish friends who lived in France were born in Poland during the same period as the Glass children. When the Nazis’ invaded, one of the friends hid his family and stock and became a senior member of the French Resistance. A second friend was interned and visited by his son during the internment. Both survived. I wish I could discover how they escaped deportation east. I was reminded of such history earlier this month. I heard that a Polish colleague at work had expressed interest in the firm’s Polish connection. My first reaction was influenced by a lecture I attended at one of last year’s Limmud events. It was entitled “Lucky Jews” and was about the phenomenon of Polish people purchasing items depicting traditionally dressed Jews as good luck charms. Odd to focus on one side of an anti-Semitic trope, especially in the face of the “unlucky” fate of most of Poland’s pre-war Jewish population. My Polish colleague’s interest caught me off guard. Being curious about the perspective from which he would view our history, I sarcastically thought “Lucky Jews”. Like some of Hadley Freeman’s family, Jack’s life was extraordinary. His success was predicated upon his ability to assess and take advantage of challenging options in inter-war Europe. He used to say “We live or die by our tongue”. There was no golden lottery ticket. His life was peppered with ill-luck which would have stumped a less enterprising individual. The first piece of misfortune was to be a Jew living in Poland after World War One. In her book Hadley Freeman mentions pogroms. What she does not mention was organised Jewish resistance to those pogroms. Jack led a group whose objective was to forestall gangs of Jew-baiting thugs who arrived by train. His tactics were definitely inventive. As the easily recognisable thugs walked down the platform Page 19
their braces or belts were cut. Not much violence can be perpetrated by individuals forced to hold up their trousers with one hand. More ill-luck happened to Jack in his teens when his mother died. In addition to this, neither Jack nor his brother liked their new stepmother. Both decided to go to the USA. Upon arriving in the UK they found that they only had enough money for one of them to cross the Atlantic. A coin was tossed, and Jack lost. Using his trade as a miller, he found work in London and learnt English. Eventually an opening occurred. Chaim, a man in the feather business, wished to use milling machinery to break down and add spring to large feathers. He promised that in return for his expertise in setting up the machinery Jack would be made a full partner in the business. But this promise amounted to no more than a diamond tie pin and a request to leave the premises. Jack did not go back to flour. He had learned enough about the feather business to set up on his own. Using English and European connections the business flourished. He married and fathered four children. I believe that Jack’s European connections made him unusually aware of future dangers. I have his passport for this time, signed by the Foreign Secretary, Lord Halifax. It is full of European stamps including swastikas. Jack believed that Europe was not safe for Jews and attempted to persuade his remaining relations and friends to escape. Only two of these people got to the UK. Jack paid for one cousin who was on a political watch list to escape Poland. To help the second person, Jack purchased and imported his Hungarian associate’s stock. It was then sold back when the two had arrived in the UK. However, Jack did not consider the UK to be safe. He set up a partnership in the USA and then tried to move the family across the Atlantic. But one daughter had met her future husband and refused to move. His reaction to the engagement was ‘not that schmuck!’. Jack’s second daughter would not go without her sister, and his wife would not leave her girls. I am told that this impasse weighed upon him heavily. But in 1938 he took precautions against potential air raids by moving the younger members of his family to Buckinghamshire where Page 20
he had purchased a warehouse. A wise move: his former warehouse in the East End was gutted in the blitz. In 1940, Jack evacuated his wife and two sons to the USA. He continued running the business in the UK and earned an MBE. I never did find out why he was given the honour. It was not for successfully evading the police when smuggling eggs from Norfolk during the war: pulled over by the constabulary he kicked up a fuss and said if they were going to search his lorry it should not be done in public. Unloading sacks of feathers is a messy business, especially when the police officers doing the unloading are wearing blue woollen uniforms. It is small wonder that they gave up before completing the job. The eggs were snuggly stowed at the very front of the vehicle. But I digress. My step-father used to joke that Jack’s MBE was for paying his taxes. It was certainly not for smuggling gold sovereigns out of the UK (whenever he travelled abroad on business) to help the struggle in Palestine. Norman, the son of the cousin whom Jack had brought out of Poland, believed that it was for Jack’s work developing better camouflage. Dyed feathers were used to simulate grass and tree leaves. Incidentally, Norman tells of staying with the Pole who had escaped internment in France. He went to improve his French during a summer holiday. Delighted with his progress, on his return to school Norman began to speak fluently to his French teacher in front of the class. However, the French idioms he had picked up were not appropriate for classroom use and he was strongly rebuked. A reminder to me to be discriminating when applying learning. Revisiting Jack’s story has made me consider how I should react to the idea of the “Lucky Jew”. All Jews are lucky to have escaped the vortex of Nazi Europe. But many who appear lucky in life have had to create and sustain their own luck.
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Philip Roth the Biography by Blake Bailey Reviewed by Julian Landy This is a huge book. Over 800 pages, followed by nearly a hundred pages of acknowledgements, notes, sources, and an index. Unless you are a Roth fanatic, I suggest you dip in and out at leisure. The book itself has been both highly anticipated and very controversial. A few weeks after publication several American women suggested that they had been sexually assaulted by the writer, Blake Bailey. Without any investigation or trial, the reactionary USA publisher withdrew the book from shops and shredded all copies. You can, thankfully, still buy it in UK. As a biography it works on all levels. It is both thorough and thoughtful about Roth’s work and his life. And what a life. Certainly the greatest novelist since Tolstoy not to get a gong from the Nobel panel. What an atrocious omission! Was Roth just too Jewish for the cold Swedes? Their shame. Roth is arguably the greatest writer in any form, of the last sixty years. The artist against whom other novelists must measure themselves. Page 22
Every new literary sensation that I read inevitably fails when compared with Roth’s subtlety and intelligence. He was frequently accused of being a Jew-hating Jew, especially after the success of Portnoy’s Complaint. If anything the opposite is true. Virtually all his fiction is imbued with our religion and could never have been written by a gentile. He certainly loathed the observance of Judaism but he did not hate Jews. Most of his friends and colleagues were Jews. One wife was Jewish. His and our failure is that Roth is so easy to misunderstand. Roth’s words ooze his religion and his upbringing with his very Jewish family. With the possible exception of “The Human Stain”, all his books are about Jews and Judaism. If a Roth novel was a food item you would say it had been marinaded far too long in Jewish angst. Not like Woody Allen. Indeed the opposite. Roth can be very funny but he never sets out just to make us laugh. He wants the reader to think. Bailey was his second chosen biographer and has done a magnificent job in keeping his volume to 800 pages. For this was an extraordinary life, chock full of mistakes and failures, misjudgements and calamities. Not helped by Roth’s love of so very many women. Indeed in his life he was repeatedly accused of hating women. This was never so. If anything he patently loved them far too much. Before I bought the book I admitted to myself some trepidation at both the length of the volume and the prospect of some prolonged dense literary criticism. In reality neither was a problem. Instead, where the book falls down is with Bailey’s inability to get to the real heart of the failures of Roth’s two marriages. The first to a non-Jew called Maggie was bound to fail, because the woman grossly tricked Roth into matrimony. The second, to the British actress Clare Bloom, should have stood a better chance, but ended in huge and public acrimony, to the discredit of both parties. Bailey hints at but fails to get into the true causes of the two failures. In fact, to learn all you need to know on both wedded bliss and torment, you just need to read Roth himself. His fiction tells the story of his life better than any biographer could, however brilliant. Page 23
This is a volume to savour. To read slowly and deliberately, over several Shabbats, or on winter evenings. Read carefully, for I cannot not think there will ever be a better or more satisfying secular Jewish writer.
Recovering the sacred command to love the stranger by Simon Eder As Joe Moran has argued recently in an article in the Guardian “Covid has shone an unforgiving light on our already strained relationship with strangers1”. Surveys indicate a decline in social trust and intensified feeling of enmity towards outsiders. George Floyd’s line played out before the world spoke in so many ways to our troubled age and for all of us when he said; “I can’t breathe!” As post-lockdown life resumes and etiquette towards others needs to be relearned we are more wary as we eye passers-by with suspicion and question what were the basics of human interaction – how should we stand? Is hand-shaking now over? In fact relations with strangers have changed significantly as the sociologist Norbert Elias contends since the rise of the nation state. In pre-modern times strangers were much more likely to eat together at long communal tables, share a bed for reasons of space rather than sex and even urinate and defecate in front of each other. All this is a far cry from the token ways that we have come to acknowledge strangers in our modern world with the kind of benign indifference that led sociologist Erving Goffman to coin the term “civil inattention” referring to our fleeting looks and tiny nods of the head as we pass others. So much of our contemporary life is even faceless altogether as apps,
1
Joe Moran, The Lost Art of Living With Strangers, The Guardian Review, Saturday 10th July
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algorithms, passwords, and self-checkouts have removed human interaction entirely. We are such inescapably social creatures that we can be wounded, or enraptured, by a mere glance from another person. As the pandemic has shown, our world is interdependent as never before and the need for ever greater cooperation is paramount. We have discussed previously that the loneliness pandemic abates2. Our global refugee crisis also shows no signs of slowing with recent figures from the UNHCR indicating that there are 26.4million refugees, more than half under the age of 18. Cultural theorist Judith Butler in her book Precarious Life has suggested that we are linked to each other through our shared vulnerability. Our skin is porous, our airways are open, and our senses are sharp. This exposes us not just to other people’s pathogens but to their desire, their violence, their neediness, their gaze. We are such inescapably social creatures that we can be wounded, or enraptured, by a mere glance from another person. “We’re undone by each other”, Butler writes. “And if we’re not, we’re missing something3”. How then can we recover the command that resonates throughout the Bible “to love thy stranger”? Joe Keohane’s new book, The Power of Strangers: The Benefits of Connecting in a Suspicious World shares that hospitality towards strangers was seen as a sacred obligation in antiquity. Citing archaeological evidence he shows that the first human settlements of 10,000 years ago valued stranger travellers for the trade and news that they bought with them. The opening of Genesis chapter 18 recalls one of the most moving gestures of hospitality ever recorded in literature as Abraham, recovering from his circumcision nonetheless, rushes out
2
See Pesach and the Plague of Loneliness Joe Moran, The Lost Art of Living With Strangers, The Guardian Review, Saturday 10th July 3
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to greet his three visitors, bows down to them before offering sustenance and refreshment. The very opening line of the chapter “The Lord appeared to Abraham4’’ is seemingly at odds with the immediate verses that follow, and it is only in verse 13 that Abraham’s interaction with God resumes. Midrashic tradition seeking to resolve this issue therefore embellishes the opening of chapter 18 in the following way: The Lord appeared to Abraham…He looked up and saw three men standing over against him. On seeing them, he hurried from his tent door to meet them, and bowed down. [Turning to God] he said: “My God, if I have found favour in Your eyes, do not leave Your servant [ie Please wait until I have given hospitality to these men].” [He then turned to the men and said:] “Let me send for some water so that you may bathe your feet and rest under this tree…5” It is also from this episode that we derive the Rabbinic principle: “Greater is hospitality than receiving the Divine Presence6”. Faced with the opportunity to speak to God or welcome guests, Abraham in seeming defiance of the Divine, and yet ultimately of course with Divine agreement, he opts for the latter. In a recent article, Professor Ben Zion Katz expounds a plain reading of the text in the opening of chapter 18, which sees God Himself as one of the personified guests that Abraham welcomes. This resolves the seeming disparity between the opening verse and those that follow. The reason that the plain reading has been overlooked is of course the desire to avoid anthropomorphic imagery considered problematic by later authorities, but it is certainly plausible7. On either reading the implication for our question, as to how to discover a love for the
4
Genesis 18:1 Shabbat 127a 6 ibid 7 Ben Zion Katz, God’s Vision to Abraham Vision or Visit, Vayera, Thetorah.com 5
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stranger, is to recognise the face of the Divine in the other. As the 20th Century Jewish philosopher Emmanuel Levinas has it: “the respect for the stranger and the sanctification of the name of the Eternal are strangely equivalent.8” There is a significant difference between two places in the Torah where the treatment of strangers is referenced. In Exodus we read: “You shall not wrong or oppress a stranger9” whereas in Deuteronomy we read that: “You must love the stranger10’’. For the former we can rely on avoidance, it is a negative injunction, whereas the latter is an affirmative requirement in which we are called on to seek out the stranger and show them favour. In both instances reference is made to our own experience, albeit in our collective memory “for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.11’’ Nechama Leibowitz, the celebrated Israeli Bible scholar, when commenting on this ethical imperative, points out that the Torah cautions us regarding our behaviour towards the stranger no less than 36 times. She contends that empathy is an outgrowth of our experience, “We are bidden to put ourselves in the position of the stranger by remembering how it felt when we were strangers in another land12’’. The difficulty in this is, of course, that whilst appeal to collective memory is well and good, it may be hard for people to relate. Rashi perhaps in addressing this difficulty of relation comments on the verse in Deuteronomy by quoting the following: “Do not taunt your fellow with the blemish that you yourself have13’’. The understanding that he offers is that in a sense we are all strangers to each other, we
8
Levinas, Nine Talmudic Readings, p27 Exodus 22:30 10 Deuteronomy 10:19 11 ibid 12 Nechama Leibowitz, Studies on Shemot, p37 13 Bava Metzia 59b 9
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may all easily relate to each other in our common human frailty. To begin to reach out and bridge the chasm between self and other we should not first tarnish the other with the faults that we too possess, that we may then indeed find a love for the stranger. There is perhaps a way to draw on collective memory in a way that we can more easily relate to. Robert Alter, the American professor of Hebrew and comparative literature, refers to the peculiar misidentification of those who were not there who are of course in the majority as a “slide of identification between one generation and another”. This, he argues, is a powerful way of laying the experiential foundation for the Torah’s central injunction to love the stranger. Through the redactors’ shrewd rhetorical strategy they train us in the mechanism for satisfying the Torah’s exhortations on the stranger and just as we have transported ourselves beyond time’s boundaries to occupy the realm of our enslaved ancestors, so too we are aided on a journey beyond the boundaries of ethnicity, nation, socio-economic circumstances, and language that separate us from the world of our contemporary strangers. A love for the stranger indeed requires us to reach out in empathy to the other. Whether we draw an understanding of that empathy through association with our common faults or through a reference to a shared common sense of history, entering into the eyes of the other is what is key, walking in their footsteps to understand their mindset is the common denominator. As more normal human interaction following the pandemic resumes the opportunity to reach out to the stranger in love is an ethical imperative now as great as when the biblical injunction was first codified.
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Frances Rotblat, role model 27 July 1946 to 22 April 2021 Jane Liddell-King As we prepared this magazine, we noticed a theme was emerging, “to love one’s neighbour”. The work of Frances Rotblat, an alumna of my school, transformed the lives, not only of her immediate neighbours but of millions of people throughout the world. Founded in the nineteenth century to enable girls to enter university and the professions, the education provided by GPDST (Girls' Public Day School Trust, now Girls' Day School Trust) schools was as close as possible to that enjoyed by boys. Nothing in the curriculum was gender specific but each school had to take account of its cultural environment. Today, 30% of the girls educated at South Hampstead High School are Jewish, and diversely so. The question put to each of us remains: how to repay the community for the remarkable education which we enjoyed. No one achieved this more fully than Frances Rotblat. For most of us, a cut or graze is not a problem. Our blood clots and new skin grows. But those suffering from haemophilia have a low level of protein Factor 8 and their blood flows unchecked. A small cut or a graze puts them at great risk. Frances played a key role in saving the lives of these people. Those of us born just after the Second World War remember a London full of holes: bomb sites, hanging staircases, windows swinging high above our heads from broken latches exposing the intimate details of peoples’ lost lives, shreds of wallpaper and curtains. Rationing was our normal. It took a year to save enough coupons to buy a winter coat. As Polish Jews, Frances’ parents, Mania and Michael, had been imprisoned in the Warsaw Ghetto where some 400,000 people lost their lives. With extraordinary courage, they escaped. Who can imagine Page 29
what they then endured during two and a half years spent hiding in a house in Poland knowing that their immediate neighbour was a Nazi? Having survived this ordeal, after the War the couple followed Michael’s brother Joseph to London. Joseph Rotblat described himself as a “Pole with a British passport”. A great physicist, in 1995 he shared the Nobel Peace Prize “for efforts to diminish the part played by nuclear arms in international affairs, and, in the longer run, to eliminate such arms”. Conscience had persuaded him to resign from work on the Manhattan Project which was engaged in the production of nuclear weapons. Bravely, he rejected aggression. Frances’ father, Michael, worked as a sewing machine engineer. I can picture Frances busy dissecting a frog or cow’s eye at the bench which ran alongside the room which also served as the school dining room. She was always smiling and kind and ready to talk. After leaving school, Frances went to St Bartholomew’s Hospital to study Medicine. She qualified in physiology and surgery as well as medicine itself. She went on to gain fellowships in pathology, haematology, and pharmaceutical medicine. In 1979, Frances joined haematologist Edward Tuddenham in his work to find a treatment, less painful than the one on offer, for haemophilia. Based at the Royal Free Hospital, they collaborated with David Heath, founder of Speywood, the only blood products laboratory in the country. They worked with enough nerve gas to eliminate the population of Hampstead, so for safety’s sake they had to work in 24 hour stretches. It fell to Frances to bring in the takeaways. She and Edward invented a key process, and eventually they were able to send the purest sample of Factor 8 ever acquired to the American biotechnology company Genetech, which aimed to gene sequence and clone it in 18 months. How did Frances’ colleagues react? Victor Hoffbrand, head of Haematology at the Royal Free said to her: “Frances, if this succeeds, Page 30
you are going to be rich and famous”. But, no matter how skilled, how brilliant, and how dedicated, she knew how things stood for her as a woman in the early 1980s. How little was expected of her and how comparatively small would be her rewards. Pragmatically, she replied: “No, David Heath will be rich. Ted will be famous, and I’ll be out of work.” Genetech completed its work in 1984. David Heath became rich. Ted became famous. And Frances? Her laboratory lost its funding and no just recognition came her way. It’s true that the Department of Health immediately employed her as senior assessor of biological products at their Medicines’ Control Agency where she led the review of new blood products and vaccines. It’s true that she took a particular interest in new treatments for HIV and the regulatory challenges of new treatments for cancer. And it’s true that when mad cow disease was at its height, it was she who had the difficult task of reporting on the safety of those many vaccines which use beef products. I wish she were alive to confront those responsible for the import of contaminated Factor 8 into this country. Not only was Frances intellectually brilliant but throughout her professional life, she was unfailingly generous in mentoring young colleagues. She was not tolerant of those who expressed opinions without evidence. I think this is something which binds our generation of school alumnae. Frances made lifelong friends. She clearly inherited her parents’ courage. She made the most of her evident talents and opportunities. She expected everything of herself. Which of us can claim as much? And if not, who are we? And what are we doing today to ensure equal rights in education for a globally safe tomorrow?
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Conspiracy U by Scott Shay Reviewed by Jonathan Allin Shay’s “Conspiracy U” focuses on the widespread belief in Zionist Conspiracy Theories, and how they have become presumed fact in his own University, Northwestern. He examines two Northwestern professors: both are acknowledged scholars, both believe there is a global Zionist conspiracy, both are pro-Iran. Steven Thrasher is left wing and anti-white, a professor of journalism. His subject is gender studies, LGBTQ+ in the USA, and his articles have made major contributions in public health, for example AIDS amongst people of colour. Thrasher is a Holocaust minimiser. In his view Zionists are “hyper-whites” who are strengthening white power and are oppressors of people of colour who are the ultimate victims of Zionist Conspiracy Theories. Thrasher supports Iran, despite its murder of tens of thousands of gay men, and still supported Isis in 2015. He invents atrocities to buttress his beliefs: he has accused Israel “of using drones to gas Gazans” which makes the reader think of Zyklon B, mustard gas, Holocaust, Saddam Hussein, Bashar al-Assad. The truth is that the drones were delivering tear gas to stop Gazan militants from crossing the 1967 border to kill Israelis. Thrasher is not mainstream, but his role model, Angela Davis, is. Page 32
Thrasher includes Davis’s “Freedom Is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement” in his NYU classes on race in America. Davis herself only appears on sympathetic media and does not participate in debate. Her revealed truths are dogma. Arthur Butz is right wing. He is an electrical engineer of considerable prowess, for example solving Hilbert’s space filling problem. Butz is a Holocaust denier, believing that Zionism is the motive for the “legend” of the Holocaust. He requires that American and Jewish American interests are diametrically opposed and that the latter are illegitimate, though doesn’t think the same about say German Americans. His book, “The Hoax of the Twentieth Century: The Case Against the Presumed Extermination of European Jewry”, was first published In 1976. It was little known before the 24/7 internet but is now considered a classic by the far-right. Amazon eventually removed the book, along with other Holocaust-denying titles, in 2017. Butz is listed on Google (“do no evil”) Scholar, https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=aGfw0EsAAAAJ&hl=en, with references to his non-academic publications, including “Hoax”. He is part German: his book and articles claim Zionism is a sinister political movement aimed at despoiling Arabs, but primarily at duping and robbing the world, especially the Germans, who he regards as the primary victims of Zionist Conspiracy Theories. He relegates Russians as inferior whites, thinks white Americans are too stupid to understand Jewish Conspiracy Theories, whilst elevating the Germans. Jews are fake, deviant whites, undermining white supremacy, not a people on their own terms (David Baddiel pointed out a similar contradiction in “Jews don’t count”). For Butz, the Jews’ sin isn’t colonialism, but parasitism. Butz was granted tenure two years before he published “Hoax”. The Left-Right dichotomy is interesting. Both claim Zionists use the Holocaust illegitimately, however the far-right denies the Holocaust. The far-right feigns to be more “scholarly”, for instance its use of the Institute for Historical Revival. However Shay regards the far-left as Page 33
more dangerous, with a greater impact on academia than the far-right. He sees a direct line between communist anti-Zionist Conspiracy Theories and younger US scholars such as Thrasher. The far-left have a strong influence over main stream media: a generation of New York Times reporters have gone to universities where prejudice against Jewish self determination is unquestioned and unquestionable, thereby making anti-Jewish prejudice undetectable. Alice Walker, author of “The Color Purple”, rightfully a classic, in a New York Times interview in 2018, defended and recommended David Ike’s hateful book “And the Truth Shall Set You Free”. Yet the New York Times allowed this to go unchallenged. Social Sciences and Humanities do appear to be breeding grounds for Zionist Conspiracy Theories: Northwestern’s Jessica Winegar, a professor in the department of Anthropology and a strong anti-Zionist, claims the Zionist conspiracy shuts down freedom of speech and silences opponents, and that there is compulsory Zionism in the university. Yet she has had a completely unhindered platform. Many people of renown have their prejudices: Kant was a masterful philosopher and a bigoted slanderer of non-Europeans. Confucius, still famed for his wisdom, also expressed Chinese superiority. Kocc Barma Fall, a seventeenth-century West African philosopher celebrated for his proverbs, expressed misogynistic views about women. James Watson, co-discoverer of DNA for which he won the Nobel Prize in medicine, has made repeated racist and sexist comments. Alice Paul, who led the national suffragette movement in the United States, did not let Black women participate. We need to be wary of someone talking outside of their speciality; they may talk with confidence and gravitas, but could be talking nonsense and may fail to maintain high academic standards, such as foregoing peer reviews. A while ago in this magazine I discussed “The God Delusion” by Richard Dawkins: he was a competent evolutionary biologist, but a failure as a theologian. Page 34
Shay builds his analysis of Zionist Conspiracy Theories around Northwestern’s motto Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. Philippians 4:8: Paul’s Epistle to the Philippians Shay is very comfortable with this motto and shows how it can be used as a yardstick to measure the likely truth or falsity of a theory, and the need to be open to criticism of our own theories. The motto can, and should, be applied to any theory, academic or otherwise, and to set the standard for scholarship. Shay also uses “The Golden Rule”: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”. Major world religions, not just the monotheistic faiths but the philosophical traditions of China, India, and Tibet, as well as the traditional wisdom of many Native American and African cultures, subscribe to the Golden Rule. Shay prefers (and I agree with) Hillel’s more modest version: “What is hateful to you don’t do to your fellow”. Aristotle describes three ways of persuasion: •
Logos: arguing with logic and from facts
•
Ethos: an appeal to the trustworthiness or authority of the persuader, “I have x years of experience”, “I know better than you”, “trust me, I’m a doctor”
•
Pathos: pure emotional appeal. Appealing to the listener’s fear of the “other” or using emotive terms to sell a false truth (as above, the use of “gas” by Israelis)
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Modern marketing will use all three, legitimate academia can use only logos. Shay makes a careful distinction between Conspiracy Theories and genuine conspiracies. The former have no logic and no, or negligible, foundation in ascertainable fact, and can be debunked with the minimal of investigation. The latter can be shown as most likely to be true or false based on balanced investigation and evidence. Conspiracy Theories use one overarching cause to explain a complex situation, and any evidence that conflicts with the theory is treated as evidence of a coverup. A Conspiracy Theory assumes a high degree of cooperation and secrecy amongst the theorised conspirators, which very few organisations can manage, certainly not over the century or more of Zionist Conspiracy Theories. Conspiracy Theorists comprise both true believers and conscious manipulators driven by an ulterior motive, who will view the world in Manichean terms: conspirators are totally evil and the victims totally good. Theories about conspiracies are compatible with Northwestern’s moto and the Golden Rule, Conspiracy Theories are not. Conspiracy Theories bring out the worst in people, the opposite of the Golden Rule. Someone caught up in a Conspiracy Theory is probably not acting from malice: Shay quotes his Father “meshuganah gornisht bolbe brings out dybbuks in nuchshleppers” or “crazy, worthless, stupid, made-up tales bring out the demons in susceptible unthinking people”. But Conspiracy Theory believers are perhaps like dried grass that can be ignited, and itself consumed, by a single spark. Shay makes the point that wide-spread prejudice against a group is a step towards a Conspiracy Theory, which in turn is the harbinger of genocide: examples include the Tutsis, the Armenians, the Uyghur. Shay is careful to define Zionism as the desire of the Jewish people for self determination in their ancestral homeland. There is undeniable evidence that Jews have lived in Israel for 3000 years and that despite Page 36
numerous occupations and expulsions, Jews have maintained a large, mainly a majority, presence, in Israel. 4th century Rome renamed the Land of Israel to Palestine, with the Jews in the majority until the Arab conquests in 7th century. Over the next few hundred years Arabs become the majority through imperial policies that favoured Arab settlement of Christian and Jewish communities and the dominance of Arab culture, language, and religion. He compares the Jewish people to the Finns, Armenians, Greeks, those of the Balkan states, and others who have achieved self-determination. The Armenians in particular were subject to genocide by the Ottoman/Turkish state. However Armenia had Russian support, whereas neither the Ottoman nor British empires were supportive of Jewish immigration to Palestine/Israel. Self determination is in contrast to imperialism, which involves conquering territory, subjugating the indigenous peoples, supressing their culture and language. Zionist Conspiracy Theories regard Israel as a European imperialist movement, which it patently is not. The idea that Jews are uniformly “white” is absurd. Jewish history and ethnicity is far richer. The left wing in particular carefully ignores non-European imperialism, such as that from China, Soviet, and Arab nations, and their record of oppression and abuse of human rights. The Zionist Conspiracy Theorists see no contradiction in condemning the Jews for wanting selfdetermination whilst at the same time supporting Palestinian Arab selfdetermination. Shay makes it clear that anti-Zionism is also thinly veiled antisemitism, and that anti-Zionism predates the State of Israel. Martin Luther King Jr understood this when he said “when people criticize Zionists, they mean Jews. You’re talking anti-Semitism”. King in general was a supporter of Israel and Zionism, with an insightful view on the problems of the West Bank and Gaza Page 37
(https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/martinkramer/files/words_of_marti n_luther_king.pdf); Zionist Conspiracy Theories portray Zionists as being uniformly Satanic, and having fantastic unity and unprecedented power. They ignore the imperial past of the Arabs. The reality is that Zionists comprise a motley group from left and right, orthodox and secular. Shay’s book covers much useful material: the 1916 Sykes-Picot agreement that split up the Ottoman empire to define the modern map of the Middle East: Syria, Iraq, Jordan; The November 1975 UN resolution UNR 3379 “Zionism is racism”, that equates Zionism with racism, and Arafat’s behaviour at that meeting; the establishment of the Arab League that led to African states switching their alignment from Israel to the Arab countries; Hitler’s conspiracy with the Mufti of Jerusalem, Amin al-Husseini, to murder Jews in British Mandatory Palestine, as well in Europe; the treatment of Jews in Arab lands both prior to and since 1948 in comparison to the recognition by Israel of Arab, Moslem, and other minorities, and their cultures; the deconstruction of ancient Jewish texts and archaelogy. And, perhaps most troubling, the support by Jews of Zionist Conspiracy Theories. Who is the book for? Shay makes the point that changing the minds of those promulgating a Conspiracy Theory is unlikely to succeed, rather we need to address those caught up in Conspiracy Theories. But Shay also makes the telling point that those Jews who go through the University system are in a system where Zionist Conspiracy Theories are assumed fact, presented by people of standing, and so likely to be taken on board by Jewish students. Most Jews get their information from college and US news sources: only 45% of American Jews have visited Israel. Given the prevalence of Zionist Conspiracy Theories circulating in campuses, it’s not surprising that many university and college Jews have been persuaded. Page 38
Conspiracy Theories are aided by “freedom of speech” (or “freedom of expression”). A quick Internet search suggests that the laws around freedom of speech are a mess, lacking precision and clarity. This allows a Conspiracy Theorist to argue that they can say anything, whilst institutions such as Northwestern will do little because of their fear of infringing on right to freedom of speech. Northwestern’s response to antisemitism has been poor. Shay describes in detail how Northwestern has failed to live up to its own motto, that the institution shows a greater concern for image and for the support of large donors such as Qatar, than for truth. Their response to the publication of “Hoax” was a banal statement about freedom of speech, they supported Israel Apartheid Week, and they have lacked the leadership to ensure genuine debate and academic standards. I imagine the situation in Cambridge, in the UK, and in Europe is not so very different. We are in a situation where an entire Jewish generation is adopting an anti-Zionist stance automatically and without thought. So in the first instance our own children need to be targeted or they will be lost to us. A book like Shay’s must help them from unthinkingly accepting Zionist and other Conspiracy Theories. Shay does need to ensure he’s not caught in his own snare. Whilst the book is generally well referenced, there are important occasions when he appears to slip: he states “Hamas routinely uses hospitals and other medical facilities to store weapons and launch missiles...”, but provides no references to back the assertion.
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I’d like to end with some quotes from the book: “Peace will have to be negotiated by both sides, but it will never come by fabricating a false history” “Our collective future depends on permitting facts to disprove theories, instead of allowing theories to negate facts” “Write down what should not be forgotten”, which was Shay’s inspiration for the book
Clara Hassan, aged 8 Page 40
For the children The draydel game This game can be played for nuts, candies, cookies, toothpicks, etc. Any number of children can play. The rules of the game are: 1. 2. 3. 4.
Everyone must start with the same number of nuts, cookies, etc To start the game, each player puts one nut, etc, into the kitty Everyone takes a turn at spinning the draydel The player has to do what the draydel tells them o NUN — Nisht — nothing. This means you do nothin o GIMEL — Gantz — all. Take all in the kitty o HAY —Halb — half. Take half of the kitty o SHIN — Shtell — Tzu — add. Add a nut, etc, into the kitty 5. Play until one person has all the nuts.
Word game Below you will find a box of letters. Find and circle the words in the word list. Look for them by reading forwards, backwards, up and down and on the diagonal. The words are always in a straight line. Some words may overlap.
N A B C D E F G H
A U C D F H J D I
B B N E G I K R J
C A Z G S T L A K
H G Y K I T T Y O
D A X Q R M M D M
E N Y P O N E E N
F T W S H T E L L
G Z V U H T S R P
H X Y Z N I S H T
I J K L M N N O Z
W V U T S R Q P U
NUN, GIMEL, HAY, SHIN, DRAYDEL, SHTELL, NISHT, GANTZ, TZU, KITTY Page 41
Festival calendar 5781, 2020-21 Due to continuing uncertainties not many service times have been included. More information will appear near the time of each event. For Pesach, if would like to attend a Seder, or know someone who would like to attend a Seder, please consult Rabbi Leigh. Derby Stores (Cambridge 354391) and Just Kosher (https://www.justkosher.co.uk) will take Pesach orders.
Chanukah First night
Purim The expectation is Maariv followed by a Megillah reading The expectation is Shacharit followed by a Megillah reading
2021 Sunday 28 November
2022 Wednesday 15 March Thursday 16 March
Pesach Fast of the first born Finish all chametz Burning of chametz Shabbat starts First Seder starts Shabbat ends and Second Seder starts Second day ends Festival starts Shabbat and festival ends
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Friday 15 April by 10.20am by 11.43am 7.43pm 8.30pm Saturday 16 April 8.48pm Sunday 17 April 8.50pm Thursday April 21 7.53pm Saturday 23 April 9.01pm
Shavuot Shabbat ends and Festival starts Shacharit Festival ends
Saturday 4 June 10.19pm Sunday 5 June 9.30am Monday 6 June 10.21pm
Tisha B'Av Fast commences Shabbat ends Maariv and Eichah Shacharit Minchah Fast ends
Saturday 6 August 8:42pm 9.36pm 10.00pm Sunday 7 August 8.00am to 10.00am 1.45pm or 6.00pm (TBD) 9:25pm
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