Times change. My late father was Principal Rabbi of the Federation of Synagogues in the United Kingdom (more kosher than the United Synagogue) from 1945 to 1948. He would meet up with the former Chief Rabbi, Israel Brody at Covent Garden, where they would both sit without head covering, listening to female singing voices. It is probably fair to say…
Arab Israelis
All the major Zionist ideologues of note, from Jabotinsky on the right to Katzenelson on the left, envisioned a state with Arabs and Jews treated equally by law. Israel’s Declaration of Independence enshrines this. After 1948, those Arabs that remained within the state of Israel were granted citizenship. But they were regarded as enemy combatants or sympathizers and put under…
Rape
As I read the lines in lamentations, over the fast of the Ninth of Av, the sentences about Jewish virgins being raped in the streets of Jerusalem were particularly poignant. I have recently had to defend Judaism against the charge, both from yet another anti-Semitic website and also from a Jew, that Jewish law, or at least the Bible, condones…
Jews Talk
We all know Jews love talking, and there’s no better place to talk till you drop than a conference. Israel has been organizing conferences forever. It’s not just for tourist bucks. When I was a student, the Jewish Agency in Israel arranged conferences practically all year round. I’m not sure it actually did anything else. I used to go to…
Boycott Anglo-Jewry
You may have noticed that that there is a “Boycott Israel” campaign sweeping through the British trade union movement like wildfire. On one level I should be pleased. After all, it is now so blatantly and unequivocally clear that this movement is motivated by the irrational hatred of a small, if vocal, minority. There is no call to boycott Robert…
On Fasting
Let me come clean. I hate mourning and I hate fasting. I had enough of being sad during the Omer period that ran from Pesach to Shavuot. Now we’re in the Three Weeks that lead up to Tisha B’Av (the Ninth Day of Av), commemorating the destruction of two Temples and our amazing capacity as a people to self-destruct. Even…