A Jewry Of Our Peers

...We hold fund raisers accountable to the people who contribute...

...In recent years this state of affairs seems to be changing...

...even by non-Jewish comedians, is merely a ghost among Anglo-Jewry...

...There is a difference of approach between the U.S...

...Jews here feel more secure...

...1655 Cromwell petitioned and invites Jews back to England...

...Even at the risk of public exposure and communal disunity, the community would not accept a breach in its own orthodoxy...

...Jakobovits was appointed to the Chief Rabbinate amid a storm of controversy largely generated by Anglo-Jewry's fierce resistance to change...

...Senators and Congressmen...

...If Judaism is so wonderful—and I believe it is—then why should we be so stingy...

...Two related stories from recent Anglo-Jewish history will illustrate Ellen Frankel is an assistant professor of Humanities-Communications at Drexel University in Philadelphia...

...The office of the Chief Rabbi is providing aid to religious schools of all denominations—even the Progressive ones...

...In response to Rabbi Alexander Schindler's call for a new wave of Jewish proselytizing, Dr...

...1885 Lionel Rothschild's son, Nathaniel de Rothschild, made first Jewish Lord...

...Roth speaks of a "brain drain" as the best and brightest of Jewish youth are seduced away from the community...

...It recognizes the authenticity of the establishment...

...Such sweeping sociological pronouncements about British vs...

...whenever the Chief Rabbi fraternizes with the Progressive Jews (Reform or Liberal)—about anything...

...In the United States many Jews identify themselves solely with Israel and the Holocaust, or with community organizations, which obviates their need to join a synagogue...

...1753 Jew Bill in Parliament...

...Significantly, many of the pronouncers are themselves not native Englishmen but are transplants like Gewirtz— from America, from Australia, from East and West Europe, from Israel...

...The Reform prayerbook of 1841 initially sought to reconcile the rift by addressing both communities as "English Jews...

...It has all the virtues and faults of the English gentleman," he says, quoting Cardinal Newman's definition of gentlemanliness as "an unwillingness to cause pain...

...1844 Nathan Marcus Adler, first Chief Rabbi, elected...

...Generalizing from this incident he points out that "in Anglo-Jewry everything is authorized—prayerbook, institutions, etc...

...And just as there is an Archbishop of Canterbury, so there is a Chief Rabbi...

...Yet in every generation they have risen to destroy us...

...In 1879 the United Synagogue, the official Orthodox representative body, was established by an Act of Parliament, a circumstance which would clearly be unheard of—and illegal—in this country...

...Rabbi Louis Jacobs, whose gracious manner and soft speech would admit him to any English drawing-room, explains that "England has always been a religious country...

...They admire the English, but don't want to become them...

...You still are in the process of emancipation...

...At another point in our conversation he confided to me that he has several times been a guest of the Queen at Windsor Castle and Buckingham Palace...

...and Britain...

...We have our hands full trying to convert 'should-be' Jews without looking for 'would-be' Jews...

...Despite the dominance of Orthodoxy and traditionalism in Anglo-Jewry, Progressive Judaism is growing in England...

...He quotes a noted German theologian who remarked that speaking of religion in England is like "bringing coals to Newcastle...

...For instance, in one Liberal synagogue, housed in a gracious London townhouse built by Queen Victoria's father, only modern Hebrew is tolerated, to the exclusion of Yiddish, Ashkenazi Hebrew and Aramaic...

...There are more open jokes and references, but there are also Welsh, Irish and Scottish jokes...

...What distinguishes Anglo-Jewry from our own community...

...Today both groups keep their minutes in English...

...freedom from persecution and from defensiveness...

...For example, there is a very vocal (if small) right-wing Orthodox group which screams "heresy...

...Jacobs' rejection and subsequent removal from his own Orthodox congregation set off a debate which rocked both the Anglo-Jewish and secular press...

...Because Anglo-Jewry is such a small community, many of the community's leading rabbis have been brought in from outside England...

...They want the best for their children—a good education, perhaps Oxford or Cambridge...

...economic security...

...in America the figure is only 40 percent...

...1760 Board of Deputies begins to function...

...Liberal, the smallest branch, is like Classical Reform, but even more "protestant" in its ritual and tone...

...Here again is the traditionalism of the community at work...

...1274 Edward I issues "Statute of Judaism," depriving Jews of right to earn living...

...Tradition...

...It just showed the strength of tradition," he says...

...A 1972 survey showed that two-thirds of English Jews keep kosher homes...

...Rowel Genn, national chairman of the Union of Jewish Students, the British Hillel, left-handedly thanks anti-Zionist activity on campuses for a renewed interest in Hillel and Judaism...

...Jewish books are beginning to sell—in the lobby of the Jewish Chronicle, the Jewish Catalog is prominently displayed...

...We occupy a far larger place in the country...

...1890 Complete legal equality for Jews...

...With white goatee, smart suit, and academic pipe, the German-born rabbi looks and acts the part of a cultured English gentleman...

...Gewirtz, a transplanted New Yorker who has made England his home for eighteen years because "life here is much more 'gemutlich,' " worries about basing Jewish identity on ethnic or "racial" grounds...

...Fortunately, both the National Front and the Anti-Zionists have lost ground in the past few years, but Gewirtz sadly points out: "I Anglo Jewry is non-intellectual because England is a nation of shopkeepers...

...by 1976 there were 40 Reform and Liberal congregations with 60 rabbis...

...But more important are the fights among the religious factions within the community...

...Paul proudly adds, "We're independent, unlike most of the American Jewish press...

...1847 Lionel Rothschild, first Jew elected to Parliament...

...Jacobs points out that Anglo-Jewry really has no secular Jewish movements, unlike American Jewry...

...Just as there is the House of Commons, so there is a Board of Deputies...

...Many community leaders speculate that Anglo-Jewry's staunch commitment to tradition is modeled upon similar habits among its gentile neighbors...

...Repealed 1754...

...This country doesn't take to revolutions...

...The hottest issue, maintains the editor with a wry grin, is the rising price of kosher meat...

...The rabbi sits stiffly by the ark, trussed up with rabbinic robe and medieval English lawyer's collar...

...During our interview in his spacious, orderly office, Jakobovits let slip that just the previous night he had had the Archbishop of York, a personal friend, over to dinner with Keith Joseph, a prominent Jewish cabinet minister...

...Yiddish, a staple of American comedy, adopted in the U.S...

...Traditionally, British Jews have not gone to university in the same proportion as American Jews, although that trend is now changing...

...How very Tevye, how Jewish...

...A great deal of opposition to conversion is racially motivated...

...No," counters the Chief Rabbi...

...Its jurisdiction today extends to all mainstream Orthodox Jews, about half of Anglo-Jewry, as well as to other Jews throughout the British Commonwealth...

...There is less undercover anti-Semitism...

...Yet despite these many "imports," the Anglo-Jewish community considers itself uniquely British, both in its virtues and its limitations...

...this pervasive tension between Jewish and English loyalties...

...One reason for this apparent invisibility is that central London, once the home of most of Anglo-Jewry, is steadily losing its Jews due to inflation, suburban sprawl and changing neighborhoods...

...It is a highly centralized community...

...1290-1655 No Jews in England, except small Marrano community in London...

...Jakobovits counters that "our strength lies in the limitations of numbers...

...Another important institution in England is the weekly Jewish Chronicle, founded in 1841, and today the oldest continuing Jewish publication in the world...

...Doesn't such security and discretion speed up the process of assimilation...

...We are being ground by upper and lower millstones," he states...

...1290 Edward I expels all Jews from England...

...Jews usually take on the coloration of the countries in which they live," notes Geoffrey Paul...

...Not so in England...

...The congregation split over the issue, and out of that split emerged English Reform in the 1840s...

...Finally, the Chronicle serves as a sort of community watchdog, especially over fund raising...

...1833 Jewish Emancipation Bill introduced in Parliament...

...Jews can become citizens by application to Parliament...

...Such apparent contradictions can be found everywhere in the life of Anglo-Jewry, a fascinating community that balances expertly between a staunch commitment to Jewish tradition and an equally strong attraction to things English...

...they have arrived in their society...

...Reform, which began as a breakaway from the Sephardic community in the early 1840's, eventually came back to more traditional ways and today stands somewhere between American Conservative and Reform: mixed seating, choir, and organ— with traditional Hebrew liturgy...

...If right-wing Orthodoxy is the upper millstone chafing United Synagogue, the lower millstone is the Progressive wing of Anglo-Jewry, consisting of Reform and Liberal synagogues...

...At the close of the Orthodox service all congregants reverently intone an English prayer for Queen Elizabeth, Prince Charles and the Queen Mother...

...Jakobovits was chosen over the popular and respected Rabbi Louis Jacobs, who unfortunately made the mistake of publishing a book at that time accepting the "documentary hypothesis," the notion that the Torah is not wholly revealed...

...Immanuel Jakobovits...

...We have had any number of Jewish Lord Mayors of London...

...The older Jews remember snatches of Yiddish from their childhood in the East End or the provinces, but they rarely use it in everyday conversation...

...Many American Jews return from a trip to London complaining that they couldn't even find a synagogue to pray in, let alone a community to explore...

...The majority of Jews in England read the Chronicle, which, over and above regular subscriptions, sells 52,500 copies weekly at newsstands...

...80 percent of English Jews who affiliate with synagogues choose United Synagogue...

...1278 Anglo-Jewry imprisoned...

...But intermarriage is on the rise...

...In 1844 the office of the Chief Rabbi was founded...

...So, too, Anglo-Jewry...

...In contrast, he points to American Jews' obsession with the separation of church and state, with the attainment of religious equality with the Christian community...

...Like all immigrant communities, the British Jews have both resisted the native influences impinging upon them and have been gradually seduced by them...

...Furthermore, British Jews speak of "marrying out," rather than of intermarrying, suggesting that they consider such an act a more radical break with the community than we do...

...He adds wistfully, "It is a liberal attitude that perhaps the world has no use for today," alluding perhaps to the growing intolerance within his own community...

...One of the most articulate spokesmen of the community is the Chief Rabbi, Dr...

...To illustrate their ambivalence toward Englishness, Mariner cites the typical expression British Jews use to refer to intermarriage: "Parents say, 'My daughter married an English boy,' not a 'goy' or a gentile...

...But statistics do not tell the whole story...

...There are now many Jewish dons at Oxford and Cambridge...

...We are more discreet...

...At the beginning of the twentieth century another dispute broke out over the issue of language, this time within the primarily Eastern European Orthodox community: Should the minutes of United Synagogue meetings be kept in Yiddish or in English...

...Just as there is the London Times, so there is the Jewish Chronicle...

...Here in Britain it is the reverse...

...A Capsule History of Anglo-Jewry 1066 Jews enter England with William the Conqueror...

...But the unity of Anglo-Jewry inheres not so much in geography as in the unique system of institutions which the community has created for itself during the course of the past 200 years...

...He adds that the Chronicle also has to play devil's advocate sometimes, acting as "a needle that convulses the community to some sort of action—rather like moment...

...The Jewish Chronicle provides the tourist with an excellent entree into the Anglo-Jewish scene...

...In 1930 there were only three Reform synagogues in England...

...Rather, most Jewish sons have gone into business, which explains why Anglo-Jewry is noted for its prodigious fund raising efforts, surpassing American Jewry in its share of giving to Israel and to its own local institutions...

...Jacob Gewirtz, an executive director of the Board of Deputies and a member of the only Conservative synagogue in England, takes issue with this stand-offish attitude toward converts...

...Anglo-Jewry is non-intelle,c-tual," observes the German-born Jakobovits, "because England is a nation of shopkeepers...

...Roth, born in Hungary and a survivor of the Holocaust, echoes other non-natives in decrying the intellectual thinness of the Anglo-Jewish community...

...Such words as "kvetch," "heimish," and "shlep" make a British hostess clap with delight as if one were not an American visitor but a country cousin from a rural village...

...It is a love-hate thing," says Mariner...

...Jewish Population 1290 16,000 1800 8,000 1881 60,000 1901 160,000 1959 450,000 1980 350-410,000 always hope that I'll be out of a job...

...According to him, British Jews feel that...

...Jakobovits today does not dwell long on the "Jacobs Affair," as it has come to be called...

...Thus, on the one hand, English Jews affiliate in astounding numbers with synagogues and kosher butchers: two-thirds of London's Jews and three-quarters in the provinces join synagogues...

...American society, particularly Jewish society, are typical...

...The Orthodox rabbinical seminary, Jews' College, has had no native-born principal since its founding in 1855...

...Intermarriage, assimilation, religious factionalism—these all sound regrettably familiar to American Jews...

...As a community, he explains, it is "less culturally interesting than continental or even American Jewish communities...

...In his capacity as director of the Office of Defense and Group Relations, the British equivalent of the Anti-Defamation League, he has seen the ugly consequences of racial exclusivism: on the right, the racist and anti-Semitic National Front has made major gains in recent years by capitalizing on tensions caused by the rising numbers of non-white immigrants pouring into England...

...Despite such open anti-Semitic currents in England, Gewirtz claims that anti-Semitism is actually more pronounced in the United States...

...Here one doesn't wear one's religion on one's sleeve...

...Or are the differences only superficial, the matter of an accent and a penchant for afternoon tea...

...If I succeed in strengthening Jewish education," says Jakobovits, "my ministry will have been a success...

...Low grade humor is an accepted thing...

...he challenges...

...Fortunately, the Chief Rabbi chose to ignore this call for a "cherem" (ban of excommunication...

...In recent years, one Jewish lawyer confided, Jewish businesspeople have even begun to read the Chronicle on the tube alongside the London Times and Telegraph, a sign that Jews have begun to feel more secure within general English society...

...There are more Jewish MP's proportionately than U.S...

...The Reform movement is the only group marrying in greater proportion than burying (although in absolute numbers all groups are declining...

...The idea of Judaism's encompassing cultural and intellectual resources still hasn't taken root...

...How very proper, how English...

...At the bimah stands Henry Higgins in top hat and tallis...

...16,000 leave...

...He adds that academics are on the periphery: "Very few academics take an active part in community leadership...

...Steven Roth, the director of the prestigious Institute of Jewish Affairs in London, suggests that Anglo-Jewry is a community which is primarily "Judaistic," that is, based on religious Judaism...

...Anything that rebels against it is regarded with suspicion...

...Yet these boons sometimes exact a heavy toll, witness the growing intermarriage rate among British Jews: one in five by last count—well below the American ratio, but still alarming...

...Jakobovits speculates that American Jews behave this way because they feel that they "haven't arrived yet...

...Group comes from Amsterdam...

...The son of a greengrocer won't assimilate— unless he goes to university, that is," To combat this trend of increasing secularization and assimilation, the Chief Rabbi has made Jewish education his chief priority...

...Yet on the other hand, English Jews shun the now fashionable mantle of ethnicity...

...A brief canvass of several community leaders provides a revealing glimpse of this rather self-conscious community...

...Yet to an outsider, the coherence of the community which the Chief Rabbi talks about is not readily apparent...

...1144 First "Blood Libel" case—Norwich...

...Rabbi Rodney Mariner, a dynamic young Australian who is the associate rabbi of the second largest Reform congregation in England, attributes Orthodoxy's tenacious hold to what he calls "the Church of England syndrome...

...It is very difficult for people who don't live fully Jewish lives to explain to their children why they must marry a Jew...

...All else is of secondary importance...

...The first incident took place at the beginning of the last century when the Sephardim in London debated the question of their sermons: should they be in Spanish or in English...

...Rejected by House of Lords...

...A lot of Jewish students started to realize their identity...

...The whole society is pragmatic...

...The stocky, urbane editor of the Jewish Chronicle, Geoffrey Paul, describes his paper as "a mirror, a meeting-place and a platform, in that order...

...Anti-Semitism is less overt [in America] since there is a 'gentlemen's agreement.' You hardly ever get off-color jokes about Jews...

...As Chief Rabbi, I can't afford insularity...

...American Jewry's seeking of acceptance as equals in the general community has never been the ambition of a Jewish community before...

...Yet even with such a flowering of Progressive institutions, Orthodoxy still commands center stage—and much of the wings...

...Pointing to the elimination of religion from American schools—it is still very much a part of British public education—he laments that Jewish crusading for separation of church and state "results in the ambition that America should be a pagan country...

...The traditional element prevents the erosion of Jewish values...

...1870 United Synagogue established...

...Jakobovits laments that the United Synagogue, the Orthodox body that he represents, is being buffeted by the winds of extremism...

...Louis Jacobs claims that his community is gentlemanly...

...First and oldest is the Board of Deputies, made up of representatives from every synagogue (Orthodox, Reform, Liberal and Sephardic) and from every Jewish organization...

...More Jewish children are eyeing college and professional school...

...293 Jews executed in London...

...Besides the usual birth and marriage announcements (sadly few) and obituaries (sadly many), there is extensive coverage of the various fights within the community—and there are plenty of them...

...1858 After being re-elected every year and denied seat, Rothschild seated after Commons oath modified...

...Although we in America have representative bodies for presidents of major Jewish organizations, for synagogues, and for federations, the idea of a single representative body for all organizations is inconceivable in our sprawling community...

...Denied seat because of refusal to take Christian oath...

...Gewirtz adds that the worst jokes right now are about the Arabs, the latest ethnic arrivals on the British scene...

...He explains: "The United Synagogue is the Church of England of Jewry...

...Day schools are increasing...

...in the women's gallery high above the sanctuary, kibbitzing and chattering, sits a bevy of matronly Eliza Doolittles, wearing plumed, furred and flowered hats to rival the Queen's...

...We must practice a balancing act...

...Before, there was less breadth, less quality to their identification...

...After all, "arriving" into British culture may be only a prelude to departing from the Jewish community...

...Immanuel Jakobovits cites another typically British trait when describing the uniqueness of Anglo-Jewry: discretion...

...If one doesn't live Jewishly, then the only reason to be Jewish is racial...

...One particularly vociferous group even took out an ad in the Chronicle last year excommunicating all non-Orthodox Jews...

...The British Jews themselves see things differently...

...The cantor ends Friday night services with a crisp "Shabbat Shalom" rather than "Gut Shabbos," and even the traditional kaddish is translated from Aramaic into Hebrew...

...1189-90 Massacres of Jews in London, York and other cities...

...The Yiddishists seceded in a huff to form the more right-wing Orthodox Federation of Synagogues...

...Adding to the problem is the generally inhospitable Anglo-Jewish attitude toward conversion, another symptom of the "love-hate" attitude toward the "other...

...But with this intellectual flowering comes the risk of greater assimilation...

...Of course, this situation does not arise in the few chassidic pockets in London's north and west suburbs...

...on the left, anti-Zionist activity managed to bring about the banning of Jewish student groups from most British campuses following the 1974 "Zionism is racism" resolution in the U.N...

...At the same time that Jews are drawn to model themselves upon their English neighbors, they are also ambivalent about identifying too closely with a Christian culture...

...a sense of belonging...

...If you are Christian in England, you are C of E. If you are Jewish, you choose United Synagogue...

...In the smaller British community of under half a million, this single board acts as the spokesman for all Jews, as it has done since the late eighteenth century...

...Today the majority of Anglo-Jewry, 280,000 out of 400,000, live in the dense northern suburbs of Greater London...