CTJC Bulletin Pesach 2021

CTJC magazine

Pesach

Nisan 5781 April 2021

CTJC Cambridge Traditional Jewish Congregation Magazine number 130

Contents From the Chair ......................................................................................... 3 From the Editor........................................................................................ 4 Community news ..................................................................................... 5 Communal information ........................................................................... 5 JewQ National Championship.................................................................. 7 Cambridge Chaplaincy update................................................................. 8 In Search of Pesachs past ...................................................................... 10 Non-socially-distanced Passover ........................................................... 12 Search, Research, and Serendipity ........................................................ 17 Abby Chava Stein: Becoming Eve .......................................................... 22 The Ratline: Love, lies, and justice on the trail of a Nazi fugitive .......... 24 Judaism in practice from the middle ages through the early modern period..................................................................................................... 26 Be prepared ........................................................................................... 28 Board of Deputies Pesach message ....................................................... 30 Festival calendar 5781, 2021 ................................................................. 33 Pesach 2021 ........................................................................................... 34 Pesach crossword .................................................................................. 36 Pesach word search ............................................................................... 37 Views expressed in this magazine do not necessarily represent the views of the Editor, nor of the Committee of the CTJC

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From the Chair Jo Landy Another Pesach, another lockdown. But, please G-d, as we sit around the Seder table this year, there will be an end in sight and the easing of lockdown will have begun.

This past year we have all been doing our best to cope and invent new ways to deal with the strange new world in which we find ourselves.

Purim was made special by the thoughtfulness and effort of many people. Thanks to Barry for his Megilla reading and Rochel’s Kahoot quiz. It was fantastic to see so many people on Zoom from Cambridge and beyond.

This year has also seen deliveries of mishloach manot to our houses.

And for many of us, the shared the experience of a scrumptious Middle Eastern Purim Feast cooked by Faraj’s Kitchen. This was cooked at Rohr House. A big thanks to all those who made everything work.

For those of you worried about obtaining Pesach supplies, please remember Derby Stores will bring up things to order and that Midan has started to stock foods too. In addition to this, https://www.justkosher.co.uk and www.sabeny.com will deliver to Cambridge.

Other news. Post Shabbat Zoom schmoozes have been a regular feature of this third lockdown. Participants have enjoyed seeing one another in the flesh, albeit on screen.

Services were restarted at 3 Thompson’s Lane the Shabbat before Purim. As with last year, if you wish to attend please pre-register at https://www.ctjc.org.uk/shabbat-attendance.

Wishing you all ‫פסח שמח‬.

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From the Editor Jane Liddell-King Dear All, Firstly, a huge thank you to all of you who have made this magazine possible.

As I sat savouring the hamantaschen so kindly delivered by Chana and Reuven in the beautifully packaged Mishloach Manot, I realised that a whole year had passed since I’d sat at a neighbour’s table with friends: Purim 5780. What will we make of this past year of uncertainty, grief, separation, comfort eating, screen fatigue, countered by extraordinary heroism, resourcefulness, and acts of unexpected kindness? How will we explain it to the children with whom we are about to celebrate Pesach?

How fortunate that adaptability is written into our DNA. As a friend has it: “If we can fold our tents and move on, surely we can change our mindset”. And so we have mastered virtual meetings, greeted neighbours from a safe distance and generally resisted nostalgia.

Nostalgia was the undoing of those in the wilderness who, craving Egyptian spring onions and forgetting the reality of slavery, kvetched about the monotony of manna. Understandably though, a place with no familiar furniture and no signposts was bewildering: the past felt safer.

I see the year as a masterclass in adaptability. Early on, Rosalind Landy substituted beer for yeast in her challot. Only this week, Jo has sent me heartening messages as I battle with a dysfunctional computer. We have schmoozed online. In a virtuoso on-line performance of Megillat Ester, Yoav and his daughter, Ayala, answered the needs of the wider Jewish community. Sudden change has not fazed us.

We have grieved together and we have witnessed astonishing medical advances in the rapid production of vaccines. As we receive these, we can face a new version of normality.

May I wish you all ‫חג פסח שמח‬.

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Community news ‫מזל טוב‬

Congratulations

Pam and Trevor Marcuson, on their golden wedding anniversary

‫רפואה שלימה‬

Refuah shelema To Renate Egger-Wentzel, partner to Stefan Reif

‫ברוך דיין אמת‬

Condolences

Helen Goldrein, on the death of her mother, Patricia Morris. We wish long life to Helen, to her brothers Robin and Daniel, and to all their families.

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 and “ManCom”

Jo Landy Ben Blaukopf Barry Landy Rabbi Reuven Leigh Jane Liddell-King Jo Landy Jonathan Harris Robert Marks Yoav Git Tim Goldrein

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.

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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 8:00pm 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.

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).

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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.

JewQ National Championship Jane Liddell-King Rochel Leigh’s kind invitation asking me to the JewQ National Championship, Zoomed on 14 March, led to a delightful visit to an event definitely more fest than test. The host, Chanchi Alperowitz, instantly put everyone at ease, constantly encouraging the teams competing from Bournemouth, Cardiff, West Hampstead, London, and, of course, Cambridge.

The children rapidly showed impressive Jewish knowledge answering questions ranging from the order of the days of creation to our basic books, from kosher foods to a mastery of code breaking. Clearly, learning is a pleasure and it was excellent to see them choose welldeserved prizes. While West Hampstead won, Cambridge was a close runner up. Judith Dick and Batya and Zaki Fuks scored highly enough to be chosen to compete in the international championships.

A huge mazel tov to everyone who took part and a huge thank you to Cambridge teachers, Rochel and Jaclyn.

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Cambridge Chaplaincy update R' Elazar and Alissa Symon Lent Term is (almost) over. Despite term not taking place in person, we have been busy with activity.

We are aware of about 30 Jewish students present in town. Many are international students, post-grads, as well as British under-grads who received special permission to come back to college, or live in private housing. We are doing our best to support them by: • • • • • •

Holding a take-away "Lunch and Love" every Tuesday, where we see students in person for a short while Distributing Shabbat meals every Friday Holding (recently) Kabalat Shabbat at 3TL Going on various walks and runs Setting up a chat for those in Cambridge, to encourage connection and support Purim! We just had a wonderful Purim, Megilah was read in 3TL, Mishlochei Manot were distributed, and Purim feasts were given out. A special thank you to Ros and Barry Landy, that despite not being able to distribute in person, made many Mishlochei Manot that were delivered by us and appreciated by the Cambridge students

At the same time we are running an online program and trying to support our students back home, by running various events: • • • • • Page 8

A weekly live streamed Havdalah Yidflix: a joint watching and discussion of Jewish related content Weekly Hebrew reading group - we are currently reading the stories of King David in the book of Shmuel Purim: many students attended a Chaplaincy National event of an online Megilah and a cocktail making workshop. We also held a zoom Purim Shpiel on Friday afternoon We are attending and supporting the various Jsoc online events, including a weekly virtual Kabalat shabbat, great talks

by various speakers, and more. We are especially excited for Virtual Parents Shabbat, that will be taking place this ThursdayFriday It's still hard to know what the Easter Term will allow. We are currently concentrating on finishing Lent Term in the best possible way and figuring out how we can best support students in the upcoming Pesach Holiday.

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In Search of Pesachs past Rosalind Landy Pesach is here again. It is a complicated festival to organise. This year the difficulties are compounded by the fact that the Chag begins Motsei Shabbat. We have had this before, but I always have a sinking feeling of having Challot around for Shabbat when they must not leave any crumbs as we enter Pesach. How often does it happen in the 19 year cycle that we have a Saturday evening start? Barry will tell me!

For the first few years of our married life we went to Barry’s parents for the whole of Pesach. It was always a great pleasure with one or two glitches. I have memories of a crisis in the Landy parents’ house when one set of grandchildren hid a favourite teddy of the other set. The crisis was averted just in time, before the Ma Nishtana was recited.

After some years of visiting the grandparents, our children requested to have Pesach at home. We agreed and did that. But as you all know, one enters Pesach feeling tired, having cleaned and organised a myriad things.

In addition, being one female in an entirely male household, I was usually the butt of jokes. One Seder evening, I had just sat down at table when, in addition to the required Shemurah Matsot, one of our children pointed to a bread roll on the table. I nearly fainted. Had I really not noticed the Chametz earlier? Then the child pressed the roll which emitted a squeak. Yes, it was a flexible plastic copy of the roll.

I have to say that I was speechless and at the same time, highly amused. We keep the ‘roll’ to this day, as a reminder of that tense moment!

Eventually, we reversed the family arrangement and parents started coming to us for the whole of Pesach. One such year, we had invited Page 10

the down-the-road Landys for Seder. They had, at the time, two small children. Annette, the mother, asked if the children could stay with us overnight as going down the road at 1am was horribly late for youngsters. We agreed to this, but had no spare beds or bedrooms, since they were all occupied by our children or the grandparents. The agreement was that the small cousins would sleep in sleeping bags on the floor of our bedroom. On that occasion I got to bed at 3am and just as I was falling asleep, a voice from floor level asked if I could blow his nose. I got up, found a Kleenex and did the job. As I got back into bed, a different voice said: Ros, you wiped the wrong nose. I apologised and sorted that out!

O tempora, o mores! This year, in Covid times, our table will be short.

We will do the regular reading of the Haggadah, just Barry and me. But we remember the fun times and hope they will soon come again!

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Non-socially-distanced Passover Ben Blaukopf ‫ אֲ מַ ר‬.‫יתן עֵּ ינָּיו ְבאּוכְ לּוסֵּ י י ְִּש ָּראֵּ ל‬ ֵּ ‫יקׁש אַ גְ ִּריפַ ס הַ מֶּ לֶּ ְך ִּל‬ ֵּ ‫ פַ עַ ם אַ חַ ת ִּב‬:‫ָּתנּו ַרבָּ נַן‬ ‫ ְונ ְִּמצְ אּו ָּׁשם ִּׁש ִּשים‬,‫ּכּוליָּא ִּמּכׇּל אֶּ חָּ ד‬ ְ ‫ נָּטַ ל‬.‫ ֵּתן עֵּ ינֶּיָך בַ ְפסָּ ִּחים‬:‫לֵּ יּה ְלכֹהֵּ ן גָּדֹול‬ ‫ וְאֵּ ין‬.‫חֹוקה‬ ָּ ‫ְׁשהָּ יָּה ְב ֶּד ֶּרְך ְר‬ ֶּ ‫ חּוץ ִּמטָּ מֵּ א ו‬.‫ִּריבֹוא זּוגֵּי כְ לָּ יֹות ּכִּ ְפלַ יִּם ּכְ יֹוצְ אֵּ י ִּמצְ ַריִּם‬ ‫קֹור ִּאין אֹותֹו‬ ְ ‫ וְהָּ יּו‬.‫ֲש ָּרה ְבנֵּי אָּ ָּדם‬ ָּ ‫יֹותר מֵּ ע‬ ֵּ ‫לָּ ְך ּכׇּל פֶּ סַ ח ּופֶּ סַ ח ֶּׁשל ֹא נ ְִּמנּו עָּ לָּ יו‬ ‫עּובין‬ ִּ ‫״״פֶּ סַ ח ְמ‬.

We learn in a beraita1 that King Agrippa once wished to set his eyes on the population of Israel. He said to the High Priest: Observe every pesach sacrifice (when I write pesach in this article, I mean the sacrifice). He (the High Priest) took a kidney from each one, and found that there were 600,000 pairs of kidneys, double the number of people who left Egypt! This excluded those who were impure, or who were distant. And you would not have found any pesach that had fewer than ten people registered for it. They called it the Crowded Passover.

Josephus records a similar event2, but here Cestius, the Legate of Syria, replaces Agrippa.

Cestius, desiring to inform Nero, who was inclined to condemn the nation, of the power of the city, requested the high priests to take a count, if possible, of the entire population. So these high priests did so upon the arrival of their feast which is called the Passover. On this day they slay their sacrifices from the ninth hour until the eleventh, with a company [phatria] of not less than ten belonging to every sacrifice - for it is not lawful for them to have the feast singly by themselves - and many of us are twenty in a company. These priests found the number of the sacrifices was two hundred and fifty-six thousand five hundred.

1

Pesachim 64b

2

Wars of the Jews 6.9.3 422

Page 12

These numbers seem implausibly large.

The Awassi breed of sheep is indigenous to (and common throughout) the Middle East, and a male weighs around 5kg at birth3. Lambing season in Israel, however, is around December/January4, so a sheep could be more like two to three months by Passover5. They put on weight at quite a rate: a three-month-old might weigh 25kg. For the sake of argument, let us stick with the baby lamb, and two and a half kilos of dressed meat you might get from it. Feeding ten people on that seems plausible, if a bit tight. That's two quarter-pounders per person .

However, we need to allow for people bringing a chagiga (also known as the burnt egg on the seder plate) offering as well. This was eaten first: the mitzva is to eat the pesach after you have satisfied your hunger6. The Seder today is not just out of order in having the Four Questions first, we ought to eat the Yom Tov meal first and only then start talking about Hillel and Korech. I think we can take the beraita at face value when it says "you wouldn't find any pesach there that had fewer than ten people registered for it".

At any rate, the Talmudic numbers leave us looking at twelve million people registered to eat a korban pesach, even if we only slaughter eight-day-old lambs, and even if we don't bring any chagiga offerings to supplement the meal.

How much space would all this take? Let's say if we cram everyone in (with the lambs) you can fit five people in a square metre, at the upper limit of what is considered safe7 for standing spaces with no 3

Everything I know about lambs, I read on the Interweb. It might be true.

4

Luke 2:8-20 :) But also see Rosh Hashana 8a which describes lambs born in Elul.

5

Note that Passover nowadays (but not specifically in 2021) is on average about eight days later than it was at the time of the temple, due to calendar drift.

6

Pesachim 70a

7

Pesachim 64b where a crushing death is mentioned.

Page 13

accompanying sheep. We would need an area considerably bigger than the Old City of Jerusalem, never mind the temple courtyard itself. It's getting a bit crowded. No wonder they locked the doors8. Maybe they had kohanim in white gloves to push everyone in, like Japanese trains.

Time to go back and take another look at the beraita. Why does it feel the need to tell us that the sacrifices “excluded those who were unclean, or on a distant journey”? This really is, in the words of the gemara, a “peshita”, something so obvious that it doesn't need saying.

To me, the answer is because the beraita is not telling the sages or us.

It's telling Agrippa.

Perhaps it went something like this. I'm about to mix classics and Talmud, in the presence of experts on both. Don't take it too seriously.

Any accuracy is unintended.

Somewhere in Jerusalem, 64CE9.

Mattathias: Hail, Agrippa, King of Judea!

King Agrippa II: Hail, err <whispers to aide> Mattathias, High Priest. <awkward pause> KA: So, the temple. We're considering building a new arch to celebrate the bounty of Rome, maybe in front of the sanctum sanctorum? What do you think?

M: <thinking quickly> A wonderful idea, Sire. I would be fully in favour. But there may be a problem with the Health and Safety committee. We need all the space we can get in the courtyard.

It gets very crowded.

8

Ibid 64a in a mishna which is certainly worth reading before Seder. It describes the spectacular procedure of the korban pesach.

9

I'll go with Josephus for dating, which therefore means we are dealing with Agrippa II and Matatthias the High Priest - and the deputy may well have been Hanina.

Page 14

KA: Really? How many of you are there?

M: Uncountable numbers, King. In fact, we're not supposed to count Jews. But we can count kidneys.

KA: Are you trying to be funny? This isn't Life of Brian.

M: Not at all, King. The Jews don't take the kidneys with them, they leave them for the priests to burn. If we count the kidneys, we can count the sacrifices. And if we count the Pesach sacrifices, we will know how many Jews are using the temple.

KA: Alright, sounds good. Vale!

Backing music: The Liberty Bell <We observe as Mattathias, High Priest, separates one kidney from every Korban Pesach> Mattathias: Right, where's the Sgan HaKohanim when you need him? <shouts> HANIIIIINA <enter running man in priestly garments>. Hanina, we've got six thousand kidneys.

Hanina, deputy High Priest: No, that won't do. Not enough.

Kidneys come in pairs. We'll count the one we didn't pick up as well. After all, we only said we'd count pesach sacrifices; that am haaretz won't know a pesach from a chagiga. Tell him we've got six thousand pairs of kidneys.

King Agrippa II: So, how many Jews were there?

M: We took a kidney from each sacrifice, King. We counted twelve thousand kidneys.

KA: So, twelve thousand Jews? There's more than that come to a good crucifixion. Doesn't sound too many to me. My great grandfather made this place pretty big.

M: Your Highness, there are many more Jews who could not come, because they are impure, or live too far away.

KA: Still... surely we can squeeze an arch in, even if it had to be a bit smaller…

Page 15

M: And, your Highness, each sacrifice is offered on behalf of many Jews. At least ten.

KA: Alright, alright, you've made your point.

Now, I freely admit that I made all of this up, but I am open to hearing an alternative explanation which doesn't rely on miracles. You noticed I wrote 6,000 in the dialogue above, not 600,000? It seems a more plausible number to me. If 6,000 pesachim were brought, then we need to fit 6,000 men and lambs into the azarah, the temple courtyard, in three shifts. That sounds crowded to me, but not impossible. If each lamb was more like three months old and yielding 12kg of meat, then with chagigot to round out the meal you could conceivably feed 600,000 people. A little conflation of numbers, and suddenly we have 600,000 pesachim. Next thing we'll be saying there were 300 plagues instead of 10. ‫חג שמח וכשר‬

Page 16

Search, Research, and Serendipity Stefan C Reif Joshua Blau was a brilliant scholar of Arabic who taught at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem from 1957 and died at the remarkable age of 101 just a few short months ago. He told me once that he inherited his passion for learning from his Hungarian father and his sense of humour from his Galician mother. One needed great wisdom to survive in Hungary and an ability to laugh at tragedy to survive in Galicia. Blau was fond of saying that serendipity, and not only research, played a major role in scholarship and I recently had reason to concur with such an assessment.

Some fifty-five years ago, my friend Natty Gordon and I would walk, talk, and eat our way through the long Shabbat afternoons of the summer in our native Edinburgh. The walking was between Marchmont, Liberton, and the synagogue in Salisbury Road; the talking was about how we were planning to change the world (drastically of course); and the eating was done at the afternoon meal (se‘udah shelishit) in his parents’ home or mine. The talking was not totally restricted to the future but occasionally touched on the past. I told him about my paternal origins in Kalusz, Galicia, and he informed me about his father’s family having come to Edinburgh from Maishad, Lithuania.

For some reason, that latter name nestled in my memory.

In 1967, when I was in the latter stages of writing my doctoral dissertation, I applied for a major and highly competitive award at the University of London and was interviewed by Professor Judah Benzion Segal (1912-2003), a distinguished scholar then teaching at the School of Oriental and African Studies. His colleagues always referred to him as “Ben Segal”. I apparently impressed him since my application was successful. More important than that, however, was the degree to which he impressed me with his knowledge, his insights, and his charm.

I later ascertained not only that he had won the Military Cross in the Page 17

Second World War but that his father was the famous biblical scholar, Moshe Hirsch Segal (1875-1968; henceforth “MHS”), and that Ben had been born in Newcastle. Why Newcastle, I wondered.

Ben Segal’s daughter, Naomi, was a Fellow and Lecturer in French at St John’s College, Cambridge, from 1986 until 1993. We coincided there on a number of occasions and I was able to share with her my feelings of gratitude to her father and my admiration for the publications of her grandfather. Naomi went on to a chair at the University of Reading, making it a trio of Segal professors in a direct family line. She took pride in her grandfather but I was a little surprised not to hear from her anything personal about him.

It must have been in the 1990s that I had a number of one-to-one meetings with the then Chief Rabbi, Jonathan Sacks, concerning Jewish education, Genizah research, and his plans for a new annotated prayerbook. I was able to offer some suggestions in connection with that liturgical project and, in the course of one of our discussions, I mentioned the name Aryeh Leib Frumkin. He had edited a version of the important and pioneering prayer-book of the ninth-century talmudic scholar, Amram ben Sheshna, who had headed the rabbinical academy in Sura, Babylonia. Jonathan mentioned that Frumkin was his great-grandfather, his mother Libby having been the daughter of one of Frumkin’s sons, Eliyahu Ephraim. I duly made a mental note of the connection.

In an article published in 1910, when he was at the beginning of his academic career, MHS was critical of what he called the “dry casuistical studies” of the yeshivot which “did not draw any sharp distinction between the past and the present.” At the same time, he was not appreciative of the more scientific and historical approach to Jewish history and literature that he regarded as a dry intellectual exercise unrelated to the daily observances of Judaism. For himself, he recommended that modern Jewish learning should “cease to be the exclusive possession of the professional student, and must become Page 18

again, as it always had been, the common property of the whole Jewish people.” What kind of education did he receive that produced such a response?

All this came together when I was invited to submit an article to mark the sixty-fifth birthday of a distinguished Catalan scholar from Barcelona (“not Spanish”, she tells you) who teaches at universities in Rome. Her expertise is in a book of proverbs written around 180 BCE by a Jerusalem teacher called Simeon Ben Sira and the invitation appropriately stipulated a topic relating to that ancient Jewish book. I had long used and appreciated the introduction and commentary written by MHS in Modern Hebrew and proposed to assess its importance, explain why it had been neglected and suggest that it should be translated into English. My idea was simply to summarize MHS’s life and career and then describe his work on Sefer Ben Sira.

The former task turned out not to be so simple as the latter. I came across references to a birth in Mosedis, a rabbinic education, marriage in London, a spell in Oxford, and an appointment at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The entries in the various encyclopedias, both of the traditional hard copy and of the “cloudier” variety, were distinctly indistinct and undistinguished in what they offered. I did some ferreting and, remembering Natty’s Meshad (the Litvaks’ pronunciation of what was in Yiddish Maisyad), I made the connection with the shtetl of Mosedis in north western Lithuania, and with Scotland. What emerged was that, in the 1890s, numerous families left the imperial Tsarist province (“gubernia”) of Kovno, of which Mosedis was then a part, and settled in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Dundee. While most of Natty’s extended and extensive family chose Edinburgh, the Segals went to Dundee.

Why did MHS go to London and then to Oxford? He had apparently been a brilliant young scholar and the family had therefore sent him to London to acquire a British education. While there, barely subsisting on his meagre earnings as a Yiddish journalist, he visited the East End Page 19

wine-shop from which Aryeh Leib Frumkin made his living (academic Jewish studies being no more lucrative then that they are now) and met Hannah Leah, the daughter of Aryeh and his wife Sheina. They fell in love and married in 1899. Thanks to my acquaintance with Naomi Segal, I was able to receive from her, and from her cousin, Charles Merkel, copies of some important family records and to piece together other parts of the jig-saw. Naomi’s father, Ben, had written an account of Hannah Leah and I made use of that delightful article in my reconstruction. So MHS was Chief Rabbi Lord Sacks’s great uncle.

In order to make a better living, and evidently with an eye on studying Semitics at Oxford, MHS, accompanied by wife Hannah Leah, and baby Sarah, moved there in 1901 and served as the spiritual leader of the community. From the Oxford reminiscences of the Zionist intellectual and public figure, Sir Leon Simon (1881-1965), MHS’s commitments to Judaism, Zionism and Jewish education, as well as the award of an Oxford BA and MA and numerous prizes, became clear. What remained obscure were the college to which he might have belonged and the rabbinic education that preceded the London experience. With the kind assistance of one of the University Archivists at Oxford, I learned that MHS had been admitted to read Bible and Semitic Languages in 1903 as a non-Collegiate student. This had been possible in Oxford from as early as 1868 for those with limited financial means. I also learned from the same source that he had previously studied in “Jelsehi”. It did not require any flash of brilliance to conclude that this entry at Oxford had to be read as Telsehi and that MHS had studied (and apparently excelled) at the famous yeshivah of Telz/Telshe/Telsiai, less than forty miles to the south-east of Moseidis.

His rabbinic education at Telz and his study of Semitics at Oxford gave him the firm foundation that he needed for his subsequent academic career. It also encouraged a critical approach to the various forms of Jewish learning as well as an interest in providing a modern understanding of Jewish commitment that combined a love of Jewish sources, a yearning for the homeland in Eretz Yisrael, and an Page 20

enthusiasm for the new academic centre that opened its doors in Jerusalem in 1926. Segal did some teaching at Oxford until 1909 but had no formal appointment there. Hence the need to move on to a Jewish communal post in Newcastle, where Esther and Ben were born and, later, to other such positions in England. He moved to Jerusalem in 1926 to teach Bible at the Hebrew University but Ben remained in England and Naomi therefore saw her grandfather and grandmother only three times. It was in Jerusalem in 1926 that MHS was granted semikhah (rabbinic ordination) by the city’s Chief Rabbi, Ha-Rav Tzvi Pesach Frank, himself a distinguished scholar of halakhah (Jewish religious law).

Although a prolific and assiduous scholar, MHS was regarded by the secular circles at the Hebrew University as too rabbinic to teach scientifically, by the religious as to open to literary criticism of the Pentateuch, and by those who had made aliyah from central Europe as insufficiently well trained since he lacked a Ph.D. Such mitteleuropäische Gelehrte were apparently unaware that it was not until 1917 in Oxford (and 1921 in Cambridge) that such a degree was available at England’s oldest universities. I suspect that they simply could not relate to someone with an Oxford education, as happened later with other scholars; but that is another story for a future occasion.

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Abby Chava Stein: Becoming Eve My journey from ultra-orthodox rabbi to transgender woman SEAL £16.50 Reviewed by Jane Liddell-King “Tati,” I said, looking him in the eye. “Tati, I am a girl”. I am a girl, I’d said it.

At the end of this memorable book, Abby Stein’s father faces the fact that his firstborn son has suffered from a lifelong experience of dysphoria and is in the process of changing his body to accommodate his psyche. “I don’t get it” he asserts, “Men have a higher place in society. Men have better roles in the world. Why would you do that?”

Rabbi David (Abby’s new rabbi and mentor) said, “Your child is coming to you and telling you who she truly is. She wants you to see her for who her soul is”.

Sadly and shockingly, Abby’s father responds by declaring that his daughter’s decision probably means an end to contact between them.

He refuses to allow her to speak to her mother, the family’s house phone being the only means of communication. And 10 of her 12 siblings have stopped speaking to her.

What lies behind such uncompromising rejection?

The sixth child and firstborn son of a Hasidic family, at the brit Abby Chava Stein was named Yisroel Avrom Ben Menachem Mendel. A direct descendant of the Baal Shem Tov, he was repeatedly told that he was “a holy boy”. With courage and painful accuracy, Abby Stein’s book maps the journey from the earliest experience of dysphoria as an agonised and mystified 3 year old to her renaming 21 years later. Then, after a profound struggle to adapt, which included marriage and fathering an adored son, she stands in a synagogue her father could Page 22

not recognise as kosher and becomes known as Avigail Chava bat Menachem Mendel V’Chaya Sheindel.

In writing her coming-of-age story, Abby Stein never underestimates the positive aspects of her childhood: “the feelings of safety, belonging, and love that growing up in a religious, even cultish, community can offer.” She is hugely intelligent, a precocious and voracious reader: “At age five, I learned to read Hebrew and Yiddish without the vowels”.

Newspapers inform her of transplants and she prays for a full body transplant. Throughout her schooling, she searches texts for meaning and provokes clashes with rabbis. Eventually in her teenage years, her father secures her a place at an out of town Yeshiva. She tells Reb Yitzhak Moshe Erlanger, an authoritative rabbi, that she feels untethered from Judaism. This brings a transformative response: “Dive into Kabbalistic studies. It will help you”.

Rabbi Chaim Vital’s The Door of Reincarnation is a revelation. She reads “At times, a male will reincarnate in the body of a female, and a female will be in a male body….” And observes “For the first time after sixteen years, I had found a text that justified my existence. Maybe I wasn’t crazy after all!”

Tragically enough, the community cannot accept the reality of dysphoria and Chava had no choice to leave, albeit uneasily.

As she herself says, her story is to be continued. For us, this book and its brave beginning must raise questions of identity, response and responsibility, separation and integration, education and indoctrination, law and compassion. Questions which, in today’s world, we must surely face and answer.

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The Ratline: Love, lies, and justice on the trail of a Nazi fugitive Published 16 April 2, 432 pages

by Philippe Sands Reviewed by Barry Landy I am sure most people are familiar with the “Ratline”, the organisation set up by the Nazis in collaboration with elements of the Catholic church to smuggle into South America Nazis who were trying to escape from liberated Europe after the second Word War. Perhaps confusingly, this book is not a history of the Ratline.

Instead, following the huge success of his previous book (East West Street) which combined the history of the Nazi takeover of Lvov (Lemberg) and the Nuremberg trials with the histories of two of Lemberg's famous sons, including Sir Hersch Lauterpacht who made his home in Cambridge, Sands in this book follows the history of a senior Nazi before, during, and after the war.

The Nazi in question is Otto van Waechter who was governor of Krakow in Poland and then of the whole of Galicia. At Nuremberg he was indicted of the crime of mass murder but by that time he was on the run, first in Austria and later Italy. He planned to escape using the ratline but suddenly died in Rome in 1949.

The most distinctive feature of this book for me was the second half, in which Sands uncovers the post-war history of Otto in the company of Otto's son, Horst, and other family members.

Horst, who is certain that while the Nazis were mass murderers his father was not, still occupies the family castle in upper Austria which was bequeathed to him by his mother (herself a convinced Nazi). Yes, he agrees, there were crimes of mass murder in the Government General (the Nazi name for occupied Poland) but stated that his father was gentle and tried his best to shield the population. To further this end, and perhaps in a genuine attempt to uncover the past, he shares Page 24

with Sands all the information he has; letters, diaries, and photographs, and anything else he finds in the castle. Horst also believes his father was murdered and would like to uncover the facts, which gives him another motive to assist Sands. In any event Horst is a gentle and somewhat naive soul, as he would have to be to believe his father innocent.

The story unfolds with Sands having to travel far and wide to gather evidence and the story gradually takes shape. Sands discovers enough evidence to prove the case against Waechter and to show that Waechter was not murdered but died of accidental poisoning, probably from the polluted water in a lake in which he he’d swum.

Horst remains convinced to the very end that his father was innocent, but Horst's daughter, Otto Waechter's grand-daughter, reaches the opposite conclusion. The book ends with her simple statement "My grandfather was a mass murderer".

For me the first half of the book, with its recital of the history of the Nazi period and Otto's part in it, was a bit tedious, but the second part in which Sands uncovers the history through testimony is gripping and well presented.

This is a worthy addition to the large body of literature on the Nazi period.

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Judaism in practice from the middle ages through the early modern period Edited by Lawrence Fine, Princeton University Press Reviewed by Jo Landy This book has been gathering dust on a succession of my bookcases for at least 15 years. The sight of it has repeatedly made me feel both guilty and inadequate. Then lockdown happened and I actually picked it off the shelf and began to read. I think what finally prompted me was the thought that I and my Jewish life were having to adapt in the face of History. This renewed my interest in finding out about what had gone before.

The book is essentially a sourcebook covering the 1200 year period between 600 and 1900 CE. The reason it came to reside on my bookcase was the content. It covers many areas about the lives, rituals, and problems encountered by ordinary and extraordinary people.

Judaism in Practice is divided into seven sections covering diverse subjects from religious rituals to sectarianism. Other sections include a history of the Jews of China, ‘Art and Aesthetics’, ‘Magic and Mysticism’, and ‘Great Lives’. It provides a broad overview into aspects of the lives of our ancestors.

The extracts are, all too often, frustratingly, tantalisingly short.

Surviving documents provide brief glimpses into the lives of others. I was surprised that many chapters of the book concerned lives of women. Some more surprising than others. An Egyptian woman who wrote to the head of her community to help bring her husband back from a Sufi Monastery. During the Renaissance a single Jewish woman Page 26

from Mantua was issued with a licence to slaughter fowl. A decade later, married, she had passed further rigorous examinations and was issued with another license allowing her to slaughter and porge cattle.

There are insights into dark times with several chapters on Spanish Crypto Jews with accounts drawn from documents taken from the Spanish Inquisition. There is a German Jewish account of the first Crusade. The section entitled “Remarkable Lives” includes Rabbi Eleazar ben Judah of Worms’ interesting account of the life and heart rending violent death of his wife and their daughters.

We are all buffeted by history. Judaism in Practice gathers together accounts that have survived and that provide a window into the past.

Tragedy is present but also the joyful passion that our ancestors had for Judaism. And then there is just the plainly bizarre. I had heard about Shabbtai Zvi’s antics, but had not heard that he was expelled from Salonika for “marrying” a Torah scroll.

All in all a compendium of fascinating vignettes of past Jewish life and lives.

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Be prepared Julian Landy Nothing stays the same. Even in Judaism. We are an orthodox community that from time to time has had to painfully adapt to changing times. Notwithstanding that the substantive base of orthodoxy is that change does not happen, we do gradually evolve.

Nobody would now suggest that we should make physical sacrifices or even adhere entirely to the Torah criminal law. But change does happen. In the last year it has been more radical and bizarre than at any time in my lifetime.

Remember last Pesach? Retailers were caught short of stock as holidaymakers had to cancel Yom Tov trips at short notice. Stores rapidly sold out of many basic supervised products for Pesach. Which directly led to the London Beth Din announcement that contrary to all previous advice, unsupervised tea, coffee, sugar, salt, pepper, could be used for Pesach.

This year? Well it is back to normal. Buy only products with a hechsher.

There is no hypocrisy here. Last year the rabbis were simply being pragmatic. Doing what had to be done. Now we're back to normal service.

There are other potential applications of this more practical approach to orthodoxy which have yet to be adopted or perhaps even approached.

If you want to marry under the auspices of the United Synagogue both parties have to demonstrate wholly Jewish antecedents. If one of your grandmothers was not Jewish you will be excluded and need to marry in a non-orthodox manner. And what if one parent converted in Israel?

Where 'standards' are said to be less rigid. Or come from one of the 'new' groups of communities in Africa or Asia?

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Kashrut is potentially the most explosive of all these difficult issues. We have faced repeated campaigns in the UK against shechita. All rebuffed to date. But already some neighbouring countries have banned it, causing tough logistical problems for some communities . And we don't all want to be vegetarian or vegan.

Even more inflammatory is the potential of Charedim to disturb our practices. Serious people have suggested that Charedim will outnumber all other Jews in this country by 2026. They will not necessarily want to adhere to or listen to the London Beth Din. Notwithstanding that there are presently Charedi rabbis serving on the Beth Din! So where or how will the Beth Din show any flexibility on these issues?

It is reasonable to assume that the Dayanim have talked about these problems. Sometime soon they may need to act, with the speed, decisiveness and pragmatism shown last Pesach.

There may be no crisis now. But tomorrow or the next day, well who knows? Best to be prepared.

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Board of Deputies Pesach message Marie Van Der Zyl, President, Board of Deputies of British Jews This time last year I wrote in my Pesach message about the pandemic which had suddenly overtaken all of us and which was already taking a heavy toll on the Jewish community. I am very sad that one year later this terrible virus is still claiming lives in our community and affecting the way we live.

Once again, Seder Night will not be the packed, joyous family event we all love.

We will, for the second time, be holding intimate events with our closest family and then only if we are lucky enough to live in the same house or bubble. My thoughts are with all of you who are alone at this time or unable to see your nearest and dearest. This past year has taken a toll on all of us but I have seen great acts of generosity and kindness. In some ways, this terrible situation has brought out the best in people – from the small things, like a grandchild baking for her grandparents who are shielding, to those such as Captain Tom, whose fundraising made millions for the NHS, before his sad passing earlier this year.

Now, with millions already vaccinated and infection rates falling, we have a sacred duty to ensure that lives are saved. Every death in our community has been a tragedy for someone’s family. We must ensure that we do everything to save lives. This is the most fundamental imperative of Judaism.

Over this year, the way the Board of Deputies operates has changed, with home working for our staff and Zoom for our plenary meetings.

Our online BoDCast events have engaged thousands of people from Page 30

across the country and across the world and our achievements have continued to grow.

We continue to work with all parts of the Jewish community to ensure that they have access to the best available information about the Coronavirus pandemic and make decisions about when to open and when to close facilities. This has included working with the Cabinet Office to get guidance translated into Yiddish for sections of the Charedi community who do not have English as a first language.

We have been working tirelessly to ensure that the Labour Party, under its new leader Sir Keir Starmer, acts firmly and decisively to excise the antisemitism which had flourished under the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn. On this, good progress has been made but we need to see even more.

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 groups. We are working hard to ensure we are better protected. In the meantime, we have acted to stop antisemites selling their poison online by working with Amazon to ensure Holocaust denial works are removed from its platform.

We may be the Board of Deputies of British Jews but some of our most important and successful work has been in support of a group which are neither British nor Jewish. The Chinese Uyghur Muslims are subject to terrible persecution, and I was not the only one to see echoes of the Holocaust in their treatment by the Chinese authorities. I wrote to the Chinese Ambassador following a harrowing interview on the Andrew Marr Show and as an organisation we worked tirelessly to persuade MPs to support the Genocide Amendment to the Trade Bill, which Page 31

would allow Uyghurs to get around the broken UN system and be able to take their call for justice in a British court.

In a year in which the world mourned the racist murder of George Floyd in the USA, we felt a responsibility to ensure that our community was one in which Black Jews and Jews of Colour do not feel alienated.

To this end we set up the Commission on Racial Inclusivity in the Jewish Community with Stephen Bush as Chair. We hope that the recommendations that the Commission makes will make our community a model of inclusivity in the coming years.

Despite the tragedy in the world there have been some beacons of light in the past 12 months. I have seen our community come together like never before. Despite the physical distance, we have been looking after each other and this is has been so necessary and heartwarming.

We have also seen remarkable progress in Israel’s relations with its Middle East neighbours. The Abraham Accords were signed between Israel the UAE and Bahrain. We also saw an agreement with Morocco.

One of the highlights of my years was lighting the Chanukah candles in an online event with the ambssadors of the UAE and Bahrain – something I never thought I would see.

We have been enduring difficult times. It is my earnest wish that we all stay safe and look forward, as we always do at this time, to better days ahead.

Pesach Sameach to you and your families from everyone at the Board of Deputies

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Festival calendar 5781, 2021 We have given no service times for Pesach and Shavuot because of the current uncertainties

Pesach 2021 Anyone who would like to attend a Seder, or who knows someone who would like to attend a Seder is invited to consult Rabbi Leigh.

Derby Stores (Cambridge 354391) and Just Kosher (https://www.justkosher.co.uk) will take Pesach orders.

This year the first day of Pesach is a Sunday. A more detailed description of the complications follows.

The clocks go forward Saturday night (GMT to BST) but it is advised to change the clocks after the end of the first days of Pesach on Monday evening to avoid confusion.

Thursday 25 March Friday 26 March

Saturday 27 March Sunday 28 March Monday 29 March Friday 2 April Saturday 3 April Sunday 4 April

Fast of the Firstborn Finish all Chametz by 9.41 am Burning of Chametz by 10.56 am Shabbat starts 6.08 pm Eat Chametz Challot by 9.41am Shabbat ends and Pesach begins 7.11pm Second Seder begins 7.10pm GMT Second day ends 7.15pm GMT Shabbat and festival starts 7.21pm BST Shabbat ends 8.24pm BST Festival ends 8.26pm BST

Shavuot 2021 Shavuot is in University Term, so services are organised by the students.

Sunday 16 May Tuesday 18 May

Festival starts 9.48pm Festival ends 9.50pm

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Tisha B'Av 2021 Saturday 17 July

Sunday 18 July

Fast Commences 9.11pm Shabbat Ends 10.12pm Maariv and Eichah 10.30pm Shacharit at 8.00am (expected to finish about 10am) Minchah 1.45pm or 6pm (to be decided on the day) Fast ends at 9.40pm

Pesach 2021 How to organise Pesach preparations when Pesach starts on a Saturday night Barry Landy The preparation of Pesach this year is more complicated than usual since Erev Pesach is Shabbat, and so the usual clearing away on Erev Pesach has to be done one day earlier.

Full details of all the problems and how to proceed, as well as a list of foods and medicines that may be used on Pesach even though they do not have a Beth-Din label, will no doubt be published in the Jewish Chronicle in due course. Meanwhile the following may help people to plan ahead.

The full explanation gives a number of alternative strategies. I think that the easiest way of proceeding is as follows.

Pretend that Pesach actually starts on Friday evening (March 26) and not Saturday evening (March 27) and carry out all the preparations as though starting the first Seder on Friday night.

This means that: 1. The search for Chametz takes place on Thursday evening, 25 March 2. Chametz is burnt on Friday morning, 26 March Page 34

3. All food eaten after Friday morning is Pesachdik with the exception detailed in the following paragraph The only problem with this simple prescription is that it is necessary to have two challot for the two main Shabbat meals (Friday evening and Shabbat morning). The way to organise this is to set aside one corner of one room (kitchen or dining-room are probably the easiest) for this purpose and to keep the challot on a paper cloth on a tray in that corner. Hamotzie is made there and the bread eaten there, so that no crumbs spread elsewhere. Challot ideally should be small enough that they can be totally eaten up. After the Shabbat morning meal, large bits of challah should be crumbled up and flushed down the toilet with any crumbs on the cloth, and the cloth thrown out (which is why I suggested paper). If a linen cloth is used it should be shaken outside and put away.

The only real complication is that all that must be completed by 09:41 on Shabbat morning, since that is the time of the Haphsakah, the time after which it is forbidden to eat Chametz.

Timetable: Thursday 25 March morning Thursday 25 March evening Friday 26 March morning

Fast of the firstborn Search for Chametz, followed by Kol Chamirah Burning of chametz by 10.56am

Everything is now pesachdik except for the “bread corner” Saturday 27 March morning Saturday 27 March evening

Finish all Chametz 9.41am Make the "bitul chametz" declaration First seder at 7.10pm

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Pesach crossword Shaina Leigh and Hadas Fuks 1 2

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PESACH MATZAH LAMB DOORPOST DESERT MAROR SEDER EGYPT SLAVERY SEA TEARS Page 37

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