Pesach 1990 by Federation of Synagogues

INSIDE:

P E R E S T R O IK A COM ES T O T H E F E D E R A T IO N : A R N O L D C O H EN IN T E R V IE W E D R a b b i M OSHE E L Z A S on P esach P r e p a r a tio n s Je w ish C o m m u n ity R a d io fo r th e 5750s P lu s N e w s, R e v ie w s and m o re ...

“n s s o n HAMAOR JOURNAL OF THE FEDERATION OF SYNAGOGUES

1990 PESACH 5750 Vol. 25 No. 1 Vol. 24 No. 2 £1 Double issue

EDITORIAL

CONTENTS

D R A M A T IC CHANGES he Torah describes Nissan as the first month of the Jewish calen dar: “This should be unto you the first of the months of the year”. (Shemos 12:2). It is appropriate there fore at this time to review events of the past year and their significance for the future of the Federation. This last year has witnessed dramatic changes in the rabbinic personnel at the Head Office of the Federation. The appoint ment of Rabbi Elzas, an eminent scholar, to the position of Kashrus Director has been followed by the addition of Dayan Berkovits who needs no introduction to Anglo-Jewry. Most recent has been the appoint ment of Rabbi Tzvi Lieberman, the dynamic Rav and Educator, as Direc tor of Education. Each of these appointments is worthy of an editorial in its own right. The new men bring'personal qualities, professional qualifications and experi ence to the Federation. They embody the spheres of religious activity which the Federation Rabbinate sees as its function for our community; promot ing kashrus observance, increasing awareness of Yiddishkeit in young and old and providing sensitive ecclesias tical guidance in status and litigation. Unfortunately, the past year has also witnessed certain sobering realities for the Federation. Whilst we agreed to the creation in 1987 of the London Shechita Authority (which was to replace the London Board of Shechita) in order to promote com munal unity in matters of shechita, the United Synagogue showed that it was capable of talking one way and behav ing in a totally different manner. To talk of peace and communal unity is fine, but it must be accompanied by sin cere actions. In hindsight it appears that one of the United Synagogue’s objectives in creating a joint shechita front was to cripple the Federation’s shechita operation. If this is an indication of what joint endeavours lead to, it would behove the Federation in the interest of its own self-preservation to give a wide berth to any siren song of co-opera tion. Please G-d in the near future the London Board of Shechita will resume operations, its mandate being to pro vide high quality meat and poultry of the highest standards of kashrus at prices that will encourage increased observance of kashrus by the wider public.

HAMAOR JOURNAL OF THE FEDERATION OF SYNAGOGUES M orris Lederman House 9/11 Greatorex Street London E1 5NF Founded 1961 Editor: Sharman Kadish Advertising: Michael Mandel 01-247 4471

EDITOR’S NOTE

Jk pologies are in order to our L A readers. The Rosh HaShanah A 15750 (1989) issue failed to appear. We hope that you will forgive us for the omission and, indeed accept our excuses. As you will see from leafing through the ‘‘Federation News” section of the current issue, vast changes have been taking place within the organisation, and, unfortunately during the transi tion, HaMaor was unavoidably sus pended. It seems almost as if the Fed eration has been caught up in the revolutionary turn of world events. To compensate, the Pesach 5750 (1990) HaMaor is of “bumper” propor tions. We report extensively on the changes which have occurred both at Head Office and at grass-roots level. We introduce readers to new per sonalities at the top: President Arnold Cohen who agreed to be interviewed, Dayan Berel Berkovits who writes readers a personal letter, and Rabbi Moshe Elzas who contributes a timely article on Pesach preparations. Other contributions are as diverse as they are informative, reflecting the range of interests of Federation members, as well as the desire of outsiders to use HaMaor as a medium to communi cate with our constituents. Finally, a novel feature of this issue is the institution of a Book Review section which we hope will become a regular feature. Wishing you a Pesach Sameach v 'Kasher. Sharman Kadish

R abbi Moshe Elzas, M echiras C h o m e tz .... 10-11 B eve rley Bond & Ian Sweiger R ad io fo r th e 5750s .. 13-14 Y a k o v Schonberg The Masorah H eritage . 15-17 J.F. S ilverm an A Com m unity Endures . 18 -2 1 C harles K ra u th a m m e r Judging Is ra e l ........ 2 2 -2 3 , 28 G e o ffre y A ld e rm a n Jews & Sunday Trading . 24-25

Views expressed in articles and reviews printed in HaMaor are those held by the contributor and do not necessarily reflect the opinions o f the Editor, or o f the Federa tion o f Synagogues.

Front Cover: The baking o f matzas. Woodcut from the Sefer HaMinhagim, 1695, used as the basis for one of Jonathan Winegarten’s designs for the new Shomrei HaDath Synagogue in Hampstead.

We must congratulate Mrs Sophie Stern on her most successful and impressive beginnings in organising a voluntary Chevra Kadisha. She and her women exemplify what can be accomplished by the true spirit of goodwill and the desire to place communal needs above personal considerations. May all of our endeavours, the furtherance of Torahtrue Yiddishkeit, be blessed from heaven, for the benefit of Klal Yisrael. Dayan Y.Y. Lichtenstein Rosh Beth Din

The new Federation Executive has launched a full-scale investigation into Federation finances following the recovery of over half a million pounds from a number of previously unknown bank accounts. President Arnold Cohen, himself partner in a large accountancy firm, discovered that the Federation’s accounts had not been audited since 1986. His new Executive commissioned the Federation’s accountants Rosenthal, Hass & Co. to bring the books up to date and in the pro cess they unearthed substantial sums of money.

Above: The Federation’s new Executive: (left to right) Mr Ralph Joseph, Mr Jeffrey Gitlin, Mr Jonathan Winegarten, Mr Arnold Cohen, The Rev Leibish Gayer, Mr Willy Ungar and Mr Gerald Palmer (Jewish Chronicle)

About £250,000, proceeds from the sale of various affiliated synagogues, was traced to the Jersey branch of a British bank, which reported on investments to an address in Hendon. This is the home of Mr Colin Lederman, a son of Mr Morris Lederman who was President of the Federation from 1953 to 1989. Colin Lederman is himself a Chartered Accountant and a member of the current Executive. £190,000 was found in a London account designated “ Israel charity project” and a further £50,000 in another London account: “ Federation

charity project” . The latter sum had been transferred subsequently to a Jersey account called Hendale Incor porated, and had apparently been earmarked for a hospital in Netanya which had previously been the beneficiary of Federation charity. Mr Cohen knew nothing about these deposits although he served as one of the tw o Treasurers of the Feder ation between 1986 and 1989. But he began to have suspicions that the money might exist towards the end of 1987. The new Executive has set up a 3

four-man com m ittee to help the auditors sift through the finances. The Burial Society is also due to com e under scrutiny as its finances and other records are in a mess. The deeds to Rainham Cemetery, built on unregistered land in Essex, have only just come to light after they had been mislaid for six years. Mr Cohen is optim istic that the Fed eration’s affairs will soon be sorted out and that they will be open to pub lic inspection. The organisation, he says, will benefit from a policy of glaznost and perestroika in the future.

O U R NEW D A Y A N Dayan Y.Y. L ic h te n ste in , w h o w as a p p o in te d to th e F ederation B e th D in la s t year is n o w jo in e d by Dayan B erel B e rko vits. Dayan Berkovits possesses unchal lenged credentials for the task. In his person are combined both yichus and learning. He is scion of a rabbinical family which originated in Rumania. His father, Rabbi David Berkovits was Rav and Av Beth Din in Sighisoara, Rumania between 1939 and 1947. After surviving three years of German occupation, followed by three years of Russian occupation, he fled to Lon don and became Principal of the Yesodei HaTorah schools. Sub sequently, he succeeded Rabbi Kopul Rosen (Principal Rav of the Federa tion of Synagogues), as Rav of the Shomrei HaDath Synagogue in Hampstead, in which capacity he served until his retirement to Israel in 1973. Dayan Berkovits’ maternal grand father, Rabbi Joseph Adler, was also a well-known rabbinical personality in Rumania, Rav of the town of Turda and President of the Orthodox Rab binical Council of Transylvania. He was a leading member of the Mo’etzeth Gedolei HaRabbonim in Rumania, and afterwards in Israel. Dayan Berkovits himself was born in Stamford Hill, and his early educa tion was at his father’s school and at the Menorah Primary School in North West London. After attending the Hasmonean High School, he learned at Gateshead, Mir (Jerusalem) and Lakewood (New Jersey). Dayan Ber kovits also continued with his secular studies, gaining a degree in Law from the London School of Economics, whilst simultaneously obtaining semicha. Later he took up a post as Lecturer in Law at the independent University of Buckingham (19771983), where he specialised in family, criminal and international law. For the past six years Dayan Berkovits has served as Registrar of the Court of the Chief Rabbi in London. He is a fre quent contributor of articles on both legal and halachic matters to scho larly journals and the general press. Dayan Berkovits has been in the public eye largely owing to his vigor ous defence of shechita. He was involved with the drafting of the offi cial Jewish response, on behalf of the Chief Rabbi and the Board of Deputies, to the Farm Animal Welfare

A MESSAGE FROM DAYAN BERKOVITS Dear Readers of HaMaor

Dayan Berel Berkovits

Council’s report which criticised shechita. It was principally due to this response that the Government has acknowledged the main requirements of halacha in relation to shechita. Whilst at the Court of the Chief Rabbi, Dayan Berkovits was deeply involved with questions of Jewish family law, especially gittin (divorce) and also personal status, marriage authorisation, adult conversion, adop tion and conversion of adopted chil dren. Besides the defence of shechita, he dealt with more general questions of kashrus throughout the year and at Pesach and with Dinei Torah (commercial disputes and litiga tion brought before a Beth Din for adjudication). A matter which has been of particu lar concern to Dayan Berkovits is the promotion of legislation to deal with problems arising in Jewish divorce situations. In New York State and Canada, such legislation already exists, and Dayan Berkovits has made considerable progress towards achieving an Act of Parliament in this country. Dayan Berkovits brings his unique combination of legal and halachic training, as well as his extensive con tacts throughout the legal profession and the Jewish world, to the Federa tion. We are lucky to have him with us! 4

am glad to be joining the Federa tion of Synagogues and to be re establishing the links which were created through my late father (z.t.l.). The Federation is now a totally diffe rent organisation from what it was only a few years ago. We have a new team which is young, energetic and enthusiastic and an excellent sense of partnership at the top. I am looking forward to the challenge of becoming involved. The Federation is undergoing a renewal and the time could hardly be more opportune. As Anglo-Jewry moves away from the old-style, Angli cised form of worship in vast “cathed ral" synagogues, with formalised ser vices conducted by remote and rather impersonal spiritual leaders, towards a smaller, friendlier and more intimate type of kehilla in which everyone has a sense of belonging, the Federation is in a unique position. This is precisely because the Federation is, and always has been, a smaller and more per sonal kind of organisation. Our priority is not the packaging and propaganda, but substance, not image but reality. We are not concerned with size, with being the biggest, but with quality, service and caring. And we hope, with the help and participation of all our members, to revitalise, strengthen and build up the Federation. What are the functions of a Beth Din? This question is one which deserves an article in its own right. But I think a few words in this context would not be out of place. I think that the task of a Beth Din is, essentially, to encourage Jewish life in all its facets and to guide people within the framework of the Halacha. Life throws up problems, everyone has their dif ficulties, but Torah helps us to cope. Halacha is designed to show us how to live - and that life should be pleas ant and harmonious: “Its ways are ways which are pleasant: all its paths are peace". Consequently, a Beth Din is not there simply to “lay down the law" (although it is, of course, the sup reme halachic authority in any Jewish

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“ M essage” (continued) community), but to aid, encourage, support, advise and lead. It should be an active body, not merely reactive. The Dayanim must be men of integrity but not remote and inaccessible figures, hiding behind a cloak of anonymity. They must possess learn ing but also sensitivity, understanding and humanity. They must be able to communicate, be approachable, people one can turn to for help and advice. They must have the time to lis ten to each and every individual who seeks them out and be prepared to reach out to each and every indi vidual. I am looking forward to helping members of the Federation who need help, listening to those of you who want to talk, guiding those who need direction, teaching those who want to learn and, above all, to being there when I am needed.

,be j° ini"g the Federa-

rthe ie t a n d ,o b e *• links which were ,m y late father (2 . 1./.) )n IS now a totally diffe3n to m what it was s ago. We have a new young, energetic and ‘ an excellent sense of :he top. I am looking hallenge of becoming 3n is undergoing a time could hardly be e. As Anglo-Jewry n the old-style, Anglirship in vast “cathed, with formalised serby remote and rather ual leaders, towards er and more intimate which everyone has a

ast September the Federation, under new president Arnold Cohen announced that it was pulling out of the com m ittee which will choose Britain’s next Chief Rabbi. Five representatives of the Federa tion: Arnold Cohen, ex-president Mor ris Lederman, Rabbi Myer Frydman, Harold Ragol-Levy and Willie Ungar, were originally named as members of the thirty-six man strong committee to elect the successor to Lord Jakobovits.

In d e p e n d e n c e The decision to pull out was taken on the grounds that the Federation does not want to compromise the independence of its rabbonim and Beth Din. It was made before the row

over shechita last July when the United Synagogue set up its own shechita authority. The Federation has never before played any part in the selection of the Chief Rabbi who is technically the Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations only. The Federation does not formally rec ognise the jurisdiction of the Chief Rabbi, or contribute to the upkeep of his office. Mr Cohen has emphasised that the Federation withdrawal is in no way “ hostile to, or critical o f” the United Synagogue or the present Chief Rabbi. He hopes that relations with the next incumbent will be cordial given the im portant role that the Chief Rabbi plays in representing AngloJewry to the outside world.

h jL n /X iM v f

Dayan B. B erkovits

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NEW KASHRUS DIRECTOR

GOODMOSTOURS

he Federation’s new Director of Kashrus is Rabbi Moshe Elzas. Rabbi Elzas was born and brought up in The Hague, (his sur name is a Germanic corruption of Alsace in North East France), and spent fourteen years learning and teaching at yeshivos in Jerusalem, principally Kol Torah and Mir. More recently he was at the Kollel in Man chester and also assisted the Beth Din in that city with its work. At the Federation, Rabbi Elzas’ kas hrus duties will involve liaising with the Beth Din and he hopes that, together with Dayan Lichtenstein, the Federation will be able to maintain a high standard of kashrus in the future. Rabbi Elzas is married to Rifka (nee Chody). The couple have six children and live in Golders Green. An article by Rabbi Elzas appears on page 10.

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The new Shomrei HaDath shul in Burrard Road Hampstead was dedi cated at Chanuka. The brand new building which seats about 120, was designed by architect William Jacoby. It boasts a specially commissioned stained glass window depicting the seven fruits of Israel by Judy Bermant (nee Weil) who is the great niece of a founder member of the Shomrei HaDath, Hugo Lunzer. More original artwork has been contributed by Jonathan Winegarten, president of the congregation and a vice-president of the Federation. He has designed twenty paintings on glass which are based on seventeenth century woodcuts. At the consecration, Arnold Cohen, President of the Federation, described the new Shomrei HaDath as the ‘jewel'’ in the Federation’s ‘crown ". The Dayanim, Lichtenstein, Fisher and Caplin also spoke and expressed the hope that the new synagogue would become a focus for Jewish activity in Hampstead. T H E N EW N O T T IN G H IL L

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As reported in the last issue of HaMaor, the gentrification of Notting Hill has brought new blood into the neighbourhood’s once struggling synagogue. The closure of Shepherd’s Bush and Fulham has also brought an influx of new mem bers. The official membership of Not ting Hill now stands at 175 and guarantees a minyan on Shobbos. The newcomers from Shepherd's Bush join the congregation on special terms. Head Office has pledged both life payment of their shut fees and honorary life membership of the Fed eration Burial Society. These conces sions will be financed out of funds raised from the sale of the former pre mises in Shepherd’s Bush which were erected in the 1930s. In return, the disbanded community has donated one of its Sifrei Torah to Notting Hill. A special service of dedi cation was held last October, led by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen of the Western and Lionel Rosen, Chazan of the Mar ble Arch United Synagogues. A second sefer was donated to Nightingale House, the Home for Aged Jews in South London.

Above: The interior of the new Shomrei HaDath Synagogue in Hampstead

The physical welfare of the enlarged Notting Hill kehilla is being provided for by the donation of upholstered wooden seats from the old synagogue in Shepherd’s Bush. (See the article by J.F. Silverman on page 18). K N O P FLER *S T A K E O V E R

Rabbi Berel Knopfler’s burgeoning Beis HaMedrash, formerly of 137 Golders Green Road, moved into the Sinai Synagogue in Woodstock Avenue last summer. Knopfler’s, which was affiliated to the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations, has now joined the Federation. A young kehilla, comprising about fifty families, Knopfler’s makes up the numbers at the poorly attended Sinai shul. Rabbi Knopfler himself has taken over as minister of the joint con gregation from Rabbi Moishe Flax who has resigned. It is to be hoped that the combined, augmented community will soon set tle down; Knopfler’s benefiting from use of a purpose-built and very attrac tive shul, and Sinai from the increased numbers.

E D G W A R E ’S K IN D E R S U F F E R STO RM D A M A G E

The Gan Kinneret playgroup at Edgware Yeshurun was badly dam aged during the recent storms. Fortu nately, action by quick-thinking staff ensured that none of the children were hurt. Part of the roof and a classroom window of the Gan, which is situated on the top floor of the synagogue, were blown in. Several thousand pounds of damage was done to equipment in the building. Twenty four children were removed to safety downstairs before the worst of the storm struck. The Gan is continuing on the ground floor until the class rooms are repaired. L O U G H T O N ’S K IN D E R

In July 1989 Dayan Lichtenstein, Rosh Beth Din of the Federation, con secrated the new nursery at Loughton synagogue. The Menorah Nursery has an experienced superviser in Mrs Millicent Newman who. prior to her new appointment, was headmistress of the Chigwell and Hainault United Synagogue nursery school.

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4 SYNAGOGUE ROUND-UP Continued ILF O R D ’ S D O U BLE S IM C H A Ilford Federation toasts their new rabbi Reuben Livingstone who was inducted in a special ceremony last September. They also welcome his new wife Esther who was born in the United States. (Rabbi Livingstone comes from South Africa). The chupa took place in New York in the summer of 1989. The couple originally met in Israel whilst she was working for the World Union of Jewish Students and teaching at the Yeshivat Neve Yerushalayim for girls in Jerusalem. Ilford can also be proud of its cheder which achieved top marks in the London Talmud Torah Council examinations last winter.

S ta te of M ikvos he opening of the new mikva in Edgware has been delayed owing to technical difficulties. The new mikva is being built in the grounds of Edgware United Syna gogue, but was originally largely the brainchild of Dayan Gershon Lopian of the Edgware Yeshurun. An im pos ing triangular-shaped structure, the building contains one mikva and six bathrooms. When it is finally opened, hopefully later in the year, the Edgware facility will certainly take the strain off the others in North West London (Golders Green and Kingsbury). Meanwhile, Ilford’s mikva, the only one in London owned outright by the Federation, is undergoing modernisa tion. A women’s committee has been formed at the shul to recommend aesthetic improvements in order to make the mikva more “ user friendly” in the words of Rabbi Reuben Livingstone. The Ilford mikva is the only one in East London (the nearest alternatives are in Stamford Hill). It serves a very large catchment area but, unlike the ones in North West London, it does not suffer from overuse. The Ilford mikva enjoys the services of a perma nent lady attendant. A brand new kelim mikva has also recently been com pleted in Ilford.

WOMEN’S CHEVRA KADISHA HONOURED he annual Chevra Kadisha Service and Seuda took place on March 4th at Greatorex Street. After mincha a large turnout was addressed by Dayan M. Fisher, Emeritus Rav Rashi of the Federation, and after an excellent supper (pro vided by the Kosher Luncheon Club),

Federation Fights M issionaries he General Council of the Federation has voted the first of three annual grants of £6000 towards the work of “ Operation Judaism ” - the anti-missionary cam paign run by Rabbi Shmuel Arkush of Birmingham Lubavitch. The campaign is directed against Christian evangeli cal efforts to convert Jewish students at schools and universities in Britain. “ Operation Judaism ” is also funded by the Chief Rabbi’s Office, and the Board of Deputies as well as the Lubavitch Foundation.

Dayan Y.Y. Lichtenstein, Rosh Beth Din spoke. Dayan Lichtenstein pointed out that, appropriately enough, the date of this year’s Seuda corresponded to Adar 7th, the yortseit of Moshe Rabbenu. He gave a special mention to the newly-formed women’s Chevra Kadisha. Up until about three months ago, this vitally important but dis creetly performed mitzva was the responsibility of a mere tw o stalwart ladies. Mrs Sophie Stern has now assembled no less than 18 women to be “ on call” . Mrs Stern brings a wealth of experience to her new task, as she was Chairman of the Adath Yisroel wom en’s Chevra Kadisha in the mid 1970s. She says that few people realise that the greatest burden which falls upon the shoulders of the organiser of a chevra kadisha is the administrative work involved. Techni cally, she is paid for carrying out this aspect of her duties and not for per forming the tahara itself. The work of the Federation’s Chevra Kadisha, both men’s and wom en’s, will be made easier by the opening of a new tahara house off Cable Street in the East End shortly.

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INTERVIEW

PERESTROIKA COMES TO THE FEDERATION Arnold Cohen, the new President o f the Federation in conversation with the Editor o f H aM aor

ver coffee in his com fortable drawing room in Golders Green, Mr Cohen described the revolutionary changes taking place within the Federation.

KADISH: Tell me something about the new team at the top in the Fed eration. COHEN: We have some new and

youthful faces both in the religious and lay leadership. Following the

appointment of Dayan Lichtenstein last year, we have just appointed Rabbi Berkovits as a second Dayan an excellent choice. Rabbi Elzas will oversee kashrus and Rabbi Lieberman is to fill the newly created post of Director of Education.

I felt that the Federation needed an executive director. But it seemed to me that the task is too large for one person to handle. Better to split the job in two. Of course, we have the able administrative skills of Gerald Kushner. Mr Kushner will continue to look after the administration and accounting and Rabbi Lieberman comes in as a co-ordinator on religi ous matters. KADISH: What exactly will the role of Director of Education entail? COHEN: Rabbi Lieberman’s brief will

be not only the chederim and Talmud Torah but also adult education. We are currently negotiating with the SEED project to start a new programme in Loughton and Chigwell. Many, many shiurim are held at Federation shuts on an ad hoc basis. But there is no co-ordination, no publicity. I would like to see an Adult Education prog ramme put out on a regular basis perhaps via the pages of HaMaor. KADISH: Who else is there on the new Executive? COHEN: Well, for a start the average

age of the Executive has dropped by about thirty years - to about 45 I think. In general, we have a policy of “hands off”. Everyone is busy with his own full time job. I myself can only get to Head Office once a week, if you are lucky. So we operate very largely through memos. We have to have people who can take the initiative on their own. Messrs Gitlin and Palmer are currently reviewing the budget and the salaries of our employees. KADISH: Of course, the “Big Story" at the moment is the Federation's finances. Can you tell me a bit more? COHEN: What the Jewish Chronicle

wrote is factually correct. There is over half a million pounds in the bank. We found out last March. For the first Mr Arnold Cohen

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* tordS ti0; needed an f : * * s^ e d to ls too large for one dle- Be«er to split the course, we have the at|ve skills of Gerald ishner will continue to 1 administration and d Rabbi Ueberman co-ordinator on religiexactly will the role ■ducation entail? Lieberman’s brief will chederim and Talmud dult education. We are atina with the SEED igramme /lany, many ation shuls there is no y. I would ation proglar basis laMaor. on the

two pages of criticisms of the way the accounts had been handled and it was leaked to the JC. There had been no proper accounts for 1987 or 1988. Anyhow, the money is now all held on various trusts and we are trying to sort out with the Charity Commissioners exactly what the position is. The accounts were just a mess. KADISH: Do you have plans to m od ernise the accounts and other records such as archive material, burial records and suchlike ? COHEN: Oh yes! Our records were OK for the eighteenth century! The accounts have already been com puterised. We badly need to put the other records in order. I discovered that there are no proper membership lists for affiliated synagogues. The Burial Society is especially bad. Indeed, financially speaking, there is a suspicion that it is actuarially insol vent. We may have to call in an inde pendent firm of actuaries to investi gate and will probably also appoint a manager. KADISH: / was a t Edmonton cem et ery a short time ago and was sur prised a t the poor state o f the burial registers. COHEN: We have duplicate copies at Head Office. Even so, you have a point. Perhaps we could get them on

to microfilm. We could probably do with an archivist. We must look after our records, the Executive and Coun cil minutes and correspondence. I read Geoffrey’s [Alderman] book on the history of the Federation - it’s very instructive and couldn’t have been written without this kind of material. KADISH: It is clear that you would like to update and rationalise. Do you have any plans to build or close synagogues? COHEN: No, not to close any at the moment. Croydon are actively trying to relocate and are looking for a rabbi. We have been approached by the growing com m unity in Radlett to set up a Federation shul there. I am pleased to see the revival of Notting Hill and there are similar possibilities at Ainsworth Road [the Yavneh Synagogue, E9] - no doubt because of the Docklands development. We’ll I would like to see Head Office move out of the East End to som e where in North West London, but central - near the Tube, Northern, Bakerloo or Jubilee Lines. We don’t need the huge conference room in Greatorex Street which is rarely used. We just need offices and can always hire a central hall for meetings - like City firms do.

KADISH: But do you want to retain a presence in the East End? COHEN: We will have to if only for the Burial Society. We will probably have to amalgamate shuls eventually. We are very grateful to Lubavitch for the work they do, especially in the East End. Do you know, we have recruited some very good rabbis from Lubavitch for outlying congregations. KADISH: Yes, / gather they are doing some “missionary” work in the East End. COHEN: They have some well-trained young men waiting in the wings. They do so much good work and we have a good link through Rabbi Telsner [Fin chley Central]. KADISH: What about the Federa tion's relations with the United Synagogue and the Chief Rabbi? COHEN: I sincerely regret the difficul ties we have had with the United Synagogue over shechita, despite their early promises. As for the Chief Rabbi, we can’t and never have accepted his authority over our Beth Din. Naturally we would like to have good relations with the next Chief, but we have to keep our options open - in case we don’t entirely like the new appointee. Continued on page 13

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HALACHA

The Sale by R abbi M oshe Elzas

t is well known that a Jew should not eat chometz i.e. leavened bread on Pesach and that it is not only the eating which is forbidden. The Torah states that "Seven days shall there be no leaven found in your houses" and also that "No leavened bread and no leaven shall be seen within all your precincts". It is learned from these two verses that chometz should not be in the possession of any Jew dur ing Pesach. There are two ways of making sure that we do not own any chometz when Pesach arrives. The first way is to look for all the chometz and then to destroy it; the second way is to nullify it. Thus we do bedikas chometz i.e. searching for chometz on the evening before Pesach (this year Sunday night, 8th April). On completing the bedikas chometz one says a text starting with the words Kol Chamira which states that one is nullifying all the chometz in one’s possession. This is only valid if one understands its meaning. If one does not understand the Aramaic, one should say it in English. The next day - Erev Pesach one burns the chometz and again nul lifies it.

Above: The symbolic search for leaven (Bedikas Chometz), on the night pre ceding Erev Pesach. (Engraving by Bernard Picart, 1723)

This procedure not only leads to a situation in which one does not pos sess any chometz over Pesach as the Torah requires, but also that straight after Pesach the only way of acquiring chometz is to produce it or to buy it, which may be difficult. Moreover, it means that one has to make sure to "finish up” all the chometz before Pesach, (nobody likes to burn large quantities), which is possible for the efficient housewife but quite impossi ble for shops and businesses which deal with chometz such as alcoholic drinks, biscuits, and the like. There fore as early as in the times of the Tosefta (which was approximately around the year 100 C.E.), a case of mechiras chometz is mentioned. The Tosefta cites a case of a Jew and a Gentile travelling on a ship. Before Pesach the Jew sold his chometz to a Gentile and after Pesach he bought it back. In the Halacha literature of the Rishonim mechiras chometz is already an established custom

although it was performed differently from the way we know it today. The sale was done on a personal basis i.e. one Jew with one Gentile and all the chometz was removed into the domain of the Gentile. Two changes took place during later generations: 1. Because of large quantities of chometz it became quite impossible to move the whole "chometz stock” into the domain of the Gentile. Ways were therefore developed whereby the ownership of the chometz was transferred to the Gentile but the chometz remained in the domain of the Jew. Since it is not only forbidden to have chometz in one’s possession on Pesach but even to be responsible for someone else’s chometz, this new system had to be worked out very carefully from the halachic point of view. This aspect, plus the additional factor that a lot of people were not acquainted with the correct transfer of ownership according to the Halacha, led to a second change. 2. One did not sell privately any more. The sale was taken care of by the Rabbi to ensure that it was carried out correctly.

M ECHIRAS C H O M ETZ Continued from page 10

There exists a m isconception about the involvement of the Rabbi. It is wrongly believed that he buys the chom etz from his congregants and that he afterwards sells the chom etz to a Gentile. This is incorrect. The Rabbi acts as an Agent; he is entitled to sell the chometz. It is for this pur pose that a H asaho’o h i.e. a legally binding docum ent em powering the Rabbi or his representative to sell the chom etz is signed. It is not only the selling of chom etz for which one appoints the Agent. As mentioned before, nowadays we do not physically move the chom etz into the domain of the Gentile. This makes it necessary to lease to the Gentile the room or cupboard in w hich the chom etz is situated and to make a key available to him so that he will be able to enter that area any tim e he wishes. So when com m issioning an Agent, one appoints him for the purpose both of leasing the area where the chom etz is situated and for selling the actual chom etz. Again, this is not a religious act as such but a financial transaction. Therefore it is im portant that one understands the contents of the docum ent one signs. Another very im portant point which one should realise is that the sale is an absolute sale w ith no lim itation. When the transaction takes place before Pesach the Gentile fo rfits a small sum for the dow npaym ent of the chom etz and the rem ainder is given to him as credit. But as from that m om ent the chom etz is com pletely his property. The Gentile has full right to keep the chom etz after Pesach as long as he pays the m arket value of the goods. If the Gentile decides after Pesach not to retain the chom etz a new sale needs to take place, i.e. this tim e the Gentile selling to the Jew. Since this procedure may take a little while, one should rem em ber not to start using the chom etz w hich one sold straight after Pesach but should w ait about an hour or so to give the Rabbi tim e to com plete this transaction. M echiras chom etz is one of the easier aspects of our Pesach prepara tions but one has to make sure that it is done in the correct way. May we all enjoy a Chag Kasher Ve’Sam each - a Kosher and Joyful Pesach.

FEDERATION KASHRUS BOARD NEW LOGO future, products which bear the Federation logo been supervision the Federation Beth Din, will display a certificate which also carries the same logo. man ?"pi •V

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The form printed below should be filled out before Pesach and taken to your local rabbi or the Beth Din.

D E L E G A T IO N OF PO W E R OF A T T O R N E Y FO R SALE OF C H O M E T Z I, the undersigned, fully em pow er and authorise Rabbi M.D. Elzas to act in my place stead and on my behalf to sell any chom etz possessed by me (knowingly or unknowingly) including any food wherein there is a doubt or suspicion of its containing chom etz and all kind of chom etz m ixtures, and to lease all places wherein the chom etz ow ned by me is stored or found, especially in the prem ises specified below or elsewhere, up to and including M onday April 9, 1990 at 11.37 a.m. Rabbi M.D. Elzas has the full right to sell and to lease by transaction in any m anner as he deem s fit and proper and fo r such tim e as he believes neces sary in accordance w ith all detailed term s and form s as explained in the agreed C ontract of Sale w hich will be signed on the instruction of Rabbi M.D. Elzas. This authorisation is m ade a part of that C ontract. Also, I do hereby give Rabbi M.D. Elzas full pow er and authority to appoint any proxy he deem s fit in his place w ith the full pow er to sell and lease as provided therein. The above-given is in conform ity w ith all Torah and Rabbinical regulations and laws and also in accordance w ith the laws of the country. And to this I hereby affix my signature on this day of ............................. 1990. Name Address

Signature .................................................W itness Exact location of cho m etz w ithin above prem ises Sale price of chom etz (approx.) ..............................

Rabbi M.D. Elzas is Director of Kashrus at the Federation of Synagogues.

Keys available at

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CONTEMPORARY SCENE

Left to right: Ian Sweiger and Beverley Bond, Co-Directors of UK Jewish Community Radio, with Mayor Dot Benson and Chief Executive Max Caller of Barnet Council

ith only 250 years to go to the end of the millenium and the fulfillment of all prophecies, time is of the essence and rapid com munication becomes imperative. This fact has hastened our belief that if the Jewish community could have a cent ral focal point that any Jew could switch into, then many things would happen in our community to counter what has been lost to assimilation. Regardless of all the different ele ments encompassed in Judaism, we are one people! On that premise we have sought to develop an open inde pendent forum where Jews could come together to share their thoughts and actions. After six years of cam paigning and preparation we are pleased to say that just such a forum is now only days away and it will come to London Jewry on Spectrum Radio. Spectrum Radio, London’s new International AM station, is going to offer Jews and hundreds of thousands of ethnic Londoners a unique service tailored perfectly to their individual needs. Spectrum will provide a bridge between the nations

in the Capital City plus a vehicle over that bridge for advertisers to reach a new highly targeted audience. Spec trum is the only cosmopolitan station in one of the world’s greatest cos mopolitan cities. We have something special for people who are proud of their roots. M u lt i- e t h n ic Spectrum will be serving the AfroCaribbean, Arab, Asian, Chinese, Greek, Italian, Latin American, Spanish and Jewish communities with a lively mix of programmes reflecting the diversity of cultures, broadcasting in the Mother Tongues as well as in English. Nine radio ser vices with one special identity, each designed to serve a specific audience with specific needs, and at the same time providing something new and exciting for the whole of London. The history of Spectrum dates back to the early 1980’s and is fraught with all the ups and downs of getting a community project off the ground, something that many of you are famil iar with. The ethnic groups came

together in 1984 when the Home Office announced that there would ini tially be very few frequencies available solely for ethnic use. Naturally everyone wanted their own station,

PERESTROIKA

Continued from page 9 The important thing is that the Fed eration will be well represented at the Board of Deputies. We resent what call the “Woburn House Axis’’ whereby we are left out in the cold. It is the intention of Head Office to review the delegates of all the con stituent synagogues at the Board. Elections are coming up and we want to make sure that we get strong and articulate delegates. I hope we can get rid of the old “rotten borough” sys tem of representation. Talking to you, I am beginning to appreciate the speed with which things have been changing in the Fed eration over the last nine months. I don’t foresee any slackening of the pace just yet.

CO M M UNITY RADIO

Continued from over page but, in the meantime, the opportunity for all the communities to work in har mony to achieve access for all was in itself a lesson in race-relations. This fact alone was of sufficient interest to the media to have had Spectrum Radio featured in over sixty articles in newspapers, trade magazines, as well as on TV and the radio. And that was before we won the IBA franchise. The composition of the Board of Directors of Spectrum is unique. There is a West Indian, an Egyptian, a Pakistani, an Italian, a Spaniard, a Greek and a Jew. The human link that exists between us has not escaped our thoughts, brought together as we are under one roof. Spectrum now has two sites. The new studios and offices at Brent Cross and a fully equipped training facility in Kentish Town, a combined area of some eight thousand square feet. By the time we go on air Spec trum will have over forty full time staff, a long way from the days of voluntary participation on which the project was built. ‘ K o s h e r’ C o m p o n e n t Spectrum Radio Ltd is owned by seven companies, one for each of the major communities. The United King dom Jewish Community Radio Foun dation is the "kosher” component. The Foundation was launched in 1984 and was registered as a non-profit company in April 1985. We have gained the support of community leaders, educational foundations, all the major communal organizations, plus people in the arts and entertain ment. The Radio Foundation’s primary activity to date has been the provision of professional training in effective broadcasting skills. These three day courses have been in operation since 1988, helped along the way by a grant from the Jewish Educational Develop ment Trust. The courses have been attended by rabbonim, educators, social workers, students and lay indi viduals keen to be involved in the broadcasting revolution. The Radio Foundation provided the personnel for a three week pilot broadcast aired live in the summer of 1988. In excess of one hundred community per sonalities participated including Lady Jakobovits, Ambassador Yehuda Avner and the Federation’s own Dayan Gershon Lopian. The Radio Foundation is recog nised by all the major Jewish organi zations including the Office of the Chief Rabbi and the Board of Deputies. However it is totally inde

pendent and is not affiliated to any organization, project, party or group. All the work that has been done over the last six years has been entirely vol untary. The working title of the Jewish programme is “Shalom Spectrum”. It will be two hours long, six days a week. There are six key needs which the programme will try to address: to be of use to affiliated Jews who want to be better informed about Judaism, to non-affiliated Jews attracted to the programme for secular reasons whom one wants to involve in the commun ity, to Jewish youth at home and at school, to people wanting to know more about Israel, to social welfare services within the community and, of course, fundraisers. The programme will consist of news from home, Israel and elsewhere in the world, phone-ins, studio guests, reviews, shiurim, discussions, public service announcements, educational talks, talent shows, teenage forums, background and meaning of Holy Days, cantorial and other forms of traditional music, Israeli Charts and other popular music, Erev Shabbat specials and a Sunday morning family show. Parts of the programme will be in Ivrit and Yiddish as well as in English. So whether you are Sephardi or Ashkenazi or ‘Ashkephardi” , obser vant or secular, young, old, rich or poor, there will be, in the course of the week, something that will be of par ticular interest for you. The Radio Foundation’s aim is best summed up by Beverley Bond when she says: “...that it will be to ensure that the Jewish Community knows exactly what is going on in all walks of life and what services are available, and to try to bring a bit of creativity, music and humour into our everyday lives!” M anagem ent

The management team of Spec trum Radio is led by Chief Executive Alan Bartlett who was a founder direc tor of Capital Radio and remained on its board for seventeen years, retiring eighteen months ago. He is an author and lecturer on business law. Richard Seabright, the former Sales Director of Radio Sales and Marketing and Managing Director of Independent Radio Sales, will be developing Lon donwide sales as well as sales on the special language and community ser vices. The Programme Controller is Keith Belcher, a native of East Fin chley. Keith was one-time programme controller of LBC, Head of News of the National Broadcasting School and Managing Director of Southern Sound. He joined us from being Crea tive Director of Bee Gee Maurice

Gibb’s film and TV production com pany, Gibb Rose Organization. The Company Secretary is Philip Austin, a partner in Gainsleys Chartered Accountants of Golders Green. Richard’s sales team includes Media and Marketing Sales a subdivision of Capital Radio PLC. As Richard puts it, “ Radio in the country’s largest and most important market is more and more about pre cise audience targeting. The adver tiser wants specifically targeted audi ences and we’ll deliver them. Spec trum will open up radio to a wide band of advertisers and sponsors who have despaired of the shotgun approach of the existing stations. With Spectrum you will reach the audience you want in the best way to attract them. You can advertise in English, Arabic, Ita lian, Spanish, Greek, Hindustani, Urdu or Punjabi with a Jewish sense of humour and a steel band if that’s the best way” . Across the whole output and within the specialised programmes we can pinpoint markets housewives, businessmen, and women, young people and families. All identifiable, all targeted. By the end of April, Keith will have selected the majority of the broadcas ters and producers. The Radio Found ation alone has received nearly one hundred applications for these pre stigious posts. It is going to be very difficult whittling the list down with so much talent available. However there will be lots of opportunity for people to become freelance contributors, researchers and guest presenters. Who knows you may be one of them. From the middle of May, providing there are no technical hitches, you will be able to listen to Spectrum Radio on the Medium Wave band. At the time of writing we are bound under IBA rules not to disclose the exact fre quency but we will, of course, publi cise it before we go on air. The signal is designed for London. However, it will reach most of the areas outside the M25 which means that for two hours a day, if there is a radio within your reach, you’ll have the Jewish community at your finger tips. Make sure you try it, we’re sure you’ll like it.

Beverley Bond and Ian Sweiger are co founders and directors of the UK Jewish Community Radio Foundation.

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riting a Sefer 7ora/7 without an error is almost impossible. At the speed a sofer is writing, the continuity of the text is broken and confusion can easly arise. Before a new Sefer Torah can be used, it must be thoroughly proof-read to weed out all the errors, and yet, the new com puterised checking system has pro duced some startling results. Seforim, which were read by experienced Baalei Korah for many years, were submitted to the computer test oper ated by Vaad Mishmeres Stam in Israel, and invariably several serious mistakes were found requiring correc tion. One therefore has to wonder how it can be that the text of our Torah has been preserved so perfectly through the ages, that we can be certain that we have retained the same readings as transmitted to Moshe. Surely the inevitable errors would have crept in and been compounded over time. By comparing ancient manuscripts from different countries, dating back over 1000 years, scholars have unsuccess fully tried to find variant readings; the variations discovered being mainly limited to pointing and cantillation. How was the integrity of the Torah pre served?

‘ M a s te r ’ C opy As long as the Jewish nation was together, a central copy of the Torah was kept and all scrolls were com pared with it, to ensure accuracy. After Moshe wrote a scroll for each tribe, he made a thirteenth copy which he placed in the Ark. The Rogashever (Tzafnat Pa’neach, Devarim 31:9) states that this copy was not used for reading and was only to be used as a scribes’ model. Therefore it was writ ten with vowels and accents and con tained the Masorah. At the same time, part of the Torah She’Bal Peh received at Sinai, called the Masorah, was transmitted by Moshe verbally. It was forbidden to write down the Torah She'Bal Peh, except in the case of the thirteenth Sefer Torah because it was

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As time progressed and the Jews were dispersed, the sages were con cerned lest the oral transmission of the Masorah be disrupted. So they started making short notes alongside the text of the Torah. In the time of the Geonim, when the Karaites attempted to change the texts to support their views, it became necessary to tighten control over the authoritative version and large schools were established to research into all aspects of the Masorah. Two famous academies of Masoretes flourished around the ninth and tenth centuries in Tiberias, those of Ben Naphtali and Ben Asher. They collated and consolidated all the orally transmitted traditions and developed a concise system for recording these. Eventually the Ben Asher school became predominant,

not in regular use and was confined to the Ark. The Masorah was further developed and expanded by Ezra the Scribe and the Anshei Knesset HaGedolah (Men of the Great Assem bly) to include Nevi’im and Ketuvim, and it became a sophisticated apparatus embodying all the various traditions relating to the Torah text. T ra n s m is s io n Some translate the name Mesorah as “ giving over” i.e. the transmission from generation to generation. How ever, the Radak on Yechezkel 20:37, which is the only place in Scripture where this word is used, traces its root to Aleph, Samech, Resh, to tie. The meaning would then be “a bond” , acting as a control over the oriqinal text.

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Besides concerning itself with basic spelling, the Masorah also covers the following areas: 1. Words written Malei and Chaser i.e. with vowels spelt as letters or not. 2. Keri and Ketiv - words read diffe rently from the way they are w rit ten. Enlarged and reduced letters, and other variant forms. Dots above certain letters. Division of Parshioth and Pesukim. Word and verse counts, etc.

although the differences between the two schools were very minor, con cerning mainly matters of pronuncia tion and intonation. A list of these dif ferences has been preserved within the Masorah literature. The Masoretes adopted the technique used by Moshe and wrote model codices to serve as standards that scribes could use when writing Sifrei Torah. One of the oldest and most famous is known as the Keter Torah Codex, now in Jerusalem. It was written over 1000 years ago by a scribe called Solomon ben Buya and

contained all twenty-four books of the Bible. He wrote just the unpointed text but Rabbi Aaron ben Moshe ben Asher, at that time head of the academy in Tiberias, wrote the vowel points, cantillation and Masoretic notes. It was subjected to the most rigorous proof-reading, compared with existing reliable codices and checked against the Masorah notes as they were added. One can still see how the Masran has corrected the scribe’s work when checking against Masoretic notes: An example of this is in Yehoshua 22:19 (Fig. 1) where the word bivnoskhem had been written Malei (with a Vav) and the Masran has erased the right leg of the Tav and stretched it to join the top of the Vav. R am bam ’s A p p ro v a l This codex served for many years as the standard model in Jerusalem, but in 1099 the Crusaders conquered Jerusalem and it started on its travels. About one hundred years later we find the Rambam, wishing to write his own Sefer Torah, examining the Torah scrolls extant in his time and discover ing considerable confusion and many errors. He writes, “The codex which I relied on, is the well known codex in Egypt which con tains all the twenty-four books of the Scriptures; it had been in Jerusalem for several years where it had served as the standard so that other copies could be corrected from it. Everyone relied upon it because it had been cor rected and fixed by Ben Asher, who worked upon it for many years and corrected it many times as he copied it. Upon this manuscript I have relied in the copy of the Torah which I wrote” . The Rambam’s endorsement of the Ben Asher version has guaranteed it universal acceptance. There is much evidence to suggest that the Keter Torah Codex now in Jerusalem is the same one used by the Rambam. Unfortunately, quite a few pages have been lost, but it still serves today as a model from which the latest editions of Tanach are now being published by Mosad HaRav Kook. It was not, how ever, available when the Tanach was first printed in Venice at the beginning of the sixteenth century. The first Rab binic Bible (that is incorporating Masoretic notes and Rabbinic com mentaries) was printed by Daniel Bomberg, a wealthy Flemish printer from Antwerp, in Venice in 1517. It was edited by Felix Pratensis, a baptised Jew, but did not sell well. Yakov ben Chaim, a Spanish refugee just arrived from Tunis, approached Daniel Bomberg and convinced him that a Bible,

no matter how excellent, edited by an Augustinian monk who had converted from Judaism, would not be purchased by the Jewish community. The second Rabbinic Bible was completely reset and printed in Venice in 1524-5 and the Masorah was printed for the first time. The Tiberian Masorah had been preserved in four forms: 1. There were marginal notes, generally as an abbreviation, (Masorah Ketanah). 2. There were longer notes, occupying two or three lines at the top and bottom of each page, (Masorah Gedolah). 3. Further notes and alphabetic lists were placed at the end of the volume, (Ma'arechet HaMesorah). 4. Separate works, the most famous of which is called Ochla Ve’Ochla.

budget was restricted, he would reduce the number of lines of Masorah. C u r r e n t V e rs io n It had always been the custom to include the Masorah text on the face of the page in Bible Codices and Yakov ben Chaim wanted to preserve that custom in his printed edition. He therefore prepared an eclectic version of the Masorah, culled from many different manuscripts and this hybrid text is what we have today in our Mikraoth Gedoloth Chumashim. Yakov ben Chaim’s edition served as a model for all subsequent editions until Kittel’s 1936 edition of Biblica Hebraica, which was based on Codex Leningrad, another Ben Asher manuscript written in the year 916. This is not regarded as as accurate as the Keter.

Fig. ••• 13th Century Germ an Reuchlin Bible, Karlsruhe Badische Landesbibliothek

The rubrics on no two manuscripts were identical - there was no standard text, as each Masran recorded his oral traditions in different locations. Much also depended on how much the copyist was paid; if the 16

The Koren edition was also based on Codex Leningrad, and it was not until the rediscovery and return to Jerusalem of the Keter manuscript in 1960, that Mosad HaRav Kook decided to republish the Tanach. Continued over page

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N o t M e a n t t o be R ead ! Why were they, throughout the ages, so particular to include the Masorah on each page? This is espe cially strange when one bears in mind that one was not expected to read it. The Masorah was written in tiny characters, often in geometric designs, sometimes forming grotes que micrographic animals round the page. Initial words were a particular favourite and lengthy Masoretic lists formed ornamental decorations around them. Why write something that is not intended to be read? The answer may lie in the historical background given above. The Masorah is a part of the Torah She’Bal Peh and the sages wanted to ensure that it would not be confused with the Torah text, the Torah She’Biketav It was therefore written in a completely different way, allowing artists full licence. Its inclusion on the page was symbolic; to show the unity of Torah She’Bal Peh and Torah She’Biketav; as represented by the Masorah and Torah texts. It is therefore a little disap pointing that the latest versions of Tanach now being published have not maintained this custom of including the Masoretic notes. However, some editions of Mikraoth Gedoloth have continued this tradition.

The link between Torah She’Bal Peh and Torah She’Biketav may be the reason behind the name Masorah. Following Radak’s translation of “bond” , as explained above, the Masorah acts as a bond that ties the two Torahs together. It is not only the written text that is controlled by the Masorah, but also the meaning of the words. The transla tion of a phrase can change with diffe rent vocalisation and also the cantillation provides the punctuation and gui dance. However, perhaps the greatest contribution to the true interpretation of the Bible is offered by the Masorah’s exhaustive analysis of var iant spellings and unusual word forms. In general, the Masorah records the minority view; if, for exam ple, a word is written Malei Vav in the majority of occurrences in the Bible, but is defective (without the Vav) in a minority of cases, the Masorah will enumerate the latter. In the Masorah Ketanah it would appear as a statistic, e.g.Beis-Khas, twice defective, while in the Masorah Gedolah there would be an introductory heading followed by a list of catchwords indicating the relevant locations. This is where the Masorah as Torah She’Bal Peh, provides pointers to the correct meaning. A link is formed bet

ween the two minority instances and the import of the word as evident from the context in one location can be assumed to be the interpretation in the other. In this way, the Masorah supplies a network of cross-refer ences, incorporating a wealth of Midrashic and Halachic commentary, hid den in its unique form of code. The early German Rishonim, including Maharam Rottenberg, Rabbi Yehuda HaChasid and the Rokeach suc ceeded in unravelling this code, and their commentaries were sub sequently incorporated by the Baal HaTurim in his popular commentary which is now found in most Chumashim. Next time you look at those little let ters in the margins or at the long alphabetic lists printed after Ketuvim in Mikraoth Gedoloth editions, give them the respect they deserve as guardians of our heritage. The compu ter is a valuable tool to control the accuracy of our seforim, but it can never replace the unique Masoretic system.

Yakov Schonberg FCA is a partner in Cohen Arnold and Co., Chartered Accountants and is active in Jewish communal life.

HISTORY

by J.F. Silverman hen Notting Hill Synagogue celebrates its ninetieth anniversary in May, it will be the only remaining Federation synagogue in West London. Its his tory, in brief, follows the all too familiar pattern of an initial period of vibrant growth succeeded by slow, uneven decline as successive generations move further afield to more prosper ous neighbourhoods. Recently, the future of the Notting Hill community is looking more promising with the

From 1870 onwards, the greater Notting Hill area attracted two distinct groups of Jews migrating from the overcrowded East End, who divided themselves into nearly mutually exclu sive camps, according to vast differ ences in socio-economic cir cumstances. The first of these groups, in order of appearance in Notting Hill, were members of the Anglicised Sephardi-Ashkenazi community that was established after Oliver Cromwell formally readmitted the Jews to Eng

Above: The interior of the Notting Hill Synagogue, showing the Aron Kodesh (Ark)

regentrification of Kensington Park Road and an influx of new members from Shepherd’s Bush and Fulham. However, as the limited number of sur viving records and source materials indicate, the continuing existence of the synagogue has always depended upon an active core of stalwart sup porters. T he F o u n d a tio n In 1876, a letter to the Jewish Chronicle asked "Is there in Notting Hill any place for Divine Worship? I deplore the existing state of things. Those at the head of religious matters know that for very many families the partaking of Divine Worship in public is practically impossible at festival time.”

land in 1656. Amongst their ranks were the Rothschilds, Montefiores, Samuels and a long list of other names of great wealth and social dis tinction. These families were con cerned above all with safeguarding the image of Anglo-Jewry as it appeared to outside circles. In 1870, the United Synagogue was estab lished as a means towards this end. The second group of Jews were immigrants from Eastern Europe, who had left the Pale of Settlement to escape a wave of pogroms which were provoked by the assassination of Tsar Alexander II in 1881. By 1914 approximately 150,000 Polish and Russian Jews had come to England, of which three-quarters settled in the East End of London. They distrusted

the system of the United Synagogue, particularly the office of the Chief Rabbi, and preferred to worship in small, chevra- like synagogues in which they could speak Yiddish and preserve their own Eastern European customs. The United Synagogue established the New West Synagogue in St. Petersburg Place, off Bayswater Road in 1879, but it did not welcome the waves of middle-class tradesmen and tailors who were coming to work for Bradleys and other large carriagetrade firms in the area. The latter, who could hardly afford to support their families, let alone pay for the estab lishment of a synagogue or school, organised the first official Notting Hill services in 1897 in the homes of Mr Cohen of Lancaster Road and Mr Schneider of Chesterton Road. Within two years, however, it was evident to everyone that some sort of public facility would be needed to accommo date the growth in the poorer popula tion. The gap in services was neatly summed up in a letter which appeared in the Jewish Chronicle in May 1899, written by Mr Moses Davis of 40 Ladbroke Grove, a prosperous businessman who was active at the New West End: “ In the immediate neighbourhood of Notting Hill some 400 families have been accommodated. These workers work for various tradesmen, mostly situated in West London. As is well known, the New West End Synagogue cannot accommodate the wealthy population of London... It is hoped that the local efforts of the Committee of the Notting Hill Synagogue will suc ceed in finding a site or building wherein they can worship and where marriage fees for those who cannot afford to pay more will be 10s 6d, which is the same as is charged in East London... so that at least the Jewish working classes of West Lon don may be in this respect as favoured as their East End and West Central brethren.” In the same letter he cites the atro cious living conditions of the East London and Soho Jews, and suggests that "there is a grave danger of the Christian and labouring classes rising up against these foreign work ers.”

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Moses Davis took the matter to Sir Samuel Montagu, who had helped to found the Federation of Synagogues in 1887, and wrote to the Jewish Chronicle in August 1899 to announce that the Federation had secured a suitable property on Kensington Park Road. An entry in H.M. Land Registry for 5 January 1900 (Title: No. 23, 158) shows that a former chapel and school in Nos. 206 and 208 Ken sington Park Road, Notting Hill, had been acquired by Sir Samuel Mon tagu, Bart, MP, and three other businessmen on a 99 year lease dated from 24 June 1900. In a meeting which took place on 20 April 1900, Sir Samuel Montagu announced that the Federation would give the community, once it was adequately established, the option to buy the lease. The seat rentals were stipulated at three, two and one guinea per annum, and in some cases down to 6d per week, which would include all Federation charges and burial rites. Members would also receive £1 per week while sitting shiva. Sir Samuel Montagu wished the use of Yiddish to be done away with, and hoped that the synagogue and school would be helpful in that respect. Notting Hill Synagogue was con secrated on 27 May 1900 in a cere mony performed by Chief Rabbi Her mann Adler in the presence of leading representatives from both the Federa tion of Synagogues and the New West End. The tablet which pays thanks to Moses Davis and commemorates this event was hung on the back wall, where it can still be seen today. An editorial in the Jewish Chronicle stated that the event “ marked a very welcome departure, or extension, of the work of the Federation of Synagogues, whose activity was hitherto in the East End.” By 20 July 1900, when a follow-up report appeared in the Jewish Chroni cle, Notting Hill Synagogue had already secured 100 male seatholders and 80 pupils to attend its religion classes. The Federation had distri buted a plan of the Notting Hill area to all of its constituent synagogues to advertise the advantages of moving there. R o b u s t G ro w th From its inception until the middle of World War I, the congregation was led by Rev. Chaim Leib Caplan, a Polish immigrant who had formerly served at the West Hartlepool Congre gation. He was a social worker as well as a minister, and helped the synagogue expand into the social arena. A Ladies’ Guild was formed, as

well as a Notting Hill contingent of the Jewish Aid Society, which regularly held concerts and balls at Ladbroke Hall on Ladbroke Grove to “ meet the heavy expenses of the winter sea son^], which press hardly on this con gested district.” (Letter from Jane Davis to the Jewish Chronicle, December 19U6.) For the children there was the Beatrice Club for Girls, started to commemmorate the untimely death of Mr Moses Davis’s daughter, Beatrice, and the Notting Hill Jewish Lads’ Club, which was inaugurated later on 4 April 1908. Aside from committees and guilds, the synagogue was furnished and kept up by a large number of gifts and donations, which included a Sepher Torah, upholstery for curtains and coverings, prayerbooks for the schools, and even electric fittings. Two of the greatest benefactors of this period were Reuben Kerner, who sold hand-made cigarettes in Notting Hill, and Mr Morris Poresky, founder of the well known furniture firm Williams Gal leries of Kilburn. The position of the synagogue at the end of World War I is summed up in the annual balance sheet for 1918. The number of male seatholders had increased two and a half times to 255. Over half of the total income of £772 3s Od came from weekly and yearly seat rentals, while another 15 per cent came from private offerings. After pay ing all expenses, which included four months’ salary to Rev Slavinsky and Rev Halter, the balance at the bank stood at a healthy £89 17s 10d. in te lle c tu a ls C om e F o rth In 1922, when there were 600 families living in the vicinity of Notting Hill, Rabbi Dr Julius Newman was appointed minister of the synagogue. A former student of the East London Yeshiva Etz Chaim and one of the founders of the Council of Rabbis of the Federation of Synagogues, he established Notting Hill as a place of study. Not only did he enlarge the enrolment in the religion classes from 50 to 150 children, but he also offered the study of gemorah to his senior pupils. His students included the well known rabbi and orator, Kopul Rosen and Abe Herman, who later served extensively in the Israeli Diplomatic Service. Rabbi Newman was also responsible for the formation of the Bikkur Cholim Society, the Maot Chitin Society and the HaKerem Youth Zionist Society. In this period Notting Hill Synagogue was unique among British Jewry in its supportive attitude towards the formation of the State of Israel. It was one of the earliest

synagogues to be affiliated with the Zionist Federation, and many Zionist meetings were held either in the synagogue or in Sulkin’s corner shop across the road. A Zionist cheder was started up in Kensington Park Road (moving later to Lancaster Park Road) by Mr I. Herman and three or four other colleagues. But the driving force behind the Zionist activity in Notting Hill was Mr Zaretsky, then described as a “tiny dynamo” , who arranged for the Jewish children attending the Portobello School to march with blue and white flags on the occasion of the Bal four Declaration (1917). He also organised big processions when the Mandate was granted to Britain in 1921. During the war, he arranged for Ze’ev Jabotinsky, Chaim Weizmann and Nachum Sokolow to speak to the Jewish Legion Volunteers from the pulpit of Notting Hill Synagogue, and together with Mr I. Herman, Mr J. Kolsky, Mr Dunn and others, he formed a neighbourhood Zionist club that met on and off for several years. On the cultural front, Yiddish theatre was performed regularly in Ladbroke Hall on Ladbroke Grove and the area was home to a group of Yiddish writ ers, including Leo Koenig, A.M. Kaizer and others. Jewish artists exhibited their works in Ben Uri Art Gallery in Portobello Road School. In the year ending March 1924, the synagogue boasted 365 male seathol ders, 32 of which had been admitted during the previous year. The total budget amounted to £1532 2s 8d, which “ represented the highest amount in any one year since its inception” (Annual Report). The synagogue became so crowded that several overflow services had to be held during the High Holy Days. In October 1928, Mr A.M. Green, Secret ary of Notting Hill Synagogue, wrote to the Federation Head Office with reference to a proposed meeting of officers: “ ...during the past 28 years [the Jewish population] has increased very extensively with the result that it finds itself with insufficient synagogue accommodation ... [membership] figures could be doubled if the synagogue showed the requisite seat ing capacity and had other amenities of a suitable building... Our committee is very perturbed at the failure of the younger generation to attend Synagogue and is of the opinion that a more commodious and fitting build ing would undoubtedly help to draw this important element to the Synagogue.” Unfortunately the “younger genera-

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NOTTING HILL

tion... I was wondering whether a tem porary arrangement could not be made with the adjoining Federation Synagogue at Shepherd’s Bush.” Notting Hill would eventually “ make an arrangement” with Shepherd’s Bush, but not for another 45 years. After the War ended, the Board of Officers immediately addressed the possibilities of repairing the roof which had been damaged by enemy action, and investigated the pos sibilities of acquiring two houses at Nos. 202 and 204 Kensington Park Road. Mr Lewis Solomon, the architect who was asked to survey the site, wrote a cautionary letter to Mr Julien Jung on this subject in October 1945: “ Before any plans for the acquisi tion of these two houses and the rebuilding of the synagogue are consi dered, I would strongly suggest a careful investigation be made as to whether the Jewish population is not gradually moving to some other neighbourhood... this was rather con firmed in an interview which we had with Mr Harris... There is a further point to consider: ... that although there may be a sentimental attraction to present worshippers to go back to the same site, the fact that the synagogue lies in the centre of a pov

Continued from page 19 tion" was already bent on leading dif ferent lifestyles. The annual balance sheet for 1929, although printed in Yiddish and English, lists a total of just 303 male seatholders, only 22 of which were admitted the previous year. In the thirties the community dwindled considerably as the families who had grown more prosperous mig rated further afield to areas such as Cricklewood, Willesden and Acton. W a r and R e s to ra tio n From the thirties until the end of World War II, the Notting Hill commun ity struggled against a range of adverse conditions. First, the charac ter of the surrounding neighbourhood changed as fascist organisations began to hold meetings in Westbourne Grove. Once war was declared, many synagogue seathol ders were called up to enlist in the Armed Forces, leaving their families behind with financial difficulties. Rabbi Newman was ill and, as Mr Julien Jung, the new secretary, wrote to Mr Hyman Cen, President of the Board of Offices (1944), "... We have for some time been endeavouring to obtain a permanent man for the situa

erty-stricken neighbourhood may tend to keep worshippers away...” However, in November 1948, Dayan Meyer Steinberg was inducted into service and new life was injected into the synagogue. After regular meetings and education classes were reinsti tuted, the Board could not fail to notice that “the east wall of the synagogue appeared to be in a dangerous condition and looked as if it was liable to collapse” (letter from Mr A. Epstein to Mr Hyman Cen, Sep tember 1948). At the end of that year, it was decided that “ it was well worth while repairing the Synagogue and thereby giving it a further lease of some years rather than knock it down.” In 1949, the firm of Joseph Fiszpan, Chartered Architect, esti mated the total cost of rebuilding to be approximately £3,000, which was later to be paid by a loan from Federa tion Head Office and monies raised by a Re-Building Fund. After three years of on and off build ing, Notting Hill Synagogue was finally reconsecrated in March 1952. At the same time, the Board of Officers purchased a property on Wallingford Avenue, in which to house the new minister, Rabbi Raphael Cymberg, who would oversee the community until Rev B. Susser took over in 1958.

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The synagogue was no longer the centre of daily life that it had been two decades earlier, but a new community spirit appeared to prevail. Morning minyonim were held every day of the week and at least forty men attended the Shabbos shiurim. With the cessa tion of war, the Notting Hill Synagogue Ladies’ Guild raised funds for two hostels in St. Mark’s Road for young refugee children, and organised par cels of clothing to send to displaced persons on the Continent. The synagogue became famous for the house-to-house supper parties it held on Simchas Torah. And yet imminent problems were foreboded in a meeting held in 1957, when Mr S. Portnoy, Chairman, sub mitted that the members of Notting Hill could not afford a 6d increase in dues, which had been solicited by the Federation in order to support its net work of talmud torahs, yeshivos and other institutions. The reason he gave was that “ many of the well-to-do members have left the neighbour hood, while new members have so far not been attracted...” (Minutes of meeting, Federation Archives). In the end, the synagogue was given a sixmonth exemption from paying the new fee. S truggles and N e w D ire c tio n s For the Notting Hill community the next decade started ominously when large swastikas and the words “Juden Raus” were painted over the doors of the synagogue in the early hours of 31 December 1959. No one was ever apprehended, but it was widely sus pected that the act was in some way connected to Sir Oswald Mosley’s Union Movement, an organisation based on Nazi ideology, which had headquarters in North Kensington. And as the story was written up in newspapers around the world, the members of the synagogue celeb rated their Diamond Jubilee by pub lishing a history of the synagogue by Henry Shaw, who unfortunately had to conclude that “The interior of the shul is more resplendent now than ever before... but alas, the congregation is no longer there. Its future is uncer tain...” The sixties would indeed usher in a period of decline for Notting Hill Synagogue. Under the direction of Rev Marcus Singer, who was inducted in 1961, the community continued to support the Notting Hill Bikkur Cholim and to hold sporadic public events, such as the Sunday service in May 1965, which commemmorated the 22nd Anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. But the organisa tional side of the synagogue practi-

Above: Notting Hill Synagogue, the Ezrat Nashim (Ladies Gallery)

cally ceased to function at all. A letter from Mr N. Harris, secretary, to Mr M. Goldman of the Federation of Synagogues refers to the fact that the account books had not been looked after since 1962. When Rabbi Z.M. Salasnik came to Notting Hill in 1971 to officiate as a part-time minister, the attendance on Shabbos morning was down to 10-15 men, and often Mr Samuel Mendel, then treasurer, would have to go out on to the street to look for a minyan. Eventually the members had to decamp to the New West Synagogue for morning minyonim and Friday evening services, a practice which continues today. It was Mr Samuel Mendel who held the Notting Hill community together, organising the Shabbos morning minyan and kiddushim, until he died in 1987 as encumbent President of the Board of Officers. While many mem bers saw his loss as as the end of the synagogue, two important changes were taking place which would once again strengthen the community. The first of these was the regentrification of the Notting Hill area, which attracted to the synagogue a handful of dedicated younger participants. In 1986, when the attendance on Shab bos morning had already reached 2025 men and women, an anonymous benefactor donated the funds which were necessary to redecorate the interior, and in that same year the con gregation witnessed the first Barmitzvah ceremony in over fifteen years. The first wedding in fourteen years was held in 1988. Notting Hill Synagogue would still have been in a precarious position,

however, if Shepherd’s Bush and Fulham Synagogue had not closed officially in June 1989, leaving their members to amalgamate with the Notting Hill community. The new members from Shepherd’s Bush not only increased the membership on the books to a total of 175, they also brought with them their Sifre Torah, ark, pews and other fixtures which have been installed and duly rededi cated in a series of Sunday festivities held this winter. For the first time in more than two decades, the community of Notting Hill can look forward to a future. Under the leadership of Mr S. Schama, Chairman, and Mr Monty Kolsky, treasurer, the Board of Officers is considering rebuilding the synagogue, which is in need of seri ous repairs, to accommodate a class room and offices. In the meantime, they are bringing old members back into the fold, and hopefully attracting new ones as well, by hosting a series of public gatherings, starting with a Magen David Adorn Shabbat in midMarch.

SOURCES

1) Shaw, Henry, Notting Hill Synagogue Diamond Jubilee 1900-1960, (1960). 2) Alderman, Geoffrey. The Federation of Synagogues 1887-1987, (1987). Along with various items in the Federation Archives and the library of the Jewish Chronicle.

J.F. Silverman is a member of the Notting Hill Synagogue and writes for the Jewish Chronicle.

POLITICS

Judging Israel By Charles Krauthammer

ews are news. It is an axiom of journalism. An indispensable axiom, too, because it is other wise impossible to explain why the deeds and misdeeds of dot-on-themap Israel get an absurdly dispropor tionate amount of news coverage around the world. If you are trying to guess how much coverage any Mid dle East event received, and you are permitted but one question, the best question you can ask about the event is: Were there any Jews in the vicinity? The paradigmatic case is the page in the International Herald Tribune that devoted seven of its eight columns to the Palestinian uprising. Among the headlines: “ Israel Soldier Shot to Death; Palestinian Toll Rises to 96” . The eighth column carried a report that 5,000 Kurds died in an Iraqi gas attack. Whatever the reason, it is a fact that the world is far more interested in what happens to Jews than to Kurds. It is perfectly legitimate, therefore, for journalists to give the former more play. But that makes it all the more incumbent to be fair in deciding how to play it.

S ta n d a rd s? How should Israel be judged? Specifically: Should Israel be judged by the moral standards of its neighbourhood or by the standards of the West? The answer, unequivocally, is: the standards of the West. But the issue is far more complicated than it appears. The first complication is that although the neighbourhood standard ought not to be Israel’s, it cannot be ignored when judging Israel. Why? It is plain that compared with the way its neighbours treat protest, prisoners and opposition in general, Israel is a beacon of human rights. The salient words are Hama, the town where Syria dealt with an Islamic uprising by killing perhaps 20,000 people in two weeks and then paving the dead over; and Black September (1970), during which enlightened Jordan dealt with its Palestinian intifadeh by killing at least 2,500 Palestinians in ten days, a toll that the Israeli intifadeh would need ten years to match.

Any moral judgment must take into account the alternative. Israel cannot stand alone, and if it is abandoned by its friends for not meeting Western standards of morality, it will die. What will replace it? The neighbours: Syria, Jordan, the PLO, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Ahmed Jabril, Abu Nidal (if he is still around) or some combination of these - an outcome that will induce acute nostalgia for Israel’s humanrights record.

Any moral judgment that refuses to consider the alternative is merely irresponsible. That is why Israel’s moral neighbourhood is important. It is not just the neighbourhood, it is the alternative and, if Israel perishes, the future. It is morally absurd, therefore, to reject Israel for failing to meet West ern standards of human rights when the consequence of that rejection is to consign the region to neighbours with considerably less regard for human rights. Nevertheless, Israel cannot be judged by the moral standards of the neighbourhood. It is part of the West. It bases much of its appeal to Western support on shared values, among which is a respect for human rights. The standard for Israel must be West ern standards. But what exactly does “Western standards” mean? Here we come to

complication No. 2. There is not a single Western standard, there are two: what we demand of Western countries at peace and what we demand of Western countries at war. It strains not just fairness but also logic to ask Israel, which has known only war for its 40 years’ existence, to act like a Western country at peace. W a r o r Peace? The only fair standard is this one: How have the Western democracies reacted in similar conditions of war, crisis and insurrection? The morally relevant comparison is not with an American police force reacting to vio lent riots, say, in downtown Detroit. (Though even by this standard - the standard of America’s response to the urban riots of the ’60s - Israel’s handl ing of the intifadeh has been mea sured.) The relevant comparison is with Western democracies at war: to say, the US during the Civil War, the British in Mandatory Palestine, the French in Algeria. Last fall New York Times columnist Anthony Lewis excoriated Israel for putting down a tax revolt in the town of Beit Sahour. He wrote: “Suppose the people of some small American town decided to protest Federal Gov ernment policy by withholding their taxes. The Government responded by sending in the Army... Unthinkable? Of course it is in this country. But it is happening in another... Israel”. Middle East scholar Clinton Bailey tried to point out just how false this analogy is. Protesting Federal Govern ment Policy? The West Bank is not Selma, Ala. Palestinians are not demanding service at the lunch counter. They demand a flag and an army. This is insurrection for indepen dence. They are part of a movement whose covenant explicitly declares its mission to be the abolition of the State of Israel. Bailey tried manfully for the better analogy. It required him to posit (1) a pre-glaznost Soviet Union, (2) a com munist Mexico demanding the return of “occupied Mexican" territory lost in the Mexican War (Texas, New Mexico,

Arizona, Utah, Nevada and California) and (3) insurrection by former Mexi cans living in these territories demanding secession from the US. Then imagine, Bailey continued, that the insurrectionists, supported and financed by Mexico and other com munist states in Latin America, obstruct communications; attack civi lians and police with stones and fire bombs; kill former Mexicans holding US Government jobs (“col laborators”); and then begin a tax revolt. Now you have the correct anal ogy. Would the US, like Israel, then send in the Army? Of course.

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V u ln e r a b ility But even this analogy falls flat because it is simply impossible to imagine an America in a position of conflict and vulnerability analogous to Israel’s. Milan Kundera once defined a small nation as “one whose very exis tence may be put in question at any moment; a small nation can disappear and knows it” . Czechoslovakia is a small nation. Judea was. Israel is. The US is not. It is quite impossible to draw an analogy between a small nation and a secure superpower. America’s condi tion is so radically different, so far from the brink. Yet when Western countries have been in conditions approximating Israel’s, when they have faced comparable rebellions, they have acted not very differently. We do not even here have to go back to Lincoln’s Civil War suspension of habeas corpus, let alone Sherman’s march through Georgia. Consider that during the last Palestinian intifadeh, the Arab Revolt of 1936-39, the British were in charge of Palestine. They put down the revolt “without mercy, with out qualms” , writes Middle East scho lar Fouad Ajami. Entire villages were razed. More than 3,000 Palestinians were killed. In 1939 alone, the British hanged 109. (Israel has no death pen alty.) French conduct during the Algerian war was noted for its indiscriminate violence and systematic use of tor ture. In comparison, Israeli behaviour has been positively restrained. And yet Israel faces a far greater threat. All the Algerians wanted, after all, was independence. They were not threatening the extinction of France. If Israel had the same assurance as France that its existence was in no way threatened by its enemies, the whole Arab-lsraeli conflict could have been resolved decades ago. Or consider more contemporary democracies. A year ago, when rioting broke out in Venezuela over govern ment-imposed price increases, more

than 300 were killed in less than one week. In 1984 the army of democratic India attacked rebellious Sikhs in the Golden Temple, killing 300 in one day. And yet these democracies were not remotely as threatened as Israel. Ven ezuela was threatened with disorder; India, at worst, with secession. The Sikhs have never pledged themselves to throw India into the sea. P h o n e y A rg u m e n t “ Israel” , opined the Economist, “cannot in fairness test itself against a standard set by China and Algeria while still claiming to be part of the West” . This argument, heard all the time, is a phony. Israel asks to be judged by the standard not of China and Algeria but of Britain and France, of Venezuela and India. By that stan dard, the standard of democracies facing similar disorders, Israel’s

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behaviour has been measured and restrained. Yet Israel has been treated as if this were not true. The thrust of the report ing and, in particular, the commentary is that Israel has failed dismally to meet Western standards, that it has been particularly barbaric in its treat ment of the Palestinian uprising. No other country is repeatedly subjected to Nazi analogies. In no other country is the death or deportation of a single rioter the subject (as it was for the first year of the intifadeh, before it became a media bore) of front-page news, of emergency Security Council meet ings, of full-page ads in the New York Times, of pained editorials about Israel’s lost soul, etc., etc. Why is that so? Why is it that of Israel a standard of behaviour is demanded that is not just higher than its neighbours’, not equal to that of the West, but in fact far higher than

that of any Western country in similar circumstances? Why the double stan dard? For most, the double standard is unconscious. Critics simply assume it appropriate to compare Israel with a secure and peaceful America. They ignore the fact that there are two kinds of Western standards, and that fairness dictates subjecting Israel to the standard of a Western country at war. But other critics openly demand higher behaviour from the Jewish state than from other states. Why? Jews, it is said, have a long history of oppression. They thus have a special vocation to avoid oppressing others. This dictates a higher standard in dealing with others. O n ly Jews Note that this reasoning is applied only to Jews. When other people suf fer - Vietnamese, Algerians, Palesti nians, the French Maquis - they are usually allowed a grace period during which they are judged by a somewhat lower standard. The victims are, rightly or wrongly (in my view, wrongly), morally indulged. A kind of moral affirmative action applies. We are asked to understand the former victims’ barbarities because of how they themselves suffered. There has, for example, been little attention to and less commentary on the 150 Palestinians lynched by other Palesti nians during the intifadeh. Flow many know that this year as many Palesti nians have died at the hands of Pales tinians as at the hands of Israelis? With Jews, that kind of reasoning is reversed: Jewish suffering does not entitle them to more leeway in trying to prevent a repetition of their tragedy, but to less. Their suffering requires them, uniquely among the world’s suf ferers, to bend over backward in deal ing with their enemies. Sometimes it seems as if Jews are entitled to protection and equal moral consideration only insofar as they remain victims. Oriana Fallaci once said plaintively to Ariel Sharon, “You are no more the nation of the great dream, the country for which we cried” . Indeed not. In establishing a Jewish state, the Jewish people made a collective decision no longer to be cried for. They chose to become actors in history and not its objects. Historical actors commit misdeeds, and should be judged like all nation states when they commit them. It is perverse to argue that because this particular nation-state is made up of people who have suffered the greatest Continued on page 28

CONTEMPORARY SCENE

uppose that in order to be able to earn part of your livelihood you had to appear before a committee appointed by a private organisation and operating under sec ret guidelines, which was empowered to question you on the most intimate details of your financial cir cumstances and your personal beliefs. Suppose that you were not told you could take a lawyer along with you. Suppose that the committee informed you that you could not earn your livelihood in the way you prop osed, that it was not obliged to give you any reasons for its decision, and that, short of a costly action in the civil courts, there was no right of appeal.

Suppose all this and you are begin ning to appreciate the problems that face any Jew who wishes to trade on a Sunday in goods not exempted from the general prohibition on Sunday trading in England and Wales. These problems amount (in the words of a member of the investigating commit tee I am talking about) to “an inquisi tion”, and they owe their origin to the unwillingness of the Anglo-Jewish leadership to confront and condemn the many anomalies inherent in the legal controls on Sunday trading, more especially as they affect Jewish traders and Jewish customers. Before December 1979 any person who had a conscientious objection on

religious grounds to trading on the Jewish Sabbath could, on completion of certain procedures dating from 1936, obtain local authority registra tion for a limited amount of Sunday trading. The law recognised that unscrupulous individuals (non-Jewish as well as Jewish) would try to take advantage of this enactment. So a special “Jewish Tribunal” was estab lished, under rules laid down by Parli ament and with members appointed by the Home Secretary, to deal with cases of abuse. A trader summoned before the Tribunal is, naturally, inno cent unless and until proven guilty. Evidence must be brought before the Tribunal, and this evidence is, natur-

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ally, open to cross-examination. The Tribunal is, naturally, open to the pub lic and those who appear before it are, naturally, told at the outset that they may be legally represented.

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Changes For forty years the Jewish Tribunal went about its work with a minimum of complaint; justice was not merely done, it was seen to be done. But dur ing the 1970s the Law, Parliamentary and General Purposes Committee of the Board of Deputies became alarmed at the manner in which the Tribunal operated. With the final col lapse of the Victorian Sunday, a sys tem whereby local authorities were compelled to collect evidence of abuse of the law by those registered for Sunday trading, and then, perhaps at some expense, present it for scrutiny and cross-examination, no longer seemed such a good idea. Was not the growth of Sunday markets (sometimes known as “Jewish mar kets”) tarnishing the image of AngloJewry? Was there not a danger that local authority enforcement officers might become prejudiced against Jews just because of the necessity to comply with Tribunal procedures? Would it not be much safer to allow the Board of Deputies to vet all appli cations by Jews for Sunday trading registration, within a procedure that would assume guilt rather than inno cence, and which would give very few rights indeed to those caught up in it? The Home Office snatched at the idea, but not primarily because it was concerned for the good name of Anglo-Jewry. The Home Office wel comed the plan because the Board agreed to take full responsibility for operating the vetting procedure, and full responsibility for the financial con sequences, which now run to several thousand pounds per annum. True, the Sunday trading laws were collaps ing. But in Parliament an unholy alliance between Labour MPs sup porting the shopworkers, Conserva tive MPs frightened of the Lords’ Day Observance Society, and MPs on all sides anxious to defend “the corner shop” , meant that legislation was out of the question. As the Conservative government found out to its cost in 1986, Sunday trading is a political minefield. In 1979 the Home Office knew that there was a mismatch bet ween what the public wanted and what Parliament was prepared to con cede, and that the Sunday trading laws were full of holes. The offer by the Board of Deputies to plug one of these at its own expense could not be turned down.

So it was that in December 1979 Parliament approved, without debate, a Statutory Instrument empowering the Board of Deputies to establish panels to investigate all applications from Jewish traders for Sunday trad ing registration. The panels operate under guidelines which the Board itself has never seen. Rights of legal representation before the panels are vague and, at best, implicit. I daresay that applications from those whose observance of the Orthodox Sabbath and Holydays is beyond dispute are approved “on the nod” . I know that applicants who belong to non orthodox synagogues, and who are equally conscientious in their religious practices, are sometimes treated unjustly. I daresay that many inter views (including the one I observed) are conducted in an impeccable fash ion. I know that in other cases matters quite remote from the suitability of the applicant for Sunday trading registra tion are raised, and raised without any justification or prior notice. “They (the panel members) hold the upper hand” , one applicant told me, “and I was made very conscious of this” .

Policing Those who defend the existence and operation of the panels think it a wonderful thing that Anglo-Jewry has been allowed to police itself in this way. They clearly believe that the safety of the tribe is more important than the rights of the individual. I agree with them that it is important that the community is not brought into disrepute. But I put it to them that, however worthy the original idea, the panels only serve to compromise the status of Jews in this country, and that this compromise will be deepened if those who wish applicants to be obliged to pay the Board of Deputies for the right to trade on a Sunday are allowed to have their way. The wide spread general abuse of the Sunday trading laws is bringing the law itself into disrepute. But the remedy pro vided by the Sunday trading panels is far worse than the disease. Geoffrey Alderman is Professor of Poli tics and Contemporary History at Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, University of London, and has advised the Home Office on the Jewish aspects of Sunday trading.

SPECIAL REPORT

SAD by Sharman Kadish

Above: Kehillas Yakov in C om m ercial Road, E.1. (Tower H a m lets L o c a l H is to ry Library)

he death of Rabbi Aharon Herling (z.t.l.), who was the minister of East London Central Synagogue (known locally as Nelson Street) for ten years, has struck another blow at the dwindling Federation presence in the East End of London. The East End was once the heart land of Federation territory. Only four Federation shuts are still active in the area bounded by Aldgate in the West and Mile End in the East. Besides Nelson Street, the others are Great Garden Street which is housed in the Federation’s new headquarters in Greatorex Street - this synagogue is only open on Shobbos morning and two affiliated congregations: Fieldgate Street and Kehillas Yakov in Commercial Road. (The United’s East London Synagogue, the 19th century Dutch Sandy’s Row, and the historic

Sephardi Bevis Marks are the other Orthodox shuls in the East End. There is also the Beaumont Settlement which houses a Progressive synagogue.) In d o m ita b le Fieldgate Street, which has a ninety year history, is the only fully-function ing shut remaining in the East End. Tucked away behind the imposing Islamic mosque on Whitechapel Road, a stone’s throw from the Feder ation offices, the Fieldgate minyan is guided by the indomitable Reverend Leibish Gayer who has been presi dent for fifty-five years. Now 77 and confined to a wheelchair, Reverend Gayer still insists on living on shut pre mises over Shobbos. He came to England from Volhynia Province in the Ukraine in 1933 and has been a resi

dent of Stepney ever since. His son Jack Gayer is vice-president of the congregation. Fieldgate Street has an official membership around the 1000 mark, but in common with the other East End shuls, very few live in the area. Daily minyonim, augmented by businessmen who work in the East End, attract about twenty people. W a rm th Nelson Street, which is situated not far from Fieldgate Street, between Whitechapel and Commercial Roads, is probably the most well-appointed of the surviving Federation synagogues in the East End. Fieldgate Street was badly bombed during the War, whereas Nelson Street was built in the 1920s to a traditional design with wooden pews, stone pil-

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lars and a women’s gallery on three sides. The shut possesses a fine ark containing at least three perfect Sifrei Torah. (Vandalism and theft are prob lems which plague all of the East End synagogues.) The present congrega tion is the result of numerous amalga mations of smaller kehillos as Jews have steadily moved out of the neighbourhood. Even so, these days Nelson Street can barely scratch a minyan - even on Shobbos - and is no longer open for all weekday ser vices. Rabbi Herling (Ohav HaShalom) used to conduct a Sholos Seuda on Shobbos afternoon. Along with my husband (who is an East Ender born and bred), I attended what must have been one of the last of these occa sions at which Rabbi Herling presided on Shobbos Bereshis. Being the only woman present amongst about a dozen, mainly elderly men, the Rabbi made me welcome and provided for my comfort at a separate table. I was very impressed by the warmth and generosity of the tiny Nelson Street community. It is to be hoped that they can struggle on without the help of their spiritual guide. Kehillas Yakov (The Congregation of Jacob) in Commercial Road is in a similar position to Nelson Street. This delightful bijoux shut, the entrance to which can easily be missed, was con secrated in 1921. However, the con gregation of that name dates back to 1890. Now, under the presidency of the veteran Issie Lixemburg, it can scarcely muster a minyan on Shob bos. Last year, negotiations took place with Lubavitch for the lease of the upstairs of the shut at a nominal rent.

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have been operating a research unit from the Kehillas Yakov shul. They have been conducting a door-to-door campaign to bring back unaffiliated Jews living in the new Docklands development as well as in the old East End proper. We wish them every suc cess. B rig h t S p o t One bright spot in an otherwise depressing picture of East End decline is the Kosher Luncheon Club based in the Morris Kasler Hall at Fed eration Head Office in Greatorex Street. The Club was established over twenty years ago to serve employees of the Federation and the general pub lic living and working in nearby fac tories, offices and shops. The restaur ant is run by a cheerful staff headed by professional caterer Paul Levine. At lunchtime the Club is a noisy, crowded place (despite its size) serv ing old fashioned heimishe food at very competitive prices. The Lunc heon Club attracts clients from all sec tions of Anglo-Jewry and from all over London, from Golders Green to Gants Hill. But, above all, it fills an important social need for the remaining Jews still living in what was once the East End ghetto. (See also page 28 - Determined to Survive and also Obituary page 34.)

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Continued from page 23 crime in modern history, they, more than any other people on earth, have a special obligation to be delicate with those who would bring down on them yet another national catastrophe. That is a double standard. What does double standard mean? To call it a higher standard is simply a euphemism. That makes it sound like a compliment. In fact, it is a weapon. If I hold you to a higher standard of morality than others, I am saying that am prepared to denounce you for things I would never denounce any one else for. If I were to make this kind of judg ment about people of colour - say, if I demanded that blacks meet a higher standard in their dealings with others - that would be called racism. Let’s invent an example. Imagine a journalistic series on cleanliness in neighbourhoods. A city newspaper studies a white neighbourhood and a black neighbourhood and finds that while both are messy, the black

idway between the old East End and the thriving Jewish community of Redbridge stands the Leytonstone and Wanstead Synagogue. In common with the East End shuts, Leytonstone has become a victim of demographic changes. The kehilla can trace its ori gins back to the 1930s and the pre sent building was erected in the early 1950s to serve a community of about 250 families. Now the aging member ship, with a preponderance of widows, has been reduced to less than half that number. According to shut treasurer and Conservative member and ex-Mayor of Waltham Forest Borough Council Laurie Braham, on the average Shobbos Leytonstone struggles to achieve a minyan. Shobbos morning services are held throughout the year, but on Friday evenings only between Pesach and Shavuos. However, if there is a kiddush (and the shut holds as many as possible) twenty people may be expected, and on a Yom Tov up to forty. There has been no rabbi nor cheder at Leytonstone for the past ten years. Nevertheless there is a small group of younger members including 25 year old Simon Millstone, whose parents are long-standing members of the congregation, as well as Cllr Braham’s 26 year old daughter and her husband. They are happy with the informality at Leytonstone and are determined to keep their shut going.

neighbourhood is cleaner. But week in, week out, the paper runs front page stories comparing the garbage and graffiti in the black neighbour hood to the pristine loveliness of Swit zerland. Anthony Lewis chips in an op-ed piece deploring, more in sad ness than in anger, the irony that blacks, who for so long had degrada tion imposed on them, should now impose degradation on themselves. Racism Something is wrong here. To denounce blacks for misdemeanors that we overlook in whites - that is a double standard. It is not a compli ment. It is racism. The conscious deployment of a double standard directed at the Jewish state and at no other state in the world, the willingness systemati cally to condemn the Jewish state for things others are not condemned for this is not a higher standard. It is a dis criminatory standard. And discrimina tion against Jews has a name too. The word for it is anti-Semitism. C opyright 1990 The Time Inc. Magazine C om pany. Reprinted by Permission.

HaMaor ADVERTISERS! If you would like to take a space in HaMaor, please contact Michael Mandel on 01-247 4471

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Eugene C. Black: The Social Politics of Anglo-Jewry

I 1? . f y nagogue. in ana :ast End shuls Lpvt°mmon 116 a victim of i m ° nstWe

1880-1920

Basil Blackwell, Oxford, 1988, £35

Wthe 1930s 2& 5 and the I ' ereCled in the early S N n l? m U % ° f 3 t a > , , Now the a9'ng member3 Preponderance of has been reduced to less hat number. n9 to shul treasurer and ive member and ex-Mayor ti Forest Borough Council ham, on the average Shotistone struggles to achieve Shobbos morning services iroughout the year, but on lings only between Pesach ios. However, if there is a id the shul holds as many e) twenty people may be and on a Yom Tov up to 5 has been no rabbi nor .eytonstone for the past ten

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(Illustrated London News). 29

major aim of this book is to present a view of the behaviour of the Anglo-Jewish grandees, towards the immigrants of the 1880s and 1890s, that is a corrective to the wisdom hitherto received from those who have researched these matters. The general opinion of historians is that this behaviour was characterised by sentiments and policies that are the very opposite of the philosophy and outlook embodied in the declara tion Kol Yisroel Chaverim (“All Israel are Brothers”). The title by which the Federation of Synagogues was and is known - Chevros B ’nai Yisroel embodies the same sentiments, and indeed the establishment of the Fed eration owed much to the hostile feel ings and actions which the Jewish refugees from Eastern Europe encountered from the Anglo-Jewish Establishment that controlled the Board of Guardians and the United Synagogue in 1887. These feelings and actions found expression in a variety of ways: Jewish refugees from Tsarist persecu tion were encouraged not to come to Britain; those who did come were offered inducements to go away again, or even to be repatriated; finan cial assistance was minimal; self-help was discouraged; antisemites agitat ing for the restriction of “ alien” immig ration were, in some cases, encour aged; when the 1904 Aliens Act was passed, it had Jewish support. Professor Black, who teaches mod ern history at Brandeis University, in the United States, seeks to defend the Establishment, and to argue that its concerns were entirely legitimate (for example, that anti-Jewish feeling might have put the security of AngloJewry at risk, and that some of the prejudices of English people towards Jewish refugees were well-founded), would (I hope) be the first to argue that the accused have a right to be heard. My grave misgiving about this book is that its author is inadequate to

4 the task he has set himself. To take one instance of this, he accepts uncritically the charge that the Jewish immigrants of the 1880s and 1890s were a threat to public health. They were not. But the wealth of evidence offered at the time to rebut this charge is simply ignored. The book has far too many errors of fact as well as of interpretation. At some points the chronology is con fused. A Conservative minister is described as a Liberal. The Talmud is described as “the commentary on the Mishna". Samuel Montagu, the foun der of the Federation, is said by Pro fessor Black to have been “an antiZionist". I doubt this very much; Mon tagu did not much care for Herzlian Zionism, but that is a very different matter. “ Montagu... brought Rabbi Avigdor Chaikin from the Jewish com munity in France in 1901 ” , we are told; in fact Rabbi Chaikin was brought to the Federation from Sheffield, York shire, England. Chief Rabbi Hermann Adler did indeed place Rabbi Chaikin on his Beth Din in 1902, but only after a protest meeting at the Aldgate Baths, following the promotion as Dayanim of Rabbis Asher Feldman and Moses Hyamson, in neither of whom the immigrants had much con fidence. Rabbi Meir Jung did not suc ceed Rabbi Chaikin as Chief Minister of the Federation in 1911, but in 1912. You get my point? As on most other matters, so in relation to the Federa tion, Professor Black tells us little that we did not already know, and con fuses us into the bargain. This book is not a good read, and those who do not have to read it are advised to give it a miss. Geoffrey Alderman

Stephen Brook: The Club: The Jews of Modern Britain

Constable, London, 1989, £16.95

tephen Brook’s The Club is the first full-length survey of the contemporary Anglo-Jewish scene since Chaim Bermant’s Trou bled Eden which was published twenty years ago (Vallentine Mitchell 1969). Brook is better known as a suc cessful travel writer and wine taster for Vogue. He is also what may be termed an “ insider-outsider” , the Cambridge educated child of relative

newcomers to Anglo-Jewry - the central European refugees who arrived in the 1930s. Brook approaches his subject in the manner of a newspaper reporter. He conducted what must have amounted to hundreds of interviews and trekked all over the country in search of mate rial for the book. (Indeed a highly placed librarian source tells me that The Club is permanently on reserve in Barnet Borough Libraries, in demand by those who know so-and-so- who is related to so-and-so who is in the pro cess of suing Mr Brook for libel! I con fess to meriting(?) a mention myself.) By way of introduction the author offers a potted but competent history of British Jewry, (he has done his homework), and then proceeds to dis sect the community along religious, institutional and geographical lines. Mr Brook seeks to place Anglo-Jewry in the wider British context, exploring our contribution to politics, the economy, art and letters. “ Difficult” areas such as the incidence of antiSemitism in Britain and the tortured relationship between British Jews, Zionism and Israel are not ducked. Brook’s approach is direct, unapologetic and refreshingly honest - perhaps too honest for the taste of some palates. He allows his inter viewees to speak for themselves, whether it be the Chief Rabbi or an elderly East End Jew. The result is highly critical, frequently acerbic and - one is forced to concede - fairly accurate. Nevertheless Mr Brook’s own prejudices inevitably show through. He comes across as a some what self-conscious, secularised, cul tured Mittel European who wishes to remain determinedly uncommitted. HaMaor readers will immediately turn to pages 146-8 where Mr Brook deals in detail with the Federation. Earlier on (page 26), he praises the foundation of the Federation as “a typical, and in this instance very sen sible and successful Anglo-Jewish compromise" which sought to acculturate the East End Ostjuden into English society. Yet he dismisses the perpetuation of the Federation’s sepa rate identity in terms of needless bureaucratic duplication and describes it as “ludicruous” (page 92) and “an anachronism" (page 146). The Federation, now declining in member ship, is, according to Mr Brook, sim ply “an accident of historical cir cumstances that decades ago ceased to have any significance” . Mere “frac 30

tiousness” has prevented merger with the larger and more powerful United Synagogue “with which it has so much in common” . The Club was pub lished in April 1989 and recent changes at the top in the Federation show up graphically the pitfalls of writ ing prognoses of the contemporary scene. The Club will inevitably date as a guide to present-day Anglo-Jewry, but it will stand as a valuable primary source for the condition of the com munity at the end of the 1980’s. In any case it is a good read - even for the Anglo-Jewish “ Establishment” wal lowing in its “mediocrity, shallowness and philistinism” (page 434). Mr Brook’s next book on modern Israel is eagerly awaited. Sharman Kadish

Geoffrey Alderman: London Jew ry and London Politics

Routledge, London, 1989, £25

)wards the end of his welldocumented study of Jewish involvement in London’s politics, Professor Alderman compares the impact of London Jewry on London’s government with that of the AfroCaribbeans. The latters’ success, he states, in returning three candidates to the House of Commons in the 1987 elections “was built upon solid achievement at municipal level, where Afro-Caribbean and Asian immigrants have not been slow to use the machin ery of local government to further communal ends”. Whereas Jewish achievements at the same level “were seen as ends in themselves. There was no attempt to use the organisa tions of local administration in London to further the well-being of London Jewry...” The question whether or not this dif fidence was in the communal interest, Professor Alderman leaves as a mat ter of conjecture. But the premise of his argument appears to this reviewer to contradict the controversial thesis expounded in his earlier work The Jewish Community in British Politics (Oxford University Press, 1983) that there is such a thing as a Jewish vote in this country, a view that he and others thought would oe an unpalata ble revelation to the Anglo-Jewish Establishment. —►

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Jderman: 'wry dnd London Politics , London, 1989, £25

My own belief is that the Afro-Asian situation in this country cannot in any way be compared with the Jewish experience, for reasons which need not be enumerated here. But the much smaller size of the Jewish popu lation, which has never exceeded 500,000, and its major concentration in one or two districts of London and Manchester, has ensured that the community was, and is, unable to express its opinions or to voice its aspirations (if indeed we possess common aspirations) through the Par liamentary vote. Is it not significant that very few Jewish Members of Par liament represent “Jewish” con stituencies? In the final paragraph of his current book, Professor Alderman argues that the negative attitude of the AngloJewish “ Establishment” towards polit ical power - though not towards altruistic involvement in public affairs - was “rooted in fear: to adopt the stri dent and salient profile was (it was argued) likely to be counter-produc tive” . In the light of modern Jewish his tory (especially in Germany) such fears may not be unjustified, and this reviewer, for one, readily confesses that he shares this attitude. The Jews in Galos do live in ghettos - either per force or voluntarily - and need to pro ceed discreetly to ensure their preser vation and security. Readers of HaMaor will be drawn especially to Chapter 4 of the book which includes a detailed and not unsympathetic account of the involve ment in London’s political life of the late Councillor Morris H. Davis, the charismatic President of the Federa tion of Synagogues from 1928-1944. Since the present generation of Feder ation members may have acquired a prejudiced picture of Davis because of the regrettable reasons for the abrupt cessation of his presidency, and his notorious autocracy in office, it is only right that Professor Alderman should have redressed the balance by describing Davis’ quite outstanding efforts to assist his fellow Jews in this country and abroad. Despite my considerable reserva tions about the author’s conclusions, I warmly recommend the work under review, as well as his previous study, for the wealth of material collated, and for the stimulating style of its presen tation. Michael Goldman

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Leo Prijs: First critical edition of Abraham ibn Ezra’s commentary to the Book of Genesis, Chapters 1-3, the Creation Story and the Story of the Garden of Eden; accompanied with an introduction, a full commentary and notes. £10.00. Obtainable from Professor Leo Prijs, 18 St George’s Road, London NW11.

ne of the most widely studied Bible commentaries of the Middle Ages was that of Rabbi Abraham ben Meir ibn Ezra, known simply as ibn Ezra (1092-1167). He wrote commentaries on all the biblical books. Alas, not all of them have been preserved. In fact, the commentaries

on the Book of Proverbs and on the Books of Ezra and Nehemiah that bear his name in the printed editions were not composed by him. Unques tionably, his commentary on the Pen tateuch became the most eagerly studied of all his works. This is reflected by the vast number of super commentaries composed on his writ ings. Steinschneider gave an alphabetical list of 36 authors and then added several anonymous man uscripts. In more recent times there appeared Krinski’s M echok’ke Yehudah, on the whole of the Pen tateuch, and Fleischer’s critical edi tion and commentary to ibn Ezra’s shorter version to the Book of Exodus. In our own days, Mosad HaRav Kook published in 1976, Asher Weisser’s three volume commentary on the whole of the Pentateuch. —>

Two questions now present them selves. One, why was there a need for such an abundance of super-com mentaries, far in excess of those pro duced on other famous Bible com mentators? Two, is there a need for further commentaries on ibn Ezra, such as, for instance, the one under review? The answer to the first question is three-fold, (a) The elliptical style employed by ibn Ezra makes his com mentary difficult for the reader and even scholars fail at times to grasp his meaning; (b) ibn Ezra’s commentaries display all branches of knowledge. Grammar, linguistics, philosophy, astronomy, astrology, mathematics and natural sciences are employed by him. Those not versed in these discip lines failed to comprehend the mas ter; (c) a great number of copyists’ errors entered the printed editions and commentator’s failed to make use of the ibn Ezra manuscripts in order to restore the original reading. And this in spite of the fact that these manus cripts abound in libraries possessing Judaica. In other words, we are still lacking a critical edition of ibn Ezra’s commentary on the Pentateuch. Let me illustrate this point. In Genesis Chapter 18 verse 1, when God appeared to Abraham and Abraham beheld three men, ibn Ezra comments, according to our printed texts: “Some say that God - the three men - He is one and He is three, with out becoming separated; but they for got, 'and two men came to Sodom’” . In his Introduction, Professor Prijs refers to a number of manuscripts that do not read 'some say’ k ’tzos omru but 'those led astray say’ to'ay ruach omru. Undoubtedly, ibn Ezra is allud ing to the Christian doctrine of the Trinity or the Three-in-One. Even Weisser, who consulted some manus cripts, prints the erroneous text and in his commentary altogether misses the point. The answer to the second question is now self-evident. There is a vital need for critical editions of the works of ibn Ezra and, in particular, on his Pentateuch commentaries. If such an edition were to be accompanied by a lucid verse by verse commentary composed by a scholar at home in the works of ibn Ezra and in the existing ibn Ezra literature, the Bible student who at present gives up on ibn Ezra would become a convert of this pious sage. He would discover a method of

Bible exegesis based upon the guid ing principle of one who believed that “rational deliberation is basic, because the Torah is not given to one who lacks reason. The angel that mediates between man and his God is his intelligence” (from ibn Ezra’s Introduction). He would find the experience infinitely enriching and rewarding. In Professor Leo Prijs, whose pub lished works on ibn Ezra span some forty years, we have found such a scholar. His critical edition on the first three chapters of ibn Ezra’s commen tary to the book of Genesis live up to the highest expectations. It will appeal to both scholar, student or novice. The former will employ the accompanying critical apparatus, based upon three major manuscripts as well as the printed edition of the Mikraoth Gedoloth of 1524. The latter will employ the author’s commentary and will find that the pedagogic skill in conjunction with the wide knowledge and fluent style displayed by the Pro fessor anticipates any difficulty he encounters and either resolves it or presents him with alternative explana tions. Joseph Munk

Rabbi Yitzchok Greenbaum: Sefer B e ’eroth Yitzchok

J.C.M.B. Publications, London 1989 £4.50

he earliest known commentaries on the Torah (by which, for the purposes of this review, I mean the Chumash) are the Mechilta, on Sefer Shemos, the Sifra on Vayikra and the Sifrei on Bern id bar and Devarim. These commentaries, together with other Midrashim and the Mishnah compiled at a later period, constitute the essence of the Oral Law - that is the interpretation of the Torah taught to Moshe Rabbenu ver bally at Sinai and in the Mishkon, and then bequeathed orally by one gener ation of sages to the next, and not committed to writing until the era of the Talmudic Tannaim and Amoraim (see Pirkei Avos l,i). In so far as halachic practice is con cerned, these primary explanations of the Biblical text represent the authen

tic and authoritative voice of the Divine Lawgiver and provide the foun dation and source of the immense corpus of Jewish Law, religious, civil and criminal, administered and adjudi cated upon by Batei Din and rabbinic scholars throughout the contempor ary Jewish world. Aggadic expositions of the Chumash texts are on another plane. As a rich repository of ancient history and lore, the Aggadah provides a vivid backdrop to the bald Biblical narra tive. Although sometimes dismissed as mere legend, the veracity of aggadic historical sources has been repeatedly confirmed in archaeologi cal, anthropological and historical research. Legend is the memory of a nation, and that eminent polymath, Immanuel Velikovsky, made exhaus tive use of aggadic sources in his his torical and astronomical studies, and especially in formulating the brilliant revolutionary thesis contained in his Worlds in Collision. The Aggadah also enters the spheres of metaphysics, eschatology and Kabbalah as well as philosophy and theology - speculative areas incomprehensible or even dangerous to the unitiated; and we are wisely counselled by Rabbi Shmuel HaNagid in his Introduction to the Talmud to learn from the Aggadah “only what the mind can rationally accept”. But he goes on to advocate the study of aggadic interpretation of the Biblical texts, although it lacks the Mosaic authority of halachic interpretation. During the fifteen centuries that have followed the final redaction of the Talmud, successive generations of Rabbis, preachers and scholars, in continuation of the aggadic tradition, have striven to re-interpret the texts and to seek ever deeper insights and lessons from them, for ethical gui dance and instruction, or to unravel issues troubling the contemporary Jewish mind. This is often achieved by the dexterous juxtaposition or com parison of words and phrases in assorted texts or by penetrating analysis of an originally obscure aggadic exposition. These types of divrei Torah are a favourite vehicle for modern exegesis and are used to excellent effect by Rabbi Greenbaum in his new publication. Our author is the distinguished and popular former Head of the Yeshurun Federation Synagogue Talmud Torah and he has previously published

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BOOK REVIEWS Continued works of great utility for teachers and pupils alike, such as the Jewish Memo Book series and his Eighteen Sidroth. For the general reader, his commentary on the Pesach Haggadah Lechem Oni has received wide commendation. This latter work is frequently referred to in Be’eroth Yitzchok on Shemos, and readers must acquire both if they wish to benefit fully from Rabbi Greenbaum’s studies. Merely to whet readers’ appetities, I summarise here very briefly three examples of his novel approach: (i) According to the traditional aggadic interpretation, the verse (Shemos, 4, xi) “Who hath made man’s mouth? Or who maketh a man dumb or deaf, or seeing or blind? etc”, relates to Moshe’s trial and escape from Pharoah’s court after he had killed the Egyptian taskmaster. Adhering to this tradition, but by a perceptive under standing of the text, Rabbi Greenbaum reinforces the aggadic explanation that G-d intervened to facilitate Moshe’s escape but, with formidable logic, argues that the intervention was affected by natural means rather than by an open miracle. (ii) On Shemos 13, xvi, which deals with tefillin, the author wonders why, according to Rashi, the Torah utilises two foreign words to describe the tefil lin she! rosh. Says Rabbi Greenbaum, the two words, “in Caspian and in Afri can”, which form the term totafoth, foretell the conversion to the Jewish faith of two nations - the African sub jects of the Queen of Sheba and the Kuzarim who dwelt on the shores of the Caspian Sea! Expanding on this ingeni ous exposition, Rabbi Greenbaum thoughtfully provides a useful sketch map to illustrate his point; illustrating, too, his practical methodology as a pedagogue. (iii) Noting an apparent contradiction in Onkelos’ Targum translation of Shemos 19, iv, with that of a similar phrase in the Shirath Moshe, Rabbi Greenbaum demonstrates effectively how Onkelos makes a constructive dis tinction between G-d’s physical rescue from threatened disaster and His spiritual salvation of Man, which depends initially on Man’s own effort. For its many equally rare and fruitful insights, Rabbi Greenbaum’s work is worth every penny of its modest price. He has previously published Be’eroth Yitzchok on Bereshis and has prom ised further volumes on the remainder of Chumash. May we please look for ward to an English rendering of the entire commentary for readers not yet proficient in Rabbinic Hebrew? Michael Goldman

B O O K R E V IE W E R S I N T H IS ISSU E Prof. GEOFFREY ALDERMAN is Professor of Politics and Contemporary History at Royal Holloway & Bedford New College, University of London. He is author of The Jewish Community in British Politics (Oxford University Press, 1983) and numerous other articles on Anglo-Jewish and British politics. He has also written the official history of the Federation and is a member of the Executive. Mr. MICHAEL GOLDMAN is a former Secretary of the Federation of Synagogues. Dr. SHARMAN KADISH is the Editor of HaMaor. She is a Researcher in the Department of History at Royal Holloway & Bedford New College, University of London, and author of Bolsheviks & British Jews (Frank Cass, forthcoming). Mr. JOSEPH MUNK is Archivist of the Anglo-Jewish Archives at University College, London, and is involved in Jewish education.

THE ROSH BETH DIN DAYAN Y.Y. LICHTENSTEIN AND FAMILY WISH ALL THE MEMBERS OF THE FEDERATION OF SYNAGOGUES

CHAG KASHER VESEMEACH

H O S P IT A L K O S H E R M EA LS S E R V IC E PESA CH A R R A N G EM EN TS Notice to Rabbis and Shul Secretaries The Hospital Kosher Meals Service has provided special meals for Passover since the inception of this service in 1968. These meals are, of course, specially marked as being “ Kosher for Pas sover” and, indeed, our ordinary meals carry the marking “ Not for Passover Use.” In spite of this, every year, we get reports of cases where the hospital authorities have inadvertently given a patient a meal on Passover which is not “ Kosher for Passover.” We circularise all the hospitals every year informing them of the dates of Passover and requesting them to take the greatest care in only giving patients “ Kosher for Passover” meals. Nevertheless, these incidents happen. As an added precaution, please advise any members of your congrega tion who have to be in hospital over the Passover period of the need to ensure that they are only given meals marked “ Kosher for Passover.” Hospital Kosher Meals Service Lanmor House, 370/386 High Road, Wembley, Middlesex HA9 6AX

OBITUARIES Sadly, we have to report the deaths of three men who have given sterling service over the years to the Nelson Street Synagogue in the East End. (See Special Report, page 26.) R A B B I A H A R O N H E R LIN G Rav Aharon (Fischel) Herling z.t.l. author of Sefer Beis Yisroel al Shas, passed away suddenly on Erev Shobbos, Parshas Shemos, at the age of 77. Rumanian born, his mother was a direct descendant of the illustrious Tosefos Yomtov. He came to England in the ’fifties after escaping from the notorious con centration camp where the rest of his family perished. After serving as Rav in several Jewish communities, he settled in Whitley Bay where he was Rav for seven years. He later moved on to the Nelson Street Synagogue in East London where he spent his last ten years. His wife, Mrs Chaya Batya Matlin o.h. sadly passed away five years ago, leaving him no children.

Throughout his productive lifetime, Rabbi Herling devoted his energies to Torah learning and Gemilas Chesed. Few knew of his incredible knowledge of Torah and his midos of chesed were legendary. Always seen with a smile, whatever the circumstances, he was a tower of inspiration to all who knew him. His closer circles recognised his great yiras shomayim and anivus; he was a prime example of v’hatznei leches. He will be sorely missed by his rela tives and friends in England and beyond. [Obituary by David Absholam Abraham reprinted from the Jewish Tribune, February 1, 1990.]

[A Hesped for Rav Herling was held at the Stamford Hill Beth Midrash on Feb ruary 20 last. The congregation was addressed by Dayan Lichtenstein, Rosh Beth Din, Dayan Aloni, Emeritus Rosh Beth Din and Rabbis F. Schneelbalg and Y.M. Freedman, Ed.]

DAVE H Y M A N Dave Hyman passed away last June on his 81st birthday. As a native East Ender, he was educated at Etz Chaim Yeshiva, then situated in Thrawl Street, and later at Jews’ College. His intention to become a rabbi was thwarted and instead Dave Hyman was appointed shammas, collector and regular lay leader at the Commer cial Road Great Synagogue in 1932. He remained with this congregation until the late 1960s when it disap peared in the mergers which resulted in the formation of the Nelson Street community. In 1985 Mr Hyman and his wife Cissie left the East End to be near their daughter who lives in Southgate.

JOSIF WEISZ Josif Weisz, who died aged 70 last August, was for seven years chazan and subsequently vice-president at Nelson Street. He was born in Satumare in Rumania and emigrated to England in 1939. He became noted in the East End for his talent as a chazan and per formed occasionally at the Great Synagogue in Dukes Place. He later moved to Finchley and became deeply involved with the Finchley Synagogue where he served for nine years as financial representative. Josif Weisz leaves a wife Helen and two sons. JACK B U R M A N Jack Burman, who has died aged 84, brought unique qualities to the var ious offices he held in the Tottenham Hebrew Congregation, writes Dr Stan ley S. Cohen, secretary, Tottenham Hebrew Congregation. Born in Liverpool, he came to Lon don in 1945 and was elected a warden of the synagogue in 1958. Although subsequently becoming vice-presi dent and then president, he was so modest that each progression was made only after much persuasion from his many friends. A gentle, charitable man who derived pleasure from seeing others happy, he will be sorely missed. He is survived by a son and a daughter. [Reprinted from the Jewish Chronicle, October 20, 1989.]

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A N N IE A LLC H ILD Annie Allchild, who has died aged 85, was for almost four decades, from 1919 to 1956, licensee of one of Lon don’s famous public houses, the Fitzroy Tavern near Tottenham Court Road. The pub, in the heart of what became popularly known as Fitzrovia, was frequented by many celebrated poets and artists, including Augustus John, and Annie and her husband Charles, with their ebullient per sonalities, built up its special reputa tion. Through their “ Pennies from Heaven” and other schemes they were instrumental in raising many thousands of pounds to assist needy and deprived children, who were taken on outings and given treats. Charitable trusts were set up from the money collected from generous clients. During the War, the pub was a mecca for servicemen and profes sionals and, like the neighbouring Windmill Theatre, never closed, despite the ravages of the Blitz. Annie Kleinfeld was born the only daughter of Polish-Jewish immig rants. She worked at the Fitzroy Tavern from the tender age of 15 and was married to Charles Allchild for 54 years. He died in 1988. The Allchilds were active members of the West End Great Synagogue. [Reprinted from the Jewish Chronicle February 2, 1990.1

On behalf of the Federation of Synagogues, H aM aor extends sincere congratulations to: B IR TH S

Dr S. Kadish (Editor, HaMaor) on the birth of another nephew. Rev & Mrs Samet (Ilford) on the birth of another grandson. B A R M IT Z V A H

Dr & Mrs I.M. Segal (Vice-President, Ilford) on the Barmitzvah of their grandson Dr & Mrs M. Segal on the Barmitzvah of their son. M A R R IA G E S

Dayan and Mrs P. Braceiner on the marriage of their daughter. Rabbi & Mrs Reuben Livingstone (Ilford). A N N IV E R S A R IE S

Mr & Mrs Ettinger (Ilford) on their Diamond Wedding. Mr & Mrs M. Gladstone (Sinai) on their Golden Wedding. Mr & Mrs L. Glazer (Ilford) on their Golden Wedding. Mrs R. Hersheson (West Hackney) on her 100th birthday. Mr & Mrs B. Krangel (Great Garden Street) on their Golden Wedding Mr & Mrs M. Morris (Ilford) on their Golden Wedding. Dr & Mrs I.M. Segal (Vice-President, Ilford) on their Golden Wedding

Condolences On behalf of the Federation of Synagogues, H aM aor extends sincere condolences to:

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DEATHS

HaMaor S H U L S E C R E T A R IE S

If you would like YOUR announcements to appear in H a M a o r ,; please contact Michael Mandel on 01-247 4471

Dr S. Kadish (Editor, HaMaor) on the loss of her mother-in-law and of her uncle Mr A. Kissin (Federation Executive) on the loss of his mother. Mrs F. Mandel (Ilford) on the loss of her mother. Mr M. Zeff (Ilford) on the loss of his father.

STORM DAMAGE Edmonton and Rainham Cem eteries Some tombstones have suffered damage in the recent storms. Would relatives who have family buried at the above grounds please pay a visit to check that their memorials are intact. Should it prove necessary, relatives are advised to contact the stonemasons concerned in order to arrange for repairs to be carried out. Thank you. 35

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U n d e r th e s u p e rv is io n o f th e K a sh ru s C o m m is s io n o f th e L o n d o n B eth D in a n d th e K a sh ru s B o a rd o f th e B eth D in o f th e F e d e ra tio n o f S y n a g o g u e s