Trudy Gold
Major Trends in Modern Jewish History
Trudy Gold - Major Trends in Modern Jewish History
- [Wendy] Trudy, just before we start, I just wanted to mention that we’re adding a new strain or a new strand-
Yes.
To “Lockdown.” You know we’re going to have Jeremy Rosen on, so do you want to chat about that for a while? Thank you.
[Trudy] Well, do you want just to tell everybody, Wendy?
Well, we’re going to be studying Genesis on a Wednesday, so I think Judy’s sending up an email today or tomorrow. And then we’ll add it to the programme. So just watch out for it.
That is fantastic. So another strand to “Lockdown University.” Welcome everyone. It’s been a long holiday, well, holiday, the Hagim have gone on and it really seems, certainly in London that autumn has really hit us. And Wendy and I thought it would be an idea as this is going to really be the first session of a new year to look at the major trends in Jewish history, because next week Wendy’s pulled off a real coup. We have the Medici Exhibition. So what we’re all doing is we’re turning our talents to looking at the Medici, the Renaissance, and the Jews. So it’s going to start on Sunday with Professor David Pima, who’s going to be looking at the Gutenberg Bible. So for the next couple of weeks, it’s going to be very much about the Medici. So, welcome back everybody. I feel very strange when I’m not lecturing to you two or three times a week, I think, I think we’ve all gone a little strange and I seem to have gone stranger than most. Now, the major trends in Jewish history. What on Earth am I going to try and do? Over the next hour I’m really going to try and give you a notion of the last 200 years of Jewish history because just think how everything has changed. I want to take the date 1789 because it’s a useful date.
It’s the date of the French Revolution. And I’m dividing the Jewish world up into five because as I’ve said to you many times, the outside world, the Jews were dependent on how the outside world was. And the largest Jewish community in the world was in Eastern Europe, the Jews of the Ashkenazi world in Eastern Europe. And of course Poland, the heartland, was about to be swallowed up into the Russian Empire. So right up until the Revolution, the largest number of Jews are going to be living in Russia. And then we deal with the Jews of Western and Central Europe. And we take them separately. Why? Because the conditions under which they lived was very, very different. And of course with the Jews of Western and Central Europe, you’re going to see the French Revolution and the Enlightenment. The third category, of course, the Jews of the Arab world, which made up about 11, 12% of the whole of the Jewish world at that particular time. The fourth category that most historians take as a special case are the Jews of Holland and England. The fifth category is America.
And in America at this stage, of course, there were about two to 3,000 Jews, 1789. Today, just think how much the Jewish world has just changed demographically. Today the major centres are Israel. 74% of the population of Israel are Jewish, followed by America. To what extent really is Europe? I dunno what is Europe now? Have the Jews got much of a future in Europe? Questions, questions, questions. So, having looked at the division of the Jewish population, what we have to look at is really what historians call the crisis of modernity. For this, I’m going to Europe. What was it that plunged the Jews into the modern world? Now, until the modern world, almost everything of value in Judaism and the Jewish experience drew its authority principally from the past. And a Jew was a Jew was a Jew. You wouldn’t have been asked if you were a member of the Jewish Nation, where you a religiously Jew. A Jew was a Jew was a Jew. What happens is in Europe certain things occur which are going to change Jewish history forever. And it’s because of what was happening in Europe. The ideas of the Enlightenment, the ideas of the French Revolution, which for the first time are going to give the Jews unprecedented challenges and also opportunities. Can we see the first slide please, Judy?
Now, this is of course the late great Sir Isaiah Berlin. “All Jews who are at all conscious of their identity as Jews are steeped in history.” These are the words of Sir Isaiah Berlin, who was the first Jew to become a fellow of All Souls. And ironically, about a year before he died, there was a full page on him in “The Guardian” where they interviewed him about his life and his identity. And at the end he said, “But I’m a Jew.” And he also said that even though he loved England, he loved Oxford, he loved the whole idea of England, he never felt really at home in England. But what he points out, and this is the first thing I want to really draw to your attention, is this connection of the Jews with history. If we think about our seder service, I don’t care how religious or not religious you are, every Jew I know comes to a seder and we sit around the table and we remember the Exodus.
And this is what it means to be the people of history. Now, with the modern world, as I said before, it gave the Jews absolutely unprecedented challenges because it allowed them to be part of civil society. But what was the price? Can we see the next slide, if you don’t mind, Judy? This is from Asher Ginsburg, better known as Ahad Ha'am. “Despite their physical suffering the mediaeval Jews knew that there was spiritual moral significance to their existence as a chosen people. We modern Jews have lost the moral confidence of our new intimacy with the nations of the world and their enlightened culture has weakened our belief in ourselves.” Asher Ginsburg. Now what is he referring to? The crisis of modernity. And I’ve told you this many times, there are two figures representing Chinese, in Chinese, the figure of crisis. One is danger, one is opportunity. Asher Ginsburg, Ahad Ha'am is of course looking at the danger of emancipation because it’s the French Revolution who gave the Jews the opportunity to be part of civil society.
But there was a price. When Napoleon Bonaparte carried out the work of the French Revolution, wherever he went he broke down the ghetto walls. But what was the price? When he was returning from the Battle of Austerlitz, some deputies from Alsace, which was the largest centre of Jewish population, came to him and they said, “We’re still in debt to the Jews, you’ve got to do something.” So what he does is he convenes an Assembly of Notables. He calls together Jews from France, from the German lands he’s conquered, from parts of Italy that he’s conquered, and he poses them the famous 12 questions. Can we see the next slide, please? These are the words of Count Clermont-Tonnerre who was the man who convened the Assembly of Notables. “The Jews should be denied everything as a nation but granted everything as individuals.” For the first time in France, and, of course, the same thing is going to happen with the American Revolution, which was earlier, you can be part of our civil society, but give up your notion of nationhood. Now, already the Enlightenment had led to cracks in this overweening Jewishness. If you turn to the German lands, Moses Mendelssohn, who was really the first Jew to cross from the world of the ghetto to serious Jewish scholarship into the world of Germany. And what did he say? “Be a man abroad and a Jew at home.”
Now, what he did, he becomes a very important figure of the German Enlightenment, but because he had the knowledge, he had a vast knowledge of Judaism, He was a Illui, he knew Talmud, he knew Torah. What he believed was that you could walk both worlds. However, he did say, “I do not necessarily instruct my children because I don’t want them to have the burden of not enjoying their studies.” And many other political things happened. You see, the Jews are emancipated under the ideas of the French Revolution. And to, again, go back to the great Isaiah Berlin, he postulated that the Jews were like a group from another planet that land on planet Earth. And because back on their own planet, they had an incredible tradition of learning, they fell in love with the art and the music and the culture of the planet. Just imagine you came from a ghetto in Dessau and you arrived in Berlin, you came from a poor part of Alsace and you went to Paris. Who isn’t seduced by these cities. You can now be part of it. You’ve got this tradition of learning. And not only that, it’s almost as though the modern world was created for the Jew and they plunge in. But then the outside world acts. And in Germany, in the German lands where they’ve been granted emancipation, in certain places, it’s taken away. So consequently, what happens to these people? The same is not true of Russia. When Napoleon invaded Poland, let’s have a look at the next quote, please. This is Zalman of Liadi, who created Chabad, Chochma, Binah, Da'at. “I would rather that my people suffer under the Czars than live in peace under Napoleon, because Napoleon will be the end of the Jewish people.”
What’s he talking about? He’s talking about the crisis of assimilation. He believes that by becoming part of French society, German society, they will lose their Jewishness. Because after all the ideas of the Enlightenment were moving us into a completely new secular world. It’s a world that’s incredibly exciting, but there’s a price. And, of course, let’s have a look at that price. Can we see the next slide, please? This is of course the great Heinrich Heine. “The baptismal certificate is the ticket of admission to European society and culture.” Basically, what happened, particularly in the German lands, when Napoleon liberated them the Jews were emancipated. It was then taken away. It was taken away after the defeat of Napoleon. Not because the Jews were very relevant. You’ve got to remember, these are important events in European society. They impact though on the Jewish world and characters like Heine, he was desperate to have a chair at Dusseldorf University and he realised that to pay the price it meant conversion. So you’re going to see a whole swathe of conversions.
And the other thing was this. The rabbis had lost the power they had in Eastern Europe. Jewish education was not as good as perhaps as European education. And consequently, the Jew is desperate to be part of the modern world. Let’s have a look at the next slide, please. This is from Isaac Deutscher. Isaac Deutscher, who himself came from rabbinic background, completely broke away and wrote a very important book called the “Non-Jewish Jew.” Because the other thing that happened, there were many young Jews who break away. They have lost their Jewish heritage, but they look at the world they see and they don’t like it. They’re not having a love affair with it. They have a different view, they want to change it. And this is Isaac Deutscher’s thoughts on this. And I promise you, next year we’re going to spend much more time on Isaac Deutscher. Let me just whet your appetite. Those of you who haven’t read the first chapter of the “Non-Jewish Jew,” I’m only recommending the first chapter, you’re in for a great treat. “The Jewish heretic who transcends Jews belongs to a Jewish tradition. Take those great revolutionaries of modern thought. Spinoza, Heine, Marx, Rosa Luxembourg, Trotsky and Freud. You may, if you wish to place them within a Jewish tradition.” You see, Isaac Deutscher is pointing to something else. These are people who have left the Jewish tradition.
They all denied their Jewishness, not Spinoza and Heine, but certainly Marx, Rosa Luxembourg and Trotsky did. Freud, ironically, said something very interesting. He said, “It was only because I didn’t belong to the compact majority that I could do what I did and really create a new kind of force in the world.” And please don’t forget, Jews plunging themselves into the modern world, what did it lead to? It led to the incredible advances in sciences, in the arts, in music, whatever discipline you are interested in. I’m going to read now from a very, very interesting book called “The Jewish Century” by Yuri Slezkine. And he says this, because they’re a tiny percentage of the population. Never forget that. We’re talking about an infinitesimal number of people. But this is his introduction. “The modern age is the Jewish age and the 20th century in particular is the Jewish century.” You could also say that about the 19th century. “Modernization is about everyone becoming urban, mobile, literate, articulate, intellectually intricate, physically fastidious and occupationally flexible. It’s about learning how to cultivate people and symbols, not fields or herds. It’s about pursuing wealth for the sake of learning, learning for the sake of wealth, and both wealth and learning for its own sake. It’s about transforming peasants and princes into merchants and priests. Replacing inherited privilege with acquired prestige and dismantling social estates for the benefits of individuals, nuclear families and book reading tribes, nations.” Modernization in other words is about everyone becoming Jewish.
Because if you think about it, the great Jewish tradition for learning, the great Jewish tradition for questioning, when the Jews as outsiders erupted into the modern world, they were outside all the traditions and as a response a small number of them, but an incredibly important number of them, pushed the world further forward. And it even hit Russia. During the reign of Alexander II, it appeared that Russia, also the home of three quarters of world Jewry was also going to open up. Can we please see the next slide? Judah Leib Gordon, one of the poets of the Haskalah. He’s saying exactly what Mendelssohn said. He’s saying this in the early 1860s, “Be a man abroad and a Jew in your tent.” This never really impacted on the majority of Jews in Eastern Europe who were still living in the majority in the pale of settlement, 50% of them Hasidic, 50% traditional Orthodox. The Hasid’s had no truck with the outside world. As far as they’re concerned the outside world was evil. And for the traditional Orthodox it’s really only on the borderlands of the Russian Empire that teamed up with, if you like, the Habsburg Empire and the German lands, that you begin to see the inroads of the Haskalah and in cities like Odessa. But then in Russia it all goes horribly wrong because the reforming Czar Alexander II, who gave so much hope to characters like Gordon, he’s assassinated by a bunch of revolutionaries. And the Jews, of course, become the main focus of hostility.
And it’s going to lead to another important trend in Jewish history, and that is, of course, 40% of the Jews of Eastern Europe getting out. You see, by 1900, I gave you the figures for 1780, by 1900, America is emerging as an important centre. New York is by 1930 the largest Jewish city in the world, percentage wise, followed by Warsaw. So you’ve got to also see in the modern world, Jews plunging into the modern world. If we’re going to take Yuri Slezkine, they want to be part of it. Many of them still want to walk the tightrope. But it also led to religious differences. It led, certainly in America, in Britain, in parts of Europe, to the rise of reformed Judaism, which was in its infancy an attempt to prove to the outside world that Jews could in fact be European. Unfortunately, the Jews who were emancipated by the ideas of the Enlightenment and began this love affair. And if you think about how the Jews improved business techniques, if you think about department stores, if you think about how important they were in the railway networks, in advertising, really in any aspect of modernity in shipping that you want to think about, you’re going to find a disproportionate number of Jews. And also of course in banking. Look, the bulk of Jews were never the great and the good. The bulk of Jews lived, certainly in Eastern Europe, in dire poverty. By 1900, 40%were on poor relief from Jews who’d made it to America or England. But nevertheless, they still had this dream of betterment, this dream of education. What they were unprepared for was how the world dealt with their huge visible success story. And this is really one of the great, I think, great tragedies of Jewish history because the Jews plunged themselves into modernity, particularly in the West.
I mean, there’s a wonderful letter written by Lord Rothschild to the parents at JFS where he tells these Eastern European Jews who’ve now landed in London, sending their children to Jewish schools, “Don’t bother with cheder anymore. Let your children go and play football. Let your children become Englishmen.” And this is very much the situation in France. If you look at the Alliance spreading, for example, French culture amongst the Jews of the Arab world, the love affair with European culture. I think America is a little more complicated because after all, America was a country of immigrants. And to be a Jewish American, an Irish American an Italian American, a German American, et cetera, but certainly in the European heartland. And the other point. Were the Jews prepared for the rise of nationalism? The growth of the nation states, the huge dislocations of life particularly in the Habsburg Empire, in Germany, in France. Like in France the French couldn’t decide whether they were going to be a monarchy or a republic. They had six different changes in the 19th century. France, of course, the home of the Dreyfus affair, you see the rise of modern racial anti-Semitism.
If you are emancipated by the Enlightenments, you really believed that people will move to a far more rational world because that’s what it means, the age of reason. But, you know, Mendelssohn never really understood Kant’s critique of pure reason. He didn’t understand the romantic movement. He didn’t understand how maybe people have a need for another side of the world, which is about emotion, which is about something that is beyond the rational. And the rise of nationality, nationhood, particularly when it’s insecure nationhood, also led to the rise of racism. That gradually, this very much coincides with, this very much coincides with the rise of various theories. Let’s talk about social Darwinism. Darwin, with his notion of the survival of the fittest. Darwin, the incredibly important life-scientist, his ideas were taken and distorted by various groups, particularly in insecure countries. Germany is not unified until 1871. France can’t make up its mind whether it’s a republic or a monarchy. The Habsburgs are ruling over 13 different national groups. What about Hungarian nationalism? What about Czech nationalism? What about Vienna? The centre of the Habsburg empire, 10% Jewish. Where do the Jews fit into all this? So you have a situation where Jews in the West are trying so hard to be good European citizens and what they are unprepared for is for the rise of anti-Semitism. Anti-Semitism is a modern racial term. And as a modern racial term, let me show you the next slide, please. These are the words of the Russian Leon Pinsker.
Leon Pinsker had been acculturated in the reign of Alexander II. He’d actually become a doctor in the Russian army. After the assassination of Czar Alexander II, many of you know this, of course, the mob were turned against the Jews. The mob went on the rampage, 200 pogroms city to city to city. Leon Pinsker is totally disillusioned. And remember he’s a doctor. And he writes “Mahnruf,” a warning, in German and he sends it to a cousin in Vienna, who by the way thought he was insane. This is what he wrote. “Judeophobia is a psychic aberration. As a psychic aberration it is hereditary. As a disease transmitted for 2,000 years it is incurable.” And now we come to one of the toughest areas that we have to look at in Jewish history. Anti-Semitism is of course a very complex emotion. Why do people single out anyone else? I mean, think about it. We’re living in a pandemic. When there is economic, social and political uncertainty people look for a victim and many societies have had victims at certain times in their history. There are very few people who haven’t been persecuted by someone else at some time. It’s this fear of difference. You see, basically, I believe that when people have enough to eat and they believe that they have their right place in the world we rub along pretty well. When things are going wrong, and you’ve got to remember, the 19th century is a century of unbelievable change. Just imagine if you are an outsider and Jews are so used to change, remembering their history, the advent of the railways, the advent of department stores, advertising, the growth of cities, it’s exciting. You can plunge into academia, new sciences, new arts.
You know, when Paul Ehrlich who was a Jewish chemist, when he came up with salvarsan, which cured syphilis or helps to cure syphilis, the Catholic newspapers went absolutely crazy. They said that he is destroying, as a Jew, the natural order of things. Now, every kind of prejudice has its roots, has its differences, has its similarities. And they’re all evil. The problem with anti-Semitism is many historians, such as Robert Wistrich and Hyam Maccoby, they think the roots of anti-Semitism are theological. They come from the world of monotheism, particularly the world of Christianity. And I’m going to… I do not really believe that the majority of non-Jews believe Jews are Christ killers. But you have this negative stereotype that has gone on right onto the Enlightenment. Jews believed this new rational world will sort everything out. But it didn’t quite happen like that, tragically. And can we now look at the next? Now, this is James Parkes. He’s an extraordinary clergyman who did a lot of work on Jewish Christian relations. Post-Shoah, post-Holocaust theology was created, and it’s many Christian theologians actually do look at anti-Semitism and they take responsibility for its terrible role in Jewish history. They see it as one of the planks that led to the Shoah.
Of course, it’s not the only plank. In order to understand how the Shoah happened, you have to look at economics, you have to look at political tragedy, you have to look at the terrible war. You have to look at an insane dictator, total war, the breaking of all the taboos. But many historians and Parkes believe that if it wasn’t for that, then would there have been that terrible acceptance of the Jew as the other and, ultimately as the devil? Can we have a look at some of the quotations? I have chosen quotations from the gospels. Now this is painful. And let me say very, very, very carefully. Christianity is a religion of love. The two largest religions in the world are Christianity and Islam. But both of them have a problem with the Jews. And that is our problem. And the Christian problem is, think about it. The gospels were written under Roman rule. We don’t know very much about the life of Jesus of Nazareth, Joshua or his mother, Mary Miriam. We can cross-reference into Pontius Pilate. We have the gospels and the first gospel was written about 40 years after his death. St. John’s gospel written 120 years after his death. And they are written by believers. Gospel means good news. It is theological. It is not an attempt to give a accurate historical account. You know, in the end that’s another discussion. What on Earth is history? Where do you go for your sources? But in the gospel of Matthew, there is of course the story of Pontius Pilate, Pontius Pilate, the Governor of Judea.
Under Roman occupation, according to the gospels, Jesus who was very much this wonder rabbi, this man who wanted to bring Judaism back to a path of righteousness. According to the gospels he is betrayed by his own people. And according to the gospels, it all happens at the Passover, the Last Supper was actually the Passover meal. It all happens around the Passover time. And Pontius Pilate, according to the gospels, but there is absolutely no cross-referencing to Roman sources, offers the crowd a prisoner. I’m going to stress this. There’s no evidence that this could possibly have happened. Pontius Pilate, we know a lot about him. He was one of the toughest governors that Judea ever had. Can you really imagine? There’s over a million people in Jerusalem for the Passover. It’s seething with all sorts of issues. The Sadducees who are the party that supports the Romans, the Pharisees who are the religious party, the zealots who want to get rid of Roman rule so that they can rule themselves. And of course the Essenes around the Dead Sea. All these different groups. The problem is that there’s no evidence that Pilate gave this choice. But according to the gospel, what happens is the mob scream for a prisoner. And he offers them Jesus. And they say, “No, we want Barabbas.”
And Pilate washes his hands of it. So that when Pilate saw he was gaining nothing but a riot was beginning, he took water and washed his hands before the crowd saying, “I’m innocent of this man’s blood. See to it yourselves.” And the people answered, “His blood be on us and on our children.” Now this verse, Hyam Maccoby calls the warrant for genocide. It was only in 1963 at the Lateran Council that the Catholic church forgave the Jews for deicide for all generations. But they still said the Jews of his time were guilty. Can we see the next one, please? Now this is from Acts. “Let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made Him both Lord and Christ. This Jesus that you crucified.” Jesus is God. Crucifixion, as you all know, is a Roman method of execution. But this is now laid firmly in the gospels at the door of the Jews. And not only that, Christianity has superseded Judaism. The Jews are now redundant. Let me see, can we see the next one? This is from John’s gospel. John, the last gospel to be written. “Jesus then said to the Jews you are of your father the devil.” I can show you hundreds of statements of the early church fathers. And it’s really this kind of issue because don’t forget, even though Christians were persecuted by the Romans, ironically they were persecuted as a sect of Judaism.
But by the fourth century the Roman Emperor Constantine took on board Christianity as its state religion. And of course Christianity had spread like wildfire because it’s Paul of Tarsus who divorces Christianity from Judaism and says, “What matters is faith not deeds.” If you believe that Jesus came to this world to save you, you will inherit the world to come. And can you imagine, in a slave society it spreads like wildfire. And the Christian evangelists, even after the fall of Rome in the West, Christianity goes on the march. In fact, the last pagan country to be converted was Lithuania. So Europe becomes a Christian world. So everything is controlled by the church. The early universities are controlled by clergymen. So the Jew is always outside society. Now, let’s be serious. As I said to you before, the majority of people did not go around thinking Jews were devils, but think about the passion play. Think about Easter. Think about the fact that Jews weren’t allowed to go out, Jews weren’t actually allowed to go out on a Sunday in certain areas. Various church councils, particularly when Christianity was under threat from heresy, that’s when things became very, very black. And when we look at the Renaissance and the Medici, I’m going to also be looking at the rise of Luther.
So that’s when the church really, really tightened up. And of course the Jews are the arch heretics. So you see a situation where for 1,800 years you have this incredible negative stereotype of the Jew and the Jews and Christians living very separate lives because this is the power of religion, it’s the Enlightenment, the age of reason that cracks, this is what cracks this religiosity. And that’s why the Jews were so hopeful. And also they fall in love with the modern world. That’s the point. And ironically, it’s that modern world and all the insecurities that sees the rise of anti-Semitism because this is the translation, this is theological hatred. But with the rise in anti-Semitism which is racial, the Jews are now accursed as a group. So it doesn’t matter if you are a Hasidic Rebbe, the owner of a department store, a Trotsky, a Freud, if you are of Jewish blood, it’s all about race. It’s the German race, the Aryan race, the Slavic race, the French race. You know, it’s balderdash, the whole notion of racial inequality, it’s absolute balderdash. But the point is we are not creatures of reason.
So it transfers into anti-Semitism, which becomes incredibly potent in areas of huge dislocation. Let us have a look at the words of von Treitschke who was the professor of history at the University of Berlin. “The Jews are our misfortune.” That was a pamphlet that he wrote. Many of the conservative professors, you’ve got to remember, a disproportionate number of Jews went into academia as well. It’s also envy, an economic envy, and wanting your world. But the Jews become a target. They are the only serious non-Christian minority group in Europe. And now let’s have a look at Wagner. Can we come to the next one? “I believe the Jewish race to be the born enemy of pure humanity and everything noble in it.” So basically, what did the Jews have to deal with? They had to deal with this terrible rise of anti-Semitism. But if you were living in Vienna or Berlin or Paris on the eve of the First World War, the Dreyfus case had been horrific, but it failed. Vienna, there was terrible anti-Semitism but it was calming down and you could still go to all the best theatres or the best opera, a very middle class life. The same in Berlin. And in England, of course, Jews were trying so hard to be English gentlemen. They were making the Jews coming from Eastern Europe into English gentlemen. And as society develops things will get better. And then you have that terrible cataclysm of the First World War.
And tragically, when the old empire split asunder, just think what happened to the Habsburg Empire or that dislocated nationalism. Think about what happened to Germany, pushed into the mud. Think about France. You know, in 1915 a quarter of all 19 year old Frenchmen died. It’s so much easier to blame the outsider. And it’s easy with the hindsight of history to look back. We can’t blame people for not seeing it coming because it didn’t have to be like that. But nevertheless, the 20th century saw the two most traumatic events in Jewish history since the diaspora. The first, of course, was the Shoah that wiped a third of the Jews of the world off the face of the Earth. And what that does to the remainder is beyond the psychologists. There’s a great line of George Steiner. He said, “Jewish parents hold their children too close because of all the parents who couldn’t.” And also, of course, the other issue, the suitcase, the packed suitcase. So can we have a look at the next quote, which is from Solomon Grayzel, a wonderful Jewish historian. And he turns it. I think this is a very important quote. “Jewish life in Europe was not a failure. Europe failed. Western civilization failed. It threatened to collapse because it had neglected to establish peace and justice within its boundaries. And its most defenceless minority was drawn into the general catastrophe. Its final struggle was against the enemy of what is best in human culture. Its heroism during those crucial years and in the establishment of Israel gave renewed hope to the Jewish world.” I mean, we’ve only begun really in the course to look at ‘45 to '48. And, of course, we’re going to spend a lot more time on that. But just think of those years. The horror of realising what had happened.
And certainly from a Zionist point of view, what happened in the Shoah? The world stood by. We know who the Nazis were, we know who the perpetrators were. And apart from 35,000 wonderful people honoured in Yad Vashem, the world let it happen. And out of it, of course, came the Jewish state. Now, what, of course, is interesting is that the Jewish state now is becoming the Beit of the world. And I want to say very carefully, I’m not talking about policy or politics here. We all have the right to criticise any sovereign state. But I want to take the words of the late great Jonathan Sacks. He said, “First they hated our religion. Then they hated our race. Now they hated our nation.” Can we please have a look at the next quotation? This is from Charles Krauthammer who was, I think, one of the most brilliant of the American journalists and thinkers. And I think he’s saying something very important for all of us. I was sharing this slide with a close friend of mine, Anita Lasker-Wallfisch who, of course, she’s 96 now and she survived Auschwitz. And she feels very, very worried about this particular area. So let’s read it. “It would be a tragedy to make the Holocaust the principal legacy bequeathed to our children. The Jewish people are living through a miraculous age. The rebirth of Jewish sovereignty, the revival of Hebrew, a cultural resurrection unique in human history. Memory is sacred.”
And we must never forget. We must honour every one of those names that we know and pray for those whose names we don’t. “Memory is sacred, but victimhood cannot be the foundation stone of Jewish identity.” I was horrified to find out that 73% of those surveyed in a Pew poll in America, their main identity as Jews is through the Shoah. “Traditional Judaism has 613 commands, there is now 614.” This is, of course, Emil Fackenheim. “Denying Hitler a posthumous victory. The reduction of Jewish identity to victimhood is one such victory.” That’s Charles Krauthammer. Can we have a look, please, at his next quotation, Judy? There’s another one from Charles Krauthammer.
[Judy] It’s on the screen.
Sorry, all right. “Israel is the world’s only Jewish state. To apply to the state of the Jews, a double standard that you apply to none other, to judge our people in the way you judge no other, to single out that one people for discrimination and isolation is to engage in discrimination. Discrimination against Jews has a name. The name is anti-Semitism. Even the shame of the Holocaust proved no antidote. Don the yellow star and wear it proudly.” Let me repeat this 'cause this is a very important quotation. I think one of the issues that we have to face today, and I know that in the West, in America, in Britain, there’s a terrible rise in anti-Semitism and it’s mainly anti-Zionism. I think myself, I think one of the weapons we have against it is we are not educating our young people enough in Jewish history and in their own tradition. And what happens is they see this hostility and many of them feel shame. They feel that there’s some sort of shame about being a Jew. We can correct it. There’s still time. But it does mean that we have to, our kids have to walk the tightrope. They have to know as much about the Jewish world and Jewish history and Judaism as they know about the world in which they live. And then maybe they wouldn’t feel so threatened.
And I think the other point I want to bring out, which I think is pure anti-Semitism, I hope I’m not being too controversial, but many other victim groups are now seeing Jews as perpetrators, which I think is a fascinating illogical squaring of an illogical circle. So let’s read this and let me be quite clear here. I mean I sat on IHRA the ITF and they were very careful. This was the international body that looks at Holocaust studies worldwide. And the reason it was set up was to try and destroy prejudice. Tragically, It doesn’t seem to have worked, does it? But I think it’s very important to reiterate that I’m not talking about criticism of Israel. You can criticise whatever you like about the state of Israel. You can criticise America, you can criticise Britain. We live in a democracy. Israel is a democracy. But let’s just read it again. “Israel is the world’s only Jewish state. To apply to the state of the Jews, a double standard that you apply to none other, to judge our people the way you judge no other. To single out that one people for discrimination and isolation is to engage in discrimination.” This is the BDS campaign. It is discrimination. “Discrimination against Jews has a name. That name is anti-Semitism. Even the shame of the Holocaust proved no antidote. Don the yellow star and wear it proudly.” Now, the only way we can do that, now I’m not suggesting ultra-nationalism by the way, personally, what I’m suggesting as I said before, it is about education. I really do believe that. And I also am going to say something quite factuous. We’re living in very, very uncertain times. If the economy picks up, if, et cetera, et cetera, we will go back to a more even time. I don’t believe prejudice will disappear. I’m not a psychologist, but I’ve studied this enough and long enough to know that tragically, it does seem to be in our DNA that when we are threatened we blame the other. And that’s what as individuals we all have to work on. I want to just have a look at another quote. This is from very interesting writer called Adam Gopnik. It’s been spelt wrong and it’s my fault, it’s Gopnik. “The last 200 years have been the most polarised the Jewish people have faced since the diaspora. A small speck of the world’s population, yet central to Western thought. They were at the epicentre of the momentous events that shaped modernity. Individual Jews such as Freud, Marx, and Einstein shaped modern destiny.
It also witnessed the most extreme hatred that befell any people, and after 2,000 years the cataclysm that led to the creation of the Jewish state. In the 21st century we are witnessing a decline of liberal values and the rise of populism. Jews have traditionally prospered and been more secure in a liberal society. With these values being eroded from both the extreme left and the extreme right, what is the destiny of this fateful people?” Okay, can I give you a little bit of light? My daughter has just got back from the Labour Party conference where I only can talk about England and I can only talk about the Labour Party. But certainly, the ultra-left and the Corbynist have been trounced. Now, let’s hope this is the beginning of a turn, okay? So, that’s Gopnik. And, of course, we do live in insecure times. Let us finish though with one of my favourite writers, Simon Dubnow. Those of you who’ve attended some of my classes will know that I absolutely, I adore this man. Tragic, he was a great historian and tragic. He was 81 when he was murdered in Vilna by the Nazis. That quote of Herman Cohen, “Any damn fool can put a bullet through the most beautiful brain.” We have to fight for freedom. That’s the other thing I wanted to say. But I really believe that we mustn’t be passive in the fight for freedom. “Every generation in Israel carries within itself the remnants of the world’s created and destroyed during the course of the previous history of the Jewish people.”
Remember Isaiah Berlin, “We are the people of history.” “Each generation in turn binds and destroys worlds and its form and image, but in the long run continues to weave the threads that binds all the links of the nation into the chain of generations. Thus, each generation in Israel is more the product of history than its creator. The Jewish people goes its own way attracting and repelling, beating out for itself a unique path amongst the nations of the world. History teaches me that there is collective immortality and that the Jewish people can be considered eternal for its history coincides with the span of world history.” You see there is a kind of spirituality in this as well. And I remember the words of my great mentor, Robert Wistrich because, I mean, he was the head of the Centre of the Study of Anti-Semitism in Jerusalem. He said, “What a title.” He probably was the world expert on, as he said, on Jew hatred. And yet he had a sort of spiritual quality. And he really did believe in the destiny of the Jewish people. That we still do have a moral destiny. And in a way I think that’s another problem we face because don’t forget that some Zionist thinkers like Ha'am, who we will be spending much more time on. What did he say? He said, “The justification of the Jewish state is that it become the spiritual, moral and intellectual wellspring of the whole of the diaspora.”
And if you like, the fulfilment of Isaiah, light onto the nations. So in a way we do set ourselves up. But as we move into a new year, and as I said, we’re going into the Renaissance, and you’re going to be pleased to know that the Medici actually were very pro-Jewish. And it’s wonderful that Wendy has got the exhibition for us. As we go into the new term. And it’s wonderful that Jeremy’s going to be teaching on a Wednesday. I think it’s important that we also bring Judaism more into the picture. I just want to say that “Lockdown” has given me great faith in a funny sort of way. I’ve now begin to meet some of the people in London on “Lockdown” who I’d never met before. And there is something special about this community that Wendy’s created and I hope it goes on and on and on and that we spend a lot of time sharing ideas. Look, what I’ve done today, I hope I’ve managed to pull it off. I’ve tried to give you an overview. I know an awful lot of you know a lot and some of you are new to much of this. But my real message to you is I know most people are probably my age.
Let’s teach our children, let’s teach our grandchildren so that they understand that we do come from an extraordinary tradition. And I think then maybe they would walk a little taller in the face of some of the appalling prejudice that they’re facing at university. And as I said, I think there was a green shoot. My daughter came back from the conference really feeling quite buoyed up because she said, “Actually the Corbynists were trounced.” So anyway, let’s hope that that’s the beginning of a change and let’s see how the questions go. Okay, Judy, before I do that, I could never do anything like this without Judy. Judy Ferreira has very patiently worked on all the slides. She very patiently holds my hand through the most ridiculous ineptitude on my part for anything to do with technology. And, Judy, thank you, thank you, thank you. Now she’ll be cross with me. You’ll be cross with me.
[Judy] Always a pleasure, Trudy.
That’s not what you said before. Alright, should we-
Trude?
Trude?
Yes.
Was that Tanya that was at the Labour conference?
Yes, yes. And, Wendy, she said it was fascinating because she said the Corbynists were absolutely trounced. She went to some of the fringe meetings and they were heckled in the main hall when Keir Starmer made his speech. So I think I sent you-
Maybe you should give us a, I’m sure she’ll tell us more about it
I’ve sent you her article in “Unheard.” Look, it’s green shoots. It could be the beginning of a turn. And I’ve been-
[Wendy] Great.
And I’ve been a bit more out and about and meeting up with people, including believe it or not, a couple of colonels through Helen Fry, who were incredibly not only pro-Jewish, but pro-Israel. I think there’s a silent group out there who are beginning to get a bit fed up. So we’re not alone. I just hope that that happens, Wendy. And it’s so good to have you back in London.
Well, thank you very much. And I want to say the Emirati’s were very, very pro-Israel. It was really heartwarming to hear them say that.
Yeah, I think, you know, there are green shoots aren’t there?
[Wendy] Yeah, definitely.
We just have to be positive.
Okay.
Absolutely.
Should we have a look at some.
Q&A and Comments:
Oh, this is from Esther. “Going back seven generations my great-great-grandfather was an orthodox rabbi that wanted to die in Israel. So through Turkey came back home.” Wonderful.
This is Emil Heller. “My colleagues and I often discuss that psycho analysis has begun and still is secular humanistic Judaism with roots in Talmudic inquiry.” That’s lovely. Some historians say that, don’t they? That I think it was in Norman Lebrecht’s book when he talked about Freud. He said, I don’t know, Wendy. You know more about this than me. But if you examine Freud’s thought that in many of the ways he does it, and in fact Karl Marx as well, they actually use Talmudic logic. Now it’s a dangerous route to go because Marx was never tutored in the Talmud. Is there such a thing as genetic memory?
This is Sephton. “Don’t you think the American Constitution was successful in granting the Jews emancipation?” Yes, the Jews of America were emancipated. I chose to look at Europe rather than America because America is the country of immigrants and it’s a different, different story. Although I think there are certain things happening in America now, which are echoing what’s going on in Europe. Yes, of course. And I think in America there was much more self-confidence. I mean, there’s wonderful stories like Mordecai Noah who became the first Jewish Mayor of New York.
And somebody said, “Isn’t it terrible that a Jew will have to hang Christians?” And he said, “And isn’t it terrible that Christians would have to be hanged?” And I can’t imagine a European having the chutzpa or confidence to say that.
Q: “By 'all,’ does Matthew mean Jews or others?”
A: He means Jews. I’m afraid, Ina. “Jesus wanted to reform Judaism. Christianity was only started after his death by Paul. Is that correct?” A: You see, I’m a historian. I’m not a theologian, Alison. I would say to you we don’t know enough. Paul is certainly… when he divorces, you see, the Romans saw the followers of Jesus as a sect within Judaism. And certainly his early followers were all Jewish but there were lots of wonder rabbis and certainly there was corruption that he tried, if we take the gospel accounts, he certainly tried to root out corruption. And the religion, it’s the divorcement, it’s belief in faith not deeds. You no longer have to be an observer of the commandments as long as you believe that Jesus is Messiah.
“I was surprised to see so many Jews in Argentina.” Yes, now that’s very interesting because, of course, in the days of the Spanish and Portuguese conquistadors there were none because the inquisition, the Jews were expelled from the lands of the Habsburg, which I’ll be talking about. But Baron de Hirsch set up colonies for Jews, and of course Eastern European Jews followed by German Jews.
Q: “Could I add the date for each of the quotes?”
A: Yes, I will do that. Monty,
“Haredi Jews have not changed over the last 200 years. History has carried on the run. If we ever needed them it is now.” That’s an interesting issue. But, you know, one of the aspects of Charedim, prior to the Enlightenment decisions were much more lenient. Post-Enlightenment and particularly Post-Shoah, they really have closed up. And I had a debate with Rabbi Rosen, what may a Jew study? You know, there have been periods in Jewish history and particularly under Islam, where there’s nothing wrong with Jews studying secular subjects. It’s a very interesting debate.
Q: “Can I recommend a starting book from Rabbi Sacks?”
A: Oh goodness, I’ve got one on my desk, actually. “Rabbi Sacks and the Community We Built Together.” I think there’s going to be a nice surprise for you starting on the week of the 11th. And there will be lots of books recommended, Deborah. This is Ralph-
Trudy? I’m happy for you to talk about it.
Well, we’re really having a whole week in his honour, aren’t we?
[Wendy] We are.
So you’ll have plenty of opportunity to discuss the books as we discuss, you see, Jonathan Sacks was an extraordinary man. Not only was he a great Jewish scholar, but he did incredible work in the non-Jewish world. In fact, I must tell you something very funny. I have a very close non-Jewish friend who lives in Wales, and she insisted that I came to her church service with her. And as she came to both my grandsons bar mitzvahs, I felt I had to go. And why not? So I went and at the end of it she introduced me to the vicar. He said, “I heard Rabbi Sacks on the radio. He gave such a Christian sermon.” I thought that was wonderful.
This is from Abigail. “Jews, were the only ones who cared about Jewish blood during the Shoah and Jews will be the ones responsible for Jewish memory going forward.” Look, there were a lot of righteous people who saved Jews in many, many countries. So don’t forget the righteous ones also. And, you see, this is another problem that our tragic history has done to us. I don’t believe we should be insular. I don’t believe that, Abigail. I believe we should be part of the world. It’s walking the tightrope, isn’t it?
Q: “I understand that the Labour Party declared Israeli as an apartheid state. How does that defeat Corbynism?”
A: The point is, you’ve still got people there. Look, I’ve got to check that with Tanya because I didn’t discuss that with her and I wasn’t at the conference. Look, you’ve got the looney left, but the point is they haven’t taken over the party. The party’s going in a different direction now. And let’s be real, let’s hope. Look, we’ve got a long way to go. Look, back in 1965, the Russians introduced a motion saying Israel was a racist state. It actually comes from Russia all this kind of rubbish.
I’ve actually lectured on it and I’m sure we could talk about it again, Jonathan, “It proves that Jewish people need the lifeboat that Israel represents.” You know, we live in a very different age now. Look, just think demographically. Israel is the centre of the Jewish world.
Q: “What will happen to the diaspora?”
A: America’s huge, you know, you got the numbers in America. Look in England with the community shrunk to about 250,000. I’ve got to admit it. I like living in England. It’s my culture. That’s the point about the tightrope. I will say love of Israel. It’s what Isaiah Berlin said though, really. He said, “I love England, but I feel at home in Israel.” Is that the story of the Jew post-Shoah?
This is Michael Block. “Jabotinsky of blessed memory said, ‘There is the anti-Semitism of people and of things. Things being the economic situation being bad.’”
Now, this is from Harris. “73 years ago about 5% of world Jewry lived in the land of Israel. Today, 45% of world Jewry. The trend continues. Diaspora Jewry is losing its importance and much of its relevance.”
You know, I’m not sure, Harris, whether I really agree with that. It’s certainly been very important. But something else, you know, the majority of Jews prior to 1939 were anti-Zionist or non Zionist. It took the greatest tragedy in Jewish history. Look, the major critics of the Balfour Declaration were the Jewish establishment in England. The Jews of Germany, they loved Germany. Certainly, history, we’ve been buffeted by it, haven’t we? Look, only a fool, there’s a wonderful quote. “Since the fall of the second temple, only a fool would be a prophet.”
Q: And Margot, “Is it possible to get all the quotes?”
A: Judy, is that possible? I will have to ask Judy, but let me ask her. Okay. Yeah, we all thank Judy. I thank her almost daily. Yes, I know. Nice people saying lovely things.
“Let’s educate the non-Jews who will listen.” Yeah, an awful lot of people do want to listen. I actually found, as I said,, I found myself at the Cabaret Club talking to some British military people who are putting together a new museum, and there’s going to be a whole section of it on what German and Austrian Jews did for the British during the war. Yeah. They were the secret listeners. And, of course, not only were they the secret listeners, there were all sorts of Jews involved in all sorts of incredible things during the war. And here you have colonels in the British Army thinking, they’re really MI6 types, thinking that we’ve got to do something about it. Now they’re actually very pro-Jewish and Israel. Read Melanie Phillips about the Labour Party.
“France under Petain blamed the Jews for the 1940 French defeat. And Leon Blum’s government in particular, that despite France’s very strong army, which many armies considered stronger than the Germans.” You see, this is the point, John. Of course, you know, blame the outsider, blame the scapegoat. And Leon Blum, of course, was a Jew. Yes, we see a change in the Democratic Party. Yes, and the same thing, of course, happened in England under the Labour Party, also in the Liberal Party. But look, I’m not saying that I believe the tide is turned. What I’m saying is the Corbynists were defeated at the Labour Party. That doesn’t mean that the Labour Party all of a sudden has become pro-Israel. But it does mean we’ve got people to talk to. “Durban was a failure because so many nations would not attend. A step in the right direction.” Certainly a green shoot.
Yes, Michael Block, “The Labour Party’s educational group has just passed a resolution supporting. Starmer’s against it.” Yeah. Look, there’s a long way to go. But all I’m telling you is that I had a report last night from someone who went to every meeting of the fringe left and she thinks it’s a beginning. That’s all we can say, Michael.
“Spinoza, the Jews sadly expelled him.” Yes, excommunication. You see, this is the problem. This is one of the problems, Rose. That we have our intolerance, too. I’m told by many of my friends, you know, I went to university in the ‘60s. I’m a child of the Enlightenment. You know, it’s very, very difficult to understand the darker forces and we have them ourselves. You know, what I would like to see is proud Jews who can actually accept criticism, who can be part of the host.
“Melanie Phillips doesn’t think the Corbynists were trounced.” I’m sure Melanie doesn’t, Simon. “I don’t know” is the answer. Starmer certainly got a huge ovation. Of course they’re going to try wending their way back. But Louise Ellman has rejoined the Labour Party. It’s early days, but it was the beginning of a green shoot. That’s as far as I can possibly go. Some people are saying lovely things. “To what does the 'suitcase’ refer?” It’s just-
Trudy?
[Trudy] Yes, Wendy.
I just want to say that I think we should support the good. I’m sitting here with my sister and we are just talking about how when there are good things happening, we have to jump on the bandwagon.
Oh, sure. We’ve got to. I mean… hi! We can’t be negative Nice to see you. Yeah, we can’t be. Oh, it’s so good to have you back. Are you back in London with her? Great. Wendy, I agree with you and I think next week is going to be very exciting. Do you want to say something about the exhibition, on the Medici exhibition? That’s on the Wednesday night, isn’t it?
You know what, I’m going to leave that as a surprise. But what I do want to say-
All right, okay, thank you.
What I’m going to say, which I didn’t say, is that when I was in Abu Dhabi, you know, it’s taken 13 years for the Guggenheim to sign this contract with the Emirati’s. And Frank Gehry has been working on this project, which is amazing. I do have a picture of it, but I’m not able to put it up now. But for those of you who are listening, Google “Guggenheim Abu Dhabi,” and you’ll see this incredible project. And when we went out to this beautiful, beautiful plot of land overlooking the ocean right next door to the Louvre, to unveil, to actually put the first, you know, to put the shovel in the ground, Frank Gehry, at the age of 92, he walked up and shed a tear. He started to cry. And I must say so did I. It was very, very emotional. And three years ago when I went to LA, you know, he said to me, you know, when I took over the presidency, he said to me, “Wendy, you have to make this happen. I really want it, this is a dream come true.” We’ve got to make this happen.“ And it wasn’t me, you know, it was a team, of course. But just to see this and to see Frank Gehry, 92. You know, when he was young, you know, he was a very bad asthmatic. He lived in Canada and his grandmother, in fact I think I’m going to ask him to present on "Lockdown.” His grandmother encouraged him to do architecture and they used to build, from his grandfather’s shop, they used to build models out of wooden boxes. And then he drove a truck in order, you know, during the day in order to earn money to put himself through university. And then to see this 93 year old man so excited and enthusiastic, it was really something special.
Do you know, it’s that quote of Einstein’s, “We must never lose our love of life and our curiosity about life,” which he obviously has. And I think what’s been achieved by you and your team is amazing. You know, that’s a big shoot. So I think, you know, I might have talked about a little shoot with the Labour Party, but it’s not all gloomy. That’s the whole point.
[Wendy] No, no.
We have to keep-
We have to jump on it.
I think “Lockdown,” we’ve got all sorts of interesting people on “Lockdown” and let’s all in our own way do what we can. That’s the point, isn’t it?
Exactly, exactly. Just hang onto the good, jump on the bandwagon-
Yeah.
With enthusiasm.
Yeah.
And keep that eternal summer glowing within. So thank you for an outstanding presentation.
And I’m so glad you’re back in London.
I’m looking forward to seeing you soon. Thank you everybody for joining us. Thank you.
Bye.
Bye-bye.
Thanks, Judy. Bye-bye.
[Wendy] Thank you, Judes. Bye-bye.