The Board of Deputies of British Jews is a traditional animal. It is a creature of great longevity and the respectable backbone of Anglo-Jewry. It defends Jewish interests and is regarded by the outside world as the legitimate voice of the Jewish community. Despite its hard work and manifest good intentions, there is still…
THE FIGURE OF Ilya Ehrenburg evokes passionate controversy. Some regard him as an opportunist and a sophisticated Stalinist hack. Others see him as an entrenched liberal, courageously but stealthily ordering the waves of reaction to retreat. Anyone who has witnessed and tried to comprehend the traumatic events of the twentieth century cannot ignore the miraculous…
Refuseniks The Jews of Hope: The Plight of Soviet Jewry Today Martin Gilbert Macmillan £8.95 The Yugoslav dissident socialist, Milovan Djilas, once commented that since they are pervaded by the spirit of internationalism, the Jews are doomed to be persecuted whenever a regime isolates itself. Martin Gilbert’s book shows that this dictum remains unchanged. Under…
“If Only My People: Zionism in My life”‘ by Immanuel Jakobovits published by Weidenfeld and Nicolson The title ‘Rabbi’ is conventionally understood to be the Hebrew translation for teacher. Yet originally rabbis were expounders and interpreters of Judaism. Their role became institutionalised in the Middle Ages through absorbing a necessary teaching function as spiritual heads…