Trudy Gold
Israel Zangwill, the ‘Jewish Dickens’ and the Kilburn Wanderers, Part 2

Trudy Gold - Israel Zangwill, the ‘Jewish Dickens’ and the Kilburn Wanderers, Part 2

- Thank you. Well, good evening, everyone. It’s beginning to be evening in London. And I decided I wanted to give two sessions to this. As I said to you last time we met, the point about Israel Zangwill and his colleagues who founded, if you like, The Kilburn Wanderers and then The Maccabeans. All the dilemmas of Jewish identity that we face today are there with these extraordinary bunch of individuals. And what I want to give you also today is a taster of some of the characters who really did try to change Anglo-Jewry. The reality was that in many ways, the brightest and the best decided to cross the pond and to work there. And what they wanted to do was to come to terms with Jewish identity, but within the context of the diaspora. And what is also interesting about this particular group of people is they are the first generation of Jews of any level to be educated at university. So what you have is with some of them, they walk both worlds, certainly with probably the most formidable of them. Solomon Schechter who came from the world of religiosity, but also the world of European scholarship and finishes up lecturing at Cambridge University. And his claim to fame is, of course, the Geniza. But what I want to talk about first is out of The Kilburn Wanderers, this group of individuals who lived relatively near to each other in northwest London. I’m going to quote to you now from Israel Zangwill. So let’s go back to that particular slideshow because of course Israel Zangwill was the great writer. And this is what he said about… They used to meet, it was a sort of gentleman’s club, and they used to meet regularly and have meetings of intellectual interests. And of course, The Maccabeans is probably their greatest moment of fame is when they were first addressed by Herzl. It was Herzl’s first big meeting.

The first meeting that actually made his name because out of that came his article in the Jewish Chronicle. And the reason it happened through The Maccabeans is that one of the members was in fact the editor of the Jewish Chronicle. And it’s a man called Asher Myers who I’m coming onto. But first of all, I’m going to read what Israel Zangwill said about The Maccabeans. And you have in front of you their rules and regulations and list of members. But I’m going back, they were actually born in 1893. So this is Israel Zangwill. It owes its existence to the happy thought of the editor of Gladstone’s speeches, Mr. Holman Cohen. More about him later. The enthusiasm of Solomon J. Solomon on reset. He was a member of the Royal Academy and a formidable artist. And the practical energy of Mr. Asher Myers, the treasurer, as I said, he’s the editor of the Jewish Chronicle and many of the meetings are held in his house. Sometimes if it’s big, they hold them in a local hall. And this is what he had to say and it’s so pertinent to the way we try and fit into the modern world today, “Desirable or not, the immigrants have in them the seeds of excellent English citizens to exclude the children of the ghetto,” remember that’s the phrase of one of his most famous books, “is to keep up the grandchildren from whom such blessings flow. It is an attempt to focus Jewish forces to gather not the celebrities but the men of brains. It was thought to confine the membership also exclusively to those engaged in the learning professions.

We’re using this term in so broader sense that it even covers journalism.” And remember, Israel Zangwill is mocking himself because not only was he a writer, but he was of course a journalist. “The exclusion of the commercial element has given offence, though this has been no intention of carefully irritating the men of money.” He’s quoting Whistler here, his delicious phrase, “So far from being the obvious outcome of a true of a crude tribalism, the association is a reaction from the central fugal tendencies, which have made the emancipated Jew anxious to sink his individuality into the high-hatted squadron of civilization.” I’m going to repeat this, this is very important, “So far from being the obvious outcome of a true crude tribalism, the association is a reaction from the central fugal tendencies, which has made the emancipated Jew anxious to sink his individuality into the high-hatted squadrons of civilization. The mimicry by which insects assimilate in hue to the environment has made backboneless Jews in distinguish from the heathen. Two courses drive Jews out of the fold: one is Christian narrowest mist, the other is Jewish narrowness.” And he’s pointing to one of the great problems of the diaspora. Is it possible to be a Jew at home and a man in society? And what happened with the majority of Anglo Jews, and I’m speaking now from my generation onwards. And I’m now 75. So we were far better educated Englishly than we were Jewishly. And you’re going to see as we go through The Maccabeans, that some of them in fact are going to become Zionists. Let me go on with what he had to say.

“The first drives the weaken, the worldly, the second the strong and the spiritual. So the weaken, the worldly want to become part of English society. They want to be lords, et cetera, et cetera. The second is the strong and the spiritual is Judaism, as it stands in Anglo Jewry, giving spiritual Jews exactly what they need.” he goes on to say, “The Jew has always been a duplex being. Jew connotes not only race, but a religion which complicates things to such a degree that the Jewish problem may be said to be almost mathematical accuracy, the Christian problem squared.” Now, this is something I’ve pointed out to you many times in discussion, that the word Jew is so difficult to analyse. I’ve said to you before that if I’m using the word Christian, that would donate to religiosity. When I talk about the word Jew, not necessarily today, it can also indicate a nationality. After all, the largest section of world Jewry now lives in the Jewish state. It can mean religion, it can mean culture or peoplehood. Now, he goes on to say, “Posterity may see Jews without Judaism or Judaism without Jews. Well, certainly, I think we can say to today that there are many Jews who are no longer have any religiosity whatsoever, but they still see themselves as part of the Jewish peoplehood. At The Maccabeans, the bond is purely racial.” That’s a term which a lot of us will feel a little uncomfortable with. But remember, this is before the Nazis. This is when Kipling, Israeli, all sorts of individuals would refer to the Jewish race. I mean, today, we know it’s a completely nonsensical notion because any sociologist will tell you that to talk about a Jewish race or talk about any kind of race, it connotates no mixing whatsoever with any other people.

And that I would imagine in the world today is incredibly rare. “A shiny light of the reformed synagogue,” and he talks about what goes on here. He says that, “The Maccabeans, the bond is purely racial. Zealots may jostle the agnostics in amicable disagreement. The shining light of the reform synagogue might find him side by side with the son of a chief rabbi who excommunicated reform half a century ago. And the club has banquet with equal diet, Dr. Felix Adler of the Ethical Societies, Lieutenant Colonel Goldsmid of the war office. And the diet is strictly kosher.” This is something that, I think, many Jewish organisations have learned. When I ran the London Jewish Cultural Centre, it accommodated all kinds of Jews. But we always made sure we had a kosher kitchen so that we didn’t exclude anyone on dietary ideas. According to the popular President Solomon J. Solomon, the artist of the Royal Academy, and who is the apostle of The Maccabeans in Belgravia… Think about it, these are the smart Jews now who are living in a very fashionable part of London. Their object is to perpetuate a race with so wonderful history and such picturesque types. There’s also this notion of glorying in Jewish history that our history is just as great as anything anyone else has got to offer. And out of this group, out of The Kilburn Wanderers and The Maccabeans comes the first Anglo-Jewish Historical Exhibition, also comes the AJA.

So basically, it’s going to be a fertile ground for ideas. Consider who has already gathered, the great chemist Meldola, musicians like Frederic Cowen, philosophers like Alexandra of Oxford who understands Hegel and who makes a real advance in ethics, scholars like Israel Abrahams and Joseph Jacobs whose specialty is omnipotent, and Claude Montefiore whose lectures are theologically classic, and Lance who speaks Anglo-Saxon, and Schechter, most brilliant and eccentric of the sons of Shem to say nothing of literary folk, Malcolm Solomon, Marion Spielmann, Lucien Wolf, and Oskar Skarsaune, and scores of other good men and true. So this was the idea to bring people of Jewish birth together. And because they’re also members of the reform that can be Jewish converts to bring Jews together to talk, to work out all sorts of ideas. And they create the Order of Ancient Maccabeans, it’s Anglo-Jewish friendly society. It’s registered and it has an incredible group of presidents. So this is what they set up. Now, who were their shining stars? Well, the Anglo-Jewish Exhibition in London, 1887, this was a fascinating idea, fascinating idea. It was put together by Lucien Wolf, who we’ve already mentioned. He was a very famous journalist. He was very upper middle class, and he was in love with the English aristocracy, but he was also very strongly Jewish. But he wrote books on, for example, Montefiore. He adored the English aristocracy. And there’s that wonderful expression. He had his nose pressed against the ghetto war, but he also was a zealous man for his people. He railed against what was going on in Russia.

He was involved in the Mansion House Fund, but he wanted to show that Jewish history was just as important as anyone else’s history. And he went into partnership with Joseph Jacobs, who is one of the most important folklorists in Britain. And their aim was to present the history of Jews to the British public, including antisemitic cartoons and to understand Jewish status before emancipation. Frankly, this is something that is really lacking in Anglo-Jewry today. What we desperately need is a really important museum, which can really tell the story of Anglo-Jewry warts and all. And in fact, the money behind it comes from a man called Isidore Spielmann. He was the son of a banker, Adam Spielmann. And he’d already was hugely involved in exhibitions working for the British government and the Ministry of Trade. And he assisted in organising, he actually assisted in this. He went to Lucien Wolf and said, “Let’s create an exhibition that will focus on the Jewish contribution to the British Empire.” So the kind of things we talk about today are the kind of things they were talking about over 125 years ago. The same dilemmas are with us today. So the first character I want to talk about is Solomon Schechter, who was absolutely amazing. So can we please see his photograph? He had a red beard and red hair. This is Theodor Dunkelgrün. In 2015, there was a conference in Cambridge about Solomon Schechter. And this is how he describes him.

He was a dazzling intermediary between rabbinic and academic worlds. He wrote beautiful pioneering essays for an appreciative Victorian readership. And this is another quote, “Tall and untidily dressed and had an unruly red beard that matched his fiery personality. According to his friends, he seldom wore socks that matched in colour. People and conversations, Jewish history and books were what mattered most to him. He was a pure intellectual.” More quotes at Cambridge where he was lecturing rabbinics with his wife Matilda. He entertained a wide circle of people of different faiths: the Presbyterian Smith twins, women I’m going to talk about, Charles Taylor of St. John’s College, his closest friend was James Frazer of Trinity, author of “The Golden Bough”, a monumental study of folklore, magic, and religion. Very, very important book. There were all sorts of individuals, academics at that time going back into history, into the folklore of their people. And “The Golden Bough” is an absolute classic text. And evidently, Frazer, they were very close, they would go for long walks together. And it was Frazer who actually read Schechter’s essays. Now, this is another quote, “When he collapsed and later died after giving a lecture on Jewish philanthropy, his wife recounted that he asked for a book to read. I can’t just lie down here doing nothing. What he wanted was a marriage between the old learning and the critical methodology in the science of Judaism school. He hated what he called the fluky Judaism of Anglo-Jewry.” So who was Solomon Schechter? Let’s see where he came from. Can we see the next slide please? He was born in Focșani, which is a little stop in Moldova, now in Romania. His father was a shochet.

He was born into a Chabad Hasidic family. He was another one of those illuis. He’s going to go from the world of Eastern Europe. He was in a Yeshiva at 10. He studied with Rabbi Joseph Nathanson of Lemberg. So let’s have a look at the man he was named for so that you get a notion of his background. Can we see the next slide please? He’s named for Shneur Zalman of Liadi. Now, Shneur Zalman of Liadi was the Hasid who created Chabad, Chochma, Bina, Da'at. He was the man who himself had very unusual views when Napoleon invaded Russia. Remember it was Napoleon who had really codified the liberation of the Jews of France, who broke down the ghetto walls wherever he visited. Shneur Zalman chose to go with the Russians, the enemies, hated Russians who so persecuted the Jews. And he said this, “I would rather, my people be persecuted under the Czars then live in peace under Napoleon because Napoleon will be the end of the Jewish people.” Do you see how all these issues of identity come together here? It’s absolutely extraordinary. And Shneur Zalman is the man, the great hero of Habad, who brings back Hasidism to learning. The great criticism of the Misnagdim, their opponents was they don’t have enough learning. He brings it back Chochma, Bina, Da'at. And of course, today, Habad is the great proselytiser of Jews throughout the world. So however, it’s not enough for him. He’s a Yeshiva-trained. He comes from a Hasidic background, he’s absolutely soaked in it. But in his twenties, he’s going to go to Vienna.

He could read Hebrew by the time he was three, he’d mastered the Chumash by the time he was five. As I said, he’s a real illui. He studied in Vienna under the modern Talmudic scholar Meir Friedmann, he’s not satisfied. He goes again to study at Berlin in the Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judentums and at the University of Berlin. And then in 1882, he is invited by Claude Montefiore, who I’m going to talk about later. He’s a huge philanthropist. Later on, he’s going to create one of the main creators of Reform Judaism. At this stage, he becomes to London. He becomes the main spokesman for traditional Judaism at this stage. Traditional, I’m not saying ultra orthodoxy. And then he becomes a reader in rabbinics at Cambridge. He takes over from another great Jewish scholar, Solomon Marcus Schiller-Szinessy. And in 1899, he actually becomes the professor in Rabbinics at Cambridge University. There is both Cambridge and Oxford. And remember Jews can now graduate from both Cambridge and Oxford, Cambridge, which is the centre of study of Hebrew. They are now studying the Jewish classics. Let’s go back into history. So this is very, very important. Now, in 1896… Can we go onto the next page, please? Here you see Cambridge University. So I wanted you to see Focșani and then to see the world he came to. And also, he has a place in London at Gascony Avenue, Kilburn. And that’s where he is one of the most hallowed members of The Kilburn Wanderers and also of The Maccabeans. Now, can we see the next slide please? These are in fact two incredible women, like the Victorian women.

They were scholars, adventurous. If you came from a certain background and a certain religious background and you have wealth, the whole range of English women who became pioneers in all sorts of different fields. Now, this is Agnes and Margaret Smith. They were Scottish women, they were twins, they were huge scholars of the Semitic languages. Between them, they had 12 languages. They’re Presbyterians, they are low church, they have a lot of money, particularly after their father dies. They knew Arabic, Syria. They were huge benefactors to the Presbyterian church and also to Westminster College, Cambridge. They also had German, Greek, Italian, French. By 1890, they settled in Cambridge and they are part of Solomon’s Schechter circle after he becomes the reader in rabbinics. And on their travels, they come across the Ben Ezra Synagogue in Cairo. This is very, very Can we see the Ben Ezra Synagogue? Can we see the next slide, please? Here we have Charles Taylor, who’s also going to be involved in the collection. More about him in a minute. But I want to now go on to the the Ben Ezra Synagogue. And this is where the Cairo… Geniza means a hiding place. And what is already beginning to be found is that there are rare manuscripts in this hiding place in the Ben Ezra Synagogue in Fustat, in Old Cairo. Now, this synagogue was actually built in 1882. Now, the German poet, Simon van Gelderen, appears to be the first person who visits the Geniza. He mentions in his book of 1773, “Israelites on Mount Horeb”.

He never actually examined it because of superposition of disaster. He’s fascinating. Or the more so because he was actually related to Heinrich Heine. Then another man in 1864, a Jerusalem scribe and of the Ashkenazi community, a man called Jacob Saphir visited. And he managed to capture a few pages. So various pages were also torn, or stolen, and sold. But in the late 19th century, a man called Abraham Firkovitch who was a Karaite. Now, the Karaites are brand of Judaism. And a scholar called Albert Harkavy bought some leaves and took them back to Russia. What he was most interested in was the history of the Karaites. And he obtained documents at the nearby Karaite Geniza, which was in the Karaite synagogue in Cairo. So already there are some very interesting ideas floating around, but what happens is that these Scottish women now go to Cairo. They already know about the Geniza, and they begin to bring back documents. And who do they show them to? They show them to their friend because they bring back leaves from the Cairo Geniza to Schechter. And he recognised them immediately as the Hebrew originals of the Book of Wisdom of Ben Sirach, which is actually part of Ecclesiastes and therefore also part of the Christian translated into Greek. So what happens is he’s actually going to lead an expedition to Cairo. He gets the money from his friend Charles Taylor, who’s another Presbyterian scholar at Cambridge. This is also interesting. Schechter is mixing in the Gentile world. It’s of huge importance both in biblical and Talmud studies. But he also gives a very, very full picture of the economic and cultural life of Egypt between the 10th and the 13th century, the period of the Fatimid Caliphate and the Ayyubid Sultans.

But not only that, it gives a very detailed picture of Jewish life, and it shows what an important part the Jews played in Muslim society. It’s got so much in it. Details of relations between Jews and Muslims, minutes of the community, rabbinic decisions, records, leases, it’s everyday life. Title deeds, marriage contracts, private letters, including something that really made Schechter unbelievably happy. 200 poems by Yehuda Halevy; 1080 to 1145, one of the great Jewish poets of all time, also papers of Maimonides. The Geniza contained over 30 works authored by him. Before this, only a few lines had ever been sold, has actually ever been found. So he comes back. He’s got this unbelievable collection and he works on it with Charles Taylor. It’s an absolutely extraordinary thing. It makes him incredibly famous, but not only that, it is very, very, very important. But that’s not all that he is involved in because he is one of the great firebrands of of Anglo-Jewry. He’s one of the great firebrands of all time. And he also is involved in Jewish scholarship. He’s horrified of what is going on in England. He just finds it just poultry. He feels that so much more could be done with Anglo-Jewry. And this is what I’m looking now from a wonderful book. I have the speeches, and articles, and letters of Israel Zangwill. And I’m looking for what he wrote. What happens, of course, is that Schechter is then, he’s lured to America. He is lured to America to take over the Jewish theological seminary in America. And of course, the rest is history. He becomes incredibly important in American Jewish history. And what he wants is he wants kind of a line between orthodoxy and reform.

He wants to keep to the tradition. He wanted what he called Catholic Judaism, but he believed in its own time that it could in fact be made more modern. And that’s what he fought for. And if you could bear with me a minute, I must find for you the wonderful send off that Israel got when he’s about to go off to America. He already wrote these huge tome studies of Judaism. This is Israel Zangwill who makes the toast, this goodbye to Solomon Schechter from The Maccabeans. In his studies of Judaism are those who draw inspiration from the past. He also understands how to reconcile us with the present and prepare us for the future. Now, he’s writing this after he’s a committed Zionist, Israel Zangwill. And he says this, “With or without political Zionism, spiritual Zionism is an imperative necessity,” he understands that Jewishness must have its spiritual side, “It is the restoration of this spiritual unity. No less shattered now than political unity that constitutes the highest task of the theological seminaries.” That’s his goodbye speech to Schechter. He said, yes, political Zionism. Remember he’s working. At this stage, he is working with Theodore Herzl. Herzl is now being broken because of the Uganda offer and the Russian Jews not taking it on. And as you all know, of course that leads to Zangwill breaking away and forming the colonisation trust. Whereas he’s also worried about spirituality. So let me repeat this because this is key, “With or without political Zionism, spiritual Zionism is an imperative necessity. It is the restoration of the spiritual unity.

No less shattered now than political unity. So spiritual unity is shattered amongst the Jews and political unity. We need them both.” You can also think about people like Handlarski part of this, they called him the agnostic rabbi. He also came from the world of Hasidism, became a modern man. And he was the man who said he was a Zionist. But he said, “Israel must become the wellspring of the Jewish world. It must become the moral heartland of the Jews and radiate light to the diaspora and therefore to the whole world.” That there is this moral spiritual side. And this is characters like Schechter as well. They are creatures of modern scholarship, but at the same time, they’re hugely involved in the destiny of their own people. So a wonderful man. And what I’ve tried to do, if you like, is to really give you a taster of them. Obviously, one could spend a couple of lectures dealing with these characters. But what I’m trying to do is to give you a taster because they’re all lions as far as I’m concerned. And those of you who wonder why there aren’t many women involved, unfortunately, this is the role of women at that time in history. Whether we’d like it or not, think of the Married Woman’s Property Act, women belong to their husbands. And look, it wasn’t until the 1970s that women could take out mortgages that’s on the property side, so the reason there aren’t that many women taking their place alongside it. Please don’t see it through the prism of today. We’re talking history here. The majority of these characters, very-forward thinking. Don’t forget that Israel Zangwill was very much in favour of the women’s suffragette movement. He was married to a suffragette.

An interesting woman who, although was not Jewish, had been brought up by her Jewish stepmother. And he was part of the male association for the suffragette movement. But remember, it’s in its own time. Now, can we come on to another fascinating character of very important in The Maccabeans and also very important in English intellectual life and that one is Joseph Jacobs. Can we see Joseph, please. 1854 to 1916. Now, he is born in Australia in the British colony of New South Wales. He was the sixth surviving son of John Jacobs, a publican who’d emigrated from London. Jacobs was educated at Sydney Grammar School and the University of Sydney, very, very clever. He had a scholarship in classics maths and chemistry. He didn’t finish his studies. He comes to Britain aged 18, then he goes to Cambridge. Remember Jews can now graduate from Cambridge University. After 1871, the oath is removed. You put it up until that time, you had to swear on the King James’ Bible. It also opened it up to Catholics, free thinkers, dissidents, et cetera. But important to remember because I was having this discussion, well, what about Muslim scholars? At this stage, don’t forget there are very few Muslims in Britain. There would’ve been ambassadors, there would’ve been a few traders, but there’s not yet a settled community.

So the Jew is the only really non-Christian group of any number. There were Chinese, but at this stage, it’s the Jew who is the visible different one. So he’s particularly interested in mathematics and philosophy. He’s another one of those genius children or genius young men. He studied literature, history, anthropology. You see, this is the issue. Now, we’re getting into very dangerous water. I’ve been discussing this with geneticists, IP geneticists. Is there a restless gene in the Jews? Is it that we have spent so long trading on our wits? What is it that made Jews explode into modernity? Can you just imagine how exciting the ideas of the modern world must have been for these characters? He was very aware of antisemitism, as was Schechter. They wrote about it. He wrote an essay called “Mordecai”. That same year, he went to Berlin to increase his studies. He studied Jewish literature and bibliography and Jewish philosophy. He then comes back to Britain to study anthropology. He makes money as a journalist. A lot of these characters, how do they keep themselves? They make money, they write. He studies with this Francis Galton who was a proponent of Social Darwinism. It’s an idea that I think many of us would feel uncomfortable with today. It’s about the notion that certain groups are best able to survive than others. Now, what really begins to interest him is folklore. And not only is he fascinated by Jewish folklore, he becomes very important in the history of English folklore. For example, stories that are so important to English children today, like “Jack and the Beanstalk”, “Goldilocks and the Three Bears”, “The Three Little Pigs”, “Jack the Giant Killer” and “The History of Tom Thumb” are published in Joseph Jacobs’ book, “English Fairy Tales” and then in his book of 1893, “More English Fairy Tales”.

He is the man who popularises the folk stories of England. He believes like many at this time, you can tell the history of a people through their folklores. He’s also very interested, not just in few Jewish folklore, but also in the folklore of the peoples of Europe and also in the English subcontinent absolutely fascinates him. He’s the editor of the journal Folklore. He becomes the most important folklorist in Britain. And remember Schechter is working with Frazer who wrote “The Golden Bough”. So do you see how they’re all mixing with each other? It’s a fascinating period of great scholarship. But he’s very much a Jew, not a religious Jew. Between 1878 and 1884, he’s the Secretary of the Society of Hebrew Literature. He writes letters to The Times about the pogroms of 1882 and becomes the Secretary of the Mansion House Fund, which I’ve already talked to you about. It was the Lord Mayor’s Fund to bring relief to the Jews of Russia. He’s also honorary Secretary of the Literature and Art Committee of the 1887 Jewish Historical Exhibition along with Lucean and Wolf, which is so important. And he compiles the catalogue. The exhibition was held at the Royal Albert Hall. In 1888, he visited Spain to examine some old Jewish manuscripts. And then he comes back to return to the theme of antisemitism, the persecution of the Jews of Russia, published by the Jewish Publication Society of America. And in 1896, he begins the publication of the annual Jewish Year Book.

That’s another one of the first for him. He’s also president of the Jewish Historical Society. You see how these characters, these, if you like, on the edge characters, these intellectuals are forming what becomes much of Anglo-Jewry. 1896, he is invited to America to deliver the lecture on philosophy of Jewish history, a very important keynote lecture. 1900, he’s invited to be the revising editor for the Jewish encyclopaedia, entries from over 600 contributors. And to do that, he moves to America. Not only do we lose Schechter to America, we lose Joseph Jacobs. And he becomes the working member of the Jewish Publication Society. Then he went on to teach at the Jewish Theological Seminary, and he died in New York. Now, this is Israel Zangwill’s speech to The Maccabeans on the departure of Joseph Jacobs. He says this, “Three things go to a prodigy: genius, intellect, and taste. Mr. Jacobs’ genius and intellect are obvious. As for his taste, his list of celebrities of the century in the Jewish Year Book leaves no atom of doubt, he has left himself out. On the occasion of Jacobs being elected to the Royal Academy of the history of Madrid.” He talks about this because isn’t it fascinating? He says that the Jews were expelled and yet Jacobs is now elected to the Royal Academy in Madrid. And this is how he ends his speech to see him off to America. This is Zangwill again. “Twice out of three times has the lecture of philosophy, history been offered, one to a Romanian, Schechter, one to an Australian, Jacobs, both enshrined in Anglo-Jewish history.

Our Maccabean brothers, we drink a toast to him tonight.” So can we go on, please? That is where he went to university. So they come from these worlds and they come to the centre of the dream of Oxford and Cambridge. Now, let’s have a look at the next character, Asher Isaac Myers, very important. He’s born in London. His father was a synagogue official and a bookseller. He’s absolutely surrounded by literature, but his father’s not wealthy. He begins his training in the writing trade. But what he really wants to be is a journalist. And he goes to write very young for The Jewish record. And then he leaves the following year to join The Jewish Chronicle. He publishes a Jewish directory, listing the Jewish institutions across the country and people associated. He becomes very much part of the Jewish world. And he becomes the Secretary of The Kilburn Wanderers and The Maccabeans. He becomes the man who runs and pays for The Jewish Chronicle and is a man called Abraham Benisch. Interesting man. Also, a Hebrew essayist. He’s an editor, he’s a journalist. And for 40 years, he actually gives articles in The Jewish Chronicle. He took a real interest in Asher Myers. He thought that he was incredibly clever. He liked, he wanted to look after his future. And on his death, he actually left him the part proprietorship of the papers. And the stand under Myers is moderate orthodoxy. Later on, these characters out of them is going to come Hampstead Synagogue, by the way. He helped found the society of biblical archaeology. He was very zealous in his promotion of the society, the Hebrew literature. He went further into the Jewish world than the others. He was Secretary of the Jewish Board of Guardians, treasurer of the Jewish Workingmen’s Club. He had a feel for the Jews of Eastern Europe. He was also a member of the committee of the Anglo-Jewish Historical Association who’s trying to straddle both.

And it was at his house that The Kilburn Wanderers met. He also became the treasurer of The Maccabeans. And by the way, The Maccabeans was loosely affiliated to Lovers of Zion, which had been founded by Leon Pinsker, very much as a response to the pogroms. And remember, it was Pinsker who had warned the Jews. He’d been an assimilationist. He believed that Russia would change, but the pogroms made him realise it wouldn’t. And he was the one who said, “Don’t go to America, don’t go to Britain. Antisemitism is a psychic aberration.” He called it Judophobia. Remember he was a doctor. It’s a psychic aberration. It’s a 2,000-year old disease. It is incurable. And it was to him that Zangwill introduced Theodore Herzl. And the rest, of course, is history. Okay, obviously, what I’m doing is giving you thumbnail sketches because it’s important to know that there was this group of individuals who really did want to alter the destiny of the Jewish people. And I think one of the stories that we have to deal with today is there’s still this clash, who runs the community? And is there such a thing as the Jewish community? Who speaks for Anglo-Jewry that most divided of communities? Anyway, I’m just going to give you one more character because I really… In fact, no, I think I’m not, because I was going to talk about people like Moses Gaster. So what I’m going to do is I’m going to turn to questions and I will fit in another session because I can see quite a few of you want to ask questions. And I think this is something that is really worth discussing. So can we have a look at the questions?

Q&A and Comments:

Q: Am I taking a summer great?

A: Yes, I am. And lockdown is taking in August. I’m going away next week, and I’m not lecturing next week. I’ve got some wonderful colleagues that will be. In August, I think we’re only going to be running a five o'clock session English time, but we’ll be back with a vengeance in September and we are bringing in lots more people.

Q: Rachel is asking whether many women in The Maccabeans.

A: There was Solomon J. Solomon’s sister, who was a famous artist, was also associated. But really, it was a man’s club. Yeah.

This is Mitzi. Race in its old definition was essentialist. That’s why racists talk about the Jew as if all Jews partake of that particularism usually negative. However, that type of definition could also have a very positive meaning, such as the point of the princess of P makes clear. Yes. So that’s what I wanted to get over. Thank you for that, Mitzi. It’s very important that they’re not meaning it in a pejorative way.

Jeffrey Ben Nathan. The word Jew is not difficult to analyse. The Dam Jew is derived from Judea, though hearing this often comes as a great surprise to many Jews. The Jew also donates a special ethnic origin. If Jews are not aware of this, most Jew hates us or antisemites are. Yes, Jeffrey. But the problem is, I would widen it today because to some, it’s got a national definition. It’s still a very complicated definition.

Judith. My father was a member of the Order of Ancient Maccabeans in the thirties to forties. Other illustrious members were Moshe Rosette, first Secretary of the .

And Chaim Weizmann joined them, by the way, Selena, good evening. Please translate, has his nose pressed up against the ghetto wall. That’s a phrase that a journalist friend of mine used to talk about a Jew who was desperate to be part of the English upper classes.

Oh, this is from Anna Lee, my paternal grandmother and her three sisters, father and mother immigrated to Montreal, Canada in 1905 from Focșani. It is a small world. Shelly. Have you heard that Robert Kennedy Jr., who is running against Biden was heard on audio, saying that COVID was a biogenetic weapon engineered to prevent deaths of Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese. Hard to worry about Jewish identity when this kind of antisemitism is sprouting up again.

You know one of the great problems, Shelly, I’m going to throw something at you, and if I was in the room, some of you might hit me, antisemitism is one of the keys to Jewish survival. Do with that what you mean. I’m not saying it’s a positive thing at all, but nothing brings us back together again like antisemitism. Think about it. One of the main pillars of Zionism is European antisemitism. Focșani. Focșani. Thank you.

Q: Why the cross on the Geniza Cairo Synagogue?

A: I think it is now a Coptic Church. Yes.

This is Janet. Robert Kennedy, bizarre, he said that about COVID has Jews are more likely statistically to die of COVID due to genetic reasons. Janet, you are looking for logic. You never find logic with racists, do you?

Q: Thank you, Rame. If Jews are not a racist, is antisemitism not racism?

A: Antisemitism, when the term was coined in 1878 by a German journalist called Wilhelm Marr, he used it as Jew hatred. Look, the problem is, we all know what antisemitism is. It says the Jews are a race. Hitler believed we were a race. Hitler did not distinguish between Jewish converts to Christianity, half Jews or later on quarter Jews. It was about Jewish blood. Our enemies use the term.

But Janet, I think you’re still applying logic. You can’t apply logic to these ideas. Look, I’d love to be a creature of the enlightenment and say to you, wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could all use our logical, critical faculties? Tragically, we are creatures of passions and emotions. Schechter, very idealistic. Was he? I wish I’d known him. He was a towering figure. He was probably not easy to be around. I think he was probably an arrogant character. I think the character most in my life I’d known, someone like that was Robert Westrich. I mean, he also had that incredibly towering intellect. These characters are few and far between. But I love the way Zangwill who himself was such an incredible man. And I know a few of you have got in touch to say you are reading Zangwill, please get hold of his books. I think they’re just wonderful.

Yes, Solomon Schechter school in New York. He becomes very, very important in America. This Romanian Jew who came to London passed through and finished in America. Would you comment about conservative Judaism, future being in jeopardy about three out of Solomon’s sector involvement? I don’t feel qualified to, actually. Could you ask that question of Jeremy Rosen? But all I can tell you about Jews and Jewish history, the pattern never is what it should be. I mean, people say to me that the Anglo-Jewry is dying, that the only group that is really reproducing itself is the ultra-Orthodox. But I don’t really believe that that’s the end of Anglo-Jewry. I do believe in a spiritual destiny of the Jewish people. Maybe you think I’m naive, but I do. But that question, David Myers, suggest you ask Jeremy.

Yes, Vivian and David, you should visit the Cairo Geniza in Cambridge. Yes, you can get a great tour. Yes, yes, yes. It’s a very special thing to do. Those of you who live in England and I suppose those of you who visit England.

And David’s saying you have to have a minimum number, maximum number. Look, when the websites are in… I’m having a meeting next week, Wendy’s convening a meeting of all of us. So we are going to have a chat room. And that’s one of the things maybe lockdown people could organise through a chat room. Be rather lovely, wouldn’t it, that tip a group of you? I mean, it’s amazing. I just heard from one of our lockdown people who’s bumped into… I think she’s in the Italian Lakes and she’s bumped into some people through lockdown. I mentioned to you that I bumped into people in Vienna and Patrick Bay bumped into a student from Chile when he was in the flea market in Paris. So I mean, it’s quite an organisation.

Schechter’s view on traditional Judaism. He believed very much he was Torah true. But he believed that you’ve got to accommodate to modernity. He believed in modern orthodoxy. That’s Yeshiva, the university in America. I thought the United Synagogue and Chief Rabbi spoke for Anglo-Jewry. Interesting. They speak for the United Synagogue. They certainly don’t speak for Reform Judaism. They certainly don’t speak for Liberal Judaism. And they certainly don’t speak for secular Jews. That’s the point. There is no such thing as a cohesive Jewish community. I mean, it’s like talking about the survivors.

I had an extraordinary conversation with my friend Anita Laskovitch yesterday ‘cause it was her 98th birthday. And she said that there’s an organisation that writes to her, “Dear Survivor Family.” And she said, “We are not a survivor family. We are a group of people who survived the show.” What I’m saying is, I’m sure a lot of non-Jews believe that the chief rabbi speaks for Anglo-Jewry, but believe me, he doesn’t. He speaks for that portion of Anglo-Jewry and that’s usually the portion of Anglo-Jewry that the government deals with just as it deals with the Board of Deputies. But there are thousands of Jews who are not affiliated to the United Synagogue. So it’s a complicated story. Wishing me a relaxing and wonderful holiday. I’m taking a grandson away.

Yes, Janice. It is possible to visit the Geniza. And it’s already been said that you have to have a group together, but it could be through lockdown, or I’m sure groups of friends could come together. And maybe those of you who come from other countries, one of your tours could be to the Geniza.

Oh, this is from Miriam. They brought them from an antiquities dealer, not from the Cairo Geniza. Schechter went to Cairo and yes, he was the one. Yes, yes. I’m sorry if I didn’t make that clear. Schechter brought them back. Thousands and thousands of pages. Can you imagine how excited he must have been? Absolutely wonderful.

Oh, this is crazy. This is from Sarah. My godmother was Lillian Myer, Asher’s daughter. Ah, yeah, yeah. It was Lillian Myers, Asher’s daughter.

This is from Nitza. I remember going every year to The Maccabeans at a fancy club around Hanukkah about 10 years ago. Wow. Fantastic. What a history.

This is Tony. Quite off topic, so I’m keen to share. I just had tea with the sister of a man worked, researching World War II where he has discovered the start of the Warsaw Uprising rising was exactly the hour the dambusters opened up to bomb the dams. Wow. Oh that is something, Tony. Thank you for sharing that. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Yes, Nitza, speakers were Nobel Prize winners, academics. Yes. They were an incredible bunch of characters.

Q: Did Schechter know Bettelheim or is it different time?

A: Schechter died in 1915. No, he wouldn’t have known Bruno Bettelheim. No.

Vivian. That was us you bumped into Vienna. Oh goodness. How funny. Oh, that’s lovely. And I hope you had as good a trip as I did. I was taking a grandson round. It’s interesting to note the halachic perceptive of being Jewish. If you are born Jewish, you can’t convert to any other religion. Yes, you can. You can become a Catholic. You can become a Protestant. Yes, you can. Yeah, you can become a Muslim. Yeah, I think.

This is from Bob. I love it, there are so many people online who know so much when the Geniza findings shipped to Cambridge. Schechter went to Israel to visit his brother. Wow. Anyway, thank you all very much. I decided not to go on with the other characters because some of them are so important. So I will think of a time of slotting them in.

And I wish you all a lovely evening. God bless.