That pathetic carol concert: school-boy meschugass, or the slippery road to Auschwitz?

Something that has been exercising the minds of many in the Jewish community recently was last week's carol concert at St.James's Piccadilly in which traditional Christmas carols, such as Once in Royal David's City, were doctored in order to score political points against Israel.

Their timing could not have been more ridiculous. The Archbishop of Canterbury has just visited Auschwitz for the first time, in the company of Chief Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks, Rabbi Tony Bayfield and other faith leaders, including three Muslims, one a representative of the Muslim Council of Britain:

http://irenelancaster.typepad.com/my_weblog/2008/11/inter-faith-dialogue-a-marathon-of-education.html

The Queen - Supreme Governor of the Church of England - has just bestowed an honoray knighthood on the President of the State of Israel, Shimon Peres

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1039485.html

 - and perhaps for many just as significant - Sir Paul McCartney has recently ignored all death threats in order to perform live in the centre of Tel Aviv. I particularly liked The Times' take on the whole affair:

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/music/live_reviews/article4828752.ece

especially as their guy in the Middle East, James Hider,  is incredibly nice and has actually invited me to have lunch with him in Bethlehem, which I might take him up on one day - it being my dream to visit Bethlehem!

And in India carnage has just taken place at the hands of the real villains of the piece, fanatic Muslim terrorists. In Mumbai members of all religions and none were brutally murdered, including a large number of religions Jews, peacefully tending to their flocks, as they do all over the world, in honour of the real King David:

http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSTRE4AR52W20081129

The question is though - what does one do about these types of carol services, Christmas cards and the like? Former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Carey and CEO of the Council of Christians and Jews, David Gifford, have strongly condemned the concert:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1088571/Outcry-songs-written-anti-Israel-carol-concert-famous-church.html

 And this is the withering statement I received in response to my own letter to Lambeth Palace:

This is not a matter for the Archbishop or the CofE nationally   to comment as it so obviously is a piece of rather unpleasant publicity seeking by a collection of small groups who should not be encouraged by being given attention. My mother used to say of us when we were misbehaving:'don't take any notice, it only encourages them' . St James' is in the diocese of

London

and has a long idiosyncratic history. It is no more reflective of the views of the Church of England than Jews for boycotting

Israel

is reflective of the Jewish community.

 

Meanwhile, here is today's response from Tory Education spokesman, Michael Gove, in his weekly Times column, entitled

 

FORGIVE THEM - I CAN'T

 

'One thing that has sent me ballistic this week is the decision by St James's Piccadilly to host a special service in which the words of traditional carols have been rewritten to convey an anti-Israel message. The service is part of a broader campaign to encourage the boycott of goods from Israel, much as we once boycotted goods from South Africa.

 

Apart from pointing out that declining to buy things on the ground that they're made by Jewish people is not, historically, a good road to go down, I am staggered that people should equate a democracy struggling to preserve human rights in the face of terrorist assault with the apartheid regime. And I am speechless at a church's collaboration with this festival of anti-Semitism. So I shall use another's words and ask that they be forgiven, for clearly, they cannot know the enormity of what they do

 

So, is the whole thing school-boy pranks, or an anti-Semitic plot? Difficult to answer that one. Who can see into another's mind? Those of us who have taught at schools know only too well how school-boy mischief can lead to something much worse.  Let us not forget, for instance, that many at the time of Kristallnacht (including some in the Jewish community) also thought that Hitler and his thugs were playing silly boys' games and that if they were ignored it might all go away. It was this philosophy which prevented many Jews from taking the opportunity to leave Germany whilst they still could - the Final Solution only coming into play well into the Second World War, once Hitler and his abettors knew that they could get away with it.

 

And might it not be the case that some of those involved on that dark November day of 70 years ago also felt that they were merely playing a prank on a despised minority, as so many do today in many a school playground?

 

http://www.aish.com/holocaust/overview/Kristallnacht.asp

 

especially, as is the case with Israel, the Jews had preceded the Christian presence in Germany by a number of years.

 

But to end on a positive: relations between the Jewish community and the higher echelons of the Churches appear to have never been better. Slowly, the idea that Auschwitz and boycotting Israel come from the same mind set does not seem as fantastical as might have been thought, say, five years ago. Even the left-leading Church Times is now giving credit where it is due to the Israeli authorities for trying their very best to facilitate entry to Bethlehem:

 

http://www.churchtimes.co.uk/content.asp?id=66941

 

So, who would you trust more on where the Church of England stands as regards Israel and the Jewish people: Her Majesty the Queen, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Council of Christians and Jews and the Church Times, or has-beens who are trying their utmost to prevent true friendship between the Jewish and Christian communities, and in so doing, run the risk of derailing the Middle East peace process altogether?

 

 

 

 

 

Comments

[Pageantmaster]

I am so sorry Dr. Lancaster - this is not at all what we in the CofE are all about.

I hope the diocese of London deals with this properly.

[Pageantmaster]

I wonder if those who rewrote these Carols of praise to the Almighty have considered the third commandment. Personally I was horrified.