In praise of the positive

Before the 'War on Britain's Jews'

http://www.channel4.com/culture/microsites/C/can_you_believe_it/debates/talking_point_jews.html

I was just someone in adult education.

I started out in my twenties by teaching biblical Hebrew to mature students studying for the priesthood in Manchester (including some of the first crop of women). I fitted this in with looking after a five-year old daughter, and would scoot off when my husband returned from work, to get to classes in the evening.

Then we moved to Liverpool and immediately went on sabbatical to Jerusalem for eight months. On return, I taught modern and Biblical Hebrew to the Liverpool Jewish community, expanding this to Jewish history and philosophy, and went on to teach these subjects in the Centre for Continuing Education at Liverpool University as well.

http://www.merseyworld.com/precinct/Apr96/prec13.html

These were happy years, but even then there were clouds on the horizon. During the Tall Ships Celebration, a pal of Louis Farrakhan held some seminars at Liverpool University on how the Jews were responsible for all the world's evils, including slavery. The relevant university authorities informed us that the only way to stop the seminars was to threaten to burn down the university building. It appears that a precedent had been set when the South African embassy had sent up one of their number to address students, and Toxteth had threatened arson. This was in the 90s.

We didn't threaten arson and the talks about the Jews being the root of all evil went ahead as planned.

http://www.adl.org/special_reports/farrakhan_own_words2/farrakhan_own_words.asp

In those days I founded the Liverpool Burma Support Group, was invited to attend the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG9LizSi4zc

and met the Dalai Lama, who asked for help in publicising the plight of the Burmese, which was similar, he said, to that of the Tibetans.

http://irenelancaster.typepad.com/my_weblog/2007/09/the-ghastly-bur.html

Subsequently, the Liverpool University students' union named a room (actually the bar) after Aung San Suu Kyi of Burma. Her relatives told me that she would be tickled pink, as she is tee-total. But they were thrilled, nevertheless.

http://www.thingsmovearound.com/2007/10/

There began to be murmurings at the university about some of the students from Iran, Iraq and other such countries who were increasingly coming to study at Liverpool. Some of their extra-curricular activities gave some cause for concern, but they carried on regardless.

In 1996, as the Jewish community in Liverpool was dwindling, we moved to Manchester. I started teaching in Bolton. Every day the school saw the presence of police and ambulances. Inter-ethnic fights were the norm. On one occasion, a boy whose parents were from Pakistan drew a picture of a pig burning in an oven. That was me, he said. He was sad that Hitler hadn't finished the job. I was blamed for having mentioned Judaism in an RE class.

Then I taught Jewish history part time at Manchester University - a new course which took me a year to prepare. The course included first-hand writings, in translation, which spanned the Second Temple period until the present day, which was then 2000-2001.

http://www.mucjs.org/annreport01.htm

At the same time, I was occasionally asked to help out particularly with RE at local schools, which now included the concept of Citizenship.

I've documented experiences with university students and school classes in previous blogs. Suffice it to say that the roots of 9/11 were already there in the 90s, at least, and possibly even earlier.

In 2003, I received an invitation from Yad Vashem to attend an educators' conference on the Holocaust .

http://www1.yadvashem.org/education/newsletter/english/third/school.htm

Many felt that the situation for British Jews was becoming more and more untenable, I was asked to get involved actively and vociferously. The four areas of concern were spelled out as being the Church of England (including church charities), the media (especially the BBC), the unions and academia.

It was not easy to get involved in the way Yad Vashem requested, given Anglo-Jewry's reluctance to makes waves. The byword is 'Don't put your head above the parapet. There's always been antisemitism and there always will be.'

I didnt' have to be told about antisemitism. My parents were Polish and went through the Holocaust. I never knew my grandparents. All the relations on my father's side were killed. My mother's side were scattered all over the world.

But I also knew something of the Church of England, not just through study, but through teaching. And I knew that many were not antisemitic per se, but ignorant, susceptible and naive about the real dangers both to Britain and to their own religion. As well as incredibly ignorant about the modern State of Israel.

The BBC, on the other hand, was a closed book. Letters rarely got answered and it was an organisation which regarded itself as above criticism.

The universities - well I knew of my own experiences and the reaction to 9/11, which was that a blind eye was being turned to the rise of Muslim extremism on campus. I was visited by Special Branch who were concerned at this and asked for information that might assist them with preventing terrorism.

I started writing to some of the Press and was astonished at their positive reaction. One very famous journalist told me that our correspondence had helped to turn him around. He now saw Israel not in black and white terms, but as vulnerable. When I told him I was emigrating to Israel, he stated jokingly that I might consider becoming the next Ambassador to the UK (sweet man!).

But the BBC is still very disappointing on Israel - as this report demonstrates.

http://irenelancaster.typepad.com/my_weblog/2008/01/the-bbcs-report.html

And popular programmes on religion continue to be inaccurate and occasionally defamatory about matters Jewish. But one can only hope.

In the next few blogs, therefore, I would like to concentrate on the Church Press, which in the early years of the millenium were, frankly, so hostile to Israel, so ignorant about Judaism, so indifferent to what was actually written on the subject and their possible repercussions, that it just took one's breath away. One of the most prominent of these papers was even placed on the Index of Antisemitism.

There are many reasons for this - one of which in my view is the reluctance of knowledgable members of the British Jewish community to engage theologically with the various churches. Nature abhors a vacuum, and so negative images of Jews, Judaism and Israel took over by default.

This is not the only reason. The rise of liberation theology, together with a modern form of replacement theology, have also played their part. In addition, Israel does not behave like the typical former colony of the British. And that is it: British colonialism, although often more benevolent than other forms, has come back to haunt the British.

In the votes market, who would they prefer to placate - the approximately 3 million Muslims now living in Britain, or the 250,000 Jews, who, despite their education, comparative affluence, generosity and stoicism, are finding it awfully difficult to know how to cope with the universities, churches, media and unions of Britain?

Part of the trouble being the penchant for Jews, when gathered together, to engage in verbal punch-ups, rather than to state the following plainly and clearly:

We might disagree among ourselves on a number of matters, but on one thing we are agreed - we are concerned at the rise in attacks on Jewish people, schools, synagogues and other buildings. We would be grateful if you would bear this in mind when broadcasting, giving a lecture, supporting Palestinian rights, giving sermons, or advertising for your charities at Christmas. We would also be grateful if you did a bit of homework on Jewish history and realised that we are fond of our country of birth, or were before it seemed no longer to care about us. Please bear this in mind. thank you.

The following blogs will analyse some of the progress made in reporting things Jewish in the Church Press and some of the areas still needing attention.