Irene Lancaster's Diary

Three new blogs from Israel

Among those who have sent their heartiest mazel tovs on the news of the engagement of our daughter, Kalela, to Sagi Cohen in Tel Aviv is one of my Haifa neighbours and closest friends, Ruth Ludlam, of Haifa.

I am delighted that Ruth has started a new blog with much of interest on Israel and beyond, as has her brilliand husband, Ivor, whose Latin classes I attended at Haifa University and which were a highlight of my week. The classes were so much FUN with their mix of Arabs from Nazareth, new Ukrainian immigrants, one or two sabras and the odd Anglo.

Here is how you access them:

http://ruthludlam.blogspot.com/

 

http://ivorludlam.blogspot.com

 

http://ivorsphilosophy.blogspot.com

Happy reading to all!

My daughter the Cohen: the happiest day of my life

What a week! On Tuesday the most powerful shiur ever on the Holocaust and why bad things happen to good people, from the Orthodox Jewish perspective. Suffice it to say that life is a challenge, and without that challenge who knows if the end of this blog would ever have been written.

It all started n Wednesday. After the dreadful news about Woolworths and MFI

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7749530.stm

our weekly rehearsal of the Salford Symphony Orchestra, with a young soloist, Daniel Chappell from Chetham's School here in Manchester, (born and bred in Salford no less), giving us a rendition of a Haydn piano concerto on electric piano, and making it sound like the real thing! That's musicality for you!

http://www.salfordsymphony.org.uk/

Then, after rehearsal, chilling out with my younger daughter home from California and all set to revamp the house in her image, the phone went. It was 10.30 pm our time - half past midnight in Israel. We were catching up on news and watching TV, when the phone went. There was loads of noise as if it was from an outside venue and then ...

Our daughter, Kalela, is now engaged to Sagi, a COHEN noch, and it is really and truly the happiest day of my life.

For only the offspring of Holocaust refugees and survivors will understand what it means when you have lost nearly your entire Polish family and their history is a blank, you just know that they are looking down at you from heaven and rejoicing with you. For their name will now be perpetuated forever: those Rosenstrauchs and Appels who I never knew and my beloved parents who changed their names to fit in, chameleon-like, with their environments - my Dad to Rawson in Scotland, and my Mum from Shulamit to Paulette (running away all over France during the War).

And Kalela is so like both of them: she has the panache, verve and idealism of my Dad and the charm and grace of my Mum. They both doted on her - their lives being cut off very early. But I remember as yesterday their amazed reaction to her birth, their first grandchild, a miracle of survival: somehow a sign that their lives had not been in vain and that this tiny presence staring quietly into the far distance was indeed a perpetuation of their lives and their name.

Everyone is happy: the Christian green grocer said 'Mazal Tov'; the shul said that it was a wonderful piece of good news among all the illnesses and funerals. And in Tel Aviv, they lit candles for Kalela in Masaryk Square

http://www.telavivguide.net/Shopping/Favorite_Spots/Masaryk_Square_20051018111/

and feted her with champagne after she and Sagi came out of a concert held at the Mann Auditorium by a Canadian-American called Rufus Wainwright!

http://www.last.fm/music/Rufus+Wainwright

What is memory: erasing the power of evil by good

When I was in Israel, I worked as a translator and editor, as well as getting to know the country and meeting as many members of the Christian and Muslim communities as possible.

One of the most memorable commissions I received was from the son of a Holocaust survivor from Poland. Today in Manchester through the post came a booklet of the finished version, including my translation. The son has lovingly put together the thoughts and photos of his late father and the fragmented family, many of whom didn't survive - although others, miraculously, did!

As someone whose own parents came from Poland and who never met her grandparents, or found out much about them, I feel that it is imperative for these sorts of records to be kept, however painful the endeavour for loved ones and survivors alike.

And yet life goes on! Last Shabbat in our shul, we had a most interesting talk on the DNA of the Cohanim. The presenter comes from Jerusalem. Afterwards, I mentioned to him that the London Times man in Israel had invited me to lunch in Jerusalem last year and had shown an interest in this question. The speaker was keen for him to be in touch.

http://www.cohen-levi.org/the_center/projects_of_the_center_of_kohanim.htm

Today I also heard from the very same James Hider, the Times man in the Middle East, who remembered our encounter. His article about the recent Paul McCartney concert in Tel Aviv was one of the most accurate according to my sources. However, James tells me that not all Beatles fans were happy that he wasn't more adulatory, and told him so in no uncertain terms! All I know is that, having attended a Paul concert myself, some years ago in Manchester, you go for the memories, not for the actual performance. After all, the man is now a pensioner! But when the Beatles first started in the Liverpool of my childhood, the country woke up and was revolutionized over night.

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

Because when reality seems to be unbearable, as in the present credit crunch, when so many are losing their jobs, homes and families, the thing to do is to dwell on the good as well as the evil of the past. And that puts things in perspective! For you realise that the fascist mind-set, which is intent on control freakery and the wish to destroy is more than offset by the power of the the written word, music and the spirit which the divine has placed in our souls. 

I

The importance of blogging

A fascinating discussion by Ruth Gledhill of the Times on the importance of blogs, and particularly religion blogs:

http://timescolumns.typepad.com/gledhill/2008/11/talk-about-blog.html

It was Ruth who got me blogging myself and it is all credit to her that her own blog is so popular. I particularly liked her thought that blogging allows people the 'opportunity to do good in the world'. She certainly does.

Normblog on the new appeasement

After Friday's Manchester meeting with the Ambassador to the Holy See on how to prevent the Shoah happening again

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

 i.e. through real inter faith dialogue, encouraging traits demonstrated by the Righteous Gentiles commemorated at Yad Vashem

http://www1.yadvashem.org/righteous_new/about_the_righteous.html

and basic vigilance

much food for thought here on Normblog

http://normblog.typepad.com/normblog/2008/11/wailing-jews.html

Inter faith dialogue: a 'marathon' of education

The Times writer, Ruth Gledhill, posted on the trip to Auschwitz yesterday of the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Chief Rabbi of the UK and other faith leaders, including a representative from the Muslim Council of Britain:

http://timescolumns.typepad.com/gledhill/2008/11/archbishop-and.html#comments

Today in Manchester, Israel's immediate past Ambassador to the Holy See, Oded Ben Hur,

http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/speeches/2003/june/documents/hf_jp-ii_spe_20030602_ambassador-israel_en.html

addressed a mixed audience of Jews and Christians on the importance of remembering the Shoah. He suggested that most dialogue of the last 20 years had not been completely successful, and had in fact often constituted monologues between two or three different religions. He suggested that we should launch a 'marathon' of education in which people came out of their respective boxes and met the 'other' half way.

There is truth in this statement. In the UK much interfaith dialogue has either skirted around difficult issues, or been one-sided. In Israel, dialogue is very serious, but also tends to be based on 'monologues'.

In June I hope to be holding an Open Day at Manchester University on the nature of inter faith dialogue and how we can best achieve it. Is it necessary? What are the boundaries? When does dialogue become either appeasement or conversion?

What are the various ways in which dialogue can be had? Talking is only one way. Pilgrimages, shared cultural and sporting events and even picnics can be helpful.

The ambassador suggested that although religious bigotry has caused much pain and suffering throughout the world, this very problem can also help to provide the solution. By learning to understand the 'other', maybe we can help to heal ourselves and, ultimately, the world.

New beginnings

I have a friend who I saw recently in Haifa, who tells me that what she misses most about England are the autumn leaves. I know what she means. Coming back from a week in Haifa, visiting the grave of the mystic Isaac Luria in Sfat

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Luria

swimming in the Haifa sea, and generally catching up with family and friends, nothing prepares you on your return for the metamorphosis into the sheer orange glory of a Salfordian autumn.

http://www.aidan.co.uk/photo560.htm

This, together with the first Christmas rehearsal of the Salford Symphony Orchestra on Bonfire Night

http://www.salfordsymphony.org.uk/

and the explosion of jubilation at the Obama win, heralds a new era maybe ....  

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7710675.stm