Behind the Headlines British Jewry in 1982

British Jewry has little cause for comfort as it reviews 1982 and little ground for rosy hopes about the year ahead.

The Lebanese war and its aftermath caused divisions in the community concerning Israel of a depth and bitterness not known for generations.

It has been accompanied by a growing intolerance between the different religious factions in the community, now that the unifying influence of Israel has been weakened. Given the highly centralized character of the community, these divisions appear all the more pronounced.

HIT HARD BY WAR IN LEBANON

The Lebanese war struck the Jews of Britain more deeply than other diaspora communities. The first shot in the war was the one which severely disabled the Israeli Ambassador to Britain, Shlomo Argov, on the pavement outside the Dorchester Hotel, on Thursday, June 3.

Argov, easily the most forceful Israeli Ambassador to have served in London, had previously played an incalculable role in retaining the community’s confidence in Israel at a time when the Jewish State was being turned into an international pariah. To Anglo-Jewry, as well as to his country and family, his tragic plight has been a severe blow. He left a gap which will be difficult to fill.

In the initial days of the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, Anglo-Jewry was preoccupied by Argov’s protracted fight for life as he lay unconscious in a London hospital. Following his transfer to a Jerusalem hospital, the Lebanese fighting began to totally dominate Anglo-Jewry’s attention, as it did the British radio, television and newspapers.

The horrifying massacres in Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Beirut and the storm of dissent in Israel itself caused unprecedented strains among British Jews, many of whom felt moved to dissociate themselves from Israel’s action in Lebanon in letters to national newspapers. Some of the writers felt moved not merely to dissociate themselves from Israel but to review their allegiance to Judaism.

BITTER ARGUMENTS IN THE COMMUNITY

Within the organized community, there were bitter arguments within bodies such as the Board of Deputies of British Jews, a resurgence of support for the Israeli Labor opposition, and the emergence of a British branch of the Peace Now movement. Premier Menachem Begin’s highly vocal supporters for once had difficulty making themselves heard.

During the High Holidays, the arguments even spread to synagogue pulpits. At the prestigious Golders Green Synagogue in Northwest London, Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, its charismatic emeritus minister, said Israeli complicity in the Beirut massacres was tantamount to “Chilul hashem” (desecration of God’s name).

Dayan Morris Swift, the fierce septuagenarian custodian of Anglo-Jewish Orthodoxy, immediately followed Sacks to the pulpit and informed the tense congregation that his younger colleague’s statement had been invalid.

One of the most acrimonious outbursts of brotherly dislike occurred in mid-December and was all the more remarkable for taking place outside the confines of the community. In a local radio program, an Orthodox and a Reform Rabbi traded vituperative insults not only at each other but at wide segments of Jewry.

Rabbi Cyril Harris, Glasgow-born minister of St. John’s Wood Synagogue, London, referred to Reform and Liberal congregations as “the dustbin” of Anglo-Jewry. Rabbi Hugo Gryn, senior minister of the West London Synagogue, accused his colleague of sinking to the level at “Ayatollahism.”

BICKERING IN THE ZIONIST COMMUNITY

Bickering also marred the activities of Britain’s Zionist Federation, which has long seemed more pre-occupied with its own internal disputes than the fundamental issues facing Jewry, let alone Zionist achievement.

Despite its claim to represent 50,000 people in Britain (a figure which has remained curiously constant over the years), it was unable to elect all its representatives to the 30th World Zionist Congress without arbitration from Jerusalem.

In this gathering gloom, the open nature of the monthly debates in the Board of Deputies were a welcome and refreshing exception. It was there that the community’s strong feelings about Lebanon were expressed, under the stimulating chairmanship or the Board’s president, the Labor MP and lawyer, Greville Janner.

A different issue which arose at the Board in the closing days of 1982 was whether or not the Board should attend next April’s 40th anniversary memorial of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising in the Polish capital.

The Association of Polish Jewish Ex-Servicemen pleaded with the Board against participation in the event. Dr. Simon Frisner, its president, accused the military regime in Warsaw of overt anti-Semitic tendencies and said Western Jewish organizations should have nothing to do with it.

However, the majority agreed with veteran communal politician, Dr. S. Levenberg, who pointed out that there was still a tiny Jewish community in Poland and that Western Jewry must not abandon it. This is a controversy which is bound to continue into 1983 right up to the anniversary itself.