Dr. David Patterson, director of the Oxford Center for Post-Graduate Hebrew Studies, severely criticized the Anglo-Jewish community, describing it as “a cemetery with ornamental tombstones.”
Speaking on the contemporary Jewish world at a Joint Israel Appeal seminar, Patterson lamented the “long period of neglect” of Jewish culture, particularly where the young were concerned. While the community was well-organized, he said, on Jewish culture and things Jewish, it was philistine. “The real priorities of Judaism and Jewish learning have been bypassed and substituted with those less sound and based on sentiment and gastronomy,” he said.
Stressing that Jewish education was most important at university level, Patterson criticized the Jewish community for failing to establish posts in modern Jewish studies and modern Jewish history in British institutes of higher learning, a failure, he warned that put young Jewish people at a disadvantage. He called for an immediate effort to correct this deficiency.
CORRECTION A story in the Dec. 16 Daily News Bulletin reporting 12 Jewish editors on a tour of Morocco inadvertently omitted Dallas-Fort Worth as one of the 12 communities represented by the 12 editors.REMINDER: There will be no Bulletin dated Dec. 26 due to Christmas. a postal holiday.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
