Dear Ken, here's a goodwill salt-beef bagel (New Statesman Diary)
With Mayor Livingstone now so keen to be seen as a friend of the Jewish community, perhaps it is time to send him a personal invitation. Or two - in case he wants to bring his friend Sheikh al-Qaradawi. By David Rowan
Ken Livingstone is not the most popular politician among Jewish Chronicle readers. Perhaps it is his choice of friends - Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, for instance, viewed by Livingstone as "a moderate scholar, held in respect throughout the Muslim world", who last week told a Qatari TV station that "the Jews of today bear responsibility" for killing Jesus Christ. Or it could be the mayor's refusal to apologise to a Jewish London Evening Standard reporter he likened to a concentration-camp guard, or then again his suggestion that two Jewish property developers should "go back to Iran and try their luck with the ayatollahs".
So when it was announced that a rally would be held in Trafalgar Square on 17 September to celebrate the 350th anniversary of the readmission of Jews to Britain, there was intense speculation as to whether the mayor would show up. There was "clear unease" among community leaders about his having any role, the organiser told the Jewish Chronicle, and "sensitivities" were likely to lead to someone else on the podium.
As plans advanced, the organiser told us Livingstone had not been personally invited to participate in the klezmer music, shofar-blowing and borscht tasting. Instead, as we reported, his deputy Nicky Gavron would represent his office - which, after all, was paying £60,000 towards the cost and lending one of London's busier spaces. It seemed a diplomatic solution.
So it is a mystery why the JC keeps receiving letters from the mayor's office demanding that we correct the supposed falsehood that he was not formally invited. The third, or was it fourth, arrived last week. Clearly, if Livingstone is so keen now to be seen as a friend of the Jewish community, that community should embrace his new-found inclusiveness in the spirit of this season of repentance. A personal invitation should be biked round to City Hall, together with a goodwill salt-beef bagel. Maybe two, in case he wants to bring his friend al-Qaradawi.
++++
My spell-checker refuses to recognise the expression "anti-Semitic". It is either a flaw in our creaking computer system or a deliberate act of anti-Semitism. I was not bothered when I joined the paper four months ago, since I was determined that a newly energised JC would celebrate the positive in the modern Jewish identity. Anti-Semitism, I suspected, was not as great a threat as communal bodies claimed.
Then came the war. Since July, our news desk has recorded such a troubling array of attacks on British Jews and their property - from the 12-year-old girl kicked unconscious to the "Kill all Jews" scrawled on a doctor's house - that I worry at my former complacency. The parliamentary report on 7 September correctly identified the pernicious conflation of anti-Israel with anti-Jewish rhetoric; the growing "respectability" of overt racism; the connection between the articulation of toxic opinions and a minority's willingness to use violence. Certainly, this community cannot define itself largely through "victimhood", but it's been a rude wake-up call.
++++
Since July, the JC has been running a spoof column, purportedly by a non-Jewish PR girl working for an egotistical social climber, David Asherman. Written as e-mail exchanges between Lisa the PR and her mates, it has proved a delicious device for satirising not only this community's David Ashermans, but also some of those he deals with, from Dame Shirley Porter to Lord Levy. Last week, for instance, Asherman had Lisa approach Lords Janner and Bramall to participate in a charity boxing match, while she misinterpreted the Chief Rabbi's close relations with his "Dayan" (rabbinic judge), assuming that he had a mistress named Diane.
It is good-natured if occasionally barbed, but the joke is not going down well among self-important members of the community, with the JC receiving stern demands to disclose the columnist's identity. I was told that I or one of my staff ought to be ashamed for writing such scurrilous garbage. I could only answer that "Lisa" is neither me nor a JC colleague. Nor, to prevent further speculation, is it anyone in the mayor's office.
David Rowan is editor of the Jewish Chronicle and a Times columnist
(New Statesman, September 18 2006)
Ken Livingstone is not the most popular politician among Jewish Chronicle readers. Perhaps it is his choice of friends - Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, for instance, viewed by Livingstone as "a moderate scholar, held in respect throughout the Muslim world", who last week told a Qatari TV station that "the Jews of today bear responsibility" for killing Jesus Christ. Or it could be the mayor's refusal to apologise to a Jewish London Evening Standard reporter he likened to a concentration-camp guard, or then again his suggestion that two Jewish property developers should "go back to Iran and try their luck with the ayatollahs".
So when it was announced that a rally would be held in Trafalgar Square on 17 September to celebrate the 350th anniversary of the readmission of Jews to Britain, there was intense speculation as to whether the mayor would show up. There was "clear unease" among community leaders about his having any role, the organiser told the Jewish Chronicle, and "sensitivities" were likely to lead to someone else on the podium.
As plans advanced, the organiser told us Livingstone had not been personally invited to participate in the klezmer music, shofar-blowing and borscht tasting. Instead, as we reported, his deputy Nicky Gavron would represent his office - which, after all, was paying £60,000 towards the cost and lending one of London's busier spaces. It seemed a diplomatic solution.
So it is a mystery why the JC keeps receiving letters from the mayor's office demanding that we correct the supposed falsehood that he was not formally invited. The third, or was it fourth, arrived last week. Clearly, if Livingstone is so keen now to be seen as a friend of the Jewish community, that community should embrace his new-found inclusiveness in the spirit of this season of repentance. A personal invitation should be biked round to City Hall, together with a goodwill salt-beef bagel. Maybe two, in case he wants to bring his friend al-Qaradawi.
++++
My spell-checker refuses to recognise the expression "anti-Semitic". It is either a flaw in our creaking computer system or a deliberate act of anti-Semitism. I was not bothered when I joined the paper four months ago, since I was determined that a newly energised JC would celebrate the positive in the modern Jewish identity. Anti-Semitism, I suspected, was not as great a threat as communal bodies claimed.
Then came the war. Since July, our news desk has recorded such a troubling array of attacks on British Jews and their property - from the 12-year-old girl kicked unconscious to the "Kill all Jews" scrawled on a doctor's house - that I worry at my former complacency. The parliamentary report on 7 September correctly identified the pernicious conflation of anti-Israel with anti-Jewish rhetoric; the growing "respectability" of overt racism; the connection between the articulation of toxic opinions and a minority's willingness to use violence. Certainly, this community cannot define itself largely through "victimhood", but it's been a rude wake-up call.
++++
Since July, the JC has been running a spoof column, purportedly by a non-Jewish PR girl working for an egotistical social climber, David Asherman. Written as e-mail exchanges between Lisa the PR and her mates, it has proved a delicious device for satirising not only this community's David Ashermans, but also some of those he deals with, from Dame Shirley Porter to Lord Levy. Last week, for instance, Asherman had Lisa approach Lords Janner and Bramall to participate in a charity boxing match, while she misinterpreted the Chief Rabbi's close relations with his "Dayan" (rabbinic judge), assuming that he had a mistress named Diane.
It is good-natured if occasionally barbed, but the joke is not going down well among self-important members of the community, with the JC receiving stern demands to disclose the columnist's identity. I was told that I or one of my staff ought to be ashamed for writing such scurrilous garbage. I could only answer that "Lisa" is neither me nor a JC colleague. Nor, to prevent further speculation, is it anyone in the mayor's office.
David Rowan is editor of the Jewish Chronicle and a Times columnist
(New Statesman, September 18 2006)
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