The press
Parochialism
Patrick Marnham
The controversy over the merits of the TV series Holocaust, and the bitter dispute between the Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Anti-Nazi League, have both received their best coverage in the same newspaper, the Jewish Chronicle, the leading newspaper of the Jewish community.
Any parochial newspaper is bound to present a slightly barmy appearance to those outsiders who chance to read it, and the Jewish Chronicle is no exception. At times it reminds one of the local paper which headlined the loss of the Titanic as 'Guildford man lost at sea'. Did you know, for instance, that Jack Ruby was Jewish? Or that before he died Ruby read Exodus and became convinced that President Johnson had sent all the Jews in America to Dallas to be murdered and that he was the last one left? For this sort of information the Chronicle is indispensable.
Occasionally, as in the case of Holocaust and the Anti-Nazi League, a weekly Jewish newspaper is handed a story of genuinely national interest, but for the most part its attempts to find the Jewish angle seem somewhat strained. No other paper would carry a picture and a story of a young lady who had just become the first female chairman of the Junior Organisation of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors on the grounds that she was 'making history'. One would have thought it was a modest enough achievement by the present standards of the Jewish community. More eccentric is the ethnic slant of the review pages. Charlie Chaplin, we learn in almost the only Cornment on a new biography, was not Jewish (although he sometimes claimed to be). Jack Benny on the other hand, was. Really? The question of who is and who is r101 Jewish is not always so straightforward. In fact it provides a recurring topic of sPeea," lation. Karl Marx for instance is widel regarded as Jewish, but a Chronicle book reviewer points out that he was 'only °f Jewish ancestry', had been baptised as a child and never considered himself a Jew' This suggests that Jewish identity is to some extent voluntary. But the Rev. Paul Oestreicher, the progressive Anglican divine — whose views meet with more approval from another contributor — is described as ‘11 Christian Jew'. There is a further implication then that Jewishness is not merely a matter of religion or descent, nor is it simply a state of minclt has to be earned or in some way endorse' This is partly confirmed by another storY which relates how twin brothers, both vi°linists, have decided to leave Israel. Twill Jewish violinists are almost a stereotYPe ° Jewish humour and would probably bei regarded as something of a catch in Te Aviv. But these twins did not return the compliment. Instead they left Israel for t"" United States after two years, saying til° they had been beaten, harassed and cliS; criminated against. The Israelis in reply saw that they were trouble-makers of longstanding who had been imprisoned while i° Russia for 'genuine' crimes, not for seek: ing to emigrate. Criminals carrying vi°1113 cases and heading for America begin to sound rather Italian, not really Jewish at all' The matter is complicated further bY the current case of an American negro basketball player who converted to Judaism emigrated to Israel and became the star 01 an Israeli team. A rival team which had t° rely on the short, wiry, homegrown plaYer challenged the validity of this 6ft 6in presbyterian giant's new religious convictions. There was a similar case two years ag°' American negro basketball stars seem to be surprisingly religious people. It is all getti,rig too much for one Israeli rabbi who, we Jewish Chronicle reports, is demanding WI; icter religious tests for converts. 'Wit, intermarriage and assimilation advancing 3` such a catastrophic pace,' he complains, 'any action we can take to stem this tide must be adopted as soon as possible'. V4111,tever it is he is defending is appare0t-1Y understood implicitly by regular readers. The Women's Page also raises a familiar problem in an original way. What is to be,, done about au pairs? Jewish families, 11 appears, 'do sometimes adopt the attitude that housework just isn't a job for a "nice Jewish girl" and therefore hesitate to take on an Israeli girl instead of 'the usual Continental domestic help'. The Chronicle is against this attitude but warns the housewife that she must be prepared to ask for the same work from her Israeli girl as from a girl of another nationality'. Perhaps by definition a community newspaper has to apply certain doublestandards, and the Jewish Chronicle is no Slouch in this either. A report that there has been an outbreak of anti-semitic graffiti in Nice is followed by the comment, a propos of nothing in particular, that many West German and Arab tourists are on holiday in the area. A review of the Oxford Dktionary Of English Christian Names points out that names like William and Roger are derived from Old German and might not be con sidered appropriate for Jewish children. There is disapproval for the traditional but of the Oberammergau Passion Play, Out enjoyment of the humorous aspects of aII advertisement in the Chronicle which states that there are vacancies for carpenters in Nazareth. A reader writes in to say that he has noticed many people wearing Stars of David charms 'who, by not the remotest possibility, could be classified as Jewish'. How the reader knows whether or not these people are Jewish remains unstated. It could hardly be because of their appearance since the Chronicle normally ridicules the idea that there is such a thing as characteristic Jewish appearance. The casual reader will also learn to his astonishment that the Israeli government is in the habit of giving out 'Righteous Gentile' medals. Belloc distinguished between 'good Jews' and tad Jews', but even he Might have thought that handing out medals was slightly patronising. Finally, although the Chronicle is naturally against censorship i -5 prepared to Suggest to Camden public library that it should remove a hook which is critical of Zionism. It is this last concern which may account for much of the paper's confusion. since it was established in 1841 as the Organ of British Jewry, the Jewish Chronicle has Performed an intellectual somersault. Originally its aim was to serve British Jews in their struggle for acceptance within Britain. Now that that struggle is long since won it devotes much of its space to persuading British Jews to uproot themselves once more and emigrate to Israel. Any encouragement given to this cause by, say, the National Front would rightly be considered as hostile. Any discouragement to Zionist emigration by, say, British socialists (who suggest that British Jews should remain in 13r1tain) would also be considered hostile. Hence Zionism's masterly achievement in °PPosing both the National Front and the Anti-Nazi League. The confusion is evidently shared by the P,aPer's readers. Many of them would describe themselves as Zionists, although they know that it is the first duty of Zionists to go and live in Israel. Perhaps they find some comfort in the comment of the president of the World Union of General Zionists whose explanation of the failure of mass emigration from Europe and America was recently reported in the paper. ,The truth Is, he said, 'that they don't want us there'.
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