Antisemitism and contemporary politics

[Nefertiti2]

Here's the Pollard "asajew" article. It's aim is to discredit anyone of Jewish heritage who disagrees - it's now repeated by lots of others some Jewish others not.

[sw2borshch]

He styles it as 'AsAJew', which helps, but yeah, looks a bit thin.

I take it 'shul' is school, but with a Sunday School flavour? Actually, I could probably look that one up myself.

[sw2borshch]

Oh crikey, it's synagogue. Then I think I don't like this bloke's tone.

[NHH]

There's an interesting discussion of Thatcher's stance towards Israel in the LRB here. In essence, she was chosen for the seat because she wasn't a jew by the local association, but developed good relations with her jewish constituents but those never trumped her dislike of Likud because of the crossover between its leading members and those people being active in the Irgun.

[Duncan Gardner]

May be covered in NHH's link but Finchley Golf Club openly barred Jews from membership until Thatch arrived in 1959

[ursus arctos]

Pollard is a world class putz

[sw2borshch]

Crikey. That seems so unBritish. I know that British conservatism has an anti-Semitic strain, but that seems really late. I think. Plus an active, explicit ban feels like more of an American thing.

[Nefertiti2]

Anti-semitism is very British. Just read George Orwell PG Wodehouse, Agatha Christie, Richmal Crompton, GK Chesterton, Saki HG Wells, etc etc. Potters Bar golf club was founded as the only club that would allow Jewish membership. Before 1933 there had been no British Jewish Nobel prizewinner, and one American - there had already been dozens in Germany. It wasn't possible for Jewish scientists in the UK to get study places or jobs at the major Universities. Recently there has been much self congratulation about the Kindertransport and whilst it's true that lots of lives were saved- many more died because their parents and siblings were not allowed into Britain.

Margaret Thatcher's parents took in an Austrian refugee whose father like hers was in the Rotary club.

[Flynnie]

Oh crikey, it's synagogue. Then I think I don't like this bloke's tone.

Specifically, shul is a very Orthodox term for a synagogue. A Reform Jew would be much more likely to call it a temple.

[Nefertiti2]

Not in Britain. Synagogue.

[Nefertiti2]

But that the President of the Board of Deputies of British jews can dismiss a letter from over 200 Jews i support of Corbyn many of whom are the children of refugees or holocaust survivors as 'the usual bunch of anti-Semitism deniers" shows how poisonous things have become.

[ursus arctos]

Nor in New York.

Shul is one of those words that crosses the Orthodox/Conservative/Reform divide.

[sw2borshch]

Sorry, not saying anti-Semitism is unBritish, more that it would be done by not getting the invite to join, 'not one of us, old boy', rather than an open barring. That's the unBritish bit.

[Flynnie]

Ah, I recall my ex-Orthodox friends being much more likely to say shul and my more liberal Jewish friends saying temple, but that may be limited to the rather small SF Jewish community.

[Duncan Gardner]

Re Agatha Christie's prejudices they extended to all non-English non-Middle Class people. There may have been more criticism of this, especially after 1945, had basically all her characters not been obvious one-dimensional caricatures. As she put it,each book is a crossword puzzle with a body in the library None of this excuses it, obviously.

[ad hoc]

Not sure if this link will work but it's a post that Michael Rosen (the author) put on Facebook. He was accused by Jess Phillips of "shit stirring" simply because he asked if it was possible to support Palestinian human rights without falling foul of the "anti semitic" slur

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?sto...5&id=633167224

[ursus arctos]

Flynnie, it may also be related to your being such an obvious Catholic (NTTAWWT).

More seriously, I would say that Pollard's use of shul there would be very much in keeping with NY practice. The synagogue's official name may well be Temple X and it isn't at all as if Reform Jews would never talk about going to temple, but if you are trying to shame your co-religionists for failing to attend services, you would use shul.

The LRB article is interesting in many respects, but does not go into the country club issue. As to formal bans being "American", they often were not here in the case of voluntary associations like country clubs (my recollection is that the ban on Black people at the home of the Masters wasn't written down). Where you did see them set forth in unambiguous language was in cases where they were to be enforced against third parties, the most common and nefarious examples being residential covenants.

[Nefertiti2]

Here's some background Sw2. Jews were excluded from the Finchley golf club- though not publicly.. the Council owned the land the club was on. the liberals campaigned on this and won council seats-

[ursus arctos]

The Rosen link works even for those who don't have Facebook and is worth reading. The transparent bad faith at work here is appalling.

[Duncan Gardner]

Here's some background Sw2. Jews were excluded from the Finchley golf club- though not publicly.. the Council owned the land the club was on. the liberals campaigned on this and won council seats-

Thanks Nef. I may have exaggerated slightly- blame a long-standing bias against golf clubs. It's obv not as strong as my dislike of Thatcher/ Bibi/ Pollard, but real enough

[Flynnie]

A funny story about golf clubs. Like in other cities, Jews could not join most of LA's most prestigious golf clubs, so they started their own, the very ritzy Hillcrest Country Club. In the 1960s, as golf clubs began to come under pressure for refusing membership to Jews or black people or both, they realized their membership list was entirely Jewish and decided to integrate the Hillcrest.

Their first non-Jewish member? The Lebanese-American Danny Thomas, prompting Jack Benny to complain that the least Hillcrest could do was find a member who looked like a gentile.

[ursus arctos]

The progression at many clubs around here is instructive:

White Protestant Men
White Catholic Men
White Jewish Men
Black and Brown Men
Women (maybe)

[Duncan Gardner]

Heh. At my Palestinian primary school, we had an ecumenical pantomime.

I played the Principal Goy

[Nefertiti2]

You’ve cracked that joke before.

[Antepli Ejderha]

Not sure if this link will work but it's a post that Michael Rosen (the author) put on Facebook. He was accused by Jess Phillips of "shit stirring" simply because he asked if it was possible to support Palestinian human rights without falling foul of the "anti semitic" slur

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?sto...5&id=633167224

This is an excellent and rationale statement that so many people need to read and fully comprehend. Sadly they won't and will continue with their binary definitions.