The British Jewish community rarely seems to feature on the worldwide Jewish map. It may have been significant a century ago, although probably only then because a handful of its leaders had access to the corridors of power of the British Empire. Today, however, it is seldom the focus of international Jewish attention; in the context of Israel-Diaspora discussions, ‘Diaspora’ tends to be a synonym for America, and the other countries that comprise the Jewish world outside of Israel barely seem to feature in the discourse. Britain is no exception.

To be fair, there is reason for this. The British Jewish community numbered 450,000 at the end of the Second World War, but its population has declined to fewer than 300,000 today, the loss being variously attributed to assimilation, emigration (in part to Israel), and a low birth rate. Arguably, no other comparable community has suffered such numerical decline in the same period. And the numbers only tell part of the story; in his 1985 book Diaspora, the scholar Howard Sachar variously described British Jewish organizational life as “pedestrian,” its cultural life as “somnolent,” its religious-educational life as “exceptionally shallow,” and its religious establishment as “a bore.”

I don’t know if Sachar has visited the UK since that time, but if he were to drop in on us today, I’m not convinced he would issue quite the same report. Visit the leafy north London suburbs of Golders Green and Hendon, and you’ll encounter a growing range of kosher restaurants, creative educational initiatives and innovative organizations that are breathing new life into the community. Come on Shabbat, and you’ll find a mounting array of interesting spiritual possibilities, ranging from the inspirational Orthodox community of Ner Yisroel, the melodic traditional egalitarian community of Assif, and the funky band playing at Finchley Progressive Synagogue’s monthly ‘Shabbat Resouled.’ Come at the right times of year, and you’ll have opportunities to attend Jewish Book Week – an impressive literary festival by anyone’s standards – the Jewish Film Festival, and the real jewel in the community’s crown, Limmud.

The story of Limmud is a truly remarkable one, particularly given Sachar’s rather bleak view of British Jewry a generation ago. Founded in 1980 as a conference for Jewish educators based on the American CAJE model, it has become one of the great international celebrations of Jewish culture and learning. It attracts 2,500 Brick Lane Beigel Bake: One of the last vestiges of the Jewish East End of London. By Drew Eavypeople annually to its December festival, including some of the biggest names in Jewish music, politics and education, and, as its reputation has grown, it has inspired a whole range of Limmud spin-off events in 26 other communities around the world at the last count. In many respects, the success of other Jewish initiatives in Britain and elsewhere can be traced back to it too – a number of people behind some of the more creative endeavours that pepper Jewish life around the world today were initially or at least partially inspired by their own experiences of Limmud. It has even spawned a love child of its own – Limmudfest – an eco-friendly summer Jewish festival that is starting to have a whole unique impact on the community.

Its success can be attributed to a number of key factors. It doesn’t impose any particular version of Judaism onto participants; instead it provides open space for people to celebrate and engage with Judaism on their own terms. It doesn’t differentiate between those who know and those who do not – participants inevitably flock to hear big names, but everyone is encouraged to be both participant and presenter, and to contribute whatever it is they have to the success of the event. It is run almost entirely by volunteers – Limmud is a space for anyone – provided they can garner sufficient support from the team as a whole – to try anything, to push any boundary or to test any theory. In that regard, it’s a profoundly empowering space – the Judaism one encounters there is vibrant, creative and alive precisely because participants are given the opportunity to make it so. And yet, at the same time, Limmud is deeply committed to an implicit set of values that underpin virtually everything it does – community, responsibility, tolerance, mutual respect, openness, diversity – and somehow it creates a space in which everyone seems to instantly and organically understand and embrace those.

Limmud’s example teaches some important lessons about the future of the Jewish People. It demonstrates that it is possible to be a serious Jew without necessarily identifying with any particular denomination or belonging to a formal community. It demonstrates that if we provide an inspiring and empowering space that allows Jews to shape Jewish life and community, they can be trusted to do so in ways that are more creative, more inspiring, and more thoughtful than we could ever have imagined. Perhaps most importantly, it demonstrates that Jewish creativity can happen anywhere – even in a somnolent, shallow and boring place Manchester Jewish Museum, Cheetham Hill, Manchester. By Eadaoin Flynnlike the Jewish backwater that is (or once was) Britain.

The implication of this final point may well be that the geographically and ideologically-loaded language of ‘Israel-Diaspora’ has become somewhat redundant. The term, which has long been the standardised language of Jewish discourse, clearly differentiates between Israel on the one hand and everywhere else on the other, it merges all Diaspora communities into a singular bloc, and then often reduces that bloc down to its largest component part, the USA.

I don’t reject Israel’s implicit primacy in the duality. It is the centre of the Jewish world, what happens there affects Jews everywhere, and its Jewish religious and historical significance vastly outweighs any claims from any other part of the world. What I question is the duality itself. The Diaspora is not a coherent or cohesive bloc, it cannot and should not be reduced down to a singular entity, and that entity should not be captured or represented by the United States alone. If Jewish creativity can happen anywhere – and Limmud demonstrates that it can – we ought to develop a new kind of language that seeks to include Jewish communities everywhere, recognise their uniqueness, and empower them towards great things.

The language I believe we ought to adopt gives primacy to Jewish people over and above Jewish places, not least because our future may be far less reliant on ‘place’ than we often think. Place is not unimportant – it provides an environment within which Jewish creativity can either flourish or flounder – but ultimately it is the contribution of individuals or small groups of people that will propel us forward. Different places generate different responses in people, and it was precisely the stuffy and drowsy nature of the British Jewish Bevis Marks, the oldest synagogue in Britaincommunity that prompted a group of British Jews to first create Limmud and then transform it from a small conference into an international phenomenon.

Language influences the way in which we view the world and ultimately shapes policy. The language of Israel-Diaspora diminishes our view of the Diaspora, and turns millions of vibrant, varied and valuable Jews living throughout the world into a singular and amorphous mass. That fails to capture who we are, the nature of our experience, and the possibilities we could create. Change the language, and we might just start to change the results.

Jonathan Boyd is Acting Director of the Institute for Jewish Policy Research in London.  A former Jerusalem Fellow at the Mandel Institute in Israel, he is the editor of The Sovereign and the Situated Self: Jewish Identity and Community in the 21^st Century (Profile Books, 2003). This essay is being published in collaboration with  New Jewish Thought .

December 23, 2008

I’m standing on Sderot Yerushalayim taking pictures, looking at Jaffa again, when a woman stops me and asks, ‘why are you taking a picture of that building?’

‘I like how it looks,’ I say. ‘It’s from the 30s and we don’t have buildings like that where I live.’

‘But why? There are many more old and beautiful buildings like that here. I can show you,’ the woman says.
Leora is from Bat Yam. She tells me that she volunteers in Jaffa, helping Arab women with their Hebrew.

‘That’s nice,’ I say.

‘Yes. We are all God’s children. I give everyone respect. I don’t care who you are – Arab or Jew – I will work with everyone … if he doesn’t come to kill me, of course, then I come to kill him back.’

She points to my London-green parka. ‘You’re not cold in that?’

‘I’m ok,’ I say.

‘You know what I think?’ Leora puts one hand on my arm. ‘I think, oh my God, we live just 70 or 80 years. Oh my God, when we are young we are young, when we are old we are old. And in between, give us life.

‘We must live this 50 years that God gave us and enjoy, but nobody lets us. I told this already to the clever people but nobody is listening.’

Leora poses for a photograph. ‘You are very beautiful and very nice,’ she says. ‘You’re not Jewish, are you? You are? You light candles for Hanukah?’

She scrabbles in her bag for a scrap of paper and a pen. ‘Here is my number. We can sit and drink a coffee together. Call me – call me, whatever you need.’

London Central Mosque at Regent’s Park has been the focus of controversy on a number of occasions, most notably when it was featured in two television documentaries exposing Islamic extremism in Britain: ‘Undercover Mosque’ (2007) and ‘Undercover Mosque: The Return’ (2008). In the documentaries, the on-site Darussalam book shop was found to be selling material by a variety of preachers espousing hardline Saudi Wahhabism.

At the time, it was claimed that the book shop was run independently and that officials at the mosque were unaware of what was being sold there. Obviously such a plea of ignorance today cannot be taken seriously. Yet, looking at the Darussalam store’s website, it’s seems that not much has changed.

In the books section, we find Explanation of Important Lessons (For Every Muslim) by former Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia Abdul-Aziz bin Abdullah bin Baz. In addition to Explanation of Important Lessons, Abdul-Aziz bin Abdullah bin Baz was the author of numerous texts, including ‘Risk of Women Participation with Men at Work’, ‘Warning Of Intermingling Between Men And Women’, and ‘Ruling On The Fast Of One Who Thinks (About Intercourse) Then Ejaculates’.

In his work ‘The Ideological Attack‘, the Sheikh had this to say about the ‘Zionist war’:

The jews strive their utmost to corrupt the beliefs, morals and manners of the Muslims. The jews scheme and crave after possessing the Muslim lands, as well as the lands of others. They have fulfilled some of their plans and continue striving hard to implement the rest of them. Even though they do engage the Muslims in warfare involving strength and arms and have occupied some of their lands, they also fight them by spreading destructive thoughts, beliefs and ideologies; such as Freemasonry, Qadiaanisim, Bahaaism, Teejaanism and others - seeking the support of the christians and others, in order to fulfill their objectives.

And

when we have the ability, it is obligatory to fight the jews until they enter into Islaam, or until they give the jizyah (a tax levied from those non-Muslims who are permitted to live under the protection of the Muslim state) in servility.

According to bin Abdullah bin Baz, ‘the means utilized by the enemies of Islaam today’ for ’spreading corruption in the Muslim societies’ include the building of churches:

The building of churches and temples in the Muslim lands and spending great amounts of wealth on them: beautifying them, making them very conspicuous and noticeable, and building them in the largest and the best locations.

This is intolerable for the true Muslim, he says:

The Muslim whose mind has not been corrupted cannot bear to see the unbelievers wielding authority, and ordering and prohibiting in his own country. Therefore such a Muslim strives his utmost to expel and distance them - even if he has to sacrifice his own life, or his most cherished possession for this cause; and this is what happened after the major conquest of the crusaders. As for the Muslim who is exposed to this filthy attack, he becomes ill in thought and desensitized to this disease; he may not even see any danger with the presence of christians in the lands of the Muslims. Indeed, he may even think that their presence is a source of goodness, which aids and advances civilization.

Another book on offer is Islamic Belief in the light of Quraan and Sunnah by Jameel Zeeno. It turns out Zeeno isn’t exactly a moderate. For example, here’s what you can find in his book Islamic Guidelines for Individual and Social Reform:

[A]nti-Semitism is omnipresent throughout Zino’s book.  Most shocking is page 167, which is entitled “Act upon these Ahadith.”  The first hadith that readers are instructed to “act upon” reads:  “The Last Hour will not appear unless the Muslims fight the Jews and kill them.” And, of course, sinister and secretive conspiracies are imputed to the Jews.  In a passage denouncing fortunetellers, Zino writes, “If they know the Unseen, let them talk about the secret schemes of the Jews so that we combat them.” And, incidentally, Zino mentions in an offhand manner a hadith that says:  “Whoever apostatizes from Islam should be killed.” In other words, those who convert out of Islam deserve death.

Darussalam also offers An Explanation of Four Principles of Shirk by Abu Ammar Yasir Qadhi. Here’s Qadhi on the Holocaust:

All of these Polish Jews which Hitler was supposedly trying to exterminate, that’s another point, by the way, Hitler never intended to mass-destroy the Jews. There are a number of books out on this written by Christians, you should read them. The Hoax of the Holocaust, I advise you to read this book and write this down, the Hoax of the Holocaust, a very good book. All of this is false propaganda and I know it sounds so far-fetched, but read it. The evidences [sic] are very strong. And they’re talking about newspaper articles, clippings, everything and look up yourself what Hitler really wanted to do. We’re not defending Hitler, by the way, but the Jews, the way that they portray him, also is not correct.

Ibn Qayyim Al-Jawziyya’s Among the Punishments and Remedies for Sin: Further Selections from the Illness and the Cure is also on sale. Here’s Al-Jawziyyah on ‘The Bitter Consequences of Sins‘:

It is essential to know that sins and acts of disobedience are, necessarily, very harmful. Their harmful effects upon the heart are akin to the harmful effects of poison upon the body, though the effects vary in their levels and intensities. So is there any evil or harm in this world, or in the Hereafter, except that it is due to sins and disobedience?

[...]

What was it that caused the town of the homosexuals to be raised­ up and turned upside down, such that they were all destroyed? Then stones from the sky pelted down upon them so that they suffered a combined punishment, the like of which was not given to any other nation! And for their brothers will be its like; and it is not far off from the transgressors!

Al-Jawziyyah is an inspiration to Muslim homophobes, and it’s not hard to see why:

Imam Ibnul Qayyim said that the punishment for homosexuality during and after life would not be so great unless the sin itself is unspeakable. The companions of the prophet, sallallahu alayhe wa sallam, were in agreement that the punishment for homosexual offense should be greater that for adultery and that the offender should be put to death in all cases based on the Sunnah. The Sunnah has made this clear beyond the shadow of a doubt, and the companions of the Prophet, sallallahu alaihe wa sallam, and the Caliphs, may Allah be pleased with them, followed the teachings of the Sunnah.

[...]

Ibnul Qayyim said, “ The partner in homosexual activity is better off dead than to take part in this horrible deed. He is being ruined beyond salvation, all the good in his life is being drained. The ground sucks all shame from his face and thereafter, he has no shame of Allah or the people. The sperm of his partner takes over his heart and soul as poison takes over the body.”

In a section devoted to Family, Women, and Marriage, we find a book entitled Four Essays on the Obligation of Veiling written by ‘Esteem Scholors’ [sic]. Amongst those scholars is Saalih Al-Fawzaan. His contribution to the book is an essay entitled ‘Advice to the Muslim Woman’, in which he informs his readers:

As for what we hear about today from some ignoramuses that a husband’s brother, paternal uncle or other male relative can greet his wife, shake her hand, be alone with her and enter into her presence – this is baseless. It is not permissible for a non-mahram to enter into the presence of a woman (without Hijaab), nor to shake her hand, nor to be alone in privacy with her unless there is someone else in the house through which the privacy will be removed. But as for him entering into a house that has no one in it but her, and he is not one of her mahaarim, then this is the forbidden type of privacy and it is dangerous.

In addition to books, the Darussalam store also offers CDs and DVDs. For example, ‘A Guide for the New Muslim‘, a 12 CD set by Jamaal Zarabozo. Zarabozo is no moderate either:

In the past, Zarabozo has accused Muslim modernists of breaking Islamic principles by opposing the stoning of adulterers and the killing of “apostates.” In another fatwa, he warned against visiting a Christian church to “watch people commit the greatest sin … You have no way of knowing what evil Satan may put into your heart by attending the gatherings wherein shirk (idolatry) is being committed.”

The store offers DVDs of preachers including Khalid Yasin and Bilal Philips.

Here’s Yasin on AIDS and homosexuality:

An AIDS virus, that is a classic disease that was created in Fort McKinley, United States. Fort McKinley, the AIDS virus, 63,000 gallons. Missionaries from the World Health Organisation and Christian groups went into Africa and inoculated people for diphtheria, malaria, yellow fever and they put in the medicine the AIDS virus.

The Koran gives a very clear position regarding homosexuality, lesbianism and bestiality — that these are aberrations, they are immoralities and if they are tried, convicted, they are punishable by death.

And here’s Philips on child marriage, as seen in the ‘Dispatches: Undercover Mosque‘ documentary:

The Prophet Mohammed practically outlined the rules regarding marriage prior to puberty, with his practice he clarified what is permissible and that is why we shouldn’t have any issues about an older man marrying a younger woman, which is looked down upon by this society today, but we know that Prophet Mohammed practised it, it wasn’t abuse or exploitation, it was marriage.

Looking at the backgrounds of the authors and preachers cited above we find the following:

• Abdul-Aziz bin Abdullah bin Baz: Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia from 1993 until his death in 1999.
• Jameel Zeeno: Teaches at Dar-ul-Hadith al-khairiyah in Mecca, Saudi Arabia.
• Abu Ammar Yasir Qadhi: Carried out his Islamic studies at the Islamic University of Madinah, Saudi Arabia.
• Saalih Al-Fawzaan: Member of the Permanent Committee for Islaamic Research and Fataawa and member of the Council of Senior Scholars, both in Saudi Arabia.
• Jamaal Zarabozo: Convert who studied Islam with Dr. Mustafa Azami (Professor Emeritus at King Sa’ud University, Saudi Arabia) and with graduates from the Saudi Imam Muhammad University.
• Khalid Yasin: Convert who studied the Qur’an and Islamic legislature in Medina, Saudi Arabia.
• Bilal Philips: Convert who studied for his BA at the College of Islamic Disciplines at the Islamic University of Madeenah, Saudi Arabia, and studied for an MA in Islamic Theology at the University of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

The London Central Mosque has done little or nothing about the material being sold on its premises. The Darussalam book shop continues to promote the Saudi Wahhabi brand of Islam and continues to offer material produced by authors and speakers who hold anti-Semitic, anti-Christian, homophobic, and extreme socially conservative views, and who do nothing to promote social cohesion and tolerance.

Maria Balinska, author of The Bagel: The Surprising History of a Modest Bread, is guest blogging as part of Food Week in the Jewcy Book Club. Maria's book will tell you everything you ever wanted to know about bagels.

This Saturday night, as most Saturdays, I drove to the North West London neighbourhood of Golders Green to stock up on the week's - still warm - bagels. Carmelli is Israeli owned and many of the staff there these days are recent arrivals from Eastern Europe. This week it's bitterly cold - we're experiencing so-called ‘Russian' winds and snow - and people weren't lingering outside the bakery. Usually there is a fair sized crowd milling around on a Saturday night, mostly young Jewish Londoners picking up bagels and cream cheese after a night of clubbing. It takes a good 40 minutes by tube from central London to get to Carmelli's but one Saturday I even bumped into members of a Manchester Jewish youth group who'd come especially for the bagels.  

Bagels have been around in Britain as long as they have in the US but it's only recently that they've begun to ‘make it' on the high street and in the train stations. In the UK the bagel is still used as a badge of Jewish identity. In the 2002 novel Bagels for Breakfast, for example, the exotic act of eating a bagel is one of the hurdles the Jewish hero's gentile girlfriend must leap before being accepted.

The Beigel Bake on Brick Lane - which 100 years ago was the heartland of Jewish London and now is almost completely Bengali - is the cult place to eat bagels, immortalised (for some) in the lyrics of the 1990s alternative Bristol band Earthling. Night shift workers, actors on their way home after the show, financial whizz kids (it's right next door to the City), even Mariah Carey who allegedly was told to go the back of the queue like everyone else. It's those bank workers, though, who got me thinking as I listened to yet another grim report about the financial crisis on the way home from Golders Green Saturday. So just how are bagels being affected by the credit crunch? A natural enough question for anyone who has obsessed about the history of bagels and bagel makers for the past few years. And a bit of research turned up the fact that one major bagel player in London (which has been shipping its annual production of 150 million bagels across Europe and to Japan and Hong Kong) just last week called in the receivers.  

Maria Balinska, author of The Bagel: The Surprising History of a Modest Bread, is guest blogging on Jewcy, and she'll be here all week.  Stay tuned.

As I made my way through the throngs of people protesting against Israel's war in Gaza in London's Hyde Park on Saturday, a passionate reprimand bellowed out of the loud speakers: ‘Israel - shame on you!' The crowd joined in, shouting repeatedly: ‘Shame on you! Shame on you!'

With estimates ranging between 20,000 attendees according to the police and 100,000 according to the protest organisers, Hyde Park was transformed into a sea of placards, banners, Palestinian flags and scarves. Some speakers called for support for Hamas, others - including Tony Blair's sister-in-law Lauren Booth - attacked international politicians' feebleness in negotiating a ceasefire. Later, during the march from Hyde Park to the Israeli Embassy in West London, protesters shouted chants like ‘Free, free Palestine', La ilaha illallah (meaning, in Arabic, ‘there is no God but God') and ‘end the siege in Gaza'.

This protester enacted a classic anti-Semitic lie

The overall feeling at the demo was one of anger and frustration over the war and the lack of intervention from the international community. From veteran demo-goers to young children and pensioners, who do not usually take to the streets, attendees came in droves to condemn Israel and to show their solidarity with those besieged, wounded and dead Palestinians we have all seen in the news over the past couple of weeks. 

One woman told the BBC: ‘I haven't been on a march for a very long time. About 25 years ago I was outside the Israeli embassy so nothing seems to have changed.' Another young woman, wearing a keffiyeh as a headscarf, said that even if the London march won't change the situation in Gaza, at least it will ‘make people aware of what's going on'. Organised by the Stop the War Coalition, the British Muslim Initiative and the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, the demonstration ended with some scuffles, flag-burning, ketchup-squirting, Starbucks-thrashing and (emulating the Iraqi journalist who hurled his shoe at George W Bush) footwear-throwing by the Israeli Embassy.

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As the war goes on in Gaza, heightened tensions are sparking increased anti-Semitic threats and attacks around the world. Here are some that made headlines:

Anti-Semitism Spikes in Britain

According to TotallyJewish.com, eighty five individual incidents or threats have been reported against Jews and/or Jewish institutions in Britain in just the first two weeks of January, setting the nation on a path to having the highest number of anti-Semitic incidents in one month in the history of the Community Security Trust's records. 

Synagogue in France Vandalized

A synagogue in northern France was vandalized on Tuesday with graffiti that included a swastika, according to the Jerusalem Post. Ynet also reports 55 incidents of anti-Semitism since the beginning of Operation Cast Lead.

Vandalism of Hebrew Girls School in Brooklyn

Jewkey.com reported the vandalism of Shaare Torah, a Hebrew Girls School in Brooklyn with "Kill the Jews" graffiti and swastikas. 

Israel Advocacy Group Raided by Pro-Palestinian Protestors

London's BICOM was raided on Tuesday morning by shouting protestors who super-glued photographs of Gaza victims to computers, doing damage to much of the office's communication infrastructure, according to TotallyJewish.com.

Policemen Stoned in Jerusalem

The Jerusalem Post reported that four policemen suffered minor injuries after being stoned by Arab teenagers in east Jerusalem on Wednesday. 

Turkey-Israeli Relations Strained

MSNBC reports strained relations between Israel and Turkey, once its closest friend in the Muslim world. The prime minister of Turkey is under pressure to take a stance on the war as it continues to be fought in Gaza.

When British comedy writer Ariane Sherine saw a bus ad with the Bible quote ‘When the son of man comes, will he find faith on the earth?’ she was not amused. When she followed the web link accompanying this quote from the book of Luke, she was positively alarmed. The website, jesussaid.org, warns that those who reject the anointed one’s musings will face the wrath of God and all the unpleasantness that entails, including torment in hell.

Rather than succumbing to a sudden urge to throw herself under the bus, Sherine sought guidance from that secular arbiter of right and wrong, the British Advertising Standards Authority (ASA). The ASA informed the comedienne that the Advertising Standards Code – which with its 10 sections of do’s and don’ts reads like a modern-day version of the ten commandments – does not prohibit advertising religious messages.Then, Sherine had a revelation. The brewer Carlsberg famously claims in its ads that its lager is ‘probably the best beer in the world’, so she, a devout atheist, should surely be allowed to claim that ‘there’s probably no God’. Under the influence of Carlsberg, Sherine decided to pen an article for the Guardian, urging fellow godless travellers to donate a fiver towards a counter-ad campaign on London’s red ‘bendy buses’.  There was a flurry of excitement around ‘the atheist bus campaign’, with nearly 1,000 individuals pledging money to counter what they see as a pro-religion bias in the advertising world. The British Humanist Association (BHA) agreed to administer donations and the distinguished British scientist and bestselling author of The God Delusion, Professor Richard Dawkins, agreed to match all contributions up to £5,500.

The atheist bus ad campaign is scheduled to run in London in January 2009. The rather timid poster will read ‘There’s probably no God. Now stop worrying and get on with your life’. Observant London commuters will notice a web link to atheistcampaign.org, a rather slick and colourful website, adorned with pretty flowers and links to other god-unfriendly websites. Across the Atlantic, fellow atheist travellers have jumped onboard the atheist bus campaign, with the American Humanist Association (AHA) launching its own ads last month. Their rather uncatchy slogan ‘Why believe in god? Just be good for goodness’ sake’ can be seen on buses across Washington DC. The AHA, too, has a website (whybelieveingod.org) which apparently crashed twice – not because of divine intervention, but because of the huge media flurry around the campaign leading to a sudden, high volume of visitors to the site The question is, why do humanists feel the need to preach the (probable) non-existence of the Lord to the commuting masses of London, Washington DC and beyond? After all, ours has been hailed as a godless age and the influence of religion is, indeed, at a low ebb. The past couple of years have seen a steady stream of anti-religious books, many of which have topped bestseller lists on both sides of the Atlantic, by a range of atheists, agnostics and secular humanists. The most prominent of them - Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennet, Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens are now referred to collectively as ‘The New Atheists’. They have launched a zealous, no-holds-barred attack not so much on God as on the devout.

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On May 1^st, Londoners go to the polls to elect a new Mayor. London’s only ever had one: Ken Livingstone. From the moment the Blair government announced its desire to shake up the city’s system of government in the late 1990s, and despite their subsequent efforts to block him from the job, he was the obvious candidate. An unabashed hard-leftist who made his name fighting Thatcherism in local government, “Red Ken” is, whatever else may be said about him - of which more in a moment - something of an original.

I’m no fan of Livingstone or his politics, to put it mildly, but any fair assessment of his record over two terms in the job must include a number of positives. He has fulfilled his brief in helping to build and maintain London’s status as unquestionably the world’s most vibrant and dynamic capital city. His flagship policy, the $15-a-day congestion charge for London’s notorious traffic, is certainly not without its detractors, but has inspired similar schemes worldwide. And he played a high-profile role in securing the 2012 Olympic Games for the city.

The very next day, when suicide bombers killed 52 on Livingstone’s LondonRed Ken (L) and Red-faced Boris (R): Two outsized personalities that deserve one another transport system, the mayor made a stirring speech in which he vowed to the extremists that "whatever you do, however many you kill, you will fail." But just two weeks later, he was sympathizing with (though not endorsing) suicide bombings against Israelis, noting that "the Palestinians don't have jet planes, don't have tanks, they only have their bodies to use as weapons", and asking why home-grown jihadists who went to “defend [their] Palestinian brothers and sisters” were any worse than British Jews who enlisted in the Israeli army.

That wasn't the first or the last time Ken put his foot in his mouth or made a questionable judgment call. The most high-profile incident was a suspension from office (later successfully appealed) for comparing a Jewish reporter to “a concentration camp guard," but there have been many others. A long-time sympathizer with the aims and methods of the IRA, he has also used his office to promote links with, and visits by, Muslim clerics such as Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi (who has ruled that unborn Israeli children are legitimate targets for ‘martyrdom operations’, as they will one day wear a uniform), and last year he signed a co-operation agreement with his buddy Hugo Chavez to provide “expertise” in town planning and public transport in return for discounted oil for London’s buses. Even among his natural allies on the left, there has been real disquiet about the way he operates, with widespread allegations of cronyism and corruption. The recent resignation of his race relations adviser has only added to the sense among many that his time as London Mayor should be brought to a close.

This year, for the first time, Ken faces a genuine challenge to retain his job. Up against him is one of the few politicians in the country who is also instantly recognizable by his first name alone: Boris Johnson, a Tory MP who fits the clichéd label “maverick” almost as well as the incumbent. A staple of TV quiz shows and the gossip columns of the press, Boris is an irresistibly buffoonish figure whose initial expression of interest in the job was treated as something of a joke. But the realization has grown that he is in with a real chance of winning; opinion polls have them neck and neck six weeks out from the poll. Opponents in politics and media cannot quite decide whether to deride him as a bumbling toff or warn darkly of a hidden right-wing agenda waiting to be unleashed on the unsuspecting citizens of the capital.

“Better the devil you know” seems to be the rallying cry for candidates on both sides of the Atlantic right now. No one would claim that the race for London Mayor is anything like as important as the American election, of course, but it’s getting just as dirty, and it’s going to be even harder to call.

So I’ve returned from all of my far-flung travels. I spent an inordinant amount of time in Golders Green in London, and had one of the best Shabbatot of my life in Oxford. Someone confessed his love to me, and someone else told me to go to rabbinical school and I pretty much didn’t sleep for more than a week. I got made fun of for being a Stupid American more than I’m really comfortable with.
BAers: looking busy

One of the things that struck me most about my time in England is how different Jewish youth groups are in the UK than in the States. In high school, I was very active in USY, the Conservative youth group. This meant that I helped plan and staff events for other teenagers, but I was always supervised by adult staff members who basically ran the show. In the UK, programming is planned and carried out almost entirely by members and former members of the youth group. There are no “adults” per se. Seventeen-, eighteen- and nineteen-year-olds plan week-long camps for younger members of whatever group they’re involved in (Noam, Bnei Akiva, FZY etc.) from beginning to end. They staff all programming, and train other counselors, and do all of the preparation and cleanup work. As a result, I’ve never met so many youth group fanatics as you’re likely to find in the UK.

I wish I could share Matthue’s optimism about the Jewish community in the UK, but for the most part I see it as a divided and cold atmosphere. But the youth groups really are a light at the end of the tunnel. There is so much that youth groups in the US could learn from this kind of initiative and innovation, and I really wish there was a more formal partnership between English and American counterparts of the same organizations. I’m not aware of such a partnership already in existence, but until something like that is created, check out the websites of the big Jewish youth groups in the UK. There’s Bnei Akiva, The Federation for Zionist Youth, Noam, and Netzer.

Life imitating art: Do you picture yourself here?Do you ever feel like everyone is watching you? You may not be as paranoid as you think, at least not if you're one of the 8,760 lucky folks selected to be a part of artist Antony Gormley's proposed plan for London's "Fourth Plinth" -- an empty pedestal in Trafalgar Square with a changing exhibition of statues and installations. If Gormley's plan is selected, volunteers from all walks of life will be chosen to grace the plinth for one hour each, over the course of 2009. Once on the pedestal, they're free to do whatever they like.

"I'm sure we'll get a wide range of wackiness but I have this image of somebody coming from Pinner, clutching their handbag and standing in the breeze for an hour, not doing anything at all, and that being very valuable," says Gormley. Interested? See, you're not paranoid, just attention hungry.

Since Matthue has been blogging from the UK all week, and since I’ll be winging my way over on New Year’s Day I thought it might be a nice time to recommend some great Jewish travel tips for my two favorite places in England.

In London:
If you’re in London for a while and can spare a day just hanging out in Golder’s Green, that’s what you should do. Take the Northern Line to the Golders Green station, and just wander up and down Golders Green Rd and Finchley Rd. Corner Outside Golders Green Tube Station: a number of optionsThere are a bunch of kosher restaurants, Judaica shops and places of interest. I recommend Solly’s on Golders Green and Milk N Honey, just down the street. The best kosher bakery in London, in my not-so-humble-opinion, is Daniel's Bagel Bakery, on 12 Hallswelle Parade, Finchley. Also in Golders Green is a really beautiful Jewish cemetery (on Hoop Lane) just across from the Golders Green Crematorium. Kind of creepy, but an interesting and beautiful place nonetheless. Peter Sellers, Anna Pavlova, Bram Stoker, T S Eliot and Sigmund Freud were all laid to rest here, so it’s worth it to stop by.

Now that you’re all nourished and meditated and looking for some entertainment, hop back on the Tube and head over to Camden, where you can go to the Jewish Museum. The museum itself is wonderful, and they even do walking tours of various neighborhoods every once in a while, so check ahead and see if you can get signed up for one such tour.

Another fun sight is the Bevis Marks Synagogue, the oldest synagogue still in use in Britain, completed in 1701. Saced Destinations has a nice summary of the synagogue’s history, but it’s definitely worth a trip.

My favorite place to daven in London is Assif, a fun and funky egal minyan in Finchley. But if egal isn’t your thing, you’ve got plenty of other options.

Now, I highly recommend a day trip to Oxford. I’m partial, of course, but I definitely think it’s worth your time and money. If you book in advance you can take megabus for I quid each way. Awesome!

In Oxford:

Mainly I love Oxford because most of my favorite people in England are there, but it helps that they have the most amazing Jsoc (that's British for Hillel) ever. They have all kinds of events, from garden parties, to learning, to Shabbat meals, and the best shabbos zmirot I have ever heard. Jsoc meets at the Oxford Jewish Congregation, which is a gorgeous building with wonderful facilities for all kinds of activities, and every part of the community. OJC: Awesome davening, and cute boys with accents

I was never really into Oxford Chabad while I was there, but they have an amazing website that gives you instructions for a great Jewish walking tour of Oxford, including a lark through Christ Church Meadow and “Dead Man’s Walk,” the path of Jewish funeral processions. The Meadow is worth a trip even if you aren’t interested in any of the Jewish stuff. It’s gorgeous and huge.

Typically when I’m in Oxford I end the day with a certain British gentleman, which you probably can’t do, but you can wander around some of the other gorgeous colleges. I recommend Worcester which has its own lake, and Oriel, which is just pretty. Worcester College: in some rare sunshine

If you’re looking for more awesome Jewcy things to do in England, check out SomethingJewish and Jewdas.

We have some mad makeover shows in Britain.

In You Are What You Eat, "Dr" Gillian McKeith moves in with a morbidly obese couple, pokes around in their poo (literally), and tells them that if they don't stop scoffing chips they will die. In What Not To Wear, two posh women with a penchant for botox claim to be able to improve people's self-esteem—and thus the mental health of the entire nation—by giving them fashion advice. In The Sex Inspectors, a group of "sexperts" watches a couple frolicking late at night and then gives them advice on how to improve their love life.

But these shows seem perfectly sane compared with the maddest makeover series yet: Make Me a Muslim (watch the show at bottom of this page).

This mini-series, which kicked off on Channel 4 this week, features four "MuslimIslamic Eye for the Queer Guy: Channel 4's crack team of Muslims tries to whip various classes of deviant into order mentors" who try to instill Islamic values into a bunch of slovenly Brits. In the first episode, we were introduced to a beer-swilling taxi driver (scum!), a mum and part-time glamour model (slag!), and a gay man with a high-pitched voice who wears pink t-shirts (deviant!), all of whom will be whipped into shape by the pious Islamic lifestyle gurus.

Make Me a Muslim borrows heavily from other makeover shows. It has the snobbish dietary element of You Are What You Eat: on Sunday the Muslim mentors visited the contestants' homes and emptied their fridges of pork and alcohol. And the show is fixated on fashion: One of the Muslim mentors, a bearded imam, took the gay contestant to a clothes store to buy him some "manly clothes." It was like Islamic Eye for the Queer Guy.

The female Muslim mentor encouraged the mum-cum-glamour-model—who normally wears skimpy outfits—to don an ankle-covering, hair-hiding hijab. I sympathised with the glamour model when she complained: "This thing is choking me....I feel I am being oppressed by clothes."

The mentors were disgusted to find that one of the contestants—a feisty blonde— sleeps in the same bed as her partner even though they're not married! They demanded that she decamp to the spare room.

Channel 4 describes the show as a "unique social experiment" in which the mentors try to "rescue" Britons who have no moral values. This got me thinking: we hear a lot about "institutional Islamophobia" these days, where Britain's political and cultural elites allegedly whip up fear of Muslims to justify draconian measures. But what about its twin: institutional Islamophilia, the authorities' bizarre belief that Islamic values might make Britain great again?

Trendy opinion-formers and officials promote Islam as the solution to Britain's moral decline. Earlier this year, Time Out magazine, the bible of "An Islamic London Would Be a Better Place": —Time Out magazine, the bible of London's latte-drinking classesLondon's latte-drinking, theatregoing classes, argued that an "Islamic London would be a better place".

Apparently we'd all be healthier since alcohol would be banned. "Turning all the city's pubs into juice bars would have a massive positive effect on public health", said Time Out. And the capital would be greener, too, because "the Islamic concept of halifa or trusteeship obliges Muslims to look after the natural world". Save the planet and your health: go Islamic now!

Last month London's Evening Standard hosted a debate titled "Is Islam good for London?", in which some participants argued that Islam's "core values" might help to anchor out-of-control Brits. The daft notion that drunken and disrespectful Britons might benefit from a short sharp dose of Islam is becoming widespread. In 2005, six Tory Members of Parliament wrote a letter to the Spectator in which they said that Islamists who describe Britain as decadent are "right". "Whether it is lawlessness, family breakdown, the menace of drugs, binge-drinking, teenage pregnancies or merely the coarse brutishness which has infested British culture... the results of years of woolly-minded liberal thinking are plain to see", they said.

Meanwhile, everyone from London mayor Ken Livingstone to former PM Tony Blair speak of their "deep respect" for Islamic values.

We've ended up with a kind of colonialism-in-reverse. Once, arrogant British elites sought to force their Christian, imperialist values on "the natives", including Muslims, in the Third World; today a bereft and confused British elite hopes that importing some of the natives' culture over here might help to keep unruly Brits in their place.

The terrible irony is that Islamic radicals, the biggest Islamophiles of all, are driven by a stunningly similar fear and loathing of the feckless masses. The Crawley plotters, found guilty of terrorist offences earlier this year, wanted to blow up nightclubs and kill "those slags dancing around." Those who planted car bombs outside the Tiger Tiger nightclub in London on ladies' night in June, and crashed car bombs into Glasgow airport during the height of the summer holiday season, also seemed keen to target Britain's "slaggish", hedonistic culture.

These hot-headed extremists fancy themselves as rebels. In fact they're more like the armed wing of Institutional Islamophilia. Where Channel 4 wants to make us into Muslims through makeover shows, violent Islamophiles want to make us into Muslims through fear and terror. Both sides are motivated by a desire to save Britons from their own alleged beastliness.

Continue reading...

London Calling: it seems to be saying something about cute Jewish boys with accents...Calling all Jewcy readers in London! I’ll be in Blighty for a few days in early January and am thinking of hosting a Jewcy get together at a pub. We can all hang out, rouse rabble, and you can tell me what kinds of things you want Jewcy to cover.  If you think you’d be up for such a venture leave a comment, or email tamar@jewcy.com. I want to make sure we’d have a critical mass before I make it official. Otherwise it’s just me in a bar. Or, as we say in America, Thursday.

• Conan O'Brien snubbed for Simpson's movie. [Entertainment Weekly]
• Traffic cameras in London follow your every move. [Guardian Unlimited]
  
• White House buying time for its Iraq strategy. [The Huffington Post]
• Kofi Annan and Jimmy Carter on hand for Nelson Mandela's 89th birthday. [Christian Science Monitor]
• Breathe easy: no asbestos in air after yesterday's steam explosion. [Chicago Tribune]
• Bon Jovi says the new energy drink, Mojovi, is stealing his name's thunder. [The New York Times] 

Police investigators cordon off the Mercedes filled with explosive material outside Tiger Tiger, a Piccadilly nightclub today. A devastating terror attack was thwarted by the perpetrators' incompetence.

Londoners inconvenienced by otherwise ain't bovered.

• London police defuse car packed with explosives. [Chicago Tribune]
• Legal screwups in case against President Moshe Katsav. [The Jerusalem Post]
• In 5-4 decision, Supreme Court rules against school integration. [The New York Times]
• As the Court outlaws busing, Jewish groups lament the decision; Spaniards rally against Ahmadinejad; Amos Oz wins Spanish lit prize. [Jewish Telegraph Agency]
• Mexico's got its Bloomberg: proposal to ban lighting up in Mexico City bars. [The Los Angeles Times]
• How many frequent flier miles to go to the moon? [SPACE.com]
  
• Iron Mike says, "Smile, it's Friday!"

If you think referring to the British left as a congeries of fellow traveling with Islamism is unfair or a straw-man, consider that the mayor of London is still Ken Livingstone. I began my New York Post review of Nick Cohen's What's Left highlighting some of Ken's charms:

IMAGINE if Mayor Bloomberg invited a Muslim cleric from Egypt known for his advocacy of female genital mutila tion, wife-beating, "martyrdom" bombings in Israel and Iraq, and the murder of homosexuals and converts from Islam to be an honored guest of the city.

New Yorkers would naturally rebel against the mayor, who would certainly survive politically. But what if he did something even more brazen and perverse: invite the cleric back.

Surely, it couldn't happen here. But it did happen in London last year under the aegis of left-wing mayor, Ken Livingstone.

Livingstone considers Yusuf al-Qaradawi (the cleric's name) a huggable, "moderate" liaison between East and West. Anyone arguing otherwise Livingstone accuses of xenophobia or - a ridiculous term now gaining traction in the United Kingdom - "Islamophobia."

And here's an ad sponsored by 18 Doughty Street, a UK campaign designed to keep Livingstone from snagging another term in office:

NYU is full of rich brats. Proof lies on the school newspaper's website in an article about London shopping by Andrea Feckzo. Her lead:

A week ago, I decided to treat myself (courtesy of the parental unit) to a weekend of birthday shopping and post-midterm retail therapy — in London.

Oh the dramaticism of the dash--brilliant indeed! Sadly Feckzo's amateur belittling of London's fashionistas that follows lacks the, er, wit of Sentence Number 1. But thank god it retains the snobbery, reinforced by Annette's especially obnoxious comment:

OMG! I love daddy's credit card too! Seriously, after the demands of midterms I too like to avail myself of transatlantic travel to shop. Yes, the exchange rate is a bitch, but at least it's not like I worked for the money.

Where does this whole NYU is full of privileged, spoiled brats stereotype come from?

Annette

I don't have the heart to post the last line of this comment here because it contains her email address. If you're truly dying to know it, you'll have to put in the miniscule effort required to read the article.