This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2013/may/10/assimilation-successful-ghosts-past-haunt
The article has changed 3 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
| Version 0 | Version 1 |
|---|---|
| Assimilation has often been successful, but the ghosts of the past can haunt you | Assimilation has often been successful, but the ghosts of the past can haunt you |
| (12 days later) | |
| In 1891, the Reverend Samuel Friedeberg was appointed senior minister of the Liverpool Old Hebrew Congregation, where he served for 41 years. His brother, Louis, my great grandfather, worked for the Jewish Board of Guardians in the East End of London, a charitable organisation helping the so-called "strange poor" who sought political shelter in the west after being driven out of Russia by the pogroms of the late 19th century. | In 1891, the Reverend Samuel Friedeberg was appointed senior minister of the Liverpool Old Hebrew Congregation, where he served for 41 years. His brother, Louis, my great grandfather, worked for the Jewish Board of Guardians in the East End of London, a charitable organisation helping the so-called "strange poor" who sought political shelter in the west after being driven out of Russia by the pogroms of the late 19th century. |
| The Friedebergs were a longstanding Jewish family with roots in Portsmouth going back to Georgian times and probably before that. Many of them married girls from Russia. But in 1916, Samuel changed his name to Frampton and Louis to Fraser. This may have been as much to do with anti-German feeling at the time as it was with antisemitism. But clearly the desire for assimilation was a big part of it. They wanted to fit in. Not to be different. The widely admired Princes Road Synagogue itself even looks like a church. | The Friedebergs were a longstanding Jewish family with roots in Portsmouth going back to Georgian times and probably before that. Many of them married girls from Russia. But in 1916, Samuel changed his name to Frampton and Louis to Fraser. This may have been as much to do with anti-German feeling at the time as it was with antisemitism. But clearly the desire for assimilation was a big part of it. They wanted to fit in. Not to be different. The widely admired Princes Road Synagogue itself even looks like a church. |
| Built in the style of a Gothic basilica in 1874 by a notable firm of local church architects, it is a monument to anglicised Judaism. The Rabbis were called reverends and, like many Jewish clergy of the time, wore dog collars. In the synagogue, even the tablets of the Ten Commandments are written in English. A founder member of the synagogue was Edwin Samuel, whose son became Lord Samuel, the first Jew to enter the cabinet. Assimilation was often successful. But sometimes too much so. | |
| Visiting the synagogue this week made me feel distinctly uncomfortable. For it felt like one logical extension of all this desire for assimilation was me – a Christian priest. My father married out and converted. The connection with thousands of years of the Jewish faith was thus severed. Disraeli once described himself to Queen Victoria as the blank page between the Old and New Testaments. She had no idea what he meant. But I do. Sometimes this blank page feels like a creative place where the tectonic plates of two theological worlds rub up against each other, generating the sparks of new insights. At other times it feels like one has been marooned, neither one thing nor another. Or worse, it feels like something fundamental has been betrayed. | |
| Earlier this year, on the feast of Purim, I did an event at Jewish Book Week with the novelist Naomi Alderman, who has written a book on Jesus from a Jewish perspective. Given the subject, she often has to field questions about whether writing such a book means she is thinking about converting. No, she insists. And the audience asked me a similar question about conversion in the reverse direction, for which the answer is exactly the same. Nonetheless, especially on the feat of Purim, when Jews celebrate their deliverance from destruction, I was painfully aware that gentle assimilation was as much a threat to Jewish identity as ancient Persian plots and their evil modern equivalents. | Earlier this year, on the feast of Purim, I did an event at Jewish Book Week with the novelist Naomi Alderman, who has written a book on Jesus from a Jewish perspective. Given the subject, she often has to field questions about whether writing such a book means she is thinking about converting. No, she insists. And the audience asked me a similar question about conversion in the reverse direction, for which the answer is exactly the same. Nonetheless, especially on the feat of Purim, when Jews celebrate their deliverance from destruction, I was painfully aware that gentle assimilation was as much a threat to Jewish identity as ancient Persian plots and their evil modern equivalents. |
| Back in the East End of London, where my great grandfather once worked with Jewish refugees, and where I also now work with the Tower Hamlets Fairness Commission, new waves of immigration from Bangladesh and Somalia have set this same story of assimilation running once again. "Why can't they be more like us?" is the subtext of so much that screams from the rightwing press and the increasingly popular opponents of multiculturalism. | Back in the East End of London, where my great grandfather once worked with Jewish refugees, and where I also now work with the Tower Hamlets Fairness Commission, new waves of immigration from Bangladesh and Somalia have set this same story of assimilation running once again. "Why can't they be more like us?" is the subtext of so much that screams from the rightwing press and the increasingly popular opponents of multiculturalism. |
| But emotionally, it's not that simple. One can put on a dog collar, join the cabinet, become prime minister even, but the ghosts of the past don't go away that easily. Some, like Gertrude in Hamlet, do not see the ghosts or understand their significance. But whether they originate in Bangladesh or Belarus, these ghosts are with us still. And we are foolish not to recognise their power. | But emotionally, it's not that simple. One can put on a dog collar, join the cabinet, become prime minister even, but the ghosts of the past don't go away that easily. Some, like Gertrude in Hamlet, do not see the ghosts or understand their significance. But whether they originate in Bangladesh or Belarus, these ghosts are with us still. And we are foolish not to recognise their power. |
| Twitter: @giles_fraser | Twitter: @giles_fraser |
| • This article was amended on 21 May 2013 to remove a reference to Disraeli converting out of political necessity: he was baptised as a child. The original also said Edwin Samuel became Lord Samuel and the first Jew to enter the cabinet. That was his son, Herbert. |