The threatening cheesecake
You know that I am a proud Italian Jew, and I love Sephardi food (rice on Pesach? yes!). But I must admit that, at times, I cheat. I love the most Ashkenazi dessert ever: cheesecake. I would eat tons of it. I am sure many of you share my passion, so hopefully, I will be forgiven. My wife knows it all, anyway.
The problem is that, at the moment, it is so difficult to find a good cheesecake in Hove, actually. Because a good cheesecake is not only a multi-layered dessert. There is the feeling that you know the food has been prepared following specific rules, rules that you know, rules based on values you agree with. There is the awareness that people around you in the same place share these same values in their own way. Jewish food has a spiritual element — you can experience it even when you see another person hanging around in the kosher food aisle at Tesco.
And if you want further proof of the spiritual dimension of Jewish food, think of what happened last week in Israel when a group of secular protesters went to demonstrate in an ultra-Orthodox city. In such a choice, there was an element of provocation (which, of course, is part of politics). But rather than being pelted with stones or worse, the protesters were welcome by haredi youth who offered them bowls of cholent. And what was meant to be a protest ended up being a festive kosher meal. People from (literally) opposite sides of the barricade who share a dinner together: That is Jewish spirituality. Sharing food, sharing values and, of course, sharing space, be it a city in Israel (a Jewish town in the Jewish State) or a kosher cafeteria.
I am sure I am not the only one looking forward to the new Jewish Centre cafeteria opening. Eventually, I will have a good cheesecake (together with my wife!) at the cafeteria before heading to the presentation of a Jewish book.
But not everybody agrees. Meet Prof. Ted Cantle, Chair of the Cohesion and Integration Network, a National charity established to build the capacity of interculturalism and community cohesion.
According to the professor, having a slice of cheesecake in a kosher cafeteria is very dangerous. And he’s not talking about glycaemia. Last Sunday, on Radio 4, [from 12:40 on] the leading British authority on community cohesion admonished that the new hub “shouts out “we are different, we are not part of the community, we don’t want to live as the rest of the community”. And we know [or at least, the authority in community cohesion, knows] that people that live in isolated and separated communities are much more likely to be subject to discrimination and prejudice” -which by the way is demonstrably false about us Jews, more of this later.
The new hub is, according to Prof. Cantle, “really a step backwards for the sort of intercultural community we really need to have in modern-day Britain.”
See, those Jews. You think you are having a slice of cheesecake with your friends, but -the authority on community cohesion explains- at that moment, you are taking part in a conspiracy to change the direction of the society, Those powerful Jews.
I admit, until last Sunday, I did not know who Prof Ted Cantle was. But what I heard from his voice on Radio 4 sounds incredibly familiar -and false.
Let me ask a question. At which point in history did Jews make the most enthusiastic effort not to live as isolated and separated, which should prevent prejudice and discrimination according to Ted Cantle? The answer is Germany, one century ago. There, the Jews called themselves German citizens of the Jewish faith, gave up with kashrut, did their best to integrate and cancelled from the prayer any reference to an independent Jewish nation as good German citizens. Remarkable effort not to shout out, “we are different”, and to state, “we want to be part of the community and live as the rest of the community”. Did it help? No. Six milion of times no.
The same can be said of Italian Jews in the same period. They eagerly embraced the Italian nationality and identity, did their best to show off how good citizens they were, and avoided any reference to Jewish difference… did it work? You tell me.
And one can observe the same phenomenon in France during the age of Emancipation (have heard about Captain Dreyfuss, Professor Cantle? ). Or in Soviet Russia, where several Jews embraced communism and ended up purged by Stalin for the crime of being “Zionist”., a term that many still believe is a bad word. And most of them are attentive Radio 4 listeners.
Reform Judaism, or better, Jews who started calling themselves Reform, were part of this movement towards an idealised acceptance. It was called “universalism”, an idea to be achieved -so that you can shout “, we are part of the community- giving up differences and shaping a form of Judaisn deprived of these “particularistic” practices which the general society could find problematic, such as matrilineality, kashrut, turning to Jerusalem in time of prayer (and today, Zioinism)
The cohesion and integration savant whose opinion Radio 4 has chosen to air is encouraging us Jews to follow that route. Worse, he is preaching to society that we Jews should follow that route. And he ignores — or worse, he chose to ignore, that we Jews have a fresh memory, a familiar memory, that is downplaying elements of the Jewish identity in the name of “cohesion” purely and does not work.
It’s chilling to hear on Radio 4 that opening the hub “is tantamount to building walls rather than building bridges to the other communities”.
Did you get the not-so-subtle reference to the security which every Jewish building needs in this time and place, England 2023? Did you get the reference to the wall of the ghettoes, built around the Jewish neighbourhood in Continental Europe in the Early Modern era? The learned and cultivated public of Radio 4 certainly did. They did not get that those walls were not a Jewish choice: they were imposed by the popes and other Catholic authorities (and the Jews had to pay for them). The gates were closed at night — from the outside- because when Jews go around too freely, then God knows what can happen; we Jews have, as you know, the power to turn backward the clock of history.
Does the public of Radio 4 know that those walls around the centre are due to security needs? I would love not to need physical security out there, but as it happens, this place has been targeted since its foundation. And recently, some Jeremy Corbyn called their comrades “to march on” this synagogue. Even a not particularly Zionist politician like Lloyd Russel Moyle was appaled.
But no, despite the need for security, we are taught by a leading expert in community cohesion that we must build bridges; otherwise, we may be “subject to discrimination”.
Bridges and walls… Can I say that I am tired of this worn-out architectural imagery?
As a Jew, to me, the bridge — the narrow bridge- גשר צר מאוד gesher tzar meod- is the whole world -כל העולם כולו kol ha olam kulo- My entire life, as a Jew, is to walk on that narrow bridge. Probably prof Cantle ignores this wonderful line, and I don’t think the learned public of BBC4 is familiar with the teaching of Nachman from Breslav. Their loss.
That is what a bridge means to us, the wandering people. It means the world. To us Jews, the bridges, the opening, are not the opposite of the boundaries of the wall. We need both. Life needs boundaries; that’s a fact.
The need for a space, for a Jewish space, is part of the Jewish religion (even from an agricultural point of view, there are different rules for the land of Israel and the rest of the land!). The need for a Jeiwsh physical space is also a need for Jewish culture, which is why we Jews in Brighton are so thrilled for the new space, regardless of affiliation and level of observance. Me included.
I look forward to the cheesecake, of course for the sake of community cohesion.
Brighton & Hove Reform Synagogue, 1st April 2023, 10 Nissan 5783