JUDAICA - Wisdom In Torah

afimovicz, an 84-year-old former carpenter, was charged with
the murder of four Jews in Belorussia in 1941–42. He is the first
person in England ever to be charged with war crimes under
the Act. However, British efforts to prosecute war criminals,
from the passage of the Act through the early years of the 21st
century, have been, on the whole, tepid.
The bid by the United Synagogue Eruv Committee,
launched in 1987, to establish an eruv with a circumference
of 6.5 miles in Golders Green, Hendon, and Hempstead Garden
Suburb finally met with success. In February 1992, Barnet
Council planning committee had rejected the proposal. An
appeal was lodged with the Department of the Environment
and a revised plan was put to the planning committee in October
1993. It was again rejected, but the Department of the
Environment ordered a public inquiry which took evidence
in December 1993. Much of the rhetoric at the inquiry by opponents
of the eruv was lurid and inflammatory. In September
1994 the government inspector conducting the inquiry issued
his report. It refuted the arguments of eruv protesters and the
following month, during Sukkot, John Gummer, Secretary of
State for the Environment, gave his sanction for its erection.
THE ANGLO-JEWISH HERITAGE. The introduction of government
aid for historic places of worship in use assisted the
restoration of the third oldest surviving synagogue, Exeter,
established in 1763/4 and re-opened in October 1980, its use
as a synagogue being combined with the provision of a center
for Jewish students at Exeter University. This highlighted
the problem of architecturally and historically important
Jewish buildings no longer viable because of the movement
of Jewish population from provincial towns or city centers,
which was exemplified by the appeal to convert the former
Sephardi synagogue in Manchester established in 1874 to a
Jewish museum.
A unique commemoration took place on October 31, 1978
when on the initiative of the Jewish Historical Society of England,
and in the presence of the chief rabbi and the archbishop
of York, the massacre of the Jews of *York in 1190 was commemorated
by the unveiling of a plaque at Clifford’s Tower,
the site of the massacre. The inscription in English reads: “On
the night of Friday, 16 March 1190, some 150 Jews and Jewesses
of York, having sought protection in the royal castle on
this site from a mob incited by Richard Malebisse and others,
chose to die at each other’s hands rather than renounce their
faith,” and concludes with the verses in Hebrew: “They ascribe
glory to the Lord and his praise in the isles” (Isaiah 42:12); the
word ha-iy, “the island,” being the name used for England in
medieval Hebrew.
COMMUNITY LIFE. In mid-1979, Lord Fisher of Camden
retired as president of the Board of Deputies. His six years
of office saw the affiliation of the Board to the World Jewish
Congress, changes in the organization and representational
basis of the board, and the growth of a sense of communal
purpose in support for Israel and Soviet Jewry, and in opposition
to threats against civil liberties from extremes of the
england
left and right. He was succeeded by Greville Janner, QC, MP,
son of a former president (Lord Janner) and, at 50, the Board’s
youngest president. On taking office, he declared that his policy
would be to emphasize working with youth and with provincial
communities.
The 1980s also saw the first visit of a prime minister, Mr.
James Callaghan, to the Board as well as that of the foreign
secretary, Lord Carrington, at his own request, to explain British
policy in relation to Israel.
The community was increasingly concerned with the
problems of meeting the welfare needs of its increasingly aging
membership. The London Jewish Welfare Board devoted
the greater proportion of its expenditure to homes and flatlets,
day centers and home visits to the aged. Coordination of
social work was advanced by cooperation between organizations
and professional workers, and shared use of accommodation
in buildings like the Golders Green Sobell House or
the Redbridge Jewish Centre.
The Board of Deputies acquired a new chief executive in
February 1991 when Neville Nagler, a senior civil servant, succeeded
Hayyim Pinner, holder of the position for 14 years. In
June 1991, Judge Israel Finestein, QC, won the election for the
presidency of the Board of Deputies and succeeded the outgoing
Dr. Lionel Kopelowitz who had held office since 1985.
Rosalind Preston was elected the first woman vice president of
the Board. Finestein announced that he intended to increase
democracy in Anglo-Jewry and secure greater participation in
communal governance by the young, women, regional communities,
and academics.
Chief Rabbi Dr. Immanuel Jakobovits was elevated to
the House of Lords in January 1988 and in March 1991 was
awarded the prestigious Templeton Prize for progress in religion.
In May 1991 he was criticized by figures in the Joint Israel
Appeal because of an interview in the Evening Standard newspaper
in which he expressed reservations concerning Israeli
conduct in the Administered Territories. He was succeeded in
September 1991 by Rabbi Dr. Jonathan Sacks. As principal of
Jews’ College, in 1989 Sacks organized two important conferences
on “traditional alternatives” in Judaism, one on general
and another on specifically women’s issues.
In February 1992, the new chief rabbi unveiled his review
of women’s role in Jewish life and named Rosalind Preston as
its head. This followed a bitter struggle over women’s services
in Stanmore Synagogue. Although in April 1991 he resigned
from a Jewish education “think tank” because it included a
Reform rabbi, in April 1992 Chief Rabbi Dr. Sacks led a delegation
that embraced Reform and Liberal rabbis (including
a woman) to a major interfaith conference.
In September 1992 a report on the United Synagogue,
conducted under the guidance of Stanley Kalms, found “mistakes,
miscalculations, poor management, and financial errors”
and revealed a debt of £9 million. The report also noted
that a majority of members felt alienated by the rightward
trend of the rabbinate and recommended an “inclusivist” position.
It precipitated the resignation of Sidney Frosh, the pres-
ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 6 427