Heeding the words of Robert Wistrich to 'do something' about the antisemitism prevalent in the UK, from 2003-6 I engaged with the churches and the media. It was an uphill struggle. When the Church of England General Synod decided to divest from an Israeli company in February 2006, I and many others from my synagogue in Greater Manchester decided to leave for Israel. By this time I had started a blog and found that my efforts to tell the truth about Israel were much appreciated in that country and opened unimaginable doors.
1. Haifa: The Chief Rabbi (2006)
In summer 2006 I emigrated to Israel, arriving in a war zone. Haifa had been devastated by the second Lebanon war. A third of the city had left. The taxi driver from the airport thought I was crazy and offered to drop me off in Binyamina. All train lines to Haifa were cancelled.
One September day the wife of the chief rabbi of Haifa invited me for Friday night dinner. They greeted me at the door and before I was able to sit down he had asked me, 'What do you know about the Church of England?' This was a chief rabbi like no other. I told him what I knew. And then he asked whether I would advise him to consent to engage in bilateral agreements with the CofE, as he had done much earlier with the Vatican. I urged cautious optimism, but not to have any illusions. The CofE was part of the British establishment, I told him. They are cooler than we are. They are rational. We are emotional and proud of it. They don't always like engaging. We are the opposite. However, I said, if anyone can do it, you can, and he did. And then, 10 years later, came the book of his life, and my English language translation.
2. Haifa: The Druze government minister for minorities (2007)
In 2007 I was invited to meet the new Anglican bishop of Jerusalem, Suheil. Bishop Suheil arrived with four other Anglican priests, all Arabs, who looked me up and down, obviously decided that I would not assassinate their leader and left. Suheil and his German PA remained and she acted as interpreter (later I was to teach her biblical Hebrew). Suheil wanted me to ask the Israeli government to meet urgently with Hamas. 'But I am new,' I said. 'You can do it. Any friend of yours is a friend of mine, and you are a friend of the bishop of Manchester.' This was quite endearing, so I travelled back to the Jerusalem bus station with the Arab taxi driver, took the bus back to Haifa and pondered on my next move.
I had one contact at the Israeli Embassy in London and she put me in touch with someone who lived in the neighbouring Druze village, who happened to be the minister for religious minorities. I realised with a jolt that the word 'minorities' didn't apply to me in this context. I was English and therefore in a tiny minority in Israel, but I was also Jewish and therefore in the majority. I had to remind myself of this more than once during my life in Israel. So, I met with a young man from the lovely Druze village north of Haifa, who invited me for coffee near to my lawyer's offices in Haifa and made the request on behalf of Bishop Suheil.
To my surprise I was taken seriously. 'We know what you did for interfaith relations in the UK and we, all of us here, your fellow Israelis, want nothing more than peace with the Arabs. We have been trying for years to have some engagement with Hamas, but as you know, their stated aim is to wipe us off the face of the earth. So if you go back to Bishop Suheil as our intermediary, we will be very grateful, and we will speak to anyone he suggests.'
I returned to Bishop Suheil and he had no Hamas names to give me to engage in talks with us Israelis, so I started teaching his German PA Hebrew instead. But no one could accuse the Israelis and especially the Netanyahu government of not trying to pursue all avenues to peace, even when the go-between was a middle-aged, female immigrant from the north of England with no formal training in diplomacy.
3. Haifa: The Alaskan director of the Bahai Temple complex (2007)
Later that year I received an e-mail. The director of the Bahai Temple complex wanted to show me round. I arrived at the stated time and was met by a serious-looking man dressed formally in a dark suit. He thanked me for my recent translation about their temple, which had appeared on the Haifa Tourist Board site, and gave me a conducted tour. As his English was very good, with an American accent, I asked him where he was from: 'Alaska' he said. 'The only Alaskans I know are baked,' I said. 'Yes, they are rather delicious, aren't they?' he responded.
He showed me some steps – 18 in all. 'These are based on your Jewish Amidah – you know the Shemonei Esrei, your standing prayer.' I certainly did know. 'As you know, 18 adds up in Hebrew to "chai", which means life. That is what you Jews and the State of Israel have done for us. You have given us life. If not for you allowing us to move en masse to your country and set up here in Haifa and in Acco, we would be dead ducks. We owe you everything. The Iranian government has wiped out all its Jews and also most of the Bahais. Thank you so much for coming. I just had to tell you.' And with that he was gone and I sat down on the steps deep in thought.
4. Haifa: The Muslim carpenter (2007)
I decided the apartment needed some more cupboards and a book shelf. A carpenter was recommended. He came from the nearby Druze village and was a Muslim. He told me when asked that he loved Israel, would never move to Palestine and that his wife was working in a Jewish kindergarten in Haifa. He told me that Israel had been good for him, that his adherence to Islam was not very pronounced and then offered to drive us to the local Chanukah party. He did a marvellous job in the apartment and one day he showed me his own home – more like a palace – in a street inhabited solely by members of his family, who also lived in mansions they had built himself. Yes, this man was not really a carpenter, more a master builder in the sense of Joseph, father of Jesus. All carpenters I met in Israel had done very well for themselves and many of them were Muslim or Druze.
5. Bar Ilan University: The anti-boycott activist (2007)
One day, when I was teaching music in the Church of Scotland School in Jaffa, I received a phone call. The anti-BDS movement in Israel wanted to invite me to lunch. A young postgraduate student in her early 30s turned up in Jaffa at the end of the school day, invited me into her car, and said I was a hero. I didn't know why. But she explained that my activity at Manchester University to stop the boycott was bearing fruit. She was concerned about the divisiveness of the small Anglo-Jewish community, which was not helping to combat antisemitism.
6. Haifa: The youngest-ever Russian conductor (2007)
In autumn 2007 I was asked to establish music as a new subject at the Church of Scotland School in Jaffa. The pupils were Christian and Muslim Arabs, embassy children and a few Jews. The teachers were nearly all Jewish immigrants, and the school was funded by the Israeli Ministry of Education.
During my time there I started a choir which went on to greater things, helped a Lutheran teacher from Canada to convert to Judaism and managed to see my daughter in Tel Aviv from time to time.
Then I was told about the Haifa Technion Choir and its legendary conductor who had emigrated from Siberia, having been the youngest ever Russian conductor in history. I passed the audition and rehearsed with the others for our Chanuka show, which included Borodin's 'Prince Igor' and 'Navidad Nuestra', a stunning Christmas oratorio about Joseph and Mary, sung in Spanish.
Nobody minded that the mainly Jewish choir, including rabbis, were singing about Jesus at Chanukah. The choir manager was thrilled that Prince Edward was coming to Haifa to hand out Duke of Edinburgh awards, as her daughter was one of the recipients.
At the end of her time in Israel the consul general told me how horrified she was at the Foreign Office stance towards the Jewish state. She told me that she had received no training whatsoever regarding the Jewish aspects of the country. She thanked me for introducing British culture into the Israeli school system, especially by teaching courses on the Beatles and their music and did I know that Paul McCartney was to visit in 2008? No, I did not. But this all paled into insignificance in comparison with the musicianship of Haifa Technion Choir under its magical conductor from Siberia. We sang like angels and staff at my local bank – all of whom were Russian immigrants – lent me typical Russian outfits to perform in 'Prince Igor'.
If you think I'm exaggerating when I tell you that the re-establishment of the State of Israel after 2000 years is the greatest miracle that has ever happened, I'll end with the words of Chief Rabbi Shear Yashuv Cohen of Haifa, who worked hard at risk to his own life to establish this country, its armed forces, its legal system and its attitude to minority groups, women, science, technology and the outside world.
'The real miracle of Medinat Israel was not so much her birth but the fact of her continued existence in the face of unremitting hatred from the rest of the world...We may not deny or play down the miracle that G-d performed for us on this day.'
Dr Irene Lancaster is a Jewish academic, author and translator who has established university courses on Jewish history, Jewish studies and the Hebrew Bible.
