Jewish academic and Hebrew scholar Irene Lancaster shares her reflections and wisdom of the years as she turns 75.
On April 20 I am 75. I have outlived my dad and mum by a number of years, but my maternal grandfather, Michael, lived to be 80 and survived fascist Poland, the Holocaust in which 90 per cent of his fellow Polish Jews perished, and Stalinist Russia, dying in Communist Poland when I was one, having only a photo to know me by. What a trouper!
By rights I should have been born on April 21, but the consultant here in Manchester brought me forward by one day so as not to mess up his holiday plans. Otherwise I would have shared a birthday with the Queen, but, instead, have had to make do with sharing a birthday with Hitler!
And in addition, instead of being born a contented and equable Taurean, living life amiably by chewing the cud, I have ended up a curly-haired Arian who gets things done and is known, generally, as a trouble-maker.
The greatest sin of Taurus is apparently complacency; the greatest sin of Aries is seeing things clearly and a tendency to shoot from the hip. Some people admire this Aries trait. The wonderful shaliach (emissary) sent from Israel to the Liverpool Jewish community in the 90s (a retired Brigadier General) paid me the compliment of calling me a ‘fighter’. By contrast, the leader of the UK Jewish community called me a ‘gadfly’. That’s maybe why the Anglo-Jewish community is currently on its knees, while Israel is currently thriving.
Be that as it may, I cannot crow about being three quarters of the age of our longest-lived monarch. However, what I can do is relate what these 75 years have meant to me.
First of all, April 20 falls this year on the eve of Israel Remembrance and Fallen Soldiers Day. This includes those fallen in diaspora through murder, such as at Heaton Park Synagogue, for instance. And the wife of the Israeli President will be attending a dedication event at that Shul later in the month.
April 21, the Queen’s birthday, then morphs from Remembrance Day to Israel Independence Day. What an irony, as she never visited the Jewish State and is now fated to have her centenary marked on that date.
What is important about 75? I have reached the age of my hero, Abraham ibn Ezra (1089-1164), cut down in his prime here in England. But he has been immortalized by our own greatest poet, Robert Browning (1812-89) in ‘Rabbi Ben Ezra’ and in song by John Lennon (1940-80), who wrote, ‘Grow old along with me. The best is yet to be’, based on that poem.
Apart from writing my book on the great Hebrew scholar, I also translated and edited the biography of the son of the Nazir of Jerusalem, Chief Rabbi Shear Yashuv Cohen of Haifa (1927-2016). His life parallels the history of Israel during the British Mandate and the life of the State of Israel for which he fought all his life.
As a child I grew up to love the sea, to learn languages, play music and help my parents with English. I was thrilled at primary school age to take visitors around London’s Madame Tussaud’s and recount the histories of all the famous figures whose dates I appeared to know. Later, I was thrilled to win the history prize at school.
I remember being ill and in bed off school when Churchill died, therefore hearing all the eulogies and music accompanying the demise of that great man. This was the end of an era. I knew I always wanted to teach. Communication was everything. I got my wish. What I didn’t know was that I would also be asked to advise (in chronological order) the Dalai Lama, various Archbishops of Canterbury and the Chief Rabbinate of Israel. This was due to the power of dialogue and the knowledge of the wisest of gentiles about Judaism's worth.
As for family, I am proud that my two daughters live in Israel with their families. My older granddaughter will fight for the IDF in two years. My grandson has his bar mitzvah in a couple of months and my younger granddaughter, born during the War, will be two when the USA is 250, on July 4 of this year.
While there is no doubt that, as Professor Simon Schama has recently stated, Jews no longer have civil rights in this country, and statutory bodies can no longer be trusted, there is also the life of the mind: of music, literature, community and social media, when used judiciously.
So, though I do wish that the UK would stop treating the medical profession as G-d, maybe being born devoid of complacency is a good thing when your fate is not to be a Queen.
On the whole it’s been a good life filled with that unique Jewish spirit of resilience, bequeathed early on by survivors of the Holocaust whose grandchildren and great-grandchildren have now all returned to their rightful home.
As a member of our Shul wrote in the newsletter commemorating the New Month of Iyyar which took place on Shabbat:
‘Healing in Torah demands participation in teshuvah [repentance], self-examination and behavioral change …. Each day counted is a day reclaimed but it is not achieved in a single declaration, it is reclaimed through sustained effort, sacrifice and shared purpose.’
That’s how I feel on my 75th birthday.
