Uncertain future for Belfast’s Jews
NESTLED BEHIND carefully pruned hedges on Belfast’s resolutely middle-class Somerton Road is an unexpected landmark. In a town where religion and politics have been intertwined stands the synagogue of the Belfast Hebrew Congregation, an unassuming modernist building that is home to a faith community that has been in the city for decades
Funny story: I wrote and filed this article in April but it was bumped off the pages every time it was due to run. Events, dear boy, and all that. Then someone I had been talking to posted me a clipping from the Belfast Telegraph. The story was about Belfast’s Jews. I knew I was right – it is worth writing about. Anyway, the paper ran the story today (with a quick update).
Uncertain future for Belfast’s Jews, Irish Times, November 21, 2009
More propaganda about the so-called Limerick pogrom.
The 1901 Census showed 31 Jewish families in Limerick and the 1911 one 22.
Limerick in the period is well described by Robert Graves as a place where nobody did any repairs to their houses because so many properties had been left vacant by emigration, when one house became uninhabitable they just moved into another. Everyone died of drink, except for the Plymouth Brethren, who died of religious melancholy. So the decline in the number of Jews in Limerick took place in the context of a decline in the numbers of the total population and is not remarkable.
Into this slough of despond stepped one Father John Creagh, a Redemptorist, who attempted to ameliorate matters by stopping illegal drinking and selling drink on credit, which was basically taking the food out of children’s mouths, and a couple of Jewish businessmen who were lending money to the same effect. He was packed off to the Philippines in 1906: maybe because social reform is not really a priest’s job. Quite possibly the publicans campaigned to have him removed. Limerick of course, continued to get worse.
I should point out that there were two synagogues of Judaism in Limerick at the time, one of which disapproved of money lending and another which did not.
The problem is not one of an Irish antipathy to Jews but of a widespread Jewish idea that the rest of humanity exists for their benefit, and is somehow in breach of their duty to God if they fail to supply this benefit. Jewish historiography concentrates and preserves these incidents, always from a point of view which exonerates the Jews and castigates the Gentiles, and is then recycled as an excuse for Jewish excesses in this day and age. Nobody cares about the troubles of the hundred of thousands of Irish people who had to emigrate at this time: not even me.
Equally, Cemeteries the world over get trashed because the inhabitants are not in a state to protect them. But if you’re a young vandal who wishes to enjoy the satisfaction of having people notice your handiwork, spray painting swastikas on a Jewish Graveyard is the quickest way to make the headlines.
Paddy Reilly
“Jewish historiography concentrates and preserves these incidents, always from a point of view which exonerates the Jews and castigates the Gentiles, and is then recycled as an excuse for Jewish excesses in this day and age.”
The problem with this dirge, apart from it being a view shared by extreme anti Jewish islamic extremists, it ignores the fact that in just about evry century in history, somewhere in the world, something pretty horrendous was happening to Jewish folk.
“Nobody cares about the troubles of the hundred of thousands of Irish people who had to emigrate at this time: not even me.”
Really? No I think you typify Irish Nationalism as you want to be viewed as the most oppressed people in history. Thierry Henry is just the latest person to commit a crime against these poor down troden people.
You write: ‘‘Jews were also targeted by the Unionists/Nazis during the 1920’s Belfast pogroms’‘
pure shite….
I write: Not so. Simon Greenspon was one of seeveral liberal Jews/labour leaders who were chased out of Belfast. And liberal Protestants were targeted then as during the Troubles as they broke the Protestant Orange-Nazi ranks.
You write:‘‘The 26 cos also had the first Jewish Mayor: Goldberg/Briscoe’‘
but belfast had jewish lord mayor jaffa before that…
I write: Good for Belfast. But irrelevqnt when trying to demonize Catholics. Also, the old asage about Catholic v Protestant Jew rings.
‘‘Briscoe’s kid has gone to Israel to aid in the terorism campaign against the Palestinians.’‘
I write:good for him,bravo. Sums up your partisan approach. I guess you support killing Palestinians and stealing their land. Imperialists of the world, unite.
Take this statement:
in just about evry century in history, somewhere in the world, something pretty horrendous was happening to Jewish folk.
And compare it to this:
you typify Irish Nationalism as you want to be viewed as the most oppressed people in history
I take it you resent the affrontery of the Irish in attempting to handball their way into the championship that rightly belongs to the Jews.
Jews are the richest ethnic grouping in the US: Irish Catholics the second richest. Possibly kvetching pays dividends, I don’t know.
I myself think any mention of the last millennium (i.e. 1000-2000) in this forum should be disqualified. A lot of Irish history makes depressing reading, so I don’t bother to read it.
For the present, we are doing all right. Ireland is one of the richest countries in the world. Even Cork, which in my lifetime was a polyomelitis infested swamp, is now reckoned one of the most attractive places in Europe to live.
I am interested in the future, not the past. The inexorable rise of the Nationalist vote in Northern Ireland, together with the contingent fall of the Unionist one, these are my preferred topics, my shtick as you might call it.
Jason,
I have an anecdote concerning Russell’s generation which might not however be typical but was for me at least illuminating.
I remember a couple of years ago I was at a wedding and a very elderly, generally affable relative was at the table who had been very active in the IRA in the forties in Belfast and beyond, and would have been at least a contempory of Russell’s. Late into the night he was maudlin in drink and began to mutter animatedly to himself that “Belfast Jew boys never had to stand in the bru because they always got the pick of the jobs” This remark seemed so anachronistic, inconruous, irrelevant, and uncharacteristic (yet at the same time spewed with such deep rooted conviction and venom) that it made me think that antisemitism must have been a serious issue for his generation. It certainly wasn’t for any other republican that I ever met although support for the Palestians, Argentinians, and Sioux Indians was general among the more internationally aware, keffiyeh sporting set.
Dr. Who,
That graves should be desecrated and even defecated on is an outrage of the highest order and an utter disgrace. And should be condemned unreservedly. It is reminiscent of the Polish people”s headstones which were used by the Nazis to make roads inside the camps. The perpetrators should have been caught and summarily hanged high by the privates. This is true whether its Jewish graves in the City, a postal worker’s grave in Carnmoney, or republican graves desecrated by British soldiers in Milltown.
Regarding the City Cemetary (and I could be wrong) but I think the vandalism there is more likely to come from the cider the swilling morons from West Rock, the Murph, or the back of Turf Lodge that haunt the place at weekends (or did) than from some deliberately antisemetic neonazi activists (small comfort as that is to the families and religious commmunity to which the graves belong).I would suggest that their antisemitism goes no further than the anti-scouserism or anti-mancunianism which they are also somehow able to maintain sentience long enough to articulate on the graves they otherwise use for lavatories;these are no doubt same chaps who thought that they might borrow other people’s cars and turn the Cooler at the back of the cemetary into a Circuit of Ireland stage, or redesign the park bowling green lawn at midnight with the motif “Mackers, Celtic, Up the RA.”
Turgon,
You are, as usual, close to the mark. This behavior is clearly an indictment of the wider republican/nationalist/catholic community as a whole, rather that a few aberrant ne’erdowells that are barnacles on the ass of any society. The best thing would be for the government to take those unmanned CIA drones which you recently claimed are nocturnally flying around your head in Fermanagh, and reassign them to the City Cemetary toute suite to keep an eye on these nefararious Nuremburgesque weekend rallies.
Jason Walsh: “I didn’t discount Doctor Who‘s experiences. I simply said I think it would be, in my opinion, wrong to extrapolate a political sentiment from them.”
Sure, because who should be believe, you or his own lying eyes and ears and experiences.
Jason Walsh: “So, you think that republicanism is honestly represented by a few shitheads on the Falls? When I was 16 I knew someone who (he claimed) smashed some headstones, but they weren’t Jewish ones. They were Catholic ones. He did it for reasons that had nothing to do with politics whatsoever.”
Which A) has nothing to do with the vandalism of Jewish headstones on its face, B) has nothing to do with the issue at hands — the daubing of political symbols and slogans is, usually, prima facie evidence of political motives (unless you intend to go so far as to suggest the swastikas were daubed by Hindus or some other foolishness, as opposed to drunken recreational vandalism and C) would seem to fly in the face of logical thought, given A) and B) above.
Christ of almighty, so much nonsense. Again with the Russell shite. I suppose its then fair to label Churchill a Stalinist and the whole of wartime Britain likewise?
Turgon, are you implying the desecreation of headstones is representative of the nationslist/republican community as a whole?
‘Jewish historiography concentrates and preserves these incidents, always from a point of view which exonerates the Jews and castigates the Gentiles, and is then recycled as an excuse for Jewish excesses in this day and age.” (Paddy Reilly)
‘The problem with this dirge, apart from it being a view shared by extreme anti Jewish islamic extremists, it ignores the fact that in just about evry century in history, somewhere in the world, something pretty horrendous was happening to Jewish folk.‘(Doctor Who)
There are jewish academics who have highlighted the tendency of some jewish historians to whitewash jewish history, so Paddy’s point is not an invalid one. A similar tendency exists in Islamic historiograohy, for example, great emphaisis is put on how ‘booty’ was divided up evenly regardless of rank (even though those at the top obviously recieved more), emphasis is also stressed on the ‘good treatment’ of the Ahl al-Kitab. Pointing out these tendencies is not ‘anti’ anything. And to suggest that an honest appraisal of history should be avoided lest bigotted idiots gain succour is ridiculous.
An interesting article Jason, although i don’t know why you would describe the presence of a synagogue in Belfast as unlikely. It is reassuring to hear from the community’s leader in Belfast that there is no serious anti-semitism, despite the best efforts of posters on this thread to claim otherwise.
RepublicanStones,
What I said was unlikely was the “idea of Belfast as [a] centre of religious tolerance”.
I said the synagogue was “unexpected” and that was in reference to it being a modernist building in a leafy, middle class, residential street.
Dread Cthulhu,
More green-ink missives. No thanks. If you want to believe that the Falls is hotbed of anti-Semitism that’s up to you. I don’t imagine being wrong will stop you.
Apologies Jason, I read it as the presence of a synagogue itself being unexpected, not the architectural style contrasting with the burgeoise location.
”Sums up your partisan approach. I guess you support killing Palestinians”
yes,i do.i support the killing of fatah,hamas,gflp etc etc.no problem.
RepublicanStones.
No worries. I wasn’t having a go. I used to be an architectural correspondent and old habits die hard. It’s an interesting building.
“I’m not so sure about your broad point. First, I think it’s a stretch to call the vandals “young republicans”. Idiot malefactors who hide behind the local rhetoric seems more likely to me.”
So the latest addition to the Slugger site is an apologist for the motives of grave vandals now. Aren’t we blessed with a new contributor who has to self-publish his real viewpoints.
Dublin reject.
poolio,
More green ink and personal abuse.
Poolio,
“So the latest addition to the Slugger site is an apologist for the motives of grave vandals now.”
I believe he used the word “malefactor” which refers to a person who breaks the law, a criminal, people who do harm or evil, especially towards another. It is unclear to me how this could be seen to be any kind of apology for their motives.
He used the term “hiding behind the local rhetoric” which should be familiar to you since that is exactly what you are doing. Are you not employing a poorly constructed ad hominem attack to inflict personal pain on someone from the comfort and safety of your anonymity?
“Aren’t we blessed with a new contributor who has to self-publish his real viewpoints.”
I don’t know if you are aware of this, but there are these things called newspapers which many people believe may not be around in the near future. And if that is the case then what will be left besides inane schoolyard taunting on the Internet? So yes, you are right to say we are blessed to have professional journalists involved in the transition to whatever is coming.
“Dublin reject.”
And if he were from Belfast and was expressing an opinion that you might feel familiar with would you employ such language? Should I believe that you are representative of the cutting edge of nuanced unionist opinion?
Or maybe you have more in common with the malefactors in question than you would like to admit.
when is someone who scrawls IRA graffiti not a Republican?
When it’s done over someone’s grave and could possibly be shown in a bad light (as opposed to a gable wall which is apparently a display of cultured revolution)
Dublin reject – that forth site reads like a Third Way for the Republic. Good luck with that
The problem is not one of an Irish antipathy to Jews but of a widespread Jewish idea that the rest of humanity exists for their benefit, and is somehow in breach of their duty to God if they fail to supply this benefit
Did I really just read this steaming pile of anti-semitic tripe? Please tell me I was just imagining this!
Jason Walsh: “More green-ink missives. No thanks. If you want to believe that the Falls is hotbed of anti-Semitism that’s up to you. I don’t imagine being wrong will stop you. ”
IOW, you’ve no useful rebuttal, so you’ll take a swipe on your way out. As I said, who should we believe, what we see or what you say? You’re missive does not agree with the experience of others and, rather than acknowledge that mileage may vary, you try to put forth the notion that you’re right and they’re mistaken.
All I’m saying is that, when the vandalism is political, you’re being naive (at best) if you try to claim non-political motives for the vandalism — apolitical drunken shites don’t scrawl political slogans, as a rule. Likewise, having heard the Republican opinion re: Israel on this board, I don’t think it is too far a stretch that anti-Zionism would ground out in anti-Semitic acts.
apolitical drunken shites don’t scrawl political slogans, as a rule.
Drunken shites scrawl whatever slogan first comes to mind.
Andrew Gallagher: “Drunken shites scrawl whatever slogan first comes to mind. ”
Exactly. And apolitical drunken shites think apolitical thougts.
DC:
I think you ascribe greater self-control to drunks than is warranted. Unfortunately in NI, even the apolitical drunks come from an identifiable “side”. Old habits die hard.
DC
“IOW, you’ve no useful rebuttal”
Actually I do, I’m just sick of having my words twisted on this thread.
I did not write an apologia for anyone. My views are perfectly clear.
As AG said: “Drunken shites scrawl whatever slogan first comes to mind.”
In posh Sandycove, Dún Laoghaire someone scrawled 32CSM on a wall. It was there for a year at least. I don’t think the natives of this particular burb are big 32CSM followers. I’d be willing to bet cold, hard cash it was some alienated teenager trying to piss people off. The grave destruction is more serious than that (because it was a grave and also because it was truly wrecked) but I’m a not willing to say either that it represents typical attitudes on the Falls (I know it doesn’t, I lived there for long enough) or that it wasn’t just the work of anti-social yobs trying to outrage and inflame. I could certainly be wrong on the latter point, but I don’t think I am.
More broadly, I am concerned that anti-Zionism can be used as cover for anti-Semitism. Likewise, I am concerned that anti-Semitism is too easy a charge to make.
Elsewhere, you and I see exactly eye-to-eye on the fact that bad things happen and sometimes nothing can be done about them.
Andrew Gallagher: “I think you ascribe greater self-control to drunks than is warranted.”
No, I’m simply not applying “miraculous thinking” to the scenario as some others are — it would seem unlikely that a drunken lout would suddenly decide that, in the midst of his scrumpy-fueled haze, would decide that *THAT* is the moment for him to find his political voice and share that eloquence with the deceased.
Andrew Gallagher: “Unfortunately in NI, even the apolitical drunks come from an identifiable “side”. Old habits die hard. ”
Ah, but that isn’t the notion that Jason is putting forth. His notion is that this is “ordinary decent” vandalism that just happens to take the form of political commentary.
You, on the other hand, is putting for an argument of “in vino veritas” — get them drunk and they tell you who they really are. Not nearly the same thing.
Ah, but that isn’t the notion that Jason is putting forth. His notion is that this is “ordinary decent” vandalism that just happens to take the form of political commentary.
That’s not quite my argument.
My argument twofold: first, that it takes on pseudo-political trappings specifically in order to outrage
Secondly, these actions self-evidently cannot be taken as represntative of the typical view of the locals and their political representatives, otherwise they would be much more common
Jason Walsh: “More broadly, I am concerned that anti-Zionism can be used as cover for anti-Semitism. Likewise, I am concerned that anti-Semitism is too easy a charge to make.
Elsewhere, you and I see exactly eye-to-eye on the fact that bad things happen and sometimes nothing can be done about them. ”
Agreed… sort of. I am, despite all appearance to the contrary, an idealist. The public square is just that, the public square and, as such, entitled to be used by the public. It isn’t just that bad things happen and nothing can be done. It is that, until and unless something bad happens, you’re not entitled to presume bad will happen. Likewise, while you cannot undo the bad done, you can nail those who do ill to the far wall with the biggest spikes you can find, as an example to all that with rights come responsibilities and if you are going to abuse your rights, you will find your responsibilities will come ’round to haunt you.
Having been acquainted, on occasion, with drunken louts, political sloganeering and current events are not popular subjects for their drunken rants. When daubing graffiti meant to excite passions, they go for visceral and topical, hence swastikas on Jewish graves.
Unless you are suggesting that republican slogans are somehow topical re: Jewish graves, I’d have to say it is a case of “in vino veritas.”
DC:
I wasn’t arguing “in vino veritas”, more “monkey see, monkey do”…
Case in point:
Where I grew up, there was a mythical paramilitary group called the Killicomaine Tartan Rangers. Nobody believed they actually existed, but there was plenty of “KTR” graffiti around. It was just something all the wannabes did to feel hard.
Andrew Gallagher: “Where I grew up, there was a mythical paramilitary group called the Killicomaine Tartan Rangers. Nobody believed they actually existed, but there was plenty of “KTR” graffiti around. It was just something all the wannabes did to feel hard. ”
Again, requires a political / tribal mindset pre-existing.
Get them drunk and they will tell you who they really are.
Again, requires a political / tribal mindset pre-existing.
No, it requires a hard-man mindset. Politics is just a handy peg to hang the hat on. What proportion of the real paramilitaries were/are truly political and what proportion were just gangsters?
Good article this: tells how people in Detroit are so poor they can’t afford to pay for funerals, and the dead are piling up in mortuaries:-
http://tinyurl.com/y8esw6j
Yet while this is all happening, people in Belfast are being tricked into paying to maintain a Jewish cemetery in pristine condition for all eternity because they’re frightened of being called antisemitic.
100% of Gentiles and 95% of Jews are antisemitic. If you listen to debates in the Knesset you will find that this epithet is flung with relentless abandon at any faction that is not following the agenda of the most bigoted.
Did I really just read this steaming pile of anti-semitic tripe?
The idea is widespread among Jews, but fortunately not universal. The riposte proves the original statement, and also that they have managed to persuade others of this notion. This very thread contains suggestions that Ireland is obliged to conduct its politics to suit the state of Israel, and restrict its freedoms so people can’t put up statues of anybody who briefly might have been on the same side as antisemites.
The problem is that the notion of antisemiticism has been left undefined, and therefore has no boundaries. It rightly refers to our obligation not to practise genocide or forced conversion against the Jewish people. But little by little it has been expanded to the extent that it now means we are not allowed to voice any criticism of any Jews under any pretext whatsoever: one commenter pointed out that he had been called antisemitic just for pissing off a single Jew.
Obviously after 1945 people felt that they had to go easy on the Jews: but they cannot expect to dine out on this misfortune for all eternity.
Rest assured that no-one in Israel is worrying about appearing anti-hibernic: the word doesn’t exist.
An Englishman I know, presented with arguments of this sort from the people he was doing business with, replied, “Get lost, I’m not your bleeding mother.” After that he said, they treated him with a new respect and all was plain sailing.
Jason
Thanks for the interesting article. Don’t let some of the commenters get under your skin.
AG
“monkey see, monkey do”
I’ll go for that. Hoods in west Belfast used to be shot in the knees by the IRA but many of them would be viewed as “republicans” by unionists. There is a cultural currency to the local lingo.
DC
“When daubing graffiti meant to excite passions, they go for visceral and topical, hence swastikas on Jewish graves.”
True. That is precisely what I was arguing. I would further argue that the attempt to piss people off or simply be destructive and anti-social may not be anything more than that. Rather than assign political significance to the act, it is the act itself which is the issue not what it may or may not mean or what thoughts motivated it.
“until and unless something bad happens, you’re not entitled to presume bad will happen”
Yes, I like that formulation.
Brian MacAodh
Thank you.
PaddyReilly
Detroit story was interesting. Thank you.