Communal Gadfly

Geoffrey Alderman (Ph.D. University of Oxford, 1969) is the Michael Gross Professor of Politics & Contemporary History at the University of Buckingham and is the acknowledged authority on the history of the Jews in modern Britain. In 2006, Oxford conferred on him with the degree of Doctor of Letters in respect of his work in this field.

• Preface. I. The Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Jewish Leadership Council. Disband this body of (un) representatives. Uncharitable thoughts of hidden agendas. Only one Jewish View? You must be joking. Joint statement that is not so joint. The Board, a true history. A seasonal game of follow my leader. II. British Jews and British Politics. Labouring under an old misapprehension. Why Tory success will get Liberals going. the self-confident and the self-hating. Voting tactics can have a moral basis. Pernicious pits of popular prejudice. So, now it's over, how was it for us? Israel's role in a PM's downfall. Jewish roots of Blair's Labour... Let Lord Levy speak his mind. Our 150 years of wasted power. III. Kenneth Robert Livingstone. Night mayor? Livingstone, I presume. Just one more sordid career move. Why not to vote for Livingstone. Ken lost us, then lost London. IV. Orthodoxy and Non-Orthodoxy. Orthodoxy has no need of these 'bans'. UK's strong signs of middle-Jewry spread. The odour of rabbinic politics. 'Greatest' too great for the top job? Dream on, you Progressive Jews. British Jewry does not exist. I worry about Masorti outreach. Playing the numbers game. A Reform Chief Rabbinate soon? V. Orthodoxy and Ultra-Orthodoxy. Gossipy blot on the charitable landscape. North-Eastern authority is not just local. Voted out, staying out and crashing out. More of those splinters of our discontent. Testing that fails some fundamental tests. It is most reasonable to take days off. Slander, hypocrisy, error and jealousy. On patrol with the modesty police. The extremists are taking over. School built on dubious foundations. Holy doesn't mean above the law. Why not support this lively cause? The treif chickens of Monsey. Club debacle sets off alarm bells. Fund intolerance? No thanks. We all need a secular education. VI. Jonathan Henry Sacks. A decade of unfulfilled communal aims. No Mohammed nor mountain but a move. Public matters need a public airing. Just a little more thought for the day. Chief Rabbis and moving experiences. The Chief's cynical about-turn. VII. Israel and its Enemies. Deep-rooted nature of anti-Jewish views. On truths not universally acknowledged. Blaming the medium for the message. Water Minister turning on the wrong tap. Tawdry text messages for our time. Pay attention at the back there! A UN paper so biased it's funny. Human shields can cover up many things. There's a PA in Patten and a Patten in PA. Let us have some real Palestinian justice. So, Dr. Waite, what of 'so-called' evil? More raspberry - than whistle-blower. Murky business from start to Finnish. Disturbing turns in pulpits and theses. Verdict endorsing cant and hypocrisy. Money and justice are seldom in tune. A message from the synod... Restrictions on Arabs aren't racist. Lebanon is guilty of apartheid. Defending Israel? Don't be nice. A revisionist revises his views. VIII. The Problem with Islam. A massacre and the roots of revenge. Truth will provoke the loudest anger. Terror measures are way off target. Our view of evil must not be clouded. Mistaken responses to acts of war. Murderers, minorities and majorities. 'Honour,' it seems is a relative term. Danish cartoons are not bad taste. Will Muslim leaders speak out? Muslims are not the 'new Jews.' Keep extremists out of college. My hostility to Islam is rational. IX. Islamic Judeophobia. Stop crying wolf but don't stop crying. either a catastrophe or a conspiracy. Heed these dire words... How Arabs conspired in the Shoah. The blood libel flows on Nile TV. Muslim dialogue? Don't bother. Police failed us over imam racism. Iranians are in denial on Israel. X. With Friends Like These... Trembling on secular side of fence. Offstage playwright's skewed views. Different wavelengths on the radio. JPR loses mind in choice of new head. My relative who's a hit in Tehran. We're not a 'people'? Outrageous. XI. Exposing Myths. Integrity rather than flattery in memorium. Rabbit-like response to Resettlement. Cable Street Heroics are a myth. Maimonides was a racist. XII. Nazism. Salutary German (and history) lessons. How inconvenient the truth can be. One more step the Pope should take. Grubby fingerprints on old paintings. XIII. Sex. No sex education, please - we're frum. Victims of the violent victims of stress. Even with many sinners, a sin is still a sin. It is not a sin to visit a prostitute. Gay adoption undermines us. Mr. Gay Israel is welcome here. XIV. Islamophobia. An 'invasion' that should not be repelled. Human rights should apply to all humans. This liberation is a form of repression. Is our beth din the model for Sharia courts?

"In The Communal Gadfly, Alderman, professor at the University of Buckingham and author of Modern British Jewry, collects more than a hundred of his weekly columns from the venerable Jewish Chronicle since 2002, ranging widely in topic and tone. Though it represents only one man’s perspective, Alderman’s grab-bag of a book will be appreciated by historians half a century from now who want to establish what issues British Jews deemed worthy of discussion and debate in these years."