sashinka | observation orientated, with a twist of lime | a blog

So I hate The Jewish Chronicle (JC as it's known) website with a passion. It's retro, not optimised for firefox, looks lousy and doesn't have any news on it, because you have to subscribe, in some remarkably 1996 way.

So you can't see the three stories I just read...

the Sunderland community, where my grandmother came from is finally dying, and they're having their last Shabbat services tomorrow morning. All that's left is a chevra kaddisha (burial society) - no more shuls, schools, ladies guilds, cheders... it's the story of regional UK Jewry, but I feel sad

the JC informs me there is antisemitism on the Guardian Comment Is Free blog.

Danny Finklestein, one of the stable of regular columnists, and also an editor of the Times, has written this week's column as an open letter to Tony Blair.

Putting aside the obvious issue that since the death of Chaim Bermant some eight years ago, that opposite-the-letters-page slot has not felt right, the JC's columnist strategy has been - largely - make sure they're famous elsewhere.

It works for some people, but I feel strangely frustrated that Danny's written a political column with no Jewish content, or context, or even sensibility. In the interests of transparency, I should state that Danny is somewhere on the friend-acquaintance spectrum, and I admire him as a writer and a wit. But this week's column? It's interesting, sure, in the Times maybe. Is it a JC column? I don't think so.

Here's what I think a JC column is about (bizarro-world stream of consciousness to follow)... anything ranging from...
- the Institute of Jewish Mother Studies at Manchester University
- Jews and the property gene (everything from why we live in cul de sacs to why we can all price property at twenty paces. We can't take it with us when the Nazis come).
- Is there really more antisemitism, or are we all Woody Allenly angsting about it?
- What do we think about outmarriage?
- Why are we obsessed with counting Jews?
- How does Anglo-Jewry function now that the strong link with Israel and zionism is problematic (less people going on year schemes/aliyah/Israel summer trips) - what is the diaspora potentially without the place we left?
- Tay sachs/genetic testing - do people take this seriously?
- The "shul with a pool" thing - with less and less people doing the religion thing, what does the culture thing mean?
- are Jews really hip? Is the Jewish hipster thing coming to the UK?
- is there a Jewish conspiracy
- can the community create an inclusive non-judgemental space for everyone who walks through the door, or will we always be judging people's hats and kippot and haircuts
- how does a community retain its independence - difference - while playing a part in the broader society
- interfaith stuff
- regional communities and how they survive as they shrink
- does the internet in some way remove the need for community?
- is there really a resurgence in Jewish learning?

... the list goes on and on. These are first thoughts, sure. But it seems to me there are people who live and breathe this stuff, and they're not all writing for the JC. Yet.