Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
A rabbi, Holocaust survivor, President of the Reform Synagogue of Great Britain and panellist on The Moral Maze, advocating interfaith relations.
On the island
Eight records
Symphony No. 38 in D major, K. 504 "Prague"
Chicago Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Sir Georg Solti
Well, something to remind me, in a way, both of Czechoslovakia and the first composer I knew by name, which was Mozart. It is the Prague Symphony, and it combines so many familiarities for me.
Well, the one song from our town, thought to be uh the composition of a chazen, of a synagogue cantor of of our area. It's a magical song about this wonderful bird which has uh yellow wings and blue legs.
Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Neeme Järvi
I think back of the triumphal part in the life of Czechoslovakia and the Janacek Symphonietta, specially composed for a so-called sort of gymnastic festival of young people. When I was a boy, one of my ambitions was that I should one day be that kind of a gymnast. Well, I never was, but the music suggests bodily movement and and people working in harmony with each other and looking forward to the future.
Well, it's a song from that period. It's one of the two songs that I learned in the camp. It's as ogdit kainmul as the geisten lettenfeg. In Yiddish Never Say You Now Walk the Final Path was written by a young Russian Jew called Hirsch Glick. He wrote this song, which became the song, Never Say You Now Walk the Final Path.
The Choir of the West London Synagogue
Synagogue where I have been rabbi for the last 30 years is blessed with a wonderful choir... And this is a particular piece of liturgy that I love. Shamakolenu, a prayer, hear our voice. It has everything in it, the right emotion, the right music.
This next piece of music is From India. which impact was where I was first a congregational rabbi after I qualified in the United States. On the trip that my wife and I first took to India on this airplane, Three seats were reserved for one man and his instrument, and he was Rabi Shankar and his sitar. And on the journey we became quite friendly, and afterwards I also became a great fan of his. And this piece of music, this this raga, suggests to me a very, very happy time in India.
Kid Ory and his Creole Jazz Band
Well, talk of civilization. Kid Ori and his Creole jazz band. A wonderful group from New Orleans. I knew Kidore when I was in Cincinnati a a student, and it was my good luck to think of inviting him to come and play a big punction, and he came and it was wonderful. And I think of him and Saint Louis Blues, which is absolutely well, it's just a classic.
Kol Ha'olam KuloFavourite
This is the melody, but the words which are constantly in my mind come from Rabbi Nachman of Bratzlav, a a remarkable teacher and mystic thinker of the beginning of the last century. Life, kolhaolam kulo gesher tzar mu'ord is the Hebrew. The whole world is a narrow bridge. And the important thing, the ikar. is not to be afraid.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:21Were you always destined to become a rabbi?
No, I'm not sure what I was destined to be. I suppose a life of leisure and comfort is what I hoped it would be... well to do family, very r hardworking. Most of our family were actually in sort of agriculture. My father was a forest developer and and sort of we had vineyards. And I suppose that's where I would have been heading.
Presenter asks
8:06What was the first you saw of anti-Semitism? When did you realize what the phrase meant?
Across the river from my uh grandparents' village uh was Hungary. And it was in Hungary that uh some of these terrorist groups began to develop with the sole purpose of terrorizing on the other side of the river the Jewish population. And uh one night a group of such terrorists came over, made their way into my grandfather's uh well, the farm and the houses. And Butchered Live. All the cows and calves in the barns... what, I was about eight and we arrived there just as it was getting to be light. And I've never seen anything like it. Pointless. Cruel, callous. Terrifying. And that was the beginning. Of the end.
Presenter asks
11:23Couldn't you and your family have escaped? Couldn't you have fled at that point?
my parents and my brother and I, we were to escape. Arrangements were made for us to go to Turkey. And we never did. Later on, much later, when my father and I were in prison. And and one day I asked him, Why didn't we do it? And and he told me that uh He and my mother went to his parents' village and to my mother's family's village to say goodbye. And when they came home They looked at each other and they said, But how can we leave the old people behind? It was what? The trap of love, of caring so much about family. That when the chips were down. You couldn't choose. abandon them and save yourself or stick together and see what you can do to help each other.
The keepsakes
The book
Martin Gilbert
Churchill was a man in our century who actually had vision, character, and he was the right man at the right time. And I feel I owe a lot to him, and so do we all.
The luxury
Well, I live in central London, Sue, and what I would like is a parking space.
Presenter asks
16:48How hard did you pray at that time [in the camps]?
Well, as hard as I knew. But I also knew something then. Which uh I've only sort of understood better and better as time has gone on. And that is that. It's when people dethrone God, and that's exactly what happened in Auschwitz, and put themselves. into that uh roll and onto that pedestal. That is when terrible things happen. And I believe God was there, and I believe God actually cried with me.
Presenter asks
20:15How did you and your father survive?
Well, he didn't. He actually died at the end of the war, just days after our liberation from the combination of starvation and typhoid... And I survived by chance, pure chance. Uh well, no, not quite true. I also survived because my father was with me and protected me. uh many times from all sorts of dangers.
Presenter asks
28:58Do you feel the alarm bells ringing when you see the British National Party scoring victories, or the rise of neo-fascism in Germany?
There is such a betrayal of history going on right now in this country, in Europe, but in North America as well. And I find that Obscene. And I think it has to be resisted and fought. I can tell you, you know, I mean, we Jews, we're out of the victim business. That that that's finished. And only a society which can cherish and protect all its members. It deserves the term civilized.
“There was almost no relationship between the Jewish community in our town and the Roman Catholic and the Protestant and the Russian Orthodox communities, which were also there. And I think we paid a terrible price for that. Because when the persecution began, there was no one there to lift a finger or to demonstrate.”
“And when people don't care enough, terrible things happen and that's what happened to us. Total disaster.”
“I believe that part of the mark of being a spiritually civilized person is when you can celebrate differences. Life comes in so many forms, so how can you not be multi-faith, multicultural?”
“In a family you can have all kinds of differences, but you know you have to look after each other. And you have to protect one another, and you look out for the vulnerable, and you celebrate with the successful, and You are not alone. then you are not an alien in your world.”