On London Extra: A Jewish voice
Why I've been thinking about Helen Shapiro. Plus Labour and London, bedbug trouble, Susan Hall's friends, green glitter and my novel
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Growing up in small town England, I learned two meanings of the word "Jew": one, that Jesus was the king of them, whoever they were; two, it was what you called someone who wouldn't share their crisps. I didn't realise until much later that, from the age of three, a Jew sang to me from the family record player.
The name of that Jew was Helen Shapiro, a copy of whose 1961 chart-topping hit single Walking Back To Happiness was owned by my big sister. It forms part of the soundtrack of my earliest years and, today, six decades later, just might be in a dust-covered box in my vinyl basement.
If so, that would be fitting because where I live now is almost literally a stone's throw from the location of the synagogue on Lea Bridge Road in Clapton Shapiro attended as a child, and a short walk from where she lived and went to school before, at age nine, moving south to an estate near Victoria Park. "It was, and is, a beautiful place," she said of it in an interview in 2006.
My reminiscence is prompted, of course, by the atrocities committed by Hamas in Israel and the resulting deep anxieties felt by Jewish Londoners. At Mayor's Question Time yesterday, Sadiq Khan reminded people that it has become routine for London's Jewish institutions to be protected by security guards, so high was the level of concern about antisemitic attacks already.
Increases in such incidents routinely follow violence in the Middle East, and London's Jews are already paying a price for the latest, terrifyingly extreme, example. Jewish schools in the north of the city have announced they are to close, and the number seems likely to rise. The Community Support Trust (CST), which battles antisemitism, has recorded a large rise in abusive behaviour towards Jews, along with threats, assaults and damage to property.
Meanwhile, there has been a furious protest outside Israel's embassy in Kensington, and examples of people in London celebrating Hamas's actions and tearing down pictures of missing Israelis attached to buildings in Camden have been witnessed. Israel has launched a ferocious retaliation, and the Mayor warned yesterday that as the fighting continues, so do its implications for London and those Londoners most affected by it.
It is monstrous that Jewish Londoners have to endure the hatred of others in their own city, where there have been Jewish communities since the 12th Century. Non-Jewish Londoners, such as me, have not always recognised or appreciated the parts they have played in our lives, which is what got me thinking about Helen Shapiro. It's also why, after this newsletter has gone out, I will be making a donation to the CST.
- CST: Antisemitic incidents increase.
- Jewish schools in London close.
- Sky News: Protest outside Israeli embassy.
- Missing Israeli posters torn down.
- Jewish Community Histories in London.
- Wikipedia: Helen Shapiro.
- Helen Shapiro - A Personal Story.
