Brexit schmexit. How Jewish are Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt?
As the leadership hopefuls seek to burnish their credentials with Tory members, we rate them on the only scale that matters
Jeremy ‘My Best Friend Is A Chasid’ Hunt
Jewish genealogical expert Doreen Berger has spent time combing Jeremy Hunt’s family tree, but failed to find the frailest twig of Jewishness.
Undaunted, Mr Hunt made his bid for a Jewish connection this week, telling the JC about his experiences at the Chasidic wedding of one of his best friends from his time at Charterhouse School — which, as a Christian boarding school in Godalming, Surrey, is an unlikely place for a nascent Chasid.
Describing the event — which took place more than 30 years ago — Mr Hunt said: “One of my best friends at school was Jewish and he went on to become Chasidic.
“His wedding was something I’ll never forget. It was a surreal experience going to a synagogue where not only was there a screen down the middle separating men and women, but where the men, including Israeli soldiers with their guns, all danced together.”
The Tory leadership candidate admitted that being Foreign Secretary had allowed him to “engage around the issues” involving the Jewish community more fully than when he was Health Secretary.
But he said his “fundamental support” for both the community and for Israel was “always there”.
Our verdict: two per cent Jewish for chutzpah
Boris ‘Descended From A Rabbi’ Johnson
Nominally Anglican but with Muslim ancestors from Turkey, at first sight Boris Johnson is not very promising JC material, even though he’s said that his commitment to Christianity is like the reception for Magic FM in the Cotswolds.
However, his mother’s great-grandfather was Jewish, although this does not make Mr Johnson halachically Jewish.
Avery Lowe arrived in the USA from Russia in 1891 with his parents. He became a palaeographer at Princeton and was a friend of Albert Einstein.
Johnson family members believe Elias was descended from rabbis. And genealogist Doreen Berger believes the missing Jewish link could be a revered Lithuanian rabbi with a penchant for Latin and Greek — Rabbi Elijah Ragoler, born in 1794.
He shares a surname with Sarah Ragoler, Elias Lowe’s mother.
The rabbi argued against Reform Judaism but, according to the Jewish Encyclopaedia “insisted upon the avoidance … particularly of insulting words,” advice that may be useful to Mr Johnson.
Sarah Ragoler and her husband Chaim Lowe, a silk merchant, were the grandparents of Mr Johnson’s mother, the artist Charlotte Johnson Wahl, whose second marriage was to a Jewish American academic, Nick Wahl. What’s more, Mr Johnson spent time on a kibbutz as a teenager.
At Western Wall, London mayor affirms his Jewish ancestry
Johnson appeared genuinely moved as he placed his right hand on the Western Wall and paused for a minute while photographers took pictures of him praying.
By Steve Linde
November 11, 2015 11:20
London Mayor Boris Johnson at Western Wall. (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
London Mayor Boris Johnson confirmed on Wednesday during a visit to the Western Wall in Jerusalem that he has Jewish ancestry.
“Yes, I have Jews in my family from Moscow, some of them rabbis,” he told Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz, the rabbi of the Western Wall and holy sites. “That’s on my mother’s side.”
Johnson, 51, is Anglican and a member of the Conservative Party.
His artist mother, Charlotte Johnson Wahl (née Fawcett), was from a family of liberal intellectuals, while his father, Stanley, was politically conservative.
ohnson appeared genuinely moved as he placed his right hand on the Western Wall and paused for a moment while photographers took pictures of him praying.
“It is a great privilege to come to this Wall for the first time in my life, and I join the prayers for peace in Jerusalem,” he wrote in the visitors’ book, as Rabinowitz looked on.
Rabinowitz assured Johnson that Israel was maintaining the status quo on the Temple Mount, despite claims to the contrary by the Palestinians.
Johnson replied that he had no doubt this was true.
“This is a place that is sacred to three great faiths and it is very important to show one’s respect and understanding of the holiness of this place. But if you ask me what I pray for, what everybody wants is to see peace and reconciliation, imagination, generosity and tolerance,” he said. “That’s what Jerusalem is all about. It is about the great faiths coming together in one place in the holiest city in the world. I think that anyone who comes here wants to see that spirit of understanding.
Asked if he saw any opportunity for peace between Israel and the Palestinians, Johnson said, “I suppose what I want and what everybody wants is imagination and a spirit of reconciliation on both sides.”
Johnson said that the Middle East conflict was “a very ancient problem with disputes that go back centuries,” arguing that it would take “a great deal of patience, a great deal of imagination and a great deal of generosity on both sides” to resolve it.
He said he was currently visiting Israel to represent London “and to talk up the partnerships between our great city and this part of the world.”
“I don’t think the problems of the Middle East are something I’m going to be able to address in ten seconds now,” he added, before walking away from the Wall with his entourage.
Johnson then visited the Temple Mount and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre before heading to Ramallah at the end of his three-day trip to Israel.
Posted by Boris' Kosher Cred on Tue, 13 Aug 2019 16:08 | #