The Normalisation of Systemic Hatred Against Jews in the UK ✎

Antisemitism is on the rise in the UK.

It’s been getting more-and-more nasty and especially very scary.

The Golders Green attack of last month was a very dark day. Not just for two Jewish individuals brutally stabbed by a maniac, but because it demonstrates warnings about the normalisation of extreme anti-Zionist rhetoric, almost always a contributing factor to anti-Jewish violence.

Headline today shows university Jewish students receiving death threats!  What is this?

Anti-semitism, is one of oldest and virulent of the irrational hatreds that saturates the Middle East. It is a key component of Palestinian Arab culture. It is also a significant undercurrent of Leftist ideology, and has been since at least Karl Marx and his self-loathing of his Jewish heritage. The antisemitism on the Right suffered a moral defeat after the horrors of the Holocaust. Today, about 80 years after the Holocaust, the generation that witnessed it first-hand have mostly passed away and antisemitism is undergoing a recrudescence. Now, Iran has replaced Germany. 

Since Oct-7, the focus of attacks have been concentrated on Jewish targets. From the miniature Kristallnachts perpetrated on university campuses, to stabbings of clothing-identifiable Jews on the streets of major cities, to the vandalism directed at Jewish identifiable buildings; it represents a change in the direction of violence. The point is to separate Jews from their neighbours and community. In essence, while the antisemitism seems outrageous, it offers the West a way out of the current chaos: “allow us to kill off the Jews and we will leave you alone”. 

I am in favour of free speech, but I think there is something deeply wrong in UK culture that it is mainstream and routine to call for the dismantling of the world’s only Jewish state, and when slogans such as “Globalise the Intifada” are tolerated under the banner of political expression. These nasty ideas carry real-world consequences for Jewish communities in England.

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Our King recently went to visit the Jewish community in Golders Green and met the Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis:

The Madonna of the Meadow by Raphael (1506) ✎

I saw this exquisite masterpiece in Vienna.

The harmony of the composition is absolutely captivating.

Raphael painted this when he was only about 23 years old. Raphael lived a brilliant but tragically short life, dying at the age of 37 in 1520.

I like the contrast between Mary’s slightly melancholic expression (reflecting her tragic prescience) and the two children playing.

Serene Italian landscape.

Baby Christ’s soft chubby cheeks and baby fat is High Renaissance naturalism.

A departure from the medieval homunculus to the divine as fully human in the flesh.

St John the Baptist giving Christ the cross.

King Charles III at the US Congress ✎

Watching the King deliver a wonderful address with grace and humour, referencing shared cultural icons of Oscar Wilde and Charles Dickens, it shows the respect and dignity a head of state should command.

My favourite part is when he said: “America’s words carry weight and meaning, as they have since independence. The actions of this great nation matter even more.”

I think the respect and dignity of the US government has been on the decline ever since Donald Trump. His rudeness and disrespectful attitude to his so-called allies (esp. Canada), and his vindictive egomania, has really tarnished the gravitas of the US.

Anyway, well done King Charles. 

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My favourite system of government is a Parliament with a constitutional monarchy. The best argument in favour of this approach was articulated by Sir Walter Bagehot. Bagehot famously divided the British government into two distinct branches: the dignified and the efficient. The Crown is the “dignified” part of our constitution. Its purpose is not to “govern”, but to provide the symbolic historical foundations of our nation. I think this is a deeply conservative institution and, my goodness, I can’t overestimate its importance. The Monarch is not elected, and don’t take sides in debates. They are a living bridge to our past, our culture, the nation’s history and continuity. They represent the nation’s shared identity from centuries ago to the present day which transcend the prevailing political differences of the day. 

In divided & difficult times, the Monarchy is consistent and visible. Their value to the UK is immeasurable.

The church of St Martin-in-the-Fields ✎

I was lucky to capture a burst of the setting sunlight against a cloudy evening.

At Trafalgar Square.

Do art galleries devalue the art in their tacky gift shops? ✎

This is the from the blockbuster Van Gogh exhibition last year at the National Gallery:

 

I felt a bit embarrassed. 😔

I think Van Gogh would be shocked by what’s been done to his work.

His sunflowers motif were a lifelong, almost spiritual, expression of “gratitude” of being face to face with nature. E.g. see Gauguin’s depiction of Van Gogh’s magnum opus. The power of his art comes from his energy and excitement; and Van Gogh was a troubled soul.

Quite a lot of his paintings were done in an asylum, and it feels v. disrespectful to slap his face and works on tacky bags, jewelry, kitchen towels, tea matts, and everything else etc. 

Van Gogh always wanted “validation” (esp. among the respectable Paris salons), but he certainly had a respect for art.

I get museums are strapped for cash, but is it too much?  🤔