I have never felt more Jewish than I do now. Last week’s anti-Semitic attack on two men in Golders Green has shifted something in the way I view my heritage and inspired a greater sense of solidarity with the Jewish community.
I don’t even know whether I can call myself Jewish – although with the surname Shulman, most people assume I am. My mother was not and Jewish identity is based on matrilineal descent.
She married Milton Shulman – who was most definitely Jewish – despite the disapproval of her parents, especially her father, who had denied his own sliver of Jewish ancestry.
When our father left what he saw as the claustrophobic existence of Jews in Toronto and started a new life in London, he described himself as an atheist. But he never denied his Jewish roots.
We weren’t brought up in the faith and I have only been in a synagogue twice, but I have always felt my Jewish blood to be a key part of my whole being.
And, as my mother would announce when, late in life, she started to embrace her family’s ancestral Judaism: ‘If the Nazis were around, you would be soap.’
So. Just Jewish enough.
During my childhood, the only time I was aware of anti-Semitism was when my best friend informed me that there was a Jewish quota at our private day school. It was the moment I realised that to be Jewish was to be something ‘other’ in my middle-class London world.
Golders Green was a tipping point – perhaps because I know that area well, writes Shulman
When I see a young man wearing his kippah in the street, I feel an intense sadness that the external trappings of their community should put them in greater danger, she writes
My generation hasn’t been exposed to anti-Semitism in this country, but I fear that’s changing now. Unlike many of my friends, I have never felt threatened by the anti-Jewish sentiment that’s been on the rise since the start of the Gaza conflict. I’ve even, on occasion, thought they were over-reacting.
But there’s an incipient anti-Semitism in Britain, particularly among the younger generation, many of whom support Palestine and often conflate the actions of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu with those of all Jews. Indeed, I’ve not noticed any outcry from the young over the terrifying preponderance of Jewish attacks.
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Golders Green was a tipping point – perhaps because I know that area well, but also because the attack took place as these men were going about daily business that had nothing to do with their religion.
Now when I see a young man wearing his kippah in the street or spot women wearing wigs and men in the traditional dress, as I did while driving through the orthodox areas of north London the other day, I feel an intense sadness that these external trappings of their community should put them in greater danger.
I can’t say that I feel remotely at risk myself, but it’s no longer unimaginable that, at some point, even someone like me – ‘just Jewish enough’ – could begin to share their fear and anxiety.
AI makes me doubt everything I see
When I first saw the 15th anniversary photo, of the Prince and Princess of Wales and their family, I thought it must be AI-generated. This wasn’t because I found the picture of them lying intertwined on the grass in Cornwall unbelievable, but because I now question almost everything I see and hear.
A few weeks ago, my stepdaughter, who works as a newspaper picture editor, showed me videos she’d learned to make with AI. There she was arriving at the airport in Japan to claim a monkey called Punch (a social media phenomenon, apparently). Crazy but totally convincing. The evidence of our eyes is no longer a way to judge something’s veracity.
A great book – and a belter of a speech
Our friend Victor Sebestyen has just published Weimar Germany: Death Of A Democracy, an excellent book on the period between the two world wars. I say it’s excellent, not because I have read it, but because his brilliant speech at the launch party persuaded me that this subject – previously one I’d had no interest in – is completely riveting and pertinent to now.
Speeches, as we have all just learned from King Charles’s triumphant oratory in the United States, are powerful things. In this world of TikTok information and social media algorithms, we must continue to appreciate what a good speech, rather than a post, can uniquely achieve.
The garden blooms (no thanks to me)
It’s that time of year when I despise myself for not being a gardener. I have a really nice garden because I am fortunate enough to be able to pay someone to do the bulk of the work. I love to look at it and enjoy trips to the nursery where, invariably, I buy unsuitable plants – convinced that this year a new clematis will thrive despite previous experience. But I simply hate getting dug in.
The real gardeners I know get immense satisfaction out of the activity. They follow the progress of the smallest plant, display enviable knowledge of unpronounceable Latin names and can spend hours fiddling around with compost and grit. I, on the other hand, walk out with a coffee cup hoping to find my inner Alan Titchmarsh, only to retreat 30 minutes later to text my gardener to come over to plant the dahlias instead.
My husband and I thank you all
Alexandra Shulman and David Jenkins celebrated their wedding at Chelsea Old Town Hall
My husband and I… This is the first time I have written that phrase following our wedding ten days ago. I can’t say I’m entirely comfortable with it, but even so… my husband and I have been thrilled by the congratulations and sweet sentiments that have been flooding in since this event.
You might have thought that since we’ve been together for 22 years and he is in his mid-70s and I my mid-60s, this was not an act that anyone would be interested in. Wrong. Along with many moving words, gifts have been arriving daily – champagne, a picture, flowers – even a silver horseshoe.
I wish I could get married every day.
