Oxford Chabad Society hosted a historic Shabbat Dinner celebrating the recently elected first Jewish speaker of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, Mr. John Bercow MP, who is also Member of Parliament for Buckingham.
Mr. Bercow entertained the close to a hundred students, faculty and community members with his wit and humour including, in response to a special request by a student, a full act of how he brings the House of Commons to Order. His talk was entitled 'New Parliament, New Politics?' in which he claimed that the expenses scandal that rightly undermined trust of the public in politics, should be viewed as a profound transition from what has been until now for centuries in the UK an executive style politics, when politicians were unaccountable and unanswerable to the voters to a new politics whereby the public may scrutinize and question their politicians and remove them if they are no good.
Mr. Bercow spoke about his Jewish upbringing indicating that the Shabbat dinner at the Chabad Society takes him back to his childhood when his father would also celebrate Shabbat, though he says he has not remained observant himself.
He was however emphatic about his feelings towards people who are ashamed about their upbringing. He said that he finds it ‘disgusting’ that in an un-oppressed society one would conceal ones Jewish or any identity. He revealed that when PM David Cameron welcomed his in parliament as the new Speaker of Parliament he asked him beforehand whether he would mind if he referenced his Jewishness, to which Mr. Bercow proudly consented.
Mr. Bercow responded to a question by a student whether there is any anti-Semitism in parliament to which he confided there is. He quoted an MP, without revealing his name, who told him that ‘if he had it his way he would not be Speaker of Parliament’. When Mr. Bercow asked him whether it was because of his state school background or being Jewish, he responded ‘both’.
Moreover, he said, he could name at least one journalist in parliament who is almost certainly anti-Semitic. However, he suggested that the best way to answer these people is by just getting on with it and being successful at what you are doing, as this really bothers them.
Rabbi Eli Brackman, director of the Oxford Chabad Society, presided over the dinner and explained the importance of the celebration. It symbolically represents the culmination of a gradual process that began a hundred and eighty years ago with the first introduction of the Jewish Emancipation Bill in 1830 to the House of Commons.
Though it was initially defeated, it passed following the Reform Act, in 1833. In 1835 Jews became enfranchised, in 1845, when parliament passed the Jewish Municipal Relief Act, Jews were allowed to assume all municipal offices, and in 1846, when the Religious Opinion Relief Act was passed, Jews became entitled to own land and other rights.
Two other key dates in British Jewish history is 1856, when the Oxford University Reform Act was passed, allowing Jews to take degrees in Britain’s ancient universities, and in 1871, when the Universities Test Act was passed, allowing Jews to become Fellows at Oxford and Cambridge Universities.
According to Todd Endelman, based on reports in NY Jewish newspapers, within the British Jewish community, excitement was absent and indifference prevailed about the emancipation campaign. Not many cared whether Jews would be allowed into parliament, he writes.
Rabbi Brackman suggested that emancipation for Jews in Britain is indeed important in their role as ‘light unto the nations’ to make a positive impact on society. He said that unlike other countries, Britain never made any conditions for emancipation of the Jews. It was not intended to assimilate the Jews but rather an internal matter within British society for political reform.
The culmination of this process should therefore be celebrated allowing for the first proudly identifying Jewish Speaker of Parliament with the election of Mr. Bercow MP.
Other distinguished guests at the dinner were Prof. of War Studies, Sir Lawrence Freedman, who is also Vice Principal of Kings College London, and panel member of the Chilcot Enquiry into the Iraq War, Prof. Bernard Silverman, Chief Scientific Adviser to the Home Office, Prof. David Coleman, Professor of Demography at Oxford University, and political scientist Dr. Michael Pinto-Duschinsky.
Introduction was offered by Sir Lawrence Freedman and closing remarks by Dr. Michael Pinto-Duschinsky.