As we raise our voices in a solemn prayer

It was a Jew, Irving Berlin, who wrote those lines in his classic “God Bless America”, one of those iconic songs that define patriotism.

On December 5th, 1805 Rabbi Solomon Hirschell gave a sermon in the Great Synagogue, Duke’s Place for a “General Thanksgiving for the success of His Majesty’s fleet under Lord Nelson, Of Trafalgar”

Wow

For hundreds of years Jews have been exceptional in their loyalty to the State in which they live; whenever they have been given a chance to be patriots they have done so. For example, despite the anti-Semitism of the time, 100,000 Jews fought for Germany in World War 1, with 12,000 dead, and fought against British and French Jews.

……and they have often expressed that loyalty in prayer.

Indeed, services in the UK have the prayer for the Royal family, and at weddings and Bar Mitzvahs the loyal toast is usually sung with some gusto, often to the amazement of non-Jewish guests, and to the annoyance of republicans (both Jewish and non-Jewish)

According to Rabbi Jonathan Romain in The Guardian in 2012, referring to a prayer for the Royal Family, “Princess Margaret was astonished. In 1990 she was attending a service marking the 50th anniversary of Maidenhead synagogue and was struck by the fact that we read a prayer for the good health and wise counsel of the Queen.

When I explained that the prayer was not a one-off but recited every Sabbath (sic) in every synagogue in Britain, she remarked: "How lovely, they don't do that for us in church; I'll tell my sister."”

The prayer goes back centuries. Samuel Pepys diary of October 1663 mentions a visit to the Creechurch Lane Synagogue for Sephardi Jews at the Jewish festival Simchas Torah . “in the end they had a prayer for the King, which they pronounced his name in Portugall (Eds note - they were mainly Portuguese) but the prayer like the rest in Hebrew.”

It is also international. The earliest known Jewish formulation for a royal family is from 11th Century Worms:”May He who blessed our fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob bless our exalted Kaiser.”

In Australia the prayer is for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia"; and includes "the legislators and leaders of Australia and its States and Territories"; according to Rabbi Apple of Sydney. He makes the point that “everywhere one comes across tattered siddurim from many lands which pray for kaisers, czars, princes and presidents, and indeed a history of government could be written around these Jewish prayer books.”

Rabbi Andy Vogel of Temple Sinia, Brookline, USA tells of finding an old machzor, a High Holy Day prayer book, published in 1895 in Petrokov, (then) Russia. Turning to the Torah service he saw the prayer for the Czar, beautifully composed:

"May the One… who is the Ruler of rulers... bless and keep, guard and aid, exalt and raise the Czar Nicholas Alexanderovich, and his widowed mother, Czarina Marie Feodorovna……(and various others)... May God save them from all harm and pain, and may all their enemies fall before them. And may the Merciful One put in the heart of the Czar compassion and good deeds for the People of Israel"

Rabbi Vogel said to me that we have to be cautious about this. He said  “I wouldn't necessarily see the prayer as an expression of patriotism, but more like fear!  The Jews were the subjects of the Tsar and they wanted to show loyalty to him -- so they wouldn't pay the price of being seen as "other".

With state organised pogroms, and the mass expulsions of Jews from Russia, it is doubtful whether any Jews said this with any gusto. Far from it, as the Rabbi in Fiddler on the Roof says “God Keep the Tsar………well away from us”

Furthermore Theodore Herzl in his pamphlet in 1896 called “The Jewish State” said “In vain are we loyal patriots, sometimes superloyal; in vain do we make the same sacrifices of life and property as our fellow citizens.” History has shown over the last 100 years how a number of Jews were mistaken in their loyalty, and not the least German Jews, so Herzl, who was proposing a Jewish State maight have had a point, to put it mildly.

However as Rabbi Romain says “Jewish people want to emphasise their loyalty to the country in which they live. Although they are Jewish by birth and religion, they are also citizens of the country in which they live. So a person can be Jewish and British, Jewish and Welsh, Jewish and American and so on. Jews living in Britain are British citizens.” Whatever Herzl may say it is natural thing for Jews to be loyal to the country that they are citizens of and to therefore say a prayer for the rulers of their country.

In the UK, this relationship between the monarchy and it’s Jewish subjects has been very fraught (we only need to remember the expulsion in 1290) at times. In latter days though, things have much improved, especially since the days of Queen Victoria, who knighted Moses Montefiore and  whose favourite Prime Minister was Jewish (Benjamin Disraeli).

Lucy Moore said of Edward the Seventh “His close friends were as often Catholic or Jewish, nouveau riche or foreign, as old-school British aristocrats; the common thread between them was that they were fun-loving and rich, not respectable and grand” Indeed he tried to intercede on behalf of the Jews in Russia with the Tsar.

Prince Philip’s mother became a “Righteous Amongst The Nations” for what she did in World War II, saving a Jewish family from the Nazis.

To finish with though is THE joke that sums it all up.

Samuel’s father finally comes over from the Heim to England. When he greets the old man he is somewhat worried.

His father has a thick bushy beard, and is wearing a long black robe, and a wide black hat.

“Daddy” he says “You cannot go around like that. People will stare at you. It’s time you became a proper Englishman.”

So he takes his father to the barber, who gives the old man a nice short back and sides with a goatee beard.

“That’s much better" says the son, "You are starting to look like a true Englishman, but we must do something about that hat and robe.”

He takes the old man to a milliner who kits the him out in a trilby, and says “Much better than your black fedora. Much more English.”

Next the old man goes to a tailor where they buy a nice tweed suit with waistcoat.

“That is wonderful says the son “You are now an Englishman.”

The old man begins to cry. Tears flow down his face, uncontrollably

“I’m so sorry, Daddy” says the son “I didn’t mean you to deny your heritage. I just wanted you to be an Englishman”

“No you misunderstand” says the old man “I am crying because ve lost ze Empire.”

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Kosher Foxtrot
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