Scottish independence: what does it mean for the Jews?

Articles from 1) the JTA, 2) the settlers’ publication Arutz Sheva and 3) Algemeiner. For the headline*

Rabbi Mendel Jacobs in his specially created Jewish tartan. He points out that Scotland and Israel share the colours of blue and white in their national flag and his tartan allows Scottish Jews to combine their heritages (in a pro-Israeli way). Photo electricscotland. See item 3.

Ahead of historic vote, many Scottish Jews wary of independence

In opposing secession, Jews cite anti-Israel statements by the Scottish government, historic links to the UK and economic risks

By Ben Sales, JTA
September 16, 2014

GLASGOW — Bright blue signs scream “Yes” while red ones urge “No, thanks” in the streets of Scotland’s largest city just days before a vote on whether to secede from the United Kingdom.

But at Frank Angell’s house, his windows are empty and his yard is bare.

A former local council candidate for the Scottish National Party, the main political movement behind the independence push, Angell is a vocal supporter of the Yes campaign, attending rallies and touting the economic potential of an independent Scotland.

But in his local Jewish community, Angell is one of only a handful of supporters of independence.

Most of the affiliated Scottish Jewish community appears to want to remain part of the United Kingdom — among them Angell’s wife, Elaine. Hence the lack of signage on their lawn.

“The SNP has a history of pro-Palestinian support,” Elaine Angell said. “[UK Prime Minister] David Cameron is very strong. He’s pro-Israel. He’s always been pro-Israel.”

On Thursday, Scotland will vote on whether to become an independent country or continue more than three centuries of union with England. The campaign has proved a divisive one here, with recent polls showing the country nearly split evenly on the secession question.

Supporters of independence believe that Scotland would be better able to allocate resources to the local population as a separate country while leaving a smaller military footprint than the United Kingdom. Opponents argue that the country is better served by the UK’s greater global influence and worry about the financial and political uncertainties of independence.

“It’s historical, cultural, but also practical, economical,” Angell told JTA. “The way the economy has gone in Britain has been to pander to a very rich minority and allow a lot of tax avoidance. I also object to the money being spent on nuclear weapons because I’m anti-nuclear.”

Many Scottish Jews say they are wary of secession, citing anti-Israel statements by the Scottish government, historic and family links to the United Kingdom, and the potential economic risks of independence.

“The Jews in Scotland have been well received,” said Malcolm Livingstone, chairman of the Glasgow Jewish Community Trust. “It’s only in recent times that extreme Palestinian groups have upset that. The Scottish Parliament has shown serious signs of anti-Israel and anti-Jewish attitudes.”

Scotland’s 2011 census counted fewer than 6,000 Jews — about 0.1 percent of the population — most of them living in and around the industrial metropolis of Glasgow. Including unaffiliated Jews, the total could be more like 10,000, according to the Scottish Council of Jewish Communities director, Ephraim Borowski.

The community hasn’t been polled and Borowski’s group has no official position on the referendum. But he says official condemnations of Israel during the war in Gaza this summer may have pushed some Jews to oppose independence.

During the war, the Scottish government released eight statements criticizing Israel’s actions in Gaza. On August 5, it called for an arms embargo against Israel to protest civilian deaths in Gaza. Glasgow’s City Hall flew the Palestinian flag for a day in August.

“I do know of people who have said explicitly that they intended to vote yes and now intend to vote no, and that’s connected with the much more explicit obsession with Israel and the Mideast,” Borowski told JTA.

The anti-Israel resolutions in Scotland have come alongside a spike in anti-Semitism here. More than 35 anti-Semitic acts occurred in July and August, according to Borowski’s group, compared to 14 in all of 2013. While the Scottish National Party, which is leading the independence charge, has condemned anti-Semitism, some Jews worry that nationalist feeling has encouraged it.

“Nationalism in Europe has not done well with the Jews,” Livingstone said. “I’m not suggesting for a minute that the SNP is like the nationalist parties in Germany, but within nationalist politics there’s always an element that tends to blame minorities for things that go wrong.”

Angell told JTA he has never encountered any anti-Israel sentiment at party conferences. Last month, Scotland’s second-ranking government official, the SNP’s Nicola Sturgeon, wrote Angell a letter saying an independent Scotland would support a two-state solution and oppose boycotts of Israel.

“The foreign policy of an independent Scotland has yet to be written, but I know from the membership of our party that our attitude toward every nation and every group is a positive one,” said Vincent Waters, the SNP city councillor for Giffnock, a heavily Jewish Glasgow suburb. “We don’t have countries or ethnic populations that we favor one over the other.”

With a population of approximately 5.3 million, Scottish foreign policy isn’t likely to have a big impact on Israel. But Ben Freeman, 27, who grew up in Glasgow and founded an anti-discrimination nonprofit, says his country should support Israel as a matter of principle.

“It does matter because it’s our country,” Freeman said. “I don’t want to be part of a country that’s anti-Israel. I don’t want to be part of a country that’s anti-Semitic.”

Some Scottish Jews says they feel more of a connection to Britain as a whole than to Scotland. Unlike Scottish families who can trace their lines back to the country’s ancient clans, many Jews came here in a wave of immigration from Eastern Europe only a century ago, 200 years after England and Scotland formed a political union in 1707.

“Perhaps being a fourth-generation immigrant I have a different attitude toward being Scottish. None of my family was here in 1707,” Joel Conn said. “There’s a lot more that makes us British than makes us Scottish.”

A child plays with a pro-independence ‘Yes’ flag on the streets of Aberdeen in Scotland, on September 15, 2014, ahead of the referendum on Scotland’s independence. (photo credit: AFP PHOTO/BEN STANSALL)
A child plays with a pro-independence ‘Yes’ flag on the streets of Aberdeen in Scotland, on September 15, 2014, ahead of the referendum on Scotland’s independence. (photo credit: AFP PHOTO/BEN STANSALL)

Jews who support independence cite parallels between the Jewish and Scottish stories. Scottish nationalists have desired independence since the earliest rebellions against English rule in the 1200s, much as Jews longed for Zion over centuries of living in exile. And like Judaism, Scotland’s Presbyterian ethos historically encouraged education and literacy.

Joe Goldblatt, a native Texan who moved to Scotland six years ago and gained citizenship in July, was passing out fliers supporting independence last week in Edinburgh. Approaching a mother with a baby in a stroller, Goldblatt offered a pin to the “wee bairn,” or little kid.

“What’s the basis for all Jewish thought? Freedom,” said Goldblatt, a professor at Queen Margaret University in Edinburgh. “It surprises me when my fellow Jews want to be shackled to the old political tissue, as if they’re saying, ‘The pharaoh has been pretty good so far. Let’s not rock the boat.’ ”

Scotland’s Jewish population is declining as young people move to cities with larger Jewish communities in London, Manchester or Tel Aviv. Between 2001 and 2011, the community’s numbers declined nearly 10 percent.

But though many Jews oppose independence, Freeman doesn’t think a yes vote will cause a mass Jewish exodus.

“Those who will leave will leave and those who will stay will stay,” Freeman said. “I’m leaving in two years, but I want the best for the country of my birth, and I feel the country of my birth should not be independent.”

Scottish Jews Nervous on Eve of Independence Vote

Jews in Scotland fear a ‘Yes’ vote for independence on Thursday could mean a more hostile atmosphere for Israel – and for them.

By Ari Soffer, Arutz Sheva
September 17, 2014

Tomorrow evening Scotland will decide whether or not to break away from the United Kingdom and become an independent state. The looming referendum has been fiercely contested, with Scottish nationalist leaders advocating for independence facing off with politicians in London appealing to Scots to preserve “the union.”

Adding to the drama, current polls have been too close to call, with votes evenly split between the Yes and No campaigns as cultural, economic and diplomatic considerations all play a part.

But where does Scotland’s Jewish community stand?

According to Paul Morron, President of the Glasgow Jewish Representative Council, “the Jewish community tends more towards the no vote than the yes vote,” compared to rest of Scotland.

He said the tiny community feels far more anxious than most about the prospect of breaking away from the UK, due to fears that anti-Israel sentiment – which is more emphatic in Scottish politics than elsewhere in Britain- will take on a life of its own, to the detriment of Scottish Jews.

Until now, although Scotland has its own parliament and “First Minister”, foreign policy has been handled by the British central government in Westminster, rendering anti-Israel rhetoric by Scottish leaders largely symbolic. But given that the likely prime minister of an independent Scotland – current First Minister and Scottish National Party head Alex Salmond – has a long history of anti-Israel positions, it looks likely that at least some of that rhetoric will translate into action.

“Under an independent Scotland foreign affairs is going to be more prominent than it is at the moment,” says Morron. “The indication is that the Scottish government would be rather more hostile towards Israel, and there would be far more attention given to that hostility in the media, and I think that would put added pressure on the Jewish community here.”

“Having said that, the Scottish government have come out very firmly against any boycotts against Israel – but on the other side it is also calling for an arms embargo against Israel, and its record so far is fairly hostile and not even-handed” towards the Jewish state, Morron added.

And he emphasizes that anti-Israel sentiment is not limited to the SNP; “It goes far deeper than that.”

By way of example, he notes that PLO flags were flown during the recent Gaza conflict in councils controlled by the Labor Party – which has been campaigning against independence.

“Any parliament that is elected is likely to be unfavorable to Israel, at least for the medium term,” he predicts.

And while it is true that an independent Scotland would not be a particularly significant player on the international scene (it might even have to reapply to join the European Union), domestically, as this summer has shown, high levels of anti-Israel sentiment fueled by an exaggerated focus on the Jewish state can provide fertile ground for anti-Semites.

Over the 50-day war between Israel and Gazan terrorists anti-Semitism in Europe soared to record levels. In the UK, anti-Semitism quadrupled in the first half of 2014 compared with the same period in 2013 – largely due to an explosion in incidents over the summer months.

Scotland was effected by rising levels of anti-Semitism as well.

“We had an outbreak of anti-Semitism here which has been the worst in living memory,” Moron states, but adds that it was “nowhere near as bad or severe” as levels on the European continent, such as in France and Belgium.

Indeed, of the 21 reported incidents of anti-Semitism in the past eight weeks none involved violent assaults, he said. “It’s mainly been social media abuse, abusive phone calls, etc.”

Those figures are not as bad as parts of England during Operation Protective Edge, where several violent assaults took place. But the contrasting numbers can at least partially be explained by the fact that the Jewish community in England is far larger and more visible than Scottish Jewry. The vast majority of Great Britain’s 300,000 or so Jews live in England, while only between 7,000-7,500 reside in Scotland – 5-6,000 of whom are concentrated in the city of Glasgow.

Morron expressed confidence in the Scottish police to deal with individual instances of anti-Semitism. Their arrest rate in responding to anti-Semitic crimes is impressive – some two thirds of crimes reported over the past two months have ended in arrests, with some suspects already being prosecuted. He also noted that the community is regularly briefed by intelligence services, and that currently there were “no known threats” of terrorism against Jewish institutions.

That being said, many Jews there fear that a more consistently anti-Israel atmosphere would prevail in an independent Scottish government, which could fan the flames of hate further in the long-term.

But despite those fears, Scotland’s Jews are far from cowed. In fact, in true Scottish fashion, they’re rising to the challenge by mobilizing to make their case – and Israel’s – more strongly than ever before.

“In the last two weeks since the Israel-Gaza conflict we’ve been very, very active in making the case publicly – on TV, on the radio, in the press – for the Israeli case, and I think that is something we have to continue to do,” insists Morron.

“We have to bring the case for Israel to the non-Jewish community,” he continues, because the only way to tackle the issue of bias is to confront it head-on.

And he claims that campaigning is having an effect, with Salmond coming out publicly to “roundly condemn” anti-Semitism in the wake of the recent wave of incidents, and Glasgow city council showing a “more sympathetic attitude” towards concerns by Jewish residents after the Palestinian flag saga.

Although he acknowledges that the community “needs far more resources” to campaign in the long-term, Morron says that Scottish Jewry must ultimately fight its own battles. And he is confident the community is up to the task.

“We’re in touch with the Board of Deputies (of British Jews), but given the fact that we have an independence referendum, really the job has to be done in Scotland – with support from elsewhere. We need to lead locally.”

“It’s our responsibility, and we certainly won’t be lacking.”

“People in Israel, you’re on the front line, but our job in the Diaspora, I believe, is to look after the back door while you’r looking at the front door… It’s certainly a duty that we in Glasgow take very seriously.”

Whatever the outcome on Thursday, the country’s Jews are proud of their identity as Jews and Scotsmen – and equally proud of their links to Israel, he says.

“We have to maintain confidence in ourselves – Scotland is our Scotland as well as anyone else’s, so we have to be optimistic and positive about the future.”

Scottish Rabbi, Creator of Jewish Tartan Says Country’s Jews Oppose Independence

The Algemeiner
September 16, 2014

Scotland’s only local-born rabbi, and the creator of the only official Jewish tartan pattern, believes that, “From the Jewish perspective, we’re hoping for a ‘no vote,’ in the vote for independence,” from the United Kingdom on Thursday.

“From my understanding, a majority of the Jewish community, or ‘the’ majority of the Jewish community wants a ‘no’ vote,” Rabbi Mendel Jacobs, told The Algemeiner Tuesday.

“I don’t think a nationalist country has ever been good for Jews,” Jacobs said of fears within the 10,000-member community, and stressed “that if [the vote] went yes, anti-Jewish sentiments would increase.”

Noting that, unlike some Scottish Jews who have succeeded in resettling elsewhere, including in Israel, “some can’t leave – they’re stuck,” either due to age or infirmities.

“Bear in mind that there’s a large percentage of elderly Jews in Glasgow,” he pointed out, of the small community of some 5,500 souls, and also noted others who reside in Edinburgh and the Highlands.

As for the tartan, when it was unveiled in 2008 Jacobs said “It’s been well received by Jewish people in Scotland and around the world,” and added that it “allowed people to combine their Jewish and Scottish heritage together.”

“For over 300 years Scots Jews have waited for their own tartan and now here it is,” he told local media, beginning with the first Jew recorded to have arrived in Edinburgh in 1691.

“The blue and white represents the colors of the Israeli and Scottish flag with the central gold line representing the gold from the Biblical Tabernacle, the Ark of the Covenant and the many ceremonial vessels. The silver is from the decorations that adorn the Scroll of the Law and the red represents the traditional red Kiddush wine. There are seven lines in the central motif and three in the flag representations – both numbers of great significance,” Jacobs said.

Noting that, “In Scotland, the Jews were never persecuted and there were no pogroms, no Holocaust, no national or state sponsored antisemitic laws,” Jacobs pointed out to electricscotland.com that, “When England was burning and exiling its Jews in the Middle Ages, Scotland provided a safe haven from English and European anti-Semitism.”

But not all Scottish Jews see the issues as being so clear cut, nor as comforting.

Nick Henderson, 26, was born and raised in Glasgow, and emigrated to Israel in 2004. While he’s friends with Jacobs – who is even sending him yarmulkes made with the “Chosen” tartan – Henderson, who holds an absentee ballot, told The Algemeiner on Tuesday that he has mixed feelings about Scottish independence, both as a Scot, and as one who left to make his life in the Jewish homeland.

While calling Scotland ”a safe place, a warm place, for Jews,” he pointed to unpleasant experiences, as an identifying pro-Israel Jew.

“You’re judged on your Judaism by how much you criticize Israel or not,” he charged.

“When I started at my previous job, the first thing my boss asked me was what I thought about Palestine and Israel,” adding that if Jews don’t hew to the popular anti-Israel tropes, “you’re seen as a Zionist, in a negative sense.”

He noted comments by Scotland’s pro-independence movement leader, First Minister Alex Salmond, who on Sunday equated Israel with ISIS, as exemplifying the hard left attitude towards Israel among some in Scotland.

As a counterpoint to Jacob’s assertion of Scotland as a “safe haven,” Henderson feels those days may be fading fast. He noted the open hostility to Israel in Scottish media over Operation Protective Edge in Gaza, and pointed out that, “the Scottish government doesn’t want to have arms shipments to Israel, and from day one of independence, the pro-Palestinians will be fishing for even harder things.

“I am as much Scottish as I am Jewish,” Henderson, who works for the Livnot.org educational program in Safed in the northern Galilee, wrote in The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday.

“My grandfather was a Jewish surgeon from Dublin who settled in Glasgow; my grandmother was a pillar of the once thriving Jewish community as a lawyer, fundraiser and chairwoman of the synagogue I grew up in. My family are still at the heart of the community, teaching at cheder [religious schools], writing for the Jewish newspaper, organizing Jewish learning conferences and working for Jewish non-profits.”

Summing up, Henderson told The Algemeiner that, “If I was to go with my heart, then I believe that we can create a fair, more free, more democratic society. But if I was to go with my head, I’d ask, ‘what currency would we use; what would our relationship with the European Union be …’ all these things that haven’t been asked.”

He added, “…on top of that, being a Jew and a Zionist – if I were to go with my head, I’d go with ‘no;’ don’t make life any more difficult for the Jews in Scotland, because, with independence, things will get a lot harder for people.”

“But, if I go with ‘yes,’ maybe then all the Jews will move to Israel,” he noted, adding wryly, “so, maybe it’s kind of a Zionist case for Scottish independence – in a roundabout way.”

Note

* What does it mean for the Jews? see Uri Avnery:

Is it good for the Jews?

AN OLD Jewish question asks, half in joke and half serious: “Is it good for the Jews?”

Whether an earthquake in Alaska or a flood in China, the question invariably arises. Good or Bad?