I have distinct recollections of where I was and who I was with during all the previous Jubilees that have taken place in my lifetime — I can measure my life by them. From celebrating with quintessentially British bunting and pouring drinks to mark the Silver Jubilee, to my parents telling my children stories of the Royal Family from their own childhoods, as the Golden Jubilee celebrations took place on the TV behind. For the 2011 Diamond Jubilee we huddled together in an Israeli hotel room, celebrating from afar.
With all this personal history, it feels very humbling to be attending the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee pageant.
I often think about the wisdom our forefathers had in including the prayer to the Royal Family in our services, something that occurs within all of our major streams of Judaism, from Liberal to Orthodox.
In the Chief Rabbi’s prayer for the Royal Family he writes: “May He put a spirit of wisdom and understanding into her heart and into the hearts of all her counsellors, that they may uphold the peace of the realm, advance the welfare of the nation and deal kindly and justly with all the house of Israel.” Throughout Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth’s reign, she has indeed fulfilled those obligations, blessed as she is with wisdom and compassion. Time and time again she has been the country’s guiding national compass. In a world of deepening secularism and opposition to historical traditions, the Royal Family is testament to the enduring power of ancient values and British life. This is in large part due to the leadership and stability of Her Majesty as this country’s longest serving monarch.
Our own community is extremely fortunate to have enjoyed a long lasting and close friendship with the Queen and her heirs. She has been a patron of Jewish Leadership Council member Norwood, which helps people with additional educational needs, mental health, or severe wellbeing issues; and she is also a patron of the Council of Christians and Jews.
She adopted both patronages in her first year on the throne. She attended the centenary celebrations of the United Synagogue, and Prince Philip also visited Reform Judaism’s headquarters at the Sternberg Centre to open their inter-faith room.
We have been honoured by her attendance at countless communal events over the past 70 years and we have been blessed to celebrate key national moments with her. Alongside the entire nation,our community has been guided by her dedication to public service.
His Royal Highness Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales, has been a long-term patron of JLC members World Jewish Relief and the Jewish Museum in London, as well as the youth organisation JLGB. When Holocaust survivor Lily Ebert met Prince Charles earlier this year on Holocaust Memorial Day, she showed him the tattoo forced on her in Auschwitz and said to him: “Meeting you, it is for everyone who lost their lives.” His response was typically simple and humble: “But it is a greater privilege for me.” Commemoration and memory of the Shoah has been one of the defining features of the prince’s relationship with our community, cognisant of his own family history and the role of his grandmother Princess Alice of Greece, honoured as a righteous gentile and buried in Jerusalem for her rescuing of a Jewish family in Athens.
In 2018, the Duke of Cambridge, Prince William, made the first official Royal visit to Israel. The prince was described by then Israeli President Reuven Rivlin as “prince and a pilgrim.” No doubt the Duke of Cambridge will follow in his father and grandmother’s footsteps in deepening his own relationship with our community.
Rabbi Jonathan Romain has described the reign of Her Majesty as a “symbol of stability” for Jews.
Her reign has coincided with a golden age for Anglo-Jewry where our community has become more prosperous and confident of our place in society, living in the knowledge that we are safe in this tolerant country that we call home. Her Majesty plays as much of a role in our confidence here as any other major institution in Britain and we should be eternally grateful.
Keith Black is Chair of the Jewish Leadership Council
