Commonwealth ties have brought benefits at home and abroad

On Monday, a rabbi went to church — and not any church. Rabbi Debbie Young-Somers attended Westminster Abbey for the annual Commonwealth Observance Service, a colourful and spectacular occasion attended by the Prince of Wales and other royals. The multi-faith service featured speeches, artistic performances and music in celebration of the 54-country association headed by Her Majesty.

So what is the Commonwealth all about and what does it mean for us Jews? While it’s in the title of the UK’s foreign affairs department (the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office), most people only have a fuzzy idea about what it is.

Founded in 1949, as countries were becoming independent from the British Empire, the Commonwealth was a way of maintaining ties between these countries and the “mothership”. It has evolved into a large association of nation states which promote shared goals such as development, democracy and peace. Even countries such as Mozambique and Rwanda, which were not British colonies, have joined the club. It is the archetypal network organisation, which does not have the hard power of an army or an economic union but is sustained by something less tangible and more subtle. As Jews, who were without our own nation state for 2,000 years, we instinctively understand the notion of soft power. There are strong historical and contemporary ties between British Jewry and other Commonwealth Jewish communities.

There is a clue in the Chief Rabbi’s full title, which refers to the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth. My mother’s family hail from Kolkata so I, for one, have Commonwealth Jewish heritage, as do many others who now call Britain home. Communities flourished from the Caribbean and Canada to Singapore and South Africa. Jewish figures across the Commonwealth have made their mark in politics, business and other fields. The founding father of Barbados, Errol Barrow, who became PM in 1966, claimed Jewish ancestry — his great-grandfather changed his name from Baruch to Barrow. Singapore’s first Chief Minister, David Marshall, who governed from 1955 to 1956, was Jewish, as was more recent New Zealand PM John Key, who held office from 2008 to 2016. Sir Roy Welensky, Prime Minister of Rhodesia from 1956 to 1963, described himself as “half- Jewish, half-Afrikaner and 100 per cent British”.