Letters to the editor, 25 August 2023

Spinoza's hostility to religion was not limited to his loathing of Pharisees and Rabbinical Judaism. The young Baruch failed to marry the love of his life for refusing to convert to Catholicism (It's a testament to Spinoza that he still provokes controversy, 18 August).

But perhaps his strongest contempt was for Islam, as spelt out in Spinoza's letter to Albert Burgh in December 1675: "....there was none more suited to deceive the people and to constrain the minds of men... than the Mahomeddan Church (Islam)" (Correspondence of Spinoza, 2003, p 354).

That alone makes his views on religion beyond the pale for any progressive heir of the Sadducees and keeps the herem intact for foreseeable future.

Alexander Massey
London N1

Welsh brawls

I was intrigued by the piece in the "From the Archive" column setting out the altercation that led to court proceedings (Welsh brawls and funeral etiquette, 18 August).

My grandfather, Gerson Joel Ballin, was secretary of the Brynmawr Synagogue from its founding in 1905 till his death in 1935. As relayed by my mother ( born 1911 and repeating what she had been told by my grandfather) the trouble occurred when certain members of the community objected to how the chairman of the synagogue was running affairs and threatened to form an alternative synagogue. This, in a community of 100 souls, would have been extremely divisive.

An intervention by the President of the Board of Deputies to pour oil on troubled waters merely exacerbated the situation. The main protagonists subsequently met on the streets of Brynmawr where words were exchanged leading to fisticuffs, which in turn led to the court proceedings

The chairman of the synagogue had the better of the skirmish resulting in all talk of an alternative synagogue fading away and the Brynmawr community continued in relative harmony, enabling my mother to win a Cheder prize in 1924.
I am still the proud possessor of that prize, a copy of "Outlines of Jewish History" by Lady Magnus.

Henry Cohen
Cockfosters EN4

I write to express my disappointment with Jenni Frazer's review of The Survivor by Josef Lewkowicz with Michael Calvin (Gripping story, shame about the sugar-coated prose, 18 August).

The review struck me as not only disrespectful but also unjust in its evaluation of a significant literary work that sheds light on an unimaginable chapter of human history.

Mr. Lewkowicz's memoir is a poignant account of a Holocaust survivor's resilience and pursuit of justice. To dismiss his account as "cloying" and "saccharine-driven" diminishes the book's gravity, while focusing on inconsequential textual errors detracts from its historical importance. Furthermore, Frazer's scepticism about the name "Yitzchak Isaac" overlooks the rich tradition of bilingual tautological names in Jewish culture, such as Tzvi Hirsh, Dov Ber, and Zev Wolf.

I had the profound privilege of accompanying Mr. Lewkowicz on a visit to Auschwitz and witnessing first hand his commitment to educating others about the Holocaust. His memoir is a deserving tribute, not only to his personal experiences but also to the collective memory of all survivors.

Jonny Lipczer
Modiin, Israel

Dr Arnold Zermansky writes of being shlepped out of bed at 5am to help his father bake bagels (Nowt to match a Zerma, Letters, 18 August).

He was so lucky. I was awakened at 3am by my grandfather, who was the coal merchant (a word I thought was French) who supplied the coal to all the Leeds bakers: Tobias, Cohen, Capelovitch, Malkin and of course Zermansky.

We had to feed the horses, muck out the stables, hire the navvies and sometimes - this was good experience for Officer Cadet School later - paint the coal white.

As to the bagels themselves, they were tasty and well baked and I still have some bits of tooth to prove it.

Barrington Black
London NW3

Oppenheimer

Many readers will have seen the film Oppenheimer and be aware that about two thirds of the leadership of the Manhattan Project (the development of a nuclear bomb) were Jewish.

What is not so well known is that Lieutenant Jacob Beser, who was Jewish and from Baltimore, was the only crew member who was on both atomic bomb flights.

He was a radar specialist and his job as radar countermeasures officer, was to ensure that, not only did the bombs detonate at the precise required height above their targets but, more importantly, that they were not prematurely activated by Japanese radar inadvertently using the same frequency as the bomb's fuse.

Michael Zaidner
Bushey Heath

You report an unnamed academic who suggests that my infamous namesake, Professor David Miller, "has lost the plot" (Academic support for David Miller starts to wane after 'Jews are over-represented' claim, 18 August).
He never had it to lose.

David Miller
Chigwell, Essex

AJEX Archives are seeking the location of the grave of Lt Martin Solomon, RNVR, DSC and Bar, MBE who died in 1956 in Madrid but whose remains were returned to the UK. Please e-mail me.

Martin Sugarman (AJEX Archivist)
martin.sugarman@yahoo.co.uk