Miriam Margolyes, Reginald D Hunter and the myth of respectable anti-Zionism - The Jewish Chronicle

I’m sure there’s such a thing as a respectable anti-Zionist, it’s just I’ve never met one. I’ve listened to them. Sometimes I buy them lunch. It’s not just morbid curiosity, because I have a question: what will happen to the seven million Jews in Israel when it is gone? I have never received a satisfactory answer, though one member of Jewish Voice for Labour, over tea in the British Library, suggested a “rainbow nation”. I was grateful. Usually, even the question wounds them.

For me, anti-Zionism is almost always antisemitism because they do not answer this question. They do not care, because they look past the conflict to ghosts they cannot see. I am indulgent of those who don’t believe in nation states but seem quite happy with university tenure in secure liberal democracies – gah, Marxists! – but no one else. Last week, two artists gave evidence of the antisemitic nature of anti-Zionism. They fell in head-first.

The first was Miriam Margolyes, actress, daughter of a Jewish doctor and famous anti-Zionist. I met Miriam for a profile in 2020 and I liked her very much, but that was before the war. Rather shamefully, because I liked her, I dismissed her anti-Zionism by writing that I didn’t want to interview the Caramel Bunny about Palestine. I liked her because I recognise Miriam, and the cold, class-ridden city that made her (Oxford), and I recognise what I think is her projected shame, which I felt too, until I grew up.

I recognised her unease in her own body – I share that too – which seemed acute, even for an actress. I know how gifted she is – her performance in The Age of Innocence is bewitching, though it took Martin Scorsese to tear it from her – and how swift she is to defame that gift, to deny it and to send it away with pre-emptive self-mockery. All this touched me. Margolyes could have been the greatest actor of her generation but that idea didn’t sit well with her. I understand that, too. Margolyes is a British Jew like us and I admired and pitied her until – in my view, she will disagree, of course – she put British Jewish children at material risk. You cannot be a wounded child all your life, no matter your gift. You must take responsibility. Margolyes is 83.

She was on Front Row on Radio 4 last week, publicising her show Dickens’ Women at the Edinburgh Fringe. (She is a workaholic too. Again, I identify with the unease.) Kirsty Wark asked her who was “the first (Dickens) character who stuck in your head as a child?” “Oh, Fagin,” Margolyes replied in the Caramel Bunny’s voice. “Without question. Jewish and vile.” She emphasised the “vile”. It sounded like pouring cream. “I didn’t know Jews like that then,” she continued. “Sadly, I do now.” Glibly, she released the spectre.

Rather less gifted, though no less credulous, is the comic Reginald D Hunter. What happened to Hunter last week should be a novella but they are unfashionable nowadays. It went like this, in his Edinburgh show Fluffy Fluffy Beavers. Reg, a typical comedian – love me, Dad! – made a joke about Israel, which he compared to an abusive spouse. I thought it was quite funny.

Two Jewish audience members objected, heckled, were heckled in turn and left. Reg then repeated his partner’s criticism of the Jewish Chronicle’s (non-existent) paywall. “Typical f***ing Jews, they won’t tell you anything unless you subscribe.” I didn’t find this funny. “F***ing Jews” is what our children might be called, then come the fists. Also: we don’t have a paywall, but perhaps we should get one.

Reg might have said sorry but it’s not in an alpha comic’s nature. They don’t address the audience but ghosts we cannot see. (Hi Dad! Again, I identify.) He dug in, and, like a cartoon character, fell over and started retweeting some of the maddest people online.

The response was a “virtual lynching”, whatever that is. “It’s a bad look for a bunch of white ethno nationalist agitators to gang up on a black guy that’s got an issue with mass murder.” “These [the hecklers] are social engineers conducting effective advanced Social Operations for #Zionism and its public image, indoctrination and perception.” “They should be arrested and charged with being Israeli agents, driving antisemitism. Why aren’t the police investigating?” “You do not know God. God will give YOU what you & your friends deserve.” “There are no good Zionists, it is a creed founded on the (very much mistaken) belief that Zionists are the master race and others are essentially cattle to serve them.”

We are so far from laughter here, there is almost nothing left to say. I will only add: it is we who are called over-sensitive.

Topics:

Antisemitism

Miriam Margolyes