The British Indian Jewish Association held its latest Bagels and Samosas webinar on Thursday 22nd October with guest speaker (Lord) Daniel Finkelstein. He was interviewed by Reena Ranger about his life and career, and his new book “Everything in Moderation.”
Finkelstein, a commentator at The Times and Jewish Chronicle, spoke about his range of experiences in politics and the media. He spoke about his early career advising Conservative leaders John Major and William Hague. He then made the transition to journalism and has been a star commentator at The Times for many years. When his friend David Cameron became Prime Minister, he started clandestine monthly meetings with him in Downing Street to interview him about what was happening, with a view to producing a more accurate version of his memoirs. He became a Peer in 2013 and spoke about one of the issues he is most passionate about, which is legislating for assisted dying. The webinar was attended by over 60 people.
Finkelstein spoke about when he first appreciated the friendship between the Indian and Jewish communities, “Whilst I was a candidate in Harrow West [in 2001], Lord Ranger took me to a Sikh celebration, and I was watching it happen. The most respected people in the community go up to the front and give each other certificates and make speeches about each other and then somebody came around with a load of canapes. Everyone was eating whilst this was going on, both simultaneously impressed by and laughing at the people making speeches about themselves. And I thought my goodness – this is a Bar Mitzvah with turbans!
He went on to explain why the Indian-Jewish relationship is so strong. “I now live in Pinner. Nearly all of my neighbours are either Jewish or of Indian origin.” He said. “It’s so magnificent. We are incredibly compatible. I think there are lots of things that are involved in that. The combination of feeling very proud to be part of this country, wanting to assimilate to it, understanding its Britishness, but also being very proud of our origins, really enjoying the social, religious and cultural parts of that and feeling that those two things can absolutely coexist; that we can adapt to the modern world and get all of its benefits whilst keeping our culture rooms and our traditions and celebrating both the deep and profound parts of those traditions and the entertaining culturally interesting parts of those traditions. And the feeling that we know we’re in this country and we are accepted. We are grateful to the general population, but we do also appreciate we’re refugees or immigrants to this country as well and that’s not always an unqualified positive experience, there are negatives that go with that. Those things together give us a similarity of interest and background that makes us very compatible communities and it’s so strong, we all feel it, that's much stronger than any explanation I can give you.”
Cllr Reena Ranger, Advisory Board member of BIJA, said, “We were delighted that Lord Finkelstein came to speak to our group. As ever, his thoughts and reflections were fascinating. He also showed that he appreciated the value of the friendship between British Indians and British Jews.”
Zaki Cooper, Co-Chair of BIJA, said, “This was another great event for BIJA. Since we started the Bagels and Samosas webinars in July, we have provided high quality content to an appreciative audience. As well as the UK, we had attendees joining from India and Israel too. The Zoom revolution has brought fresh opportunities for us to reach new audiences in new ways.”
