Reflections on turning 75 – Christian Today

Jewish academic and Hebrew scholar Irene Lancaster shares her reflections and wisdom of the years as she turns 75.

On April 20 I’m 75. I actually have outlived my dad and mum by quite a few years, but my maternal grandfather, Michael, lived to be 80 and survived fascist Poland, the Holocaust through which 90 per cent of his fellow Polish Jews perished, and Stalinist Russia, dying in Communist Poland once I was one, having only a photograph to know me by. What a trouper!

By rights I must have been born on April 21, however the consultant here in Manchester brought me forward by in the future in order to not mess up his holiday plans. Otherwise I might have shared a birthday with the Queen, but, as a substitute, have needed to make do with sharing a birthday with Hitler!

And as well as, as a substitute of being born a contented and equable Taurean, living life amiably by chewing the cud, I actually have ended up a curly-haired Arian who gets things done and is understood, generally, as a trouble-maker. 

The best sin of Taurus is seemingly complacency; the best sin of Aries is seeing things clearly and an inclination to shoot from the hip. Some people admire this Aries trait. The wonderful shaliach (emissary) sent from Israel to the Liverpool Jewish community within the 90s (a retired Brigadier General) paid me the compliment of calling me  a ‘fighter’. By contrast, the leader of the UK Jewish community called me a ‘gadfly’. That’s possibly why the Anglo-Jewish community is currently on its knees, while Israel is currently thriving.

Be that as it might, I cannot crow about being three quarters of the age of our longest-lived monarch. However, what I can do is relate what these 75 years have meant to me. 

First of all, April 20 falls this 12 months on the eve of Israel Remembrance and Fallen Soldiers Day. This includes those fallen in diaspora through murder, corresponding to at Heaton Park Synagogue, for example. And the wife of the Israeli President shall be attending a dedication event at that Shul later within the month.

April 21, the Queen’s birthday, then morphs from Remembrance Day to Israel Independence Day. What an irony, as she never visited the Jewish State and is now fated to have her centenary marked on that date.
What is vital about 75? I actually have reached the age of my hero, Abraham ibn Ezra (1089-1164), cut down in his prime here in England. But he has been immortalized by our own best poet, Robert Browning (1812-89) in ‘Rabbi Ben Ezra’ and in song by John Lennon (1940-80), who wrote, ‘Grow old together with me. The best is yet to be’, based on that poem.

Apart from writing my book on the good Hebrew scholar, I also translated and edited the biography of the son of the Nazir of Jerusalem, Chief Rabbi Shear Yashuv Cohen of Haifa (1927-2016). His life parallels the history of Israel throughout the British Mandate and the lifetime of the State of Israel for which he fought all his life.

As a baby I grew as much as love the ocean, to learn languages, play music and help my parents with English. I used to be thrilled at primary school age to take visitors around London’s Madame Tussaud’s and recount the histories of all of the famous figures whose dates I appeared to know. Later, I used to be thrilled to win the history prize in school.

I remember being unwell and in bed off school when Churchill died, due to this fact hearing all of the eulogies and music accompanying the demise of that great man. This was the top of an era. I knew I at all times desired to teach. Communication was the whole lot. I got my wish. What I didn’t know was that I might even be asked to advise (in chronological order) the Dalai Lama, various Archbishops of Canterbury and the Chief Rabbinate of Israel. This was resulting from the ability of dialogue and the knowledge of the wisest of gentiles about Judaism’s value.

As for family, I’m proud that my two daughters live in Israel with their families. My older granddaughter will fight for the IDF in two years. My grandson has his bar mitzvah in a few months and my younger granddaughter, born throughout the War, shall be two when the USA is 250, on July 4 of this 12 months.

While there isn’t a doubt that, as Professor Simon Schama has recently stated, Jews now not have civil rights on this country, and statutory bodies can now not be trusted, there’s also the lifetime of the mind: of music, literature, community and social media, when used judiciously.

So, though I do wish that the UK would stop treating the medical career as G-d, possibly being born devoid of complacency is a great thing when your fate is just not to be a Queen. 

On the entire it’s been a great life full of that unique Jewish spirit of resilience, bequeathed early on by survivors of the Holocaust whose grandchildren and great-grandchildren have now all returned to their rightful home. 

As a member of our Shul wrote within the newsletter commemorating the New Month of Iyyar which took place on Shabbat:
‘Healing in Torah demands participation in teshuvah [repentance], self-examination and behavioral change …. Each day counted is a day reclaimed but it surely is just not achieved in a single declaration, it’s reclaimed through sustained effort, sacrifice and shared purpose.’

That’s how I feel on my seventy fifth birthday.