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All the Jewish details of King Charles’ coronation, from Shabbat accommodations to Jerusalem oil
LONDON (JTA) — At a reception of faith leaders at Buckingham Palace the day after Queen Elizabeth’s death in September, King Charles pulled Britain’s chief rabbi, Ephraim Mirvis, aside for a word.
The reception was pushed earlier in the day than originally planned to accommodate Mirvis, since it fell on a Friday. But it ran long and Shabbat was approaching. According to Rabbi Nicky Liss, head of the Highgate Synagogue, Charles asked Mirvis what the rabbi was doing sticking around — didn’t he have to get home by Shabbat?
The protocol is that no one is allowed to leave the room before the king does, Mirvis responded. Charles then promptly told him to get home.
Both men are expected to bring that spirit of mutual respect to Charles’ coronation day on Saturday, as the new king will include a range of faith leaders who have never before been featured in a royal ceremony of this magnitude.
While much of the ceremony is still rooted in Christian rituals, representatives of Jewish, Muslim, Sikh, Buddhist, Hindu, Jain, Bahai and Zoroastrian communities will be incorporated into the proceedings. In fact, non-Jewish faith representatives will enter Westminster Abbey before Anglican clerics. Jewish, Muslim, Hindu and Sikh members of the House of Lords will hand Charles objects of the royal regalia. And in a notable cross-cultural mash-up, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who is Hindu, will read a passage from St. Paul’s letter to the Colossians, which includes language on the “loving rule of Christ over all people and all things.”
There is one large obstacle for observant Jewish participants and onlookers: The ceremony falls on Shabbat. But Charles has invited Mirvis to sleep in his home on Friday night — Clarence House, located a 15-minute walk from Westminster Abbey, the site of the coronation — so he can easily get to the event without using electricity (he will attend an early morning Shabbat service on his way). And when religious leaders recite a “spoken greeting in unison” to Charles at the end of the ceremony, Mirvis will not use a microphone.
While many Orthodox interpretations of Jewish law hold that Jews should not enter churches, London’s top rabbinical court ruled in the 1970s that chief rabbis may do so if their presence is requested by the monarch. Coronations have held at Westminster Abbey since 1066; the last time one was held on Shabbat was in 1902.
The Chief Rabbi will be walking in the footsteps of his illustrious predecessor, Chief Rabbi Hermann Adler, as he represents the Jewish communities of the United Kingdom & the Commonwealth at the coronation of King Charles III. pic.twitter.com/znjeDxQrNy
— Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis (@chiefrabbi) May 4, 2023
Some Jews around London this week were not excited about the Shabbat timing, and like many other Britons, were still mourning Queen Elizabeth, Charles’ mother whose 70-year reign guided the kingdom through the second half of the 20th century and through the upheaval of the 21st.
“It’s a shame that we can’t fully participate in it but we do need to acknowledge that we’re such a minority and I don’t expect them to take us into account,” said Naomi Joseph, who was walking around Golders Green, a heavily Jewish neighborhood, on Tuesday. “But it does make me feel less enthusiastic. It’s like not being invited to a party.”
“The queen’s funeral did feel more poignant than the coronation,” said Keren Rechtschaffen, who researches Judeo-English, a local dialect. “People seemed more invested in it. We haven’t had a chance to see how Charles is going to reign. Although I’m sure he’s going to be great.”
But many Jewish congregations and families have for weeks been in the royal spirit, which engulfs England in an excited frenzy — and creates a huge market of monarch-themed merchandise. Some congregations will close off the roads near their synagogues to have celebrations on the street. Others will hold ceremonies and services of their own to honor the king, but a week later — so their members can watch the coronation live on TV on the day.
An office window shows coronation posters in Golders Green, a heavily Jewish neighborhood of London, May 2, 2023. (Deborah Danan)
Musical celebration and tribute is a recurring theme. United Synagogue, the union of British Orthodox synagogues, commissioned a new children’s choir recording of “Adon Olam,” a prayer perhaps most recognizable as the conclusion of Shabbat services, and dedicated it to the new king. The Shabbaton Choir, a group that frequently records for radio and television shows, created a new musical version of the Prayer for the Royal Family that’s recited by British Jewish congregations every week.
“We’ve waited a long time for this coronation. It’s exciting,” said Sahar Dadon, an Israeli who runs a pita restaurant and has lived in London for 20 years. “We bless the king with shem malchut [of God’s name]. It’s a divine thing.”
He added, “My wife feels it more. She’s English and goes to all the ceremonies. The kids are very excited, too.”
Israeli Sahar Dadon calls the coronation “a divine thing.” (Deborah Danan)
The Jewish connection to the coronation ceremony will get literal, too — the king and the soldiers involved will wear at least some pieces stitched by Kashket & Partners, a Jewish family-owned tailoring company that is the main supplier for Britain’s armed forces. Baroness Merron of Lincoln, a former chief executive of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, will hand Charles the long Imperial Mantle robe, which was first made for George IV in 1821.
“We’ve got our day-to-day business going on too but obviously the coronation takes priority over everything else,” Cheryl Kashket told the London Jewish Chronicle. “There is nothing more important than what is going on. It is very exciting and we realize how fortunate we are to be a part of history.”
Israeli President Isaac Herzog will be in attendance on Saturday, too; a kosher caterer will provide food for him and Mirvis.
Ivan Binstock, a longtime senior leader for multiple London Jewish communities, said the actual coronation ritual, which involves anointing the new king with oil consecrated in Jerusalem, was especially resonant for the Jewish community.
“The most significant part of the coronation, that is shielded from public view, is in fact biblical,” he said, noting that the ritual has its roots in the anointing of high priests in the ancient Temple in Jerusalem. “It’s a source of great pride.”
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Candidate who vowed to imprison ‘American Zionists’ loses in Texas runoff
(JTA) — Sheriff’s deputy Johnny Garcia won the Democratic nomination Tuesday in Texas’ 35th Congressional District, defeating opponent Maureen Galindo following a race shaped by scrutiny over Galindo’s antisemitic rhetoric.
The runoff in the San Antonio race drew national attention after Galindo, a local housing activist and therapist, came under scrutiny for comments that included vows to turn a local immigrant detention center “into a prison for American Zionists” and claims that it was her “perception that Zionist billionaires run the world.”
Following Galindo’s surprise first-place finish in the march primary, national Democratic leaders and Jewish organizations condemned her rhetoric and urged voters to reject her candidacy, including Texas Senate candidate James Talarico, who revealed to JTA earlier this month that he would not back or campaign with Galindo.
The district, which stretches between San Antonio and Austin, was heavily affected by Republican redistricting this year, one of several factors that local political observers and Democratic Party leaders said contributed to Galindo’s earlier win.
The race also attracted outside spending, with Lead Left PAC, a newly launched super PAC apparently tied to a Republican donation platform, pouring over $900,000 on ads and mailers promoting Galindo. Last week, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee launched a $35,000 ad buy against Galindo, an unusual step for the DCCC to take against a Democratic candidate.
“Republicans just spent weeks and almost a million dollars propping up an antisemite, and they should be ashamed and embarrassed — it was a disgrace,” the president of the Democratic Majority For Israel PAC, Brian Romick, told JTA in a statement. “Tonight is a victory for the voters of TX-35, for the Democratic Party, and for every Democrat who believes that antisemitism has no home in our coalition.”
Romick told JTA Tuesday night that he believed the results of the runoff signaled that Democratic primary voters “aren’t going to elect antisemitic candidates, and in the districts that we need to win, pro-Israel candidates are our best bet.”
Garcia will now face Republican nominee Carlos De La Cruz, who defeated opponent John Lujan, in the Nov. 3 general election.
This article originally appeared on JTA.org.
The post Candidate who vowed to imprison ‘American Zionists’ loses in Texas runoff appeared first on The Forward.
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Ukraine reburies Nazi collaborator with state honors, drawing Israeli condemnation
(JTA) — Israel criticized Ukraine Monday after President Volodymyr Zelensky gave full state honors to a Ukrainian nationalist leader who was part of a movement that collaborated with the Nazis during World War II.
During a reburial ceremony on Sunday, Zelensky described Andriy Melnyk and his wife, Sofia Fedak-Melnyk, as “iconic Ukrainians of the 20th century who are deeply respected,” according to The New York Times.
Melnyk led one of the factions of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists during its collaboration with Nazi Germany during World War II. Though the Ukrainian organization shared a mutual opposition to Soviet rule with the Nazis, it also promoted antisemitic rhetoric and some of its members participated in the persecution of Jews during the Holocaust. Melnyk initially sought cooperation with Nazi Germany but was later detained by the Nazis as relations with Ukrainian nationalist groups deteriorated.
The ceremony marked the latest flashpoint in a longstanding dispute over Ukraine’s commemoration of World War II-era nationalist figures linked to Nazi collaboration. In 2018, the country designated the birthday of Nazi collaborator Stepan Bandera as a holiday, and in 2017, a statue was unveiled honoring a nationalist leader whose regime killed tens of thousands of Jews in pogroms during the Russian Revolution.
The remains of Melnyk and his wife were exhumed from Luxembourg last week and then transported to Ukraine for reburial at Kyiv’s National Military Memorial, which opened last year for soldiers killed in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“Glory to every Ukrainian hero! Glory to all our Ukrainian warriors! Glory to our people!,” Zelensky, who is Jewish, wrote in a post on X marking the ceremony, adding that he was “grateful to everyone who has worked to make such returns of great Ukrainian figures possible and to give the Ukrainian People their own pantheon of heroes.”
The reburial was quickly decried by Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust memorial, which wrote in a post on X that it was “deeply troubled by such national commemorations, which come at the expense of historical truth and the memory of Holocaust victims.”
“Honoring the leader of a movement that supported and collaborated with Nazi Germany during the persecution and murder of millions of Jews undermines the moral integrity essential to Holocaust remembrance,” the post read.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry wrote on X that there is “no place for ignoring historical truth and the memory of the victims murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators.”
The post Ukraine reburies Nazi collaborator with state honors, drawing Israeli condemnation appeared first on The Forward.
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Trump administration again sues UCLA over antisemitism, alleging ‘hostile educational environment’
(JTA) — The U.S. Department of Justice sued the University of California for the second time this year over allegations of an antisemitic campus environment at UCLA, claiming the school “was deliberately indifferent to the suffering of its Jewish and Israeli students” after Oct. 7.
The federal lawsuit, filed Tuesday, claims UCLA violated the students’ civil rights by failing to intervene during pro-Palestinian encampment activity in early 2024. It follows an earlier suit that focused on the university’s treatment of its Jewish and Israeli employees, and comes 10 days after the university unveiled its own “Initiative to Combat Antisemitism.”
“Earlier this year, we sued UCLA for subjecting its Jewish and Israeli employees to an antisemitic hostile work environment,” assistant U.S. attorney general Harmeet Dhillon said in a press release. “Now, the Department of Justice calls UCLA to account for its toleration of the equally appalling hostile educational environment against its Jewish and Israeli students.”
Requests for comment to the Justice Department and UCLA were not immediately returned.
The new suit draws on widely reported accounts of UCLA’s campus environment in spring 2024, when protesters in pro-Palestinian encampments clashed with pro-Israel counter-protesters, sparking violence and turmoil. The failure to protect Jewish students violated their Title VI civil rights, attorneys said.
Citing the report of UCLA’s own task force on antisemitism, published in response to the 2024 campus upheaval, the suit states, “UCLA’s leadership apparently preferred a do-nothing ‘de-escalation strategy’ to protecting their Jewish and Israeli students from an angry mob organized by peers armed with tasers, lumber, and a sword.”
The Justice Department is seeking several redress measures, including the return of all federal grants made to UCLA “during the time of UCLA’s noncompliance with Title VI.” The school had previously resolved several Title VI antisemitism cases under the Biden administration, and also reached a $6.13 million settlement with Jewish groups in a private suit related to the spring 2024 incidents on campus — a case cited in DOJ’s new lawsuit.
The Trump administration has sought to make a particular example of UCLA in its aggressive approach to campus antisemitism. Officials had sought to levy fines in excess of $1 billion against the public university for its alleged failure to protect Jewish and Israeli students, until a federal judge intervened. Several DOJ lawyers have left the department over its UCLA investigation, telling reporters the case was “fraudulent,” a “sham” and driven by pressure to “find” evidence to support further legal action against UCLA.
In addition, some of the most violent clashes on the campuses included perpetrators on both sides of the conflict, leading some members of the UCLA Jewish community to complain that pro-Israel counter-protesters ultimately undercut the Jewish students’ legitimate grievances regarding the harassment they had been facing inside the campus gates.
And the campus environment for Jews remains tense. Last month, the UCLA student senate condemned a campus visit by a freed Israeli hostage, drawing blowback from a university regent.
The post Trump administration again sues UCLA over antisemitism, alleging ‘hostile educational environment’ appeared first on The Forward.