Notes from the boundary: Peter Hart: In the shadow of Anti

Saturday 28 December 2013

In the shadow of Anti–Semitism

The famous red, white and black hut at Rye Harbour

Two summers ago, when my wife and I were on holiday in Sussex, we had one of those encounters that lodge themselves discordantly in the mind. It occurred on a beautiful August day, when we were strolling beside the River Rother between Rye Harbour and the sea. We had just passed a family party of Hasidic Jews — somehow quite unexpected in such a setting — with whom we had exchanged a ‘shalom’. And then we tried to talk to a small girl who was rather disconsolately bringing up the rear of the party, and pulling a small case on wheels. Well, she would not respond, and was probably in one of those moods of childhood (oh yes, and of adulthood!) along the lines of ‘I will not enjoy myself…’ At this moment a man and a woman passed us, and my wife made some comment about the girl’s not being too happy. To which the woman replied ‘Well, they’re Jews, aren’t they—that’s the way they treat their children.’ To which my wife replied, ‘Well, bad luck, you’ve picked the wrong person, because I’m Jewish too.’ And what I said to them — or rather, ‘stated to the air’—is I’m afraid unrepeatable. But they made no response and walked off without as much as a backward glance. What thoughts were going through their heads I can hardly guess. It would be good to think that they were chastened and shamed — shocked into a sea–change — but on the basis of such staggering ignorance and prejudice, could such a thing be?

The effect of this incident did not remain with us too long. The weather was too good and we were not to be pulled out of our holiday mood. Still, we felt — as one always does on such occasions — a certain chill from the edge of things. A reminder that we should, alas, remain somewhat chary as regards the true feelings of a greater percentage of our fellow human beings than we would wish.