Village History - NOT amateur radio

Yesterday we walked to our village garden nursery to buy some plants. 

Opposite was a plaque to an old Jewish cemetery. It is called "Jerusalem Gardens".  I cannot imagine a Jewish community here centuries ago in the time of King Henry II.

UPDATE Nov 1st:  I did not realise King Henry II was in the 1100s AD.

The early medieval period - NOT amateur radio

One of the joys of retirement is learning for fun. One of my blanks is early medieval history, so I am doing a University of the Third Age course on Medieval History. 

We are now well through the autumn term, so I thought it would be a good thing to make a note of the main things that I have recently been made aware of. Not all relate to Medieval History.

• In the early Christian church there were lots of different beliefs
• What was actually included in what we now know as the bible was a distillation done many centuries later.
• In many ways early Islam was more tolerant than early Christianity.
• The modern state of Israel was not what the UK 1917 Balfour Declaration expected. Jewish homeland yes, Jewish state, no.
• Many of the Jews in modern Israel may not be descended from the Jews of old!
• Many Arabs hate the West as our track record is poor.
• Religions have a lot to answer for over the centuries.

Jews - NOT amateur radio

I have great respect for all people whether they are Jew, Muslim, Christian, Buddhist or whatever. But, I must relate an incident yesterday.

We were in NE London and my wife was taking a very innocent photo of a squirrel up a tree. We happened to be outside a synagogue. A Jew driving a car stopped us and asked us to stop taking photos. My wife was very angry. Clearly the person was fearing we were taking photos with a view to attacking the synagogue. Nothing could have been further from our minds.

If any race in the UK wants to minimise risks they should blend into our culture and not try to be a race apart: NE London is full of Hassidic Jewish people in their unique dress. In 15 minutes of trying I managed to get 2 Jews to acknowledge my existence. They prefer to live separate lives. No, the Jewish community is its own worst enemy sadly.

One of my good friends is Jewish. In my illness she has been kindness itself.

By the way I managed to shake hands with the man. Shalom my friend.