A Jewish King and Queen of England?
Two unrelated Jews from different walks of life meet in an unlikely place and discover they are connected. You’ve heard that story before in Jewish folklore. Well, it happened to me recently.
It was a few days before Passover. I had three hours to kill after leaving a meeting on West 57th Street in Manhattan before joining my wife and friends for dinner followed by a show at Lincoln Center. It was a gorgeous sunny day, rare for the miserable winter we were experiencing. So I walked over to the new plaza at Lincoln Center. While I was taking in the sun in front of Avery Fisher Hall, a young Hasid approached me. “Are you Jewish?” he asked. “Yes,” I answered. He then asked me to put on tefillin and say a prayer.
It’s been a long time since I put on tefillin and I was not keen on doing it right there on the plaza of Lincoln Center. I tried to squirm out. “I’ve got an appointment and have to leave,” I told him. He persisted. And he seemed so sincere and eager to perform this mitzvah, persuading someone he probably perceived as a wayward son of Israel to perform a Jewish ritual, that I caved. “OK. I’ll do it.”
I removed my jacket and rolled up my shirt sleeve as he began winding the tefillin around my arm. I pointed to the leather box and said, “Oh, that has scripture from Deuteronomy and Exodus.”
He was surprised that I knew that.
“Well, I’ve taken Torah classes with Rabbi Simon Jacobson,” I told him, hoping he would realize that I wasn’t a total idiot about Judaism. “Do you know him?”
“Oh, yes,” he responded. “He’s a brilliant speaker and he has a newspaper.”
“Yes, I know: The Algemeiner Journal. I write for it.”
He couldn’t have been more shocked that this apparent apostate contributed to this prominent Jewish newspaper. “Do you know Dovid Efune?”
“Of course,” I said. “He’s the editor and I speak to him from time to time.” Again an astonished reaction.
In an excited tone, he spilled out, “He’s my brother-in-law. He married my sister last year.”
“Isn’t that interesting,” I said. “At Rabbi Jacobson’s Rosh Hashanah dinner this past year I sat next to your sister and brother-in-law.”
He almost fell over. “You know, nothing happens by accident.” For him, it was a divine intervention, too unlikely to be an accident. Perhaps he was right.
That being said, what’s the chance of running into two Jews at Buckingham Palace and discovering that they are the King and Queen of England? Farfetched you say. Some curious emerging facts suggest that it could happen.
When the Royal Wedding uniting Kate Middleton and Prince William was announced, genealogy sleuths got to work. At first, the buzz indicated that Kate’s mother, Carole Goldsmith (maiden name), had Jewish ancestry. If Carole Goldsmith were Jewish then, according to Jewish law, her daughter Kate Middleton would be considered Jewish — and could become the first Jewish Queen (Consort) of England. But alas, investigators still believing that there was a Jewish heritage in Kate’s lineage found that the last five generations of her family were married in churches. Of course, that doesn’t rule out that some may have been secret Jews, which was true for many Jews during the Inquisition. Other sources still suspect Jewish lineage for Kate. And according to an Orthodox Sephardic Rabbi in Israel, both parents of Kate’s mother . So the question of Jew or not a Jew for Kate is still open.
But wait, the plot thickens. Could Princess Diana, William’s mother, have been Jewish? One source maintains that Princess Diana’s mother, Frances Shand Kydd, was Jewish — born Frances Ruth Burke Roche, a Rothschild.
If factual, that would be sufficient for Princess Diana to be certified Jewish, as well as her son, William, the future King of England. Another investigation of ancestry details a strong Davidic connection for Frances and her descendents
Other intriguing bits of “evidence” and speculation have been cited in the London Daily Mail, which quotes sources that claim that Diana was conceived during her mother’s affair with the Jewish banker tycoon Sir James Goldsmith (originally Goldschmidt and no apparent relationship to Carole Goldsmith). The report says that Frances was estranged from her husband, Earl Spencer (Viscount Althorp), and had an affair with Sir James Goldsmith just at the time that Diana was conceived. Strengthening the case, a report points to striking resemblances between Princess Diana and Sir James Goldsmith’s other three children, Zak, Ben and Jemima Goldsmith.
If these tidings are true then Diana would be thoroughly Jewish with a Jewish mother (Frances Ruth Burke Roche aka Rothschild) and a Jewish father (Sir James Goldsmith). In turn William, the future King of England, would have deep Jewish roots.
What a myseh (story). Sholem Aleichem and Isaac Bashevis Singer couldn’t have told it better.
anonymous
“If these tidings are true then Diana would be thoroughly Jewish with a Jewish mother (Frances Ruth Burke Roche aka Rothschild) and a Jewish father (Sir James Goldsmith). In turn William, the future King of England, would have deep Jewish roots.”
firstly, if her mother was jewish she would be “thoroughly” jewish, period.
secondly, what a wacky report. we don’t need to know all the sordid details about the lineage and affairs of the british royal family.
Andrea Schonberger
It’s immaterial who Frances Ruth Burke Roche’s father was–her mother was not a Jew but an Anglican, aka Church of England. Like wise, Carole Goldsmith’s mother was not a Jew either. I’m going by the maternal line not paternal.
Roots or weeds
Well, if they are Jewish…do they also have roots in Chabad? Maybe the future King of England has Chabad roots!
what-s next?
Are we going to hear that kate middleton and william are not only chabad but gedja too?
Do they go all the way back to tashkent and samarkand?
Milhouse
“Of course, that doesn’t rule out that some may have been secret Jews, which was true for many Jews during the Inquisition.”
Um, if you mean the *Spanish* Inquisition, you do know, don’t you, that it never operated in England? I mean, you know they’re different countries, right? And enemies for almost all of their histories? Or don’t little minor details like that bother you? England had “secret” Jews in Elizabethan times, but they weren’t all that secret, they had Spanish names, and they didn’t live in Yorkshire. And during the Commonwealth they all came out; there was no longer any need to hide, and none did.
“Other sources still suspect Jewish lineage for Kate.”
Other sources? What other sources? Name them, please.
“And according to an Orthodox Sephardic Rabbi in Israel, both parents of Kate’s mother . ”
Blow me down with a feather! An Orthodox Rabbi! And Sephardic yet! That surely makes him an expert! And he lives in Israel? That makes him unimpeachable. After all, Orthodox Sephardic Rabbis in Israel are the world’s greatest experts at everything! I don’t suppose you know this person’s name, do you? No? Then how do you know he’s really an Orthodox Sephardic Rabbi in Israel, and not, say, a Catholic Maronite Priest in Lebanon, or a Shi’ite Persian Imam in Pakistan? Or even a Bernard Bull-artist in Brooklyn? If this is the quality of writing in the Algemeiner, then it’s a wonder it stays in business.
Milhouse
Sarcasm aside, NO, neither William nor Kate has any traceable Jewish ancestry at all. If William were to father a son on a married Jewish woman, he would not be a mamzer, and could marry any Jewish woman he liked, with no shaylos. And if Kate were to marry a Jew and then have a son by another Jew, he too would not be a mamzer, and if he were to convert he could marry any Jewish woman, with no shaylos by even the most machmir rabbi in the world. Anyone who engages in this sort of rumour-mongering is simply an idiot.
Disappopinted
To #5, Must your communication be so sarcastic? I am sure that the same questions or comments can be written coming from a mensch perspective. I for one am tired of this kind of communication in some of these blogs. It doesn’t represent a majority of attitudes in the chabad community, I hope. (Or maybe #5 does come out of that community.) I tend to think that sarcasm often comes from intolerance,or arrogance, or impatience, or lack of self esteem, and other unattractive problems. Can we think about this and become more of whom we are really capable of being?
assuming the worst of a good bochur!
while you are all obsessing over the royals – how about his tone in regards to the bochur – whom he all but named?
Maybe he was just surprised by the coincidence and not by the fact that he was an “apostate” who knew the Algemeiner?
mm
wow that was a confusing story…….
to number 5-LEARN YOUR HISTORY
(if) They were secret in England BECAUSE Enland WOULD HAVE turned a secret-jew over. thats A. B there was anexpulsion of jews twice, (the 1st one in 1290, before the expulsion of the jews in spain,)where they became secret!
confused
so william is not a mamzer, just his mother was?
Milhouse
#7, What’s wrong with treating a moron as he deserves? He is the one who undressed in public, and showed the whole world how stupid he is; if he didn’t want to be treated like the brainless ape he is then he should have kept his mouth shut.
Amazed at the dummies
to #1 anonymous
you say “we don’t need to know all the sordid details about the lineage and affairs of the british royal family” Who the hell are you to say what “we” need to know? If you dont want to know about it say “I” dont want to know or better yet dont read it and dont comment on it.
curious
whats a gedja?
Milhouse
#10, why don’t you take your own advice? Start by learning English, because whatever language you’re using is almost incomprehensible. And then learn some history, because you are clearly ignorant of the most basic facts that every educated person knows.
1. Why would England EVER turn anybody over to the SPANISH Inquisition?
2. The Jews were expelled from England once, and there were no secret Jews left. The history of (not-so-)secret Jews in England begins centuries later. There were very few of them; they were Spanish, and lived in London and a few other major cities. There were never any in Yorkshire.
3. All the Jews of England came out of the closet during the Commonwealth, and there was never again any cause for a Jew to hide.
number 10- HIATORY MAJOR
when you go get an education, ill clarify whats confusing you
upset
do u guys know this is a public forum??!! why such nasty comments??!! what a chilul hashem .
Milhouse
#17, do you have any idea what a chilul haShem is? It’s a chilul haShem for a Jewish newspaper to publish such a idiocy as this article, which cites “an orthodox sephardi rabbi in Jerusalem” as its source. It’s a chilul haShem for a Jewish reporter to show what an idiot he is. It’s a chilul haShem for presumably Jewish commenters on a Jewish blog to show that they too are idiots, e.g. by imagining that the Spanish Inquisition had any sort of power in England, or that there were secret Jews in England after the Commonwealth.