By Lloyd Levy
LONDON–There are erroneous reports circulating on the Internet, that Kate Middleton, Duchess of Cambridge, has Jewish roots.
There is no evidence of this in any British news reports, nor in Jewish publications in Britain, that I am aware of.
It is perhaps true that some of Kate’s predecessors had the surnames ”Myers” or “Goldsmith”. However those are not exclusively Jewish names, and can be traditional English names.
On the other hand, Jews have lived peacefully in Britain for many generations, and in theory large numbers of people will have some element of Jewish blood if one digs deep enough.
So I think these rumours of Jewish roots can be discounted. There is no reincarnation of Queen Esther in the making !
A more serious issue at the moment, is a rumoured proposal by one of the Scottish local authorities, to ban books published by Israelis. Jewish readers will immediately think of Nazi Germany and the public burning of Jewish books, and the thought of anything similar in Europe of 21st Century, is frightful. A counter ban by Jews, refusing to buy Scotch whisky, is however a move of such self denial that I may not be able to sustain it ! Nevertheless, this is a bad omen for what an independent Scotland may look like if it gains independence from England, an objective which it is currently attempting to achieve.
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Levy is a British businessman who divides his time between homes in London and in Eilat, Israel