Queen Elizabeth II 1926-2022
On Thursday afternoon we heard the sad news of the death of Queen Elizabeth II.
Despite the fact that I left England almost 45 years ago, I was surprised at how sad I felt at this news. I’m trying to understand my own emotions and I think it’s because the Queen was a symbol of unity and stability for the country and the world. She was one of the very good things about England and one of the few symbols that I missed.
Much has been said in Israel about the Queen never having visited Israel. As readers of this blog know, I have no tolerance for anti-Israel or anti-Jewish sentiment, yet despite the lack of an official Royal visit to Israel I do not believe for one minute that the Queen was anti-Israel. Indeed she knighted Shimon Peres, a rare honour for a non-British citizen, and welcomed each and every Israeli ambassador and visiting head of state to the Palace.
Over the last few years Prince Charles (now the King) visited Israel a couple of times, and in 2018 Prince William finally made the Royal visit that Israelis craved and which had been refused to the Queen.
The Queen’s relations with the Jewish community were warm and respectful, and these sentiments were returned in full by the Jewish community. She elevated two previous Chief Rabbis, Rabbi Lord Emmanuel Jakobovits z”l and Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks z”l to the peerage, and kosher meals were always provided for her Jewish guests at official banquets and meals.
Queen Elizabeth will be very sadly missed by everyone who had any connection with Britain. She reigned for so long – 70 years – that she provided a link through the generations to our history. She will be remembered and honoured for her sacrifice – of normal family life, her sense of duty to her country and the Commonwealth, her integrity and her humanity.
May she rest in peace and may her memory be a blessing.
May G-d give King Charles III the same guidance that He gave Queen Elizabeth and may his reign be as successful, and as warm to the British Jewish community as his mother’s was.
Anne's Opinions 
I’m an American, and I too was very saddened by the news. Stability, old values, honor, duty, and a true sense of right and wrong. Now she was not always perfect by any means, but who among us is? She symbolized something that I think western civilization has completely forsaken- a healthy respect for democracy, G-d, and family.
Thank you Elise. You expressed what I was struggling to say so well.
Beautifully written Anne. I agree completely. She has been the “mother” of our country (England) for so long , it made us somehow still connected to it. Even though we both left England more than 40 years ago, our connection was never broken because of the Queen.
“May she rest in peace and may her memory be a blessing.”
Indeed.
That’s it exactly. Thanks Fay.
You wrote so beautifully exactly how I feel.Whenever I think of England, the Queen was our representative, and she represented us in such a fine way,genteel,noble,graceful,all the ways which few nations can claim their leaders represent them. I too was upset that she never set foot here in Israel,and I still wonder if she would have demanded a visit,if the foreign office would have lett her come.But she was above politics,and presumably didn’t want to cause upset amongst her subjects. Instead she was very welcoming to Israeli ambassadors and leaders,and as you say,made the chief rabbis lords,and respected the Jewish community in England.
May she rest in peace and now we say G-d save the King.
It was more that she didn’t want to cause upset in the Foreign Office. I don’t think the average Brit would have minded if she’d come here. But it’s water under the bridge now.
You described the Queen very well. Thanks Reality.
I have never met any of the immediate Royal Family but i did work for the Kings cousin the Duke of Westminster on his estate outside Chester City where I worked on one of the dairy farms. I was also there as an adviser on 3 times a day milking of cows, something I had done in Israel. The Duke was a very nice chap.
I attended the funeral of Lord Louis Mountbatten at the Abbey where I paraded behind two rows of his Burma boys in their green and gold jackets with the yellow Burma star badges. I was about 200 yards from the doors of the Abbey. From what I know The Queen is a friend of Israel and a good one.
The Proclamation Of the ascension of the King took place in Wellington at mid day Sunday on the steps of Parliament, An hour latter it happened in Canberra, It also happened in Ottawa earlier than in Wellington. Now the States in Australia are doing it this afternoon, the same will be happening in Canada. I got close to the Queen Mother in Hyde Park one Saturday where she was watching a parade of Army officers in suits and top hats and Cains who were from one of her regiments. When the parade finished many of the officers rushed up to her and she talked to them. She knew them all by name and asked them about their wives and children by name. She knew which of them who had family who were ill. They fussed over her as if she was their Grandmother. It was an impressive event to watch and listen to. The queen knows her people in the same way. I saw the Queen here in New Zealand in the town of Wairoa where she was there for a dedication of a bridge across the river in the town. That was in January 1972.
I got some presents from the UK for my family to commemorate her 70th. I got them to my Grand children 2 weeks ago. So they understand what has happened.
I am 4 years younger than the King, My sister like the Princess Royal is 2 years apart and 4 years older than my sister. My younger brothers are 2 years apart and 4 years younger as are Princes Andrew and Edward.
My eldest Daughter is a Queens guide, At the age of 15 she was running a Pippen troop in the Girl Guide Movement here. Her eldest child is 3 weeks older than Prince William and Kate’s eldest, George. She was determined that Beth would arrive first. some of her friends got close with there arrivals but not quite.
An Israeli Diplomat not in New Zealand sent me a very diplomatically worded message of condolence on the passing of my Queen. He also said as others have that she was Queen of the World. If you can watch the message from the French President which is in English. I note CNN and Al Jazeera’s have extensive rolling coverage of the event. I have also watched NZ tv , Sky Australia Fox and the BBC coverage flicking from station to station.
Te Kotuku rerenga tahi Is the headline in the Sunday Star Times liftout. The White Herron has flown. The Kotuku is one of our most beautiful birds and she has often been referred to as a White Herron.
A platoon of 30 military personal leaves tomorrow Monday for London to take part in the funeral service. Latter in this coming week Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and The Governor – General Cindy Caro will lead a delegation of civilians to the Funeral.
It was good to see William and Harry and wives together at Winsor Castle looking at the flowers and meeting the People. That was a blunt message to the staff at Buckingham Palace who stopped Megan going to Balmoral Castle to butt out.
So I say Thank you Your Majesty for 70 years service. God Save The King
John, thank you for this fascinating viewpoint from New Zealand. You’ve clearly had a very eventful life and certainly had some wonderful interactions with the Royal Family, you are very lucky.
Yes, I think the Queen was pro-Israel even though she never visited here, and she had very warm feelings towards the Jews, as does the new King Charles.
“The White Heron has flown”. How emotive, how moving and beautiful.
Thank you for this beautiful message.
The Commonwealth is a group of 56 Nations 14 of them plus the UK Have the Queen as head of state. The rest are Republics. Togo plus at least one other are not former British Colonies. In the case of Togo, it was a French colony.
I have a mistake in the name of the New Zealand Governor – General to correct. Her name and title is The Right Hon Dame Cindy Kiro. She is the 3rd Maori to do the Job. The First was an Anglican Bishop and the second was a former Chief of staff of the armed forces.
Thank you for the additional information.
This is a “not many people know this” moment:
In today’s (online) Times of Israel, the following article appeared:
https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/when-queen-elizabeth-helped-us-hunt-nazis/?utm_source=The+Daily+Edition&utm_campaign=daily-edition-2022-09-23&utm_medium=email.
The headline is entirely accurate: the article tells of when, in the 1980s, the House of Commons passed, 3 times, a Bill creating a crime of perpetrating crimes against humanity specifically aimed at those who, after the end of the Second World War, escaped from Germany and came to the UK as “refugees” (in fact perpetrators escaping justice at the hands of the War Crimes Tribunal in Nuremberg and elsewhere).
However, the House of Lords rejected the Bill 3 times and Her Majesty, for the first time in centuries, signed into law a Bill mot passed by both Houses. This, in fact, led to a change in practice: early in the the 20th Century, the Lords had been stopped from rejecting finance bills: they could only amend them, but had to let them go forward. After this event, the practice was changed again: any Bill passed by the Commons 3 times, unchanged, had to go forward for the Monarch’s signature.
Margaret Thatcher, not my favourite British Prime Minister, was very much in favour of this Act and had her government investigate such alleged criminals and, subject to the evidence being convincing, bring them to trial.
Another Judeophile!
What a fascinating story! Thank you for bringing it to our attention. I had never heard of this. Bravo to the Queen z’l and to Margaret Thatcher.