第一编 记忆中的杰瑞

About Jerry

Jerold（Jerry）Gotel，who died in London in October，was a pioneering Jewish educator and historian，who，among other things，help to return Jewish learning and Jewish culture to the place of its destruction in eastern Europe，and almost single-handedly created Jewish studies in China.

He was born in 1946 to Holocaust survivors in New York City. He received a Yeshiva education before studying at Brooklyn College，and later at Pembroke College，Oxford，and the Sorbonne in Paris. It was an unusual path to take for a man raised in the Orthodox world of Yiddishkeit，but Jerold was unusual，and he took New York City with him to Europe；in the 1980’s he established an American restaurant on what was then the wasteland of London’s south bank. Visitors to this gloomy area were surprised to see，twinkling from the window of a converted Victorian house，a neon sign：American Bar and Grill. This was Studio Six，the first of his successful restaurants，although East of the Sun，West of the Moon，whose menu was based on a fusion of Asian and eastern European cuisine，inspired by an historical Jewish community living in China-which only he had heard of-was not the success he hoped. But if Jerold dreamt and lost，he laughed；he knew too much history to be hurt by small things.

If restaurants were his business，scholarship was where his heart lay. In the early 1980s，his passion for Jewish history led to his becoming involved with the nascent Spiro Institute，later the London Jewish Cultural Centre[LJCC]. His encyclopediac knowledge of traditional Judaism and Jewish history，and his electric personality，made him a superb teacher. As the Spiro Institute developed a Modern Jewish History programme at schools such as Eton，Harrow and St Paul’s Boys School，Jerold became integral to its teaching. He taught adults and students all over the country. Besides teaching British children and adults，Jerold and his colleagues were asked by Sir Martin Gilbert，whose visa had been revoked，if a dozen teachers，each going once a year，could go to Russia and to teach refuseniks Jewish history. Jerry’s allocated subject was Zionism. He gave lectures in Moscow and St Petersburg in private homes. But he was betrayed and hauled into KGB headquarters where，after an uncomfortable interview，he was told to be a tourist. Jerold’s charisma was often effective in thwarting the bureaucrats of the former Soviet Union. He was proud that his exploits were written up in a Russian newspaper，where he was accused of propagating nationalism amongst the minorities. He also took children from deprived backgrounds to the former death camps，to teach them about prejudice.

As the LJCC developed an overseas programme，Jerry was perfectly positioned to become its director. He began to mastermind teacher training about the Shoah in Poland. When the International Task Force for Holocaust Education was created（now known as I.H.R.A.），the Foreign Office asked Jerry to be part of the British delegation. He pioneered the first ever Task Force seminar. The object was to train teachers in those countries where the Shoah had occurred，but had little education around the subject. This was phenomenally successful；and it took a man of great resilience and optimism to do it. Some of today’s members of the Polish delegation were originally trained by Jerold.

The success of Jerold’s work led to further seminars in the Ukraine and Belarus. The LJCC would bring in experts from the Holocaust Museum in Washington，Yad Vashem，the Wansee House in Berlin，and the Anne Frank House in Holland. Jerry also helped to pioneer the very successful Tours Programme，taking adult students of Jewish History to sites throughout Europe.

There was nobody quite like him，and he was a man to whom strange things happened. In Bialystock，just after the fall of Communism，Jerry was approached by an old man. He had seen that the men of the group were wearing kippot，and began speaking to Jerold in Yiddish. The man told Jerold that he was a Cohen，that he had married the Catholic woman who hid him during the war，and insisted that all thirty of the group visit his apartment. In his tiny，modest home，this Jewish man，who had not spoken to another Jew since the war，pronounced the priestly blessing，beneath a portrait of the Pope.

Fifteen years ago，the Hong Kong expatriate Jewish community decided to commemorate Yom HaShoah. They had borrowed exhibits from the Sydney Holocaust Museum，but had no educator. Jerry stepped up，and was surprised to discover that a thousand Chinese people a day were coming to see the exhibition. It was at that time that he met Xu Xin，Professor of Jewish Studies at the University of Nanjing. This marked the beginning of Jerry’s last great work.

In the past 17 years，he pioneered Jewish education in China. His legacy at Henan University，where he was an associate professor，includes more than thirty students with PhD in Jewish history；twelve with jobs in Chinese universities；the Shalom Library，the biggest collection of books in China on Jewish history；study of anti-Semitism and the Holocaust；and the institution’s Centre for Jewish and Israel Studies，which has become the research base for Israel Studies designated by the Chinese Ministry of Education. Jerold was very proud of his Chinese students，and very fond of them.

Jerold adored his children Jared and Natalie，and was very close to them. Jared describes his father as“larger than life”. He left a powerful impression on everyone who met him. His passion for knowledge and living made him outspoken，energetic，magnanimous，bold，defiant，inspiring，argumentative and，of course，he was always right. He was never a spectator，always impatient and could not help being the life and soul of many occasions”.

His background had made him a wanderer，but he loved London，where he died，in October.