Let Michael Rosen show you them:
But then, remembering how wrong multiculturalism is, I say to myself, stop reading this stuff. What would Melanie say? Wouldn’t she tell me that this exhibit “promoted a lethally divisive culture of separateness”? And, “even worse”, that it “causes the moral paralysis of ‘victim culture'”? So now that I’m lethally divided and morally paralysed, I glance at my catalogue for help.
For a moment, I feel reassured to see that the museum is supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council. But no, in my ear comes David Cameron telling me that “state multiculturalism” was “wrong-headed” because it involved “granting financial aid for artistic and other projects purely on account of ethnic background – with various groups, purporting to represent various minorities, competing for money against each other”.
By now, I’m standing in front of what to my secular eyes looks for a moment like a large, painted cupboard – albeit a gilded, pillared, baroque cupboard. I look down at the label. This was once an ark – where, in the synagogue, the scrolls of the Torah are kept – and it says it’s probably from Venice. So what’s it doing here? It was discovered by an antiquarian bookseller at an auction at Chillingham Castle, Northumberland, where it had been used as a wardrobe in a steward’s bedroom. So this was aristocratic loot? This is what it must mean in the catalogue where it says that “the new galleries bring our collections to life by placing the Jewish story into the wider context of British history”.
Nearby are rows of sacred silverware, each piece an example of astonishing craftsman-ship. One ornate menorah, for holding the Hanukkah candles, is more like a miniature stage set. I think of times I’ve got up close to look at a carving in a church and again there’s Melanie telling me of the folly of promoting the idea that “minority cultures” could be “held to be equal if not superior to the values and traditions of the indigenous majority”. The guilt thing gets me again. Yes, I admit, for a moment I was thinking that this bit of silverwork was as good as anything I’ve seen anywhere else. But I can choke that back down for you, Mel.