By Dr. Rivkah Lambert Adler, Breaking Israel News—
Boris Johnson, the newly-elected Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, isn’t Jewish. But his Jewish ancestry and personal experiences volunteering on an Israeli kibbutz as a young man positively impact his feelings about the Land of Israel and the Jewish people.
It’s all in the name
Johnson’s full name is Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson. Given the middle name Boris to honor a Russian émigré his parents once knew, he chose to use that name in his political career.
Johnson was born in New York City in 1964 to British parents. Though pale and blond, he has an especially colorful lineage, with an intriguing combination of religions represented. He has great-grandparents who were Christian, Muslim, and Jewish and sometimes refers to himself as a “one-man melting pot.”
Rabbinic Lineage
Johnson’s maternal great-grandfather was a Russian Jewish immigrant named Elias Avery Lowe. Lowe was not a practicing Jew but was descendent of a strictly Orthodox Jewish rabbi from Lithuania.
Throughout his political career, Johnson has been a strong advocate for Israel. Writing for The Jewish Chronicle, Daniella Peled reported in 2007 that Johnson is, “an enemy of politically correct anti-Zionism and immensely proud of his own Jewish ancestry.” She quoted Johnson saying, “I feel Jewish when I feel the Jewish people are threatened or under attack, that’s when it sort of comes out. When I suddenly get a whiff of antisemitism, it’s then that you feel angry and protective.”
More ties
In addition to his Jewish ancestry, Johnson has even stronger ties to Israel through his Jewish stepmother, Jennifer Kidd Johnson, who married his father Stanley in 1981.
In 1984, Johnson, age 20, and his sister Rachel spent six weeks in Israel, volunteering on Kibbutz Kfar Hanasi, approximately 22 miles north of the Sea of Galilee in northern Israel.
The visit was coordinated by Michael Comay, a career Israeli diplomat and close family friend of Johnson’s stepmother. Comay and his wife Joan connected the Johnson siblings with the overseas volunteer program at Kibbutz Kfar Hanassi.
A hard worker
Writing for Haaretz in 2016, Danna Harman interviewed Johnson’s sister Rachel about the summer she and her brother spent in Israel. Harman reported that Boris’ assignment was to work in the communal kitchen of the kibbutz, “scrubbing pots and pans and sweating it out in the heat of the kitchen, meal after meal.”
After their volunteer service ended, the pair traveled around Israel. “They visited Hebron and Bethlehem, hiked up Masada, floated in the Dead Sea and went sightseeing in Jerusalem,” Harman wrote. Continue Reading….
