I wasn’t quite sure where to stand. Whether to hover at the end of the long 14th century vestibule and blend with the brocade drapes? Or to take a decisive position closer to the door and be seen by Queen Elizabeth II?
Such dilemmas are rare for journalists, as a holding pen, cornered-off space or roped-off area is traditionally our designate place.
It’s where we expect to be. So imagine my confusion when, in the summer of 1983, I found myself loitering freely in a room at the Guildhall waiting for the arrival of the Monarch. I wasn’t the only one waiting, I should add, as the now all sadly deceased Dr Robert Runcie, Archbishop Of Canterbury, Cardinal Basil Hume and Chief Rabbi Lord Jakobovits were also there, biding their time in a dignified fashion, nodding at one another. I nodded too, while realising protocol had gone awry as I, along with a reporter from the Catholic Herald, a photographer and a few waiters were alone with three of the most prominent faith leaders ahead of them being honoured at a Variety Club lunch attended by the Queen.
As a journalist for a Jewish newspaper, following community leaders to all manner of events and grand occasions was part of the job, but never without credentials in lanyards or a list of forbidden zones.
To think that only a year earlier, Michael Fagan had visited the Queen at the Palace without an invite, yet there I was with one, standing next to a Cardinal, an Archbishop and a Chief Rabbi, within touching distance of the Queen. Not that I would ever do such a thing, particularly in the building where Lady Jane Grey stood trial.
There was no call for silence when the Queen entered – a tiny figure towered over by three religious men – and I can only recall their bows and smiles, not my cursory curtsey, which was surplus to requirements. In truth, I was invisible, even in my smart skirt, but in that moment I was both moved and muted in awe to be in the same room as the woman who took the throne when she was just 25, and this year becomes the first British Monarch to celebrate a Platinum Jubilee.
It would be pointless and impossible to calculate the number of lunches, teas and dinners to which the Queen has been since, but I will never forget the three courses I ate in her company when I was 19 and she was 57.
My late mother, an ardent royalist, never forgot the meeting either and reminded me of it whenever she said the prayer for the Royal family on Shabbat or at a simcha. For non-Hebrew readers, the prayer is a crowd pleaser, but it should also make us proud as it has not gone unnoticed by Her Majesty. How do we know this? Because Prince Charles told 400 Jewish guests at Clarence House that he had “grown up being deeply touched by the fact that British synagogues have, for centuries, remembered my family in your weekly prayers.”
One has to assume that, like the Prince, his less vocal, but steadfast mother also values our “contributions to society, and not just the most prominent members who, through the ages, have literally transformed this country for the better; but those who are the cornerstones of their own local communities”.
Living within those cornerstones are also the sovereign’s most devoted supporters and the first to buy Jubilee mugs, coins and flags to display and wave, because they are proud.
Proud that so many within our community have been honoured by the Queen during her reign, which raises our self-esteem, and we are reminded of this with photos of her knighting Kindertransport humanitarian, the late Sir Nicholas Winton, or being captivated by the late Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks.
The accolades given to Jews in Britain have a special significance when given by the Queen, who we all appreciate, just as we’ll appreciate that long weekend in June to mark her Jubilee.
Of course, she has her detractors, and not just republicans.
There are Jewish people who felt that, as patron of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, she should have visited a concentration camp before 2015, when she went to Auschwitz for the 70th anniversary of liberation.
In spite of this, survivors still wanted to meet the Queen in 2005, when a permanent Holocaust exhibition was opened at the Imperial War Museum.
We should also recall that the Queen is patron of 600 charities, but took up the role for the Council of Christians and Jews and Norwood when she acceded to the throne.
So it’s not surprising that ‘Meet the Queen’ still has a poll position on thousands of bucket lists.
It was ticked on mine in 1983.
