Observant Jews will be unable to watch the king’s coronation on television because it falls on the Jewish sabbath when the use of electricity is prohibited, but “there will be many lining the streets” of central London, Ephraim Mirvis, the chief rabbi, has said.
However, they will have to walk to join the crowds as vehicular travel is also banned on Shabbat.
“We have a lot of experience with significant events on our Shabbat, particularly when it comes to important sports fixtures. We are used to recording events and then having a look once the Shabbat is over,” Mirvis told the Guardian.
The chief rabbi and his wife will stay at St James’s Palace the night before the coronation so they can walk to Westminster Abbey. The palace is providing kosher caterers, and the Mirvises will light candles, say the Kiddush (the Shabbat blessing), and visit a nearby synagogue on Friday evening and Saturday.
He said: “The sensitivity has been enormous and the respect for our traditions is something which we appreciate greatly.”
The participation of religions other than Christianity at the king’s coronation was a sign of the “extent of goodwill” in modern, multicultural Britain, he said. Representatives of Jewish, Sunni and Shia Muslim, Sikh, Buddhist, Hindu, Jain, Bahá’í and Zoroastrian communities will take part in a procession at the start of the service.
At the end, the newly crowned king will receive a greeting spoken in unison by Jewish, Hindu, Sikh, Muslim and Buddhist leaders. This will be unamplified because of the prohibition on using electricity on the Jewish sabbath.
“We are blessed to have a king who respects other faiths, and who wants the members of all faiths in this country to feel equally at home and included,” said Mirvis. Buckingham Palace and Lambeth Palace, the office of the archbishop of Canterbury, had been “very keen to guarantee that everything is carried out with respect to our traditions”.
It was a stark contrast to the 1189 coronation of Richard I, when Jewish people were banned from attending, said Mirvis.
Despite the ban, “the leadership of the community felt they needed to show their allegiance and respect. So they arrived on coronation day with gifts for the new king. And they were humiliated. They were thrown out of court. They were flogged. And in the immediate aftermath, immediately following the coronation, there was a pogrom and 30 Jewish people were killed, including the most senior rabbi of England at the time.”
Since then, “we have come such a long way”, said Mirvis. “Now in 2023, my wife and I have been shown gracious hospitality by the king and queen. It says much about the good fortune of everyone in Britain to be living at a time when we are all free and welcome to practise our faiths as proud British citizens.”
There was still a need to be vigilant regarding antisemitism, he said. “But the fight is not left up to the Jewish people. It is correctly known that any threat to the Jews is a threat to all of our society.”
Mirvis first met Charles in 2013, when he became the first member of the royal family to attend the installation as chief rabbi. They have since met many times. “I have found him to be very inquisitive and very respectful,” Mirvis said.
