In recent weeks, when I look in the mirror, I have started to spot a half-resemblance between me and my grandfather. It could be that the large, thick-rimmed glasses he started wearing in the 1970s are not too dissimilar from my own – or maybe I’m simply getting older.
Or perhaps it’s just guilt. Grandad “married out” so he was the last “proper” Jew in the family. Under Orthodox Jewish law, Jewishness comes from your mother, so none of his children, let alone his grandchild, were Jewish, although we have retained a token observation of the major festivals – especially Passover. This year it runs from the evening of 30 March to 7 April.
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