Talk:Isaiah Berlin

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[edit] Trivia

Regarding the trivia point about Ronald Reagan. I heard the exact same story but for Winston Churchhill. Could they have both happened or is one a mistake of the other?

"Isaiah Berlin was once confused with Irving Berlin by Winston Churchill who invited the latter for lunch, thinking he was the former."

The way I heard the story it was the other way around, i.e. as it was before 24.128.151.54 "fixed" it -- Churchill wanted Irving but got Isiah. Somehow that rings truer actually. Does anyone know for certain? Flapdragon 03:29, 2 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Yes, he wanted Isaiah (sic) but got Irving. [1] Henry Hardy 18:33, 3 September 2006 (UTC)

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Regardless of Churchill's intended recipient of the invitation, it was doubtless an invitation "to" lunch, rather than "for" lunch. I shall change the page.

There seems to be a geographic confusion in this article: Note "He spent his childhood in Riga, Latvia and St Petersburg (then called Petrograd),". St Petersburg is simply the English form of Petrograd, but I understood that the USSR called the city Leningrad (St Leninsburg, if you like). Should somebody verify and edit?

The city was called St Petersburg, Petrograd and Leningrad at different times. "St Petersburg" and "Petrograd" are not quite the same name. Henry Hardy 18:33, 3 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Jewish fellows at Oxford

The comment about Berlin's being only the third Jew elected Fellow of an Oxford College needs some qualification (I emended it from the original identification of him as the second Jew to be elected a fellow). Berlin was the third openly Jewish individual to hold a Fellowship at Oxford (and the first openly Jewish individual to be elected a Fellow of All Souls). One of those before him was Samuel Alexander (1859-1938), a professor of philosophy originally from Australia, who was a fellow at Lincoln College, Oxford from 1882-93 (the college is said to have been unaware that he was Jewish when they appointed him). James Joseph Sylvester (1814-97) was technically not elected to a Fellowship; he was appointed the Savilian Professor of Geometry, and by virtue of this became a Professorial fellow of New College, Oxford. Berlin was preceeded at All Souls by Leopold Stennet Amery, whose mother was born Jewish, but had converted to Protestantism; Amery was not raised a Jew, and hid his Jewish ancestry (although an opponent of anti-Semitism and Nazism and strong supporter of Zionism himself, his son, John Amery, bizarrely and sadly became a Nazi sympathizer, and was executed for treason after World War II).

 All this talk about Jewish fellows at Oxford is caused by post-War guilt. English and 

German attitudes towards Jews have been similar or identical for centuries. The British Aliens Act of 1905 was intended to keep Jews out. Similar legislation applied to America.

[edit] Quotes

The quotes section doesn't really belong to Wikipedia, it should be migrated to Wikiquote... I realise we need more content first, but once we do, the quotes ought to go IMO. Thoughts? Mikker ^(...) 23:10, 2 September 2006 (UTC)

There are plenty more quotes at [2] Henry Hardy 18:33, 3 September 2006 (UTC)