Creatives face parallels to pre-war Germany

Monday, November 28, 2009. Ne’ilah, the concluding service of Yom Kippur, finds me sitting in the back row of St John’s Wood Synagogue in London.

A few minutes in, a somewhat flamboyantly-dressed gentleman sits next to me. He’s not Jewish, he explains, but he’s joining a friend to break the fast. I get him a machzor and show him where we are.

So far, nothing too unusual. But if I tell you the man’s name was George O’Dowd, otherwise known as Boy George, the story takes on a whole new perspective.

Boy George – three weeks ago a pioneer of the 1980s New Romantic scene who went on to reinvent himself as a club DJ and judge on The Voice.

Now though, a hero to the global Jewish community. One of the very few celebrities in the vast pantheon of stars who has refused to succumb to mob mentality which mandates sporting a keffiyeh, real or metaphorical, every time you take to the red carpet.