Gentlemen, keep your jackets on

Messages
193
You may like this anecdote:

Jehuda Avner, the Israeli diplomat, once related how, in British Mandate Palestine, David Ben Gurion, who would later become the first Prime Minister of the Jewish state, attended a formal dinner at the British High Commissioner's residence in Jerusalem.

It was a warm evening and Ben Gurion thought nothing of removing his jacket. He was promptly passed a handwritten note from the High Commissioner which read: “Mr Ben Gurion, please respect British etiquette and replace your jacket.” Ben Gurion turned the note over and wrote his reply: “I have been given permission by your Prime Minister to keep my jacket off.”

At the end of the evening, the High Commissioner asked the inevitable question, “How can you possibly have had permission from the Prime Minister to remove your jacket at this dinner?”

Ben Gurion smiled and said, “On a recent visit to Britain, I was a guest of the Prime Minister at dinner at 10 Downing Street. During the dinner I removed my jacket. Mr Attlee noticed what I had done and immediately wrote a note which was passed to me by a waiter. It read: “Mr Ben Gurion, when you are in Jerusalem you may do as you wish … but here in Britain we keep our jackets on.'”

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politic...illiams-israel-visit-meant-much-british-jews/
 
Back
Top Bottom