OUR TRIBUTE TO THE QUEEN

With official celebrations marking the Queen’s 90th birthday taking place this weekend, we look back at her encounters with the community over the years, and muse on the nature of the relationship with her Jewish subjects

THE OFFICIAL photographs for the Queen’s 90th birthday celebration, taken by Annie Leibovitz, appeared in countless news outlets.

The most striking has Elizabeth II surrounded by her two youngest grandchildren, as well as her great-children, with adorable Mia Tindall proudly holding a handbag in front of her.

Comment about the photos was abundant. But there was sparse (if any) intelligent reflection on the intriguing relationship between the Queen and her chosen photographer. After all, the monarch could have picked any of the world’s great portraitists, and many of them have captured her brilliantly.

As an American and a Jew, I begin a consideration of what the Queen means to the Jews by asking: why Annie for this all-important assignment?

The answer may be simple: that the Queen considered the photos Ms Leibovitz took of her in 2007 to be among the best of the lot.

Perhaps another factor ought to be included: that the Queen enjoyed Annie’s company last time, and was happy to invite her back to the house (Buckingham Palace, that is).

It might be a stretch to say they are friends. Yet they understand each other. It is important to recall that the BBC commissioned a fly-on-the-wall documentary nearly a decade ago which, among other stabs at sensationalism, asserted that the Queen had been furious with Annie. Intentionally duplicitous editing, and the outright lie that Annie’s stage directions caused the Queen to storm out, earned a stern rebuke from Her Majesty herself.

A few lazy articles about the 90th birthday photos revived the supposed 2007 tiff, despite glaring evidence that the feud was fabricated. What the gracious and extraordinary invitation to Ms Leibovitz for her 90th showed — besides the Queen’s exquisite taste in photography — is that her staunch support in 2007 was no fluke.

They don’t appear to have much in common. Annie is American, lesbian, Jewish. Despite an astounding career, not long ago she found herself in financial trouble. A substantial share of her photographs feature her family, which is really, really Jewish. New York, Florida; you don’t get more Jewish than that.

The Queen’s relationship with Ms Leibowitz underscores that she does not have a Jewish problem. The shrill, silly and mean-spirited spin on a moment of childhood Nazi play-acting merits mention only to be dismissed. Views expressed by her older relatives are troubling, but they have not inclined the Queen towards antisemitism — she has her own mind.

To the extent that the Queen can have friends, or even friendly relations with those outside of family, Annie Leibowitz isn’t the first Jew with whom she has enjoyed a cosy relationship. Although he was primarily a close friend of her husband, the Queen had a not-exclusively-business-like relationship with the photographer Sterling Henry Nahum (known as Baron), who died in 1957. She appears cheerful and at ease in many of the photos Baron shot of her.

I would speculate that the Queen’ s level- headedness and general good sense in dealing with Jews as individuals and