Isaiah Berlin: A Life — 4: London

1. 1. Isaiah Berlin arrived in England in 1921 with only about 75 words of English, having learned from a song.
2. 2. Berlin's exile gave him a lifelong respect for belonging, Zionism, and fascination with marginalized figures.
3. 3. Berlin saw eagerness to please as a central moral dilemma, worrying that a Jew should not be so accommodating.
4. 4. Berlin attributed his liberalism to Englishness, including respect for others, toleration of dissent, and pluralism.
5. 5. Berlin's first surviving composition at age 12 was a fictionalized tale of the murder of Cheka head Uritsky, showing he remained imaginatively in Petrograd.
6. 6. Berlin's mother Marie was a forceful, intellectually hungry woman who lived vicariously through her son.
7. 7. Marie Berlin maintained a kosher table after a chance encounter with a kosher butcher in Surbiton, reconnecting with Jewish practice.
8. 8. Berlin chose St Paul's School over Westminster after a tutor suggested he change his name from Isaiah to avoid difficulty.
9. 9. Berlin was a religious sceptic from adolescence, comparing himself to a tone-deaf person in relation to music.
10. 10. Berlin's friendship with Solomon Rachmilevich, a Russian Jewish intellectual, ensured his intellectual centre of gravity remained Russian.
11. 11. Berlin's Truro Prize essay at St Paul's defended convention as a safeguard of inner liberty, a theme in his later thought.