Born into an aristocratic Scottish family in 1751, Lord George Gordon was elected to Parliament in 1774, where he developed a reputation for eccentricity, political unreliability, and staunch support for granting the American colonies their independence. His political career came to an end in 1780, when he led protests against a bill extending limited civil rights to Catholics, which deteriorated into destructive riots. Gordon was arrested for treason and spent nine months in the Tower of London before being acquitted on grounds of insanity. During his imprisonment, his story grows more interesting still, as Mia Amran writes:

There is no known reason that Lord George Gordon decided, in these nine months of uncertainty, that Judaism was the path for him. . . . We do know that Gordon exchanged some letters with other Jews during those months, seeking to learn more about the religion. He also started [studying] Hebrew and petitioned the London Jewish community for political and financial support. Some actually say that his conversion was done purely out of greed. His main electorate had until now been the working class, and he possibly hoped to raise funds within the Jewish community to help secure a more affluent borough in the next elections.

Either way, by the end of his nine-month trial, he had written to Rabbi Tevele Schiff of Duke Street Synagogue, the chief rabbi of London, asking to be accepted as a Jew. He was declined. Rabbi Schiff was unclear about Gordon’s motives and turned the eccentric former MP away. But this didn’t deter Gordon. He instead traveled north to Birmingham, where another large Jewish community resided. After donating 100 pounds—a significant amount of money in those days, to the Singer’s Hill synagogue—he was given the honor of reading a mishe-beirakh (benediction) in synagogue, and Birmingham’s Rabbi Jacob agreed to convert him.

Gordon underwent circumcision, studied Torah, started praying daily, grew a beard, donned a kippah, and started keeping the laws of Shabbat and kashrut. Once an accepted member of the Jewish community, he returned to London where he attended synagogue services and again brought community acceptance with some generous financial contributions.

Gordon lived the rest of his life—which was no less colorful—as a devout Jew, using the name Yisrael Ben Avraham Avinu. He died of typhus in the Newgate Prison in 1793.

Yesterday I saw an unconfirmed report that the Biden administration has offered Israel a massive arms deal in exchange for a promise not to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities. Even if the report is incorrect, there is plenty of other evidence that the White House has been trying to dissuade Jerusalem from mounting such an attack. The thinking behind this pressure is hard to fathom, as there is little Israel could do that would better serve American interests in the Middle East than putting some distance between the ayatollahs and nuclear weapons. Aaron MacLean explains why this is so, in the context of a broader discussion of strategic priorities in the Middle East and elsewhere:

If the Iran issue were satisfactorily adjusted in the direction of the American interest, the question of Israel’s security would become more manageable overnight. If a network of American partners enjoyed security against state predation, the proactive suppression of militarily less serious threats like Islamic State would be more easily organized—and indeed, such partners would be less vulnerable to the manipulation of powers external to the region.

[The Biden administration’s] commitment to escalation avoidance has had the odd effect of making the security situation in the region look a great deal as it would if America had actually withdrawn [from the Middle East].

Alternatively, we could project competence by effectively backing our Middle East partners in their competitions against their enemies, who are also our enemies, by ensuring a favorable overall balance of power in the region by means of our partnership network, and by preventing Iran from achieving nuclear status—even if it courts escalation with Iran in the shorter run.