PROBABLY not for the first time, Nicola Sturgeon was met at the door of a Burns Supper by a stately, bearded man in a kilt. It might have been the first time though that the kilted greeter was wearing a skullcap known as a yarmulke.

This was the annual Burns Supper of Scotland’s largest Jewish congregation –- Giffnock Synagogue on the south side of Glasgow, which is simply known as “shul”, the old Yiddish word derived from “school”.

The evening was a vivid mixture of Scottish and Jewish cultures enhancing each other. There was haggis, but it was kosher, meaning it was prepared in line with Jewish dietary law. There were kilts, some in a Jewish tartan that has been accepted by the Scottish Register of Tartans. And there were tartan yarmulkes.

The tall bearded chap was shul rabbi, Moshe Rubin, who manfully tried to twist his native New Yorker vowels around the Selkirk Grace at the start of the meal, although he was more verbally skilful when he followed it up with the Hamotzi, the traditional Hebrew blessing before bread is broken.

Scotland’s First Minister must get invited to many Burns Suppers, so it was a coup that she agreed not only to attend, but also to deliver the Immortal Memory to Robert Burns, the centrepiece of any such supper. Many in the Jewish community, particularly those that are successful in business, are both small c and big c Conservatives, so she was not simply bathing in the warm glow of her fellow independence supporters.

However, with Scotland’s small Jewish community worried about rising anti-Semitism, it seemed apparent that Ms Sturgeon wished to emphasise Scotland’s willingness to accept immigrants from around the world, at a time when barriers are being placed elsewhere. She held up the Jewish community as a “fantastic example” of how a group of people can arrive in a country and make a significant contribution to that country’s culture, economy and society.

To emphasise her point, she quoted the former Chief Rabbi of Britain, Jonathan Sacks, who described Jews in Scotland as having a “great capacity for integration without assimilation – its ability to retain a distinct identity while being part of a wider community.”

In fact, Ms Sturgeon joked that she had given up a hot date with film star Ewan McGregor to be there – the night had coincided with the red-carpet Edinburgh premiere of the film T2 Trainspotting. “I had to say sorry Euan, I’m going to Giffnock,” she explained.

She also said that it was with a sense of relief that her husband Peter realised she was giving the Immortal Memory as usually she is asked to give the Reply On Behalf Of The Lassies when he becomes the butt of most of her jokes.

But why joke about your husband when you have Tory MSP Jackson Carlaw in the audience? When the chairman of the Burns Supper remarked that the guest list was scrutinised by the First Minister’s security personnel beforehand she nodded towards Mr Carlaw at the next table and said if that was the case then she would order an inquiry to discover how he was allowed in.

Her main point of the evening, though, was how Scotland’s great poet Robert Burns has added to this rich broth of Scotland’s diversity. She argued that too many people often emphasised Burns’s faults as a womaniser, perhaps fond of the drink, although she couldn’t quite see how someone who died at the age of 37, who farmed, worked as an exciseman and wrote so many beautiful poems, songs, and letters could have spent too much time being drunk. “It points towards a workaholic rather than an alcoholic,” she posited.

“The fact he was a real human being adds to, rather than detracts from, his genius,” she said.

While women were marching around the world – a nod to the protests following Donald Trump’s election – it was Robert Burns, she said, who had been a real progressive in his day by writing about the rights of women.

“While Europe’s eye is fixed on mighty things,

The fate of empires and the fall of kings;

While quacks of State must each produce his plan,

And even children lisp the Rights of Man;

Amid this mighty fuss just let me mention,

The Rights of Woman merit some attention.”

She also touched on his political views, saying that many people in the SNP argue that Burns would be a supporter of Scottish independence. “I’ll let you into a wee secret -–Jackson there would give you a different answer to that question.

“In truth, we don’t know. I think he would have resisted joining any political party.”

She described Burns as an Everyman, someone with a strong sense of egalitarianism, who could sum up complex human emotions in his songs and poems. She argued it was not incidental he was Scottish as he grew up in the country at a time when education was paramount. In most other countries a ploughman’s son would have been illiterate, yet Burns’s genius helped inspire Abraham Lincoln to abolish slavery.

As Burns famously put it: “That Man to Man, the world o’er,

Shall brothers be for a’ that.”

Her speech was erudite, yet light, avoiding the pitfalls of many an Immortal Memory speaker who feels the need to recount every tedious twist and turn in Burns’s life to an irritable audience.

It won her a standing ovation. The audience might not vote for her, but they could certainly appreciate her giving up Ewan McGregor for them.