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Going overboard? The beat Twenty deputies back MP’s sharp criticism of the Board P6 & 18

L O C K D O W N 30 April 2020

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6 Iyar 5780

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D A Y

Issue No.1156

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38 @JewishNewsUK

goes on!

Lockdown DJs keep us dancing Page 22

Israel’s leaders are ‘violating our values’ One of Britain’s biggest philanthropists to Israel this week warned that the country’s political leaders are eroding “vast swathes” of support from the Jewish diaspora by “violating ” the values it holds dear, writes Stephen Oryszczuk.

Sir Mick Davis, a former chair of the Jewish Leadership Council, is one of the British Jewish community’s most influential figures and a staunch defender of Israel in public life, so his scathing broadside against figures such as Benjamin Netanyahu and Benny Gantz will be felt far and wide.

Writing in this week’s Jewish News, he said: “The ‘keep-yourwallets-open-and-your-mouths -shut’ model of Israel-diaspora relations was viable when diaspora Jewry saw in Israel’s political leadership an embodiment of its values, rather than a violation of them. As large swathes of the diaspora see Israel’s liberal democratic values as under threat, diaspora Zionism will dwindle, leaving the case for Sir Mick Davis

Israel solely in the hands of hardright cheerleaders.”

Davis, a former Conservative Party chief executive, has given millions of pounds to Israel and Israeli causes over the years, but penned his hard-hitting lament this week to coincide with Yom Ha’atzmaut.

In it, he derides the new Israeli unity government of Netanyahu and Gantz, the latter having sworn only weeks ago to get rid of the former, and now in coalition together with an agenda that includes annexing much of the West Bank.

Davis pointed to an erosion of principled government within Israel, which he classed as “an existential threat,” the state now having “a government the public didn’t vote for, led by a prime minister seemingly driven by holding onto power, propped up by parties who had previously pledged on principle not to govern with him”.

He added: “In the country of Ben-Gurion, Begin and Rabin, principle appears to be a relic of political history. Avoiding corruption charges is not a principle for governance, nor is promising your voters not to serve a prime minister facing such charges only to U-turn and enable him.”

Davis said Israeli politicians Conitinued on page 2

FROM OUR WINGS TO YOURS, WITH THANKS Israeli medical staff cheer as an Israeli airforce acrobatic team fly over Ichilov hospital in Tel Aviv for the country’s 72nd Independence Day. The airforce flew over every hospital in Israel on Tuesday to honour doctors and nurses during the pandemic. Israel has 16,000 reported cases of Covid-19 and 212 deaths.

Photo by Miriam Alster/Flash90

Community grandee warns Jewish state is failing the diaspora

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Jewish News 30 April 2020

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News / Holy burials / Virus deaths / Political concern

Five-fold increase in UK Jews buried in Israel

Ancient Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, Israel

that could have been incurred if we had to charter flights.

“The moderate cost increases are due to PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) for those handling the deceased here in London, and Israeli Ministry of Health regulations, requiring extra safeguards such as zinc-lined coffins to reduce

the danger of infection.”

With synagogues and schools closing, Feldan and Adler said burials had not been disrupted. They added that “coroners in the UK have been most helpful in providing paperwork” and “the Israeli consulate made special provisions” to ensure flights would go ahead.

“The flights are cargo only, so, sadly relatives are unable to attend the actual burials” they added.

This comes after the Times of Israel reported that United Synagogue member Leon Simons, 88, from London, died and was buried in Israel.

The US Head of Burials, Melvyn Hartog said the process for arranging a burial “was straightforward”, and costs between £4,000£4,500, in addition to around £1,000 to move the body from the airport to the burial site.

Shamsi Mozes of Mozes Travel, who also facilitates burials in Israel including for the US, explained that during the peak of the pandemic a few weeks ago the number of bodies needing to be taken over “went up by a lot”, but in the past few days “it’s quietened down”.

He explained that “people who want to go to Israel, whether they’ve already got plots there or if they left a request to go, are being taken. Nobody has been put off”.

A Holocaust survivor in Belgium and a leading Chabad rabbi in Germany were among the latest coronavirus victims in Jewish communities around the world.

Rabbi Binyamin Wolff Rabbi Binyamin Wolff, 43, a Chabad leader in Hanover, died on Friday, leaving behind a wife and eight young children, while Auschwitz survivor Henri Kichka, 94, died in a Brussels care home on Saturday.

Henri’s son, Michel Kichka, wrote on Facebook that “a small microscopic coronavirus has succeeded where the entire Nazi army had failed”, adding: “My father had survived the death march, but today his life march has ended.”

Wolff was described as “extremely successful as a shaliach [leader] in Hanover and over the years” who “managed to make a complete turnabout in the Jewish identity of the lives of many Jews in the city”.

UK Rabbi Shmuli Brown tweeted: “We will not leave the Wolff family alone, please give generously”, sharing a fundraising link that has so far raised £926,692 (€1,061,255).

DESERTING THE DIASPORA Conitinued from page 1 needed to address the country’s strategic challenges, such as future relations with the Palestinians, an acute lack of social mobility and the increasing fragmentation of Israeli society, but lacked the principles and integrity to do so.

He said that Israeli leaders had likewise “taken for granted” good relations with the diaspora, but that these were in fact “stagnating”, and warned that “the very concept

Criticised: Benny Gantz and Benjamin Netanyahu

of Jewish peoplehood, which underpins Zionism, needs

updating”.  Sir Mick Davis, page 16

ISRAEL RECALLS ITS FALLEN PRIVATELY

Israel marked its national day of remembrance for fallen soldiers and victims of terrorism under lockdown.

Soldiers paid respects at Mount Qiryat Shemona Cemetery as the country came to a standstill to remember those who have died in battle or as a result of terror.

The national ceremony was held in the military section of Mount Herzl cemetery, but without an audience because of the coronavirus.

On Tuesday night, the country transitioned from sadness to joy as its citizens began celebrations for Yom Haatzmaut, or Independence Day. This year, there were restrictions in place, so many families were not able to go to cemeteries on the day.

Photo by Ayal Margolin-JINIPIX

There has been a staggering fivefold increase in the number of burials taking place in Israel of British Jews who have died during the pandemic, writes Jack Mendel.

The community has been paying upwards of £4,500 to ensure loved ones are laid to rest in the Holy Land, but virus restrictions prevent families from travelling with the body to mourn.

Ben Adler of Traveldesk and Daniel Feld of Feldan Travel, who work together to facilitate the transportation of bodies to Israel, told Jewish News, they had seen “up to a five-fold increase at the peak, which was late-March to mid-April, adding: “We have arranged burials from all major UK Jewish communities, nationwide, and even from mainland Europe, where there has been a lack of flight options.”

Speaking about arrangements for transporting bodies, they said: “We in the UK are fortunate that there is a nightly cargo flight from Heathrow. This has been a great help in mitigating the extra costs

Rabbi and survivor die

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30 April 2020 Jewish News

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Hot air / Carol fundraiser / Virus deaths / News NEWS IN BRIEF

MP TO SHAVE HEAD FOR CARE CHARITY A Conservative MP has pledged to shave his head to raise funds for The Fed, the social care charity catering to Greater Manchester’s Jewish community. Christian Wakeford, MP for Bury South, has so far raised £330 of his £2,000 target. He said he would shave his head on 14 May to help the charity with increased costs due to Covid-19. He praised it as a “brilliant local charity … caring for thousands of the most vulnerable people both in their Heathlands Village care home and in the local community.”

RILEY CLAIMS COURT CASE VICTORY Rachel Riley claims to have won the first round of her High Court libel battle against Laura Murray, a former senior aide to Jeremy Corbyn. The Countdown presenter is suing over a tweet Murray sent after the former Labour leader was egged by a Brexit supporter during a visit to Finsbury Park Mosque in March last year.

Murray had tweeted: that Riley, 34, was “as dangerous as she is stupid”. Justice Nicklin ruled on Friday both elements were defamatory at common law.

Banned rabbi claims hairdryer cures virus

MAZELTOVS SENT TO CARRIE AND BORIS

A rabbi barred from entering the UK has told followers a “guaranteed” cure for coronavirus is to heat the back of the throat with a hairdryer, adding people were “dreaming” if they felt hospital would help them, writes Adam Decker.

Rabbi Yosef Mizrachi, who has in the past said autism and Down’s Syndrome are punishments for sins committed in a past life, and that Jews helped bring about the Holocaust by assimilating, made the coronavirus comments late last month.

Based in New York, Mizrachi has a large online following, including several London-based rabbis, and regularly broadcasts his hours-long pulpit musings. He recently told those who listen that there was a simple “solution” to coronavirus. “You take a hot hair-blower, you open up your mouth, you blow hot air into your throat… until you feel your throat gets very, very hot inside,” he said. “Twice a day for five minutes. If you do what I tell you, it will kill the virus immediately. It’s dead and it’s guaranteed. There are other ways, but it’s not guaranteed. This is guaranteed.”

He added: “If you count on the hospitals to take care of you, then you are dreaming.

There’s no more beds. In Israel, they told

JEWISH PANDEMIC DEATHS NOW 356

Rabbi Yosef Mizrachi’s Covid-19 cure

people, ‘don’t come, come after the fever goes away.’ Why? ‘We don’t want to catch it.’… Technically there is nothing they can do for you in hospital.”

Mizrachi said the virus targets weak immune systems, saying: “Weak immune system comes from depression, sadness, lack of faith, low spiritual level, anxiety, fear… The more you think like a loser, the more your immune system becomes weak.

“What’s the solution to prevent those

MUSEUM INVITES KIDS TO ASK QUESTIONS TO SURVIVORS The National Holocaust Centre and Museum (NHCM) has launched an expansive array of online learning videos and live events for schoolchildren at home during the coronavirus pandemic, letting them pose questions to survivors from their kitchen table.

Many survivors are in their 80s and 90s and live alone, so connecting with schoolchildren was “a mutually kind and enjoyable thing to do,” said organisers of the NHCM #Museum FromHome programme, which uses the Facebook Live platform.

“Oddly enough, in view of the subject matter, it is designed to bring some real warmth and light to the coronavirus darkness,” said the museum.

Other activities this week include ‘Sing Me Awake’ at midday today (Thursday), described as “a musical call to action in the final 24 hours of Genocide Awareness Month”, which features

CAROL INSPIRES NHS FUNDRAISING DRIVE Thousands of pounds have been raised in memory of a 79-year-old who was admitted to hospital with coronavirus, alongside her husband, and died days later.

Carol Kleiman, a great-grandmother, waved and was able to “snatch a kiss” from her husband of nearly 40 years, Harvey, 83, before the two were separated during treatment at St James’ Hospital in Leeds.

Her family has launched a Just Giving campaign to thank the NHS staff who “went above and beyond” and provide meals for them. To donate visit https:// tinyurl.com/y7zjjgdy

The Journey, aimed at primary schools

both an 87-year-old Holocaust survivor and a 37-year-old survivor of the genocide in Rwanda.

Another planned event is with Ruth Barnett, who came to the UK on the Kindertransport, due to take live questions after a short video, while the museum also said it had a learning app due out at the end of May, based on its school exhibition, The Journey.

viruses entering the body? Be happy, trust God, focus on your Torah, focus on your prayers…”

The rabbi has caused upset before, last year saying Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis was “a cancer” who would bring about another Holocaust on the Jewish people after Mirvis supported an educational guide urging the protection of Jewish schoolchildren who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender.

NEWS IN BRIEF

Communal groups have congratulated Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his fiancée Carrie Symonds on the birth of their son. A spokeswoman for the pair said both mother and baby are “doing very well” after the birth in a London hospital yesterday morning.

The Board of Deputies wished “a hearty mazaltov to @BorisJohnson and Carrie Symonds on the birth of their son this morning. We’re glad to hear mother and baby are doing well,” while the Jewish Leadership Council tweeted: “Mazal tov to @ BorisJohnson and @carriesymonds on the birth of their son!”

The number of coronavirus-related deaths among UK Jews has risen to 356 as of Tuesday, up from 352 on Monday, as the number dying nationally continues to climb. The latest figure covers deaths both in hospital and beyond, using data gathered from six of the largest Orthodox and denominational burial boards, according to information collated by the Board of Deputies.The UK total stood at 26,097 yesterday.

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Jewish News 30 April 2020

News / Doctor’s plea / Synagogue help

‘Give Londoners home oxygen monitors’ A Jewish doctor this week renewed her appeal for oxygen monitors to be delivered across homes in London, as countries around the world move towards easing restrictions, writes Mathilde Frot.

Home oxygen monitors, which can be clipped on to a fingertip to measure oxygen saturation levels, can help determine whether emergency help is needed or whether patients are well enough to stay at home, Dr Sharon Raymond said.

The GP and lead in unscheduled care, whose Change.org petition has more than 500 signatures, warned

but obviously as the lockdown eases and the virus is still in our environment, there will be a risk that it will be passed on,” Dr Raymond said yesterday.

Medical professionals working remotely have “little tools at our disposal that we would usually have in a clinic”, she The devices can determine whether urgent help is needed said.

“The probe is absoof the risks of a “second wave” announced this week Dr Sharon Raymond lutely crucial should social distancing that social distancing because it restrictions be lifted. rules would be partially will detect before the patient The UK lockdown has relaxed next month. or the doctor realises that the been extended to 7 May. “We’re anticipating a second oxygen levels are dropping Meanwhile, France and Spain wave. I hope everyone is wrong, and therefore more urgent

or even emergency care is needed.

“We need to be picking up these patients as early as possible and not wait for the deterioration to happen.”

Dr Raymond called on London Mayor Sadiq Khan to invest in home oxygen monitors, particularly for “patients who are very vulnerable and who are being shielded, and also those individuals who’ve already started to get Covid symptoms and have spoken to their GP but not gotten into hospital and need ongoing monitoring.”

She is leading a team of five mainly Jewish volunteers,

which has raised £96,362 on the website Just Giving to buy specialist equipment for the NHS during the pandemic.

The team have procured and delivered 20,000 items of Personal Protective Equipment and medical equipment to hospitals, GP surgeries, care homes and homeless shelters.

“That’s over 10,000 masks, visors, medical scrubs that were handmade in the UK by volunteers, over a thousand thermometers and oxygen saturation probes,” she said.

Jewish Care and Hatzola were among the beneficiaries in the community and beyond.

SHUL DONATION TO ASYLUM SEEKERS The United Synagogue has donated supermarket vouchers to around 100 asylum seekers who normally attend its drop-in centres, which were forced to close because of the coronavirus lockdown.

It says the vouchers should provide support for three months, and it is exploring safe ways to distribute toiletries and nappies.

The movement provides asylum seekers with hot meals, clothing, a children’s play area, legal and medical advice, a supermarket voucher and travel money.

But last month it had to close its two drop-in centres, based in Hendon United Synagogue and Woodford Forest United Synagogue.

One asylum seeker, who wished

to remain anonymous, said: “It is so difficult being an asylum seeker now and I don’t know what we’d have done without the United Synagogue’s help.

“We really appreciate it, thank you for thinking of us, thank you for everything… I don’t have words to thank you.”

Yael Peleg, director of strategy and development at the US Jewish living

department, said: “The United Synagogue has rightly prioritised helping its members during this crisis, providing more than 1,000 seder in a box kits and nearly 1,000 Pesach parcels for our most vulnerable families.

“We have also ensured that the asylum seekers who rely on our centres are also supported at this challenging time.

The child of an asylum seeker

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30 April 2020 Jewish News

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Belsen anniversary/ Social media hit / Rabbi mourned / News

‘Father brought his tzitzit into Dachau’ Kindertransport refugee Bernd Koschland recalls learning that his father Jacob sneaked a set of tzitzit into Dachau concentration camp, which was liberated 75 years ago this week, writes Mathilde Frot.

On Kristallnacht, Koschland, who was born in Fürth near Nuremberg, was forced out of his family’s apartment to a public space, where men, women and children were instructed to stand separately until the next morning. His father was deported to Dachau and released several weeks later.

“Ostensibly he had a visa from someone or somewhere to go to Paris, and that made him eligible to be released,” Koschland told Jewish News on Wednesday.

His father had worked for a shoe company. “A number of years later, I saw a copy of a letter from a very distant relative who was also in Dachau with him, and he reported that my dad, having been a solider in the Germany army, maintained a very Germany mentality and he was able

Memories: Bernd Koschland

to bring in a set of tzitzit,” he said.

“How, he doesn’t know.”

His father’s release came years before the camp was liberated by American forces on this day in 1945.

Mala Tribich, who was liberated from Bergen–Belsen, survived Ravensbrück concentration camp.

She answered questions in an online Q&A on Wednesday organised by the Holocaust Educational Trust.

“Firstly they took our details and then we had to strip, with our clothes

taken away. Our heads were shaved and went through cold communal showers,” she wrote, describing her arrival at Ravensbrück, which was liberated from 29 to 30 April.

She continued: “At the other end we got the striped clothing.

When we looked at one another we couldn’t recognise each other. We were stripped of our identity which made people lose hope.”

Karen Pollock, chief executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust, stressed the duty of remembrance.

“Dachau was the longest running Nazi camp, built close to Munich, the home of the Nazi party. As we mark the 75th anniversary, we remember the tens of thousands of men, women and children persecuted and murdered there.”

Koschland is doing his part to keep that memory alive. He arrived in the UK aged seven and lost both his parents in the Holocaust. In the years since, he has shared his testimony with hundreds of pupils in schools across the country.

‘Mensch’ Rabbi Michaels dies Rabbi Stanley Michaels, a ‘mensch’ and pillar of Mill Hill United Synagogue, has died aged 73 after contracting coronavirus.

Managing director at an accountancy firm and Tottenham Hotspur fan, Rabbi Michaels regularly led services at the shul and organised its barmitzvah breakfast club. He became over the years “synonymous with Mill Hill Shul”, according to his longtime friend Rabbi Yitzchak Schochet.

“I thought I would be all out of tears by now having spent time crying with you on the phone, and then, when you could no longer speak, on my own,” Rabbi Schochet said in his eulogy.

“Deep down, I always thought you will pull through,” he said at the funeral, broadcast on Zoom and Facebook Live. Rabbi Schochet, who knew Michaels for nearly 30 years, said: “You are the voice on Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur.

You are the voice on many a Shabbos. You are the voice in many a bar mitzvah boy’s ear. To think that your voice will no longer be heard – is just too painful to fathom at the moment.” he said.

“All you ever advocated for was goodness and kindness.”

Andrew Kaye, of accountants Hartford Michaels Kaye, said his business partner was someone who “only wanted to help people through everything he did, whether it was clients from the practice or in his teaching which he loved”.

Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis paid tribute to Rabbi Michaels, saying: “For the past six years, I have davened close to him nearly every morning. He will be remembered for his dedication, his beautiful voice, his talent as a teacher and for being a truly lovely person.”

Rabbi Michaels is survived by his wife Sonia and his daughters Debra and Alison.

Emergency grants ‘are lifeline’ The first grants have been allocated from a communal coronavirus fund set up to support those suffering in lockdown.

It was launched last week by the Jewish Leadership Council and employment hub Work Avenue after Jewish philanthropists pitched with an initial £300,000.

The scheme is for people and families directly affected by the virus and restrictions that reduce its spread. It is also designed to help those ineli-

Scheme launched last week

gible for government support or who face delays accessing government funds. One recip-

ient said the grant from the Emergency Community Fund “is a lifesaver. I will now be able to buy food for our family for the next couple of months.

Before this, I was desperate and not sure where to turn.”

Work Avenue CEO Debbie Sheldon said: “My team have been working tirelessly to ensure this fund is open to everyone within the community. “ Details of the scheme and how to apply are at: www.the workavenue.org.uk/covid19

JLGB kids’ choir aims for 1.5 million views

A video of a virtual children’s choir to mark Yom HaShoah has been viewed more than 540,000 times on social media in the past week.

Over 50 children sent in clips to Yom HaShoah UK, including soloist Ellie Harris, of Hertsmere Jewish Primary.

Singer-songwriter Stephen Melzack produced the compilation, which was broadcast during the ceremony.

Neil Martin, chair of Yom HaShoah UK, says the group aims to reach 1.5 million views in honour of the number of children murdered by the Nazis.

He said: “This year to mark the 75th

anniversary we had more school choirs signed up to take part in a physical Yom HaShoah ceremony than ever before.

“We knew that a virtual ceremony presented us with several opportunities to reach an even wider audience, but with Passover fast upon us, time was of the essence. “The children wanted survivors to know that no matter what, they will always remember on Yom HaShoah, but through this unique set of circumstances, their singing has now carried the message of ‘Never Again’ to over half a million people thus far.”

• Editorial comment, page 14

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Jewish News 30 April 2020

News / Camden connection / Board spat

JW3 teams up to feed needy

BOARD BRANDS 20 DEPUTIES ‘COWARDS’ A bitter row between the Board of Deputies and Conservative MP Rob Halfon this week saw the Jewish umbrella organisation accuse 20 of its own deputies of hiding behind a “cowardly cloak of anonymity” in supporting Halfon’s attack on it.

A letter published

by The Jewish Chronicle quotes the signatories as being “uniformly troubled” that the Board is “intent on pursuing a left of centre political agenda and has a partisan bias”.

This follows Halfon’s

Board’s Marie van der Zyl

claim that the Board has become a “political broadcasting service” for Labour.

Board president Marie van der Zyl hit back at

Halfon, questioning his “courage and integrity” The two parties cleared the air on Monday in a joint statement, saying: “We deeply regret this weekend’s exchange.

Going forward, we will endeavour to share any concerns in private first.”

However, the row escalated again hours later when the Board criticised The Jewish Chronicle for refusing to reveal the signatories of a letter supporting Halfon’s view.

A spokesperson said: “Having tried to pressure

the Board of Deputies’ staff to make a comment about a disagreement shortly before Shabbat, The JC has now asked the Board to comment on an allegedly critical letter whose contents The JC refused to share with us and whose purported signatories hide behind the cowardly anonymity.

“It is disappointing that while the key protagonists are moving forward, The JC seems determined to stir communal discord.” Marie van der Zyl, p18

NEWS IN BRIEF

One of the volunteers prepares meals for vulnerable people in Camden

A group of five volunteers prepared vegetable stew, cake and biscuits at north London’s JW3 to feed 40 vulnerable Camden residents during the pandemic.

JW3’s kitchen was reopened last Wednesday for the project, organised in partnership with the food poverty charity FEAST!, which uses surplus food to prepare meals for the homeless.

Raymond Simonson, CEO of the

centre in Finchley Road, tweeted he was “proud” to be teaming up with the charity, which he described as among “our fave local volunteer” organisations.

The meals, prepared using ingredients donated by local supermarkets through a food rescue programme, were delivered to vulnerable residents identified by local action groups and Camden Council.

MAMMA MIA’S SUPER TROUPERS The cast of Mamma Mia, including Jewish actress Mazz Murray, performed chart-topping Abba hits from their garages, sofas and rooftops to help raise the spirits of the public during the pandemic.

VIRTUAL TUTORING CLUB

UK FIGHTS AGAINST TROPICAL DISEASE

DR AVIVA DAUTCH JOINS JR MAGAZINE

The British government has revealed it has been funding the fight against a neglected tropical disease in Israel and the Palestinian territories for the past three years. A governmentfunded programme has spent hundreds of thousands of pounds from 2017 fighting leishmaniasis – a potentially fatal infection transmitted through the bite of an infected female sandfly – in areas such as the Galilee.

An adviser to some of Britain’s foremost cultural and arts institutions has been named as the executive director of the London-based magazine Jewish Renaissance. Dr Aviva Dautch, an acclaimed poet, academic and curator who has worked with the British Library, British Museum, Tate Modern and the Royal Academy, will work with editor Rebecca Taylor.

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30 April 2020 Jewish News

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Pandemic warning / News

Flouting lockdown a ‘disgrace’, says Chief Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis this week warned it is “indefensible and disgraceful” to flout the ban on public gatherings during the lockdown, writes Adam Decker.

In his weekly d’var Torah, broadcast online on Tuesday, he called on the community to abide by the rules to halt the spread of the coronavirus.

“Our shuls are closed, we’re not gathering in numbers to perform the mitzvot that we should within a minyan because we value life, we don’t want the carrying out of mitzvot to present a danger to life,” he said in the clip.

He added: “When a group of people gather together in a quorum in order to perform a mitzvah such as the celebration of a marriage or the staging of a Tefillah service in a minyan and it is a breach of law, they are in endangering their lives, they are endangering the lives of others and they are causing a terrible Chillul Hashem – a desecration of God’s name. It is indefensible and it is disgraceful.”

Rabbi Mirvis’s message came after the Metropolitan Police issued a prohibition notice on a shul in Hackney on Monday.

DCI Marcus Barnett, of Hackney and Tower Hamlets, said: “Following weeks of engagement, enforcement action has now had to be taken.”

Last week, the father of a bride whose wedding was disrupted by police stepped down from his role as chair of the Hackney

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Rachel Jaysan Dor-Chay Place settings at the wedding in Bridge Lane

Independent Advisory Group. Moishe Friedlander, father of Mimi, who married Zevi Begal in Golders Green, told MailOnline that public outcry over the gathering had led to his resignation. “It’s all over now,” he said. “I’ve stepped down as chairman.

Let’s all move on with our lives.”

Rabbi Doniel Kleiman reportedly officiated at the wedding, which was held in his Golders Green home on Bridge Lane.

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30 April 2020 Jewish News

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Textbook complaint / Ben mourned / NHS fundraiser / News

‘Anti-Israel’ GCSE book is withdrawn and accurate manner. We are A GCSE textbook perceived pleased that another misas having an anti-Israel leading and inaccurate school bias has been withdrawn textbook, purporting to teach after lawyers got involved, about Middle East history, writes Adam Decker. is being withdrawn and Hodder Education has reconsidered.” removed from sale the Noru Tsalic, an author and History for Edexcel book UKLFI volunteer, said there Conflict in the Middle East were “many issues with this 1945-95 after UK Lawtextbook”, and “a general lack yers for Israel (UKLFI) of scholarly rigour in the way argued that it contained the topic is covered”. “a plethora of inaccurate The withdrawal follows and confusing content”. similar withdrawals of the UKLFI said the pubPearson Edexcel GCSE and lisher had confirmed in doubt IGCSE textbooks on the same it the withdrawal and Hodder’s book: future is subject, following complaints would “reconsider [the book’s] future” after the group said the book from UKLFI and the Zionist Federation (ZF).

In February, the ZF wrote to Hodder about “frequently refers to Jewish terrorists when a textbook Understanding History: Key Stage 3: their actions were against military targets”.

The textbook, written by Steve Waugh and Britain in the wider world, Roman times – PreJohn Wright, referred to early Jewish settlers sent, which it published with Hachette UK. The ZF said a question in the book “sugto British Mandate Palestine. Lawyers said this was “misleading given the connotations that gests that the creation of Israel is responsible for the terror attacks of 9/11” and another [the term] has nowadays”.

UKLFI director Caroline Turner said: “It states “how Israel won what is commonly is very important that children learning about referred to as its War of Independence and this complex subject are taught in a balanced ‘took even more land’.”

London’s oldest man dies at 108 Tributes have been paid to London’s oldest man, who died on Monday at the age of 108.

Ben Raymond, said last year by his care home to be “London’s oldest man”, was believed to be the third oldest in the UK. Raymond (pictured), a member of Sutton United Synagogue, was born in Bermondsey in 1911, the youngest of four children. He moved to Nightingale House in Clapham in 2012 with his wife of 76

years, Millie. The two married in 1937 after meeting at a dance academy in Piccadilly.

Raymond, who served in the Army Medical Corps, later worked as a hairdresser. His Marble Arch salon had a clientele that in the 1950s included the actor Charlton Heston and the Crown Prince of Arabia.

Helen Simmons, Nightingale Hammerson chief executive, said the care home “family misses Ben terribly”. The Rev

CLOTHES DECLUTTER HELPS NHS Recent graduates this week launched a fundraising initiative whereby quality second-hand clothes are sold to raise money to help the NHS. London-based Sally Patterson and Glaswegian Lucy Clumpas, who are both Jewish, teamed up with friend Bella Stratton to launch Closet19, an online platform that “encourages people to declutter their wardrobes and support the NHS”.

STAY CONNECTED WITH The days of Yom Hazikaron and Yom Ha’atzmaut are a time when our community here in the UK has a strong connection to Israel. So often we commemorate and celebrate together. This year we were apart.

At UJIA, our commitment to this lifelong connection is unwavering.

Speakers, ulpan, educational resources and much more are all available online, whilst our work with vulnerable communities across Israel is more important now than ever before.

To find out more about the many ways you can connect to the people of Israel visit ujia.org/yh20

United Jewish Israel Appeal is a registered charity no. 1060078 (England & Wales) and SC 039181 (Scotland)

Shmully Aronson, who led the funeral, said he was a “very positive, happy-go-lucky man” and would be remembered as a “very grateful person”.

Users upload their unwanted, good quality clothing items and others buy them, with the payment going straight to NHS Charities Together, resulting in what the trio said was “a win-win for sellers and buyers”, as well as helping the environment.

Using online platform ShareTribe, the founders say it lets people who are social distancing to contribute to the Covid-19 response effort. “It’s really easy to feel helpless at the moment,” said Patterson, who set up her own feminist fashion line while studying at Bristol.

“This lets anyone sitting at home contribute, simply by clearing out their wardrobe.”

Clumpas said: “Closet19 is a guilt-free way for people to get their shopping fix ethically while raising money for an important cause.”

10

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Jewish News 30 April 2020

News / School standards / Dossier probe / Nandy plea NEWS IN BRIEF

LABOUR: DO NOT DELIGITIMISE ISRAEL Labour’s new shadow communities secretary told Jewish leaders he will encourage local councils not to boycott Israel. In a vitual meeting, Steve Reed told the Board of Deputies and the Community Security Trust that he would write to “all Labour’s local government leaders to ask [them]... to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism in full and with all its examples, including reminding them not to support actions that seek to delegitimise the state of Israel”.

WEBSITE ALLOWS SHOAH DENIAL BOOKS The Goodreads website appears to have ignored calls to take down reviews of Holocaust denial books from its platform. A Change.org petition, which has gathered more than 240 signatures since it was uploaded last week, calls on the social network for readers to take down reviews of Peter Winter’s The Six Million: Fact or Fiction? and the 1974 pamphlet Did Six Million Really Die? The Amazon-owned website said hate speech was “not tolerated” and would be deleted.

URGES FAST Ofsted: ‘Progress’ STARMER INQUIRY INTO LEAK on illegal schools Ofsted’s Chief Inspector Amanda Spielman this week said she was “cautiously optimistic” of progress being made on illegal schools, with legislation now in the offing, writes Stephen Oryszczuk.

The head of the national schools inspectorate was speaking during a parliamentary select committee’s online scrutiny session on Monday, as she addressed an issue that will impact the Orthodox Jewish community in population centres such as Hackney.

Yeshivas, along with Muslim madrasas, are classed as illegal educational settings, but both local councils and Ofsted say they continue to operate for lack of legal powers to shut them down, calling for primary legislation from the government.

In Hackney, home to the UK’s largest Orthodox Jewish population, there are an estimated 1,500 Jewish teenage boys learning in yeshivas,

Yeshivas continue to operate

with the council strongly supporting Spielman’s call for primary legislation to help them deal with the issue.

Replying to Conservative MP David Simmonds, Spielman said: “It’s a tough one, not least because it needs primary legislation to deal with... gaps in our powers”.

She said Brexit and the coronavirus pandemic meant parliamentary time had been in short supply of late, but added that she was “nevertheless cautiously optimistic that things have been happening”.

She pointed to continued funding from the Department for Education (DfE) for Ofsted’s unregistered schools team and four successful prosecutions, adding inspectors entering such premises now used body-worn cameras to collect evidence of operations.

“The Crown Prosecution Service wasn’t entirely enthusiastic about taking these cases to court [but] everyone now understands this is serious.”

Committee chair Robert Halfon MP raised the issue of Ofsted’s criticism that Elizabeth I had been “airbrushed” from textbooks at Yesodey Hatorah Senior Girls’ School in Stamford Hill.

He said the school said it redacted one image of Elizabeth because it felt it was immodest, adding that it showed how faith schools felt Ofsted was “going in with a heavy hand”.

Sir Keir Starmer has called for Labour’s inquiry into a leaked antisemitism dossier to be concluded in a “matter of months”, ahead of a meeting of the party’s ruling National Executive Committee.

The party’s committee convened last week to set the timescale and frame of reference for the investigation into the leaking of the 860-page report that reignited divisions as the new leader tries to unite the party.

The document found

“no evidence” of antisemitism being handled differently from other complaints and that “factional opposition” towards Jeremy Corbyn as leader of the party hindered efforts to tackle the crisis.

Labour said it takes data protection “extremely seriously” after suggestions that legal action could be taken against the party by people named in the report, while Sir Keir has been praised for his commitment to root out antisemitism.

UK must ‘prevent annexation’ Shadow foreign secretary Lisa Nandy has urged the government to “use its diplomatic influence” to prevent Israel annexing large chunks of the West Bank, an action the country’s new unity government plans to do in July.

Nandy wrote to foreign secretary Dominic Raab last

week as the Jewish Labour Movement said it was “dismayed and bitterly disappointed” Israel’s Labour party had joined the coalition despite the annexation plans of prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his new coalition partner Benny Gantz.

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11

Yom Ha’azmaut / Special Report

Critical friends for 70 years The ups and downs of seven decades of UK-Israel diplomatic relations 1950s

Started frosty, but later worked together To say UK-Israeli relations began frostily is an understatement, with many of the new Israel Defense Force (IDF)’s leaders having spent much of the 1940s attacking British army officers.

The establishment of the state of Israel, for which Britain’s Lord Balfour had laid the foundations in 1917, was immediately followed by an attack on Israel by Arab states, including Egypt and Jordan, with whom Britain had good relations, and just six months before the UK recognised the state of Israel in May 1949, the British were preparing to bomb Israeli airbases after five RAF planes were shot down by the Israelis towards the end of 1948. Only an Israeli withdrawal from the Sinai prevented it.

Several years later, in 1956, the pair found themselves fighting on the same side, alongside France. The trio secretly negotiated military plans then went to war with Egypt over the Suez Canal, which had just been nationalised by Colonel Nasser, who for years had denied passage to Israeli-flagged or Israel-bound ships. Although the operation was a military success and led to renewed Israeli shipping freedoms, it resulted in the canal closing, before a furious United States forced Britain to pull out.

1960s

Helping while pretending not to British foreign policy after the Suez Crisis focused on rebuilding its support with the Arab world using its network of contacts in cities across the region, which led to the UK taking the Arab ‘side’ in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at the UN. At the same time, Britain was secretly helping Israel by selling it tanks. Declassified British cabinet meeting notes describe how Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion asked for the weaponry during a UK visit “to keep up with [Egypt’s Colonel] Nasser” because he would be “less likely to attack if he knows he will get a bloody nose”.

At the start of the Six-Day War of 1967, London was again of some considerable assistance to Israel, first by relaying messages being sent by Egyptian leaders via British MPs, and later by supplying intelligence reports on such things as the size and capability of Arab armies massed on the other side of Israel’s borders. Throughout the decade it has been reported that Britain also helped Israel become a nuclear power, although all such reports have always been denied.

1970s

UK tries to keep a balance of support The decade began with British Foreign Secretary Alec Douglas-Home pressing for an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by urging a return to the pre-1967 territorial boundaries, but three

in Finchley, headquarters of the Jewish Israel Appeal. Two London-based Palestinians were convicted two years later.

2000s

Israeli Independence Day celebrations in Trafalgar Square

years later, in 1973, hopes of peace were shattered when Egypt and Syria jointly attacked Israel on Yom Kippur.

Britain, along with other western states, suffered the repercussions of an oil embargo imposed by Arab oil-producing states in response to the west’s support for Israel during the Yom Kippur War. However, British cabinet minutes show that the UK government was trying to maintain an even-handed approach in the Middle East, often backing Arab resolutions against Israel at the United Nations.

With Britain having joined the European Economic Area in 1973, analysts say this meant London began leaning more towards the Europeans’ ideological sympathy towards the Palestinians. That only went so far, however. In 1975, several European states voted in favour of UN General Assembly Resolution 3379 equating Zionism with racism. The UK voted against it.

1980s

Subterfuge and double dealing Britain’s membership of the European community prevented it from selling oil to Israel in 1980.

At a meeting that year between Margaret Thatcher and Israel’s deputy prime minister, she said the UK saw “no sense in putting up new settlements in territory occupied by Israel in 1967”. Israel also asked London to relay Arab plans, particularly those of the Saudis, and facilitate contacts between Israeli and Egyptian intelligence officers, but two years later favours were in short supply when Thatcher found out Israel was selling weapons to Argentina during the Falklands War using secret cargo flights via Peru. Feelings soured further when Israeli-supplied jets bombed British forces, killing 48.

To worsen matters, British Foreign Secretary Geoffrey Howe then asked Israel not to sell Buenos Aires spy planes, but was rebuffed.

“Israeli interests in Argentina will outweigh any readiness they might otherwise feel to be helpful to us,” he said. Three months later, when Israel went to war in Lebanon, the UK instituted an arms embargo against it that was to last 12 years.

In 1986, a bag of eight fake British passports turned up in a telephone booth in West Germany.

They were later revealed to have been forged

by Mossad. The Israelis promised the furious Brits they would never forge British passports again. However, two Mossad agents stationed in London were expelled in 1988 for recruiting a Palestinian in London as a double agent to infiltrate the Palestine Liberation Organisation.

1990s

A row – and then co-operation The arms embargo lasted until 1994, and London refused to permit the export of gas masks to Israel when Saddam Hussein began raining Scud missiles down on Tel Aviv in the early 1990s.

Things weren’t helped when a Jewish organisation campaigning for a united Jerusalem later wrote to Prime Minister John Major asking for his support, to which his private office replied that because Britain did not recognise Israeli sovereignty over any part of Jerusalem, he would not give it. The reply, described as “blunt and dismissive,” sparked a major row and incensed Britain’s Jewish community, which led to Foreign Office minister David HeathcoatAmory attending a meeting of Likud activists in Golders Green several days later to apologise.

The thaw began shortly after the signing of the Oslo Accords, and Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza and Jericho was also welcomed. The UK and Israel were soon to start sharing more intelligence with each other when, on 26 July 1994, a car bomb attack targeted the Israeli embassy in London. In the early hours of the following morning a similar device targeted Balfour House

A thaw in relations – generally This is when UKIsrael relations slowly started to improve, such as with the launch of the Britain-Israel Research and Academic Exchange, but there were major challenges along the way.

For example, in 2005, retired Israeli general Doron Almog narrowly avoided arrest after flying into the UK. Only his decision to stay on board the plane, and El Al’s decision to deny British police entry onto the aircraft, averted a major diplomatic incident.

One year later, when Israeli leaders celebrated the anniversary of the Irgun bombing of the King David Hotel in 1946 (then the British Army HQ), British envoys said this was an act of terrorism that killed 91 people, including civilians, but the Hebrew version of the commemorative plaque listed 92 – including the terrorist.

In 2009, Israeli politician Tzipi Livni faced an arrest warrant for war crimes during the 2008-9 war in Gaza, when she was foreign minister, while in the same year the UK began requiring goods from West Bank settlements to be labelled; Israeli leaders accused the UK of “catering to the demands of the boycott movement”.

2010s

Passports mystery and tech innovation In February 2010, forged British passports were again found to have been used in a Mossad operation, during the assassination of a Hamas leader in Dubai. However, Ambassador Matthew Gould, the UK’s (Jewish) ambassador to Israel from 2010-2015 did so much to mend fences.

In 2011, he opened the UK-Israel Tech Hub at the British Embassy in Tel Aviv, which paired British corporates and Israeli start-ups. Likewise British leaders began marketing the London Stock Exchange as the home of larger Israeli companies looking to list in Europe, which 300+ firms did in the following few years. In 2012, bilateral trade was up 34 percent, a trend that has continued, culminating in 2016 when Rolls-Royce and El Al signed a £1 billion engine deal.

In the worlds of research and academia, millions of pounds poured into projects whereby British and Israeli scientists work together. By 2017, just about everybody was feeling warm, as Israeli leaders flew into the UK for the centenary of the Balfour Declaration. Towards the end of the decade, the RAF even hosted Israeli fighter pilots in the UK for joint military exercises, marking a new level of cooperation.

As the 2020s began, UK-Israel relations had never been better.

12

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13

Synagogue tour / Lockdown advice / Shoah plaques / Diaspora News

Stuck at home? Take a 3D tour of Great Synagogue of Vilna Jews in lockdown around the world are being invited to take a newly-available 3D tour of the magnificent 16th century Great Synagogue of Vilna in the capital of Lithuania.

Once one of the wonders of the Jewish world, the synagogue was the beating heart of European Judaism for millennia, able to accommodate 5,000 worshippers, but was badly damaged during the war before being destroyed by the Soviets.

Those who are housebound owing to the coronavirus pandemic can now visit the famous synagogue online after researchers recreated the site’s complex, courtyard and interior in three dimensions using photos, drawings and accounts.

The virtual tour of the seat of European Jewry’s intellectual, spiritual and political capital was launched this week to mark the 300th birth anniversary of Vilna Gaon Elijah ben Solomon Zalman, one of the most influential figures in rabbinic study in the Middle Ages.

“In these days of limited travel possibilities, this new project, placed entirely in virtual space, offers a possibility to explore the famous synagogue from any corner of the world,” said organisers at

Jewish astronaut Jessica Meir has explained from the International Space Station how to stay mentally and physically healthy while living in isolation.

Before she returned to earth on 17

Your weekly digest of stories from the international press...

NEPAL

A Chabad emissary in Kathmandu has been told to withdraw from Israel’s Independence Day torchlighting ceremony by a Chabad rabbinical court. In a letter to Chani Lifshitz by court members, she was told it was up to rabbis to decide whether members of the Chabad community could accept such honours. Lifshitz said she would not contest the decision. ‘I cannot enter the fire of discord.’ Israeli ministers had earlier posted she would attend.

UNITED STATES Interior of the Great Synagogue, which was founded in the 16th century

Historical Vilnius. “It reveals realistic footage of this important historical site, which marks yet another crucial milestone in preserving Lithuania’s Jewish heritage.”

The synagogue, which was founded at the end of the 16th century, was originally built across five floors, two of which were below ground level, and could host up to 5,000 worshippers – far more than other similar structures at the time.

ASTRONAUT OFFERS EXPERT ADVICE ON LIFE IN ISOLATION

Jessica Meir at the Space Station

WORLD NEWS IN BRIEF

April, the coronavirus lockdown happening hundreds of miles below was something she had only heard about.

Meir, who lived from late September with a handful of other astronauts at the ISS, said before her return that it was “very strange and a bit surreal for us to see it all unfold when we’ve been up here for the entire duration… It seems that we will be completely going back to a different planet”.

She said people could stay healthy by sticking to their regular routines, exercising and staying in regular contact with friends and family.

Last month she tweeted a photo of an unnervingly quiet Tel Aviv that she took from space.

“Gazing down at the city in which my father was raised, I take to heart one of his most uttered expressions: ‘This too shall pass.’ Wise words to remember, in both good times and bad.”

Archaeologists from the US, Israel and Lithuania have been working at the site for nine years, and there are plans for a Jewish Holocaust memorial centre site by 2023, when Vilnius celebrates its 700th birthday.

Before the Second World War, there were 135 synagogues in and around the city, but the Great Synagogue was the undisputed centre of spiritual and cultural life for Lithuanian Jews.

A strictly Orthodox man from Brooklyn has become the first Chasidic Jew to hold a senior position in a White House administration. Michael Silk, from the Borough Park neighbourhood, made history when he was confirmed by the Senate as assistant secretary of the Treasury for international markets. He is reportedly an expert in Chinese law and finance.

BRAZIL

The words ‘Holocaust’ and ‘Never Again’ were dramatically projected onto Brazil’s national 28-storey Congress building to mark Yom HaShoah. The show of support came as thousands attended online ceremonies held by the Jewish federations in Rio and Sao Paulo, where most of Brazil’s 120,000 Jews live.

VENEZUELA

Organisations around the world have paid tribute to a Venezuelan Jewish community leader after he died from Covid-19. Fred Pressner, who was 73, was born in Romania to Holocaust survivors in 1947 and came to Venezuela in 1960, leading the community during the reign of socialist president Hugo Chavez. “Freddy became the courageous and nuanced global face of Venezuelan Jewry at the height of the Chavista state sanctioned antisemitism,” said Dina Siegel Vann of the American Jewish Committee.

Jews lay ‘virtual plaques’ on Auschwitz train line Former Chief Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks has joined human rights icon Natan Sharansky and Israeli President Reuven Rivlin in laying a “virtual plaque” on the Birkenau train tracks as this year’s March of the Living continued online.

The annual two-mile walk from Auschwitz to Birkenau, cancelled owing to the coronavirus pandemic, turned into a virtual remembrance initiative this week as Sacks, Sharansky and Rivlin were joined by Jewish Agency chief Isaac Herzog and US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman.

“This year, for the first time in 32 years, we are not able to march in Auschwitz-Birkenau,” said Shmuel Rosenman, world chair of March of the Living. “But that will not stop us. We will continue to educate the next generation with the values we have been teaching for three decades.”

The virtual remembrance project lets people from around the world compose personal messages and ‘place them’ against the backdrop of the infamous train tracks at the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp.

March of the Living organisers each year enable thousands of participants from 150 countries to walk

President Reuven Rivlin ‘placed’ a plaque at Birkenau

from Auschwitz to Birkenau in tribute to those killed.

Laying his plaque, Rivlin said: “Seventy-five years after the Holocaust, the terrible tragedy of our people, as antisemitism raises its ugly head once again across the world, the nations of the world must stand together.”

Shofar marks Earth Day US shul shooting commemorated #SoundTheCall one of Climate change activ24 events highlighted ists from Jewish enviglobally, as hundreds of ronmental group people from all faiths Hazon blew their shosigned on for this year’s fars to mark the 50th virtual celebration. annual Earth Day last Hazon chief execuWednesday, with the tive Nigel Savage said: mass blowing of the Nigel blows the shofar “We blow shofar at a time ram’s horn taking place of celebration, at a time of alarm and as during a special live Zoom event.

Earth Day Network, the official a call to teshuva, to repentance and to sponsor of Earth Day, made Hazon’s changing our behaviours.”

Israeli and American envoys attended an online commemoration on Sunday for the first anniversary of the Chabad of Poway Synagogue shooting in the United States.

Lori Gilbert-Kaye was killed, and three others were injured, including

the rabbi. Survivors of the attack were joined by US Special Envoy Elan Carr, UN Special Rapporteur Dr Ahmed Shaheed and Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon.

Jonathan Morales, a community member and patrol officer who was at the scene at the time and

returned fire against the attacker, recalled how the shooter aimed indiscriminately against men, women and children.

“We can’t change people’s beliefs in these antisemitic ideas, but we can promote awareness and education on these issues,” he said.

Carr said: “We are at war with these hatemongers, who feed off venomous hate. We are at war with them on the far-right, as we are at war with the antisemites of the far-left and of militant Islam.”

Danon said: “It is not new, rather one of the most ancient viruses, which takes different forms. There are many treatments, but no cure.”

14

Jewish News 30 April 2020

www.jewishnews.co.uk

Editorial comment and letters ISSUE NO.

1156

A newfound sense of Jewish identity Our community’s ingenuity in the face of a crisis knows no bounds. From dawn to dusk, on Facebook, Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Houseparty and other popular social media platforms, Jewish life in lockdown has taken on a new and unexpected vibrancy as we discover different ways to work, pray, mourn and celebrate.

While limiting our daily lives and physical interactions, the pandemic has provided a unique opportunity to explore Judaism in creative ways never before imagined.

Synagogues of every demonination are attracting huge online congregations for services, simchas and social events. Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis, Senior Rabbi of Reform Judaism Laura Janner-Klausner, Rabbi Joseph Dweck of the S&P Sephardi Community and outgoing Senior Liberal Judaism Rabbi Danny Rich have all significantly enhanced their online presence.

Youth and Zionist movements are also experiencing heightened levels of interaction. As we report this week, a spellbinding Yom Ha­Shoah performance by JLGB’s virtual children’s choir has generated more than 540,000 views in just seven days while last night, in partnership with Jewish News, JNF UK held a virtual song contest to celebrate Israel’s Independence Day. You can watch many of the 120 entries and discover who won on social media via the hashtag #songhaatzmaut.

These are dark and difficult days, but how gratifying that for so many an unforeseen legacy of this crisis will be a newfound sense of Jewish belonging.

CONTACT DETAILS Publisher and Editor Richard Ferrer 020 7692 6929 richardf@thejngroup.com Publisher and News Editor Justin Cohen 020 7692 6952 justinc@thejngroup.com Features Editor Francine Wolfisz 020 7692 6935 francinew@thejngroup.com Community Editor Mathilde Frot 020 7692 6949

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Thanks for saving our lifeline There are some things without believe everything you read! which the Jewish community With this deadly plague causing would not be quite the same – us to remain isolated indoors, the noisy kosher restaurants with one comfort we have is being able awful service, chatting to friends to communicate with each other. during the Haftorah and double Our newspapers are just as vital parking in Golders Green. a lifeline to the outside world and We’ve lost the restaurants are needed now more than ever. and chatting in shul and, two The joys of double parking We owe a huge debt of weeks ago, I read we were about gratitude to Leo Noé for giving to lose two more of these defining elements – Jewish News a lifeline. A merger with the JC Jewish News and Jewish Chronicle. One week would have been as unthinkable as a hybrid later, full of trepidation, I went to the Jewish between a Porsche and a Rolls-Royce – both News’ website for a last heart-breaking glance at suited to their different purposes. I look forward the final edition, only to find that, as Mark Twain to a huge commemorative edition to mark JN’s might have put it: “Reports of its death have been 25th anniversary in two years’ time! greatly exaggerated”. Moreover, the JC has been Herbert Goldberg saved too. It just goes to prove that you shouldn’t Pinner

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The government’s planning inspectorate has announced it has postponed indefinitely its inquiry into the application to erect a gigantic Holocaust memorial in Victoria Tower Gardens.

This memorial is not needed. The argument it would act as an antidote to antisemitism always struck me – along with a great many other British Jews – as preposterous. Of its total cost,

some three-quarters (£75 million) was to have been borne by the British taxpayer. This outlay was difficult to defend even at the best of times.

Now, as the nation faces the challenge of rebuilding its economy, it is beyond any justification. Let us hope promoters of this ill-judged proposal will now abandon it, in the national interest.

Prof Geoffrey Alderman University of Buckingham

BOTH NEWSPAPERS ARE PRECIOUS

Sedra: A charei-Kedoshim

Printed in England: West Ferry Printers Limited Published by: The Jewish News & Media Group. www.thejngroup. com. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or used in any form of advertising without prior permission in writing from the editor. Registered as a newspaper by Royal Mail. The Jewish News reserves the right to make any alterations necessary to conform to the style and standards of The Jewish News and does not guarantee the insertion of any particular advertisement on a specified date or at all – although every effort will be made to meet the wishes of the advertisers. Further it does not accept liability for any loss or damage caused by an error or inaccuracy Member of in the publication of an advertisement. Signatures of both parties involved are sometimes required in the case of Audit Bureau some announcements. An order for an advertisement shall amount to an acceptance of the above conditions. Hotels, products and restaurants which are not supervised are marked with an [N]. The Jewish News reserves the right to edit of Circulations letters for size and content without prior consent. Submission of letters is no guarantee of publication.

MEMORIAL SHOULD BE ABANDONED

“Your father says you’re breaking up, Hershel. About time. I always said that schlump wasn’t good enough for you!”

When I heard the JC and JN would cease publication I was saddened, then realised how vital, important and enjoyable both publication were for me as a Jewish reader. I realised how long I had taken for granted both publications,

how they contributed to providing communal communication and information.

The community needs, deserves and should have these precious newspapers.

Stanford Myer-O’Reilly Croydon

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Editorial comment and letters

BRING OUT THE REPORT Do we have any clear idea when are we to can expect the longawaited report from the Equalities and Human Rights Commission into the Labour Party?

Surely by now it has amassed enough evidence against Jeremy Corbyn and his cronies to issue their report.

I wait with bated breath to see this rotten individual and his mateys get their just

deserts. It is unthinkable that Corbyn and his circle failed to ban antisemitic members, even when arrested for inciting racial hatred. The Commission must hold him to account. It is imperative for the well-being of Jewish people that this is not swept under the carpet.

S Weinberg By email

Choir created real beauty Yom HaShoah is the most sombre of days, and commemorating it in lockdown was not easy. But the young people from JLGB who sang Never Again at the UK online event, stlll available on YouTube, took our communal pain of the memory of the Holocaust and turned it into something truly beautiful.

Jews – in common with much of humanity – seem to have a knack of singing whatever our circumstances or our suffering.

Saint-Saëns’ opera Samson and Delilah opens with a moving chorus by the Hebrew slaves begging the God of Israel to release them from their bondage to the Philistines.

In Belshazzar’s Feast, William Walton set

Psalm 137 to a beautiful melody, a communal lament about exile in Babylon and a yearning for Jerusalem, as later did the pop group Boney M. And in Nabucco, Verdi took recollection of the period of Babylonian captivity as the theme for his Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves, Va Pensiero.

What a wonderful musical heritage this choir, and the accompanying instrumentalists, were part of. Thank you for the music, and for expressing the pain of Yom Ha­ Shoah during the inconvenience of lockdown in such a beautiful way.

Natalie Alper Stoke Newington

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Jewish News 30 April 2020

Opinion

Israel's leaders violate values of the diaspora SIR MICK DAVIS

FORMER CHAIRMAN OF JEWISH LEADERSHIP COUNCIL

O

n Yom Ha’atzmaut, as ever, we celebrate the miracle of Israel and its achievements – as a Jewish and democratic state, a scientific and creative powerhouse and the beating heart of the Jewish people, rebuilt, sovereign and thriving after the ravages of a traumatic past.

We reflect on Israel’s existential challenges.

Israel remains surrounded by hostility, but its emerging existential threats come from within.

Its simultaneous status as both a parliamentary democracy and a Jewish state, the social mobility that has helped drive its success, its social cohesion and national ethos and its mutually sustaining relationship with the Jewish diaspora are all under threat. Not only from Israel’s numerous and malign enemies, but from its own dysfunctional political system.

Light-hearted quips about the hazards of proportional representation no longer bring a smile when, after three elections in a year, the

outcome is a government for which the public didn’t vote, led by a prime minister seemingly driven by holding onto power and propped up by parties that had previously pledged on principle not to govern with him.

Israel’s hyper-proportional system, and largely unwritten constitution, relies on the principles and integrity of those who govern, and an immutable set of values reflected in Israel’s declaration of independence.

Yet in the country of Ben Gurion, Begin and Rabin, principle appears to be a relic of political history. Avoiding corruption charges is not a principle for governance. Nor is promising your voters not to serve a prime minister facing such charges, only to U-turn and enable him.

In the absence of principle, narratives of strength, resilience and hope give way to those of fear, intolerance and victimhood. Gantz appealed for votes not based on a compelling alternative vision, but as anyone but Bibi.

A political system in which parties seek power with no concept of what to do with it cannot address the strategic challenges facing Israel and the Jewish people. Four such chal-

lenges spring to my mind.

First, Israel needs a vision for its future relationship with the Palestinians. Talk of peace might be passé or premature depending on one’s viewpoint, and that might well be for reasons that can be pinned confidently on the Palestinians. However, Palestinian dysfunction, corruption and intransigence were previously an obstacle for Israel to overcome, not a set of values to emulate.

For a decade, however, Israeli governments and oppositions have pretended the country's relationship with the Palestinians can be ignored. High on Trump, and his plan that indulges that pretence, the only vision for the Palestinians now in the public discourse is one of annexation. An agenda that doubles down on risk is incomprehensible when, post the Covid-19 onslaught, the scales are so lopsided to the down side. When we talk of existential threats to Israel, then annexation is the genuine article. Trump is temporary, the Palestinians and Israel’s moral and strategic imperative to extricate itself from ruling over them is not.

Israel needs a political system and political leaders, in government and opposition, capable of addressing this issue honestly and strategically. Yet no party offered a tangible alternative on this issue, denying Israelis any real choices on a fundamental question.

Second, Israel must radically improve social mobility within its own society. Its move from a more managed economy to a dynamic, free market economy has been a global success story, gifting the world its creativity and tech innovation. Yet for an OECD [Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development ] country, Israel’s gap between rich and poor is extraordinary. It faces inherent productivity restraints owing to long-term failures to invest adequately in infrastructure. But politicians obsessed solely with their own survival cannot address the long-term economic needs of a free market society. The day-to-day responsibilities of government to stimulate the market and provide opportunity for all of its citizens, not just a high-tech few, have been neglected.

Third, Israel’s system has widened the social divisions it needs to bridge. President Reuven Rivlin has been a lonely and symbolic figure in healing those divisions, in stark contrast to politicians who have exploited and

pandered to them. Israel’s system, fragmented along sectoral lines, has inflamed the rifts, fragmenting a country whose sense of national mission has been key to its survival.

Israel advocates around the world, of which I am one, boast about the full citizenship rights of Israel’s Arab citizens and their role in Israeli life.

However, the MKs those citizens elect are still considered governmentally treif. We cannot use their voting rights to score debating points and simultaneously vilify them for voting in droves.

Jewish Israelis need more and better education in Arabic and Arab culture. Arab Israelis need more and better education in Jewish culture and history. Across every divide in Israeli society, between Jew and Arab, religious and secular, Israel’s system is a recipe for national fragmentation not national purpose.

Fourth, Israel needs a government capable of laying out a vision of Israel’s relationship with the diaspora. That relationship is taken for granted and is stagnating. The keep-yourwallets-open-and-mouths-shut model of Israeldiaspora relations was viable when diaspora Jewry saw in Israel’s political leadership an embodiment of its values rather than a violation of them. As large swathes of the diaspora see Israel’s values under threat, diaspora Zionism will dwindle, leaving the case for Israel solely in the hands of hard-right cheerleaders. That would present an existential challenge to Jewish life as we know it, and a strategic threat to Israel.

The very concept of Jewish peoplehood, which underpins Zionism, needs refreshing.

Israel’s relationship with the Jewish world is unique. Most diasporas arise by people leaving their country, whereas Israel is a product of its people returning from the diaspora, and developing a culture distinct from it. Diaspora Jews and Israelis are, therefore, too often unrecognisable to each other. How for example, can we nurture a thriving and mutual beneficial sense of shared peoplehood, when so many diaspora Jews, particularly in the Englishspeaking world are unable to speak Hebrew, the language of their homeland?

Yet, as Zionist communities who place Israel at the heart of our Jewish being, we look to it for leadership and vision and see only political gamesmanship. Israel’s political system is broken to the detriment of us all and, 72 years after the founding of the state, the time has come to fix it.

30 April 2020 Jewish News

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Opinion

Seven decades of shared values and common goals MINISTER FOR THE MIDDLE EAST & NORTH AFRICA

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nniversaries are a good time to reflect, to look back on how events have shaped us and dwell on happy memories. They are also a time to look to the future, set goals and make plans for the future. And it is with that sense of optimism, this week, that we mark the 70th anniversary of the UK opening its embassy in Tel Aviv, beginning the UK’s relations with Israel.

Over those 70 years, we have seen engagements between Her Majesty the Queen and Israeli Presidents Haim Herzog, Ezer Weizman and Shimon Peres. In 2018, HRH Prince William visited Israel and met Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Reuven Rivlin, Holocaust survivors and activists and even carved out some time to meet Israeli Eurovision sensation Netta.

The prime minister was pleased to host Benjamin Netanyahu at Downing Street

last year, while earlier this year the Prince of Wales visited Israel to speak at a Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial ceremony and joined world leaders in Jerusalem to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.

I know what an amazing place Israel is to visit, having had the chance to do so shortly after becoming an MP in 2015. A country with antiquity and modernity side by side, things that seem familiar to my British eyes and things that are fascinating and unique.

A country proud of its modern science and technology sectors and also home to some of the world's most holy places.

I had hoped my work as minister responsible for the Middle East and North Africa might give me the chance to go back to a fantastic fish restaurant on the waterfront at

JAMES CLEVERLY, MP

A

I ENCOURAGE BOTH SIDES TO FOCUS ON THAT GREAT PRIZE; SUSTAINABLE PEACE Jaffa, listen to the mosque's call to evening prayer while watching the sun set over the Mediterranean Sea. Covid-19 means that I, like people in Tel Aviv, will have to wait before dining there again.

But even in these challenging times, this anniversary week gives us both cause for optimism. The UK and Israel are working side by side in the fight against coronavirus, with our top health and scientific advisers sharing information and exchanging valuable insights into how to manage and, ultimately, beat the pandemic. Our respective world-class hospitals and laboratories are working together to support the development of antibody treatments for patients and discussing innovations, from tracing apps to potential vaccines.

Of course, the ties between UK and Israel go far beyond scientific cooperation. High tech

collaboration is thriving: Israeli start-ups work with the UK’s biggest companies in health, finance, pharma, energy and more. British firm Dyson is using Israeli technology in its appliances and Israeli Mobileye’s systems work to reduce road traffic accidents across Britain.

The UK is Israel’s biggest trading partner in Europe: our trade has been growing steadily and, in recent years, annual trade has exceeded £8billion, according to the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics. In 2016, the UK signed its biggest trade deal with Israel, with Rolls Royce providing £1bn of engines to El Al’s new Dreamliner planes.

UK-Israeli collaboration touches every aspect of our lives and helps build a more prosperous future for both our countries.

The prosperity of Israel and the UK is inextricably linked to the stability of the wider Middle East. I am a firm believer that a negotiated agreement between Israel and the Palestinians for a two-state solution is the best way to secure enduring stability and success.

As Israel’s new government gets to work, I encourage both sides to focus on that great, if sometimes elusive, prize. Sustainable peace.

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Jewish News 30 April 2020

Opinion

We’ll never apologise for advocating for all Jews MARIE VAN DER ZYL

PRESIDENT, THE BOARD OF DEPUTIES

I

t’s not easy to simultaneously be accused of being both a Conservative shill and “nakedly pursuing...partisan favouritism” in support of Labour.

But, somehow, this is the position the Board of Deputies currently enjoys.

A few short weeks ago, the leadership of the Labour Party changed. We never kept quiet about our problems with Jeremy Corbyn, especially when it became clear he was not interested in fixing Labour’s antisemitism problem.

His successor, Sir Keir Starmer, in his first speech after his election, apologised to our community and expressed his determination to fix the issues that have plagued Labour over the past few years. Along with representatives of other Jewish organisations, we met Sir Keir to discuss this in more detail, making it clear that while warm words were welcome, concrete action was necessary.

But we did not stop there. We believe it is important for us to meet members of the new Labour Shadow Cabinet to discuss issues of concern to many British Jews, and to press home the point that they, too, will need to

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OUR AIM IS TO MAKE BOTH PARTIES SO STRONG ON JEWISH ISSUES THAT JEWS DO NOT EVER HAVE TO VOTE AS JEWS play their part if the deep rift between their party and our community is to be mended.

And we believe it is important that you, the community, are aware of these meetings.

We are not naive. Some of these politicians have said things in the past with which we disagree, while others have kept silent when they should have spoken up against antisemitism and antisemites.

And we have made it clear that, in order for them to help mend the breach with our community, there are certain things we expect. For example, we made it clear to Lisa Nandy, the new Shadow Foreign Secretary, that despite her previous outlook on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, she would need to be even-handed in her new role, to reach out to the Israelis and be ready to hold the Palestinians accountable for their actions as well.

The Shadow Home Secretary, Nick

Thomas-Symonds, has already made public his agreement with the decision to proscribe the Hezbollah terrorist organisation in its entirety, a position he also stressed in our meeting with him.

And in a meeting with Steve Reed, Shadow Secretary for Communities and Local Government, we received a commitment that all Labour local council leaders will be written to, asking them to adopt the full International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism if they have not already done so, and making it clear to them that they are not to support actions that seek to delegitimise the state of Israel.

Owing to our outspoken criticism of Labour’s handling of its antisemitism crisis under Jeremy Corbyn, we became a key target of the far-left, which accused us of being controlled by the Conservatives. These

ferocious attacks continue to this day.

This week, we are criticised for being in hock to Labour, an accusation that is particularly bizarre given that we spent the past week challenging members of the Shadow Cabinet to fix their party’s problems.

We are not the Board of Deputies of British Jewish Conservatives, or of British Jewish Labourites. We are the Board of Deputies of British Jews.

We believe it is important for us to have a strong relationship with the government. This is a relationship we are proud to have. This means praise where it is due and constructive criticism where it is not. But we also believe it is vital to ensure that the key party of opposition addresses the anti-Jewish prejudice in its ranks that made many Jews consider leaving the country.

Ultimately, our aim is to make both parties so strong on Jewish issues that Jews do not ever have to vote as Jews, but based on their individual socioeconomic views.

Occasionally, that might mean members of one or other party will accuse us of bias so as to avoid engaging with our views. That may sometimes be uncomfortable, but we will never apologise for advocating without fear or favour for the good of our community.

Transparency is the least readers deserve ALEX BRUMMER

CITY EDITOR, DAILY MAIL

O

ne of the more remarkable sights in a pre-Covid-19 Britain were the station and city centre newsstands festooned with print newspapers. More than a quarter of a century after the printed word was challenged by digital and online competitors, England and Wales still have eight or so daily paid-for newspapers. Scotland and Northern Ireland have their equivalent choices. In north London, The Jewish Chronicle and Jewish News have been prominently on display.

There can be no pretence that mass circulations of national titles have been maintained.

Sales of most daily titles have been sinking.

The current pandemic has increased the thirst for news, but loss of readers has accelerated. The age when The Sun could claim it won elections for Margaret Thatcher may long be over, but the printed press still

sets the national agenda. This has been true throughout the coronavirus crisis with newspapers leading the charge on ventilators, testing and shortages of protective garments.

If this all sounds a little self-serving, it is only to underline a basic principle of newspaper ownership. Very few titles turn a profit. Indeed, for most proprietors, newspaper ownership is a good way of burning money. Nevertheless, there is no shortage of public figures and tycoons who find newspaper ownership attractive.

Commanding a newspaper can give voice to the business person seeking to have one. It can earn the owner a seat at the top table and could be the path to honours including a seat in the Lords.

Victor Matthews (Daily Express), Robert Maxwell (Daily Mirror) and the Barclay Brothers at The Telegraph are examples. In Israel, casino owner and Trump supporter Sheldon Adelson, owner of Israel Hayom, comes to mind as a proprietor wanting to promote an agenda.

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PURCHASING A PAPER CAN GIVE A DIRECT VOICE TO AN OWNER SEEKING A PLATFORM

Among the current crop of UK owners, I would suggest three big exceptions. The Harmsworth dynasty, biggest shareholders in Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT) see newspaper publishing as a heritage. The Guardian is owned by a trust with a duty to maintain the title ‘as heretofore’. And the Murdoch papers, including The Times, are the love child of proprietor Rupert Murdoch.

Which brings us to The Jewish Chronicle.

By now, had matters gone differently, The JC would have merged with Jewish News under community ownership of the Kessler Foundation. The JC struggled in recent years

to keep afloat in the face of dramatic circulation losses, high costs and several lost generations of readership.

The status that comes with ownership of a respected title and the national influence it buys binds together a quixotic band of new proprietors. Doubtless Downing Street insider Robbie Gibb, who leads the new ownership consortium is philo-Jewish, but the reasons for his interest and that of author William Shawcross are fuzzy. The challenge they face in owning a paper in the age of Covid-19 and digital decline cannot be underestimated.

The endowment of £2.5m will ensure the publication continues. It would be nice to think the new consortium and its financial backers are altruistic and the JC’s independence of reporting will remain intact.

So far too little is known. If the JC is to retain the confidence of the community it serves, the least that can be expected is transparency. Readers and advertisers need to be told the real game plan to rebuild faith in the title.

30 April 2020 Jewish News

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19

Community / Scene & Be Seen

1 MARATHON EFFORT

Camp Simcha’s trustees, staff and supporters rose to the 2.6 challenge. The charity’s presidents Jonathan and Sharon Goldstein, honorary guardians Philippe and Deborah Katz, founders Meir and Rachely Plancey, and board of trustees completed a team marathon.

Staff and supporters baked 260 biscuits for the NHS, ironed for 26 minutes, completed 26 chores, read 26 books, did 26 activities, ran, dog-walked, back-flipped, cycled, planked and organised a 26-person baby shark dance. The charity’s group effort raised nearly £10,000 for its work supporting families with seriously ill children. Pictured is Camp Simcha head of services Daniel Gillis and his family.

And be seen!

The latest news, pictures and (virtual) social events from across the community Email us at community@thejngroup.com

2 FAMILY CHALLENGE Sacks Morasha Jewish Primary School pupils Jonah, eight, and Aaron Goodman, five, raised funds for learning disability charity Kisharon by completing their own 2.6 challenges. Jonah did 26 cannon balls into a paddling pool, while Aaron, pictured, completed 26 running laps around the garden. Their dad Elliot also took part, raising money for charity GIFT.

3 CARING TEAM

Members of the community, aged two to 96, took on a host of 2.6 challenges to raise funds for Jewish Care, The Fed and Nightingale Hammerson, as part of the Jewish Homes Emergency Appeal. Ruth Brook, 96, walk 2km for six days, the Woolf and Falk families took on obstacle courses with Samuel Kossoff, three, playing 26 musical instruments in a row. The Marks family, pictured, finished 26 exercise challenges, while the Fed’s fundraising director, Raphi Bloom, completed 260 burpees while wearing a 10k vest.

4 KEEPING UP

Norwood staff and residents helped raise more than £35,000 for the learning disability charity, matching money raised at last year’s London Marathon. Among the 2.6 challengers was Norwood’s chief executive Beverley Jacobson, who cycled 26km on a tandem with her daughter Talya, both pictured, who made greetings cards for staff and residents.

Norwood chair Neville Kahn cycled 10 times around a 2.6km circuit and vice president Ronnie Harris climbed Primrose Hill 26 times. Ravenswood residents and staff walked around the site 26 times, bounced on a trampoline for 26 minutes and completed 260 football keepy-uppies.

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Jewish News 30 April 2020

COVID-19 CRISIS APPEAL

ANXIOUS, ISOLATED, AT RISK It is perfectly okay to be feeling anxious at the moment. We are living in unprecedented times and it is a normal reaction to the situation. For people already living with mental illness, the additional anxiety and isolation can become a matter of life and death.

What Jami are doing: Telephone support •

Expanding our telephone befriending service to enable us to check in regularly with people self-isolating

•

Redeploying our office and other staff to support service users

Online facilitated groups and activities

Provision of meals and doorstep chats

•

Developed a new online hub programme to ensure people who regularly attend Jami hubs can still attend groups

•

Providing regular deliveries of hot meals made by Head Room Café staff

•

•

Providing tablets and virtual technical support to those who are not connected to ensure they can participate

Delivery of essential provisions and door-step chats to ensure human contact is maintained with the most vulnerable

Outreach support •

Supplying the community with regular information on caring for their own and loved ones’ mental health throughout this crisis

•

Advising organisations and volunteer groups on how to deal with the mental health issues of the vulnerable people they are supporting

What you can do: Support Jami

Look after your own mental health

Jami has always relied on the wonderful support of our community to fund our vital work – being able to provide critical mental health services to the community has never been more important.

Find areas of your life you can control – plan a routine, activities that help you relax, daily exercise and fresh air, establish a network and stay connected, be kind to yourself.

Social isolation has a devastating impact on many people with mental health problems all year round. In these unprecedented times, for the people we support, setbacks can be life-threatening.

If you know of someone who needs our help at this time, please visit jamiuk.org/get-support/referral or call 020 8458 2223.

Support family and friends Find ways to keep in touch, especially with those that are self-isolating and acknowledge how they are feeling. For some people with underlying mental health issues, they will have added distress. Find out how you can best support them at jamiuk.org Offer local help If you are able – volunteer to pick up shopping and urgent supplies.

In the current crisis your donation will make even more of a difference.

Please visit jamiuk.org/crisis and make a donation.

@JamiPeople JAMIMentalHealth Jami UK

Registered charity no. 1003345. A company limited by guarantee. Registered in London no. 2618170

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21

Books / Weekend

‘I can’t change the past, but I can keep their names alive’

Above: 1947 reunion of Trochenbrod survivors, taken at the Foehrenwalf Displaced Persons’ Camp

Author Esther Safran Foer tells Mathilde Frot about discovering her Holocaust survivor father had another family before the war

W

hen Esther Safran Foer’s home was broken into a few years ago, her computers and jewellery were taken, her family were left “hysterical” and, as police swooped on the property, the incident grew into a “frightening kind of thing” – but Esther herself remained remarkably calm.

For while she had suffered the loss of material possessions, Esther recognised the real thing of value – stories about her parents, who had experienced and survived the Holocaust – could never be taken away.

“In the midst of that, I thought ‘I’ve got to write their stories. That’s what I really need to pass on, not things’,” says Esther, now a grandmother-of-six and author of her debut post-Holocaust memoir, I Want You To Know We’re Still Here.

She describes her near-obsessive pursuit to piece together fragments of information about her late parents, Ethel Bronstein and Louis Safran, the only members of their families to survive the Shoah.

Esther, who lives in Washington DC, is something of a hoarder, and she displays on her mantle an assortment of glass jars, each preserving a memory: rubble from the Warsaw Ghetto, soil from her mother’s shtetl. To add to

hid her father during the war. What she found was life-affirming.

“I was so lucky I took that trip, because so many of the people I talked to who were able to give me information are now gone,” she explains.

Writing the book was a therapeutic process, she recalls. “It was an important process to deal with things I’d never dealt with. Probably like every other Jew, I’ve read so many Holocaust memoirs, and this was going to be another Holocaust memoir,” she says.

“But it came out of the writing that this was not just a story about the past. It’s about the future.

There’s nothing I can do to change the past. I can be enormously sad I never had grandparents or aunts or uncles or first cousins.

“What I can do in this book is put their names

her collection, she carries with her Ziploc bags, a habit depicted in her son Jonathan’s novel Everything is Illuminated, a best-selling fictionalised account of the Safran Foer family history.

“Sometimes I feel so silly as people watch me and I’m digging into the dirt and putting things into a little Ziploc bag, but I don’t care. It’s what I’m taking back with me,” she says.

Esther, who spent nearly the first three years of her life in a displaced persons’ camp in Germany before arriving in the US in 1949, grew up surrounded by unspoken traumas.

Her mother, who spent the war on the run, fled as far as Uzbekistan, working on farms and in factories.Her father, an enigmatic figure whose life before he came to the US was shrouded in mystery, had committed suicide when Esther was just eight.

But she found out he had a wife and daughter back in the Ukraine, who were murdered by the Nazis. The discovery, which came in her forties after she confronted her mother for answers, reignited a lifelong quest to understand Esther with her family, pictured in 2018 her father’s early life.

“I went home. I looked on all the databases. I had a down and at least their descendants will know that they lived,” she adds. sister, whose name had never been known and didn’t Esther’s mother died two months before her exist. At a minimum, I could put Baby Safran into the writing deadline. “She was almost 99. But in the Yad Vashem database,” she says. time between her death in December, and the time Esther’s investigations involved spending I finished the book in February, I was able to open hours poring over Holocaust databases, recruiting up about things that I couldn’t while she was alive.” researchers in the Ukraine and even hiring a former But, she adds: “I think she’d be happy FBI agent to analyse family photographs. [with the book]. She’d be proud.”

They finally found a lead in Trochenbrod, now Ukraine, her late father’s home town, to where she  I Want You To Know We’re Still Here by journeyed back in 2009 with her journalist son, Esther Safran Foer is published by Harper Frank, in an effort to track down the people who Collins, priced £20 (hardback) and is available now in hardback, ebook and audiobook Esther Safran Foer and her deput novel

In association with

A look

Inside Special report: A look at the community portrayed in Unorthodox

Music: The Ibiza DJs getting their groove on during lockdown

Judaism: What’s in a number?

Happy 72nd birthday, Israel!

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Jewish News 30 April 2020

www.jewishnews.co.uk

Weekend / Music

EVEN IN LOCKDOWN

…the beat goes on!

Brigit Grant speaks to a trio of star DJs keeping the nation dancing by hitting the decks from home

N

for those who will miss out this othing beats summer,” sighs Jules, who is thousands of young also the world’s only entertainpeople dancing on ment artist and music lawyer. a hot summer Judge Jules Remarkably, he did 100 gigs night for Judge Jules. last summer, while negotiating Synonymous with Ibiza clubbeen replaced by testimonials from those he artist’s contracts, but he does land since the late 90s, former Radio (103.1FM), so I can handle not seeing Judge Jules has helped with Happy Days For Everyone, his have two law degrees.

UCS pupil Julius O’Riordan has an audience,” he says. “But the flip side is other mental health group and now Tuned Out “After getting my first at LSE, flown first class across the globe as seeing a crazy club crowd enjoying my music.

– Getting Well Together, which he hosts every I spent 20 years leading a rock ‘n’ roll lifethe star attraction at clubs and festivals.

Now there’s no flip side.”

Friday on Zoom. style, commuting to Ibiza every weekend, then But for the past five weeks Jules, 53, has Living under the severity of Spanish lock“It’s support for people having rubbish flying to Australia and America.” only walked to Hampstead Heath and is down after losing his father last year has also weeks,” informs Brandon, a champion of the His exit strategy was to return to university headlining in his own lounge. been a challenge, as he is worried about his funkier end of house music. “Mental health and update his degree, a wise move in Sure, it’s a far cry from entertaining mother in Bushey. was a big topic before Covid-19 became allthese current circumstances when 10,000 clubbers in San Antonio, but his live “Thankfully she is coping, and consuming, but people with the same issues his fellow DJs are looking at streams on Facebook, YouTube and Twitch my wife and I are surrounded by are at their wits’ end.” a long stretch with no bookings. are attracting up to 500,000 viewers and beautiful countryside.

Brandon’s last gig before lockdown was “It’s tough and I also have raising five-figure donations for the NHS. “But it’s so boring with for Mambo at The Century Club, but he huge sympathy with the 10 As a former Kiss and Radio 1 host, Jules no work and I’ve already believes he caught the virus while at a gig in musicians I’ve been working is a club legend, so his stats online are no rewatched every episode of Verbier in February. “We weren’t as aware with on my new venture – Judge surprise, but turning his Hampstead Garden Curb Your Enthusiasm.”

Steve of the symptoms then, but the ski resort Jules Live – which was due to Suburb home into a disco-lit booth is interIt’s the vibe Steve misses, as he’s Altman became a hotbed for the infection and I’ve explode this summer. Now everyesting for the neighbours. been making people dance since he been self-isolating for six weeks. I’m just thing is cancelled.”

“Only between 9pm to 10.30pm on Saturfirst DJ’d at parties as a teenager – and even looking after my family and myself.”

Jules got his “Judge” nickname in the 80s days,” insists Jules. “I am respectful and I managed to get Bill Clinton, Sir Philip Green But the rebel does have a deck, a mixer when dealing with police at illegal raves but, also think people in lockdown don’t want to and Richard Caring moving at Catherine’s and speakers at home, and every day at for now, law is financially on his side until the party at 1am.”

Palace in St Petersburg.

11am, he streams a few tracks on clubs and festivals happen.

Jules was 16 when he started DJing for Sony Music’s Carwash album and Facebook to lift the mood, and “I don’t know what the politicians will do, his Jewish peers in north-west London and sharing deck and stage space with various DJs drop by. but it would be disingenuous of me to say that now sees their kids in the club crowd.

Sir Elton John and Tina Turner “I jump on and have a bit of a they should let people out for mass gatherings.

“Clubbing is a rite of passage, and I’m sad are among his past glories, yet laugh. I want to give people the Equally they can’t keep Steve is hopeful about the future. right tunes to start the day.” people inside forever.”

“Jazz and Blues grew out of Meanwhile, in the the 1930s depression, and from  Judge Jules will play a Malaga hillside, Steve the 1980s recession came raves Brandon Block live-streamed 20th birthday Altman is treating his and acid house. From bad comes Kevin and Perry set, 9pm to Spanish neighbours to good and I’m here when the world is 10.30pm, this Saturday; Brandon Block a playlist of soul classics. ready to party again.” hosts his mental health group More accustomed So is Brandon Block, the most infamous on Zoom every Friday, 2.30pm, to the sound of goat DJ of the 90s, but for now, he is in Northwood www.happydaysforeveryone.com, bells than The Ministry hosting his online mental health support www.facebook.com/getwelltogether; (another of his DJ group, Tuned Out. and Steve Altman can be found on highlights), Steve, 53, Last week, campaigner Jonny Benjamin www.ibizaliveradio.com streams a live set every was his guest and participants bravely revealed Friday on Facebook, their distress in lockdown. but 1,000 likes is small Raised in Wembley, Brandon was one of Lockdown tunes consolation for the the first resident DJs at Ibiza’s Space Terrace Judge Jules’ lockdown song: Edgware-born DJ planand the driving force behind the island’s Unfinished Sympathy, Massive Attack ning to dominate dance worldwide notoriety as the place to party. floors in Ibiza’s Soul He partied more than most but, having Steve Altman’s lockdown song: Heaven and Majorca’s dealt with his addiction problems, trained and Tears, Frankie Knuckles Playhouse this summer. qualify in all aspects of health and social care, Brandon Block’s lockdown song: “I host two weekly along with stress and addiction management.

Steve Altman Glow of Love, Change feat Luther Vandross shows for Ibiza Live Jibes about his controversial past have and Judge Jules

30 April 2020 Jewish News

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Life story / Weekend

‘We wanted to give him the Jewish burial he deserved’ The death of 95-year-old Herbert Max Fraenkel resulted in an intriguing quest to discover his real identity, writes Stephen Oryszczuk Herbert lived in Winchmore Hill

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ithout next of kin, living relatives or a registered will, few knew the real identity of a 95-year-old man who died alone at home in January.

But thanks to the “incredible” tenacity of his local council, a genealogist and a rabbi, Herbert Max Fraenkel was on Monday finally given a traditional Jewish burial.

The astonishing story of how Fraenkel came to be buried at the United Synagogue’s Waltham Abbey Jewish Cemetery was revealed this week.

Following his death, a non-Jewish employee at Enfield Council became convinced that Fraenkel was Jewish and refused to let the mortuary release his body for cremation or burial until his identity was determined.

Rabbi Daniel Epstein, of Cockfosters & North Southgate United Synagogue, said: “I received an email from a shul member, who in turn had had an email from an environment protection officer.”

That shul member was Cllr Daniel Anderson and the environment protection officer was Paul Anastasi, who grew up around the Jewish community as his Greek parents owned a hairdresser’s in Stoke Newington.

Epstein this week praised Anastasi for his “incredible” tenacity in making sure that Fraenkel, born in 1924 in Berlin, had a burial in keeping with his religion.

Fraenkel’s body was discovered after neighbours reported not having seen him over Christmas, and police entered shortly before what would have been his 96th birthday.

The body went to the mortuary, but there was no known next of kin, relative or heir, and no will. Anastasi and his manager were asked to go to the flat in Winchmore

Hill to see if they could find any information about him.

“We found old letters and cards, as well as a menorah, which is when I thought he may be Jewish,” said Anastasi. “I Googled him and found that he was an inventor who co-owed an engineering firm, so A Fraenkel wedding photograph he was a special man.

“I researched the name and found it was burial, so we had to look to his wider family.

Jewish and from Germany. But we couldn’t “I worked out that find much about his family, so I reached out to Fraenkel’s father Cllr Anderson, who put me in contact with his Martin not only rabbi. I gave them all the information I had.” had a sister, but had Epstein said Anastasi’s “overriding concern correspondence with was to see if they could have him buried near J Franklin Barak, his parents, which is quite incredible for who turned out to someone who isn’t Jewish himself”, so immebe Ludwig Fraenkel, diately agreed to help.

Martin’s younger As he trawled databases in search of information relating to the burial of Fraenkel’s brother.”

Ludwig was quite parents, the coronavirus pandemic began a character. He claiming more lives, and the mortuary staff said they needed to free up the bay. “They were travelled to Palestine, putting the pressure on, but Paul was saying, where he married Jemima (Yamima) ben Yehuda, ‘Wait, not until we figure this guy out.’”

Epstein contacted Andrew Gilbert, a daughter of Eliezer Ben- Herbert, born in Berlin, co-owned an engineering firm Yehuda, the founder genealogist, and together they began to piece lady who he loved, but she married someone of modern Hebrew, together Fraenkel’s else”. This appears to have been ‘Heidi’. whose funeral in family links. They Anastasi also found a Christmas card from 1922 was attended by learned that he came a woman who used to work with Fraenkel, 30,000 people. to London with his and he tracked her down. “She told me he They divorced parents, Martin and was a very knowledgeable man, a lovely man, in 1923, a year after Ernestine (Ella), in who was very quiet, but whenever he spoke Yamima’s father the 1930s. The family everyone listened, because they knew that died, but by then later naturalised. what he was going to say was honest and true. they had a daughter, Martin died in Everyone respected him.”

Ruth Barak.

1953 in Hackney Eventually, there was enough information to He remarried and Ella, who lived establish that Fraenkel was Jewish and Enfield in the US in 1925, with Fraenkel in Council agreed to pay for his Jewish burial, having two further Winchmore Hill, which Epstein said it was his “honour” to lead. daughters, Ann died in 1981. Herbert “My thanks go to the incredible Paul and Brenda, who never married.

Anastasi, who did not bow to pressure from were brought up as Anastasi found love the mortuary until we had been able to make Catholic. However, letters between him the necessary funeral arrangements, to enable when Ann discovand a Swiss woman us to complete Mr Fraenkel’s journey with ered her family named Heidi from dignity,” said Epstein. “We wish his extended history, she had a the 1950s and 60s, Jewish wedding. The family, wherever they are, long life.” but she could not be Anastasi said: “There was no way I was going family can subsequently be traced through traced. “Fraenkel was not known to any of the to let this man be buried in a shared grave. My Canada, the US and Cuba; Herbert has cousins main denominations, or to the Association of family is from the Greek community, we know living in the US. Jewish Refugees,” Epstein recalls. “He passed the value of family and tradition and burying In the meantime Anastasi was continuing away almost anonymously.” people according to their customs and rituals. to learn more about Fraenkel. He spoke to a Gilbert said: “They only had Fraenkel’s “Thankfully we managed to do that, and hopeneighbour, who said Fraenkel “had his heart parents’ death certificates, which don’t record fully Herbert’s spirit is now with his parents.” whether they were buried, and if so given a Jewish broken once, many years ago, by a European

❝

THERE WAS NO WAY I WAS GOING TO LET THIS MAN BE BURIED IN A SHARED GRAVE. MY FAMILY IS GREEK AND WE KNOW THE VALUE OF TRADITION

A letter to Herbert’s father from his uncle

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Jewish News 30 April 2020

www.jewishnews.co.uk

Weekend / Television

How unorthodox Is Netflix’s hit mini-series Unorthodox a faithful portrayal of the devout Satmar community, asks Andrew Gilbert

E

veryone, it seems, Jewish or not, Orthodox or not, has a profound opinion about the Netflix drama Unorthodox. The autobiographical four-part drama focuses on a woman in an unhappy Chasidic marriage in Williamsburg, New York, who walks out and moves to Berlin, where she immediately finds friends and a new life. Many from within the wider Jewish community, as well as many non-Jews have watched entranced.

Those who have left the Chasidic community (and surely also those from the Charedi community if they could watch it) critique the plot as impossible, unrealistic and pull it apart. They explain that leaving is gradual, needs planning and the idea that one would fall on one’s feet in another city and assimilate so simply – walk into a coffee shop, make friends on the spot, within a day sit down and bite into a ham sandwich, another day lose the wig while marginalising the Holocaust, hop into bed with someone you have only recently met and get into music school – just does not happen. Okay, the plot is far-fetched and the characters are superficial stereotypes hardly developed during the programme.

There are those who talk about the Yiddish, and apparently it was quite authentic mixing in English words that get ‘Yiddishised’. Watching something in Yiddish with subtitles does not seem to have been a barrier at all.

Then there are those talking about the authenticity of the depiction of the Chasidic community. The people and the costumes, but even more – and this is really about the part in Williamsburg – New York. Again there were still errors. They don’t have an eruv, the meeting with the rabbi does not happen with the full family. The rabbi does not make house calls. The wedding was not quite like it should have been. The streimels may not move right.

The wigs were too similar. The rooms were too shabby... but it all still gave a sense of the community to many who have little insight.

As the Chasidic community grows, it is important to understand it more clearly.

Unless we have family or connections in that community, we may probably only ever meet representatives of the community or those who have left it. In Jewish News, we read of major events in the Chasidic community and also when the community and the world external to it are not in harmony.

While the Stamford Hill Jewish community was a prominent part of the mainstream Jewish community 100 years ago, it is now nearly totally a Chasidic community and the largest such community in Europe.

In fact, it is not one community but many.

Each group has a long history going back to a town in eastern Europe. The largest community is the Satmar, which is not the largest group in the world, it is the group that we see portrayed on Unorthodox. Each community has not just its own synagogues, but also its

Harry Styles recorded a video message

Esty, played by Shira Haas, has her hair shaved ahead of her strictly-Orthodox wedding, right, in Netflix’s Unorthodox

own schools and other institutions.

The first aid service, Hatzola, covers the whole community, as does the community security service, Shomrim. As the community has a birth rate around six per family, almost three times the average, housing is an important issue, and the community is represented on Hackney Council by the Agudas Israel Housing Association. In Haringey, where some young families have moved, the community has developed strong relations with the council.

Unorthodox is about the Satmar community, which originated in Hungary (now Romania, although very near the Hungarian border in northern Transylvania) in 1905.

The Satmar group was founded by Rabbi Joel Teitelbaum, who then re-established the group after the war in New York and it has become one of the largest Chasidic groups in the world.

When Rabbi Joel died in 1968, he was succeeded by his nephew, Moshe Teitelbaum.

After Moshe died, the Satmars was split between his two sons, Aaron and Zalman,

who have only just spoken for the first time in decades owing to the coronavirus.

The Satmars are characterised as religiously strict, rejecting modernity, and are anti-Zionist.

They have their own institutions, schools and publishing houses with Yiddish as the main language. While the two largest Satmar communities are in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and Kiryas Joel, New York, Satmars can be found in most of the other major Jewish centres around the world and are the largest Chasidic community in London.

The community does not recognise Israel and condemns other Chasidic groups for supporting the state and taking money from it. This was one of the reasons it wanted the Yemenite/ Adeni community to come to Stamford Hill.

The requirements for Satmar women are stringent: they must fully cover necklines, wear long sleeves, skirts and opaque stockings. They must not only wear a wig, but must shave their hair before marriage. They see university education for women as dangerous as they fear it would lead to them valuing their careers over family.

There are also Satmar community members in Canvey Island and Golders Green.

In Stamford Hill, the community has its own schools for girls, Bais Rochel, and for boys a three stage structure of cheder, yeshivah ketanne for 13 to 16 year-olds and yeshivah gedoille for 16 to 19-year-olds. Secular learning for boys only takes place in cheder.

As there are two Satmar communities, there are two boys’ schools – Yeshiva Gedoilah Torah VeYirah and Yeshivah VYoel Moshe.

There are several synagogues that cover the two communities: Beth Hamedrash Kehal Yetev Lev in Cazenove Road, Clapton Common and Craven Walk, Beis Hamedrash D’Chasidei Satmar in Bethune Road and Beis Hamedrash Tehillois Yoel in Upper Clapton Road and Beis HaMedrash v’Yoel Moshe on Heathland Road.

There is a Satmar mikveh for women on Filey Avenue, while most synagogues house mikveh for men.

There are many further Satmar charities based in Stamford Hill, such as Bikkur Cholim (helping hospitalised Jews) and Keren Hat-

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Television / Weekend

is Unorthodox? zolah raising money to support yeshivot and the poor in Israel as they don’t accept state funding. There are many smaller charities too. There are also worldwide Satmar charities, such as Rav Tuv, to aid Jewish refugees such as Yemenites to live outside of Israel.

There are two Yiddish newspapers, Der Yid and Der Blatt, one for each community, which are imported from the US. The two Satmar community heads – brothers Zalman and Aaron Teitelbaum – had not spoken to each other for many years until this month, when there was a 75-second call between them as there have been family members badly effected by Covid-19.

In her review of Unorthodox, The Guardian’s Brigid Delaney wrote “What Unorthodox doesn’t really explore is the positive side to clan, community, tradition and belonging that occur in closed religious communities.

Although massively restrictive, surely many Chasidic Jews must get strength and a sense of belonging from their faith and their community.”

Viewers can question whether Unorthodox explores the diversity of the different stories of people who have chosen to leave the Satmar community and are also connected to that “closed religious community”.

Delaney herself questions Unorthodox and whether the story of the lead character of Esty, seems to “privilege individualism, freedom and free will over the submersion of individuality into a larger, and possibly more cohesive, communal and spiritual life”.

I think many who have left the community would also want to consider their experiences from more the point of view of being more than just part of a massively restrictive community.

As the Satmar and Chasidic community in

Stamford Hill and around the world responds to the challenges of Covid-19, the rest of the community has the task of increasing our

understanding of the Chasidic community and of building connections with those who are part of that community and those who have left it.

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Jewish News 30 April 2020

Am I going to die?

You can’t lipread through a mask To ensure that deaf people are not disadvantaged or more endangered at this critical time, JDA’s 3 point emergency plan is enabling them to: 1. Understand doctors and nurses

3. Connect with other people

By equipping deaf people with apps which make spoken words appear on their phone as text, and interpreting for GPs and hospitals via video link, we’re making sure deaf patients — whether they communicate using sign language or speech — can ask questions, understand and follow medical instructions at this critical time.

JDA’s emergency door-to-door hearing aid maintenance service is enabling hearing aid users to stay connected with their loved ones and the world. We’re supporting deaf sign language users to stay safe and well and our stimulating activities and discussions are something to look forward to, alleviating anxiety and loneliness.

2. Stay safe and healthy at home

Please help JDA keep the deaf people of our community safe and healthy as nobody else can at this critical time.

There is nowhere safer to be right now than at home.

So we’re delivering food and medications to keep vulnerable deaf people safe, well-fed and healthy — and out of care homes and hospitals.

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30 April 2020 Jewish News

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27

Orthodox Judaism

SEDRA Acharei Mot

BY RABBI BORUCH M BOUDILOVSKY Following a detailed description of the Yom Kippur temple service, we encounter the following verse: “For on this day He shall provide atonement for you to purify you; from all your sins before Hashem shall you be purified.” (Leviticus 16:30) Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik points out this verse highlights the two primary functions of Yom Kippur; atonement and purification.

Sin affects the transgressor in two ways; it compels a consequence and stains the personality. Every civil law is matched by a proportional consequence for disobeying it.

A sin works similarly. In fact, the severity of a sin is evaluated by the severity of its consequence, something we call onesh, which is generally translated as punishment.

But a sin also affects the transgressor on a much deeper and personal level. Our personalities are shaped by our actions.

When we sin, our personalities are left stained. The first time a child lies, the child loses some of their innocence. Similarly, we change when we

sin. We regress from materialising our human potential, and from the original and natural majestic beauty of our humanity.

Tumah or what we call impurity, is the point we are lead to by sin.

If sin causes onesh and tumah, then the healing process must address them both. This is the basis for the atonement and purification of Yom Kippur.

Atonement liberates the sinner from the onesh. Purification reverses the process, which had resulted in tumah.

But where atonement is a technical process, achieved by ritual service, purification is a process of personal improvement and spiritual empowerment. Real and genuine repentance is a lifelong, rigorous process of purification. Constant critical self-reflection, which generates personal improvement, is the only accurate definition of repentance.

The ability to embark on such a journey is what intrinsically makes us human.

◆ Rabbi Boudilovsky is rabbi of Young Israel of North Netanya

This week’s digit is...

What’s in a number?

72

BY RABBI ARIEL ABEL The number 72 in Judaism appears in both Talmudic and mystical lore. 72 was a significant number for the 71-member Sanhedrin which ruled Israel in the Second Temple era and, on occasion, added an extra sage whose reputation was to equal all the others in number.

72 is also the number of groups of three-letter words, 216 in all, of God’s holy names, spelled out in the mystical work Sefer Ha Yashar, that is ascribed to Rabbi Akiva.

The so-called 72-lettered name of God was said to have been invoked

by Moses to split the Red Sea. This is based upon the remarkable coincidence that where the story of the splitting of the sea is mentioned, there are three verses

in sequence, each of which total 72 letters.

The mystical arrangement of the letters reflects the zodiacs, alluding to God’s mastery over the cosmos, and the kabbalistic “behinot” – the aspects of all of creation.

In the prayer book, kabbalistic editions superimpose the 72

groups of holy letters over each of the first 72 words of the second and third paragraphs of the Shema.

In Lurianic kabbalah, this is known as the “kavanot” or intentions of the Shema.

Congratulations are due on this 72nd anniversary of the birth of the State of Israel and her independence.

It just happens to be the case that Yom Ha’atzmaut began this year on the night of 28 April, as all the numbers in this date - 28 plus 4 plus 20 plus 20 - add up to 72!

Chag Sameach. ◆ Rabbi Abel serves Liverpool Old Hebrew Congregation and is padre to Merseyside Army Cadet Force

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Jewish News 30 April 2020

Progressive Judaism

The Bible Says What?

‘Israel was saved by lepers’

BY RABBI MARK GOLDSMITH As we live in a time where social distancing is essential for the preservation of our health, this year’s reading of the Torah and Haftorah portions, which speak about leprosy, are especially poignant.

In the Bible, this term covers a multitude of skin diseases, some of which were highly contagious. The way of dealing with all of them, at a time when medical knowledge was folk and not science based, was to isolate those suffering from them.

In the Torah portions TazriaMetzora, ‘lepers’ are required to live in an area outside the main camp of the tribes. When their condition is known to be healed, they rejoin the camp in a ritual that shows all, by the action, proximity and contact of the Cohen, the priest, that there is nothing now to be afraid of.

Of course, not all of the skin diseases did heal and so it seems that lepers would continue to live outside of the cities and towns of the Israelites

throughout their lives. They are often portrayed being at the gate of the city, presumably to make some kind of income from trading or begging.

A beautiful image of the prophet Elijah, whose mythical return heralds the Messianic age, has him staying at the gate of the superpower of the time, Rome, changing the bandages of the lepers who were there (Talmud Sanhedrin 98a).

In the First Book of Kings, chapterseven, four lepers are heroes.

They get fed up with sitting at the gate of the besieged Israelite city of Shomron and go over to the camp of the Arameans, who were besieging it, only to find it deserted.

They bring the news back and the city is free again. The Bible teaches us compassion and admiration for those marginalised in our society, for they may yet be our saviours.

◆ Mark Goldsmith is Senior Rabbi of Edgware and Hendon Reform Synagogue

Progressively Speaking Captain Tom and the lessons we can all learn from selfless community heroes

BY RABBI DR ANDREW GOLDSTEIN This modern plague has taught us so much about society and human nature, and also about the salvation brought by modern digital technology.

There is no doubt that the walking exploits of Captain Tom Moore are inspirational and would always be such. But now, because of the internet sensation it caused, millions of pounds have been raised for the National Health Service (NHS).

In a previous age, his exploits would have been just as newsworthy, but probably only the local newspaper (remember those?) would have covered it.

Likewise, who would have thought Zoom, Skype and YouTube would have saved our sanity and communal cohesion at this time of lockdown. Congregations are reporting more followers of Shabbat services than ever set foot inside the synagogue doors.

But it’s not just Tom Moore from

whom we can learn – there are so many everyday community heroes.

There are those on the frontline of this battle, the medical staff and all working in the NHS and care community. It is clear that so many have gone beyond the heroic in their potentially dangerous work and some, tragically, have given their lives for their devoted service.

They should be remembered down the generations just as we recall the few who helped us survive

the Second World War. There are also the millions of selfless acts done by millions of ordinary citizens – the shopping, the phone calls, the letters and emails of support, the deliveries made to those who are vulnerable and locked down in their home.

I am reminded of the comment of one of the founders of Liberal Judaism, Claude G Montefiore, who said: “It was not an Ibn Gabirol or a Maimonides who fulfilled the Jewish mission most truly… no, it was the many little obscure Jewish communities who kept alive the divineness of the Moral Law.” The same is certainly true at this moment. What we can learn from Tom Moore and all those like him is that it’s the many small acts of kindness across the country and world that show the true and noble nature of humankind. ◆ Rabbi Dr Andrew Goldstein is the president of Liberal Judaism

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30 April 2020 Jewish News

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Professional advice from our panel / Ask Our Experts

Ask our All our services are free Call us on 020 8346 4000 or visit www.resource-centre.org Follow us on @resourcecharity resource employment advice centre

Our trusty team of advisers answers your questions about everything from law and finance to dating and dentistry.

This week: Paying bills in Israel quickly, keeping kids active and doctor appointments during lockdown...

NAOMI FELTHAM INTERNATIONAL PAYMENTS SPECIALIST

CURRENCIES DIRECT

Dear Naomi I have a property in Netanya but, owing to the current travel restrictions, I am unable to visit. Obviously I still need to pay my utility and mortgage payments, even though I am not there. Is there a way I can pay all of my bills using your service?

Howard Dear Howard This is definitely something we can help with.

With Currencies Direct, you have the ability to pay a number of different bills in Israel quickly and safely. First, you would need to register with our services for free. To register, all we

LOUISE LEACH PRINCIPAL, PERFORMING ARTS SCHOOL

DANCING WITH LOUISE Dear Louise I hope you are keeping well at this crazy time. Being on lockdown with my three children is proving quite challenging. My two daughters in particular are really missing their extracurricular activities, not just for the subjects they have been enjoying for the past few years, but also the social interaction. My older

daughter is grade 5 ballet and also loved her weekly hip-hop classes. My younger daughter is a big musical theatre fan and attended weekly singing and modern dance classes. While there are plenty of videos on YouTube, I would ideally like something more structured and regular. Are you able to suggest anything?

Melissa Dear Melissa Yes, we are definitely experiencing challenging times and you are not alone in finding certain aspects difficult to adjust to. With regards to your children’s classes, you are right in wanting to keep up with their training, physical activity and even the social aspect.

Most dance schools and

require is some basic information about you and the transfers you intend to make.

Once this is complete, you will be assigned your own dedicated account manager in our Canary Wharf office, who will be able to give you access to live rates and market information. When you are ready to make the transfer, you would book in the rate over the phone or online with your dealer.

You would then send us your sterling to our segregated Barclays account in London and we would send the shekels directly to the destination. This can be your own personal account or the company where you need to pay the bill.

You can also set up a direct debit with us and the money is released each month. We can even fix the rate for you for up to a year so you don’t lose out on additional money.

I hope you are staying safe and well and feel free to get in touch if you have any questions.

gyms have swiftly moved on to virtual online classes. For example, my dance school shall be launching the entire summer term via online tutorials. We have already moved our Zumba weekly workouts to live sessions via Zoom and Facebook and these are proving really popular.

In fact, the social interaction at the end of the class is the best bit and is particularly good for children and adults (especially those living alone).

It is worth finding out what your particular dance school is doing. If there is nothing on offer, please be in touch as we will have online tutorials and workshops for all of subjects including hip-hop, ballet and musical theatre.

I hope you all keep safe and well.

SUE CIPIN CHARITY EXECUTIVE

JEWISH DEAF ASSOCIATION Dear Sue Help! Next week I have a doctor’s appointment to get the results of a biopsy.

I have a hearing loss, and am nervous. I can’t take my husband with me and I’m worrying myself sick about how I’m going to lip-read the doctor if he’s wearing a mask. Please tell me you can help.

Eliana

Charity Reg No: 1106331 Registered in England No: 5211299

Helping unemployed members of the community get back to work

Dear Eliana The doctor may be happy to remove his mask and still keep social distancing measures for you.

However, there IS technology than can help you in any situation where you have internet access. Using an Android phone, download an app from Google store called Live Transcribe.

Live Transcribe is an app that automatically

transcribes speech in almost ‘real time’. It will enable you to communicate in situations where you might not otherwise be able to. So it’s ideal for your GP appointment, and in most other health situations where staff are wearing masks, or if you are doing essential shopping or asking advice in a pharmacy.

Live Transcribe and Sound Amplifier apps

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Jewish News 30 April 2020

Ask Our Experts / Professional advice from our panel

Our Experts Got a question for a member of our team?

Email: editorial@thejngroup.com PRIVATE HEALTHCARE SPECIALIST TREVOR GEE Qualifications: • Managing director, consultants in affordable family and corporate health insurance.

• Specialise in maximising cover, lowering premiums and pre-existing conditions.

• Excellent knowledge of health insurers, cover levels and hospital lists.

• Board member UK International Health Management Ass • LLB, solicitor finals, FCA Regulated 773729.

PATIENT HEALTH 020 3146 3444/5/6 www.patienthealth.co.uk trevor.gee@patienthealth.co.uk

DIRECTOR OF LEGACIES

DYSLEXIA PRACTITIONER SARAH BENARROCH Qualifications: • Director of Literacy Specialist Ltd, educational services for children with literacy difficulties and dyslexia.

• MA in Specific Learning Difficulties (dyslexia), APC, British Dyslexia Association, PATOSS, 20 years’ experience in child education and development.

• Full diagnostic assessments and reports for dyslexia.

• Primary-age tuition in reading, writing and spelling.

LITERACY SPECIALIST LTD 07940 576 286 sarah@literacyspecialist.co.uk

JEWELLER

ISRAELI LAWYER ELI ROSENBERG Qualifications: • All aspects of Israeli law. Specialising in property law, property tax, inheritance law and dispute management.

• Third generation lawyer from Israeli firm established in Israel in 1975.

• Authorised and regulated by the Israeli Bar Association and Ministry of Justice of the State of Israel, with teams in Tel Aviv and London.

ROSENBERG & ASSOCIATES 0203 994 2278 www.israeli-lawyer.co.uk eli@israeli-lawyer.co.uk

CHARITY EXECUTIVE

CAROLYN ADDLEMAN Qualifications: Lawyer with over 20 years’ experience in will drafting and trust and estate administration. Last 14 years at KKL Executor and Trustee Company.

In close contact with clients to ensure all legal and pastoral needs are cared for.

Member of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners.

JONATHAN WILLIAMS Qualifications: • Jewellery manufacturer since 1980s.

• Expert in the manufacture and supply of diamond jewellery, wedding rings and general jewellery.

• Specialist in supply of diamonds to the public at

SUE CIPIN Qualifications: • 18 years’ hands-on experience, leading JDA in significant growth and development.

• Deep understanding of the impact of deafness on people at all stages of life, and their families.

• Practical and emotional support for families of deaf children.

• Extensive services for people affected by hearing loss/tinnitus.

KKL EXECUTOR AND TRUSTEE COMPANY 0800 358 3587 www.kkl.org.uk enquiries@kkl.org.uk

JEWELLERY CAVE LTD 020 8446 8538 www.jewellerycave.co.uk jonathan@jewellerycave.co.uk

JEWISH DEAF ASSOCIATION 020 8446 0502 www.jdeaf.org.uk mail@jdeaf.org.uk

• • •

Got a question for a member of our team?

Email: editorial@thejngroup.com

Thinking about ALIYAH? Contact the Jewish Agency for Israel certified by the Israeli government to facilitate Aliyah!

0-800-051-8227 | 020-8371-5250 | gci-en@jafi.org

TRAVEL AGENT

CRIMINAL DEFENCE SOLICITOR

DAVID SEGEL Qualifications: • Managing director of West End Travel, established in 1972.

• Leading UK El Al agent with branches in Swiss Cottage and Edgware.

• Specialist in Israel travel, cruises and kosher holidays.

• Leading business travel company, ranked in top 50 UK agents.

• Frequent travel broadcaster on radio and TV.

CARL WOOLF Qualifications: • 20+ years experience as a criminal defence solicitor and higher court advocate.

• Specialising in all aspects of criminal law including murder, drug offences, fraud and money laundering, offences of violence, sexual offences and all aspects of road traffic law.

• Visiting associate professor at Brunel University.

WEST END TRAVEL 020 7644 1500 www.westendtravel.co.uk David.Segel@westendtravel.co.uk

NOBLE SOLICITORS 01582 544 370 carl.woolf@noblesolicitors.co.uk

REMOVALS MANAGING DIRECTOR

PRINCIPAL, PERFORMING ARTS SCHOOL

STEPHEN MORRIS Qualifications: • Managing Director of Stephen Morris Shipping Ltd. • 45 years’ experience in shipping household and personal effects.

• Chosen mover for four royal families and three UK prime ministers.

• Offering proven quality specialist advice for moving anyone across the world or round the corner.

LOUISE LEACH Qualifications: • Professional choreographer qualified in dance, drama and Zumba (ZIN, ISTD & LAMDA), gaining an honours degree at Birmingham University.

• Former contestant on ITV’s Popstars, reaching bootcamp with Myleene Klass, Suzanne Shaw and Kym Marsh.

• Set up Dancing with Louise 10 years ago.

STEPHEN MORRIS SHIPPING LTD 020 8832 2222 www.shipsms.co.uk stephen@shipsms.co.uk

DANCING WITH LOUISE 020 8203 5242 www.dancingwithlouise.co.uk louise@dancingwithlouise.co.uk

30 April 2020 Jewish News

www.jewishnews.co.uk

31

Professional advice from our panel / Ask Our Experts

ACCOUNTANT

PROPERTY DEVELOPER

DENTIST

ADAM SHELLEY Qualifications: • FCCA chartered certified accountant.

• Accounting, taxation and business advisory services.

• Entrepreneurial business specialist including start-up businesses.

• Specialises in charities; Personal tax returns.

• Maurice Wohl Charitable Foundation Volunteer of the Year JVN award.

JOE GRIFFIN Qualifications: • More than 13 years’ experience in the construction and property industry, with a specialism in high-end residential and commercial property • Negotiation of site acquisitions and property deals; design and planning strategies • Focus on niche market purchasing airspace above commercial and residential blocks to create additional stories of accommodation and penthouse apartments.

DR ADAM NEWMAN Qualifications: • Dentist at the Gingerbread House, a Bupa Platinum practice in Shenley, Radlett.

• Regional Clinical Services Advisor for Bupa Dental Care UK. • Providing NHS and private dentistry, whitening, implants and cosmetic treatment.

• Bachelor of Dental Surgery and Member of the Faculty of General Dental Practitioners RCS England. GDC registered 212542.

SOBELL RHODES LLP 020 8429 8800 www.sobellrhodes.co.uk a.shelley@sobellrhodes.co.uk

LONDON PENTHOUSE 020 7665 9604 www.londonpenthouse.com info@lphvgroup.com

GINGERBREAD HOUSE 01923 852 852 www.gingerbreadhealth.co.uk Adam.newman@gingerbreadhealth.co.uk

INTERNATIONAL PAYMENTS SPECIALIST

INSURANCE CONSULTANCY

IT SPECIALIST

NAOMI FELTHAM Qualifications: • Leading currency transfer provider since 1996 with over 500 expert employees.

• Excellent exchange rates on your transfers to/from Israel.

• Offices worldwide, with local support in Israel, the UK, mainland Europe and the USA. • Free expert guidance from your dedicated Account Manager.

ASHLEY PRAGER Qualifications: • Professional insurance and reinsurance broker. Offering PI/D&O cover, marine and aviation, property owners, ATE insurance, home and contents, fine art, HNW. • Specialist in insurance and reinsurance disputes, utilising Insurance backed products. (Including non insurance business disputes).

• Ensuring clients do not pay more than required.

IAN GREEN Qualifications: • Launched Man on a Bike IT consultancy 15 years ago to provide computer support for the home and small businesses.

• Clients range from legal firms in the City to families, small business owners and synagogues.

• More than 18 years’ experience.

CURRENCIES DIRECT 07922 131 152 / 020 7847 9447 www.currenciesdirect.com/jn Naomi.feltham@currenciesdirect.com

RISK RESOLUTIONS 020 3411 4050 www.risk-resolutions.com ashley.prager@risk-resolutions.com

MAN ON A BIKE 020 8731 6171 www.manonabike.co.uk mail@manonabike.co.uk

ISRAELI ACCOUNTANT LEON HARRIS Qualifications: • Leon is an Israeli and UK accountant based in Ramat Gan, Israel.

• He is a Partner at Harris Horoviz Consulting & Tax Ltd. • The firm specializes in Israeli and international tax advice, accounting and tax reporting for investors, Olim and businesses.

• Leon’s motto is: Our numbers speak your language!

HARRIS HOROVIZ CONSULTING & TAX LTD +972-3-6123153 / + 972-54-6449398 leon@h2cat.com

ALIYAH ADVISER

PHOTOGRAPHER HARRISON GALGUT Qualifications: • Experienced wedding and event photographer.

• Specialism in portraits and light management.

• BSc(Hons), BTEC music tech, specialising in film, and member of Royal Photographic Society.

LISA WIMBORNE Qualifications: Able to draw on the charity’s 50 years of experience in enabling people with physical disabilities or impaired vision to live independently, including: • The provision of specialist accommodation with 24/7 on site support.

• Knowledge of the innovations that empower people and the benefits available.

• Understanding of the impact of a disability diagnosis.

EDIT6 07962599154 www.edit6.co.uk harrison@edit6.co.uk

JEWISH BLIND & DISABLED 020 8371 6611 www.jbd.org Lisa@jbd.org

CAREER ADVISER

DOV NEWMARK Qualifications: • Director of UK Aliyah for Nefesh B’Nefesh, an organisation that helps facilitate aliyah from the UK. • Conducts monthly seminars and personal aliyah meetings in London.

• An expert in working together with clients to help plan a successful aliyah.

CLAIRE STRAUS Qualifications: • Free professional one-to-one advice at Resource to help unemployed into work.

• Practical support, workshops and networking opportunities to maximise prospects.

• Career coach with MSc in career management and coaching with a background in human resources and general management and experience of private, public and voluntary sectors.

NEFESH B’NEFESH 0800 075 7200 www.nbn.org.il dov@nbn.org.il

RESOURCE 020 8346 4000 www.resource-centre.org office@resource-centre.org

DIVORCE & FAMILY SOLICITOR

CHARITY EXECUTIVE

DEMENTIA SERVICE MANAGER

VANESSA LLOYD PLATT Qualifications: • Qualification: 40 years experience as a matrimonial and divorce solicitor and mediator, specialising in all aspects of family matrimonial law, including: • Divorce, pre/post-nuptial agreements, cohabitation agreements, domestic violence, children’s cases, grandparents’ rights to see grandchildren, adoption, family disputes.

• Frequent broadcaster on national and International radio and television.

ALEXIS CIBRANO Qualifications: • HCPC registered social worker and SweetTree Dementia Service Manager.

• Graduate of Fordham University, New York, receiving a BS degree in psychology, BSW degree in social work and MSW in social work, specialising in client-centred management.

• Completing her Executive MBA at London Business School.

LLOYD PLATT & COMPANY SOLICITORS 020 8343 2998 www.divorcesolicitors.com lloydplatt@divorcesolicitors.com

SWEETTREE HOME CARE SERVICES 020 7644 9500 www.sweettree.co.uk alexis.cibrano@sweettree.co.uk

Got a question for a member of our team?

Email: editorial@thejngroup.com

32

Jewish News 30 April 2020

www.jewishnews.co.uk

30 April 2020 Jewish News

www.jewishnews.co.uk

33

Fun, games and prizes

THE JEWISH NEWS CROSSWORD 1

2

3

4

5

6

13 17 18 19 20

7 8

9

10

11

14

15 16

17

18

19

20

ACROSS 1 Pub drink (4) 3 Interfere, meddle (6)

8 Massive (7) 9 Be sedentary (3) 10 Canal vessel (10)

E G

N S

I

O S

I

P O T E C D R

15 6

10

N L S H E O D E S E R T E 11

S O S A T Y G P

24

E N C A D R D C C L R Y M

26

G A M O

12

I

T A R H U A Z

E N R

I I

I

I

D L N A E P E

S W O H M K T N U R M T T I

1

S E A A L H U A X N E S

E A R R O C D R T X O

I

I

H P S

I

DESERT EGYPT GIZA KARNAK

L

14

L A

4

Crossword ACROSS: 1 Bawdy 4 Shrub 7 Owe 8 Octagon 9 Shoe 10 Thug 13 Nut 15 Ours 16 Hind 19 Modular 21 Mat 22 Cobra 23 Tinge DOWN: 1 Brow 2 Whether 3 Yeomen 4 Sett 5 Rag 6 Benign 11 Hangman 12 Cosmic 14 Thirst 17 Plea 18 Stye 20 Dab

8 1 5 6 3 7 2 4 9

3 6 2 8 4 9 7 5 1

14

1

7

24

19 17

13

T

21 1

17 21

I

26

17

5 24

26

1

17

5

8

19

7 9 4 1 2 6 8 3 5

2 3 8 5 7 4 9 1 6

5 4 7 9 6 2 1 8 3

6 4 2 8 6

5 7 5

19

21

7 2

2 5 3 1

8 6 9

4 6 3

8 3 5

9

SUGURU Each cell in an outlined block must contain a digit: a two‑cell block contains the digits 1 and 2, a three‑cell block contains the digits 1, 2 and 3; and so on. The same digit must not appear in neighbouring cells, not even diagonally.

2 4

10

15

17

21

2

7

6

26

L

11 26

17

24

4 5 3

5

3

7

3 2

21 26 16

4

24 26

20

1

25 1

6

1

10

26

24 6

26

8

24

16

3

2

21

26 19

5

6

26 5

21

1

3 1

6 22

17

3 6

14

5

6

See next issue for puzzle solutions.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z 1

I

14

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

T

9

10

11

12

13

22

23

24

25

26

L

Suguru 6 5 1 3 9 8 4 7 2

8

5

18

1

21 24

14

21

1 9

7

10

21 6

18

10

17 16

6 26

23

24

3 17

15 17

19

19

Sudoku 4 7 9 2 5 1 3 6 8

11

26

26 16

18

LUXOR SPHINX NILE TEMPLES PHARAOH PYRAMIDS

Last issue’s solutions

20

26

17

K E W H N Y U E C D L S A ALEXANDRIA ASWAN CAIRO CAMEL

26

5

A Y N E L G N M S K E R O P A R T X N

24

8

G E L

E L

2 9

In this finished crossword, every letter of the alphabet appears as a code number. All you have to do is crack the code and fill in the grid.

Replacing the decoded numbers 1, 21 and 24 with their letters in the grid will help you to guess the identity of other letters.

The words related to Egypt can all be found in the grid. Words may run either forwards or backwards, in a horizontal, vertical or diagonal direction, but always in a straight, unbroken line.

I

Satisfactory (10) Dash into violently (3) Herb similar to sweet cicely (7) Short and thick (6) Elaborate operatic song (4)

CODEWORD

WORDSEARCH

U W Z N O T C O T U

Fill the grid with the numbers 1 to 9 so that each row, column and 3x3 block contains the numbers 1 to 9.

DOWN 1 Nip (4) 2 Crowd‑scene actor (5) 4 Curve (3) 5 Green Italian sauce (5) 6 Move in a circle (6) 7 Remove the packaging from (6) 11 Worker at a loom (6) 12 Tusked seal‑like mammal (6) 14 Welsh name for Wales (5) 15 Human organ (5) 16 Jumping insect (4) 18 Loaf of bread (3)

12 13

SUDOKU

9 8 6 4 1 3 5 2 7

1 2 3 7 8 5 6 9 4

1 3 1 5 4 1

4 5 2 3 2 3

3 1 4 1 5 1

All puzzles © Puzzler Media Ltd ‑ www.puzzler.com

Wordsearch 4 2 5 2 4 2

1 3 1 3 1 3

4 2 5 2 4 5

5 4 1 3 1 3

1 2 5 2 4 2

3 4 3 1 3 1

2 1 2 4 2 4

4 3 5 1 5 3

1 2 4 3 2 1

R M S A E P D V J J I A F

F I M A I Z E E N N G F C

U L B L Y E L R A B Z L Z

G L Z U A C O I P A T A L

B E A T C C T S O N R F I

S T H P T K E U A A Q L V

S W E E S M W V T R X A O

Codeword X E E C O W P H M B T D C

B W M L I U D M E L P B O

S E I U L R J P A A H W Q

K N A S G N U M L E T G R

A K E N L E N T I L S Y X

I S E M S O L Y Y L E S A

Q U O T I N G A C H E S

U I C H E D O N I ON O O N T R U D R A S P E D W D X E S C A T A T C H E E E A D L Y

S J OK H I E ORGA N V S N E D WE L F L P L A S C A H EM I S A I A S N AM M G B S L OGA

E S L Z A V R E MA S T S I E S T N S

A F CM T V Y Z X UWR K O N J I G P L B S H E D Q30/04

34

www.jewishnews.co.uk

Jewish News 30 April 2020

Business Services Directory ANTIQUES 44

The Jewish News 22 September 2016

www.jewishnews.co.uk

BUSINESS SERVICES DIRECTORY

Top prices paid

Antique – Reproduction – Retro Furniture (any condition)

Carer

Clothing

WE BUY ANTIQUES Carer FURS WANTED Auxiliary Nurse VERY HIGH PRICES PAID. FREE HOME VISITS.

Epstein, Archie Shine, Hille, G Plan, etc.

Antiques

Dining Suites, Lounges Suites, Bookcases, Desks, Cabinets, Mirrors, Lights, etc.

Cash paid for Mink Available support Allto Antique Furniture Hille & Epstein jackets, coats, you in your home.

Diamond Jewellery, Gold, Silver,boleros, Paintings, stoles, Porcelain, also fox coats, etc.

Glass,Days/nights.

Bronzes, Ivories, Oriental & Judaica Antiques jackets etc.

Very reasonable rates.

Full house clearances organised.

Wardrobes cleared Call Please 0208 look 958 at 2939 our website for more details Call 01277 352 560 or 07495 026 168

House clearances Single items to complete homes MARYLEBONE ANTIQUES - 8 CHURCH STREET NW8 8ED

WE BUY ANTIQUES

07866 614 744 (ANYTIME)

www.antiquesbuyers.co.uk

VERY HIGH PRICES PAID. FREE HOME VISITS. All Antique Hille & Epstein 0207Furniture 723 7415 (SHOP) Diamond Jewellery, Gold, Silver, Paintings, Porcelain, closed Sunday & Monday Glass, Bronzes, Ivories, Oriental & Judaica Antiques etc.

Computer FOR APPOINTMENTS CALL SUE ON:

0800 840 2035 or 07956268290

STUART SHUSTER - e-mail - info@maryleboneantiques.co.uk

Man on aOPEN Bike8am will TOget 9pm 7 DAYS. you working fast! RD LONDON. PORTOBELLO

Full house clearances organised.

MAKE SURE CONTACT BEFORE SELLING Please look YOU at our websiteUS for more details www.antiquesbuyers.co.uk

Rapid Response IT support for your PC & Mac Networks, virus problems, broadband, wireless systems, new computers and everything else you may need.

CHARITY & WELFARE For small businesses & home users.

FOR APPOINTMENTS CALL SUE ON: 0800 840 2035 or 07956268290 OPEN 8am TO 9pm 7 DAYS.

Call Ian Green, Man on a Bike on

PORTOBELLO RD LONDON.

020 8731 6171 • www.manonabike.co.uk

ARE YOU BEREAVED?

Stirling of Kensal Green Established over 60 years.

Know who you are dealing with.

Top prices paid

All quality furniture bought & sold.

Antique – Reproduction – Retro Furniture (any condition)

Best prices paid for complete house clearEpstein, Archie Shine, Hille, G Plan, etc. ances Lounges includingSuites, china, Bookcases, books, Dining Suites, clothing etc. Also rubbish clearance Desks, Cabinets, Mirrors, Lights, etc. service, lofts, sheds, garages etc House clearances Single items to complete Please contact Gordonhomes Stirling

020 8960 5401 or 07825 224144 CHURCH STREET ANTIQUES � 8 CHURCH STREET NW8 8ED

͔͚͚͛͜ ͚͕͘ ͛͘͘ (ANYTIME) Email: gordonstirling65@gmail.com 0207 723 7415 (SHOP) closed Sunday & Monday

STUART SHUSTER � e�mail � stuart@churchstreetantiques.net

MAKE SURE YOU CONTACT US BEFORE SELLING

WESTLON HOUSING ASSOCIATION Sheltered Accommodation

Charity & Welfare Counselling for adults & children who are experiencing loss, and support groups.

Contact The Jewish Bereavement ARE YOU BEREAVED? Counselling Service in confidence

Labels are forTURN, jars.

Refer yourself or aKNOW loved one by IF YOU DON’T WHICH WAY TO Not people. calling 020 8458 2223 orOUR visit HELPLINE. REMEMBER

Counselling for adults & children who are 020 8951 3881 experiencing loss. Support groups offered. enquiries@jbcs.org.uk | www.jbcs.org.uk Call The Jewish Bereavement Counselling Service in confidence

www.jamiuk.org

For confidential advice, information and support don’t forget Jewish Care Direct.

REGISTERED CHARITY NO. 1003345

020 8922 2222

jcdirect@jcare.org

jewishcare.org/helpline

020 & 8951 3881 • 07765 693 160 CHARITY WELFARE E: enquiries@jbcs.org.uk

Sheltered Accommodation

For further details andlist application forms, contact We have an open waiting for our friendly andplease comfortable on 020 8201 8484 wardenWestlon assisted Housing sheltered Association housing schemes for Jewish people in Ealing, East Finchley and Hendon. We provide 24-hour warden support, seven days a week; a residents’ lounge and kitchen, laundry, a sunny patio and garden.

For further details and application forms, please contact Westlon Housing Association on 020 8201 8484

Charity Reg No. 802559

PLUMBSAFE (UK) LTD

We have an open waiting list for our friendly and comfortable warden assisted sheltered housing schemes in Ealing, East Finchley and Hendon. We provide 24-hour warden support, WESTLON HOUSING seven days a week; a residents’ loungeASSOCIATION and kitchen, laundry, a sunny patio and garden.

ADVERTISE IN THE UK’S BIGGEST JEWISH NEWSPAPER Jami supports and represents people with mental illness across FOR LESS THAN £24 A WEEK the Jewish community.

“Better Safe Than Sorry�

For all your heating and plumbing requirements | boiler repairs and installation | complete central heating | | power flushing | complete bathroom installation service | | landlords certificates | project management | home purchase reports |

#jamithinkahead

Are you a Jewish woman experiencing domestic violence?

With abuse in your home, do you worry about your children?

We are here to help Email Sales today at sales@thejngroup.com

Give support • Get support • Get involved

All NW-London postcodes covered

07860 881505 or 0800 610 12 12

020 8458 2223 | info@jamiuk.org www.jamiuk.org

Not shabbat

PLUMBSAFEUK.COM

with free support, advice and information and confidential counselling.

Kosher Refuge available for women and children in need.

Reg Charity No. 1003345

Free Confidential National Helpline 0808 801 0500 advice@jwa.org.uk • www.jwa.org.uk

HOME & MAINTENANCE

Home & Maintenance

L

K

PLUMBSAFE (UK) LTD

No further, your

LOCAL PLUMBERS

“Better Safe Than Sorry�

Hall & Randall Plumbers

CENTRAL HEATING, PLUMBING REPAIRS & ADVISORY SERVICE EMERGENCY REPAIRS, BLOCKED PIPES DRAINAGE GUTTERING, ROOFING, CENTRAL HEATING AND BOILERS 12 MONTHS GUARANTEE, 40 YEARS EXPERIENCE

For all your heating and plumbing requirements | boiler repairs and installation | complete central heating | | power flushing | complete bathroom installation service | | landlords certificates | project management | home purchase reports |

hallandrandallplumbers.com

) *" " - *'

STONEMASON

PROFESSIONAL A. ELFES LTD PAINTING, DECORATING memorials & New PAPER HANGING Additional inscriptions Over & 20renovations years experience Friendly, reliable & Clayhall Showroom 14 Claybury Broadway Ilford. IG5 0LQ T: 0208 551 6866

Edgware Showroom 41 Manor Park Crescent Edgware. HA8 7LY T: 0208 381 1525

Email : info@garygreenmemorials.co.uk

Gants Hill service.

Edgware personal

Gary Green ad 84 x 40mm JM Group v2.indd 1

12Very Beehive Lane 130rates High Street competitive Gants Hill, IG1 3RD Edgware, HA8 7EL Telephone Telephone

STEPHEN: 07973 342 422 0207 754 4659 0207 754 4646

www.garygreenmemorials.co.uk

18/03/2019 12:50:51

LOFT CONVERSIONS & UPVC Fitter

Not shabbat

Home & Maintenance

The specialist masons in creating bespoke Granite and Marble Memorials for all Cemeteries.

!

! # ! " " #

+ " ) "# ,! " " ! #

!

•DRIVEWAYS •PAINTING London 020 8485 8176 •PATIOS •PLASTERING •BRICKWORK •PLUMBING ADVERTISE IN THE •ROOF REPAIRS •ALL BUILDING UK’S BIGGEST ADVERTISE IN THE •GUTTERING WORKNEWSPAPER JEWISH City and Guilds Electrician UK’S BIGGEST JEWISH All types of electrical work undertaken FOR LESS THAN NEWSPAPER FOR LESS A WEEK £24.00 FREE ESTIMATES & ADVICE Rewiring, extra sockets, BT points, Economy 7 storage heaters, Shabbat time switches, security lighting, THAN £24 A WEEK ALL WORK FULLYCall GUARANTEED LED spotlights, fault finding, CCTVportable appliance tests, Marc today landlord tests and house buyer’s surveys. on 020 7692 6943 Email Sales 581 Bowrons Ave, Wembley HA0 4QP For an efficient reliable and friendly service. today at Call Harvey Solomons on 01245 211 002 / 07773 102 386 Jewish sales@thejngroup.com 020 8958 6495 / 07836 648 554 hilineroofing.site123.me

PLUMBSAFEUK.COM

office@hallandrandall.com

HI LINE ROOFING

All NW-London postcodes covered

07860 881505 or 0800 610 12 12

020 8953 2094 office 020 8207 3286 home 020 8386 8798

LONDON

srindsmc@hotmail.com

www.memorialgroup.co.uk

30 April 2020 Jewish News

www.jewishnews.co.uk

35

Business Services Directory COMPUTER

SILVER

AERIAL REPAIR

Man on a Bike will get you working fast!

Rapid Response IT support for your PC & Mac Networks, virus problems, broadband, wireless systems, new computers and everything else you may need.

For small businesses & home users.

AERIALS & SATELLITE • Repairs & Installs • Any work under taken • Sky & Freesat

Call Ian Green, Man on a Bike on

020 8953 4539

020 8731 6171 • www.manonabike.co.uk

ADVERTISE IN THE UK’S BIGGEST JEWISH NEWSPAPER FOR LESS THAN £24 A WEEK Email Sales today at sales@thejngroup.com

DOMICILIARY CARE FREE CARE if you book before 31st October 2019, for every 4 hours of care booked the 5th hour will be 50% Free.

ADVERTISE IN THE UK’S BIGGEST JEWISH NEWSPAPER FOR LESS THAN £24 A WEEK

HOME CARE AGENCY Established Over 30 years

Email Sales today at sales@thejngroup.com

Professional Care at Home Day & Night Care available North and Central London T: 020 8088 2789 info@kells-care.com kells-care.com

PROPERTY

LEGACY- LEAVE A GIFT IN YOUR MEMORY

JEWISH WAR VETERANS

Leave the legacy of independence to people like Joel.

& THEIR DEPENDANTS NEED

YOUR LEGACY

PLease remember us in your wiLL.

eNABLeD

Tel: 020 8202 2323 Web: www.ajex.org.uk Email: headoffice@ajex.org.uk

visit www.Jbd.org

Registered Charity

or caLL 020 8371 6611 No. 259480 18-361-JM Small legacy advert v1.qxp_Legacy 09/10/2018 10:27 Page 1

Registered Charity No: 1082148

HELP US CONTINUE TO BE THERE FOR OUR COMMUNITY WITH A GIFT IN YOUR WILL. Call Alison on 020 8922 2833 for more information or email legacyteam@jcare.org Chancellors House, Brampton Lane, London, NW4 4AB Tel: 020 8903 8746 | Fax: 020 8795 2240 www.bfiwd.org | email: info@bfiwd.org

We modernise property, rent and manage it. We finance it all. No upfront fees. No ownership changes. We’re a family team.

30 years in North London property and letting services. Lots of references. We’ll make any property work for you.

020 8830 1870 | MrAndMrsSimons.com

Charity Reg No. 802559

WASTE REMOVAL

Secure our

children’s future

Please include

CST in your Will

Charity no. 1042391

Every gift makes a difference legacy@cst.org.uk

Your outdated property can be your income

020 8457 3700

ISRAEL PROPERTY

Legacy advert 84x40.indd 1

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07/04/2017 14:47

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36

Jewish News 30 April 2020

www.jewishnews.co.uk

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