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A new vision of hell

VOICE OF THE COMMUNITY 18 February 2021

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6 Adar 5781

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Issue No.1198

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@JewishNewsUK

The horrifying truth behind this neverbefore-seen Holocaust picture Pages 24 & 25

Me and Mr Jones!

Tom’s choice on The Voice P27

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Jewish News 18 February 2021

www.jewishnews.co.uk

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A new vision of hell

VOICE OF THE COMMUNITY 18 February 2021

•

6 Adar 5781

•

Issue No.1198

•

@JewishNewsUK

The horrifying truth behind this neverbefore-seen Holocaust picture

Me and Mr Jones!

Tom’s choice on The Voice P27

Pages 24 & 25

Soaring mental health crisis among our young

‘Horrendous’ lockdown toll on community revealed Mental health charities have experienced a “horrendous increase” in referrals during the latest coronavirus lockdown, with young people aged 16 to 25 and those who look after them particularly hard hit, writes Ellie Jacobs.

Jami said the number seeking help overall had more than doubled, with the workload of some services almost tripling, as the extended national restrictions have either exacerbated existing problems or caused new ones.

Inquiries from those who look after young people had also soared by 170 percent. “They don’t know what to do, how to help, or where to get support,” a charity executive said this week.

Likewise, Stamford-Hill based Bikur Cholim chief executive Yocheved Eiger said the Charedi charity had seen “a huge increase [in referrals] plus calls from people from outside the Stamford Hill area, including the north-west”.

She said people were “far more isolated, which means they are at greater risk, with less support and less opportunity for people to identify and

Mental health activist Jonny Benjamin with pupils

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respond to issues”, adding that there had been “a huge increase in crisis support”.

Despite an increase in the charity’s resources, this was still not enough, Eiger added ominously.

“We have recruited more support workers and more therapists – and still aren’t meeting demand.”

Jami communications manager Karen Wilson painted a similar picture. “With individuals stuck at home, access to NHS services has been dramatically reduced,” she said.

As of last month, Jami said every single new referral was now Covid-related, with young people aged 16 to 25 especially vulnerable. Referrals for this age category are up by more than 130 percent since last spring.

The charity said there were now a staggering five times more people contacting it than did so in 2019, in a set of shocking figures that reflect a national pattern.

Last month, pollster Ipsos Mori reported that six in 10 Brits were finding it harder to stay positive day to day, while the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the number of people suffering depression had doubled during the crisis. This is reflected in NHS emergency call-out data.

“We are working with almost 30 percent more individuals than before Covid,” said Jami’s head of services, Louise Kermode, who warned of the longterm “direct and indirect” impact of the pandemic on people’s mental health.

“On top of the impact on people already living with mental illness, we are likely to see an increase in people who become unwell because of the pandemic, whether that be due to prolonged isolation, delays in accessing mental or physical health Continued on page 10

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Jewish News 18 February 2021

News / Palestinian land / Labour dossier / Purim lockdown / Covid algorithm

Buying West Bank land ‘risk to peace’ The two main progressive Jewish groups in the UK have issued a rare public statement criticising KKL-JNF for plans to buy Palestinian land in the West Bank for more Jewish settlements.

The Movement for Reform Judaism and Liberal Judaism urged KKL–JNF to stop its plans, saying the “development of settlements endangers the two-state solution to peace in the Middle East”.

Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael–Jewish National Fund (KKL–JNF) is considering buying private Palestinian land in Area C of the West Bank, potentially for hundreds of millions of dollars, for development of existing settlements, according to reports by respected Israeli news site Walla.

The Reform and Liberal movements said they hope worldwide objections “will persuade the JNF to change its mind”.

A day earlier the Masorti movement had said the plans would “damage its [JNF] legitimacy in Israel and among Jews around the world and may even endanger its very existence”.

Masorti further called on KKL-JNF to respect “different approaches to the actualisation of Zionism”.

Labour leak case

The Labour Party faces legal action to force it to disclose the names of those who leaked an internal report into antisemitism last April, writes Joshua Salisbury.

The dossier, intended to be submitted to the EHRC inquiry, was aimed at presenting staff opposed to Corbyn’s leadership of the party as hindering the fight against antisemitism.

Mark Lewis, a lawyer representing clients bringing data protection cases in the wake of the leak, is seeking a High Court order to force the party to disclose the names of the leakers. This could then lead to legal proceedings involving the leakers over the “untrue” allegations. A hearing is due to take place on Monday.

Lewis, a partner at Patron Law, told Jewish News: “The hearing will get behind the actual source of the leaks, so that the individuals will be able to hit back and establish why the claims are untrue despite the euphoria of many, including sitting MPs and union leaders who should know better.”

An unredacted version of the report was leaked, which included personal details of Jewish members alleging misconduct. The Labour Party has been contacted for comment.

‘Stay in for Purim’ KKL-JNF workers at a protest outside the prime minister’s office in Jerusalem

Reform and Liberal Judaism said they “always work towards a strong and secure State of Israel”, including if this meant “opposing unilateral measures that may adversely impact attempts to reach peace”.

Masorti said settlement expansion would “severely damage Israel’s foreign relations”, adding: “This is not just a policy

issue, but a much bigger question about the future of the Zionist movement.”

KKL-JNF rejected criticism of its plans, saying: “There is no intention of opening up a new area in Judea and Samaria.”

• JNF UK is an independent charity that is separate from all other organisations bearing the JNF name.

Charedi leaders have told community members to avoid taking to the streets during this year’s Purim festival, in written guidance issued by senior rabbis.

Vans carrying yeshiva boys through north London streets are a familiar sight at this time of year, but the directive issued through the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congre-

gations says 2021 will be different. The rabbis also state that the tradition of youngsters visiting the houses of rabbis and teachers with gifts should take a back seat owing to ongoing restrictions.

A year ago, Purim celebrations were held before lockdown measures. The social mixing led to a huge spike in Covid-19 infections.

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An algorithm developed by a British-Israeli can predict which English towns and cities are headed for a Covid-19 outbreak, more than two weeks before it happens.

The technology, built by epidemiologist Professor Michael Edelstein, monitors Google searches to help English health officials detect such outbreaks 17 days ahead.

The journal Nature Digital Medicine said England’s success in getting ahead was by using the algorithm, which has been taught what terms people search for when they begin to feel symptoms of the virus. Yet the data analysis doesn’t compromise privacy, as no personal search information is delivered to researchers.

The tech has been tested and proved to work in Italy, Australia and South Africa.

Prof Edelstein, who began developing the tech alongside a team from University College London, before moving to Israel to take up a

Algorithm predicts location of outbreaks

post at Bar Ilan University’s medicine faculty, said that “our best chance of tackling health emergencies such as the Covid-19 pandemic is to detect them early in order to act early.”

Edelstein told The Times of Israel that the algorithm works by taking “clinical reports from cases of Covid-19 and seeing what symptoms people report”.

Israeli innovation ‘can help NHS’ A report on technology in healthcare suggests that Israeli innovation could help remedy some “critical weaknesses” in the NHS as seen during the pandemic, writes Adam Decker.

The A Shot in the Arm report was produced

by UK Israel Business and the Britain-Israel All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG), with a message from Israel’s Ambassador to the UK. The pandemic exposed critical weaknesses in the UK’s health system, the report reads.

“At a time of significant and rapid change in UK health services provision… Israeli health technology solutions should be a vital consideration in addressing NHS innovation challenges.”

Health tech is one of several areas in which

A report says the Covid pandemic revealed critical weaknesses within the NHS

Israel and the UK can work together. APPG cochair Lord Turnberg described the two states as having “complementary markets” in the field.

www.jewishnews.co.uk

18 February 2021 Jewish News

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Palestinian textbooks / Uyghur persecution / News

MPs to debate JN’s findings The shadow minister for the Middle East will raise the issue of Palestinian school textbook incitement with the government in the Commons at “the first opportunity I get”.

Wayne David MP (pictured) was responding to an approach by Jewish News which last week ran a in-depth investigation into Palestinian textbooks, which are the subject of an ongoing review by the European Union.

The most recent books used by school pupils for the 2020-21 year show numerous examples of hatred against Israel, incitement and glorification of terrorism. These textbooks are used in Palestinian and UNRWA schools in the West Bank and Gaza, and aid is funnelled to the Pal-

estinian Authority by Britain – some of which pays the salaries of the teachers who have written the textbooks.

David has previously raised the issue in parliamentary questions to his opposite number, Middle East minister James Cleverly. When told that Cleverly had not made himself available to answer questions from Jewish News on the matter, David said: “That is quite disgraceful.”

The Labour MP, himself a former teacher, said the content of the textbooks “professionally puts the Palestinian teachers in a very difficult position”, adding: “I will challenge Mr Cleverly on this at the first opportunity.”

A stock image of a Palestinian classroom in the West Bank, where textbooks incite hatred

...as PM finally responds to our Uyghur petition Boris Johnson has said his government is “prioritising” concern about China’s systematic persecution of Uyghur Muslims despite whipping his own MPs to vote against their conscience on the matter.

The prime minister’s comments came in a letter to Nus Ghani MP after she joined Jewish News and the rights group René Cassin to pen

a letter to the British leader late last year. It was backed by community leaders, including the Board of Deputies and 50 parliamentarians.

In his letter to Ghani, written one month ago but only released this week, he said he shared her concern about “the deeply worrying situation in [the north-west province of] Xinjiang”, arguing that the UK had

“played a leading role in holding China to account”.

Activists, including the Uyghur Muslim Congress, say China has felt no significant pressure to change its policy of extra-judicial detention, through which hundreds of thousands of Uyghur citizens have passed.

Many remain detained, either in vast, so-called re-education camps or

as forced labourers. Johnson said the government had raised the issue at the United Nations and asked companies to consider their supply chains to ensure products are not sourced from China’s east.

Acknowledging the role of Jewish News, he said: “Please be assured the situation in Xinjiang remains a priority for this government and we will

continue to take action in response to the gross and egregious human rights violations taking place in the region.”

The letter was released in the same week that the government thwarted the latest attempt to include an amendment to the Trade Bill, which was also supported by Jewish groups, human rights campaigners and Holocaust survivors.

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Jewish News 18 February 2021

News / Campus concerns / Memorial plans

Outcry as prof says Zionism ‘must end’ Jewish students have called for action from Bristol University after one of its dons called for Zionism to be “ended” and criticised the university’s Jewish Society, writes Joshua Salisbury.

Sociology professor David Miller’s remarks are the latest in a string of incidents that have led to complaints by Jewish groups and students being lodged with the university.

At a Building the Campaign for Free Speech rally online at the weekend, Miller labelled Zionism “the enemy”, adding: “The enemy that we face here is Zionism, and the imperial policies of the Israeli state,” he said. “[There] is an onslaught by the Israeli government … on the left globally.” He also claimed there was an “attempt by the Israeli government to impose their will all over the world”.

Miller said: “It’s a question of how do we defeat the ideology of Zionism in practice? How do we make sure Zionism has

Concert to stop Shoah memorial

Cellist Raphael Wallfisch

Bristol sociologist David Miller: ‘How do we defeat Zionism?’

ended essentially? The aim… is to end Zionism as a functioning ideology of the world.”

The university’s Jewish Society says its members have now been abused after being singled out as “part of the UJS which is a direct member of the World Zionist Organisation”.

“For a member of staff to abuse his position and launch a personal attack on our JSoc president is unjustifiable,” said the society. “Prof Miller’s words led to our president being targeted for abuse

online. We will not sit by in silence and allow this hatred to be spread by representatives of our university.”

The Union of Jewish Students has criticised the university for “two years of inaction” over the academic.

Miller was suspended by the Labour Party after claiming that Sir Keir Starmer took money from “the Zionist movement”. He later quit the party, alleging “targeted harassment.” He and the university have been asked for comment.

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The cellist son of an Auschwitz and BergenBelsen survivor performed a free concert this week to raise money for the campaigners trying to stop a Holocaust memorial being built in a park beside Parliament, writes Adam Decker.

Rafael Wallfisch, son of Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, 95, played in London days after the government said it had already spent nearly £13 million on the proposal, despite planning permission still pending.

Observers asked where the money had gone after Lord Greenhalgh said the proposed National Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre had cost £12.9 million from 2015/16 to 31 January 2021. Running costs would be £6 million a year, again met by the taxpayer, he added.

Last month, ministers said visitors would get “free entry in perpetuity”.

Communities Minister Greenhalgh revealed the figure in response to a question from Jewish peer Baroness Deech, a crossbencher. She has said £100 million of mainly public money to build the giant ‘fin-shaped’ memorial in Victoria Tower Gardens would be better spent elsewhere, as has commentator Melanie Phillips, who called it “a giant toast rack”.

On Monday evening cellist Wallfisch performed at St John’s Smith Square with pianist John York for the Save Victoria Tower Gardens campaign, which his mother backs.

The memorial is supported by the Chief Rabbi, senior progressive rabbis, the Board of Deputies, the Holocaust Educational Trust and survivors such as Sir Ben Helfgott.

However, a letter saying the memorial would “drain resources from our existing world-class institutions and the work of reforming Holocaust teaching” was published in the Telegraph

this week. It was signed by educator Trudy Gold, JW3 visionary Dame Vivien Duffield, TV executive Lord (Michael) Grade and Dr Vicki Harris, who represents Hampstead Garden Suburb Synagogue at the Board of Deputies.

Harris said of the £12.9 million: “That spend is certainly not a good reason to justify siting a Holocaust Memorial in Westminster.”

She added that “deputies have never been given the opportunity to vote on whether there should be a memorial next to the Houses of Parliament. All we were ever invited to indicate was whether we had views on the design.”

Lord Carlile, the Government’s independent reviewer of anti-terrorism legislation and another Jewish peer, said the Victoria Tower Gardens site was “in my view a seriously mistaken location… it is too small, a security risk, and with inadequate infrastructure for the expected audience”.

Like Wallfisch, he said: “The better site would be IWM, where there is space, relevant expertise and a more suitable infrastructure.

The government has spent far too much public money on what would be a folly, and been obtuse in failing to recognise this. I hope the planning inspector recognises the error.”

Likewise, Dr Irene Lancaster, chair of the Broughton Park Jewish Christian Dialogue Group and a member of the jury that chose the winning design, said: “It is a scandalous and unpardonable offence to have spent this amount of money already on a proposed vanity project”. She added that it would “deprive local communities of their precious green space and children’s playground,” saying: “What the government and their backers are doing goes against Jewish law and all common decency.”

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Four people arrested over the murder of an aspiring young lawyer were this week released on police bail, writes Jack Mendel.

Sven Badzak, 22, whose father is Jewish, was stabbed to death in a “completely unprovoked” attack by six young men as he went to buy a bagel in Kilburn on 6 February.

The Metropolitan Police said on Tuesday that four suspects had been bailed until late March. They are two men aged 19 and 20, both arrested in the past two days, and two others aged 17 and 19, held earlier in the month.

Badzak had gone to a shop to get orange juice and then to a bagel shop when he was attacked.

The victim, from Maida Hill, and his 16-year-old friend were chased at around

Sven Badzak and his grieving mother Jasna

5.30pm. They became separated and Badzak fell to the ground and was stabbed repeatedly.

The 16-year-old also suffered multiple stab injuries but managed to escape into a shop in Willesden Lane and is in a stable condition in hospital.

Badzak’s mother, Jasna,

told Jewish News last week that her son’s Jewish grandmother survived a Nazi round-up during the Holocaust.  Anyone with information is urged to call police on 101 or tweet @MetCC quoting CAD 5580/06Feb or call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

www.jewishnews.co.uk

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18 February 2021 Jewish News

Antisemitism board / Coroner report / News

‘Most of Labour advisers not anti-racist’ A left-wing journalist has doubled down on her accusation that most of Labour’s antisemitism advisers are “not anti-racist”, saying they would put back the fight against racism in the party by “light-years”, writes Joshua Salisbury.

Labour’s advisory board, which includes Board of Deputies president Marie van der Zyl and Jewish Labour Movement chair Mike Katz, was set up following the damning Equality and Human Rights Commission report into antisemitism in the party.

Rivkah Brown, an editor at Corbynite Novara Media and Jewish outlet Vashti Media, has criticised its make-up, saying most are characterised by not being anti-racist. She said on Novara’s TyskySour podcast: “These are not people I trust with an antiracism agenda.

“These are people who’ve expressed a

very specific and particular interest in antisemitism in the Labour Party during the Corbyn years, but don’t seem to have broadened that.”

Panel members have hit back, with Mark Gardner, chief executive of the Community Security Trust, telling Jewish News: “If anybody is surprised by this they obviously weren’t paying attention to Labour’s antisemitism problem.” Katz responded to Brown’s criticism: “According to Rivkah Brown has criticised the party’s antisemitism board Rivkah and her friends at Novara, at least five of us on Labour’s Antisemitism wouldn’t just make up a serious charge like that Advisory Board aren’t anti-racists. So five (or for clicks and giggles, would you?” more) of us are racists, right? Who? I mean, you Adrian Cohen, a Jewish Leadership Council

trustee, criticised Novara, saying: “They are part of the reason we have ended up with an advisory board. I am angry beyond words.” The JLC added that it was intent on “restoring relations” with the Labour Party, “which were so severely damaged by Jeremy Corbyn and his cheerleaders”.

Asked which members of the board were not anti-racist, Brown alleged: “From Marie van der Zyl’s shameless Trumpeteering to Margaret Hodge’s flowers from the BNP to Mike Katz’s undying loyalty to Labour’s anti-black staffers, there is no universe in which Keir Starmer’s new ‘antisemitism advisers’ could be considered anti-racists.” They are people who will tell the Labour leader exactly what he wants to hear – which is to say, not very much – and set back the fight against racism within the party by lightyears.”

Daniel’s family criticise college drugs policy

Daniel Mervis

The family of a talented Oxford physics student who died of an overdose has urged his college to change its drugs policy, writes Joshua Salisbury.

Daniel Mervis, 23, a former JFS pupil and world-record powerlifter, developed an addiction while a student at St John’s College.

He began his studies in October 2014 after achieving an entrance score placing

him in the top five percent of students admitted. He took a break in his first year to seek treatment, before joining University College London in 2019, having been drugfree for eight months. But the passionate vegan, whom family members remember as “an advocate for a world of compassion”, died of an overdose in October 2019.

Now a coroner has criticised St John’s drugs policy, saying it could discourage stu-

dents with addictions to seek the support they need. “It was clear Daniel was using drugs whilst at St John’s College,” said Inner West London coroner Fiona Wilcox in a report published this month.

She added that the college’s drug policy, which pledges sanctions against drug use, “may discourage such students to seek help for their addiction out of fear of the consequences. A policy which is well publicised

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Daniel’s father, Hilton Mervis, told Jewish News: “Daniel would have wanted any lessons that could be learned to help others from addiction.” He also wants drugs policy to be standardised across Oxford’s colleges. St John’s must respond to the coroner within 54 days with the action it is taking to prevent future deaths.

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Jewish News 18 February 2021

News / Antisemitism definition / Warning given / College apology

UCL to revisit IHRA University College London is being asked to reconsider its adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism, after its own academic board rejected it, writes Adam Decker.

The board voted to call on the university’s governing body to “retract and replace [IHRA] with a more precise definition” following publication in December of a critical report by a UCL working group.

Although universities are legally independent and duty-bound to protect free speech, ministers have become increasingly threatening in their calls for institutions to adopt the IHRA definition, which includes 12 working examples, seven of which relate to Israel.

Members of the University and College

UCL will decide on Jew-hate definition

Union supported the academic board’s vote, which took place on Friday, with the union opposing nationally what it calls a “politicised and divisive definition”.

In a joint statement, the UCL Jewish Society (J-Soc) and the Union of Jewish Students (UJS) said that they were “disturbed by the decision” but that they were confident it would be symbolic only.

Their statement said: “Jewish student voices will not be silenced, nor dictated to by a small group of academics, who are more interested in theoretical discussion of antisemitism than practically supporting their students.”

Provost Dr Michael Spence is widely expected to reject the academic board’s call for the retraction of UCL’s adoption of the IHRA definition, but Jewish student representatives say that the board’s vote it might lead to similar action in other universities, including King’s College London.

PROFESSOR SORRY OVER LOACH An Oxford University professor has issued an apology for hosting an event with a film-maker accused of a “history of blatant antisemitism”.

In a letter to students, Professor Judith Buchanan, head of St Peter’s College, said she was sorry for the “hurt” caused by hosting Ken Loach at a vir-

tual event on Monday. The college had previously defended its decision to host Loach, arguing that it did not engage in “no-platforming”.

Loach, who attended the college, has provoked outrage by allegedly downplaying and denying claims of antisemitism in the Labour Party.

He urged Bafta to reconsider nominating the Panorama episode featuring Labour Party whistleblowers for an award and caused anger in 2017 at a fringe event of the Labour Party conference with comments about Holocaust denial, saying: “I think history is for us all to discuss, wouldn’t you?”

CHARITY CENSURED OVER £1.9M LOANS The Charity Commission has issued a warning to the trustees of a Jewish Orthodox charity in Manchester over 49 undocumented loans totalling nearly £2 million, writes Adam Decker.

The Salford-based Bersam Trust, which owns a building used by a Jewish school, had its accounts frozen two years ago after “significant discrepancies” were found between “the financial activity recorded in its accounts and the values of funds entering and leaving the charity’s bank accounts”.

The Commission said this “raised serious concern”, exacerbated after “figures in the

accounts did not match those in the previous year’s accounts”.

The Commission said trustees “oversaw the borrowing of £1.9 million, via 49 separate loans, not documented within loan agreements”.

These loans were from various sources such as individuals and other charities. Many were agreed orally and the trustees “exposed the charity to significant and unnecessary risk”.

Amy Spiller, the Commission’s head of investigations, said: “The trustees have been issued with an official warning requiring them to act to protect their charity.”

CBeebies’ yom kippah

Heads-up: Richard Verber

The former senior vice-president at the Board of Deputies has fronted a CBeebies episode on why religious Jewish men wear a kippah, in a new 10-part factual entertainment series called What’s On Your Head?

Richard Verber, now the United Synagogue’s communications director, took part

alongside racing driver Jamie Chadwick, Sikh model Rajvatan Singh Rathour and the first black woman to become a Church of England bishop, Rose Hudson-Wilkin.

He said he hoped children “come away with an insight into Judaism’s beautiful festivals and traditions”.

www.jewishnews.co.uk

18 February 2021 Jewish News

7

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Jewish News 18 February 2021

News / Bus attack / Activists charged / Judge rebuke

Survivor hit on bus An 80-year-old Holocaust survivor and her rabbi son were allegedly beaten up in an attack on a bus in north London, writes Jack Mendel.

The incident in Stoke Newington was reported in a tweet from the Shomrim community protection team, alleging the female perpetrator said: “I hate you Jews.

It’s not your place. You took our money.”

The mother and son were reportedly “punched in the head”, according to the report, with the Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) describing it as “an unprovoked attack”.

In a statement, the CAA – which pursues civil action against alleged antisemites – said the perpetrator “threw the rabbi’s hat to the floor during the assault”.

It added that the Holocaust survivor

had been left “traumatised”.

The incident occurred around 2.45pm last Tuesday on a 76 bus travelling from Stoke Newington to Stamford Hill.

“Passengers pleaded with the bus driver to stop, as the incident took place as they were driving by a police station, but he allegedly refused,” said the CAA. “This is yet another unprovoked act of violence against members of the Jewish community going about their day.”

“Transport for London must explain why the bus driver took no action, allowing the abuse to go on despite the violence and the protests of other passengers, and the assailant must quickly be identified and prosecuted to the full extent of the law.”

Both the Metropolitan Police and Transport for London have been

The incident happened on the 76 bus

approached for comment.

• Anyone with information is asked to contact police on 101 or Stamford Hill Shomrim on 0300 999 0123, quoting reference number: CAD4563 9/2/21.

Five activists charged over company damage Five members of Palestine Action, dedicated to closing down Elbit Systems’ presence in Britain, have been charged with criminal damage and conspiracy to commit criminal damage after an attack in central London last October.

The five people charged, who have not so far been identified, were among those who took part in a protest, involving the throwing of red paint over the frontage of the Israeli company’s headquarters in Kingsway on 10 October 2020.

The self-described activists are due to appear at Highbury Magistrates on 9 March. On the Palestine Action website, they have issued defiant calls for a challenging response to Elbit.

The website says the charges come “less than a week after Palestine Action co-founder Richard Barnard was… arrested on suspicion of blackmail”. It is unclear whether any separate charges have been made against Barnard or whether he is one of those due to appear in Highbury over the October demonstration.

Elbit describes itself as an international defence electronics company that operates in eight different locations in the UK.

JUDGE ‘ASTONISHED’ BY MP’S VIEW OF FRAUDSTER

Nicole Elkabbas faked illness

A judge who jailed a woman who faked cancer said he was “astonished” by remarks made about her by an MP. Carolyn Harris MP made comments in relation to the sentencing of Nicole Elkabbas, 42, who was found guilty by majority verdicts last November of fraud by false

representation and possession of criminal property.

Elkabbas, of Broadstairs, Kent, conned members of the public out of £45,000 using a convincing GoFundMe page and even a picture of her lying in a hospital bed.

During the sentencing at Canterbury Crown Court,

Judge Mark Weekes said: “I am astonished to read from Carolyn Harris MP she considers you were ‘honest about the crimes you had committed’.”

The Swansea East MP said her comments “were in connection with her addiction leading her to crime”.

Police stop protesters after they daub paint on Elbit

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Jewish News 18 February 2021

News / Golders Green application / Mental health stats

Mosque planners ‘shocked’ by hostility Friends and supporters of the Shia Iraqi group trying to establish a community centre with worship facilities at the former Golders Green Hippodrome building, held an online briefing meeting on Tuesday evening, hosted by leaders of Alyth Gardens Synagogue, writes Jenni Frazer.

Those participating in the meeting included members of churches in the neighbourhood.

The community trying to set up the Markaz (Arabic for “centre”) has been seeking planning permission from Barnet Council since at least 2017, with an application based on similar approval given in 2007 to the Hippodrome’s previous tenants, an evangel5 an 6 p d ag FR es EE

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But there has been continued opposition to the Markaz, the meeting was told, with at one point more than 1,000 leaflets, purporting to come from a Golders Green Residents Environment Group, being sent to Barnet Council, which is considering the change of use planning application.

One of the supporters of the application spoke of “direct hostility”, which had left the applicants “pretty shocked”.

The services of the self-proclaimed “Mosquebuster”, lawyer Gavin Boby, have been retained by those in opposition to the Markaz project.

But participants at the meeting were

told it had not so far proved possible to identify those who had hired him.

Planning consultants and the legal team working on behalf of the Markaz have submitted a “traffic plan” along with the planning application to Barnet Council, in order to minimise disruption to the local community on Muslim festivals.

One of the Shia leaders of the Markaz said that as Golders Green was such a transport hub, as many people as possible were being encouraged to use public transport when visiting the Hippodrome building.

He estimated the size of the community “on a good day” at around 150 people.

The Shia Iraqi group held a briefing on its Hippodrome plans

‘So many people are struggling this lockdown’ Continued from page 1 services, being unwell or bereaved by Covid, or the financial impact.”

Professor Wendy Burn, president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, has said experts fear the lockdown is simply “storing up problems, which could then lead to a tsunami of referrals” once all restrictions are lifted.

“Amid the uncertainty and disruption, the things that usually protect our mental health

may not be available to us, or just not enough to counter the impact of Covid and lockdown measures,” said Kermode.

The Jewish community’s foremost mental health advocate, Jonny Benjamin, said the news was grim but in line with suspicions. “Unfortunately, I’m not surprised by these figures,” he told Jewish News. “I know so many people who are struggling during this lockdown in particular. I think this will continue for a while until we come

out the other end, but in the meantime, there are so many people who need help and support. The mental health services can’t cope – they couldn’t cope before Covid.”

He added that “we need charities such as Jami more than ever” to fill the gaps in the mental health services’ provision.

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18 February 2021 Jewish News

11

Vaccination strategy / Accessible transport / News

Mass Charedi vaccination More than 250 members of the strictly-Orthodox community took part in a mass vaccination on last weekend, writes Jack Mendel.

Hundreds of Charedim were heralded as “role models” in the fight against Covid showing they “have not been swayed by fearmongering or misinformation” about getting the jab.

During the four-hour session at Hackney’s John Scott Vaccination Centre, attended by local MP Diane Abbott and Vaccines Minister Nadhim Zahawi, specially trained volunteers and health professionals administered vaccinations to hundred of people.

The event was jointly sponsored by Jewish emergency service Hatzola, in partnership with the City and Hackney GP Confedera-

tion and was supported by the local council, NHS City & Hackney Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), Strengthening Faith Institutions and the Ostro Fayre Share Foundation.

Binyomin Stern, president of the Union of Orthodox Congregations and a trustee of Hatzola, said the community understands “the urgent need for as many people as possible to be vaccinated”.

He thanked the dedication of volunteers and added: “There has already been a high take-up of the vaccine from within the priority groups across the community and we are very grateful to Hackney Council and Hackney CCG for helping us organise this event.”

Foundation chair Maurice Ostro said it was “great

Doctor launches ‘Taxi Vaxi’ scheme A scheme launched by a Jewish doctor, in which black cabs provide people with accessible transport to pop-up Covid-19 vaccination clinics in faith and community centres, has launched from a synagogue on Sunday, writes Jack Mendel.

Organisers of the Vaxi Taxi programme – which is funded by the Covid Crisis Rescue Foundation founded by Dr Sharon Raymond – hope the scheme will encourage more people who have limited access to transport to receive the jab.

The pilot of the scheme began at Holland Park Synagogue, where people of all faiths were invited for the jab.

Raymond, who is Jewish,

Jewish community”, adding: “Vaccines will save thousands of lives and help us get out of the pandemic”.

Also attending was Mayor of Hackney Philip Glanville, who praised the event as “a great example of grassroots groups working together to help keep people safe from coronavirus”.

Laura Sharpe, CEO at the City and Hackney NHS GP Confederation, said she was “delighted” by the event’s success in increasing uptake in the area’s Charedi community’.  Editorial, page 18

Hundreds of Charedim were heralded as ‘role models’

It’s about the future of our communities Census Day is Sunday 21 March

Dr Sharon Raymond next to a mobile vaccination unit

said: “It’s about collaborating with the community and the NHS to try to achieve the common goal of getting this country vaccinated.”  To donate, visit: www. justgiving.com/crowdfunding/coronavirusfightback

HOFFMAN DISINVITED The Barnet and Enfield branch of the Jewish Labour Movement has withdrawn an invitation to activist Jonathan Hoffman to speak at its bi-monthly meeting at the end of February.

Members of the branch received an invitation to register for a web event with Hoffman, a former co-vicechair of the Zionist Federation. He was due to speak on “Whatever has happened to the ZF”, which, he says, has been taken over by left-wing groups. But only days after the announcement of the meeting

to see so many people from the Charedi community receiving the vaccine”. He said: “They are role models in the fight against Covid-19 by showing they have not been swayed by misinformation.”

Zahawi gave “huge thanks” to the organisers, whom he said were “encouraging vaccination in the

went out, Hoffman was told by the branch chair, Brian Harris, that “some people had objected”, and that therefore the meeting was not going ahead. People on the branch mailing list received an email saying that “due to unforeseen circumstances”, the meeting had been cancelled.

A frequent demonstrator and activist against antiZionist speakers, Hoffman rejected utterly what he called “an attempt at moral equivalence. I am not someone who invites hatred, there is no quid pro quo”, he said.

Every 10 years, the census survey builds a picture of your community.

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Jewish News 18 February 2021

News / Football plans / Festival help / Food support

We’ll host Euros, says Israel Israel has made an audacious bid to host this summer’s delayed Euro 2020 football tournament, writes Jack Mendel.

UEFA, the governing body of football in Europe, reaffirmed its intention to hold the event in 12 European cities after the competition was postponed owing to Covid-19.

This comes after German tabloid Bild reported Israel had stepped forward with a proposal to UEFA, offering to host the Champions League and Europa League club competitions later stages, as well as the Euros.

Israel’s world-leading vaccination programme has deliv-

Champions: Portugal celebrates winning Euro 2016

ered more than five million jabs, resulting in a suppression in infection rates and the possibility of crowds at

sporting events.

In a statement to Jewish News, the Israeli Football Association said: “We did

offer UEFA any assistance necessary. We hope for all the Euro hosting, the national teams and clubs that it won’t be needed.”

UEFA told this newspaper: “The Israeli FA did offer their facilities should UEFA need them this year. However, UEFA fully intends that all its events (including club finals and the Euro) will be staged in their intended venues and is working hard with its partners and stakeholders to secure that.”

British football pundit Derek Rae said on Twitter that “UEFA president Aleksander Čeferin has promised to look at the proposal” by Israel.

Innovative ‘Purim in a box’ gives helping hand

Community members dreading a Purim under lockdown will receive a helping hand to celebrate the festival – thanks to a special kit from the United Synagogue (US).

With its new ‘Purim in a Box’ initiative, would-be synagoguegoers can enjoy a festive meal and give charity without leaving home. Included in the boxes, which cost £8.50 each, is a breakfast meal, challah for Shabbat, a roll and a quiche, granola, fruit, a scone with cream and jam and a traditional Purim hamantashen.

It allows people to complete three out of the four Purim commandments, of having a festive meal (a seuda), giving food (mishloach manot) and distributing charity to those in need (matanot la’evyonim). Mishloach manot can be sent for £5 each and the matanot la’evyonim option can be donated online.

It comes after the US announced half a dozen of its synagogues will be reopening for Purim, as it set out guidelines to ensure Covid compliancy. US president Michael Goldstein praised the “innovative programmes to help our members and the wider community celebrate Purim this year safely and in full, despite the challenges posed by the pandemic”.

Boxes can be bought from www.theus.org.uk/purimbox

FOOD VOUCHER SCHEME EXTENDED UNTIL JUNE A programme that has provided more than 800 children at Jewish schools with food vouchers to help alleviate the financial burden of the pandemic has been extended until June.

The scheme, run by Partnerships for Jewish Schools (PaJes), which provides services, support and strategy to Jewish schools, was initiated just before schools closed for the winter break last December.

With funding from Genesis Philanthropy Group and the Wohl Foundation, the programme is open to all pupils who are registered for free school meals in primary and secondary schools from across the religious spectrum.

One mother of four who, along with her husband, is out of work, told Jewish News it was “absolutely amazing” and a “complete surprise” to find out she was being given two food

vouchers towards her shopping. “Every penny really counts,” she said.

PaJeS executive director Rabbi David Meyer said: “In what has been a very difficult year, the financial pressures felt by families across the UK are greater than ever. Within our own Jewish schools’ network, we want to do what we can to provide vital food assistance to help alleviate the strain families are under.”

The programme helps families in need

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Jewish News 18 February 2021

World News / Special Torah / Charedi statistics / Carlos Menem

First sign-language Torah Israel’s only deaf rabbi is giving a hand to the hard of hearing by translating the entire Torah into sign language.

Speaking to Jewish News from Rishon Lezion through a sign language interpreter, Rabbi Yehoshua Soudakoff says it is a “big responsibility” to try to make Judaism “accessible and possible” for the 15,000 Israelis who are deaf or hard of hearing and communicate by signing.

With a team of scholars and actors, the US-born Chabad rabbi has started the unprecedented yet “very exciting” task of translating the 24 books that make up the Tanakh into visual format, in order to “bring the word to life”.

Rabbi Soudakoff with actors Daniel Malka and Chen Belilty

Bringing the stories to life is particularly important, he says, for the 40-50,000 Jews who use sign language worldwide, because the Torah is meant to be read aloud, in

synagogue, three times a week, to the congregation.

“It is a shared human experience. That’s really important because so many times deaf people are disconnected.”

Although Soudakoff describes himself as a statistical “oddity” in that he was born into a deaf family, he says many children are not so lucky.

“This is not something that is very enabling for many children,” he says.

“Their parents do not have a degree in deaf education, they are starting from scratch, they don’t know how to communicate with their deaf child and so the child may lose out or feel left out.”

This can be frustrating for the child because the parent “may only have time to give them a brief synopsis rather than the full story. We hope we will now be able to give them direct access to the source”.

ARGENTINA’S CARLOS MENEM CRITICISED The Argentine umbrella Jewish group despite the fact his government used DAIA has criticised, just hours after his the institutions of the Argentine state to death, ex-president Carlos Menem who perpetuate impunity and cover up the was in office during both of the 1990s ter- responsibility of those who committed and were accomplices in the attacks”. rorist attacks on Jewish institutions.

Menem was a national senator when The Delegation of Argentine Israelite Associations wrote in a Twitter thread last he died at a Buenos Aires hospital. That HALF PAGE ADVERT90, JAN 2020:Layout 1 09/01/2020 16:04 Page office kept him out of1prison after he was Sunday that Menem, “dies in freedom,

found guilty in 2013 of illegal arms smuggling to Ecuador and Croatia between 1991 and 1995. In March 2019, Menem – the son of Syrians who immigrated to the country – was absolved of charges that he tried to interfere with the investigation of the 1994 AMIA Jewish centre bombing, which killed 86.

Shock over Israel’s Charedi death rate One in 73 Charedi Jews in Israel over the age of 65 has died of Covid-19 in the past year – more than four times the number in the same cohort of the general population – according to a new report.

The report by Shomrim, an Israeli investigative journalism non-profit organisation, found that 1.3 percent of Charedim over 65 had died of Covid, compared to 0.27 percent, or one in 373, in that group of the general population.

The numbers reported by the non-profit are slightly higher than those of the Israeli Ministry of Health, which found that 1.2 percent of the Charedi population over 65 had died of the illness.

In December, the Israel Hayom newspaper reported that one in 132 Charedim over 65 had died of Covid, based on data from the Health Ministry.

Shomrim attributed the disparity to the ministry’s decision not to count deaths in cities with mixed popu-

Samples are taken in Tzfat

lations of Charedim and non-Charedim towards the Charedi total, which Shomrim did, as well as a study by Eran Segal of the Weizmann Institute of Science.

Regardless of the disparity between the numbers used by Shomrim and the Health Ministry, the death rate among Israel’s Charedi Jews makes clear the degree to which the community has been impacted by the coronavirus, even as large parts of the community continue to go about their lives as usual and refuse to wear masks or socially distance.

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Jewish News 18 February 2021

World News / Gulf community / Israeli prize / Gas deal / Spielberg honoured / Meat innovation

Gulf Jews form organisation Jews living in six Gulf states have formed a new organisation to support communities following last year’s historic normalisation agreements with Israel.

The Association of Gulf Jewish Communities (AGJC), complete with a Beth Din (Jewish religious court), will initially be led by Beirut-born Rabbi Elie Abadie and support Jewish life in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

Dubbed the ‘Beth Din of Arabia’, the court will preside over civil disputes, personal status, inheritance and Jewish ritual, and will also run the Arabian Kosher Certification Agency, as diplomatic progress filters down into cultural life.

Last year, Israel signed normalisation agreements with Bahrain and the UAE, in a major geopolitical shift that seems likely to herald similar ties with states such as Oman, with Sudan and Morocco having already followed suit.

Abadie explained the timing and rationale for the AGJC to The Times of Israel. “The future has been changed in the past six months here, as this region is opening up to the presence of Jewish people,” he said.

“As communities, we ought to get together and try to have the infrastructure necessary to service the local Jewish community and all those Jews who are passing through.”

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The regional government of Madrid has issued its ‘strongest condemnation’ of a video of a young woman making an antisemitic speech at a neo-fascist rally in the Spanish capital last weekend.

She claimed communism was invented by Jews to pit workers against each other, adding: ‘The enemy is always the same, even if he uses different masks: the Jew.’ A mezuzah is hung on the representative office of Dubai’s Israel Diamond Exchange

Small Jewish communities in the UAE and Bahrain already exist, but in other Gulf states there is only a skeleton infrastructure for Jewish diplomats, businessmen, soldiers, and expats, including “a handful” in Saudi Arabia.

“There are others who do not yet publicly live a Jewish life, but we do know of people living there who are members of our association,” said Abadie, adding that he “could not be more honoured” to head the new organisation.

Three rabbis are needed for the Beth

Din, and they will fly in from Israel, Europe and the US to join Abadie as judges when the court meets, but the AGJC hopes to expand its offering into education, from early childhood to lectures and conferences.

AGJC president will be Ebrahim Dawood Nonoo from Bahrain, whose family moved there in the 1890s from Basra in Iraq. In 2001, he became the first Jew appointed to serve on the country’s Shura Council, the upper chamber of its National Assembly.

Fauci scoops $1m prize

Dr Anthony Fauci, the scientist who has become the public face of America’s battle against the pandemic, has won a $1million Israeli prize.

He was named the winner of the prestigious Dan David Prize, which has its headquarters at Tel Aviv University. The annual award recognises the outstanding contributions of individuals and organisations across the globe that expand knowledge of the past, enrich present society and work to improve the world’s future.

The prize awards three gifts of $1m (£722,140), shared among the winners of each category. This makes the Dan David Prize one of the highest-valued awards internationally.

The prize committee commended Fauci in the field of public health for “his exceptional contribution to HIV research, for being the architect of the US president’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, saving millions of lives in the developing world; for his leadership in heading the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and in particular for fighting

Donald Trump listens to Dr Anthony Fauci

for the recognition of novel approaches such as mRNA vaccines now being given to millions worldwide; and for courageously defending science in the face of uninformed opposition during the challenging Covid crisis.”

The small Jewish community in Cluj, northern Transylvania, has asked a New York auction house not to sell a valuable 19th century document that it says was stolen during the Holocaust. They said the handwritten memorial register of the city’s Jewish burials could help reconstruct the area’s lost Jewish history. It is set to go under the hammer today (Thursday).

Israelis will soon be able to travel to Greece and Cyprus unimpeded, after the leaders of the three countries extended trilateral relations beyond their cooperation over gas reserves in the Mediterranean Sea. The news came as Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis visited Jerusalem, and will boost tourism between Israelis, Greeks and Cypriots post-pandemic.

Tributes have been paid to an LGBT+ pop star who had an Orthodox Jewish upbringing after he died from leukaemia on Sunday, aged 47. Ari Gold, who was brought up in New York, was first identified as a talent aged five, when he sang at his brother’s barmitzvah. He later wrote about the ‘deep and real shame’ that his parents felt when he came out.

ISRAELI GAS DEAL FOR GAZA An Israeli company has agreed to supply natural gas to the Gaza Strip after a Qatari envoy helped negotiate a win-win following Europe saying it would help build a pipeline.

Qatari envoy to Gaza, Mohammed al-Emadi, persuaded gas company Delek to channel some of Israel’s off-shore gas supply to a power station in the impoverished Strip, under a contract between Delek and the Palestinian Authority.

A second contract relates to the installation of the pipelines, with Al-Emadi telling Arab media “an agreement has been reached with Europe to allocate $5 million [£3.6m] for the assembly of gas pipelines from the border to the power station”. He added that Qatar – having already pumped hundreds of millions of dollars into Gaza in recent years – would install pipes on the Israeli side.

Several countries have been supporting Qatari efforts to secure gas to Gaza to help alleviate the dire economic and humanitarian situation there. Limited power supply and growing demand has exacerbated the area’s problems.

The Qatari envoy to Gaza persuaded Israeli company Delek to supply natural gas

There is only one power plant in the Strip and this is dependent on diesel from the Israel Electric Corporation, as well as from Egypt.

Qatar buys about £5m of fuel every month for the power station in Gaza.

Diplomats hope the pipeline will provide a platform on which to add yet more confidencebuilding measures, as the Strip seeks to rebuild after years of war.

Boffins cook SPIELBERG WINS THE JEWISH NOBEL up a 3D steak

Awarded: Steven Spielberg

Director Steven Spielberg has won the 2021 Genesis Prize, the award nicknamed the “Jewish Nobel”.

The award “honours extraordinary individuals for their outstanding professional achievement, contribution to humanity, and commitment to Jewish values” and was announced last Wednesday.

“Key Jewish themes are often woven into his narratives: importance of identity and belonging, maintaining humanity in a ruthless world, caring for the other and honouring the moral obligation to do the right thing,” the Genesis Prize Foundation said.

Israeli scientists might have sounded the death knell for butchers this week, after they unveiled the world’s first 3D-printed rib-eye steak.

Boffins at Technion used the natural building blocks of meat – cow cells – to construct “a real muscle, fat, and vascular-like system similar to a rib-eye from a slaughtered cow”, just with no abattoirs involved.

The institute partnered with Israeli firm Aleph Farms Ltd to use 3D bio-printers to make

Scientists unveiled a printed rib-eye steak

“the world’s first slaughter-free rib-eye steak”, which it described as “just as tender and juicy as one you’d buy from a butcher”.

www.jewishnews.co.uk

18 February 2021 Jewish News

17

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Jewish News 18 February 2021

Editorial comment and letters ISSUE NO.

1198

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

VOICE OF THE JEWISH NEWS

Shortfall in support for mentally ill is alarming That the latest lockdown has caused or exacerbated mental ill health among Britain’s Jewish population is sadly not surprising. Our community is no different from the rest of the country.

That the community’s mental health charities say they still cannot meet demand despite increasing their provision is alarming. This means that there are Jews in the UK who need support, who we know need support, and who aren’t getting it.

If you have to wait for treatment for a physical problem – a hip replacement, for instance, or a filling in a tooth – you may feel uncomfortable but the situation is seldom dangerous. However, if you have acute anxiety or severe depression or desperate loneliness and are left to wait, the results can be far worse than disrupted sleep.

The timing is terrible. During the first lockdown people felt afraid but determined that they would do their bit, with volunteering initiatives galore, clapping in the streets for the NHS and a bout of beautiful spring weather to cheer us on our daily walks.

Lockdown 3.0 will be remembered for our sapped energy, impatience, the fatigue of familiarity, the strain of weeks feeling we have no room to move (lest we forget the joy of November), dark nights and dismal weather.

Even those who have gone through life until now with no mental health problems whatsoever are struggling.

The community copes with most things that are thrown at it. Individuals battling the thoughts in their heads often cannot. This is not a collective threat, it is a personal one, fought by people against themselves and their situation. Redoubling our efforts to get them help is the only way to avoid tragedy.

Send us your comments PO Box 815, Edgware, HA8 4SX | letters@jewishnews.co.uk

Singularly fair coverage I want to comment on the letters by Dov Leitner (JN is ‘against Torah’), and Sammy (Admit your anti-religious agenda), in last week’s edition, dated 11 February 2021.

Well done for publishing these letters, which are highly critical of this newspaper’s journalism and what these individuals maintain should be its true ‘modus operandi’.

Jewish News, in its coverage of this sorry tale of how some Charedim have behaved during lockdown, has been balanced and, in my view, adopted a single standard of fairness.

To my knowledge and delight, Jewish News does not profess to be a publication that adheres to Torah or any particular religious bent. It is a real and valued newspaper to many of us, since it prides itself on, and publishes articles, editorial comment and reader’s letters (like ours), covering a range of issues that matter to British Jews.

Sketches & kvetches

Hats off to Hatzola for arranging vaccine drive After several weeks of headlines and stories about the adherence or otherwise of national coronavirus restrictions in the Charedi world, it was a pleasure this week to report on 250+ strictly-Orthodox Jews being vaccinated in north London.

Hats off to Hatzola, the emergency medical response charity credited with saving so many Jewish lives, for organising Saturday evening’s vaccination drive. We have no doubt that this, too, will in time prove to be life-saving.

Shabbat goes out Saturday night 6.12pm

Sedra: Terumah

CORRECTION

Louis Rapaport’s recent 80 Over 120 profile stated he has served on the Board of Deputies since 1956. He has, in fact, served since 2006. We apologise for our error. As Mr Rapaport rightly points out: “I am old but not that old!”

JD Milaric Stanmore

ISOLATION IS NO EXCUSE Among the many letters regarding the Charedim in Stamford Hill, SE Brodheim highlighted the littleknown isolation of too many Charedim.

No TV, no internet, no newspapers, some not even speaking English. But living isolated from the world is not an option. When the house

is on fire, calling 999 and shouting f’brent is pointless.

It did not need your newspaper to show how Charedim have flouted the law and brought shame on all Jews.

This disgrace has been in most of the national newspapers and on television news channels.

Malcolm Factor, by email

FLOUTING REGULATIONS

THIS WEEKEND'S SHABBAT TIMES...

Shabbat comes in Friday night 5.07pm

Making accusations to Jewish News by writing: “Why do you continue to lie?” and suggesting it changes its name to the “Non-Jewish News” or the “Palestinian News,” as Sammy did, is not helpful or likely to encourage any form of positive outcome to what he wants to happen.

Mr Leitner is reading the wrong newspaper if he seeks to ensure everything in a newspaper for the Jewish community is seen through the eyes of journalists and readers who strictly adhere to the Torah as he would want it to.

It is wrong and disingenuous of him to maintain that Jewish News’ content is “against Torah”, whatever that is intended to mean.

There is only one real problem here – the Charedim (some only, I reaffirm), who caused this issue in the first place.

“I think you’ve left the ‘terribly disappointed’ filter on!”

There’s been considerable debate in the wake of the strictly-Orthodox community’s irresponsible flouting of Covid regulations.

There can be no argument that the conduct we have seen is both an offence to divine and secular law. As well as a similar attitude when it comes to

being prepared to exploit the benefits of the country in which they reside whether it be Israel, the USA, the UK or elsewhere, while at the same time believing it is acceptable to flout laws and put themselves above society in general, and other Jews in particular.

Michael Gross, by email

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18 February 2021 Jewish News

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Editorial comment and letters DON’T PAINT EVERYONE WITH THE SAME BRUSH I found it extremely disappointing that, in Jewish News’ defence of its recent report into illegal weddings, it employed discriminatory terminology such as ‘Charedi world’ (a term that, to me, implies foreignness and alienism), as well as painting the entire Charedi community with one brush, which arguably is a form of prejudice.

Moreover, I consider myself as Charedi yet live many miles away from the postcodes where the Jewish News carried out its recent investigation.

Jewish News could have been more careful with its words so as not to tar an entire sect with the same brush.

Daniel Goldwater NW11

CROSSWORD CLUE MADE ME CROSS

Chuppah is key There seems to be a complete lack of understanding in the general community of Charedi marriage. In non-Jewish society, and increasingly in non-Orthodox Jewish circles, it is quite common for weddings to take place long after the couple have set up home together, often after the birth of several children. So in those circles, the chuppah is seen as a mere antiquated ceremony of relatively little importance that precedes the real celebration, the subsequent ‘party’.

This is anathema in Charedi society, where the chuppah is of primary importance and couples would not dream of being alone together before the chuppah, so the current government regulations are a great hardship.

But, with an understanding of differing lifestyles, a solution can be found, allowing marriages while avoiding dangerous activities that involve close contact such as dancing.

Martin Stern Salford

A clue in the Guardian newspaper’s speedy crossword for the issue of 25 January was: ‘Israel’s administrative capital...(3,4).’

Although Jerusalem houses the Knesset, Supreme Court and Prime Minister’s residence and is, therefore, Israel’s administrative capital, it would appear not to be the correct answer.

I wonder what answer the Guardian crossword writer had in mind?

ALL HAMAN’S FAULT?

Kay Bagon Radlett

Norma Neville Hendon

Remember this Purim not to eat the hamantashen before you get home from the baker and safely remove your mask. I am not dressing up for the festival as I’m already wearing a face covering. I will read my Megillah with extra devotion and bang my hammer hard when I mention Haman. Maybe it’s all his doing?

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Jewish News 18 February 2021

Opinion

Go for the vaccine, stay for the cholent JENNI FRAZER

T

his week, with Pesach thundering towards us at a rate of knots (I know, I know, we haven’t done Purim yet but Pesach is definitely on the horizon), I got to thinking about food. Well, the truth is that, like everyone in lockdown, I rarely stop thinking about food, but this was particularly Jewish food-related.

It seems to have become an unexpected theme of recent real-life situations and some rather heavy-handed fantasy. We all know the old joke that there is one abiding theme running through many of our festivals – “They tried to kill us. We won. Let’s eat”.

The foodie stories that caught my eye this week don’t quite fall into the “this way death threatens” category – but one comes fairly close. It was the idea of almost inspired genius that led someone in Israel’s Bnei Brak municipality to lure previously dithering

citizens to get themselves vaccinated by offering free food – specifically, warming bowls of cholent. Take-up for vaccination has previously been as low as 17 percent. If you can’t get the strictly-Orthodox to sign up for the vaccine any other way, ran the argument, offer food.

And lo, it worked, and the bearded ones did indeed turn up in droves, attracted by a free bowlful of Shabbat’s finest, except in the middle of the week. There were bread rolls and juice on offer, too, but only once vaccination had taken place.

There were reports this week that Tel Aviv is determined to go one better than Bnei Brak by offering a choice of humus or knafeh to potential vaccinees.

It strikes me that if Britain is concerned

about low take-up of vaccines in areas with large ethnic minorities, then food is the way to go – although probably not cholent.

Elsewhere, some in homeless shelters in London may well have been surprised to find “100 pieces of falafel” on offer, courtesy of the Israeli embassy.

Apparently this was to do with an annual commemoration made by a Holocaust survivor, David “Dugo” Leitner, who eats falafel each year in memory of his mother.

The Israeli embassy in Warsaw got in on the act as well, handing out 350 falafel boxes – that’s more like it, Warsaw! – to patrons who posed with an “Operation Dugo” sign outside an Israeli restaurant in the city.

While I applaud both initiatives, I do feel that 100 falafel balls won’t have gone very far.

❝

IF YOU CAN’T GET THE STRICTLY-ORTHODOX TO SIGN UP FOR THE VACCINE... OFFER FOOD

London needs to up its game.

For foodie ingenuity, we must look to Aleph Farms, an Israeli tech company that claims to have produced the world’s first 3D-printed, non-slaughtered rib-eye steak (no, please don’t ask me to explain it, either) and to have fed it to the prime minister. Benjamin Netanyahu’s deathless comment was that a) he couldn’t tell the difference and b)it was “guilt-free”, which I guess falls into the “takes-one-to-knowone” category. But still: printed steak!

And finally, for – to my mind, general queasiness – there was the “oh-sohumorous” offering from a blogger, calling itself “PreOccupied Territory”, with a singular take on the news.

This was the alleged story of an Israeli woman who “always has cookies baking in case of Hamas tunnel infiltrators”.

Sophia Barnea, it was claimed, bakes every day “in case a terrorist shows up to slaughter civilians and wants a muffin and maybe a cup of tea”. Ho, ho, not very ho. I’ll stick to the real food, thanks.

Join our push for UK to stop funding hate & TALIA INGLEBY

INT’L RELATIONS OFFICER, BOD

E

ducation is vital in offering children the skills and knowledge they require to succeed. It therefore makes sense that funding for education is also a key part of the UK government’s aid budget, which includes paying the salaries of teachers employed by the Palestinian Authority (PA).

However, as last week’s excellent Jewish News investigation detailed, these British taxpayer funded teachers use a curriculum which is designed not to educate but to incite and radicalise. The incitement is included across all subjects. For example, in mathematics children are taught addition with the number of “martyrs” and in science children are asked to explain the forces acting on a rock thrown at Israelis. Beyond the real threat this radicalisation presents, it is also a failure for the children’s education.

While this may be shocking, it is unfortunately no surprise for those of us who have

Every September, a new in meetings and letters, Purim, but Fleeing my forced no parties marriage academic year starts and the Zionist Federation another generation of Palesmade this the topic of their tinian children are taught annual lobby day, and MPs haten to hate. It is time for the across the House have t ofradica TheHowar lisatio Britain funds in Palestinian schools government to make a decifrequently tried to hold sion; either continue to fund the government to account incitement or use its influence through questions and on the PA to make the necesdebates. In response, minis’ f ie gr by sary changes to its curriculum ters have relied on assured ys ‘Paral without further delay. n ances from the Palestinian so d re de ur forunabm e Unless incitement is education minister that le to say goodbye as polic Mum er lawy young hunt killers of aspiring removed from the curricimprovements will be made ulum, we urge the Governyet deadlines pass with no ment to redirect consequences. A review was its funding to projects promised in 2018, eventually Front page on PA textbooks which will instead make commissioned by the EU in a positive contribution to the pursuit of peace.

2019, and is still yet to be published.

The Jewish Leadership Council and the This past year saw advancements of peace in Board of Deputies will continue to keep this the Abraham Accords and other normalisation issue on the agenda in our regular engagement agreements. This shift was rightly reflected in with government. We encourage those who education in the UAE when an Islamic Studies share our concerns to write to their MPs textbook published just two weeks after the and ask them to continue raising the issue announcement of a peace treaty between the in Parliament.

UAE and Israel, supported the peace initiaWe will not stop until the UK finally ends its tive, and promoted the values of tolerance and funding for the incitement, antisemitism and acceptance. As the peace process advances, it is extremism in the Palestinian curriculum. more important than ever to educate for peace.

EE

PUBLIC AFFAIRS MANAGER, JLC

been raising this issue with the Government over the past four years. Despite there being no improvement in the Palestinian curriculum, the UK continues to pay towards its teaching.

Last week, the Board of Deputies of British Jews, the Jewish Leadership Council, We Believe in Israel and the Zionist Federation jointly hosted a webinar to once again raise awareness of this issue. The UK Jewish community are also UK taxpayers and it is unacceptable that our aid is still used to support incitement against Israelis and Jews.

We were delighted to be joined by the parliamentary chairs of both Conservative Friends of Israel and Labour Friends of Israel. This is not a party political issue and we welcome support from across Parliament.

The timeline in last week’s issue explains why many will share our frustration with the lack of action from the Government. Since the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-se) first shared their comprehensive report with ministers and officials in 2017, the Government has continuously delayed taking action to stop funding incitement.

In that time, there has been press coverage, Jewish communal groups have raised the issue

More shuls to open for festival Page 7

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RUSSELL LANGER

TY E COMMUNI VOICE OF TH @JewishNew sUK Issue No.1197 • • 29 Shvat 5781 •

How one brave mother found the courage to break free after 14 years of agony

Page 17

11 February 2021

class exercise…

Palestinian Grade 5 flag, dripping Colour in a Palestinian backdrop of the with blood, against the ied by Dome of the Rock, accompan Israel. a map of Palestine without

Pages 2, 3, 4, 5 & 22

classroom Stock image of a Palestinian

of an aspiring young The grieving mother north London last lawyer murdered in “paralysed by grief ” weekend says she is killers continues, as the hunt for his writes Jack Mendel. father is Jewish, Sven Badzak, 22, whose Bagel Baby in was with a friend outside on Saturday when Willesden Lane in Kilburn by a gang of youths. the pair were attacked paid tribute to Badzak’s mother, Jasna, telling Jewish News her only son last night, he was “beloved by everyone”. “scumbags and Calling the assailants how one of the monsters”, she described

support the famiJones said police would and that a lies through their investigation cers will be offi “team of highly experienced locate and apprehend working tirelessly to horrific attack”. those responsible for this believe “Sven and goodbye.

After police “said they as “barbaric”. involved in an altercaPolice described the attack Jones his friend became Darren his mother Inspector males”, Lead detective, Chief tion with a group of Police, said: “As this no altercation, they of the Metropolitan responded: “There was Sven and his friend whatsoever.” pair, reason the no for chased group were attacked fell to the ground and arrested over the became separated. Sven A 17-year-old male was of the group. His police urging anyone was attacked by a number killing on Tuesday, with but managed to seek 101 quoting the friend was also attacked with information to telephone on page 8 However, he remains Continued sanctuary in a shop. critically ill in hospital.”

centimetres into the wounds was “seven into his lower back. chest” with three more by grief” and Jasna said she was “paralysed him” to say and kiss “couldn’t even hug him

Sven celebrating Chanukah

and Christmas

www.jewishnews.co.uk

18 February 2021 Jewish News

21

Opinion

Forced marriage is an alien concept in Judaism CHAYA SPITZ

CHIEF EXECUTIVE THE INTERLINK FOUNDATION

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ow has a connection between forced marriages and the Charedi community made its way into the public sphere? As if we don’t have enough with the old tropes.

Forced marriage is completely alien to Judaism. Any form of coercion is a complete violation of halacha (Jewish law). This is not only the case before marriage, but during marriage as well. Marital rape was halachically banned many centuries before being put on the UK statute books. If there is a whiff of coercion, no rabbi would proceed with a marriage ceremony. If he did, the marriage would be invalid. It is as simple as that.

My wonderful colleague Malky Davidovits is one of the privileged educators who teach brides-to-be in Stamford Hill. She teaches the halachos of consent with the seriousness they warrant. Of the many young women

she has mentored, she has never come across someone whom she feared was marrying as a result of pressure. We need to clear up some of the myths others are promulgating.

First, the institution of Charedi life, the shidduch, is not an arranged marriage; it is an arranged introduction comprising a series of meetings or dates. The rest of the world has caught on and now dating websites and agencies are pretty standard as a way to find a partner.

Second, the choice of the young people in this process is paramount. The suggestion that somehow a truncated shidduch process equates to coercion is disgusting. I come from a family of generations of devout Chasidim. My five sisters and I met varying numbers of suitors over different periods of time. We all said no before we said yes, except for my sister Miriam, who engaged herself to the very first person she met. She was no more forced than any of us.

Abuse can happen anywhere and takes many forms. We all need to be alert to it and call it out. Coercing someone into a marriage is one form of abuse, but it is not linked in any way to the Charedi community. Nor did the prime

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THE SUGGESTION THAT SOMEHOW A SHIDDUCH PROCESS EQUATES TO COERCION IS DISGUSTING

minister say it was. The headline making its way around the world last week was a distortion of a bland Downing Street statement saying forced marriages are not specific to any community but are an abhorrence that can happen anywhere.

Reading Nahamu’s ‘Charedi forced marriages’ manifesto and observing the way it has been promoted, explains a lot about how Nahamu often attempts to demonise Charedim. The case study it presented is wildly remote from normal people’s experience or of what halacha permits. Of course, even a single incident is a violation and a crime. But it is completely wrong to put this forward as representative of a communal problem.

In my Interlink role, I’ve worked with grassroots Jewish social activists for well over two decades. We’ve supported many people deter-

mined to right inequalities and injustice. Good, true activism is easily recognised. Bad activism has no scruples about distorting the truth, is disinterested in achieving progress and is intent of demonising the objects of its campaign.

If you asked my sister, a successful clinical speech therapist, about Charedi forced marriages, Miriam would be bemused. What does it have to do with her or her community? According to Nahamu, she and others have been ‘groomed’ from childhood into the normative communal way of meeting husbands. They are ‘coerced’ by a system.

If Miriam were to reply, she’d be forthright: “I am a blessed woman with a stable family and faithful husband, surrounded by love. I cherish my way of life. How dare you deny my agency, denigrate and stigmatise my way of life?”

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16/12/2020 17:45:39

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Jewish News 18 February 2021

Opinion

Whisper it quietly, but Israel's slowly winning DAVID PATRIKARAKOS

AUTHOR OF NUCLEAR IRAN: THE BIRTH OF AN ATOMIC STATE

L

enin once observed that there are “decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen”. If the statement has become almost a cliché, it nonetheless retains aphoristic value. The Twentieth century closed out with a decade where, relatively speaking, nothing happened. On 9/11, history restarted once again; and the 21st century has given us many weeks where perhaps multiple decades have passed.

Nowhere is this more acutely manifest than in the Middle East. When Tunisian street vendor Mohamed Bouazizi set himself alight in December 2011, he also ignited a chain reaction that left Libya and Syria destroyed and Egypt slowly imploding. The Arab Spring congealed into a long winter that saw the Islamic State emerge to butcher its way around the region.

Iraq, of course, has only continued to fracture.

And, all the while, Iran has danced with the world over its nuclear ambitions.

Israel hasn’t stood idly by. In the past 10 years, it has fought two wars, Pillar of Defense in 2012 and Protective Edge in 2014, both against Hamas in Gaza. But most striking has been not its weaponry, but its diplomacy.

Benjamin Netanyahu took office (for the second time) on 31 March 2009 and has remined there since. It’s been a bumpy ride. He is under criminal indictment, faces trial and seems willing to do almost anything to stay in power.

But for all that, Netanyahu remains an impressive politician. If he riles the transatlantic political and media classes, he has also overseen diplomatic success elsewhere. Israel’s participation at the June 2017 51st summit of the Economic Community of States of West Africa (ECOWAS) in Monrovia marked its return to the African continent, while he has personally cultivated warm relations with India’s Narendra Modi. Given India only officially established relations with Israel in 1992, and most African states spent the past 70 years

❝

NETANHAYU HAS PROVED ADEPT AT TURNING ENEMIES INTO ALLIES CLOSER TO HOME

championing the Palestinian cause, these are impressive diplomatic achievements.

He has also proved adept at turning enemies into allies closer to home. Last year, Israel made peace with the United Arab Emirates, Morocco, Bahrain and Sudan. There are rumours Saudi Arabia may soon follow. Much of this is to do with Iran – a shared fear over Iran's nuclear ambitions has brought together Israel and its Sunni Arab neighbours. What was once unthinkable has become a fact.

Now into the mix comes the new US President Joe Biden. As Obama’s vice president, he supported the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the so-called Iran Deal, that enraged

Netanyahu and disconcerted his new Gulf allies. When Trump walked away from the deal in 2018, Iran restarted uranium enrichment (its easiest path to a bomb) in response. Biden must fix this mess and the world fears he will cave to the mullahs as they claim Obama did.

But how likely is that? The world is changing and – say it quietly – it is doing so in Israel’s favour. The de facto Israel-Gulf alliance that provided a backdrop to Obama’s Iran negotiations is now an overt one. This matters. Already, Biden has said he won’t lift sanctions on Iran to get it negotiating again.

Meanwhile, an Israeli civil servant can pick up the phone and talk openly to their opposite number in Abiu Dhabi or Rabat for the first time in either state’s history. And from there, opportunity stretches. None of this is to say Israel no longer faces threats. It would be striking if all the Arab peace deals hold. And Iran’s Supreme Leader is not about to embrace his Jewish enemies. But now Israel can look around at a recalibrated world that took, if not weeks, then certainly not decades, to reconfigure.

Virus has exposed limits of Charedi leadership VIVIAN WINEMAN

FORMER PRESIDENT, BOARD OF DEPUTIES

T

here has been so much condemnation of the blatant infringements of pandemic regulations in the Charedi community but I'm tempted to add my own twopence worth as there is an extra dimension to this.

It goes to the nature of Charedi Judaism. This is always understood as the belief that the practice of the Torah is the highest activity of which mankind is capable. However, this is not correct: it is not the practice, but the study of the Torah that is the highest activity, and then not strictly the Torah but the Talmud, that is, the sayings of the rabbis and their predecessors.

In the morning prayers every day, Orthodox Jews recite the virtues of charity, visiting the sick, dealing with the dead, bringing of peace between man and his neighbour, honouring one’s parents, etc, but end with the conclusion that the study of the Torah is equal to them all combined. Talmidei Chachamim, Masters of the Talmud are to be respected above all other men.

It goes further. According to a rabbinic saying, the Torah took precedence in time and importance over the creation of the world. This leads to

the doctrine of Da’as Torah, the proposition that someone who understands the whole Talmud understands the whole of human knowledge.

The man who is most often alleged recently to have reached that level is Rabbi Avraham Yeshaya Karelitz known by his magnum opus, the Chazon Ish. It is his nephew, Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, who is now the leading authority of the non-Chassidic Charedim.

He was consulted at the start of the pandemic as to whether the yeshivot should close. He ruled they should not. It transpired he did not know there was a pandemic.

While this demonstrates admirable fidelity to his public pronouncements that the internet was a diabolical creation, it casts doubt on claims he has access to the totality of human knowledge.

Yet Kanievsky is still being consulted.

The fact a community can pay attention to someone whose knowledge of science and current affairs would probably not cover a postage stamp speaks volumes for its lack of respect for, or interest in, science and current affairs. Their mantra is that science is temporary, whereas Torah is eternal. Scientists say one thing one week and the opposite the next and Charedim therefore hold them in contempt.

Instead, we should listen to rabbis – particularly Kanievsky, who now sells an amulet costing

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THEIR MANTRA IS THAT SCIENCE IS JUST TEMPORARY, WHEREAS TORAH IS ETERNAL

3,000 Israeli shekels that will protect against Covid and other relevant diseases.

But if the pandemic has revealed the intellectual bankruptcy of the Charedi leadership, it has also cast an unfortunate light on the community. Charedim are now characterised by a sense of entitlement and victimhood. In Israel, secular Israelis see themselves as carrying the risk Charedim avoid by generally not serving in the army. Charedim, however, see their work in studying Torah as vital for the maintenance and safety of the country and as vital, if not more so.

With Covid now sweeping Israel, which has the highest rate of infection per capita of almost any other country, they flout regulations conscious of their massive political clout.

With Israel so divided over other issues, it will be nearly impossible for any group of parties to form a government without Charedi support.

In this country, they are fighting a continual battle to prevent the government interfering in their schools to require them to provide their pupils with the rudiments of an education. Even

measures obviously for their own protection are resisted, including the idea of having a medically qualified person to be present at a circumcision, even if not performing it. Charedi districts including Stamford Hill have stratospherically high rates of Covid infection.

This pandemic has also shown the enormous progress we have made. Plagues have been a feature throughout history, but never has the source of an infection been identified and understood so quickly and never has, hopefully, the cure been found within barely a year.

Modern medicine, it is said, is little more than 150 years old. Yet now scientists are literally reading the book of life and telling us most of the science they are using was discovered in their own lifetimes. The fact they change their opinions is a strength not a weakness.

Only people who never acquire new information, but rely solely on ancient texts, can be confident of never having to change their opinions.

The clear message is: listen to the scientists because they are listening to the evidence.

18 February 2021 Jewish News

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Labour over • Corbyn suspended byEHR C report reaction to damning y guilty of • Watchdog finds part nation’ ‘unlawful acts of discrimi to ngne willi • There was ‘lack of ility to doss so’ tackle hate, not inab • Starmer speaks of ‘day ofe’shame’ and vows ‘zero toleranc ent • Lawyers warn empdloym follow tribunal cases coul now

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not approved, hundreds, if ism, to Israel been definition of anti-Semit , of Labour and Momentum leading Jewish Alliance’s Labour MP Dame Margaret thousands need to be expelled.

Today, Britain’s three e to members would News, Jewish provoking t in Brexit disnewspapers – Jewish to call her leader an anti-Semit With the governmen Telegraph – take Hodge danger sinister yet.

Chronicle and Jewish his face, was the most there is a clear and present as array, nispeaking defi of to IHRA the unprecedented step Labour has diluted the man with a default blindness same front page. government that a a man one by publishing the community’s fears, accepted in full by the the existential tion, deleting the Jewish that hateful We do so because of more than 130 local councils, has a problem seeing this country that and key examples of who can easily step threat to Jewish life in and amending four rhetoric aimed at Israel Jeremy Corbyn-led to Israel. ism, could be our next would be posed by a anti-Semitism relating anti-Semit into , a Labour government.

Under its adapted guidelines Israel’s prime minister. party that was, MPs vote on We do so because the member is free to claim On 5 September, Labour home for our Party and comthe is a racist endeavour motion, calling for until recently, the natural values and integ- existence policies to those of Nazi Ger- an emergency definition community, has seen its Israeli to adopt the full IHRA contempt for pare – whatever that party rity eroded by Corbynite many, unless “intent” its rulebook.

“Dirty Jew” is into face a binary Jews and Israel. means – can be proved.

Following that, it will anti-Semof shame game? fair in full or be seen The stain and wrong, “Zionist bitch” choice: implement IHRA through Her Majan institutionally Labour makes a distinction as doing, itism has coursed people so In decent all Jeremy Corbyn ism targeting by ic party. esty’s Opposition since between racial anti-Semit anti- racist, anti-Semit years for became leader in 2015. (unacceptable) and political After three deeply painful to Livingstone, Jews (acceptable).

From Chakrabarti y, September is finally Semitism targeting Israel Had the full our communit alarming lows. Last there have been many The reason for this move? relating make or break. to adopt the full week’s stubborn refusal definition with examples Remembrance IHRA International Holocaust

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‘I’m sorry ’

workings of the parmomentous inner handling Labour issued a staffers ty’s complaints claims of public apology to former Wednesday unit contained in the High Court on interference in the fallout political after they sued over have been an investi- what should from a BBC Panorama t disciplinary handling independen gation into the party’s was strenuJack process. This writes m, party antisemitis the of ously denied by Mendel. before the at the time.

However, just hours According to the were reports announcement, there ers’ lawyer, Jeremy whistleblow Labour that former Labour leader tions William Bennett, “acting of Corbyn, his former communica them and Labour’s accused during and chief Seumus Milne Jennie in bad faith t with the former secretary-general that after their employmen Formby had sought assurances of harming” the party, be connected intention their names would not accusations false. of lasting calling the who defended to the apology. In a sign Henderson, Mark the anger, Corbyn later dismissed not the Labour Party, said he “acknowldecision, about the claims apology as “a political these edges that a legal one”. are untrue, and we retract members, Claimants Seven former staff them and undertake about and withdraw who voiced their concerns them. Actions are being among not to repeat those who repeat the how claims of Jew-hatred with, sued taken against taken against those members were dealt be will and libels of libel in after they were accused to do so in future.” ry, broad- who choose the Panorama documenta 2 cast last year.

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18 February 2021

Weekend / Books

Holocaust in action Rare photograph that sparked a ten-year investigation

Editor’s note: While this image is graphic and upsetting in nature, we felt that it was important to publish it in full to emphasise its historic importance

A shocking image taken during the massacre of hundreds of Ukrainian Jews in 1941 led Wendy Lower to research every aspect of it, writes Francine Wolfisz

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his is the horrific moment a Jewish mother and two young children were forced to the edge of a death pit by cold-blooded Nazi executioners holding rifles at point blank range.

Unpalatable, brutal and intrusive – and yet the viewer is compelled to look because such images taken during the Holocaust showing the killers in the act are extremely rare.

Indeed, there are only a dozen or so of such photographs in existence, such were the pains taken by the perpetrators to cover up their crimes.

When Holocaust historian Wendy Lower was approached by two journalists with the photograph, originally taken in 1941 and locked away in the stacks of Prague’s Security Service headquarters for decades, she immediately knew its true value.

Perhaps with a little digging, she could discover when and where this heinous murder – part of a day-long massacre of the Jewish population of a Ukrainian town – took place and, more importantly, track down those responsible.

“For me, it wasn’t even a choice.

It was, in a way, a duty and obligation,” says Lower, a former acting director of the Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC. So began a decade-long investigation in 2009 to uncover everything there was to know about this photograph – where it happened, who was involved, the photographer who took the shot and even the camera with which it was taken.

Lower certainly leaves no stone unturned as she recounts her mission in her fascinating book, The Ravine, published earlier this month.

Through a painstaking reconstruction of events, she was able to discern that the massacre took place on 13 October 1941 – the year that Nazi troops swarmed across Ukraine as part of Operation Barbarossa and orders were given to slaughter the country’s Jewish population – in a forest just outside of Miropol,

135 miles west of Kyiv, in Ukraine.

On the day before the massacre, three SS officers had arrived in the town demanding to know why the town’s Jewish inhabitants were still alive.

They rounded up a group of teenage girls to begin digging a pit in the nearby forest, then called for volunteers to carry out the Aktion, or mass murder, about to take place.

SS officers Erich Kuska and Hans Vogt eagerly put themselves forward, as did Nikolai Ryback and Dmitri Gnyatuk, two Ukrainian customs and border guards who were stationed just outside of Miropol.

In the hours leading up to the massacre, the town’s Jewish community were forced from their homes and herded into the market square, where they were taunted and pelted with bottles and stones by their non-Jewish neighbours.

Then they were marched to the outskirts of a nearby forest and held in a small hut, before being forced out in small groups to make their way to the edge of the death pit.

Bullets, however, were not to be wasted on small children and babies.

The youngest of the victims were grabbed by their legs and their heads smashed against the trees.

Neither was there any ounce of humanity reserved for the frail. One elderly woman, unable to walk, was tipped into the pit while still lying in her bed.

In the photograph handed to Lower, a German commander in

THE CAMERA: A Zeiss Ikon Contax on which at least five photographs were taken of the massacre

THE VICTIMS: Wendy Lower believes that the victims may have been Khiva Vaselyuk (far right), her nephew Boris and her son, Roman – but surviving relative Svetlana Budnitskaya was unable to make a positive identification a pressed jacket and jodhpurs and a Ukrainian soldier in a heavy woollen Red Army coat have just pulled their triggers, the smoke obscuring the face of their female victim in a polka-dot housedress.

She is still clutching the hand of a barefoot boy, while in her lap lies another small child wearing a headscarf.

On the ground next to them lie a pair of men’s leather boots, an empty coat and fired cartridge casings – the discarded evidence of others who lost their lives that day.

Lower pored over hundreds of testimonies and post-war interrogations, spoke to survivors and travelled to Miropol to identify the exact location of the killings.

Remarkably, she also uncovered the life story about the man behind the camera – a Slovakian security guard named Lubomir Skrovina who, having heard the desperate screams of the victims amid the relentless gunfire, instinctively grabbed his Zeiss Ikon Contax camera.

She learnt how Skrovina was not like the perpetrators whom he witnessed, but rather someone who took a series of five photographs

THE PHOTOGRAPHER: Slovakian security guard Lubomir Skrovina (centre) in an act of defiance against SS brutality.

Incredibly, Lower even came to hold the very camera that was used

by Skrovina that day.

“It was his attempt to show step by step what happened – and it was so deliberate,” remarks Lower.

“When I held that camera in my

hands, it was as close to that event as I could get. That camera was his tool of resistance, it was what he had available to him to fight against what was happening.

“That was why it was so precious to him and why he specifically donated it to the Bratislava Jewish Community Museum to include in

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18 February 2021 Jewish News

THE PERPETRATORS: Neither of the SS officers Erich Kuska or Hans Vogt was ever brought to account for his actions. After the war, they denied all involvement and the case was closed on the grounds of insufficient evidence. an exhibition on the Holocaust.”

Having discovered so many intricate facts about a single image, there were, however, still details that eluded Lower: the names of the victims. The odds against finding the names were very much stacked against the determined historian.

“Every fourth victim murdered in the Holocaust resided in what is the borders of Ukraine today,” explains Lower.

“Most of them weren’t in the deportation machinery, so we don’t have that paper trail available like we do for other victims.”

Of the nearly 1,000 Jews killed during the massacre at Miropol, Lower found a list of 450. She crossreferenced it with names given to Yad Vashem and among them was a testimony that had been given, alongside a family photograph.

The image showed a group of women from Miropol, including a nurse named Khiva Vaselyuk and

Ukrainian guards Nikolai Ryback and Dmitri Gnyatuk were convicted, sentenced to death and executed in January 1987, probably the Soviet way with a bullet to the back of the head two children. One, in a sailor suit, was her nephew, Boris, who bore a striking resemblance to the boy stumbling at the edge of the pit.

The other child was her son, Roman, wearing a head band.

Could they indeed be the victims shown in Lower’s photograph?

After speaking to Svetlana Budnitskaya, the surviving relative who gave the testimony, Lower felt that there was certainly a good chance – but the elderly survivor couldn’t be completely sure.

It was a bittersweet conclusion to an investigation that had immersed Lower for a decade.

“In a way it was disappointing and in a way it was a reality check,” she says. “The odds of identifying the victims were already tough, added

to the fact that you can’t see the faces and it was difficult for Svetlana.

She was only five or six years old in 1941 and had been evacuated with her family, so she had only secondhand information. It was a difficult match. You know it may just be, but we can’t determine that without any questions.”

Equally disheartening was the fact that neither Kuska or Vogt were ever brought to account for their actions, although their Ukrainian collaborators were, 46 years later, when they were both sentenced to death for their crimes.

As Lower says: “Unlike the SS officers, they weren’t trained to kill Jews or deployed in killing actions; they were just regular customs guard checking packages at the local

25

THE CRIME SCENE: 13 October 1941 at a ravine in Miropol, Ukraine train station. But they were rabid antisemites and saw this as an opportunity.

“This image is striking in that it shows just how much there is of a shared participation in this act of murder against their UkrainianJewish neighbours.”

After a forensic hunt to find out exactly what happened, Lower hopes to demonstrate how even one photograph can unveil an untold story of the Holocaust.

“No one can assume anything at first glance, and we are reminded that we really don’t know everything that there is to know about the Holocaust,” she adds.

“That sense that we do know everything will lead to erasure, forgetting and suppression – and it will be to our peril.

“We need to remind ourselves the potential is always there to discover more.”

 The Ravine: A Family, A Photograph, A Holocaust Massacre Revealed

by Wendy Lower is published by Head of Zeus, priced £20 (paperback)

26 Jewish News

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27

Entertainment / Weekend

TELEVISION

COMEDY

The Voice

MODI

Just when Sir Tom Jones thought he might have trouble filling the last spot in his team for The Voice UK, along came 31-year-old singer Sami Nathan.

There was something especially apt about the north London-based performer’s choice of song – At Last by Etta James – with three contestants before her all rejected in a row on Saturday night’s episode of the popular ITV talent show.

But the Welsh pop icon’s chair turned for Nathan, much to her delight.

The singer-songwriter will now battle it out as one of 40 singers mentored by Jones, Will.I.Am, Anne-Marie and Olly Murs in a bid to snag a lucrative recording deal.

The Voice UK continues on Saturday, 8.35pm on ITV

Hailed as “the next Jackie Mason”, stand-up comedian MODI is guaranteed to raise a smile with a virtual performance in aid of Paperweight this weekend.

The 50-year-old Israeli-American entertainer – whose full name is Mordechai Rosenfeld – was born in Tel Aviv and moved to New York with his family aged seven.

Previously a Wall Street banker, MODI is also a cantor and was voted one of the top 10 comedians in New York by Hollywood Reporter.

His performance is part of Paperweight’s 36-hour Lightening the Load Campaign, which starts on Sunday and aims to raise funds for the free advice service, which helps people with legal, financial and welfare issues.

MODI performs on Sunday, 21 February, at 8pm.

To reserve a free place, visit charityextra.com/ paperweight

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Jewish News 18 February 2021

Business / Fintech partnerships

candicekrieger@googlemail.com

With Candice Krieger

COVID HAS ACCELERATED THE SHIFT TO FINTECH The pandemic has increased our reliance on innovation. Candice Krieger looks at UK-Israel partnerships and companies revolutionising the finance technology sector

T

Otni Oron, fintech sector Community of Israel, representing echnology is transforming manager at the UK Israel Tech Hub the entire Fintech ecosystem of financial services. ‘Fintech’ at British Embassy Israel, says: Israel says: “There is a perfect is impacting our lives in the “With the UK’s legacy as a leading match between the fintech UK and beyond, with digital financial capital going back cenenvironments of both banking, contactless turies, it’s clear how its financial countries. The UK is a payments, roboservices industry brings such an much more meaningful advice and other developments advanced thinking when it comes to global financial centre gaining huge popularity. financial instruments, structures than Tel Aviv and can The pandemic has fastOtni Oron and regulation as well as adoption offer a launch pad for tracked an already shifting of advanced digital tools by customers. Israel, technologies originating in Israel, process to fintech through on the other hand, is a relatively young country whereas Israel enjoys an entreadvances in technology coupled which, in many senses, relies on innovation to preneurial ecosystem and a better with increasing consumer demands. survive. Israeli tech strengths rely mainly on Two nations empowering resilience Shmuel Ben-Tovim culture of risk-taking, supported by deep-tech and advanced mathematics – AI, generous government schemes. at a time of worldwide uncertainty machine learning, big data, and with much “The UK regulatory system is more with innovative solutions and partnerships are advanced in critical areas such as Open Banking synergy among fintech’s related fields.” the UK and Israel.

He says all major UK banks and insurance or Sandboxes – experimental regulators enviIn 2018, The City UK of London and The companies are exploring Israeli fintech soluFintech Community of Israel – City TLV signed ronments for fintech start-ups. Israel is a global leader in cybersecurity, a critical technology for tions to some extent. “Barclays and Natwest a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to are intimately familiar with the Israeli industry, UK financial institutions. One notable example bolster fintech and cybersecurity cooperation others are involved per specific interest or is Citibank, that runs its global cyber innovabetween the two countries. periodically for educational purposes.

Shmuel Ben-Tovim, chairman of the Fintech tion out of Tel Aviv.”

“The relationship goes both ways with over 50 of Israeli tech companies establishing a presence or expanding significantly in the UK in 2019.”

Two companies using tech to transform banking are Israeli-founded The Floor and the UK-based Railsbank, which is backed by Israeli venture capital (VC) firm Moneta.

THE FLOOR How does The Floor work?

in Hong Kong. It is operational in the EU and APAC. The tech is done in Tel Aviv.

AVI COHEN, CO-FOUNDER THE FLOOR: Rationale for the company:

“We believe technology and innovation are huge catalysts shaping the bank of the future, and The Floor sits exactly at the intersection of those who develop such capabilities and banks that need them.”

How important is it for The Floor to have links to the UK?

“The Floor works closely with big players in the UK market, which is highly significant as it’s one of the world’s top financial hubs with representation by all major international banks. It’s also a great landing pad for the rest of Europe.”

Why is the UK an attractive market for Israeli fintech?

“Predominantly it represents a major business destination – for us especially, the UK banking sector represents the closest major market opportunity within a 5-hour flight. In addition, the UK human talent is becoming more relevant for Israeli companies in need of employees with a mixed understanding of banking/tech, which is not so easy to find in Israel. Additionally, we see the UK tech scene progressing and excelling, producing interesting fintech ventures that can introduce partnership opportunities with Israeli companies.”

How has the pandemic affected The Floor and fintech in general?

The Floor provides software that helps banks to better manage “Before the pandemic, as an their IT estates, identifying, Israeli company working repurposing or deploying globally, we were frequently new and updated techflying to meet in-person with nologies, whether they are our clients and they were installed internally or offered often coming to Israel. This has commercially by an external changed to a new norm and human vendor. Clients include NatWest, interaction is much more difficult.

HSBC and large international Overall, we saw a lot of attention Avi Cohen banks with a major presence in the and accelerated interest in our UK such as Santander and SMBC. technology as banks needed to speed up their Imagine an ‘app store’ of technologies comdigital transformation processes in order to patible for use by any bank to visualise, update offer their customers alternatives to in-person and manage their tech infrastructure to drive services given Covid-19. In general, the pancontinuous innovation across the organisademic has highlighted fintech’s value in regard tion. As banks increasingly shift to more digital to enabling quick shifts to digital loans, digital operations and services, The Floor aims to set banking etc, as customers required more online an industry standard that will empower the approaches to banking services. We’ve seen the bank of the future to keep track of the masses pandemic accelerate a digital transformation of technology providers they use to easily and that was due to occur in 10 years into the course quickly use them to their best potential. of one year.”

Who was it founded by?

In 2016, by Avi Cohen, Moises Cohen and Gil Devora.

Where is it based, where are its offices and where is it operational?

It is based in Tel Aviv with offices there and

Will the crisis signal an even greater leap towards fintech?

“I believe it will since the way we do our banking is changing rapidly and, just like other industries, consumers have more options today to invest, take a loan or manage dayto-day financing. More options mean fintech

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Fintech partnerships / Business

consolidations/M&A [mergers and acquisitions] and partnerships between big tech companies and financial services institutions as we see a lot now (for example Citi/Google).”

What can the UK learn from Israel in terms of fintech and vice versa?

small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) finance. It allows marketers, product managers, developers, CEOs and founders to take their financial product vision and rapidly prototype, launch and scale using its open finance platform, operations, regulatory licensing and rich set of APIs (application programming interface – what allows programmes and systems to talk to each other). It employs more than 200 people across three continents.

“Although Israel is not a hub for major financial capital, we definitely see Israeli ventures reinventing the financial industry even though most times the founders don’t come from the finanHow does it work? cial sector. I think this is largely due Railsbank’s super simple APIs to the out-of-the-box thinking and are the building blocks customers Nigel Verdon Israeli ‘chutzpah’ entrepreneurs from can use to build pretty much any the country bring to the table! Alternatively, financial use case they can imagine, freeing up the UK is phenomenal in building big brands Railsbank customers to focus on delivering and leading early adoption to fintech solutions, delightful finance experiences to consumers which is something Israelis can learn from.” and businesses.

Has Covid-19 highlighted the need for fintech more than ever?

“I think so; people now see the value in having real-time, immediate access to financial services and banks are reacting to the needs emerging from customers. In today’s digital world where everything is instant and transparent, it was natural that Fintech will be a force in shifting more people to adopt various Fintech solutions. Cash is a good example of how shifting away from physical money (for obvious reasons) resulted in a sharp increase in the use of digital money apps. E-commerce is another great example.”

Where do you see the great opportunities within fintech going forward?

“If 2020 provided anything it’s perspective.

We definitely see banks looking more at sustainable fintech, not only to bring innovation but also to improve the environmental impact banks have in this regard, we see Fintechs helping banks lower their carbon footprint, invest in sustainable portfolios etc.

Also I think we will be seeing a wider trend of Fintech anywhere where more non-bank players will attempt to offer their clients new financial products and capabilities - this will only increase the competition and create new business models.

Where do you see the great opportunities for fintech links between the UK and Israel going forward?

“Scale and collaborations are the strongest ones in my view. There are a lot of complementaries where Israeli companies can benefit from the UK and vice versa in the intersection of cyber/ fintech/AI.”

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RAILSBANK About Railsbank

Railsbank is the leading global Banking as a Service (BaaS) platform, headquartered in the UK, backed by leading Israeli VC company Moneta. It’s also backed by Tim Levene, founder of Augmentum Capital and the son of Lord Levene (ex-chair of Lloyds Banking Group). It enables banks, businesses and brands to define the future of consumer and

Who was it founded by and why?

It was founded by serial entrepreneurs and fintech veterans Nigel Verdon and Clive Mitchell in 2016. They strongly believe financial services are a human right and not a privilege.

Where is it based?

It is headquartered in London with offices across three continents, including in Singapore, Lithuania, the Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam, Sri Lanka and the US.

NIGEL VERDON, CO-FOUNDER AND CEO, RAILSBANK How important is it for Railsbank to have links to Israel, and investment/ recognition from Israel?

“Israel is a world leader in investing, founding and scaling tech companies born out of a pioneering can-do attitude. The network of fabulous people is well connected globally and super-helpful once you are introduced.”

“Tim Levene was with Railsbank from the beginning, along with Jon Koplin (former head of Google Wallet EMEA and now managing director for EMEA and Russia at Cisco Investments and corporate development). They believed in the fintech infrastructure vision we laid out before them as they could see immediate benefit to other investments they had made and the wider fintech market.

“We chose Moneta to lead our Series A round after Clive Mitchell, Railsbank cofounder, and I had turned down other investors’ term sheets who were not aligned with us personally. We were impressed with the integrity, respectfulness and driving ambition of Meirav Har Noy and Adoram Gaash.”

How has the pandemic affected Railsbank and fintech in general?

“The pandemic has brought a sharper focus on everything fintech. It is the fintech companies that moved rapidly to help those in need at the start of the crisis, when the quick distribution of money was required.

Take the initiative LightningAid as an example. Railsbank’s unique ability to innovate at speed was highlighted with the launch and implementation of LightningAid.org (helping people and businesses survive financially through the pandemic), which went from the idea to the Apple app store in just eight days.”

Where do you see the great opportunities within fintech going forward?

“Fintech has come of age. It is not a question of it being a subdivision of the financial services industry, but the driving force behind the industry, one that is leading with innovative products consumers are demanding. Covid-19 may have brought this into the spotlight, but it has been an ongoing trend for some years now.

“Today’s financial consumer is savvy and aware that they can have more control over their finances. They look to the fintechs to provide them with a sense of freedom and flexibility with their money, something the traditional banking industry cannot provide. Fintechs are powering global financial inclusivity and this is set to continue for many years to come.”

TIM LEVENE, CEO, AUGMENTUM VC, ORIGINAL RAILSBANK ANGEL INVESTOR: “The opportunity for fintech is enormous. The UK has become the centre of gravity globally due to its financial services heritage and forward-looking approach.

Nevertheless, Israel will play an increasingly important role as it leverages its extraordinary expertise developed over the past 20 years in

tech, in particular the areas of fraud, data analytics and cyber. All of those facets are integral to the future of financial services, and collaboration between the UK and Israeli fintech entrepreneur and investor community will continue to grow over the coming 12 months.

“As a specialist fintech investor and CEO of the UK’s only publicly listed fintech fund, we see a huge number of opportunities on an annual basis. I am lucky to have had the opportunity to back Nigel and his team as they continue to make financial services as accessible as possible.”

Tim Levene

Meirav Har Noy

MEIRAV HAR NOY, COFOUNDER & MANAGING PARTNER, MONETA VC

“Moneta Capital is proud to have followed its initial investment into Railsbank and to back the best team globally in Open Finance.

“Railsbank is revolutionising access to banking products allowing any business to become a fintech. Railsbank’s strategic partnership with Visa is powering first-of-its-kind innovation in the US with the launch of credit card as a service. We believe we’ve partnered with a world-class winning team and look forward to a successful 2021.”

www.railsbank.com

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Orthodox Judaism

SEDRA

Torah For Today

Terumah and Zachor

What does the Torah say about: Euan Blair

BY RABBI ALEX CHAPPER As this Shabbat precedes Purim, in addition to the portion of Terumah we read Zachor in which we recall how Amalek was the first to attack the Jews. “Remember what Amalek did to you on the way as you departed from Egypt… you are to erase the memory of Amalek from beneath the heaven. Do not forget.”

It is a mitzvah to hear the words of parshat Zachor; however, the double expression: “Remember – Do not forget” is puzzling; it appears to be an oxymoron, and one of these phrases must be superfluous.

If we remember something we have not, by definition, forgotten it – and vice versa. Perhaps an insight into the subconscious will help us understand. It has been shown that if someone is nervous about falling over and all while they are walking they say to themselves: “Don’t trip over”, the likelihood is they will eventually trip over. The reason is that the unconscious mind does not hear the

BY RABBI ARIEL ABEL

negative “don’t” but only the positive “trip over”.

If the Torah had only said: “Do not forget”, we would probably forget Amalek but, by emphasising the need to remember, it highlights passive connection is insufficient.

We have to actively remember and that is why Zachor is read publicly at least once a year. This applies in all aspects of Jewish life as illustrated in Terumah when it says: “You shall make a sanctuary for Me.” The Sefer HaChinuch explains that spiritual achievement is made, not by contemplation alone, but through engaging in the performance of mitzvot. When we focus our minds on the positive, when we are active and say to ourselves: “I can, I will and I’ll do”, it’s the best way to ensure we always remember who and what we are and never forget.

Rabbi Alex Chapper serves Borehamwood and Elstree United Synagogue

Former Prime Minister Tony Blair’s son, Euan, was revealed to be worth £73million after founding a training company offering alternatives to attending university. So, what does the Torah say about the importance of formal education and success?

What Euan Blair has achieved is essentially becoming a pioneer in formal education. University is not for everyone, and that should not mean there are no other alternatives.

The Torah believes in alternatives that encourage opportunity. One story tells us of a family who wished to celebrate Pesach, the cornerstone of family education. They were not able to as they were bereaved at the time, and so they asked Moses if they could celebrate Pesach after its fixed date. God gave them a second opportunity a month later for them to carry out a seder.

Formal education is instilled at an early age, but late starters are encouraged. Rabbi Akiva only started

to learn the Hebrew alphabet at the age of 40. This means that 1,900 years ago, the Jewish people were well ahead of the game in further education, recognising the value of access to all to study, gain skills and accumulate knowledge.

Thanks to that, and to his wife’s untiring support, Rabbi Akiva rose to such enlightened heights that he became the key link in the chain of tradition without whom the Talmud may well have not come into existence.

Kohelet, Ecclesiastes, attributed to King Solomon, reflects a society steeped in literature and the pursuit of knowledge to the point he warns: “More so, my son, be careful, of making many books there is no end; and too much study wearies the body”.

Solomon composed 3,000 proverbs and 1,005 songs. The prolific endeavours of famous rabbis and lay philosophers, artists, scientists and masters of other disciplines abound disproportionately to the world population.

It’s no surprise that the teacherstudent relationship is the loftiest in Judaism. Moses himself is not known in Hebrew as the lawgiver, but as ‘our teacher’, showing the highest accolade possible in Judaism is paid to education.

Rabbi Ariel Abel serves Liverpool Old Hebrew Congregation and is padre to Merseyside Army Cadet Force

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Progressive Judaism

The Bible Says What?

Every word in the Torah is true… or is it?

Progressively Speaking More than ever, Purim teaches us to embrace an upside-down world

BY RABBI DR RENÉ PFERTZEL It’s the age-old question that never goes away – is the Torah true?

The first part of the introduction to the Bible class I teach to student rabbis deals with the apparent opposition between the traditional commentaries, Midrashic or medieval exegetes, and the historicalcritical approach of the Bible.

The traditional commentaries consider Torah as a divinely inspired word, in which everything is true. Nothing can be erased and all inconsistencies can be explained as a Divine call to use the best of our abilities to understand God’s will.

The scientific approach considers it as a text written by humans, with a history, textual layers, later additions, variants between manuscripts, writing strategies and so on.

Both seem irreconcilable. It is either one or the other. We live in a binary world – if one proposition is true, the other is necessarily false.

And yet, is it possible to read

Torah and be inspired, while at the same time analyse these texts with the tools of Biblical science and still find inspiration? The Bible was not meant to be a theological treatise.

It is a collection of many voices, spanning over several centuries, that can either be considered as a whole, or the accretion of a multitude of traditions put together.

The Bible is a unique text, which had and still has a profound influence on our civilisation. But it is also a text, with its history, layers, different level of interpretations.

Traditional and scientific readings are not in opposition. They respond to different needs and, when done together, the possibilities of readings and inspiration are endless. Truth is not a binary response. It is in the connections a reader makes with a text.

◆ Rabbi Dr René Pfertzel is co-chair of the Conference of Liberal Rabbis and Cantors

BY RABBI DEBORAH BLAUSTEN When the month of Adar arrives, we increase our joy – so teaches the Talmud.

Yet here we are, in the Hebrew month of Adar, and life in lockdown – with an acute awareness of our own mortality – is hardly conducive to the emergence of feelings of joy.

For many of us, Purim last year is when the pandemic reached our communities and approaching this year’s celebration is complicated by the emotions anniversaries bring.

The Purim story is a historical novel. Read by Jewish communities who have, for millennia, lived with and understood Haman-like danger and longed for Esther-like heroism.

Although we see the festival as a children’s story, the heart of the story is inescapably dark, it’s an awfulness that is all too easy to know.

The combination of the horror of the Purim story, and the ideas it confronts, with the levity of celebration tells us something eternal about

how people have coped with the existence of immense challenges.

Purim is a religious acknowledgement that confronting our deepest fears and most difficult experiences is a tricky business.

Outrageousness, laughter and the freedom from social expectations allows for a kind of truth-telling about the brutality of our experience of life that can only occur because of the way it is held within the festival and laced with silliness.

Purim offers a limited release from the heaviness of living with grief and

an awareness of our own mortality.

When everyday life is absurd, Purim is permission to acknowledge the upside-downness of the world rather than trying to carry on as usual, and to have cause to break from routine and expectation.

This year, more than ever, Purim gives all of us an opportunity to offer a religiously-sanctioned, two-fingered salute to the brutal reality of our situation and all of its frustrations.

Refusing to get out of bed, eating cake for breakfast, ‘losing’ all of the passwords to a day of Zoom school, all fit well within the expectation that everything is turned upside down for a day.

This year we don’t need to read the megillah to understand how fragile our lives are, but we can use Purim to remind ourselves a little of the absurd joy of living. ◆ Rabbi Deborah Blausten serves Finchley Reform Synagogue

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Lloyd Platt & Co. Family Law Solicitors

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This week: Resolving disputes outside court, advice for hearing loss and independent living DONIEL GRUNEWALD ADR CONSULTANT

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Dear Doniel My friend is divorcing after a five-year marriage with two children. She and her husband disagree on how to settle issues involving their financial and childcare arrangements. Some relatives are urging her to settle it in court but I’m worried this would be confrontational. Is it her best option?

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JEWISH DEAF ASSOCIATION Dear Sue I have finally admitted to myself that, although only in my early 50s, I have a hearing loss. What advice can you give me?

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Our Experts Do you have a question for a member of our team? Email: editorial@jewishnews.co.uk

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INTERNATIONAL PAYMENTS SPECIALIST

IT SPECIALIST

CHARITY EXECUTIVE

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

ISRAELI ACCOUNTANT

INSURANCE CONSULTANCY

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!

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.

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

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

ALIYAH ADVISER

If you would like to advertise your services here email: sales@ jewishnews.co.uk

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.

ERIC SALAMON Qualifications: • Provides free professional one-to-one advice at Resource to help unemployed into work.

• Offers mock interviews and workshops to maximise job prospects.

• Expert in corporate management holding director level marketing, commercial and general management roles.

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

PALLIATIVE CARE 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, pet disputes, family disputes.

• Frequent broadcaster on national and International radio and television.

POLLY LANDSBERG Qualifications: • Polly has worked in health and social care for more than 35 years.

• Has a degree in nursing and a diploma in health visiting.

• Polly is responsible for the day-to-day management of the palliative and end of life care service.

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

SWEETTREE HOME CARE SERVICES 020 7644 9500 www.sweettree.co.uk polly.landsberg@sweettree.co.uk

YOU’VE GOT IT

You’ve got it in you to find the career that you are searching for but if you need support and guidance in getting there, Resource is here to help you be successful in your job search.

Take the first steps in getting back to work.

Call Resource now to book a chat with an Advisor and see how our free services could help you.

Call us 020 8346 4000 or visit www.resource-centre.org @resourcecharity

@resourcecharity

resource employment advice centre Charity Number 1106331

36

Jewish News 18 February 2021

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18 February 2021 Jewish News

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Fun, games and prizes

THE JEWISH NEWS CROSSWORD 1

2

3

4

5

6

Polished, glossy (5) Desire strongly (5) Unusual, abnormal (5) Watercourse (5) Common, finch-like garden bird (7) 19 Moisture of a tree (3) 20 Overcast, cloudy (4) 21 Capacity for activity (6)

9

10

11

13

14

17

12

15

19

20

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ACROSS 1 Reddish-brown (hair) (6) 4 Carnival (4)

8 ___ Cold in Alex, film starring John Mills (3) 9 Temperature-reducing fluid (7)

E U Z H F S T N A D N O F

22

E D H N P R R L A C E D G I

I

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A T

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L A

G E M B P H B T

E Y S C B

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C E M S T

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C G R

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L E B N K H

I

C G E P I

J W N Y O S

9

FLOWERS FONDANT FRUIT GROOM ICING

LACE MARZIPAN PILLARS RIBBONS SLICE

Last issue’s solutions Crossword ACROSS: 1 Daisy 4 Ivory 7 Squeaky 8 Tor 9 Wad 11 Salami 14 Length 17 Lie 19 One 20 Worrier 22 Sadly 23 Miles DOWN: 1 Disown 2 IOU 3 Years 4 Idyll 5 Optimal 6 Yard 10 Deep end 12 Apt 13 Hearts 15 Gawky 16 Harem 18 Rows 21 Ill

6 3 5 8 1 9 2 7 4

3

4

9

U

22

18

9

25

17

7

22

18

22

23

10

5

12

4

3

3

9

14

R O F

10

5

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26

7

7

2

26

7

2

12

4

2

9

18

15

9

2

22

21

9

9 2 7 1 4 5 8 6 3

8 9 2 6 7 4 1 3 5

4

18

10

8

12

7

22 19

19

26

15

16

8

7

8

7

13

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22

3

3 3 5

22

7

3

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7 18

3

12

3

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3

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12 3

1 14

2

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O

6

7

8

9

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13

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22

R

10

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23

24

25

26

Suguru 5 6 3 7 2 8 4 1 9

10

26

2

12

4

3

12

10

5

5

4

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

F

4 1 8 3 9 6 5 2 7

2

9

19

10 10

18

3

11

7

SPONGE STAND TIERS WHITE

1 7 4 5 3 2 6 9 8

22

5

Sudoku 2 8 9 4 6 7 3 5 1

2

16

16

I

K V L D R C G T E X N T C BELLS BOWS BRIDE CUPID DECORATION

12

4

12

S D

I

26

2

L O W E R S

S L

20

10

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B P L

M L W U S A A T P T

O W D G J

17

L W F O

V S V O

9 21

O R N U A P X N B R

F D N R

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.

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 14, 18 and 22 with their letters in the grid will help you to guess the identity of other letters.

The wedding cake words 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.

7 1 1 4 8 5 9 6 6 3 2 3 5 1

SUGURU

CODEWORD

WORDSEARCH

E K

2 3 8 9 6 1 5 8 8 4 7 7 8 9

DOWN 1 False name (5) 2 Honey-makers’ nest (7) 3 Strewn with boulders (5) 5 Alternatively named (inits)(3) 6 Snitch, tattle (3,2) 7 Human form (4) 12 Consultant (7) 13 Joined like metals (5) 14 Pavement’s border (4) 15 Tree with red berries and foliage in autumn (5) 16 Reimburse (5) 18 Everyone (3)

16

18

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

10 11 13 15 17

7 8

SUDOKU

3 4 6 9 5 1 7 8 2

7 5 1 2 8 3 9 4 6

1 3 2 3 1 2

5 4 1 4 5 3

1 2 3 2 1 4

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

Wordsearch 3 4 1 5 3 2

1 2 3 4 1 4

3 4 5 2 5 2

1 2 3 2 4 1

3 4 5 1 5 2

2 1 2 4 3 4

3 5 3 1 2 1

1 2 4 5 4 3

4 3 1 3 2 1

N L X V G O R A C I S S X

N R A B L R W P O C N Q V

M O O A S C Y T H E E H Q

K T H C M H C D W D H E I

T C R O T A V I T L U C S

A A O J T R P E M S F C O

E R R T P D K S P B A Z W

Codeword U T L I S C H O H R R T N

U E G R O E R O E E M B S

J S G D Y C V C R K E Z L

H C D U Y F R I F S R P S

O A H G U O L P L N E I T

P K Y D W A N I M A L S Y

E X C E L O N O I W G L U T T ON A N R GU T L E S S E L T ME A S U R J S C U I S S U E M G N GR A Z E F L R R I E N C R Y P T

P T O U R I S EM A R O U C K Y

I MUM O A MB E R T T C H Y O R E N T V R QU E E L T H S I A E I OD E L

GK E RMY JWP C A Z D B H X U N T O I V L Q S F18/02

38

www.jewishnews.co.uk

Jewish News 18 February 2021

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

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

ARE YOU BEREAVED? Counselling for adults & children who are experiencing loss. Support groups offered.

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

020 & 8951 3881 • 07765 693 160 CHARITY WELFARE

jewishcare.org/helpline

HOUSE CLEARANCE

E: enquiries@jbcs.org.uk

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

Sheltered Accommodation For further details and forms, We have an open waiting list for ourapplication friendly and comfortable pleasesheltered contact Westlon Housing Association onpeople warden assisted housing schemes for Jewish in Ealing, East Finchley andjohnsilverman@btconnect.com Hendon. We provide 24-hour 020 8201 8484 or email: warden support, seven days a week; a residents’ lounge and kitchen, laundry, a sunny patio and garden.

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

Charity Reg No. 802559

PLUMBSAFE (UK) LTD “Better Safe Than Sorry”

Jami supports and represents people with mental illness across Fast & Efficient House the Jewish community.

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 |

SAFE AND DISCREET PROFESSIONAL PEST CONTROL

Clearance

#jamithinkahead We are reliable, cover all neighbourhoods & suit all budgets.

Give support • Get support • Get involved

We also buy good quality furniture, old books & Judaica.

All NW-London postcodes covered

07860 881505 or 0800 610 12 12

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

Call: 078 060 79299 Reg Charity No. 1003345

Not shabbat

PLUMBSAFEUK.COM

We cover all aspects of pest control for residential and commercial properties.

Are you a Jewish woman experiencing domestic violence?

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

Including mice treatment and mouse proofing with We are here to help1 year guarantee. with free support, advice and information and confidential counselling.

Kosher Refuge available for women and0203 children 405 in need.5000 Email: info@inoculand.co.uk Free Confidential National Helpline 0808 801 0500 Web www.inoculand.co.uk 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 |

All NW-London postcodes covered

07860 881505 or 0800 610 12 12

020 8953 2094 office

Not shabbat

020 8207 3286 home 020 8386 8798 hallandrandallplumbers.com

PLUMBSAFEUK.COM

office@hallandrandall.com

Home & Maintenance

STONEMASON

PROFESSIONAL A. ELFES LTD PAINTING, DECORATING memorials & New PAPER HANGING Additional inscriptions Over & 20renovations years experience Friendly, reliable & Gants Hill service.

Edgware personal

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

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

STEPHEN: 07973 342 422 0207 754 4659 0207 754 4646

www.garygreenmemorials.co.uk

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

18/03/2019 12:50:51

srindsmc@hotmail.com

www.memorialgroup.co.uk

HI

LINE ROOFING

LONDON

& UPVC Fitters

58a Bowrons Avenue, Wembley HA0 4QP

+ " ) "# ,! " Head Office: 145 New Chelmsford CM2 0QT

Rochester House,

"London Road,

Tel: !

# 07773

/

● Fax: 01245 211 001 ● Direct: 102 386 07428 264 454 01245 211 022 ! ) *" " - *'

www.hilineroofing.site123.me

Family run business

London 020 8485 8176

DRIVEWAYS PATIOS AUTOMOTIVE LANDSCAPING FENCING City and Guilds Electrician MOTOR VEHICLES All types of electrical work undertaken BRICKWORK PURCHASED JET WASHING Rewiring, extra sockets, BT points, Economy 7 CLASSIC OR CARS storage heaters, Shabbat time switches, security lighting, NEW ROOFS for vehicles overfinding, 10 CCTVportable appliance LED spotlights, fault tests, years old landlord testspreferably and house buyer’s surveys. ROOF REPAIRS withan low mileage For efficient reliable and friendly service.

UPVC FASCIAS Call Harvey Solomons on UPVC SOFFITS 020 8958 6495 / 07836 648 554 Contact: Anthony – 07850 590415

LOFT CONVERSIONS

!

! # ! " " #

GUTTERING REPOINTING IN THE ADVERTISE PAINTING UK’S BIGGEST PLASTERING NEWSPAPER JEWISH PEBBLE DASHING LESS THAN FOR ELECTRICS A WEEK £24.00 PLUMBING Call Marc today ALL BUILDING WORK on 020 7692 6943 WINDOWS & DOORS

Jewish

FREE ESTIMATES & ADVICE / ALL WORK FULLY GUARANTEED

18 February 2021 Jewish News

www.jewishnews.co.uk

39

Business Services Directory AUTOMOTIVE

SILVER

CARS WANTED (Also vans) CASH TODAY

ADVERTISE IN THE UK’S BIGGEST JEWISH NEWSPAPER FOR LESS THAN

½ HOUR ANYWHERE GOOD CLEAN/DAMAGED HIGH/LOW MILAGE MOT OR NOT £500 MINIMUM £20,000 MAX SMALL FAMILY RUN BUSINESS

£24 A WEEK

Email Sales today at sales@jewishnews.co.uk

07760 752 834 Honest and Reliable OFFICE FURNITURE

LEGACY- LEAVE A GIFT IN YOUR MEMORY

JEWISH WAR VETERANS

Leave the legacy of independence to people like Joel.

& THEIR DEPENDANTS NEED

YOUR LEGACY

Need to furnish your home or office?

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

London’s leading supplier of new and reconditioned furniture.

Free assembly and delivery next working day on most items – call now!

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

Call 0800 559 3917 Email sales@andrewsofficefurniture.com www.andrewsofficefurniture.com

Charity Reg No. 802559

HOME CARE

Secure our

children’s future

Please include

CST in your Will

Charity no. 1042391

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

020 8457 3700

www.cst.org.uk

COMPUTER Legacy advert 84x40.indd 1

07/04/2017 14:47

ADVERTISE IN THE UK’S BIGGEST JEWISH NEWSPAPER FOR LESS THAN

£24 A WEEK

Email Sales today at sales@jewishnews.co.uk

Quality care in your home for independent living.

Outstanding live-in and hourly care in

Providing outstanding care for 20 years based Primrose Hill, HelpingLocally people toin live independently at home

your home at flexible, affordable rates.

PillarCare’s friendly, experienced team have been helping people live

Outstanding live-in andin their hourly care in as independently as possible own homes since 1999. Our fees your home at flexible, affordable rates. are fully inclusive with care service provision 365 days a year.

Outstanding live-in andOutstanding hourly care live-in in and hourly care in find out more 020rates.

7482 2188. your home atToflexible, affordable yourcall home at flexible, affordable rates.

020 7482 2188

pillarcare.co.uk

i e in care ourl

a s a enquiries@pillarcare.co ear

a care

020

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care

22

pillarcare.co.uk 020 7482 2188 www.pillarcare.co.uk | enquiries@pillarcare.co.uk

020 7482 2188

pillarcare.co.uk

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Jewish News 18 February 2021

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18 February 2021 Jewish News

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Jewish News 18 February 2021

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