Issue 1263

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EE

Shtisel stand-in? From lab to lunch!

Israel’s latest must-see TV drama is the perfect distraction P27-29

FREE WEEKLY NEWSPAPER OF THE YEAR 19 May 2022

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18 Iyar 5782

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Issue No.1263

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@JewishNewsUK

Farm-free meat from Israel P32-33

‘I won’t forgive those who enabled abuser’ Campaigner shares frustration and anger as paedophile released

Fletcher also quoted Psalms 27: “When evil men assail me to devour my flesh, it is they, my foes and my enemies, A sexual abuse survivor has who stumble and fall.” expressed her anger after the man who repeatedly exploited her when Grynhaus, now 57, fled to Israel on a false passport, but was finally brought back she was a teenager was released to the UK and convicted in 2015 of several early from prison. counts of serious sexual assault against An application by Justice Secretary two girls in Manchester, aged 13 and 15, Dominic Raab was refused and the for whom he was in a position of care. He Parole Board decided to release Todros was jailed for 13 years and two months. He Grynhaus, sentenced to 13 years in prison in 2015 for abusing her and Abuser: Todros Grynhaus also had to pay one victim £45,000 and the other £35,000 in compensation as well as another teenager.

Yehudis Fletcher, now a campaigner for support for prosecution costs of £35,000. It is not clear if either of victims, has expressed her frustration and anger at his these compensation amounts has been paid in full.

Grynhaus had taught in Jewish schools in Britain release.

“I will never forgive those who enabled his abuse, and abroad before setting up a direct debit manageeither passively or actively, either with their actions or ment business while filling a role as a respected figure within the Charedi community in Salford. their silence,” she said.

Sentencing him, Mr Justice Timothy Holroyde said: Fletcher added: “I was informed an application to the secretary of state for justice for reconsideration of “This was a refined degree of cruelty on your part. You the parole board’s decision to release Todros Grynhaus knew what you were doing and you knew what harm had been refused and was informed that he was to be you would cause.

“You are an utter hypocrite. You professed your relireleased from prison.

“In May 2015, Todros Grynhaus was convicted of gion while cynically condemning your victims to suffer seven offences of serious sexual abuse of two adoles- and giving false evidence seeking to cast blame on them. I cent girls. I was one of them. I am grateful to my chosen have no doubt that you felt able to rely on a prevailing Continued on page 8 family for their unwavering support.”

By Justin Cohen and Toby Porter

THAT FRIDAY FEELING! Ten thousand school pupils, including these high-flying youngsters at Wohl Ilford primary, took part in more than 1,000 initiatives and events, including a virtual escape room, for ShabbatUK. See page 9

BNEI AKIVA UK DELETES ‘MAZELTOV’ TO LESBIAN COUPLE An LGBTQ+ rights row has erupted at Bnei Akiva UK after an engaged lesbian couple’s mazeltov announcement was clumsily deleted from its newsletter, writes Sabrina Miller.

The original version of the weekly bulletin sent to members of the youth organisation wished incoming staff member Anoushka Goldman and member Gila Pearlman “mazel-

tov”. Less than two hours later an amended version was sent, with the mazeltov deleted.

A clarification read: “The incorrect attachment was sent with the previous email. It was a mistake and oversight by a member of the admin staff and was not approved by the mazkirut [leadership team] or Rav Shaliach [advisory rabbi].”

Jewish News understands that discussions took place about whether to publish the mazeltov, with most of Bnei Akiva’s leadership team wanting to include it.

One source said: “Many mazkirut did not support the decision to omit the engagement announcement and feel distressed by the hurt this has caused.” The leaders were report-

edly overruled by the group’s religious authorities.

According to Bnei Akiva UK’s code of conduct it has “a zero-tolerance policy towards anti-social, sexist, racist, homophobic or otherwise negative behaviour”.

The youth organisation describes itself on its website as an Continued on page 8

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Jewish News 19 May 2022

News / CFI reception / Zemmour trial / Chief ’s meeting / Kach status

Patel: Israel shares belief in freedom Priti Patel this week spoke of her “deeply personal” support for the state of Israel and has said the UK remains “unflinching and unequivocal” in its support of the Jewish state, writes Lee Harpin.

In a speech delivered at Conservative Friends of Israel’s annual parliamentary reception, the home secretary also thanked the Israeli ambassador, who was present at the event in Westminster.

Patel praised Tzipi Hotovely for “who you are and what you do” and for the “wider support” she said Israel gives to the UK. Addressing the 140 CFI supporters, including 50 parliamentarians, at Monday’s event, the home secretary said she was a “strong defender” of Israel and emphasised that the UK and Israel both have an “unwavering belief in freedom, democracy and security” as well as “shared values”.

Reflecting on the UK government’s proscription of the Hamas terror group in its entirety last year, she said she is “quite unapologetic” about the decision, noting that it was “not just the right thing to do, [it was] a moral imperative”.

She then spoke of being “united in speaking out and standing up against racism and antisemitism”, adding that “everything we have seen around the BDS movement is racist”.

“We have a prosperous future together, there’s no doubt about that, for centuries to come,” she said. The UK government “will continue to send out the strongest messages around zero tolerance towards terrorist activities, but also towards the type of activities that are aimed and targeted at hurting the State of Israel, Jewish communities and the people of Israel”.

She claimed antisemitism has “infiltrated our politics, our

PRECIOUS STONES

Priti Patel at the Conservative Friends of Israel reception

political dialogue and discourse”, stating that “it is utterly appalling that antisemitism has been on the increase”.

Patel extended her “sympathies and condolences” to the families of the 19 victims of recent “appalling” terror attacks in Israel.

Hotovely praised the home secretary for her work “combating terrorism, fighting all types of extremism and fighting antisemitism”. She said CFI is “always there on the front line to help us to fight BDS” and stands with Israel against the threat from Iran.

Also at the event were CFI parliamentary chairman Lord Pickles, CFI honorary president Lord Polak and CFI chairman Stephen Massey, who all gave speeches.

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ZEMMOUR IS ACQUITTED A court in Paris has acquitted former presidential candidate Éric Zemmour of denying a crime against humanity by saying that a French collaborator with the Nazis had saved most French Jews, writes Michael Daventry.

The Appeals Court last week confirmed a ruling from January by a lower court which said Zemmour was innocent of´the action, Éric Zemmour which is illegal in France.

Several left-leaning anti-racism groups had filed complaints against the politician over his 2019 comments saying that Philippe Pétain, whom the Nazis allowed to administer a part of France after they occupied the country in 1940, had sacrificed foreign Jews living in France to save Jewish citizens.

The issue is divisive because it touches on the question of French complicity in the Holocaust.

Multiple French presidents since Jacques Chirac have acknowledged collaboration by the French government, and public monuments honouring Pétain have been removed across France.

Others dispute that version of history, especially in farright circles and in some far-left ones.

At least one renowned historian, Alain Michel, advocates the theory that some of Pétain’s policies were guided by a desire to save French Jews.

Yet the view held by Nazi hunter Serge Klarsfeld is more widely held. Klarsfeld has called Zemmour’s interpretation “completely false”.

First meeting of Starmer and Mirvis ‘constructive’ Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis has confirmed that he had a “warm and constructive discussion” with Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, including on the need for cross-party support for a Holocaust Memorial, writes Lee Harpin.

The two leaders, who had previously met and spoken only virtually due to Covid restrictions, were photographed together at Starmer’s office in central London on Tuesday.

Mirvis later tweeted that he “met Keir Starmer today for a warm and constructive discussion on Labour’s work to rid the party of antisemitism, the vital importance of Jewish faith schools, the Middle East and the significance of cross-party support for the UK Holocaust Memorial”.

Starmer himself tweeted of the meeting with Rabbi Mirvis: “I’m heartened to receive his appreciation for the progress we’ve made in earning back the trust of Jewish communities.

The Chief Rabbi (left) with Keir Starmer

“Our discussion was representative of our relationship – positive and forward looking.”

Mirvis issued an unprecedented warning ahead of the 2019 election that Corbyn had allowed the “poison” of antisemitism to take root.

Kach taken off terror list A radical Jewish right-wing movement is set to be removed from United States’ list of banned terror groups, along with an Islamic one.

Washington will un-ban the Kach Movement from its list of foreign terrorist organizations (FTOs), according to reports.

The now-inactive movement was banned from run-

ning for elections to the Knesset in 1988 for inciting racism against Israeli-Arabs. It was banned outright in Israel in 1994.

Kach was led by former MK Rabbi Meir Kahane until his assassination in 1990. Its supporter Baruch Goldstein massacred 29 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron in 1994.

It is still designated as a terrorist group by Israel, the European Union, Canada and Japan.

The State Department informed Congress that it will withdraw the designation, which was contested in court by the group, as Kahane Chai “has not been linked to a terrorist attack since 2005”, an official said.

19 May 2022 Jewish News

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Al Jazeera journalist / Lammy accusation/ Israel complaint / News

Britain urges full probe into killing of Al Jazeera reporter

by Michael Daventry mike@jewishnews.co.uk @michaeldaventry

World leaders expressed shock this week after the killing of Shireen Abu Akleh was further marred when Israeli police caused her coffin to topple as they advanced on her funeral cortege.

Britain urged “an immediate, thorough, transparent, fair and impartial investigation” following the Al Jazeera journalist death as IDF forces and Palestinian groups exchanged gunfire in Jenin last week. It remains unclear who fired the fatal shot that killed her.

Israel and the Palestinians remain locked in a war of narratives over the circumstances leading to the journalist’s death, but there has been international uproar at the way Abu Akleh’s funeral was policed.

Violent clashes between Israeli police and Palestinians at the funeral of journalist Shireen Abu Akleh Live television pictures showed Israeli officers beating mourners as they carried Patriarch Pierbattista Pizzaballa, said it was observed also in a public space.” He was speaking her coffin from a hospital to a nearby church in “a severe violation of international norms and alongside 11 Christian leaders based in Israel.

US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken regulations, including the fundamental human East Jerusalem for her funeral.

Israel’s top Catholic clergyman, the Latin right of freedom of religion, which must be saying he was “deeply troubled”, adding: “Every

family deserves to lay their loved ones to rest in a dignified and unimpeded manner.”

In the House of Commons this week, UK government minister Vicky Ford said there was a need for an “immediate, thorough, transparent, fair and impartial investigation”.

Her remarks came in response to an urgent question tabled by Labour’s shadow Middle East minister Bambos Charalambous, who said: “The scenes of violence at the funeral were appalling: Israeli police were seen firing teargas at mourners and attacking them with batons, almost causing the pallbearers to drop the coffin and send it crashing to the ground.”

MPs from all parties criticised Israel over the killing, although Harrow East MP Bob Blackman noted “a concern that we do not know exactly what happened on that terrible day”.

The Tories’ David Jones said: “There can be absolutely no doubt as to what happened at the funeral, when mourners and pallbearers were attacked by Israeli police officers.”

LABOUR DENIES CLAIM Barrister OF TORY DISTRACTION says Israel is targeting journalists Labour has denied its shadow foreign secretary suspects a change to the government’s obesity policy could have been announced to distract from the killing of a Palestinian journalist.

David Lammy said “some suggest that it’s a fair point” after a caller to his LBC talk show claimed “there had been no coverage whatsoever” of the shooting of Al Jazeera’s Shireen Abu Akleh last Wednesday.

The caller added that had the death had “happened to have been an Israeli journalist, happened to have been a Ukrainian journalist, it would have been on the news all day”.

His call to the radio show had been sparked by the seemingly unrelated issue of obesity, and a disclosure by the prime minister to delay a ban on ‘buy one get one free’ deals on junk food and a pre-9pm watershed for TV advertising.

The announcement was the result of a ministerial meeting held last Wednesday to find ways to tackle the cost of living crisis.

Responding to the claim that the shooting of the Al Jazeera reporter was being ignored, Lammy said: “It’s a fair point… It’s not been discussed, this issue [advertising] is dominating the news today. And you are right to ask the question of balance and why is that?

“I think that’s a broader question than here on LBC, where we discuss a range of issues, including that one. Across the channels I know it is an issue.”

Then, in remarks that provoked some dismay on social media, Lammy said: “And some suggest that it’s a fair point that one of the reasons Boris Johnson puts these stories out

Lammy: Reporter’s death ‘not discussed’

is because it means we don’t concentrate on other stories. I think I am going to end there.”

A Labour spokesperson told Jewish News: “On his LBC show, David spoke generally about the Conservative Party’s practice of putting out some headline-grabbing stories to distract from ‘other stories’.

“He absolutely does not believe that the Conservatives announced its U-turn to distract from Shireen Abu Akleh’s tragic death.

“The ‘buy one get one free’ story may, however, have been used to distract from countless negative stories about the Conservative Party’s failure to tackle the cost of living crisis.”

Lammy, MP for Tottenham, was made shadow foreign secretary by Keir Starmer in November 2021. He has been a longtime supporter of Labour Friends of Israel, but has faced criticism from the community over his decision to nominate Jeremy Corbyn as leader.

Appearing at Limmud last December he told the audience he was “sorry” for his “mistake” about Corbyn.

A London-based human rights lawyer has accused Israel of “targeting journalists, which is a war crime, in order to cover up other war crimes”, writes Jenni Frazer.

Jennifer Robinson, of Doughty Street Chambers, is best known in the UK for her defence of Julian Assange.

She is also the legal counsel for the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate (PJS), who have brought a sample complaint against Israel to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague.

At a webinar event on Monday, arranged by the National Union of Journalists, Robinson said there was “a long history of the targeting of Palestinian journalists by Israel… wearing a press vest is a clear indication that you are not fair game.

“Targeting of journalists is not just a human rights violation, it is a war crime.”

Robinson said Shereen Abu Akleh, the Palestinian journalist who was killed in Jenin last week, had been wearing a press vest when she was shot in the head.

But, she said, “this was sadly not an isolated incident”, and though she hoped it would be “properly investigated”, she maintained that “deliberate targeting of Palestinian journalists

by Israel has been going on for a long time”.

In the case brought by the IFJ and PJS and

Al Jazeera reporter Shireen Abu Akleh

the International Centre of Justice for Palestinians to the court at The Hague, Robinson’s legal team specify four named Palestinians – Ahmed Abu Hussein, Yaser Murtaja, Muath Amarneh and Nedal Eshtayeh – who they say were “killed or maimed by Israeli snipers while covering demonstrations in Gaza”. All four, says the complaint, were wearing clearly marked press vests when they were shot.

The complaint was formally acknowledged by the ICC’s prosecutor’s office on 25 April 2022. Robinson said she hoped not only for a full formal investigation and prosecution, but that the case would serve as a template for attacks on journalists in other countries. “This could make a difference to journalists everywhere,” she said. “[A prosecution at The Hague] will be a deterrent for many governments.”

The complaint claims that “at least 46 journalists have been killed [by Israel] since 2000 and no one has been held to account”.

The webinar also covered attacks on journalists in Ukraine and Yemen. The event was hosted by Jeremy Dear, deputy general secretary of the IFJ, and arranged under the auspices of the National Union of Journalists.

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Jewish News 19 May 2022

News / Labour bid / Election concerns

JVL founder bids for key Labour role

by Lee Harpin lee@jewishnews.co.uk @lmharpin

A senior figure in the Jewish Voice For Labour (JVL) group is attempting to get voted onto the Labour Party’s ruling body in internal elections taking place this summer.

Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi, JVL’s media officer and one of the founders of the pro-Jeremy Corbyn group, is listed as a candidate for the election of a representative from a local Labour party to sit on the influential National Executive Committee (NEC).

Also attempting to get elected onto the NEC is Jess Barnard, the Young Labour chair, who has sparked outrage

in the community with a series of provocative social media posts about Israel and attacks on Keir Starmer.

In her candidate statement, Wimborne-Idrissi states: “Let’s face it – the left in the Labour Party is under existential threat.

“The policy gains and the process of democratisation under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership are being jettisoned.

The response has to be solidarity and unity.”

Wimborne-Idrissi had her suspension from Labour overturned over her conduct at a meeting of the Chingford and Woodford Green Labour Party.

She has previously criticised the “unjust” suspension of other left-wing party members over accusations of

Candidate: Wimborne-Idrissi

antisemitism under Keir Starmer’s leadership, including her ally Corbyn.

In her candidate statement, Bernard says: “As Young Labour chair I have

worked relentlessly to champion the voice of young members at one of the toughest moments facing us.”

Wimborne-Idriss and Bernard’s bids to secure a place on the NEC are backed by the hard-left Campaign for Labour Party Democracy (CLPD) group, which has placed the pair on its “slate” of approved candidates for the elections.

Other names being backed by the CLPD include Mish Rahman, who currently sits on the NEC, and who was one of eight individuals to vote against Labour implementing rule changes relating to disciplinary cases that were made a legal requirement for the party to implement following the EHRC’s report into antisemitism.

Elsewhere in this summer’s internal Labour elections, George McManus, who was suspended over a Facebook post in which he accused Tom Watson, the former deputy Labour leader, of receiving money from Jewish donors before adding ‘At least Judas only got 30 pieces of silver’ is standing a candidate for election onto Labour’s National Policy Forum.

This is the body that shapes Labour’s policy agenda on every big issue.

McManus, who has previously been a member of Labour’s National Policy Forum, later posted an apology on Facebook for his 2018 post. His suspension was lifted in 2018.

Tory party urged over councillor LABOUR DESELECTION UPSET

Shahbaz Arif

The Jewish Representative Council of Manchester has urged the Conservatives to launch a “full investigation” into the local party in Bury, after the promotion of a councillor found to have shared an article

attacking the “proIsrael lobby”.

Shahbaz Mahmood Arif shared an article last month, claiming Keir Starmer was in receipt of a £500,000 donation from a “proIsrael lobbyist in leadership bid [sic]” and

was being influenced on issues such as Israel by the donation from Trevor Chinn.

Bury’s Tory leader said the issue over “the selection of shadow cabinet posts” had been “brought to my attention”.

A row has broken out ahead of the selection of Labour’s candidate to fight the crucial by-election in Wakefield, after a panel excluded a former Jeremy Corbyn supporter from a shortlist of four hopefuls.

Deputy council leader Jack Hemingway hoped to become the city’s next MP in a by-election triggered by the resignation of the West Yorkshire city’s disgraced ex-Conservative MP, Imran Ahmad Khan.

In a move that angered left-wing Momentum activists, a panel decided to remove Hemingway’s name, but one Labour source told Jewish News: “Social media posts in support of Corbyn, and questioning the IHRA definition, are not a good look.”

Jack Hemingway

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19 May 2022 Jewish News

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5

Fascist guilty / Ray Hill / ‘Nazi’ trial / News

UK neo-Nazi convicted of being part of fascist group The founder of fascist group National Action (NA) was found guilty this week of continuing to be a member of the neo-Nazi organisation after it was banned, writes Adam Decker.

Alex Davies, described as the “biggest Nazi of the lot”, was convicted following a trial at Winchester Crown Court of being a member of the proscribed organisation after it was banned on 16 December 2016.

The 27-year-old had set up the “continuity group” NS131 with the aim of getting around the ban, which was brought into place after National Action posted “congratulatory” tweets following the murder of MP Jo Cox. Davies, wearing a blue suit and opened-neck white shirt, nodded his head as the majority verdict, agreed by 11 of the jurors with one disagreeing, was announced by the chairman.

Judge Mark Dennis QC adjourned the case for Davies – the 19th person to be convicted of membership of NA – to be sentenced on 7 June at the Central Criminal Court.

He said: “The defendant must appreciate it’s inevitable a custodial sentence will follow.” Barnaby Jameson QC, prosecuting, told the jury that NA had “terrorised” towns across the country with its call for an “all-out race war”.

The group was a throwback to Hitler’s Germany and based its logo and image on the Sturmabteilung – the paramilitary wing of the Nazi party, he said.

Davies, who formed NA while at Warwick University in 2013, told an undercover reporter at the time that he did not want to say what he would do to Jews because it was “so extreme”.

And in 2016 he travelled to Germany where he posed holding an NA flag and giving the Nazi salute in the execution chamber of

ICONIC INFILTRATOR DIES An anti-fascist campaigner who infiltrated far-right groups – even heading one to split the extremist vote – has died, writes Toby Porter.

Ray Hill, originally from Lancashire, joined the South African National Front but recanted his views – and was then so successful in his undercover work, he came to lead the group. He protested about the policies and campaigned against the BNP and Combat 18 on the streets of East London. He also worked to undermine the first ever BNP councillor Derek Beacon, after his short-lived 1993 election in Tower Hamlets Millwall Ward.

Hill also staged rallies outside the plush home of Holocaust denier David Irving and campaigned around the country to stymie any shoots of far-right electoral success.

Born in Manchester, in 1939, in his early years Hill dabbled in far-right politics, joining the Anti-Immigration Movement.

While working in South Africa and engaging with the local Jewish community he recanted his views. He infiltrated the South African National Front, rising to become its leader.

After returning to the UK he infiltrated the British far-right.

In one audacious move, Ray became a founder of the BNP. • Jeremy Newmark, page 24

A Nation Action training camp and, inset, Alex Davies

101-year-old ‘Nazi’ on trial

the Buchenwald concentration camp, causing indignation in the country where Nazi idolisation is illegal.

Following the ban, NA split into regional factions and Davies set up NS131 – which stood for National Socialist Anti-Capitalist Action – to cover the southern part of the country and which itself was later banned by the Government. Comparing the two groups, Mr Jameson said: “The same name – National Socialist Anti-Capitalist Action (NS131) – take out the three middle words and you are left with a big clue: National Action.

Matthew Collins, head of intelligence at anti-fascist campaign group Hope not hate, said: “Davies has had his finger in the pie of far-right terror for nearly 10 years.”

Prosecutors are demanding a five-year sentence for the oldest person ever to be charged with Nazi war crimes.

The 101-year-old claims he was not involved in mass murder at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, in a northern suburb of Berlin.

He is charged with involvement in the murders of 3,518 people from 1942-45, when

it was liberated by the Soviet army. Prosecutors claim he “knowingly and willingly” participated in state-sponsored murder while working as a guard there. Even if convicted, he is unlikely to be jailed because of his age.

Allegations against him include deployment of “poisonous gas Zyklon B”. A verdict is expected next month.

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Jewish News 19 May 2022

Jewish News meets... Tom Tugendhat

‘We need right team t support of the Jewish Tom Tugendhat, tipped by some as the next Conservative leader, tells Lee Harpin the party needs to start delivering for all UK communities A leading Conservative MP has insisted that the party must have “the right team to carry the message” after accepting there is a need to win back lost support within the Jewish community and elsewhere after this month’s local election results.

Tom Tugendhat, chair of the influential foreign affairs select committee, said results for the Tories, including the loss of councils such as Barnet in north London, were “frankly, quite difficult to hear”.

Asked about criticism of Boris Johnson’s performance as prime minister, heard from some within the community, the MP said: “It’s an issue that comes up quite frequently, and comes up more in some places than others, but it does come up everywhere.

“The reality is we need to demonstrate consistently that we have the right team to carry the message to the United Kingdom.

“This isn’t about individuals, the prime minister or a minister or whatever. It’s about whether or not we are delivering.

“And I think the reason this comes up more today is because people feel we are not, whether that’s on our tax rates, which are at the highest level for 70 years, the cost of living, which is putting huge pressure on families.

“I am proportionately well paid, and I can tell you, I am feeling it.”

In a revealing interview with Jewish News, the MP for Tonbridge and Malling in Kent added: “I think what we need to do is start delivering and the Jewish community is not different than any other community in the UK. “People care about homes, about the cost of living, opportunities for their families and young people.

❝

LABOUR UNDER CORBYN OPENED A DOOR ON THAT MANY FEEL IS NOT CLOSED

Tom Tugendhat while working as an intelligence officer serving with the Royal Marines

“We need to start delivering on things, we need to deliver on growing our economy, on housing opportunities for young people to start families.

“And, as far as I am concerned, on lower taxes and the opportunity to grow business.”

Tugendhat, 48, who has been tipped by some as the next leader of the Conservatve Party, said the local election results also showed “nobody went into the elections with a love of the Labour Party”.

Although he then added: “That does not necessarily make our position better.”

Asked if he felt that Keir Starmer’s pledge to root out antisemitism from his party had been successful, Tugendhat said initially:

“You need to ask somebody in Labour to comment on the Labour Party.” But he added: “The Labour Party, of which many people who were in there then are still in there now, tried to push an antisemite into Number 10, and have opened a door on antisemitism that many of us feel is not closed.”

Tugendhat said his vision of a more positive path for the Conservatives involved “making sure people have as much control of their lives as they possibly can”.

He said the “quickest thing” his party could do now was to deal with questions around lowering tax and VAT on fuel.

“We can lower tax on individuals to help pay the bills. We’re seeing income tax rising,

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so-called fiscal lags, when people are paying higher rates”, he said. “We do have opportunities to look differently at this and I hope very much we will.”

Addressing the housing crisis facing the country, Tugendhat praises the proposals recently outlined recently by levelling up secretary Michael Gove.

He also highlighted the experiences of the Charedi community in densely populated areas such as Stamford Hill.

The former journalist and public relations consultant said: “You don’t need me to tell you that there are various communities who, for Shabbat reasons, need to be within each other and a synagogue or whatever but who have taken to building extra storeys on what would normally be standard UK semis.

“There are various ways of adding extra storeys to houses that could be perfectly reasonably done, if locally communities agree to it.

“What you are doing there is intensifying the density of the community, increasing the housing stock, but you are doing it with the consent of the community living there, and I think that’s an important thing to do.”

Tugendhat added: “Density does not mean poor-quality housing... good architecture can

19 May 2022 Jewish News

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Jewish News meets... Tom Tugendhat

o retain the community’ make dense housing into places we want to live. I think there’s where we want to get to.”

A former soldier, who had served in both the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, Tugendhat has long been viewed as a formidable expert in foreign policy and relations.

It is worth recalling that under his leadership of the foreign affairs select committee, a May 2018 report into Russian corruption and the UK had drawn attention to the ability of President Putin and his allies to launder assets through London.

At the time it called on the UK government to “show stronger political leadership in ending the flow of dirty money into the UK”.

Today, Tugendhat says he is “astonished” at “how bad” tactically the Russian military invasion of Ukraine has been.

“When you think about it, this is the product of 30 years of corruption and failure at the top,” he says, accessing Vladimir Putin’s brutal, but inept, war strategy.

“I am in no doubt the Russians are about to be defeated,” he adds. “The Ukrainian people will be able to be free.”

Tugendhat, a name that stems from the MP’s grandfather who was grew up in Vienna, Austria, as a Jew, before converting to Catholicism to marry, also concedes that he has also been left appalled by Putin’s repeated claim that he has engaged in a battle of de-Nazification of Ukraine.

He says he was “most shocked recently” after Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov claimed that Nazi leader Adolf Hitler “had Jewish blood”.

The Russian made the comments to try to justify Putin’s portrayal of Ukraine as “Nazi” despite the fact Volodymyr Zelensky is Jewish.

“Those of us who know what real Nazis look like look at President Zelensky, who not only is Jewish, but whose three great uncles were killed by the Nazis, while his great and his grandfather survived the war,” observes Tugendhat.

“It would be laughable if it wasn’t so grotesque and insulting. It’s very worrying that these phrases are being used.”

Asked if he is surprised that there has not been a greater show of anti-Putin sentiment among the Russian people, he said: “I think the reality is the one thing about being a dictator is the violent and paranoid dictatorship.

“He has killed a lot of people who have been prepared to challenge him.”

Asked if he believed Putin would be able to survive after the war was over, Tugendhat added: “I don’t know, that’s a matter for the Russian people.”

As for repercussions for those responsible for the war ,he added: “I think that those who committed war crimes should be taken to [the International Criminal Court in] the Hague.

❝

The Ukrainian government has already begun war crime trials on Russian soldiers who have raped and murdered in Ukraine. It’s very important.”

With Putin’s barbarism in Ukraine continuing to dominate the headlines, Tugendhat accepts that it has been harder to publicise his relentless and fearless crusade against the Chinese government’s human rights abuses against the Uyghur Muslim population.

“I think calling it out is essential,” he says, praising the “really important” Jewish News campaign highlighting the same issue.

“You don’t need to see the scenes of the trains and the camps to have the echo. flashing strongly through your mind. It’s not the same, but there are echoes. And it leaves a lot of us feeling very uncomfortable.”

Within the community, Tugendhat has long attracted much good will for his continued strong support for the state of Israel.

He praises Israel’s current fragile coalition government as “extraordinary”, saying it has “focused on doing what a really good government should do, fixing roads, fixing the hospitals and the schools”.

He “of course” backs the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Bill, in the Queens Speech aimed at preventing local councils from singling out Israel for divestment policies, in support of the Palestinians.

And Tugendhat has no time for those who suggest that there is a contradiction between calling for sanctions against China for human rights abuses while stopping those arguing for similar actions in support of the Palestinians.

“I don’t see that for very clear reasons,” he said, of such an argument. “It is simply not true to describe the actions in Palestine as the actions in China in the same breath. It is just not accurate.”

He is similarly dismissive of those who suggest that Israel cannot carry out a fair and independent investigation into incidents such as last week’s killing of the Al Jazeera reporter Shireen Abu Akleh while working in the West Bank. He said he did not feel the need to call for an independent investigation into the death.

“The reality is Israel is a vibrant democracy, and the reality is there are many MKs who are already calling for one. “ He said he had not had the opportunity to look at the scenes at Abu Akleh’s funeral enough to offer a view on the Israeli police forces’ conduct, but added: “I do know the judiciary in Israel is famously independent.

“In fact its the only judiciary in the Middle East where a head of state has been sent to prison, and the judge presiding happened to be an Arab as well.

“Which is quite telling about Israeli democracy and the rule of law.”

THE RUSSIANS ARE ABOUT TO BE DEFEATED. UKRAINE WILL BE FREE

Tugendhat says stronger leadership is needed to end the flow of dirty money into the UK

ADORED WRITER KAY MELLOR DIES, AGED 71 Kay Mellor, who wrote hit television series British television has lost one of its greats.”

Mellor began her career writing plays. She including Girlfriends, Band Of Gold, The Syndicate and Fat Friends died on Sunday, aged 71, also worked on Coronation Street and created the award-winning children’s drama Children’s writes Louisa Walters.

She grew up in a Leeds in a council semi with Ward. She also wrote BBC One’s women’s her divorced mother Dinah and then, later, her football series Playing The Field and in 2010 stepfather Abe Harris, an upholsterer. There received an OBE. Bafta-nominated series Fat Friends focused wasn’t much money to lavish Kay and her brothers Robert and Philip but she spoke fondly on the members of a slimming group in Leeds, and starred James Corden, Ruth Jones, of her “idyllic childhood.”

Alison Steadman and Mellor’s The family didn’t pay much lip seryoungest daughter, Gaynor Faye. vice to their Judaism but one thing Faye has also starred in Coronathey always observed was Passover. tion Street, Emmerdale and The Kay always said she felt Jewish Chase on BBC One, a series and was not afraid to speak up in which she co-wrote with her defence of her religion. She marmother. ried her husband Anthony in Mellor appeared on BBC 1968. They have two daughters Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs and four grandchildren. in 2017 and chose The BeauRuth Jones, who starred as tiful South’s Perfect 10, the Fat Kelly Chadwick in Fat Friends, Friends theme tune, as one of her said: “I am completely shocked soundtracks, saying: “Every time I to hear the news of Kay’s untimely heard that I used to get excited death. Her contribution to British and get butterflies. It was such television was outstanding and Kay Mellor OBE at a lovely time of my life, it was a I feel privileged to have worked Buckingham Palalce drama that was really imporwith her. Such a down-to-earth, funny, big-hearted person whose brilliance tant to me because I thought I had something to lay in seeing the extraordinary in the day-to- say about weight and body image.”

Sir Lenny Henry, who starred in the third day. She was a great mentor to me when I first started writing – and always hugely encour- series of The Syndicate, based on a group of lotto aging of new writers – a real testament to the winners, tweeted: “I found her to be incredibly idea of paying it forward. Fat Friends was a creative, funny and instinctive. She knew what massive turning point in my career and I will be she wanted and knew how to get the best from eternally grateful to her for what she did for me. us as actors. She will be missed.”

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Jewish News 19 May 2022

News / Israeli donor / Attacker’s release / Bnei Akiva

Tory donation claim ‘is a lie’ The Israeli-born former treasurer of the Conservatives Sir Ehud Sheleg has said he is the victim of an “outrageous distortion” over claims a £450,000 donation to the party originated from a Vladimir Putin “ally”.

A New York Times report claimed the donation, in 2018, was later flagged to the National Crime Agency. The report alleged that Barclays Bank believed the donation had originated from Sheleg’s father-in-law Sergei Kopytov.

The Ukrainian had worked in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, under pro-Russian president Viktor Yanokovych, before being a minister in the Kremlin-backed Crimea government prior

Sir Ehud Sheleg was Tory Party co-treasurer

to annexation. He left Ukraine as war broke out and is now in the Czech Republic.

Art dealer Sheleg was appointed cotreasurer of the Tories under Theresa May, remaining in the post under Boris Johnson. He left his post last year having donated £3.8 million to the party.

On Tuesday Labour chair Anneliese Dodds told the Commons the £450,000 donation “appeared to have originated from his fatherin-law, Sergei Kopytov, a former senior proKremlin politician in Ukraine”.

The New York Times said an alert in January 2021 had claimed Kopytov transferred £2 million to an offshore account linked to a Sheleg family trust via a series of seemingly inactive accounts belonging to Sheleg and his wife, Kopytov’s daughter Liliia Sheleg. A month later, the money was moved to a UK account shared by the couple, and a day later, the donation of £450,000 was made to the Conservatives.

But a statement issued on behalf of Sheleg by his lawyer said: “The NYT’s allegations are a fabrication... The facts are that Mr Kopytov, Sir Ehud’s father-in-law, is a Ukrainian victim and is no Putin ‘ally’. Mr Kopytov has not made a donation to the Conservative Party, whether through Sir Ehud or by any other means.”

ANGER AT RELEASE OF SEXUAL ABUSER Continued from page 1 attitude of insularity which you hoped would prevent these allegations from ever coming to the attention of the police. You hoped that, at worse, you might have to pay a form of financial penalty as directed at the Beth Din. “You believed that the combination of the girls’ sexual ignorance and the attitudes of some within your community would make it even harder for your victims to complain about you, and you came close to getting away with it.

“Even when the allegations were reported to the police, I am afraid the evidence I have heard shows that many in your community were taken in by your lying protestations of innocence.

“Others will have to examine their own consciences, and should reflect that, but for the courage of your two victims your serious crimes would have gone unpunished.”

When confronted about the allegations – in front of his wife – by community leaders, he responded by saying: “What would you like me to do about it?”

Grynhaus was referred for therapy and the crimes were not reported to police for another two years.

After he was arrested and charged, he appeared in court but was granted bail and fled to Israel on a false passport.

He was held there for attempting to enter the country fraudulently. After 18 months in an Israeli prison he was deported to England and eventually stood trial in January 2015.

After a jury failed to reach a verdict, he was convicted at a second trial in May. Described as “dangerous” and “highly manipulative”, Grynhaus molested the girls when they were between the ages of 13 and 16 between 2002 and 2005.

On more than one occasion, he forced the girls to perform sex acts on him. He also inappropriately touched the girls.

The Parole Board’s decision to release him, announced in March, can only be reversed if it is deemed to be “irrational”. Raab had asked for him to be kept in prison as long ago as May 2021.

Yehudis Fletcher: survivor and campaigner

In its response to Raab’s application, released on 10 May, Chitra Karve said: “I do not consider that the decision was irrational and accordingly the application for reconsideration is refused.

“The panel made a thorough assessment of risk, risk factors and protective factors, it took evidence from all witnesses, it carried out a weighing exercise with respect to any matters it disputed with the professional witnesses and investigated the risk management plan.

“I can see from the decision letter that the panel fully documents the assessments provided by all the professional witnesses… the forensic psychologist and the community offender manager.

“These matters are not an exact science and in my view nowhere near the test for irrationality.”

The panel that heard the case on 9 February 2022 consisted of a judge, a psychologist and an independent member. The hearing, held via a video link, was given details of Grynhaus’s offending, reports from psychologists, his prison and community offender managers and his legal representatives. The panel also heard one of the victims read out their Victim Personal Statement.

Bnei Akiva ‘needs to treat all with dignity’

WE PROTECT

Continued from page 1 “inclusive youth movement” where “everyone is welcome”.

Joe Hyman, a Jewish LGBTQ+ activist who worked with Bnei Akiva UK to welcome LGBTQ+ people into the movement, told Jewish News: “Bnei Akiva UK has made huge strides in recent years thanks to young LGBTQ+ Jews courageously sharing their experience and staying within the movement.

“It’s now time that those who have given their lives to the movement are treated with the full dignity of their peers.”

Referring to the deleted mazeltov announcement, Hyman added: “Creating an environment, where young people are partially included up to the point they find someone to love and build a family with, will

inevitably lead to deep pain and estrangement from the movement.”

Jewish News has contacted Bnei Akiva for comment. Goldman and Pearlman declined to comment.

Earlier this year two Bnei Akiva UK emissaries, including Bnei Akiva’s Rabbi, Rav Joel, met with Israel politician and “proud homophobe” Bezalel Smotrich.

At the time Bnei Akiva UK distanced itself from the meeting, stating: “This went ahead without our knowledge and the Shlichim [representatives] attended in an individual capacity. As a movement we would like to reaffirm our values of Ahavat Yisrael, encouraging inclusion and acceptance of all, and rejecting all forms of racism, homophobia and hate.”

19 May 2022 Jewish News

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Shabbat UK 2022

Shabbat back with a bang Thousands of events heralded the return after three years of the UK’s largest mass-participation Jewish event, ShabbatUK, last weekend.

More than 10,000 school children took part in Challah Makes, competitions, and a Shabbat virtual escape room at schools.

Health secretary Sajid Javid and deputy opposition leader Angela Rayner competed in a Challah Bake Off, and were among the 8,000 who took part in plaiting and baking.

At the LoveLoveChallah challenge, the most creative design won a six-month supply of fresh bread.

Another 6,000 Jewish primary children across the country learnt an

Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis helps youngsters celebrate ShabbatUK at the Aleph Learning Centre

upbeat version of Dror Yikra to sing at their own Shabbat table at home.

ShabbatUK also provided Shabbat Packs to 8,000 children to use at home, as well as communal meals to communities across the country.

The induction of Rabbi and Rebbetzen Kurzer, cancelled in March 2020, and the Seudah Shlishit,

attended by more than 170 people, were the highlights of Shabbat UK for Pinner Synagogue.

Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis attended events in Hendon, Finchley, Mill Hill, Edgware, Belmont and Pinner.

He said the atmosphere of the weekend was “electric” and had left

him feeling “hugely inspired.

The reports coming in from right around the country are of incredible events and transformative experiences.”

He added: “I would urge everyone to remember that there are another 51 Shabbatot in the year!”

Above and left: school participants

Lord Sacks is honoured in synagogue renovation The late Chief Rabbi Lord Sacks has been honoured at his former shul’s renovation.

Golders Green Synagogue held a special reception on Sunday to dedicate its newly renovated programming and social spaces to two former stalwarts of the community, Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks and Jonathan Davies.

Rabbi Sacks, who died in November 2020, was the community’s rabbi between 1978 and 1982.

He returned to Golders Green with his wife, Lady Elaine, after his retirement in 2013.

Lady Elaine continues to be a cherished member of the community. Jonathan Davies was the community’s financial representative for many years and gave countless hours of his time to the community’s great benefit.

Following his death in 2021, Davies left a generous legacy to the community, which helped to kickstart the building project.

The opening of the new programming and social spaces is the culmination of an “ambitious” building project to completely restore and refurbish the dilapidated building and create brand new spaces at the rear of the upstairs gallery and to accommodate a growing membership and youth and children’s provision needs.

The project was particularly complex given that the shul is a grade II-listed building. The community raised £270,000 for the project through generous donations and legacies.

The reception was attended by Lady Elaine and Neil Davies, brother of Jonathan, as well as members of the shul leadership and community.

Mezuzot were installed by Rabbi Dr Harvey Belovski, senior rabbi of the community, and Naomi Verber, a former chair of the synagogue who designed and led the building and renovation project.

The Rabbi Lord Sacks Atrium and the Jonathan Davies Room will be put to immediate use for youth and children’s programmes on Shabbat and Yom Tov. The synagogue said the unique spaces will also be available in due course for other events and for function hire.

Joel Clark, chair of Golders Green Synagogue, said: “I am absolutely delighted that we have been able to complete this ambitious renovation project, which has completely transformed our tired and dilapidated grade II-listed building into a sanctuary of great beauty and splendour.

“Dedicating some of our new space to Rabbi Lord Sacks and Jonathan Davies has brought extra meaning to the project, enabling us to recognise their extraordinary contribution to our community over many years.”

Rabbi Belovski said: “It was a great privilege to place mezuzot on the entrances to our new spaces, dedicated to the memories of my teacher Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, an outstanding leader of our community and world Jewry and our former treasurer and loyal servant of our community, Jonathan Davies.”

He added: “These new spaces, together with the striking redecoration throughout the building, enhance the community’s provision and contribute to its multi-faceted role at the heart of Golders Green.”

YOUR LEGACY Protecting and securing the Jewish community in the UK against antisemitism is what we do. From the streets of London in the 1950s through to the hate-filled internet chatrooms of today, CST will leave no stone unturned in the fight against those who wish to do us harm. This is not something that we can do without your ongoing and long-term support.

A legacy to CST will ensure that our community is not only protected against the continuous threat of antisemitism but is also given the security necessary to flourish in the future.

Contact us on 020 8457 3700 or email legacy@cst.org.uk.

Community Security Trust is a registered charity in England and Wales (1042391) and Scotland (SC043612).

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Jewish News 19 May 2022

News / Book adaptation / Football racism / News briefs

POLICE DETAIN TWO OVER ‘NAZI SALUTE’ Fan bigotry at Premier League matches last Sunday show that “hate is alive and well within football”, according to the sport’s main anti-racism body, writes Toby Porter.

Two Burnley supporters were Nazi salute at football match arrested after one was videoed making a Nazi salute action is taken against all those towards supporters of home involved.

“Our support goes out to team Tottenham during Spurs’ the victims. We will not stop defeat of the Clarets.

Two Brentford players, fighting until hate is eradiRico Henry and Ivan Toney, cated from our sport. Football also reported members of is a game for everyone.”

In footage shared on social their family had been racially abused at their game against media, one Burnley fan performs a Nazi salute towards Everton at Goodison Park. supporters while Kick It Out’s head of player Spurs engagement Troy Townsend another man stands next to said: “The events of the him in the away section preweekend once again highlight tended to sob. Stewards then the fact that hate is still alive stepped in to remove the two men from the stadium foland well within football.

“Everton, Burnley and Tot- lowing complains from Tottenham all acted swiftly and tenham supporters.

Tottenham said the club we commend their energy in addressing these incidents. We would be supporting police hope appropriate and decisive with their investigation.

Baddiel promises TV doc surprises David Baddiel has said a television documentary based on his acclaimed Jews Don’t Count polemic will offer “surprising” differences from the book, writes Lee Harpin.

The comedian and author is currently in New York filming part of the 75-minute documentary for Channel 4 and reveals that it will “have many other voices apart from my own on it”.

The programme, which is due to be aired in the autumn, is being made by presenter Louis Theroux’s production company Mindhouse.

Baddiel told Jewish News: “I’m somewhat constrained

by Channel 4 at the minute, but one thing that will be different is it will have many other voices apart from my own on it, including some surprising ones, discussing the issue with me, some of them agreeing, some arguing.

“I might even use the word Talmudic. If I’d read the Talmud.”

The book Jews Don’t Count was praised for its assessment of how anti-Jewish racism was often overlooked by those who consid-

Leaders prepare for TED-style shul talks The Chief Rabbi is to join senior rabbis and rebbetzins for an evening of what organisers say will be “short, powerful talks from some of the greatest thought leaders in Anglo Jewry”.

The S&P’s Senior Rabbi Dweck, Golders Green’s Rebbetzen Dr Hadassah Fromson, South Hampstead’s Rebbetzen Lauren Levin and Aish UK’s Rabbi Daniel Rowe will speak for 15 minutes in the style of TEDtalks.

The Chief Rabbi will also lead a talk. It takes place this Sunday at Hampstead Synagogue.

MP Ghani speaks at Muslim-Jewish meet

David Baddiel: ‘Talmudic’

ered themselves anti-racists. In a age of identity politics, Baddiel argued that Jews were often overlooked as being a minority.

Describing himself as a Jewish atheist, Baddiel has removed himself from any involvement in the Israel/Palestine debate.

Jewish News first revealed plans for the TV version of Jews Don’t Count in an interview with Baddiel and his brother Ivor in April.

A former government minister has expressed her horror that women are being targeted in global conflicts, at a summit for Jewish and Muslim women. Nusrat Ghani MP told the annual Nisa-Nashim conference “women are the collateral damage” amid the plight of Afghani, Uyghur and now Ukrainian women. The conference is the largest of its kind in Europe and brings Jewish and Muslim women together from across the UK.

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19 May 2022 Jewish News

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Mizrachi UK together with Bushey United Synagogue invite you to a memorable evening of prayer, song & celebration for

YOM YERUSHALAYIM Sunday 29 May 2022

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Jewish News 19 May 2022

Special Report / American abortion debate

‘Being pro-choice is part of my Jewish activism’ More than 1,000 American Jews took to streets of Washington in support of abortion rights, writes Julia Gergely SPECIAL REPORT A few hundred people were expected to attend Tuesday’s Jewish Rally for Abortion Justice in Washington DC. That all changed earlier this month, when a leaked draft emerged of a Supreme Court decision that would overturn Roe v Wade, the 1973 court case that protected legalised access to abortion in the United States.

Instead of a standard end-ofconference gathering, the crowd on the National Mall, near the Capitol, swelled to more than a thousand Jews from New York, Washington, Chicago and across the country, and even Israel, who used the rally to express their outrage and find solidarity across their Jewish communities.

“Fighting for women’s rights has been a part of my Jewish activism my whole life,” said Laura Weil, who came to the rally with her Virginia synagogue. “I came to guarantee rights for my one-year old granddaughter and for her mother, my daughter, to be able to decide if and when she’ll continue to grow her family.”

Polls show that American Jews favour abortion rights more than any other religious group, although Orthodox groups tend to favour more restrictions on abortion than the liberal Jewish majority.

Sheila Katz, CEO of the National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW) and organiser of the rally, said she had expected, or suspected, the Supreme Court’s draft ruling for some time.

“But seeing it in the writing, and seeing the complete disregard for women and people who can get pregnant, was just devastating,” she said.

Katz added that the decision to overturn Roe v Wade is “not only just a deeply Jewish issue, but also a religious freedom issue”.

For Allison Bell the decision to attend the rally was clear. “If we say we’re pro-choice and we’re not

Activists make their voices heard at this week’s National Council of Jewish Women rally in Washington

standing up and showing up for this, then what do we stand for?” she said.

“This is what is important to stand up for over everything going on in my life – for me and for my daughter.”

Once at the rally, the mood was energetic, with lots of hugs shared between old friends and acquaintances. Some, however, spoke of anger that they were still rallying for a woman’s right to an abortion — for the second, third, or umpteenth time.

“Being pro-choice was the first political issue I remember feeling a side for, when I was maybe 12,” said

Lisa Mackem, who came from Virginia with Temple Rodef Shalom.

Homemade signs invoked the memory of late Jewish Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a pioneer in women’s rights, and emphasised the idea that access to abortion is consistent with Jewish belief, which was a major theme reiterated by several of the speakers.

“Judaism permits abortion and requires it when the life of a pregnant person is at risk,” Katz said on stage.

“Religious freedom is meant to be a shield to protect people of minority

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faith communities, not a sword to discriminate against us. The only way we can truly have religious freedom in this country is if every person can make their own decisions for their body, their life and their future.”

The rally was originally scheduled to be held on the steps of the Supreme Court, where, in past years, NCJW lobbied members of Congress on social justice issues. This year, because of newly placed barricades on the steps of the court, the rally was moved to a lawn on the National Mall.

Though organised by NCJW, the rally was co-sponsored by more than 150 Jewish synagogues and organisations.

Another of the rally’s main goals was to emphasise how diverse the support for abortion access is, highlighting both interdenominational and interfaith solidarity. Rabbis from

every major denomination spoke on stage, all part of NCJW’s Rabbis for Repro initiative, a group of clergy who have pledged to speak up for reproductive justice in their congregations.

“Halacha [Jewish law] believes that life does not begin at conception,” said Rabbi Dov Linzer, the head of Yeshivat Chovevei Torah in the Bronx. “In some cases, it is your religious duty to have an abortion. [Guaranteeing abortion access] is an issue of religious freedom.”

Katz said the religious freedom issue was precisely why a Jewishoriented rally was necessary, even as big, secular rallies and marches were held over the weekend. “For too long, a small but loud group from the religious right has claimed the narrative on faith and abortion,” she said. “That narrative is simply not true. For too long, Jews have been ignored as part of the conversation, and the only way we can counter a faith narrative is with a faith narrative.”

19 May 2022 Jewish News

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NUS concerns / Political speakers / News

Government halts all contact with the NUS The government has suspended contact with the National Union of Students (NUS) amid long-standing concerns about antisemitism.

Universities minister Michelle Donelan has ordered the NUS to be removed from all the Department for Education (DfE) departmental groups and replaced with alternative student representation.

She has requested the DfE’s arm’s-length bodies, such as the Office for Students, to take similar action and said that the NUS would receive no government funding.

Last month the union announced it was opening itself up to an independent investigation following a wave of complaints by Jewish students. However, the DfE said these must lead to “substantive action” and the decision to disengage from the NUS would be kept under review “as the organisation demonstrates it has suitably addressed these issues”.

Donelan said: “I am horrified by the thought of Jewish students feeling ostracised by an organisation which should be a voice for their community and an advocate of equality

New National Union of Students president Shaima Dallali

for all students. Although this was a decision the department did not take lightly, we have been clear that antisemitism must be stamped out of the sector and are treating these allegations with the utmost seriousness.” Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi said he was “seriously concerned” at the number of reports of alleged antisemitism linked to the NUS. “Jewish students need to have confidence this is a body that represents them, and we need to be sure the student bodies we engage with are speaking fairly for all students, which is why we are disen-

gaging with the NUS until the issues have been addressed,” he said.

Following the launch of its investigation, the NUS said it would appoint a QC, in consultation with the Union of Jewish Students (UJS) to conduct the inquiry.

A UJS spokesperson said: “We will continue to be part of an ongoing consultation with NUS to help facilitate an effective, independent investigation into antisemitism and we appreciate their ongoing engagement and hope that it leads to positive change for Jewish students.”  Editorial comment, p20

LOACH TO HEADLINE SCHOOL EVENT Film-maker Ken Loach has been lined up as the Unite union’s headline speaker at an annual political school event for the organisation’s most promising young recruits.

Loach, who was expelled from the Labour Party last year over his membership of a proscribed group that downplayed antisemitism claims, will appear at the Unite Political

School event in Durham, which runs between 7 and 9 July.

The I, Daniel Blake director is billed as the “great socialist film maker” for an event whose previous graduates included Laura Pidcock, the outspokenly pro-Jeremy Corbyn former MP, who quit Labour’s ruling NEC earlier this year.

One Unite insider told Jewish News: “It’s appalling

someone involved in leading Labour Against the Witchhunt, a group that was at the forefront of excusing antisemitism and making Labour a hostile environment for Jewish members, is the headline speaker for an event supposed to prepare activists for political leadership roles.”

Jewish News contacted Unite for comment.

SPURS STARS RECALL CUPS Tottenham Hotspur fans reminisced with former players Martin Chivers, Pat Jennings, Alan Mullery and Steve Perryman at JW3.

The event commemorated the 50th anniversary of Spurs being the first British club to win two major European trophies.

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Jewish News 19 May 2022

News / Green schemes / Charity fundraisers

Donations sought to help plant first Jewish forest Call it turning over a new leaf, or branching out, but the United Synagogue (US) wants you to help plant the UK’s first Jewish forest, writes Toby Porter.

It’s the ultimate altruistic act – planting a tree whose shade you know you’ll never sit under.

Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis wants members to safeguard the planet’s future by contributing to the Norfolk project – and to mark the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.

Trees for the first communal Jewish forest can be bought online via the United Synagogue website – you do literally need to log on.

They will be planted and maintained by the Woodland Trust.

Each tree is £20 – and if a community collectively buys more than 750 trees, they will be planted together in a dedicated grove.

Mirvis said: “Planting trees goes to the heart of what our Dorot projects are about. Unlike other changes we can make for the sake of the environment, where the onus is on refraining from doing

something, this is a positive way to take action for the future. Whether you wish to mark a simcha, commemorate a loss or express your gratitude to the Queen, planting a tree is an environmentally conscious act from which we all benefit.”

Naomi Verber, the US’ head of environmental policy, said: “This project will honour the Queen and create a lasting legacy.

Trees can make great thank you presents and can be a meaningful memorial to remember a loved one.”

‘Plant a Tree for the Trees being planted near Golders Green Synagogue Jubilee’ is the latest project from Dorot, the environmental woods and trees are one of the make us physically healthier and initiative launched by the Office best ways to tackle the climate improve our mental wellbeing.

“We can’t wait to welcome the of the Chief Rabbi and the US ear- crisis: they lock up carbon, reduce lier this year. It aims to plant some pollution and flooding, and sup- Jewish community to visit the 37,000 trees over three years – one port people, wildlife and livestock woods they have helped create in in adapting to the impacts of beautiful Norfolk.” for each adult US member.  Trees can be bought Woodland Trust’s regional climate change.

“Along with improving our viatheus.org.uk/trees development officer for the southeast, Eithne Tynan, said: “Native quality of life, trees can help to Email: trees@theus.org.uk

GAN ALON GETS FOREST STATUS A Masorti preschool in London is celebrating after receiving accreditation as a “forest school”.

Gan Alon Preschool, in Finchley, is blazing a trail after it was named A child enjoys nature the first Masorti school to be awarded the tag.

Its full forest-school accreditation means it will embrace respect for woodland and focus on the opportunities groves and woods offer pupils and staff, such as camping and cooking.

All staff members have received Forest School accreditation, so are committed to teaching children aged three and four how to respect the forest. The youngsters have unlimited access to the preschool’s private forest, within the grounds of the Sternberg Centre.

Children are free to pursue their own interests: if they want, they can spend a session digging a hole and fill it in again, the school says.

But they will climb over logs and branches and learn the names of trees, birds and beasts they see and observe the effects of the seasons.

Jane Pescow, manager of Gan Alon, said: “Forest school offers children a unique experience. The forest pushes children well beyond the boundaries of a modern, sanitised, heated preschool environment.”

Aish UK’s £1.6m drive ADVANCED TORAH LEARNING FOR WOMEN

Following the success of its internationally recognised Semicha Course and its Dayanut Programme for the Diaspora THE MONTEFIORE ENDOWMENT together with NISHMAT The Jerusalem Centre for Advanced Torah Study for Women plan to launch a two-stage programme of part-time learning for women Stage 1 A preparatory course lasting for two years, divided between classes on how to learn advanced Gemara and Halacha as well as topics related to Halacha for women.

Stage 2 A Yoetzet Halacha course lasting for two years for those who choose to continue, designed to equip graduates with the ability to advise women on questions relating to Taharat Hamishpacha.

The courses will be taught by highly qualified teachers from Israel and the UK. The learning will be partly on Zoom, with two sessions a week in term time and with frequent face-to face sessions.

To register interest contact Giselle at administrator@montefioreendowment.org.uk

Kisharon raised more than £1.65 million in just one weekend to enable its work to thrive.

The charity received a massive response to its appeal for support during its fundraising weekend to ensure it can fund its essential services. Its worst funding shortage is set to continue because of chronic underfunding and the cost-of-living crisis.

Kisharon collected the amount in 36 hours with the help of Charity Extra – and all donations will be doubled through generous match funding towards a £2.2 million total required.

Jewish organisation Kisharon offers children and adults with learning disabilities a rich and diverse education and employment.

It has social enterprises and supported living schemes, to enable individuals “to thrive, learn, grow and feel valued in the community”.

After a very busy 36 hours, chief executive Richard Franklin said: “Everyone involved with

The charity celebrates its fundraiser

Kisharon understands just how important the support for learning disabilities is and the need to fill the funding gap that unfairly exists for people with complex learning needs.

“I cannot thank all the team champions enough for their wonderful generosity and amazing spirit of support that they and the donors have shown Kisharon.”

BREAKFAST ENABLES TOUR A charity that funds trips to Israel for young British Jews surpassed its fundraising target at an Independence Day business breakfast.

United Jewish Israel Appeal (UJIA) exceeded its aims, with the audience at the event on Yom Ha’atzmaut hearing from CBI directorgeneral Tony Danker how important Israel Tour was for him.

UJIA raised almost half a million pounds through the

two, which will go towards ‘The Journey Home’, UJIA’s campaign to send more than 10,000 young British Jews on organised trips to Israel in the next three years.

With all donations being matched by donors, the cash will fund bursaries for Israel tours – typically about £1,100, for around one in five participants.

Israeli Ambassador to the UK, Tzipi Hotovely, also addressed the event, which

was chaired by James Burchell, at Montcalm Hotel.

UJIA chief executive Mandie Winston said: “We are thrilled by the community’s response, which will ensure every British Jewish teenager in genuine financial need who wants to go on Israel Tour will be able to do so, regardless of their family’s financial circumstances. Israel Tour is one of the best tools we have to ensure the future strength of our community.”

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19 May 2022 Jewish News

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Jewish News 19 May 2022

News / Auction rarities / Interfaith connections

Einstein letter berating Britain is up for auction A handwritten and signed letter

by Albert Einstein, criticising Britain for appeasement, is up for auction, writes Toby Porter.

The letter, addressed to the Danish journalist Karen Stampe Bendix in 1936, was written amid rapid Nazi mobilisation.

Despite being a passionate pacifist, Einstein insists the world has no choice but to confront Germany and even seize the initiative in taking up arms. He castigates the conciliatory stance of the powers of the free world – particularly the London government for not standing up to Hitler in the hope he would halt his conquests.

The letter, which is up for auction at Kedem Auction House in Jerusalem and is expected to fetch up to $25,000 (£20,000), reads: “Most regrettable is the feeble stance of England, insofar as it indeed postpones the start of war, but certainly cannot prevent it. It would have been best to intervene already three years ago. There are diseases that cannot be overcome without surgery. I cannot deny this even though I abhor the knife.”

Undated, it is thought to have been written in 1936 – two years before the Munich Agreement between Britain and Germany, which was hailed by UK Prime

Minister Neville Chamberlain as “peace in our time”. But Hitler ordered the invasion of Poland, which sparked the Second World War, just 13 months later.

Einstein implores Stampe to take comfort in her own situation – Denmark, her native country, “is unthreatened by the impending turbulence”. But despite a nonaggression pact it signed with Germany, Denmark was attacked and occupied by Nazi forces in 1940.

Kedem chief executive and co- Einstein’s missive is up for auction founder Meron Eren said: “Despite his long-standing commitment to stein Nazi ideology posed a clear pacifism, Hitler’s aggressive ter- and present danger to European ritorial ambitions convinced Ein- Jewry and European civilisation.”

RARE FIRST ISSUE UNDER HAMMER A rare first edition book in Hebrew, describing the discovery of the New World, goes up for auction in Jerusalem next week.

Igeret Orchot Olam, written by Italian Torah scholar Rabbi Abraham ben Mordechai Farissol and published in 1586 in Venice, contains one of the earliest known descriptions of America and the sub-Saharan continent.

It also has hand-written comments from renowned 17th century Rabbi Yisrael Landau .

The book is a geographic exploration divided into two parts. The first contains a general description of the Earth, its climate zones, continents, and countries. The second focuses on the discoveries of Spanish and Portuguese explorers, with a detailed account of the travels of Vasco da Gama around the Cape of Good Hope on his way to India.

Kedem Auction House chief executive and co-founder, Meron Eren, said: “This rare volume is an important historic work that offers a close-up of a world we know little about.”

Saudi interfaith event is ‘a breakthrough’, says rabbi A globally respected rabbi has hailed the opening of an interfaith conference in Saudi Arabia as “a breakthrough”.

Rabbi David Rosen dubbed the Forum on Common Values among Religious Followers in Riyadh, as “hopeful”

amid speeches from religious heads from across the world, including from Islam, Roman Catholicism, evangelical and Orthodox Christianity, Hinduism and Buddhism.

It is the first such interfaith conference held in the ‘land of the Two Holy

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Shooter motivation / Ukraine support / Election defeat / World News

Buffalo shooting suspect ‘spurred by racist theory’ The man charged with killing 10 people at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, last weekend allegedly was motivated by a conspiracy theory that has spurred recent deadly attacks on Jews.

An online manifesto attributed to Payton Gendron, 18, explains that the attack was spurred by the theory a “tide” of immigrants is crowding out white populations in Western countries. The manifesto also says Jews are the real problem, but that “they can be dealt with in time”.

The Tops supermarket, a few miles from the Canadian border, was chosen because it is in an area with many black residents, the manifesto says. Police said 11 of the 13 people shot were black.

Law enforcement authorities are working to verify that the manifesto was written by Gendron, who was arrested at the scene and later charged with first-degree murder. The US Justice Department is investigating the shooting as “a hate crime and an act of racially motivated violent extremism”, attorney general Merrick Garland said in a statement.

The baseless theory outlined in the manifesto is known as “Great Replacement” and has united white supremacists across borders in their hatred of Jews and immigrants.

Replacement theory has inspired multiple antisemitic and extremist attacks, including the 2018 Pittsburgh synagogue shooting in which 11 Jews were murdered; the 2019 attack on a New Zealand mosque that killed 51; and the 2019 massacre at a Texas Walmart that targeted Hispanic immigrants. In 2017, white supremacists marching in Charlottesville, Virginia, infamously chanted “Jews will not replace us”.

The manifesto cites the perpetrator of the New Zealand massacre as a chief inspiration and says its author learned about the

Above: Angry community members in Buffalo, New York, after the attack. Left: Payton Gendron

dangers of immigration from online research, including on 4chan, a website popular among right-wing trolls.

Gendron’s alleged video has a question-and-answer format, memes and internet links. The manifesto explicitly states the author is driven by hatred of Jews, but concludes that Jews are, for the most part, white. However, citing pages of quotations from the Talmud, he says Jews are polluted by learning that “they are God’s chosen people and they are permitted to hate and exploit the goyim” or non-Jews, and to engage in paedophilia.

In the manifesto, the author answers the question, “Why attack immigrants when the Jews are the issue?” with: “They can be dealt with in time.”

MEDICINES ARRIVE FOR BESIEGED UKRAINIANS Medics volunteering on the front line in Ukraine have received extra supplies from the creator of their organisation, on a visit to the front line.

President and founder of United Hatzalah, Eli Beer, Eli and team with soldiers in Bucha helped out its volunteers who are delivering from injured and ill people across a Israel much-needed medical string of cities in Ukraine and supplies to residents of cities supplies to hospitals in Bucha besieged by the Russian army. and Kyiv.

He visited with team memBeer also prayed at the bers who have been operating gravesite of Rabbi Nachman, a group of ambulances and founder of the Breslov Hasidic providing medical care to movement, in Uman.

Hezbollah election losses Hezbollah and its allies have lost seats to their main opponents in Lebanon’s parliamentary election, according to early results.

Some of the Iran-backed group’s traditional partners were projected not to take any seats in the assembly at all, while its critics claimed to have scooped over a dozen.

The preliminary figures

suggest independent candidates were making gains in the parliamentary election, the first in the country since a devastating explosion tore through Beirut’s port in August 2020.

There are suggestions Hezbollah and its allies could lose the parliamentary majority they won at the last election in 2018.

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Jewish News 19 May 2022

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Editorial comment and letters ISSUE NO.

1263

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

VOICE OF THE JEWISH NEWS

Students, Jewish or Send us your comments not, deserve better PO Box 815, Edgware, HA8 4SX | letters@jewishnews.co.uk

Shabbat goes out Saturday night 9.54pm

Sedra: Behar

the sessions, meeting lots of people and at the same time does something meaningful and impactful.

A growing number of teenagers take part in exciting activities together, such as cooking for people in homeless shelters, teaching English to children online and packing essential supplies needed for refugees.

The value of taking part in such activities cannot be underestimated: particularly relevant to the current theme of loneliness for this year’s Mental Health Awareness week. I encourage Eddie to look them up at projectimpact.org.uk. I hope he feels more encouraged about the future of Jewish youth.

Elaine Carlton, By email

HAMAS FILM PROPAGANDA

ROYAL SYMPATHY

I went to see the documentary Eleven Days In May in the cinema last weekend after reading about the controversy surrounding Kate Winslet’s narration of the film about last May’s conflict between Israel and Hamas.

I was horrified both at the brutal impact of war on innocent life and deliberate, one-eyed propaganda that wilfully rewrites facts to suit Hamas’ narrative that Israel is the unprovoked aggressor.

It seems scandalous that Kate Winslet was dragged into this project under false pretences. Did her friend, co-director Michael Winterbottom, really not inform her that he was working on the film with someone closely linked to Hamas?

Last week’s opening of parliament without the Queen gave her loyal subjects a taste of what the future holds.

The only reason she was not present in person was because of her mobility difficulties – and at 96 we can understand that. I know about her problems because, at ten years younger than the Queen, I use a threewheeled walker. People look at me as if my brain doesn’t function, not only my legs!

May she delight us for many more years and impress us at her Jubilee celebrations.

Emma Gerald, By email

Norma Neville, Hendon

CELEBRITIES KNOW LITTLE OF THE HISTORY I’m sick of the celebrity war raging in the background of the Israel-Palestine conflict. From Zayn Malik and Roger Waters to Dua Lipa, there doesn’t appear to

be a C-lister on the planet who doesn’t want to share half-baked notions on a decades-long stalemate about which they know nothing.

M Timon, Croydon

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Your headline should have read: Winslet ‘misled’ (this word in quote marks) over Gaza conflict movie.

Surely an actress

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I read with interest the letter from Eddie Summers about the demise of the Jewish youth club and I want to reassure him (Jewish News, 5 May 2022).

Although the format may have changed over the past 30 years, there remain opportunities for Jewish teens to socialise on a regular basis.

A thriving, innovative and vibrant example of this is the social action and volunteering organisation Project ImpACT, which provides weekly, hands-on volunteering sessions, attracting more than 1,000 teenagers a year across age groups, schools and communities.

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The National Union of Students represents tens of thousands of members of 600 student unions up and down the country. For the first 80 years of its century-long history it prided itself on standing up for students’ interests and maintaining standards in campus life.

The NUS website says the union is “proudly radical since 1922”. In the past decade or so, however, under the perverse influence of ideologues, this radicalsm has mutated.

It has wilfully forsaken its raison d’etre and become a breeding ground for myopic twenty-somethings brainwashed to believe western ideology and Israel (and, by extension, we dodgy Jews) are the root cause of the world’s pain.

Now, finally, the government has caught on and suspended all engagement with the NUS, removed it from Department for Education groups and reported it to the Charity Commission – potentially devastating for an organisation that recently faced bankruptcy.

These developments have been a decade or more in the making. In recent years, the NUS has happily jumped all over countless policies boycotting Israel while refusing to condemn even Islamic State.

Let’s not forget that at its annual conference in 2016, delegates even heard arguments trying to persuade them to vote against British students commemorating the UK’s official Holocaust Memorial Day. Malia Bouattia, who was elected as NUS president on the same day the arguments were heard, described Birmingham University an “outpost of Zionism”.

Current president Larissa Kennedy is alleged to have told Jewish students complaining about the scheduled appearance of the antiIsrael rapper Lowkey at an event at the NUS conference in Liverpool that they could “segregate themselves”.

Kennedy’s predecessor, Shakira Martin, apologised for omitting Judaism from a questionnaire about religion while incoming president Shaima Dallali posted an Islamic chant threatening Jews with death and sympathised with Hamas.

These presidents have missed out on charm school, to say the least.

It all adds up to one clear message that’s been sent to Jewish students time and time again: there is no place for you in the NUS. Now the moral vacuity at the dark centre of this shabby little outfit has been exposed to sunlight, the day might come when all students – Jewish or not – finally get their NUS back.

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Editorial comment and letters

‘Rumour has it that it was the licking of this letter’s envelope that Einstein recreated for his famous 1951 photo’

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Jewish News 19 May 2022

Opinion

When I showed Israelis our NHS app, they laughed WES STREETING

SHADOW HEALTH SECRETARY

A

s the person hoping to become Britain’s next health secretary, I don’t mind admitting that the scale of the challenge facing our health service can be daunting.

There are record numbers of people waiting for NHS care, and they are waiting longer than ever before. Our doctors and nurses do remarkable work but there simply aren’t enough of them. Plugging the gap of 110,000 staff vacancies isn’t going to be a quick fix when it takes seven years to train a doctor.

Yet, I came away from my visit to Israel last week optimistic and full of ideas for equipping our health service with the tools it needs to treat patients on time again.

I wanted to return to Israel to see the advances in medical technology being developed there, some of which blew me away. Israel is ten years ahead of the NHS. Its health service is digital while ours is stuck in analogue. When I showed people our NHS app, they laughed.

The technology I saw is not space-age.

ment for kidney cancer last year the importance of early diagnosis. We should be rolling out technology like this across the country.

With the best technology from around the world, like I saw in Israel, the next Labour government will ensure our NHS fit provides patients with world-class healthcare.

I also spent time in Al-Makassed hospital, one of six Palestinian hospitals in occupied East Jerusalem.

Children receive excellent care, but as the only suitable ICU providing care to Palestinians across East Jerusalem, Gaza and the West Bank, the hospital faces huge challenges. The permit system can force a mother out of the hospital in the early days of her child’s life, separating new families. I saw one child who had been waiting a month for his parents to be allowed to return and collect him. While there are no easy solutions to the Israel-Palestine conflict, it is

The things that are making a real impact are familiar to us all; most of us carry them around in our pockets. Yet they could make a big difference to patients in Britain.

Ambulances use smartphone technology to deliver the most rapid response possible and ensure hospitals are ready to treat patients upon arrival. Contrast that with the crisis we’re experiencing in emergency care, with stroke and heart attack patients waiting two hours for an ambulance. One service in the North East advised local people over Christmas that they would be better off phoning a friend or calling a cab than relying on an ambulance to reach them in time. Patients deserve better.

One tech company I met has started providing at-home kidney tests to some trusts in England. They cost little and take up no staff time, but could catch thousands of problems before it is too late. I know from my own treat-

❝

ISRAEL IS TEN YEARS AHEAD OF THE NHS – SOME OF THE MEDICAL TECH ADVANCES BLEW ME AWAY

Wes Streeting in an MDA ambulance in Israel

vital that Israeli authorities work to ensure that parents always have access to their children.

I discussed the prospects for peace with Nitzan Horowitz, the Israeli health minister, and his work to ban the disgraceful practice of conversion therapy. And after the end of a long spell out of power, it was a pleasure to get the thoughts of Merav Michaeli, leader of the Israeli Labor Party, on the future of the left.

Finally, I was deeply moved at Yad Vashem.

It offers a warning from history about the capacity for ordinary people to commit extraordinary evil. It is an exhortation to all of us to stand against prejudice and hatred always.

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Opinion

After historic coming out, fight for equality goes on DAVID DAVIDIBROWN CHIEF EXECUTIVE NEW ISRAEL FUND UK

J

ake Daniels is the football hero I needed when I was 17. Back then I was playing football for Wingate & Finchley’s youth team. I’d like to think I was a decent squad player in what was possibly the first all-Jewish team to win a regular youth league.

Thinking about how I was navigating my life and identity at that age, it was humbling and inspiring to watch 17-yearold Jake Daniels’ interview as he became the UK’s first male professional footballer to come out since 1990.

I was six when Justin Fashanu came out and 13 when he ended his life. I’ve heard disgusting homophobic chants and recoiled from the salacious way the press splashed rumours about gay footballers across the front and back pages.

If you’d have asked the six or 13-year-old

me if I’d play football for years and follow Spurs to Barnsley, Burnley, and Madrid, I might have said no. As a young boy who had mainly girls as friends and who enjoyed drama and dance, I didn’t think football was for me. Even as I played the game while still being in plays, I was never certain I belonged in a dressing room or on the terraces.

So much has changed in men’s football to make people like me feel safe and welcome.

LGBT+ fan groups, Stonewall’s Rainbow Laces campaign and the work of Jon Holmes and Sports Media LGBT+.

Male footballers have come out after retiring or leaving the UK. This season, two young players have come out at the start of their careers – Joshua Cavallo in Australia’s top flight and, this week, Jake Daniels for Championship side Blackpool.

This week, hearing Daniels describe the support of his family, friends, teammates and club, and seeing support from the EFL, PL, PFA and FA, and especially for me from England captain Harry Kane and fellow Spurs player Eric Dier, it really felt like a historic moment for football, for fighting

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TOO OFTEN IN 20 YEARS AS A PROFESSIONAL AND AS A VOLUNTEER I HAVE ENCOUNTERED HOMOPHOBIA

homophobia, and for tackling ugly prejudices within our beautiful game.

Visibility matters. Representation matters. Support from communities and institutions matter. It is commendable how sports journalism has changed and the sensitivity of Tim Thornton’s interview was world’s away from the sensationalism that used to accompany these stories.

Too often in my 20 years as a Jewish communal professional and volunteer I have encountered homophobia. Whilst not the same as scoring four goals after coming out to my family, being fully myself and aligned in my work to support those making our

community and Israel fairer and more inclusive is a little liberating.

At the New Israel Fund we run Kick it Out Israel, modelled on Kick it Out here and supported by the Bloom Foundation. In recent years, Kick it Out Israel has expanded from combating racism to tackling homophobia and transphobia.

Our work had two breakthroughs this season. Israeli Premier League referee Sapir Berman announced that she was transitioning from male to female, with full backing from Israel’s FA to continue refereeing, becoming the first female Premier League referee in Israel. Maccabi Tel Aviv held a club’s first disciplinary hearing to redress homophobic chanting directed at Maccabi Netanya goalkeeper Danny Amos (an outspoken supporter of LGBT rights, whose brother is gay).

As the Nazi salutes from away fans at Tottenham last weekend and the recent embrace of an MK who founded the ‘beast parade’ by parts of the Israeli electorate and even parts of our community show, the fight goes on for a welcoming and equal community, society, and Israel.

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Sunday 29 May 8–9:15pm

the dream of revitalising Jerusalem as he built Mishkenot Sha'ananim, the first Jewish neighbourhood outside the Old City.

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Tour £12 | Book your place online at www.lsjs.ac.uk or call 020 8203 6427

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Jewish News 19 May 2022

Opinion

Ray’s anti-racism legacy will last for generations JEREMY NEWMARK

to the UK he went on to infiltrate the British Movement and the BNP. While acting as a mole HERTSMERE COUNCILLOR for Searchlight anti-fascist magazine, he rose to leading roles within those groups. In one of his boldest and most audacious moves as an or many of us who had the privilege of working with Ray Hill infiltrator, Ray became one of the and calling him a friend, founders of the BNP. He did this to his passing will bring create discord and disarray in the UK far-right around the issue of back memories of anti-fascist participation in electoral politics. campaigns of the past. Taking on With hindsight, this almost certainly the British National Party (BNP) played a seminal role in ensuring and Combat 18 on the streets of that the UK far-right never managed east London; undermining the first to come even near to emulating the BNP Councillor Derek Beacon, electoral success of their counterafter his (short-lived) 1993 election parts elsewhere in Europe. in Tower Hamlets Millwall Ward; When Ray eventually ‘came out’ rallies outside David Irving’s plush as an infiltrator, he published his London home; and campaigning Ray Hill’s book account,The Other Face of Terror, around the country to stymie any and made a seminal Channel 4 documentary shoots of far-right electoral success. exposing how the UK far-right had become a Ray dedicated the latter part of his life to fully fledged criminal conspiracy with internaopposing the far-right. In his early years, he tional links to terrorist groups. dabbled with far-right politics, eventually It was around this time that he suffered the joining Colin Jordan’s British Movement. frightening cost of his actions. His home was While working in South Africa and engaging firebombed. He had to live in hiding. Neverwith the local Jewish community, he recanted theless, he forged a strong partnership with his views and subsequently infiltrated the Jewish students who were, at the time, fighting South African National Front, rising through the attempts of the far-right to gain a foothold its ranks to become its leader. After returning

F

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HE SUFFERED THE COST OF HIS ACTIONS. HIS HOME WAS FIREBOMBED. HE HAD TO LIVE IN HIDING

on UK campuses. He undertook countless speaking engagements with the Union of Jewish Students (UJS) and the National Union of Students (NUS) – and always stayed around after for legendary sessions in the bar, when he would recount stories from his time as a mole.

A former army boxer and accomplished street fighter, Ray could never be described as anything but an ‘old-school anti-fascist’; his understanding of the shifting nature of extremism in the UK was far from simplistic.

He was years ahead of time. He was one of the first to call out the problem of growing Islamist antisemitism. He took a strong stance against the growth of Louis Farrakhan-inspired black nationalism when it tried to establish itself in the UK during the mid-90s. Speaking to student union leaders, Ray’s blunt attitude to those who used anti-Zionism as a cover for antisemitism had a huge impact upon many who went on to national politics after their NUS days. It also led to opposition from the far-left

to an ultimately successful bid by UJS to nominate Ray for NUS honorary life membership.

He also became the first and possibly the only non-Jewish UJS honorary life member.

Ray always had a clear message for mainstream political parties – which I’m not sure they ever fully embraced. In his classically gruff Lancashire accent, he would opine that to defeat political extremism by “asking turkeys to vote for Christmas” was a “hiding to nothing”.

Underlying that slogan was his core belief, influenced by his time inside the far-right, that the most effective way to draw young, white, impoverished working class people away from extremism was to provide them with mainstream political homes that delivered inspiring leadership, genuine aspiration and equal opportunity to hope.

Ray’s legacy on the fight against fascism will endure for generations. It will also continue for so many of us for whom Ray Hill was a formative influence on our activism and politics.

March has helped to fill in the gaps in my education AZEEM RAFIQ

FORMER YORKSHIRE CRICKETER

A

t the Ulma Family Museum in Markowa, there are nine plaques on the wall. They mark the lives of Josef and Wiktoria Ulma and their six children. The ninth plaque is for an unborn child - Wiktoria was pregnant when the family was shot by the Nazis for hiding Jews during the Second World War. I visited Markowa when travelling from Warsaw to Krakow for last month’s March of the Living, the annual educational programme exploring the Holocaust.

The organisers invited me to join a multifaith group visit, because I am trying to improve my own education after antisemitic comments I made in my relative youth emerged last year.

The centrepiece of the programme is a 3.5km march in Auschwitz-Birkenau, but what happened to the Ulma family hit me hard before we even arrived.

In obviously very different circumstances, my wife and I lost our unborn son in 2018.

Yorkshire County Cricket Club’s hurtful reaction to that tragedy ultimately led to me

revealing racism in the sport. Auschwitz was no easier a visit. A baby’s blue sandal sticking out in a mountain of victims’ shoes, reams of women’s hair, a video of dead bodies being piled on top of each.

What struck me was the enormity of the camp and how it had been built so quickly.

There are houses next to where Jews were brought in on a train track, a jarring contrast of family life and absolute horror.

During the march, we were on a hill and below were a sea of people – around 3,000 – taking part. In the 1940s, there would have been Jews taking those same steps, only they would have been struggling with their belongings as they walked to their deaths.

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WHAT IS IMPORTANT IS THAT WE UNITE WHEN FACED BY SUCH AWFUL HISTORY

Azeem Rafiq with Holocaust survivor Lily Ebert and her great-grandson Dov Forman

What is important is that we unite when faced by such awful history. I will never forget, for example, my multifaith group waiting to eat dinner until after I had completed my daily fast

for Ramadan. I will treasure that memory, even as I struggle to comprehend the evil of what happened to the Ulma family and millions of Jews eight decades ago.

19 May 2022 Jewish News

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Opinion

Face up to what we did to Jews 800 years ago RT REVD DR MICHAEL IPGRAVE BISHOP OF LICHFIELD

I

t was so important, as Christians and Jews together, to mark last week’s 800th anniversary of the Synod of Oxford. That Synod’s decisions shaped the whole of the medieval Church in England, and their inheritance belongs to all Christians who trace their history to that Church – particularly Anglicans and Roman Catholics. But our attendance was also local in its resonance: we are right by the centre of Oxford’s destroyed medieval Jewish community and, more positively, last week’s events were only possible because of the friendships between Jews and Christians.

As we gathered, as Christians and Jews, we did three things. First, we remembered. That remembering is common to Christians and to Jews, but it is different for us both. Second, specifically as Christians, we were there to repent. And then, as Christians and Jews

together we were there to rebuild. Remember, repent, rebuild: those may sound straightforward, but in reality they are hard tasks, which will take many generations. We must pray that 2022 marks a turn in the right direction more decisive even than the wrong one taken in 1222.

Remembering is perhaps more difficult now than at any time in human history, because technology means our capacity for storing information has become practically illimitable. But that makes remembering all the more crucial for us: we cannot simply subcontract our memories to an electronic library. The purpose of memory is to shape our lives for the future through learning from the past.

Because biblical faith, Jewish and Christian, believes God is present and active in human history, the Bible repeatedly emphasises the command ‘Remember’ as central to living in the way of God. Yet ‘remembering’ in the Bible can mean two rather different things. ‘To remember’ can mean to call back into the mind something that had fallen out; or it can mean to keep at the forefront of the mind something that had never been forgotten.

It seems to me that, as we look back on the

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WE MUST REPENT WITH SINCERITY FOR OUR TURNING AWAY FROM THE PATH OF JUSTICE

history of Christian-Jewish relations of which the Synod of Oxford is a part, Jews are mostly remembering in the second sense, and Christians in the first. That is to say, as Christians today we are turning back to face a reality we have largely forgotten: the painful and shameful history of Christian denigration, exclusion and persecution of Jewish people. For Christians, last week’s event serves to remind us of something that should never have been forgotten.

We need to learn from Jewish memories.

So for Christians, remembering needs to lead to repenting. When plans to mark the 800th anniversary of the Synod of Oxford were first discussed, there some talk of the Church ‘issuing an apology’ to the Jewish community.

And then people argued, how could or why should Christians of today apologise to Jews of today for something that happened eight centuries ago? And, some added, what did the Church of England think it was doing, apologising for something that happened before it even existed? But this is not so much a question of apologising: as a matter of repentance, which is described in the Church of England’s recent report, God’s Unfailing Word, like this: “Where the continuing effects of past sins by members of the one Body of Christ continue to be felt and where those sins have not come to an end, then members of Christ’s body here and now are bound to seek God’s mercy.”

That is where we are today: needing to recognise how Christian history has contributed to the ‘teaching of contempt’, which generated hostility towards suffering for our Jewish brothers and sisters; needing to recognise the legacy of that history still among us today; needing to seek God’s mercy. And that mercy needs to reach all of us, Anglican, Roman Catholic or whatever part of the Christian church we belong to: however much people may argue over who is the rightful heir to the medieval Church in England, we are all inheritors of its shameful anti-Judaism.

God’s Unfailing Word goes on to say, of the proper sequel to repentance: “It needs to lead to a commitment to walk in newness of life, accepting disciplines of changed behaviour that follow from that.” That brings me to the third point in my brief reflection, for which I want to use the word ‘rebuild’. Again, this is a word with rich biblical resonances, from the physical reconstruction of city walls, through the reshaping of norms of action, to a commitment to establishing a better and more just world.

In every dimension, though, there is an emphasis on taking responsibility for the future that God intends; and there is a recognition that we can only do this in partnership.

As foundations of our rebuilding project, we need a firm and right faith in the God of Israel, whom Christians believe to be also the God and Father of Jesus Christ. So much anti-

Judaism and antisemitism can be traced back to distorted and mistaken Christian teachings; and one antidote to these evils must be a theology that takes seriously the witness of the scriptures to the God who first called the people of Israel to be a light to the nations.

Christians will differ from Jews in the faith that we profess, in the religion that we practise, in the pattern by which we order our lives, and we should not be diffident or embarrassed about those differences. But we can no longer live by faith in isolation from one another; the distancing which the Synod of Oxford perversely sought has to be reversed.

So, as we rebuild faith on firm foundations we need also to rebuild and deepen trust between Christians and Jews. The past six decades have begun to see a transformation in the ways in which our communities view one another, but there is still a long way to go, certainly from the side of Christians. Trust can only be won through building friendship, through learning about one another, treating one another with respect and facing difficulties and disagreements openly, honestly and courteously. At the Council of Christians and Jews, we are wholly committed to this great project of rebuilding trust; it is a challenging task that needs to be renewed in every generation.

But our purpose in rebuilding is not simply to get on with one another better if it were, the Synod of Oxford would set a remarkably low bar for us to surmount). Both Jews and Christians understand ourselves to be in some sense responsible to God for more than our own communities. We are called to rebuild, or to repair, the world for God and with God. That is a hugely daunting task, and in the current state of affairs we might be tempted to give up in despair. But we share the hope of the kingdom of God, and we believe the way we live our lives, the values we commend, and the messages we give are all designed to point to that kingdom.

If that shared hope is to be more than vague aspiration or empty rhetoric, it must begin from facing realities as difficult as the decrees of the Synod of Oxford, which we marked last week. We must remember with clarity what happened and its impact; we must repent with sincerity for our turning away from the path of justice and mercy; we must rebuild in trustful partnership with one another.

As Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis has said of the need to face our difficult history and its continuing influence in the present: ‘The importance of doing so is inextricably linked to the need to bear witness to the calamities of our past in a way that is just and true. More important still is the way that it impacts our conception of each other and the future we can create together, so that we may, in our fundamentally different but connected ways, be a source of immense blessing to our world.” Amen to that.

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19 May 2022 Jewish News

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JN LIFE

A look

Inside Independence film Claudia Winkleman Israeli restaurant

Holy Land heart-throb:

ISRAEL OGALBO

All you need to know about The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem

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Jewish News 19 May 2022

JN LIFE

Lost without Shtisel?

Waiting for Fauda?

Israel’s latest drama is the perfect distraction, writes Brigit Grant

What a BEAUTY

F

orget Downton Abbey. If you want a stirring, multi-generational period saga that’s full of colour, charm and Sephardi family life, start streaming The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem from tomorrow.

Adapted from the international bestseller by Israeli journalist Sarit Yishai-Levi, the Netflix series about the Ermoza clan arrives garlanded in Ophirs (Israeli Academy Awards) and a footnote about it being one of Israel’s priciest productions and the biggest investment for producers Yes TV. That the entire series cost less than the lunches on the Bridgerton set has been mentioned by TV bods, but this should not deflect from the fact that this historical drama, which spans 1917-42, is a major achievement as it was shot under Covid restrictions, largely in Safed, where locals were recruited as extras.

That the production helped to fuel the depleted finances of one of Israel’s holiest cities during the pandemic by occupying a tourist-free hotel for six months was a gift for Safed. It was a blessing too for director Oded Davidoff, who loved the empty streets and absence of noisy interlopers with cellphones.

“We were alone in Safed, which looks like Jerusalem in the old days. No lighting, no cars – it was beautiful and because it was empty the entire town was our set. That was our miracle.”

Davidoff also enjoyed the kibbutz-style living arrangements for the cast and crew as they were in a protected bubble. “We were all together, which was a bit like being in a yeshiva and, as there are no restaurants in Safed, we had to prepare our own food, which felt a lot like camping. Hard camping.”

Working and living together in close quar-

Director Oded Davidoff

ters also resulted in a romance that continues between Tom Hagi, who plays Efraim Siton, and Eli Steen, cast as his niece Rachelica. “In the show Rachelica’s character hates her uncle, but in real life…” chuckles Oded, who enjoyed revisiting his Jerusalem roots accompanied by Yishai-Levi.

“I went back to all the old neighbourhoods, the streets I walked as a young man. It was emotional – just as Michael Aloni, made up with his moustache for the role of Gabriel, was a mirror image of my own father. This was the case for the makeup artist and anyone on the series with relatives who lived through the War of Independence.”

With his mixed Sephardi/Ashkenazi parentage, Davidoff likes the way the film takes people back to the languages of their heritage as Hebrew, Ladino, Turkish, English and Arabic are spoken throughout, along with a dash of Yiddish.

“It reflects the diversity of its setting, “ says Davidoff, who is in the middle of editing a horror series with a kabbalah/exorcism theme, a very different production with a bigger budget. “But you know, the budget is never enough. And for Beauty Queen we had to build and create parts of Jerusalem. It was tough,

and shooting is like a war.” At least it’s a war Davidoff got to win.

The Unexpected Star

With Michael Aloni’s name attached, there would inevitably be global interest in The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem.. It helps that the book on which it is based was a bestseller, but with the actor who turned a chasidic singleton into a pin-up, it had extra appeal.

But while the Shtisel star has been the marketing focus, another heart throb from the series is edging his way into the spotlight.

Putting Israel Ogalbo on the front of JN Life needs no explanation, just a wall on which to pin his image. And that’s what his increasing fanbase have been doing since voting him winner of Big Brother in

The production team on set

19 May 2022 Jewish News

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JN LIFE

BEAUTY QUEEN

ESSENTIALS

With no apology for the smattering of spoilers, this what you need to know about the Ermoza family featured in the first season of The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem. In the book, Gabriela is the narrator of the story and, after losing her mother, Luna, she sets out to discover why they struggled to connect and finds a past that is more complex than she ever imagined. The Ermoza women are plagued by a curse: to marry men who do not love them.

A young Israel Ogalbo in Bnei Brak

Raphael.(Moris Cohen)

Gabriela’s greatgrandfather marries Mercada, a woman he doesn’t love, as he is still in love with an Ashkenazi woman.

Strangely, he still seeks to control his son, who wants to break out of the Sephardic stronghold.

Cue the curse.

David Franco (Ogalbo) in the film

Ogalbo in the Golani Brigade

Gabriel (Michael Aloni) on his wedding day

2018. Reality TV stars, irrespective of good looks, seldom move on so swiftly to leading roles such as that of David Franco, a major love interest in The Beauty Queen. But Ogalbo is not the average reality star, which became evident when he revealed his backstory on Big Brother.

“I asked myself the question, ‘Why did I win?’ and I believe it was my history,” he says, after apologising for his broken English. “My life was not what people expected.” This is an understatement, as the sleepy-eyed Adonis on Zoom, who is now a recognised face about town, once wore a black hat and payot as an orthodox boy in Bnei Brak. Born and raised in the Charedi heartland, within a family he describes as lovely, Ogalbo was laying tefillin and listening to sermons by leading rabbis in a city that was home to Israel’s first women-only department store.

“I was Orthodox and my family still are, but at 15 I packed a bag and left to live in Tel Aviv.

This is no reflection on my family – it’s just something I chose to do.”

Though he makes the move sound simple, it was anything but, as he was living on the streets as an innocent, and he got targeted by drug dealers and other unsavoury types, who led him astray. Then he met an army recruiter.

“The army saved me,” insists Ogalbo ,who signed up for training and afterwards joined the Golani Brigade, one of the IDF’s most decorated infantry units. “The army became my family and after that I moved to Tel Aviv, where I worked in a bar and did occasional stripping.”

With each bold revelation, the question ‘Did your parents know?’ is on repeat, but as his love for his family remains, it’s unlikely they know everything. “I have communication with them and more with my two brothers, one of whom left the orthodox life, I think because of me.

The younger one is in a yeshiva and a very smart guy. But we live a different life. So it’s a hello and not much more. However, Israel is a small country and people talk, so they know what I am doing.”

Without a television his parents won’t have seen his Big Brother win, but Israel is convinced that they have heard about the Beauty Queen, for which he was an unlikely casting choice, at least initially. With no professional acting training and an agent acquired after Big Brother, Ogalbo was unknown to the series director Oded Davidoff, but he didn’t need much persuading

Mercada. (Irit Kaplan),

David (Ogalbo) is a major love interest

Gabriela’s greatgrandmother, is the first to be cursed when she marries Raphael. So Mercada invests her affections in Gabriel, who shakes the Sephardic foundations when he falls for Ashkenazi Rochel. Later, after Raphael’s death, Mercada forces her son to marry someone else as a punishment.

Rosa. (Hilda Saada)

Gabriela’s grandmother is Gabriel’s punishment. An illiterate orphan who cared for her younger brother, she quickly realises that her husband is in love with another woman he can’t forget. Earnest and decent, Rosa wants her husband to care for her as she cares for him, but he is lost in the past.

Gabriel (Michael Aloni)

Gabriel (Aloni) and his daughters

after they met. “I love the guy. He is amazing,” Davidoff says. “But when I chose him, everybody said ‘A reality star! Do you know what you’re doing? You don’t know him.’ And I said, ‘No, I don’t. But from the moment I saw him perform, I wanted him for the role of David Franco even more.’ ” Before playing David, the ‘beauty queen’s’ spouse, Ogalbo made his debut in the festival movie Don’t Wait For Me (Al Techaki Li), in which he plays a gay tattooist who gets caught up in a shooting at Tel Aviv’s Pride Festival.

“I’ve never seen a movie like this,” says its enthusiastic star. “It raises things people don’t want to talk about.”

It seems redundant to ask if his parents know.

• The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem airs on Netflix from Friday 20 May

is a frozen shell of a man, tarnished by his manipulative mother. He loves only his children, and his daughter Luna the most, which triggers all kinds of jealousy in Rosa.

Luna (Swell Ariel Or) aka

The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem is nicknamed for her good looks, great legs and charm, she is unhappily married to David, who is still in love with a woman he met in Italy during the Second World War. Luna, too, is cursed.

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JN LIFE

&

www.jewishnews.co.uk

WHO,WHAT WHERE EXHIBITION

THE FACE OF A QUEEN

EVENT

The Queen of Arts exhibition in the Marconi Lounge at ME London hotel features works by four artists to celebrate the monarch in her Platinum Jubilee year.

From bold and colourful depictions to unusual and intriguing interpretations of what it means to be the sovereign in Britain today, the artists have each used their own unique style to pay tribute to Her Maj. One of the works is by Dan Pearce, a mixed media artist who combines modern influences of Dface and Shepard Fairey with the older influences of Warhol and Lichtenstein to create a unique explosion of energy and colour. Last year Dan was commissioned by TV personality Sharon Osbourne to paint a right royal depiction of her. “I love the Queen,” says Sharon, who looks undeniably regal in her $50,000 gift to herself.

The Queen of Arts is at ME London until 30 June www.mebymelia.com.

AWARDS

Mancunian Marvel The cafe at Manchester’s Jewish Museum has won Cafe or Restaurant of the Year at the 2022 Museum and Heritage Awards. That’s not at all bad for a venue that opened only a year ago, serving vegetarian takes on traditional Jewish dishes, like Not Quite Traditional Chicken Soup (veggie broth with mushrooms and matzo balls).

The cafe was founded as part of a £6 million redevelopment of the museum in Cheetham Hill. It beat competition from the Stonehenge Cafe and the bistro at Black Watch Castle and Museum in Perth.

Alex Cropper, curator at the Manchester Jewish Museum, said: “It felt so exciting to be at the Museum and Heritage Awards and to gather to celebrate our sector for the first time since the pandemic – there was a real buzz in the room. And to win an award was the icing on the cake. It was an honour to accept the Café of the Year award on behalf of our incredible café team and great to see our name up there amongst such incredible museums in the Permanent Gallery of the Year category.”

The cafe’s team leader Joe Davey added: ‘’It feels great to get recognition at such an important event like the Museums and Heritage Awards.”

Chefs on the Carousel

Kitchen Dreams

If you’re up for a different kind of Friday night dinner, Claudia Winkleman is interviewing Mary Berry at BFI Southbank tomorrow night as part of The BFI & Radio Times Television Festival. Mary has been championing home cooking on TV and since the 1970s and, while chicken soup may not be her forte, she is very much Britain’s Queen of the Kitchen. whatson.bfi.org.uk

FOOD

This Month in Jewish History

By Jewish News historian Derek Taylor

Omer Shadmi Muller and Daniel Zur of Alena at the Norman hotel in Tel Aviv are popping up at Carousel in Fitzrovia for a week-long residency. The chefs will bring their European-inspired dishes with a Mediterranean and Galilean flourish to London for a second time, after five sell-out nights at Carousel in 2020. Lifelong friends Omer and Daniel have risen through the ranks of restaurants such as the River Café. The six-course menu at Carousel includes ‘road-style’ bagels, Galilean ceviche, roasted cabbage with beef jus and pine nuts, beef or lamb tartar, lamb chops and pistachio basbusa.

Omer says: “Great dining experiences should be simple and fun, with outstanding flavour being the most poignant memory our guests go away with.”

Omer and Daniel are at Carousel, 19-23 Charlotte Street, London W1T 1RL 7–11 June. £75pp for the set menu; www.carousel-london.com

TECH THAT

On 23 May 1939 the fate of many future Holocaust victims was settled when the British government passed its White Paper on Palestine. This restricted Jewish immigration for the next five years to 75,000.

In 1935, there had been 320,000 Jewish immigrants. The paper rejected the earlier Peel Commission’s proposal to partition Palestine.

This was the result of the Arab revolt against the British mandate, which took place from 1936 to 1939 under the leadership of the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin Al-Husseini. An earlier attempt to agree a settlement, with a London conference of Arabs and Zionists, had failed. Both Jews and Arabs were antagonistic towards the mandatory power. Over the three years, 2,000 Arabs were killed and 108 hanged.

Grid Studio

Available from: www.gridstudio.cc RRP: From £50-£326, depending on the product Regular readers of this column will know that I love pretty much any new tech out there. But what about old tech? That’s where Grid Studio comes in. Grid’s aim is to make beautiful art out of old gadgets from years gone by.

After seeing them all over Instagram and TikTok I had to take a look for myself.

The company takes unused iPhones, Android phones and even some Nokias, disassembles them and frames them flat, complete with a description of the product

and every component within the product.

It’s fascinating to see the guts of what goes into a phone, but to display it in such a creative way is genius!

Grid started out with just iPhones but now boasts a solid collection of other disassembled gadgets such as the Google Pixel, Samsung Galaxy S, BlackBerry Bold 9000 and even gaming consoles from Nintendo, Sega and Sony.

The geek in me loves these pieces of art and the collector in me wants them all!

VERDICT: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ Reviewed by: Daniel Elias, Instagram @Daniel_Elias, TikTok @daniel_ _Elias

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19 May 2022 Jewish News

31

JN LIFE

GUNNING FOR

Independence

Avi Nesher tried to be fair to the stories of both sides in his film about a battle between a kibbutz and the Egyptians, he tells Stephen Applebaum

W

black and white. “I didn’t think it was meaty enough for a feature film in 2022. We don’t live in a time when we have good cowboys and bad Indians anymore. The only clear-cut heavies are the Nazis. But in our modern era, war has two sides, and you have conflicting narratives.”

Bleiberg “was very persistent”, Nesher recalls, which for him is the sign of “a really good producer”. He dug deeper into the Nitzanim story, and discovered that a young Egyptian journalist and aspiring film-maker, Mohamed Hassanein Heikal, had been embedded with the Muslim Brotherhood, and there was newsreel of the battle.

“The fact there were cameras there in the Negev really blew my mind. I thought it was really interesting vis-a-vis the era we live in – an era where he who controls the story, who controls the narrative, will eventually win. Hassanein’s presence gave me the proper perspective to tell the story.”

He wrote a new screenplay and the film now cuts even-handedly between the kibbutz members, foremostly Mira Ben Ari (played by Joy Rieger), a woman who sent her son away to safety and stayed to fight (“She was a feminist before anybody even thought about the term; she was a free spirit,” says Nesher ), and the Egyptians, where Hassanein (Amir

Khoury) is in a creative struggle with King Farouk’s demand for a triumphalist image of victory.

The real Hassanein was 24 years old, the same age as Nesher when he made his popular, genre-defying debut feature, The Troupe, and his attempt to portray a more humane version of war plays like a selfreflexive commentary on the director’s storytelling.

Nesher identified with Mira and Hassanein, and spreads empathy across the film. He was careful not to demonise Kovner, who had come through the Holocaust, and tells the kibbutz that capitulation would push them back to where six million Jews died. His failure to apologise to Nitzanim was “inexcusable”, says the director, but he was otherwise a man doing what he thought was right tactically at the time. As a second-generation survivor, Nesher understood him.

“People underestimate the weight of the Holocaust on our shoulders.

When your parents were in the Holocaust they were traumatised, but so are you. We’re completely stricken by that. I have a daughter who’s also a film-maker and who’s about to make a first feature and she’s afflicted with post-Holocaust trauma as well.”

When Mira sees a man’s tattoo in the film there’s no pity, just what appears to be quiet indifference.

Nesher conversaAmir Khoury in confirms tion – and Image of Victory that he is that each story hinting at the is as legitimate way survivors were as the other. treated in Israel. For Mira’s genera“For me, the peace process will tion and then his, the Holocaust “was not start with politicians. This propresented to us as a catastrophe, but cess will start with storytellers. And a somewhat shameful catastrophe”, the way to make peace is to be able he says. His parents’ generation to embrace the other side’s version were described as “lambs to the of history, even though it is not yours slaughter”, while his was the “never and even though you don’t necesagain” generation. “We were the ones sarily agree with it. who were going to be great Spar“And I would hope that a movie tans and we were taught to distance like Image of Victory, that proclaims ourselves from our parents who were the legitimacy of the two conflicting Holocaust survivors. And that’s a stories, would be a small step towards horrendous sin.” Because of this, an understanding on both sides.”

“I had tremendous guilt towards Attitudes may already be my father,” he confesses, revealing shifting. He has heard a rumour that he recently died in New York. (unconfirmed at the time of Nesher fought in two wars, writing) that next year’s 50th anniincluding the Yom Kippur War, versary of the Yom Kippur War will during which he lost two of four close include memorial services for both childhood friends. fallen Israeli and fallen Egyptian He “bears no malice” towards the soldiers.

Egyptians. “They were the same as “That would be such a wise thing us. They were as committed as us and to do. Just to accept the legitimacy of they were as patriotic as us.” But, he the other side as human beings who continues: “War is a very traumatic fought for an idea that they embrace experience, and if there’s anything is the right idea. And this is the cause you can do to prevent the next war, that the movie is trying to advance, you really feel it’s your obligation.” too, in a way.”

The key to peace, he believes, is to understand that every side has their • Image of Victory can be watched own story – a word he uses repeatfrom 23 May on Prime Video, Sky edly and purposefully during our Store, Apple TV+, YouTube and Xbox

Photos courtesy of Signature Entertainment

hen I call Avi Nesher, one of Israel’s most lauded film-makers, he is hard at work on a new project, The Monkey House, but happy to stop for a Zoom chat about his most recent acclaimed feature, Image of Victory.

“It’s nice to take a break from a movie you’re doing right now and think fondly of a movie you just finished,” he says affably.

Made against the odds during the Covid pandemic in Israel (“We had no insurance and the whole investment could have gone down the drain”), the film is a complex and passionate recounting of when kibbutz Nitzanim stood against Egyptian forces during the War of Independence. Outgunned and outnumbered, the kibbutz eventually surrendered.

Despite fighting bravely, the captured survivors were smeared as traitors by the then cultural officer of the Givati Brigade, Abba Kovner – a mark that has stuck.

Nesher, who was born four years after the 1948 War of Independence, had not heard of the battle when the producer Ehud Bleiberg, whose father, Yerah, was one of the Israeli prisoners of war, came to him with a script. He was on a mission to correct an injustice, “which is something I respected”, says Nesher. However, the story as it was told seemed too

Soldiers in Image of Victory, a film by Avi Nesher, who aims to balance the contradicting narratives; Joy Rieger as Mira Ben Ari; and Joy with Yadin Gellman

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Jewish News 19 May 2022

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Business / Food technology

candicekrieger@googlemail.com

With Candice Krieger

A LAND OF CULTURED MEAT AND DAIRY Israeli food technology companies are leading the way with alternative proteins.

The founders of two such firms tell Candice Krieger why the sector is growing so fast

F

rom printed meat-and-fruitfly protein to cultured meat, Israeli food technologies have exploded on to the menu with aplomb.

“Unlike the agritech sector, where Israel has been leading the way by harnessing necessity and given circumstances to formulate a strong innovation system, the foodtech is the newer, kicking kid on the block,” says Hadar Huberman, the clean growth sector lead at British Embassy Israel’s UK Israel Tech Hub team.

The ‘start-up’ nation is home to more than 400 foodtech companies, about half of which were founded in the past five years. Investment into Israel’s booming sector has soared, increasing from $53 million (£43 million) in 2015 to $866 million in 2021, according Hadar Huberman, to IVC-MEITAR Israeli Tech of UK Israel Tech Hub Review 2021 report.

Foodtech covers several areas that includes nutrition, packaging, food safety, processing systems, cultured meat, novel ingredients, A meal from Future Meat Technologies, which aims to make cultured meat affordable for the mass market retail and restaurant tech, health and wellness and alternative proteins, and Israel is leading the US in its total number of fermentation and on a warming planet and it’s encouraging that FUTURE MEAT TECHNOLOGIES the innovation, particularly for the last of these. cultivated meat companies. And the sector is the world’s top scientists have acknowledged Professor Yaakov Nahmias, Future Meat TechAlternative protein in Israel experienced only really getting started. the role alternative proteins could play in nologies’ chief security officer and a professor its biggest investment year on record last year, Huberman says: “Regulatory approval of future-proofing our food system. Now governat Hebrew University, founded the company in according to the Good Food Institute (GFI) novel foods, which alternative proteins fall ments around the world must invest in the 2018. It produces cultured meat from aniIsrael, with start-ups in the space raising $623 under, is the main barrier for the scale-up of research and infrastructure mal cells without harming animals and million, a 450 percent increase from 2020’s these food-tech start-ups. Different countries needed to make them accesuses a tiny fraction of environmental $114 million, making up 70 percent of all invest- are trying, as we speak, to build their methodsible and affordable to all. resources. ments in Israeli food tech companies. ology for public health-related-regulations for “Israel is a world This is “perhaps due to the growing grasp in novel foods and, once it is developed, alternaleader in agricultural What is the rationale for the world that food security will be one of the tive protein start-ups would have easier market research and is the company? greatest challenges for humanity, combined access to global clients. At the moment, these renowned for water “The demand for meat is with the need to mitigate the environmentalstart-ups are facing barriers and very long regu- expertise and crop predicted to rise by 50 percent impact of farming on climate change”, notes lation processes that put massive restraints innovation. It is also a over the next few decades. This is Huberman. on their ability to sell their products and/or front runner in stem cell happening at the time where global According to the GFI Israel, there are more technology around the world. research, tissue engisupply of meat has peaked. The meat than 100 alternative protein companies in “Some alternative food start-ups still neering, microbiology, industry is using the vast majority Israel – more than 40 percent are considered haven’t received their regulatory approval by and nanotechnology.

Future Meat’s Yaakov Nahmias of agricultural land on the plant and start-ups. They include BioMilk, MeaTech, any regulator, besides the Singaporean. It is With this technological is a major contributor for climate Aleph Farms, Redefine Meat, Future Meat, and estimated that once the FDA [the US Food and expertise, coupled with the nation’s entreprechange. If we are to meet this growing demand Remilk. There is also Hargol’s grasshopper Drug Administration] will give them the green neurial spirit, Israel has the potential to play a for quality protein, and protect the future, we protein farms, Flying SpArk’s fruit fly protein, light, other regulators will follow, and the doors significant role in the future of food globally.” need to fundamentally transform the industry.”

SuperMeat, Kinoko-Tech’s mushroom-based of the global industry will open.”

Jonathan Morris, a partner and co-leader of protein and ChickP, to name just a few.

The Israel Innovation Authority recently the Israel Practice and the Food and AgribusiWhat makes Israel so well positioned when Two that are having a particular impact are approved the establishment of the cultivated ness Practice at Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner it comes to foodtech and alternative procultured meat company Future Meat Technolo- meat consortium, one of the biggest in the (BCLP), says: “I believe Israeli involvement in teins in particular? gies, which marked the largest investment gain world. Some NIS 66 million (£16 million) will the alternative protein sector will continue to “Israel has always been a hotbed of innovation, in the foodtech start-up industry in Israel so be invested in the consortium over three years, expand rapidly. as the diverse life experience and favourable far when it raised $347 million, and Remilk, a half the sum by the government, to develop “This is partly due to the success to date government regulations couple with academic developer of animal-free dairy, which raised innovative production methods on an indusof companies already operating in the sector, excellence to produce thousands of start-ups $120 million – the second-largest investment trial and efficient scale to give Israel’s cultivated but also for the reasons which apply to Israeli every year. Everyone who visits sees we are very raised by an Israeli food tech start-up and the meat industry a competitive advantage. involvement in the food sector generally, passionate about food and the environment.” single largest in a cow-free dairy company.

Ari Ben Dror, GFI Israel’s associate director, namely Israel’s strength in tech innovation, the Remilk recently revealed it will open the says: “The IPCC [Intergovernmental Panel on ability to think creatively and a strong fascinaInvestment raised world’s largest precision fermentation facility Climate Change] has made clear that ‘transfortion/connection with food generally.”

Future Meat Technologies has raised more for production of cow-free milk, in Denmark. mation of food systems is needed’ if we are to Be it alternative proteins or foodtech in genthan $300 million to date. This last series B Israel now ranks second in the world behind stand a chance of feeding a growing population eral, Israel is on the cusp of something special. round was the largest in industry.

19 May 2022 Jewish News

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Food technology / Business

Five-year plan?

“Future Meat Technologies aims to complete regulatory approval in the first half of 2023 to bring our cultured meat products to American and Israeli customers. We are building our large-scale production facility in the US, making cultured meat affordable to the mass market.”

their devastating impact on our planet. We must reinvent sources of high-quality proteins to ensure a stable, reliable flow of nutritious food that are sustainably sourced.

“The revolution starts now, and as The future of alternative proteins “There are few places where we Jason Rosenberg of Remilk we envision it, will grow to ultimately consumers can affect climate change. remove animals from the food system. Remilk Most of the decisions on decarbonisation are national, but we decide what we eat. This is why is positioned at the forefront of the new dairy revolution, offering animal-free milk protein the alternative protein sector is rocketing; it’s that is identical to its traditional counterpart, connected to the zeitgeist of consumers who enabling the creation of real dairy products are seriously worried about the future.” with traditional dairy’s advantages – minus  www.future-meat.com the lactose, cholesterol, and hormone and antibiotic residues. And with a fraction of the REMILK environmental impact.”

Remilk was founded in 2019 by Aviv Wolff and Ori Cohavi, PhD in biochemistry. It is a global What makes Israel so well-positioned when leader in the production of animal-free dairy it comes to foodtech and particularly alterthrough a microbial fermentation process. native proteins?

“Israel has long been a leader in the developWhat is the rationale for the company? ment of bio, clean and agricultural technolo“We know we can’t depend on animals to progies. With world-class academic institutions, vide food and nutrition for our world’s growing an entrepreneurial spirit across the population, population because of objective obstacles, such governmental and private support networks as the amount of land and other resources they for innovation, Israel is positioned to be at the require, and sustainable reasons, including

forefront of many new technological areas, especially deep-tech fields that require significant academic and research capabilities.”

Investment raised to date Remilk has raised $133.3 million.

The most recent series B was led by Hanaco Ventures.

Five-year plan?

“We are on a mission to transform the dairy industry and provide quality dairy for all consumers, everywhere, in collaboration with the world’s largest manufacturers of dairy products. We are engaged with dozens of food and beverage Remilk has created dairy with less environmental impact companies, helping them to prepare tose, cholesterol, hormones … or a single cow. for the future of dairy. We believe the next five Foodtech is driving the food our future years will see us scaling up significantly and establishing Remilk’s presence as a world leader depends upon.

“Israel is at the centre of the global foodtech in the production of animal-free dairy that is ecosystem, driving innovation at staggering delicious, clean, nutritious and affordable.” rates. The biggest question moving forward is whether the Israeli regulatory landscape The future of alternative proteins will allow for successful food tech start-ups to “We are witnessing some consumer fatigue manufacture and scale up within Israel, or if with existing alt-protein, and the fact plantIsrael will remain a start-up nation, while combased alternatives often fall short on taste, panies may look elsewhere for growth as they functionality or health and environmental reach stages of commercialisation.” benefits. Precision fermentation specifically  www.remilk.com offers the advantages of real dairy without lac-

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I can’t hear you if you don’t face me.

Top tips for chatting to someone with hearing loss

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Orthodox Judaism

MAKING SENSE OF THE SEDRA In our thought-provoking series, rabbis, rebbetzins and educators relate the week’s parsha to a gap year

BY JONNY ROODYN

EDUCATIONAL DIRECTOR, JEWISH FUTURES, AND RABBI OF FINCHLEY CENTRAL FEDERATION SYNAGOGUE

The relevance of Shabbat today On erev Rosh Hashanah last year, I received a powerful clip of a group of farmers from Kibbutz Shaalvim in central Israel. This was the last day of the Jewish year and they were about to stop work – for the entire year! They downed tools, stopped their tractors and then the music started playing and they broke out into a joyous dance to the words from the Rosh Hashanah prayers, simcha le artzecha ve sasson le irecha, gladness to your land and joy to your city. The sight of them rejoicing at the opportunity to observe the laws of shmita brought me to tears.

The laws of shmita are outlined in this week’s sedra, Behar. “Six years you shall sow your field and six years you shall prune your vineyard and gather in the land’s produce.

But in the seventh year there shall be a Sabbath, observed by the cessation from work for the

land, a Sabbath to God; you shall not sow your field nor prune your vineyard” (Vayikra 25:3–4).

The practicalities of how this plays out in contemporary Israel are complex and sparked a huge Halachic controversy at the end of the 19th century. As more and more Jews started to return to Zion, many of them formed agricultural communities that then became moshavim and kibbutzim. Conditions were extremely difficult and the whole enterprise was highly precarious; therefore the prospect of stopping work for an entire year could have placed entire communities in danger.

As such, some Halachic authorities devised a mechanism known as the heter mechira, which functions in a manner similar to the sale of chametz before Pesach. On the other side, there were great rabbis who opposed this vehemently.

This is an issue that rears its head every seven years, as there are major Halachic and economic implications for shmita observance, or reliance on this leniency.

Even those who propose relying on the heter mechira only do so because they believe that the extenuating circumstances that were relevant at the start of mass Jewish settlement of the land of Israel are still relevant, and perhaps even more so. This does not detract from the importance of shmita and the lesson it teaches us.

The idea of resting for a year is explained by Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch as being distinct from the weekly Shabbat with which we are more familiar.

On Shabbat, we desist from acts of creation in order to remember God as the creator.

Shmita, on the other hand, gives us an opportunity to take this further and recognise God as the master of the land. By leaving our land fallow and declaring the fruits ownerless, we let go and demonstrate that we live in the land through Hashem’s grace and not as a result of our own prowess.

This idea is all the more pertinent for generations who have witnessed the rebuilding of the

Shmita – letting land lie fallow – gives us the opportunity to recognise God as master

land of Israel, something that is a modern-day miracle. The fact that we have returned to Zion and continue to flourish there despite the many challenges to Israel’s existence is certainly something to celebrate this shmita year.

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Progressive Judaism

LEAP OF FAITH

A stimulating series where our progressive rabbis consider how biblical figures might act when faced with 21st century issues

BY RABBI DR MARGARET JACOBI BIRMINGHAM PROGRESSIVE SYNAGOGUE

The heart knows its own bitterness Bilah, the maid of Rachel, is given to Jacob as a concubine and bears them two sons. Her thoughts have been re-imagined by drawing on Talmud Chullin 58a, Talmud Yoma 83a and Mishnah Oholot 7:6.

I never wanted to have children. It was forced on me.

I know Rachel was desperate to have a child, so desperate to have one that she said: “Give me children or else I die.”

(Genesis 30:1).

Tragically, her words were fulfilled when she died giving birth to Benjamin. But why should I have had to risk my life through pregnancy? I have seen women die in childbirth, screaming in agony after days of labour. I did not want to risk my life, but I had no choice.

Because Rachel had no children, I was forced to lie with Jacob, then go through pregnancy, seeing my body swell with a baby I had not wanted and suffer the indignity of giving birth straight on to Rachel’s lap, as it were. And then Rachel, not I, was credited as the mother of the child.

If I could have ended the pregnancy I would have. It was not

my choice to become pregnant. I loved and respected my body and I felt violated when I had to lie with Jacob. And then I had to do it a second time. My life was at risk through no choice of mine.

The sons I gave birth to, Dan and Naftali, never really found their place among Jacob’s children either. They were never fully mine, nor fully Rachel’s. They were mocked by Joseph. It’s true that they are fine young men, and in many ways I am proud of them, but they don’t fit in.

I ask myself what it would have meant to have brought the pregnancy to an end, to have had an abortion. Would I have regretted it? Maybe. It would have ended a life before it began.

But when they were in the womb, my babies were not yet people, they were more like part of me. I would rather have lived with the regret than the danger and agony I faced during childbirth, only to have to hand my child over to another mother.

So if you were to ask me: “Should I have an abortion?” I could not answer for you. I could only say this: “The heart knows its own bitterness.” No one else can know what you are going through.

It is a grave thing to end a life before it has begun and is not to be undertaken lightly. But it is your body and you have a right to choose whether or not it should go through a pregnancy and birth.

Our great teachers determined that the life of a mother should take precedence over that of the unborn child. It is your life and your pain and so it must be your choice.

In the womb, Bilal’s babies were ‘more like part of her’

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Ask our

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Professional advice from our panel / Ask Our Experts

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The Property Guardianship Strategy is a proactive and preventative security measure.

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

This week: Inheritance tax planning, shipping to Israel and synagogue participation for the deaf

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KKL EXECUTOR AND TRUSTEE COMPANY

Dear Carolyn I would like to transfer my house into the names of my married children, but I don’t want to move out. Is this sensible inheritance tax planning?

Rachel Dear Rachel There are several important reasons why this would not be advisable. You haven’t said, but I would assume for the purpose of this answer that your children live in their own homes which they will continue to occupy whilst you live in your home. If this is the case, the (inheritance) taxman will view what you have

STEPHEN MORRIS MANAGING DIRECTOR

STEPHEN MORRIS SHIPPING LTD Dear Stephen Why has the cost of shipping to Israel risen again this year?

Diana Dear Diana There is no simple answer to this. There are several components to the increases.

1. The cost of packing materials: – cardboard has risen in price from the day the

pandemic started. Cartons are historically made largely from recycled paper and board and manufacturers gave the reason for increases as being due to people not re-cycling during the pandemic. The truth, I think, is that just a few large companies control the world market for board and they use that to their financial advantage.

2. The cost of sea freight: This was not affected by the pandemic but shipping lines chose to place vessels into dry dock and then share the available space remaining with other shipping lines so as to maximise returns.

Those partnerships are now falling apart and I hope to see freight rates reduce over the next 12 months.

done as a Gift with a Reservation of Benefit.

They will deem that you reserve the enjoyment of the object in question (in your case, your home) while purporting to have given it away and therefore your estate, when you die, will still be taxed, possibly at 40% depending on how your Will is structured, on the value of the property. One way of avoiding this trap is to pay your children a market rent for the right to continue living in the house.

Additionally, you could put your own security of occupation at risk if any of your children were to get divorced or they or their spouses faced bankruptcy, bringing what was your home into the sites of the family courts or creditors depending upon the case. Your children would, however, be entitled, as owners, to sell the property without your consent.

3. Fuel: Ships use a lot of fuel and the war in The Ukraine has increased the proportion of shipping charges that relate to fuel costs. Again, we watch for changes.

4. Container haulage: There is no doubt that Brexit sent a lot of drivers home to the EU causing a shortage in the UK along with a shortage of containers due to the pandemic’s demand on PPE from the far east and the backlogs in shipping that this caused. The situation is, however, improving.

Stephen Morris Shipping has qualified for The MTC – a consortium of movers – allowing us to now buy freight at the most favourable rates and ensure that containers and transport are available when needed.

SUE CIPIN CHIEF EXECUTIVE

JEWISH DEAF ASSOCIATION Dear Sue People have started returning to synagogue services and activities, in person, at last, however, we are aware that people with hearing loss feel that they cannot participate at events. How can we make things more accessible and enjoyable for them?

Miriam, on behalf of my Synagogue Council

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Dear Miriam Hooray, yes, there is life beyond zoom now!

Ideally, ask your rabbi or speaker to provide printed copies of his sermon, so it can be read.

Suggest they slow their speech a little and try to face hard of hearing congregants (who should sit as close to the speaker as possible) so they can benefit from lip reading.

Did you know that in most Synagogues, a hearing loop may be used on Shabbat?

For hearing aid wearers, this makes sounds clearer and more audible. If yours doesn’t have one, please bring it up at your AGM – it’s probably coming up shortly!

For people without hearing aids, personal amplifiers can be used for events (and services in some places).

Likewise, captions, on a screen vastly help inclusivity.

The JDA are only too happy to give bespoke advice on all the above, plus more… please contact Gabbie or Judith at info@hearingcon nect.org.uk or call

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Jewish News 19 May 2022

Ask Our Experts / Professional advice from our panel

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

Email: editorial@jewishnews.co.uk Got a question for a member of our team?

Email: editorial@jewishnews.co.uk

PRIVATE HEALTHCARE SPECIALIST

PC, Mac, WiFi, Laptops & Desktops Remote Support and On-Site Man on a Bike IT Consultancy Call now 020 8731 6171 www.manonabike.co.uk 9ct

£8.35/g £12.98/g 14ct £16.70g 18ct £8.35/g 9ct £19.48/g 21ct £12.98/g 14ct £16.70g 18ct £20.41/g 22ct £19.48/g 21ct £22.26/g 24ct £20.41/g 22ct £16.98 £8.35/g 9 ct 9ct £22.26/g 24ct £26.49 £12.98/g 14 ct £22.50/g Platinum14ct £22.50/g Platinum £33.96 £16.70g 18 ct 18ct £0.25/g £0.25/g Silver Silver £19.48/g £39.62 21 ct 21ct £81.16 Half Sovereigns £20.41/g £41.48 22ct 22 ct Half Sovereigns £160.48 Full Sovereigns£81.16 £45.27 £22.26/g 24ct 24 ct 1oz Krugerands £690.85 £21.42 £160.48 Platinum 950 £22.50/g Platinum Full Sovereigns £0.42 £0.25/g Silver 925 Silver £690.85 1oz Krugerands Half Sovereigns £165.90 £81.16 Half Sovereigns

Full Sovereigns £160.48 Full Sovereigns £331.80 Krugerrands £690.85 1oz Krugerands £1408.18 48B Hendon Lane, Finchley, N3 1TT CONTACT US FROM 8AM - 10PM 7 DAYS A WEEK 48B Hendon Lane, Finchley, N3 1TT

48B Hendon Lane, Finchley, N3 1TT

EMMA GROSS Qualifications: • Specialist in claims of unfair dismissal, redundancy and discrimination.

• Negotiate out-of-court settlements and handle complex tribunal cases.

• HR services including drafting contracts and policies, advising on disciplinaries, grievances and providing staff training.

• Contributor to The Times, HR Magazine and other titles.

SPENCER WEST LLP 020 7925 8080 www.spencer-west.com emma.gross@spencer-west.com

VACANT PROPERTY SECURITY

TREVOR GEE Qualifications: • Managing Director, consultant specialists in affordable family health insurance.

• Advising on maximising cover, lower premiums, pre-existing conditions.

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

• LLB solicitors finals.

• Member of Chartered Insurance Institute.

STUART WOOLGAR Qualifications: • CEO of London’s largest guardian company with more than 20 years’ experience • Well-known and highly regarded British security industry expert.

• Specialists in securing and protecting empty commercial and residential properties.

• Clients include small private landlords to major national property companies and managing agents, as well as those in the public sector.

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

GLOBAL GUARDIANS MANAGEMENT 020 3818 9100 www.global-guardians.co.uk info@global-guardians.co.uk

JEWELLER

Computer problems solved

EMPLOYMENT LAW AND DATA PROTECTION

JONATHAN WILLIAMS Qualifications: • Jewellery manufacturer since 1980s.

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

• Specialist in supply of diamonds to the public at trade prices.

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

DIRECTOR OF LEGACIES

COMMERCIAL LAWYER ADAM LOVATT Qualifications: • Lawyer with more than 11 years of experience working in the legal sector.

Specialist in corporate, commercial, media, sport and start-ups.

• Master’s degree in Intellectual Property Law from the University of London.

• Non-Executive Director of various companies advising on all governance matters.

LOVATT LEGAL LIMITED 07753 802 804 adam@lovattlegal.co.uk

CHARITY EXECUTIVE

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

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

Member of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners.

• •

SUE CIPIN Qualifications: • 20 years+ hands-on experience, leading JDA in significant growth and development.

• Understanding of the impact of deafness on people, including children, at all stages.

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

• Technology room with expert advice on and facilities to try out the latest equipment.

Hearing aid advice, support and maintenance.

KKL EXECUTOR AND TRUSTEE COMPANY 020 8732 6101 www.kkl.org.uk enquiries@kkl.org.uk

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

•

REMOVALS MANAGING DIRECTOR

PRINCIPAL, PERFORMING ARTS SCHOOL

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

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

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

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

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

• Set up Dancing with Louise 19 years ago.

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

DANCING WITH LOUISE 075 0621 7833 www.dancingwithlouise.co.uk Info@dancingwithlouise.com

19 May 2022 Jewish News

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39

Professional advice from our panel / Ask Our Experts

FINANCIAL SERVICES (FCA) COMPLIANCE

ACCOUNTANT

CHARITY EXECUTIVE

JACOB BERNSTEIN Qualifications: • A member of the APCC, specialising in financial services compliance for: • Mortgage, protection and general insurance intermediaries; • Lenders, credit brokers, debt counsellors and debt managers; • Alternative Investment Fund managers; • E-Money, payment services, PISP, AISP and grant-making charities.

ADAM SHELLEY Qualifications: • FCCA chartered certified accountant.

• Accounting, taxation and business advisory services.

• Entrepreneurial business specialist including start-up businesses.

• Specialises in charities; Personal tax returns.

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

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.

RICHDALE CONSULTANTS LTD 020 7781 8019 www.richdale.co.uk jacob@richdale.co.uk

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

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

INTERNATIONAL PAYMENTS SPECIALIST

IT SPECIALIST

LEE SHMUEL GOLDFARB Qualifications: • Hands-on service, with full and personalised support for international transfers.

• Get the most out of your currency exchange with regards to pension income, when purchasing your first house in Israel or benefitting from an inheritance from aboard.

• UK leader in financial exchange and partner to brands such as St James Place and Hargreaves Lansdown with industry-beating Trustpilot score.

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

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

• More than 18 years’ experience.

CURRENCIES DIRECT 0786 0595 890 / 0207 847 9400 www.currenciesdirect.com/jn lee.goldfarb@currenciesdirect.com

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

ISRAELI ACCOUNTANT

Email: sales@jewishnews.co.uk Struggling to hear the TV? Missing out on family conversations?

Hearing just not what it used to be?

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

CAREER ADVISER

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

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

CLAIRE STRAUS Qualifications: • 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

TELECOMS SPECIALIST

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.

BENJAMIN ALBERT Qualifications: • Co-Founder and Technical Director of ADWConnect – a specialist in business telecommunications, serving customers worldwide.

• Independent consultant and supplier of Telephone & Internet services.

• Client satisfaction is at the heart of everything my team and I do, always striving to find the most cost-effective solutions.

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

ADWCONNECT 0208 089 1111 www.adwconnect.com hello@adwconnect.com

We have the technology to make a difference.

Telephone 020 8446 0214

Get the very best of life

jewish deaf association

London NHS Crisis UK Waiting lists hit 6 million (BBC – 13 January 2022) No one wants to be in this queue

Call Patient Health today, as we have helped countless people like you to obtain private health cover, to significantly reduce their premiums, and very often, provide higher cover for less

No charges, free advice, wide range of insurers.

020 3146 3444 info@patienthealth.co.uk FCA registered Helping individuals, families, small companies, large corporates

40 Jewish News

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19 May 2022

Superb care in a

family setting

PREMIER CARE HOMES IN NORTH LONDON

L

ooking for a care home for yourself or a loved one? Then you could do no better than to join us

as part of our Springdene family. Unlike other care homes, which are often part of large corporations, we are a family business. And we’re still run by the same family that founded it more than 50 years ago.

New residents at Springdene can be sure of a warm reception. All our homes – Spring Grove in Hampstead, Spring Lane in Muswell Hill and Springview in Enfield – are rated as good by the Care Quality Commission.

Residents enjoy hotel-style luxury, with their own spacious room, complete with full en-suite facilities, personal telephone and wi-fi. There are three delicious meals a day, with a varied choice of menus.

And there are lots of regular activities, including quizzes, short stories, art competitions and poetry readings, live-streamed concerts and film-showings on a big screen, as well as walks in delightful gardens.

We’ve a great team, offering wonderful care and everyone is brilliantly looked after.

As our motto says:

Life is for living To arrange a visit, or for more information, just call

020 8815 2000 or visit

www.springdene.co.uk Follow us on

Hampstead

Muswell Hill

Enfield

The ultimate in comfort, Spring Grove is situated on the Finchley Road near to Swiss Cottage and is close to local shops, cultural facilities and a tube station.

One of the finest and best-appointed homes for older people in North London, Spring Lane is just a short distance from Muswell Hill Broadway.

Standing in tranquil surroundings, Springview is a purpose built home, situated near to Enfield Town with its local shops and public transport.

Springdene Jewish News_2022 ad_HIRES.indd 1

10/03/2022 17:14

19 May 2022 Jewish News

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41

Fun, games and prizes

THE JEWISH NEWS CROSSWORD 1

2

3

4

5

10 11 13 15

6

7 8

9

10

11

13

14

17

17 19 20 21

12

15

19

20

21

ACROSS 1 Smooth stone (6) 4 Houses converted from stables (4)

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

Faintly (lit) (5) Celebrity wall-poster (3-2) Short-legged canine (5) Venomous snake with a distinctive hooded neck (5) Magazine issue (7) Variety of rabbit (3) Fruit seeds (4) Somewhat (6)

1

DOWN 1 Walked up and down (5) 2 Long crusty loaf (7) 3 High (ambitions) (5) 5 Self-worth (3) 6 Exercise for the stomach muscles (3-2) 7 Real bargain (4) 12 Misty (7) 13 Go stealthily (5) 14 Flower or part of the eye (4) 15 Follow-my-leader dance (5) 16 Pertain (5) 18 Wicked sprite (3)

16

18

SUDOKU

8 Dove’s call (3) 9 Detect (4,3)

4

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 with their letters in the grid will help you to guess the identity of other letters.

I

S T D R K V A

C A R B O N I

A S T

I

I

24

A Z E X S R

19

T E A S V T E G

6

R A E C A L S E D L O G O O T K N Y A B H H N E

I

T

I

I

L R D U O E

M S

A T R O C X O

I

H A T B N S E

I

I

6

N E

I

I

1

T S U L P H U R A E N P N HELIUM HYDROGEN IODINE IRON LEAD

LITHIUM MERCURY NEON NICKEL OXYGEN

Last issue’s solutions Crossword ACROSS: 1 Dread 4 On air 7 Mammoth 8 Gag 9 Ass 11 Stewed 14 Galaxy 17 Tan 19 IOU 20 Trumpet 22 Sharp 23 Grand DOWN: 1 Demean 2 Elm 3 Doors 4 Ochre 5 Augment 6 Rage 10 Spatula 12 Tax 13 United 15 Act up 16 Young 18 Kids 21 Pea

SILICON SILVER SULPHUR TITANIUM ZINC

5 7 2 6 3 8 4 1 9

8 6 1 4 9 2 7 5 3

1 8 5 2 7 6 9 3 4

14

R

19

19

26

12

2

13

8

8

8 19

20

19

18 6

21

2

8

18

12

20

2

8

8

4

2

23 4

24

18

14

17 5

18

26

9

I

26

12

25

8

8

16

21

5

19

26

15

13

16

19

19

24

19

9 3 4 5 8 1 6 2 7

3 4 9 8 6 5 2 7 1

19

1

15

1

24

4 5 2 3

13

22

22

7

3

12 7

20 19 19

4

26

4

13

22

19

4

14

13

1

G

24 1

21

G

19

14

R

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

Suguru 6 2 7 3 4 9 1 8 5

26

14

14

26

13

3

13

23

10 19

19

13

21

24

19

5 2 3

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

Sudoku 4 9 3 1 5 7 8 6 2

26

19

H N M Y U R E P P O C C E ARGON CARBON COBALT COPPER GOLD

3

23 18

6

24

M E R

12

19 18

13

2 5

14

R Y O U D

C M S Y K N

13

12

18

R T H O A B E D Z E G L M G N

8

11

L G A P

2 13

12

E S N

R A T E S E E D

L U L

19

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

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.

The listed chemical elements 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.

L

7 2 6 8 7 1 3 9 5 9 2

SUGURU

CODEWORD

I

4

8

WORDSEARCH N O C

3

7 1 6 9 2 3 5 4 8

2 5 8 7 1 4 3 9 6

2 3 1 3 1 2

1 4 5 2 4 3

3 2 3 1 5 1

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

I

Wordsearch 1 4 5 2 3 4

2 3 1 4 1 2

1 5 2 3 5 4

1 2 1 2 3 1

3 5 3 5 4 2

2 1 4 1 3 1

4 3 5 2 5 4

1 2 1 4 3 2

5 4 3 2 5 1

B L M U T T E R P O G O K

P O L S L G F A A D N T K

I Q W O D S G S T R I N G

Z S U I R A V I D A R T S

Z E R C N C E L I A M A K

I B O I H O S L N V U T C

C M N T A I L P I E C E I

Codeword A I E E R E N B I R S T N

T E L N P E R R O B A R O

O S H P U A C S E E M A M

F E A D T H I N S S A U R

W R E O E N I H O L T Q A

G E L D D I F N E C I E H

CO F F E D I J O I N U I F RACA K AB L Y O T U S S L Q P S UBUR E R S T I NG

E HU X U CR EO E S HO S A I MP V H E A L Z B I A U R Y D I

MBUG I N SO T E E W R R I D S L O T H A MOND P O OA T H O C NGH Y

WX F J KB V P Z ORM I 19/05 L T C S NHGAQDU Y E

42

Jewish News 19 May 2022

www.jewishnews.co.uk

Business Services Directory HOUSE CLEARANCE

ANTIQUES

Stirling of Kensal Green

Top prices paid Antique – Reproduction – Retro Furniture (any condition)

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

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

Established over 60 years.

Know who you are dealing with.

Dave & Eve House Clearance Friendly Family Company established for 30 years

House clearances

All quality furniture bought & sold.

Single items to complete homes

Best prices paid for complete house clearances including china, books, clothing etc. Also rubbish clearance service, lofts, sheds, garages etc

MARYLEBONE ANTIQUES - 8 CHURCH STREET NW8 8ED

07866 614 744 (ANYTIME) 0207 723 7415 (SHOP)

Please contact Gordon Stirling

closed Sunday & Monday STUART SHUSTER - e-mail - info@maryleboneantiques.co.uk

020 8960 5401 or 07825 224144

MAKE SURE YOU CONTACT US BEFORE SELLING

Email: gordonstirling65@gmail.com

CHARITY & WELFARE

We clear houses, flats, sheds, garages etc.

No job too big or too small!

Rubbish cleared as part of a full clearance.

We have a waste licence.

We buy items including furniture bric a brac.

For a free quote please phone Dave on 07913405315 any time.

HOME & MAINTENANCE

ARE YOU BEREAVED? Bereavement Counselling for adults and children individually. Support Groups available.

During the pandemic, we offer telephone and online counselling.

Contact Jewish Bereavement Counselling Service in confidence.

0208 951 3881 enquiries@jbcs.org.uk | www.jbcs.org.uk

Labels are for jars.

Not people.

Refer yourself or a loved one by calling 020 8458 2223 or visit www.jamiuk.org REGISTERED CHARITY NO. 1003345

CHARITY & WELFARE

PLUMBSAFE (UK) LTD

SILVER

WESTLON HOUSING ASSOCIATION

“Better Safe Than Sorry”

Sheltered Accommodation

For all your heating and plumbing requirements

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 support, seven days a week; a residents’ lounge and kitchen, laundry, a sunny patio and garden.

| 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 Not shabbat

PLUMBSAFEUK.COM

CARPENTER

For further details and application forms, please contact Westlon Housing Association on 020 8201 8484 or email: johnsilverman@btconnect.com

UTILITIES

Josef Carpenter Ltd

Are you happy paying big household bills?

SASH WINDOWS - FRENCH DOORS WARDROBES – KITCHENS – BATHROOMS GENERAL BUILDING WORK

Would you like to pay less?

TEL: 02085660113

joiner@josefcarpenters.com www.josefcarpenters.com

Find out how ©

call Jeff on 07958 959 822

STONEMASON

A. ELFES LTD New memorials Additional inscriptions & renovations 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

www.garygreenmemorials.co.uk

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

18/03/2019 12:50:51

Gants Hill

12 Beehive Lane Gants Hill, IG1 3RD Telephone

Edgware

130 High Street Edgware, HA8 7EL Telephone

0207 754 4659 0207 754 4646

www.memorialgroup.co.uk

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

19 May 2022 Jewish News

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43

Business Services Directory LEGACY- LEAVE A GIFT IN YOUR MEMORY

JEWISH WAR VETERANS

Leave the legacy of independence to people like Joel.

YOUR LEGACY

PLease remember us in your wiLL.

& THEIR DEPENDANTS NEED

legacy@cst.org.uk ►

eNABLeD

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

visit www.Jbd.org or caLL 020 8371 6611

Registered Charity No. 259480

Legacy Classified advert v1.qxp_Legacy 16/06/2021 10:57 Page 1

Registered Charity No: 1082148

www.cst.org.uk ► 0208 457 3700 ►

Together

we protect our children’s future Please include CST in your will

Charity no. 1042391 and SC043612

COMPUTER

HELP US CONTINUE TO BE THERE FOR OUR COMMUNITY WITH A GIFT IN YOUR WILL.

Legacy advert 84x40.indd 1

16/04/2021 10:55

Call our Legacy Team on 020 8922 2840 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

Charity Reg No. 802559

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

Antiques Buyers

Wanted all Antiques & furniture including Lounge Dining and Bedroom Suites. Chests of drawers.

Display and Cocktail Cabinets. Furniture by Hille.

Epstein. Archie shine. G plan etc in Walnut. Mahogany.

Teak and Rosewood.

We also buy Diamonds & Jewellery. Gold. Silverware.

Paintings. Glass. Porcelain. Bronzes etc.

All Antiques considered. Full house clearances organised. Very high prices paid, free home visits.

Check our website for more details www.antiquesbuyers.co.uk Email: info@antiquesbuyers.co.uk Please call Sue Davis on Freephone: 08008402035 WhatsApp Mobile: 07956268290 Portobello rd London By appointments only.

44

Jewish News 19 May 2022

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