1300 - 2nd February 2023

in Israel jotam@jewishnews.co.uk @mrconfino

Fadi meeting President Herzog after the attack

Teen and Ukrainian among seven killed at synagogue

Continued from page 1 who has worked for Magen David Adom (MDA) for more than 20 years, added: “I don’t remember seeing such a brutal terrorist attack with so many victims. It was incredibly hard to witness.

“I had to check all the people, including all the fatalities and oversee the scene. I entered the [Ateret Avraham] synagogue, in order to check that there was nobody left inside. There was nobody injured inside the building. All the victims were outside.”

As some of the victims lay lifeless on the ground, Dekidek helped bring those still alive safely into the ambulance and straight to the nearby hospitals, Shaare Zedek Medical Center and Hadassah on Mount Scopus.

Dekidek lives in the nearby Palestinian neighbourhood of Beit Hanina, in East Jerusalem. The situation in East Jerusalem “is really not easy. It’s very tense,” he said. “We at MDA are on high alert and ready for any scenario.”

But still, most Palestinians in East Jerusalem “just want to live in peace and quiet and raise their kids in the best way possible,” he said. “I hope we are going to see better days than what we’ve seen in the past week.”

The seven victims were identified over the weekend. They include a Ukrainian woman and a teenage boy.

First to be named were Eli and Natali Mizrahi, a couple who were killed by the 21-yearold Palestinian terrorist as they ran to the crime scene to try to help some of the victims.

Eli, 48, and Natali, 45, had been married for

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two years and were residents of Jerusalem’s Neve Yaakov neighbourhood, where the attack took place. Eli’s father, Shimon, said: “We were in the middle of our meal and there were several shots and my son jumped up. We yelled at him, ‘Don’t go anywhere.’”

The couple were buried near the city of Beit Shemesh at the Derech Hachaim cemetery.

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Rafael Ben Eliyahu, 56, was the third victim to be identified. Eliyahu, also a resident of the area, left three children and a wife. His son Kobi revealed at the funeral that Eliyahu’s wife had given birth to a child not long after he was killed.

Kobi said: “You and mum were supposed to come to the bris, but ultimately you were not able to hold (your grandson). Instead, I’m bringing you to the cemetery.”

The youngest victim, 14-year-old Asher Natan, was laid to rest on Sunday on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem. Asher’s father, Aharon, said at the funeral: “I always wanted so much for things to be good for you. Now you’re in a

Another victim was a Ukrainian woman identified as Irina Korolova, who according to Israeli media was a caretaker. Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky said on Twitter after news of her death had broken: “We share [Israel’s] pain after the terrorist attacks in Jerusalem.”

Also among the victims was 68-year-old Shaul Hai, who was a sexton at a synagogue in the Pisgat Ze’ev neighbourhood, not far from the scene of the attack.

Haaretz Daily quoted a friend of Hai saying his wife had died a year and a half ago and that “despite the tribulations that he underwent in his life, he was always nice to everyone and respected everyone. He was a special person.”

Ilya Sosansky, 26, was the last victim to be identified. His family told Channel 12 it was “unimaginable” he was no longer alive.

 Editorial comment, page 18

Israel’s response includes giving civilians more guns

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has announced government plans to combat the wave of Palestinian terrorist attacks that left seven people dead and five wounded in two separate East Jerusalem attacks over the weekend.

The plan includes a number of steps such as expediting the issuing of weapons permits to “thousands of Israeli civilians, including those in the rescue services”, as well as revoking Israeli identity cards and residency of “families of terrorists that support terrorism”.

The security cabinet also decided to revoke the national insurance rights of families that support terrorism, as well as “strengthening” West Bank settlements.

Last, the government would immediately seal o homes belonging to families of terrorists and then demolish them.

Israeli security forces sealed o the homes of Alqam Khayri, 21, a resident of East Jerusalem, who carried out Friday’s attack near a synagogue. The home belonging to the 13-yearold Palestinian boy behind Saturday morning’s attack was also sealed o .

Both houses will be demolished at a later time, a long-time policy by the Israeli government to deter Palestinians from committing terrorist attacks.

Critics of the policy say it is collective punishment that has not proven e ective in the past and exacerbates anger and frustration in Palestinians in East Jerusalem and the West Bank.

The UK called last week’s attack “appalling”. Foreign secretary James Cleverly tweeted: “To attack worshippers at a synagogue on Holocaust Memorial Day, and during Shabbat, is horrific.”

 Blinken meets Netanyahu in Jerusalem, p14

The victims, clockwise from top right: Asher Natan, 14, Eli, 48, and Natali Mizrahi, 45, Ilya Sosansky, 26, Rafael Ben Eliyahu, 56, Irina Korolova, 59, and Shaul Hai, 68

An Palestinian child holding a gun stands on the flags of the United States and Israel during a protest in the Gaza Strip

Census: Median age of Jewish people now living in England and Wales is 41

Newly-published results from the 2021 England and Wales census have confirmed the average age of those responding by identifying as Jewish was 41, writes Lee Harpin.

Figures also showed those who reported their religion as Jewish were “consistently distributed between around 25 and 65 years”.

Around 8,000 more women than men identified as Jewish.

The figures suggest there was little change to the median age of Jews in England and Wales since the last census was published in 2011, but the overall age profile of those identifying as Jewish was “more evenly distributed than the overall population”.

The new data, published by the O ce for National Statistics (ONS), also gave a fascinating insight into small and large Jewish populations across the two countries.

Some 139,620 women and 131,710 men identified as Jewish in England and Wales, but figures for Welsh Jewry alone confirm just 970 women and 1,075 men self-identify

as being Jewish there. London has the biggest Jewish community, with 75,135 women and 70,330 men ticking the Jewish box.

The first data last November from the 2021 census confirmed the total number of people self-identifying as Jews in England and Wales in 2021 was 271,327, against 265,073 in 2011 and 259,927 in 2001.

The new data showed those who identified as Christian had the oldest average age of the tick-box response options, at 51 years, against an average of 40 years for the overall population of England and Wales.

Respondents who described themselves as Muslim had the youngest average age at 27 years. This was followed by those who reported “No religion”– 32 years.

The data also included detailed breakdowns on Jewish populations across the country.

In Barnet, 29,195 women and 27,420 men identified as Jews; in Hackney, 8,775 women and 8,650 men; in Hertsmere, 9, 570 women and 8775 men, while in Salford there were 5,070 women and 5305 men and in nearby Bury the figures were 5,560 women and 5175 men. Small Jewish communities included 15 women and 25 men identifying as Jews in Bridgend, Wales, and 15 women and 30 men living in Bassetlaw who ticked the Jewish box.

The census introduced a voluntary question on religion in 2001. In 2021, some 94 percent of the overall population in England and Wales (56 million people) chose to answer, a higher percentage than in 2011, when 92.9 percent (52.1 million) answered the religion question and 7.1 percent (4.0 million) chose not to answer.

population in England and Wales (56 million people) chose gion question and 7.1

‘FASCIST’ JIBE OUTCRY

A Labour MP called the new Israel government “fascist” at prime minister’s questions in the Commons.

Liverpool Riverside’s Kim Johnson (pictured) stood up near the end of yesterday’s session and said: “Since the election of the fascist Israeli government last December there has been an increase in human rights violations against Palestinians including children. Can the prime minister tell us how he is challenging what Amnesty and other human rights organisations refer to as an apartheid state?”

Rishi Sunak immediately condemned the remarks, noting Johnson had “failed to mention the horrific attack on civilians inside Israel”.

Jewish Labour MP Margaret Hodge was quick to condemn Johnson’s words, tweeting:

“This language is unacceptable and dangerous. With violence escalating in recent weeks, this careless remark only makes it harder to bridge the divide. Not to mention a complete insult to Louise Ellman’s legacy. ” It is understood that Labour’s chief whip will now be speaking with Johnson and she will asked to withdraw her comments.

Other MPs in the Commons also greeted them with loud groans of disapproval.

Johnson had replaced Jewish MP Ellman in the Liverpool seat. Ellman was regularly taunted with questions about her support for Israel by pro-Jeremy Corbyn local party members.

During PMQs, Sunak said it was “important to remain calm” to make sure “all sides strive for peace” in the region.

Amnesty International has cited Israel’s “system of apartheid” for the recent “series of deadly terror attacks” including last week’s Jerusalem synagogue killings.

A press release states: “Israeli authorities must dismantle the system of apartheid which is causing so much su ering and bloodshed.”

Stepping up a campaign it launched a year ago, Amnesty adds: “Israeli forces have killed almost 220 Palestinians, including 35 in January 2023 alone. Unlawful killings help maintain Israel’s apartheid system and constitute crimes against humanity, as do other serious and ongoing violations by Israeli authorities such as administrative detention and forcible transfer.

“Over the past few days, a series of deadly

attacks has underscored the urgent need for accountability. On 26 January, Israeli forces carried out a raid on Jenin refugee camp and killed 10 Palestinians, including a 61-year-old woman.

“On 27 January, seven Israeli civilians including a child were killed when a Palestinian gunman opened fire in Neve Ya’akov, an Israeli settlement in occupied East Jerusalem. In response to this attack, Israeli authorities have stepped up collective punishment against Palestinians, carrying out sweeping mass arrests and threatening punitive home demolitions.”

Amnesty’s 2022 report Israel’s Apartheid Against Palestinians was condemned by communal bodies in the UK, including the Board of Deputies and Jewish Leadership Council.

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‘APARTHEID TO BLAME’

“Jewish Care meant everything to my mum, Bertie. That’s why I’m leaving them a gift in my Will”.

Brian, Legacy Pledger

The census form and (left) how Jewish News reported the initial results

Disgraced vicar Stephen Sizer handed 12 year ban 10-YEAMR UNI SHOAH STUDY

A Church of England tribunal this week banned disgraced minister Stephen Sizer from serving as a clerk of holy orders for 12 years, including time served. He will be unable to act as a minister until 2030, writes Lee Harpin.

A church disciplinary hearing found in December that Sizer had engaged in conduct which “provoked and o ended the Jewish community” and in one “serious allegation” was found to have “engaged in antisemitic activity”.

The now-retired Anglican priest, who was vicar of Christ Church in Virginia Water, Surrey, for 20 years, denied antisemitism in relation to 11 allegations about his conduct between 2005-2018. Board of Deputies president Marie van der Zyl said: “I am pleased that the tribunal has made an unambiguous statement in banning Stephen Sizer.

“Given that he indulged in ‘antisemitic activity’ and caused grievous o ence to the Jewish

community over a number of years, this is the correct decision.

“I am grateful to the tribunal for hearing our evidence and look forward to a continued strong and close relationship with the Church of England in the coming years. Many thanks to my pre-

decessor as president, Jonathan Arkush, who also worked tirelessly on this case with me.”

A panel concluded that Sizer’s conduct in four of them was “unbecoming to the o ce and work of a clerk in holy orders, in that he provoked and o ended

the Jewish community.” Following the announcement, the Church of England confirmed in a statement that Sizer had committed misconduct.

The Church issued a statement in December saying it was “committed to building cohesive communities and fostering strong interfaith relations built on trust and respect”. It stressed “antisemitism has no place in our society and those in positions of power and influence must listen to concerns about it”.

December’s tribunal concluded: “The most serious allegation against the respondent relates to posting a link on Facebook in January 2015 to the article blaming Israel for 9/11. The tribunal finds the article in its tone and content truly shocking.”

Sizer said he accepted the criticisms of his conduct and would repeat his apology over the posting of the article.

The University of Sussex has launched the only fully funded visiting fellowship to the UK in the field of Jewish and Holocaust studies.

Created in memory of five members of the Isaacsohn and André families who perished in the Shoah, the Isaacsohn André Fellowship Programme will initially run for ten years. It will see leading academics from universities around the world join Sussex experts in Jewish and Holocaust studies as visiting fellows, each for a period of up to three months.

The fellows join both the Sussex Weidenfeld Institute of Jewish Studies in the university’s school of media, arts and humanities, and the university-based Centre for GermanJewish Studies.

The university has also received a donation of almost £500,000 from the Jusaca Charitable Trust for the Sussex Weidenfeld Institute of Jewish Studies.

Vice-chancellor Sasha Roseneil said the donations will help foster academic collaboration in Jewish and Holocaust studies: “As a university community, we have a responsibility to research and educate future generations about the Holocaust and to play our part in ensuring it can never be forgotten.”

The university has a long-standing commitment to Holocaust education and research and yesterday hosted its annual Holocaust Memorial Day commemoration, with Holocaust survivor Manfred Goldberg BEM sharing his experiences.

philanthropist’

Sir Michael Heller dies at 86

Sir Michael Heller, one of the Jewish community’s most prolific philanthropists and a captain of industry, has passed away following a brief time in hospital.

Born in July 1936, the chairman of property firm London & Associated Properties, he was a committed Zionist. Together with his wife, Lady Morven, he founded the Michael & Morven Heller charitable foundation in 1988 to support the arts, education and medicine.

A passionate philanthropist, he donated ambulances and mobile intensive care units to Magen David Adom, was a patron of the Jewish Museum and supported the work of Jewish educational network ORT.

He was a former deputy chairman of the Conservative Friends of Israel (CFI) and sat on the board of the centre-right think tank Centre for Policy Studies.

In recognition of his support for charities and communal organisations, as well as the Royal Opera House, the National Theatre and Hampstead Theatre, Heller was knighted in 2013 for charitable service. He also received an Algemeiner Honouree in 2019.

CFI executive director James Gurd said Sir Michael had been “a stalwart supporter and integral part” of CFI for many decades.

He added: “He was greatly respected across all levels of the Conservative Party. His passionate philanthropy in Israel and for so many charities has changed thousands of lives and will leave a powerful legacy.

“It is thanks to his selfless contributions that the UK-Israel relationship is stronger than ever. Our thoughts are with Lady Heller, Andrew and the Heller family at this most di cult time. May his memory be for a blessing. Yehi Zichro Baruch.”

Chai Cancer Care chair Louise Hager said the organisation would feel Sir Michael’s his loss tremendously, adding: “He was there as a sounding board for, and a caring friend to Chai. Together with his wife Morven, Michael absolutely believed and recognised in what Chai were doing. We felt truly blessed to have such loyal friends who always showed tremendous interest. A real gentle, giant of a man, he was so modest and unassuming, but also very perceptive, astute and did tremendous philanthropy. The word is often used, but Sir Michael was a mensch He was just always there. He will always be remembered with tremendous a ection. He is part of Chai and always will be.”

Sir Michael is survived by his wife, sons Andrew and John, and daughter Nicola.

‘Passionate

Apology: Disgraced Stephen Sizer outside court

Communal giant: Sir Michael

Starmer: For me, never again will never stop

Keir Starmer has said Labour “won’t let up” in the fight against antisemitism under his leadership and: “If we stop for one moment then we forgo the right to change our communities, our cities and our country,” writes Lee Harpin.

He said last year’s local election victory in Barnet was “the proudest moment of my leadership” adding:

“I say to Jewish communities there and everywhere – we know we must never let up, and we won’t.”

In a speech cheered by members at the annual London Labour regional conference, Starmer devoted a lengthy section to

the battle against anti-Jewish racism, citing a message put out by Jonny Newton of the Community Security Trust which praised his attempt to tackle the problem after its predominance in the party under Jeremy Corbyn.

Starmer said he had spent the past week reflecting on “the worst evil in human history” as Holocaust Memorial Day approached, and his own battle to defeat antisemitism in his party.

In a clear attempt to stress he did not believe the pledge to “root out antisemitism” from Labour was completed, Starmer stated:

”Conference, let me be clear: this work never stops. Our commitment to fighting all forms of hate and discrimination never stops.

‘Never again’ never stops.

“It’s up to us – everyone here in this room – to keep up the work of fighting antisemitism and changing our party.

Returning to the message from the CST’s Newton “about our journey on antisemitism”, Starmer said he needed to be clear about what the trust does: “They campaign against antisemitism, of course but their main focus is protecting Jews… from hate, from

intimidation, from violent attack in their communities. This is the awful reality Jewish communities face in Britain – the work of the CST is vital.”

He said Newton’s messasge was “clear and painful to hear”, that in 2018 and 2019 Labour-related antisemitism was a key driver of sustained anti-Jewish hatred. However, Starner said, Newton was now praising what Labour had done in developing and implementing new policies.

“Never again will Labour allow hate to spread unchallenged,” Starmer concluded.

UK DEFENDS ITS STANCE ON ‘ILLEGAL’ SETTLEMENTS

Foreign secretary James Cleverly said this week after being questioned by Jeremy Corbyn that the UK still considers Israeli settlements in the Palestinian Territories illegal.

The Islington North MP raised the matter at foreign o ce questions in the Commons, citing the recent decision by the UK to vote against referring it to the International Court of Justice.

After Cleverly answered Corbyn’s initial question with a “yes”, the independent MP asked what sanctions were being applied against Israel “in terms of supplying arms and trading with illegally produced settlement goods”.

If the settlements were, as the government said, completely illegal, why was Britain having anything to do with them at all? Corbyn asked.

Cleverly responded: “The UK opposes unilateral resolutions that damage the e orts to advance dialogue and therefore the prospects of a two-state solution.”

Conservative MP Richard Bacon said he had seen for himself how conditions had worsened on the West Bank, where he said Israeli actions represented an attempt to “Baalkanise” the

area. He asked what was the UK doing to put pressure on the Jewish state.

Cleverly said: “We enjoy a close and professional working relationship with the government of Israel which allows us to raise issues where we disagree.” The UK government had “highlighted” the need for Israel to “maintain a credible route to a viable Palestinian state”.

Keir Starmer at the London conference

The man who solved the Zahawi tax puzzle

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

The tax expert who played a leading role in the downfall of ex Conservative chairman and chancellor Nadhim Zahawi is reflecting on his Jewish upbringing in the “glamorous” streets of Watford.

Since his barmitzvah at Radlett and Bushey reform synagogue, Dan Neidle, now 49, admits, simchas aside, he “hasn’t been back much since” and has never been “a big shul goer.” That’s not to say neither, he, or his wife, who now live in Norfolk, aren’t both proudly Jewish.

“We both feel very Jewish,” he says. “But we are both non-observent, and not shy about saying so.”

Neidle moved out to the Norfok countryside when he stepped back from his work as a partner at top city law firm Cli ord Chance last year, after 23 years, to spend more time with his family.

As a part-time venture he set up Tax Policy Associates Ltd with the aim of providing “expert and impar-

tial” tax policy advice. It was last June, after a conversation with Financial Times journalist Jim Pickard, that Neidle says he first came to look into the business a airs of Tory minister Zahawi. A freedom of information request by the journalist to HM Revenue & Customs led to them wrongly stating last June that no ministers were under investigation by the tax authority.

Meanwhile a report in the Independent newspaper just days later revealed Zahawi’s finances had in fact been the subject of a probe at the National Crime Agency, which did not lead to any action being taken.

“You could smell there was something odd,” Neidle says.

The former Watford Boys school pupil – “when it was a comprehensive” – accepts it would be a bit cliched to say the desire to stop injustice was the Jewish value that drove him on with his research and his general fascination with taxation systems.

In the past, other Jewish experts have attempted to draw a comparison with studying tax law and the Talmud.

“Talmudic studies may or may

not be a useful way for people to spend their time, but I’m not sure they should be a model for our tax system,” laughs Neidle. “It’s solving puzzles and the tax code is just like one big puzzle,” he adds.

As the pressure mounted on Zahawi, before his sacking last Sunday by Rishi Sunak, some claimed Neidle, a long-time Labour and Jewish Labour Movement member was acting in a partisan, political way with his continued probe into the former chancellor’s a airs. But it’s a charge he firmly rejects. “I’m just not a very partisan person,” he says.

“My belief is that you have tax policy that is sensible, closes loopholes and applies in a way that is fair. That can be agreed on by left and by right. The size of the state and redistrubution are other questions. The key question over how tax policy will work is not partisan. I really don’t have di culty separating that.”

At one stage during his probe into

Zahawi, Neidle admits he found himself under considerable stress as a result of the legal threats he faced from the politician’s legal firm Osborne Clarke.

Zahawi’s lawyers demanded he retracted his allegation of “dishonesty” but unfettered he published the libel letters he was sent and continued to allege a lack of transparency in a series of post.

Neidle discussed the situation with his own lawyers, and his wife. “We thought we shouldnt drop it,” he recalls. “But if it did come to court and we won we could still be out of pocket by hundreds of thousands of pounds.

“If we lost it would be millions. I had no newspaper behind me. That was easier than being a journalist because I had no one to tell me to stop. But the buck would always stop with my family.”

It subsequently emerged that Zahawi had indeed paid back millions to HMRC, which vindicated Neidle, and the other journalists who continued to dig into the story.

Neidle has now referred Zahawi’s lawyer to the solicitors regulation authority, claiming they misled him.

He also now plans to spend more time with his wife and family again, as was the original plan when he moved to the countryside.

Dan Neidle and (inset) the now former Tory chairman

‘Family history compels me to fight antisemitism’

House of Commons Speaker, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, has spoken of the “family history” that has left him determined to challenge antisemitism and other forms of racism when they raise their heads, writes Lee Harpin. Speaking to Jewish News after hosting a moving Holocaust Memorial Day ceremony at Speakers House in Westminster, the Commons Speaker since 2019 said: “My grandfather had been in the First World War, and relatives fought in the Second World War who came back to tell the stories, of when they went into Germany. In Chorley [Hoyle’s Lancashire home], you had some of the first people who went into the camps. And that always stood out.

“I want a better world. I want to make sure we don’t go back. The one thing we learnt about the Second World War, it was about the trials that brought people to justice. And to hear the harrowing stories of evil people and what they carried out is so important.

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“And that’s why I want my speakership to be one in which we do all we can to make sure this never happens again.”

Looking towards the three survivors who had just spoken at last Thursday’s Speakers House event, which was organised by the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, Hoyle said: “These are the last voices of people who su ered.

“It’s their voices telling me their stories, so I can carry on telling the story. We want young people to listen, to hear, and to tell all about the evil of what they did.”

Hoyle also spoke of his determination to ensure that Parliament was a welcoming place for Jewish, Muslim and MPs from all diverse communities in this country.

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“It’s about making sure we support you, whether you are Jewish, Hindu, Muslim [or] any faith. People have been elected to represent their communities. There should be nothing put in their way to stop them speaking out.

“People should not feel there are barriers because they are Jewish or Muslim. They should be able to speak out without any intimidation and without threats. Because we have seen that, against Jewish MPs.”

The Speaker then referenced a further piece of family history. “My father [former Labour MP Doug Hoyle] helped found Labour Friends of Israel, so there is history within my family…”:

Earlier at the event, Holocaust survivor

John Hajdu had been among a trio of speakers to give moving testimonies. He spoke alongside El Sadiq ‘Debay’ Mahmoud Manees, who survived genocide in Darfur, and Smajo Bešo OBE, who survived the Bosnian genocide.

Holding a teddy bear he has had since he was a child, Hajdu explained how he witnessed his father being taken away to a forced labour camp for Jewish men in 1943. One year later his mother was marched to a concentration camp in Austria.

He said the continued high level of antisemitic incidents in the UK was a reason why the events in Nazi Germany needed today to be “understood by as many people as possible”.

Hajdu pointed to Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine, saying it mirrored what went on when he was a child growing up Hungary. “It’s absolutely vital that you learn from me what my life is about, that you learn that this must never happen again,” he said.

He told of fleeing his home in Budapest aged just seven with his family to escape the Nazis, and facing a second threat from the Soviet army before being granted a permit to enter the UK.

Asked whether the experience had ever made him question his Jewish faith, Hajdu said he has always firstly attempted to live his life with respect for all human beings, and then also to be a good Jew.

Bosnian survivor Bešo spoke movingly of how his father and other members of his family were tortured by Serbian nationalists.

He also warned that Serb nationalism was inspirational for far-right antisemitic figures such as Norwegian terrorist Anders Breivik.

As he spoke about being tortured in Darfur, Manees broke down in tears.

Later, a Holocaust Memorial Day event took place at Portcullis House, Westminster, at which ex-minister Sajid Javid, Fleur Anderson MP, Laura Marks OBE, and the three survivors lit candles to remember the victims of the Holocaust and of other genocides.

MY FATHER [THE FORMER MP DOUG HOYLE] HELPED LAUNCH LABOUR FRIENDS OF ISRAEL

From left: Smajo Bešo OBE, who survived the Bosnian genocide, El Sadiq ‘Debay’ Mahmoud Manees survived the Darfur genocide, House of Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle, and Holocaust survivor John Hajdu. Inset: Sir Lindsay

Police drop probe into Halpern abuse claims

The Metropolitan Police has told Jewish News an investigation opened in December into allegations of sexual abuse by Golders Green rabbi Chaim Halpern against a young woman has been closed, writes Jenni Frazer.

The 21-year-old told journalists on a Channel 12 Israeli TV programme last November that Rabbi Chaim Halpern touched “private parts” of her body when she went to him for counselling in London and repeatedly tried to see her when he visited Israel earlier in the year.

The programme included tapes of phone conversations, allegedly between the rabbi and the woman, who now lives in Israel.

The male voice on the tape says he loves the woman, that she is beautiful, and asks if she wants him to “come with you in bed”. Rabbi Halpern has consistently denied making either verbal or physical approaches to the woman and has also said that it is not his voice on the tapes.

A Met spokesman told Jewish News the police had been made aware of the programme last December. In the programme, they said, “an unnamed woman, who appeared anonymously, alleged she had been the victim of non-recent sexual offences that are said to have taken place in London”.

As a result, the Met said: “Detectives from the North West Command Unit opened an investigation. As part of their enquiries they reviewed the interview and the related material

Yavneh College wins ‘outstanding’

Pikuach ranking

Jewish education at Yavneh College has been ranked ‘outstanding’ by the Board of Deputies body responsible for inspecting Jewish education in community schools. Pikuach, accredited by the Department of Education, said Yavneh students were “inspired both by the Jewish education on offer and the dedicated staff who are outstanding role models for Jewish practice and learning”. Yavneh described the “incredible” report as a “glowing recommendation”.

Historic Merthyr Tydfil shul set to be restored

An organisation that restores Jewish heritage sites across Europe has hired a new project manager to oversee preservation plans for a Grade II listed Merthyr Tydfil shul that closed 40 years ago. Neil Richardson has been appointed by the Foundation for Jewish Heritage. Most recently he served as interim director of the Grade II listed mansion house Insole Court in Cardiff. Merthyr synagogue stopped functioning as a community building in 1983 due to deterioration. It was bought by the foundation in 2019 with plans to use it partly to create a Jewish museum.

broadcast alongside it. They contacted the channel that conducted the interview in Israel, in an effort to make contact with the woman and confirm her identity”.

However, the spokesman said: “To date, these efforts have been unsuccessful. It is not possible to progress an investigation of this nature without officers being able to identify and speak to a complainant.

“They cannot rely solely on anonymous or third-party testimony so the investigation has been closed.

“Should new information emerge, officers would of course consider it carefully. We take allegations of sexual offences seriously and recognise the courage that it takes for victims to come forward.”

With the Met inquiry closed, the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations (UOHC) is free to proceed with an internal inquiry headed by former Redbridge recorder Judge Martyn Zeidman KC, a member of Edgware Yeshurun. He had said he would not begin his own investigation until the police had concluded theirs, but declined to comment further this week. Jewish News has approached UOHC repeatedly for contact information for the judge after several readers asked to be put in touch to give evidence, but received no reply.

Other allegations of sexual impropriety were made against Rabbi Halpern 10 years ago. A police inquiry was opened and closed nine months later with no charges brought.

‘OPTIMISTIC’ ESTHER BATTLING CANCER

Dame Esther Rantzen remains “optimistic” after revealing she has lung cancer. The 82-year-old Jewish broadcaster, longtime activist and founder of charities Childline and The Silver Line, said: “In the last few weeks I have discovered that I am suffering from lung cancer which has now spread. At the moment I am undergoing various tests, to assess the best treatment. I have decided not to keep this secret any more because I find it difficult to skulk around various hospitals wearing an unconvincing disguise, and because I would rather you heard the facts from me. “This diagnosis has prompted me to look back. I want to express my profound thanks to everyone who has made my life so joyful, filled with fun and inspiration.”

Over 50s challenge

Charities helping British Jews find new jobs say they recognise the results of a major survey last week showing employers’ reluctance to hire the over-50s.

Work Avenue and Resource, both based in Finchley, were reacting to a poll of more than 1,000 managers by CMI, a professional body focused on management and leadership. It found that just 42 percent were open “to a large extent” to hiring people aged between 50 and 64.

Resource’s Victoria Sterman said: “Although it’s always been harder to get a job as you advance in years, in part as a result of age discrimination by employers, the over-50s are facing a particularly tough challenge now.”

Work Avenue said: “Age discrimination does exist but depends a lot on the culture of the company and the role.”

The community’s flagship leadership development course for senior lay and professional leaders has relaunched after a pause during the pandemic.

Some 18 participants form the third cohort of the 15-month Dangoor Senior Leadership programme. The group is crossdenominational and has representation from across London, the south, Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham and Glasgow.

It includes a mix of professional and lay leaders with many having feet in both camps. The sessions combine in-person and online experiences including residentials facilitated with the prestigious Windsor Leadership.

Participants include Rabbi David Mason, currently rabbi at Muswell Hill synagogue but shortly to take up the reins as CEO of JCore, and Raphi Bloom, fundraising and marketing director at The Fed in Manchester.

Relaunch time for leadership course PROJECT HONOUR

The biggest construction project in the 70-year history of Leeds Jewish Housing Association (LJHA) has been shortlisted for Best Housing Development in the Chartered Institute of Housing Northern Awards.

The £14 million scheme at Queenshill Avenue in Moortown has 85 new properties, including 51 sheltered housing apartments for those aged 55 and over and 34 general-needs apartments. The award “recognises developments that provide desirable and sustainable places to live, improving people’s lives within the community”.

It project was opened officially last summer by National Housing Federation chief executive Kate Henderson and Leeds lord mayor Robert W Gettings.

Esther Rantzen

No case: Rabbi Chaim Halpern

Muslims sorry for branding shul ‘place of non-believers’

The Islamic movement buying Wembley United Synagogue has “apologised profusely” after its fundraising flyers sought help to purchase “a place of worship of non-believers”, writes Adam Decker.

Dawat-e-Islami, a Sunni Muslim group founded in Pakistan, caused upset across social media sites, including Facebook’s Friends of Wembley Shul, in recent days.

The synagogue received a written apology yesterday morning.

In an email to Wembley Synagogue chair Charles Vitez from Dawat-e-Islami’s head of London region, a copy of which has been seen by Jewish News, Hasan Ali Safdar said: “I am writing to apologise for the hurt caused by our leaflet this week.”

He added: “The wording on the leaflet stated the building is ‘a former place of worship of non-believers’, which was referring to non-believers of Islam i.e. any other religion. The wording was never intended to cause any o ence.

“We have removed this text from the campaign immediately and apologise profusely for any o ence it may have caused. We will not distribute the old leaflets and will only use amended material.”

The United Synagogue’s sale of the 14,500 sq ft building is near completion,

the parties having already exchanged contracts. Dawat-e-Islami set up a presence in the UK in 1995 and now has a network of about 40 Islamic centres and schools.

In December, Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis attended a farewell service at the shul on Forty Avenue, whose membership

SCHOOLS BEAT THE STRIKE

Most Jewish schools remained open yeseterday, despite teachers in England and Wales holding the first national strike since 2016.

has dropped from 1,800 in the 1960s to 150 families today, in part due to the shifting locus of London’s Jewish community.

The building was listed for sale for £4m but the Dawat-e-Islami leaflets cited a £5m fundraising project, believed to include the estimated cost of refurbishment. In November 2020 the shul bought a smaller purpose-built site nearby.

David Collins, the US’s chief operating o cer, said: “We are pleased that the trustees of Dawat-e-Islami UK immediately recognised the hurt caused by the o ensive language on their fundraising flyer.

“We are also glad that they have apologised to the members of Wembley United Synagogue and by extension the wider community, and have ordered a reprint of the flyer and removal of online content which contained the same language.

“The buyer was selected after a full marketing exercise for the sale. All the serious bids came from faith groups and following due diligence the highest bidder was chosen, as would be expected by the Charity Commission.

“We look forward to supporting [Wembley United Synagogue to make the move and celebrate their first Shabbat in the new shul soon.”

Yavneh College in Borehamwood operated a partial service, with school unavailable for years 8, 9 and 10. JFS and JCoSS closed fully, with teaching sta also on strike at Rimon Jewish Primary school. King Solomon High School in Ilford closed for all but the most vulnerable students, who were specifically invited in.

North West London Jewish Day school, Etz Chaim Primary, Sacks Morasha Jewish Primary, Nancy Reuben Primary and Mathilda Marks-Kennedy Primary all stayed open.

One teacher at King David Primary school in Manchester went on strike, but head teacher Stacey Rosenberg told Jewish News: “We are fully open. It hasn’t had a negative impact on the education of the children.”

Yavneh executive head teacher Spencer Lewis said the school had made arrangements for teaching provision across some years, meaning school still ran for Year 7 pupils. Years 11, 12 and 13 were able to attend ‘normal lessons’ in school, although no vocational sessions were available to the latter two groups.

In a letter to parents, Lewis wrote: “I understand that this may not be convenient for some parents but hope that you appreciate that this is not an easy situation for us to manage.”

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The leaflet’s description of Wembley United that caused offence

JCoSS was one of a handful of Jewish schools to close

UK behind Israel in free speech index

The UK has been ranked below Israel in a new global ranking index tracking the state of free expression, writes Adam Decker.

The Index on Censorship study has the UK ranked in the third tier, which suggests the country is only “partially open” in every key area measured.

Israel is placed among the second tier nations. Each country is given four rankings on academic, digital and media/press freedom, along with an overall score. In both digital and media freedom categories, Israel scored more positively than the UK, and is viewed as a country that is significantly open.

Australia, Austria, Belgium, Costa Rica, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Sweden and Switzerland were the best performers in the index.

The UK and US were ranked with countries including Moldova, Panama, Romania, and South Africa. Bahrain, Belarus, Burma/ Myanmar, China, Cuba, North

Korea, Saudi Arabia, South Sudan, Syria, Turkmenistan, United Arab Emirates and Yemen were among the worst performing countries.

The lowest performing European Union states were Poland, Bulgaria and Hungary.

Index CEO Ruth Anderson said: “The findings of the pilot project are illuminating, surprising and concerning in equal measure. The UK

‘New start’ for Glasgow

The closure of Newton Mearns, one of Glasgow’s most famous shuls, and the “new beginning” when it merges with nearby Gifnock shul has been noted in a parliamentary motion.

Scottish Nationalist Party MP for East Renfrewshire Kirsten Oswald has tabled an early day motion noting a farewell service was held with Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis in attendance.

Heralding “a new beginning”, the motion praises “those whose hard work and dedication has been instrumental to the work of this synagogue” and recognises “there will be fondly held memories as farewells are said.” Glasgow’s Jewish community has been in decline for many years, and plans for the two shuls to merge were first discussed in 2011.

MENTAL HEALTH FOCUS

Safeguarding leads from Jewish schools attended a seminar on children’s mental health, to help to signpost where external help was available.

Featured were Arts Therapies for Children, Heads Up Kids, Camp

ranking may well raise eyebrows, though it is not entirely unexpected.

“You might assume we would be with countries like Australia and Ireland who have better protections for freedom of expression ... I think we have taken our eye o the ball.

“It’s a shock, especially in the current environment where people talk a great deal about freedom of expression and use terms like woke.”

Simcha, Jami, Norwood, JW3 Gateways and Jewish Women’s Aid.

Attendees received training from Annie Chappell, a trauma informed specialist.

Organisers of the event said the nature of

the work meant safeguarding and pastoral leads often worked in isolation and the seminar was intended as the first step in providing a community and network to support the invaluable work they did.

Scots heroine honoured

A teacher has been hired to tell pupils the story of a Scottish woman who died in a concentration camp during the Holocaust after refusing to abandon Jewish girls in her care.

Jane Haining, from Dunscore in Dumfries and Galloway, was a Christian matron at the Scottish Mission

School in Budapest in the 1930s where more than 400 girls of mostly Jewish background were studying.

With Hungary occupied, she refused to leave them, was betrayed by the school cook’s son-in-law and taken to Auschwitz, where she died at 47 six months before the camp was liberated.

Press freedom was one area surveyed in the study

‘Zigi looked at this picture every day in celebration of his survival’

by Michelle Rosenberg michelle@jewishnews.co.uk

Arthur Edwards has spent a remarkable 50 years as royal photographer for The Sun newspaper. Of countless images he has taken, the one he is most proud of is a portrait of Holocaust survivor Zigi Shipper’s entire family, which now features in an exhibition at the Imperial War Museum.

Edwards spoke to Jewish News for Holocause Memorial Day about working with Zigi, who died on his 93rd birthday on 18 January. “He was such a wonderful man,” says Edwards. “I loved him. Zigi wanted all 19 members of his family in one photograph, because, he said, ‘if I met Hitler now I’d show him what I’d produced, that I survived and I won’.”

Taking the photograph was challenging, especially during Covid, because no more than six people could meet at any one time. Edwards recalls: “His daughter Lou organised for six family members to meet at 20-minute intervals, so I could do all of them. She organised it so brilliantly. I had to use just a head shot of one granddaughter in Spain, but I got all the pictures, a graphic artist stitched them all together and we made a beautiful photograph.”

Edwards says Zigi was extremely proud of his family, “his nieces, nephews, grandchildren. He was a hero. A tiny, little man with the heart and strength of a lion. A kind man. I’m extremely proud of that picture. I know Zigi would look at his wonderful family on the wall every morning to remember that he survived.”

When the-then Duchess of Cambridge (now Princess of

Wales) came to open the exhibition, Edwards says, “she was full of praise” for the picture. Prince (now King) Charles was also at the royal opening and, says Edwards: ‘To his credit, Zigi praised me to the king for doing a really great job. It was tricky to keep the light

right, to get the right proportions but ... I got a really lovely huge print done to give to Zigi, because I just got to admire this man. I was pleased to do it. And then of course, I was made a fellow of the Royal Photographic Society on the back of it.

“None of that would have happened if not for Zigi. I was so lucky. He was entertaining, interesting and he’d been through hell; but he comes to this country and makes a beautiful life for himself. I’ve never forgotten his enthusiasm for this country and everything it stands for. He wore his British Empire Medal with pride and my wife and I had tea with his family.”

Edwards accompanied the Prince and Princess of Wales on their historic trip to Stutthof concentration camp in 2017 where Edwards also met fellow Holocaust survivor Manfred Goldberg, a lifelong friend of Zigi, who told him about the death march when he saved Zigi’s life. Says Edwards: “What a hardship he had, for no other reason that he was a Jew. Manfred told me he told Zigi ‘if you fall down, they’ll shoot you. You’ve got to keep going.’ He looked after him and it was quite amazing.”

Edwards, who lost his wife of 61 years recently, is clearly emotional in discussing Zigi’s death and the impact of the family portrait he took. “Perhaps”, he says, “I got more out of taking that photograph than maybe they did.”

 Generations: Portraits of Holocaust Survivors was created by the Imperial War Museum in partnership with Jewish News, the Royal Photographic Society, the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust and Dangoor Education.

Arthur Edwards with his image of Zigi Shipper’s family

UJS appoints new chair of trustees

The son of a leading philanthropist has been named to a key role in the Jewish student community. Following two rounds of interviews conducted by multiple trustees, with the CEO of the organisation as an observer, Daniel Dangoor, son of David Dangoor, has been appointed the chair of trustees for the Union of Jewish Students (UJS). The representative body is responsible for being the voice of more than 8,500 Jewish students, spanning 69 Jewish campus societies.

Ofsted’s praise for Jewish Day School

Ofsted inspectors have commended a “love of school and learning” shown by North London Jewish Day School pupils. In the first post-Covid report for the 77-year-old institution it retained its ‘good’ rating and was praised for a “broad and ambitious curriculum”. Ofsted said pupils responded well to high expectations by staff, and staff were praised for working closely with parents to promote reading from early years.

PICKLES WELCOMES MEMORIAL PLEDGE

Lord Eric Pickles has said he is “desperate” to start building the Westminster Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre, after noting the dwindling number of survivors.

Prime minister Rishi Sunak last week pledged to legislate to overcome a court ruling preventing the centre being erected on the Grade II-listed Victoria Tower Gardens.

Citing the death of survivor Zigi Shipper on his 93rd birthday, Pickles, who co-chairs the UK Holocaust Memorial Foundation with former Labour education secretary Ed Balls, said: “Given the numbers now dying I am desperate to begin construction.”

The Holocaust Memorial Day Trust says more than 100 survivors have died in the past two years but despite Sunak’s signal to proceed with the memorial project, opponents have vowed to continue a campaign to stop the Westminster location.

The London Parks and Gardens campaign group urged MPs to “fulfil their generational responsibility to ensure Holocaust education in a way which also protects parks as places for everyone to reflect, relax and play”.

A spokesperson for Westminster council, whose planning committee previously voted against the scheme, said: “We await the details of any new scheme. Westminster city council has always been supportive of the principle of a Holocaust memorial centre in central London.”

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CHARLES GIVES LILY HER MBE

Holocaust survivor and author Lily Ebert, 99, said “words cannot explain how much this means to me” after being made an MBE. She was recognised for her services to Holocaust education at Windsor Castle on Tuesday after being included in the New Year Honour’s list – the first overseen by King Charles since his accession to the throne. With her as she accepted the award was her great-grandson, 19-yearold Dov Forman. The pair have accrued billions of views on TikTok in an effort to educate the younger generation on the Holocaust. Opinion, page 22

Lord Pickles at the proposed site

America takes swipe at Israel judicial reforms Bill to stop High Court influence

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called for “building a consensus of new proposals” during his visit to Israel this week, in what is seen as a jab at the government’s judicial reform plans, which aim to weaken the High Court of Justice, writes Jotam Confino.

Referring to the constitutional crisis Israel is undergoing, he told prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu the US supports “core democratic principles and institutions, including respect for human rights, the equal administration of justice for all, the equal rights of minority groups, the rule of law, free press, a robust civil society”.

He also spoke about the weekly protests against the government’s judicial reforms which brought 130.000 people to the streets last month, saying they showed the “vibrancy of Israel’s civil society”.

“The commitment of people in both our countries to... defend their rights, is one of the unique strengths of our democracies,” Blinken said. “Another is a recog-

nition that building consensus for new proposals is the most effective way to ensure they’re embraced and that they endure.”

His remarks were criticised by far-right Religious Zionism MK

Orit Strock, who said:

“Dear Mr Blinken, I understand you decided to give our prime minister a lesson in democracy. Well, democracy is first of all the duty of a country to deter-

mine its course according to the votes of its citizens.”

Blinken set time aside to meet with “emerging leaders” in civil society, including Israel Gay Youth. He also travelled to Ramallah in the West Bank to meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is reportedly promoting a bill that will prevent the High Court of Justice from meddling in ministerial appointments.

The High Court currently has the power to dismiss ministers under the “reasonableness” clause.

The court ruled 10-1 this month that Shas party leader Arieh Dery’s posting as health and interior minister was “unreasonable in the extreme” due to his criminal past as well as his promise in a plea deal last year not to return to public life.

“This is a person who has been convicted three times of offences throughout his life, and he violated his duty to serve the public loyally and lawfully while serving in senior public positions,” High Court president Esther Hayout said following the ruling. The government’s new bill, reported by Haaretz, is therefore seen as personally tailored for Dery. Netanyahu was forced “with a heavy heart” to sack Dery as a minister after the court ruling.

Voice of evil Drone blast

Amazon Prime Video subscribers can now listen to archive recordings of Adolf Eichmann confessing to his crimes.

The Devil’s Confession: The Lost Eichmann Tapes is a three-part documentary that combines interviews from Holocaust survivors, witnesses at the Eichmann trial, historians and experts with reenactments of historical events.

The series, which first aired on Israel’s Kan public broadcaster last year, tells the story of Eichmann’s role in orchestrating the Final Solution. Eichmann, whom Israel executed in 1962, spent much of his trial maintaining that he was a mere bureaucrat following orders.

But the 28 hours of confessions, recorded in 1957 in interviews with Nazi journalist Willem Sassen, indicate that Eichmann coordinated the Final Solution. The tapes were held in German federal archives until 2020, when Yariv Mozer and Kobi Sitt, the filmmakers behind The Devil’s Confession, were given access.

TORAH BURNING ‘DELAYED’

A Muslim man postponed a protest last weekend that would have involved burning a Torah scroll in front of an Israeli embassy.

The man, identified as a 34-year-old Egyptian writer living in Sweden, had reportedly received approval from the authorities for the protest, which would have come in the wake of a far-right politician’s recent burning of a Quran outside a mosque in Denmark.

The man told Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter he is trying to spark debate and expose a double standard in the treatment of Muslims and Jews. He also said he believed a provocative protest outside the

Neo-Nazis

embassy would shed light on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. “My action is not aimed at the Swedish Jewish minority. I am standing outside the Israeli embassy because I want to remind about Israel’s killing of Palestinian children,” he said.

He added that he had only postponed rather than cancelled his plan, saying: “I will still carry out my actions, it is important to me. I will submit a new application next week.”

Danish politician Rasmus Paludan — whose far-right Hard Line party does not sit in government — burned a Quran on 21 January in response to Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s hints that his

country might block Sweden’s attempt to join Nato.

The burning sparked an outcry in Turkey and across the Islamic world. On Monday, the US State Department warned American citizens in Turkey to avoid churches and synagogues, as they could be targets for retaliatory attacks.

Israel’s ambassador to Sweden, Ziv Nevo Kulman, tweeted last week that his embassy had worked with Swedish authorities to prevent the Torah burning. But Rabbi Moshe David HaCohen, who is involved in interfaith work in Sweden, told Jerusalem Post that Muslim leaders had dissuaded the protest organiser.

Israeli drones targeted a military facility in the city of Isfahan in Iran early Sunday, according to the New York Times and Wall Street Journal WSJ said the drones targeted a compound located near a facility where work on Iran’s ballistic missile programme was being carried out.

Iran admitted the “cowardly” attack had taken place but played down the damage it did.

A number of drone attacks in Iran have previously been attributed to Israel by foreign media. In June 2021 a drone attack targeted a centrifuge manufacturing centre in Karaj, a component in Iran’s nuclear programme.

In February last year, an attack was launched at a military drone storage and manufacturing facility in Kermanshah. Both attacks were carried out by the previous Israeli government led by Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid.

The latest drone strikes appear to be the first such attacks by the new government led by Prime Minister Netanyahu.

running home-schooling network

An education department is investigating a homeschooling network that claims public schools are run by “Zionist scum”, teaches children to say ‘Sieg Heil’ and tells parents not to give youngsters “Jewish media content”.

The Dissident Homeschool Network in Ohio, launched in 2021 on the social network messaging app Telegram, has more than 2,500 members.

The ‘dissidents’ are a group of neoNazi parents who share lesson plans

extolling Hitler and white nationalism. The group’s founders were recently unmasked by a hate group monitor as a couple in rural Upper Sandusky.

Interim superintendent at the state’s education department Stephanie Siddens told Vice News: “There is absolutely no place for hate-filled, divisive and hurtful instruction in Ohio’s schools, including our state’s homeschooling community. I emphatically and categorically denounce the racist,

antisemitic and fascist ideology and materials being circulated.”

Ohio’s governor Mike DeWine condemned the group. Although parents who homeschool must submit lesson plans to the state, officials say there is little to no homeschooling oversight from the board of education.

The founder of Dissident Homeschool Network, which is explicitly labelled as a means for neo-Nazi to indoctrinate their kids, has been identi-

fied by an anti-Nazi group,and by Vice News and HuffPost, as Katja Lawrence, a Dutch immigrant. She recently said on a promotional podcast: “We are so deeply invested into making sure that [our] child becomes a wonderful Nazi.” Lawrence has uploaded to Telegram audio of her own children performing Nazi salutes and baked a cake for Hitler’s birthday. Lesson plans include teaching handwriting by making pupils write out quotes by Hitler.

Sacked: Arieh Dery

Antony Blinken with Netanyahu and (inset) Mahmoud Abbas

Israeli company cuts textile pollution by up to 80 percent

While the textile industry is among the most environmentally conscious in the world, the mass consumerism makes it one of the biggest polluters, only beaten by the food and energy industries, writes Jotam Confino.

On average, a person will use more than 350 pairs of jeans in a lifetime, causing tremendous damage to the environment owing to the process of producing denim.

Water, energy and chemical consumption are among the industry's biggest challenges. More than 11,00 litres of water is used to produce a pair of denim jeans, a technique originating in Italy over 300 years ago.

And despite the industry’s self-regulatory nature, constantly updating its list of banned chemicals, the carbon footprints pose a huge challenge to the environment.

Israeli company Sonovia is now trying to revolutionise the textile industry by targeting the production of denim jeans, specifically the process of dying the cotton yarns

(what denim fabric is produced from) indigo blue. The technology uses ultrasonic cavitation jet-streams to “impregnate” textiles with desired chemistries.

“The process of dying denim jeans indigo blue involves between eight and 12 baths, requiring huge amounts of resources, both energy-wise but also regarding chemicals and the use of water. Our team of researchers found a way to reduce this process by 80 percent, using ultrasound to dye the jeans,” said Sonovia’s CTO, Liat Goldhammer.

“Every bath leaves between 1-1.5 tonnes of chemically-polluted liquid. We skip those steps and do it all in one bath,” said Sonovia’s CEO, Igal Zeitun.

The company recently received a two-year grant from the EU worth €2.4 million, giving the company a boost to enter the textile market. It

now has its eyes on an Italian production company, one of Europe’s last remaining denim manufacturers. The company reached out to Sonovia after hearing about its new technology.

“ We are able to create the same indigo colour used by all the big

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fashion brands,” said Sonovia’s leading chemist, Dr Oleg Chashchikin, a Jewish immigrant from Russia. Oleg is one of 35 employees at Sonovia, with most coming from fields other than the textile industry. This, Goldhammer said, is one of its

biggest strengths. “We have people from all backgrounds and ... experiences. They aren’t stuck in the conservative way of thinking,” she said.

Sonovia is implementing its technology on existing dying machines on the market. Its research and development team includes physicists, chemists and engineers working closely together to optimise the technology.

Convincing the big fashion brands that Sonovia’s new technology can o er both a financial and ecological advantage could put the company in the industry’s big league.

“One of my goals is to get companies to realise the value we bring, not just financially but, more importantly, for the environment,” says Sonovia founder, Shuki Hershcovich. While the textile industry might be one of the big environmental sinners, there’s hope and cooperation among fashion brands and companies trying to reduce the carbon footprints. “There is a lot of aspiration to change,” Goldhammer said.

US JEWS MAKE UP HALF OF MOST GENEROUS DONORS

Jews made up nearly half of America’s biggest philanthropic donors last year, according to a calculation by business magazine, Forbes, of who gave away the most money in 2022.

In a year in which fortunes took a hit amid stock market declines, America’s 25 “most generous givers” donated a collective $27 billion, up from $20bn in 2021, for a lifetime total of $196bn, Forbes said. They included 12 billionaires with Jewish backgrounds, a dramatic over-representation when compared to the US overall proportion of Jews.

Jews on the list include financier George Soros, who gave away at least $300m to racial justice and humanitarian work in Ukraine and other causes; businessman and ex-New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, with $1.7bn in donations to charter schools, clean energy, and fighting heart disease; and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, whose charity donated more than $900m, with much of the money going to fund research into artificial intelligence and genomics at universities.

Only Lynn and Stacy Schusterman, of the Tulsa oil dynasty, are prominent donors to Jewish causes, donating $370m last year, Many, if not all of the others, have given at least small amounts to Jewish charities. In 2021, Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, announced $1.3m in gifts to 11 Jewish groups; last year, they distributed more than $900m in total, according to Forbes

Former Microsoft CEO, Steve Ballmer and his wife, Connie, have donated at least $1m to the Jewish National Fund, giving away more than $800m last year. And Michael Dell, founder of the Dell computing company, donated the land

for a Jewish community centre in his home of Austin, Texas, and supported a renovation.

Andrés Spokoiny, the president and CEO of the Jewish Funders Network (JFN), said many philanthropists might not “have a strong Jewish upbringing or Jewishness does not play a major role in their lives.” Some prefer to tackle massive global issues such as climate change or pandemics, while others think being associated with Jewish causes might not fit with their political aspirations or personal brand.

Mark Charendo , who ran the JFN before Spokoiny and is now president of the Maimonides Fund, which has emerged as a major Jewish charity in recent years, said: “If we want the biggest philanthropists to give more Jewishly then we need to invest more in Jewish education and engagement for all Jews.”

THE MOST GENEROUS JEWISH AMERICANS

George Soros: +$300 million in 2022

Michael Bloomberg: +$1.7 billion

Jim & Marilyn Simons: +$1.9bn

Mark Zuckerberg & Priscilla Chan: +$900m

Edythe Broad & family: +$340m

Steve & Connie Ballmer: +$800m

Sergey Brin: Newcomer to the list

Lynn & Stacy Schusterman: +$370m

Michael & Susan Dell: +$177m

Donald Bren: +$470m

Dustin Moskovitz & Cari Tuna: +$670m

George Kaiser: +$120m

Above: The research team. Inset: Founder Shuki Hershcovich and Shay Herschkovitz, chief investor relations officer

of researchers found a

Photos by Sonovia

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NO. 1300

Opposing realities

Two scenes last weekend chillingly illustrated the opposing realities of Israelis and Palestinians. Last Friday, thousands of jubilant Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank celebrated a terror attack outside a synagogue in Jerusalem that left seven dead. The following day, thousands of Israelis gathered in Tel Aviv to observe a minute’s silence to honour the victims – among them a teenage boy and Ukranian refugee – before holding another mass protest against the government’s plan to weaken the Supreme Court.

The horror of the synagogue attack was a stark reminder that Jews aren’t safe anywhere. Even outside an Israeli synagogue.

The monster who carried out the attack may have been motivated not simply by antisemitism but Israel’s deadly targeting of Islamic Jihad terrorists in Jenin the previous day that left nine Palestinians dead, but the bloody outcome was the same. Civilian Jews killed on their way back from Shabbat prayer.

With incitement to violence on the Palestinian street now at fever pitch and Israel’s new government vowing harsh crackdowns, further heartbreaking violence could be just around the corner. These are dark and dangerous days.

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THIS WEEKEND'S SHABBAT TIMES...

Shabbat comes in Friday night 4.38pm Shabbat goes out Saturday night 5.44pm

Clarifications:

Speak to us within Charedi community for true picture

I’m an Orthodox Jewish woman living in Stamford Hill. I enjoy reading articles on your website because I am interested in the wider Jewish community. I was shocked to read the opinion piece by Eve Sacks (Jewish News, 26 January) that implied children in Stamford Hill suffer ‘honour-based abuse’.

Aside from causing hatred of the ultra-Orthodox, this piece accomplishes nothing. The few people who have left our community make such negative noise about us.

A Jewish publication should not continue this trend.

Sales Manager Marc Jacobs 020 8148 9701 marc@jewishnews.co.uk

Sales Yael Schlagman 020 8148 9705 yael@jewishnews.co.uk

Operations Manager Alon Pelta 020 8148 9693 alon@jewishnews.co.uk

Sedra: Beshalach

• Rabbi Jonathan Hughes led the recent funeral service for Holocaust survivor and educator Zigi Shipper at Bushey New Cemetery not Rabbi Alan Plancey, as reported in last week’s edition.

• Last week’s story about St Albans Masorti Synagogue replacing member fees with a ‘MemberShare’, allowing congregants to choose what they pay was inaccurate in stating the scheme has already launched. The synagogue is, in fact, still in a consultation phase ahead of a final decision.

Have you ever reached out to the more than 5,000 women who are happy in this community to hear the reasons why we do things the way we do them?

To hear the opinions of just a few who have obviously left because they are unhappy and to use that to paint the wrong picture is unfair, especially to those who are not educated in all parts of Torah and Halachah and

In response to Eve Sack’s piece on how she felt degraded while attending a simcha in Stamford Hill, well, I was also given disapproving looks when I turned up to a secular simcha in a long dress, tights and headscarf as I didn’t look as beautiful as everyone else. I, however, would never write an article shaming a community.

Ms Sacks also claims a man looked away when talking to

therefore do not understand that a lot of what we do has a reason.

I, of course, condemn any abuse and thoughtless behaviour and do not agree with all the behaviours mentioned that may be caused by a few extremists.

It’s a shame we are constantly painted in such a bad light when this is totally opposite from the

her. Well, at the secular event, I also felt uncomfortable when being introduced to a man who hugged and kissed me. Again, would I write an article shaming secular people who don’t live the way I do? No way.

And do you know why? How this man lives his life has nothing to do with me. And I want to increase the love between Jews and not cause more hatred and divide which, I believe, writing

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view from inside, where we are all happily choosing this lifestyle along with all the religious requirements because we understand why.

I hope you can show the true picture in future articles and not cause continued hatred against the religious.

Name withheld, Stamford Hill

such as this causes. There is so much hatred towards Jews already – how sad to cause more between Jews.

Yes, some women in Stamford Hill might not be happy, but some women in Modern Orthodox communities are also unhappy. The goal of Jewish life is to create love and peace.

What that piece did was create hate.

Sarah ‘B’, By email

THE JACOB FOUNDATION

Jewish News is owned by The Jacob Foundation, a registered UK charity promoting cohesion and common ground across the UK Jewish community and between British Jews and wider society. Jewish News promotes these aims by delivering dependable and balanced news reporting and analysis and celebrating the achievements of its vibrant and varied readership. Through the Jacob Foundation, Jewish News acts as a reliable and independent advocate for British Jews and a crucial communication vehicle for other communal charities.

BLINDBRITAIN’SSPOT

WHAT

STARTED THE ROT?

You report that for 17 years the National Union of Students (NUS) failed to protect Jews (19 January). Why was this allowed to continue for so long? Why did NUS and university authorities not take action to stop such attacks?

The answer can only be that they ignored or even quietly approved of them. What happened 17 years ago to start the attacks and who instigated them? Why were Jews singled out? Is it known who these NUS officials are, whether they are still in office and if they now be named and shamed? At the very least, we must be told what their ethnic groups and religions are so future efforts to stop the Jew-hatred can be directed to the appropriate groups. If the NUS is a charity, which I believe it is, why did the Charity Commission take no action?

Geoffrey Bernstein, Harrow

UK’S POLICY OF DISCRIMINATION?

Following the recent visit of minister Itamar Ben-Gvir to the Temple Mount (pictured right), the British government, through its Jerusalem Consulate, announced it “remains committed to the status quo” regarding those who may access and pray on the Mount. This status quo expressly discriminates against persons of the Jewish faith. May we, therefore, assume the government supports such discrimination?

Professor Geoffrey Alderman, By email

ALL DEMOCRACIES MAKE DISTINCTIONS

In response to Fraser Michaelson’s letter (Jewish News, 19 January), I would like to bring to the readers’ attention a simple fact: all the democratic countries of the world, Britain included, make a legal distinction between citizens and non-citizens.

As an EU citizen living in the UK, I have to pay taxes but cannot choose my MP, cannot become one (and naturalisation is timeconsuming as well as expensive) and if I were to make aliyah, after five years and one day, I could potentially be denied re-entry to the UK at the whim of a border force officer).

I am therefore under more restrictive law than British citizens (including one member of my own family!), despite Britain being effectively my ‘own country’.

As a Progressive, left-leaning Jew, I would like to see peaceful coexistence of Jews and Arab. Trying to portray Israel as somehow less democratic than an ‘average western country’ will certainly not help.

David Frencel, Hendon

WHERE IS THE JUSTICE IN ISRAEL’S SUPREME COURT?

Your columnist, Andrew Freedman (15 January) gave no reasons for his denunciations of the overdue proposals of Israel’s new justice minister, other than to claim they undermine democracy. He stated: “The process of governance cannot be at the behest of the executive”… the essence of democracy…

because “there needs to be jurisprudential checks and balances”.

In fact, the proposed reforms will return Israel to the separation of powers that existed in earlier years. Some 40 years ago, under the direction of Justice Aharon Barak, the Supreme Court initiated changes to supplant the authority

POLITICIANS MUST DO WHAT’S RIGHT FOR ALL

A commentator here in Israel recently compared the fiery rhetoric that ensued between Menachem Begin and David Ben-Gurion (pictured, right) to what is currently taking place between right, left and centre political factions.

The turmoil currently brewing cuts deep and very wide and hope of any agreement, let alone comprise, seems a bridge too far. The changes this new right-wing government and its determined ministers wish to introduce is causing many in opposition to reach for rhetoric that has no place in polite society. But being polite no longer applies, as the raising of one’s voice appears to be de rigueur these days, whether screaming in the Knesset or on the ever-raucous TV chat shows that proliferate on the subject.

The issues in question are no doubt contentious, but one factor should always dominate – what is best for the many not just the few and, of course, for the country itself.

Stephen Vishnick, Tel Aviv

HERE’S MY BRIGHT IDEA

of the Knesset, making its authority the most powerful in the democratic world.

Today’s Supreme Court habitually implements its policy preferences above those of Israel’s legislators.

The proposed changes, far from weakening democracy, would strengthen it. Stephen Green, NW6

There is a wide-open market for an enterprising Jewish businessman.

I found it impossible to buy any Chanukah candles that were made anywhere but China. This is inappropriate on many levels, and they are not even good.

I bought medium-priced candles, and they dripped so badly that eventually I was not prepared to clean up any more mess, and the last night I put the candles in but did not light them.

How about it, someone?

Valerie Jablon, N2

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This winter is going to be tough. But for families in Ukraine, it’s going to be tougher.

Magazine’s squib sketch has dark echoes of past

oldman Sachs is an investment bank that always attracts headlines. As a business it is closely monitored in the financial press for it advisory work and investment expertise. Its alumni have populated some of the most prestige jobs in finance including the World Bank, the European Central Bank, the Bank of England and the American central bank the Federal Reserve.

Until recently, the Italian prime minister Mario Draghi was a member of this elite group. The chief economist at the Bank of England, Huw Pill, worked at the Goldman as did former governor Mark Carney.

The current chairman of the BBC, Richard Sharp, also boasted a long career at Goldman. That almost certainly o ends some editorial sta at the BBC, who may regard any appointment by Boris Johnson and anyone with

strong City connections as anathema. But with success as bankers and policymakers come a downside. Goldman, founded by Marcus Goldman in lower Manhattan in 1869, is viewed as a Jewish dominated institution and often attracts the attention of antisemites.

It particularly found itself in the limelight during and after the financial crisis of 200809. Its bankers were hassled by protesters camped out in Zuccotti Park following the meltdown.

In 2010 it was skewered by Rolling Stone magazine as ‘a great vampire squib wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money.’ Advertently or inadvertently, Rolling Stone had bought into several antisemitic tropes. The Jews as ruthless bankers controlling the world and the notorious blood libels of the Middle Ages which have cascaded down the centuries.

So imagine my indignation to open the latest edition of the Economist (page 19) to find this trope revived and – of all days – on Holocaust Memorial Day. It chose to headline an

article about Goldman’s recent disappointing financial performance with the headline ‘Vampire squib.’ Above there was a cartoon of a giant squid hovering over Wall Street’s grandest buildings.

How the Economist editors decided this was an amusing way to categorise Goldman’s recent disappointments, I have no idea. But a moment of reflection and research would have told them this was a terrible idea and could power up antisemitic prejudices against Jewish financiers. Social media has provided a ready audience for such conspiracies.

The whole idea of the squid or octopus – to represent the power of Jewish financiers can be traced back to 1894. An attack on the Rothschild banking dynasty was orchestrated by the antisemitic polemicist ‘Coin Harvey.’

He displayed a cartoon of a giant Octopus, with its tentacles reaching to every corner of a map of the world – then name Rothschild at the core – under the title ‘The English Octopus: It Feeds on Nothing but Gold.’

In the current century it is Goldman which has inherited the mantle of ‘Jewish bankers’ as

the epitome of New York investment banking. Rothschild still retains its eminence as a bank to be conjured with but tends to operate more in the shadows.

Few British publications enjoy the global prestige and sales of the Economist. It is found in the reception area of big corporations around the world and on aeroplanes and in the business class lounges frequented by executives.

The magazine’s choice of an ancient image with a terrible history to illustrate a modern business story is unworthy of the editors responsible.

One wonders what the Rothschild family, with a long connection to the Economist, would make of the Goldman coverage. The Rothschild family still hold a small minority stake in the publication. Niall Ferguson’s magnificent two volume work The House of Rothschild deals at some length with antisemitism and the origins of the octopus squid metaphor.

Perpetuating it is a disservice to Jews feeding into ancient hatreds at a moment of elevated antisemitism.

ALEX

Leah’s case exposes the failings of one Beth Din

help. We asked the Beth Din for permission to prosecute under the Domestic Abuse Bill 2021, which was enacted to help women like Leah.

prove that I couldn’t live with him.”

The recent case of Leah Hochauser, who died while chained to her husband, highlights systemic negligence on the part of a Beth Din that repeatedly neglects the Halachic and communal tools available to help and discourages people from using those made available by the British legal system.

Leah sought a divorce from her husband for the past nine years, filing with Kedassia, her local Beth Din. The judges repeatedly questioned Leah’s pleas for a get, when, in their opinion, she wouldn’t marry again.

When she told the dayan that being chained to the man she considered her abuser was a noose around her neck, the dayan allegedly replied: “What noose, explain to me this noose?” She was met with complete denial of her su ering.

After years of what she felt was inaction and indi erence, Leah turned to GETToutUK for

The tactics her ex used were nothing if not coercive and controlling. Kedassia said it wasn’t “appropriate” to go to court in this case, implying that if she did, her get would be seen as forced – and thus invalid.

Leah begged for a seruv (notice of recalcitrance). She was told they would issue one, allowing for communal sanctions to be placed on her ex, but they reneged. The Beth Din said such sanctions might impact “his mental health” and it wouldn’t help to obtain her get

It isn’t just Leah who has su ered from Kedassia’s refusal to act on abuse. When another client, who had su ered unimaginable domestic violence that was being dealt with in the secular court, asked to speak to the dayan in the hopes of obtaining a get, she was told to come to his home at 11pm on a Saturday night. The dayan’s wife suggested she tell the court that she fabricated the abuse, in the hopes her ex would relent.

Another client said: “In order to get divorced, I needed a psychological evaluation to

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A third woman was forced to relinquish almost all rights to the marital assets. When she sought a fairer deal, she was told doing so could cause her get to be overturned .

Unlike the Federation of Synagogues, which employs a dayan who is a certified mediator, Leah was referred to a local askon, an uno cial mediator. In our own dealings with him he has proven to be unprofessional. In one meeting he even yelled that a client “deserves to die” for seeking sole custody amid abuse allegations. On another occasion, he demanded I formally apologise for “disrespecting” him by showing “a good inch of hair” at the front of my headscarf.

When dayanim task unqualified people to do their work, it does a disservice on both sides. Those who rely on Kedassia to facilitate religious divorce have nowhere to report such unprofessionalism and abuse of power.

Batei Din are organisations that operate without regulations or oversight in the shadows of insular communities. The competence and morality of a Beth Din completely relies on the integrity of its dayanim and employees. That is a powder keg. Leah was the spark.

In other professions where one is entrusted with sensitive information and works with vulnerable people, there are standards and an overseeing body.

There is no body that oversees our courts so we must call on Batei Din to create concrete guidelines and policies to be held accountable. Batei Din who do this will not only serve as exemplars to their peers, but safe spaces to which all Jews can turn.

These failings reflect on us all. We are commanded: “Justice, justice shall you pursue”. When we don’t hold our courts to any standards, let alone the highest of them, we commit a massive chilul Hashem and violate the commandment to protect the most vulnerable among us.

In the meantime, as advocates for those seeking religious divorce, we urge the community not to use Kedassia. Any organisation that refuses to meet the most basic human rights standards should be avoided at all costs.

We ask anyone needing a Beth Din to use the Federation of Synagogues, who hold their dayanim and employees to the highest of standards.

10 Golders Green Road

London NW11 8LL

Opposite Cafe Nero

RAMIE

Opinion

Six million ordinary people, just like Lily

DOV FORMAN AUTHOR AND EDUCATOR

Last week, thanks to the International March of the Living and the Auschwitz–Birkenau Foundation, I walked into the Auschwitz Birkenau memorial site for the first time (with my mother), where my great-grandmother Lily Ebert walked almost 80 years ago.

I have spent so much time with my great-grandmother, learning about her Auschwitz testimony. Together we have written her memoir, Lily’s Promise, and we have more than two million followers on TikTok, where we teach people about Lily’s harrowing Holocaust testimony.

But it was still a shock to actually be there myself: the vastness, the freezing cold, the towering infrastructure, a factory of death.

And while I was there, in the place where so much evil had once taken place, I thought of the theme for last week’s Holocaust Memo-

rial Day: Ordinary People. The scale of such evil leaves the extent of its e ects di cult to measure, but there is almost no doubt that the majority of those a ected, on all sides, were regular, ordinary people like you and me.

First and foremost, I thought of the victims of this tragedy. When Lily stepped foot on to those infamous train tracks, it was at the age of 20. I stepped foot on those very same tracks at the age of 19.

When Lily entered Auschwitz-Birkenau it was with her mother, three sisters and a little brother.

Her mother, younger sister and younger brother were sent straight to the gas chambers and murdered on the day they arrived in July 1944 (together with about 15,000 other people that day, including 100 people from her extended family and everyone from her community).

So when Lily left Auschwitz to be transported to a slave labour camp in Germany, in October 1944, it was with only two of her sisters.

We must remind ourselves that much of what took place was carried out by educated people. Ordinary, educated people including (but not exclusively) doctors, lawyers, teachers, business owners and policemen, all of whom had a part that they actively played.

As we rightfully prosecute and condemn those who participated, we can only truly appreciate the reality and scale of such an enterprise if we acknowledge the fact that those who are responsible, on the face of it, led ordinary lives.

This should make us more wary, and more conscious of how dangerous society can be and how we need to learn the lessons to avoid any kind of repetition.

Tangible evidence of the Holocaust is waning, and fast. Thinking of the shoes that I saw on my visit, the lengths that must be gone in order to maintain them are perhaps emblematic of the much larger issue: survivors are fading from us at an alarming rate. Lily is 99.

At the root of the su ering endured by my

great-grandmother, and millions of other ordinary people, was the idea that one human being is superior to another.

All it took was for this idea to enter the minds of ordinary people in order for society to take such a dramatic turn for the worse. We must never allow this to happen again.

Many Israelis are resisting the bigotry – you can too

DAVID DAVIDIBROWN NEW ISRAEL FUND UK

Istand with Israel. How often have we shared those words and demonstrated with actions and generosity that we stand with Israel?

Powerful unifying moments for the Jewish people include campaigns bringing together Israelis and Jews for Soviet Jewry; to declare “Yes to peace, No to terror”; and to demand Gilad Shalit’s release.

I remember gathering in Trafalgar Square and Hyde Park with tens of thousands of people, feeling connected with millions globally, during distressing times facing a place we cherish.

Today one of the gravest threats to Israel’s future comes from within.

Israel’s new government seeks to transform the country envisioned by its founders and by the Declaration of Independence into an illiberal democracy influenced by Viktor Orbán’s Hungary and into a quasi-theocracy imitating elements of Iran.

Benjamin Netanyahu and his ultranationalist and strictly Orthodox coalition

partners plan to allow discrimination in the provision of services; end the independence of the Judiciary and Supreme Court’s protection of minorities; and recognise settlements previous Israeli governments considered illegal.

Itamar Ben-Gvir, previously convicted for supporting terrorists, is public security minister. Avi Maoz has authority over extra-curricular education and promoting ‘national Jewish identity’. Maoz believes “the greatest contribution women can make … is to marry and raise an honourable family”. Noam, Maoz’s party, supports so-called conversion therapy for gay people.

Make no mistake about the kind of country these politicians wish to lead. Have no illusions Netanyahu’s Likud Party is a moderating partner in this government.

During discussion of a bill to revoke citizenship and take other measures against convicted terrorists, Likud MK Hanoch Milwidsky was challenged on why these weren’t sought for Jewish terrorists. Examples were given of Yitzhak Rabin’s assassin, Yigal Amir, and Ami Popper, who in 1990 murdered seven Palestinians. Milwidsky’s chilling response: “Yes, [I prefer] Jewish murderers over Arab murderers… as a general rule, I prefer Jews over disloyal Arabs.”

There is an alternative to Benjamin Netanyahu, Yariv Levin, Hanoch Milwidsky, Bezalel Smotrich, Itamar Ben-Gvir and Avi Maoz.

Hundreds of thousands of Israelis are taking to the streets to defend democracy, many under the banner of the New Israel Fund grantee and jointly Jewish- and Arabled organisation Standing Together (Omdim Beyachad – Naqef Ma’an), saying “This place is home for all of us.”

Across Israel leaders are resisting this government, including Yuval Diskin, former head of the Shin Bet; municipal educators and mayors are refusing to participate in

Maoz’s “education”; parents are keeping racism, sexism and homophobia out of classrooms; one hundred high-tech entrepreneurs are warning that Israel could become a “failed state”; and all Israel’s former attorney generals and hundreds more lawyers are opposing attacks on the Judiciary and Supreme Court.

Tzipi Livni, when encouraging people to join protests, said: “Many of you risked your lives in the war for Israel’s existence; this is the fight for its soul.” Some people reading this may also have risked their lives for Israel. Many will have demonstrated and donated in support of the country.

It may be unprecedented. It may be uncomfortable. For those deeply committed to Israel and concerned for its future, we must support Israel by standing with Israelis against an extremist government.

For many we can do so this on Saturday from 2pm at a rally organised by local Israelis near the Israeli Embassy in Kensington. I appreciate that that option, coinciding with similar events around the world and protests in Israel, is not possible for those observing Shabbat. For all of us there will be events and campaigns in the weeks ahead to once again stand with Israel.

MAKE NO MISTAKE ABOUT THE KIND OF COUNTRY THESE POLITICIANS WANT TO LEAD. DO NOT HAVE ILLUSIONS

❝

Dov with his great-grandmother, Lily Ebert

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1 YAVNEH STUDENTS VISIT AUSCHWITZ

A group of 111 Year 12 students from Yavneh College in Borehamwood travelled to Poland for a five-day trip to learn about the Holocaust. A group are pictured here, at Auschwitz concentration camp.

2 IMMANUEL PUPILS LIGHT CANDLES

Students at Immanuel College in Bushey light candles to honour the lives of those murdered in the Holocaust.

3 FINCHLEY SCOUTS CREATE FLAME

Scouts from the 20th Finchley Scout group and Guides from 5th North Finchley Guides lit candles at Woodside Park Synagogue in memory of the six million Jewish Holocaust victims. All the children’s groups at the shul contributed artworks which were made into a living flame, displayed on the wall of the synagogue hall.

4 SHUL UNVEILS ITS SHOAH SCULPTURE

In a service attended by 350 guests, Woodside Park United Synagogue dedicated its own Holocaust Memorial. Created by sculptor Susannah Simmons, it depicts angels ascending to a flame from behind a ring of barbed wire. It was donated by members of the Dimson, Edelman, Elton and Lask families.

5 JEWISH CARE HOLDS MEMORIAL EVENT

Jewish Care community centre members, residents and retirement living apartment tenants marked HMD with services and candle lighting. Members of Jewish Care’s Holocaust Survivors’ Centre were joined by Chazan Jonny Turgel, who sang at the service, and Lord Pickles, the UK special envoy for post-Holocaust studies, who spoke and answered questions.

6 SURVIVOR’S TALK IN RICHMOND

Just over 200 people packed Richmond Synagogue to capacity on 29 January for the annual Civic service, to hear the experiences of 92-year-old Holocaust survivor Manfred Goldberg. The audience, who included the Mayor, two MPs, Deputy Lieutenant and many local councillors, gave Manfred a standing ovation. Oi Va Voi played songs of the Holocaust and teenagers read poetry.

7 MOSAIC CULTURE HUB’S SCREENING

To commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day 2023, Mosaic Culture Hub – which encompasses Reform, Liberal and Masorti communities – presented the film Breathe Deeply My Son, about Henry Wermuth. Born in 1923 in Frankfurt, he was held in nine camps. Forced to work for the Nazis, he took the opportunity to try to derail a train Hitler would be travelling on. Although unsuccessful, he was later awarded a medal for his attempt.

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Sales are start of a new community

Asmall Jewish community has begun forming north of Edgware after more than two dozen shared ownership houses and apartments were put up for sale by a housing association with Jewish roots.

The new Edgwarebury Manor development, which is still partly under construction, is located between Elstree, Borehamwood, and Edgware, in the heart of today’s wider Jewish community north of London.

Two houses sold almost immediately after the scheme’s soft launch over Chanukah, while this weekend was the official opening, during which six more applications were taken.

“We opened one of the homes over a weekend, with an office in there and plans of all the apartments,” said sales manager Francesca Ives. “Both houses sold, both on 25 percent shared ownership. This weekend, we took six applications for one- and twobedroom apartments.”

She said there was “a variety of different people” interested in the properties, which have been designed with Jewish families in mind, such as having Shabbat compliant door locks.

“Some were first time buyers, some were families, some were approaching retirement age and were moving back to the area to support their own families.”

Some IDS buildings are well known to London’s Jews, with assisted living homes at AJEX House in Stamford Hill and Charlotte Court in Ilford, while Hilary Dennis Court in Wanstead is owned by IDS but run by Jewish Blind & Disabled (JBD) for tenants aged 60 and over.

Edgwarebury Manor is the association’s first big foray since it commissioned the Institute for Jewish Policy Research to look at future affordable housing need for Britain’s Jews, which then informed future IDS investment priorities.

It identified areas in or near Edgware and Borehamwood “where our communities thrive, but where some are excluded because of high costs of renting or buying, as target areas for growth”.

At Edgwarebury Manor, IDS bought more than 50 units from Fairview New Homes in a plot next to Broadfields Primary School.

The set-up is described as “Jewish friendly” and Ives said Jewish individuals, couples, and families had progressed their interest through to application.

“For the houses, one of them is a young Jewish first-time buyer couple, I think in their early 20s, who came with their mum and dad. The other is a lady with

two children at [Jewish] schools in the area.

“For the apartments, again, we had a single Jewish person purchasing on their own, and another young Jewish couple. Another is a Jewish lady currently living in Essex who is relocating to be closer to family and friends.

“We have a mixture of ground-floor, first-floor, second- and third-floor apartments,” said Ives. “Some look out over trees and a Jewish graveyard. Others look over a landscaped courtyard. We’re on a hill so there are views all the way over London.”

Some of the apartments are still being built, with construction due to be completed by the first week of April. Of the remaining units still for sale, five are twobedroom apartments and the rest are one-bedroom. A couple have been specially designed for wheelchair access.

The units cost from £347,500 to £405,000. Buyers buy an initial share of the property, typically 25-75 percent, then pay an affordable rent on the balance. So, at 25 percent, they would need just a quarter of the deposit. To be eligible, they must have a combined household income of less than £90,000.

“Over time, as you can afford it, you can buy a bigger share from IDS, and ultimately own the property outright,” said board member Alan Jacobs. “If you sell at any time you will get the full value of your share of the property, including any change in value since you bought it.”

The aim is to provide access to the housing market for those who cannot raise the full deposit in those areas, he said. “There are plenty of young Jewish couples and families who want to own. This will help.”

Jacobs said the idea may ultimately be to “create a Jewish community” by selling to Jewish buyers or those with links, such as those with jobs in Jewish organisations nearby.

IDS began life at the end of the 19th century after a United Synagogue report on the East End’s “spiritual destitution” recommended Jewish families be given decent, healthy homes. In 1884, the Board’s Sanitary Commission reported that the slum crisis of East End Jews was beyond control.

“Houses occupied by the Jewish poor are for the most part barely fit, and for the many utterly unfit for human habitation,” it said.

This spurred a group of Jewish philanthropists, led by Nathaniel Mayer Rothschild, to set up the forerunner to IDS, and it has maintained its Jewish links ever since.

• For further details call 0344 8920 153 or visit ids-edgwareburymanor.co.uk

Jenni Frazer chats with the Israeli ambassador turned playwright Daniel Taub ahead of his new play opening

In May last year an unexpected figure mingled in the audience at north London’s Park Theatre. It was Daniel Taub, best known in the UK as Israel’s ambassador here between 2011 and 2015.

Taub was in London to see a rehearsed reading of a play he had written. Now, Winner’s Curse – written together with his long-time friend and fellow playwright Dan Patterson (Patterson is also a TV producer, known for Mock the Week and Whose Line Is It Anyway?) – opens at the Park on Tuesday.

Winner’s Curse draws heavily on Taub’s erstwhile career as a top-level diplomat who specialised in conflict negotiation. A lawyer, he was frequently sent ‘into the room’ by Israel’s Foreign Ministry, where a touch of Taub humour and impeccable British manners often deflated tension.

Sitting in a studio in Highgate, where he was living during Park Theatre rehearsals, Taub explained that, after taking part in head-to-head negotiations, he had studied negotiation theory at Harvard and taught it at universities and think tanks worldwide.

“But there is so much you can’t convey in a lecture, and so much that is experiential. I wanted to try to capture that. And a lot of what goes on in the negotiating room is quite

dramatic. We’re talking about people grappling with conflicts of loyalty to themselves, to their partners – and ultimately their loyalty to the people who are sending them, and how they balance those things. That’s the stu of drama.”

Taub is emphatic that this play (which he says is funny as well as dramatic) is not about Israel–Palestine negotiations – or indeed about other conflicts, including Ireland, which he and his team visited when talking to Palestinians, “to see what we could learn”, adding: “But it does try to capture some of the dilemmas that are common to those situations”.

“We see, in his memory, all the di erent characters who took part in those negotiations, including his younger self.”

Anderson’s character relives the “highstakes peace negotiations between two rival states” and Taub warns his audience to expect a “breaking of the fourth wall”, so they are invited to take part in the negotiations process.

title, Taub said: “Sometimes one of the things to think about in negotiation is what success looks like – and sometimes the thing you think you want isn’t necessarily the thing that is best for you. If you reach an agreement, it could be it’s not the ‘great white hope’ you thought it would be.” Sometimes, he said, winning can be a curse.

Taub was also the creator and chief scriptwriter of a 2005 Israeli soap opera, HaChatzer (In The Rabbi’s Court), but Winner’s Curse is the first theatre play he has written on this scale, and he has had enormous fun doing it, calling it “an antidote to working in government”.

He didn’t want, he said, “to write a send an individual into a room to try to opens with the TV presenter and barrister

He didn’t want, he said, “to write a history of the Israel–Palestine conflict”. Rather, he was searching for another angle: “What happens when people send an individual into a room to try to shape its future. [I wanted to show] what goes on there – and hopefully give the audience some practical suggestions [about resolving conflict].”

Winner’s Curse opens with an older diplomat, played by the TV presenter and barrister Clive Anderson, being given an award for the work he did in an unnamed peace process.

Taub made the conflict between two eastern European states “at a time when I thought such conflict was very unlikely”, he said. So he invented two warring countries, Garvestan and Molvania, and his characters have eastern European names. It’s not a ‘cut and paste’ from any real-life negotiation he has experienced, but the play brings in several issues all negotiators face, such as what happens when something takes place outside the talks that could cause a breakdown in them – for example a terrorist attack or a kidnapping.

them terrorist attack or a kidnapping.

He is well aware the negotiators themselves are “not free agents. There’s a line popular among diplomats, and I’ve put it in the play – ‘you can change my opinion but you can’t change my instructions.’ One of the dynamics of negotiation is that, at some stage, the negotiators have to start negotiating with the people who sent them.”

“not a line popular among diplomats, and in –change my instructions.’ One negotiators have to start

Explaining the play’s

Taub, who once worked as a programme consultant for Israel’s Channel 10, no longer works full-time at Yad Hanadiv, the Rothschild Foundation which he joined after leaving the UK as ambassador. But he consults for it on philanthropic programmes and is involved in creative projects in Israel, including plays and other television work. He teaches and lectures, too, mainly on his diplomatic work, and still has links with the Foreign Ministry, which sends him abroad on its behalf on speaker tours.

For now, his attention is focused on Winner’s Curse. And he has been approached by a director in Israel with a view to possibly staging a Hebrew version of it. He’s curious as to what Israeli audiences think of his ideas – and noted with wry amusement that “Israelis always think of themselves as good at negotiations”. But not every country has a Daniel Taub to argue for it.

 Winner’s Curse opens at Park Theatre on 8 February. www.parktheatre.co.uk

Clive Anderson (centre) is among the cast members of Winner’s Curse

Daniel Taub in rehearsals

The lights are dim, there’s an expectant hush, then a sudden rush of noise as the cheering reaches heights even above the seats in the upper circle, which are packed full of girls, mothers, sisters – and my nieces and me.

We are at the Hackney Empire at a concert given by Bracha Jaffe, a New York nurse and mother of five. She’s a veritable force – all polka dots, smiles and swishy sheitel. I’m caught up in the incredible positive spirit of this show, a contrast to the controversy surrounding it. Charedi girls schools were instructed by religious leaders to shun this event, for fear of it causing them ‘spiritual harm’.

The buoyant Jaffe is joined on stage by fellow popular singer Chaya Kogan and child sensation Esther Krohn. Chaya debuts Battle Cry’in , her first live performance of a new song, and dedicates it to “people who struggle with mental illness, as it’s literally a battle every single day for them”.

She also talks about Jteen, a

helpline operated by anonymous volunteers which guides Jewish teenagers from ages 11 to 20 through whatever challenges they may be facing. The trio’s boundless energy

and passion for the music and audience are clear as they motion to the crowd, urging us to join in with the songs. “The ban didn’t work, did it?” I yell above the din to my sister-in-law.

To think there were some, namely the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations, who did not want us to be at Jaffe’s concert, feels incredible. Because of this view there were parents who were legitimately worried about possible repercussions, such as schools refusing to take children who had attended. Many of those who were fearful put their tickets up for sale, which is how my own little group ended up in prime dress circle seats.

Chani, the mother I bought the tickets from, expressed her regret, as she had purchased them for her daughter and friends and felt it was a real shame they were not going to be attending.

“What do they want, that we should take our girls to Mary Poppins instead?” she typed on WhatsApp. I smiled wryly, wondering why she considered the story of the magical nanny a cause for concern, but when they ban wholesome kosher entertainment, who can blame her? Don’t they realise that by censoring positive performers, young girls in the community may well turn

to the not-so-kosher rap and pop music topping the charts, which have lyrics rather more likely to encourage the ‘spiritual harm’ of which the rabbis are so afraid.

Bracha and Chaya are great role models for these girls –they’re frum, intelligent, stylish mothers with demanding jobs, and they’re fantastic singers. One of the many songs Bracha passionately sings on stage is Nashim Tzidkaniyot (Righteous Women), and the lyrics describe how “the nations will be redeemed through the righteous women of the generation”.

Judaism is about celebrating and uplifting women and to find them one only has to look at such strong female role molels as Hannah, Yehudit and Miriam, the sister of Moses, who enabled his birth and led the women in song at the parting of the Red Sea.

Bracha warmly describes all the women at the concert as nashim tzidkaniyot and remarks on the incredible spirit in the theatre, as well as her gratitude to the event organiser, Hannah Flax. At the end of a song, Bracha

Naomi Frankel gets tickets to the most controversial (kosher) show of the year

Chaya Kogan (left) and Bracha Jaffe on stage

stops to have a drink of water before announcing that she’s going to say a bracha and wants us all to answer ‘amen’, acknowledging the collective koach (power) of the crowd.

She also urges us all to take

a minute to think of something or someone for which/whom we need a blessing. If this isn’t a perfect example of pious behaviour for young women then what is?

At the end of the show, Bracha sits on the stage directly addressing girls standing at the front and asks one what she’s

thankful for? “Being Jewish,” the girl answers shyly, which brought a lump to my throat, and made me feel proud to be Jewish too.

While waiting to meet the singers backstage, a gaggle of giggling girls from Berlin are waiting too and tell me they are “big fans”. As warm and down to earth in person as they are onstage, Bracha and Chaya are happy to pose for selfies and I have one too.

So was Bracha worried about the possible ramifications of the ban? “I wasn’t worried because whatever it is, I’m going to do what I do. I was hoping everyone would feel that they should be here and the turnout was so beautiful. Baruch Hashem, I’m so happy I can’t even tell you.”

I wonder whether Bracha, as a former nurse, feels that there are health benefits to her music. “Both music and nursing involve mind, body, soul – there are different elements of the physical and spiritual in caring for a human,” she says. “I think that music offers that same kind of care to an individual.

“I really believe that our girls need healthy outlets because otherwise they’re going to look for something else,” she continues. “I have young girls myself and I’m so happy to be here doing what I

love and sharing that love with the crowd.”

She most definitely was, and I tell the pair that this has actually inspired me to take up singing again as I used to be in a high school choir and they have reminded me how much I miss it.

the men, these Orthodox Jew-

“Go for it,” says Bracha. “I always say, sing when you have an opportunity – you never know where it’s going to take you”.

I left in high spirits and so did the rest of the audience. We all realised how important it is for women like Jaffe, Kogan and other Orthodox female singers to continue raising their voices in song and amplifying a sense of self and freedom of expression to females in the community, and, ultimately, to send the message that their voices must and will be heard.

 Follow and support: @brachajaffemusic @chayakogan_official

*Given the strictures in place regarding religious women singing in front of men, these Orthodox Jewish females perform for women only.

Unhappy with your Freeho lder? Take control.

Laurent Vaughan, a Senior Associate in Bishop & Sewell’s Landlord & Tenant team, outlines the process by which at owners can take control of their block via the Right To Manage process.

On a daily basis, our newspapers are lled with articles on the rising cost of living crisis. The Government is still expected to introduce legislation in respect of the much-publicised proposals concerning leasehold reform, which would purportedly make the enfranchisement process cheaper and fairer, but in the meantime some leaseholders in large blocks of ats may struggle to raise the capital necessary to acquire the freehold.

Fortunately, a statutory right is a orded to leaseholders to take over the management of their building through a ‘Right To Manage company’ (RTM), by virtue of the Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002. It is a ‘no fault’ right which leaseholders can exercise without having to demonstrate any complaint against their freeholder or managing agent. The right is not curtailed in instances where the freeholder is absent as an application can be lodged with the First-tier Tribunal for an order entitling the RTM company to acquire the right.

As appealing as it sounds to empower leaseholders to wrestle control from disinterested freeholders and well-remunerated managing agents, the complexity of the process should not be underestimated. Strict eligibility criteria will apply in respect of the building and the leaseholders. The right is exercised by way of service of a formal notice on the freeholder and before the management of the building is transferred to the RTM company, a series of formalities would have to be met.

Ultimately, the RTM company will take over all the management functions previously a orded to freeholders or landlords in the leases including maintenance and repairing obligations, services such as heating, lighting and cleaning the building, demanding and collecting service charges and insurance. In large blocks, it would often be prudent for the RTM company to appoint a professional agent to manage the day-to-day management. The freeholder is also entitled to membership of the RTM company in respect of its interest in the building and in respect of any at not let on a long lease.

The same goes for their social media accounts, which they make available only to women

The same goes

As is the case with lease extensions and freehold purchases, a freeholder is entitled to recover costs which it has incurred in the process. The legislation refers to costs in respect of professional services for which the freeholder was personally liable. This includes professional legal services in respect of the service of the notice, any accountancy costs arising from provision of accounts and any managing agent costs associated with the hand-over of management functions and records. It cannot be emphasised enough that the RTM process should be steered by an experienced and specialist solicitor at the helm, as leaseholders would still be liable for the freeholder’s ‘recoverable’ costs if the RTM process was not successfully navigated.

For those leaseholders among you living in smaller blocks or fortunate enough to have deep pockets, the ideal route would always be to take control by acquiring the freehold. Aside of taking over the management functions, this route would enable leaseholders to add value to their respective ats in having long leases granted to them and by removing the obligation to pay ground rent following the introduction of The Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Act 2022 last July.

Bishop & Sewell’s award-winning Landlord and Tenant team are industry experts on Leasehold Reform legislation, including enfranchisement, lease extensions and Right To Manage.

If you would like to discuss any of the points raised in this article, please do not hesitate to contact Laurent Vaughan directly on 0207 079 4193 or lvaughan@bishopandsewell.co.uk.

The Hackney Empire audience

Child sensation Esther Krohn and (inset) Naomi with Bracha

It was the mosquito net that sold it to me. The sheer, utter romance of spending the night in a luxurious lodge deep in the Kruger National Park under gossamer netting. And yet, this was just one of a million magical moments, which began with landing at Skukuza, possibly the prettiest airport in the world. This triangular thatched-roof building,

which looks more like a luxury hotel lobby, is so at one with the bushveld that surrounds it that it doesn’t have any doors.

As we entered the arrivals lounge we were greeted enthusiastically by Ronnie, who turned out to be our ranger for the next three days, and had our first experience of climbing into an open-sided Land Rover. “The journey will take about 40 minutes, depending on what we encounter along the way,” he said. Safari virgins that we were, we didn’t really understand what he meant, but after just 10 minutes of bumping along dirt tracks, he slowed to a stop. And right there, basking in the late afternoon sun, was a lion, gloriously golden, lazily languid and completely, mesmerisingly beautiful.

On arrival at Selati Camp we were warmly welcomed to our ‘home in the bush’ by camp manager Kyle, who handed us citronellasoaked flannels to freshen up and stave o the pesky mites, showed us to our room and read us the rules – no walking around on our own at night was the only one that made me feel a little rebellious. But when I learned

coming face to face with

that there were no fences surrounding the camp and that I therefore had a very real chance on my way to dinner of coming face to face with an elephant potentially hoping to find his, I decided to play ball.

Selati Camp is one of four lodges in the Sabi Sabi private game reserve. It’s homely and intimate, with seven highly luxurious standalone cabins filled with antique furniture and artefacts that pay homage to the

railway that used to run through the Kruger. Our enormous room had a four-poster bed draped with the desired netting and a wonderful bathroom with freestanding washbasin unit and bath. There were indoor and outdoor showers, a small plunge pool and a large veranda. We were ‘in’ Out of Africa!

I surprised myself with how quickly I settled into the routine. I leapt out of bed at 5.30 each day to have morning tea before boarding the Land Rover at six. We said polite hellos to our fellow passengers on day one – and were best friends with them by the time we returned from the morning safari for a lavish bu et breakfast. Never have I felt so at home while being so far

Three days, two lodges, one magical experience. Louisa Walters goes on safari

Kruger National Park’s charming Skukuza airport

Luxury accommodation at Selati camp

A luxury suite at Earth Lodge, Kruger National Park

Where to stay on safari

from home; never could I have imagined that being in the middle of absolutely nowhere would feel like being in the centre of the universe. The encyclopaedic knowledge of the rangers filled us with awe – we learnt more about animal life, insect life and nature in three days than in all our years of science and geography lessons at school.

Morning safaris are exhilarating. The air is cool before the humidity sets in. The animals have the aura of setting up for the day – light, gentle movements, impalas skipping lightly across the plains, lions padding stealthily across the roads, gira es casually bending down to munch the leaves atop the trees. We saw a cheetah stationed on a rock seemingly staring us down, zebras standing in pairs as if put there purely for us to admire (which we did). Three hours of wonder and glory, filled with sights, sounds and smells that we’ve never experienced before, indeed couldn’t experience in our London life. The thrill each time we saw another of the so-called big five, but Ronnie encouraged us to look for the little five too – birds, dung beetles, and even a tortoise one day.

Evening safari has an ethereal quality; as the sun goes down the animals rise up and the activity is thrilling. One minute we are just cantering along, the next minute Ronnie is driving us to a watering hole where two jeeps from other lodges are already there waiting for elephants. The rangers always know they are coming. We wait patiently for a bu alo to rise up from the water and we are rewarded with him opening his jaws impossibly wide. And

dark,

such as they are, and

then it’s almost dark, and we pull up in a clearing. We get out of the vehicle (by now we have enough trust in Ronnie to do this) to stretch our legs, to make use of the bush ‘facilities’, such as they are, and sundowners are served from a ledge on front of the jeep. We arrive back at the lodge sated yet starving, for dinner in the boma (outdoor enclosure) under the stars by a bonfire with sand underfoot.

Resident chef Gift (“all my older siblings were boys so when I, a girl, was born, my mother said I was a gift”) tells us what’s on the small menu.

Kyle’s wife Rebecca informs me that I can tell my readers that kosher food can be provided if requested in advance. Considering that the nearest town is a two-hour drive and it’s not exactly Golders Green, I am impressed. But here in the bush, magic happens every day.

Not all the big moments are on the game drives. Nothing I have seen on stage or screen has ever given me the thrill I experienced when I was sitting on the deck one afternoon and a herd of elephants appeared on the horizon, casually heading for the watering hole outside the camp. “Elephants!” I shouted and suddenly all guests and sta joined me, cameras and binoculars at the ready, excitedly pointing and exclaiming.

We spent two nights at Selati Camp and one at Earth Lodge, a 45-minute drive away. This incredibly opulent lodge has been hewn out of the earth and everywhere you look is another ‘wow’ factor, from dramatic furniture carved out of tree trunks to dining tables set in a shallow pool. An impressive gym is glass fronted and, just the day before we were there, guests were working out to the amusement of elephants watching.

There are 13 standalone lodges, each with a plunge pool, a large deck with a hanging chair and more furniture than I have on my patio at home. Inside, floors and walls are stone resin; furniture, furnishings and bathrooms are super luxurious and with a magnificent fully-stocked drinks cabinet and even an easel with artist materials, I didn’t want to leave. And yet the bush was calling. We returned from the evening safari to find a rose-petal bath waiting for us. Food and drink here match the opulence of the surroundings, with magnificent wines from the impressive cellar to complement the high-end

cuisine. Beautifully laid tables with starched white cloths and glassware that sparkles in candlelight make for a magical setting under the inky sky. We found time between game drives to enjoy a couple’s massage in the Amani spa, another super-luxury o ering.

On our departure, the name badge of the young man at the airport check-in read ‘Enough’. He laughingly told me he has three siblings and he was the last child to be born, with his mother declaring that was enough. I told him I’d spent three unforgettable days on safari, but that it wasn’t enough. To have had an experience like this, however, is a gift.

Stay at Selati Camp from 18,000 South African rands (about £880) or Earth Lodge from 26,500 rands (£1,290) per person per night. This includes vehicle safaris, walking safaris, breakfast, lunch, boma dinner, a house selection of beverages, wifi and transfers to and from the Sabi Sabi Airstrip. Sabi Sabi is also home to Bush Lodge (25 cabins, making it ideal for families) and Little Bush Camp (six lodges, ideal for small groups). www.sabisabi.com

Bedroom at Earth Lodge

Dinner is served: the deck at Selati Camp

Louisa and her husband Simon

Jesse

JN Junior

The big question

What could you do to connect with someone in a meaningful way?

Genius Jenna says: February can get a bit of a bad rap. The second month of the year is typically known as one of the most miserable – cold and dark. BUT… there’s a lot to like about February, our shortest month of the year. Its name comes from the Latin word ‘februum’, meaning purification, The Welsh call February ‘y mis bach’ which means ‘little month’, it’s one month away from spring, and in the southern hemisphere, February is a summer month the equivalent of August! Yet more importantly, February includes Place2Be’s Children’s Mental Health Week, which takes place 6-12 February. Place2Be launched Children’s Mental Health Week in 2015 to highlight the importance of young people’s mental health. This year’s theme is Let’s Connect, encouraging people to connect with others in a meaningful way. It’s a good opportunity for us to think about how we can best look after our own mental health and also support family or friends with their mental health. Kindness is a simple way to help. When we are kind to each other, it helps us to feel connected, which means we create new friendships or strengthen existing ones. This month I might talk to someone at school I haven’t spoken to before, play a game with someone online or connect with my local community by volunteering.

Nyman, 10, East Finchley

To connect with someone in a meaningful way we can catch up and talk to each other, hang out and play together, give someone a hug or a high five! Or we can go and help out at a local charity, or go to the park with someone new. We can also play online games with friends, visit someone who is lonely and sad and brighten up their day, and do good deeds, for example giving food to homeless

UNICORNS

A seven-year-old girl in America has been given official permission to own a unicorn and keep it in her garden. Madeline sent a handwritten letter to the Los Angeles Department of Animal Care to ask to keep a unicorn. Two weeks later, she received a reply from the department to say that she could, as long as she gave it plenty of exposure to sunlight and moonbeams and a diet of watermelon. Now all she has to do is find one of the mythical creatures.

What’s On This Month... Half Term

Hands On!

Cookie-Cutter Thank You Cards

You don’t have to be a bagel baker to help make the world a better place. Use common baking tools to create these cute cards as a sweet thank you to others.

Supplies

Colorful card stock

Cookie cutters in fun shapes — hearts, stars, etc.

Pencil

Scissors

Crayons and markers

Glue

Trace a few cookie-cutter shapes in pencil on the card stock. Cut out and decorate the shapes.

Glue the shapes onto pieces of folded card stock.

Write thank you messages inside the cards. Consider thanking people for their acts of love: “Thank you for your smile . . . for taking care of me when I was sick . . . for reading to me . . .” Hand out the cards and get ready for big smiles!

www.pjlibrary.org

Imagine Children’s Festival at the Southbank

Highlights at this festival include talks by Cressida Cowell (How to Train Your Dragon) and Michael Rosen (Going on a Bear Hunt). 8-18 February 2023. Full schedule at www.southbankcentre.co.uk

Draw-along with Nick Sharratt

Draw along with Nick Sharratt for a fun-filled drawalong for all ages. Nick will be sketching characters from his latest stories. Saturday 18 February, 2pm. www.artsdepot.co.uk

Biscuiteers Icing Classes

Budding bakers can head to one of Biscuiteers hour-long icing courses this half term, running in their icing cafes for young people. For more details visit: www.biscuiteers.com/februaryhalf-term-events

Play

1 2 3 4 5

Drop in for a free Play Build Play session under the magnificent domed interior of the Gallery. 14, 15 and 16 February 11am-4pm, drop in

The Power of Music in Manchester

If you’re in Manchester this half-term, the Science and Industry Museum has an exhibition exploring music. You can make music, play with beat, melody and harmonies and meet Haile the musical robot. Until May 2023 www.scienceandindustrymuseum. org.uk

MAKING SENSE OF THE SEDRA

BY LAURIE REZNIK

US JEWISH LIVING PROJECTS EXECUTIVE

It is 80 years since the armed resistance that led to the Warsaw Uprising began on 8th Shevat 5703 (18 January 1943). This was supposed to be the day of the second deportation from the Warsaw ghetto, of a group of 8,000 people. Jewish resistance fighters from the Jewish Combat Organisation (ZOB) and the Jewish Military Union (ZZW) pooled their resources, which had been smuggled into the ghetto, and attacked their German oppressors.

Through sheer grit and determination, these brave fighters immobilised the deportation and, although

it did not stop entirely, fewer people were taken away as a result. With only a small number of guns, petrol bottles and other makeshift weapons, the Jews managed temporarily to overpower the Germans. This eventually led to the full-scale Warsaw Ghetto Uprising three months later.

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Encyclopaedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933-1935 (Vol. 2) describes the uprising as the “revolt that became one of the most significant occurrences in the history of the Jewish people. At the beginning, no one gave the ghetto any chance to hold out. But this seemingly hopeless struggle showed that even the years of the Nazi terror regime and the passivity of the Polish surroundings were not enough to break the fighting spirit of the youth movement

members and the ghetto dwellers. The revolt became a symbol of resistance and heroism” (p459).

In this week’s parsha, Beshalach, we read about the courage of an early figure in our history. The Jewish people had been freed from slavery in Egypt, only for Pharoah to change his mind and chase them with a big army. The Israelites were trapped between the army and the Red Sea. Naturally, they were in a state of panic.

The Gemara in Sotah 37a tells us that there was one man who didn’t panic. Nachshon ben Aminadav, brother-in-law of Aharon the High Priest and a prince of the tribe of Judah, jumped into the water first. The water did not split immediately; in fact, he nearly drowned. But his tribe followed him and when Moshe raised his sta to the water, the

sea split and the Israelites walked through, unharmed by their pursuers. The Gemara goes on to explain that because of his actions, Nachshon become the ancestor of kings, and the tribe of Judah, the royal house.

Jewish heroes are not afraid of mere mortals. In di erent circumstances, Nachshon ben Aminadav

and the ghetto fighters both held up against enormous challenges and did not despair. They put their trust in God and stood up for what they believed in. Whether their enemies were Egyptian, German or otherwise, our leaders have always been brave, taken chances and, most importantly, never given up on their ideals.

In our thought-provoking series, rabbis, rebbetzins and educators relate the week’s parsha to the way we live today

When faith comes first

Leaders of Warsaw’s Jews bravely took a stand against their oppressors

LEAP OF FAITH

BY RABBI CHARLEY BAGINSKY CEO OF LIBERAL JUDAISM

Sometimes our kids are not all right

It can be hard to say out loud, or to write down, but we need to admit and to share with each other that sometimes our children, and indeed we, simply are not OK. It’s not a reflection on us or poor parenting or bad decisions… it’s just that our children, like everybody, sometimes need help and support. Before the pandemic took hold, Jews were slightly more likely than the general population to report feeling anxious. Since then, those numbers have shot up. According to a study by Jewish Policy Research, almost two in three people in our community reported a deteriora-

tion in their mental wellbeing. The younger the respondents were, the more likely they were to report mental distress.

Covid was isolating for many, but not talking about what we and our families went through increased that isolation. They say it takes a village to raise a child. Let’s not do this on our own. Let’s share our stories and our concerns, raise each other up and support one another.

Children’s Mental Health Week 2023 takes place from 6 to 12 February. Liberal Judaism is proud to support this important moment in our calendar where, with the theme of Let’s Connect, people of all ages are tasked to consider how we can make meaningful connections that support mental health.

As I think about this, the Torah text that I find myself turning to over and over is the image of

Moses coming down the mountain, seeing that the people had strayed and smashing the tablets of the Commandments, sending pieces everywhere. Anger, hurt and betrayal burned in him. But the midrash tells us that, subsequently, Moses goes and picks up every piece and places them side by side with the second set. There is holiness in brokenness, but even though Moses was broken, that was not his whole story. We need to remind ourselves of this. We need to hold our children tight, however big they are, and tell them this story; tell them that brokenness is not something that should be denied or held at arm’s length. Rather it is part of what makes us human.

Our mental health issues should not be hidden away, but looked at as part of our wholeness and, as we share our experiences, so we allow others to share theirs.

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

Ask Our Experts / Professional advice from our panel

Our Experts

Got a question for a member of our team?

Email: editorial@jewishnews.co.uk

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.

JOE OZER

Qualifications:

FINANCIAL SERVICES

• Executive director for the United Kingdom at DCI (Intl) Ltd

• Worked in finance for more than 20 years

• Specialists in distribution and promotion of Israel Bonds

DEVELOPMENT COMPANY FOR ISRAEL 020 3936 2712 www.israelbondsintl.com joe.ozer@israelbondsintl.com

JONATHAN WILLIAMS

Qualifications:

JEWELLER

• 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

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.

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

REMOVALS MANAGING DIRECTOR

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.

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

ADAM LOVATT

Qualifications:

COMMERCIAL LAWYER

• 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

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.

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

PRINCIPAL, PERFORMING ARTS SCHOOL

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.

DANCING WITH LOUISE 075 0621 7833

www.dancingwithlouise.co.uk

Info@dancingwithlouise.com

FINANCIAL SERVICES (FCA) COMPLIANCE

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.

RICHDALE CONSULTANTS LTD

020 7781 8019 www.richdale.co.uk jacob@richdale.co.uk

MENOPAUSE CHAMPION LABALANCE

ANGELA DAY-MOORE

Qualifications:

• Founder & CEO Sassy La Femme Womens Wellness

• Passionate about women’s wellbeing

• Home to LaBalance

• Recommended by fellow women for Period, Perimenopause & Menopause

MENOPAUSE CHAMPION LABALANCE 0333 188 6580 www.sassylafemme.com hello@sassylafemme.com

HUMAN RESOURCES / EMPLOYMENT LAW

DONNA OBSTFELD

Qualifications:

• FCIPD Chartered HR Professional

• 25 years in HR and Business Management.

• Mediator, Business Coach, Trainer, Author and Speaker

• Supporting businesses and charities with the hiring, managing, inspiring and firing of their staff

DOHR LTD 020 8088 8958 www.dohr.co.uk donna@dohr.co.uk

Professional advice from our panel / Ask Our Experts

ACCOUNTANT

CHARITY EXECUTIVE

DOV NEWMARK

Qualifications:

ALIYAH ADVISER

• 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.

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

DIVORCE & FAMILY SOLICITOR

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.

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

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.

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

IT SPECIALIST

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.

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.

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

INSURANCE CONSULTANCY

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.

RISK RESOLUTIONS

020 3411 4050

www.risk-resolutions.com ashley.prager@risk-resolutions.com

CAREER ADVISER

LESLEY TRENNER

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.

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

TELECOMS SPECIALIST

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.

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

Stephen Morris Shipping Ltd. Unit 15, Ockham Drive, Greenford Park, Greenford. UB6 0FD UK.

The largest and longest established door-to-door shippers of household and personal effects between the UK and Israel

ANTIQUES

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.

House clearances

Single items to complete homes

MARYLEBONE ANTIQUES - 8 CHURCH STREET NW8 8ED 07866 614 744 (ANYTIME)

0207 723 7415 (SHOP)

closed Sunday & Monday

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

MAKE SURE YOU CONTACT US BEFORE SELLING

WESTLON HOUSING ASSOCIATION

Sheltered Accommodation

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

Are you happy paying big household bills?

Would you like to pay less? Find out how

THE JEWISH NEWS CROSSWORD

10 Written promise to pay (inits) (3)

11 Elevated (4)

12 Ethereal, vague (6)

14 Ill-fated, destined (6)

16 Leisurely walk (6)

19 Counteract (6)

21 Out of true (4)

23 Bed (3)

24 Feel irritation of the skin (4)

25 Popular number puzzle (6)

26 Disappear (6)

DOWN

1 Horn on a deer (6)

2 Chess piece (4)

3 State of opposition (6)

4 Ridiculous (6)

5 Shallow vessel (4)

6 Confused mass (6)

13 In time past (3)

15 Blockhead (3)

17 Accept, agree to (an offer) (4,2)

18 Secure small garage or storeroom (4-2)

Fun, games and prizes

SUDOKU

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

SUGURU

ACROSS

7 Pointlessly, fruitlessly (2,4)

8 ___ suite, honeymooners’ hotel rooms (6)

9 Prepare a scheme (4)

19 Series of eight notes (6)

20 More than allowed (6)

22 Sheep’s coat (4)

24 Taverns (4)

WORDSEARCH CODEWORD

The listed words related to Arthurian legend 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.

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.

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.

LH UG CC ARN AL SA OE KXE GO DD IA RL TI ET IL BE NN V MA NTSE LT SA CE A

OR PE RC IV AL I

ARTHUR AVALON CASTLE CHIVALRY COURT

ELAINE EXCALIBUR GALAHAD GAWAIN GUINEVERE

JOUSTING

Last issue’s solutions

Crossword

ACROSS: 1 Spare parts, 8 Means,

9 Impeach, 10 Militia, 11 Dodge,

12 Grotesque, 15 Charm, 17 Charger,

19 Undergo, 20 Taste, 21 Exhalation.

DOWN: 2 Pearl, 3 Risotto, 4 Private school, 5 Rapid, 6 Swaddle, 7 Ghee,

8 Mime, 12 Grandee, 13 Quartet,

14 Urge, 15 Coup, 16 Mirth, 18 Gusto.

See next issue for puzzle solutions.

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

Invest in Israel with Israel Bonds

Saving • Investing • Giving • Gifting

Current Fixed Rates at:

5-year term

4.81%

Mazel Tov bond £100 min.

term

4.84%

4.86%

Jubilee rate as posted valid to 14 Feb. 2023. Mazel Tov and eMazel Tov rates valid to 28 Feb. 2023. Subject to conditions.

infoEN@israelbondsintl.com 020 3936 2712

Development Company for Israel (International) Ltd.

Your capital may be at risk.

This advertisement has been issued by the Development Company for Israel (International) Ltd., which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and registered in England No. 01415853. This is not an offering, which could only be made by prospectus. Your capital is at risk, the rules under FSMA for the protection of retail clients do not apply. An investment in any of these bonds will not be covered by the provisions of the Financial Services Compensation scheme, nor by any similar scheme. Israel bonds are intended as a long-term investment as they are not listed or admitted to dealing on any recognised investment or stock exchange nor is there any established secondary market, as a consequence Israel bonds are not readily realisable before their maturity date. DCI (International) Ltd is not the issuer of these bonds, they are issued by the State of Israel. In the event that the information regarding offered bonds on the State of Israel’s official records differs from the information contained here, the information on the State of Israel’s records shall control and take precedence. 02-23

PRESENTS Hotels

PESSAH 2023

MONTECASTILLO GOLF & SPORTS RESORT

Jerez / Cádiz (Spain)

From April 05 to April 14 (from 9 to 12 nights)

A

HEAVEN OF PEACE AND EXCLUSIVITY IN THE VICINITY OF THE BEAUTIFUL JEREZ

The Barceló Montecastillo Golf & Sport Resort ***** is a spectacular hotel, recently renovated, surrounded by a fantastic natural environment and a 19th century castle on the outskirts of Jerez de la Frontera. This resort has a privileged location next to the famous Speed Circuit, half an hour from the beach and only 10 min. from the city airport.

IN THE LAST 12 MONTHS...

1,433 Family members supported

BE THE LIFELINE MAKE THE DIFFERENCE

For many families who have a seriously ill child, the cost of living crisis following two very difficult pandemic years, is almost too much to bear.

The devastating emotional, practical and financial toll of caring for a child with a complex medical condition, means more and more families in the community are needing Camp Simcha’s vital support.

We need to raise £2.8million this year so we can continue to be a lifeline for these families - providing life-changing practical and therapeutic help, as well as bringing hope and joy at the darkest of times.

5,000+ Attendances at Camp Simcha retreats, parties and outings

2,713

23 Practical, therapeutic and emotional support services

9,568 Therapeutic sessions delivered to seriously ill children and siblings

Hours of support provided by our Family Liaison Officers

1,656 Hours of respite provided