1309 - 5th April 2023

King and Kinder

Charles’ tribute on first state visit abroad as monarch P8

Shulgoer saved by defibrillator his kids donated

Pregnant congregant uses device on man who had heart attack at Shabbat service

by Michelle Rosenberg michelle@jewishnews.co.uk

A man who suffered a heart attack in synagogue was saved thanks to a quickthinking pregnant congregant and a defibrillator that had been donated by his family last year.

The 77-year-old collapsed during the main Shabbat service at Beis Gavriel – ChabadLubavitch synagogue in north Hendon.

It was the fast thinking of a 28-year-old paramedic, who is six months pregnant with her second child, that saved his life.

The woman, who spoke to Jewish News on condition of anonymity, said: “I saw a man slumped in a chair leaning on another man. There was another nurse in attendance who said he could feel a faint pulse.

“I took the man’s other arm but his pulse had stopped by then. I asked the guys to put him on the floor to start CPR and get me the defibrillator. The

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other nurse did one round of CPR while I prepared the equipment and attached the pads to his chest.

“I then started a second round of CPR. Halfway through that round the man’s heart started pumping.”

The defibrillator used had been donated to the synagogue by his children less than 12 months ago.

From the time the man’s heart stopped until the congregants got it going again was around four minutes. Hatzola, the Jewish community emergency medical response service, arrived soon afterwards followed by the London Ambulance Service, together with a doctor.

She added: “The man was taken to hospital and is currently recovering on a cardiac ward awaiting surgery, but he’s alive. The chances of surviving a heart attack outside hospital is said to be around six percent.

I hope he makes a full recovery.”

WELCOME THE STRANGER

Board of Deputies president Marie van der Zyl (centre, right) joins volunteers involved in a food distribution session for migrants at a squalid camp in Dunkirk, northern France. Full report, pages 10-11

Parties share their red lines

by Jotam Confino in Tel Aviv jotam@jewishnews.co.uk

As the Knesset headed for a month-long recess ahead of Passover, Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, continued attempts at bridging the gaps between the government and opposition over the judicial system.

As Herzog led marathon talks this week, opposition parties clarified red lines on which they were not willing to compromise. Labour said “preventing the politicisation of the judicial appointments committee” and “preserving the independence of the judicial system,” were issues on which it would not budge.

A similar statement was made by National Unity Party lawmaker Chili Tropper, who said: “There will be no situation in which the coalition, the government, appoints judges.”

Justice Minister Yariv Levin fired back at Tropper, accusing him of trying to “blow up the talks and set the country on fire”.

Both Levin and Transport Minister Miri Regev said the government would advance its judicial reforms as soon as Knesset returns from recess.

Shas Party leader Arieh Dery said: “[The] laws are ready for their second and third reading; we do not have to wait for months. Whenever we want, we can enter the plenum and pass the laws.”

Yisrael Beitenu Party leader, Avigdor

Lieberman, has been particularly critical of the government’s intentions, saying the fact the bills are ready to be voted on and passed is like to negotiating with a “gun on the table”.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, meanwhile, insisted he would get involved in the judicial reforms, despite the attorney gen-

Life is for jLiving

#jliving

eral prohibiting him from doing this, citing a conflict of interest due to Netanyahu’s corruption trial.

Netanyahu also commented on the ongoing talks at Herzog’s residence, pointing out that before the elections “many of the current opposition leaders supported substantive changes in the judicial system”, adding: “Therefore, there is a basis here for agreements, which should be possible to reach with goodwill in genuine dialogue.”

As the political tensions rose between the government and opposition, mass demonstrations continued on Saturday, bringing more than 200,000 people to the streets in Tel Aviv and hundreds of other locations across Israel.

Police were filmed using water cannons against protesters, while one officer on a horse was seen hitting a young girl with his baton. The video clip went viral and was widely discussed in the media.

Demonstrators took to the street again, despite Netanyahu’s decision to pause the judicial overhaul, with some saying they did not believe his intentions were genuine, but rather a smokescreen.

While more than 200,000 protestors gathered in Tel Aviv, some 500 right-wing activists came to show their support for the government’s reforms. Some of them, wearing masks, were filmed trying to tear down an LGBTQ flag hanging from an apartment.

The LGBTQ community centre in Tel Aviv was also attacked, with “Kahane lives” spraypainted on its walls, a reference to the racist and extremist Meir Kahane.

“This is a resonating warning for the next violent incident against LGBT people. LGBT phobia is already rampant, and we see it in the streets,” the LGBTQ Association told Haaretz

ANTISEMITISM ENVOY WHO CRITICISED COALITION FIRED

Israel’s Special Envoy for Combatting Antisemitism and the Delegitimisation of Israel has been fired by the government.

Noa Tishby said it was with “sadness and disappointment” that she confirmed her dismissal by the government as antisemitism envoy.

Tishby had previously accused the government’s judicial overhaul of “going too far”, accusing it of wanting to take “too much power” and “overrule a supreme court decision by a basic majority”.

“It is not possible for me to know if their decision was driven by my publicly stated concerns about this government’s ‘judicial reform policy’,” Tishby said.

“But given the reality that antisemitism continues its dangerous rise globally, and the threat to Israel’s existence through delegitimisa-

tion policies has not slowed, it is difficult to come to any other reasonable conclusion,” she added.

Tishby, who was appointed as antisemitism envoy by then foreign minister Yair Lapid in April 2022, said she took on the role “because the threats to Jews around the world is as significant today as any other point since the Holocaust”.

In her letter published on Twitter on Sunday, Tishby said her role as envoy “does not mean I must suppress my views”.

She continued: “My decision to speak out was not taken lightly. I voiced concerns because I believe absolutely in the importance of an independent judiciary in safeguarding the democratic system.”

The Israeli actress added that an “open and honest discussion with those in government is at the core of Israel’s long-term wellbeing and our status as the region’s single consistent democracy”.

Foreign Ministry’s Deputy Director-General for Public Diplomacy, Emmanuel Nahshon, sent Tishby a letter in which he wrote: “In light of existing circumstances the ministry has no intention of renewing the [contract].”

Fired: Noa Tishby

Protests continue in Tel Aviv and hundreds of other locations across Israel and elsewhere

Benjamin Netanyahu (right) with Justice Minister Yariv Levin during a cabinet meeting in Jerusalem on Sunday before the Pesach break

Anglo-Jewry writes open letter to Bibi Board hits back at minister’s criticism

Board of Deputies president, Marie van der Zyl, has hit back at the home secretary’s criticism of her decision to raise concerns about her controversial migration policy, writes Lee Harpin.

Suella Braverman had used a speech at last Wednesday’s CST dinner to claim it was not “prudent” of the Board to issue a statement raising legal concerns about her illegal migration bill.

Almost 100 prominent figures in the UK Jewish community have submitted an open letter to the Israeli prime minister, expressing profound disquiet at the country’s political direction, writes Lee Harpin.

The letter, signed by 98 individuals including Luciana Berger, Keith Black, Sir Mick Davis, Jonathan Goldstein, Gerald Ronson and Lord Robert Winston, states: “As British Jews, and as supporters of a secure and democratic Israel, we express our profound concern and opposition to the judicial reforms in the form tabled by the present Government.

“We also express our deep concern over the needless and growing division in society that has been created by this process. We welcome the halt to the passing of this legislation announced on Monday 27 March and encourage those from all parties to use the coming days and weeks to find a way forward so that those from all parties ensure the appointment of judges remains free of political pressure and that judicial scrutiny is safeguarded for the benefit of all citizens of Israel, whether Jew, Arab, religious or secular.

“Each of the above signatories signs in their own right and not on behalf of any organisation they represent or are associated with.”

Jewish News has led condemnation of far-right elements of this government and their legislative plans since November. Writing in this newspaper last month, the chair of the Jewish Leadership Council, Keith Black, said: “Israel’s democracy is in peril; nationalism, fundamentalism and racism are outpacing moderation and respect for minorities.”

Earlier, his predecessor, Sir Mick Davis, also wrote in these pages, saying that having voted in the recent Israeli election as a new citizen, he urged the diaspora “not to selfcensor when it comes to opposing the country’s far-right government”.

As Israel heads into Passover, the judicial overhaul has been put on hold until the Knesset returns from recess. Demonstrators have vowed to continue protesting.

In a statement on Thursday, the Board president said: “We regret that this announcement was made alongside criticism clearly aimed at our organisation.

“The Board has a long record of praising successive governments for positive measures aimed at our community.

“There will, however, be times where we feel the need to express concern at policy proposals, which are understandably of importance to British Jews. We feel fortunate to live in a country with a political system where it is possible to do both.”

Van der Zyl appeared to confirm the suggestion she had requested meetings with

Braverman to raise concerns about her immigration policies, before the Board released their statement on 8 March.

Jewish News had earlier reported that Van der Zyl had written to Braverman in December 2022 and in February this year requesting a meeting.

But both letters were ignored, with Braverman only responding to the Board last Wednesday.

“As we have made clear, we would be pleased to meet the home secretary to discuss issues of interest to the Jewish community,” the Board president said. • Meeting refugees, p10-11

Brian’s mum Bertie loved being around people. That’s why she used to say that volunteering for Jewish Care was the happiest time of her later life.

Before Bertie passed away, she never got a chance to amend her Will so she could leave something to Jewish Care. Brian has since told us that he has included Jewish Care in his Will on her behalf; “I don’t want to leave it until it’s too late, like Mum. I’m doing this for her”. With a gift in your Will to Jewish Care, you can make sure that future generations of our community get the care they need, when they need it most.

For more information about leaving a gift in your Will and our free Will Writing Service, please call Sarit on 020 8922 2819, email legacyteam@jcare.org or visit jewishcare.org/legacy

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

Brian, Legacy Pledger

Braverman at the CST dinner

Luciana Berger, Keith Black, Sir Mick Davis, Gerald Ronson

News / Supporting Israel

Livni tells JN audience: ‘Thank you’

Former Israeli opposition leader Tzipi Livni has told a JW3 audience in London that the tens of thousands of democracy demonstrators in Israel have been buoyed by similar protests in the UK, writes Adam Decker.

In an evening conversation with James Harding, the former head of BBC News and a past editor of The Times, she described the solidarity as “amazing”, saying: “We in Israel felt we were not alone.”

Livni, who almost became prime minister, concluded the evening with a call to come together, saying: “Liberals of the world, unite!”

She was speaking at an event sponsored by Jewish News and organised by Choose Democracy, (Bochrim BaDemocratia), a campaign to mobilise people across the UK Jewish community “to demonstrate solidarity with Israelis fighting for Israel’s democratic future”.

The veteran politician, who retired in 2019, has addressed crowds of up to 300,000 before an unprecedented general strike brought Israel to a halt last week, forcing the government to pause its plans.

Livni said the issue originally had been about a series of bills designed to strip the judiciary of its power and independence, instead

giving new powers over appointments and veto to politicians who could “do what they want”.

However, she explained it was now more than simply a fight over the role of judges but was a debate over whether Israel was still a Jewish and democratic state, with equality to all its citizens without discrimination.

She told the audience British Jewish support in recent weeks, including from its representatives, “showed we are part of something bigger than just us, bigger even than the State of Israel… We are part of the Jewish people”.

‘BUSINESS AS USUAL’ FEARS

A group of top Israeli political figures, including a former attorney-general and ex-envoys, have written to Foreign Secretary James Cleverly expressing their “deep disappointment” at the “business as usual” approach of the UK government towards Israel.

Livni said neither the strictly-Orthodox or messianic supporters of a “Greater Israel” wanted equal rights, the former with a view to women and LGBT+ Jews, the latter with a view to Palestinians and Israeli Arabs.

Regarding the Palestinians and the West Bank, she said she felt the country was being taken down the path to a one-state solution, adding: “If you are for democracy, you will agree not to live in a one-state solution without equal rights. In a way, this coalition represents di erent interests, but acting against the Supreme Court is the common denominator. The declaration of independence, giving equal rights, for them it’s a problem.”

Focusing on the recent signing by Cleverly and his Israeli counterpart Eli Cohen of a roadmap aiming to deepen bilateral relations up until 2030, the letter cites a failure to mention “the fact that Israel’s democracy is under severe threat from the very government that Eli Cohen is part of. ”

The nine signatories – who include the former Israeli ambassadors to France, South Africa and Zimbabwe – write: “This ‘business as usual’ approach ignores the hundreds of thousands of Israelis struggling for Israel’s soul and allows this extremist government to tell the Israeli public that no one outside of Israel cares.”

Eli Cohen and James Cleverly

Tzipi Livni on the attack over the Netanhyahu coalition’s plans. Inset: Protesters in London take the fight to Downing Street

2,000 SWABS IN BID TO SAVE LIFE Charedi leader brands Halpern a ‘gangster’

More than 2,000 people in Stamford Hill have been swabbed to find a donor for a 41-yearold father of two who is battling blood cancer, writes Michelle Rosenberg.

Sunday’s event was described as the biggest UK Jewish stem cell donor recruitment in years. Organised by local community organisation Acheinu Cancer Support (ACS), in partnership with the Sue Harris Trust and DKMS UK (Delete Blood Cancer), volunteers were overwhelmed by the outpouring of support for the campaign to help Murray Foltyn (pictured).

After just four hours supplies were exhausted while more potential donors stood in line. “We’ll be back to swab more” said E Cartier, UK coordinator of Campaign Murray, adding: “This has been beyond our dreams. This community really knows the meaning of life and how to care for others.”

Riki Zieg, ACS patient coordinator said, “Thank you all so much for such a successful and inspiring event. To see so many hundreds of people coming out, with the hope of saving a life, was unbelievable.”

The world’s most authorative Charedi voice has blasted a Golders Green rabbi at the centre of yet more child safeguarding investigations in a halachic ruling that has sent shockwaves through the strictly- Orthodox community, writes Adam Decker.

Rabbi Moshe Sternbuch in Jerusalem called Rabbi Chaim Halpern of Divrei Chaim synagogue in north London a “gangster” who should be removed from post.

The stunning remarks, from which Halpern’s credibility will

struggle to recover, came after the intervention of the director of the Centre for Rabbinic Excellence at the United Synagogue.

Halpen’s Divrei Chaim is a liated to the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations, which appears to be backing him despite growing anger that he has not been removed from his position pending the outcome of the investigations.

Sternbuch, 97, who grew up in London, is widely seen as the foremost rabbi of his genera-

tion. He is vice-president of the Rabbinical Council and head of the Edah HaChareidis, the most

senior Charedi Beth Din in Israel. The revered Charedi leader was asked for a message to take back to rabbis in England by Rabbi Nicky Liss of Highgate Synagogue, who last year was appointed director of the Centre for Rabbinic Excellence at the United Synagogue.

In comments recorded and circulated, Sternbuch calls Halpern “a gangster” who should be removed, a call made by many of his own congregation. Sternbuch adds: “Throw him out… he can’t hold himself.”

JWA CHIEF EXEC LEAVES ABRUPTLY

The newly-installed chief executive of a Jewish charity supporting women a ected by domestic abuse and sexual violence has left after just one month in post.

Alison Rosen, the former head of WIZO, was announced as the successor to Jewish Women’s Aid predecessor, Naomi Dickson in January.

Rosen o cially began work in the role in March, taking over

from Dickson, who was asked to lead the Jewish charity Norwood late last year.

Women CIO, a charity o ering free telephone support.

executive medical research charity, Rosen is an ex-chief

A former chief executive of The Gri n Institute, a surgical training and medical research charity, Rosen is an ex-chief executive of the Women’s International Zionist Organisation (WIZO) who currently co-chairs Nisa-Nashim Bushey, the Jewish Muslim Women’s Network, and is a founding trustee of Polly for

At the time of her appointment, she said: “I am looking forward to working again within the Jewish community and getting to know the various organisations in the wider violence against women and girl’s sector.

JWA said: “Last week Jewish Women’s Aid and Alison Rosen parted ways. She leaves with our thanks and very best wishes for the future.”

Nisa-Nashim

Alison Rosen

Rabbi Chaim Halpern

‘Jews are not tolerated in Saudi, they are embraced’

Rick Sopher reflects on an historic trip to the Middle East

Visiting Saudi Arabia, openly, as a Jewish person, as we are now able to do is already a dayenu (enough for us). After all, on my previous visits to Saudi on business, I had never stated I was Jewish and awkwardly completed the visa application, which at that time required a statement of religious affiliation (none of the available categories, such as Sunni or Shia, seemed to apply).

But this time, we were warmly welcomed, even in Medina, the city of the Muslim prophet Mohammed, which, until just two years ago, was completely off-limits to non-Muslims. We not only visited, but planted a date tree; not just any type of date, but the

highly treasured ajwa variety, which is only grown in Medina. Being the first Jewish person to plant a date tree in Medina for 1,400 years was a “pinch me” moment and deeply appreciated by me and each of the group of Jews, Christians and Muslims on our trip, who were also invited to plant a tree.

The tree-planting felt like a symbol of the tremendous changes taking place in Saudi Arabia and especially in its attitudes towards people of other religions. These changes are led from the top down by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and are embodied in Saudi’s “Vision 2030” blueprint that remarkably contained a definition of Islamic values as those of “moderation and tolerance”.

These changes were evident to our group in a visit I arranged earlier this month to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Our meetings with Saudi ambassadors, heads of various important educational institutions including one “building bridges with diverse peoples and cultures” as well as artists and local communities suggested that these changes are already penetrating deep into the system. For example, as the recent Impact-se review showed, the enmity towards Jews that used to be contained in school textbooks in Saudi Arabia has been almost completely ripped out. And since 50 percent of Saudi Arabia’s population is aged under 20, it can be hoped these changes will have an immediate impact.

It is yet to be seen how deeply this

aim from the rulers that their Islam should be “moderate and tolerant” will pervade the minds of 30 million Saudi residents and 1.8 billion Muslims worldwide. But in private meetings we were impressed by two imams who are trying to get the message across. Sheikh Mohammed al-Issa of Saudi Arabia and Sheikh Abdullah bin Bayyah in Abu Dhabi both promote this more moderate form of Islam and have gathered thousands of other imams to sign up to charters supporting such an approach. Both their charters refer to a document, the Charter of Medina, drawn up by Prophet Mohammed in around 623CE, which agrees a coexistence with the Jewish tribes that lived there, some of whom owned date tree orchards.

We were fortunate to be in Abu Dhabi on the first Shabbat after the official opening of the Abrahamic Family House, the site containing a spectacularly beautiful synagogue, church and mosque. The synagogue is the same 30 metre cubed size as the church and the mosque, which is remarkable when one considers the old history of height limitations on synagogues in Muslim lands. The whole site was generously paid for by the UAE government.

Following the Shabbat service, together with a Muslim scholar colleague, Dr Abdulla Galadari, we were able to hold a discussion with a private audience on the deep connections between the Qur’an and the Torah. It was effectively the first interfaith dis-

cussion held on the site of the Abrahamic Family House after its official opening. Many in the room, who included the newly-installed Rabbi Ben de Toledo, were amazed at the closeness of the language and concepts contained in both holy books, a subject that represents an important strand of my research work. When comparing those two scriptures the similarities are greater than the differences. By the end of our trip, I had the feeling Jewish people in particular were not just tolerated in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, but were now being embraced. It does feel that a generous hand of friendship is now on offer from our friends there. I feel deep gratitude for that – and it seems obvious the offer should be warmly embraced.

US OUR MUMMY BACK

Rick Sopher plants

Sheikh Mohammed al-Issa of Saudi Arabia is promoting a more ‘moderate and tolerant’ form of Islam

King visits monument to the Kindertransport

King Charles on a state visit to Germany last week celebrated the Kindertransport scheme, which saved thousands of Jewish children from the Nazis, writes Joy Falk.

As his three-day trip with Queen Camilla drew to a close, he focused on the Second World War. During a speech to the Bundestag, he said that on the final day he would be remembering those who died in the Allied bombing of Hamburg. He told the parliamentary assembly: “We will once again stand with the people of Germany in solemn remembrance.”

He also promised: “In Hamburg, I will pay my respects at the memorial to the Kindertransport, which 85 years ago saved the lives of more than 10,000 Jewish children from Nazism, and gave them safe passage to new lives in Britain.”

On his arrival in Hamburg, the King and Queen, joined by Germany’s president Frank-Walter Steinmeier and his wife, visited the St Nikolai Memorial, the remains of a church which was destroyed during the Allied raid. The city was virtually razed to the ground by the bombing, codenamed Operation Gomorrah, a major campaign against Hamburg which was described later as being unmatched by any other single Allied air attack staged in Europe during the conflict.

At the site, the King and president laid wreaths during a short ceremony to remember the dead. • Editorial comment, page 16

A 14-year-old girl who took her own life was bullied by fellow JFS pupils in and out of school, her father has said.

A pre-inquest review hearing into the death of Mia Janin (pictured) in March 2021 heard that her parents had raised concerns about bullying with staff at the Jewish Free School in Kenton before she was found dead at her family home in nearby Harrow.

Assistant coroner Tony Murphy, sitting at Barnet coroner’s court, said Mia and her family believed that the year 10 girl’s treatment by other pupils amounted to “bullying”. He added: “The key focus ... for this inquest is to seek to understand as much as anyone can why Mia took the steps she did on 12 March [2021].

“That involves in my view what was going on within and without Mia’s school environment leading to the event. It seems clear that Mia’s experience of some behaviour by JFS students was bullying.”

Mia’s father, Mariano, told the hearing: “We know she was bullied. We knew that she was cyber-bullied. Mia is not the first case in JFS.”

The coroner set a provisional date for the inquest of 23 and 26 June.

Ealing Liberal Synagogue held a celebration service last Saturday to mark 80 years since its foundation.

It was led by Rabbi Dr Miri Lawrence and Liberal Judaism chief executive Rabbi Charley Baginsky, with contributions from former leader Rabbi Indigo Raphael and student rabbi Rafe Thurstance.

Shul council member Sandra Jones said: “It was a wonderful rich and varied service, involving many from the community.”

The synagogue’s president, William Glassman, reflected on the community’s many achievements and joined others in looking forward to the next 80 years. Guests included

Two leading community housing organisations, jLiving, and Brighton and Hove Jewish Housing Association (B&HJHA), have merged.

Representatives say legal and financial due diligence has been completed, and jLiving and B&HJHA have the approval of stakeholders.

Jane Goodman, the CEO of jLiving, along with respective chairs Adam Gamsu (jLiving) and Michael Davids (B&HJHA) said in a statement that while nothing will change for the tenants day to day, the similarities in ethos, mission and backgrounds of the two organisations “make this a natural partnership”.

It was also one that would support the wider community in the years to come, they added, “as the ongoing need for affordable, safe and secure accommodation becomes ever more important for the Jewish community”. A launch to celebrate the merger will be held in June at BNJC (Brighton and Hove Jewish Community).

local mayor, Mohinder Midha, and

MPs James Murray (Ealing North) and Dr Rupa Huq (Ealing Central and Acton).

A jury in Swansea has found a white supremacist podcast host guilty of stirring up racial hatred, with the trial judge describing his recordings as “a stain on humanity”.

James Allchurch, 51, from Pembrokeshire, was convicted of 10 out of 15 counts of distributing hate material over a two-year period.

Judge Huw Rees told the self-proclaimed “avowed racist” and Hitler supporter he faces a jail term measured in years rather than months. Sentencing was adjourned until 28 April.

After the verdicts on Friday, the judge said: “The language the jury has had to put up with is vile... What I have heard over the last fortnight I regard as a stain on humanity.”

The charges related to audio files uploaded to a public website called Radio Aryan,later renamed Radio Albion. The episodes were described by the prosecutor as “highly racist, antisemitic and white supremacist in nature”.

Labour

All smiles at the synagogue’s celebration

THE FREEDOM TO FLY!

As Passover approaches, I wanted to take a moment to wish you and your loved ones a joyous and meaningful holiday. On behalf of the EL AL UK team, I want to express our sincere appreciation for your continued support, loyalty, and friendship. We are committed to continuing to serve you with the highest level of safety and comfort.

Chag Sameach!

Sincerely,

Oranit Beit Halahmy Senior Director Central and

and Africa

‘There must be a way to asylum seekers as humans’

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

The night before, Board of Deputies president Marie van der Zyl had been detailing the full scope of her communal organisation’s work in the UK with leaders of the French Jewish community at an upmarket Parisian kosher restaurant.

But now, in an altogether di erent, and often harrowing situation, the Board’s president is working hard in driving rain and wind among a team of volunteers involved in a food distribution session for migrants at a squalid camp in Dunkirk, northern France.

An o cial from the humanitarian charity Emmaus, which provides tents, blankets, food and medical assistance to the hundreds who flock to the camp, had earlier asked Van der Zyl, and the Board’s communities manager, Lauren Keiles, why they had decided to visit the Grande-Synthe refugee camp.

Van der Zyl recalled one of the central themes of Judaism, and of the forthcoming Pesach festival, a requirement to”care for the stranger”.

For more than an hour, the team of around a dozen other volunteers, including a representative from the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France (Crif) distributed chicken, rice, bread and fruit to the young men and the smaller number of women and children who joined the queue.

Later, Van der Zyl, who had given permission for Jewish News to join her in France, praises the “dignity”, and the “politeness” of the migrants to whom she had served meals.

“I was also thinking how poignant the trip was to the Passover story,” she added. “The Torah tells us: ‘And a stranger shalt thou not oppress; for ye know the heart of a stranger, seeing ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.

“‘When strangers reside with you in your land, you shall not wrong them.’”

In truth, behind their politeness, many of the migrants at the camp also look hungry, desperate and forlorn.

The majority have a basic grasp of English and are able to thank us for piling food into white plastic boxes for them to take away and eat while sitting on the muddy fields.

They will then return to the tents and blankets given to them by the several charities working in the area, aiming to give the refugees at least a basic standard of living in their temporary homes. It is a scene that probably

would have not have looked out of place in biblical times. Most in last Friday’s queue appeared to be Iraqi Kurds, who have made the 3,000-mile journey from their conflict-ridden homeland to the northern tip of France in the hope of risking their lives by paying a smuggler to get them access to one of the fleet of small boats they believe will take them to a better life in the UK.

Also in the camp were a few Iranians who had fled the regime in Tehran, some who had escaped the bloody war in Yemen and others who sought refuge from the tyrannical Taliban rulers of Afghanistan.

Striking up a conversation with one of the refugees, the Board’s outgoing community manager tells one young man she is here sending solidarity from the Jewish community back home. He responds: “I thank you.”

Van der Zyl and the team’s visit to the Dunkirk camp had been planned long before a row with Home Secretary Suella Braverman over a statement by the communal group that cast doubt on the legality of legislation that bars people considered to have entered Britain illegally from claiming asylum.

The Illegal Migration Bill, which

passed its committee stage in Parliament last week, sets out to stem the number of people crossing the Channel in small boats and would give the home secretary powers to deport those who do to Rwanda.

In a speech at last week’s Community Security Trust dinner, Braverman had questioned whether the Board should be entering into the debate about the UK government’s migration policy because it was a divisive issue that split the community itself down “left and right” political lines. But other organisations, including the Wiener Holocaust Library and The Association of Jewish Refugees, have also been among those issuing their own criticism of the Bill.

A joint statement released by the two groups last Friday said: “The Refugee Council rightly points out that people make these dangerous journeys because they have no other options to reach the UK – and that two-thirds of those arriving on small boats last year would qualify for refugee status.”

The statement added: “In the wake of the Second World War and the Holocaust, during which millions of people were murdered, rendered stateless and

displaced, the UN Refugee Convention was an important step towards better international humanitarian protection for refugees from persecution.”

Last December, when the World Jewish Congress met in Rome, a visit to the refugee camp was also discussed by the Board with Marie-Sarah Seeberger of Crif.

“We wanted to go to see the camps to understand how the refugees were treated,” says Van der Zyl. “I believe it is right for faith leaders to step in.”

Back at the Dunkirk camp, it is di cult to find evidence that Braverman’s tough talk around deportations to Rwanda is having any impact.

In the food queue is Abdul Rahman, 16, who tells Jewish News he arrived in the camp “a few weeks ago”. Asked if he would be willing to take a small boat to the UK, he replies: “Yes, I will, very soon. As soon as I get the call. I love the UK, I love England.”

He suggests he has family living in the UK, in Manchester but appears not to be aware of the Rwanda plan.

The British government has said 31,000 crossings were prevented from France in 2022. But, at the same time, the number of people journeying across the Channel reached 46,000, up 60 per cent from a year earlier.

More than 3,000 had already made the journey so far this year, with Home O ce figures showing 197 made the crossing just on 7 March.

Small boat arrivals accounted for about 45 percent of asylum applications made in 2022, but only 4 percent of people who arrived in the UK in small boats in 2021 have had a decision about their application.

Deaths in the Channel as a result of the dangerous crossings on tiny vessels are commonplace. No one knows how many migrants have died since boats overtook trucks as the most popular way for people-smugglers to operate.

At Emmaus’ headquarters, a short drive from the camp, spokeswoman Lydia Ahmed Lemoine speaks of hundreds of corpses that were identified floating at the top of the Channel close to the French border. Many refugees who attempt the arduous journey often do so with their legs dangling into the sea for the duration of the nighttime journey.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak spoke recently of the need to “break the cycle” of the criminal gangs enabling migrants across the Channel.

Ahmed Lemoine confirms the gangs are indeed an international business, but seems to doubt this will be

Marie van der Zyl, left, with reporter Lee Harpin, right, and an Emmaus member ahead of a visit to the ‘squalid’ Grande-Synthe refugee camp

treat humans’

NEED M RE RED

Magen David Adom is the Red Shield that protects Israel in times of medical emergency. This includes being responsible for collecting, processing and distributing over 90% of Israel’s blood supply.

To ensure that this continues and the people of Israel have the blood needed to cope with everything from everyday emergencies to war and terror, we need your support.

We need you and we need more red.

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WEpossible while demand to reach the UK remains high.

Money to pay the smugglers will have been borrowed from extended families before the migrants leave their homelands. It is most likely to be young and fit teenage boys who are chosen, with the idea being that they reach the UK and find well-paid employment, enabling them to repay family members at home.

Concerns are also raised that a revised migration agreement between France and Britain, signed by the home secretary last November, at an extra cost of millions to the UK, is making the situation worse.

Last Friday, as the Board president and other communal representatives arrived at the Dunkirk camp, police had just conducted their weekly eviction exercise. Tents were taken down, blankets and other possessions were seized. Police circled the camp and made sure the refugees walked outside without any items. But within a few hours the same migrants walk back into the camps and the charities begin the process of o ering them tents and blankets again.

It is estimated the entire exercise is costing in the region of €800 per day for every single police o cer involved.

Emmaus says the refugees are aware the French authorities’ o er of housing is only temporary.

Back in the UK, with Passover just days away, Van der Zyl says she will “think of the awful evictions” during this year’s Seder. She adds: “There must be a better way than this to deal with asylum applications and to treat people as human beings and not dehumanise them.”

 Read full report online

LACK OF SAFE PASSAGE PUTS LIVES AT MOST RISK

French police are brought to Dunkerque on a three-week rotation, to limit the chances of them developing any sympathies for the refugees they are evicting – Lydie, the lead for the association Emmaüs Dunkerque explained during our visit.

The UK Government has announced “a new beginning” in relations with the French Government, with the UK agreeing to pay the French £479 million over the next three years to build new joint migrant detention centres, a joint command centre and to fund more French patrols and police o cers on the coastline and surrounding areas.

French and British Jewish community leaders are also coming together, but with a very di erent focus.

Jewish history has taught us that no one can a ord to be a bystander in the face of injustice and human rights abuse.

So, in a communal first, The Board of Deputies, accompanied by Crif (the representative body of the French Jewish community), met and volunteered with NGOs working in the north of France to support refugees.

These NGOs are not there to fill the gap in the Government’s provision, but are working tirelessly to safeguard human rights in an unjust and harmful system.

We joined the volunteer

BY LAUREN KEILES BOARD OF DEPUTIES

team led by Emmaüs Dunkerque, to distribute food in one of the makeshift refugee camps in Dunkerque.

In less than an hour we had served hundreds of meals.

I briefly met a refugee who arrived two weeks earlier from Iraq. We stood together in the cold and rain while he charged his phone via the central generator brought in by another NGO for

a few hours. Despite his treacherous journey and appalling living conditions, he continues to risk everything to seek a safer, better life in the UK.

As legal entry routes for refugees are tightened or removed, smugglers become richer, more powerful and more emboldened to facilitate these dangerous journeys.

Our meetings with key stakeholders working on the ground made it absolutely clear that it is the lack of safe passages into the UK which are putting more lives at risk, not the smugglers. What we learned and witnessed was highly uncomfortable. It is uncomfortable knowing there is no end in sight for people needing to seek refuge.

It is uncomfortable knowing vulnerable people are not protected and people who simply want the chance for a better life for themselves and their families are being viewed as criminals.

The French, Jewish Philosopher Emmanuel Lévinas’ concept of ‘the face-to-face relation’, explains that ethically, people are responsible to one another in the face-to-face encounter.

This couldn’t be more relevant. We cannot a ord to turn a blind eye. As Jewish people, we have a commitment to face this issue head on.

One migrant heats some food in the camp in Dunkirk, northern France. People are given blankets and tents by several charities working in the area

Handing out provisions at the Dunkirk camp

Are Jewish youth groups failing autistic children?

To mark World Autism Acceptance Week, Mi chelle Rosenberg asks: is there sufficient provision?

Back in 2020, Jewish charities Kisharon, Norwood and Langdon, in conjunction with community SEN (special educational needs) school Gesher, commissioned research into the provision of and demand for learning disability services in the community.

The resulting Cordis Bright report focused on 18 local authorities across London, the south east and Greater Manchester.

It estimated that of the 186,800 people who identified as being members of the Jewish community across the authorities, around 3,700 adults have some form of learning disability.

Jewish adults on the autistic spectrum number around 1,380. By 2035, the report believes the number of Jewish adults and children with a diagnosis of autism will have risen to at least 2,080.

The question, then, is not just if our youth movements are already providing adequate provision but if they will be able to do so in the face of increased demand.

Kisharon director of operations Hadassa Kessler told Jewish News the findings from the Cordis Bright report highlighted a large number of – and a predicted increase in – autistic people and those with learning disabilities who will need support in the next 10 years. “This shows it is essential for Jewish youth movements to be inclusive so everyone has equal opportunities to take part and for the wider community to be welcoming and accepting of autistic people and people with learning disabilities,” she said.

Ali Durban and Sarah Sultman, who cofounded the SEN school Gesher in 2017, said autism rates are currently “ one-in-44” but there are “at least two children in every classroom of 30 in every Jewish school who have barriers to learning”.

Describing Jewish youth movements as a microcosm of the community, they believe

getting it right when people are young “lays the foundations for a broader, more inclusive society when they are adults.

“However, inclusion for youth movements is not straightforward, mainly because there is no answerable body or framework inspector under which they operate.”

The Jewish parent of one autistic child, who spoke to Jewish News on condition of anonymity, observed the adage of it taking a village to raise a child couldn’t be more true for a child who has disabilities. “And yet,” she says, “our son was isolated. No parties. No playdates. No eye contact from parents passing on the way into school. It was as if my child’s very being in school was an imposition at best – an unwelcome distraction at worst.”

The child’s mother sent him to various youth camps with reform youth movement RSY, which she says “pierced and filled the void created by the isolation he experienced in every other context – they knew that ‘when you’ve

met one autistic person, you’ve met one autistic person’ and my son was an individual.”

RSY Netzer’s Sharon Daniels told Jewish News: “Inclusive practices are central to our leadership development programme, ensuring all leaders understand how to create programmes which are engaging, exciting and educational for all, including those with autism and other neuro-diversities.”

SENDCo at Gesher assistant head, Inclusion Danielle Petar said: “Too often we hear of organisations, camps and events being inclusive. Still, when you observe or hear stories of children attending these, who don’t fit in the same box as others, it is more often than not evident that they have a di erent experience.”

This year, UJIA is partnering with Maccabi GB, JCoSS and Langdon on the Elliott Simmons Challenge Israel Tour 2023 for 16-20 year-olds with special educational needs.

UJIA says it is a “brilliant initiative and part of our ongoing e ort to make our community as

inclusive as possible”.

Youth group BBYO said it prides itself on inclusion and accessibility. “All our events have alternative options such as a quiet room where there would be board games and trained welfare sta ,” the group said.

Teens are also able to check out sensory toys and useful items such as noise-cancelling headphones at camps and events so they are still able to take part in the main event without being overwhelmed by noise.”

Sara Pollins, director of fundraising and marketing at Langdon said that since the Cordis Bright Report was commissioned four years ago, “we have seen an increase in referrals to our supported living services across London and Manchester.” Accordingly, Langdon expanded its youth provision (Langdon Brady Youth Club) in response to “growing need, serving primary age children and up in di erent areas of North London with special educational needs, learning disabilities and autism”.

A planned merger between Langdon and Kisharon will o er “improved pathways for parents through all education key stages from nursery, school and college provision, through to lifelong learning opportunities.”

DIGNITY. CHOICE. “My diagnosis of MS was like a hammer blow but I am happier now living here than I’ve ever been. Especially in current times, there is nowhere else I would want to be.”

Neil, Jewish Blind & Disabled tenant

Participants at one of reform movement RSY Netzer’s popular youth camps

Estimated growth in the number of Jewish adults and children in Jewish schools with a learning disability and/or ASD by 2035

First Haggadah in Ukrainian as community finds its identity

For Michal Stamova, the challenge of translating Passover’s core text into Ukrainian started with the title, writes David Klein.

The Haggadah, the book containing the Passover story, starts with an “h” sound in both Hebrew, its original language, and English. In Russian, until recently the primary language of organised Jewish life in Ukraine, there is no such sound, so the book has long been known there as an agada

Ukrainian does have an “h” sound. But the character representing that sound conveys a di erent sound in Russian: a “G.” So for many Ukrainian Jews, the cover of Stamova’s translation will read as Gagada

The journey of that single sound reflects the complexity of the task Stamova undertook to aid Ukrainian Jews celebrating Passover a year into their country’s war with Russia.

A musicologist from western Ukraine who fled to Israel shortly after Russia’s invasion, Stamova was recruited to create a Ukrainianlanguage Haggadah, a powerful sign of the community’s rupture with its Russophone past.

Stamova wanted to base her translation not on the existing Russian translation but the original Hebrew and Aramaic – challenging because much of the text of the Haggadah is from other sources in Jewish canon, but Jewish translations of those texts to Ukrainian are under way only now for the first time.

Stamova’s text, For Our Freedom, was released online earlier this month in advance of Passover that starts on Wednesday evening.

It is one of a growing number of e orts to translate Jewish texts into Ukrainian – translators a liated with the Chabad-Lubavitch movement have produced a book of psalms and are

working on a daily prayer book, with their sights set on a full translation of the Torah.

Also under way is an e ort to translate a chapter of a newer text associated with Yom Hashoah, the Jewish Holocaust memorial day, ahead of its commemoration on 18 April.

The absence of those texts until now reflects the linguistic history of Ukrainian Jews who under the Russian empire tended to adopt Russian rather than Ukrainian, usually in addition to Yiddish, because Ukrainian was perceived as the language of the peasantry and conferred few benefits. The history helps explain why, even as the number of Ukrainians speaking Russian at home fell sharply over the past decade, Jews remained largely Russian-speaking.

Most printed material used by Ukrainian Jewish communities, including Haggadahs for Passover, was created in Russian but after Russia’s invasion, those materials became a liability, as being perceived as having ties to the enemy could be dangerous. But the invasion prompted many Russian-speaking Ukrainians to switch languages as a marker of national solidarity, and sparked a push to translate Ukraine’s Jewish life into the Ukrainian language.

Says Karyn Gershon, executive director of Project Kesher, the global Jewish feminist nonprofit that commissioned the new Haggadah: “Ukrainian Jews spoke Russian as the norm. With the war that has shifted and Ukrainian Jews are moving over to Ukrainian.”

Alongside the traditional text, the new Ukrainian Haggadah includes prayers for the defenders of Ukraine and for peace in Ukraine, but also [passages] reclaiming writers categorised as Russian but because they came from places like Kyiv, Odessa and Berdichev, are more accurately Ukrainian.

Ukrainian Jewish history echoed the themes of the Passover story, with the Israelites fleeing slavery in Egypt, she said – “It’s like an exodus for us. It is not comfortable, because we get used to what we get used to. But we have to be proac-

tive, we have to find our identity, It took us 70 years of Soviet times to … celebrate the Jewish holidays and Jewish traditions and 30 years to understand we have to build Ukrainian Jewish communities, too.”

For example, the Haggadah includes passages from the 1925 book Passover Nights by Hava Shapiro, a Kyiv-born Jew and journalist who authored one of the first Hebrew-language diaries known to have been written by a woman.

includes passages from the 1925 Shapiro, a Kyiv-born Jew and journalist who authored one of the first have been written by a woman.

of pride for some of the Ukrainian Jews who plan to use the new Hagroots of those Jews who were living here before the Holocaust,” said

The additions o er an element of pride for some of the Ukrainian Jews who plan to use the new Haggadah. “It is bringing you to the roots of those Jews who were living here before the Holocaust,” said Lena Pysina, who lives in Cherkasy.

Jewish communities in Ukraine

to Ukrainian and the embrace of

“It’s about rebuilding the Jewish communities in Ukraine as ‘Ukrainian Jews’.” The switch to Ukrainian and the embrace of

One of the illustrations by Zoya Cherkassky-Nnadi from For Our Freedom

Under the Russian empire, Jews in what is now Ukraine tended to speak Russian rather than Ukrainian, as well as Yiddish. The war is changing things

The King and the Kindertransport

As the longest serving heir apparent, King Charles certainly had enough time to show his commitment to Holocaust commemoration and education in the 70 years he waited to ascend the throne.

After that moment came in September last year, he would have been forgiven for showing a little less physical commitment, given the additional roles and responsibilities he has had since becoming monarch. Not a bit of it.

Just days ago, on his first official visit to Germany as King, he and the Queen Consort made a point of stopping off at a memorial to the Kindertransport, which shuttled 10,000 Jewish children to the UK from Nazi peril in 1939.

It is a measure of the man and will surprise no one in the Jewish community who has seen how deeply he feels the UK must share in the responsibility of educating the next generation about what happened – and why it must never happen again. That he wanted to crow-bar this visit into his packed schedule, when the cameras of the world trained on him, shows great leadership and a heartfelt connection to Britain’s Jewish community, which will continue to respond in kind.

Long live the King!

Israel’s Supreme Court wields excessive power

It’s obvious that Jewish News’ leader writer hasn’t troubled him or herself to get acquainted with Israel’s Supreme Court’s modus operandi, its unparalleled power compared to those of all the world’s democracies and how far it has departed from its original iteration in the years preceding 1995.

You don’t say how Israel’s “far-right” coalition plans to “hobble Israel’s judges so that a bonfire could be lit under equal rights” – probably because you can’t. That Israel’s main trade union called an immediate strike is likely because it is led by militants who call the tune.

You claim, without evidence, that the protestors are the silent majority, the moderates who’ve never protested before. So how come the coalition was voted in, having had judicial

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

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

THIS WEEK’S PESACH AND SHABBAT TIMES...

Latest time for eating chametz

Wednesday 10.51am

Latest time for burning chametz

Wednesday 11.58am

Yom Tov begins

Wednesday night 7.26pm

Yom Tov and Shabbat begins Friday night 7.29pm

Yom Tov and Shabbat ends Saturday night 8.34pm

Sedra: Shabbat Chol Hamoed

reform as the main plank of its manifesto?

You talk of Simcha Rothman as one of two right-wing politicians pushing legal reform, implying there are only two, without mentioning deputy Prime Minister, Yariv Levin, as a key architect of the reforms, a respected former speaker of the Knesset and vice chairman of the Bar Associaton. It might also be apposite to examine the role of the former lightweight prime minister, Yair Lapid, in subverting democracy. As the loser, he incited the masses to overturn the election results by mob rule, reputedly backed by hostile foreign NGOs amongst others.

And your absurd comparison with 9/11 disqualifies you as a serious commentator of Israel’s political scene. Colin Rossiter, Holborn

BEWARE PANDORA SMOTRICH IS RIGHT

While I understand the sentiment behind the letter (23 March) headlined We must stop washing our dirty linen in public, I cannot agree with it. Since when in Jewish history has antisemitism needed an excuse to express its diatribe to those prepared to listen?

The huge protests against the government’s draconian judicial reforms broadcasts to the world what ethical and just democratic values Jews stand for. Bigoted Orthodox dictates of any religion have always proven disastrous if allowed unfettered control; like fire, a good servant but a bad master.

Over the last 14 years of Netanyahu’s premiership, no major changes have been made to the judiciary system – not for want of trying. Now it is happening. One man’s selfish intention to save his skin at any cost has opened a Pandora’s Box which I hope can still be shut.

Stuart Stern, Enfield

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Well done Jewish News for publishing Bezalel Smotrich’s revelations that there “is no such thing as a Palestinian people”. In fact, he just repeated what Palestinian and other Arabs have often said, even before Israel was recreated.

Arab historian Phillip Hitti, testifying to the AngloAmerican Committee of Enquiry 1946, said: ”There is no such thing as Palestine in the whole of history. Absolutely not.”

Zuhir Muhsin, a member of the PLO Executive Council in 1977 said: “The Palestinian people does

not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means to continue our struggle against the state of Israel for Arab unity.

“There is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Arab national interests demand we posit the existence of a distinct ‘Palestinian people’ to oppose Zionism.”

If another Arab state is created to add to the 22 existing states, it must not be at the expense of the sole tiny Jewish state.

Gerry Solomons, Highgate

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.

WHO ARE THE USURPERS?

Columnist Dr Sheldon Stone (16 March) asks why Orthodox leaders are silent about Israel’s governing coalition’s sins, selectively quoting Talmudic sources to make his case. Probably because they have the humility not to judge complex situations with insufficient knowledge and don’t wish to harm Israel by creating further division in speaking out. He talks of the “democratic norm of an independent judiciary restricting executive power”. What of the democratic norm of an elected government making laws rather than an unelected judiciary, uniquely among Western democracies, usurping the government’s role to wield power?

DUAL STANDARDS

Dr Stone says Smotrich’s call to wipe out Huwara (a known terror nest) after the heinous cold-blooded execution of the Jewish brothers sitting in traffic “is about as Orthodox as eating pork” but gives no context to his unfortunate emotional outburst (since rowed back on).

I trust Dr Stone follows his noble principles and doesn’t celebrate Chanukah or Purim. Smotrich and Ben G’vir don’t hold a candle to the Maccabees, warriors ruthless in dealing with hellenised Jews who turned away from Jewish practice, or to Shushan’s Jews, who killed enemies who plotted their genocide.

D Rosenthhal, Hendon

GIVE US DEEDS NOT WORDS, SUELLA

I agree Suella Braverman seems to have failed to respond to the Board of Deputies’ request for a meeting to discuss concerns in the community (30 March). How can she then claim the “Jewish community has a friend in this government”?

If I ask a friend to discuss something important and do not hear for months, our friendship can be seen as at least eroding. If I then hear him/ her criticise me in public, I assume there is not much friendship left!

What is even more worrying is the fact she said “presenting contested

political positions as the sentiment of an entire community is a recipe for communal division.” Although this statement may look innocent, to me it resembles Trump telling American Jews to “get their act together”.

Let’s hope the home secretary understands and will remember British Jews can easily tell which politician is and which is not necessarily their friend, based on the unquestionable truth of the old proverb asking us not to be wise in words, but in deeds.

David Frencel, Hackney

You report the Board of Deputies overwhelmingly passed a motion proposed by Amos Schonfield to “condemn politicians (in Israel) who have demonstrated hostility on the basis of race, gender, sexual orientation or Jewish denomination“.

Where was the board’s condemnation when Mansoor Abbas, Arab MK for the Islamist Ra’am party, was included in the previous coalition government? Ra’am isn’t too hot on gay rights or gender equality, and during the last government Abbas consistently held up legislation furthering gay rights. Abbas made no secret of his views when he opined he had more in common with the opposition ultra orthodox parties like Shas, than with the socially liberal parties like Meretz.

Could Jewish News ask the Board president to comment on the double standards which seem to prevail under her watch?

James R Windsor, Ilford

LACK OF RESPECT

Joe Millis would like Shimon Cohen’s call for “respect for strictly-Orthodox Jews” to be reciprocated by respect shown by them for progressive Jews in their publications. Isn’t he really calling for the recognition by them of the progressive movement as a valid branch of Judaism? To my knowledge, they are never mentioned in those publications.

Warren S Grossman, Leytonstone

PASSOVER RULES ARE NECESSARY

Correspondent Ruth Temerlies (23 March) is right to recognise the strict standards of modern food manufacturing which enable KLBD to supervise and approve products at Pesach and year-round.

However, the stringencies of Kasher LePesach regulations as well as the prevalence of Chametz-derived ingredients mean the origin of all ingredients and their alternate suppliers, undeclared processing aids and shared use of equipment, must all be thoroughly investigated before a product can be endorsed.

Common food ingredients and sub-ingredients such as glucose, dextrose, caramel, ethanol, vinegar, maltodextrin, vitamin C, citric acid, starch, rusk and many others can all be of wheat origin and are considered Chametz.

Nonetheless, over the last few years, KLBD has worked with major manufacturers to encourage them to have their products certified as kosher throughout the year including for Passover, so that kosher consumers can benefit, particularly at Pesach, both from the lower prices of mainstream brands as well as increased accessibility across the UK.

Several Tate & Lyle sugars, for example, now bear a KLBD-P symbol and can be purchased for Pesach from regular shops at the normal year-round price. Saxa salt, Yorkshire Tea and many Nescafé products can now be enjoyed at Pesach even without bearing a kosher l’Pesach seal. Not all tea and coffee can be permitted however. Decaffeinated tea or coffee often uses ethanol in the decaffeination process which is commonly derived from a chametz source such as wheat.

KLBD’s kosher products list for Pesach has been available online for some time now at theus.org.uk/pesach.

We wish the entire community a chag kasher v’sameach Rabbi Jeremy Conway, Director of Kosher London Beth Din (KLBD)

As winners of Best for Nutrition, Food and Dining at the 2022 Care Home Awards, Avery Healthcare chefs pride themselves in producing delicious meals for all dietary requirements.

Our focus also includes cutlery-free dining choices from Avery’s sector-leading initiative. By adapting everyday meals into cutlery-free options, residents who find manipulating cutlery a barrier can enjoy food independently and in a dignified way.

ALEX BRUMMER CITY EDITOR, THE DAILY MAIL

The power of freedom of expression has been dramatically illustrated in Israel where public protests, social media and parts of the written press campaigned fearlessly against Benjamin Netanyahu’s judicial reforms, which are now paused. Among many of Israel’s neighbours, dissident would be cruelly suppressed.

Freedom of the press defines democracies and sets them apart from autocratic and totalitarian regimes. In the US, press freedom was considered so important to the creation of a just and fair society that it was imported into the constitution as the First Amendment in 1791. American tabloids, believe it or not, are far less constrained than our own.

In the UK, there is no shortage of views, angles and beliefs, with 10 national newspaper titles still in print each day. We also have healthy competition and a wealth of di erent opinion in the vibrant Jewish press.

Commercial TV and radio provide an alternative view to the often pallid BBC. Only Gary Lineker, with his ignorance of Nazi Germany, stretches the limits of what can be said.

The British press, for all its critics – ranging from Prince Harry to the actor Hugh Grant – is constrained by libel and defamation laws and the silence orders issued by government on national security grounds. The Ipso press regulator, a post-2012 Leveson reform, is another restrain on excess and behaviour.

Online publications and social media outlets such as Twitter and Facebook ‘self-monitor’, and are held to lower standards than traditional media. Hiding behind the free expression trope,

they have pushed the boundaries on everything from pornography to hate speech and violence.

Prince Harry, who is pursuing Associated Newspapers (owners of the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday) through the courts, would find it all but impossible to pursue his cases of invasion of privacy against the Silicon Valley monoliths.

The Passover story also speaks to freedom of expression. The Israelites were expected to be grateful when they crossed the Red Sea. But there are countless examples of them speaking out against a lack of food and drink. Free will also led them to create the golden calf at the very moment that Moses was conversing with God.

At our High Holy Day we are confronted with all kinds of restrictions on free speech in the Al Chet prayer, which talks, among other things, of the sins we have committed through ‘utterances of the lips’. The origins of this can be traced back to the Talmud, which rails against stealing words from each other; a defence in some respect of intellectual property.

Another section highlights the importance of being mindful in speech: lashon hara, or evil speech, is a sin to be avoided.

In the UK, a whole legal industry has grown

up around the concept of free speech. Barely a day passes on a national newspaper when a missive from a law firm doesn’t arrive by email or messenger making complaints.

It used to be that justified corrections were di cult. Online does allow both the opportunity to revisit a written article or, even better, to comment. The coarseness of the public debate often requires the instant comment to be adjudicated on before publication.

Freedom of speech has its limits and varies from one society to another. North America o ers the greatest freedoms, which is why some complainants resort to the British courts. What is clear, however, is that when the children of Israel left Egypt, freedom of expression was one of the great gifts and one never forgotten.

For many in the UK, the turmoil in Israel over the judiciary has been deeply disturbing. But even a determined government can be stopped in its tracks by the court of public opinion. Freedom of expression is a right, not just a privilege. Nevertheless, as the Talmud and our liturgy makes plain, those rights do not stretch to the ‘false news’ or conspiracy theories that have become so prevalent.

Freedom of expression is a right, not a privilege Little Amal has brought meaning to our Pesach

RAYMOND SIMONSON JW3 CHIEF EXECUTIVE

Every year at this time, with Pesach approaching, I, in common with Jewish parents the world over, usually feel quite stressed. It’s not just the stress of the Pesach shopping (oy, those prices!) and the cleaning (how on earth can the inside of an oven get that filthy when we clean it after every use?), and the cooking (why did I insist on making one Ashkenazi and two di erent types of Sephardi charoset this year?) – although dayenu, that really would have been enough.

No, as a parent who wants their children to really get something meaningful out of the seder, I’m usually more stressed by the thought of how to achieve that.

Especially as much of my professional life is spent thinking about how to make Jewish history, culture and values relevant and meaningful for people in creative ways.

And so, in the week before Pesach, I am often stressed, thinking about how to make our seder more meaningful. Not this year though.

This year I had an inspiring pre-Pesach

experience. And it’s all thanks to a 10-yearold Syrian girl – Little Amal, who touched our lives in a profound way.

Little Amal is the 12ft puppet of a Syrian refugee child, and has become a global symbol of human rights, especially those of child refugees. In the past two years, she has been greeted by more than a million people across 13 countries on large, festive public walks. The aim of these walks is to draw attention to the huge numbers of children fleeing war, violence and persecution, each with their own story, each crying out to not be forgotten or ignored.

A few months ago, JW3’s programming director, William Galinsky, came to me with the idea of bringing Little Amal to JW3 for Pesach, as the message of freedom from slavery and oppression felt apposite.

We discussed how this could be a fantastic experiential learning opportunity, combining arts, culture, community and conversation – a recipe that JW3 does uniquely well – and how it could be expanded to work with partners across Christian and Muslim communities, taking in Easter and Ramadan themes too, to be even more inclusive.

Due to the urgency of the debate around refugees in the UK under this current govern-

ment, Little Amal’s creators were excited to bring her back to the UK for a Londonbased, cross communal, multifaith walk. It would be a chance to remind people of the simple humanity that is too often missing in media and public conversations and political rhetoric around refugees.

And so, last Sunday morning, we found ourselves in the JW3 piazza with more than 600 people of all ages, from across all corners of the Jewish community, as well as nonJewish friends and neighbours, welcoming Little Amal into our Jewish home.

We recreated key aspects of the seder on a giant scale, before we joined her on a parade down to a playground in West Hampstead, where hundreds of children helped her successfully search for the hidden Afikomen.

The whole experience welcoming Little Amal into our Jewish home was moving and profound. People clamoured to hold her

hand, held their babies up for her to meet, laughed, cried and even danced a spontaneous hora with her, led by my youngest daughter and me.

Rabbi David Mason of Muswell Hill United Synagogue explained to everyone present –including actress Emma Thompson, the MP Margaret Hodge, and local refugees who are supported by JW3’s social action projects – how on Pesach we are reminded that we must love the stranger as ourselves, for we were strangers in the land of Egypt. And Rabbi Shoshana Boyd Gelfand (Pears Foundation) taught how matzah is the bread of freedom, telling Amal that, as with the broken Afikomen, we cannot be complete while children like her are still separated from their families.

And I left knowing that, for all of us present, this year’s Pesach already feels extra meaningful and relevant.

FREE WILL LED THE ISRAELITES TO CREATE THE GOLDEN CALF JUST AS MOSES SPOKE WITH GOD

PEOPLE CLAMOURED TO HOLD HER HAND, HELD BABIES UP FOR HER TO MEET, LAUGHED, CRIED AND EVEN DANCED A HORA

REMONA ALY DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS, EXPLORING ISLAM FOUNDATION

When I told a Muslim friend some years ago that I was o to the synagogue for iftar – the evening meal eating during Ramadan – she did a double take. Yet going to a shul has been my Ramadan fix for nearly a decade. Now when I tell her, she’s nonplussed.

Normalised as it has become, it is also still extraordinary. When I was first invited to Alyth Synagogue’s ‘kosher iftar’, I was drawn by the fusion that brought Jews, Muslims and people of all backgrounds into one space.

As a Muslim, being so graciously hosted in a shul during Islam’s holiest month, was palpably significant. In a climate that barely exists without tension between our faith communities, these encounters aren’t only timely, they are essential. For this is not inter-

faith tokenism, it is investing in a relationship we shouldn’t disregard, nor belittle. The sincerity in the willingness to learn – and eat – side-by-side, coupled with the open hearth has kept me coming back.

The kosher iftar was originally conceived by Alyth’s former rabbis and Muslim interfaith consultant Julie Siddiqi, who is co-founder of The Big Iftar, a nationwide community initiative. “I don’t know anywhere in the world this is happening in this way,” remarks Julie, as the Muslim call to prayer gently echoes around the shul. “I am so humbled and grateful for the love and hospitality shown by the rabbis and the whole team at Alyth.”

Since its inception 10 years ago, the iftar has continued to grow, this year welcoming almost 200 attendees. David, 42, who converted to Islam 25 years ago, told me it was the first time he had been in a shul. A local to the area, he’d walk past synagogues but felt apprehensive. On hearing of the kosher iftar he jumped at the opportunity and says he instantly felt “the warmth of the Jewish faith”.

A highlight for David was standing close

afield. And I understand why – nothing quite strikes fear into the heart so much as the destruction visible here.

It’s 4.17am. A time I hear again and again. 4.17am. A time that usually comes and goes quietly and unnoticed. But this 4.17am was di erent; this 4.17am left an indelible mark, in every sense.

A blanket of dust coats everything, sitting in the back of the throat and stinging the eyes. Just as thick hangs an eerie stillness, an unnatural silence that feels deafening.

Tower blocks stand at impossible angles, whole sections missing, giving a glimpse into the lives they once housed. All around lie mounds of what was once a city, reduced to rubble.

Look long enough and amid the grey concrete mass recognisable shapes slowly emerge: a car, a bed, a patterned tablecloth.

I am in Antakya in southern Turkey, where the devastating impact of the earthquake cannot be expressed with words. Equally, pictures cannot accurately portray the sheer size and scale of the damage.

Even areas relatively unscarred by the immense power have become ghost towns, their fearful residents seeking safety further

It’s a fear Jamali knows too well, a fear that arrived without warning at 4.17am. It initially felt like an explosion, he says, a sudden surge upwards, momentarily lifting his sleeping family from their beds.

Then a spinning, as if his flat was turning around and around, and only then did the shaking start.

He describes how the walls caved inwards as he tried frantically to get out with his wife and son, and how neighbours jumped from open windows to escape. Then the searching through debris for survivors. Four weeks on and his pain, his fear, his anguish have not diminished. It fills the space between us, and I feel I am carrying some of it with me.

Southern Turkey is no stranger to earthquakes, but the size and scale of this one

to the Torah scrolls. “Seeing the etiquette surrounding the holy scriptures taken from the Ark, to gaze upon the words and hear it recited, was such a honour. Informal events like this bring light to the community as they break down so many boundaries between Jews and Muslims, who come together to exchange experiences over food.”

Certainly, the kosher iftar brings more than food to the table. Alyth embraces the opportunity for cross-faith learning, and I have been privileged to teach alongside Rabbi Hannah Kingston for several years, this year joined by Kiera Phyo, the Reconciling Leaders Network director for the Archbishop of Canterbury, to

discuss the “great women behind our great men” in our respective traditions.

Rabbi Hannah says the iftar is her favourite time of the shul’s calendar, even if, by her own admission, it “may sound funny” coming from a rabbi. “The most wonderful thing about this year’s iftar was that it felt like welcoming friends back into our home. Over 10 years, we have made real and genuine relationships and we continue to build these connections with each person who steps foot through the doors,” she says. “It feels like a night of warmth and light, in a world that often feels bleak.”

Geo-politics have overshadowed a relationship that goes back well over 14 centuries, but I see Alyth setting a di erent narrative. It is proof of what we stand for, not only what we stand against. We cannot allow ourselves to be merely defined, nor only engage with one another, in the confined context of conflict.

This is not to dismiss the di culties we face, the intolerances that threaten to engulf us, nor the gravity of the issues we see within and between our communities, but we must also reinforce the constructive spaces.

Shul iftar is no longer rare, but still a delight Inside the hell Turkey’s earthquakes left behind

is unparalleled. The stories I hear, stories like Jamali’s, stories that all start at 4.17am, paint a similarly harrowing picture.

There are millions across the a ected area who share that sense of anguish, but emotions are mixed – the initial sense of disbelief is slowly giving way to anger too; anger at the slow speed at which help arrived in some areas, and anger perhaps that so much of the damage, and resulting deaths, could have been prevented if proper building regulations had been followed.

The inquest into what happened, or in some cases did not happen, will take time, but in the meantime people like Jamali are left in an unimaginable state.

Our partner, the International Blue Crescent, has been operating in this area for years and was quick to respond.

Thanks to the amazing response from World Jewish Relief’s supporters, within days we were able to help the IBC provide food and shelter to those a ected and send life-saving supplies to northern Syria. But such is the nature of this particular crisis that many of IBC’s sta have themselves been impacted. They too have lost homes and loved ones, and now live with this continual backdrop of fear.

Kai and colleagues in southern Turkey

It all started at 4.17am, but there is no telling when it will end. The search and rescue e orts have ended, but the process of cleaning up has only just begun.

The rebuilding of whole cities will take years. More concerningly, the mental scars will remain long after. I just hope there will come a point for all here, people like Jamali, people at the frontline of the response like our partner, when 4.17am no longer holds its dreaded significance.

Only then will they sleep soundly again.

THE SIZE AND SCALE OF THIS QUAKE WAS UNPARALLELED

WE CANNOT ENGAGE ONLY IN THE CONFINED CONTEXT OF CONFLICT

❝

KAI HOPKINS

WORLD JEWISH RELIEF

‘Whose idea was it to set off at the start of the Easter holidays?’

Netflix’s new Belgian–Israeli

Bad Jew on a Catholic pilgrimage

Rita Simons tells Nicole Lampert why her latest TV appearance was life-changing

Rits Simons is a self-confessed ‘bad Jew’ who wanted to become a ‘slightly less bad Jew’. Achieving that by going on a Christian pilgrimage in some ways makes perfect sense.

The former EastEnders actress, whose uncle is Lord Sugar, is the latest Jewish star to appear in Pilgrimage, the BBCs reality show in which seven stars of di erent faiths go on a long walk to a Christian shrine. Now in its fifth series, Pilgrimage is unlike other reality shows: there is little bickering, no snogging, and people aren’t voted out or given strange things to eat. Instead, they talk philosophy and religion, history and personal stories.

Her epiphany, as it were, comes when she is eating a piglet in a Portuguese town famous for this delicacy. And then she discovers that the Jews had been forced to eat piglets in that very town; if they failed to, they were killed. Interestingly, she is criticised by the Muslim of the group, comic Nabil Abdulrashid, who tells her what happened in that village and how that was antisemitism.

“I’m not kosher and I’ve never been kosher and I struggle with people who think that because you are Jewish you must be kosher but when I heard what happened there it did make me stop and think,” says Rita.

“If I’d have known about what happened in that town, I would not have eaten the pig but he told me when I was in the middle of eating it.

“I was disgusted by what I was hearing and suddenly the pig didn’t taste very nice – not that it was anyway,” adds the 46-year-old. “It was an interesting moment but it hasn’t stopped me eating pig.”

Later on she says she was pleased when the trip stopped at a synagogue after dozens of churches and a mosque.

“It was towards the end of the trip and I’d been away from home for what felt for a long time and I was surprised to find myself comforted by being in a shul,” she says. “The two people who ran the synagogue were pretty much the only Jews in the village but it was so nice to be somewhere familiar.

“It allowed me to look at synagogue in a di erent light. Normally I only go for weddings and barmitzvahs and I do it as a matter of duty. I want to get out of them as quickly as possible, with my head down and before I’ve had to stop and talk to everyone.

“This time I wanted to be there. I wanted to take it all and show it to my fellow pilgrims.”

It was a journey in more ways than one, says the star, a mother of two who divorced hairdresser Theo Silveston in 2020. “I’d been through a rough few years. Divorce. A

couple of breakdowns. But I went into it in a good place. This was one of the first jobs I’ve done in years where I didn’t have private life drama going on and it was just something I really enjoyed.

“Everyone was gorgeous, everyone bonded like you couldn’t believe. I’ve never enjoyed a job so much and I’ve been doing this job for a long time.”

What is astonishing is that she enjoyed the experience despite traipsing around Portugal, headed towards the Sanctuary of Fatima where the Virgin Mary is said to have appeared to three children, with a huge backpack and having to sleep in forests, youth hostels and even the stairwell of a fire station.

“I am not your average Jewish Princess!” she jokes. “I’m not one in the least. I’ve done the I’m a Celebrity jungle and compared to that, this was a piece of cake. Yes, the backpack was heavy, and I do have scoliosis, a curvature of the spine, which wasn’t fun. But I wore a back brace and dumped a few things to lighten the load along the way.

“There was one moment when [Hi-di-Hi actress] Su Pollard did have to help me though. I was naked in the bathroom with Su and I just remember looking the mirror and I was like: ‘Oh Su, I’m stuck.’ I was stuck on the side and she had to help me.”

It all sounds incredibly tough. Another issue she was dealing with was having a horrific period while also on the journey; it helped her to decide to go ahead and have a hysterectomy after years of worsening menstrual cycles which had come to dominate her life.

When we speak, she’s been recovering from her operation for just over two months, and says that while she is tired, she is like a new woman.

“I was not only bleeding a lot but my hormones were massively a ecting my mental health,” she says. My anxiety, my OCD would really peak every month. It got the point where I asked my agent not to put me on jobs if I was due or when I was ovulating. Things were so bad that there was a window of just five days a month where I was totally OK.

“I’d tried all sorts of drugs, HRT, but it kept getting worse and worse. I dreaded every day – I was so up and down and it was all linked to my cycle. It was becoming unbearable and that’s why I had the operation.”

Her hysterectomy, she says, has given her freedom and one of the first things she was planning to do was a trip to Porto – a city that the pilgrims walked through and she fell in love with.

Another is celebrating Passover with her family – although she doesn’t usually see her uncle Alan, who is married to her dad’s sister, because her dad lives in America.

“Passover is one of the things we do always do – mainly for my mum,” she says.

“Last year, the first after lockdown, my mum’s entire extended family had a seder at a rugby club in Radlett which was, quite frankly, horrific. It was noisy and chaotic and because I have ADHD it was too much. This year we are going to my mum’s.

“I might be a bad Jew but I haven’t missed a Passover yet. We do the apple and honey at Rosh Hashanah – also for my mother because she loves to see it. And sometimes we do Chanukah presents, as well as Christmas ones.”

Does she still feel like a bad Jew? “Yes, but maybe not as bad as I thought I was!”

• Pilgrimage: The Road Through Portugal starts on BBC2 on Friday 7 April at 9pm

The group of seven pilgrims, all well-known personalities, slept in forests and youth hostels during their 225-mile, two-week journey through Portugal

in When we speak, she’s been recovering

Rita (right) with fellow pilgrims Su Pollard and Bobby Seagull

Jewish News is joining forces with Netflix to invite you to an exclusive screening of a new Belgian–Israeli crime thriller

ROUGH DIAMONDS is an eight-part crime drama that follows the struggles and strife of the Wolfsons, a prominent strictly-Orthodox Jewish family in Antwerp’s world-famous diamond industry. When their youngest son takes his own life, his long-estranged brother Noah – who turned his back on his religion and made a new home within the criminal fraternity of London –returns to Antwerp and finds out that the family business is on the brink of collapse and under the heel of the local mob. While Noah desperately attempts to save the Wolfsons’ business and protect the family’s legacy and honour, he and his siblings must first settle their own internal battles.

Produced by Belgian production company De Mensen in collaboration with Keshet for Netflix, Rough Diamonds is co-written by Yuval Yefet with support from Yoav Netanyahu (who also wrote season 3 of Fauda) and Edith Huybreghts.

ROUGH DIAMONDS

The series was directed by Rotem Shamir alongside Belgian director Cecilia Verheyden. Other Israelis in the cast include Yona Elian, who plays the Wolfson matriarch, Sarah, wife of Ezra Wolfson, who is played by stage star David ‘Dudu’ Fisher, whose career spans five decades, including his Broadway performance as Jean Valjean in the musical Les Misérables, which he also did in Israel.

RoughDiamonds starts on Netflix on 21 April, but an exclusive Jewish News and Netflix preview screening takes place at the Covent Garden Hotel on 20 April at 7pm. We have a limited number of tickets to give away. To apply, please visit www. jewishnews.co.uk/roughdiamonds. Successful applicants will get a pair of tickets and will be notified by email on Tuesday 11 April

Yizkor, Remember

There were 6 million Jewish victims of the Holocaust, murdered by shootings, starvation, slave labour and industrialised killings in death camps. Of these victims, 1.5 million were children, cruelly denied a future, and innocent of any crimes, apart from the perceived one of being born Jewish.

It is Yad Vashem UK’s aim to ensure that each named Jewish victim has a memorial candle lit in their honour on every HMD and Yom HaShoah.

Guardian of the Memory aims to ensure that the victims’ life stories are never forgotten, becoming part of our own treasured family histories.

Please visit:

www.guardianofthememory.org

to become a Guardian of the Memory of one victim and ensure they will NEVER be FORGOTTEN nor their EXISTENCE DENIED.

Guardian of the Memory Project

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MAKING SENSE OF THE SEDRA

BY RABBI BENJY MORGAN JEWISH LEARNING EXCHANGE (JLE)

Passover tells us challenges help us grow

In recent weeks, the financial markets have experienced significant changes, with hedge funds making a profit of $2bn by shorting banking stocks, resulting in both winners and losers in this period of financial uncertainty. The cost of living squeeze and rising interest rates have made the lives of so many of us much more challenging.

Is there anything Judaism and the Pesach festival we are celebrating has to say about this?

Looking at the story of slavery in Egypt, it began with Joseph being sold by his brothers and ultimately becoming vice-pharaoh, leading to the Jewish people coming to Egypt and being enslaved for hundreds of years. Through faith, we understand that we see only a portion of history at any given time, and it is through retrospection that we can find the silver lining and make sense of it all.

I went recently to the shiva of a woman who lived in London during the blitz. Her son recalled that his mother found those war years were some of the most memorable of her life, as neighbours looked out for each other and everyone was united in the face of challenge.

Similarly, we in our lifetime have seen this type of humanity during the Covid pandemic.

The secret to Jewish survival is to recognise that sometimes the bitterness itself is what builds us into who we need to be, as individuals and as a nation.

It is the growth pain that builds our physical, emotional, and spiritual strength. This is why we eat the maror, because we understand that the persecution and challenges were the building blocks of our people. We dip it in charoset for the cement, or the glue that helps us to stick together and build up ourselves and those around us.

The current financial crises and bank failures may be concerning, but we can learn from Pesach that these challenges also come with opportunities. We can rise to the challenge by sharing cost-saving measures or life hacks with friends, o ering

car-sharing schemes to colleagues, or getting involved with charitable groups in our community. Like those

hedge funds, we can make the most out of any crisis or challenge to grow as individuals and as a nation.

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

Financial crises can help to build our emotional and spiritual strength

Progressive Judaism

LEAP OF FAITH

BY MIRIAM BERGER

Instead of celebrating plagues we highlight our opportunities

Al hanissim, v’al hapurkan… sh’asita lavoteinu bayamim hahem baz’man hazeh. (We thank You for the miracles, for the wonders… which You did for our ancestors at this time, in this season. )

Al hanissim is added to our blessings of the Amidah liturgy and Birkat Hamazon (grace after meals) for both Chanukah and Purim, but surely Pesach has more miracles?

There are many explanations for this lack of inclusion, including that both Purim and Chanukah are post-biblical

festivals. Many insert a ‘vav’ (and) of the blessing, as if to assert ‘as well as the wonders of biblical times there was this experience too’.

At Pesach we don’t use the language of miracles. We don’t talk about 10 miracles a icting the Egyptians and leading to our escape. We call them magephot (plagues) rather than nissim (miracles).

Surely these experiences, which run counter to natural law and seem to appear just at the moment we most needed them, are the perfect defini-

tion of a miracle? Yet what we look back on and see as miraculous caused devastating damage to the Egyptians. They may have been the enemy but we cannot celebrate the harm caused. One person’s miracle is another person’s plague.

I’ve always hated the merchandise, the songs, the revelling in the plagues in any creative outlets with children around seder. Our Haggadah gives us the values-based response to them – diminish your joy by taking out the drops of wine. The plagues were simply a necessary evil, not something that should now be celebrated.

The lesson of the plagues is to look for the opportunities within the horror for self- or national improvement.

The true miracle was that when Egypt seemed to go from one natural disaster to the next, the Israelites could see scope for self-improvement. While the plagues were weakening Egyptian infrastructure and wreaking havoc, the Israelites plotted their escape under the radar.

While we, in the modern world, are so aware of lurching from one crisis to the next, how can we use these crises to highlight opportunities for those who are looking for more in life? Perhaps by looking at new employment potential, causes to support and connections to be made through shared values.

Al hanissim for Chanukah doesn’t mention the story of the oil; it refers to the Macca-

What unexpected battle will you take on this Passover?

bees courageously taking on a battle against the odds.

Purim’s miracle was changing the influences of the monarch.

While democracy is being threatened in Israel and UK life is leaving so many vulner-

able, what unexpected battle will you take on this Pesach – which person in leadership will you influence? Let’s make this Pesach a time to look back and say “v’al hanissim” – and this time too was miraculous.

North West London Jewish Day School is a warm, happy, high-achieving, Modern Orthodox Primary School, always aiming for excellence whilst supporting everyone to reach their potential.

We are looking to appoint an

The 4 sons

An exciting opportunity has arisen for an exceptional and ambitious leader to work closely with the Headteacher and Leadership Team.

We are looking for an outstanding classroom practitioner to help inspire and lead all members of our school community, who will take the lead in assessment throughout the school and will oversee a Key Stage.

“Pupilshaveverypositiveattitudestolearning.”

“Pupils’behaviourisastrengthoftheschool.”

“Leadershavehighambitionsforallpupils.”

“Staffappreciatedleaders’careandunderstandingoftheir workload.”

Ofsted, November 2022

If you are hard working and work well as part of a team and want to join the North West family apply now.

To apply, please read the job description and download the application form, both of which are available on the school website: www nwljds org uk/vacancies

Deadline for applications: Noon on Wednesday 3rd May 2023

Short-listed candidates will be asked to complete an assessment task and teach a lesson , as well as have an interview with key stakeholders.

opinions.

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

HEADTEACHER

Location: Edgware HA8

Salary: Negotiable based on experience

Start date: September 2023

www.beitshvidler.org.uk

Lead by Inspiration. Nurture Aspiration

Beit Shvidler, a voluntary aided, co-educational, Orthodox primary school in the heart of Edgware, is proud to provide children with an excellent Kodesh and Chol education within a warm and caring family environment. (97% of children are “happy at this school” – Parent survey 2022)

This is a unique and exciting opportunity for a talented and committed individual to continue the upward trajectory of our school, working with our long serving, dedicated and fun staff.

Our new headteacher will be:

 An inspirational leader committed to teaching and learning excellence

 Passionate about preserving the school’s Orthodox Jewish ethos, commitment to Torah values and the love of Israel

 Dedicated to nurturing the aspirations of the children to develop academically and grow in their Yiddishkeit

 An innovative thinker who leverages potential and talent to drive distinction

We Offer:

 Children who love coming to school

 A highly dedicated and enthusiastic staff

 Robust school’s systems and processes

 An active, committed and supported Governing Body

Closing date: 17th April 2023 Interviews: 20th April 2023

For more information, to arrange a visit to the school, or to apply for the role , please contact Dan Wynne on HTCareers@beitshvidler.org.uk or 0208 238 2746.

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A big thank you to each and every one of our supporters for helping to sustain our loving, caring, laughing, wonderful JDA community.

Got

Got a question for a member of our team?

Email: editorial@jewishnews.co.uk

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DIRECTOR OF LEGACIES

CAROLYN ADDLEMAN

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

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REMOVALS MANAGING DIRECTOR

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

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PRINCIPAL, PERFORMING ARTS SCHOOL

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• Set up Dancing with Louise 19 years ago

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FINANCIAL SERVICES (FCA) COMPLIANCE

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• 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.

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MENOPAUSE CHAMPION LABALANCE

ANGELA DAY-MOORE

Qualifications:

• Founder & CEO Sassy La Femme Women’s 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

• Understanding of the impact of a disability diagnosis

JEWISH BLIND & DISABLED 020 8371 6611

www.jbd.org

Lisa@jbd.org

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

Email: sales@jewishnews.co.uk

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 and 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

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 Michaelmas daisy (5)

11 Facets (5)

12 Long died out (7)

13 Solid, safe (5)

15 Forcibly remove (5)

20 Vegetarian dish (3,4)

22 Triangular wall section (5)

24 Protective bib (5)

25 Unlawful (7)

26 Phrase differently (6)

27 Church entreaty (6)

DOWN

1 Pressure, coercion (6)

2 Easy to understand (5)

3 Skilled worker (7)

5 Oven-cook (5)

6 Film about a famous ship sinking (7)

7 Junior Anglican priest (6)

8 Eclairs or buns, eg (5)

14 Get too old for (7)

16 Club-throwing entertainer (7)

17 Inequitable (6)

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

1 Australia’s money unit (6)

4 North Pole region (6)

9 Soft Italian cheese (7)

WORDSEARCH

The listed words to do with recycling 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.

JY DE NI Z AGA MH C

AY RB OO KL DR AC O

RL WE PLA ST IC JU

ZD UF TI HDH L NUN

SB OM RT PY OR ED C

GIO EIA AT NE ER I

LS TT CNH BTP RE L

EAE KT EI ASA GM C

MO EIS L RUR PF NI

IT EH TC EU MS NA R

SE CO M POS TW ON B

D SSA LG MR IE ETA

LG NSN KOE RN IA F

ALUMINIUM BATTERY BOOK BOTTLE CAN CARD

CLOTHES COMPOST COUNCIL CRATE EMPTIES FABRIC

FOIL

GLASS GREEN JAR

MAGAZINE

MATERIAL

Last issue’s solutions

Crossword

ACROSS: 1 Wake-up, 5 Thrift, 8 Lobe, 9 Overview, 10 Safari, 11 Enlist, 12 Spit, 14 Ebb, 15 Yawn, 16 Robber, 18 O’clock, 20 Carnival, 22 Loam, 23 Pagoda, 24 Dogged.

NEWSPAPER PACKET PLASTIC REMNANT

18 Tack on (5)

19 Alternative medicine practitioner (6)

21 Freeholder (5)

23 Waterlogged (5)

HILARIOUS HEBREW Word of the Week

Learning Hebrew can be fun and sometimes hilarious! Join one of the WZO's Ulpan classes near you and find out for yourself! The subsidised Ulpanim are based in North West and East London, Manchester, Brighton, Borehamwood and Bushy. Contact- ulpanuk@wzo.org.il or call 020 83715336

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.

DOWN: 2 Aroma, 3 Elegant, 4 Profiteer, 5 Tee, 6 Revel, 7 Fretsaw, 11 Embroiled, 13 Pro rata, 15 Yule log, 17 Banjo, 19 Craze, 21 Via.

From the book Hilarious Hebrew- the Fun and Fast Way to Learn the Language, available on Amazon and in book and gift shops throughout London. www.hilarioushebrew.com

See next issue for puzzle solutions.

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