1311 - 20th April 2023

Lucy Dee ‘gave me life’

Mum of two receives heart transplant after terror attack

The mother of two who received Lucy Dee’s heart in a life-saving operation last week has told Jewish News she can’t wait to hug Lucy’s husband and surviving children, writes Jotam Confino.

Lital Valenci, 51, who su ered from severe heart failure for five years, waited eight agonising months for a new heart, with doctors warning she had months to live without a transplant. But last Wednesday at Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikva she was given a lifeline after the Dee family decided to donate Lucy’s organs to five patients in urgent need. Mum

of five Lucy, originally from the UK, was murdered with two of her daughters.

‘There is no greater deed than giving life to someone and Lucy Dee has done that for me,” Lital told Jewish News in an exclusive interview as she recuperated at home.

“I feel thankful and happy but understand that while this has given me an opportunity, it comes with sadness. There are no appropriate words for the thanks I feel.”

Prior to the transplant, Valenci, a former professional basketball player, said she was struggling with simple tasks such as going

up the stairs. “The heart isn’t like the kidney where there can be a living donor and that weighed on my mind knowing my only chance would involve heartbreak for another family. While she is still feeling weak and in pain, Valenci said she is “very strong mentally”.

While she said it is too soon to be in touch with the Dees as they recover from “unimaginable loss”, she added: “I want to meet them once we have had time to process what happened. I want to thank them and hug them and let them know I cry with them for their loss.”

 Dee family returns to UK for shivas, page 3

BRAVERMAN MARKS YOM HASHOAH AT BUSHEY UNITED

Chief: Let’s celebrate King’s coronation by volunteering

Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis is among British faith leaders urging their communities to take part in volunteering activities on Coronation Bank Holiday 8 May, writes Michelle Rosenberg.

The home secretary joined more than 250 people at Bushey Synagogue to mark Yom HaShoah, writes Michelle Rosenberg.

Holocaust survivor Janine Webber gave her testimony before Suella Braverman spoke of the government’s commitment to fighting antisemitism and supporting the Holocaust memorial to be built in Westminster.

With the Mayor and Mayoress of Hertsmere also present, along with a number of councillors and other faith leaders, the Lord-Lieutenant of Hertfordshire, Robert Voss, spoke of his family’s experiences in the Shoah.

Michael Bibring, from the synagogue’s Yom HaShoah committee, said: “It was extraordinary to hear Janine Webber‘s story – there was not a sound in the room as she explained her horrific start to her amazing life.”

Rabbi Elchonon Feldman, senior rabbi of Bushey, said: “Our community is incredibly supportive of Holocaust education, and this evening’s event had literally everything.”

Alongside representatives including Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, the Chief Rabbi encouraged the nation to take part in the Big Help Out initiative whilst visiting The Passage homelessness charity in central London.

The multifaith statements of support, from all major UK faith communities (Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Bahá’í, Jain and Zoroastrian) are a rare occurrence in the run-up to the Coronation Weekend of King Charles and the Queen Consort.

Marie van der Zyl, president of the Board of Deputies, and Laura Marks, founder and chair of Mitzvah Day, are encouraging their members and communities to celebrate the Coronation by volunteering as part of The Big Help Out.

As well as the Archbishop of Canterbury, other supportive statements have been issued by the Dean of Westminster Abbey David Hoyle, the Archbishop of Westminster Cardinal Vincent Nichols and government minister for faith communities Baroness Scott of Bybrook.

The Big Help Out is one of the official projects of the Coronation Weekend and is aimed at promoting and championing volunteering.

Building on the phenomenon seen during the pandemic, the aim is to inspire a new generation of volunteers by making it easy for everyone to recognise opportunities and get involved.

Chief Rabbi Mirvis said: “By taking part in The Big Help Out campaign, volunteering our time and energy, we can make a positive impact on our communities, help those in need, and promote social cohesion. I urge everyone, regardless of their faith or background, to embrace this

opportunity and take part in this day of national volunteering. May The Big Help Out be a source of inspiration and hope, and may it strengthen the bonds that unite us as a people.”

Brendan Cox, co-founder of the Together Coalition, organiser of the Big Help Out, said: “Today’s intervention from senior leaders from the UK’s faith and belief groups is a call to action for the faith communities to build the next generation of volunteers.”

FOOTBALL PLAYS A PART AT MARCH OF THE LIVING

Representatives from the Football Association, the English Football League, the Professional Footballers’ Association and Chelsea and Watford have taken part in the March of the Living in Poland on Yom Hashoah, writes Lee Harpin.

They were part of March of the Living UK’s educational programme as part of its continued work to tackle antisemitism in football.

After retracing the walk on which Jews were marched to the death chambers, the delegation took part in a memorial service for all those who were murdered at Auschwitz-Birkenau.

The trip also involved visiting the old syna-

gogue of Dabrowa Tarnowska and exploring the Jewish quarter of Krakow to learn about the vibrancy of Jewish life in Poland before hearing from Holocaust survivors and visiting Auschwitz-Birkenau on Monday.

Kick It Out trustee Lord Mann said: “We have learnt how vital it is that we continue to educate the world on where hatred can lead, if left unchallenged.

“It has been a privilege for us to take part in this important programme especially on Yom Hashoah and to hear first-hand testimonies from Holocaust survivors.”

Mick Davis to give speech at pro-Israel democracy demo

Former Conservative Party chief executive Sir Mick Davis has been confirmed as the main speaker at the next pro-Israel democracy demonstration in London, writes Lee Harpin.

The former chair of the Jewish Leadership Council has previously made no secret of his support for the protests that have taken place in Israel and across the globe in opposition to the Israeli government’s planned judicial overhaul.

But his appearance at the protest on 30 April, Yom Ha’atzmaut, will be the first time he has spoken publicly at one of the protests. He will be joined by former Reform Judaism senior rabbi Laura Janner-Klausner and Joel Rosen, president of the Union of Jewish Student. The location of the demo is yet to be announced.

Previous protests in London have brought

A recent pro-democracy protest in London

thousands on to the streets, including many Israelis living in the UK.

Last month Davis had issued a statement in support of the pro-democracy protests in the UK and in Israel., saying: “This is a crisis for Jews and friends of Israel everywhere.”

Rabbi Rebecca Birk of Finchley Progressive Synagogue (third left) is among faith leaders to join the Duke of Edinburgh, the Dean of Westminster, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dame Prue Leith and Sir Tim Smit for a Coronation lunch at Westminster Abbey this week

DEE FAMILY MEMBERS

RETURN TO THE UK TO COMPLETE SHIVAS

The father and husband of the three British–Israelis murdered in the West Bank this month has insisted that only a “small percentage of the Palestinian population” are responsible for violence in the region, writes Adam Decker.

In an interview with Sky News, Rabbi Leo Dee said: “I have faith, I have hope, and I believe that the violence is actually caused by a small percentage of the Palestinian population and the vast majority of Palestinians are good people.

“They are prime victims of the Palestinian regime, as are the people in Gaza victims of their regime.”

Asked for his thoughts on those who killed his daughters Maia, 20, and 15-year-old Rina and wife Lucy in a terror attack on 7 April, as they were driving near the Jordan Valley, Rabbi Dee added: “The Israeli security forces will track them down and bring them to justice which I think is right because it prevents the next attack.”

Meanwhile, after completing more than half of the traditional mourning period in Israel, Lucy’s brother, Benjamin Shaw and her two sisters, Gaby Sweidan and Stephanie Trompeter, returned to the UK this week for the remaining shivas.

The siblings issued a statement saying they had been “touched” by foreign secretary James Cleverly’s letter in which he acknowledged “the brutal murders”.

“Lucy grew up in London and like very many other normal English girls, attended the local state school, walking to school each morning,” the statement read.

“She loved tea, Marmite, scones, watching the Sewing Bee and many other quintessentially English activities and was going away on holiday, just like any other British citizen, when she and my two nieces were murdered last Friday.”

The siblings referred to Cleverly’s letter which stated that “there can be no justification for such senseless and abhorrent violence and I unequivocally condemn this act of terrorism”.

“The whole family has gained much comfort from the fact that Mr Cleverly has clearly stated that the killing of innocent civilians is never justified.

“For the whole of my life, it has seemed that Israel is viewed as the perpetrator and that somehow victims of terror are partly responsible for their own deaths,” they said.

Benjamin, Gaby and Stephanie went on to say that they “derive great comfort” from the fact that Cleverly is “setting a new benchmark for the morality of nations in which terrorism can never be justified and the victims of terror are never responsible for their own fate”.

The statement added: “One could call this the ‘Cleverly Declaration’ rather like the ‘Bal-

four Declaration’ just over 100 years ago and view it as the new standard of how all nations and the media should respond to all terror attacks. The partial acceptance of terrorism in the past has led to terrorists feeling their acts are acceptable.

“Now it is clear from the Cleverly Declaration that terrorism can never be justified. We thank Mr Cleverly and the British government from the bottom of our hearts for their moral leadership and invite him, and other members of parliament and good citizens who share his views, to comfort us in person at the traditional shiva over the coming days.”

Back in Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the Dee family in their home in the settlement of Efrat in the West Bank on Sunday. “Now your wife and daughters will live on through you,” Netanyahu told Leo.

Leo told Netanyahu that he didn’t regret coming to Israel “one moment” and that Lucy “would say the same thing”.

The Dee family was also visited by the Reza Pahlavi, the son of Iran’s last Shah, who was on a historic visit to Israel.

Pahlavi signed a book of Psalms for the family. “My wife and I o er our deepest condolences to the Dee family on their tragic loss. May the memories of Lucy, Rina, and Maia be a blessing to humanity and lead to peace,” Pahlavi said.

Leo thanked Pahlavi and his wife for the visit, saying he hopes to “visit [him] in his palace in Tehran very soon”.

While Lucy’s organs had helped to save the lives of five people back in Israel, a fake report by Channel 14 suggested that one of her organs had been donated to a Palestinian terrorist on the orders of Israel’s Supreme Court. Dee had previously confirmed that one of Lucy’s organs helped had saved an Arab Israeli.

But on Channel 14 presenter Shay Golden’s morning show the claim was made that the Arab was actually a Palestinian terrorist still in prison.

It was also falsely suggested that the Dee family’s appeal to the Supreme Court to prevent the organ being given to the terrorist, who was held in a prison, had been overruled.

The Israel Prison Service branded the report about the donation of Lucy’s organs to a security prisoner as “false and o ensive”.

One of many images from the Dee family album that have been circulated since the tragedy

Rabbi Leo Dee (right) meets Benjamin Netanyahu

News / Hate rally / Labour shame

Disgraced vicar at anti-Israel rally

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

This year’s annual Al Quds Day march in central London saw dwindling numbers of pro-Iranian regime activists backing calls for Israel to be “dismantled” and speeches in support of “armed resistance” by the Palestinians.

Sunday’s event, organised by the Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC), began outside the Home O ce building in Westminster, with just over 1,000 people marching to Downing Street to hear speakers including disgraced former MP Chris Williamson and banned “antisemitic” vicar Stephen Sizer.

A small band of ultra-Orthodox Neturei Karta members came out as usual to support the march, joining the now pantomime-like ritual burning of the Israeli flag, while police were out in force keeping a

small band of about 30 “pro-Israel” activists and the main demo apart throughout the afternoon. Sizer, banned by the Church of England over views that “provoked and o ended the Jewish commu-

nity” after sharing “virulently antisemitic” material, told protesters Israeli military occupation is “based on segregation, supremacism and apartheid” and “a colonisation that involves a systematic, premeditated, ethnic cleansing in breach of international law, Geneva conventions and UN resolutions.”

Sizer, 69, was found by a church tribunal after a complaint from the Board of Deputies about his conduct to have engaged in conduct “unbecoming to the o ce and work of a clerk in Holy Orders”, and was banned from ministry for 12 years.

In his speech, ex-Labour MP Williamson said Palestinians had the “absolute right to resist and ... to armed resistance”. Berating Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer, he added:”We should support the resistance of the Palestinian people in all its forms.”

Farrah Koutteineh, of the London-based Palestinian Return Centre, claimed: “No one has the right to tell Palestinians how to resist.”

Antisemitism still 48% of Labour cases

Antisemitism allegations accounted for nearly 48 percent of cases considered by Labour’s national executive committee’s (NEC) disciplinary sub-group during the first two months of this year.

Figures published by the party show “most cases” before the NEC Complaints and Disciplinary Sub-Committee still involved claims of anti-Jewish racism.

But this is down significantly on the 65

percent figure last November and the 80 percent in May 2022.

The new figures confirmed allegations of antisemitism accounted for 47.83 percent of cases to the end of February, while 13.04 percent involved allegations of anti-Black racism, sexual harassment, homophobia or other forms of racism, 8.7 percent involved allegations of sexism, and 4.35 percent allegations of Islamo-

Honour for BeitShvidler teacher

A staff member from a Jewish primary school in Edgware has won a national Teacher of the Week award. Gemma Blaker, of Beit Shvidler Primary School, received the accolade from national children’s magazine The Week Junior, after pupils submitted the highest number of nominations in the award’s history.Blaker, a Year 1 form teacher and head of learning and curriculum, has been with the school for three years. She said she was “overwhelmed by the response to this award”.

Kisharon’s weekend appeal targets £500k

the

a warning or a reminder of conduct

phobia, transphobia and victimisation. In the first two months of 2023, 47.826 percent of cases resulted in expulsion, suspension or referral, 34.783 percent in a warning or a reminder of conduct and 17.391 percent in a reminder of values or no further action.

Kishron is launching a crowdfunding campaign this weekend to raise £500,000 towards its annual £2.4m budget. A successful campaign will ensure the charity can fund essential services for the children and adults with learning disabilities and autism. Jessica Levy, fundraising co-director said: “The people we support are at the forefront of everything we do. We want to ensure our services can continue and go from strength to strength.”

Labour NEC chair Johanna Baxter with party leader Sir Keir Starmer

Stephen Sizer, right, with ex-MP Chris Williamson

Livestream marks 80 years since Warsaw Ghetto uprising

The annual Jewish remembrance day for victims of the Holocaust, which this year marked the 80th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, was live streamed from Jewish Care’s Holocaust Survivors Centre on Monday evening, writes Michelle Rosenberg.

Addressing the 150 guests who assembled in person, Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis hailed the heroes of the ghetto uprising who resisted the Nazis for four weeks in April and May 1943, saying: “We recall the extraordinary heroism of so many men, women and children, who at a time of hell on earth, were determined to do what they could with incredible bravery”.

Those present included Janine Webber, a survivor of the Lwów Ghetto in Poland (now Lviv, Ukraine); Auschwitz survivor Ivor Perl and Henny (Henriette) Franks, who arrived in the UK on the Kindertransport and celebrates her 100th birthday in June.

Candles were lit during the ceremony, mirroring those being lit around the country, in Israel and at the ‘March of the Living’ remembrance in Poland.

Thirty-five thousand commemorative Yellow Candles were bought and Yom HaShoah UK organisers hope to have reached more than the 20,000 online viewers in 2022.

Survivors were joined by school children,

youth group movement representatives and Jewish community leaders including President of the Board of Deputies Marie van der Zyl, Life President of Jewish Care Lord Levy, Jewish Leadership Council chair Keith Black together with Israel’s ambassador to the UK Tzipi Hotovely and Mayor of London Sadiq Khan.

Marie van der Zyl recited Yad Vashem Law ‘We Commune’ and Lord Levy recited the mourner’s kaddish.

Henry Grunwald KC co-hosted the ceremony with Game of Thrones German Jewish actress Laura Pradelska who recited ‘Mirele’s Letter‘, a fictional letter from a mother about to say goodbye to her two-year-old daughter during the Holocaust.

Ambassador Tzipi Hotovely spoke of the importance of the legacy of the Yom HaShoah Holocaust educational initiative, where more than 200 legacy boards have been placed around the UK.

Sadiq Khan, mayor of London introduced the Children’s Choir, made up of young people from Jewish primary schools including Etz Chaim in

Mill Hill and Clore Tikva in Ilford, Essex singing ‘Never Again’, conducted by Stephen Melzack. Haunting pre-war music was played and Yiddish songs performed by a Klezmer band in the courtyard of the centre.

Neil Martin, chair of Yom Hashoah UK said:

“it was an incredibly moving ceremony that was watched by thousands online and in the presence of our survivors and refugees, who are so central to our commemoration. Yom HaShoah is a true collaborative event that brings our whole community together.”

The Children’s Choir with Chief Rabbi Mirvis (centre) and other dignitaries. Inset: Jonny Turgel

Photo by Meron Persey Photography

It’s a merger made in Heaven!

Liberal Judaism and the Movement for Reform Judaism (MRJ) are to merge to create a single UK progressive Jewish movement, with a total membership of more than 40,000, writes Michelle Rosenberg.

Rabbi Josh Levy becomes chief executive of MRJ, partnering with Liberal Judaism’s Rabbi Charley Baginsky to lead the project.

In a statement, MRJ co-chair Paul Langsford and Liberal chair Ruth Seager said: “Our lay leadership and clergy are clear that the future for Progressive Judaism is to have one shared movement to represent all of Britain’s Progressive Jews. It will mean that our

reach, our voice and, ultimately, our Judaism will be stronger.

“Our movements have made a huge impact on the development of the Jewish and wider world, but there is much more to do, and we believe this can be better achieved together.”

Rabbi Levy, principal rabbi of Alyth (North Western Reform Synagogue), said: “This is an important moment for Progressive Judaism in Britain and beyond. Reform and Liberal Judaism share the same core values and outlook.

“Alyth is an amazing community to have served, and I will miss working as a congregational rabbi.

“However, it is a unique opportunity for Progressive Judaism in the UK, working with movement sta , lay leaders, members and clergy and in deep partnership with Charley who has done great

PRO-HALPERN LETTER ‘FAKE’

things in her leadership of Liberal Judaism.”

Alyth chair Justin Wise added: “We are deeply saddened that Rabbi Levy is leaving our community as principal rabbi. At the same time, we are enormously excited for the future of Progressive Judaism and the commitment both movements are making to this new project.”

Liberal and Reform Judaism have been separate movements for more than 120 years. The decision to unite into one Progressive movement will bring the UK into line with most other countries, including the USA and Israel.

Foreign Office room named after Jewish envoy

The UK’s first Jewish career ambassador has been posthumously honoured by the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development O ce.

To celebrate the contribution of Jewish sta to the Diplomatic Service and following the 75th anniversary of his joining, a room at the o ce’s King Charles Street building is now named in tribute to the late Sir Horace Phillips KCMG.

The former diplomat died in 2004 at the age of 86 following a highly distinguished career.

“We are all very proud,” Maureen Phillips,

his 75-year old daughter, told Jewish News from her home in Italy before flying out for the ‘Phillips Room’ ceremony, to join her father’s greatgrandchildren, permanent under-secretary Sir Philip Barton, current and former Jewish sta and British Jewish communal figures.

Born on 31 May 1917, Horace Phillips was the grandson of immigrants from eastern Europe. He went to school at Hillhead in Glasgow. His father died when he was a teenager, leaving his mother to look after him and six younger siblings.

StandWithRachel StandWithUs

A letter circulating in the strictly-Orthodox community purporting to defend Golders Green rabbi Chaim Halpern, who is accused of sexually abusing people sent to him for counselling, has been debunked as a forgery.

Immediately before Pesach, recorded remarks by Rabbi Moshe Sternbuch, 97, leader of the Eda Haredit movement in Jerusalem, were released to rabbis in London calling Rabbi Halpern, who heads the Divrei Chaim synagogue in north London, a “gangster” who should be removed from post.

Asked what the rabbis in England should be told, Sternbuch says: “They shouldn’t be afraid. They should say clearly and openly that all groups of people have gangsters. By us also there’s a gangster.

“They should throw him out and [be] finished. The best is emes [truth]. But they won’t do that.”

Sternbuch adds: “Throw him out… he can’t hold himself.”

Release of the tape was followed by the contested letter purportedly written by Moshe Sternbuch’s son, Rabbi Osher Sternbuch, saying he had been asked in his father’s name to state that the recording of Rabbi Moshe condemning Halpern was “entirely false”.

When people in London suspicious of the claims in the letter contacted Rabbi Osher in Jerusalem to ask if he had written it, he said he had not written any letters this year.

Antisemitism and anti-Israel hatred is at an all-time high. Our youth are struggling with their Jewish identity and relationship with Israel. The best way to EMPOWER our students and communities is through EDUCATION.

Maureen Phillips (left), Sir Horace’s daughter, with the Foreign Office’s Sir Philip Barton

Rabbis Baginsky and Levy

Invites

Starring: GALI ATARI

Together with:

COLONEL

RICHARD KEMP CBE

Former Head of British Forces in Afghanistan

BARONESS DEECH DBE

British Academic, Lawyer, Bioethicist and Politician

GIL HOFFMAN

Former Jerusalem Post Chief Political Analyst

NICK FERRARI

Television presenter and broadcast journalist

1979 Winner of for Israel with her song ‘ HALLELUJAH ’

DAVID DJEMAL YUVAL HAFKIN

NOA BODNER

HAREL GLAZER

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The role is based in the brand new Jewish community hub in the vibrant city of Brighton & Hove. For the full job description, please visit: www.bnjc.co.uk

To apply, send a CV and cover letter to jobs@bnjc.co.uk.

1948, former WIZO Chairperson Rachel Kagan Cohen signs the Israel Declaration of Independence.

75 years later WIZO is still caring for, and responding to, the ever-evolving social welfare needs of the vulnerable and disadvantaged citizens of Israel.

David’s fundraising online cancer diary

Retired journalist David Davis, an 86-year-old member of Watford & District Synagogue, has launched a fundraising campaign by writing an online diary about his ongoing battle with kidney cancer, writes Michelle Rosenberg.

“I want to show you can live with cancer and also do something worthwhile” he declares.

He spends an hour each morning on David’s Cancer Diary in which he tells with great candour how he and his wife Beryl, 84, cope with the highs and lows of life in Bushey Heath. “Every day we live with tears, fears and lots of hope,” he says.

In the journal, Davis recalls his pain, moments

of distress and the anxiety every time he goes to Mount Vernon Cancer Centre, Northwood, where doctors monitor his treatment.

The diary was born after Davis had his first attack.

Rather than “sitting and waiting for the next one”, and encouraged by Beryl, he decided to start writing again and turn the results into a way of raising money for the cancer centre.

AWARD FOR CST VETERAN

CST volunteer and former long-standing head of JNF-UK Simon Winters has been posthumously granted a civic award in Borehamwood for his contributions to the community, writes Michelle Rosenberg.

The Dave Rankin Civic Award celebrates an outstanding contribution for community safety and was announced by Hertsmere mayor John Graham at a special ceremony. Winters died aged 63 in October 2022 from brain cancer. A flying and motor racing fan awarded an OBE in 2009 for charitable work, he volunteered as a sergeant with Hertfordshire Police from 2018, continuing even while su ering from the terminal disease.

Accepting the tribute, awarded posthumously for the first time in 20 years, Susie Winters described her husband as “totally dedicated and passionate about his work”.

She added: I think he liked being in the ‘specials’ because they were all young and they hadn’t heard his ‘dad’ jokes. He never went out to get awards, but to be honoured with one is tremendous and a great comfort to the family to know that he was appreciated,”

In a video presentation, Hertsmere Borough Council leader Morris Bright, who conominated Winters with councillor Jeremy Newmark, said by winning the award, Winter’s name “would never be forgotten.”

Newmark described Winters as a “natural candidate” for the award, citing among other things his dedication to public safety, work as a special constable and “receiving the Outstanding Service Award not once, but twice”.

MDA UK handed Nazi looted art

Magen David Adom UK has received a valuable renaissance sculpture looted by the Nazis after decades of research tracked down the legal owner, writes Joy Falk. The sculpture was handed to MDA UK at a

restitution ceremony held at the French Ministry of Culture in Parison on Yom Hashoah.

The sculpture, La Vierge de Pitié, from the year 1495/1500, was originally owned Harry Fuld Senior, a German Jewish entrepreneur who had an extensive modern art collection until his death in 1932.

His sons, Peter and Harry and the latter’s widow, inherited their father’s art collection after he passed away. But after the Nazis came to power in 1933, the Harry’s sons fled Germany, whereafter the Nazi regime confiscated the family’s art collection. Following the war, the sculpture was recovered and brought to Louvre in Paris where it remained since.

MDA UK said the sculpture will be auctioned o by Christie’s “and the money used for life-saving services in Israel”.

Fine Art, Antiques and Collectables

watches, porcelain, glass, coins, medals, militaria, stamps, furniture, lighting, carpets, mirrors, alcohol, toys, diecast & model railways

Writer David Davis is battling kidney cancer

Honoured: Simon Winters on patrol

La Vierge de Pitie dates from the 15th century

World News / Prince’s pledge / Topol’s secret / Rock united

Israel was set to host Reza Pahlavi, son of the former Iranian shah, in an historic visit this week. He is the most senior Iranian personality so far to pay a public visit, writes Jotam Confino.

Intelligence minister Gila Gamliel will host Pahlavi as he participates in the o cial opening ceremony to mark Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Day.

Israel said the aim of the visit is “to create a bridge between Israel and the Iranian people, and express a joint opposition to the Ayatollah regime”, adding: “The heir to the throne promotes discourse on the human rights situation in Iran and supports a democratic Iranian leadership.”

Pahlavi will also visit a desalination plant to learn about Israel’s water technologies “as a possible response to the collapsing water infrastructure in Iran”, as well as visit the Western Wall and meet the Baha’i community and members of the JewishIranian community in Israel. He is also expected to denounce antisemitism and Holocaust denial by the Iranian regime and will express “solidarity with the citizens of Israel in light of the attacks by terrorist organisations operating under the auspices of Iran”.

Gamliel said: “I am honoured to host Iranian crown prince Reza Pahlavi and appreciate his brave decision to visit Israel for the first time. The crown prince symbolises a leadership di erent from that of the Ayatollah regime and champions values of peace and tolerance, in contrast to the extremists who rule Iran.

“Our nations have enjoyed good relations for thousands of years since the time of Queen Esther, who thwarted the evil Haman’s plot to destroy the Jews in Persia. Today, we are

taking the first step in rebuilding the relationship between our nations.”

Pahlavi on his part said the Iranian people “aspire to a government that respects its heritage, with the preservation of human rights and respect for religious and cultural diversity among other things, through the restoration of peaceful and friendly relations with Israel and Iran’s other neighbours”. He added: “Millions of my compatriots still remember living alongside their Jewish-Iranian friends and neighbours before the Islamic Revolution tore the fabric of our society apart. They reject the regime’s murderous antisemitic policies.”

Actor Chaim Topol, famous for his role as Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof, also played a part in real-life drama as an agent for the Mossad, his family says.

Topol died last month aged 87. In an interview with Haaretz, his wife Galia and children Adi and Omer talked about his unknown side.

Omer said: “I don’t know the appropriate definition [for what he did] but what is clear

is that dad was involved in secret missions.”

The family recalled the actor had a small Minox camera and tiny tape recorder and he often made secretive trips abroad.

“What always motivated Chaimkeh [Topol] were ants in his pants, adventure and courage,” Galia said. “Therefore, no one was more suitable than him to be involved.”

Iran crown prince: We’ll renew ties with Israel TOPOL, MILKMAN FROM MOSSAD Greenwood rocks

Radiohead guitarist and Oscar-nominated composer Jonny Greenwood has made an album with Israeli rock musician Dudu Tassa.

Jarak Qaribak, Arabic for Your Neighbour is Your Friend, is released on 9 June featuring artists from throughout the Middle East including Palestinian singer Freteikh, Egyptian singer Ahmed Doma and Moroccan singer Mohssine Salaheddine.

Greenwood is married to Israeli visual artist Sharona Katan.

Iranian schoolgirls make an obscene gesture at portraits of Ayatollah Khamenei and Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Inset: Reza Pahlavi

Dudu Tassa, left, with Greenwood

Next Tuesday, Israel will be three-quarters of a century old. Since independence in 1948, its population has grown from 800,000 to more than nine million. A country that was initially created as a place of refuge for Jews seeking safety from persecution is now a historic homeland for those who have made aliyah and a destination with a welcome mat for anyone looking to experience its attractions. Here are 75 reasons to go...

1

To walk the streets of diverse communities as people of all faiths and none worship (or don’t) without persecution.

2

To drive the length of the country in eight hours with scenery ranging from snow-capped mountains to golden deserts.

3

To marvel at the greenery in the only country that had more trees in 2000 than in 1900.

4

To enjoy Ja a Port Market, once an orange warehouse and now a chic urban indoor shopping space and home to the Ja a Juice stall, where every fruit is squeezable.

5

To visit Yavne, the area in central Israel where the Jewish leadership fled after the destruction of the Second Temple by the Romans.

6

To take pride in the fact that Israel has the highest percentage of scientists and engineers in the world, at 135 per 10,000.

14

To abseil down Mount Sodom’s salt caves – one of the best-kept secrets in Israel – which can only be reached by descending more than 60m (197ft).

7

To bloom at Be’er Tuvia annual buttercup festival every weekend in April.

8

To camp under the stars at the Machtesh Ramon crater, the Israeli Grand Canyon.

15

To take a gra ti and street sign tour in the alleys of Nachlaot and the Machane Yehuda market in Jerusalem.

16

To wind your way through the Western Wall Tunnels – an incredible labyrinth of passageways untouched for centuries.

9

To visit the Dead Sea – one of the world’s true wonders, but its sea levels are sinking, so hurry.

11

To remember Golda Meir who, in 1969, became one of the first female heads of government anywhere in the world and is the focus of a new biopic.

To meet a Tel Aviv Greeter, part of a volunteer programme that matches visitors with people who want to show you their city.

12

To try sabich – the filled pita

To understand the Abraham Accords and its growing list of diplomatic ties with countries throughout the Middle East (UAE, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan, along with Jordan and Egypt), thanks to which the volume of trade has broken the 10 billion shekel (£2.3bn) barrier. (salad, egg, aubergine, tahini, hummus and spices) brought to Israel by Iraqi immigrants.

Machtesh Ramon crater, the Israeli Grand Canyon

Ja a flea market Yavne

46

47

To marvel at the Israeli-invented standing wheelchair called ReWalk.

To swim with Flipper at the Dolphin Reef, a stunning ecological site by the Red Sea.

48

To see where Elijah hid in a cave, which is described as ‘the holiest Jewish site in Haifa’.

49

To spend time in a yeshiva or seminary studying Jewish texts starting with the Torah.

50

To never be bored, because Israel is home to more museums per capita than any other country.

51 To climb Masada, the site of the former palace of King Herod.

54

52

To visit Petach Tikva, birthplace of Gal Gadot, aka Wonder Woman.

53

To get a hole-in-one at Israel’s only 18-hole golf course next door to the Dan Caesarea Mediterranean Hotel.

To step back in time in the hushed streets of Kerem HaTeimanim, one of Tel Aviv’s last authentic treasures, which was built in the late 19th century by Yemenite immigrants.

55

To smile, as Israel ranks ninth in the World Happiness Index.

56

To take a dip in the warm water at Gan HaShlosha National Park (Sachne in Arabic), which is named in memory of the three Jewish pioneers who came to survey the land on behalf of the Jewish National Fund.

57

To be in Akko, knowing that in 1960 Paul Newman was there too as Ari Ben Canaan when he filmed Exodus

58

To honour fallen soldiers at Yad Lashiryon Museum (LatrunArmored Corps’ Memorial Site), where there is also a collection of more than 100 tanks from 1948 to the present day.

To hike at the Ein Gedi waterfall, and then rest by the freshwater pools and springs.

59

To meet Bedouins in Kfar Hanokdim, a green oasis in a valley between the city of Arad and the ancient citadel of Masada.

60

Holiest Jewish site in Haifa

Gal Gadot Paul Newman

Gan HaSHlosha National Park

Kfar Hanokdim

65

61

To appreciate the 4,000 buildings from the Bauhaus period in Tel Aviv.

68

To land at Ramon Airport, the new place to touch down, 10km north of Eilat.

62

To dance the hora at an Israeli wedding. All you need is an invite.

63

To taste incredible kosher vegan food in Tel Aviv, the vegan capital of the world.

71

To buy something handmade at Nachalat Binyamin Artist Market.

64

To visit Pitmaster, a trendy new kosher restaurant in Petach Tikva, where more meat is served than your body weight and guests are treated to a show each evening.

To sip wine in one of three wineries in the north of Israel. Learn the history of the Israeli grape in a thriving industry.

To be ready to run if you spot ’s Lior Raz.

69

regions.

To drop into a Druze village in the Carmel and Golan regions.

70 To never get lost, because Waze was invented in Israel.

To put that special message in the Kotel (Western Wall).

72

To see David Ben-Gurion standing on his head (as he famously did in 1957) by the beach in Tel Aviv.

73

To appreciate the Sammy Ofer Fortified Underground Emergency Hospital, the world’s largest underground hospital.

To watch Israel’s best magicians and illusionists perform every Sunday at Sorcerers Night in Tel Aviv.

74

To understand what Noah had to deal with by visiting the Jerusalem Biblical Zoo in the Tisch Gardens.

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75-YEAR PEACE QUEST FOR

Even on the cusp of war, Israeli leaders were hoping for peace.

As stated in the Declaration of Independence, the new Jewish state would “extend its hand to all neighbouring states and their peoples in an offer of peace and good neighbourliness”.

Similarly, Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, spoke frequently of peace. On one occasion he told the Knesset in June 1948, ‘We are prepared to make peace with our Arab neighbours on the basis of justice and equality. We are ready to negotiate a settlement that will ensure lasting peace for all.” Peace even finds expression in the logo of the IDF: a sword and an olive branch.

While some religious Jews saw Balaam’s Biblical statement that the Jews were a nation who dwells alone as a blessing, many early Zionists considered it a curse and sought to reverse it. They thus sought a reality in which a proud independent Jewishdemocratic state would find its ‘place among the nations’.

As a result, Israel’s founding fathers placed great emphasis on the importance of international recognition; both bilateral and at the United Nations (note with irony the politicised role and inbuilt anti-Israel bias of the UN and the general disdain of Israel’s current crop of leaders).

The United States of America was the first country to recognise Israeli independence

followed by Guatemala (the same day) and the Soviet Union three days later on 18 May 1948. By August, 15 countries had recognised Israel.

By early 1949 this list had grown to 33, including the United Kingdom and most of western Europe. By April, 53 countries had recognised Israel and in May that year Israel was accepted as a member of the General Assembly of the UN. By then Israel had signed armistice agreements to end the fighting, elections had been held, and the Provisional Government handed over power based on the election result.

Even before Israel’s independence, the mainstream Zionist default position was pragmatic. Its response was always to say ‘yes’, and agree to compromise (see for example the 1937 Peel plan and the UN Partition Plan 1947).

Only later did Israel begin to say ‘yes, but’ and occasionally even ‘no’. After 1967, when Israel’s cabinet was split over suing for peace or retaining some of the mountain ridge for security, the leadership were on balance disposed towards a ‘yes’ – a principle that later became formulated as ‘land for peace’. The Arab leadership meanwhile – stung by their humiliation by those pesky Jews –delivered their three ‘no’s.

Until recently, the conventional thinking was that all roads to peace lead through the Muqata in Ramallah. The paradigm shift of the Abraham Accords turned that logic on its

head. The Emiratis, for example, wondered why their interests of engaging with Israel, and benefiting from Israeli tech, should have been held up because of Palestinian intransigence.

The high tide for peace with Palestinians came in the 1990s with the Oslo process and its signing on the White House lawn by a slightly reticent Prime Minister Rabin and Palestine Liberation Organisation chairman Arafat – who even then (and subsequently) never removed his military fatigues.

What followed was the 1995 division of the West Bank into Areas A,B & C, which, whilst clearly below the Palestinians threshold for a fully independent state, does mean that more than 95 percent of West Bank Palestinians live under Palestinian Authority self-rule. Oslo’s abiding legacy proves the axiom that ‘nothing is more permanent than a temporary solution’.

The landmark peace agreements with Egypt and subsequently Jordan remain the strategic underpinnings of Israel’s regional security doctrine, with the peace treaties delivering valuable strategic depth. Despite often being formulated as a ‘cold peace’, senior Israeli security officials recognise the ongoing importance of those relations to Israel’s security posture.

Earlier this year, a new international quintet – Israel, the United States, Jordan, Egypt and the Palestinians – convened twice: in Aqaba and then in Sharm al-Sheikh, in

order to try to revive Israeli-Palestinian security coordination and create confidencebuilding measures to improve the PA’s economic situation.

Whilst civil affairs minister Hussein AlSheikh represented the Palestinians, other senior PA officials simultaneously called for lawfare against Israel through international institutions. If we are honest, the current Israeli government could also be accused of dual messaging. Whilst the majority support the traditional Benjamin Netanyahu approach of conflict management, Itamar Ben-Gvir and his allies believe in confrontation, not accommodation.

Israel after 75 years is thus balancing two opposing currents: stalemate on a substantive diplomatic resolution to the Palestinian issue, whilst in parallel continued expansion of regional alliances.

To the West, Israel’s partnerships stretch to Morocco and within the Mediterranean includes close friendship with Greece and Cyprus, which have never been stronger. Relations with Turkey are also back on track. Beyond Egypt and Jordan, Israel’s alliances reach to the Gulf and extend to India. Many in Israel dearly hope to be able to expand and deepen the circle of peace even further. Despite Israel’s unresolved issues, Israel at 75 is more successful, prosperous and powerful, beyond Ben-Gurion’s dreams.

 Richard Pater is chief executive of BICOM and a political analyst based in

Pragmatism has brought Israel many rewards but a deal with the Palestinians eludes her, writes Richard Pater

The changing approach of to ISRAEL over 75 years BRITISH JEWS

The founding of a Hebrew republic in the Land of Israel in May 1948 changed history. For Jews, there is only before and after.

T he proclamation of the state took 32 minutes. A few hours later Egyptian aircraft were bombing Tel Aviv as worshippers rushed home from shul. Chief Rabbi Hertz in London issued an outline of a special Shabbat service of thanksgiving, expressing thanks they had lived to see this day. Hertz decreed Shir Hama’alot – usually associated with grace after meals on Shabbat and festivals – be recited. “When God brought back the exiles to Zion, it was as if we were in a dream — our mouths filled with laughter, our tongues bursting with song.”

Against all odds, Zionism prevailed and other ideologies that wished to resolve the Jewish problem — assimilation, conversion, Bundism, Communism — failed. Zionism wanted to create not only a state but also a new society unlike the ones many Jews had escaped from; 1948 was full of hope and idealism as well as the reality of the hostility of Arab states.

The situation began to change in the UK after the Six Day War in 1967 and conquest of the West Bank. Small groups in London such as Siah, Young Mapam and Breira, following Amos Oz’s call for a two-state solution, challenged the accepted communal wisdom. Peace Now then emerged in the wake of the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982 — and the duplicitous explanation for it proved to be a watershed for those who had been born since 1945.

The previous generation which had lived

through the Nazi destruction and the rise of Israel would not entertain a scintilla of criticism. Jewish unity then was identified solely with Jewish uniformity. Dissenters were regarded as beyond the pale. Chief Rabbi Immanuel Jakobovits had deep reservations about Israeli government actions in 1982 and was rebuked publicly by colleagues and congregants alike.

Fast-forward to 2023 and figures such as Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, from that far-Right community from which Yitzhak Rabin’s assassin, Yigal Amir, had

also emerged, had moved from the political fringe to the heart of government.

In the 2022 election, their joint list secured 14 seats, utilising the brand name of ‘Religious Zionism’. Smotrich had spent six weeks in police custody for his actions prior to Rabin’s murder while Ben-Gvir revered the memory of Rabbi Meir Kahane, a figure with a talent to divide and broadly detested in most sections of the Diaspora.

The advent of the internet allowed British Jews to inform themselves about events in Israel immediately without intermediaries.

The development of demographic units in the community meant the opinion of the Jew in the street could count as well as those in leadership roles in Jewish organisations.

Yet while many sections of the UK community including a revitalised Board of Deputies and public figures have united to condemn any decision to remove the checks and balances that ensure politicians adhere to the rule of law, central orthodoxy stays ominously silent. The cry that ‘the House of Israel’ should not be divided is an honourable one. The reality however is this deep division is due solely to Netanyahu’s proposals, undermining the state’s foundations and blurring its founders’ vision. UK central orthodoxy in the UK has effectively parcelled out comments about moral conduct in public office in Israel to Masorti, Reform, the Liberals and secular intellectuals and academics.

Why then not start a separate initiative in the name of the founders of religious Zionism, Kalischer and Alkalai, Reines and Mogilever, Maimon and Bar-Ilan? Why allow the disciples of Meir Kahane to speak for religious Zionists today? Would this not quell the exasperation felt by many

not quell the exasperation felt by many today?

establishment of the state, Israelis now march every in solidarity by UK-based Jews, significantly gathering

shadow of the statue of Oliver

Seventy-five years after the establishment of the state, hundreds of thousands of Israelis now march every Saturday night to reclaim the vision of the founders and to stand against those who wish to tarnish it. They have been joined in solidarity by UK-based Israelis and many British Jews, significantly gathering in the cradle of democracy, Parliament Square and in the shadow of the statue of Oliver Cromwell, who allowed the Jews to return to England. As the early Zionist, Ahad Ha’am, told Theodor Herzl, ‘a Jewish state’ — with all the moral meaning that this implied — was not the same as ‘a state of the Jews’ like any other.

In 2048 — on the centenary of the founding of the state — it is estimated there will be just under twelve and a half million inhabitants of Israel. A remarkable achievement of the few who left the hovels of the shtetl for a promised land.

The Jewish people are still on a voyage of discovery. As British Jews, committed to the state of Israel and to a just and democratic society in this corner of the Middle East, we should not be blown off course. Now is not the time for laments and indecision. We all have choices.

 Colin Shindler was the first professor of Israel studies in the UK

L-R: Kalisher; Rabbi Alkalai: Reines; and Meir Kahane, ‘a figure with a talent to divide and broadly detested’

David Ben Gurion signing Israel’s declaration of independence

With Israel at a key moment in its history facing chaos, now is not the time for laments or indecision, says Colin Shindler

Amos Oz

Theodor Herzl

NOA Her Name

ward-winning Israeli popstar

Noa Kirel makes time for our evening video call after a long

day of rehearsals.

Aged 21, the triple-threat singer, dancer and actress is readying herself for the Eurovision contest, set to take place in Liverpool next month – the 50th time Israel has taken part. And the pressure is on.

told me to focus on the performance, not the press around the show. Netta told me to ignore the background noise and not be too nervous. I have been performing for years, so I can do this.”

Noa’s bubbly personality and positive outlook explains much of her success, though it has not always been easy for the star.

times felt like I didn’t belong, but now I have brought my strength to the world. I hope my song will empower people to love themselves and not be afraid of who they are. I want people to believe in themselves. Of course, I want to win, but I want my message to come through: we are all unicorns.”

one. I like challenges and the

“I am a perfectionist, I work so hard every day,” says Noa. “We are getting closer to the show, which is very exciting, but the performance is not a simple one. I like challenges and the choreography is very challenging, but I hope it will be amazing. We practise at least four hours every day.”

Upbeat and warm in her manner, she adds: “I have only got three minutes to do my thing, so I want it to be amazing.

As a baby, she was diagnosed with a kidney condition that made her seriously unwell. On the advice of a rabbi, her parents changed her birthname from Noya to Noa, reflecting the latter’s linguistic connection to movement. Though she still monitors her condition, Noa has never let it hold her back. She even joined a unit in the Israel Defence Forces dedicated to performing across the country to motivate young recruits.

“I always knew I was going to serve in the IDF,” she says. “It’s important to send an example, to show people you can have a career, do your thing, but still serve your country and be part of something so amazing for your country.”

Born in Ra'anana to parents of Moroccan and Austrian Jewish heritage, Noa has huge pride in her identity, noting that she lost family in the Holocaust on her father’s side.

At the end of the day, it’s a fun process. I am going to bring the Israeli chutzpah.”

a fun process. I am going to

Noa, who will have her parents and her model boyfriend Tomer Hacohen in the audience, is conscious that she is following in the footsteps of Israeli success stories, with four previous winners including Dana

and Netta.

“They’re all my friends and I talk to them every day,” she laughs. “I like it when the expectations are high. It’s a good thing. They have been giving me advice. Dana

Now, she is hoping to inspire people with her Eurovision song, Unicorn. With a combination of Hebrew and English lyrics, Noa says the song has “a message all about self-empowerment”.

She explains: “Today, everyone has something to say about you. This song is about embracing yourself, about freedom.

“When I was young, I would get a lot of criticism and comments about what I was doing. Back then, I some-

Israel’s had more success at Eurovision than most nations. Sandy Rashty chats to this year’s bubbly and hopeful entrant

Noa Kirel during her IDF service

Noa with Netta, the 2018 winner

“I am so proud to be Jewish. By being here today, in the Eurovision we are winning.”

She credits her Moroccan mum for her “chutzpah and sassiness”, recalling her youth spent dancing along to previous Eurovision shows. “I always remember myself dancing, I would make everyone clap at the end of my performance,” she laughs. “I remember watching Eurovision with my friends, we loved the performances, the stage and the lights.”

Performing since she was 13, Noa is one of the biggest names in the business in Israel and has won awards for her music, taken part in talent shows, judged Israel’s Got Talent and, off the back of her high profile, secured some big brand deals with cosmetic companies and Puma.

This has kept her busy, but she hopes that the Eurovision platform will launch her career further, hoping to one day work with the likes of Beyonce, Jennifer Lopez and Dua Lipa – regardless of the latter’s criticism of Israel.

“Maybe by working with her I can bring peace,” Noa says, adding: “My dream is to reach the world with my songs, represent my country in music and acting, and perform on the biggest stages of the world.”

While Noa has been to London once before as a teenager, this is the first time she will visit Liverpool – hoping to also see some sights and enjoy local tourist spots.

But, above all, she is keen to make the experience a positive one despite the internal and external politics affecting Israel.

“I am so grateful that I have the opportunity to connect people through music,” she says. “Everyone can put their differences aside for one night.”

Noa with Dana International

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THE HOME OF

The late Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks reflects on the extraordinary story of the Jewish state in HomeofHope, re-released this week to mark Israel’s 75th anniversary

The first reference to Israel outside the Hebrew Bible is on the Merneptah stele, a slab of black granite engraved in the days of Pharaoh Merneptah, successor to Ramses II, the man some scholars identify as the Pharaoh of the Exodus. It says: “Israel is laid waste. Her seed is no more.” The first reference to Israel outside the Bible is an obituary. Israel’s enemies thought it was dead. More than 32 centuries – half the history of civilisation – later, we can still say “AmYisraelChai, the Jewish people lives.”

Not only Jews, but people like Blaise Pascal, Jean-Jaques Rousseau and Leo Tolstoy saw in this survival something miraculous, as if an invisible hand had written out of the lives of Jews across the generations a story about human possibility, about a journey from slavery to freedom across a great wilderness of space and time to a land of promise and hope.

How did a people survive for 20 centuries without a state, a home, a place where they could defend themselves? How did they sustain their identity when everywhere they were a minority? How did faith survive the massacres and pogroms, when Jews called and heaven seemed silent? That’s what astonished Pascal, Rousseau and Tolstoy before the 20th century.

But today the question is so much deeper. How could a people ravaged by the Holocaust survive that trauma and put their faith in life again? How could a nation that had not known independence or sovereignty for 2,000 years take it up again? How could they, with so little, build a land, a state, a society, a culture, that has achieved so much?

How, under constant threat of war and terror, surrounded by enemies pledged to their destruction, could they sustain a free and democratic society in a part of the world that had never known it; create an economy with outstanding achievements in agriculture, science, medicine and technology; produce a culture rich in art and music, poetry and prose?

How, out of the most diverse population, could they shape an identity? How could they build not only great secular universities but also thriving yeshivot, so that the words of Isaiah could come true in our time, that “Torah will come forth from Zion and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem”? How, so soon after the nightmare, could they realise so many dreams?

Somehow, in ways I don’t fully understand,

the Jewish people has been touched by a power greater than ourselves, that’s led our ancestors and contemporaries, time and again, to defy the normal parameters of history. Somehow heaven and earth met in the Jewish heart, lifting people to do what otherwise seemed impossible. Descartes said: “I think, therefore I am.” The Jewish axiom is di erent. “Ani maamin” – I believe, therefore I am.

It was the most haunting of all prophetic visions. The prophet Ezekiel saw a valley of dry bones, a heap of skeletons. God asked him: “Son of man, can these bones live?” Ezekiel replied: “God, you alone know.”

Then the bones came together, and grew flesh and skin, and began to breathe, and live again. Then God said: “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say: “Our bones are dried up. Avdah tikvatenu, our hope is lost.” Therefore prophesy and say to them: “This is what God says. My people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel.”

It was this passage that Naftali Herz Imber was alluding to in 1877, when he wrote, in the song that became Israel’s national anthem, Hatikva, the phrase “Od lo avdah tikvatenu, Our hope is not yet lost.”

Little could he have known that 70 years later one third of the Jewish people would have become, in Auschwitz and Treblinka and Bergen-Belsen, a valley of dry bones. Who could have been blamed for saying, ‘Our bones are dried up, our hope is lost’?

And yet, a mere three years after standing eyeball to eyeball with the angel of death, the Jewish people, by proclaiming the State of Israel, made a momentous a rmation of life, as if it had heard across the centuries the echo of God’s words to Ezekiel: “I will bring you back to the land of Israel.”

And a day will one day come, when the story of Israel in modern times will speak not just to Jews, but to all who believe in the power of the human spirit as it reaches out to God, as an everlasting symbol of the victory of life over death, hope over despair.

Israel has taken a barren land and made it bloom again. It’s taken an ancient language, the Hebrew of the Bible, and made it speak again. It’s taken the West’s oldest faith and made it young again. It’s taken a tattered, shattered nation and made it live again. Israel is the country whose national anthem, Hatikva, means ‘hope’. Israel is the home of hope.

 The digital re-release of Israel: Home of Hope is available at www.rabbisacks.org/ israel75

Israeli minister calls on all sides to ‘lower flames’ ahead of 75th anniversary

tion, but rather opted for quasi-constitutional Basic Laws which can be amended. The High Court of Justice is therefore the only independent institution that protects human rights.

The main argument among those opposing the government’s reforms is that they remove the court’s ability to protect those rights.

“The Basic Laws were supposed to be the platform for a constitution. But unfortunately there is no consensus about it. I don’t think it’s a bad idea and we must talk about it.

The high tech sector, which Akunis’ ministry is working closely with, has been among the most vocal opponents of the reforms so far, warning that a country without an independent court will scare o foreign investors.

Some have already moved their assets abroad. The Bank of Israel Governor also warned that the reforms will hurt the country’s

parties, the gaps remain wide, and few remain optimistic that a compromise can be reached.

Protesters fear that the government will pass the reforms as soon as the talks fail, proving that Netanyahu was just trying to buy time. Akunis, however, doesn’t see this happening.

“The judicial reforms must, in the end, be passed with a huge consensus. It won’t be in any other way. It’s the only way we can continue to live here,” he said.

But some of Akunis’ colleagues, such as justice minister Yariv Levin and transportation minister Miri Regev, have insisted that the reforms be passed if the negotiations at the president’s residence fail.

Peace?

Another challenge facing Israel on its 75th birthday is the unravelling security crisis on its borders. During Passover, intense clashes between Israeli police and Palestinians inside the Al-Aqsa mosque led to Hamas firing rockets from both Gaza and Lebanon.

The fact that Israel exists is the biggest accomplishment in the nation’s history, the innovation, science and technology minister Ofir Akunis has told Jewish News in an exclusive interview ahead of Israel’s 75th Independence Day.

“Our existence is the most important thing and it’s not obvious at all. We have struggled for our right to live here among neighbours that don’t want us here. And it’s been like that for more than 75 years by the way,” Akunis said.

Akunis, who spoke to Jewish News at his o ce on the 15th floor in the heart of Tel Aviv, highlighted the economic and technological powerhouse

“But it’s not just Tel Aviv. Jerusalem, the Kibbutzim, moshavim, and cities from the Galilee to the south are a miracle. Be’ersheva is a miracle. 75 years ago it was nothing. Now it’s Israel’s cyber capital,” he said.

Akunis became a member of Knesset for Likud in 2009, but had served as a media adviser to Benjamin Netanyahu when he was first elected prime minister in 1996, and later served as Likud spokesperson.

It’s therefore no surprise that he mentions Menachem Begin, the founder of Likud, as the most remarkable prime minister Israel has ever

seen. “The fact that Begin, who by the way opened the ministry of science and technology, was the first Israeli leader to sign a peace treaty with the biggest Arab enemy, Egypt, was a big breakthrough. But not only that. He loved all Israelis, and he said ‘e are all brothers and one nation.’ That was very important,” Akunis said.

Akunis also mentions Yitzhak Shamir, Netanyahu and Golda Meir as having left a particularly deep mark on Israel. “It’s remarkable that Israel chose its first female prime minister 10 years before the UK did, just to mention an example,” he said.

‘Consensus’

As Israel is celebrating its 75th birthday, the nation is facing the biggest crisis in its history.

And Begin’s famous quote about all Israelis being brothers seems more distant than ever. The government’s judicial reforms have deepened the divisions, with mass protests across the country for 16 weeks in a row.

One of the main challenges to the judicial system is that Israel never passed a constitu-

economy. Akunis, however, insists that they are wrong: “I told them they are playing with fire.

If you say again and again that there is a danger to Israel’s democracy, you will frighten those [investors] abroad. Is having a debate [about the reforms] enough reason for you to move your money abroad?”

The threat of a civil war has been mentioned repeatedly by both President Isaac Herzog, the opposition leaders and Netanyahu. “We need to lower the flames immediately. On both sides. It’s very dangerous,” Akunis said.

While President Herzog is currently conducting marathon talks between representatives from the government and opposition

“They want to test us from time to time,” Akunis said when asked why Hamas decided to launch an unprecedented simultaneous attack on the borders with Gaza and Lebanon.

Meanwhile, two terrorist attacks killed a British–Israeli woman, Lucy Dee, and two of her daughters in the West Bank and one Italian tourist in Tel Aviv.

While the Israeli–Palestinian conflict haunted both sides for decades, Akunis belongs to the school of thought that believes the Palestinians “never missed an opportunity to miss an opportunity”, as Abba Eban, one of Israel’s best-known diplomats, put it.

“Eban said that much before the Israeli o ers at Camp David under Ehud Barak and by Ehud Olmert in 2008,” Akunis said. “The land of Israel is ours. We can o er them [Palestinians] autonomy, a federation, a long-term solution. Do you want a solution? Come to the table. But I will never o er them a state.”

While the Palestinian leadership has become increasingly disintegrated and weak under President Abbas, there is one thing that still unites the Palestinian people, namely wanting a state of their own. The di erences between the Israelis and Palestinians have only grown in recent years, with very little, if any, prospects of a two-state solution.

In an exclusive interview, Ofir Akunis explains why he thinks the government’s judicial reforms won’t be passed unless they have broad support. By Jotam Confino

Ofir Akunis is Israel’s minister for innovation, science and technology

A judicial reform protest near the Israeli Embassy in London

A protest outside the Knesset building against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s proposed judicial reforms

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Their visits may have been public or private, but famous faces are frequently spotted in Israel – some of them surprising.

Mariah Carey was entertained by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara at their official residence in 2015. Ahead of her concert at Rishon Letzion in August that year, their chat about parenting made her feel at home.

Will Smith, the American actor and rapper who made such an impression at the Oscars in 2021, joined his wife Jada on a private tour of the Western Wall (Kotel) led by the Chief Rabbi of the holy site, Shmuel Rabinovitch. They both slipped notes into the wall.

Actress Sharon Stone went when she was invited to take part in the Peres Centre for Peace and the Holon Woman’s Festival and left a message at the wall.

Barack Obama, who was later to become the 44th president of the United States, visited Israel in 2008 when he was just a senator. He returned as president in March 2013 and again in 2016 for the funeral of President Shimon Peres.

And then there was Barbadian singer Rihanna, who dropped by the Dead Sea during a visit, put a note in the wall, and toured Tel Aviv and Jerusalem before giving a concert.

Look out for The Backstreet Boys, who play Park Rishon LeZion 13 May.

Sharon Stone

Rihanna

Mariah Carey

Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith

Barack Obama

OUT OF NOTHING

Israeli firms lead the world in a number of fields. Some of the transformative inventions to have come out of the country include the navigation app Waze (bought by Google in 2013) and, back in 1979, the 8088 processor, which was created in Intel’s Haifa lab.

The country’s startups continue to attract attention. In 2021, amid the Covid-19 pandemic, a staggering $27bn was invested into Israel’s tech companies, according to data from Start-Up Nation Central, which aims to promote these firms around the world. That investment fell to $15.5 bn in 2022, but that was still the second-highest year on record.

Country’s DIY spirit

When most people think of Israeli tech they think of cybersecurity, and with good reason. Check Point is a world-leading cybersecurity firm, founded in Israel in 1983. Its chief of sta , Gil Messing, tells Jewish News that Check Point “is the company that basically brought firewalls into the world and in many ways brought cybersecurity to the world”. While others lay claim to creating the first firewall, there is no doubting the importance of Check Point, which works with governments and companies around the globe.

Elbit Systems is another hugely influential company. It operates in the defence sector, producing hightech hardware from helmets to UAVs (drones). It was established in 1996 and in 2022 generated $15.5bn in revenue. EVP and CTO Shuki Yehuda refers to the “innovation country of Israel” when discussing the country’s tech ecosystem.

What is it that has spawned this culture, these companies? There are a number of theories. One is the DIY spirit of the country. “By definition, our culture here is to create something out of nothing,” says Messing.

Amir Mizroch, who covered tech as a reporter at the Wall Street Journal and then worked as the head o communications for Start-up Nation Central, explains: “Until the discovery of natural gas o shore, Israel had no natural resources to monetise – it had to rely on the ingenuity and resourcefulness of its

people. Resources were allocated to encourage this in the army and various defence research bodies, topflight universities and research institutions, and funding to kickstart the country’s venture capital industry.”

Necessity and people’s drive are a recurring theme. Yehuda said that “we have in Israel a unique spirit of trying to combine our defence requirements… we didn’t choose our borders or our threat”. However, he adds that these often-di cult demands bring with them the “opportunity to create something that we can be distinguished between di erent countries”.

Indeed, many people consider the army and Israel’s national service requirements a key driver of the country’s technological development. In particular, the elite 8200 intelligence unit is often portrayed as a breeding ground for talent.

Yehuda was part of that unit during his service and says “it’s not important, it’s crucial” for Israeli tech. Check Point’s Messing is less sure. He says that while the training in the army, in whatever field you work, gives “a lot of advantage” when it comes to career, because it’s professional, “the idea that many people globally had the connection between the army and specifically this [the cybersecurity] industry is more of a myth than reality”.

It’s not just in defence and security where Israel has come to thrive, though. Indeed, according to Mizroch, “the greatest Israeli tech products are the ones you don’t actually see, but the whole world

uses”. He noted that Amazon Web Services uses chips that are from Israel’s Anapurna Labs, while “a lot of the computer vision chip design that’s in Apple’s phones” come from Israeli companies such as Sensetime. Ultimately, “everything you use has some Israeli product, engineering, design”, says Mizroch.

Tackling the climate crisis

Then there is green and agricultural tech. Israeli companies are working hard to help solve the climate crisis. According to PLANETech, a nonprofit joint venture between the Consensus Business Group and the Israel Innovation Institute, there has been consistent development in Israel’s climate tech companies, with funding growing by 340 percent between 2018 and 2021. PLANETech even sent people to Cop27, a demonstration of Israel’s commitment to climate tech.

An example of one of these thriving climate-focused firms is Herzliya-based SolarEdge, which

o ers a variety of smart energy solutions. Shani Zanescu, a climate tech investor who co-founded PLANETech, explained why this sector is doing so well in Israel:

“The climate tech sector is resilient to market downturns, politics, or any other externality. Add it to the fact that we see more and more experienced founders moving to establish climate tech companies, and transitioning from cyber, fintech, and [software as a service] Saas to this field.”

Zanescu believes that “we can expect a continued growth of climate top-notch technologies coming from Israel to address the world’s most pressing challenge, climate change”.

What next?

The story, though, is not just about new companies being founded over the past 75 years. Many of Silicon Valley’s biggest firms have sta in Israel – Apple alone has 2,000 employees in the country. That said, the domestic ecosystem continues to grow organically too. For instance, Messing says 42 companies alone have been founded by Check Point alumni. He also believes the industry in Israel can thrive more by improving diversity and including more women, Arabs and those from the strictly Orthodox community. “If these populations would not be part of the tech industry, then at a certain point is going to be a shortage of talent,” he says.

For many, the focus is, understandably, now on artificial intelligence (AI). We are already seeing that companies such as Google, Meta,

Intel and Microsoft using Israeli technology, according to Mizroch, who highlights that many research and development leads in the field come from Israel. He also says work in the area of greentech is likely to continue to grow, with fintech and crypto development in Israel always worth watching too.

Elbit’s Yehuda adds that the helmet technology his company produces could be adapted and used in the metaverse. He also believes that companies from his country can be at the heart of the automotive transportation revolution that is clearly on the way.

MobilEye is one company from Israel that has made itself a key part of the automotive sector. Founded in 1999 by Prof Amnon Shashua, it developed the original singlecamera-based system used for automatic emergency braking in vehicles. A Mobileye spokesperson explained: “Mobileye’s success laid the cornerstone of the Israel start-up culture, which combines a highly educated workforce with the driven, problem-solving, internationalist mindset embraced by Israelis.”

The government plays something of a role in what comes next too. It has supported the industry through measures such as tax breaks. Messing believes that to really support the country’s tech scene now “the best thing the government can do is just let it be”.

Israel, then, may only be 75 years young, but when it comes to technology, it has long established itself as one of the key centres of innovation, with much more to come.

An Elbit unmanned aircraft (drone)

A PLANETech delegation at the Cop27 climate conference in November

Known as the startup nation, Israel boasts a tech scene that older and larger countries can only dream of, writes Charlotte Henry is less sure. He says that while the

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The UK’S RELATIONSHIP with ISRAEL

When I became Britain’s ambassador to the State of Israel, I knew the challenges this posting could bring. Having served at the embassy from 2002 to 2006, I knew that working in one of the most high-profile and contested regions of the globe is no easy feat. What I had not expected was how much the work of the embassy had changed since I was last here.

Back then, the Middle East peace process and security issues dominated my inbox and British engagement with Israel. When I returned four years ago, I expected much of the same. Supporting a peaceful path to a viable two state solution remains a priority, but it is also notable that Israel was no longer seen simply through the prism of conflict.

Instead it is viewed as a thriving superpower of tech innovation, a leading trade partner and a critical security partner for the UK – and for many countries around the world. Indeed, during my Posting, I witnessed Israel’s changing relationships with its neighbours, particularly because of the Abraham Accords.

The UK is proud of our support for the creation of the State of Israel. We understand the complexities and responsibilities that accompany this historic role. Nevertheless, our two nations are unapologetically close partners with shared values and interests and, in recent times, with new opportunities and challenges. We do sometimes disagree and have di cult conversations; we do so as friends.

A key strength of the UK-Israel relationship in recent years is the developing economic and technological ties between our two countries. It is no secret that Israel has a thriving technology industry – from cybersecurity, fintech, and healthcare, to energy and climate tech. UK companies have established partnerships and collaborations with Israeli companies in the tech sector.

Over 400 Israeli technology firms have set up o ces and operations in

the UK – more than in any other European country. The British Embassy’s very own ‘Tech Hub’ – the first of its kind in any British Embassy anywhere, supports many.

Our record of bilateral trade is testimony to the strength of the economic relationship.

The UK has become one of Israel’s most important trading partners, with trade between the two countries reaching over £7bn annually in 2022. The current UK-Israel Trade and Partnership Agreement was one of the UK’s first trade continuity agreements signed after Britain left the European Union, and ensures tari -free trade on 99% of the value of goods traded between our countries. We are now negotiating an upgraded, ambitious Free Trade Agreement, which will focus on services and innovation where both of our countries excel.

While the economic partnership between

our two countries has expanded over 75 years, so too has the number of visitors on both sides. One just has to walk down any major street from Tel Aviv to Nazareth to Beit Shemesh to hear a familiar British accent. Over 214,000 UK tourists visited Israel in 2019, making it the third-largest source of tourists. 238,000 Israeli tourists visited the UK in 2019 – many of my Israeli friends seem to know London better than I do. I am glad to see that after the di cult Covid-19 years, British-Israeli tourism is once again thriving.

Our diplomatic and military co-operation is also flourishing, including in areas such as counterterrorism and cybersecurity. The UK is clear about Israel’s right to exist and is unequivocal in supporting Israeli security and right to self-defence, in the face of threats from its neighbours, particularly Iran. We have often stood at the UN defending Israel against unwarranted and disproportionate criticism.

The UK has consistently supported

the establishment of a two-state solution, with Israel and a future Palestinian state living side by side in peace and security.

This policy is a fulfilment of the Balfour Declaration but also results from a sincere belief that lasting security for Israel –preserving its Jewish and democratic character – requires a solution that o ers equal rights and dignity for both Israelis and Palestinians. We are deeply concerned by the recent escalation of violence in Israel and the West Bank and are working with Israel, the Palestinian Authority, and other partners to end the senseless violence that causes so much su ering.

The recent tragic murders of British–Israeli citizens Lucy, Maia and Rina Dee in a terrorist attack underline the security threats faced. There can be no justification for abhorrent violence and, as we have made clear, the UK unequivocally condemns this act of terror.

As we reflect on the past 75 years of friendship between the UK and Israel, we are also looking ahead to the future. I am very glad that last month our two governments were able to sign the 2030 roadmap for UK-Israel bilateral relations.

The roadmap sets out our ambitions for cooperation over the next decade, as part of an innovative and forward-looking strategic partnership. It includes a new £25m Scientific and Innovation programme, funded by both governments. It is an agreement that I am personally incredibly proud of (so much so, the signed version is framed in my o ce). I look forward to watching its implementation, through my team, our partners in the Government of Israel and beyond.

My time as ambassador to Israel comes to an end in June. I am proud of the strength of our relationship. Whether it’s our trade, tourism, technological collaboration, culture or security, both countries will continue to work together. I know that the past 75 years relationship are just the beginning, of what is an ever-evolving, ever-closer relationship.

On behalf of the British people, I want to wish Israel a very happy 75th birthday.

Yom

Ha’aztmaut Sameach!

As his role as UK ambassador to Israel draws to a close, Neil Wigan reflects on the past and a positive future

Margaret Thatcher speaks during a visit to the city of Ashdod

UK foreign secretary James Cleverly (left) with Israeli counterpart Eli Cohen in London last month

Queen Elizabeth and Ezer Weizmann in England in 1997

Photo by Saar Yaakov GPO

Ispeak to a lot of my fans on my website and the question ‘Where are you most excited to play?’ comes up a lot. I always say Israel.”

These were the words of Robbie Williams ahead of his first concert in Israel in 2015. And when the interviewer followed up with a withering, “Really, but why?” Robbie just kept going. “Because I am genuinely excited to go there. The people, the place and the history – there is an unspoken energy coming from the place.”

Every supportive word was another jarring slap in the face of a BDS supporter – and there were many who were opposed to his visit to the Jewish state. On social media and in column inches they reminded the entertainer that he was a UK UNICEF children’s ambassador and that, as such, by appearing in Israel would ‘normalise settler colonialism, war crimes… and apartheid?’.

But Williams verbally shrugged o the calls to stay away: “I have pressure from people not to appear in Blackpool. And I’m sure if enough people got together, they could start a petition demanding that they don’t want me to perform anywhere, ever. Because I o end their sensibilities.”

He certainly o ended the sensibilities of Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters, who unsurprisingly was one of his most strident critics. But it was Waters o a duck’s back as far as the

LetENTERTAIN YOU

former Take That star was concerned when he touched down at Ben Gurion International Airport on 30 April in his private Boeing jet, later telling his adoring 40,000 crowd: “Israel is f***ing amazing.”

And now, after infuriating the baying activists nine years ago, Robbie is fearlessly returning to Israel.

On 1 June, he is the big name at the Summer in the City festival at Tel Aviv’s Hayarkon Park. Supported by the lesserknown Martin Garrix, a Dutch DJ and record producer, and Calum Scott, an English singer/ songwriter who rose to prominence on Britain’s Got Talent, Robbie arrives in Israel lit by the success of his most recent XXV album, which earned him a new record for a solo artist – 13 of Williams’ albums reached the top of the British album charts. This won’t please the detractors who don’t want him to be a Holy Land headliner, but Robbie has pushed ahead, even paving the way for his arrival by dropping nuggets of Jewish connection and a liation.

This started a few months ago when he was a guest on the podcast Andrew Gold: On the edge and took interest in the host’s surname. “Gold? That’s a Jewish name isn’t it?” said Robbie. “It is,” replied Gold. “My children are Jewish,” replied Robbie , which is the case for Theodora Rose (Teddy), 11, Charlton Valentine

Robbie arrives in Israel in 2015

Robbie with his Turkish–Jewish wife Ayda Field and three of their four children

Defying their vocal BDS critics, Robbie Williams, Sam Smith and others are set to headline in the Holy Land, writes Brigit Grant

(Charlie), nine, Colette Josephine (Coco), five, and Beau Benedict Enthoven, who was three in December, because their mother, Robbie’s wife Ayda Field, is Turkish-Jewish.

More than that, as Robbie revealed, the family celebrate Jewish chagim and, despite not celebrating Passover this year because of his touring, the Williams clan went big on Chanukah in a show of solidarity “against Kanye West”.

Robbie has also enjoyed watching Netflix’s My Unorthodox Life – “It is crazy” – the reality series which documents the world of former strictly orthodox Jewish woman Julia Haart, but it was in the Israeli paper Hayom that he really spilled the schmaltz by admitting that he was put o converting to Judaism because of a need for circumcision.

The thought of the op was enough for him to settle on “just identifying myself as a Jew. I am a Catholic who has distanced himself from religion, and Ayda is a Jew who has distanced herself from religion –but it is important that we have a tribe. It’s important to have a sense of belonging. I feel more Jewish than I feel Catholic.”

As Robbie’s dad, Robert accompanied his son and the grandchildren on his last visit to Israel. The shekel has probably dropped regarding Robbie’s new-found allegiance to the faith but there was no room for doubt last month when the star said: “If someone says Israel, I think of the land of my beloved’s ancestors. I get criticisms about performing Sam Smith’s fans are urging Sam, who uses the pronoun ‘they’, to cancel their concert in Israel because of alleged pinkwashing there, but they don’t interest me and come from people who don’t matter to me. On this next visit I want to do an even better performance than the last one. It’s very important to me to impress the Israeli audience.”

The Israeli singer Noga Erez is likely to be waiting at the airport for Robbie as he expressed sincere admiration for her music on Twitter and even mooted the idea of a duet to The Limited Times, who asked him: “What song would you like to be yours?” to which he responded: “Wow... there are a lot of songs like that but if I were to choose one it would be Nails by Noga Erez.” Watch that space,

singer Nunu (born Nomi Aharoni-Gal), who counts among her hits the catchy Cute Boy, which was released last June in honour of Pride Month. That’s likely to be a Sam Smith pleaser, though less so for their genderobsessed army who are currently urging them (Sam’s preferred pronoun) to cancel their concert in Israel because of alleged ‘pinkwashing’. This is the term used to accuse those with a pro-LGBTQ+ agenda of ‘masking other human rights violations’. Referencing a previous statement Sam made about “never” performing in Russia because of its treatment of the LGBT community, their critics are now and also the cavernous space that is growing between Sam Smith and some of the singer’s fans who align with the Palestinian cause.

Sam is also appearing at the Summer in the City Festival, supported by Californian rock band Papa Roach, whose lead singer, Jacoby Shaddix, is devoted Christian and Israeli

Israeli singers Noga Erez (left) and Nunu. Above left: Robbie with his dad Robert

asking them to “stand on the right side of history” and not go to Israel.

So far

Sam is still due to perform on 31 May in Tel Aviv and might be reluctant to cancel as they would miss out on sampling a city that is regarded as one of the best in the world for LGBTQ+ nightlife. Along with the bars, Tel Aviv’s gay scene revolves around weekly parties held in open spaces such as the Bloq, a large arena located near the Tel Aviv bus station. In a show of support for their critics, Sam could also catch a drag show at the Duplex Club, a left-wing Jewish-Israeli establishment between Ja a and Tel Aviv that is a favourite of Palestinian drag queens who also perform at the Palestinian-owned Kabareet club in Haifa.

Sam could also stick around for Tel Aviv Pride on 8-9 June, which attracts

visitors from across the globe who this year get to enjoy a performance by the Jewish singer Adam Lambert, now Queen’s frontman. Critics won’t get Adam to cancel his plans as he has probably booked a stay at The Drisco , where he can eat at the restaurant George & John, or maybe he’ll be at the new R48 Hotel and Garden in Tel Aviv, where Chef Ohad Solomon’s 11-course tasting menu is becoming a landmark .

Sam might like to consider The David Kempinski or Theodor by Brown Hotels, which is in the heart of the nightlife, while Robbie – considering his a nity with Judaism –should check in at David Citadel or Mamilla in Jerusalem. The Dan hotel group has welcomed Paul McCartney, Madonna, The Rolling Stones, Lady Gaga and others, so is versed in spoiling rock stars who are brave enough to perform on such a contentious stage. They are guaranteed a deliciously warm welcome wherever they stay.

Clockwise from top left: Tel Aviv at its most diverse and joyful during Pride, Mamilla in Jerusalem, the new R48 Hotel and Garden in Tel Aviv and the exterior of the Dan Tel Aviv

Adam Lambert

Holy TREASURES

proceeds allowed 60 residents to build homes, while the Anglo-Palestine Company became Israel’s largest bank: Bank Leumi.

The Balfour Declaration

Anglo-Palestine Company

Ahuzat Bayit (‘homestead’) was a group seeking to form an urban community outside of Ja a in 1906, which approached the Jewish National Fund for a loan to purchase land. The JNF was supportive but for one problem: local laws prevented it. The Anglo-Palestine Company, formed four years earlier to fund

settlement and development initiatives, determined that the loan was too risky, but came up with a plan: the JNF loaned 300,000 French francs to Anglo-Palestine, which issued a series of 300 bonds against the loan, at 1000 francs each. Anglo-Palestine loaned the funds back to the founders of Ahuzat Bayit, which became the original name of Tel Aviv. The

The Balfour Declaration of 2 November 1917 was the British government’s statement of public support for a Jewish homeland in Palestine. It was a hand-delivered letter from foreign secretary Lord Arthur Balfour to Lord Walter Rothschild, president of the English Zionist Federation. Rothschild said the Declaration was the most momentous historical Jewish occasion in 1,800 years: for the first time since the Roman dispersion from Palestine in 70CE, aspirations for a national home were recognised. The declaration was celebrated across the world – children were named Balfoura, and a cottage area north of Toronto was named after it: Balfour Beach.

Palestine Foundation Fund

Keren Hayesod (Palestine Foundation Fund) was established in 1920 in London, to finance the Zionist movement’s work to bring about the return of the Jewish people to the Land of Israel. Leading figures from Chaim Weizmann to Ze’ev Jabotinsky were involved in its fundraising e orts. Keren Hayesod helped raise the seed money to establish the Hebrew University and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. It also helped develop the Haifa Bay suburbs to settle German Jewish refugees in the 1930s, and established dozens of communities to house the waves of immigrants after Israel’s creation. It continues to serve as a link between the people of Israel and Jewish communities around the world.

Sir Edmund Allenby

General Sir Edmund Allenby (1861-

1936) commanded the British Army’s Egyptian Expeditionary Force in the First World War. He led the conquest of southern Palestine, including Gaza and Beersheva, before capturing Jerusalem in December 1917, which ended nearly 500 years of Ottoman or Turkish rule. When he arrived in Jerusalem, Allenby rode his horse to the Ja a Gate, then dismounted to enter the Old City on foot out of respect for the holiness of the site – in contrast to Germany’s Kaiser Wilhelm, who in 1898 rode into the city on a white horse. Allenby worked with Jerusalem’s community leaders to ensure that the religious sites of all faiths were protected. Allenby Junior Public School in Toronto’s Lawrence Park neighbourhood,

which opened in 1931, is named in his honour.

End of British Mandate

The United Nations voted on 29 November 1947 to partition Palestine to create separate Jewish and Arab states. The British decided to end their mandate on Saturday 15 May 1948, but the State of Israel was declared before sundown the night before, by David Ben-Gurion. The invitation to the Declaration of Independence ceremony – the most momentous Jewish event in 2,000 years – was a plain piece of folded printed paper delivered by bicycle courier. Guests were invited to the Tel Aviv Museum, but asked to keep it a secret. Great excitement was combined with fear, as all in attend-

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So much and so many went into building the state of Israel. David Matlow highlights the British impact on its creation

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INDEPENDENCE. 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

A copy of the historic Balfour Declaration of November 1917

The newly-constructed King David Hotel opened in 1931

ance knew a long, hard fight to protect the Jewish state would follow.

Lord (Arthur) Balfour

The Balfour Declaration was the statement of the British government that it views “with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people”. Lord (Arthur)Balfour, the author of those words, toured Palestine in 1925 at the invitation of Zionist leader Chaim Weizmann. He attended the ceremonial opening of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and was welcomed throughout his tour with great honour and ceremony by the Jewish population. But the Arab population greeted Balfour with strikes and protests; after Palestine, he travelled to Damascus, where he was greeted by a hostile crowd of 6,000. A riot ensued. Fearing for his safety, Balfour ended his trip to Syria early and returned home.

Secret stamps

Israel’s first postage stamps said Doar Ivri (Hebrew post) because they were printed before the country’s name was known. Never before had a state prepared its first stamps without knowing the name it would eventually adopt. Prepared in secret because doing so was illegal while the British were still in the country, they feature ancient Hebrew coins to emphasise the connection of the Jewish people to its ancestral homeland. Tabs were added on the bottom row of each sheet to trans-

late the coin’s inscription. Israel was declared on Friday May 14 and on Sunday post o ces sold these stamps. It was the first tangible sign that the Jewish state had been born.

King David Hotel

The King David Hotel opened in Jerusalem in 1931 with construction financing provided by wealthy Egyptian Jews and the National Bank of Egypt. Since then, it has hosted emperors, kings and many world leaders, including seven US presidents. During the British Mandate, the south wing of the hotel served as the British administrative and military headquarters. In a controversial operation, on 22 July 1946 the Irgun military group bombed the hotel, resulting in 91 deaths. Multiple scenes of the movie Exodus were filmed here, including Ari Ben Canaan (Paul Newman) lunching on the terrace overlooking the Old City.

Jewish Army Brigade

The Jewish Brigade of the British Army was the source of a 1945 Rosh Hashanah card from a Palestinian soldier wishing for a year of redemption and restoration of the Jewish state. During the Second World War, about 30,000 Jewish volunteers from Palestine served with the British forces: 700 were killed. Flying the Zionist flag, the brigade fought in Italy from March 1945 until the German surrender in May. The soldiers also helped organise displaced persons camps

for Holocaust survivors and assisted the illegal immigration of Jewish refugees to Palestine. Brigade veterans served with distinction in the Israel Defence Forces and 35 rose to the ranks of general.

Dov Guner

Dov Gruner was a member of the Irgun, the pre-state Jewish paramilitary group that operated in Palestine during the British Mandate. Gruner joined the Irgun after serving in the British army fighting the Nazis. He was wounded in a raid against a police station, captured and charged. His trial before a British military court began on 1 January 1947. Gruner refused to recognise the authority of the court on the grounds that the British betrayed their commitment to help establish the Jewish homeland, saying “there is no power in the world which can sever the tie between the Jewish people and their one and only land”. Refusing to o er a defence or accept any commutation, on 16 April 1947 Gruner was hanged in Acre prison along with three colleagues. He was 35.

British end postal services

The Partition Resolution, passed by the United Nations on 29 November 1947, called for the creation of a Jewish State and the end

of the British Mandate. The British then started to wind down their administrative duties, including ending postal services in April 1948. But, to ensure that the public would still be able to send and receive mail, the provisional Jewish government in Palestine improvised and authorised the use of pre-existing Jewish

David Matlow, a lawyer from Toronto, Canada, owns a large collection of Zionist and Theodor Herzl memorabilia (more than 6,000 items). In his weekly Treasure Trove column in the Canadian Jewish News (www.thecjn.ca) David shares information about

National Fund stamps (overprinted with the word ‘Doar’, or post) as valid postage stamps. Among these JNF stamps were one depicting the partition map of the independent Jewish state and the other the Negev water pipeline. Israel issued its own stamps immediately after independence.

one item from his collection which, when they are all pieced together, tell the story of the dream for a Jewish homeland, and the realisation of that dream. More information about David’s collection is available at www.herzlcollection.com

CHAI GAVE US OUR MUMMY BACK

“When I was diagnosed with breast cancer last year, I just didn’t know what to do. I had my surgery in Israel as both mine and my husband’s families live there. Then I had a big decision to make - where would I have my treatment? How could I uproot my husband and girls? But equally, how would I get through my chemotherapy here without our families’ support? Then my oncologist told me about Chai. They have been amazing – I truly believe there is nothing like it in the world.

Being able to rely on Chai’s all-encompassing support gave me the confi dence to come home to my husband and girls.

Thanks to Chai, we’re together as a family again”

0808

One of the first Israeli postage stamps, which says Doar Ivri (Hebrew post); and postcards from the era

in a

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MAKING SENSE OF THE SEDRA

BY RABBI ARIEL ABEL CHAPLAIN IN THE BRITISH ARMY & SOLICITOR

How the Torah cares for birthing mothers

Last month, the NHS announced a programme to roll out specialist treatment centres for birthing mothers with serious medical concerns, 17 new centres of excellence to help women with pregnancy-related issues to get quickly the extra care they might need.

This week’s Torah double-bill reading, Tazria-Metzora, opens with a prime medical, health and welfare concern in the community: birthing

mothers. It focuses on a mandatory convalescence period of 40 days for a boy and 80 days for girl. My wife had previously observed this period, called la dieta, but was astonished and disappointed to find that in the UK Orthodox community, other than the traditional wait for the ‘unclean’ days of menstruation to be over, there was no respect shown to the Torahmandated days of convalescence.

The post-partum days are called in the Torah days of ‘purification’ and cleanliness, time to recover, to avoid the pollution of the outdoors, to have all meals taken care of and to eat foods that assist the repair of body and soul.

My wife retells the practice, which without supporting family is almost impossible to observe under the stresses of fast-paced urban life. An important food served during

this time is chicken soup. Outside Judaism, this observance is predominant in this country among Muslims. The ways of the Near and Middle East are our roots, which we have forgotten. Regaining this ground requires reconnecting with home and community in new ways.

The Charedi community has taken steps in that direction with a seaside respite centre for birthing mothers. Women need peace, space and to be unpressured so they and their children can bond. The NHS has some dedicated birthing suites, and a child of ours was born in one of these. We enjoyed the peace of a four-bed dedicated birthing centre, with a vista of the Pennines. The experience was both calming and reassuring.

By contrast, the birth of our next child was traumatic. Whereas it was

medically safe, in a hospital, the atmosphere was medicalised and at some point became distressing. The after-e ects of the less-than-positive experience impacted on us as a family for up to three years.

Levels of medical care, as other communal services, are only as good as they should be when they are not only technically up-to-grade but also experientially positive. The impact on users of service lasts way beyond the

day of discharge – which is perhaps why the Torah stresses convalescence and does not discuss when the wife will be available to resume relations with her spouse or run her home.

The priorities of Torah are a woman’s relationship first with herself, then with God; a message contrary to misogynistic presumptions about religion.

This piece is dedicated to Lielle Emma on her third birthday.

Headteacher: Miss Judith Caplan B.Ed Hons, NPQH Principal: Dayan Ivan Binstock 180 Willesden Lane, London NW6 7PP T: 020 8459 3378

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

Assistant Headteacher

From September 2023

Salary Scale: L2 -L8 (depending on experience)

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.

NWLJDS is committed to safeguarding children; all appointments will be subject to satisfactory references and an enhanced Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) check

www.nwljds.org.uk

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

Progressive Judaism

LEAP OF FAITH

BY RABBI MARK GOLDSMITH

SENIOR RABBI AT EDGWARE & HENDON REFORM SYNAGOGUE

– Israel at 75

Ezekiel, prophesying in the midst of the Babylonian exile, had a highly optimistic view of what the Jews being back in Israel would mean.

He had a vision of God saying: “I will take you from among the nations, and gather you from all countries, and will bring you into your own land… A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put inside you… you shall live in the land that I gave to your ancestors; and you shall be my people, and I will be your God” (Ezekiel 32:24-28) .

Over the past 75 years, since the state of Israel’s declaration of independence, that has certainly happened.

The Jewish people have a new spirit, where we know that there is one country in the world where we are all welcome.

It has not been without struggle. The assertion of Israel’s first president, Chaim Weizmann, that “the state of Israel will not be given to you on a silver platter” remains true. Progressive Judaism has to work constantly to make sure that all Jews are

welcome in Israel, whether born Jewish or converted to Judaism in their lifetime.

We have to struggle to ensure that you can freely and wholeheartedly follow the kind of Judaism in Israel that enables you to find your way to God, whether that be Progressive, Masorti or Orthodox, with equal access to Israel’s religious infrastructure.

We join all Israel’s citizens in working to ensure that the state will, in the words of the 1948 Declaration of Independence, “rest upon the foundations of liberty, justice and peace as envisioned by the prophets of Israel, maintaining complete equality of social and political rights for all its citizens, without distinction of creed, race or gender”.

We pray for and work for peace between Israel and the Palestinians of the West Bank and Gaza and between Israel and her surrounding nations, never losing sight of that goal.

Above all, Israel is worthy of celebration. A week after the Jewish world celebrates the State of Israel’s 75th anniversary, the World Union for Progressive Judaism will hold its international convention in Jerusalem.

The meeting will be in our headquarters, based there since 1973, bringing Jews from all around the world together for a wonderful week of study, prayer and vision.

Jerusalem is now a centre where Progressive Jews around the world learn from our Israeli rabbis and educa-

tors and each other, where Israel helps to give new heart and new spirit to all.

We come to build and be built, to strengthen and be strengthened by Israel.

For more information and application details please visit https://jobs.jfutures.org

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

An Israel where all Jews are welcome is worthy of celebration

Ask our

Our trusty team of advisers answers your questions about everything from law and finance to dating and dentistry. This week: The benefits of regular exercise, dance classes for children and private health care

DR BEN LEVY GOAL ATTAINMENT SPECIALIST

Dear Ben

I’d really like to get fitter, but I don’t know where to start. Can you help?

Rebecca

Dear Rebecca

Good for you! I know that long term lifestyle changes can feel too big to manage. But I’ve got good news. Research shows that big changes don’t stick when they rely on strong willpower or grand initiatives. Instead, we change best when we develop small new habits and build from there.

The science of habit formation shows us that we need three things to successfully create (and stick with) a new behaviour: a reli-

upbeat environment and it was such a healthy outlet.

LOUISE LEACH

PRINCIPAL, PERFORMING

SCHOOL

DANCING WITH LOUISE

Dear Louise

I am despairing as my 15-year-old daughter is not her usual self. She is feeling low, and her confidence is declining. She doesn’t do much exercise and spends endless hours on her phone. She used to attend dance classes but when she started high school she stopped and never got back into it. She enjoyed being with her friends in an active and

able point in the day to carry out the new habit; a very simple, doable action that starts us on the journey to our goal; and finally, a way to feel great about what we have achieved. We call this a habit recipe. How might a getting fitter habit recipe look for you? Here’s an example: After breakfast every morning do two sit ups and smile, telling yourseld – ‘ I’ve started my journey to becoming fitter’.

When we work together in our Make It Happen sessions, we’ll design a few habit recipes that work just right for you and plan how to build them up over time, so you’ll become stronger and more optimistic before you know it.

I’m wondering if you had any advice as she hasn’t danced properly in a couple of years so not sure if it’s too late to start again? I’m desperate for her to have a hobby and get back to her old bubbly self.

Anon

Dear Anon

Absolutely! We are witnessing this so much in today’s generation of young teens. With access to social media and screen overload, this is having a blatant detrimental e ect on young adults’ mental health and well-being. There is no question that dance will help as not only will she be able to channel her energy into something positive, the social aspect

will be fantastic too, and being at classes will also mean time away from the screen. Not to mention the release of endorphins when being physically active that allows our students to feel uplifted and energised. She will also be learning new skills which will in turn raise her confidence levels.

Our teen Hip Hop is a great place to start when getting back into dance as you don’t need any past experience to join a class. Plus it’s current and fun. I have no doubt your daughter will feel the benefits.

PATIENT HEALTH PRIVATE HEALTHCARE SPECIALIST TREVOR GEE

Dear Trevor

I see that you provide private health cover. Will the NHS cover for us for some ongoing issues if we now start a plan, as I waited over eight months for some minor treatment and would rather not stop it if we take out a policy.

Dear David

I am sorry that you had to wait such a long time to

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receive treatment and hope your recovery is going well.

The major reason why taking out private health cover is for exactly these type of situations, where waiting for tests and consultations may take months and for some operations, years.

The public pay for the NHS but the NHS can’t always be there for us, so if you have now treatment in place then you should continue it.

Also, in this case a new plan would not cover the current condition. Since December 2022, over 500,000 appointments have been cancelled under the NHS, with strikes certainly causing massive disruption and anxiety.

The NHS can be

outstanding and helps millions of people each year, but reality dictates that if you can by-pass the NHS queues, and see highly qualifies consultants, then it is sensible to consider doing that with a private plan.

I had a client in my o ce today, (Wednesday 19 April), who runs his own removals and storage company, who told me that his daughter woke up yesterday with a bad stomach ache and could not get an appointment with her GP. He now wants to avoid that problem next time, as most insurers now provide 24/7 Virtual GP access.

So, it’s

health cover, and we would be pleased to advise.

ARTS

MAKE IT HAPPEN

Our Experts

Got a question for a member of our team?

Email: editorial@jewishnews.co.uk

PRIVATE HEALTHCARE SPECIALIST

TREVOR GEE

Qualifications:

Email: editorial@jewishnews.co.uk

• Managing director, consultant specialists in affordable family health insurance

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

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

• LLB solicitors finals

• Member of Chartered Insurance Institute

PATIENT HEALTH 020 3146 3444/5/6

www.patienthealth.co.uk

trevor.gee@patienthealth.co.uk

JONATHAN WILLIAMS

Qualifications:

JEWELLER

• Jewellery manufacturer since 1980s

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

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

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

DIRECTOR OF LEGACIES

CAROLYN ADDLEMAN

Qualifications:

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

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

• Member of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners

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

REMOVALS MANAGING DIRECTOR

STEPHEN MORRIS

Qualifications:

• Managing director of Stephen Morris Shipping Ltd

• 45 years’ experience in shipping household and personal effects

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

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

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

CHILD AND ADOLESCENT PSYCHIATRIST

DR MONICA QUADIR

Qualifications:

• Consultant child and adolescent psychiatrist with more than 12 years of experience in treating young people and their families, both in the NHS and privately

• Expertise in assessing neurodevelopmental conditions, such as ADHD and autism, and supporting families to manage these conditions

• Medical director at Psymplicity Healthcare, a private mental health clinic based in London, with a national online presence

PSYMPLICITY HEALTHCARE 020 3733 5277

www.psymplicity.com enquiries@psymplicity.com

FINANCIAL SERVICES

JOE OZER

Qualifications:

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

• Worked in finance for more than 20 years

• Specialists in distribution and promotion of Israel Bonds

DEVELOPMENT COMPANY FOR ISRAEL 020 3936 2712

www.israelbondsintl.com joe.ozer@israelbondsintl.com

GOAL ATTAINMENT SPECIALIST

DR BEN LEVY

Qualifications:

• Doctor of psychology with 15 years’ experience in education and corporate sectors

• Uses robust, evidence-based methods to help you achieve your goals, whatever they may be

• Works with clients individually to maximise success

MAKE IT HAPPEN 07779 619 597

www.makeit-happen.co.uk

ben@makeit-happen.co.uk

CHARITY EXECUTIVE

SUE CIPIN

Qualifications:

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

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

• Extensive services for people affected by hearing loss/tinnitus

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

• Hearing aid advice, support and maintenance

JEWISH DEAF ASSOCIATION 020 8446 0502

www.jdeaf.org.uk

mail@jdeaf.org.uk

PRINCIPAL, PERFORMING ARTS SCHOOL

LOUISE LEACH

Qualifications:

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

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

• Set up Dancing with Louise 19 years ago

DANCING WITH LOUISE 075 0621 7833

www.dancingwithlouise.co.uk

Info@dancingwithlouise.com

FINANCIAL SERVICES (FCA) COMPLIANCE

JACOB BERNSTEIN

Qualifications:

• A member of the APCC, specialising in financial services compliance for:

• Mortgage, protection and general insurance intermediaries;

• Lenders, credit brokers, debt counsellors and debt managers;

• Alternative Investment Fund managers;

• E-Money, payment services, PISP, AISP and grant-making charities.

RICHDALE CONSULTANTS LTD

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

MENOPAUSE CHAMPION LABALANCE

ANGELA DAY-MOORE

Qualifications:

• Founder & CEO Sassy La Femme 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

ARE YOU PAYING TOO MUCH FOR YOUR PRIVATE HEALTH COVER?

ARE YOU PAYING TOO MUCH FOR YOUR HEALTH PLAN?

Get it checked, free of charge, by an FCA registered, leading health insurance consultant

Patient Health is this newspapers ‘Ask The Expert’

GET IT CHECCKED, FREE OF CHARGE, BY AN FCA REGISTERED, LEADING HEALTH INSURANCE CONSULTANT PATIENT HEALTH IS THIS NEWSPAPER’S ‘ASK THE EXPERT’

See how you could significantly reduce your premiums and possibly obtain a higher level of cover, and we will always explain whether pre-existing conditions would be covered. We’re also happy for you to call or pop-in.

SEE HOW YOU COULD SIGNIFICANTLY REDUCE THE PREMIUMS AND PERHAPS EVEN OBTAIN HIGHER COVER AND WE WILL ALWAYS EXPLAIN WHETHER PRE EXISTING CONDITIONS WOULD BE COVERED WE RE ALSO HAPPY FOR YOU TO CALL OR POP-IN

020 3146 3444 trevor.gee@patienthealth.co.uk

Where service is all about helping the client, only the client and nothing but the client

020 3146 3444 trevor gee@patienthealth co uk Where service is all about helping the clieent, only the client and nothing but the client

WHERE FAMILY HEALTH COMES FIRST Tel: 0203 146 3444/3446: info@patienthealth.co.uk:

FCA Regulated 773729: Member of Chartered Insurance Institute

Business Services Directory

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

21

ACROSS

1 Hoisted by pulley (7)

5 Frame for a crime (3,2)

9 If all else fails (2,1,4,6)

WORDSEARCH

VL OD EL O TST IL O

AA LG UE RN IC AAP

JB LI ST UA RN BGS

RO BE VTE U VLA AO

ED EG NE MN II LL M

NRN LC CS BO IL EA

PO I AE SIV CI EA D

TC DE UO IA JN BS R

EI OT EE NUR IR GI

ZN RS DT RR T EAP D

NU MO ET EPA LM AC

ALICANTE

AVILA

BARCELONA

BENIDORM

BILBAO

CADIZ

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.

11 Large deep bay (4)

12 Stained, marred (9)

16 Dossier (4)

17 Permits (8)

19 Gentle persuasion (13)

21 Nonsense (5)

22 Brief moment (7)

DOWN

2 Implant (6)

3 Prepare (land) for crops (9)

4 Alleviates (5)

6 Passports, eg (3)

7 Rowdy, uncontrollable (6)

8 Hard outer edges (6)

11 Area of open land around a city (5,4)

13 ___ Dean, old pub song (6)

14 Boat’s steering device (6)

15 Church officer (6)

18 Leonard ___, Suzanne singer (5)

3

4 9

5

CORDOBA GRANADA GUERNICA IRUN

LEON

MADRID

20 Pinch, squeeze sharply (3) MALAGA

SEVILLE

TOLEDO TRUJILLO VALENCIA

Last issue’s solutions

Crossword

ACROSS: 1 Cough drop, 8 Talc, 9 Reluctant, 10 Thai, 13 Chose, 16 Canal, 17 X-rays, 18 Isaac, 19 Storm, 20 Elton, 21 Basil, 24 Army, 27 Canoeists, 28 Edna, 29 Recycling.

DOWN: 2 Odes, 3 Glut, 4 Dutch, 5 Oinks, 6 Bath salts, 7 Eclipsing, 11 Ice-skated, 12 Endowment, 13 Climb, 14 Opals, 15 Excel, 22 Amaze, 23 Irony, 25 Lidl, 26 Stan.

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

SUGURU

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

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

Wordsearch MF TJ QD SO SAYEB R RE DUC KL IN GM M K YRS OT DP WF RA A IR EF I EHA IN OS L TC VS OL FA EG QA E T HER HW GS NU LLL EI LC RO TN AF IE G NC PE YLS BI NLR T OK VL IG ADE L UAR ML NN E AN VSBS OC ET G RIH UEHAN OS FI LL YJ WE TO CD G EL O PDA T RPU PPY Sudoku 3 6 4 8 1 5 9 7 2 9 8 7 2 3 4 1 6 5 5 2 1 7 6 9 4 3 8 8 3 6 4 2 1 7 5 9 4 9 5 6 7 8 2 1 3 7 1 2 9 5 3 6 8 4 2 5 3 1 9 6 8 4 7 1 7 8 3 4 2 5 9 6 6 4 9 5 8 7 3 2 1 Suguru 241 5 2 3 5 3 241 5 21 5 3 24 3 421 5 1 21 3 4 3 4 3 4 5 121 4 3212 1 5 1453 5 3 2324 1 4 1413 2 3 5325 1 1 2143 2

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

Kisharon offers Gitty the ability to learn

Kisharon offers education, opportunity and support for people with learning disabilities throughout life’s journey.

Kisharon’s wide range of services enable everyone we support to thrive, grow and make a valuable contribution in our community. However, the future sees an anticipated 12% increase in demand for our services. This forecast, coupled with crippling social care cuts and increasing inflation rates, means we need your urgent help.

Your ability to give = our ability to deliver vital services for everyone supported by Kisharon.