1426 - 3rd July 2025

Maccabi GB Community Fun Run, Pages 22-23

Red Shield

IRAN ATTACKS. MAGEN DAVID ADOM RESPONDS.

As the ceasefire began and the last missiles landed on Israel, the people of Magen David Adom continued to do what they had so bravely done for the eleven days before. They saved more lives.

From the declaration of a special state of emergency on Friday 13th June, Magen David Adom raised its alert level to the highest state of preparedness. All MDA ambulances and mobile intensive care units (MICUs), emergency medicycles, and rapid response vehicles were fully staffed, and the organisation’s 35,000 volunteers and employees were mobilised to provide swift and efficient medical care for any need.

Magen David Adom teams were dispatched to provide medical treatment at multiple

scenes, arriving in large numbers. MDA’s EMTs and paramedics provided medical treatment to 1,347 casualties, including: 28 fatalities, 17 seriously injured, 29 in moderate condition, 872 lightly injured, and 401 suffering from anxiety. Magen David Adom remains on high alert, ready to provide immediate medical response when needed. Paying tribute in person to the heroic medics, paramedics and volunteers of Magen David Adom were President & Mrs Herzog and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. President Herzog said, “Magen David Adom is one of the best early responders in the world. An incredible organisation, which has become so sophisticated. I want to thank the volunteers

and I want to encourage all those who support Magen David Adom to keep on doing it.”

Prime Minister Netanyahu was equally thankful for the work of MDA over the campaign. “What you’re doing here, is unparalleled in the world. Primarily in terms of the equipment, the technology. But the structure of the activists, the volunteers — that is the people of Israel and the State of Israel at their best”.

David Adom UK

President and Mrs Herzog, with Director-General Eli Bin and MDA volunteers at the Marcus National Blood Services Centre in Ramla.

Bulletin from Magen David Adom UK | Number 56 | Summer 2025

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visits MDA Headquarters in Ramla, with Director-General of MDA, Eli Bin, and President of MDA, Gilad Erdan.

LIFE IS PRECIOUS

The name Kfir Bibas is one that none of us will ever forget. The pictures of the youngest hostage, taken at just 9 months and murdered along with his mother, Shiri and brother Ariel, will be etched in our memories forever. The ginger hair, the Batman pyjamas and the smile on the face that lives eternally as a baby - deprived of the opportunity to ever grow up. It was incumbent on us to do something to preserve his tragically short life and those of his mother and brother. As such, it was an absolute honour to dedicate a First Responder Community Vehicle in their memory earlier this year. To be joined by the surviving members of their family, together with our Vice President Judy Saphra, who made the dedication possible, was one of the most moving events I have ever attended.

Life is precious, but life is also precarious. Our dedications, whilst offering meaning and memory, also provide new opportunities to save lives in the future. In these difficult times, we can be proud that our support for Magen David Adom is directly saving lives every single day. However, we do not just invest in the ambulances and equipment, but also in those tasked with using them. Our teams in Israel, 35,000 strong, incorporating more volunteers than any other organisation in the country, are heroes. But beyond that, they are ordinary people too. Teachers and shopkeepers, mothers and fathers, who give up so much to save lives. I am always humbled when they thank us for enabling them to do what they do. It goes without saying that we cannot thank them enough.

Daniel Burger Chief Executive Magen David Adom UK

MDA UK DEDICATES EMERGENCY VEHICLE IN MEMORY OF BIBAS FAMILY

In a moving ceremony, Magen David Adom UK Vice President Judy Saphra dedicated a first-responder community vehicle to the people of Israel in loving memory of Shiri, Ariel and Kfir Bibas. The dedication took place in Tel Aviv, bringing together family members and representatives of MDA to honour the Bibas family, whose heartbreaking story has echoed around the world.

Surviving members of the Bibas family were in attendance together with MDA Director-General Eli Bin and MDA personnel, family and friends. Renowned IDF Chief Cantor and senior Magen David Adom volunteer medic, Shai Abramson, performed at the dedication.

Daniel Burger, Chief Executive of Magen David Adom UK, expressed heartfelt appreciation for the generous gift. “The Bibas story is one that touched every single one of us. It is an honour for us that a Magen David Adom lifesaving vehicle has been dedicated by our Vice President Judy

Saphra in the memory of Shiri, Ariel and Kfir to the benefit of all the people of Israel. Amidst the destruction of life, this lifesaving vehicle is a symbol of hope, resilience and saving lives. And dedicating this vehicle on the very day of the 80th anniversary of VE Day (Victory in Europe) is a particularly touching reminder that good always triumphs over evil”.

The ceremony concluded with a poignant release of orange balloons — the colour now symbolic of the Bibas family — serving as both a reminder and a message of hope for the hostages who remain in captivity.

EVERY COMMUNITY COUNTS

The first half of the year has been busy for Magen David Adom UK’s local committeesraising much needed funds for Magen David Adom in Israel.

Steven Jaffe, a community fundraiser for MDA UK and Northern Ireland Friends of Israel, led Christian-focused outreach. He addressed two Presbyterian churches and attended a Passover event hosted by an independent Methodist Church. These gatherings spread awareness and raised generous donations.

At another event organised by the MDA National Council and CFMDA’s Annette Powell, Steven Jaffe, together with Marc Meyer (CFMDA Honorary President and MDA UK Trustee), Efrat Perri (Israeli Embassy), and a representative of the Hostages Family Forum, addressed the attendees. Steven also met with a Prayer for Israel group in Cardiff, continuing his MDA UK outreach efforts.

In April, the MDA Impromptu Committee hosted a Q&A in Hendon with Rachel Riley MBE, a

prominent advocate for Israel and MDA. The brunch was attended by 100 supporters.

A bridge tournament took place at the Hartsbourne Golf Club in aid of MDA UK this May. 90 supporters attended and raised over £10,000 Also in May, MDA UK CEO Daniel Burger spoke at the Glasgow Friends of Israel’s 10th Anniversary Conference.

MDA UK sincerely thanks all committees for their tireless dedication to saving lives. If you want to organise an event to raise funds for our teams in Israel, please be in touch.

Judy Saphra, MDA UK Vice President, with members of the Bibas family and Hostages and Families Forum

Brenda Elton (MDA Impromptu Committee) in conversation with Rachel Riley MBE

In January, facilitated Missing father British with a kidnapped on 7 October Gaza. greater Dani’s and Peers Polak, Priti Patel

Every year, supporters design the name

To honour challenge

Thank You

The Prince Fifty Champions raised money through cycle, to or donating

Manchester Power tournament

Padel Club. with Marc winners Marshall

Maccabi GB Community Fun Run, Pages 22-23

Crime watched

A performer rants about ‘f****** Zionists’ and leads Glastonbury in a chant for Israelis to die – and our national broadcaster airs it all without blinking. After scandal upon scandal, is the ’s moral tuner now broken beyond repair?

In your own time, BBC. Bob Vylan’s 5 mins of hate... and no one pulled the plug

One of the jobs that I did, I’ve worked for a record label, and it’s funny because when I worked there the boss of the record label, we would talk every so often, and er he would talk very strongly about his support for Israel. (Crowd boos). Treading on that line, do you know what I mean? He was treading on that line. And then this letter, this list of names came out recently trying to stop our mates Kneecap from performing here today, and who do I see on that f****** list of names but that bald-headed c*** I used to f****** work for? So look, we have done it all alright, from working in bars to working for f****** Zionists, and if we can do this, then I promise you lot you can do anything that you put your mind to. I’m telling you this. Trust me. Don’t give up on your dreams, and if you’ve got to go to that shitty job to pay your bills and pay your rent, then you do what you’ve gotta do to survive in this world. So this next one is Northern line for everybody out there on commute to a f***** job that they don’t wanna do. So yeah, man, obviously, we’re seeing some f**** up things happening in the world. And er, you know, we’re seeing the UK and the US be complacent in war crimes and genocide happening over there to the Palestinian people. And er, I know we are on the BBC not going to say anything crazy or anything, all right. Leave that for them lads.

But we have seen, unfortunately we have seen a strange reaction to people that come out and voice support for Palestine. Even though anybody with any kind of moral compass can surely tell that what is happening over there in Gaza is a tragedy. So look, we are not pacifist punks here over at Bob Vylan Enterprises, we are not pacifist punks. We are the violent punks, because sometimes you’ve gotta get your message across with violence because that is the only language that some people speak, unfortunately. This next song we want to dedicate it to every single band that is using their platform to speak up for the Palestinian people and speak against the crimes that Israel, the UK, the US and much of the western world are complacent in. So this is for all of you, this is for Murdercapital, this is for Kneecap, this is for Amyl and the Sniffers, every single band out there, using their platform to speak up for the Palestinian people, coz we must pray, wish, hope to see a day where the Palestinian people are liberated and free from the tyranny of the Israeli government. Free, free Palestine! Free, free Palestine! Free, free Palestine! Free, free Palestine! All right but have you heard this one? Death, death to the IDF! Death, death to the IDF! Death, death to the IDF! (Crowd: Death, death to the IDF!] Hell yeah, from the river to the sea, Palestine must be, will be, inshallah, it will be free’ [Crowd cheers].

National broadcaster turned national disgrace: the BBC showed Pascal Robinson-Foster’s diatribe and death chant in full, live from Glastonbury on Saturday afternoon

Israel ‘accepts conditions’ for 60-day Gaza ceasefire

Israel has accepted “the necessary conditions to finalise” a 60-day ceasefire deal in Gaza, US President Donald Trump announced this week, in a breakthrough in a stalled negotiation to end the war, writes Annabel Sinclair.

In a post on Tuesday on Truth Social, he wrote: “We will work with all parties to end the war. I hope, for the good of the Middle East, that Hamas takes this deal because it will not get better – it will only get worse.”

The proposed two-month truce was reportedly agreed following meetings between senior US officials and Israel’s strategic affairs minister Ron Dermer in Washington. Trump said Egypt and Qatar will now relay the finalised plan to Hamas.

Israeli officials have not confirmed Trump’s announcement, and two Arab diplomats told The Times of Israel that major sticking points remain – including Hamas’s demand to return to the pre-war method of distributing aid. Israel insists the current Gaza Humanitarian Foundation system prevents Hamas from diverting supplies, but critics say it forces civilians into dangerous zones under IDF fire.

Under the reported terms of the 60-day pause Hamas would release 10 living hostages and return the bodies of 18 Israelis. The release of the remaining hostages would be conditional on a permanent ceasefire being reached during

that period. A source told The Times of Israel that Hamas’s reply to the proposal was “generally positive,” but included demands aimed at preventing Israel from resuming hostilities if talks on a permanent truce stall.

One of the amendments suggested by

Hamas would lead to the spreading out of the hostage releases more evenly during the ceasefire – rather than handing over most captives early on – to keep diplomatic pressure on Israel to follow through.

Trump said he expects a deal to be reached

24 Iranian Jews jailed in regime crackdown

Twenty-four members of the Jewish communities of Tehran and Shiraz remain in prison after being arrested along with hundreds of others in a sweeping government crackdown in Iran that began as fighting ended with Israel.

The arrests took in 35 Jews originally, according to a report by HRANA, the Human Rights Activist News Agency, an affiliate of the Human Rights in Iran NGO.

Mass arrests began early on 23 June, according to the report. Eleven Jews have been since been freed, according to a former senior Iranian communal leader, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The charges filed against those being held — having contact with Israel — have the potential to ensnare many members of the Jewish community, he said. Iranian officials have been hunting alleged collaborators with Israel following Israel’s attacks on Iran and the United States’ bombing of the country’s most fortified nuclear facility.

The former Iranian communal leader, who remains in close touch

with the community, said Iranian authorities are checking the mobile phones of those they arrest, looking for records of any calls to Israel.

“Most Iranian Jews have family in Israel,” said the former high-ranking communal leader, who today lives in Los Angeles. During the military conflict last month, many Iranian Jews reached out to check on the safety of their relatives in Israel.

“They are completely prohibited from any connection to Israel,” he

said. But such communications were quietly tolerated given the reality of family connections. Following the war with Israel, the authorities are tightening their policies. Under the new rules, he said, “They can accuse anyone of being a spy for Israel.”

The arrests of the Jews, who reportedly include several rabbis, appear to be part of a crackdown in which more than 700 people have detained since 13 June, when Israel initiated its attacks on Iran.

as soon as next week, ahead of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to the White House. “I think we’ll have a deal next week,” the US president said. “Netanyahu wants it too.”

Separately, Netanyahu is reported to have told his security cabinet: “We need to kill every person that holds a weapon. Nothing less than this.” But Israel’s Channel 12 claimed that he was now prepared to compromise.

In Gaza, at least 50 hostages remain in captivity, including the bodies of at least 28 people confirmed dead by the IDF. More than 20 hostages are still thought to be alive and their plight has been at the forefront of rallies in Israel calling for an end to the war.

An 82-year-old woman has died from her injuries following the Molotov cocktail attack on a pro-Israel rally in Boulder, Colorado, last month.

Karen Diamond was among eight people wounded on 1 June when firebombs were thrown at a demonstration in support of Israeli hostages.

“Karen Diamond died as a result of the severe injuries that she suffered in the attack,” the Boulder County District Attorney’s Office said in a statement on Monday.

Prosecutors allege the attacker, Mohamed Sabry Soliman, approached the group outside a

A Hamas supporter who called for Jews to be “burnt alive” and spoke about “hunting them for fun” has been jailed for more than five years.

Zakir Hussein, 29, of no fixed address, was arrested in March last year after Met officers linked him to Twitter account posting statements in support of Hamas and Hezbollah.

Posts on the account @ lewiswarren911 between November 2023 and January 2024 included “7 October was a beautiful day, Jews stop hiding”, “In the UK, we are hunting them for fun.”

In early January 2024 the account

courthouse disguised in a high-visibility vest and posing as a gardener. He then hurled two Molotov cocktails while shouting “Free Palestine”.

The Egyptian national, who entered the US unlawfully, faces 12 federal hate crime charges and multiple counts of attempted murder.

Investigators say he planned to kill up to 20 people and had prepared dozens of homemade firebombs but only threw two before being stopped.

Soliman pleaded not guilty at a federal court hearing last week. He did not speak and followed proceedings via an Arabic interpreter.

posted: “I’m in London, any Jew out there come out and stand up for your religion.” Its last post later that month was: “Burn them alive, no religion can abuse children the way they do.”

Hussein had initially denied any wrongdoing, but in February changed his plea and admitted 11 charges against him. Having been imprisoned on remand for the past year, he was jailed for five years and eight months, with an extra three years on licence.

Hussein was already serving a suspended sentence for a conviction of malicious communications offences committed in 2021 and 2022.

Families and supporters of Israeli hostages protest in Jerusalem this week

Benjamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump

Ayatollahs Khomeini (1979-89) and Khamenei (from 1989) in an Iran mural

Yisrael Rosenfeld / Francesca Albanese /

British-Israeli soldier killed

A British-Israeli soldier has been killed in battle in Gaza, the IDF has announced, writes Daniel Sugarman.

Sergeant Yisrael Natan Rosenfeld, 20, of the 601st Combat Engineering Battalion, was killed in the city of Jabalia. Initial reports suggested that Rosenfeld and his squad were investigating reports of an explosive device hidden inside a building.

Rosenfeld, from Ra’anana, is reported to have moved to Israel with his family 11 years ago. He is survived by his parents and three siblings – his sister’s boyfriend, sta sergeant Hallel Saadon, was killed by Hamas terrorists on 7 October during fighting near Kibbutz Sufa.

The death of the young soldier brings the number of IDF troops killed in battle during 21 months of fighting to 441.

The news comes after the announcement of the death of seven soldiers of the 605th Combat

Engineering Battalion last week, after Hamas placed an IED on their transport vehicle in the city of Khan Yunis.

Over the weekend, the IDF also announced it had eliminated a senior Hamas leader, and one of the key planners of the 7 October attacks. Hakham Muhammad Issa Al-Issa

was one of the founders of Hamas’s Al-Qassam brigade.

“As head of combat support, he advanced aerial and naval attacks against Israelis,” the IDF said in a statement.

“The IDF and ISA will continue to locate and eliminate all terrorists involved in the 7 October massacre.”

MP ‘aligned’ with hate

A Labour minister has accused the pro-Gaza MP Ayoub Khan of “doing nothing for the Palestinian cause by aligning himself with antisemites”.

In a Commons exchange, Lisa Nandy took issue with the Birmingham Perry Barr member for responding to condemnation of chants at Glastonbury by raising reports of Israeli fans chanting antiArab slogans during violence last season at a football match in the Netherlands.

Khan provoked groans in the chamber as he responded to the government’s condemnation of Bobby Vylan’s “Death to the IDF” chants by asking why there was no

ministerial statement when Israeli football fans chanted “Death to Arabs”.

Nandy replied that while any MP would condemn antiArab chanting, she had made a statement on Glastonbury “because our national broadcaster, funded by the licence fee, paid for by the British public, has broadcast something that is deeply o ensive to a community in this country”.

Nandy added of Khan: “As a long-standing supporter of justice for the Palestinians, he does nothing for the Palestinian cause by aligning himself with antisemites.”

Khan later tried to raise concerns about Nandy’s

comments about him as a Point of Order. His request was rejected by the deputy speaker.

Jewish News has raised concerns about Khan, who has disputed the severity of the Hamas massacre and refused to undertake antisemitism training.

ABBOTT ‘JEWISH ARMY’ SLUR

The Labour Party is facing calls to expel Diane Abbott after she tweeted that “the Jewish Defence Force is gunning down Palestinians as they queue for food”, along with the hashtag “#GazaGenocide”.

The MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington, which contains a large Jewish population, later deleted the post, which had been a comment on a quote attributed to American journalist Chris Hedges.

Abbott has been critical of Israel’s conduct in Gaza, later tweeting that “the Israel Defence Force continues to slaughter unarmed Palestinians in cold blood”. It is unclear why she used the word ‘Jewish’ in her earlier tweet.

The IDF contains troops from numerous religious backgrounds, with Jewish, Muslim, Christian and Druze soldiers all serving in the Israeli military.

The Trump administration this week called on the United Nations to remove Francesca Albanese, the UN rapporteur on Palestinian rights, alleging “virulent antisemitism and support for terrorism,” according to a letter obtained by the website Washington Free Beacon

The letter, dated 20 June and addressed to UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres, also alleges that Albanese claims to be an “international lawyer” but is not licensed to practise law.

Albanese, an Italian national, regularly accuses Israel of genocide in Gaza and has said that the 7 October attacks by Hamas must be put in a “context of decades of oppression imposed on the Palestinians.” The administration’s warning comes on the heels of a new report by Albanese titled From Economy of Occupation to Economy of Genocide

In the report, Albanese recommends corporate entities “cease all business activities” linked with “human rights violations and international crimes against the Palestinian people”, and calls on them to pay reparations to the Palestinian people.

“It shows how corporations have

Russell Langer, director of public a airs for the Jewish Leadership Council, said: “This is the latest in a series of grossly o ensive remarks made by Diane Abbott towards the Jewish community. As an MP who has already had the whip suspended in the past, we expect a clear message of zero tolerance to be shown.”

Abbott and the Labour Party have been contacted for comment.

fueled and legitimised the destruction of Palestine. Genocide, it would seem, is profitable. This cannot continue, accountability must follow,” wrote Albanese in a post on X announcing the report on Monday.

In the administration’s letter, acting US representative to the UN Dorothy Shea accused Albanese of waging “an unacceptable campaign of political and economic warfare against the American and worldwide economy.” The World Jewish Congress also condemned Albanese’s new report, accusing her of promoting a “deeply biased narrative.”

“Ms Albanese’s report is yet another example of her repeated misuse of her mandate to advance a political agenda rather than to uphold the universal principles of human rights,” said the WJC’s executive vice-president Maram Stern in a statement.

Groups such as UN Watch and NGO Monitor have frequently accused Albanese of anti-Israel and even antisemitic bias. In 2022, Albanese came under fire from American and Israeli diplomats who called out comments she made in 2014 in which she suggested Europe was under the sway of the “Jewish lobby”.

To find out more about Future Giving or our free

Ayoub Khan MP

Yisrael Natan Rosenfeld moved from the UK with his family 11 years ago

Government grills BBC over ‘what went wrong’

A government committee has written to BBC director-general Tim Davie asking him for a “personal assessment of what went wrong” with the broadcaster’s Glastonbury coverage, writes Adam Decker.

The BBC has faced strong criticism for continuing to livestream the performance of punk rap duo Bob Vylan, which is now the subject of a criminal police investigation, at the festival on iPlayer.

They led chants of “Death, death to the IDF (Israel Defence Forces)” and spoke about having to work for a “Zionist” during their set on the West Holts Stage on Saturday, with the broadcaster providing on-screen warnings about discriminatory language on its platform.

It later apologised on Monday and said the chants held “antisemitic sentiments” that were “unacceptable”.

Irish rap trio Kneecap, who are also facing an Avon and Somerset Police investigation, appeared on the same stage directly after Bob Vylan and led the Glastonbury audience in “Free Palestine” chants.

It has since been revealed that Tim Davie was at Glastonbury when the pro-Palestine chants were broadcast.

In a letter sent to Mr Davie by the Culture, Media and Sport Committee on Tuesday, chairwoman Dame Caroline Dinenage asked the BBC boss 12 questions after saying its coverage had caused “widespread concern”.

Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy previously said that “several” editorial failures “becomes a problem of leadership” during a statement on the BBC’s coverage to the Commons.

Among the questions, Dame Caroline said: “Before the festival started, did the BBC consider streaming all or part of its Glastonbury coverage with a short time delay, to allow room to respond to events if necessary?”

The Conservative MP went on to ask how many BBC sta and contractors were

working at Glastonbury or on its coverage, if sta with the authority to cut Bob Vylan’s live stream were present during their performance and whether ending the live stream was discussed mid-performance.

Dame Caroline then asked: “At what level were the decisions made to not stream Kneecap live and to stream Bob Vylan live, but with a warning on screen?”

The letter asked if the BBC had a contingency plan for the event and who was responsible for forming and actioning the plan, before asking if the broadcaster would review its Editorial Guidelines and guidance for live output “to ensure they are fit for live streaming”.

The Tory MP added: “In summary, what is your personal assessment of what went wrong and what (are the) key lessons that the BBC will take away from the experience of live streaming Glastonbury 2025?”

Dame Caroline said she hoped for Mr Davie’s response to the questions within two weeks.

Avon and Somerset Police said it had launched a probe into both the Bob Vylan and Kneecap performances after reviewing video footage and audio recordings, with a senior detective appointed to lead the investigation.

A force spokesman said: “This has been recorded as a public order incident at this time

while our inquiries are at an early stage.

“The investigation will be evidence-led and will closely consider all appropriate legislation, including relating to hate crimes.”

In response to criticism of their performance, Bob Vylan said in a statement that they were being “targeted for speaking up”.

I HAVE NEVER FELT MORE ASHAMED

BY A BBC JOURNALIST

Just when you think it couldn’t get any worse, it gets even worse.

Almost every week the BBC blunders its way from one antisemitism scandal to another, each one seemingly more shocking than the last. Now it has excelled itself.

For about 40 minutes, some obscure act at Glastonbury cashed in on the antisemitic notoriety of some other previously obscure act by inciting the murder of Israelis. And who gave it colossal free air time? The nation’s public service broadcaster. Jewish (and of course nonJewish) viewers have literally paid a tax for the privilege of watching an antisemitic hate

fest, courtesy of the BBC. And its many Jewish sta – of which I am one – have yet again been left with a feeling that the corporation we work hard for has an antisemitic blind spot.

Very kind of it to issue a warning on screen about “very strong and discriminatory language” – the kind of mild measure that’s taken before certain movies after the watershed just in case some parents might not want their children watching.

Nothing of the kind though on the BBC News’ Facebook page story, where the comments are an antisemitic free-for-all. At time of writing, 3,500 comments – the very first being “watching the zios going crazy in the comments on here is epic” – eliciting 950 thumbs up and 793 laughing emojis.

What are Jews meant to think? This is more than irresponsibility by the BBC, it’s literally

created a safe space for antisemites to spread Jew-hate of the most pernicious type.

I have seen the private online conversations which have been going on between multiple Jewish sta at the BBC ever since those disgusting thugs puked out their chant of “Death death to the IDF” and it is very depressing. They are incredibly alarmed, upset and at a loss as to how the BBC could have allowed this to happen.

There is an entire gallery of experienced BBC producers, directors and operators watching every second of every performance at Glastonbury. A decision should have been taken immediately to cut the live stream as soon as this garbage first uttered their antisemitic filth.

All it takes is the push of a button. But no-one made that call. No one in that gallery

felt that “Death death to the IDF” crossed a line. No one felt it was bad enough. No, the show must go on. Let’s just put up a warning about discriminatory language, that’ll do. Sadly, that didn’t do. All it did was reinforce that the BBC has learnt absolutely nothing about antisemitism since 7/10. And now the damage has been done, and the damage is huge. The Jewish community, and others, are clamouring for answers, and very clear answers at that. Why did the BBC allow it to happen, who made those wrong calls, and what will be done as a result. Whoever was in charge made a catastrophic mistake, and they must be held accountable.

Whatever little trust remained between the BBC and its Jewish sta has now evaporated. It is di cult to see what it can do to rebuild it, but rebuild it it must.

A member of Bob Vylan during their controversial act. Inset: BBC content warning

Glasto denies it became a Palestine Action platform

Glastonbury Festival has denied giving Palestine Action the greenlight to use this year’s festival as a recruitment and fundraising opportunity ahead of its imminent proscription by the UK government, writes Lee Harpin.

Jewish News infiltrated one of the meetings put on by the group at the musical festival in Somerset, which was advertised on the ocial festival app.

At the meeting supporters of the violently anti-Israel group boasted of further and more extreme actions in the future at which those involved had be supported despite the likelihood of them receiving long prison sentences.

At a Palestine Action event inside Glastonbury’s Speakers Forum tent, Francesca Nadin, who had been remanded in prison ahead of a trial on criminal damage charges, read out the work of Georges Abdallah, a former guerrilla in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP),

sentenced to life in prison for his involvement in the murders of the United States military attache

Charles Robert Ray and Israeli diplomat Yacov Barsimantov.

Nadin, who has described herself as a “political prisoner” and who writes on the Revolutionary Communist Group’s website, urged those in attendance at the numerous Glastonbury events she spoke at to purchase black ‘We Are

Palestine Action’ T-shirts, and to donate funds to the group as they launched a legal challenge to the government’s attempt to proscribe them.

All the stage crew in control of the sound at the event on Saturday also sported black T-shirts.

In an earlier appearance on stage on Thursday, Nadin, remanded in prison this year over charges relating to the attack on a

Barclays Bank, and over a separate case, was cheered as she boasted: “Palestine Action, we do direct action against arms factories in this country…. we smash them up.”

After Jewish News filmed and recorded some of the speakers at Saturday’s event, we were challenged by a female who said she was working for the festival who asked us to delete pictures of those taking part in a Q&A session.

We refused, citing the comments made by one activist who threatened extreme action even if the group are proscribed.

Glasonbury said: “As a festival, we stand against all forms of war and terrorism. We will always believe in – and actively campaign for – hope, unity, peace and love.”

It distanced itself from comments made by the punk-rap artist Bobby Vylan after he led chants of “Death to the IDF”. On Monday, police confirmed they were launching a criminal investigation into Vylan and Kneecap.

Bob Vylan will be unable to tour the United States later this year, after the American government cancelled the duo’s travel visa because of their “hateful tirade”.

A statement from the deputy US secretary of state, Christopher Landau, confirmed that “the State Department has revoked the US visas for the members of the Bob Vylan band in light of their hateful tirade at Glastonbury, including leading the crowd in death chants. Foreigners who glorify violence and hatred are not welcome visitors to our country.”

The band were scheduled to travel to the US later this year, with 19 shows scheduled over October and November in cities including New York, Chicago, Boston and Los Angeles. The news of the visa revocation comes shortly after both the band’s talent agent and management team announced that they would be dropping the group, with the BBC also apologising for continuing to broadcast the performance from the pair despite the onstage outbursts. The organisers of the Glastonbury festival also criticised the band’s actions as “appalling.”

Bob Vylan are due to be playing in Manchester in July; the Jewish Representative Council of Greater Manchester & Region has called on the city’s Victoria Warehouse venue to cancel the planned performances.

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Palestine Action’s Francesca Nadin addresses the Glastonbury crowd

‘I

lay for hours on 7 October with 12 bullets in my body’

A hero of the 7 October attacks has said she “is grateful to have reached the age of 21” as she recalled how Hamas hunted her and her IDF comrades that morning, writes Justin Cohen.

Eden Ram was serving as an officer on what was supposed to be her last day at a base 12 miles from Gaza when it was stormed by terrorists.

The 21-year-old this week reduced 530 guests at the annual Beit Halochem dinner to silence as she recalled how two of her comrades were gunned down as they tried to flee from gunfire and another was killed, before a photo of his body was sent to her and the victim’s mother.

“I thought it couldn’t get worse but that was just the beginning,” she told the audience on Monday. “At first we thought we’d be safe in the command room. But we were six people and only had two weapons so we didn’t have a chance.

“We heard the terrorists coming closer and I thought we were all going to die so I started to say goodbye to my family. I didn’t think I’d see them again.

“In a few seconds everything went black and they started to shoot at everyone. When they thought everyone was dead they searched the room for documents and took photos of the

bodies to prove what they did. I still remember the terrorists’ screams of happiness.

“Four of my friends got killed in the command room and just me and one other survived.

“I didn’t know if I was alive or dead. I didn’t know what death felt like. I lay there for hours with 12 bullets in my body not knowing if I was going to bleed to death. I decided to play dead. I waited for four long hours in pain feeling like I was slowing dying.”

Having spent three months in hospital with critical injuries, Eden – who received a prolonged standing ovation – is still undergoing treatment for physical and mental wounds. But she recalled how Beit Halochem’s centre in Jerusalem had become “like my second home. There I don’t have to feel shame about my injuries or scars. There are people who understand me there.”

Since the start of the war with Hamas, 14,000 additional injured veterans have relied on Beit Halochem’s rehabilitation centres for help. Beit Halochem UK trustee Orly Wolfson took guests on a video journey through the five current centres as well as the newest one, in Ashdod, whose opening has been brought forward to early next year in response to increasing demand.

Katie Cutler and Michaela Meyohas, who

chaired the dinner event, said: “While we are in London, our thoughts are in Israel. In the midst of the darkness there is a light: that light is Beit Halochem. It is a home, a place where healing begins and dignity is rebuilt and no one walks alone.”

The event was also addressed by Omri Rozenblit, a lieutenant who suffered severe injuries when a bomb exploded in Khan Yunis, collapsing a house on top of him 91 days into the war. He lost his left leg, and part of his face had to be reconstructed.

He said: “I don’t regret a thing because I know all my soldiers are fine, living a wonderful life and I managed to accomplish my responsibility. I’m a proud guy so I won’t ask for anything from anyone. But today I’m speaking for thousands of brothers and sisters who went to Gaza and were injured. They need your support to recover and get back to life.” Turning to his mother who had travelled with him from Israel, he said: “Without you I wouldn’t be able to stand here today. I love you.”

The event raised £1.7m. Beit Halochem UK chief executive Spencer Gelding said: “Our supporters have once again risen to the challenge to help meet the increasing demand on Beit Halochem’s vital services.

“Eden and Omri are just two of the 14,000 extra heroes the charity is supporting since October 7 and it was an honour to have them with us in London to hear their incredible stories of leadership and survival.”

FORMER JFS PUPIL NAMED CHIEF EXECUTIVE OF RSA

A former JFS student is taking on one of the most prestigious roles in the UK arts industry.

The Royal Society of Arts has appointed David Joseph, former chairman of Universal Music UK, as chief executive at the 271-year-old institution in September, succeeding Andy Haldane.

Joseph, who began his career in advertising, became chairman and chief executive at Universal Music UK in 2008, remaining in the role for 17 years working for Universal Music Group chief executive Sir Lucian Grainge.

He said he was stepping down in September 2024 to study for a master’s degree in religion and theology at King’s College London. Jewish News understands that having completed the first year, he has delayed the final one in order take on his new job.

Awarded a CBE in 2016 for services to the music industry, Joseph grew up in Southgate and was head of artist development at Royal College of Art before his move to Universal in 1998. He had first worked with Take That in the early 1990s, bringing them to Universal when they re-formed in 2006. Other artists on his roster included Amy Winehouse, Florence + The Machine and Sam Smith. He said of his new role at the RSA: “I’m excited to join such a talented organisation where we will build a bold new chapter together.”

AUSSIE NURSES BANNED

Two Australian nurses who said they would refuse to treat Israelis have been banned for two years from working from or providing services to people in the country’s National Disability Insurance Scheme.

Ahmad Rashad Nadir and Sarah Abu Lebdeh were suspended from their jobs at Bankstown Hospital in Sydney after they were recorded in February saying they would send Israelis “to hell”.

The video, in conversation with TikTok user Max Veifer, triggered a police investigation. Both nurses reportedly said their remarks were not to be taken seriously.

The ban, effective from 9 May, stops Nadir or Abu Lebdeh from working with NDIS participants or performing any role for NDIS providers in any Australian state or territory.

Abu Lebdeh has also been charged with federal offences, including threatening violence against a group and using a carriage service to threaten, menace, and harass.

Nadir has been charged with federal offences, including using a carriage service to menace, harass, or cause offense, as well as possession of a prohibited drug. They remain free on bail and are scheduled to appear in court on 29 July.

Massacre survivors: Eden Ram and Omri Rozenblit at the Beit Halochem dinner

Music manager David Joseph

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‘Crises have made us grow stronger’

The strength and resilience of the UK’s Jewish community in a time of anguish and division was praised at the Jewish Leadership Council’s annual members’ tea at the House of Lords, writes Lee Harpin.

Peers, MPs and communal leaders largely engaged in much-needed positive conversation on both the enormous challenges that lay ahead for the community, as well as a recognition that Britain still o ered much to enable us to continue to flourish here for many years to come.

JLC vice-president Baroness Hodge hosted Monday’s event and

spoke to guests about a “really dicult period” for British Jews, but one in which despite record levels of antisemitism the community “had grown stronger through all these crises”.

The Labour politician singled out those working in the community “as volunteers, as leaders, as professionals to try and make this a good place where you can live with your family,bring up your children, and feel safe, secure and welcome”.

She praised the Partnership for Jewish Schools organisation, along with other communal groups.

Hodge also told guests that she

was undertaking a review for the Arts Council on the impact of antisemitism on Jewish workers and productions, adding this was one of the many challenges the community faced.

In his speech JLC chair Keith Black emphasised the contribution made by “the tiny Jewish community less than 300, 000 strong” to British life, including to politics, media, law, medicine, science and the arts.

“It’s quite remarkable,” said Black. “I don’t know if it’s that refugee spirit, although most of us today are very distant from that identity.”

Like Hodge, Black noted that the

“Death to the IDF” chants at Glastonbury had been yet another recent low point for the community.

He added: “It’s bad enough that we have security guards outside our synagogues, schools and public events –but this new wave of hatred must be rooted out. It should receive the full lash of public and government censure because words are not enough.

Faith minister Lord Khan also spoke at the event. He said the government was “united in our unwavering commitment to defend the right of every individual to practice their religion freely and without fear”.

RABBI MATT TO LEAD TRIBE SETTLERS CHALLENGE UK

The United Synagogue has appointed Rabbi Matt Marks as the executive head of its young people’s division, Tribe. Marks has previously served as youth director at Muswell Hill Synagogue, most recently as head of community engagement at Brighton and Hove Jewish Community and led Israel and Poland trips for several Jewish schools.

He said: “I feel privileged to step into this role. Tribe has played a meaningful part in the lives of so many young people and this moment o ers a rare opportunity to think afresh.

“After years of challenges, both locally and globally, it feels important to listen carefully, reimagine boldly and build something that speaks to the needs of our young people.”

An Israeli settler and a right-wing non-profit organisation operating in the West Bank have launched a legal challenge against UK government sanctions – the first case of its kind since Britain began targeting Israeli entities in 2024. Moshe Sharvit, which runs an agricultural outpost in the Jordan Valley, along with the organisation Hashomer Yosh – whose name means ‘Guardian of Judea and Samaria’, have

submitted formal objections to the Foreign O ce, contesting the grounds on which they were sanctioned. Sharvit was blacklisted by the UK in February for his alleged role in harassing Palestinians and Israeli rights activists. The US imposed parallel sanctions. He has now requested access to the sanctions case files held by the Foreign Commonwealth and Development O ce (FCDO), as part of their challenge.

Lord Khan, Claudia Mendoza, Baroness Hodge and Keith Black at the JLC tea

Deputies appeal against sanctions

Five members of Board of Deputies sanctioned for writing a letter to the Financial Times criticising Israel’s war in Gaza have launched an appeal against the decision, insisting they have e ectively been expelled, writes Lee Harpin.

In a statement responding to the two-year suspension of five deputies and the notice of criticism sent to 31 others, they described the Board’s actions as “a chilling reprimand”.

It is understood that some of the remaining deputies are also planning to launch appeals against their less severe sanctions.

They confirmed that deputies planned to appeal “following KC advice on the extraordinarily out-of-order processes and management of the issue, as well as on its substance”.

In a move likely to infuriate the Board’s leadership, the statement included renewed criticism of the communal organisation’s position on Israel, adding that the deputies all “remain deeply concerned about the remaining hostages, the appalling humanitarian crisis and ongoing war in Gaza and the further deteriorating situation in the West Bank .”

Jewish News understands the five suspended deputies are arguing their sanction e ectively amounts to explusion because, having already served one year as Board o cials, the two-year suspension will take them to the end of their term in roles on committees.

The five suspended have been named as Harriett Goldenberg, who had been serving as vice chair of the Board’s International Division-

Philip Goldenberg, a lawyer and longstanding Liberal Democrat councillor, Baron Frankel, chief executive of the Portland Trust, Robert Stone and Rebecca Singerman-Knight.

In three of these cases, the Board said the the deputies have been given the opportunity to “reduce the suspension to six months by way of an apology to a ected parties”.

The three are understood to the have turned down this o er, saying they feel they have nothing to apologise for.

Under Board rules they now have 14 days in which to begin an appeal against the sanctions.

Among a list of concerns about the management and process of the investigation into them,

the 36 have mentioned interviews by President Phil Rosenberg in which he failed to o er them a chance to respond, and messages from executives seemingly commending some of the 36 for doing media interviews around the FT letter.

Criticism has also been raised over the intervention by Board chief executive Michael Wegier, who wrote an article accusing the 36 of “misrepresenting our community”. It is claimed he should not have entered the row in his position in the organisation.

In April, the 36 Deputies signed a letter published by the FT which condemned the Israeli government, claiming that rather than continuing to engage in diplomacy, it had chosen to “break the ceasefire and return to war in Gaza”.

The letter said that “Israel’s soul is being ripped out and we, members of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, fear for the future of the Israel we love and have such close ties to.

“Silence is seen as support for policies and actions that run contrary to our Jewish values.”

In a statement this week confirming the sanctions the Board said “the letter... was neither authorised by the Board nor did the signatories share it with the organisation before sending to the Financial Times”.

The Board statement added that “various complaints were received by the Board. These alleged that, through the letter and actions around it, the signatories had broken the code of conduct by which all deputies are bound.”

Gideon Moshe Sa’ar, Israel’s Foreign Minister, left with Phil Rosenberg, President, Board of Deputies, right

Filmmaker tells how family survived Iran missile blast

by Annabel Sinclair

“I can’t explain the massive explosion. I felt I was flying in the air. It was crazy.” For Michal Weits, an Israeli documentary producer and artistic director of the film festival Docaviv, the horror of war came crashing into her family home just after dawn.

A ballistic missile fired from Iran hit her home in Tel Aviv last month while she, her husband and two young children sheltered inside. Moments later, the building was gone. “Everything – no house. It was just a pile of nothing,” she told Jewish News after the attack.

The strike, part of a wave of Iranian retaliation against Israel came months after the release of We Will Dance Again, the BBC documentary Weits produced about Nova festival survivors returning to the massacre site to reclaim joy through dance.

On 22 June, a Sunday, she had just woken up. “I opened my phone and I saw that the United States attacked in Iran and everybody is now waiting for some kind of harsh reaction,” she recalled. “I kind of got that feeling that we need to stay at home, close to the shelter.”

Within minutes, her instincts proved right. After ushering her daughter into the safe room – which doubled as a utility space – the sirens sounded.

“We all, the four of us, got into the safe room,” she said. “I heard booms very far away… I thought, ‘Okay – like the other times – we are going through it, and it will be over in 10 minutes.’” She sat beneath the

safe room window, scrolling through her phone. “Suddenly everything became dark. No electricity.”

Weits believes she blacked out.

Her daughter was the first to speak after the blast, her partner later told her: “What happened to us? Every-

fire… We were afraid that the house was going to collapse or burn.” The missile had struck two metres away.

Rescue teams arrived within minutes. “The happy moment was to find out that we, all four of us, were alive,” she said.

“We went out of our house in pyjamas. We had nothing… My family came to help us, buying new clothes and a toothbrush and just basic equipment that we need.”

Weits su ered facial injuries, hearing loss in her left ear, and remains in recovery. “I have a lot of stitches, and I guess there will be scars one day,” she said. “The doctor told me that if the ear won’t heal itself, I will have to do surgery.”

thing fell apart.” The family’s safe room, intended to shield them, had become a trap.

“The dryer exploded on me. A lot of things in the same room fell on me,” she said.

“We noticed that things were on

But the wounds go deeper than the visible ones, she says. “It took my body three days to calm down. My body was still shaking.

“I’m in trauma and I have to take care of my kids. They went through a big trauma. It’s very di cult.

“They ask me all the time,

‘Mummy, are you keeping us safe?’” The family is now living temporarily in a hotel.

Weits, 46, is a central figure in Israeli documentary cinema. In addition to We Will Dance Again and Golda’s War Diaries, she directed the award-winning film Blue Box and became Docaviv’s artistic director in 2024. The festival confirmed her injuries in a public statement, saying: “Michal is strong and receiving great support from her family, colleagues, and friends.”

Weits also shared a brief message through the festival: “I’m just filled with a deep sense of gratitude that’s stronger and greater than any injury I have. I look at the photos of our home completely destroyed, reduced to a pile of dust, and the safe room that’s barely standing, and I still can’t believe it.”

She told Jewish News that she is already preparing for the next edition of Docaviv. “I’m planning to go back to work as soon as I can,” she said. “I’m starting to plan the next edition.”

Asked whether the experience has changed her outlook on life and war, Weits replied: “I don’t think it has changed anything. Since 7 October, I was kind of shocked that nothing happened to me or my family or close friends. Because everybody in this country was somehow hurt from the beginning of the war. So, it was really strange that it passed above us.

“For me it was, okay, you can never run from this kind of a disaster. It’s part of life in Israel.”

She added: “We just want our life back. Enough. Enough.”

SHUL ATTACK CHARGE GRYNHAUS’ PORTFOLIO

A man has been charged in connection with a break-in at Gur Synagogue in Stamford Hill, where Torah scrolls were desecrated religious furnishings damaged.

Edward Sta ord, 43, of Kyverdale Road, Hackney, was charged with burglary and possession of an o ensive weapon following the incident, which was reported to police at 7am on 20 June. He is accused of stealing a small amount of cash and two radios from the shul, which is on Lampard Grove. A 36-year-old woman was also arrested in connection with the incident and later released.

Despite lockers being ransacked and scrolls thrown to the ground, police said there was

nothing to suggest it was an antisemitic attack. The synagogue was cordoned o for forensic examination following the incident as images of torn religious texts and damaged wooden panels circulated on social media.

A paedophile who claimed he was too broke to pay his victims compensation is linked to a £1.2m property firm funded by a family business that lists among its clients the NHS and She eld United Football Club.

Todros Grynhaus, who nine years ago claimed he had no assets, is now linked to the portfolio funded by a company linked to his wife.

Grynhaus was jailed in 2015 for seven counts of sexual abuse against two underage girls. Manchester Crown Court ordered him to pay £80,000 in compensation and £35,000 in prosecution costs. But in 2018 a district judge discharged the orders, citing Grynhaus’s lack of assets and a letter from Fastpay Ltd – founded by Grynhaus – stating it had “no legal obligation” to assist him financially.

Jewish News can reveal that more than £1m was recently transferred from Fastpay to another firm, Heywood Investments, which subsequently bought four houses in the Greater

Manchester area. Two of those homes, believed to be owned by Heywood, were the subject of a recent report in Manchester Evening News that Grynhaus was living in one and renting out the other, opposite a children’s playground. Heywood Investments, incorporated in 2022, is co-directed by Grynhaus and his wife Leah, who is also a director of Fastpay. Accounts for Heywood for 2023 list £1,227,741 in investment properties, with “note 7” of the accounts stating the firm owes £1,225,374 to “companies in which the director is also a director” – a description which appears to refer to Fastpay. Grynhaus has not served as a director of Fastpay since 2013. He was released from jail in 2022 after serving just over half his sentence. In a 2018 ruling on the compensation discharge, the district judge noted that Fastpay had confirmed that it was “unable and unwilling” to help Grynhaus pay the victims. Fastpay has not responded to a request for comment.

Michal Weits’ home was reduced to ‘a pile of nothing’ after the ballistic missile struck two metres away. Inset: in an ambulance after the blast

annabel@jewishnews.co.uk

The damaged ark at Gur Synagogue in Stamford Hill

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Goldsmiths apologises for its ‘culture of antisemitism’

Goldsmiths College has apologised to Jewish students and sta after an independent inquiry found it had allowed a “culture” of antisemitism on campus, writes Lee Harpin.

The college, part of the University of London, has launched a twoyear “action plan” to combat the problem after admitting the inquiry painted a “disturbing picture” of campus life for those of Jewish faith.

The inquiry also found college management had failed to help Jewish students and potential applicants to “feel welcome, included and safe from antisemitism”.

It was launched after comments by an ex-Goldsmiths student union president who accused Jewish academic Dr David Hirsh, a sociologist at the college, of being a “far-right white supremacist”.

Led by Mohinderpal Sethi KC of Littleton Chambers, it also followed numerous reports and allegations of antisemitism by students, particularly in relation to anti-Israel activity, and several academics at

the university also signing petitions supporting disgraced Bristol professor David Miller.

The investigation said Goldsmiths’ processes and protocols must be improved in dealing with complaints of antisemitism.

Sethi wrote: “It appears to me that a culture has built up over the years at Goldsmiths that, at the very least, has resulted in Jewish students legitimately feeling significant discomfort on campus.

“It is apparent from the evidence reported to me that Jewish students have likely been subjected to antisemitism.

“This is plainly not unique to Goldsmiths, but this inquiry relates to Goldsmiths and I consider that it has not done enough as an institution to ensure its Jewish students and sta feel safe and welcome.”

Goldsmiths has appointed Professor Adam Dinham to lead the two-year action plan in an attempt to build “a culture of belonging” for Jewish students and sta .

Vice-chancellor Professor Frances Corner said “Antisemitism has no place at Goldsmiths. As with all forms of racism, antisemitism prevents people from entering, enjoying, and contributing fully to

SHOAH GARDEN’S TOP AWARD

A Catholic school won a top award at BBC Gardeners’ World Live for a Holocaust memorial garden inspired by the 80th anniversary of Auschwitz’s liberation.

Trinity Catholic School in Leamington Spa received a Gold award and the People’s Choice Award for Best Beautiful Border for its “Bud and Blossom Reflection Garden” – a compact show garden designed by students in the school’s History Research Group.

The project was developed in connection with the Holocaust: Their Family, Me and Us education initiative, inspired by Robert Rinder’s BBC documentary. Pupils who helped design the garden had previously met Rinder

and ’45 Aid Society chair Angela Cohen and Rinder said: “Trinity completely understood what the landscape, nature, flowers and trees meant to my grandfather and ‘the Boys’.

“It’s more than a garden – it’s a space for reflection, remembrance, and renewal… Their learning has inspired such a special, special place.”

Symbolism runs throughout the design: triangular planting beds represent both the Holy Trinity and unity, while a silver birch memorial tree invites visitors to hang the names of loved ones lost in the Second World War. Visitors were also o ered seed packets to take home as a gesture of remembrance and renewal.

INTERFAITH TRIO HONOURED

Three leading women from Jewish, Muslim and Sikh communities have received one of Britain’s highest accolades for interfaith work.

Laura Marks, Dr Julie Siddiqi and Professor Jagbir Jhutti-Johal were presented with the Sternberg Interfaith Gold Medallion – an award previously given to the late Queen Elizabeth II and Pope John Paul II – for their “exceptional contribution” to faith understanding in the UK and beyond.

“completely splendid attributes and achievements” which his late father, who founded the prize in 1986, “would have vigorously applauded”.

Praising the “exceptional work over many decades” of the trio, he added: “Much of the work done within communities here to build understanding and to heal rifts is actually done by women. Sadly, this is too often ignored.

our university. The inquiry sets out a disturbing picture and I am sorry that our community and culture fell short of the behaviours we expect.

“The report rightly states that we owe it to former, current and future

Jewish students and sta to learn from our mistakes.

“We share responsibility, as a community, to show Goldsmiths can be a place where Jewish students and sta feel valued, supported and proud to be part of our university.

“As the inquiry highlights, we are already making progress on key issues. Today, we commit to lasting cultural change with respect to Jewish students and sta , and for all religions and beliefs, drawing on our intellectual heritage and our longstanding belief in social justice.”

A UJS spokesperson said: “The inquiry at Goldsmiths reflects what we hear consistently from Jewish students: a concerning, but unsurprising, deep-rooted culture of antisemitism. UJS welcomes the recommendations made, but Jewish students have grown too accustomed to empty pledges.

“Jewish students and sta across the country deserve to see universities take far more concrete action.”

Announcing the awards, Sir Sigmund Sternberg Charitable Foundation executive chair Michael Sternberg said the winners represented

“Each of these women, who in her own way is a trailblazer and a pathfinder, will underline the huge contribution of women to interfaith work in the United Kingdom which is now taking place and which is a joy to behold.”

Pro-Palestine poster outside Golsmiths during a student walkout

The winning garden

Laura Marks, Julie Siddiqi and Jagbir Jhutti-Johal with their awards

Striped pyjama activist questioned by the Met

A supporter of Palestine Action who dressed up to resemble a concentration camp inmate has been questioned by the Metropolitan Police.

Images of the protester, whose identity officers have not disclosed, circulated on social media, showing her wearing the blue-and-white striped clothes, a hat and a face mask.

Yellow symbols depicting the crescent moon and star of Islam were sewn on to the shirt and hat. The woman held a sign with the hashtag ‘We are all Palestine Action.’ The Met said on Friday she had been interviewed under caution at a central London police station and their investigation was continuing.

Alex Hearn, co-director of Labour Against Antisemitism, described the outfit as antisemitic and criticised Met officers who oversaw the protest for failing to take immediate action.

“This was a blatant act of antisemitism that has caused distress and upset to many people in the Jewish community in Britain,” Hearn said.

“The Holocaust is not a costume. We are glad the police are now taking action but the question remains why police officers at this protest and outside parliament did not act on the spot.

“Time and again these so-called protesters display racist hatred and contempt for Jews in front of police officers, but it is only when the

Jewish community publicly calls this out and demands action that the police engage.”

Home secretary Yvette Cooper said last week she had decided to proscribe Palestine Action and would lay an order before parliament which, if passed, would make membership and support for the protest group illegal.

Belonging to or expressing support for a proscribed organisation, along with a number of other actions, are criminal offences carrying a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison.

The decision follow’s Palestine Action’s break-in at the Brize Norton RAF base in Oxfordshire. The clip shows one person riding

an electric scooter up to an Airbus Voyager airto-air refuelling tanker and appearing to spray paint into its jet engine.

PALESTINE ACTION ‘A SECURITY THREAT’

The Ministry of Defence has described Palestine Action as “a threat to our national security” after it emerged the group planned to target further RAF bases emerged.

As reported by the Daily Telegraph, in an ‘online workshop’ for Palestine Action last week the organiser identified three military sites to be targeted: RAF Cranwell and RAF Barkston Heath in Lincolnshire, and RAF Valley on Anglesey. Palestine Action claims these bases have links to Elbit, an Israeli defence contractor which is a targer of the organisation’s attacks.

The Telegraph videoed the workshop, which is believed to have been attended by as many as 50 people. The workshop presenter described the government’s proscription plans as “draconian and dangerous” and said that even if it were proscribed, it would “continue to operate”.

Responding to the Telegraph’s story, the Ministry of Defence said: “The UK’s defence estate is vital to our national security and this government will not tolerate those who put that security at risk.

“This government is taking the strong step of pro-

scribing Palestine Action due to its activities, which are a threat to our national security.”

Founded in 2020, Palestine Action has stepped up its attacks since the start of the Israel-Hamas war. Its targets have included defence manufacturers, businesses the group claims are associated with Israeli companies, and Jewish charities that have strong links to Israel.

Far-left MPs including Jeremy Corbyn, John McDonnell, Richard Burgon and Zarah Sultana have condemned plans to ban Palestine Action.

An attack on defence firm Elbit

The protester in central London last week

Pupils thrilled to take part in UK-wide quiz

Independent Jewish Day School and North West London Jewish Day School were crowned winners at Etgar 2025 –the UK’s largest Jewish primary school quiz – after triumphing in two categories at the event at Wembley Stadium, writes Annabel Sinclair.

Now in its 13th year, the competition brought together more than 1,000 Y5 pupils from 28 schools across the country for a high-energy afternoon of general knowledge, creativity and teamwork.

IJDS took home the trophy for highestscoring single team, and North West was awarded best school across all tables, in recognition of the highest overall score from teams entered by one school. Sacks Morasha finished second overall, and a second NWLJDS team was placed third.

“It’s Simchat Torah with a band,” said Michael Kramar, a former Jewish studies educator from NWLJDS. “The kids have such a wonderful time, and it’s irrelevant whether they are winning or not, they just enjoy the atmosphere. “The booklet [of questions given to students in the run-up to the event] is packed full of information in a fun way. They learn a lot from it – and

carry that knowledge with them for years.”

Rabbi Zach Ford, who oversees Etgar preparation at NWLJDS, congratulated his students. “They worked so hard for this and so I’m pleased they have something to show for it.”

This year’s quiz included 50 multiplechoice questions followed by two creative tasks: one asking pupils to script a conversation between Noah and his wife before entering the ark, and another tasking them with speed-stacking cups to arrange the lyrics of Hatikvah. Rosh Pinah won that category, while Wohl Ilford was runners-up in the design prize. Matilda Marks Kennedy took the overall creative award.

Schools travelled from Salford, Leeds and Manchester and beyond “We left at 7.30 in the morning,” said one teacher. “It’s amazing watching it. It’s important to come and join in.”

A teacher from King David Primary School, Manchester, said: “We’ve got a smaller Jewish studies curriculum, so we focus on Jewish general knowledge. It’s something Jewish, something exciting –something that gives them energy.”

A teacher from Brodetsky Primary added: “In geography, they learn about the Tube, planning travel and tickets. Some made origami and sold it to raise money for the trip. They were so excited.”

The Chief Rabbi, who returned from Israel hours before the event, told pupils: “This is a Wembley moment in which every single person is a winner. There is nothing more important for the future of Judaism than great Jewish education.”

Rabbi Marc Levene, of Hampstead Garden Suburb Synagogue, who has hosted every Etgar since its launch in 2013, said: “This is about creating memories that will carry them into Jewish education. Jewish values.”

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Mitzvah Day launched its 20th anniversary campaign with an interfaith celebration at JW3 and a powerful message: Jewish-led social action can unite communities and confront division.

The event brought together past and present Mitzvah Day leaders, charity partners and senior figures from across faith communities.

This year’s theme, 20 Years of Building Bridges, was unveiled on the night, spotlighting how Mitzvah Day has become a force for unity at a time of global unrest, rising

Hampstead Synagogue has appointed a new rabbinic couple, Rabbi Akiva and Rebbetzin Batya Rosenblatt, following a trial Shabbat and a unanimous vote by members.

Currently leading Hadley Wood Jewish community, the Rosenblatts will take over from Rabbi Dr Michael Harris, who is making aliyah after serving the shul for 30 years.

Rabbi Rosenblatt studied at leading yeshivot, including the Jerusalem Kollel, before

antisemitism and deepening social divides.

Founder and chair Laura Marks told guests: “As we celebrate 20 years of Mitzvah Day, our mission of reaching out and helping others in a world which feels fragile is more vital than ever.

“This year, we ask all those taking part to connect with local charities and other faith communities who may still be strangers. We can break down barriers through meaningful, side-by-side projects that o er real support where it matters most.”

MITZVAH DAY THEME HAMPSTEAD RABBI

joining the Rabbinic Training Academy. Before taking up his post at Hadley Wood in 2020, he had been assistant rabbi at Woodside Park Synagogue.

Rebbetzin Rosenblatt comes from Manchester and studied at the Jewish Teachers Training College in Gateshead for three years before taking up a role at Broughton Jewish Primary School.

The Rosenblatts, who have four children, hope to take up their new role in early 2026.

IJDS pupils celebrate winning the prize for highest-scoring team at Etgar 2025

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

VOICE OF THE JEWISH

Mic on, eyes shut

Something miserable took centre stage at Glastonbury last weekend (for once not the weather). On one of the festival’s main stages, the rap duo Bob Vylan launched into an unhinged diatribe about having to work for a “Zionist”, then led the crowd in a chant of “Death, death to the IDF” –not once, but five times. Many in the audience roared their approval. The comment drew louder cheers than the din masquerading as music.

Later, the band Kneecap urged fans to “riot” outside a court where one of its members is facing terror charges for waving a Hezbollah flag. And all this was broadcast, with barely a murmur of dissent, on the BBC. With the corporation’s director-general watching on at the festival.

The BBC now has urgent questions to answer. Why were these scenes aired at all, let alone with no real-time intervention? Why did no editor, producer or executive flag that a chant inciting the death of Israelis might cross a line? And, most damningly, how can the BBC justify broadcasting this as publicly funded entertainment?

Glastonbury didn’t just expose a moral failure on stage. It exposed one at the heart of the BBC too.

It’s glorious when the veil lifts. That split second when a politician’s mask slips and the true face glares back.

Enter Ayoub Khan, the MP who in the House of Commons this week couldn’t bring himself to condemn the chants of “death to the IDF” heard at Glastonbury.

Khan had one job at that moment. Draw a moral line. He didn’t. Because for him, and many like him, antisemitism isn’t a dealbreaker.

The pro-Gaza brigade in parliament talk of human rights. But again and again and again, when Jewish lives are in the line of fire, literally or figuratively, they fall silent, look away or do what Khan did: expose themselves.

Board misjudgment

The 36 Deputies who signed the Financial Times letter acted as individuals, raising concerns on a matter of profound ethical urgency. In doing so, they risked – with great courage – “bringing the Board of Deputies into repute”.

Sadly, the Board’s response – suspending five deputies and reprimanding 31 others – has ensured that it reinstated its more familiar status (of disrepute).

This is, after all, the same institution that once refrained from opposing the Aliens Act designed to restrict Jewish immigration from Europe into Britain, and opposed Zionism in the period before the Second World War.

That it now appears to offer unquestioning

loyalty to Israel’s most disreputable ever hardline government, while silencing all debate and ethical dissent within its own ranks is, regrettably, in keeping with this record of conservatism, slowness to keep up, and misjudgment of the zeitgeist.

Does not our tradition teach us that dissent in the name of heaven should be respected, and ethical rebuke should not be punished but honoured and considered?

By disciplining the deputies who dared to speak out on Gaza instead of listening to them, the Board seems to have missed a chance to rise to the moral moment.

Jonathan Samuel, Hendon

WHY I RESIGNED AFTER THE FT LETTER

Last week, I resigned from the Board of Deputies’ Under‑35 Observer programme, where I proudly represented the Association of Jewish Refugees –an organisation of deep personal importance, which supported my family during and after the Second World War.

My resignation followed the Board’s response to the 36 Deputies who signed and promoted the Financial Times letter of 16 April.

Though the Constitution Committee found clear breaches of the Code of Conduct, the response was inadequate: 31 signatories received only a no tice of criticism, and five were suspended – some

with their suspensions reducible on apology. This signals that serious reputational damage may go largely unpunished if enough people are involved. Notably, one signatory was also chair of the Under‑35 Assembly, making my continued participa tion untenable.

More broadly, I no longer feel the Board is meeting its core goals: defending British Jews from antisem itism, advocating for Israel’s legitimacy, representing our community clearly and supporting vibrant Jewish life. These aims are more urgent than ever — and I believe the current approach is falling short.

Harry Sassoon, Chesterfield

THE GHOST OF YEARS YET TO COME

Israeli minister Amichai Chikli’s statement that Jews have no future in the UK and should move to Israel has caused controversy in our community.

His rationale for this viewpoint – the hate marches, two tier approach to justice, numerous acts of anti semitic vandalism and normalisation of Jew hatred in many parts of society – have become increasingly evident. Glastonbury added fuel to this fire.

Claudia Mendoza, for whom and for whose work for British Jews I have much respect, says Chikli is wrong and irresponsible.

Is he wrong? That depends largely on our actions and success in fighting every instance of Jew hatred, from wherever it comes, including government. Without turning the current direction of antisemitism travel, he will ultimately be proven right.

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Is he irresponsible? No. He is telling things as they are and his words should be used to spur us all into fighting the Jew hating threat. At a National Jewish Assembly debate last year with some 200 attendees, only 30 percent agreed the Jewish community had a future in the UK. I fear that figure might be fewer now.

Perhaps the best analogy for Chikli is the message of the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, from Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, that the future is not set in stone and can be changed with appropriate actions.

It is up to Claudia and the rest of us to see to it that every instance of antisemitism, unfair treatment of Israel and Jew hating lawfare is combatted and challenged so as to have the best chance of proving Amichai Chikli wrong.

Gary Mond, Chair, National Jewish Assembly

Corbyn era shows New Yorkers what’s coming

DANIEL SUGARMAN DEPUTY EDITOR, JEWISH NEWS

Arepresentative of the far-left – a committed anti-Zionist – has defied pundits and pollsters alike by emerging victorious from a contest which could define the direction of his political party for years to come.

Within the Jewish community, there is trepidation. Victory in the forthcoming election could leave this candidate in a position to exercise significant control over aspects of their daily lives – and he stands against something they consider central to their identity. These fears are not uniformly shared – antiZionist Jews are thrilled – but a significant percentage are deeply concerned.

As you’ve probably figured out by now, I could be writing about either of two events. Zohran Mamdani has managed a significant political upset by winning the Democratic primary for mayor of New York City. But a decade ago, Jeremy Corbyn won the Labour party leadership election in the UK.

Mamdani, 33, is an anti-Zionist with a history of deeply-troublesome public statements who has won an important internal party contest. He has done so despite the publicly aired concerns of many Jews. If he wins a forthcoming election, he will have a great deal of influence over day-to-day life. With this in mind, I thought it might be helpful for Jewish New Yorkers to be aware of recent history here, and prepare ahead of time for situations which may come their way.

1. Get ready for more In the coming months, expect to see far more statements and videos from Mamdani emerge into the public eye. His supporters will claim that this is part of a concentrated attempt to “smear” him (get used to that word, you’ll be hearing it a lot). The reason, however, is simple. Both the wider media and significant political opponents have no reason to conduct detailed research into your previous statements or actions when you’re a nonentity.

2. Rallying behind the party flag Jewish Zionists should expect to see friends, neigh-

Hasmonean Primary School A Proud Past, A Bright Future

bours and former close political allies ignore their concerns and publicly express fullthroated support for Mamdani. For almost half a decade, a significant majority of British Jews had to deal with the understanding that for many others, their concerns and fears simply did not matter. At best, they were treated as hysterical. At worst, they were accused of “weaponising antisemitism” to try to halt the implementation of a proper socialist agenda.

3. The cult is coming to town It is hard to explain to a bystander how deranged a significant subsection of British politics became for a few years. Mamdani is far more charismatic than Corbyn. The adulation he will receive is likely to be even more extreme – and the flip side of that is that those who oppose him will likely see themselves targeted in even more unpleasant ways.

4. The Useful Jewish Friend™ As previously mentioned, British Jews were not uniformly opposed to Jeremy Corbyn. There was a small but devoted group who supported

him. This group will be considerable larger in the US –the Jewish population of New York city alone is four times the size of the UK’s Jewish population – but also because America, as the most pampered diaspora country (forgive me, but it’s true), has a higher percentage of Jews who are either vocally antiZionist or who seem remarkably ambivalent about promoting people who loathe them.

5. Your friendly antisemitism expert As if number four wasn’t enough, you’re about to experience a massive surge in an already popular subculture – left-wing non-Jewish people lecturing Jews on what antisemitism is and isn’t. Expect it all – “anti-racism” activists sharing pictures of Neturei Karta (the Westboro Baptist Church of the Jewish world) and referring to them as “the real Jews” or academics descending from their ivory towers to lecture you about how the centrality of Israel to Judaism is coincidental or allegoric.

6. A fight that can be won Ultimately, the threat of Corbyn was overcome. The same can happen in the US.

Calling all Prospective Nursery & Reception families

Calling all Prospective Nursery & Reception families

Places available for September 2026

Tuesday 24th September

Limited places available for September 2025

Wednesday 30th October,

We will be holding open mornings at 10am

Thursday 14th November

Wednesday 9th July

we will be holding open mornings at 10am

Tuesday 21st October

Tuesday 28th October

You will have personal tours of our wonderful school, get to meet our Head Teacher and see the school in action. Some spaces are available across the school.

You will have personal tours of our wonderful school, get to meet our Head Teacher and see the school in action. Some spaces are available across the school.If these days are not convenient please all to make an individual appointment.

To attend, please email admin@hasmonean-pri.barnet.sch.uk or phone the Office on 020 82027704

email office@hasmonean-pri.barnet.sch.uk

or phone the Office on 020 8202 7704

As I step down after nine years as chair of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust (HMDT), I do so with a heart full of gratitude and a renewed sense of clarity about what must endure. When I began this role in 2016, I understood the immense weight of memory – the moral imperative to preserve the legacy of the Holocaust and other, more recent genocides. Yet, over time, I came to appreciate even more deeply the power of remembrance to shape our present and safeguard our future.

Throughout my tenure, I’ve been privileged to work alongside extraordinary individuals – most especially Holocaust and genocide survivors – whose dignity and unwavering commitment to truth have been our guiding light. Their voices have carried us. Their testimonies have shaped the soul of Holocaust

Memorial Day (HMD).

In the face of any doubt, I want to be clear: the core purpose of HMDT remains Holocaust remembrance and commemoration. This has never changed. It will not change. We must restate this truth without ambiguity or apology. Remembering the six million Jewish men, women and children murdered during the Holocaust is at the heart of HMDT’s remit.

While the organisation has morphed from a ‘special day’ to a ‘national institution’, historical truth itself these days feels under siege. Holocaust distortion and denial have found new footholds, especially online.

These aren’t easy times. Global events and the horrific conflict in the Middle East since the world-changing events of 7 October 2023, have tested our resolve, with attacks on the very essence of our work.

We have had to navigate these challenges with care and we’ve done so while holding fast to our core mission.

The challenges moving forward then are how to ensure learning about the past creates a safer future – and how to do this work in a volatile and polarised world.

I leave this role immensely proud of what HMDT has achieved. HMD 2025 marked 80 years since the liberation of AuschwitzBirkenau. The UK ceremony, attended by the Prince and Princess of Wales, was a powerful moment of reflection and recommitment

Watched on the BBC by more than two million people, the occasion reminded us that even as we move further from the Holocaust in time, we must never distance ourselves from its critical lessons.

In just over 20 years, HMD has become embedded in local communities across the country, bringing together people from a wide variety of backgrounds and inspiring them to learn from the past for a better future.

Thousands of local HMD events are held

up and down our nation: they take place in schools, o ces, civic centres, places of worship, museums and even prisons.

I’m deeply thankful to my fellow trustees, to the sta and leadership of HMDT and to the survivors whose voices have led us through these years. I also want to thank the Jewish community – so many of whom have been both critical friends and unwavering allies in this shared mission.

As I pass the baton to my successor, Sir Sajid Javid, I do so with confidence that HMDT will continue to bear witness to the Holocaust and the genocides that have followed. The context may change.

The methods may evolve. But the core must remain unshakable: we remember, we reflect and we act – against prejudice and hate – and against the forces that pose a threat to the humanity and dignity of others.

Memory is a responsibility we carry, not only for those we’ve lost, but for the world we hope to build.

The fight against intolerance is not the burden of a few or only of those directly a ected. It is the responsibility of us all.

I rarely write about Israel – if I do I tend to regret it

JOSH GLANCY NEWS REVIEW EDITOR, SUNDAY TIMES

Some 20 years ago, when I was a sixth-former, I had a long and fractious debate with my A-level English teacher. Why, he wondered, given our school was avowedly and in fact constitutionally atheist, did the students have a Jewish society? Well, I pointed out, the school’s charter doesn’t prohibit the formation of religious clubs, it merely excludes religion from the curriculum of the school. Fine, he said, but it’s against the spirit of the school.

What about this actually bothers you, I wondered. What’s the real problem here? “Well,” he said, “you never invite any proPalestinian speakers.”

It had been a good 10 minutes since we’d stopped discussing themes of classical decay in The Wasteland, but we’d finally reached the nub of the matter. I pointed out that it was a Jewish society, not an Israel

society. Most of our events involved eating bagels and discussing culture and history. Only a minority of them focused on Israel. At which he point he hu ed and took the conversation back to Tiresias.

I thought about Mr Walsh recently, when a pro-Palestinian friend of mine messaged me to express his frustration and anger towards me. Why hadn’t I criticised Israel’s aid blockade in Gaza? Given I write about Israel regularly, why hadn’t I spoken out?

He was correct that I hadn’t said much about Israel in recent months, but wrong that I opine on Israel regularly. For obvious reasons, I take a close interest in what happens in Israel, but it is not an area in which I have expertise and I write about it sparingly. It’s a di cult subject to master and one on which I hold myself to a high standard.

The stakes are high and the information we receive is often muddled. I don’t speak Hebrew or Arabic and haven’t spent more than a few weeks in Israel since I was a teenager. On the few occasions that I have written about Israel directly, I usually regret it afterwards, because I have that nagging sense that I’m just

not quite under the skin of it all. For similar reasons I rarely tweet or post about Israel. There’s more going on than just journalistic practicalities though. What I mostly write about in this column is Jewish life in Britain, which in the past two years has mostly focused on the repercussions of the war over here. The distinction may seem small, writing about Israel versus writing about how Israel’s war is a ecting British Jews, but to me it’s important. I have a profound and indissoluble connection to the world’s only Jewish state, but it is not my country, I do not vote there and its wars are not my wars, though they a ect me deeply. Increasingly I find myself shying away from conversation about it and resenting others who bring it all up, particularly when they demand my opinion in order to make a judgment about where I am.

Why is this, I wonder. Despair, yes. Mental exhaustion. Social discomfort. Fear. Perhaps a hint of shame too. As I told my frustrated friend, I do vehemently oppose what Israel has done with aid in Gaza. I find the strategic rationale dubious and the moral calculation reprehensible. I think it’s wrong. I think the

human cost to Palestinians has been tragic and unacceptable. And I’m sad that a country I care for deeply has put itself in this situation. But as I also told him, I resist the demand that, as a vaguely prominent British Jewish writer, I am morally obliged to repeatedly and publicly criticise Israel if it does terrible things.

Some British Jewish commentators have stepped forward during this war as Israel experts, seeking to act as tribunes for the Jewish state. I’ve mostly (though not exclusively) taken the opposite path. Because what this war has brought home to me is just how little I really understand Israel anymore, if indeed I ever truly did. I feel rather left behind by this radical new direction in my people’s history. Honestly, I’m still struggling to get my head around it all.

I also find myself drifting into ambivalence and uncertainty. And resenting those who wish to make me a soldier on their digital battlefield. Because as the peevish Mr Walsh misunderstood all those years ago, what I live in is a Jewish society, not an Israel society. The lines may be blurred, impossibly so at times, but the di erence is important.

Glasto act embodies the glorification of terrorism

ROSA DOHERTY

Imagine this: Bob Narley takes to the stage – his name a play on the peerless reggae legend Bob Marley, known for anthems about love and unity.

Only Bob Narley isn’t Black or Jamaican. He’s a white guy you’ve never heard of. Nevertheless, you turn on your TV – your publicly funded national broadcaster – and catch his set at Glastonbury, where he’s performing his allegedly edgy, punk-infused music.

Narley grabs the mic, bouncing around the stage in a frenzy, and at the top of his voice leads a chant calling for the death of the Jamaica Defence Force.

And for the sake of argument – especially for the painfully stupid—let’s imagine the JDF is currently engaged in a deadly, devastating war following a deadly, devastating terror attack on its citizens. Let’s imagine there are now undeniable questions over its conduct.

Now back to Bob Narley. Imagine the mostly white, middle-class audience –who’ve each spent £400 on a ticket and a further £250 on a cocktail of drugs likely trafficked into the country by vulnerable minors – cheering and chanting in unison: “Death, death to the JDF.”

Imagine their wavy blond locks swaying in support as Narley venomously rages about a Rastafarian manager he once worked with, invoking tropes about his unscrupulous character, topped o with derogatory comments about his hair. Imagine it?

No, me neither – because there isn’t a festival stage in the world where that would be met with support.

What you would get is the welly bootwearing hipsters of the inner cities and the gap-year countryside students furiously penning ChatGPT-assisted complaint letters to the festival organisers demanding a refund:

“Dear Emily Eavis I, for one, was horrified by the calls for ethnic cleansing and the cultural appropriation. Misappropriating the identity of the late, great Bob Marley is a breach of human rights on a scale unseen at Glastonbury before. Yours sincerely, Rex from Walthamstow.”

Emily Eavis would have received thousands of such letters before the first unwashed graphic designer hit the medical tent at the Shangri-La area of the festival. News of the incident would have swept the site. There’d be hunger strikes at dawn. Unfortunately for Jews – or increasingly, I

think, fortunately – we don’t have the luxury of support from ‘Globalise the Intifada’ Griselda and ‘Resistance by Any Means’ Rupert. They don’t take to social media, outraged that an artist called Bob Vylan – named after the very Jewish Bob Dylan – called for the death of a group of people, including thousands of conscripted teenagers compelled to carry out national service.

Something has shifted in the UK. Jews have felt it slowly building for some time. But our concerns voiced are often dismissed, met with accusations that we are all nefarious liars with allegiances elsewhere – an ethnic minority uniquely distrusted to identify the racism we experience. But it’s here.

While Bob Vylan was being applauded for his bigotry, broadcast into thousands of homes by the national broadcaster, my children and I walked past a man in North London, covered head to toe in Nazi symbols, megaphone in hand.

He marched down the high road with the purposeful stride of an SS o cer casually o to “slew some Jews”, while three police o cers on the other side of the road looked confused when he was pointed out to them.

Back on social media, my left-leaning, “not-a-racist-bone-in-their-body” timeline was sharing memes describing the grand-

daughter of a Holocaust survivor as a baby killer – because she didn’t much like the shouty, hatefilled man on the telly. The audacity of her.

Hatred of Jews is so mainstream now that there’s barely even a moment of hesitation. No consideration that their hate might carry social or professional consequences. In fact, quite the opposite.

And maybe this is exactly what happens when you do very little to challenge two years of antisemitic placards and slogans on our streets. Glorification of terrorism.

Maybe this is what happens when you invite a band who – sure, made a documentary about the Irish language – but also happen to be named after a torture technique used by the IRA.

A band who waved the flag of an organisation that helped Bashar al-Assad kill hundreds of thousands of Syrian civilians. A band who shouted support for the terror group that burnt Jewish families in their beds, raped and slaughtered hundreds of young people at a music festival. A band who called for MPs to be murdered—when two actually have been murdered by extremists in the last few years.

Maybe – just maybe – this is what happens when those people don’t even feel the slightest bit uncomfortable.

Laps of love and unity at Maccabi

Thousands turned out to raise spirits, funds and voices for more than 90 vital charities – and in solidarity with Israel’s missing and bereaved

As the sound of the shofar roared across StoneX Stadium, thousands of participants, old and young, cheered and launched into the first lap of this year’s Maccabi GB Community Fun Run.

The 2025 event, held on Sunday 22 June and media partnered by Jewish News, was a heart-warming demonstration of community and solidarity.

Alongside dignitaries including Sarah Sackman, Labour MP for Finchley and Golders Green, and life peer Lord Polak, supporters ran, walked, pushed buggies and used mobility walkers to tackle the the 1k, 5k, and 10K courses alongside their families for 98 charities including Chai Cancer Care, CST, Camp Simcha, Jewish Care, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, JLGB, Kisharon Langdon, March of the Living UK, Save a Child’s Heart, Shalva and United Hatzalah of Israel.

On hand was a food court, shuk market place for small Jewish and Israeli businesses, magician Nathan Early demonstrating tricks, face painting, dance performances, sand pit, a charity fair and the popular family fun zone.

Leading the 1km run this year were 150 Team Maccabi GB athletes, managers and staff marching behind the Maccabiah Games torch held by the general team Manager, Andrew Myers.

The delegation was due to fly out to the Games in Israel on 6 July, but due to the conflict in the Middle East, the event has been postponed until 2026.

Team Maccabi GB has already started its preparations for next year’s Games, which promise to be, more than ever, a celebration of Jewish peoplehood through the prism of sport.

More than 40 runners raised funds for Jewish Care and Jami, with four-month-old baby Harry among the youngest participants, pushed along the 1k route in a buggy by proud parents, Nicole and Adam Solomon.

Nicole said: “Both Adam and I have been involved with Jewish Care in different capacities over the years and have seen firsthand the amazing services and support they provide for the community. We hope that Harry will follow in our footsteps and be

passionate about fundraising and support various charities when he is older.”

Twenty-year old Ellie Baum, part of Jewish Care’s volunteering department, participated in the 10K event alongside her friend, Sophie, in honour of Ellie’s grandfather, who spent years volunteering for Jewish Care.

Baum said: “My Grandpa expressed how much Jewish Care added to his life during his retired years. It gave him responsibility, routine and a place to socialise and chat, something my grandpa does best!”

Families also turned out in support of Jami, the Jewish community’s mental health service. Among them was Jennifer Friend and sons Theodore, aged 5, and Gabriel, aged 2, who participated in the 1K with Simon running the 5K.

challenges, and supporting and raising awareness for charities like Jami, community, is very important to us.”

The Wainer family also participated in the 1K and 5K to raise vital funds for the charity. David Wainer said: “A family member has faced mental health challenges, and supporting and raising awareness for charities like Jami, especially those within the Jewish community, is very important to us.”

of his family member, recognising the of health

He added: “This cause is particularly meaningful during our son’s barmitzvah year. As part of his barmitzvah project, he chose to support Jami in honour of his family member, recognising the importance of mental health care and community support.”

In a moving show of solidarity with

support the Hostages and Missing

In a moving show of solidarity with the 50 hostages still held in Gaza, 90 participants raised nearly £5k to support the Hostages and Missing Families Forum UK.

Stacey Warren, 54, from Borehamwood, walked the 5k with her husband Scott, 43, while 17-year-old son Ollie volunteered

Stacey Warren, 54, from Borehamwood, walked

PHOTOGRAPHS BY YONI COHEN

Maccabi GB Community Fun Run

at the Forum stand. She told Jewish News: “I felt honoured to be a part of a group with such a meaningful cause. Life hasn’t been the same for any of us since 7 October and we will never forget.”

She added: “The walk was a strength of solidarity and belonging and we showed how our cause will not be weakened until all the hostages are home. It was amazing to see everyone supporting us and cheering us on from the sidelines.”

Nicki Cohen, also from Borehamwood, took on the 5k with her three sons, aged 17, 15 and 12. With husband Dan cheering them on from the sidelines the family collectively

raised more than £1k of the grand total for the charity.

She said: “It was such a huge honour to walk 5k for the hostages with all of my family and so many others at the Maccabi GB Community Fun Run. It is truly unimaginable that after more than 20 months, there are 50 of them still there. Raising money for the Hostages and Missing Families Forum felt so important so that we can all continue to campaign to bring every last one of them home.”

Sporting yellow hats and carrying posters bearing the names and faces of the hostages, the group led the 1K race alongside Ela

children to run in memory of her husband, Tal Haimi – a father of four and a hero of Kibbutz Nir Yitzhak, who was killed on 7 October while defending his home.

The money raised will go directly to support Bustan B’Ya’ar, a therapeutic school attended by the Haimi children and other children from hostage families.

Addressing the crowd, Ela said: “Nearly a year ago, I was here in London, arriving with a two-month-old baby in my arms. I never imagined I would return – and Tal would still be in the same place. In all our darkness, I want to thank you. You are the light. You, who go out, who remember, who fight – you are the hope that ensures we will never forget, and that all the hostages will come home.”

Rosenberg, both active leaders of the UK Hostage Forum community. Feldman said: “Running together today was not just symbolic—it was an act of solidarity and hope. We won’t stop until they’re all home.” Meanwhile, 92 runners took part for cancer charity Chai, with Caroline Tunkel, head of community engagement, saying: “A big shoutout to everyone who joined our colourful ‘Chai Five’ Art. The neon handprints on t-shirts were a real Chailight!”

The group was brought together by Nivi Feldman and Jewish News‘ Michelle

Maccabi GB chief executive Ashley Lerner said: “This event has always been a key date in the communal calendar, but this year’s felt especially meaningful. Thousands of us, from across the Jewish community of Great Britain, came together to celebrate our identity, show solidarity with the people of Israel and stand united as one community.”

Kidanza’s A Million Dreams dazzles again

Kidanza Dance School’s much-anticipated annual production, A Million Dreams, returned to the stage this year with two sold-out performances, delighting audiences with a spectacular celebration of imagination, talent and the power of dreams.

Featuring over 100 young dancers aged 4 to 18, the show transported viewers into a magical circus world where anything is possible. With stunning costumes, intricate props, dynamic lighting, and an unforgettable soundtrack, the production

captivated both the eyes and hearts of the audience.

Directed by the visionary Hila Moussaioff, founder of Kidanza Dance School, with her two daughters Judi and Mia Moussaioff working with her dancers and choreographers, the production is a powerful testament to the dedication of the young performers and their teachers. The show featured over 2,000 costumes and props, curated by Hila and Michal Agmon, alongside video art and lighting design by Alon Bercovich.

PHOTOGRAPHS BY DEBORAH JAFFE AND LEILA BARBARO

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When acclaimed Israeli writer Etgar Keret reread the manuscript of his latest collection of short stories, Autocorrect, he questioned whether the book was too dark, too pessimistic. He had written it during a di cult period: soon after his mother’s death, during the Covid pandemic and throughout the demonstrations against Netanyahu’s proposed judicial reforms. It was 6 October 2023 and Keret was due to deliver the book to his publisher two days later. Then 7 October happened, and Keret forgot about it for several months.

“In hindsight, there are many things in the book that when I read it now, I say, ‘Wow, this makes sense. How come I wrote it before 7 October?’” Keret, 58, says over Zoom from his home in Tel Aviv.

He refers to Corners, a story about divorced parents who want a writer to compose the text for their son’s tombstone. “That’s basically what writers did here after 7 October. There were families wiped out and writers composed eulogies for people they never knew. So why would I write a story like that before then? I don’t know.”

He then o ers one possible suggestion: his own psychological make-up. “There’s something about being hypersensitive and having a weak hold on reality that sometimes makes you predict what’s going to happen because you ignore all the diversions,” he says.

The 33 stories in Autocorrect, two of which were written post-7 October, are certainly dark. Some depict existential unease, dystopias and alternate realities. The title story asks if a CEO son can reverse his father’s fateful outcome.

In A World Without Selfie Sticks, a man meets an alternative but realistic version of his ex-girlfriend and in Guided Tour, the last few surviving humans in a destroyed world work as guides in Ramat Gan for alien tourists.

Others are touching, such as Cherry Garcia Memories With

Author Etgar Keret tells Anne Joseph why his latest short stories have been a long time coming

M&Ms on Top, where a man cares for his dementia-addled mother. Keret’s trademark wry wit is present, but it is sporadic.

world.’ When I hear a siren, I run to the stairwell. I hear a boom, there is glass breaking somewhere. This is reality. I don’t need anything extra.”

recent is a lifetime achievement award from ACUM (The Society of Authors, Composers and Music Publishers in Israel).

Autocorrect is Keret’s seventh short story collection and, he says, the one closest to a novel. “It’s very much a zeitgeist book. I’ve never lived in a time where the zeitgeist was so clear and extreme. When I look at the senselessness of the world around me, I feel that the metaphors I have for my existence come from the present.

lived in a time where the zeitgeist was so clear and extreme. When world around me, I feel that the come from the present.

Keret grew up in Ramat Gan, the youngest of three siblings. One of the leading writers of contemporary Israeli literature, his books, novels and short stories have been published in 50 languages and have won numerous awards. His most

“If life before felt like choosing a matinee show and going to see it, now it feels like opening your Instagram and watching random movies the algorithm has chosen for you.”

now it feels like opening your Insta-

We’re talking a week into the Israel-Iran war, and after Keret’s first uninterrupted night’s sleep since then. “I feel that all my life I was trained for wars,” he says. “My parents were Holocaust survivors, and I think I’m a relatively anxious person so now the whole country feels like I do every day,” he adds, laughing.

Israel-Iran war, and after Keret’s since then. “I feel that all my life I parents were Holocaust survivors, feels like I do every day,” he adds, of war-related media content, Keret consciously restricts his news believing that sure to constant information in problems of our my students the forest, you’re

But if you’re a

Despite the deluge of war-related media content, Keret consciously restricts his news consumption, believing that access and exposure to constant information in the world is one of the biggest problems of our age. “I’ve told my students many times ‘If you’re a deer in the forest, you’re afraid of the lion in the forest. But if you’re a deer in the forest with Facebook, you’re afraid of all the lions in the

Etgar Keret: ‘I am an optimist by genetic inheritance’

As well as short stories, Keret employs a variety of storytelling techniques, including plays, screenplays ( , his first film as a director alongside his wife, Shira Ge en, won the Caméra d’Or prize for best first feature at Cannes in 2007), songs, animated and liveaction films, comic books and choreography. He is an associate professor at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and is the director of a new MFA in Creative Writing at JTS (Jewish Theological Seminary) in New York.

what’s going to become of Britain or you could say, my partner smells so good. I thought that at his age he’d start rotting, but he smells like flowers.”

including plays, Jellyfish a director alongside his wife, Shira Ge en, won the Caméra d’Or in 2007), songs, animated and livebooks and choreogassociate professor at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and is the director of a (Jewish Theological Seminary) in New York.

After 7 October, Keret wanted to be useful. “I can’t drive, I’m a bad cook, but I did what I can. I went to places to meet survivors or soldiers as a presenter of old-fashioned humanity; this ability to talk a certain way, tell a joke, not to be politically correct at the right time.”

ability to talk a certain be politically correct at has described Keret as

optimist “by genetic inheritremain so? “The a bridge. Walking over the bridge, holding the when somebody railing, then it’s better not to and just walk to the other side.”

Keret describes himself as an optimist “by genetic inheritance”. During such di cult times, how does he remain so? “The way I see it, life is a bridge. Walking over the bridge, we’re used to holding the railing so we will feel safer. But when somebody electrocutes the railing, then it’s better not to hold the railing and just walk to the other side.”

make our own

The New York Times has described Keret as a genius and readers and audiences often turn to him for wisdom or guidance. Does he feel pressure to provide it? “It just shows you what a tough spot humanity is in,” he deadpans. “Well, it is confusing,” he continues. “I said to my wife a few months ago that since the war started, I stopped being a writer and became a rabbi. In the past month, three of the people who kindly drove me home from events for survivors [of 7 October] asked me to find them a shidduch.”

“But I’m not a rabbi. I’m the kind of guy who, when you’re on the tube, sits next to you and starts talking to you without you even saying anything and explains all kinds of stu ,” he says. “Selfishly, my existence is first and foremost for me to understand who the hell I am, and what the hell do I want. Now I’m saying that if you get something out of it, this is totally collateral damage. I wasn’t aiming for you to feel better about your life, but if it happens, I’m totally happy with that.”

what you have control over, positive. “Let’s say when you go to

We can, he says, make our own choices over what you have control over, and look for the positive. “Let’s say when you go to sleep and you close your eyes, you can choose to think

• Autocorrect by Etgar Keret is published by Granta, £15. Etgar Keret will be speaking at the Edinburgh International Book Festival (EIBF) on 20 August: edbookfest.co.uk And at the Owl Bookshop, Kentish Town, London on 21 August: owlbookshop.co.uk

wherever that may be

Cookbook author Linda Dangoor recalls her early life in Baghdad and shares stories of loss, longing and identity. By Alex Galbinski

For Linda Dangoor, the loss of her Arabic mother tongue was one of the worst embodiments of the rootlessness caused by her family’s exile from Iraq.

At the launch of her second cookbook, From the Tigris to the Thames, at JW3 last month, the designer, painter, ceramicist and cookery writer described moving to London aged 12: “I always wanted to fit in, but it was at that time that I felt the loss, that exile was also about loss.

“I lost my home and the community was dispersed, but the most sensitive thing for me was loss of language; I loved Arabic so much. Had I stayed in Iraq, had the situation been conducive enough for us Jews, I would have been a writer or a journalist.”

In conversation with Lyn Julius, the co-founder of Harif*, and in front of a packed audience, Dangoor shared stories of her journey from Iraq to Beirut (where the family spent two years and where she says her tastebuds “exploded”), to London in the 1960s and then to Paris, where she lived for 12 years.

In between, she spent time in Ibiza, where her father was employed and where “I encountered new cultures and the cuisine of di erent places, which really enriched my way of cooking”.

Many of these stories are also in Dangoor’s book, which she describes as “a tapestry – partmemoir and part-cookbook, where I interweave recipes with personal reflections on the idea of home and belonging”.

Yotam Ottolenghi has called it “such a generous cookbook”, and fellow cookbook writer Claudia Roden said of it: “Exciting flavours evoke a lost paradise and new beginnings in an engaging story of migration and identity.”

Having left Iraq aged 10, Dangoor says her memories are not complex, but she described how her home was “her world” and this world she depicted in conversation and in her book is a far cry from the typical Anglo-Jewish one. She lived in a house with her grandparents, four cousins, two uncles, three aunts, and even her grandmother’s brother, who would come to stay with them. “Our tradition of living together like a tribe was like being in a mini-society,” she reminisced.

the summer the level of water would go down and there would emerge these sandy islands on which we would have our picnics.”

She recalls the excitement of the new season’s fruits; the family had trees bearing pomelo fruit, Seville oranges and berries. “Every day, fresh bread would be delivered to us – bread that was baked in a tanoor. What I really loved was the pieces of fat from lamb that was grilled and all us kids would want that fat, it was so delicious.”

Her childhood sounds idyllic but in 1958 the ruling monarchy was overthrown by a military coup. “The airport was closed and things were quite dangerous and unstable for everyone. My parents and my cousin’s parents thought it wasn’t a good place to bring up a family and the idea of leaving when the airport would be open was brewing in their minds,” she says.

She recalled Beirut – where she saw the sea for the first time – as being quite unlike Iraq but: “We [the family] were reunited and the food was so wonderful, little plates – the flavours were completely di erent, very much lighter food.”

Dangoor delighted the audience when, lauhing, she said that, coming to London, “it was always raining and I loved that at first. I thought how exotic, but I soon regretted it.”

It was her mother who taught her to cook and Dangoor said she loved watching her in the kitchen. “She is a fantastic cook. I was her sous chef when we arrived in London. I would make mayonnaise, she would teach me how to make a vinaigrette. She was so meticulous.”

painting and drawing and,

school – “a new vehicle of

It was also her mother who encouraged her to study painting and drawing and, despite initially failing art A-level, Dangoor went to art school – “a new vehicle of expression for me”, then moved to Paris and set up a graphic design business. France was also where she started to feel at home and contemplated settling down, but realised she was an island there.

“When I came back [to England], I felt part of the community that I had tried to get away from when I was trying to be English,” she says. “I met people who knew me, knew my grandparents, my parents… it suddenly became so easy. I was no longer an island.”

marrying Frank connected me to my homeland, and I said to him just before we got married, ‘I lost my home in Baghdad, but you will be my homeland.’”

She said she realised that the community she had perhaps previously taken for granted was one rich in culture and traditions. “And also there is a balance in being part of a community but not being swamped by it, to be an independent person.”

readers try the fish recipes – the seabass with capers and preserved lemons, the halibut in a Mediterranean sauce, and the poached mackerel with honey and vinegar – “which are simple and take no more than 15 minutes”.

“Our house stood on the Tigris River. It was a very important presence for a lot of us. I learnt to swim there, and what I loved was in

She also recalled tearfully: “It was also the time that I met my husband Frank. For a very long time, I never wanted to marry an Iraqi. But

In contrast to her first cookbook, Flavours of Babylon, which showcases her family’s Babylonian Jewish recipes, From the Tigris to the Thames is a love letter to all the places Dangoor has called home, containing recipes that she has devised and cooks herself at home, many of them with a Middle Eastern twist.

Cooking need not be complicated, she said, “but you need to be organised”. She suggested

Other recipes include such mouth-watering creations as chicken in a date syrup marinade, warm trout salad with Piedmont black rice and rosewater and sa ron milk pudding. As Dangoor says in book: “My love of food is the thread sewn into the pages.” It certainly shows.

* Harif is a UK charity representing Jews from North Africa and the Middle East which promotes their history, culture and heritage.

• From the Tigris to the Thames by Linda Dangoor is published by Green Bean Books, priced £25.

By Candice Krieger candice@jewishnews.co.uk

PODCAST PIONEER WITH AN EAR FOR THE FUTURE

Communications expert Richard Miron says the spoken word is a path to success but there are key challenges ahead, writes Candice Krieger

ore and more businesses are turning to podcasts as a powerful tool to shape their narrative, strengthen their brand and stay ahead.

Once the domain of niche hobbyists, podcasts have become a go-to communication strategy for companies – whether it’s Mishcon de Reya sharing industry insights, Shopify guiding entrepreneurs, or McDonald’s tackling a PR crisis with transparency.

front foot with their communications. They need to set out what they do, and use media can to reinforce and protect their brand. As someone who also worked in strategic communications, that is my message to my clients these days –that in all ways they have to be prepared and have assets in place to protect their business.”

Another challenge is the crowded market. With hundreds of thousands of podcasts, only 15-20 percent attract more than 500-1,000 listeners. How do you reach your audience amid all the noise?

“Get creative. Podcasts have become so ubiquitous that often it’s just one CEO interviewing another – it’s flat,” he says. “You need to change up the format and do things di erently.”

Richard Miron, who was producing podcasts before most of us had even heard of them, believes that in today’s turbulent business landscape, “podcasts and communications in general are more important than ever”.

He says: “Companies need to be on the

A former BBC foreign a airs reporter and UN Middle East spokesman, Miron has been podcasting for the past 10 years. In 2017, he set up Earshot Strategies, a podcasting and communications consultancy. He has helped to create podcasts for American Express, Airbus and Euromoney. He has also produced the popular podcast Unholy; Two Jews on the News, hosted by Yonit Levi and Jonathan Freedland.

Miron believes podcasts “o er businesses a powerful way to connect with their audience, build trust and showcase their expertise”. Their biggest advantage, he notes, is that “podcasts are deeply engaging”.

He notes: “It is the most e cient form of media. There is no other medium that you can consume while you are doing something else –whether that is commuting, walking the dog or exercising.”

Businesses are increasingly leveraging podcasts to enhance their marketing strategies and connect with audiences. McDonald’s launched The Sauce podcast to address public relations challenges transparently. Similarly, the Shopify Masters podcast o ers valuable insights and guidance to entrepreneurs, reinforcing its position as a thought leader in the e-commerce space.

Law firm Mishcon de Reya has embraced podcasting to share insights and discussions. They include the Propertyshe podcast, hosted by partner Susan Freeman, which features a mix of property personalities that are making a di erence in the industry.

Additionally, smaller businesses such as boutique marketing agencies, e-commerce companies and startups are using podcasts to build brand awareness and connect with a niche audience.

The benefits are backed up by the data. Some 63 percent of listeners have purchased a product promoted on a podcast (Broadcast Revolution), while integrating a business podcast into a marketing strategy can increase trust levels from 45 percent to 63 percent (Thrive Internet Marketing Agency) and 73 percent of employees prefer listening to corporate podcasts over attending hour-long meetings, indicating podcasts’ e ectiveness in internal communications (uStudio).

However, as many businesses rush to create a podcast, Miron cautions not every company should jump on the bandwagon.

“They’re an undertaking and need commitment. It’s not a piece of advertising – it’s a thoughtful piece of marketing and branding,”

He adds: “You need to ask yourself want you want to achieve. Is a podcast the best tool to use – and why?”

Miron started his career in radio before moving into journalism and joining the BBC as a trainee radio producer and journalist. He then moved into reporting.

Later, he moved on to become a Middle East spokesman for the United Nations before taking up a role as a senior World Bank communications o cer in Washington DC.

It was while working at this last posting at the World Bank that Miron says he had what he calls a “classic mid-life crisis moment”.

He recalls: “While others might have opted for a flashy sports car, I felt a strong pull to do something di erent.

“I noticed something was happening in the world of podcasting. It wasn’t just radio repackaged – it felt like a new, more personal medium. I knew I wanted to try it.”

He believes podcasts aren’t just a passing trend. “We had the explosion of blogs, and they still exist, but not as much. But podcasts? They’re not a fad. They will figure in the business landscape. They’re not going anywhere.

“For businesses looking to build brand authority, connect with their audience, or enhance internal communications, podcasts can be a powerful and lasting tool – but only if approached strategically.”

Richard Miron’s top tips for businesses looking to start a podcast

• Be clear about your purpose – don’t create a podcast just because others are doing it.

• Commit to quality – invest in the editorial aspects of production alongside the technical.

• Promote effectively – a great podcast without an audience is a wasted effort.

• Keep it engaging – ask yourself: “Would I actively listen to this?”

• Make it human – podcasts should feel natural, not scripted or corporate.

Richard Miron

Above: Podcast studio; inset, editorial conference

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MAKING SENSE OF THE SEDRA

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

BY RABBI ARIEL ABEL SOLICITOR & ARMY CHAPLAIN

We must stop judging each other

Torah portion Chukat begins with the purification process using the ashes of a red heifer (parah adumah), water and hyssop grass. The process of purification before entering the sanctuary and later the precincts of the Temple are hard to relate to as 21st century Jews. We still use ritual baths, but we don’t sprinkle water at people for holy purposes. So, what is the meaning of this ritual for us, in our times?

Six years ago, this column celebrated the birth of our youngest child with an insight o ered by my principal student, Jack Hodari,

who at that time o ered a striking interpretation of this ancient rite, drawing a parallel through purification between humility and vitality. The procedure described in the Torah for purification, Jack explained, involves simple, natural materials: fresh spring water, called “living water”, a term that evokes freshness, flow, and internal motion. According to Jack, it is this combination of the humble and the lively that makes the mixture e ective in restoring a person’s spiritual and ritual purity. “Purification,” he reflected, “demands not only a return to simplicity and grounding, but also to youthful energy - to life. The materials used are not extravagant, yet they carry deep symbolic resonance: water that flows and gives life, wild-growing hyssop

(oregano) and a clay vessel that holds this transformative mix.

In this poignant observation, Jack points out that human life itself begins in a mixture of blood and water - in the womb, surrounded by amniotic fluid and nourished by the blood of the mother. Thus, each act of purification is not merely a cleansing, but a rebirth and a spiritual renewal.

In the years since then we have experienced the sequential disconnect from everyday normality of Covid, the conflicts with and within Israel and the onslaught of antisemitism rising to an all-time high since the Second World War.

The ash and water, the agony over the hostages taken by terrorist regime of Gaza, the bloodletting in losing hundreds of soldiers and civilians in Israel’s existential fight on seven

fronts, plus worldwide antisemitism, has revitalised us. We now get up and sing and dance in defiance of the attacks at the Nova festival and despite the 30ft-long hypersonic missiles coming in from Iran. Jews and Israelis unknown to each other spontaneously burst into song at restaurants, carry on weddings in underground car parks while sirens wail and counter-missile defence systems do their job.

This is the new and ever-renewing call of humility: we must cease

to judge each other as Jews. Our communities have been badly let down by so many actors and agencies in the free world, as if we don’t matter. To counter this, we have experienced profoundly the value of caring for each other anew. In this I include supporters and friends of Jews and of Israel of Jewish and nonJewish birth, equally. Am yisrael chai, the people of Israel live on! Praying for a speedy return of all the hostages and end to conflict and peace in the world.

SENIOR SALES EXECUTIVE

Jewish News is delighted to be entering a digital-first era with the launch of a new website and new regular glossy magazine. We are therefore seeking an enthusiastic, emerging sales force to help navigate this new era and to sell these exciting new products alongside opportunities with our portfolio of events and community-leading social media presence.

• Achieving personal and team sales targets. Working to the teams agreed yield and series framework.

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• Identifying revenue opportunities from new and existing accounts and selling solution based integrated campaigns.

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Email a brief paragraph about yourself (and attach your CV) to Richard Ferrer – richard@jewishnews.co.uk

Glasgow; Scotland.

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GNMS (Glasgow) is a vibrant, dynamic and inclusive community with approximately 750 members.

We are seeking to appoint an experienced, enthusiastic and charismatic Assistant Rabbi & Rebbetzen to work alongside and support our Senior Rabbinic couple.

The candidates should be passionate, self-motivated and wellorganized team players and be prepared to engage with our members across a broad range of ages and levels of observance. The successful candidates will be expected to build a close and meaningful relationship with existing members, actively promote the young families within the Synagogue community, make Judaism relevant to the members, as well as recruit new members.

To contribute to a long-term strategic plan, and to implement the relevant parts to meet the needs of young families, youth and children, in line with this plan.

The Assistant Rabbi will have a Certificate of Semicha, which is acceptable to the Chief Rabbi and should have previous experience in a United Synagogue style community.

To apply for this position please email, in the first instance;chair@gnms.org.uk

Giffnock Newton Mearns Synagogue

Glasgow 0141 577 8250

Damage in Israel from Iranian missiles

LEAP OF FAITH

BY RABBI SHULAMIT AMBALU CHAIR OF THE ASSEMBLY OF REFORM RABBIS & CANTORS

defined as the head) emerges, one life cannot supersede another.

During the 3,000-year history of Jewish law, there is not a single legal opinion about abortion written by a woman. Shocking as that is, there is no doubt that in a conflict between the rights of the pregnant woman and the foetus, she comes first.

Exodus 21:22 is clear that any miscarriage that results when a pregnant woman is struck during a struggle between two fighting men, the loss is punishable only by a fine, calculated by her husband. Although it may seem as though her pregnancy is only of material value, this key text establishes her life as having precedence; she is not a mere receptacle for the foetus she carries within her.

Later on, the rabbis of the Mishnah (Oholot 7:6) say that during labour, if her life is at risk, the foetus is dismembered, because her life comes first. Once the majority (which is later

In the 12th century, Maimonides, who was himself a physician, went as far as to say that during childbirth a foetus could be deemed a potential killer who can be killed in order to save another person’s life. Although his view was accepted, it is controversial to this day.

Judaism teaches that the soul is always pure. Nevertheless, up to 40 days of life, the embryo is ‘mere water’, and unstable like all fluid. After this point, most halachic thinkers agree with abortion in the case of maternal danger, to safeguard the mother’s health or protect her from anguish.

Not all agree about terminating a pregnancy purely to prevent the birth of a child with genetic or developmental illness or disability. After all, who can say what the outcome will be for every condition?

Classical halacha does not treat the newborn as viable until she or he lives for 30 days. Progressive Judaism treats all babies as viable from birth.

GOLD PRICES AT RECORD HIGH!!!

Today, advances in medical care mean that our understanding of viability itself is profoundly di erent.

A foetus in late-term pregnancy has the potential to enjoy future life. One can also say

A stimulating series where our progressive rabbis consider Judaism in the face of 21st-century issues

that while the foetus does not have an equal claim, it has something of life. At the same time, it is also dependent, and any harm to it will cause harm to the mother. Self-harm is something we guard very carefully against.

While there are no planned changes to medical abortion, the changes to the Policing and Crime Bill will decriminalise a woman who has undergone a later-term abortion by herself, without medical intervention. The question is, who will be held responsible when a woman is coerced, deceived or terrified into ending her pregnancy? Since Covid, medication is easily obtainable online without medical oversight.

The Torah challenged the prevailing world view of the Ancient Near East, where women were receptacles, and their babies were ultimately valuable as soldiers and social assets.

In today’s world, where autonomy is so often the supreme value, it is time for a rethink, to apply our evolving ethics to the fragile, transitory and vulnerable reality of human beings at the beginning and the end of life.

will happen when a woman is coerced or deceived into ending her pregnancy?

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to the the symbol the 80th a always poignant now both a The this May.

£10,000 spoke at Anniversary their want to teams in

HOSTAGE FATHER MEETS

BRITISH RED CROSS

In January, Magen David Adom UK facilitated a meeting for the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, with Dani Miran, father of Omri Miran (47) at the offices of the British Red Cross. Omri, a Shiatsu therapist, with a wife and two young daughters, was kidnapped by Hamas from Kibbutz Nahal Oz on 7 October and is still held captive in Gaza. Dani used his meeting to call for greater action to free the hostages.

Dani’s UK schedule included meetings with MPs and Peers including Greg Smith MP and Lord Polak, as well as private discussions with Dame Priti Patel MP and Tom Tugendhat MP. He also

spoke to communities in Hendon, Stanmore, Southend and Hampstead Garden Suburb, as well as staff at McKinsey & Company.

Daniel Burger, MDA UK CEO, praised Dani’s bravery, saying, “MDA is committed to saving more lives, and as Israel’s international Red Cross organisation, is committed to lobbying for the hostages by raising awareness of the humanitarian plight they are in.”

Dani has vowed to shave his beard only upon his son's return, knowing that his beloved son has not been able to do so during his captivity.

SUPPORTERS RISE TO THE CHALLENGE

Every year, Magen David Adom UK invites supporters to take on sporting challenges or design their own fundraising initiatives, all in the name of saving lives in Israel and beyond.

To honour those who participated in a challenge last year, MDA UK hosted a special Thank You Fundraising Champions reception at The Prince of Wales in Primrose Hill this March. Fifty Champions were in attendance, having raised money for Magen David Adom UK through anything from participating in a run or cycle, to setting up a Bat/Bar mitzvah challenge or donating their birthday money.

Manchester MDA launched its first-ever Padel Power tournament in May at the Manchester Padel Club. The day was a resounding success, with Marc Yaffe and Paul Clayton crowned winners of the men’s competition, while Jess Marshall and Hayley Goldsmith triumphed in the

women’s. Thanks to the hard work of the event committee — Lauren and Ross Jackson, Kate Moryoussef, and Jodie Segal — £15,000 was raised for the renovation of the Givatayim Ambulance Station in Israel.

Looking ahead, MDA UK is gearing up for another exciting year of challenges. Whether you're a seasoned athlete or simply seeking to #ChallengeYourself, there’s something for you:

London to Brighton Cycle Ride

- 14 September 2025: Ride with Team MDA UK and help save lives on two wheels.

Royal Parks Half Marathon

- 12 October 2025: Run through iconic London parks while raising vital funds.

TCS London Marathon 2026 - 26 April 2026: Running in this ultimate bucket list challenge? Will you do it in the name of saving lives?

Create Your Own Challenge: From local to international races, if you are taking part or are planning a personal challenge, MDA would be honoured if you chose to raise money for MDA UK.

Celebrating a Bar/Bat Mitzvah this year?

By fundraising for MDA UK during your meaningful milestone, you can make a real difference to the lives of people in Israel and around the world.

Whichever path you take, every step, pedal, and pound enables Magen David Adom in Israel to save more lives. Learn more and register at mdauk.org/challenges

CEO of the BRC, Béatrice Butsana-Sita, Dani Miran and Head of the Regional Delegation for the UK and Ireland of the ICRC, Philip Spoerri

Left to right: Ian Burns, Einat Klain, Dani Miran, Linda Burns, Simon Belson, Natalie Belson at Southend

Manchester MDA Padel Committee Member, Lauren Jackson

OUR DONORS' DEDICATIONS

The first half of 2025 has seen a staggering amount of MDA UK supporters dedicate critical lifesaving vehicles. These include a Mobile Intensive Care Unit, ambulances, community response cars and motorbikes, as well as an MDA ambulance station.

FROM NORTHERN LINE TO SAVING LIVES

Last year, my dad and I cycled to every station on the Northern Line in one day to raise money for Magen David Adom. It was hard (and needed lots of snacks!), but totally worth it.

In April, we visited Israel and saw where the money went. MDA’s underground blood bank was amazing, with cool tech to keep blood safe during rocket attacks. We even saw a milk bank that helps tiny babies, and a command

centre that looked like a movie scene!

The best part? The Intensive Care bus that can carry eight critically ill people—it’s like a hospital on wheels.

Everyone at MDA was so kind and passionate. This year, we’re cycling the Piccadilly Line to raise even more!

Asher Mass outside the Marcus National Blood Services Centre in Ramla.

MDA Ambulance donated by Eric Murciano in memory of the 1200 innocent Israeli civilians murdered on 7th Oct 2023

MDA First Responder Community Car donated by the Southend and Westcliff Hebrew Congregation

MDA Motorbike donated by Victor and Hilary Batchat

MDA Motorbike donated by the Wildbrook Charitable Trust

Dedication of MDA Herzliya Ambulance Station with Lady Joy Bourne

Dedication of a room donated by Peter and Belinda Black at the MDA Makor Chaim Station.

MDA Motorbike donated by an anonymous donor

MDA First Responder Community Car donated by MDA UK VP, Judy Saphra, in memory of Shiri, Ariel and Kfir Bibas

MDA First Responder Community Car donated by Anita Royston

MDA Mobile Intensive Care Unit donated by MDA UK VP, Barry Segal, of The Joseph Storehouse Trust and Vision for Israel

MDA First Responder Community Car donated by an anonymous donor