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PROUD VOICE OF OUR COMMUNITY 1 February 2024 • 22 Shvat 5784 • Issue No.1352 •

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Beggars belief Why did it take 7 October for the world to realise that money donated to UNRWA has been helping Hamas?

by Jenni Frazer jenni@jennifrazer.com @Jennifrazer

An international watchdog that has for years been monitoring the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees last night issued a stark warning that “what we’re hearing about the symbiotic relationship between UNRWA and Hamas is just a drop in the ocean. There is much more to be exposed”.

Marcus Sheff, chief executive of IMPACT-se, which looks at the educational content of textbooks in the Arab world, told Jewish News that “Israel is in for a really long battle” when it comes to reforming terror-infiltrated Continued on page 5

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Jewish News 1 February 2024

News / Hamas tunnels / Golders Green attack

IDF confirms strategy of flooding Gaza’s tunnels The Israel Defence Forces confirmed this week that it has been flooding tunnels in the Gaza Strip with seawater, writes Adam Decker.

Several IDF units and officials at the Defence Ministry jointly developed “several tools for injecting high-flow water into Hamas tunnels in the Gaza Strip,” the military said in a statement, adding that it is “part of the variety of tools the IDF has for dealing with tunnels”.

The IDF clarified that not all tunnels were being flooded, as the process, which includes attaching pipes and pumps to the shafts, was not suited to all the tunnels and could severely damage some areas.

Before it floods tunnels, the IDF carries out “professional and comprehensive” preemptive checks, including an analysis of the soil and water system in the area, to ensure that groundwater is not contaminated, the army added.

Other methods for destroying Hamas’s tunnels include aerial attacks, underground manoeuvres and special operations.

Meanwhile, a delegation of Hamas officials was reportedly expected to meet with Egyptian intelligence chief Abbas Kamel in Cairo yesterday evening to discuss a potential truce-for-hostages deal.

An Egyptian official told Qatar’s Al Araby news channel of the meeting after the Gaza terror group confirmed

A tunnel in Khan Younis; IDF troops on the ground in southern Gaza; Tuesday’s undercover operation by Israel in a hospital in Jenin, West Bank

that it had received and was examining the proposal.

The Qatar-brokered proposal, which was presented to Hamas by mediators after talks with Israel, would have three stages, during which all hostages held by Hamas in Gaza since October 7 would be released in return for an undetermined number of Palestinian prisoners jailed in Israel, an unnamed Hamas official told the Reuters news agency.

The official said the proposal involved a phased truce, during which

the terror group would first release the remaining civilians among the hostages abducted on 7 October (including children, women, the sick and elderly); then soldiers; and finally the bodies of hostages who were killed in captivity.

Both sides would be required to commit to halting military operations throughout all three stages, but the official did not indicate how long the three stages would last or what would follow the final stage.

In response to the reports of

Israel being prepared to make significant concessions and release a large number of Palestinian prisoners, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office released a statement insisting that the reports were incorrect.

“The prime minister’s position is consistent — the war will only end when all its goals are achieved, the IDF will not withdraw from the Strip and thousands of terrorists will not be released,” the statement read.

“The reports that a so-called

agreement was reached on a solution for the release of security prisoners are not true,” specified Netanyahu’s office. “The issue was not discussed at all.”

• Israeli commandos dressed as hospital patients killed three members of an armed Hamas cell hiding inside a hospital in the West Bank city of Jenin on Tuesday, with dramatic footage circulating of the operation.

The terrorist cell was allegedly planning imminent attacks inspired by those of 7 October.

MAN CHARGED OVER KNIFE INCIDENT THAT LEFT GOLDERS GREEN ‘SHAKEN’ Police have charged a man with affray and possession of a weapon after a Golders Green attack that has, a police superintendent admitted, left “Jewish communities shaken”, writes Joy Falk.

Gabriel Abdullah, 34, has been charged by the Met Police and will appear in custody following reports of a man with a knife at midday on Monday.

He was remanded to appear in custody at Harrow Crown Court on Tuesday, 27 February.

This charge comes after police were called to reports of a man with a knife in Hamilton Road, NW11.

Officers confirmed the incident is being treated as a “hate crime” and they paid tribute to the members of the public, who included members of Shomrim, who had

“bravely intervened”. The incident took place Hamilton Road, Golders Green, as a man allegedly shouted antisemitic abuse outside the shop while armed with a knife.

Ch Supt Sara Leach, responsible for policing in north-west London, said on Tuesday: “Yesterday’s incident in Golders Green has understandably caused significant concern and left our Jewish communities shaken.

“I want to be clear, this matter is being treated as a hate crime and we are dedicating significant resources to the investigation.

“Our officers responded quickly and were on the scene within six minutes and able to arrest the suspect within ten minutes of being called.

“I want to pay tribute to the members of the public who bravely

intervened before police arrived.

This is being investigated as a hate crime by specialist detectives from our community safety unit.”

The senior officer added that the incident was not being treated as a terror investigation.

‘While this is not a terror investigation, that in no way detracts from how seriously we are taking this incident,” Leach added.

Golders Green teenager Yosef Chaim Reitman has been praised for his bravery in tackling the knifeman.

The 18-year-old was working with his father, Evyatar Reitman, at Kay’s Kosher supermarket on Hamilton Road when the attacker appeared.

He managed to hold back the attack until Shomrim officers and then the police arrived.

A suspect is arrested by police outside a kosher shop on Monday

www.jewishnews.co.uk

1 February 2024 Jewish News

3

Palestine recognition / Kate Osamor / Jerusalem exhibition / Mayor quits / Iran sanctions / News

No 10 didn’t sign off Cam’s Palestine call Downing Street has admitted to not having given sign-off to remarks made by Lord Cameron to Arab ambassadors in which he said the UK “should be starting to set out what a Palestinian state would look like” because the foreign secretary’s speech was deemed not to be a formal one, writes Lee Harpin.

Cameron’s words had sparked a backlash from some Conservative MPs after he suggested Britain could bring forward formal UK recognition of a Palestinian state.

Cameron meets Netanyahu

But a spokesperson for Rishi Sunak later told Jewish News that the foreign secretary’s words were “very similar” to those in speeches Cameron had previously given.

Cameron told the ambassadors’ event in London on Monday night: “We should be starting to set out what a Palestinian state would look like – what it would comprise, how it would work.

“As that happens, we, with allies, will look at the issue of recognising a Palestinian state, including at the United Nations. This could be one of the things that helps to make this process irreversible.”

Tory former minister Sir Michael Ellis was among those to raise concerns about Cameron’s message at prime minister’s questions yesterday: “All of us want to see a peaceful and demilitarised Palestinian state. However, Hamas

remain in control in large parts of Gaza, support is growing in the West Bank.”

The former attorney general, who is himself Jewish, said: “Does [the prime minister] agree that any recognition of a Palestinian state must address these issues and can only come about as part of a negotiated settlement between Israel and the Palestinians?”

Sunak said: “The government’s position is clear… there are steps and conditions that need to be put in place on this journey.

“First and foremost the removal of Hamas from Gaza, a Palestinianled government in Gaza and the West Bank, a concrete plan to reform and support the Palestinian Authority, a reconstruction plan for Gaza, and a two-state solution which we have long supported.

“We stand with Israel,” he added.

“Israel’s lasting security must be guaranteed.”

Sunak’s aides later insisted that Cameron’s speech had been consistent with government policy.

Senior Tory MP Alicia Kearns, the head of the foreign affairs committee, was among those welcoming Cameron’s remarks, saying it marked “a fundamental change in the UK position”. Foreign Office minister Andrew Mitchell responded to Cameron’s remarks on Tuesday by insisting there has been “no change” in UK policy.

Among those to criticise the speech was Chipping Barnet MP Theresa Villiers.

She said it was “really disturbing” that Cameron appeared to have “changed the UK government’s approach”, adding: “Will the minister agree with me that bringing forward and accelerating unilateral recognition of Palestinian state would be to reward Hamas’ atrocities?”

Photographs of more than 1,200 Israelis who were killed during the Hamas attack in the south of the country on 7 October and those who have perished in the subsequent conflict in Gaza were displayed on a giant screen this week at the National Library in Jerusalem

Labour MP suspended over Shoah-Gaza link Labour frontbencher Jonathan Reynolds has said MP Kate Osamor’s comments about Gaza and the Holocaust are not acceptable and confirmed she has held conversations with party whips over possible sanctions, writes Lee Harpin.

The shadow business secretary’s remarks came after Jewish organisations condemned her attempt to link Gaza with other genocides remembered on Holocaust Memorial Day. Jewish News revealed last Friday that Osamor, the member for Edmonton, had infuriated local party members after claiming in her weekly newsletter that “Gaza” should be added to a list of “recent genocides” to be remembered on Holocaust Memorial Day alongside the murder of six million Jews.

Writing under a photograph of herself signing the Holocaust Education Trust’s commemoration book in

Suspended: Kate Osamor MP

parliament, ahead of HMD 2024 on Saturday, she wrote on X (formerly Twitter) that there was an “international duty to remember the six million Jews murdered during the Holocaust” as well as the millions of others people murdered under Nazi persecution.

She then listed “more recent genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia” to be remembered on HMD, before adding the words “and now Gaza”.

Asked by Sky News presenter Trevor Phillips on Sunday whether

he thought comments made by the left-wing MP “are acceptable”, Reynolds said: “No, I don’t think that it is.”

He added: “What is happening in Gaza is clearly a humanitarian catastrophe that is recognised. But there are specific reasons why the Holocaust is considered as it is.

“It’s important on Holocaust Remembrance Day to remember that. And I understand Kate has apologised. There’s been a conversation with the Chief Whip. There’ll be further conversations. We take anything in this space seriously.”

Karen Pollock, chief executive, Holocaust Educational Trust, responded to the MP’s comments, telling Jewish News: “This disgusting post is a malicious distortion of the truth, a painful insult to survivors of the Holocaust and particularly distressing to see on the eve of Holocaust Memorial Day.”

Newcastle mayor quits UK REVEALS NEW IRAN SANCTIONS The first non-white lord mayor of Newcastle has quit Labour in protest at what he called Keir Starmer’s “unwavering support for the Israeli government’s bombardment of Gaza”.

Habib Rahman published his resignation letter on X (Twitter) and said he would now be an independent on the city council.

While he applauded Labour’s efforts to root out antisemitism, he claimed it had not done enough to

challenge Islamophobia. Rahman said: “I cannot accept your inhumane position in support of the Israeli government’s continuous bombardment of innocent Palestinian people.”

Newcastle Labour Group said it was “incredibly sad” to hear of Rahman’s decision and thanked him for all his public service. It added: “The Labour Party is an anti-racist party, committed to combating and campaigning against all forms of racism.”

The UK has announced new sanctions aimed at tackling the domestic threat posed by the Iranian regime – but has again not committed to full proscription of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

The measures by the UK and by the United States are aimed at stopping Tehran exporting repression, harassment and coercion against journalists and rights defenders The UK on Monday sanctioned

seven individuals who are members of IRGC Unit 840, and one organisation, including senior Iranian officials and members of organised criminal gangs who collaborate with the regime, to expose and disrupt Iran’s activities in the UK and overseas.

Tory and Labour MPs have repeatedly called for the IRGC to be proscribed in full by the government.

Speaking to Jewish News last Friday, Cleverly promised to crack

down on hate “provocateurs” at Palestine protests.

The home secretary said: “We are already taking very strong action against the IRGC. They are sanctioned in their entirety, individuals within that organisation are also sanctioned. Foreign secretary David Cameron said: “The Iranian regime and the criminal gangs who operate on its behalf pose an unacceptable threat to the UK’s security.”

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Jewish News 1 February 2024

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1 February 2024 Jewish News

5

UNWRA scandal / News

Watchdog: UNRWA-Hamas links ‘just a drop in the ocean’

used for “terrorist purposes.”

Continued from page 1 But UNRWA officials told UNRWA. But, he told Jewish News: “It’s a battle that has to be fought, or we are doomed CNN when asked about this claim: “We don’t have more to repetition of terror attacks, large, small or information on this at this stage. unthinkable, like October 7.”

The Office of Internal Oversight Sheff, who gave testimony to the US Services [the internal oversight Congress foreign relations committee this body of the UN] will look into week, was speaking after 16 countries and the all these allegations as part of EU announced they would suspend funding the investigation the Commisto UNRWA following revelations about its sioner General of UNRWA has employees’ ties to Hamas and Islamic Jihad. requested them to undertake.”

According to the Wall Street Journal, an IMPACT-se has been warning intelligence document based on “sensitive for years that UNRWA’s educasignals intelligence, as well as surveillance tional materials were “problemof mobile phones, investigations of captured atic” and that their “extreme Hamas terrorists, documents found on terrorradicalism” would “encourage ists who were killed, and more”, indicates that young people to commit violent 10 percent of UNRWA employees in Gaza have ties to the two terrorist groups — and “half have acts”. UNRWA school textbooks — the majority of UNRWA’s budget relatives in Hamas and Islamic Jihad”. is spent on educational staff and Among the evidence assembled in the materials — tell young people intelligence report were the names of 12 to “cut the necks of the enemy”, UNRWA employees, one of whom was said that “jihad and martyrdom are to have kidnapped a woman. Another is said Palestinians receive aid packs from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency the most important meanings of to have handed out ammunition. A third was In the immediate short term, Sheff said, “the life”, and that “Jews are liars and fraudsters and not believe that the closeness between the described as having taken part in the masfirst and simplest thing to do is to change the bodies was a surprise to UNRWA’S commisshould be annihilated”, Sheff said. sacre at one of the Gaza envelope kibbutzim. textbooks. It can be done, easily. We cannot lose sioner-general, Philippe Lazzarini, either.

He told this newspaper: “If you are indocFrom cross-checking computer information generation after generation to terror. Even if it Lazzarini, however, described the deciand mobile phone texts, and from interrogating trinating young people day after day, and you is assumed that UNRWA is going to be teaching sion to suspend funding as “shocking”, are as authoritative as the schoolroom is, don’t some of those taken prisoner by the IDF, Israel in schools in the next weeks, why cannot pressaying that “these decisions threaten our be surprised if something terrible happens — put together a damning picture. Israeli intelongoing humanitarian work across the region sure be brought to bear on the teachers, and and that terrible thing happened on October 7. ligence officers had established the movements on the curriculum, so that they are no longer including and especially in the Gaza Strip”.

The majority of schools in Gaza are UNRWA of six of the men inside Israel on 7 October teaching hate? Why is that so complicated?”

Sheff was scathing: “The idea that it is schools, and you don’t have to be a political based on their phones; others had been moniAsked how it would be possible to police genius to figure that the majority of the October ‘UNRWA or chaos’ is something which is tored while making phone calls inside Gaza the teaching of a changed curriculum in perpetuated by UNRWA.” He acknowledged 7 terrorists were educated in those schools. during which, Israel says, they discussed their UNRWA’s 162 schools in Gaza, Sheff replied: that there had been previous funding freezes, They were prepared, primed to carry out those involvement in the Hamas attack.

“This is the heart of the problem. If we cannot but that problems were usually ascribed to acts, because they were told, year after year, Three others received text messages trust UNRWA to institute this [changed] cur“a few rotten apples” and that matters swiftly that this was not only OK, but their duty.” ordering them to report to designated riculum rather than the hateful curriculum returned to “business as usual”.

Sheff said the scale of the co-ordination meeting points on 7 October, and one was they are teaching now, then we cannot trust This time, he said, Israel could not afford between Hamas and UNRWA “did not come told to bring rocket-propelled grenades stored UNRWA at all. We cannot trust them not to to return to business as usual. “It is no longer as any great surprise to us”. He added that at his home, according to the dossier. Seven teach hate: it is their status quo ante.” simply a matter of corruption. It is dangerous.” despite UNRWA’S “slick PR machine”, he did of the men named are understood to have Philippe Lazzarini’s predecessor, Pierre been teachers in UNRWA schools, Krähenbühl, who resigned after allegations instructing young Palestinians in of internal corruption, has been named as the maths and Arabic, while others next director-general of the International worked in the schools in other roles.

Committee of the Red Cross, starting in April.

It was this information which On Wednesday the UK announced it Israel shared with the US governwould still provide aid to Gaza but via other ment, after which America susorganisations during its pause in pended funding, and other countries, funding to UNRWA. Foreign Office including the UK, followed suit. minister Lord Benyon said: “The America has been the biggest UK is providing £60m in humanifinancial backer of UNRWA, with tarian assistance to support other $344m (£270m) in 2022, while the partners, including the British Red UK gave $21m (£16.5m) in the same Cross, Unicef, the UN World Food year — and as recently as September Programme and the Egyptian Red 2023, Britain announced a £10m Crescent Society, in order to respond funding boost to UNRWA after James to the critical food, fuel, water, health, Cleverly, then foreign secretary, visshelter and security needs in Gaza. ited refugee camps in the region.

We will continue our support for The United Nations secretarythe World Food Programme to general, Antonio Gutteres, confirmed deliver a new humanitarian land that an investigation was taking place corridor from Jordan into Gaza. into these claims, saying that nine of We will continue to support the the employees had been sacked, one Red Crescent, with which we have a was dead, and “the identity of the two long-standing, trusted relationship, others is being clarified”. Israel also Evil beyond belief: Messages on Telegram from UNRWA employees celebrating Hamas’ atrocities on to make sure that this happens.” alleged that UNRWA facilities were 7 October in the ‘Gaza envelope’ in southern Israel

6

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Jewish News 1 February 2024

News / Bevis Marks / Terror-supporting GP / Defiant MP / Rayner defence

Bevis Marks supporters accuse City of London over draft plan A group of supporters of Bevis Marks Synagogue, Europe’s oldest continuously functioning synagogue, has accused the City of London of “moving the goalposts” in a new draft plan relating to tall buildings in conservation areas, writes Jenni Frazer.

After a “massive public campaign” to protect Grade I-listed Bevis Marks from being overshadowed by a proposed skyscraper tower block, City of London’s planners had a change of heart. In 2021, they refused planning permission for a building at 31 Bury Street. Bevis Marks supporters breathed a sigh of relief.

Now, however, the synagogue says that only weeks after adopting a new conservation area around Bevis Marks, the authority is proposing a new local plan that will undermine those protections.

“If adopted, the City’s new local

City of London’s new plan would undermine the synagogue’s protection

plan will no longer bar tall buildings in conservation areas.

In a letter published on Tuesday in the Daily Telegraph, supporters – headed by former London Lord Mayor Sir Michael Bear, and by Prof

Sir Simon Schama, writers Simon Sebag Montefiore and Howard Jacobson, and a raft of historians and peers — warn that the draft plan pays “lip service to protecting Bevis Marks, but the setting excludes 31 Bury

Street, and the clause preventing tall buildings in conservation areas has quietly been removed”.

The writers say that “the City’s failure to consider the religious and cultural dimensions of the synagogue will cause outrage”.

The owners of 31 Bury Street have submitted plans for “a new very tall tower on their site”. It would have

the same effect as the previous tower which was refused planning permission, overshadowing the Bevis Marks courtyard and “blocking so much sunlight that the congregation would struggle to hold services”.

The City’s planning and transportation committee was yesterday due to vote on whether to send the current local plan draft to consultation. Bevis Marks Synagogue is calling on members to refuse to do so unless several amendments are first adopted.

Abigail Green, professor of modern European history at Oxford University, said: “The City’s attempt to narrowly define the synagogue’s setting demonstrates their lack of understanding of Jewish history, religion and culture. Bevis Marks Synagogue is British Jewry’s most important house of worship and as such it warrants robust protections.”

EXTREMIST DOCTORS ACTION The health secretary has written to the NHS doctors regulator about the need to tackle “extremism, discrimination or hate speech” in the system in a “thorough and timely manner.”

Victoria Atkins

Victoria Atkins sent the warning after it emerged that Dr Wahid Shaida, who led the now proscribed extremist group Hizb ut-Tahrir, was still licensed to practise as a GP. He was revealed to have celebrated the 7 October Hamas massacre as a “welcome punch on the nose” of Israel, and sought to justify the attempted murder of Salman Rushdie to his Facebook followers.

Atkins said she “appalled” to have read reports of “a small number” of NHS staff posting extremist and antisemitic material.

Writing to NHS England and the Professional Standards Authority, which oversees the General Medical, Council, Atkins said it was “vital for

public confidence” that that health system dealt with “any instances of extremism, discrimination or hate speech” in an efficient way and that “those involved face appropriate and consistent sanctions”.

Speaking to the Telegraph, she said she would “not tolerate” a service that was not able to allow patients to “trust the person treating them will give them the best possible care regardless of who they are”.

Last Monday, three months after the GMC was alerted to Dr Shaida’s views, the NHS removed his from the approved doctors list. But he is still able to work as a private doctor.

The GMC now says it is looking at Dr Shaida’s case “as a matter of urgency.”

READERS HAPPY TO JOIN SHOW OF SOLIDARITY Communications specialist Benjamin Bell was one of hundreds of Jewish News readers who collected a Bring Them Home dog tag from Cohens Jewellers in Temple Fortune this week. We teamed with the tags’ creators so readers could wear one in a show of solidarity with the women, men and children still held captive in Gaza and their families

Leftwing rebel attacks Starmer The Labour MP who apologised after saying Rishi Sunak had “blood on his hands” in Gaza has been recorded criticising his own leader Keir Starmer’s stance on the conflict at a local party meeting, writes Lee Harpin.

Jewish News has obtained audio of Tahir Ali boasting to a meeting of his local party that he was one of 56 MPs to defy Starmer in a Commons vote last November by backing an SNP motion calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.

Asked by a local member if Starmer might change his stance, Ali said: “Keir, despite 56 of us voting against him, came out with a statement last week that he isn’t going to change his position.” In comments that will infuriate the Labour lead-

WE NEED HOSTAGES this [Gaza/Israel], he might as well FREED, SAYS RAYNER be saying don’t talk about policing,

Tahir Ali had to apologise to Sunak

ership, Ali urges his local party to rebel against a directive from general secretary David Evans calling for debate on Israel and Hamas to be held in a manner that will avoid it becoming a “flashpoint” at meetings.

The MP said: “In response, if David Evans is saying don’t talk about

don’t talk about the NHS, don’t talk about people with disabilities.

“Where does it stop? This is complete nonsense.

“There should be pushback, there should be discussion and as a CLP, write back to David Evans and say NO. We should not be censored.”

Ali entered parliament in 2019 in the seat of Birmingham, Hall Green, after sitting MP Roger Godsiff was deselected. He is a member of the Socialist Campaign Group of MPs and has repeatedly attacked Israel during this time, both as an MP, and prior to this as a Birmingham City councillor. Jewish News contacted Labour for comment.

Angela Rayner has launched an impassioned defence of her party’s position in relation to Gaza and calls for an immediate ceasefire on ITV’s Good Morning Britain, telling viewers: “We are very clear… Hamas still has over 130 hostages, still to be released.”

Labour’s deputy leader Rayner was asked why in a vote in parliament last November she had failed to back an SNP motion calling for an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

“No one can look at the TV and see what’s happening – I’m a mother and a grandmother myself – and you see the devastation in

Gaza is absolutely horrific,” she said. “But adopting the ‘ceasefire now’ approach favoured by many Palestine campaigners only helped Hamas. We are very clear,” she said of the position adopted by Labour under Keir Starmer. “We want to see a situation where Hamas gives the hostages – we still have over 130 hostages, people who were going about their daily business on the 7th of October slaughtered, murdered and taken from their families – still to be released.

“And we need to see a sustainable ceasefire and we need to have that humanitarian aid getting into Gaza as quickly as possible.”

1 February 2024 Jewish News

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News / Holocaust Memorial Bill

‘This is idiotic’: survivors beg MPs to halt memorial Anita Lasker-Wallfisch and Dr Martin Stern give evidence to a select committee

for the UK’s Jews, he said implementation of their ideas would be “disastrous”. The learning centre being proposed was “ridiculously small” for the purpose as well as too big for the site, Dr Stern said.

Along with previous witnesses, he said opting for a site such as the Imperial War Museum London would make the problems of visitors and security far easier to manage. A Holocaust centre in Westminster, intended to counteract antisemitism, would only increase it, he feared.

“People will say, ‘Look at the Jews, they push

This Sunday!!

Four survivors, the oldest of them 98-year-old Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, gave oral evidence to the Holocaust Memorial Bill select committee last week about their strong opposition to its proposals, writes Beatrice Sayers.

“This is a completely idiotic idea. It’s contrary to everything sensible and will not serve any purpose,” said Lasker-Wallfisch, the cellist who was part of the Women’s Orchestra of Auschwitz.

Asked about the idea of a learning centre being built under a planned memorial in Victoria Tower Gardens, next to the Palace of Westminster, she said: “In my opinion we are unlikely to learn now what we have not learnt in the last 80 years, especially in the current climate of escalating antisemitism.”

She objected to the felling of trees that were hundreds of years old, the creation of a serious flooding risk and the overshadowing of the Butxon Memorial that she said would happen if the Holocaust memorial were built.

Dr Martin Stern, a child survivor of the Westerbork and Theresienstadt camps, was next to give evidence. While he admired the people behind the legislation and support

themselves to the front.’ I don’t want to create further ammunition for antisemites.”

Dr Lydia Tischler and Joanne Millan also gave evidence of their objections to the bill, with Millan referring to the memorial design as a “toast rack”. She said the project should not be rushed: “Don’t hurry it through because I might die tomorrow.”

Earlier, the cross-bench peer Baroness Ruth Deech said the Jewish community had not been consulted on the proposals. She described the project as “political”, and one The design for a UK Holocaust Memorial, at Victoria Tower Gardens. David Cameron initiated the project in 2014 that would offer no protection the proposals for a learning centre “would only against antisemitism.

Deech also reminded the MPs that the be an embarrassment” for this country.

The government is committed to seeing the National Audit Office had raised concerns about the £138m project, the Infrastructure and Pro- bill become law, so that the project initiated by jects Authority had rated the memorial red the UK Holocaust Memorial Foundation, set up (‘undeliverable’) and Unesco had rejected it and by David Cameron in 2015, can be completed.

The committee hearings continue next week. asked the government to think again.

• Maurice Helfgott, page 24 Later, the historian Sir Richard Evans said

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HMD event / News

We won’t ‘cower and accept antisemitism’, PM pledges The 7 October attacks emerged as a element of this year’s main Holocaust Memorial Day event, as speaker after speaker referred to it and the subsequent rise in antisemitism and Islamophobia, writes Jenni Frazer.

Laura Marks, chair of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, set the tone by telling a packed Guildhall audience that everyone had been “appalled” by the Hamas atrocities and the ensuring “record levels” of antisemitism and Islamophobia.

With this year’s theme of the Fragility of Freedom, genocides that followed the Nazi Holocaust, such as those in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur, were reflected throughout the hour-long event.

After a message from Rishi Sunak in which he pledged “not to cower away and accept antisemitism”, the highlight of the event was the personal testimony of survivors, from Jewish survivors of the Shoah such as Mala Tribich and Ivor Perl,

to a young woman who had gone through 100 days of violence perpetrated by Huthus in Rwanda against Tutsis, Antoinette Mutabasi.

Musical contributions were included in the ceremony, including from Chazan Jonny Turgel, who sang Eli, Eli and El Maale Rachamim.

The chazan, of course, is the grandson of the late Holocaust survivor Gena Turgel, who met and married his soldier grandfather Norman after the liberation of Bergen-Belsen by the British army in 1945.

Actresses Louisa Clein and Nina Wadia chaired the event. In the audience were home secretary James Cleverly, Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle, post-Holocaust envoy Lord Pickles, antisemitism czar Lord Mann, the barrister and TV presenter Rob Rinder, and numerous survivors.

Two stand-out contributions came from the levelling-up secretary Michael Gove and Labour’s shadow deputy prime minister, Angela

Home Secretary James Cleverly at the Guildhall memorial event

Piccadilly Circus is lit up for Holocaust Memorial Day on 27 January

Rayner. Gove said the victims of 7 October were attacked “because they were Jews, and for no other reason”.

Rayner said that for this occasion she was “really pleased” to be sharing a stage with Gove. “Events such as HMD are incredibly important, both

Take Care of Your Mental Wellbeing This February

to understand that history and to make sure that that is not the future,” she said. It was “our responsibility to challenge hatred”, she added, and “we need to do more than warm words, we need to take action to protect our minorities.” She added: “I want to say

to the Jewish community that you are not alone. I will stand by your side at every turn”.

Actor Jonathan Pryce read a moving last letter from the anti-Nazi activist Arvid Harnack to his wife Mildred. Both were executed by the Nazis, he in 1942 and she in 1943.

After a brief address by Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis, survivors of different genocides lit memorial candles, followed by a dance and song performance by members of the Chickenshed Theatre Group.

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11

Hate crackdown / News

Cleverly to crack down on hate ‘provocateurs’ Home Secretary James Cleverly this week insisted the police are making “significant arrests” of those responsible for antisemitic hate crimes at pro-Palestinian rallies, write Lee Harpin and Jerry Lewis.

But he admitted arrests and prosecutions need to be publicised better to help calm widespread fears within the community about safety on our streets.

In a joint interview with Jewish News and Kan Israel Radio after visiting Golders Green to meet communal leaders, Cleverly said he was very aware how the climate in the UK after the 7 October attacks in Israel had left “Jewish communities feeling really, really under threat”.

But the former foreign secretary said the government and police were now working at “identifying and dealing with provocateurs” at the now-weekly demonstrations, who he said possessed “real evil intent”.

Dangerous ringleaders needed to be detached from marchers joining pro-Palestine rallies out of “an understandable desire for peace in Israel and Gaza”, he added.

In marked contrast to the often-confrontational style of his predecessor Suella Braverman, Cleverly stressed he had enjoyed a lengthy working relationship with Met police commissioner Sir Mark Rowley.

Cleverly, 55, who replaced Braverman in his current role November, also refused to accept the streets of London were now unsafe to walk.

He used the interview to praise the “very, very professional” approach of the Community Security Trust in ensuring the Jewish community in the UK was protected.

Cleverly addressed concerns the government had continued to ignore widespread calls to proscribe Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in Britain.

He said a decision on whether to ban the group was being “constantly reviewed” but any final move would happen only if it was backed by a “cross government collective agreement”.

Cleverly was pressed repeatedly in the interview about concerns within Britain’s Jewish community about the alleged failure of police to tackle widespread incidents of hate speech and antisemitic or pro-Hamas placards being displayed by a minority attending the pro-Palestine demos after the 7 October massacre.

“An observation I have is that there’s probably a relatively small number of people who are genuinely pursuing a kind of really evil intent,” Cleverly said of those taking part in the demos.

“And unfortunately there is a larger group of people, perhaps idealistically or naively being drawn into the slipstream of those individuals.

“I know the police and certainly the government are working at identifying and dealing with those provocateurs, those people who are driven by antisemitism, driven by hatred, and finding a way of detaching them from people who have an understandable desire for peace in Gaza and Israel, and the eastern Mediterranean more broadly, who are scared and worried.

“Making sure that the good people aren’t swept up and radicalised by bad people.”

The Army Reserve officer and Braintree MP since 2015 also stressed the Met had made a “significant number of arrests” in relation to

incidents at demos, but added: “We need to be better at publicising the fact that people are being arrested and being prosecuted.

“Not always, at the time of the protests themselves, that’s not always easy or possible, but that there have been a significant number of arrests.”

He continued: “There have been a number of people charged and people who will be prosecuted, including people who are wearing Hamas-style headbands and the people who had those paraglider T-shirts.

“The police are taking action and as part of the reassurance we need to be better at letting people know the police are taking action. ” On his move from foreign secretary to the Home Office, Cleverly said: “Sadly I am dealing with a lot of the same challenges and problems.

“One of the biggest events in a career in foreign affairs was the brutal terrorist attack perpetrated by Hamas...

“I went to visit Israel just a few days later, then, of course, coming across to the job of home secretary, the repercussions of that attack, the repercussions of Israel’s actions in Gaza, are now having an impact in the UK as well.”

Cleverly said he was well aware and “saddened” by concerns raised by the community of feeling unsafe to venture into London’s West End on days the Palestine demos took place.

He was told some visitors from Israel were openly asking family and friends ahead of their arrival whether the streets would be safe enough to walk in.

Cleverly, a former Tory Party co-chairman and one-time education secretary, said despite the obvious issues around the demos, the streets of London, in his opinion “are safe”.

But he had no illusions about the problems arising from extremist activity among a minority who attend Gaza demonstrations.

“I’m determined to do something about that,” he said. “One of the first meetings I had when I was appointed home secretary was with Mark Rowley, the commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, someone I know very well, I’ve worked with for over a decade.”

He said he “made my expectation of the Met absolutely clear” stressing they should “do everything they can to take action, where antisemitic activity is being seen.

“To respond and be seen to respond so that everybody, including the Jewish community, feels safe in London.

Cleverly said he respected the right to protest but believed “that is not an unbounded right. You can’t just say and do anything you’d like. It’s got to be within the realms of legality and we have seen people overstep that mark and we are determined to continue taking action so that everybody, including the Jewish community, feels safe and comfortable, enjoying what the capital city has to offer.”

Along with meetings with the CST, the Board of Deputies and the Jewish Leadership Council, such as the one in Golders Green, Cleverly said he had also met Muslim communal leaders to hear their concerns and provide reassurance.

“But we know this is going to be long-term work,” he said. “It’s not about quick fixes.

“It’s about having the resilience to keep working on this and make sure that all commu-

Home secretary James Cleverly in Golders Green on a walkabout with communal leaders

nities in the UK are safe and just as importantly, feel safe. Regular engagement with authoritative voices from respective communities really

matters. Making sure that everybody feels that they are safe, that they are protected by the police and by others is absolutely key.”

12 Jewish News 1 February 2024

www.jewishnews.co.uk

News / Chaplain accused / GMB expulsion / Genetic tests

Rev backs claims Israel ‘a vampire needing blood’ An Anglican chaplain has told Jewish News he has no regrets about incendiary posts on social media including claims that Israel acts “like a vampire needing the blood of living” and Labour MPs have been “owned by the shekel of genocide”, writes Lee Harpin.

York Minster volunteer chaplain the Rev Stephen Griffith has a long history of posting inflammatory claims on social media about Zionists and Jews and the Keir Starmer-led Labour Party.

Asked about his views, Griffith said he was in the “exact place” of “thousands” of Jews in both the UK and in Israel.

In a December 2023 post on X, he responded to Labour MP Chris Bryant by saying: “As Israeli-owned Labour MPs continue to take the shekel of genocide more and more people are abandoning Labour… Zionist Labour is an abomination.”

Earlier posts see Griffith condemn both the existence of a “Jewish” state and make claims that “Israel murders children daily. Like a vampire needing the blood of the living.”

He also posted: “That’s the problem when you have a Jewish

SELECT

state” and in October 2022 claimed of Israel: “Most Jews choose to live elsewhere: why would they want to live by stealing land, burning crops, shooting children when they could live decent lives making the world a better place?”

In December 2022 he wrote:”The Zionists dance their war dance with evil intent.”

Returning to condemn Labour, he wrote last December: “Starmer takes Zionist money. He is on the side of Zionists...

This is Labour’s leader and he should be on trial for genocide.”

In January, he shared claims on X that the Labour Friends of Israel group should ” be proscribed as a genocide enabler”.

Asked to comment on his posts, Griffth told Jewish News: “The huge number of Jews who have spoken out bravely against this absolutely astonishing destruction of Gaza, who have demonstrated in their thousands in London, and in their tens of thousands in Israel are in the exact place as I am.

“We want an Israel which flourishes with its neighbour.”

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From our diverse range of projects across Israel

The Rev Stephen Griffith and his tweet. Pictures: X

Griffith retired from paid duties in the Southwark diocese a few years ago, and after moving to York has continued to perform duties at the cathedral in the city as a volunteer.

On his biography on X Griffith writes: “Enjoying travelling, history, faith. Long experience of Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Israel/ Palestine.”

A spokesperson for York Minister told Jewish News: “The Rev Stephen Griffith is a volunteer at York Minster. He has no official spokesperson role and he is not authorised to speak on behalf of the cathedral.

“The views on his social media feed are his own and do not represent York Minster in any way whatsoever.”

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GMB expels member over JEWS TO BE OFFERED attack on JLM-Israel slurs CANCER GENE TEST The GMB union has expelled a London member after a disaffiliation motion in which he linked the Jewish Labour Movement with the “most right-wing Israeli regime in history” and with the massacre or expulsion of Palestinians.

A spokesperson for the union, which has taken a leading role tackling antisemitism and other forms of racism among its membership, confirmed that Bert Schouwenburg had been ousted “following a thorough process” which “examined numerous allegations, including antisemitic statements”.

Schouwenburg, who had previously worked as GMB’s international officer, was suspended last year after a motion submitted by the union’s Walthamstow branch,

Bert Schouwenburg

was deemed to contain “potentially legally actionable” and “antisemitic allegations”.

The motion wrongly claimed JLM was “effectively the UK wing of

the Israeli Labour Party” who were responsible for the “massacre or the expulsion of three quarters of a million Palestinians”.

The motion added: “JLM conflates anti-Zionism with antisemitism” and called for GMB general secretary Gary Smith to sever all ties with the group.

According to the motion, the GMB’s work with the JLM has brought “the union into disrepute”.

After Schouwenburg was suspended, the letter sent to him by the union informing him of an investigation into his conduct was leaked to the far-left website Skwawkbox.

Schouwenburg has regularly made inflammatory claims on social media about Israel, with references to the Nazis and to fascists.

Thousands of people with Jewish ancestry are to be offered a genetic test owing to their higher risk of some cancers.

NHS England is rolling out a national BRCA gene testing programme to pick up changes that push up cancer risk, with anyone over 18 with Jewish ancestry offered a simple saliva test. Saliva samples are collected by people in their own homes and then sent to a lab for testing.

Inherited changes in BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes mean people have a higher risk of developing some cancers.

Estimates suggest that a fault in one of the BRCA genes affects around one in every 400 people, but people with Jewish ancestry are over six times more likely to carry the faults.

Data shows 55 percent to 72 percent of women who inherit a harmful

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BRCA1 variant and 45 percent to 69 percent of women who inherit a faulty BRCA2 variant will develop breast cancer by old age. Those with a faulty BRCA1 gene also have a 39-44 percent risk of developing ovarian cancer and the risk is 11 percent to 17 percent for those with a BRCA2 variant.

Charities Jnetics and Chai Cancer Care have been running awareness campaigns to encourage people to get tested. Nicole Gordon, Jnetics chief executive, said: “We are delighted to see the NHS Jewish BRCA Testing Programme officially launch. The initial pilot phase has proven to be a huge success and we are now able to roll this out more broadly.”  Anyone with at least one Jewish grandparent can register for a saliva kit by visiting: https://jewishbrca.org

1 February 2024 Jewish News

www.jewishnews.co.uk

13

Councilllor heckled / Westminster meeting / News

PALESTINE’ ACTIVISTS HECKLE COUNCIL LEADER AS SHE OUTLINES HMD EVENTS Pro-Palestine activists heckled a London council leader as she spoke about this month’s Holocaust Memorial Day commemorations in the borough, writes Lee Harpin.

Lambeth Council leader Claire Holland had been outlining the borough’s impressive roster of events to recall the murder of six million Jews in the Shoah when she was interrupted by a group of activists seated in the public gallery.

They proceeded to scream insults including “shame on you” and “there’s anoher Holocaust happening in Gaza now”.

Sources told Jewish News Labour leader Holland looked “horrified and upset” as the activ-

ists continued for some time with chants, while banners and three Palestinian flags were raised.

A phone video recording picked up some of the activists’ shouts, but the source confirmed other chants made at the leader as she praised the borough’s record on HMD commemorations included “What about the genocide in Gaza now?” and “You have blood on your hands.”

Lambeth Community HMD Planning Group and Lambeth Council hosted an event on 21 January to mark HMD 2024, which was opened by Cllr Holland and Lambeth mayor Sarbaz Barznji.

Holocaust survivor and educator Annick Lever, born in 1943 in

Activists in Lambeth shouted ‘What about the genocide in Gaza now?’

France to a Jewish mother and nonJewish father, spoke at the event,

to which schoolchildren contribute with poems and readings.

Tensions were raised during the week’s full meeting of the South London council after the Green Party tabled a motion attacking Israel, and condemning “warmongers who profit from the misery inflicted on innocent civilians”.

The Labour group’s agreed position was to vote against the motion noting “the council does not have the power or influence to affect an international conflict” and adding the Greens motion “risks creating division with our communities when focus should be on uniting our borough”.

Four Labour councillors broke the whip and ignored the agreed position.

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Cherie ‘ashamed’ of atrocity deniers Cherie Blair told an event in Westminster she feels “ashamed” people in this country have refused to accept atrocities committed by Hamas, including rape, in the 7 October atrocity, writes Lee Harpin.

Speaking briefly at an event hosted by Sheryl Sandberg the former chief operating officer of Meta in a House of Lords committee room, Tony Blair’s KC wife added: “People don’t want to hear that this is happening because it interferes with the narrative of the good guys and the bad guys. Life isn’t just good or bad.”

Blair also said she had been “humbled” to listen to speeches

by Shari Mendes, a volunteer who helped look after the bodies of female IDF soldiers after the Hamas massacre and from Diane Orentlicher, professor of interna-

Cherie Blair KC at the event held in Westminster yesterday

tional law at the American University. She also told yesterday’s event, hosted by the Labour peer Lord Mendelsohn, that it was “not right” that members of the Jewish community, whether “practising

or non-practising” had been left “walking around frightened.”

Opening the event Sandberg said: “If we can’t agree that rape is wrong; that rape is not resistance, that rape is not freedom fighting – then the

question becomes not what is happening in the Middle East but what is happening to our humanity?”

Mendes, an Orthodox volunteer, told of the horror of seeing “systematic genital mutilation” as she watched over the dead bodies of those murdered by Hamas terrorists to ensure, and witnssed many of the forensic tests taking place.

In a graphic account Mendes recalled witnessing bodies without limbs, and some so badly they burnt they were little more than ashes as a result of the terrorist’s massacre.

The Conservative MP Nicola Richards and Labour’s Alex Davies-Jones also spoke of the need for continuing publicity on the appalling acts carried out on women, in the midst of widespread scepticism and denial.

At an event earlier in the week for the French National Assembly,

Sandberg said: “What is happening now globally, and particularly in the Middle East, is a tragedy. Every life lost anywhere is a tragedy. But this is a tragedy that has very deep implications for women. It has only been 30 years since the world started persecuting rape as the war crime and crime against humanity that it is.

“And I want to make sure that even with the polarisation of our time, even with all the strong feelings going on in the Middle East, everyone remains united in recognising that rape should never be tolerated, anywhere.

“People are confusing what is happening, but our message is clear: rape is not resistance, rape is not freedom fighting, sexual violence is not resistance, sexual violence is not freedom fighting. Sexual violence should not be used, anywhere.”

14 Jewish News 25 January 2024

www.jewishnews.co.uk

ISRAEL AT WAR

Reunited: Esther Shuman and her family and husband Irwin with their youngest son. Right: Gadi Roz with his son Meytar who is six and has Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy

‘We watch those carrying on but for us time has stopped’ While the men are fighting for Israel’s very existence, their partners are left holding the babies – literally. Lianne Kolirin speaks to the women left behind Like tens of thousands of Israeli women, Eliya Roz has spent almost four months bringing up her two children alone.

She has seen little of husband Gadi, 35, since 7 October when he was called up for military reserve duty. The Israel Defence Forces captain is serving in Gaza so has very limited contact with his wife and children.

The situation “isn’t simple”, said Roz, who is registered disabled and cannot work following a serious road traffic accident.

Since Hamas attacked Israel, she has been left alone to care for the couple’s nine-year-old daughter and six-year-old son who has Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.

“We’re in the middle of two wars,” Roz told Jewish News. “One is to fight for Israel and one is to fight to bring the medication our son needs to Israel.”

The disease is a degenerative one and is often life-limiting, she explained. “He needs medication to extend his life.”

Before 7 October, her husband juggled a part-time job in high-tech with studying for an electrical engineering degree – while also campaigning to have the potentially lifesaving treatment, which is approved in the US, available in Israel.

“Gadi said he’s fighting for the country and he wants the country to fight for his son,” she said. At home, she is trying to keep the campaign alive, while struggling to get through the day-to-day challenges.

“He’s in Gaza and we hardly hear from him,” she said. “I’m worried about my husband and also my son and I’m hardly sleeping.”

She isn’t alone. Since Hamas’ murderous ambush, tens of thousands of women have been thrown into a fraught new way of life while their loved ones fight for Israel’s very existence.

Some 300,000 reservists were immediately called up by the IDF when the enormity of the disaster began to emerge.

Men, and to a lesser extent women, immediately had to drop their jobs, families and daily responsibilities to respond to the call of duty.

Standing behind them were their wives and partners, some of whom were literally left holding the babies.

There is no doubting their commitment and national pride, yet few column inches have been devoted to the partners waging their own invisible battles.

Among them is Neta, home alone with three children aged five and under – the youngest just six weeks old. Her husband Yair was called up hours after Hamas attacked. At the time, Neta – who has asked not to give her full name – was heavily pregnant, already struggling to balance motherhood with hospital appointments and her job.

With no childcare and rockets flying overhead, it fell to Neta to spend her days in her small safe room with her stir-crazy little ones.

Supported by family and friends, she muddled through and at the end of November Yair somehow made it back in time for the birth.

“It was surreal,” said Neta. “I was in the delivery suite at Ichilov [hospital] and across the way were some of the children who had just been released by Hamas. Can you imagine?”

Three days after their daughter was born, Yair was recalled – and this time sent to Gaza. As for all those serving in the war-torn territory, Yair was not allowed his mobile phone, leaving his wife unsure when she might next hear from him.

Friends, family, neighbours and even strangers offer help however they can, but nothing makes up for Yair’s absence.

“I don’t have any patience any more,” she said. “There’s an atmosphere of people getting on with life… going to restaurants, going on holiday. But not us – our lives stopped on 7 October.”

Esther Shuman has four sons aged between 12 and 18 months and works full-time, but she doesn’t like to complain.

“Things are tough but they’re tough for so many people here,” Shuman, originally from Toronto, told Jewish News.

Her husband has been based up north since being called up that fateful day. Things were initially “unbearable”, she said, especially when schools and nurseries were closed.

“The kids would wake up in the night and two of them would ask, ‘Is daddy still alive?’ It made my heart break and I was so worried about him,” she said.

Her husband’s visits home have been short and infrequent.

Describing the experience as a “rollercoaster”, she said: “We have almost got into a groove of living without him and then everyone has to get used to him being around again.

“We go from being so emotionally connected to really living separate lives. Hopefully that will repair itself

when things go back to normal.”

Juggling everything is exhausting, but the worst part is the dread of the knock at the door – particularly with growing numbers of military casualties. “That stress is always there,” said Shuman. “It’s always in the back of your mind that something really terrible could happen.”

Ayala, who chose not to give her full name, said she and her husband “recently celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary by forgetting about it” since he has also been in reserves since 7 October.

“He has 16 soldiers under him in an elite unit and is pretty busy,” said the 31-year-old mother-of-four.

“Since he’s a company commander, he has his phone and I’m always relieved when I see him online on WhatsApp, even if he doesn’t have time to talk or even send me an emoji that they’re all okay.

“When we do have time to speak, he can barely share anything about what he and his soldiers are doing, and I try not to share too many stories from home so he doesn’t miss us too much. I really just want to let him focus on his mission.”

She admits things are “very very difficult”, but that her neighbours have been an incredible support.

However she added: “I’m really feeling a hole in my heart when I think about family and friends who live far away, who have stopped asking how I am doing.”

This may explain why she and many like her have been turning to support groups for others in similar positions. “It’s about letting us feel seen and remembered,” she said. “It’s about letting us know that we’re not alone, and that we are lionesses.”

Family counsellor Shaily Perlman has been running such support groups for the partners of reservists and career soldiers since the conflict began.

“They get a lot of stuff off their chests,” said Perlman, who describes herself as on a “mission” to support these women who often feel overlooked. “A lot of them cry so much,” she said, explaining that the group gives them the chance to speak “with no filters”. “They find out that they’re not alone,” she said. “They find strength and they find tools together day by day.”

There is great concern about their children, many of whom are “regressing” or struggling with emotional difficulties, she said.

“I try to take them back to the 7th of October from the point of view of the kids,” she said. “There’s a phone call and all of a sudden their father is going crazy, giving them a kiss and running off.

“They don’t understand the idea of their father disappearing and every time he comes home and disappears again it’s a reminder.”

It is understandable that concerns about their children are weighing heavily on the women, but first they must look after themselves, said Perlman.

“It’s like the safety advice on planes – you have to put your own mask on before your child, so you can breathe safely.”

As the reservists begin to return home, families will need to adapt, she added. “It’s like having a new father and a new mother,” she said. “They went through three months of different life struggles. But you can hit restart and get your life back.”

www.jewishnews.co.uk

1 February 2024 Jewish News

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16 Jewish News 1 February 2024

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ISRAEL AT WAR

The father and son who saved hundreds at Nova Oren sent most of his family to the bomb shelter as he fought Hamas terrorists for hours. He tells Jotam Confino that Israel will emerge stronger from the massacre The story of an Israeli father and son who helped save hundreds of people on 7 October is one of many heroic tales from the ‘Black Shabbat’, as Hamas’ massacre is called in Israel.

Like millions of Israelis on the day of the attacks, Oren and his family woke up to the sound of rocket sirens.

But Oren, a commander in the IDF’s Gaza division, knew instantly something was off.

“I knew immediately that something was wrong so I told my wife and children to go into the bomb shelter,” Oren told Jewish News.

His first thought was to drive to the IDF’s Gaza division not far from his kibbutz, only 4km from the border, and take his son with.

“When we left our kibbutz, we came under heavy fire on the highway.

The bullets were flying over us. I knew the terrorists were here. They were already in the kibbutzim,” Oren said.

“So I speeded up, and when we passed Kibbutz Be’eri, where we came under fire again, I signalled to anyone driving in the opposite direction they should turn around immediately.”

When they passed the Nova music

❝

I DIDN’T THINK ABOUT ME OR MY LIFE – I WAS LIKE A WAR MACHINE

festival and saw young people trying to find shelter from the rocket barrage, Oren and his son decided to stay.

“I parked the car and started shouting to people that they needed to leave everything behind, leave their cars and run through the fields. Then we started hearing gunshots and I knew the terrorists had arrived and we began seeing some of the young people who had been injured and were running towards us.”

As the situation began spiralling out of control, two policemen who had been stationed at the festival joined Oren and his son as they began setting up a line of defence just outside the event area.

“We formed a small defence barrier together. I called my division and told them to send help as soon as possible,” Oren continued.

“The minute we saw the terrorists coming at us we started shooting at them and they began firing RPG rockets at us and the cars nearby. I saw them coming closer and began praying,” With Oren, his son and the two officers coming under heavy fire from numerous terrorists coming at them from all sides, an Israeli tank appeared out of the blue.

“I saw terrorists start shooting RPGs at the tank, but their focus was also to go from car to car and systematically kill anyone who might be hiding in there,” Oren said.

“I jumped on the tank but couldn’t understand where the crew was.

There was just one guy. Earlier in my career I was in the IDF’s tank unit, so I decided to help him.”

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Oren and his son in uniform. He is confident Israel will emerge stronger

They decided to use the tank as a human shield and form a base where injured civilians could hide while Oren and the other security officials defended them against the terrorists.

Oren described how “waves of terrorists came at us. We were under heavy fire non-stop. We were like this for hours.

“At one point I saw a group of five terrorist coming from the fields, with vests and gear. We shot and killed two of them up close and three of them from afar.

“I told the police officers to grab the terrorists’ Kalashnikovs after we

*

killed them. One of them had a suicide vest so I told the officer to leave him so it wouldn’t explode,” he added.

Oren said he turned into a “war machine”, fighting against all odds while relying on his vast experience as a soldier gained from fighting in Gaza and Lebanon.

“I didn’t think about me or my life – I was like a war machine. That’s how we operate in war,” he said. “I had a few moments on the road when I thought I was not going to make it.

But my son has a baby, so I told him not to be a hero. And we prayed.”

When an IDF unit showed up at

the scene, Oren and his team decided to begin evacuating wounded civilians in the cars that had still not been destroyed by Hamas.

As they began, Oren spotted four seemingly unarmed Palestinians.

“At first, I thought they might have been workers from Gaza. So I told the officers to check if they spoke Hebrew or had Israeli ID, and if not, to tie them until we could find out who they were,” he said.

It turned out the four Palestinians were among the many civilians from Gaza who had decided to join Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other terrorists on 7 October.

After hours of constant fighting, Oren and his “team” were finally supported by an IDF division that came to their rescue. He decided to leave the music festival and drive to his army division base to help those defending it from terrorist attacks.

“We saw many bodies on the road as we drove to the division. I called my wife and told her it was serious. Earlier I had sent her a text telling her to pray for everyone.”

It was only much later that his family found out where he and his son had actually been.

“They thought we were at the army base. They didn’t know what we did. And I told my son not to tell his family what we had gone through.”

Oren said the harrowing experience with his son was ‘surreal’ but that he believes they will come out of it. And so will Israel.

“I am positive that we will overcome this. And we will emerge even stronger.”

18 Jewish News 1 February 2024

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19

Ivrit festival / Mia Janin / News

Sixth Festival of Spoken Ivrit returns to London The 6th Annual Festival of and Europe and the main Spoken Ivrit opened last partners for the event, week at an event attended noted that the play is relby 82 Hebrew teachers evant to the challenging from Jewish schools across times the Jewish commuLondon and the UK, writes nity is going through.

Michelle Rosenberg.

“The connection This year’s festival is between the Jewish people named ‘Eain lee Erez Achand the diaspora is always eret’, (‘I have no other land’), significant not only in the inspired by an Israeli song time period of war,” he said. written by Ehud Manor. The “The Hebrew language for festival also marks the 120th the younger generation Pupils in Hendon enjoy The Boy Who Dared To Dream anniversary of the death of is the base and the key to Theodore Herzl, founder and presi- plays at Jewish schools in London the future of the State of Israel and dent of the Zionist Organisation. and across the UK including Leeds the entire Jewish people all over the Present at the official launch at a and Liverpool. world.” private home in north London was The Rabbit from Moshi is based on Tali Tzemach, organizer of the fesEphraim Sidon, winner of the Bialik Shlomit Cohen Asif’s book. The play tival said: “This year, in light of the difPrize, playwright and satirist, author is a colourful version with spectacular ficult circumstances, while the waves of The Lion in Rhymes, Ferdinand Fed- puppets, telling the story of the rabbit of antisemitism in the world are hzor’s Plots in a Nutshell and Ouzo and Mamoshi on his journey through the rising, the festival is especially imporMuzo from the Kakaruzo Village, the forest, trying to find new friends. tant as it allows us to strengthen ourlast of which is in this year’s festival.

The Independent Jewish Day selves and our children, to be proud At the event Sidon spoke about school in Hendon was treated to a of our Judaism, our country and our children’s and adult literature, the performance of Theodore The Boy mother tongue.” differences between them and how to Who Dared To Dream, attended by On Sunday, 4 February the three turn a book into a play.

Israeli Ambassador to the UK Tzipi plays will be presented in Ivrit at LonTo celebrate the festival, the Hotovely. don’s Jewish hub JW3 especially for Israeli Hour Theatre for children and Matan Bar Noy, head of the World the Israeli community, on behalf of youth is running 68 shows of three Zionist Organization (WZO) in UK Israeli House London.

PUPIL TOOK OWN LIFE AFTER BEING BULLIED JFS student Mia Janin, took her own life after she was bullied by boys at the school, an inquest has concluded.

The 14-year-old Year 10 pupil was found dead at her family home in Harrow on 12 March 2021.

North London area coroner Tony Murphy concluded that Mia “took her life while still a child and while in the process of maturing into adulthood”.

He said Mia was last seen alive at about 10pm the day before her death when she said goodnight to her parents in their family home. They found her dead at about 6.50am. Two letters in Mia’s handwriting were found nearby addressed to “her loving family and friends”, which “explained that Mia decided to end her life”.

Murphy added before his conclusion that Mia had “close friends, including at her secondary school, but she also experienced bullying from some male students”. He added that neither her family nor teachers were aware of this before her death.

He said: “Mia’s secondary school has introduced systemic changes following her death. Mia is much missed by her loving family, caring friends and the wider community.”

At Barnet Coroner’s Court, he said he would state later if he would be

Mia Janin, the 14-year-old JFS pupil who died in March 2021

issuing a prevention of future deaths report.

Mia’s father, Mariano Janin, previously said he believed his daughter was cyber-bullied by pupils at JFS. Statements given by Mia’s friends to police following her death were read out to the inquest, in which they said she was bullied by other pupils, and that their friendship group was nicknamed the “suicide squad” in the months leading up to her death.

Janin told the inquest his daughter had asked if she could move school after coming home on 11 March. His wife Marisa, who has since died, told Mia she could be homeschooled for the rest of that year, and that they would look into moving her after.

20 Jewish News 1 February 2024

www.jewishnews.co.uk

Editorial comment and letters

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

The solution to the conflict between Israel and Palestine is not a twonations solution. That failed. The solution is a one-nation state where Israelis and Palestinians live in constructive and equal harmony.

South Africa should be leading the way in conflict resolution in Gaza.

Instead it has shamefully decided to virtue signal from the perimeter.

What a dismal pity there are no leaders on either side able to do what was done in apartheid South Africa in ending the divisions of the past and creating a viable, successful and wealthy new nation.

Stephen Camburn, By email

WHY I TOO HAD TO GO TO ISRAEL Kol hakavod to your writer Lianne Kolirin on her piece last week on returning to Israel post 7/10.

First , the deliberating – “Should I go, shouldn’t I go?” Then the added concern of insurance, including the age limit and everything else required regarding health cover – even if registering for it in Israel is the only option.

And yes ... a packed El Al plane to Ben Gurion and feeling the positive vibes of those on board. We all felt the need to accomplish our mission, as I did, physically being with my immediate family instead of making video calls.

They are my daughter, who made aliyah 30 years ago, her sabra husband and my precious three grandkids, the eldest of whom, at 19, is currently in the army but actually unexpectedly – and to my delight – turned up on my arrival day after I had finally booked my flight only 24 hours earlier.

There was taking part in packing requested toiletries for the oldiers while sitting in an empty office car park in a Jerusalem side street and being with like-minded volunteers with whom I built up a camaraderie very quickly.

We stayed up into the wee small hours baking for a consignment to reach our soldiers in time for Shabbat as well as visiting extended family and very dear friends – all this was my way of showing solidarity with my Israeli brothers and sisters.

Then there was feeling, the atmosphere, around a quiet Jerusalem. Somehow the feeling in the air was of things ”not quite right” – anywhere – but everyone trying to carry on as normal...

So, for me I just HAD to up and go – just as I did in June 1967 when as a young student I flew off to volunteer – and my feelings were just the same.

Everyone was so appreciative and grateful for the moral and physical support and, like Lianne, I felt that I had been able to contribute in some small way, to be there for those close to me as well as for our dear, brave, wonderful soldiers.

Linda Davidson, By email

THIS WEEKEND'S SHABBAT TIMES...

Shabbat comes in Friday night 4.36pm

Shabbat goes out Saturday night 5.43pm

Sedra: Yitro

Your editor Richard Ferrer’s prognosis of the future of Israel (Jewish News 18 January) was naive and dangerous. His preference for a new government – similar to that of the recent eight-party coalition led by Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid – is misguided and will only give comfort to our enemies.

Mr Ferrer’s obvious distaste for Netanyahu and his ‘toxic bigots’ seems to ignore the fact that the ‘anti-Bibi toxic bigots’ demonstrated against him each Saturday night even when he was not in power – and Ra’am, Lapid and Uncle Tom Cobley and all ruled the roost.

That was their democratic right, of course, but it screamed out to the world (including Hamas and Iran) that Israel was divided and weak. One of the reasons, I’m afraid, that caused Hamas to attack when they did.

In Britain, meanwhile, we can’t trust the BBC, police, many trade unions, many academic institutions and many politicians – including, still (sadly) many Labour MPs. Thus the Jewish people need to be united in their support for the current government of Israel (Netanyahu and Gantz included) until Israel is as safe as it can be from terrorist threats.

When Bibi eventually goes (and he could well outlast Biden), no doubt, dear editor, you will celebrate. Yet so will Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran and antisemites around the world. Israel will once again be perceived as being weak.

It is a crying shame that I have to look for strong journalistic support for Israel in the pages of The Daily Telegraph rather than from my brethren in Jewish News.

Marvin Shaw, Edgware

SECRET AND INJUSTICE EXPERIENCE I was shocked to read Fiyaz Mughal, founder and director of Faith Matters, drawing apparent equivalence between Hamas and Israel’s response to 7 October.

Missing from his column was the small point that Israel’s actions were a necessary response in self-defence that every decent democracy would take.

Paying lip service to Israel’s right to respond, Mr Mughal criticises it for not employing “a targeted, focused and measured response”, in other words, an ineffectual one.

Professing concern for British Muslim and Jewish relations, he might like to address Mehdi Hasan’s observations in his 2013 article: “Antisemitism isn’t just widespread in sections of the British Muslim community: it’s routine and commonplace.

It’s our dirty little secret.”

That truth has been evident in the ugly scenes we are witnessing weekly, in the hate marches against Israel.

D Rosenthhal, Hendon I’m not at all surprised at the findings of the ICJ – possibly to be renamed the International Court of INjustice. Instead of an impartial statement, ICJ only brings one side to task: Israel!

It does not really take into consideration the unspeakable horrors and atrocities perpetrated by Hamas whose very name – let us remind ourselves – means violence. Instead of putting Hamas on trial for its deliberate aim of genocide against Israel, which it constantly and openly admits and declares, this court did exactly the opposite. This is not justice.

Flora Frank, Edgware

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I have no doubt that Phil Rosenberg is a good backroom professional ideas and PR person.

His career to date in PR and communications is evidence of that. His capacity to do PR was extremely evident when he wasn’t even a candidate to be president of the Board of Deputies.

However, I don’t believe that this makes up for the lack of nous and experience needed to be the lay leader of a disputatious democratically-elected body, which is supposed to represents the views of people from across the religious and political spectrum.

Phil needs to serve a stint or two on the top table as a vice-president or even treasurer to gain that much-needed experience.

In these tough times for British Jews, an experienced person needs to be at the helm. That person is currently not Phil.

Joe Millis, retiring deputy for Bromley Reform Synagogue

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Opinion

Houthis’ re-emergence is new danger for us all ALEX BRUMMER CITY EDITOR, DAILY MAIL

O

f the three terror groups starting with the letter ‘H’, Hamas, Hezbollah and Houthis, the one least known to the world until recently is the Yemen-based militia.

The Houthis have been on my radar for some years after the admirable Edwin Shuker, who was a valuable member of the International Division of the Board of Deputies (which I then chaired) showed me images of the group on the streets of Yemen with vicious placards proclaiming, ‘Death to the Jews’.

If the world didn’t know much about the Houthis then, it does now.

Arguably the group, which is now described as a member of Iran’s ‘arc of resistance’ across the Middle East, has become the most strategically-important band of terrorists to involve itself in the Gaza conflict.

Hamas’s actions, as ghastly as they have been, are confined to Gaza and the West Bank.

Hezbollah is an ever-violent presence

threatening much of Israel with thousands of precision-guided rockets and all but controls Lebanon and southern Syria but as dangerous as it is to Israel’s vital infrastructure, it presents a threat to regional stability and not global stability.

The Houthis are different. The group’s geographical position on the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, at the mouth of the Red Sea, means it threatens one of the world’s great trade routes through the Suez Canal. More than 12 percent of international commerce flows from Asia and the Middle East to Europe through it.

At the time of the 1973 Yom Kippur war, a blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, the entrance to the Gulf, created havoc for western nations (including the US) by interrupting oil exports, sending the world market price sky high.

The consequence for the world was disastrous, leading to great inflation and worldwide recession and saw the west clubbing together as the Group of Five most prosperous countries (now the G7) to resist the peril.

No longer is the west utterly dependent on Middle East oil and gas. A remarkable aspect of the current Gaza and Red Sea crisis is it

hasn’t sent energy prices sky high as many predicted. The biggest difference is American self-sufficiency in oil and gas as a result of the fracking revolution in Texas’s Permian Basin.

Indeed, the US has become an enormous exporter of natural gas directly to Europe.

Nevertheless, for Britain and the US the Houthi interruptions and attacks on shipping in the Gulf are of vital interest. One of the cardinal principles of UK defence is freedom of the high seas. It is no accident that the International Maritime Organisation sits on London’s South Bank. Since the days of empire, the Royal Navy has been regarded as a protectors of passage through the seas.

The UK may no longer have the firepower to conduct complex military operation on its own but can count on American support in the same cause.

The Houthis have put themselves on the global map with their activities – a second coming for a dangerous heavily-armed terror group which resisted past efforts to curtail its activities by the autocratic regime in Yemen and its northern neighbour Saudi Arabia.

In 2018, the Houthis and Saudi Arabia

were in direct conflict with terrorist rockets hitting and setting oilfields on fire. Using British-made Typhoon fighter-bombers and weaponry, Riyadh had little choice but to fight back with ferocity. The Houthis were damaged, but defeat proved impossible and a de facto ceasefire was negotiated.

The Houthis have gained international stardom in the Arab world on TikTok and Instagram for their attacks on westerncontrolled shipping, forcing some goods and oil shipments to divert round the Cape of Good Hope. But by drawing the US, UK and Bahrain into the Middle East conflict they have inadvertently given Israel diplomatic and military cover as it seeks to root out Hamas.

The Houthis may have made friends on the Arab street. But it is hard to believe that Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states will regard their emergence as a force in the region with any equanimity.

It is not just the price of energy and western consumer goods at stake. The Houthis, with their demonisation of Jews and Israel, directly challenge the established order and balance of power.

1 February 2024 Jewish News

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Opinion

If Holocaust has a lesson it’s don’t demonise Jews ALEX HEARN

DIRECTOR, LABOUR AGAINST ANTISEMITISM

T

he day earmarked by the United Nations for Holocaust remembrance has become a desecration.

There seems to be a need to universalise Holocaust Memorial Day because we live in a world where six million Jews being murdered isn’t enough to commemorate on its own. But things have gone too far, and Jews are now being erased from remembrance of the Holocaust. For example, neither a BBC1 bulletin nor a two-minute speech by SNP leader Humza Yousaf about Holocaust Memorial Day mentioned Jews or antisemitism.

Perhaps they didn’t mention Jews because anti-Jewish attitudes are so common they didn!t want to upset the people who hate Jews. That would be a damning indictment of British society. But whatever the reason, the end result of erasing the memory of approximately one third of the

world’s Jews is the opposite of commemoration. A second disappearance is exactly what the Third Reich had in mind.

The Nazis were totally obsessed with eradicating Jews: that is what the Holocaust was designed to do. To deny, gloss over or blame the Holocaust on Jewish people violates UN Resolution 60/7, stripping the Holocaust of meaning and rendering it an isolated event ring-fenced from reality. This is why people known for opposing Jews sign the book of remembrance for a virtue signalling photo opportunity.

Things have become so bad that some Jews now dread Holocaust Memorial Day because it has become a stick to beat us with and to abuse the sanctity of Holocaust remembrance.

The latest example is Kate Osamor MP, who exploited the privilege of her office by comparing the current events in Gaza to the Holocaust. As terrible as the current conflict in Gaza is, there are countless wars dwarfing the entire Israel-Arab conflict many times over, some even in the same region. In the Syrian war, where civilians were routinely

targeted, about 600,000 people were killed and leader Bashar al-Assad gassed his own people. None of these conflicts is compared to the Holocaust or labelled ‘genocide’ (a word coined by a Polish Jew in response to the Holocaust).

But when referring to Israel the comparison slips out easily because it gives people a frisson of excitement to break the Holocaust taboo. In her excitement, Osamor forgot to mention Darfur, which is officially recognised as part of Holocaust Memorial Day commemoration. Brutal ethnic cleansing is taking place there, with terrible atrocities along ethnic lines. About 9.5 million Sudanese people are currently displaced.

Because antisemitism is a conspiracy fantasy – a denial of reality – it means that real issues are not addressed. In this case the victims of other genocides were either ignored or incidental to the weaponisation of the ultimate Jewish trauma against Jews.

Comparing Jews with Nazis echoes medieval religious hatred, which linked Jews with the devil. And if Jews are like Nazis, then the next step is for people to say Jews should be

destroyed like the Nazis were. Or that ‘Hitler was right’ and the Holocaust justified.

New iterations of antisemitism justify the previous versions, and make attacking Jews seem like a righteous mission. This is how Holocaust Memorial Day is being used by some people – to recreate the conditions that led to the Holocaust.

It leads people down a road of pure hatred towards Jews. This is what happened in Oregon, when Elizabeth Ballesteros West made threats against the Jewish community and was arrested in possession of 27 guns.

West’s justification was that "Jewish people treat Palestinians in the same manner as the Nazis treated the Jews”.

The Labour Party has dealt with Osamor swiftly. But just look at the journey the party had to take to reach this place. And what about the rest of society – does that also have to become overwhelmed with anti-Jewish hate to address the issue? At what cost?

There are no morality tales from the Holocaust, and certainly not for the targets of it. If one is needed, then perhaps not demonising Jews might be a good place to start.

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Opinion

Dad would say keep calm about memorial MAURICE HELFGOTT THE ‘45 AID SOCIETY

T

here have been many times in these past seven months when we have thought about what our dad would have said, but none more so than when we saw last week’s editorial in Jewish News.

He dedicated so much of his life to educating others about the Holocaust. As a proud member of the Holocaust Commission, set up by PM David Cameron 10 years ago, he was at the very heart of shaping the vision for the Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre – and he profoundly believed in the importance of its location next to parliament.

This country was not going to build a memorial and hide it away apologetically. Nor was it going to place it somewhere within the Jewish community, as if this was just something for us.

The Holocaust Commission was making a national statement about the importance of the whole country remembering the Holocaust, and placing the thing dad gave so much of his life to – Holocaust education

– at the heart of our democracy. So what would he say to that editorial? We think he would say: “Keep calm and carry on.”

There were no new arguments in that select committee room last week. It was an opportunity for those who remain opposed to express their views, and it is to the credit of our country that people can express their opinions freely and we can have these debates. But we have heard all these points before.

Everything has already been debated and the plan has been supported by every living prime minister, the leader of the Opposition, every major political party, the Chief Rabbi, all parts of our community and all the leading representative organisations, including Board of Deputies, JLC, the Holocaust Educational Trust, HMDT and the survivors’ own 45 Aid Society.

We don’t believe that less than a tenth of the park is too big or disrespectful to other memorials and other uses of the garden.

We don’t believe we should turn down the chance to place this memorial in such a prominent place, in favour of somewhere fewer people will visit and where fewer will

have the chance to stop and think and learn from the past.

We don’t believe we should shy away from this project because, like the Houses of Parliament themselves, terrorists who don’t believe in our values might want to attack them. That isn’t how we do things in Britain.

And what about the small minority of survivors who oppose the memorial? I know dad respected them enormously and they are entitled to their view. But that doesn’t mean he would agree with them.

The overwhelming majority of survivors, including many who have since passed away, wanted this memorial exactly where it’s planned.

And to anyone who questions whether we can still learn anything about the Holocaust that is valuable today, well, we know that dad respectfully couldn’t disagree more.

Holocaust education was central to his life and his hope for the future. And is perhaps more important now than at any time since it happened. This memorial is going to happen.

When it came to it, not a single MP voted against the Holocaust Memorial Bill at

Second Reading. The Bill will pass, removing the legal obstacle dating back to 1900.

An independent planning inquiry previously considered all the arguments through the pandemic and found in favour of building it.

This country is going to have the courage to build a permanent memorial to the Holocaust right at the heart of our democracy.

This country is going to have the courage not just to erect a monument, but to build a place of education at the heart of our national life.

This country, which became a home for survivors like our dad and ‘the Boys’, is going to have the courage to make a serious national effort to educate future generations against antisemitism and all forms of hatred – at the very moment when we all know it is needed most. So this is not the moment to lose faith in this project.

This is the moment to get behind it. This is the moment to keep calm and carry on…

• This piece is written on behalf of and with the endorsement of The ‘45 Aid Society, as well as many Holocaust survivors and second generation

How we’re fighting the hatred on our campus AMELIA BARZILAY

FORMER SECRETARY OF EDINBURGH UNIVERSITY JSOC

S

ince 7 October, regular antiIsrael protests on the University of Edinburgh campus have increasingly spilled over into casual, and sometimes targeted, antisemitism. Jewish students have felt intimidated and fearful. UoE security has been increased for all on-campus events and there is an increased reliance on CST. Against this backdrop, I am pleased to say the university’s Jewish Society continues to grow and thrive in a spirit of mutual support.

It has now become the norm to hear chants calling for a ‘global intifada’. To be sitting in lectures when activists burst in shouting: “Join us otherwise you are complicit in a genocide!”

To be studying in the library and hear the chants “from the river to the sea” in the lobby.

To be eating lunch in the Student Union while students and even lecturers scream Israel is an ‘apartheid state’.

The student branch of the Edinburgh Socialist Workers Party posted a statement, which is still on its page as I write, stating

that the branch’s support for Hamas remains “unconditional”.

Edinburgh University JSoc president Elie Glaser was recently interviewed by The Student, an independent newspaper run by Edinburgh students. She articulated the fears of Jewish students, giving examples of many removing their Stars of David, not wearing their kippahs and avoiding wearing clothes adorned with Hebrew words.

The subsequent online backlash was so horrific that comments on the newspaper’s Instagram page had to be disabled.

In addition, the University of Edinburgh’s Justice for Palestine Society (EUJPS) levelled a charge of “selective outrage” against the newspaper, along with an assertion that university funds were being used “to commit genocide” in Gaza.

Particularly disappointing is that the Islamic Society is refusing to collaborate with JSoc on interfaith events, and the Feminist Society posted on Instagram glorifying 7 October . Also, disturbingly, Jewish students are aware their professors and lecturers are ‘liking’ antisemitic posts on their Twitter (X) accounts. Some have also reported being spat at by pro-Palestine demonstrators.

However, the unprecedented rise in antisemitic incidents on campus has fostered

a new solidarity amongst Jewish students.

It is heartening that the JSoc committee, our chaplains Eliran and Ayalah Shabo and all members, have come together and have committed to ensure a safe space for Jewish students. At a Scotland-wide student Friday Night Dinner in December, more than 200 students travelled from Glasgow, Stirling, Aberdeen, Dundee and St Andrews.

We heard speeches from Lord Mann and UJS president Edward Isaacs that provided clarity and comfort that we are being listened to and supported. The Scottish Conservatives, Labour Party and SNP have also reached out to Elie to see how they can support Jewish students on campus. Meetings have been very positive.

Elie and her committee have also ensured a number of events happen each week, so creating a welcoming and supportive atmosphere for more than 400 JSoc members – a number that has doubled in the past two years.

❝

Freshers can benefit from being allocated to a ‘student family’ and enjoy regular Friday Night Dinners with buddies in second, third and fourth years.

There are also welfare coffee mornings, bagel lunches and soon-to-be yoga socials and charity football matches. We also have the JSoc Ball to look forward to.

The late Denis MacEoin, a UoE alumni and Middle East expert, once said of antiIsrael hatred: “It permits itself no boundaries in the lies and myths it pours out.” While we know we cannot control the current antiIsrael hatred on campus, we can control how we choose to respond. We have come together as a society to pray for peace.

We host silent vigils outside the Scottish Parliament for those we have lost and for those who are still held hostage. Our greatest response has been to unify with a greater sense of identity and a resolve that we will not give in to intimidation.

OUR RESPONSE HAS BEEN TO UNIFY AND TO RESOLVE NOT TO GIVE INTO INTIMIDATION

1 February 2024 Jewish News

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25

Community / Scene & Be Seen CHILDREN SEND 1HJPS A SMILE FOR SHOHAM

Hearts, rainbows and messages of love adorned more than 150 cards made by UK youngsters and hand delivered to children in Israel last week as a special show of support for the country. Pupils at Hertsmere Jewish Primary School (HJPS), Radlett, created the cards for children at Keshet School in Shoham, a town in central Israel which has been twinned with Elstree and Borehamwood since last March. The ‘Smile for Shoham’ initiative was organised jointly by the HJPS PTA and Elstree and Borehamwood town council in the wake of the 7 October Hamas terror attacks. Youngsters at Keshet School were handed the cards last Sunday by a solidarity delegation organised by Borehamwood and Elstree United Synagogue.

And be seen!

The latest news, pictures and social events from across the community Email us at community@jewishnews.co.uk

MEMORIAL 2HOLOCAUST DAY EVENT AT RICHMOND

More than 200 people crammed into Richmond Synagogue in memory of those murdered in the Holocaust. Civic guests included the mayor and deputy mayor, deputy lord lieutenant, MP, leader of the council, many councillors, and local church and interfaith representatives. Guest speaker Mala Tribich described her experiences living in the first ghetto established in Poland, working as a slave labourer in Ravensbruck and spending time in Bergen-Belsen before being liberated by the British army. She was moved on to Sweden for two years before being reunited with her brother, the late Sir Ben Helfgott, and moving to England.

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THUMBS FOR 3GREEN RADLETT GROUP

Radlett Reform Synagogue Cheder visited Jewish Care’s Sandringham care campus in Stanmore, where around 65 volunteers – including staff, leaders, parents and children – planted more than 400 trees for Tu B’iShvat. The trees will be enjoyed by everyone who visits the beautiful grounds. Senior gardener Anthony was amazed that the group managed to plant 400 trees in just over two hours. He said: “They were like busy bees and so helpful! Everybody got stuck in and it was an amazing project.”

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FASHION IS A 4FABULOUS LITTLE HAIR-RAISING!

Young students from Years 1-6 at Kerem School in north London celebrated Tu B’iShvat by creating fabulous fashion.

The festival clearly went to their heads, with green hair spray galore, fruits, vegetables, plant pots and more.

KILTED OUT FOR 5ALL BURNS NIGHT IN PINNER

Pinner synagogue held a Burns Night supper for 180 people, conducted by Scottish members of the congregation who performed the traditional Selkirk Grace and the Address to a Haggis and led the toast. There were various readings from Robert Burns, with the address to ‘The Immortal Memory’ given

by Glasgow-born-and-bred Rabbi Lee Sunderland. The evening ended with singing of Scottish songs and, of course, Auld Lang Syne and Hatikvah.

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26 Jewish News 1 February 2024

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FOR STAYING SAFE CST’s 24-hour security operation enables Jewish life to thrive in the UK. We also have some simple steps you can take to help with your personal safety, wherever you are.

Plan to walk in well-lit areas, even if it adds a few minutes onto your journey.

Let people know where you are going.

Check in when you arrive at and leave your location.

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If you want to wear headphones in public, keep the volume low.

Stay alert and be aware of your surroundings.

Don’t look down at your phone whilst walking.

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1 February 2024 Jewish News 27

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Inside A look

Classical violinist hot on TikTok Rebuilding Be’eri

When a terrorist attack by Hamas was mooted as a Fauda storyline, series creator Avi Issacharoff dismissed it as outlandish, he tells Nicole Lampert

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arly on in the writing process of Fauda season 5 last year, the hit show’s star and co-creator Lior Raz suggested the idea of a story about group of Hamas terrorists making their way across the Gaza border and taking over one of the kibbutzim on the Israeli side.

Avi Issacharoff, creator of the series, admits that he shut down the idea, deeming it outlandish.

“We had an argument about it and I remember saying, ‘Guys, what are the chances that tens of terrorists will get to the border and the IDF wouldn’t have any indication of it? That they wouldn’t be shot down? They’d be killed before they got close, surely?”

He sighs ruefully; still shocked at how wrong he was. In many ways he’s expert in Palestinian mores: as an Arabic-speaking Israeli he not only went undercover among the Palestinians like the special forces group in Fauda, but as a journalist he also wrote about Hamas and even met many of their leaders. But now he admits that he never truly understood them, and the way he got it wrong shows how the Israeli authorities got it wrong too.

“There were indications they were planning this. Israeli intelligence was told they were planning it a year ago,” he says. “There were female officers who saw them training and warned it was unusual.

And even the night before there was some indication of what was going to happen – from what I understand there was a meeting scheduled to discuss it at 8am.”

And yet they got it wrong. Why? “It is the billion-dollar question,” says Avi. “It is hard to explain unless you think of the policy towards Hamas through one word: ‘containment’.

There was conception that Hamas was deterred. If you look at Hamas through a western, logical point of view, then it is nuts what they did, knowing that if they tried to killed five soldiers or 50 soldiers then we were going to try and destroy them, kill them all. And then they killed 1,200 people, kidnapped 240.”

In some ways Hamas’ success has

“On the Monday I got a call saying there were groups of people who still needed to be evacuated to safety and so that’s what we did. We went and collected families. The whole time there were rockets being fired – every couple of minutes there were sirens and we would have to stop and find safe rooms. We’d see terrorists running – at one time I had a mother and her two children in the car with me and just behind I heard a terrorist shooting at us. I just hit the gas and moved as quicky as I could – I didn’t even have a gun.”

While Avi did volunteer to go back into service he was told he was both too old and too useful as a high profile journalist and the Fauda creator – that he needed to use his talents in another way. He is doing talks and writing articles trying to explain what happened, while still not fully understanding it himself.

He struggles to explain the reaction from certain parts of the world,

Avi Issacharoff (left) with Lior and right, with Nicole

worked against them. “Because they went so far there is a consensus in Israel that there had to be a ground invasion, that we had to do whatever was needed to bring them down.

They also thought organisations like Hezbollah would join them, they expected the West Bank to join them and the Israeli Arabs too. But they killed Israeli Arabs – they shot a pregnant woman in a hijab.”

He shakes his head, still stunned.

“The whole of Israel is in a kind of post-traumatic national phenomenon. I don’t think there is anybody in Israel today who doesn’t know someone either killed or kidnapped in or since October 7.” Sadly, that includes himself. Fauda crew member Matan Meir was killed while serving in the IDF in November, and Avi’s stepdaughter’s boyfriend Shahar Friedman was killed in action a few hours after Avi had been down

to the frontline to visit him. Fauda star Idan Amedi was badly wounded, although Avi happily reports that he is now on the mend.

We are speaking ahead of a fundraiser hosted by Jewish News columnist Josh Glancy at St John’s Wood synagogue in aid of the Tel Aviv University Trust’s programme to help soldiers back into education. As a former student of the university it is a cause close to his heart.

Avi himself has seen action since the Hamas attack. On 9 October he, Lior and friends from a group called Brothers in Arms – made up mainly of reservists demonstrating against the Netanyahu judicial reforms and which switched tack immediately after 7 October – spent a day helping to get civilians still under attack by the terrorists out of the frontline.

particularly in the west – in the UK and America – where people in the streets are marching for Hamas – or at the very least demanding a ceasefire without understanding that Hamas has to be defeated. While he says he saw naked antisemitism once before – from a Hollywood producer – now he sees how much of it there is in the world at large.

“The vocal ones are in favour of Hamas – they see them as ‘freedom fighters’,” he says incredulously.

“These people who did the most terrible terrorist atrocity since 9/11 – who killed more Jews in one day since the Holocaust. The way this stupidness and craziness has taken over is something I can’t understand.

There was this complete provoca-

tion from Hamas, going into Israel, massacring civilians, raping women, beheading burning. That is not something that any state will live with.

“They say we deserved it. They try and contextualise the slaughter of innocent people. They are so stupid; they use words like colonialism, but Israel wasn’t in Gaza since 2005. I can’t get over how ignorant these people are. When they say ‘free Palestine’ do they understand that Hamas is a dictatorship that took Gaza by force? That they killed 160 Fatah members? That they force people to follow Sharia law?

“It is so ridiculous that it makes me angry. And it has changed something in the Israeli perception. We tried to be nice; we had 19,000 workers coming into Israel from Gaza every day to help their economy. One of the kibbutzim they slaughtered was creating a new way to get electricity to them.

“I don’t like that civilians are being killed in Gaza. Hamas has created this catch-22 situation – they attack from inside populated areas knowing that there will be a retaliation. And they hide in tunnels which they don’t allow civilians into – they are only for Hamas. And yet people are marching for Hamas.

“Now we realise that no matter what happens, even if Hamas slaughters thousands of Israelis, these people, these ‘good’ people, don’t care. At the end of the day, you can’t see it as anything more than antisemitism. It is pure antisemitism. So, excuse my French, but f*ck them.”

Amid this new world, a new series of Fauda is being written. Previous plans have been torn up: Avi and Lior have changed, Israel has changed and both these things have to be reflected. “We are reinventing the show just as, in some ways, Israel will need to be reinvented; we need a new IDF, a new government, a new prime minister because Israel is going to be need to be rebuilt.”

He’s trying to find some sort of light among the despair, the trauma.

He hopes that Israel will have a reset too. “We are united now and we will come back stronger.”

28 Jewish News 1 February 2024

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JN LIFE

THE VIOLINIST OUTSIDE THE CLASSICAL MUSIC ARENA Alex Galbinski speaks to Esther Abrami, the French soloist who uses social media to bring classical music to the masses and to champion female composers

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tising for hours and hours locked in a sther Abrami is following in the tradition practice room for one exam. of Vanessa Mae and Nigel Kennedy, which “I started losing my love of music is to say that she doesn’t play by the ‘rules’ then, because I was thinking, ‘Why am of the traditional classical music industry.

I doing this? I’m not playing to anyone,’ She wants to democratise classical music, when I had made the decision to be a which can be regarded as stuffy and inaccessible. musician because I love connecting Her aim is to share her passion for the genre with with and playing to people,” she recalls. audiences who might not have thought of listening She was further discouraged after to it or attending its concerts. exploring the possibility of talking The 27-year-old – who was born in Marseille, concert audiences through the pieces, in southern France and now lives in Manchester being told that was “not the way to do – shares videos and clips of herself playing and it”, advice she has since rejected. practising, with some of the uploads very much “Classical music, like any art, has its tongue in cheek. She has built up a strong presence own traditions and we should never lose on social media, with 418,000 followers on TikTok, that, but I don’t think we can present 312,000 on YouTube, 326,000 on Instait like we did 200 years ago because it’s gram and 152,000 on Facebook. not relevant to younger people,” she Abrami has recently released her new album, Cinéma, and, as the title suggests, Abrami’s new album takes on film soundtracks says.

“If we refuse to make it relevant, its concept is film soundtracks. people are going to stop listening to it.

“I thought the theme of cinema in their home and when they came back, Because I love classical music so deeply, I was a great way to create a bridge to the only two items left there were her don’t want only five people to be listening people who might be closed to grandmother’s little violin and their turtle. to it. I don’t want it to be classified as music the idea of listening purely to Abrami’s paternal great-grandfather was for snobs or older people. classical music. I’ve chosen deported to Auschwitz, where he died.

“I started sharing some videos of exam soundtracks from very “I’m lucky to have had my grandparents practice and there was a big response; it different types of movies, telling me my family’s story – it was somewas like someone opened a door for me. some old, some more recent, thing I was very touched by and that’s why But you get locked into this narrative as some big Hollywood hits, I included these two movies [on the album] a classical musician – and that’s why I got some much less famous and – The Diary of Anne Frank and Life is criticised for sharing – that until you’re from producers from very Beautiful. At school, I was passionate about perfect you shouldn’t play in public and different parts of the world,” the history of the Second World War and I I think it’s so wrong. And who decides if she says. watched a lot of movies and read a lot.”

“There are also French Abrami’s grandmother had played violin you’re perfect? We should share music whatever level we’re at.” movies and ones around my professionally prior to getting married and She champions female composers, family heritage, so there’s a Abrami still has her violin. Indeed, it was lamenting the fact that they are not always real mix – there’s something her grandmother who inspired Abrami to recognised for their talents or remembered for everyone, I’m sure.” pick up the instrument aged about nine. in the same way as are their male counterThe album includes two “I had my first violin lesson and I fell in parts. She cites Clara Schumann, saying: world premiere recordlove with the instrument, although I was “Now she is well-known but a lot of the ings by Oscar-winning probably not making a great sound,” she time was portrayed as this ‘plus one’ when composers: Anne Dudley laughs. “From that first lesson I decided actually she was more famous than him wrote a new work for that’s what I wanted to do for the rest of when they were alive.”

Abrami and Rachel my life.

She adds: “I can change this perception Portman has reworked her “[Classical music] got to me emotionfor the next generation and that’s what I music for The Little Prince. ally. And that’s why I think it’s so important try to do.” She has set up a podcast, Woman The family heritage to that people experience it, because it can in Classical, where she interviews female which Abrami refers are really make you feel such deep emotions.” classical musicians and composers. her Jewish roots – her Her focus never wavered and she would One of Abrami’s influences is the late, mother is Ashkenazi and wake at 5am to practise before lessons great violinist Yehudi Menuhin, who she her father Sephardi – and at London’s Royal College of Music; she describes as having experimented with her family’s experiences completed her master’s degree at the Royal different musical styles. She is also happy of the Holocaust.

Birmingham Conservatoire. to traverse genres, having played electronic The musician’s In 2021, she was featured in Classic maternal grandmother FM’s 30 Under 30 to Watch (selected by the music, jazz, pop and rap.

“By bringing new ways, doing new and great-grandmother cellist and conductor Julian Lloyd Webber) collaborations of classical music mixed ran away from the Nazis and was signed to Sony Classical. In 2022, with different styles, you’re presenting in the Vosges, northern she made her Royal Albert Hall debut. it to a new audience and making it more France, and hid during Unsurprisingly, she is the first classical relevant to them. They will then come to the war. Abrami’s greatmusician ever to win the Global Awards’ you, but you’ve got to make that first move.” grandfather survived Social Media Superstar category. being beaten nearly to Her branching out into social media  Cinéma by Esther Abrami is death by the French stemmed from the feeling of being a available now (Sony Classical) police. They had left “stranger” in the classical music world estherabrami.com everything they had when she was studying in London, prac-

1 February 2024 Jewish News

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JN LIFE

A co-curator of the long-established gallery at the kibbutz tells Debbie Collins the community is determined to move forward and ‘Art is a beacon of light for humanity’

Be’eri gallery before it was destroyed

through an interview with them that had been published and got in touch to offer support. Sofie outlined the situation, explaining that the gallery was a ‘lighthouse for humanity’. Co-chair Pamela Crystal was deeply moved and said: “That’s it - we have to get involved.”

Sofie spoke passionately at the event at the Dorchester hotel, telling supporters that “art is a beacon of light for humanity”. Significant funds were raised for trauma relief programmes in 14 art museums in Israel and the rebuilding of the Be’eri gallery. The museums do receive government funding, but BFAMI gives that ‘extra oxygen’, raising on the night more than £500,000 through the auction for artworks including a bequeathed Picasso and works by Ron Arad.

Everyone is rooting for Be’eri, including a small museum in Ein Hod Village that re-produced the destroyed works of Osnat Ben Dov, plus the Eretz Israel Museum in Tel Aviv which stepped forward to host the

Be’eri kibbutz after 7 October. ‘We’ve been given this opportunity to rebuild but it has to be sustainable and relevant,’ Sofie says

Photo by Daniel Hanoch

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hatsApp group chats are the bane of many of our lives but for the mothers of Be’eri kibbutz on 7 October their chat was a lifeline.

Kibbutz Be’eri laid its foundations in 1946 on the edge of the Negev, settling in an area of incredible surrounding beauty and forming strong roots in the printing industry. Forty years on, with a community of 1,200, the Be’eri Gallery was opened on-site to showcase contemporary Israeli art and culture.

Born and raised there, Ziva Jellin has been head curator and director of the gallery since 1993, joined in 2011 by Sofie Berzon MacKie, co-curator. They pour their heart and soul into every exhibition, working with the best artists in Israel and nurturing new talent.

The gallery space was a focal point for the kibbutz; a huge draw for tourism, kids’ art lessons plus Auction at The Dorchester regular gallery talks and cultural events.

On 7 October, I can’t think about it right now.’ When when Hamas terrorwe were eventually ists targeted Be’eri, rescued, we left very more than 100 quickly so for a few people, including days we were sure peace activist Vivian the gallery was fine.

Silver, were killed.

It was only when Dozens of others were abducted to I read a newspaper describing the desecraGaza, leaving homes tion of the gallery that I desecrated and the gallery knew everything was gone.” torched beyond recognition.

Sofie came to London for a Sofie says: “We have a fundraising event last month mothers’ WhatsApp group Sofie Berzon MacKie in

by The British Friends of where we communicate – we London last month the Art Museums of Israel are the centre of the kibbutz, (BFAMI), a not-for-profit organisation dedithe strength. Both my sisters live on the cated to raising funds to support educational kibbutz and I saw a message from one of programmes run by the Art Museums of them that morning, saying, ‘Help. I have Israel. Her partner and three children are terrorists in my house.’ back in Israel, living in a hotel until July, “We locked ourselves into my son’s room when they can move to temporary housing.

– our safe room – and stayed silent. I thought BFAMI became aware of Sofie and Ziva to myself, ‘I don’t know what happened, but

exhibition of photographer Daniel Tchetchik, who was due to exhibit in Be’eri in November.

Additional support has come from Germany’s President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who toured Be’eri with his wife Elke Büdenbender last November, alongside the President of Israel and his wife Michal, announcing a donation of £5.5m to help rebuild the gallery.

Sofie, an artist herself, was due to exhibit work in Jerusalem in October and recalls: “My curator friend called me up and she said ‘the only thing I feel comfortable showing right now is your work.’ The gallery is called Studio of Her Own and we opened Silvery Water And Starry Earth, which runs until April.”

Sofie remains optimistic about the future. “When you lose everything and can’t go home, you really have to think about what do I need now – clothes, therapy, sleeping pills.” Speaking positively of the gallery reconstruction, she says, “It will take at least three years and will happen alongside the rebuild of the kibbutz itself. The plan is to include a dedicated space for studio work and hopefully a small apartment to host a residency programme, so the artist and their family can stay there.

“We’ve been given this opportunity to rebuild but it has to be sustainable and relevant to what we need, so I think the first exhibits should be by the artists of the Negev.”

Sofie says that she and her fellow kibbutz community have a fierce determination to rebuild and move forward stronger than ever. “You have to work hard to be alive and mentally healthy with whatever tools you have.

“For me, the tool I have is art - as long as I’m making art, I’m looking to the future to restore my faith in the good of the world, taking the worst pain and transforming it into love and beauty and connection. That’s what I’m doing. Successfully.”

1 February 2024 Jewish News

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Business / Dragons’ Den success

candicekrieger@googlemail.com

With Candice Krieger

DIAMONDS WORN BY MEGHAN DAZZLE DRAGONS Jessica Warch and Sidney Neuhaus secured £250,000 from marketing guru Steven Bartlett – his largest investment to date, writes Candice Krieger

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ast week, Belgian-born friends Jessica Warch and Sidney Neuhaus appeared on the BBC’s Dragons’ Den to ask for £250,000 for a three percent stake in their lab-grown diamond jewellery brand Kimaï, which counts Meghan Markle, Emma Watson and Jessica Alba among its fans.

Dragons Deborah Meaden, Sara Davies and Steven Bartlett all made offers following the duo’s polished pitch. But it was marketing guru Steven Bartlett who Jessica and Sidney opted to work with, after he agreed to their ask for a £250,000 investment for three percent of the business, marking his Steven Bartlett with Kimaï founders Jessica biggest investment since he joined the Warch (right) and Sidney Neuhaus programme in 2022.

Jessica told Jewish News: “It’s great. We the outcome, although at one point there went on the show with the goal of getting an was some suspense.” offer from Steven, so we were super happy with Bartlett, host of the popular Diary of a

To whom it may concern, In the state of Israel, at magistrate’s court in Jerusalem, in case No. 44321-07-22 in front of the Honorable Judge Moriah Charka, a claim was filed for the dissolution of the joint property at 8 Harav Kook St. in Jerusalem, against: Daisy Masry British passport No. 025897887 Shirazi Bretta Us passport No. 700908691 Shemesh Edward British passport No. 00226815 Shemesh Jamil British passport No. 004655023 The aforementioned or their heirs, are requested to contact the Court in Israel or the plaintiff’s attorney’s office, according to the details below, in order to exhaust their rights in the legal process.

CEO podcast, initially offered all of the money for a five per cent stake, which the duo turned down, before agreeing to three per cent. “I just can’t let you walk away,” Bartlett said.

“Although we are used to talking and pitching, we were super nervous as it’s really different when you’re in front of the camera,” added Jessica.

“We are in touch with Steven all the time by WhatsApp and we talk to him.

He is going to assist us with community building and networks.”

Jessica and Sidney, who have been best friends since childhood, launched Kimaï – which means ‘sustainability’ in Hebrew – in 2018, frustrated by the lack of transparency and traceability in the industry. They use 18k recycled gold and lab-grown diamonds.

Ethically sourced and more affordable than mined alternatives, the jewels are created via laboratory technology that mimics the growing process of a real diamond, creating gems that are physically, chemically and optically identical.

The Jewish entrepreneurs have pledged to “cut out all the murky middlemen and control the whole jewellery process, from design to delivery.”

Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, wore a pair of their £995 ‘Felicity’ earrings during a royal engagement in London in 2019 – two months after the brand had launched. It was a key moment for the duo, who went on to raise $1.2m (£945,000) for the business.

“We cold-emailed Meghan Markle,” recalled Jessica. “She loved the product and was really aligned with sustainability so that worked out really well.

“She was supporting a lot of female founders. We told her about our story and our mission.

“Someone from her team got in touch to buy the pieces.”

Actresses Emma Watson and Jessica Alba are also fans of the brand, while Jewish designer Diane von Fürstenberg, also Belgian, was an early investor in the business.

Jessica and Sidney moved to London aged 18 to study. Sidney went on to complete the graduate gemologist programme at the GIA (Gemological Institute of America) before working for a selection of luxury brands, and Jessica’s background is in business and finance.

Kimaï sales for November-December 2023 were double the same period the year before, as the growing demand for sustainable stones reverberates across the market.

Lab-grown diamonds are expected to climb to a market value of nearly $52bn by 2030, according to Statista. One in two engagement rings sold in the US last year are thought to have been lab-grown. “It’s a market that is growing very, very fast,” says Jessica.

Last year, the London-based duo set up a standalone store in Marleybone’s Chiltern Street, and will use Steven Bartlett’s investment to further improve its look and feel.

They are hoping to open more stores, with the next one likely to be in Paris.

Jessica says that coming from Antwerp – the diamond capital of the world – they were always surrounded by diamonds and jewellery.

“And although we had a big passion for those pieces that carry a very special sentimental value, we felt they were often linked to a negative social environmental impact.

“The world we are living in is evolving but the diamond industry is probably one of the only ones that hasn’t really evolved in the past 100 years.

“We came up with Kimaï to bring that transparency and traceability to the outdated space and make it relevant to us as younger customers. “Even though we knew diamond traders directly, there was no way for us to know exactly where the diamonds we were buying were coming from. It didn’t align with the ethical values we have today.”

Steven Bartlett said Jessica and Sidney were “un-uninvestable,” adding: “Those founders are real diamonds and that’s why I invested.” kimai.com/uk/

The Duchess of Sussex ‘loved the product’

Some of Kimaï’s gems and jewellery

Hacohen – Debel – Sperber law firm, 8 Harav Kook St., Jerusalem, 9422608 Phone: +972-2-6245063 Fax: +972-2-6255922 Email: office@hdlaw.co.il

1 February 2024 Jewish News

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33

Orthodox Judaism

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

BY SHIRA JACKSON

UNITED SYNAGOGUE EDUCATOR Jewish history that everyone had

God’s mouth immediately began to

the same experience, using take form so that they could see the We share one exactly all of their senses, and nobody had letters flying in the air.

Rashi also comments that own perspective in the retelling. broken heart their This week in parsha Yitro we read everyone who was blind was When you’ve shared an experience with a group, a bond is formed. Perhaps you went to school or camp together as kids.

Maybe you went on a shul trip?

If I were to ask each of you about a story that took place, would your descriptions correlate exactly? Or would each of your different perspectives affect your memory? A people’s person might describe the characters, a musical person may remember the song playing in the background and a foodie might recall the meal.

There was only one time in

that when we arrived at the foot of Sinai to receive the Torah, it says: “And he encamped there” (Exodus 19:2), in the singular rather than the plural. The 11th-12th century commentator Rashi famously explains that just then we were like one person with one heart.

On closer reading, one notices just how unique an event it was. “All the people saw the sounds and the lightning” (Exodus 20:15). How? On this one occasion, our entire nation experienced synaesthesia, the ability to see sounds. The Kli Yakar (16th17th century commentator) explains that every word that came out of

suddenly able to see, the deaf could hear and the mute were able to answer: “We will do and we will listen” (Exodus 24:7).

Why the need for this multisensory experience? The Sfat Emet (19th-20th century commentator) explains that there is a distinction between seeing and hearing and each has an advantage. When we see an object, we see it exactly as it is, however it is not the sight itself but rather the light energy reflecting off it that enters our eyes. When an object emits a sound, the wave emitted from the object itself is what enters our ears, but we may not hear

Youngsters on Israel Tour: each person has their own perspective

the same sound as was emitted as it can become distorted en route.

The sounds we saw at Sinai were as distinct as if we were seeing them, yet the actual sound waves from God’s ‘mouth’ entered our ears.

This may sound technical, but let’s consider the spiritual implications. An objective reality is to know things as they truly are; a subjective reality, though somewhat distorted by a particular perspective, is personal and therefore more meaningful. In the moment of revelation, the objective and subjective – the sights and sounds – merged, in order that God could truly communicate

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with us. We saw God’s undistorted word, so we could fully understand His meaning, yet also internalised His voice, to personalise that understanding in the most meaningful way for us.

Last October we shared a national experience; each time we hear another name, another story, we feel that ache as a physical pain, and our differences cannot touch the sense of togetherness we are feeling on an emotional level.

We may not all have the same perspective, but we’ve belatedly realised that we are indeed one person sharing one broken heart.

34 Jewish News 1 February 2024

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Progressive Judaism

LEAP OF FAITH

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

BY RABBI MIRIAM BERGER FINCHLEY REFORM SYNAGOGUE

Handing over reins to reign What do Queen Margrethe of Denmark, Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp and Moses have in common? Perhaps it’s as simple as the fact that they have all achieved very neat endings.

I’d love to know what prompted Queen Margrethe to abdicate, and in so doing becoming Denmark’s first monarch to abdicate in nearly 900 years by handing over the throne to her son, Crown Prince Frederik. Is it the most generous thing a mother has ever done for her child? Standing down while she can and not making him wait for nature to take its course. Is it self-preservation?

Maybe she is tired, done, ready for retirement and knows that

although she was born into a role, she can take control so as not to be in it forever. Does she want to leave while she still has the support of the people? Maybe she is just good at hearing what the people want.

I am sad for King Charles in case his recent medical treatment causes more people to call for the young king-in-waiting to take over, while Charles himself had to wait so long to take up the mantle.

How would Moses have been remembered if he’d made it into the Promised Land and not been forced to hand on his leadership to Joshua?

If, while still settling the Israelites into the land, he had become old, frail and forgetful and was no longer able to be demonstrate the diplomacy needed to carry out his role, would his leadership be remembered differently?

Moses led the Israelites to the top of the mountain, and though

the choice was not his, he ended his leadership quite literally on a high. From slavery to a land of their own, his is a success story.

I wonder if what’s seen as a punishment for Moses should be or is being seen as a blueprint for others. There seems to be a trend right now for people making room to hand on the leadership baton.

Is Jurgen Klopp thinking there are only so many seasons you can take a team to near the top of the table (I say “near” because you’ve got to stay hopeful that others, particularly a certain other team in red, will take the top spot) and be remembered for being the best?

Did Queen Margrethe, Klopp and Moses all assume someone younger stepping into the breach would be for the best? Is youth always seen as positive, bringing renewed vigour?

Novak Djokovic has proven time and again that age is no hindrance to

Perhaps, like Moses, Jurgen Klopp will have a sense of fulfilment

continued success. Perhaps Moses teaches us what it means to feel your achievement is complete, having completed as much of the journey as your chapter requires. Perhaps what Queen Margarethe, Klopp and

Moses have in common is a sense of fulfilment and contentment.

May we all be blessed with such a sense and have faith in those to whom we hand over the reins (or, in Queen Margrethe’s case, reign).

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Ask our

Professional advice from our panel / Ask Our Experts

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

This week: Shipping belongings to Israel in wartime, ‘golden rule’ of will-making, and buying health insurance online STEPHEN MORRIS REMOVALS MANAGING DIRECTOR

STEPHEN MORRIS SHIPPING LTD.

Dear Stephen Is it safe to ship all my personal effects to Israel while the war in Gaza continues?

Rebecca Dear Rebecca I get asked this question so many times each day. The answer is that we are still packing up people’s homes and the container vessels to Ashdod and to Haifa still sail every week.

In Israel, clearance through customs still works efficiently and there are sufficient haulage drivers to deliver the

CAROLYN ADDLEMAN DIRECTOR OF LEGACIES

KKL EXECUTOR & TRUSTEE CO Dear Carolyn My elderly uncle, who had no children of his own, passed away a few months ago and named me as his executor in his will.

His nephew, who had a poor relationship with him, is threatening to challenge the will, under which he doesn’t benefit, on the grounds of the uncle’s lack of capacity.

Ian

Dear Ian Although you don’t mention it, I will assume your uncle’s nephew would inherit on an intestacy if the will was set aside.

This shows the importance of following the ‘golden rule’ when drafting a will. The draftsman should make every effort to ensure that all older testators have the necessary capacity and obtain a detailed report from a medical practitioner when preparing the document.

Recent research shows that one in 11 people over the age of 65 have some form of dementia and that more than 900,000 people within the UK have some form of the condition.

In a recent case, a solicitor who took instructions from a 90-year-old for the making of a will without taking any proper steps to satisfy himself as to the

35

shipment to residence for our crews to deliver and place in the home.

But what about insurance? Well, we still offer All Risks Insurance through Lloyd’s of London but there is a small percentage surcharge whilst the war continues. We add this to the premium at the time cover commences. In addition, the shipping lines are charging a war surcharge which is included in our quotations. Again, this will disappear once the Gaza war ends.

So, although I cannot assure you 100 percent that your shipment will not be affected by the war, other than by the small surcharges, we as a company have not experienced any problems with shipments and our clients move with piece of mind about their effects, at least!

man’s capacity to make a will was severely criticised by the judge. The will was subsequently successfully challenged on the grounds of a lack of the necessary capacity.

The testator must be aware of the aims in making a will, understand the approximate value and composition of their estate and appreciate any moral claims there may be on the estate. It must be clear they do not suffer from any mental condition which might impair their will-making ability.

The golden rule is intended to protect the wishes of the testator and avoid a situation such as you have described.

When making a will, it is advisable to consider giving the draftsman authority to write to your GP for confirmation of testamentary capacity.

TREVOR GEE PRIVATE HEALTHCARE SPECIALIST

PATIENT HEALTH Dear Trevor I recently bought health insurance online, (buyer’s remorse here) and the insurance company are refusing to meet my wife’s claim.

She is still in discomfort.

Please can you help or advise us.

Malcolm Dear Malcolm I am sorry to hear about

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your wife’s current condition and hope that she receives treatment quickly.

The issue about not getting free advice from an intermediary like ourselves is that the websites do not properly explain about the underwriting of private health policies and what each means.

You see, there are different ways that the private health insurer assesses the risk to themselves, so they will accept a claim when it’s genuine.

What I mean by that is that with a new policy, the insurer will want to know that a condition was not pre-existing, even by a day.

However, depending on different circumstances, in many cases, the insurer will accept pre-existing conditions.

But buying online it’s very difficult to give any correct

advice. So, I can’t advise you what went wrong here, as I do not know the underwriting on this policy and also the dates of your wife’s symptoms and date the policy started. My general advice is don’t wait to dig a well until you are thirsty! If I can help you argue the claim, I will happily do so, (there are no charges for our advice) so please do call.

Remember, your capital is at risk.

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Ask our experts / Professional advice from our panel

Our Experts Do you have a question for a member of our team? Email: editorial@jewishnews.co.uk

PRIVATE HEALTHCARE SPECIALIST

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CAROLYN ADDLEMAN Qualifications: Lawyer with over 20 years’ experience in will drafting and trust and estate administration. Last 14 years at KKL Executor and Trustee Company In close contact with clients to ensure all legal and pastoral needs are cared for Member of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners

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• • •

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EUPHONIUM DANISH BAKLAVA TROMBONE

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QUICHE 3 16

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7

8 1 9 2 103 114 125 136

7

8All puzzles 9 10 © Puzzler 11 12 Media 13 All puzzles © Puzzler Media Ltd - www.puzzler.com Ltd - www.puzzler.com

20

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9 8 64 Candle, 4 2 33 Codicil, 1 7 DOWN: 25 Leash, chs 8 World-weary 5 9 3 6 8 7 1 4 2 call, act 15 Flushed 5 Moses, 6 Diocese, 7 Wake-up

10 Knee-length, 15 Scrunch, 17 Sighted, 18 Stodge, 20 Sweep, 22 Train.

4 STRUDEL 5 6

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28

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24

Wordsearch

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25

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Wordsearch Codeword

Codeword

R F C DTWCA O L L I EH RO W Y L GS H DL O RE TS K LI G A LNOTO S T A L T E R I AROMA M N L U I O I A R U M M E S T X L C MARU LR B UK A B AP ROCE RN B E C U ON G M M S MA EDAHR R S OI N CC OH E I R N E A PE ANA I CC E I RU N S G G LM OSOEM L S G O R T ES VD EN AQ B U H I P T SDT NA A A M J E R N U Y O R K S H I R E A P BRA VO R A L I E N H R I EZ C E O A M TP EEN T E U T C E H N ESN AE T E P M UT RE T MY E T

S H I MMY A S T RA Y E N A R K E I D E CON T AM I NA T E A O Z R L T AN CH EWS ROD E S R S T A S V I X E N F UNN Y C D P P M G T HU E EQU I P EMU A R R M S S HAME L E S S N E S S T T A E E N L E J E C T S B E E T L E

Z H M J P O Q T G Y N 25/01 I L D B E U A F R V S X K CW

L F PMUDG I J E NQ Y 01/02 VOKRC S B Z H A T XW

40 Jewish News 1 February 2024

www.jewishnews.co.uk

EMERGENCY FUNDING APPEAL AIRLIFT OF MEDICAL EQUIPMENT FOR IDF INJURIES • Urgent shortage of critical medical equipment in Israel • Yad Sarah seeks funding for Mobile Oxygen Generators and CPM machines to allow injured IDF to be released from hospital and recover at home.

• Impact of Israel-Hamas conflict increases demand • Donors needed to support swift acquisition and airlift due to shipping delays in the Red Sea. • Help save lives and aid in rehabilitation efforts

SCAN HERE TO MAKE A DONATION TODAY • www.yadsarah.org.uk • 020 3397 3363 • michael@yadsarah.org.uk • Reg. Charity No. 294801

96602 - JDA Doris Hair Salon FULL PAGE Ad 2023.pdf www.jewishnews.co.uk

1

31/08/2023

1 February 2024 Jewish News

14:06:35

We get one life… and it is precious

C

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CM

MY

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CMY

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Doris discusses what to wear while getting herself spruced up for this afternoon’s concert (thanks to her new personal amplifier kit donated by JDA).

JDA’s “Hearing Matters in Care” service is reducing the isolation and loneliness of older care home residents with hearing loss - helping them to understand what’s going on around them, chat with the people they live with, access activities and be a part of their community.

With your help, we can do so much more.

Please support JDA.

020 8446 0502 www.jdeaf.org.uk Registered Charity No. 1105845 Company Limited by Guarantee 4983830

C

www.jewishnews.co.uk

Jewish News 1 February 2024

LED

AL

36 HO APPEAUR DONA L T NOW E

UB

LET’S GET THE COMMUNITY WORKING

O N S WI L L NATI BE O D DO

L

A FUNDRAISING CAMPAIGN | 4-5 FEBRUARY 2024

WHY RESOURCE NEEDS YOUR HELP In recent months, Resource has been more stretched than ever in keeping up with the demand of supporting those desperately seeking work.

To prevent unemployed people from spiralling into deeper financial hardship and suffering further mental health distress, Resource is raising funds to ensure we can support everyone in the community that needs help in finding employment.

1,000 Resource helps over

PEOPLE

find employment each year

2,066 Resource held

138%

D

increase of new clients in the last 6 months (218% increase in September 2023 alone)

ONE-TO-ONE APPOINTMENTS with clients last year

For me it was so much more than professional support.

Resource gave me the feeling that I have a community that cares about me here in London. This is something I will always remember and be grateful for.

TALIA

DONATE NOW AT CHARITYEXTRA.COM/RESOURCE

resource_charity |

@resourcecharity | Resource Charity Charity Registration Number 1106331

6955 Resource Campaign 2023 JN 2pp Wrap v6.indd 2

29/01/2024 12:37