1356 - 29th Feb 2024

anti-Israel hate with new laws

Rishi Sunak last night announced tough new legislation aimed at restricting proPalestinian rallies, writes Lee Harpin.

He made clear the government’s intention to halt the rise in antisemitic hatred and the intimidation of MPs by anti-Israel extremists.

In a keynote speech due to be given at the Community Security Trust’s annual dinner in central London yesterday evening as Jewish News went to press, the prime minister was expected to outline his determination to crack down on antisemitic hate that has escalated in this country since 7 October.

Sunak was due to confirm that a new £31m funding package announced by the Home O ce will include moves to provide further assistance to the CST and other groups involved in protecting the community and the deployment of additional police patrols in response to increased community tensions.

A Downing Street spokesperson confirmed to Jewish News that the new package was designed to further protect the commu-

nity from anti-Jewish racism, along with protecting MPs from pro-Palestine extremists.

Sunak was also due to tell 1,100 guests of his “disgust” at the beaming of a projection on to London’s Big Ben with the words, “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” being shown, as seen during last Wednesday’s pro-

Palestine protest outside Parliament.

While Sunak is expected to refrain from directly criticising the Metropolitan Police, he will call for them to be more assertive in taking action against those deemed to be responsible for “antisemitic” acts such as the projection onto the iconic landmark.

The PM was also expected to confirm moves to stop pro-Palestine demos from taking place on a near weekly basis in the capital, and elsewhere in the country, leading to many in the community complaining that London’s West End has become a no-go area at weekends.

The government is planning to act on recommendations made by the Home A airs Select committee to tighten the law around demonstrations, including a requirement for protesters to increase the notice they give to police before large demonstrations.

In his CST speech, it was anticipated Sunak would also reflect on the horrific plight of those still help captive by Hamas.

• Cleverly questions purpose of rallies, p3

DANIEL LIBESKIND: RETHINK SHOAH MEMORIAL FOR WESTMINSTER

World-renowned architect Daniel Libeskind has called for a rethink of plans to locate a National Holocaust Memorial next to the Palace of Westminster, writes Beatrice Sayers.

Although Victoria Tower Gardens was very visible, it was “a small site”, he said in comments that also referenced the opposition from local people and others to the plans.

“It has so many obstacles and, who knows, maybe the whole question should be reopened to think about what is the best site for the memorial, where people really agree to build it, and which has the impact on London and the UK that it should have.”

Libeskind (below) is perhaps best known for his Jewish Museum Berlin, which opened in 2001. His design for a National Holocaust Monument in Canada, titled Landscape of Loss, Memory and Survival, was unveiled to acclaim in 2017. From above, the building in Ottawa is a skewed Star of David. Forty-ft high photographs of Holocaust sites across Europe are embedded in the monument’s six concrete and metal walls.

Born in Poland to two Jewish Holocaust survivors, Libeskind, 77, now lives and works in

Continued on page 8

New legislation: Prime Minister Rishi Sunak

Hamas pours cold water on US hopes that the fighting can stop

Hamas this week poured cold water on US President Joe Biden’s hope that there might be a ceasefire by next week, calling his remarks premature, writes Jotam Confino in Israel

Biden told reporters: “I hope [for a ceasefire] by the end of the weekend. My national security adviser tells me that we’re close. We’re close. We’re not done yet. And my hope is that by next Monday [March 4] we’ll have a ceasefire.”

A Hamas official later told Reuters that there are “still big gaps that need to be bridged,” while Israel’s Army radio reported that Hamas views the outline for a ceasefire, which was discussed between the US, Egypt, Qatar and Israel in Paris over the weekend, as “a Zionist document”.

Army Radio also reported that Hamas is not pleased with the outline not including a full withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza.

The deal reportedly includes a

Maj Iftah Shahar and Cap Itai Seif of the Givati Brigade’s Tzabar battalion, who were killed fighting in the Gaza Strip this week

40-day truce, in return for the release of 40 hostages (women, children, elderly and ill) and 400 Palestinian prisoners released from Israeli jails.

Five hundred trucks with humanitarian aid as well as thousands of tents for internally displaced Palestinians would also enter the Gaza Strip, according to Reuters.

Al Jazeera reported that Israel has agreed to allow a gradual return of Palestinians to northern Gaza, except young en “of recruitment age”.

An Israeli delegation arrived in Qatar on Monday to enter a new round of talks over the final details of the deal, according to Israeli media. Israel is insisting that any ceasefire be temporary and that the eradication of Hamas is inevitable.

Some 134 hostages are still held in Gaza, some of whom urgently need medical care, while some have been sexually assaulted, according to testimonies from former hostages released in the November ceasefire.

The Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim

bin Hamad Al Thani, said on Tuesday that the world is in “a race against time to bring the hostages back to their families and at the same time we must work to put an end to the suffering of the Palestinian people”.

As Hamas and Israel this week continued their negotiations over a ceasefire/hostage deal, protests against the government continued across Israel. The Hostages and

Missing Families Forum organised a four-day march from the site of the Nova music festival massacre to Jerusalem, beginning yesterday. It will pass through several cities along the way and is yet another attempt by Israelis to highlight the urgency in getting the hostages freed from Gaza.

In Gaza, two more soldiers were killed yesterday: Maj Iftah Shahar, 25, and Cap Itai Seif, 24, from the Givati

Brigade. 242 Israeli soldiers have been killed in Gaza since 7 October.

Hamas says nearly 30,000 Palestinians have been killed since 7 October, 6,000 of whom are members of the terror group. Israel says 12,000 Hamas members have been killed.

IDF soldiers continued operations across the Gaza Strip and announced the arrest of 200 terror suspects in the biggest hospital in southern Gaza.

CLEVERLY QUESTIONS PURPOSE OF PROTESTS

The home secretary has said pro-Palestine protesters have “made their point” and questioned whether holding regular marches “adds value” to their calls for an immediate ceasefire.

James Cleverly, in an interview this week with the Times, questioned what future demonstrations in support of ending the violence in Gaza hoped to achieve given the Conservative UK government was in “disagreement” with their position.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s administration supports an immediate pause in the fighting between Israel and Hamas to allow hostages to be released and for aid to enter the territory.

Number 10 says any ceasefire would come with conditions, including that Hamas — the Palestinian militant group that carried out the deadly raids on Israel on October 7 that sparked the war — can no longer be in charge of the Gaza Strip, to ensure it is sustainable.

Cleverly told the newspaper that the protests witnessed across Britain since the war broke out were putting a “huge amount of pressure” on the country’s police forces.

A demonstration in central London

The senior Tory said: “The question I ask myself is, ‘What are these protests genuinely hoping to achieve?’

“They have made a point and they made it very, very loudly and I’m not sure that these marches every couple of weeks add value to the argument.

“They’re not really saying anything new.”

The tensions surrounding the Middle East conflict has reignited a debate around MP safety, with protesters targeting the homes of parliamentarians to demand action on Gaza.

The home secretary said it was vital that MPs were not “bullied” into changing their stance on the Gaza conflict due to threats from demonstrators.

In chaotic scenes during a Gaza ceasefire debate in the Commons last week, Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle broke with parliamentary precedent because he had concerns about the intimidation suffered by some MPs. Cleverly said: “I think it is really important that no one, no parliamentarian, feels that they should be bullied into taking a position they don’t believe is the right position So I genuinely don’t know what these regular protests are seeking to achieve. They have made their position clear, we recognise that there are many people in the UK that hold that position.

“We respect that but the UK government’s position is a disagreement with that for very practical, well thought-out reasons.”

The Palestine Solidarity Campaign is planning further action this weekend.

Organisers are calling on supporters to take part in local protests on Saturday against Barclays Bank, which it says holds “substantial

financial ties with arms companies supplying weapons and military technology to Israel”.

A march in support of a ceasefire in central London is planned for Saturday 9 March. US president Joe Biden this week said he was hopeful a ceasefire deal could be in place by next week, with negotiations continuing on Tuesday.

Separately, a protest is planned by farmers in Wales outside the Senedd in Cardiff on Wednesday. They are opposed to proposed changes to post-Brexit subsidies which will require more land to be given over to tree planting and habitat creation.

• The frequency and scale of pro-Palestine protests in this country has placed severe pressure on police forces and is putting their ability to deal with wider policing priorities at risk, parliament’s Home Affairs Committee has warned.

The cross-party committee of MPs said that estimates of policing costs between 7 October and 6 December, where 900 demonstrations took place, was an estimated £18.9m for London alone.

A soldier votes in the Israeli local elections while serving in Gaza

A man walks by a wall of posters showing the faces of some of the hostages still being held in Gaza

Ceasefi re calls / Mayor’s statement / UNRWA transition / SNP request /

‘Simply saying ceasefire won’t make it happen’

Foreign O ce minister Andrew Mitchell this week reminded MPs that “simply calling for a ceasefire” in Gaza between Israel and Hamas “will not make it happen”, writes Lee Harpin.

Delivering his latest statement to the Commons on the situation in Gaza, the Conservative minister spoke in favour of firstly securing a pause in the battle which would “secure the sustainable ceasefire that can hold for the longer term without a return to the fighting”.

But he launched an angry condemnation of the SNP’s stance on Gaza and warned their spokesperson Brendan O’Hara about his use of language as he accused Israel of “collective punishment” of the Palestinians.

O’Hara also called for the UK to “stop selling weapons to Israel” and added this “shameful” period was one in which “history would judge” the government “harshly”.

Mitchell responded saying: “In all his

remarks her might remember that source of all this was attacks of 7 October. It was the pogrom committed against the Israeli people, the worst act of killing of Jewish people since the end of the Second World War.

“There needs to be some balance in what he says, and also his language is not helpful.”

Later at least two SNP MPs raised doubts about evidence provided by Israel suggesting UNRWA workers had colluded with Hamas. One Scots representative suggested the evidence may indeed be “propaganda.”

Outlining the government position, Mitchell said a sustainable ceasefire would require “the release of all hostages, the removal of Hamas, its capacity to launch attacks against Israel” and

Sadiq Khan and Susan Hall issue joint plea

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan and his Conservative challenger Susan Hall have issued a joint call for zero tolerance of antisemitism and Islamophobia in the mayoral election.

The pair said “fear, division and hatred” must be defeated and added that “no matter our backgrounds or our political beliefs, we are all part of the same London community”.

They spoke to the Evening Standard after the now suspended Conservative MP Lee Anderson was condemned for suggesting Khan was controlled by “Islamists”.

The statement also came as MPs arrived back in Westminster after last week’s chaotic scenes during an SNP led debate over a Gaza ceasefire.

Khan told the newspaper he was “confident that, working together, we will be able to stamp out antisemitism and Islamophobia, stop the march of hard-right populism, and show that hope, unity and love will always trump fear, division and hatred”.

Hall said: “I may be one of Sadiq Khan’s biggest critics, but I also see the monstrous abuse he gets as one of the

country’s most prominent Muslim politicians.” His faith was “one of his positive characteristics, not something to be suspicious of”, she added.

Former Tory deputy chair Anderson failed to apologise for saying: “I don’t actually believe that the Islamists have got control of our country, but what I do believe is they’ve got control of Khan, and they’ve got control of London.”

Ex-chancellor Sajid Javid and ex-justice secretary Sir Robert Buckland were among those to call his comments as “repugnant” and “racist”.

Envoy Dennis Ross urges ‘transition from UNRWA’

Former U.S. envoy to the Middle East, Dennis Ross, has called on UNRWA to be replaced, accusing it of being “a vehicle for Hamas”.

Ross, however, believes that the transition away from UNRWA should happen over time as it “must continue to perform humanitarian service right now during the course of this war.”

“One thing we should learn from this war: UNRWA, if not

by design, certainly by consequence, e ectively was a vehicle for Hamas. One thing that should not be the case in the aftermath of this war, is that UNRWA continues to play the role it did,” he told UN Watch.

Ross argued that until there’s a replacement for UNRWA, certain changes need to be made, such as ending its subservience of UNRWA to Hamas and a thorough vetting

of the people who work for the agency.

“There are plenty of lists that are available, certainly the United States has a list of terrorists that OFAC produces. There should be vetting of the people who are working for UNRWA and compared to that list. UNRWA has never been prepared to accept anything like that. That is unquestionably something that needs to be done.”

that the terror group was “no longer in charge in Gaza”. He added there was a need for a formation of a new Palestinian government for the West Bank and for Gaza, an international support package and the path towards an eventual two-state solution.

But tellingly, Mitchell reminded MPs that the UK was not “in control of events” in the Middle East and could only “o er advice”.

Responding for Labour, David Lammy urged the government to push to ensure Israel

“abides” with the International Court of Justice ruling that all humanitarian aid reaches Gaza.

The shadow foreign secretary called for the government to “speak together” with Labour and agree a position. Lammy said he “strongly suspects” Mitchell and foreign secretary David Cameron agreed with his party’s position.

Mitchell responded saying both the government and Labour positions were “incredibly close” to one another.

Labour’s Richard Burgon later called for the suspension of arms sales to Israel.

Commons speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle this week turned down a renewed SNP request for a new emergency debate on Gaza, after questioning its relevance with the government set to release a statement on the matter tomorrow.

The decision came as the SNP called for an independent investigation into what Keir Starmer did to ensure his party’s motion was put to a vote in a debate last week.

A senior Westminster source told Jewish News there was “no truth” to claims Starmer had done any “bullying” of Hoyle at last Wednesday’s meeting, after

he agreed to allow a Labour motion to be heard.

Stephen Flynn, the SNP’s leader in Westminster, on Monday raised a point of order suggesting he had tried in “good faith” to have the debate on his party’s call for an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. Flynn also said his party wished to call for an arms sale ban to Israel.

Explaining his decision, Hoyle said the matter does not relate to areas of ministerial responsibility.

Hoyle then noted that the government has announced that it intends to release its own statement on Gaza on

Tuesday, leaving no time for any debate before. The Speaker said this meant that this does not mean MPs cannot apply for another emergency debate on Gaza in future.

Responding to the decision, Flynn said: “Yet again, Westminster is failing the people of Gaza by blocking a vote on the urgent action the UK government must take to help make an immediate ceasefire happen.” More than 70 MPs signed a so-called early day motion tabled by a Conservative MP declaring no confidence in the Speaker, in response to the chaotic scenes in the Commons last week.

Soldiers in Gaza this week. Inset: Middle East minister Andrew Mitchell

‘If you care about democracy, the evil of antisemitism

Antisemitism doesn’t just threaten Jews – it undermines western values, Holocaust academic Deborah Lipstadt tells Sarah Miller

When it comes to Holocaust denial, academic Deborah Lipstadt is one of the world’s leading authorities tackling those who say the murder of six million Jews at the hands of the Nazis never took place.

But now President Biden’s special envoy for monitoring and combating antisemitism is finding herself up against “a new denial” over the Hamas atrocities of 7 October, and all the evidence in the world will never be enough to convince those who disbelieve, she says.

“Nothing will change their minds,” says Lipstadt emphatically in her native New Yorker tones, shaking her head. “There is even among them those who deny there are hostages, even if hostages are released. I’ve seen evidence that has not been made public from the official police investigation.

“We saw picture after picture of mutilated bodies, burnt bodies. At one point they contrasted a woman who had been at the rave who sent a selfie home, and then what her body looked like on 8 October.

“But it’s like Holocaust denial all over again. If you can believe there was no Holocaust, when the Holocaust is the bestdocumented genocide in history, when you have bystanders who lived in the towns and the villages near the shooting sites and saw what happened, people who worked in the death camps who gave testimony, and Germans themselves who said, ‘we did it’ –and yet you still deny, then nothing’s going to convince you.

“It’s the same thing with these people. There is such a deep-seated antisemitism and hatred of Israel, one and the same, that they choose not to believe even though that’s completely irrational and completely illogical.”

Lipstadt, who in 2000 defended herself against a libel claim brought by the author and Holocaust revisionist David Irving, which later inspired the film Denial, spoke to Jewish News during a brief visit to London last week.

The 76-year-old historian was invited to deliver a special lecture at the Birkbeck Institute for the Study of Antisemitism and did not hide her disdain for either the Hamas deniers or the gender advocates that remained silent in the wake of sexual violence against women.

She says: “Gender-based violence is an antiseptic term for rape, mutilation of genitalia, cutting off of breasts and more, and I’ve seen the evidence, pictures more numerous and more horrible than I ever

imagined. There’s been denial that this happened, and I’ve been appalled by the abysmally slow response of international organisations, governments and civil society, particularly for those on the left –

AT A SCREENING OF FOOTAGE OF HAMAS’ ATTACK ONE AUDIENCE MEMBER CRIED OUT ‘SHOW US THE RAPES’

feminists and the human rights community – to these horrific occurrences.

“When other groups have been subjected to gender-based violence, feminist leaders, women’s groups, UN bodies, including independent experts, move swiftly, in some cases within two days to speak out.”

As an example, she cites the rapid reaction to the “brutal” crackdown on Iranian girls and women for taking off their head coverings, the Yazidi women who were subjected to horrific treatment by Isis, or the hundreds of Nigerian girls kidnapped by the Islamist organisation Boko Haram.

“The feminist groups, the women’s groups, the human rights groups, did not wait more than two months to speak out

about it or to demand evidence,” she adds.

Even when presented with hard evidence of the atrocities that took place on 7 October, including footage taken from the bodycams of Hamas terrorists themselves, there are still those who disbelieve – and do so because of latent antisemitism, she says.

During her lecture, Lipstadt prompted audible gasps as she related how at one screening of the 45-minute footage of the attacks, painstakingly pieced together by the IDF, one audience member cried out, “Show us the rapes.”

She commented: “The pictures of the dead women and the mutilated women with their underwear down around their knees, picture after picture of this was not sufficient. I won-

Deborah Lipstadt was in London to give a lecture at the Birkbeck Institute for the Study of Antisemitism

dered did the same person demand to see the rapes of women who came forth as part of the Me Too movement, when their watchword was simply ‘believe women’.

“My stance is clear. The voices of all women must be heard. Any woman’s experience of gender-based violence should not be silenced or discredited.”

She added that it was “wrong” for people to remain silent “in the face of such horrific violence”, but for those who advocate human rights and protection of women, “it is more than wrong. It is hypocrisy of the first order, it calls into question their larger agenda and it is antisemitic.”

On the question of whether lines have been blurred between anti-Zionism and antisemitism, Lipstadt acknowledges “there is certainly room to be critical of Israel”.

“As many Israelis will tell you, the national sport of Israel is not football, it’s

criticism of the government,” she quipped. “But I’ve also been asked that question in recent days and weeks over the di erence between the two and I would say it has already been answered by those presenting themselves as opponents of Israel.

“Just a few days after the attacks in front of the Sydney Opera House, people marched shouting, ‘F*** the Jews. If you listen to the

AS ISRAELIS WILL TELL YOU, THEIR NATIONAL SPORT ISN’T FOOTBALL BUT CRITICISM OF THE GOVERNMENT

tape, it certainly sounds like ‘gas the Jews’. Synagogues in Montreal and Philadelphia were torched, Jews wearing a Star of David or speaking Hebrew were harassed, including here in London and kosher restaurants were vandalised in New York and Toronto.

“There was even the horrific accusation of Israelis harvesting the organs of dead Palestinians, a revival of the antisemitic canard of the blood libel.”

She added: “Based on the behaviour of those who have done the things they’ve done, there is no di erence. They are the ones who have made the connection [between Jews and Israel], not me. So why should I twist myself into trying to parse the two, when the others are saying it’s one and the same?”

Lipstadt paints a bleak picture of antisemitism on the rise, especially after 7 October, and says the spread of hatred presents “a threat to democracy”, but

THERE WAS EVEN THE ACCUSATION OF ISRAELIS HARVESTING THE ORGANS OF DEAD PALESTINIANS

remains optimistic as long as there are still those who speak out against it. “If you care about the Jews, then of course you’re going to care about antisemitism,” she explains. “But if you don’t particularly care about the Jews, if you care about democracy and hate autocracy, then you can do no less than fight this evil hatred – with all your soul, your power and your minds.”

Estate agent sorry for ‘Zionists’ posts ARCHITECT LIBESKIND CRITICISES MEMORIAL

The branch manager of a Borehamwood estate agency has apologised for celebrating the death of “this Zionist” Lord Rothschild and calling for other Zionists to follow him.

Amanda Hardy, from Barkers estate and lettings agents on Shenley Road, was removed from her role on Tuesday after writing on social media in a now deleted post: “The world is a better place with this Zionist dead. Just got to hope all the others follow.”

She spoke to Jewish News twice on Tuesday, saying that she was sorry for causing offence and that she “didn’t fully understand the word Zionist”.

“I had a different impression of the word and totally misunderstood the meaning,” she said, adding she had wrongly thought ‘Zionists’ were the Jewish version of Hamas.

She said: “I respect and care deeply about the Jewish community and have lots of close friends and clients who I have worked with over 20 years. I would never wish death on anyone. I’m a caring human and want peace for all of us on this beautiful planet.”

In an earlier conversation with Jewish News, Hardy said: “I have a rabbi that I know. Lots of beautiful Jewish friends and they all love me and respect me and know me.”

Hardy denied her remarks were antisemitic, saying: “It’s nothing against the Jewish religion at all.

“It’s the same as the Muslims and the terrorists. There are always the good and the evil. Not everyone prays to the demons. That’s how our world

is set out.” She continued: “I appreciate the call but there’s a lot of things that will coming out. Lots of things about Israel not on the mainstream news that will be coming out.

“You might want to start looking at Israel and what the Israeli people really think.”

Hardy recommended that Jewish News “do research yourself on what the Israeli people are fighting against. We are living in very bad time and also the great awakening. People are entitled to go and research and follow influential and knowledgeable people. I’m grateful for the Internet for that; to get more information and history. There’s no malice. Just knowledge.”

She said she believed in “flying the flag for humanity” and would “never judge someone by their religion. Love thy neighbour. I would put my life down for anybody. I believe in the good Lord of this world. I’m protected because I’m only doing good. I love people, and animals. I’ve not done anything wrong because I genuinely care about the human race.”

Continued from page 1

New York. Asked about the concept for the London memorial, by Adjaye Associates, Libeskind said: “I’m familiar with the design.” He described the design as the “exact same” one that Adjaye submitted for the Ottawa competition, which the judges rejected.

Adjaye Associates was the lead company on the design that won the London competition for a memorial and learning centre, in which a Libeskind design was among 10 shortlisted. Its main feature is 23 huge metal fins, with the spaces in between them representing the 22 countries from which Jews were killed by the Nazis.

The design as well as the location have received criticism in the UK, including from politicians and from prominent members of the Jewish community. Among the concerns are that the memorial will be difficult to access and to guard, and will be a trophy site for pro-Palestinian protesters.

Libeskind’s design for Maggie’s Royal Free, a cancer care centre in Hampstead, was unveiled in January and his design for Einstein House at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem is under construction. His comments come as a select

committee of MPs consider evidence presented this month and last by petitioners against a Bill drafted to clear the way for the UK memorial to go ahead.

Last month MPs heard from four survivors, including 98-year-old Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, as well as Britain’s foremost historian on the Holocaust Sir Richard Evans, who are strongly opposed to the memorial design and to its siting in Victoria Tower Gardens.

Last summer, Adjaye Associates stepped back from the project, and was removed from two others, following reports of allegations of sexual assault and harassment by three women against its founder, the GhanaianBritish architect Sir David Adjaye.

Lord Pickles, co-chair of the UK Holocaust Memorial Foundation, said: “The competing designs toured the country including an indicative vote by the general public. The judging panel eventually chose a design focused around a powerful bronze memorial designed by Ron Arad Associates which in the panel’s view ‘deftly resolved an essential challenge of the brief: being visually arresting yet showing sensitivity to its location and context.”

He added that he looked forward to construction starting “this year”.

Amanda Hardy’s now-deleted post

JN campaign raises £1.5k Major study into Jewish education

Jewish News readers have snapped up hundreds of ‘Bring Them Home’ dog tags following the launch of our campaign last month, writes Candice Kreiger.

Last month we announced that we were giving away 500 tags to readers sent from Israel by the creator, to give people the chance to show solidarity with the women, men, children and babies still being held in Gaza.

All 500 tags have now been picked up from Cohens Jewellers in Temple Fortune, north London, who have been distributing them across the UK.

Those collecting the tags have also been

A pro-Palestine campaign group has been accused of “singling out and targeting” the only Jewish council cabinet member in Redbridge after branding him a “Zionist pawn”.

Lloyd Duddridge, a Labour

voluntarily donating to the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, where the £1,500 of proceeds from the tags will go.

Tamir Raicher came up with the dog tag project while running a ‘Search and Rescue Operation Room’ during the first week of the war. They are inscribed with the words: “Our heart is captive in Gaza” on the top half and “Bring Them Home Now” underneath.

The metal symbols of solidarity have spread across the world with Elon Musk, comedian Jerry Seinfeld, the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Google co-

councillor, was the subject of a social media attack by a group calling itself the Redbridge Palestine Solidarity Network.

In a message on X/formerly Twitter, the group wrote: “Here you can see the zionists of Redbridge once again overplaying

founder Brin, Israeli model Bar Refaeli and the Pope, among those that have been seen wearing them.

Robert Cohen, of Cohens Jewellers said: “We have been blown away by the amount of people that have been coming in to collect their tags, wanting to support the cause and show their solidarity with the hostages and their families.

“We have had calls from people all over the UK and posted tags to Jewish News readers in Wales, Glasgow, Milton Keynes and Oxford.

“While we are sad that the tags are still needed we have been proud to partner with Jewish News on this initiative and raise awareness of those still missing in Gaza.

“Hopefully the tags won’t be needed soon.”

the “fearful victim” card to their zionist pawn/baggage handler

Lloyd Duddridge to remove the flags displayed in solidarity with Palestinians all the while they fund the genocide from right here in Redbridge.”

It claimed Duddridge had been described by locals as someone “who

works to appease solely the genocidal zionist community. It’s time to free Redbridge from the shackles of the zionists and their zionist infiltrated Labour party.”

Local MP Wes Streeting posted on X: “This is shameful racism and it has no place in our Borough or our politics.”

Jersey Vogue

Haberdashery | Textiles | Trimmings

JERSEY VOGUE opened in Edgware 33 years ago by David Davidson. He previously had shops in Hendon and Brixton but wanted to move nearer to home. David has been in the fabric business for over 50 years and is very well known in the area of Edgware.

The original business was opened in Manchester by David’s grandfather and father.

David’s daughter went in the business after university and now David is handing over the reins to his granddaughter Jamie and Grandson Daniel who are in the shop, with help from Grandson Samuel. Customers travel from near and far to go to the shop which is always being called "Aladdin's Cave". There are thousands of metres of different dress fabrics and linings together with accessories such as cottons, buttons, braids etc etc. We are happy to send out swatches and post fabrics to customers, although we love to see you come into the shop to see the many colours and fabric types we have in stock.

If

We are open from Monday to Thursday from 9.00am to 5.30pm and Fridays from 9.00am to 1.00pm in the winter extending to 5.30pm in the summer. It is always best to telephone on Fridays to confirm the closing time We are not open on Saturdays but we are open on Sunday's from 9.30am to 1.00pm

If you are coming but might be a little later please telephone to ensure if we can stay open to accommodate you.

Leaders of more than 30 schools gathered this week in London and Manchester for the launch of the Chief Rabbi’s Schools Review.

Also in attendance were representatives of the United Synagogue, UnitED (a project of the Ministry of Diaspora Affairs and Combatting Antisemitism in Israel) and PaJeS – who are working in partnership to deliver the project.

The first phase of the Chief Rabbi’s Schools Review will be a landmark study of the Jewish educational ecosystem in the UK, undertaken by one of the world’s foremost Jewish educational consultants, Dr Alex Pomson of Rosov Consulting in Israel.

Dr Pomson will undertake a ‘deep dive’ into the opportunities and challenges for Jewish education at both primary and secondary level by interviewing the schools themselves as well as other

organisations and individuals that operate in the wider Jewish educational landscape.

The recommendations that emerge from this phase will inform how the Jewish education system can be improved both structurally and substantively.

The second phase will be about how to implement these recommendations for the long-term benefit of the community. This endeavour will build on existing best practices within Jewish schools while engaging with stakeholders and consulting experts to consider what can be done better in order to craft a forward-looking blueprint for the future of Jewish education.

The Chief Rabbi said: “There is hardly a more important mission than to instil within our children a proper understanding and deep love of their Judaism.”

Lloyd Duddridge

The dog tags from Israel

‘Towering presence’ Lord Jacob Rothschild dies at 87

Former prime minister Sir Tony Blair has been among those paying tribute to financier and member of the well-known Rothschild banking dynasty Lord Jacob Rothschild, after his death at the age of 87.

Described by his family as a “towering presence in many people’s lives”, Lord Rothschild started his career in the family bank, N M Rothschild & Sons, in 1963. He went on to found businesses and charitable foundations and was a renowned patron of the arts and philanthropist.

Lord Rothschild’s family have an estimated fortune of about £825 million, according to last year’s Sunday Times Rich List, and give away a reported £66 million to Jewish causes, education and art.

The Rothschild family said: “Our father Jacob was a towering presence in many people’s lives – a superbly accomplished financier, a champion of the arts and culture, a devoted public servant, a passionate supporter of charitable causes in Israel and Jewish culture, a keen environmentalist and much-loved friend, father and grandfather.

Israel’s President, Isaac Herzog, said in a personal statement on Twitter/X: “I am deeply saddened to hear of the death of

Lord Jacob Rothschild. With his passing, we bid farewell to a great man who carried the historic legacy of his family with pride and humility, working always for the wellbeing of Britain, Israel and Jewish communities all over the world.

“Through Yad HaNadiv, his generosity and vision saw the construction of two jewels in the crown of Jerusalem – the magnificent Supreme Court building and the beautiful new National Library which he sadly did not live to visit.

“As a prominent businessman and philanthropist, Lord Rothschild’s contribution to Britain, Israel and the world has been as important as it has been impactful, and while we are especially sad to lose him during such di cult days, his generosity and wise counsel will be remembered with love and gratitude. As a close friend of my family, and to Michal and me, I felt a very personal connection to Lord Rothschild and I will miss him dearly. Michal and I send our heartfelt sympathies to all his family and friends.”

The National Library of Israel described Lord Rothschild as “a champion of the Jewish people, learning, and culture, whose contribution to the

Library, Israel, and the Jewish people is immeasurable.

“As chairman of Yad Hanadiv, the Rothschild family’s charitable organisation set up for the benefit of all inhabitants of Israel, Lord Rothschild played a foundational role in the National Library of Israel’s renewal and the establishment and construction of a new library building. His vision, leadership and commitment made this dream a reality.”

Similar tributes also came from the library board chairman Sallai Meridor and CEO Oren Weinberg.

Lord Rothschild chaired the Yad Hanadiv Foundation for more than 35 years, supporting projects across education, the environment and opportunity for Israel’s Arab community.

In 2017, he spoke to Jewish News about the role of his cousin Dorothea in the signing of the historic Balfour Declaration and in 2019, the then Prince Charles praised his interfaith work, awarding him the Council of Christians and Jews’ (CCJ) 2019 Bridge Award.

The Rothschild family helped to establish the CCJ in 1942.

Lucian Freud’s Man in a Chair portrait of Lord Rothschild

JLE returns ‘inspired’ by moving Israel tour

Tears, singing, dancing and praying, all in the span of 48 hours – a delegation from the Jewish Learning Exchange UK has returned from a highly emotional and inspiring tour to Israel, writes Joy Falk.

The group visited sites of the 7 October Hamas massacre, sang with soldiers, prayed with strangers and met people including President Isaac Herzog and commentator Douglas Murray, leaving them “fired up”, as Rabbi Benjy Morgan described it to Jewish News

Morgan recalled meeting IDF spokesperson Jonathan Conricus and a reservist in Shin Bet intelligence who interrogated Hamas terrorists after 7 October.

Both of them, he said, o ered invaluable

insights into what kind of enemy Israel is facing in the current war.

The group also visited Kibbutz Kfar Aza, one of the places where the most brutal massacres took place. The group was shown around by Ofer Baram, who told “heart-wrenching stories of heroism and bravery”.

Morgan added: “What really brought it home for the whole group was that Ofer lived on the kibbutz and was able to point at each house and tell personal stories about the victims.

“We passed the homes of two boys who were kidnapped to Gaza and later killed in a friendly fire accident. It brought out a lot of tears.”

The group also visited the Nova music festival memorial where they met “all kinds of

Jews, both religious and secular. Israel has been very divided in recent years, but for those previous moments it did feel like a family. We were looking for a minyan to pray and a guy, who said he never prays, wanted to join us. ”

One of the most uplifting experiences was meeting some 400 Israeli soldiers at an army base where the group sang, danced and prayed together, despite many of them not knowing English or Hebrew. “It transcended all the differences that we have,” Morgan said.

Perhaps the most powerful moment of the trip was at a private dinner with Douglas Murray, who has become one of the best-known defenders of Israel.

Morgan described how Murray “shook”

the whole group. “He told us that he is in our corner, fighting for us, but asked us if we are doing enough. He really pushed the group, and I would say it was one of the most powerful moments of the trip.”

The rabbi also spoke about how 7 October a ected Jews: “We might live in England but Jews and Israel are inseparable. I told the soldiers that we are one family and that we will win together.”

An online petition demanding education about antisemitism be mandatory in schools across the UK has passed 5,000 signatures, writes Adam Decker.

The petition, started by 14-yearold Jewish student Jonathan, who asked us not to publish his surname, comes as antisemitism explodes in the UK and worldwide.

Home O ce statistics show UK antisemitic hate crimes in London rose 1,350 percent since October.

In an introduction to the petition, Jonathan says: “I’m Jonathan and I’m a 14-year-old Jew.

Like most Jewish people, I’ve faced antisemitism.

“I am calling for education about antisemitism to be made mandatory in British schools, because I believe this would tackle antisemitism and secure a long-

term future for Jewish people in the UK. ”

Jonathan told Jewish News it was crucial to involve politicians and decision-makers with the campaign “so that we can work with the government to create a positive change for Jewish people all over the country”.

He added: “I’m so grateful more than 5,000 people have signed my petition ... more than 5,000 people have sent a clear message to the government that they must take action to educate young people about antisemitism. The time to act is now.”

The petition contends current Holocaust education does not cover the full spectrum of contemporary antisemitism.

“Mandatory education on antisemitism would encompass a com-

prehensive understanding of the history, causes and manifestations of this hatred, allowing students to recognise and confront it in all its forms,” it says.

“The limited focus on the Holocaust alone fails to provide students with a thorough understanding of contemporary antisemitism, its underlying causes and its various forms of manifestation in today’s society. In huge numbers of UK schools, antisemitism is clearly present and Jewish students often experience it.”

The petition also calls on schools to tackle stereotypes and prejudice and dispel myths and misconceptions by teaching students about Judaism’s rich cultural, religious and historical aspects.

“This knowledge will foster empathy and respect, leading to

Antisemitism studies petition hits 5k

a more inclusive and accepting society. The current mandatory curriculum does not cover this. Whilst schools can choose to teach this, the majority do not and the government needs to ensure that they must teach it.”

Finally, the petition raises the issue of prevention and intervention, stating that antisemitism education equips students with the tools necessary to prevent and address instances of Jew-hatred.

“By teaching them to identify signs of antisemitism and intervene when they witness discrimination, we empower them to become active allies and advocates for change.

“Early intervention is crucial to breaking the cycle of hatred and building a society based on equality and understanding.”

Caprice Bourett at the Nova festival site

‘FROM THE RIVER’ CHOIR STUNT

Charlotte Church has insisted she is “in no way antisemitic” after being criticised for leading a 100strong choir in a rendition of antiIsrael chant ‘From the River to the Sea, Palestine Will Be Free’ at a concert, writes Lee Harpin.

Following criticism of the stunt, Church addressed “alarmist” reports relating to the event on Instagram.

She said: “Just to clarify my intentions there, I am in no way antisemitic. I am fighting for the liberation of all people. I have a deep heart for all religions and all di erence.

“It was a beautiful, beautiful event. But unfortunately the powers that be can’t have that. [They] can’t have such a powerful

symbol of resistance as what we worked towards on Saturday.”

The Welsh-born singer confirmed the gig had ended with a chant of the words ‘From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free’ –a call for Israel’s destruction and the removal of its seven million Jewish inhabitants.

The controversial event took place on Saturday at Bedwas Workmen’s Hall, Caerphilly county, to raise money for Middle East Children’s Alliance, which supports children in Gaza.

Church was joined by Palestine Solidarity Cymru and 100 singers.

She said on Monday: “Clearly, if you know the history of it all, [it is] not an antisemitic chant calling for the obliteration of Israel. It is not

that in any way shape or form. It is calling for the peaceful coexistence of Israelis and Palestinians.”

Church said “lots of other beautiful songs… of liberation and freedom” were performed at the event, including Arabic songs, Welsh songs, and South African songs from the anti-apartheid movement, “the lyrics of which were adapted to the situation in Palestine”.

Rabbi Dr Jonathan Romain was among those to condemn the stunt, posting on X: “Dear Charlotte Church: Let me translate for you – when you say ‘From the river to the sea’ it means expelling Jews from the Jordan to the Mediterranean i.e. from the Land of Israel entirely and destroying a nation.”

Staff suspended over Israel birth certifi cate

Sta at a private company which works with the Home O ce have been suspended after a baby’s birth certificate was returned “with the word Israel scribbled out”.

The certificate was sent as part of a passport application and returned with the father’s place of birth defaced, Campaign Against Antisemitism reported.

The charity posted a photo of the certificate online, saying the girl’s parents were left “very concerned”.

The Home O ce has launched an urgent review of the claims.

Home secretary James Cleverly confirmed the suspensions in a post on X/Twitter, but it is not clear how many sta have been suspended.

He wrote: “We apologise to the family for the o ence caused and I have ordered an urgent review of a birth certificate being defaced.

“While we establish the facts, our commercial partner has suspended some sta . The matter is totally unacceptable. We will not tolerate antisemitism.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism previously posted on X saying: “Two weeks ago, a member of the public

sent o a passport application to @ ukhomeo ce for his six-month-old baby girl. The birth certificate was returned ripped with the word ‘Israel’ scribbled out.

“The parents are understandably very concerned about this incident.

“When sending o a passport application to the Home O ce, the last thing one should ever expect is to have their child’s birthday certificate returned, torn, with the parent’s place of birth scribbled out, just because it is the Jewish state.

“Confidence in the authorities is at painfully low levels and must be restored [and] we are asking the Home O ce to investigate how this happened.”

SNP POLITICIAN: OK TO CRITICISE JEWS

An SNP politician is at the centre of antisemitism claims after suggesting it is acceptable to “criticise the Jews” because of what is written in the Bible.

In a debate about Gaza in the Scottish parliament, MSP John Mason discussed Israel, saying: “It is the only Jewish state in the world and, according to the Bible, is the land which God gave his chosen people.

But he then added: “Now, having said that, it does not mean that we cannot criticise the Jews or Israel. God himself is hugely critical of his people in much of the scriptures, not least when he punished them by exiling them to Babylon and elsewhere. So, it is not antisemitic for some to say that the present Israeli o ensive has been over the

top and has possibly crossed the line from defence to revenge.”

Mason, who represents Glasgow Shettleston, said it was possible not to be antisemitic while criticising the Israeli state.

But he added that “neither are the two completely distinct and unconnected” because most Jewish people in the UK had relations or friends in Israel.

First Minister Humza Yousaf is under pressure to discipline an MSP who has already tried the patience of the party’s whips.

Craig Hoy, the Scottish Conservative chairman, said: “This is an appalling antisemitic comment from an SNP MSP that has no place in a mainstream political party. John Mason’s slur could not be more explicit — or ignorant.”

The Welsh singer ended the gig with the chant ‘From the River to the Sea’

Our connection provides the light in the darkness

Emily Cohen is speaking to Jewish News while shepherding a group of Israelis from Kibbutz Kfar Aza into the lobby of a central London hotel, writes Michelle Rosenberg.

It’s Friday afternoon and day three of an extraordinary five-day respite trip to the UK for 21 men and women, aged between 26 and 28, who survived the murderous terror attack on their home on 7 October.

On that day, Kfar Aza, near the Gaza border, su ered unimaginable horror. Home to 800 people, 62 were murdered and 18 taken captive. Residents Yotam Haim and Alon Shamriz escaped their kidnappers only to be mistakenly shot dead by the IDF.

The age group Emily Cohen has brought over to London are among the worst a ected. For a kibbutz environment, where every member of the community is family, part of a closeknit collective since the day they are born, the losses are unbearable.

Taking a seat by a hotel window while the group winds down before Shabbat following their London Eye trip, Cohen says: “I very simply, am nothing to do with anyone or anything. My husband is Israeli. I went to Israel at the end of October because I felt I needed to be there. I had been linked to Kfar Aza on 9 October by a cousin of mine who told me parts of it. The vast majority of the adult part of the kibbutz had been obliterated.”

While in Israel, she went to Hotel Shefayim “where the whole kibbutz community relocated to. The hotel is tragic – you can’t imagine. It’s just cloaked in trauma and sadness”.

Cohen also met Alon Futterman, head of the Kfar Azar Foundation, which manages all the donor and government money pouring in to support the whole rebuild of the kibbutz as well as providing the psychological and educational help it needs.

Cohen says: “I met him and asked him what I can do to help. I’m not a wealthy individual but I wanted to help. He [Futterman] said to me: ‘It would be really great if you could take a group of these kids to London for a break.’” She asked how many there were in the age group. Futterman told her ‘100’. Cohen was adamant: she wouldn’t choose who got to go and who didn’t. “So,” she continues, “I said I would take all of them.”

Emily had never fundraised in her life, but was now faced with the challenge of sourcing £250k. That worked out at £2.5k a head, covering air tickets, hotels, restaurants, theatre tickets, mini buses and security.

She tells Jewish News: “I’m not active in the Jewish community and I was absolutely overwhelmed with the snowball e ect. Within six weeks, I’d raised the money from the Jewish community in London. In total about 220 people donated, anything from £30 to £25k.”

Leading UK Israel charity UJIA o ered to manage the funding and “within a day had set up a designated page and link for me. The money just came pouring in. UJIA also donated and introduced me to some of their own donors. They’ve been very, very supportive even though I’m not remotely a liated with them. I basically raised the money and have split them up into five groups of 20.”

The trip is managed by Cohen and a few dedicated volunteers. Her protectiveness over and connection with them is undeniable; their a ection and trust for her is obvious.

She knows every single one of their

stories and introduces Jewish News to Matan Sobol, whose first cousins, 26-year-old twins Gali and Zif Berman, are still hostage in Gaza. And then to Bar Yatzan, who was locked in a safe room with his girlfriend, and fought to keep terrorists out by using his body weight to jam a laundry bin against the door until the IDF arrived.

Bar’s sister Gili, who is with him in London, was in another safe room with their father, whose hands were shot o , one at a time, when terrorists tried to force their way in, using a hand grenade. Gili stayed with her father for about 30 hours while he was bleeding. While he survived, eight surgeries later he is still in hos-

pital and she has barely left his side, sleeping at the hospital every night.

Cohen continues: “There’s another young girl who lost both her parents; Asaf who lost his older brother; Liron’s father was murdered. All of them are very a ected by it.”

The aim of the trip to London is to provide a mental health break from what the youngsters have experienced. The group’s itinerary is packed. From their arrival at the hotel, to the “lovely big welcome dinners, each time in a di erent restaurant”, to a day last week when half the group had a private tour of the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium (Matan’s favourite part, so far, despite being a Chelsea supporter), and the girls went to a balloon art exhibition near the Embankment, which Cohen describes as “very immersive, therapeutic”.

Now the group is huddled on a couches in the hotel lobby. Later, in groups of two or four, they’ll be hosted by di erent Jewish families across London for Friday night dinner.

“The magic,” adds Cohen, “is when they connect with the Jewish community and the big surprise is that Israeli footballer Manor Solomon is coming to the hotel to meet them. My entire life has brought me to this point. I’m doing exactly what I’m supposed to be doing. The love and gratitude is overwhelming. They are such a special and inspiring group of young adults and their spirit, their unbroken spirit is just amazing.”

For 26-year-old Matan, it’s his second trip to London. He says he’s excited to be here “but it’s hard to

leave the situation in my country. It’s a daily struggle to bring our family back. It’s not easy to take a week’s stop from it and fly all the way here, while our families are being held hostage. But it’s good to take clean air and come back with new powers.”

Bar Yatzan says: “We are in a state of limbo. We have started to get back to life. I moved to Beersheva and started my second year of mechanical engineering. But it all goes back to one moment. You can’t fully come back to life. When our friends and family are still in Gaza. We want our friends back. We need them back.”

They admit to not sleeping well. They describe depression and anxiety. “We passionately want anyone with a position in the government to take action so that no one else is lost. We are finished with burying our friends and loved ones. We are done. We don’t want any more. We have buried enough. I can say ‘thank you God’ for saving me but I can also say why put me in this situation at all?”

As Manor Solomon arrives to a welcome of heartfelt hugs and handshakes, Lior and Emily come back over to talk. “Everyone needs comfort,” says Lior. “This trip is bringing people together. It’s more than just getting away.”

Emily says how connected everyone has felt being part of this project. “It’s really bought people together. I genuinely have a love towards these kids, and feel like we have all known each other for years. It was really reciprocated by them. The connection is the light in the darkness.”

In total about 220

nated page and link hostage in Gaza. And then to Bar Yatzan, who was locked

Part of the Kfar Aza London delegation on the Spurs pitch, and members of a second group by the Thames

The group at Buckingham Palace last week: Inset: Matan Sobol with Spurs player Manor Solomon

Photos by Emily Cohen

Omer supported Gilad – now stand up for him

Hostage Omer Shem Tov has gone almost five months without medication for asthma and coeliac disease. His family is begging Israel to lobby Cairo for his release

Omer Shem Tov was 20 when Hamas took him hostage at the Nova music festival. He spent his 21st birthday, 31 October, in captivity, writes Michelle Rosenberg

Now, almost five months on from 7 October, speaking to Jewish News from her home in the United States, Omer’s cousin, Leat Corinne Unger, calls him the “sunshine of his home”, a “man of peace”, a brave, honourable person who risked his chance for safety to save the lives of two friends.

She shares a social media reel of Omer, aged just seven, at a rally for the release of Gilad Shalit, held prisoner by Hamas for five years before his release in a prisoner swap on 18 October 2011.

“Omer Shem Tov stood up for Gilad Shalit,” she says. “Now the world needs to stand up for him.”

Leat, 36, says Omer’s mother Shelly is “more like my big sister. I don’t have a big sister. So we call each other ‘Little Sis’ and ‘Big Sis’.”

Regev, had been left, he went back.

Maya and Itai were freed by Hamas in November and later told Omer’s family that terrorists surrounded them and fired at the car, disabling the engine and severely injuring both Maya’s and Itai’s legs.

The youngsters were driven into Gaza, with Omer’s family continuing to watch his live location share – their last contact with him. They have also viewed video footage of the kidnap.

“Itai came back on Day 55 and shared many things that are proof of life,” Unger said. “Itai calls Omer his big brother. When Itai would break down, Omer was the strength. Itai told us Omer did not let one Friday night pass without reciting the kiddush. He knew the time for Shabbat by counting the muezzin’s calls for prayer.

She speaks to Shelly, married to husband Malki and living in Herzliya with two other children, daughter Dana, 27, and son Amit, 24, every day.

Omer, a waiter in a restaurant in Herzliya while saving to go travelling, joined thousands of other Israelis at the Nova festival. He managed to escape while staying in touch with his family by phone to share his location, but once he realised his two best friends, siblings Maya and Itai

“Omer rationed his food from the week, so that he could complete this weekly tradition; scraping the salt from his bread roll, saving his weekly bottle of grape juice and using the quarter of pita bread (60 calories) he was given for the day to recite the holy kiddush and bring light into a dark place. Because he is light, our light.”

Omer has coeliac disease, where a su erer’s immune system attacks the tissues if you eat gluten), but Unger said his family knew he was forcing himself to eat the pita to survive.

Unger added: “Itai said he (Omer)

was choking, having a very hard time breathing. He was told ‘Uskut!’ Shut up or be killed, if he coughed. He is su ering from stomach pains. The pita tears his stomach inside out, but he’s doing it to survive for his family.”

Describing Omer, who also has asthma, as “the epitome of faith and strength”, Unger said if he “has faith in such a place of darkness, we as the Jewish people, who have morals, need to demand that our lives are returned to us. If he can bring light to the tunnels of Hamas, as the Jewish people we have a collective responsibility to love thy neighbour as thyself and demand our light is returned.”

Because of the asthma, she said, “Omer cannot breathe; 134 human beings cannot breathe. We cannot

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Together we can cope. Together we will care.

breathe. It’s been 138 days since that horrific nightmare we relive every moment of our days since October 7.”

She added: “We need to call on the Israeli government to sign a deal to send a delegation to Cairo because the feeling of safety for the Jewish nation depends on the return of our children to their homes. I implore your [Israel’s] government, a leader of human rights, to intervene swiftly and secure the release of our children.”

Omer, she said, “needs to have visibility. He wants to be a producer. He, sings, plays instruments and is selftaught. People need to realise there is so much more (about a hostage) than a poster. It’s our collective responsibility to demand their release”.

Benjamin Netanyahu on 14 February said he ruled out sending an

Israeli delegation for further hostage negotiations in Cairo, a decision met with anger by the families who have vowed to send their own delegation.

Said Unger: “What I need to say is that this is the moment of truth. That 138 days of fighting, of darkness, of pain, of su ering, of not eating, of sleepless night, of the unknown, have led us to this clear deal on the table.

“To deny sending a delegation is basically throwing away what we’ve worked for as a nation and of hostage families for 138 nightmare days. That is unacceptable. It’s something that can’t happen because we are Israel.

“If Israel wants to feel safe again, we need to at least get to a table. To at least try. To bring our children back home. The key is to sign a deal. Bring them home.”

Leat at a rally for the hostages in New York and, right, at Omer’s car which was ambushed at the Nova festival

Omer aged seven

Starmer: I shudder at Corbyn’s failure over antisemitism row

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

Keir Starmer considered quitting Labour’s shadow cabinet several times over Jeremy Corbyn’s failure to tackle antisemitism – telling a close aide he could no longer defend it “to his members, his family, his constituents”.

A revealing new book on the Labour leader’s life story details how he still recalls “with a shudder” conversations with congregants at St Johns Wood Liberal Synagogue who told him they could no longer vote Labour under Corbyn’s leadership “because they were Jewish”.

Starmer visited the shul with wife Victoria and their children in the years between 20172019 during the antisemitism crisis, author Tom Baldwin reveals, and felt the impact of the scandal “more personally – and viscerally – because Vic’s family are Jewish too”.

After leaving a hustings event at the same shul ahead of being crowned the new Labour leader, and only days after the death of his mother-in-law Barbara, an emotional Starmer is said to have told an aide: “If we win, day one, we fix this. This cannot carry on.”

Keir Starmer The Biography also presents a new analysis of the Labour leader’s relationship with Corbyn, who he served under in the shadow cabinet, over suggestions by critics that he failed to challenge him e ectively over antiJewish racism in the party, and claims that he considered the Islington North MP a “friend”.

The book also o ers new detail about Starmer’s relationship with his wife, and with her Jewish family background, along with revealing new insight into a previous six-year relationship with Phillippa Kaufmann KC.

With an impressive grasp of detail, Baldwin’s

book, published on Friday by Harper Collins, sheds new light on one of the darkest periods in Labour’s history, though it is not an authorised biography as Starmer did not hand over private papers for examination and did not have control over the eventual contents of the book.

It explains how the crisis around rampant anti-Jewish racism was often fuelled by party members so hostile to Israel that their views “metastasised into forms of prejudice against Jewish people that go back through the centuries and some of humanity’s darkest periods”.

Starmer himself is revealed to have described antisemitism as “a type of racism that festers and to which those who call themselves antiracist are often most blind”.

Baldwin notes that before becoming leader, the Holborn and St Pancras MP’s own involve-

Racist rapper forfeits MBE

Disgraced rapper Wiley, real name Richard Cowie, has forfeited his MBE for “bringing the honours system into disrepute”. The musician was honoured for services to music in the December 2017 New Year Honours list.

At the time, the 45-year-old from Bow, east London, said: “I’m honoured to be receiving an MBE. It feels like the school grade I wanted and didn’t get but now I’m finally there.”

Wiley was leter banned by social media platforms for posting a stream of antisemitic abuse, including a picture of him dressed as an Orthodox Jew and videos about “Satanic Jews” and “Jewish faces” controlling “black music”.

He posted a video – The Jewish Faces that Control Hiphop and Mainstream Black Music – and a clip by notorious antisemitic preacher Louis Farrakhan saying: “I’m here to separate the ‘good Jews’ from the ‘Satanic Jews’”.

Wiley also engaged in days of online hate in July 2020, accusing Jewish people of being “racist” and “cowards”, and asked if it was antisemitic “to say Jewish people have power”.

Camoaign Against Antisemitism invesiti-

gations and enforcement director Stephen Silverman, who wrote to the Honours Forfeiture Committee to contest the honour, said: “Antisemites like Wiley must understand that we will work tirelessly to hold them to account. For four years, we have worked to ensure that Wiley faces ruinous consequences for his unhinged antisemitic tirade, for which he has shown no remorse.

“We commend the committee for using its powers to make clear that anti-Jewish racists cannot be role models in our society.”

ment in facing down antisemitism had been open to question, but in the chapters on the issue, Starmer, who, like his wife is described as being not overly religious, describes the dramatic impact conversations with angry members of St Johns Wood Liberal shul had on him.

Starmer tells the author: “People I got to know a bit at synagogue would come up to me, asking ‘What’s happened to your party? Why can’t you do something? Are you embarrassed to be a Labour MP?’” Starmer admits: “I would go home feeling angry.”

So angry that Chris Ward, his ex-deputy chief of sta , who is interviewed for the book, recalls Starmer came to work one morning saying he was “going to have to resign” after deciding “he couldn’t defend this to his members, family or his constituents, it was very di cult for him”.

The book also includes lighter, more personal details about how a working-class boy from Surrey became the first in his family to attend university, Leeds, before going to Oxford University to complete a masters in law and then a successful career before entering politics relatively late in his life.

We also learn of his six-year relationship with the now very successful Phillippa Kaufmann KC, before he met his wife.

Kaufmann and Starmer split in 1999 after buying a house together, which Kaufmann still lives in with children from a subsequent relationship. They remain friends, and Kaufmann attended Starmer’s wedding to Vic. She describes Starmer as “very capable and driven”, adding he “needs to win this election”.

Vic’s father Bernard was born in England into a family with roots in the Polish village of Kolo, where until the Shoah nearly half of the residents were Jews, Vic travelled there by herself to meet and speak with people who had memories of her father’s family.

She and Starmer married in May 2007 at Fennes Estate in Essex, although there is no detail in the book on whether Jewish customs were observed on the big day.

Keir Starmer The Biography is published on 29 February by Harper Collins. HB £25. EB £14.99

Apprentice doc suspended by medical regulator GMC

A former contestant on the BBC1 show The Apprentice has been suspended by the General Medical Council following a series of vile and o ensive remarks about Israel, Zionists, Hindus and women.

Dr Asif Munaf used his Twitter account to criticise “odious ogre-like” Zionists and “the Zionist antichrist”.

As reported by Jewish News, Munaf accused Israel of “weaponising the Holocaust” and following the Hamas terror atrocities of 7 October, wrote on Twitter: “One of my sons will liberate Palestine.” Munaf, who sells a “bespoke vitamin and supplement range”, made the remarks despite receiving “specialised training to under-

stand why his posts may cause o ence’, according to the BBC.

On 21 February, Dr Munaf referred to the GMC as a “pawn being (ab)used by the Zionist lobby.”

Finally acting after weeks of complaints, the BBC recently edited out the losing contestant from an episode of The Apprentice spin-o series

You’re Fired, after antisemitic, anti-Hindu and misogynistic remarks on social media.

Since leaving the programme, Dr Munaf has continued to post abusive content.

The GMC said: “Dr Mohammed Munaf has been interim suspended pending the conclusion of a full GMC investigation. An Interim Orders Tribunal of the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service imposed the interim suspension on his practice yesterday (Thursday, 22 February).

“We are acutely aware of the concerns that have been raised regarding Dr Munaf, and will take action where concerns suggest patient safety or the public’s confidence in doctors may be at risk.”

Dr Asif Munaf

Sir Keir Starmer addressing a gathering of Labour Friends of Israel and, top right, in a meeting with Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis

Two of Wiley’s social media posts

Tributes to beloved poet Bernard Kops ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE FOUNDER DIES, AGED 75

Poet and playwright Bernard Kops died peacefully aged 97 last weekend, surrounded by loved ones.

In his career, he published dozens of plays, and a host of novels and poetry anthologies which explore themes including life in East End London and its Jewish community.

A statement shared by his family said: “Poet and playwright Bernard Kops died peacefully Sunday surrounded by his great love, Erica, and the many family members who never found themselves far from the embrace of his smile or his words.”

Born in the East End of London in 1926 to Dutch-Jewish parents, Kops left school as a teenager.

He established himself with his first play The Hamlet Of Stepney Green in 1957, which portrayed a working-class community through the relationship between a sick father and his adult son.

Hailed as a significant contribution to “kitchen-sink” drama, it has since been performed near and far.

Among his other plays was 1991’s Playing Sinatra, a psychological drama set in London about grown-

up siblings Norman and Sandra, who live out their fantasies in the music of their favourite performer.

Kops also wrote the surrealistic drama Ezra, based on the personality of the American poet Ezra Pound.

He also explored themes including the Holocaust as well as his love for his wife Erica and his immediate family and broke through to radio and television production after recounting his experience of evacuation in the TV

series The World At War, first broadcast in 1973.

Another work was the script for the 1974 film Just One Kid, in which a Jewish East Ender recalls growing up in poverty in the 1930s and being part of a community.

Kops’ publisher David Paul said: “Sad to learn of the death of Bernard Kops this morning. He was the last of the celebrated crop of Jewish writers that emerged in the 1950s out of the Jewish East End such as (Harold) Pinter and (Arnold) Wesker, and he was prolific with a cornucopia of plays, novels and poetry.”

In 2010, Kops published a poetry collection, This Room In The Sunlight, which included one of his best known works, Shalom Bomb, which Paul said became an “anthem for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament”.

The publisher added: “He was like a page of his work: witty, warm, dark and celebratory. Full of lyric rages and love for his family. And full of stories – such as finding Allen Ginsberg in his bed with his boyfriend, which he turned into a poem.”

Dr Alan Solomon, creator of Dr Solomon’s Anti-Virus Toolkit, has died aged 75 after a long battle with liver cancer, writes Louisa Walters.

The work was created in 1988 and launched commercially in 1991, rivalling market leaders Norton Anti-Virus and McAfee VirusScan.

In 1993, the toolkit was awarded the Queen’s Award for Technological Achievement. Five years later, in 1998, McAfee bought Dr. Solomon’s Group plc for $642 million, ditching its own engine and to this day using the programme written by Dr Solomon.

Born in 1948, Solomon grew up in Stamford Hill and showed early signs of genius – as a toddler, he would add up the calculations on the receipt when his mother took him shopping, to make sure the shop’s calculations were correct.

According to his daughter Jen, he “had an IQ higher than Einstein” and gained entry to Cambridge University a year early, aged 17, where he studied maths. He would attend MENSA meetings and would always

beat the other members at games they played.

Solomon married Susan in 1973 at Golders Green Synagogue and they went on to have two daughters, Jen and Angie.

Solomon was a prolific blogger, writing about computers and caching, racking up more than 2,000 posts dating back to 2011. Some of his best-known blogs were arguments with phone scammers, a pastime which brought him great joy.

Cybersecurity expert Graham Cluley, who worked with Solomon for many years, says: “He was a largerthan-life character with a brilliant mind and a great sense of fun.

“I remember my days working with Alan at S&S International (later to become Dr Solomon’s Software) as the happiest of my career.”

When accompanying a friend of his to chapel while at Cambridge, the friend pulled Solomon over to introduce him to the vicar, saying: “This is my friend Alan, he’s a, um, er, he’s, um, um… he’s of the Hebrew persuasion.”

Solomon said loudly: “No I’m not, I’m a Jew!”

Poet and playwright Bernard Kops

Dr Alan Solomon

We’re now their parents: hospital giving hope to wounded veterans

Beit Halochem –‘home of the warrior’ – holds deep significance for Israeli soldiers who’ve endured physical injury and trauma in the war in Gaza, writes Lianne Kolirin

At the heart of Tel Aviv’s Beit Halochem sits a series of sculptures by one of its members, Amnon Sharon. Wounded and captured during the Yom Kippur War, Sharon spent months in a Damascus prison, where he was tortured and kept in solitary confinement.

Though he returned to the Israel Defence Forces on his release, the soldier spent years battling his demons. Eventually, during visits to Beit Halochem, he shared the story of his captivity through art.

Dozens of wounded veterans, their relatives and employees pass Sharon’s work each day but, since 7 October, the display has become all the more poignant. “All of us are in trauma,” said Ora Seidner, head of project development at Beit Halochem Israel.

“Our brothers, husbands and sons are gone for months and months… you never know if you will see them again and all around you your friends are going through the same thing.”

Beit Halochem translates as ‘home of the warrior’ and in the coming months and years it will prove to be exactly that for many of the men and women currently serving in the IDF – just as it has been for Sharon.

“We’re going to be their mother and father for the rest of their lives,” Seidner told Jewish News. “It’s not just now, it’s not just something that they’ll need when they leave hospital.”

The injured will not be the only ones supported by the charity either, she explained.

“It has always been in the DNA of this organisation to view the veterans in a holistic way. We aim to look after their families as much as we look out for them, because we realise that the family has to take part in the rehabilitation process.”

Partially funded by the Ministry of Defence

50-year-old border police o cer. On 7 October, he and his unit took on the terrorists in Sderot and, later, Kibbutz Nir Am. Miraculously, they fended o the Hamas invaders, but Dahari was shot and injured.

He spent three weeks in hospital where he underwent five operations, including procedures for broken bones and torn nerves. It was while in hospital that Dahari, who is almost certain to need more surgery, was introduced to Beit Halochem.

“I’m optimistic but realistic about my long journey ahead,” he said. “Beit Halochem volunteers visited the whole time I was in hospital and said they had been in the same shape as me. That meant a lot.”

Dahari is likely to be welcomed at the centre in Be’ersheva which, due to its southern location, is expected to cater to many of those caught up in the Hamas attacks.

but largely bolstered by charitable donations, the organisation has four centres across Israel – in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Haifa and Be’er Sheva – that provide a home-from-home atmosphere for those wounded during military service.

Chair of Beit Halochem is Edan Kleiman, who for the past five years has led it into a new era of reform. Among oyherr things, it has placed great emphasis on upholding the legal rights of Nechei Zahal and initiating the ‘One Soul’ reform in the Knesset, securing more benefits and privileges for members.

Israel’s history has been punctuated with wars and military operations, which has meant Beit Halochem is in constant demand. The centres o er everything from wheelchair basketball and swimming pools to therapy sessions and a place to hang out with friends and family.

But now, more than four months since the horrific Hamas attacks on Israel, Beit Halochem is facing the biggest crisis since its establishment in 1949. “The numbers have been unfathomable,” explained Seidner, who said the organisation welcomes 300 to 500 new members annually.

“In the four-plus months since 7 October we’ve had 3,200 recognised disabled veterans. In a normal year that process usually takes from six months to a year. “Because our organisation pushed and works hand in hand with the Ministry of Defence, the ministry agreed to speed up this process.”

As the war against Hamas continues, the number of wounded will obviously climb – and,

with it, the pressure on Beit Halochem. “We will have to double, if not treble, what we o er those with physical disabilities,” said Seidner.

“The physical injuries will stop at a certain point if the hostilities end, but the PTSD [posttraumatic stress disorder] more often than not takes time to diagnose.”

Beit Halochem’s PTSD programme will have to quadruple to meet demand, she said, which means more therapists, more equipment and expanded facilities. It is not just the newly-injured who will need the support of the charity in the coming months and years, but also its 51,000 existing members.

As soon as news began to emerge of the scale of Hamas’ assault, Beit Halochem knew it had to act. It immediately set up a call centre to check in with every one of the existing members. The operation revealed some members had been directly caught up in the violence, with family members killed, wounded or kidnapped, while many others had to be evacuated from their homes.

Immediate support had to be found for those directly impacted, including makeshift accommodation, food for families and visits to wounded – including many amputees.

“It’s really hard for us to grasp the scope –the injuries are horrific,” explained Seidner.

“On 7 October, hundreds of special forces rushed into what they had no idea was the worst ambush of their lives.

“Unprepared completely, they were shot at with bullets, rocket-propelled grenades and all sorts of anti-tank missiles. They had these horrific injuries and they couldn’t be evacuated for hours.

“We have brought some of them here to Beit Halochem, still in their wheelchairs, still in their bandages, just to show them that this place exists,” she added.

Among the wounded is Ofir Dahari, a

A new centre had been due to open in Ashdod in 2026, but this has now been fast-tracked and will feature the national centre for rehabilitation and treatment of post-trauma patients.

Other expenses include the overhaul of Beit Kay in Nahariya, which the charity intends to run as a “wellness hub” for disabled veterans in the north.

The state-of-the-art hydrotherapy pool at the Tel Aviv centre is currently fully booked, with sta running 12,200 treatments per month. But this will no longer be su cient.

Among the many things on the organisation’s updated shopping list are more adapted wheelchairs for basketball.

“We start introducing people to wheelchair basketball at a very early stage as they can do it still in their bandages, and it starts making them feel really good about themselves,” said Seidner, while adding that each chair costs $8,000 (£6,300).

Overall, Beit Halochem’s fundraising will need to expand by around 23 percent in order to meet the huge demand. “It’s overwhelming,” Seidner said.

Recognising the long and costly journey ahead, donors gave generously to a 36-hour match-funded campaign run by Beit Halochem UK in December, raising an incredible £2.25 million.

Spencer Gelding, CEO of the UK charity, said: “We are overwhelmed and humbled by the tremendous support we received during this campaign.

“The generosity of our community has surpassed all our expectations, and has allowed Beit Halochem UK to surpass our initial fundraising goals significantly.”

 For more information or to make a donation, please visit https://bhuk.org

Border police officer Ofir Dahari was injured in a confrontation with terrorists on 7 October. He was visited in hospital by volunteers from Beit Halochem

High on Beit Halochem’s shopping list are wheelchairs adapted for basketball. Each costs the charity £6,300

Beit Halochem needs to expand its hydrotherapy facilities to cope with the rising demand

Students

Jewish students in Edinburgh have told Jewish News they are increasingly concerned for their safety following a two-day sit-in protest by a group from the university’s Justice for Palestine Society, writes Michelle Rosenberg.

Students broke into the Gordon Aikman campus building on Monday, camped overnight and claimed on Instagram that they were “occupying” it in a call for divestment from companies “complicit in Israeli genocide”.

The lecture theatre remains ‘occupied’, with protesters banning entry to other students. Jewish News understands that food and drinks are being brought in and at least two security guards are outside.

Also protesting in the building in solidarity with the Edinburgh University Justice for Palestine Society (EUJPS) are members from Vegans for Animal Liberation and Ethical Revolution in Edinburgh (VALERIE), Sta -Student Solidarity Network (SSSN), Edinburgh Youth in Resistance, and the Jewish student group Edinburgh Univer-

sity Kehillah, which stands in solidarity with Palestine, advocates for “Judaism beyond Zionism” and whose stated aims include a “rejection of the IHRA definition of antisemitism and inclusion in actively looking for an alternative”.

Former Edinburgh JSoc secretary Amelia Barzilay said: “Walking to our lectures this morning, we discovered a university building occupied by Palestine Society students. Menacingly wearing balaclavas, they had broken in to the building overnight and had hung flags as well as signs that make Jewish students fearful for their safety.

“One of the more disturbing demands is that the university reverses its adoption of the IHRA [International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance] definition of antisemitism.

“Campus university security informed us that ‘there was nothing they could do’, even though UoE [University of Edinburgh] protest guidelines for sta and students clearly state that protests must not ‘block access to events or buildings in which events are taking place or

obstruct people passing by’. The taking over of the building has meant lectures and tutorials have been relocated last minute and has added to the fearfulness of Jewish students on campus.

“We are becoming increasingly

troubled with the lack of clear response from campus security and the university leadership.”

Tom Chesno, StandWithUs UK fellow and founder of Edinburgh Friends of Israel, told Jewish News: “The abuse of buzzwords around

campus, like genocide and apartheid, to falsely portray the reality in Israel is a tactic used by ardent antisemites to swing popular opinion.

“This is an attempt to manipulate the average student, hoping they will not see the importance in understanding the nuances. We have already seen large protests on campus and now a student sit-in that has obnoxiously disrupted classes and students looking for quiet spaces to study.

“Jewish students are increasingly feeling more ostracised from the rest of the student body, as we have seen similar patterns of increasing antisemitism at other major institutions. The university’s lack of willingness to curtail this rise in antisemitism is concerning, as the anti-Israel narrative disseminates without pushback.”

A spokesperson from the corporate communications team at Edinburgh University told Jewish News : “We support the right to take part in lawful, peaceful and respectful protest. However, we do not support protesters preventing access to a building.”

The

£20k boost for JW3 as stars support hostages

Dame Maureen Lipman and Bafta-award winning actor Jason Watkins were among 100 guests at an event that raised more than £20,000 for the JW3 Jewish cultural centre in London.

The two stars were among a large number of people working in the entertainment industry attending the business breakfast gathering last week.

The event heard a high-profile panel speaking about a range of challenges facing the arts, including the rise of artificial intelligence, cancel culture and the direction of advertising revenue toward online spaces.

Speaking to Jewish News after the discussions, television executive Lord Michael Grade –the former controller of BBC1, CEO of Channel 4 and former executive chairman of ITV – said people should always be proud of their identities.

“I would never have hidden my Jewish identity,” said Lord Grade. “You have to be who you are. The

lessons of history show us that you cannot hide or pretend.”

Lord Grade was among four speakers at the breakfast taking part in a conversation led by TV journalist Samantha Simmonds between four entertainment industry leaders.

Also taking part were English theatre director Sir Nick Hytner,

literary agent Neil Blair and producer Nica Burns.

Another speaker was JW3 chief executive Raymond Simonson, who noted the breakfast, which was initially due to take place in November, had been delayed after the atrocities of the 7 October Hamas terror attack.

Simonson said: “So much has

‘KINDER’ HENRY HITS 100

A Holocaust survivor who fled to Scot land in 1938 on the Kindertransport is celebrating his centenary.

Henry Wuga, a much-loved member of the Association of Jewish Refugees (AJR) turns 100 in the same year as the Kindertransport’s 85th anniversary.

Wuga was born in Nuremberg in 1924. His family was Catholic on his father’s side and Jewish on his mother’s side and Wuga was raised Jewish.

Forced to leave school at 14, he began an apprenticeship as a cook in the kosher kitchen of the Tannhäuser Hotel in Baden-Baden before escaping to Scotland, where he was interned as an “enemy alien” after the war began.

After ten months on the Isle of Man, he was released and back in Glasgow attended the

Refugee Club, where at 18 he met his future wife and fellow Kindertransport refugee Ingrid Wolff.

They married in 1944 at Pollokshields synagogue in Glasgow. Wuga’s father died the same year and his mother, haviing lost the protection of a nonJewish spouse, went into hiding in countryside near Nuremberg until the end of the war.

Henry and Ingrid ran a catering business for 30 years, with Henry awarded an MBE in 1999 for services to the Limbless British Ex-Servicemen’s Association and Ingrid awarded a BEM in 2019 for services to Holocaust education. She died in 2020 at 96.

The couple had two daughters, four grandsons, and two great-grandsons.

JEWISH CARE NEW CHIEF

Jewish Care, one of the community’s largest charities, has appointed Marcus Sperber its new chairman.

A trustee since 2021, Sperber succeeds Jonathan Zenios when Zenios steps down in September.

Zenios navigated Jewish Care, which supports more than 10,000 people each week, through the pandemic and saw the Sandringham care campus completed and planning permission secured for the charity’s next major capital development in Redbridge.

Sperbier has been involved with the charity for several years and joined its board of trustees in November 2021. He sits on the internal audit, assurance and risk committee and the remuneration committee and has also sat on the boards and committees of UJIA, North West London Jewish Day School, the Jewish Leadership Council (JLC) and the Shen Charitable Trust.

changed for the entire Jewish community in the four months or so since then, but what has not changed is how JW3 said we would respond to the new world we find ourselves in.”

He added: “Our reply to the violence and terrorism in Israel, and the outpouring of hatred and antisemitism, even at cultural venues in London, is to make music more intensely and more beautifully; to redouble our efforts to build this community.”

The head of JW3, which offered support and Hebrew education services to Israelis living in the UK after 7 October, went on to encourage guests to sign a padlock to be displayed on a bridge by the centre’s entrance, with a message for the hostages still being held by the Hamas.

He described it as a “living and growing art installation, showing love and support for the hostages who are currently held captive in Gaza; that humanitarian issue so close to our hearts.”

REUBENS WINS OUR KOSHER KEBAB AWARD

Reubens Restaurant has landed the Beat Kosher Shawarma restaurant prize at the British Kebab Awards ceremony for the second year running.

The Baker Street eaterie, currently closed for renovations following a recent fire, was given the honour at a packed awards ceremony held at the Westminster Plaza hotel on Tuesday night.

MPs and peers joined hundreds of restaurant and kebab industry figures at the ceremony, which included speeches from founder Ibrahim Dogus, and mayor of London Sadiq Khan.

The best kosher award category, which was added in 2023 to the event which is now in its 12th year, was again backed by Jewish News.

The mayor was applauded as he spoke of the need to tackle both “antisemitism and Islamophobia” in society, and of the way the restaurant and kebab industry have flourished to help ensure London retains its place as one of the best cities in the world.

Other awards given included Best Greek, Best Scottish, and Best Lebanese restaurants.

MPs including the Conservatives Mark Francois and Labour’s Christian Wakeford were in attendance.

Job Title: Events and Office Manager

Working For: Labour Friends of Israel

Location: London

Salary: £28,000-33,000

Closing date: Friday 15th March

Job Details: Full-time. 12 month, fixed-term contract

Labour Friends of Israel seeks an organised, highly motivated and flexible person to join our team. You will have exceptional administrative and organisation skills, experience of organising events, and preferably interest in Israel and the Middle East and a knowledge of UK politics. The post is initially for one year with the possibility of renewal.

Although we are advertising it on a full-time basis, we will consider suitable candidates who wish to work part-time and are happy to discuss flexible working arrangements at interview.

You will possess excellent written and oral communication skills, as well as an ability to multitask as part of a team. The successful candidate will be comfortable dealing with both parliamentarians and members of the public. The post will be focussed on delivering our events programme and office management.

The successful candidate will possess:

 Events organising experience

 Office and administrative skills, either paid or voluntary

 Excellent written and oral communication skills

 Excellent IT skills, including Excel, Word and Outlook

 Demonstrable interest in UK politics and knowledge of Middle Eastern politics

 Commitment to the Labour Party’s core aims and values

Application details:

To apply, please send a CV and covering letter outlining your suitability for this post, showing how you meet the criteria outlined above, to mail@lfi.org.uk

The charity said Zenios had built a board of trustees with “a formidable governance culture ensuring the appropriate balance between support and effective scrutiny”.

He said: “Jewish Care is a cause close to my heart, and I am truly honoured to be taking up the role of chairman. It is a privilege to be part of Jewish Care’s critical work and to be able to give back to the Jewish and wider community.”

LFI values equality and diversity, and welcomes applications from candidates regardless of sex, race, disability, age, sexual orientation, gender reassignment, gender identity, religion or belief, marital status, or pregnancy and maternity.

Website: http://www.lfi.org.uk

Symbolic signed padlocks on the ‘Hostage Bridge’ at JW3

Henry Wuga

Marcus Sperber

News / Klezmer concert / Jewish Care / Ballet fundraiser

Night of music for the soul also helps two incredible charities

by Debbie Collins

Recalling the melodic brilliance of the chazan at Kenton shul throughout my childhood, I was buzzing with anticipation to hear three of the biggest names in the business perform at St John’s Wood Synagogue at Music for the Soul last weekend. In solidarity with Israel, it promised an evening of Israeli medleys with worldrenowned guest chazanim Simon Cohen, Netanel Hershtik and the shul’s very own Avraham Kirshenbaum.

Led by the inimitable Marc Temerlies, the Ne’imah singers stood resplendent in their dickie bows against the impressive ark backdrop. As the orchestra tuned up, the excitement in the room was palpable, knowing we were in for an orchestral treat under the lead of Raymond Goldstein on piano and including Miriam Kramer as lead violinist.

The event was in partnership with Jami, Camp Simcha and St John’s Wood Synagogue. Anthony Hayman, director of development at Jami, spoke passionately about the organisation and their wraparound support of the community, both young and old. Highlighting the need more than ever for mental health support he cited the increase in mental health issues through stress and trauma across the community, even more so since the atrocities in Israel last October.

From support work in schools such as JFS

to their integration with Jewish Care, Jami’s aim is clearer than ever before in offering the very best mental health resources for our community. Simon Johnson, chair of Camp Simcha, spoke about the charity and its incredible support working with seriously ill children as well as giving practical help to the families, including much-needed respite and

Jewish Care’s young patrons raise £110K

More than 380 young Jewish Care supporters gathered at The Londoner Hotel for Jewish Care’s annual Young Patrons Dinner, raising over £110,000 to help support the organisation’s vital services, writes Michelle Rosenberg.

Guests heard from Fiona Mendel, who shared the story of her mother, Anne, who was at Jewish Care’s Anita Dorfman House home at Sandringham until she died in December 2021, following an ovarian cancer diagnosis.

Fiona told the young supporters: “Jewish Care is not just close to my heart but has been a lifeline for countless others. They care about people. They care about us. Without Jewish Care my mum would have died alone in hospital.

“When I called their helpline they put me through to Amanda in their admissions team, she listened. She understood. She felt my pain as if it were her own. I told her about mum –how much she would love listening to my son play the piano to her each night since he was a young child. I knew instantly that Amanda wanted to help us.”

Amanda remembered what Fiona said about her mother’s love for the piano and when she moved into Anita Dorfman, there was a piano sitting outside her room. She had arranged with the staff for the piano to be there, so Fiona’s son could play to her when she arrived.

After Anne died, Fiona’s father, Tony, attended the Ronson Family Community Centre at Sandringham. While there, he had a

stroke and is now also cared for by Jewish Care’s dedicated staff at Anita Dorfman House.

“We may know Jewish Care for its Holocaust Survivors’ Centre, community centres and care homes.” Fiona said. “But how many of us know they offer bereavement services for those who have recently lost loved ones and need someone to talk to?”

A short film was shown to share the impact of Jewish Care’s work before an appeal by Nicole Ashton, chair of the Young Patrons Committee and Young Jewish Care Committee.

After the event, Ellisa Estrin, Jewish Care’s director of fundraising and marketing, added: “It was truly amazing to see a room full of hundreds of young people supporting Jewish Care and showing that they care about the older members of the community, and about all those we support.”

counselling. Rosanna Burr from St John’s Wood Synagogue also spoke. As the chazanim took to the stage, the room was mesmerised and because my setlist expectation was solely music from davening and

prayer, I was pleasantly surprised to hear personal stories from each chazan, a rendition of Chad Gadya and a stirring adaptation of Bring Him Home from Les Mis, poignantly altered to ‘bring them home’.

With touching moments of chazan Simon Cohen singing ‘alongside’ recordings of his late father Stanley Cohen, to them schlepping up Rabbi Yossi Binstock, son of Dayan Binstock, to join them in belting out Am Yisrael Chai as a quartet, the evening was everything and more.

There were moments when it felt like a very special simcha, but the night did not end with Sweet Caroline, rather an extremely moving Hatikva. And, finally, a standing ovation of God Save the King to end on a high.

KIEV CITY BALLET TAKES CENTRE STAGE FOR WJR

Stars of the Kiev City Ballet performed to more than 600 people at World Jewish Relief’s annual dinner which showcased the charity’s work in Ukraine since the outbreak of war two years ago, writes Justin Cohen.

The event at the Roundhouse, hosted by broadcaster Kirsty Young, also featured an address by the former British ambassador to Ukraine Dame Melinda Simmons.

WJR works with partners in 23 countries from Moldova to Uganda, supporting people affected by war, natural disaster and the climate crisis. But over the last year the British Jewish community’s aid organisation has helped more than 270,000 Ukrainians including thousands of refugees who have fled to the UK.

Chair Maurice Helfgott stressed how this work chimed with Jewish values even at a time when “our hearts” are in Israel where the charity has supported two projects since 7 October, and with the hostages in Gaza.

“Many of us felt an even more intense pull towards our Jewish Identity since October,” he told guests including the Chief Rabbi and Sir Clive Alderton, the King’s private secretary. “An essential strand of that identity is the responsibility to stand up to evil and injustice, and to support the vulnerable and oppressed wherever they may be.

“This is the Jewish way and the reason it matters more than ever is because October

7th was not just an attack on Israel. It was an attack on the very idea of Israel and an attack on our very identity as Jewish people. An attack on who we are, what we believe, and what we stand for.

“We can’t protect those ideals by narrowing our zone of interest.”

Opening the night, Young hailed the “compassion, warmth and generosity” of the Jewish community and said she had jumped at the chance to host the event for an organisation that had been responsible for helping Holocaust survivor Sir Ben Helfgott come to the UK.

Describing Sir Ben as trumping celebrities and politicians as her favourite ever Desert Island Discs interviewee, Young said: “The remarkable thing about this great man was not his horrendous story but rather his capacity not to hold hatred in his heart. Warmth and goodwill and gratitude shone out of him.”

Cohen creates one of the ‘incredibly touching moments’

Simon Cohen, Netanel Hirshtik and Avreimy Kirshenbaum Photos: Edwin Marcow

The Young Patrons dinner committee

The Kiev City Ballet on stage

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Send us your comments

PO Box 815, Edgware, HA8 4SX | letters@jewishnews.co.uk

BE DECISIVE, STARMER

I write regarding the letter Starmer sympathy by Noma Neville (22 February). It may be that the Labour leader really does deserve some sympathy. However, during the current climate of the worst antisemitism being experienced in the UK in most people’s living memory and his initial firm stand against any ceasefire – he must act, quickly and decisively, against the errant Labour Party MPs and prospective candidates. The Jewish community (and all rightminded people) deserve nothing less.

Starmer’s stance of having to “steer a difficult ship” does not cut it with me. Any chance of him being electable as the future prime minister with antisemitism still rife in Labour’s ranks is unacceptable.

J D Milaric, Middlesex

‘INTENSE BIAS’ AT LBC

I listen to LBC constantly while I am working at home. I have always considered a particular presenter to be fair and reasonable. Now I am finding that he is showing his intense bias toward the Palestinian cause, currently using terms such as “genocide” and other inflammatory words and expressions.

Although he does acknowledge that Hamas has committed atrocities on 7 October, this is rarely mentioned.

While he is a public broadcaster and entitled to his own opinions, in spouting them out so often I feel that he is “gaslighting” the situation greatly which will impact further on British Jews.

I have become so incensed by his comments that I cannot bear to listen to him. I just thought that I would make you aware of this.

David Plato , High Wycombe

Purim seems to have arrived early. Rabbi Josh Levy in last week’s issue stated that marrying a non-Jew is not marrying out. Then what is? “Marrying non-Jews should not be understood as a declaration that Judaism doesn’t matter to them,” he says. How then is it to be understood? He encourages such marriages and wants to increase the likelihood of Judaism being part of their and their kids’ lives. Seriously? He states that intermarriage is increasing, despite opposition. The reason is people like him encourage it.

Ann Cohen , Golders Green

An interfaith conundrum

Reverend David Kibble (An existential crisis in interfaith relations, 22 February) is right about taking care to speak up for Israel in interfaith activities.

I have found that interfaith works best when people who are knowledgeable in, and practice, their own faith can meet and talk with similar people in other faiths about their experiences, texts and practices. There are parallels between talking about Israel and Palestine with Muslims and Christians, and discussing Messiahs and Jesus with Christians.

Palestinian who ran an interfaith group in Jerusalem. In contrast, my local interfaith group was once persuaded to host a meeting on Israel and Palestine.

The Palestine Solidarity Campaign turned up, as did others who had never gone near the interfaith group. They even took a vote at the end of the meeting.

Debates should take place in political meetings. Having volunteered on a kibbutz immediately after the Six Day War, been involved in Zionist groups and with family in Israel, I take part in political debates without any problems.

Discussions yes, debates no.

I once attended a good day seminar in Oxfordshire, led by an Israeli and a

I wish a refuah shleimah to my university friend and Jewish News columnist Alex Brummer. Mark Drukker, Reading

MURRAY COMPELLING AND INTELLECTUAL

As a former bookmaker, I bet against your columnist Josh Glancy’s view on Douglas Murray (22 February). More Jews than he can imagine know a lot more about Douglas Murray than he suggests.

I could be facetious and suggest that Glancy should have offered his column to a publication such as Novara Media rather than to Jewish News. Murray has been known by millions of Jews and others of many faiths and creeds for the last 20 years. His masterpieces include The War on the West and The Strange Death of Europe

Glancy should have studied Murray’s political views more closely before writing such a crass and badly-informed column. Barry Bernstein , Woodside Park

I could not disagree more with your columnist Josh Glancy regarding the stature of Douglas Murray. He is a compelling speaker and intellectual force. Murray possesses a rare gift of articulating complex ideas with clarity, making him a captivating presence in the realm of honest public discourse. One of Murray’s greatest strengths lies in his fearless approach to tackling controversial topics, particularly the dangers of radical Islam.

Viviane Shamesh, Manchester

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I read comments by a contestant

The Apprentice who was not allowed on the spin-off show You’re Fired! because of his views about Jews.

Since series one I have watched the programme, but I did not watch the one with this candidate. For that matter,

I shall not be watching it again. Viewing figures like-for-like are well down. It’s the second time over a number of years there has been an anti-Jewish candidate and I am pleased to say both have been fired very sharply. This programme now has had its day, very dull, repetitive tasks from one series to another. Tell the BBC:

“You’re fired”.

Richard Davis, Finchley

‘Of

When will our Jewish leaders show courage?

ALEX BRUMMER CITY EDITOR, THE DAILY MAIL

Israel’s global reputation has taken an almighty bashing since it unleashed its war on Hamas after the atrocities of 7 October. Instead of international support Israel’s military operation, designed to restore the country’s security, has mobilised Palestinian supporters from the Sydney Opera House to Big Ben, and cast a frightening pall over Britain’s Jewish community.

At a performance of Tracy-Ann Oberman’s brilliant interpretation of the Merchant of Venice at the Criterion Theatre, in the heart of London, the hostile atmosphere for Jews in Britain was evident. Theatregoers, many of them Jewish, were herded behind a metal barrier as they queued for bag checks and a police presence was evident nearby.

For a change there were no pro-Palestinian demonstrators close-by but the menace was evident. Inside, burly security guards at every entrance were designed to be reassuring.

The elderly gentleman sitting next to me commented that after decades of West End theatregoing being in the heart of London was unsettling to him as Jew. The secondary theme of the play, Jewish resistance to Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascist in the 1930s, has real current resonance.

It also raised questions in my mind as to whether Jewish leadership in the UK, with the possible exception of Campaign Against Antisemitism, will ever be courageous enough to stand up publicly to evil? Or is the leadership become so complacent about its establishment status that it believes that will be su cient to squash Jew and Israel hatred fomented by Hamas supporting demonstrators? Recent chaotic scenes in Parliament and the government’s flaccid support of Israel’s case tell us it won’t.

Renewed antisemitism and anti-Israel rhetoric reminds me of a conversation in Tel Aviv a year ago. At a dinner with British diplomats I was told the role of the Israeli embassy had changed dramatically. It was the case for most of Israel’s history that 70 percent of the work done by o cials posted to Tel Aviv was

about security and strategy issues.

Now 70 percent of the agenda concerned trade, economy and technology links. The UK, looking for a magic pill to restore stuttering productivity, was in awe of Israel’s high tech and life sciences innovation. In wartime circumstances, much of that will be on hold, and security issues restored to primacy.

The greatest worry is that in spite of Israel being the wronged party in the current conflict the damage to Israel’s normalisation, as respected OECD member with promising ties in the Gulf region, has been so badly damaged that it will take decades to restore. Much of the blame for the despoiling and distortion of Israel’s esteem in the eyes of the world can be put wholly at the door of the broadcast media.

Some five months of repeated images from Gaza of death, injury and destruction and virtually unchallenged, hateful claims of genocide have taken an enormous toll on Israel’s global place in the world. One of Ronald Reagan’s closest advisers the late Michael Deaver, known as he ‘Vicar of Visuals,’ recognised four decades ago that what lingers in the mind of voters are pictures not the words. In

the case of Gaza the endless stream of video has blighted public opinion.

Against the power of gut-wrenching images attempts by friends of Israel and Jews to deconstruct the narrative of hate and criticism are ignored.

Writing in the Spectator, Douglas Murray seeks to right the jarring suggestion of a genocide. He points out that Bashar al-Assad’s assault on his own people (with the assistance of Iran and Russia) in the Syrian civil war caused the death of 600,000 of his citizens. That means that ‘every six to 12 months he manages to kill the same number of as every war involving Israel ever,’ Murray writes.

Similarly, 377,000 Yeminis have died in the battle between the Houthis, and the Yemeni authorities backed by Saudi Arabia. Yet the Houthis cries of ‘Kill all Jews’ go largely unchallenged in Britain.

It is just Gaza which has engaged Britain’s chattering classes and demonised Israel and Britain’s Jews. The wanton damage to Israel’s standing in the world looks irreparable. And the collateral hurt to Britain’s Jewish community is immeasurable.

“I just hope to survive the winter”

Hanna’s home was destroyed by a bomb. This winter, temperatures will reach -20°C in Ukraine. She needs your help.

Will you repair Hanna’s home and keep her warm this winter?

Why Britain should adopt core Israeli characteristics

RABBI LEO DEE ISRAEL’S SPECIAL ENVOY FOR SOCIAL INITIATIVES.

On my way to shul, I walk past cars with bumper stickers showing the Israeli flag and slogans saying, “Together we will win!” and “Am Yisrael Chai!”

It’s true; after 3,500 years the Jewish people are still here, against all odds. Why? Because we have a purpose in this land. We have a culture that we are literally prepared to die for.

Through Zionism we have created a wonderful home for ourselves, and for others, with rights and responsibilities that make life meaningful and worth living.

The same was true of the Britain that my grandparents lived in. Despite being immigrants from Latvia and initially classified as “enemy aliens” at the beginning of the Second World War, they soon learned to appreciate true British resilience.

With food rationing in force throughout

the war, and for a decade afterwards, the British people stiffened their upper lips and built an economic miracle, bringing in immigrants from all over the disbanded British Empire.

This could be seen as a lesson in pluralism and multiculturalism. But then, Britain lost her way.

Without strong enough British (Christian) values, more dogmatic cultures gained a foothold and transformed Britain into a woke and apologetic ghost of its previous self.

Many Brits are no longer proud to be British. Instead, they demonstrate in embarrassment about their heritage.

This is the heritage that contributed to the destruction of Nazi Germany and prevented the Third Reich from taking over the world, saving millions of blacks and Asians, Muslims and Jews, gays and gypsies, from a fate worse than death. We Brits should be proud of our history.

What Britain needs is a strong dose of Zionism, British style — let’s call it “Britainism”. When Grant Shapps, recently

announced Britain was facing a high risk of war in the near future against Russia, Iran and other rogue states, he suggested that Britain needed three changes: more weapons, military conscription, and a “change in culture”.

Acquiring more weapons sounds like a technical matter — the government can just buy more of what they need.

In fact, it is a more complex issue, that will affect every part of British life. If Britain needs to increase its defence budget to 12 percent of GDP (like Israel), the government may have to reform the British health and educational systems in order to pay for it.

Since Israel’s health system is the most efficient and offers the best value for money in the Western world, Britain may need to transform the NHS to look, well... more Israeli!

Israel is also the only democratic country to have military conscription for both men and women, so British conscription would look rather Zionist too. And when Mr Shapps called for a “change in

culture”, I imagine that he was referring to the amazing patriotic reaction that we have seen in Israel since 7 October, with Israelis responding with passion and unity to defend their country from an existential threat. At the same time, too many people in Britain and Europe took to the streets to defend Jihadism in all its evil manifestations.

For Britain to survive the next few generations, it has much to learn from Israel. Pride in its history and heritage, a flexible attitude to prioritising defence spending and a commitment to defending its core values.

Indeed, the new Britainism may look a lot like an anglicised form of Zionism.

• Rabbi Dee was formerly rabbi of Radlett United Synagogue and assistant rabbi at Hendon United Synagogue. His book Transforming the World: The Jewish Impact on Modernity has been republished in English and Hebrew in memory of his wife Lucy and daughters Maia and Rina, who were murdered by terrorists in April 2023

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Opinion

It’s time to do something un-British... make a scene

EDDIE HAMMERMAN ELSTREE & BOREHAMWOOD HOSTAGE VIGILS

Iawoke to a scream. It was Monday, so it could only mean one thing: I had forgotten to put the bins out and Ronit had heard the truck coming. As I was about to race barefoot to catch the truck, Ronit stopped me and announced: “They’re out... they’ve been rescued!”

It was the first good news in a long time. The IDF and Israeli security services had executed a daring and highly complicated night-time raid to free two more hostages.

We cried with happiness but I wanted to see what the mainstream media was saying. I expected to see some positive news about Israel and a celebration of the safety of these civilians. Big mistake. Huge.

The feeling wasn’t reflected in the mainstream media reporting. I felt betrayed. I was furious at the misreporting of the Gaza hospital explosion near the start of the war, but that felt like journalist Stockholm Syndrome or, at worst, crappy journalism.

This was di erent. More insidious, but I realise the reason for my recurring surprise stems from my identity as a British Jew. I want to feel accepted and seeing positive Israel media coverage is part of this yearning.

I believed if we kept our heads down and contributed to British society positively, even the antisemites would eventually be won over by our strong British values. The sad and blindingly obvious reality is it doesn’t work and never has. My grandfather and family fled from Belgium to Nice and then were deported to Auschwitz where almost all were gassed to death as the world did nothing.

As Dara Horn notes: “People love dead Jews… with so much fascination with Jewish deaths, and so little respect for Jewish lives unfolding in the present.”

With Israel as our homeland, for the first time in 2,000 years, we have the option to change our diaspora outlook. And this starts with doing something traditionally un-British; being a bit more public.

It’s why, when we stand on the streets of Borehamwood and Elstree every week, we still do it in our own British way. We celebrate

our strong British Jewishness with Union Jack flags alongside Israeli flags and sing Hatikvah followed by a dignified God Save the King. We do not compromise on our steadfast support of Israel, even when she is under grave attack from all sides – politically, legally, militarily and in the media.

We sing songs of peace and tell stories of the lives of the hostages, who are our people, not just numbers. We welcome members of Christian church communities and those of all faiths and none from the surrounding areas. Their support is appreciated beyond words and makes us feel less alone.

We hug and cry with one another, knowing whatever bull***t opinion, coded language bias or horror headline, everyone around us is feeling the same.

I am done with needing the world to accept me as a proud Jew, and get the feeling others are starting to feel the same.

Like a child, we seek a pat on the head from a parent who when approached with a school prize, either ignores us or gives us a slap. And we keep coming back for more hoping to get a di erent response. A defini-

tion of insanity. Drip irrigation. Love me? A camera pill? An appreciative nod? Nobel prizes? Come on, a little well done? What about cherry tomatoes, the USB flash drive, Waze, for crying out loud? You must love avoiding tra c? Enough. It’s time to grow up.

It will always hurt, but know I don’t need the adoration. Maybe through our steadfast actions we will gain something di erent; perhaps a modicum of respect for standing up for ourselves in Israel, in Britain and around the world and being true to our beliefs.

At the start of the weekly Borehamwood Israel vigils in October, I was worried that interest would tail o . I asked Ronit what would happen if the war extended into winter and no one showed up. She said we would sit with the few vigil co-founders with a flag in the middle of Borehamwood shopping centre, sing songs, cry, and go home.

Last week, 17 vigils in, more people attended than ever before with over two hundred of us joining together for a meaningful 15 minutes.

In an uncertain world, it gives me enormous hope and comfort.

The mob revels in inciting chaos on our city streets

DANIEL SUGARMAN DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS BOARD OF DEPUTIES

Last week, a baying mob gathered outside Parliament and projected a message on to the Elizabeth Tower, which houses Big Ben. The message was the infamous ‘From the River to the Sea’ hate slogan, in an action intended to send a clear message that even in the heart of Westminster, the anti-Israel mob rules. In the meantime, over the course of a tumultuous day, there was significant focus on the threats MPs have been receiving on the issue of Gaza.

We have all seen examples since 7 October. The antisemitism explosion has been accompanied by targeted e orts intended to intimidate our elected o cials. Conservative and Labour MPs have been particular targets.

It would be wrong to say such threats are new. In December 2015, a new plan, Operation Bridger, was put in place by police to protect MPs after a Parliamentary debate on airstrikes against ISIS strongholds in Syria. In 2016, a far-right terrorist murdered Jo Cox, and in 2021 an Islamist terrorist murdered Sir David Amess, later citing the Syria airstrikes as a motive.

It seems, however, general attempts to intimidate MPs have risen significantly since 7 October. Protests accusing MPs of condoning the murder of children in Gaza have been held outside constituency o ces. Other such o ces have been defaced.

Mike Freer, Conservative MP for Finchley and Golders Green, the constituency with the highest percentage of Jews in the country, is standing down at the next election, citing death threats for supporting Israel.

Wes Streeting, Labour MP for Ilford North, is being targeted in a concentrated campaign – a poster for a demonstration outside his constituency o ce showed a picture of him against a backdrop of the red Labour Party banner dripping blood. ‘Picket Wes Streeting: Labour Party Defends Genocide’, the poster says. It also calls for ‘Victory to the Intifada’.

The police initiated Operation Bridger last week when scores of anti-Israel activists turned up outside the house of Tobias Ellwood, the Conservative MP for Bournemouth East, while the MP and his children were inside.

Another Labour MP, who I will not name, told me of ‘Pro-Palestinian’ demonstrators outside her constituency o ce, screaming and banging on the windows.

She went outside to say they could protest if they wanted but not to bang on the windows as she had a constituency surgery. Vulnerable people were coming to see her, she said, including people directly a ected by events in Gaza and banging on the windows was deeply disturbing to them. I leave it to you to guess whether the demonstrators stopped. This sort of behaviour goes well beyond democratic accountability.

Ultimately, it will be up to MPs and their party leaders to decide what must be done. There has already been some discussion of legislating to ban protests outside constituency o ces – if it is to be introduced, it seems obvious a similar ban should exist on demonstrating outside MPs’ homes. Constituency surgeries are clearly a point of vulnerability, while also being a key part of an MPs role

In the wake of the tragic murders of Jo Cox and Sir David Amess, MPs have rightly been o ered additional security, including panic buttons, additional locks, toughened glass and even bomb-proof letterboxes.

After the death of Sir David, MPs were o ered trained security protection when undertaking constituency surgeries. If such protection has been allowed to lapse, then it should be renewed.

If you want to persuade your MP of some-

thing, write to them, or make an appointment to see them and put your point to them courteously. If you feel that they refuse to listen, you have the option of campaigning to help unseat them at the next election.

People should not feel they have a Godgiven right to scream their heads o outside an MP’s o ce or his or her home – whether it’s to protest about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict or any other issue.

But there is also a more general point to be made here. At the moment, it feels to many as if the police are paralysed in their ability to respond properly to this activity while the organisers of these marches and other demonstrations are openly revelling in their ability to bring chaos to our streets.

The situation was recently summed up in an impassioned speech to the House of Commons by Andrew Percy, the Conservative MP for Brigg and Goole. He said: “For months I’ve been standing up here, talking about the people on our streets [who have been] demanding ‘death to Jews’, demanding ‘Jihad’, demanding ‘Intifadas’, as the police stand by and allow that to happen.”

It is long past time for the authorities here to make it clear enough is enough – before, God forbid, the situation gets even worse.

• Daniel writes in a personal capacity

Streetwise

Streetwise

The musical Cable Street opened in London this week and is being embraced by our community but it deserves a

much wider audience, writes Louisa Walters

That the Battle of Cable Street would even be considered as a suitable subject for the song and dance treatment will no doubt result in some eye-rolling, but writer Alex Kanefsky and lyricist Tim Gilvin have handled that painful day –October 4, 1936 – with kid gloves and instilled the score with the courage and conviction that honours those who fought against the Fascists.

The story of the eventual battle with Oswald Mosley’s Blackshirts is told through the friendship between three young people: a Brit new to the city, an Irish girl and a Jew. What could be the opening to a familiar joke is instead the set up for what becomes a triumvirate of unity delivered through rap and pop tunes. Danny Colligan ( Book of Mormon ) is Ron, Sha Dessi ( Les Misérables ) is Mairead, and newcomer Joshua Ginsberg as Sammy is likely to touch a few hearts as he has charm, cheekiness and chein in equal measure. Debbie Chazen is a welcome presence and many will have seen her recently seen in the Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Pig at JW3, but refreshingly she has not been cast to type.

How a disparate group of young people came together to stand against fascism was the starting point for writer Kanefsky whose own grandmother witnessed the battle.

“It may have been 88 years ago, but it feels a deeply resonant, modern story of hope in turbulent times,” he says. “Cable Street serves as a strong antidote to the ‘great man’ theory of history, as well as to frequent portrayals of Jews solely as victims in popular culture that I had seen so much growing up. When Tim and I discovered we both wanted to tell this story, writing together seemed serendipitous. We wanted to write something that could be faithful to those communities who banded together in the face of hatred, yet delve deeper beyond the popular myths and simple solutions.”

Despite being a show that could (and should) transfer to a bigger stage, the Southwark Playhouse feels suitably humble for a musical wanting to convey the struggle of poor Eastenders, and the intimacy of the small auditorium brings tangibility to the

growing tensions. That those tensions resonate more deeply now because of 7 October is why the musical matters and brings another layer to the creators’ themes.

“The 2016 Brexit vote seemed to open a Pandora’s box of xenophobia, nationalism, and overt racist rhetoric across the country” Kanefsky continues. “The parallels with the 1930s jumped out at me: financial depression, political upheaval and powerful figures scapegoating minorities for all of society’s ills. At the time I was delivering antidiscrimination workshops with teens in schools for Stand Up (a partnership of the CST with TellMAMA). When young Muslims spoke of their negative portrayal in the media it really struck a chord: we’ve been here before.”

Capturing the sentiments of 1936 in such songs as the rousing No Parasan that ends the first act with barricades being built and the community uniting is quite an achievement as this is dark material and not an obvious fit for chorus numbers. “Musicals can work well when the story they tell is larger than life,” insists Gilvin. “On 4 October 1936, Londoners from all backgrounds and cultures took the streets to unite with one voice. There was singing in the streets and chanting of No Pasaran . It’s a story that cries out to be told with music.

“Early on in the process, we decided to use contemporary music as a metaphor for the parallels between 1936 and the present day, and within that we wanted to showcase eclecticism, reflective of the eclecticism of the Londoners on the streets that day. We have three protagonists: Mairead, from an Irish background, is a revolutionary and lives in a punk/protest-folk world. Our Jewish lad Sammy is a bit of a scrapper, and a former boxer, and uses rap to tell his story. Ron has recently moved to London

from the north of England, and has an idealistic, lyrical Indie/Brit-rock sound. We have also included a bit of music hall, the popular music of the day, and have tried to create a real melting pot of influences, just like the East End, then and now.”

With rap, rock and a touch of romance the story comes to life with limited props and most cast members playing multiple roles, effortlessly slipping between them with just a change of headgear or the donning of an armband. They were encouraged to research the story and in particular their role, and in a real-life case of things coming full circle, Joshua Ginsberg discovered that his great grandfather Isidore Baum was among those who took to the streets. “I really was gobsmacked,” says Ginsberg. “I didn’t even know about Cable Street, so it’s such a privilege to find out my family’s story and how similar it is to the play.”

With a score that takes inspiration from Come From Away and Hamilton and firstclass performances, Cable Street should be relocated to the West End as quickly as possible, not only because the Southwark run has completely cold out, but because it has a message that needs to be heard by many .

 Cable Street is at Southwark Playhouse from 16 Feb until 16 March southwarkplayhouse.co.uk/ Tickets are sold out but returns go online every day at midday

‘It feels a deeply resonant, modern story of hope in turbulent times’

Cable Street honours ‘those communities who banded together in the face of hatred’

Pastry sous-chef Hesky Meyer tells Louisa Walters about keeping kosher, Gordon Ramsay and working at London’s newest Michelin-starred restaurant

After struggling through his GCSEs, Hesky Meyer knew A-levels were not for him. But his school, the Menorah Foundation in Edgware, o ered a cooking course so he thought, why not? Suddenly he was flying. “I was really excelling in the class – the teacher told me I actually had to slow down a bit,” he recalls. From there it was a natural step to do work experience with some Jewish caterers, James Zimmer and Zeitlin.

“In the beginning, I was doing everything because I knew I wanted to be a chef. When I tried my hand at pastry, I knew I’d found my niche. There was a calmness about it, a focus – even though I was so busy and often stressed, it never felt like a task.”

In 2019 he joined the kosher restaurant Tish in Belsize Park as a pastry chef de partie, with a determination to adapt regular ingredients for the kosher/dairy free-market and make a di erence. The team was furloughed during Covid and although Hesky could have gone back when the restaurant reopened, one night while scrolling thought Instagram, he saw that Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, which has three Michelin stars, was hiring. “I was sure I’d never get the job. I was so underqualified.

“I had no Michelin experience. I’d only worked in one restaurant, which doesn’t even use milk!” And yet, he replied to the Instagram story and landed himself an interview. “I was in the car with my mum when I

got a phone call from HR at Gordon Ramsay saying we’re o ering you the position. I was like – no way!”

Hesky was thrown into an intense arena. “Everybody was working at a fast pace, but it was brilliant. When you go to a Michelin star restaurant, the theatrics, the food and the service blows you away. With tasting menus, sometimes people think the portions are smaller, but each refined dish o ers something di erent over the whole menu. I guarantee you, I’ve never left a tasting menu hungry.”

What about Gordon himself?

And whenever dairy-free guests came in I was confident that I could do something for them.”

By last summer Hesky, 26, was ready for another challenge and had heard that renowned French chef Yannick Alléno, who has 16 Michelin stars among his 17 restaurants across the world, was opening a restaurant at the Four Seasons Hotel London Park Lane, his first in the city. It was a much bigger team, working on breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea and dinner services. Hesky landed a role as sous-chef on pastry.

love it. Some even have their business meetings sitting at the counter.”

everyone’s hands and asks how you

“He’s a really lovely person. It was just the sheer size of him that threw me o ! When he comes in, he shakes everyone’s hands and asks how you are and has a bit of a joke around. The Masterchef finals were filmed at the restaurant (in 2020) and when the cameras were o there were times the no-nonsense leader side camedairy out, but I really enjoyed the experience.”

Six months after Hesky joined

“At Pavyllon London, the food is very French and everything is made in-house, from the bread and the brioche to the pu pastry. I start in the morning by checking o the orders and making sure the team have their tasks in hand. I check on the breakfast service before getting set up for lunch and there’s a briefing before service. We then have dinner service in the evening so it’s a full day but it’s fantastic to see guests enjoying the pastry creations.”

One day the head of sales in the Middle East was having a meeting with an Israeli family in the hotel. “I saw an email request for kosher amenities for their room and I replied saying I’d love to help and I suggested a list of places in the local area. They were so grateful. And a couple of days later I was invited to have a co ee with them and I sat chatting, telling them about my sister who lives in Tel Aviv.”

Six months after Hesky joined he took over the patisserie section at Restaurant Gordon Ramsay. Exiting a kosher kitchen a orded him a new culinary freedom. “You’re working with the finest ingredients such as Fraise de Bois strawberries that are £10 a punnet, sobacha (Japanese buckwheat) and white tru e that can be £5,000 a kilo. Just to be around these ingredients and the chefs was phenomenal. I don’t regret working in kosher kitchens though - I learned a lot. It’s a di erent type of challenge.

Hesky and his wife Amber, who live in Pimlico, went to Vegas to get married last summer but next weekend they are having a Jewish wedding in London. “Being Jewish is who I am and when I got engaged I invited the whole Ramsay team to the engagement party and they loved it.”

He keeps kosher at home

freedom. “You’re working with the in kosher kitchens though - I learned

Afternoon tea is the classic o ering but “a bit more French. The pastries are a bit bigger. Scones come on the side with three toppings. There’s our take on the Ja a Cake and exotic pavlova. Rum Baba mojito-style and a hazelnut praline and gianduja cookie. And then also a classic marble cake.” Last month, Pavyllon London was awarded its first Michelin star, just six months after opening. “We were working very hard towards the star and we were feeling positive, but you don’t have it until you have it. It’s discipline, hard work and nonstop creativity.

“We have a beautiful counter, which looks into the open kitchen so you can hear the chefs talking. You can hear how the service goes. You can feel the heat sometimes – people

“because it’s easier that way. But I do think quality can be improved in the kosher industry in general. I want to bring everything I’m learning from the Michelin star experience at Pavyllon London to the kosher world and maybe one day, open a restaurant or patisserie or both.”

@chef_hesky pavyllonlondon.com

A ernoon Tea includes ‘our take on the Ja a Cake and exotic pavlova’ Pavyllon’s pastry team. Pavyllon London has just won a coveted Michelin star

Chef Hesky and Gwenael

Meli Melo – ‘delicious mishmash’

By Candice Krieger candicekrieger@googlemail.com

RECIPES THAT ARE NUTRITIONALLY JUST RIGHT

The need to improve her diet to combat a health condition led a computing innovator to quit her job and create an app that helps people eat food that suits their body as well as their palate

When Orly Rapaport was told to change what she ate to help with a chronic health condition, she looked for recipes that matched her dietary needs as well as her food preferences. Disappointed by the lack of options, Rapa port decided to resign as head of innovation at the leading technology company Comverse after 17 years, to create Anydish.

and tailors them to the user’s unique clinical requirements and individual culinary tastes. It can even evaluate whether a specific dish offered in a restaurant is suitable.

“There just weren’t enough healthy choices that were clinically adherent, tasted good, and were easily accessible,” Rapaport tells Jewish News. “After much research, and realising the need was even more prevalent than initially understood, we came together to problem-solve and Anydish was born.”

the wake of 7 October. It was held at Microsoft’s offices in Be’ersheva, with 120 female entrepreneurs in attendance. As a result of winning, the Anydish team will showcase their solution at Calcalist’s highprofile Mind the Tech conference in New York next month, on 4 March.

Launched in 2022, the Anydish app uses AI to provide precision nutrition solutions for people with various medical ditions, such as diabetes, gastrointestinal issues and heart and kidney disease.

The platform’s technology analyses recipes

The company recently took the top spot in a women-led startup competition in Israel, organised by Yazamiyot, an organisation that promotes female entrepreneurship, together with Arieli Capital and Mastercard’s innovation lab FinSec. The aim was to support women-led startups in

Israel-based Anydish (which is styled with a lowercase ‘a’) is working with practitioners across the globe. Its main markets are Israel, the US and the UK, where the company has partnered with Jewish entrepreneur and registered nutritional therapist Fiona Trup, as the company’s UK representative. It is also working with Genova Diagnostics. Genova practitioners are using the Anydish platform to provide their clients with personalised recipes and nutritional tools based on Genova test results. “We would love to work with other UK practitioners, who want to integrate nutrition into their clients’ diets,” says Rapaport, who studied computer science at the Technion.

Anydish has secured more than $1.5m to date, including an initial investment from The Kitchen Hub, the foodtech incubator and investment arm of Israeli food giant Strauss Group, as well as from the Technion and a selection of angel investors.

Based in Tel Aviv, Anydish comprises a team of nine entrepreneurs, all with some kind of health-related nutritional need. “It’s a really big issue and the app can be applicable for those with any chronic disease, or those who need a specific diet, such as sports professionals or during pregnancy,” notes Rapaport

“There is so much that AI can do in the nutrition space and the whole approach of data-driven, as opposed to traditional solutions

New courses in May 2024

available in the market today, will make a huge difference in terms of the insight you can get to determine what works well and not so well. By analysing data, we can take a further step forward into the recommendations provided.”

The Yazamiyot award was a great boost for Anydish, says Rapaport, who acknowledges the importance of such initiatives for showcasing female entrepreneurship, the status of which, she says, is improving.

“There has been an increase in women founding companies and more openness from the venture capital world towards female-led companies. At first it was hard but I think there is some kind of appreciation for women leading ventures and I believe there is uniqueness when it comes to the managerial skills women have; for example, how you treat your team, seeing the bigger picture, providing a company culture and how you build dedication among people and engage them to feel part of the company.”

The Israeli entrepreneurial ecosystem was greatly hit by 7 October, and Anydish was not immune. “Everyone was in shock. It was hard to get back into business because of the emotional stress. Everyone was affected.

“But as Israelis we know that we have no other choice and must keep going, putting all our efforts into trying to get back into business, especially if you have work outside of Israel. You want to carry on. It is our strength and how we must behave as Israelis. We have no other choice.”

 anydish.me

Orly Rapaport

MAKING SENSE OF THE SEDRA

BY SHIFRA YUNGER-HACHAM ST JOHN’S WOOD SYNANGOGUE

Working together makes us stronger

Parshat Ki Tisa is nestled within the guidelines for building the Mishkan, a placement which might seem out of place both contextually and chronologically.

The opening verses of this portion depict Am Yisrael approaching Aaron and requesting to build a God: “Come, make us a god who shall go before us, for that fellow Moses — the man who brought us from the land of Egypt — we do not know what has happened to him (Exodus 32:1).

They proceed to donate generously from their personal jewellery and possessions to construct their new God and leader.

The context of the Golden Calf is rather intriguing. It follows the exodus from Egypt and the matan Torah, the receiving of the

Torah, momentous events in the founding of the Jewish nation. Why, then, would they be seeking a god, having just witnessed the revelation at Mount Sinai? Had they not “witnessed the thunder and lightning, the blare of the horn and the mountain smoking” (Exodus 20:15)?

According to Rashi, chronologically, the instruction to build the Mishkan occurs after the sin of the Golden Calf. In both instances, the people of Israel unite as a group to strive for spiritual intimacy. They give of themselves, their time and their possessions, but it is the collective group e ort that enables the theoretical plan to become a reality.

One of Moshe’s responses to the Golden Calf was to relocate the Ohel Moed – the tent of meeting – outside the camp, as if to create a barrier between the people and God, to prevent the sin from recurring. Perhaps Parshat Teruma can o er us a di erent aapproach: the rectification of the sin of the

Golden Calf is through uniting and actively directing our actions according to God’s command to build the Tabernacle, thereby fulfilling the goal of “and let them make Me

a sanctuary that I may dwell among them” (Exodus 25:8).

In recent months we have witnessed the tremendous mobilisation of the Jewish world towards supporting and assisting Israel and those a ected by the war.

It is heartwarming and invigorating to witness participation in these initiatives, a reminder that we are strongest when we unite together.

This unity, in both spirit and action, reminds me of the construction of the Mishkan.

Just as the Shechina dwelled among us through the rectification of the Golden Calf, may our current collaborative e orts lead to the dwelling of the Shechina and the continuous, blessed unity of Am Yisrael.

Our unity is a reminder of the building of the Mishkan

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 KATH VARDI & RABBI ROBYN ASHWORTH-STEEN CHAIRS OF THE REFORM ASSEMBLY OF RABBIS AND CANTORS

Jewish ceremonies continue to evolve

Standing under a chuppah with a couple is one of the greatest privileges of rabbinic life. We often meet a couple – for a Jewish wedding or a dual heritage wedding blessing – at least four times to explore the history, structure and meaning of the wedding ceremony and customs.

It is important that these customs continue to evolve as people’s needs and desires change.

The bedecken, the private ceremony before the wedding, is historically linked to the mistaken identity with Leah and Rachel.

Today, many brides choose not to wear a veil, or for two grooms this custom may feel outdated.

Yet, having a moment to ground and connect can be vital. It’s a moment, veil or not, to bless each other, have immediate family together before the celebrations take over.

After the procession, we move straight into

circling. Rather than one partner encircle the other seven times, each can encircle three times and do one circle together to demonstrate the value of equality, respect and wholly seeing each other.

Readings, music and blessings said by family and friends can all demonstrate the couple’s connections to their loved ones and all of the identities and values they share and hold. And, at the end, the breaking of the glass demonstrates – forcefully, painfully and joyously – how their relationship exists as part of a whole and as part of our wider world.

Another key lifecycle event comes at the age of 13, the moment when Jewish adulthood begins and we become bar/batmitzvah. Traditionally this life stage has been marked by some form of public recognition in synagogue and was once reserved only for boys. Today, both boys and girls are celebrated.

In Progressive Jewish communities everyone is o ered the opportunity of learning to read and/or leyn Torah, deliver a ‘drash’ and lead parts of the service on or after the Shabbat they turn 13. This equality of

practice reflects Progressive Judaism’s belief that all members of the community, regardless of gender, have equal rights and responsibilities.

It is for this reason, as we begin to understand that some people’s gender may not be binary, that the language we use to describe this moment is also changing.

In addition to the terms bar/batmitzvah, many communities have additionally adopted terms such as britmitzvah and B-mitzvah.

We also know that it can feel daunting to stand in front of the whole community and recite the blessings and read from the scroll. It is in recognition of this that some young people may delay their ceremony until they are a little older and feeling more confident.

Some may even opt to undertake a di erent kind of Jewish learning, such as Jewish responses to climate change, and then present this to the community.

What is most important about becoming brit mitzvah is the love of Jewish learning that this transition can instil in a young person.

If we can help nurture this love, then we

have played our part in helping them to imbue their Judaism with love and excitement for the richness of their heritage.

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Ask our

Our trusty team of advisers answers your questions about everything from law and finance to dating and dentistry. This week: Giving your executors access to digital accounts, handling holiday requests and buying health insurance online

Dear Carolyn

CAROLYN ADDLEMAN DIECTOR OF LEGACIES KKL EXECUROR AND TRUSTEE COMPANY

I hold a number of accounts digitally. I am concerned as to how my executors will access them when the time comes?

Cheryl

Dear Cheryl

You have raised an important issue. At KKL we advise clients to make a list of their assets and any debts and to consider either sharing it with their executors or at least telling them where the list is kept. Understandably, you may have concerns about safeguarding this sensitive information.

You could leave it in a sealed envelope marked ‘to be opened after my death’, espe-

DONNA OBSTFELD

HUMAN RESOURCES / EMPLOYMENT LAW DOHR LTD

Dear Donna

My staff all want holiday at the same time and it is causing me massive issues as I hate saying no to people, but I end up with no staff and trying to do everything myself. It’s a small business and there are only five of us. How do I stop this happening?

Dovid

Dear Dovid Holiday is one of the hardest challenges for small business owners. Here are a few of my golden rules for managing annual leave and protecting your business:

1 Make sure that you have a documented annual leave policy, which clearly states the notice which has to be given prior to taking leave and the number of people who can be away at the same time.

2 Make sure that you have a clear process for booking and approvals, so there is no debate.

3 If you have a first come first approved policy, use it and stick to it.

4 If everyone has children and wants the school

cially if your will is deposited with a professional organisation. It is important to review and update the list regularly.

In this digital age people have online accounts not just for banking and investments but on sites such as eBay and Amazon or funds in a PayPal account. Consider including password and account details in your list as long as you are satisfied with storage arrangements for the list and remember to update it.

When the inevitable happens, your executors need access to all your assets and liabilities: both hard copy and, more importantly, digital. Postal redirection helps with the former and this is something KKL always does. You will need to put digital access in place now for your executors to use only after your death.

For further advice, please call 020 8732 6121 or email enquiries@kkl.org.uk

holidays o , empower them to sort out who is taking how much time o in which holiday.

Help them to understand the impact their absence has on the business if too many of them are out at the same time.

They need to understand that the business needs to continue to function e ectively, or they might not have a job to return to if the business folds due to poor customer service every time people take leave.

5 Be prepared to discipline people if they request leave, you turn it down and they take it anyway, or claim to be sick. Follow a proper process; but without enforcement, you will get more of what you tolerate.

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

Whether you are just starting out in the job market, looking for a change or have concerns about the future, landing your perfect job – well that’s our job.

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 di erent 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 di erent circumstances, in many cases, the insurer will accept preexisting conditions.

But buying online it’s very di cult 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.

Exeter Insurance Health & Financial Fears research found that 20 percent felt it was important to buy health insurance when they were ill or following an illness. With 74 percent of people surveyed saying they’re concerned about accessing NHS treatment. Patient Health Ltd, free advice, no charges, putting people first.

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

HUMAN RESOURCES / EMPLOYMENT LAW

DONNA OBSTFELD

Qualifications:

• FCIPD Chartered HR Professional

• 25 years in HR and business management.

• Mediator, business coach, trainer, author and speaker

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

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

ADAM SHELLEY

Qualifications:

ACCOUNTANT

• FCCA chartered certified accountant

• Accounting, taxation and business advisory services

• Entrepreneurial business specialist including start-up businesses

• Specialises in charities; personal tax returns

• Maurice Wohl Charitable Foundation Volunteer of the Year JVN award

SOBELL RHODES LLP 020 8429 8800

www.sobellrhodes.co.uk

a.shelley@sobellrhodes.co.uk

CHARITY EXECUTIVE

LISA WIMBORNE

Qualifications:

Able to draw on the charity’s 50 years of experience in enabling people with physical disabilities or impaired vision to live independently, including:

• The provision of specialist accommodation with 24/7 on-site support

• Knowledge of the innovations that empower people and the benefits available

• Understanding of the impact of a disability diagnosis

JEWISH BLIND & DISABLED 020 8371 6611

www.jbd.org

Lisa@jbd.org

LESLEY TRENNER

Qualifications:

CAREER ADVISER

• Provides free professional one-to-one advice at Resource to help unemployed into work

• Offers mock interviews and workshops to maximise job prospects

• Expert in corporate management holding director level marketing, commercial and general management roles

RESOURCE

020 8346 4000

www.resource-centre.org

office@resource-centre.org

PRIVATE HEALTHCARE SPECIALIST

TREVOR GEE

Qualifications:

• Managing director, consultant specialists in affordable family health insurance

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

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

• LLB solicitors finals

• Member of Chartered Insurance Institute

PATIENT HEALTH

020 3146 3444/5/6 www.patienthealth.co.uk trevor.gee@patienthealth.co.uk

ISRAEL PROPERTY

ILAN RUBINSTEIN

Qualifications:

& MORTGAGE BROKER

• UK born, licenced Israel estate agent in Israel since 2001

• Ilan assists in buying, financing & re-sale of new & existing property in Israel.

• Helps level the playing field opposite vendors, developers & even the bank

• Attentive to your needs, saving you time, hassle & money

I.L.A.N. ESTATES & INVESTMENTS “Bringing Jews Home” UK: 0203-807-0878 ISRAEL: +972-504-910-604 www.ilanrealestate.com nadlan@hotmail.com

JEWELLER

JONATHAN WILLIAMS

Qualifications:

• Jewellery manufacturer since 1980s

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

FINANCIAL SERVICES (FCA) COMPLIANCE

JACOB BERNSTEIN

Qualifications:

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

• Mortgage, protection and general insurance intermediaries;

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

• Alternative Investment Fund managers;

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

RICHDALE CONSULTANTS LTD

020 7781 8019

www.richdale.co.uk

jacob@richdale.co.uk

FINANCIAL SERVICES

JOE OZER

Qualifications:

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

• Worked in finance for more than 20 years

• Specialists in distribution and promotion of Israel Bonds

DEVELOPMENT COMPANY FOR ISRAEL

020 3936 2712

www.israelbondsintl.com

joe.ozer@israelbondsintl.com

GOAL ATTAINMENT SPECIALIST

DR BEN LEVY

Qualifications:

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

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

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

CAROLYN ADDLEMAN

Qualifications:

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

DIRECTOR OF LEGACIES

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

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

• Member of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners

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

REMOVALS MANAGING DIRECTOR

STEPHEN MORRIS

Qualifications:

• Managing director of Stephen Morris Shipping Ltd

• 45 years’ experience in shipping household and personal effects

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

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

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

• Works with clients individually to maximise success

MAKE IT HAPPEN

07779 619 597

www.makeit-happen.co.uk ben@makeit-happen.co.uk

SUE CIPIN OBE

Qualifications:

CHARITY EXECUTIVE

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

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

• Extensive services for people affected by hearing loss/tinnitus

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

• Hearing aid advice, support and maintenance

JEWISH DEAF ASSOCIATION

020 8446 0502

www.jdeaf.org.uk mail@jdeaf.org.uk

PRINCIPAL, PERFORMING ARTS SCHOOL

LOUISE LEACH

Qualifications:

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

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

• Set up Dancing with Louise 19 years ago

DANCING WITH LOUISE

075 0621 7833

www.dancingwithlouise.co.uk

Info@dancingwithlouise.com

Who We Are:

Since its founding in 2004, Masa has served more than 200,000 young professionals from over 60 countries, and its network continues to grow. Make this year stand out and see where your Masa can take you.

What We Do:

Masa Israel Journey is more than just a physical journey to Israel. It’s an opportunity to explore oneself in new surroundings while gaining a transformative experience. Masa offers life-changing, long-term opportunities, 2-10 months for fellows between the ages of 16 - 40 in Israel, that allows fellows to shape their own futures. Masa fosters an environment where fellows are encouraged to strive towards their personal and professional destinations both during and after their programme in Israel.

For more information visit www.masaisrael.org masa@ujia.org

THE JEWISH NEWS CROSSWORD

11 Female rabbit (3)

12 Morally proper (7)

WORDSEARCH

Fun, games and prizes

SUDOKU

11 Major Scottish river (5)

12 Actual being (9)

13 Blue Shoes, Presley song (5)

14 Culinary pulveriser (6)

16 Plus (2,4)

19 Farmland units (5)

21 Make more secure (7)

23 Try to win the affection of (3)

24 Sudden thrust (5)

25 Take away (7)

26 Tending flocks (11)

DOWN

2 Dog’s restraining chain (5)

3 Appendix to a will (7)

4 Wax light with a wick (6)

6 Bishop’s area (7)

7 Signal to take action (4-2,4)

14 Crispy lettuce (3)

SUDOKU

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

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

15 ___ Brown, Judi Dench film (3)

16 South American country (9)

19 Broadcasting agencies (5)

21 Excursions (7)

23 Organised campaign for reform (7)

24 Errol ___, swashbuckling actor (5)

DOWN

1 Muffle, suppress (6)

2 Cookies in the US (8)

3 Mont Blanc’s range (4)

4 Cause (6)

5 ___ basket, wickerwork carrycot (5)

5 Remove dirt without water (3-5)

6 Sir ___ Murray, Scottish tennis star (4)

7 Guides, escorts (6)

10 Of clothes, reaching the middle of the leg (4-6)

15 Squash (7)

17 With vision (7)

18 Heavy uninteresting food (6)

20 Lottery (5)

13 Reckless type (8)

14 Smoke outlets (8)

15 Imitates (6)

17 Look angrily (6)

CROSSWORD CODEWORD

9 7 2 6 2 3 8 1 4 4 5 5 2 3 7 3 9 4 7 8 3 4 9 6 5 2

SUGURU

18 Official agreement or sanction (6)

20 Stern, unsmiling (4)

22 Practise for a feat of endurance (5)

22 Silly row (4)

CODEWORD

The words relating to Isambard Kingdom Brunel can all be found in the grid. Words may run either forwards or backwards, in a horizontal, vertical or diagonal direction, but always in a straight, unbroken line.

LL IE RY G

KLA N TST D

IOI AR UM

MA DHR SI

EAEAA CI N

GM S ELS O

ATS DN AB H

SH IR EAP

OM P ETE U

ATE PM UR TE

with I I

SUGURU

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

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

In this finished crossword, every letter of the alphabet appears as a code number. All you have to do is crack the code and fill in the grid. Replacing the decoded numbers with their letters in the grid will help you to guess the identity of other letters.

direction, 19 22 84413231924172313 10 11 23 17 16 10 8 6101815112423 4811232410 23 15 21 17 1 24 23 11 18 22 10 26 19 17 15 6 10 19 17 19 24 23 19 14 8251011 25111113 18 6334724 22 5101012 583 10 45 23 17 17 419 19 22 23 4101 10 19 19 11 10 19 19 24 24 23 10 10 11 1 10 910182419201010241 10 12345678910111213 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26

but always in a straight, unbroken line. ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

backwards, in a horizontal, S S

Last issue’s solutions

4 5 3 3 5 314 2 5 4 3

See next issue for puzzle solutions. All puzzles © Puzzler Media Ltd - www.puzzler.com

See next issue for puzzle solutions.

COMPETE CORNET DURHAM ENSEMBLE EUPHONIUM PIT SCHOOL TREDEGAR Sudoku Suguru Wordsearch Codeword Mildly 9 Theatre Pencil 15 Fewer Hills 22 Aquaria Hints 3 Umber Matriarchs 8 World-weary Contract 15 Flushed Link. EO CC O BRAUA K MN BO DH PF HSR Y AN EOAOE WU A GC RECK AT ID K RL IH YT IL JE A EOE PWE LN TMT EVSAS IH T GUO NI VL HGN CM SA RE KCAR CER IF T DI NSD EESS L T BJ AL APE NOR DWA RF HO WL S RS I GLO OH L AL TE RI AR OM A ME STXL C AURA ARC NEC K N SME AR O C HEAP NI CER U GLO OM G ST AR EVE QU IP AM JE RNU BRA VO RA LI EN RZ EA TE NT C EN EMY TE ET H Z D H B M E J U P A O F Q R T V G S Y X N K I C L W 4 6 3 8 2 9 5 7 1 8 9 1 5 3 7 2 4 6 2 7 5 1 4 6 8 3 9 1 5 9 4 6 3 7 8 2 3 8 6 7 1 2 9 5 4 7 2 4 9 8 5 1 6 3 6 1 8 2 7 4 3 9 5 5 4 2 3 9 8 6 1 7 9 3 7 6 5 1 4 2 8 1 3 5 214 4214 3 5 3 5 3 5 21 1421 3 4 2 3 5 421 4121 3 5 3 4154 1 1 2323 2 3 5414 5 2 1232 1 3 4514 3 1 2325 1 solutions TROMBONE TRUMPET TUBA YORKSHIRE

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