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Five months on

Mum’s and bride’s day Images that tell stories in UK and Israel of the last 150 days p38-39

A double l’chaim weekend! p40

Benny Gantz’s UK trip leaves Bibi on the brink

Furious prime minister forbids Israeli embassy in London from providing security for arch rival

New details emerged this week about the strained relations between Benjamin Netanyahu and cabinet minister Benny Gantz, as Gantz – widely seen as the country’s prime minister in waiting –openly defied Netanyahu by embarking on whirlwind diplomatic trips to the UK and United States, writes Lee Harpin.

Jewish News can reveal that in a phone call last Friday, Netanyahu ordered Gantz not to undertake the trip, seen by many as a direct challenge to his authority.

His war cabinet minister, however, went ahead with meetings in Washington DC and London. Furious Netanyahu reacted by telling his embassies in both countries not to assist with any aspect of Gantz’s visit, including security.

A source familiar with the trip told Jewish News that the uno cial visits had already given a huge credit boost to Israel in

diplomatic circles. The source added that there is now huge distrust of Netanyahu abroad and a growing assumption among world leaders that he is not an honest negotiator.

In a “tense” meeting on Wednesday, Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron told Gantz that the UK’s patience is wearing thin.

Cameron also noted that because Israel is the “occupying power” in Gaza it has a duty to supply aid under the rules of humanitarian law.

Dudi Amsalem, a minister in Netanyahu’s Likud Party, was openly critical of Gantz’s decision to defy the prime minister, accusing him of breaching his role in the war cabinet and attempting to stop Israel “from winning the war”.

An Israeli Channel 13 poll this week showed that Gantz, chair of Israel’s National Unity Party, was likely to win 39 seats in an election, with Netanyahu securing just 17.

• Latest hostage hopes dashed, page 4

HEIR IN THE COMMUNITY

The Prince of Wales meets 94-year-old Holocaust survivor Renee Salt during an emotionally charged visit to Western Marble Arch Synagogue last week. Full story on page 19

AMNESTY BACKS EMPLOYEE WHO ADMIRES SUICIDE OVER GAZA

A senior member of sta at Amnesty International UK has said the suggestion of a suicide protest over Gaza outside the Houses of Parliament would be “a supreme act that communicates a strong message”, writes Beatrice Sayers.

Peter Frankental was speaking to a reporter at a pro-Palestinian march in London after a US airman, Aaron

Bushnell, set himself on fire outside the Israeli Embassy in Washington DC in protest at the conflict.

The charity’s economic a airs programme director was carrying a sign at Saturday’s event that said: “Aaron Bushnell: An act of bravery and courage that will not be forgotten.” Asked whether he would condone a similar action in West-

minster, he said: “Yes, certainly, it’s a supreme act for somebody to take their life in that way for what they believe in. Very few people would be prepared to do that and it communicates a strong message.”

Bushnell, 25, wore military uniform and shouted “free Palestine” during the incident, which he livestreamed on the website Twitch. He

was taken to hospital but died a few hours later. Earlier, he had emailed several news and anarchist websites, the BBC reported.

People who take their own life are usually considered to be mentally ill and the incident treated as tragic.

Concerns have been expressed about the mental health of Bushnell,

Continued on page 4

Frankental (right) with his banner

Benny Gantz with Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer

“In these exceptionally trying times, our communities are united by our deep connection to Israel and our profound desire to see the Jewish State exist in peace and security. As part of our global Jewish ‘mishpocha’, so many of us identify strongly with the challenges Israel currently faces and are keen to express our love and solidarity with our brothers and sisters there in a meaningful way. Shabbat for Israel will provide a wonderful opportunity to do just that. I encourage all who are able, to take part in whatever way they can.

Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis

This is Inbal Zach

Inbal is the cousin of Tal Shoham. Tal, 38 was taken hostage by Hamas terrorists on October 7 from Kibbutz Be’eri when some 3,000 Hamas terrorists invaded Israel and murdered 1,200 — mostly civilians — and took about 240 hostages to Gaza. Shoham was kidnapped along with his wife, Adi, his daughter, Yahel, 3, and son, Naveh, 8, as well as his mother-in-law Shoshan Haran, his wife’s aunt Sharon Avigdori and her daughter Noam, 12.

Tal’s extended family members were released from captivity on November 25 as part of a temporary cease re deal between Hamas and Israel.

This is Michael Levy

Michael is the brother of Or Levy.

the news

Or and his wife, Eynav le early on the morning of October 7th to drive to the Nova Music Festival. The young couple arrived at around 6:30 a.m, quickly realising that the celebration of music had turned into a massacre. Or and Eynav were able to escape the horrors for a short time, heading for their car when a barrage of rockets began. They took refuge in a roadside bomb shelter, where they spoke to their family for the last time at around 7:30 a.m.

The family waited for days in complete darkness about whether Or and Eynav had survived. A er several days, the families were noti ed of the heart-wrenching news that Eynav had been murdered inside the shelter during the a ack. Or, they discovered, was taken captive to Gaza.

Eynav and Or have been married for ve years and share a two year old son, Almog. The two met 14 years ago in high school and share many loves - music, adventure, and family.

This is Avivit Yablonka

Avivit is the sister of Chanan Yablonka.

Chanan turned 42 in Hamas captivity. He lives in Tel Aviv and is the father of two children, 9 and 12. Chanan is a salesperson at Club Hotel. He is the youngest of 3 children and has a strong bond with his parents. On the night of October 6th, Chanan was celebrating Shabbat and Simchat Torah at his parents’ house with his siblings. A er dinner, Chanan and his friends began heading to Northern Israel when they made a last-minute decision to turn around and go to the Nova Music Festival instead.

Following the a ack, it was unclear whether Chanan was killed or taken captive, so he was considered ‘missing’. His condition remained unknown until January, when the Yablonkas were briefed that Chanan was indeed alive, although he was in captivity.

The day of the a ack, four of Yablonka’s friends who a ended the festival with him were murdered.

INBAL,

Orit is the mother of Almog Meir Jan Almog Meir Jan is a young, 21 year old who lives with his mother in Or Yehuda. He is known by those around him by his fun-loving, outgoing, and friendly personality.

Almog, who has a deep passion for music, went to the Nova Music Festival the weekend of October 7th. The morning of the 7th at 7:45 a.m., Almog called his mother, alarmed by the horrors that began unfolding around him. He told her: “Ima [mom], turn on the television. The army has shut down the party. There are rockets from all directions, and we are being shot at. I don’t know what’s going on, but I will try to call you every half an hour. Ima, I love you.”

That was the last that his mother heard from him that day. He and dozens of others were kidnapped from the festival. Hundreds more were murdered.

This is Yehuda Cohen with sons Nimrod (L) and Yotam

Nimrod Cohen, a young, 19 year old who was serving in the IDF, was taken hostage from kibbutz Nahal Oz.

A er hours in complete darkness about whether he had survived that horri c event, a family friend had found a video of Almog. The video was posted by Hamas to social media, and showed Almog in Hamas captivity.

In his close-knit family, Nimrod has an older brother, Yotam, and a twin sister, Romi. His entire family actively seeks the return of Nimrod. His family found out that he was taken hostage from a video posted by Hamas that day. Though thankful that he is alive, they worry deeply about the conditions he is being held in. On the day of the 7th, during the a ack, Nimrod’s family texted him, inquiring about the a ack and whether he was okay, but Nimrod was unable to answer. His base was under a ack and several were taken hostage. More were killed.

empathetic,

Described as very sensitive, quiet, and empathetic, Nimrod has garnered a ection from many who know him. Beyond his military commitment, Nimrod’s interests include a passion for computer games, a love for travel, and a knack for solving Rubik’s Cube puzzles.

WILL BE IN THE UK AS PART OF THE DELEGATION FOR SHABBAT FOR ISRAEL. TO SEE HOW YOU CAN TAKE PART.

Hostage hopes dashed again

by Jotam Confino in Israel jotam@jewishnews.co.uk

@mrconfino

Hopes for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas were shattered once again this week, as Hamas refused to provide Israel with a list of hostages to be released in a deal.

Israel agreed in principle to an outline for a six-week ceasefire, with 40 hostages (women, children, older and ill captives) to be freed from Gaza in return for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.

However, Israel insisted that Hamas provide a detailed list of hostages who are alive, something Hamas said wasn’t possible.

US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller rejected Hamas’ claim about not being able to provide such a list, saying: “They took these hostages, they continue to hold them. If they continue to hold them, they must know where they are.

“If you are Israel, and you are in discussions about an agreement where you would see the return of a certain number of hostages, it is a fair question to Hamas to show you that they can actually deliver on that deal, show you who those hostages are and confirm that they are alive,” he added.

Senior Hamas o cial Osama Hamdan meanwhile reiterated the

terror group’s demand for a permanent ceasefire and a “complete withdrawal” of Israeli forces.

“The security and safety of our people will be achieved only by a permanent cease-fire, the end of the aggression and the withdrawal from every inch of the Gaza Strip,” he said.

US President Biden said that ceasefire/hostage deal “is in the hands of Hamas right now… There’s been a rational o er. The Israelis have agreed to it… We’ll know in a couple days if it’s going to happen.

“There’s got to be a ceasefire because [if] we get into a circumstance where this continues through Ramadan… Israel and Jerusalem… it could be very, very dangerous,” he added.

War cabinet member Benny Gantz warned that Israeli forces would enter Rafah in southern Gaza if a deal with Hamas hadn’t been agreed on by Ramadan, which is set to begin on Sunday.

More than 1.3 million Palestinians are sheltering in Rafah, but Israel says Hamas still has four battalions in the city, making it a vital point for the IDF to enter.

The US has warned Israel repeatedly that it needs to have a viable plan for the evacuation of civilians from Rafah before it launches its military operation there.

Israel came under heavy criticism over the weekend following an incident in northern Gaza where Hamas says that more than 100 Palestinians were killed after Israeli soldiers opened fire at them as they were looting aid trucks.

Israel has denied shooting at the trucks, but a senior Israeli security o cial told Jewish News that some soldiers were forced to fire at Palestinians after they ignored the soldiers’ warning shots.

Israel says dozens were killed during a stampede as a mob of Pal-

estinians attacked aid trucks. The international system, including Israel’s closest allies, called on an independent investigation into the incident.

“Too many innocent Palestinians have been killed,” US vice-president Kamala Harris said prior to her meeting with war cabinet member Benny Gantz in Washington.

“Just a few days ago, we saw hungry desperate people approach aid trucks, simply trying to secure food for their families after weeks of nearly no aid reaching northern Gaza. They were met with gunfire and chaos.”

Biden also said that Washington was pressing Israel “very hard” to allow more aid into Gaza. “There’s no excuses. None,” he said.

US secretary of state Antony Blinken backed Biden’s statement, saying Washington will “continue to press Israel every single day because the situation as it stands is simply unacceptable”.

Yesterday, Haaretz reported that Israel has decided to allow humanitarian aid from the United Arab Emirates in to Gaza via sea. The aid

will be inspected by Israel and delivered by ships from Cyprus.

Since the Gaza aid truck incident last week, the United States, along with Egypt, Jordan and France, have airdropped tonnes of humanitarian aid over northern Gaza, where the UN is warning about pockets of famine.

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen’s spokesperson said that EU is looking at a maritime corridor for aid as well.

“Our e orts are focused on making sure that we can provide aid to Palestinians. We all hope that this opening [of the corridor] will take place very soon.”

The World Food Programme said a convoy of 14 aid trucks was “turned back by the IDF after a three-hour wait at the Wadi Gaza checkpoint”, in northern Gaza, adding to the frustration over logistical challenges in getting the aid delivered.

“We need entry points to northern Gaza that will allow us to deliver enough food for half a million people in desperate need,” said Carl Skau, WFP’s deputy executive director.

BBC TO CO-PRODUCE NOVA FILM Book fears unfounded

The international documentary stream of the BBC has signed on to co-produce a documentary about the 7 October massacre at the

Nova music festival, writes Michelle Rosenberg.

BBC Storyville, together with MGM Television and Fulwell 73 label Bitachon

365, are on board to create the film, given the working title We Will Dance Again Produced by Bad Boys studio Sipur and led by Israeli film-maker and screenwriter Yariv Mozer, it will feature new interviews and previously unseen exclusive footage from the massacre at the Israeli festival near Kibbutz Re’im on the Gaza border, where party-goers were raped, murdered, tortured and kidnapped by terrorists.

Sheldon Lazarus, of Bitachon, said: “The massacre at the Super Nova festival was

a crime against humanity, broadcast in real time to the world by its perpetrators. The film we are making is a testament to the triumph of the human spirit against the most incredible odds and in the face of unimaginable horror.”

Lucie Kon, the British Jewish producer of We Are British Jews, is an executive producer on the project and told Jewish News: “We are pleased and proud to be able to bring this devastating but important story to BBC audiences later this year.”

A leading literary agent says claims that “much of literary London is a no-go zone for Jews” are “not my experience — it’s really not the case”, writes Jenni Frazer.

Stephanie Thwaites, head of the book department at Curtis Brown, who is working with the Jewish Literary Foundation on its emerging writers programme, was commenting after a story in the national press based on the remarks of an anonymous literary agent.

This agent, according to independent publisher Stephen Games, said that “half of British publishers are refusing to take books by authors who are identifiably Jewish”. Games said it was an

“emerging problem” that had been “exacerbated” since the IsraelGaza war began in October. He told the Daily Telegraph that the anonymous agent had said that there was “no point putting proposals up to commissioning editors as they just are not interested”.

But Thwaites told Jewish News: “This is really not the case. It’s not been our experience and I do find it troubling that it draws attention away from what the real issues are.

“We have a Jewish publishers’ group which we formed after October 7, so I hear a lot from other Jewish publishing professionals, and that just isn’t anyone’s experience”.

Ayelet Samerano, the mother of Jonathan Samerano, whose body was seized and taken to the Gaza Strip by an UNRWA employee after he was killed by Hamas, reacts at a screening of the event in Paris on Tuesday

The Board of Deputies protested outside Parliament on Tuesday, holding photographs of the kidnapped

GoPro footage of the attack at the festival

Amnesty employee / Cameron plea / Judge investigated / Councillor abuse /MPs warned

Amnesty UK supports ‘any colleague’ who commemorates public protest by suicide

Continued from page 1 who grew up in Massachusetts in a neighbourhood on Cape Cod known as the Community of Jesus and which has been accused of being a cult. In 2020, a Canadian court cited the influence of the Community of Jesus in the physical and psychological abuse of students at Grenville Christian College who told of being forced to undergo bizarre, humiliating and painful punishment at the hands of those in charge.

Amnesty issued a statement backing Frankental, saying worldwide protests over Gaza show the strength of feeling on the issue. “We support any colleague who chooses, in their own personal time, to commemorate someone who died while protesting about the terrible human rights crisis happening right now

CAMERON

while the world is watching but failing to act,” the charity said.

In his role at Amnesty, Frankental is responsible for tackling the rights impacts of businesses, trade, investment and the regulatory environment to hold companies accountable and to ensure access to remedy for victims of corporate abuse, according to his LinkedIn profile. He has previously worked in the NHS and has done postgraduate studies at institutions including the London School of Economics.

On the Israel-Gaza war, sparked by Hamas’s 7 October pogrom in southern Israel, Amnesty has issued “an urgent call for an immediate ceasefire by all parties in the occupied Gaza Strip and Israel”. It has added: “The root causes – including the Israeli authorities system of

TELLS

David Cameron told a packed Jewish Care lunch of his hope a “pause” in fighting in Gaza could turn into a

“sustainable ceasefire” leading eventually to a “horizon towards a Palestinian state, not involving Hamas”.

The foreign secretary accepted there was no guarantee the “five step” plan would work and if Hamas were not removed from Gaza, Israel would “have every right” to say “we have to go back in and finish the job”.

In a question-and-answer session with Conservative peer and commentator Danny Finkelstein, Cameron accepted he was entering “controversial” subject matter by seeking a “pause” in fighting allowing the release of the hostages before attempts were made to turn such a break in hostilities into a proper end to the conflict.

apartheid against Palestinians and decades of impunity – must be fully addressed.”

In a statement about Hamas’s pogrom, it has said the “shocking summary killings and abductions of civilians displayed a chilling disregard for life and for international law. Deliberate attacks on civilians and hostage-taking are war crimes and cannot be justified under any circumstances.”

The charity has been strongly criticised in the past for its long-running ‘Israeli Apartheid’ campaign, which states that: “Whether they live in Gaza, East Jerusalem, Hebron, or Israel itself, Palestinians are treated as an inferior racial group and systematically deprived of their rights.”

Amnesty International was founded in London in 1961 by Peter

Benenson, a Jewish barrister who had recently converted to Catholicism. He resigned five years later, partly

because of ill health. Peter Frankental did not respond to a request for comment.

Cameron warned lunch guests hostages still held by Hamas, including those with “deep connections” to the UK “are not going to make it unless we get them out soon”.

He told the lunch, attended by 1,000 guests, this could be done only if certain conditions were fulfilled –release of all hostages. dismantling the terror machine in Gaza and removing the Hamas leadership, including those behind 7 October, either surrendering or going to another country.

“It is a new Palestinian government appointed by the Palestinian Authority with technocrats who can start delivering things on the ground in Gaza and the West Bank,” Cameron said.

Arrests after councillor hissed

JEWISH CARE OF ‘HORIZON’ HOPE FOR PEACE CALL

Three people have been arrested on suspicion of committing a racially and/ or religiously motivated offence after a Jewish Labour councillor was heckled and hissed at during a meeting of Newham Council, writes Lee Harpin.

The Met Police also confirmed to Jewish News officers were treating the abuse directed at councillor Joshua Garfield as a hate crime.

Newham-based detective superintendent Dion Brown confirmed: “We are aware of the incident that took place at a Newham Council meeting.

“We are treating this incident as a hate crime and have already made contact with the victim.

“Fast-paced enquiries are under way. Any witnesses, or anyone with any information about this incident, is asked to call police on 101, quoting CAD 2017/01Mar.”

London mayor Sadiq Khan

condemned what he said was “appalling behaviour” that had been directed at Garfield.

The councillor represents the Stratford ward on the council, and recently stood down from a role in the cabinet.

The mayor added: “There is no place in our city for antisemitism or hate speech of any kind.”

Home secretary James Cleverly

and communities secretary Michael Gove also both expressed disgust on social media at the antisemitic abuse directed at the councillor.

Gove posted his reaction in a post on X/Twitter.

He wrote: “This is disgusting. As minister responsible for local government, I want to express my solidarity with councillor Joshua Garfield. Antisemitism is a poison we must all confront.”

Cleverly meanwhile recalled Garfield standing against him in the Braintree seat at the general election.

He tweeted: “Joshua stood against me ... We debated and we disagreed, but always with good grace.

“He is right to stand strong against attempts to bully him and others from the public space. I am determined to protect his right to represent and speak for his community.”

A senior judge who faced a barrage of criticism after he “decided not to punish” three women who had displayed paraglider images at a pro-Palestinian protest in London is to be investigated over alleged bias, reports say.

Deputy chief magistrate Tan Ikram, who allowed the trio who were convicted of terrorism offences to walk free, is to be investigated over the decision to give convicted defendants conditional discharges.

It follows the disclosure that he had recently liked a social media post that branded Israel a “terrorist” state and called for a “free Palestine”.

Ikram, 58, who also sits on the body that appoints judges in England and Wales, liked a LinkedIn post by a barrister who previously promoted conspiracy theories claiming Israel allowed the 7 October Hamas terror attack.

Ministers have been urged to consider proposals to ban MPs and councillors from engaging with groups such as the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) and Just Stop Oil.

The plans, put forward by the government’s adviser on political violence John Woodcock, now

Lord Walney, say mainstream political leaders should tell their representatives to employ a “zero-tolerance approach” to groups that use disruptive tactics or fail to stop “hate” on marches.

Walney, a crossbench peer, wrote in the Sun on Sunday: “My review is about to be formally submitted to the prime minister and the home secretary ... I am asking the leader of every mainstream political party to take a zerotolerance approach to the menace threatening our democracy.

“Rishi and Keir [Starmer] should instruct their MPs and councillors not to engage with anyone from the PSC until they [the PSC] get their house in order and cut the hate from their marches.”

Hissed: Joshua Garfield

Peter Frankental (right) sees Aaron Bushnell’s suicide as ‘act of courage’

David Cameron at the lunch

Judge Tanweer Ikram

MP Apsana Begum at a rally

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‘Time for action, not words’ on protests, Suella tells Rishi

Suella Braverman has said it is “time for action, not words” from Rishi Sunak after calling for the prime minister to introduce emergency legislation to restrict pro-Palestine marches, writes Lee Harpin.

The former home secretary also stepped up her criticism of the policing of demonstrations, claiming that “we need to see a step change in the police response”.

In the interview with GB News, Braverman welcomed a speech the prime minister made last Friday outside Downing Street, but added: “The time for words has come to an end and we do need to see action.”

She claimed that at last weekend’s Palestine protests she saw “tens of thousands of people take to the streets, chanting hateful slogans and behaving in a totally unacceptable way in many instances, overwhelming the police, notably, where police resource has been disproportionate to actually what’s happening”.

As home secretary, Braverman

was accused of bitterly inflaming the situation ahead of a Palestine demonstration close to Remembrance Day on 11 November.

At the protest, police made significant arrests after far-right activists descended on central London at the same time as the pro-Palestine demo.

But the government’s independent adviser on antisemitism Lord Mann openly raised concerns about Braverman’s time as home secretary.

He said she “ignored advice I provided on how to tackle antisemitism and issues for her department. In fact she never even bothered to read them. Her inaction in office is a part of the problem.”

Further criticising the police response to marches in her GB News interview, Braverman added: “So we need to see a step change in the police response.

“They need to be enforcing the law. They need to be arresting people who are using threatening or abusive language. We need to be holding the police to account in a

GEORGE GALLOWAY TAKES SEAT – WITHOUT CORBYN

George Galloway has been introduced back into House of Commons in the traditional ceremony for new MPs –bare of his trademark hat and without the support of Jeremy Corbyn.

Later at a press conference, asked about comments in which he appeared to compare Israel’s actions in Gaza with the Holocaust he said Israel was committing “some of the most foul, atrocious crimes against humanity we’ve seen since the Second World War”.

He added of last week’s Rochdale byelection: “If the by-election had been in February of 1940, or 1941, would anyone seriously have condemned me for putting the crimes of the Holocaust at the centre of my election campaign?”

Galloway was sworn in at 2.30pm on Monday having taken an oath of allegiance that lets him take his seat. Jewish News watched the short ceremony alongside the other Westmin-

ster journalists from the press gallery above the Chamber.

As Galloway walked up to shake Speaker Lindsay Hoyle’s hand, the new MP was reminded that he had “probably signed in more than anybody else”, having previously been a Labour and Respect Party representative.

But in a snub for Galloway, his claim that he would be introduced into the Commons by the Tory grandee David Davis and the former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, proved false.

Instead he escorted into the Commons by Sir Peter Bottomley, the Conservative MP who is father of the house, and Neale Hanvey, the leader of the Alba Party (Alex Salmond’s fringe Scottish nationalist party), who were acting as Galloway ‘s joint sponsors.

Bottomley, who was duty-bound to carry out the ceremony, wore a tie in the colours of the Ukrainian flag, a clear message to Galloway, who has faced claims of being a Putin apologist.

Corbyn was not in the Chamber for the ceremony at the start of Monday’s proceedings but Diane Abbott, also currently without the Labour whip, was.

At a press conference after he was sworn in, Galloway was asked by Jewish News about the snub he had received from Corbyn. He reused to answer.

Earlier he claimed: “Jeremy Corbyn was supposed to be my sponsor but then he realised he had a long-standing commitment”.

better way and I would have liked to have seen an emergency law introduced to actually empower ministers and empower all of those policymakers who are responsible for this issue to actually take steps to restrict some of these marches.

“You know, this has been going on now for four months.

“It’s become a weekly fixture. Parts of London have become no-go areas for Jewish people.”

Lord Mann joined those criticising efforts to ban marches, writing on X/Twitter: “We live in a democracy, thankfully. The big-

gest losers if we start to restrict the right to peaceful protest will be the Jewish community. Extremists are a problem. Noisy protests are not.”

On Tuesday, Braverman met with Campaign Against Antisemitism chief Gideon Falter in Westminster.

Lib Dem leader sees 7 October sites

Sir Ed Davey has returned from a two-day visit to Israel where he saw the impact of the Hamas terror attacks, saying the experience “better equipped me to grasp the gravity of what happened”, writes Lee Harpin.

The Lib Dem leader was accompanied by Liberal Democrat Friends of Israel’s Gavin Stoller.

Davey met former prime minister Yair Lapid, and visited Yad Vashem and Kibbutz Kfar Aza. He also went to east Jerusalem, visiting a hospital and speaking with NGOs.

Davey was the first sitting Lib Dem leader to visit Israel since 1988, when the party was formed.

He wrote on X/Twitter: “The humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza is deepening, with thousands dead and over 1.5m people displaced. And the

hostage crisis following the 7 October terrorist attacks continues.”

During the visit Davey said: “Too many lives have been ruined or lost. We must find a route to peace. Liberal Democrats call for an immediate bilateral ceasefire to put an end to the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, return the hostages, and pave the way for a two-state solution.”

On his return he spoken of his fear that the two-state solution was in danger of collapsing, adding that the UK should impose sanctions on two far-right Israeli ministers who have pushed for more settlements on Palestinian land.

LIBRARY OFFERS TESTIMONIES

Israelis will be able to access the USC Shoah Foundation’s entire Visual History Archive at the National Library of Israel, which includes testimonies from more than 52,000 Holocaust survivors as well as survivors of the 7 October massacre.

The partnership was announced at an event at the newly opened National Library of Israel building in Jerusalem. Israel will be the only country where the Visual History Archive is accessible nationwide.

The foundation’s executive director Dr Robert J Williams said: “The work of the USC Shoah Foundation with the National Library of Israel is a strong sign of what is possible when major institutions work

in partnership in ways that elevate each other’s missions. Together, we are creating a resource that not only helps inform the global struggle against antisemitism, but one that also builds awareness and understanding of the Jewish people.”

He stressed the importance of all testimonies being available in Israel, where nearly half the remaining Holocaust survivors and the majority of 7 October survivors live.

“The USC Shoah Foundation’s archive contains uniquely powerful sources that inform education, research and awareness-raising initiatives that bring people and societies face-to-face with the human beings who survived the world’s oldest

hatred. By giving scholars, educators and the wider public additional access to these testimonies through the National Library of Israel, we are helping connect the past with the present in ways that can secure a better future for Israel and the wider international community,” he said.

National Library of Israel chairman Sallai Meridor said the library is the “keeper of national memory for the Jewish people and the State of Israel”.

USC Shoah Foundation has gathered more than 400 testimonies of 7 October survivors and eyewitnesses. The National Library of Israel will now serve as a “central repository” cataloguing the testimonies.

George Galloway is sworn in

Ed Davey on his visit to Israel

Rishi Sunak at last week’s CST dinner and (inset) Suella Braverman

Mann praised by community amid reports of ‘sacking’

Lord John Mann has been widely praised for his record of defending the community’s interests in his role as the government’s independent antisemitism adviser amid claims he faces the sack, writes Lee Harpin.

Senior communal figures, including former Jewish Leadership Council chair Jonathan Goldstein, said the peer had proved himself to be a “great servant” to British Jewry, after LBC reported there were discussions within government about ousting the longstanding campaigner in favour of a new independent adviser.

Mann had been appointed into the newlycreated role under former prime minister Theresa May’s leadership in 2019, following recommendations, including from the late former Chief Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks.

Asked to comment on claims the former

A high-profile Republican told journalist Emily Maitlis to “f*** off” in an interview about conspiracy theories.

Donald Trump ally Marjorie Taylor Greene was questioned by the former Newsnight presenter about her 2018 Facebook post in which she speculated lasers controlled by a left-

Labour MP was now set to be ousted in the role when his current five year term ends in July, Downing Street told Jewish News “no decision” had been made.

But in a staunch defence of Mann’s performance in the role, ex-JLC head Goldstein, said: “Lord Mann’s track record as a great servant and staunch ally of the Jewish community speaks for itself.

“His work combatting antisemitic hatred in universities, schools, and in sport has proved to be hugely effective.”

Goldstein, chief exec of investment firm Cain International, and a director and coowner of Chelsea FC, added: “In the aftermath of the 7 October Hamas terror atrocity and the shocking increase in antisemitic incidents in the UK now is not the time for change.

wing cabal tied to a powerful Jewish family could have been responsible for sparking California wildfires.

In response, Taylor Greene, in a video clip posted to podcast The News Agents’s social media – which was recorded at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago headquarters on

“Our community more than ever needs stability, continuity and the ally ship that Lord Mann has shown in this role.”

In January prime minister Rishi Sunak had

Tuesday, ended the conversation by responding “really why don’t you f*** off, how about that”.

Maitlis started the line of questioning by asking Taylor Greene why “so many people that support Donald Trump love conspiracy theories, including yourself?”

himself; openly praised Lord Mann’s work in the Commons as he discussed ways to combat rising anti Jewish hate on university campuses.

When Jewish News spoke with Keir Starmer recently about his vision for the independent adviser on antisemitism role if he was in No.10, the Labour leader said he would “enhance” the post, as the fight against antisemitism was so crucial to him.

But Jewish News understands that some in government had reacted negatively after Mann criticised former home secretary Suella Braverman over her an alleged failure to take on board his recommendations over combating antisemitism.

More recently, Mann has expressed concerns over the impact on the community over pro-Palestine marches.

She added that he “seems to attract lots of conspiracy theorists”.

Taylor Greene replied: “Well let me tell you, you’re a conspiracy theorist and the left and the media spreads more conspiracy theories. We like the truth, we like supporting our Constitution, our freedoms and

America First, so.” As Taylor Greene started to walk away, Maitlis asked: “What about Jewish space lasers? Tell us about Jewish space lasers.”

The Republican replied: “Why don’t you go talk about Jewish space lasers, and really why don’t you f*** off, how about that?”

Wycombe Wanderers’ captain Joe Jacobson has revealed he’s required security this season after becoming a target of antisemitic hatred, writes Lee Harpin.

The 37-year-old told Sky News that in the aftermath of the 7 October Hamas atrocities and Israel’s war in Gaza he needed an escort into the stadium.

He also said the League One football club has resisted pressure to cut ties with him.

Jacobson had avoided commenting on the conflict, apart from an initial response to those who appeared to welcome the Hamas attack and who he said were “celebrating mass murder” .

One of the few British Jews to be playing the sport professionally, he said: “I had a lot of messages on social media.

The club got sent emails and letters demanding I apologise, demanding that if I didn’t they would barricade the gates at Adams Park on a match day a few days later.”

When he arrived at the stadium, where he has played for a decade, there was a rush to shield him as he walked in.

“I got ushered in. I later found out that they were worried someone was going to be there,” Jacobson said. “So there were some plain-clothes security that were watching out and looking for anything.

“And fortunately nothing happened. But I’m just going to a place of work and there’s people worried about something that might happen – and that can’t be right.”

The club also faced calls to axe him, Jacobson said. “There were fans, or so-called

fans, messaging saying [I] shouldn’t be playing for this club or be captain of this football club.” But he was backed by the club’s owners, who told him “you’ve done nothing wrong, so don’t apologise”.

obtained by Sky News showed there has been five times as much antisemitic abuse in football this season compared with the first half of the 2022-23 campaign. Reported incidents have risen from 11 to 57.

SUSPENDED OFCOM DIRECTOR QUITS JOB

Ofcom’s online safety director, who was suspended over antiIsrael posts on social media, has “chosen to leave” her job, writes Jenni Frazer.

Fadzai Madzingira, who was appointed to her post last May, has been the subject of a four-month investigation by the broadcasting regulator.

Days after the Hamas attacks on southern Israel on 7 October last year, she was active on her Instagram account, with posts and reposts which appeared to be anti-Israeli in sentiment.

She is said to have ‘liked’ a post from Black Lives Matter UK which was critical of the British government for deploying Royal Navy ships to support Israel in the Gaza conflict. The post said: “As if it wasn’t bad enough already, the UK is also set to participate in the ethnic cleansing and genocide of Palestinians. Shame on this vile colonial alliance. #freepalestine.”

The Guido Fawkes political site published a screenshot of an apparent posting Madzin-

gira made on Instagram Stories in which she commented on “the targeting of Palestinians”, and appeared to liken Israel’s actions to genocide. In another post, she allegedly liked a post calling Israel and the UK “a vile colonial alliance”.

After Jewish News approached Ofcom in midOctober, the organisation said: “Having reviewed these comments we’ve suspended this colleague, pending further investigation.”

Madzingira describes herself as a “Zimbabwean, a Black feminist, a student of decolonisation and a deep believer of liberty for all”, saying she has “one hope” before posting a Palestinian flag emoji.

Asked in January what was the outcome of its inquiry into her posts, Ofcom was unable to say more than that its investigation was “still ongoing”.

Last Friday, the broadcasting regulator, which is chaired by Lord Grade, issued a brief statement saying only that Madzingira had “chosen to leave” Ofcom.

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Footballer reveals antisemitic abuse

The community this week mourned the death of the Reverend Malcolm Weisman, a former Royal Army Chaplain, barrister and the minister to small Jewish communities, writes Michelle Rosenberg.

Born in December 1936, Weisman was educated at Oxford, qualified as a lawyer and became a chaplain in the Royal Air Force. He was appointed minister for small communities on the inception of the Office of Small Communities in 1963.

In 2009 he become emeritus minister for small communities and was also the vicepresident of the Jewish Music Institute (JMI), Honorary Senior Jewish chaplain to

the British military and trustee of the Council of Christians and Jews (CCJ)

Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis described Weisman as “an extraordinary, unique, and truly wonderful human being to whom British Jewry will forever be deeply indebted.

“His selfless, devoted, and caring pastoral work in numerous communities enriched and strengthened Jewish life and brought so many people to deepen their Jewish awareness and be proud of their Jewish roots.”

The Jewish Small Communities Network said: “It was a privilege to have know Rev Malcolm Weisman z’l. He was always planning another trip to visit a small community, right up

till the end. He will be missed by so many. May his memory be for a blessing.”

Conservative peer and KC, Lord Wolfson of Tredegar, paid tribute to a “wonderful, kind, gentle, thoughtful, open, unassuming man, who led by quiet example”.

The Commonwealth Jewish Council expressed its sadness, describing Weisman as an ambassador of the CJC. “His wisdom and thoughtful insights will be hugely missed,” it added. “Thank you for all you did for us.”

Widely respected for a life dedicated to the service of Anglo-Jewry, the Rev Weisman published his autobiography, A Wing And A Prayer, last October.

Memories of dear Malcolm FOUR CONFIRMED FOR BOARD PRESIDENT RACE

Four contenders for the presidency of the Board of Deputies have secured the necessary backing to reach the next stage in the battle to succeed Marie van der Zyl, writes Lee Harpin. Candidates had to win the endorsement of 20 deputies to be on the ballot for the May poll before nominations close this week.

Phil Rosenberg, Amanda Bowman, Sheila Gewolb and Michael Ziff have all secured the necessary support.

It is understood that Richard

Cohen was also seeking to stand, but as Jewish News went to press he had yet to cross the 20-Deputy threshold. Rosenberg, deputy for Brondesbury United Synagogue, said it was

“fantastic” to have got the necessary support, and current vice-president Bowman, deputy for Hampstead Synagogue, was “so grateful”.

Gewolb, a former vice-president

who represents Cardiff United shul, was “delighted” to reach the next stage. Ziff, who Jewish News understands is also standing for the treasurer post he holds at present, was “overwhelmed” by the support he had received.

Van der Zyl will step down in June after serving a maximum two threeyear terms in succession.

She chaired the Board plenary meeting last Sunday, where questions were asked about the decision to split from the Jewish Leadership Council.

It is understood that Deputies were told the Board had paid £12,000 a year to be a JLC member. The split between the two communal organisations has led to a shortfall in funding for the London Jewish Forum, previously paid for by the JLC.

Concerns were raised on Sunday about the social media account of a (non-Jewish) organisation that had supported the fight against antisemitism but had been deeply critical of Israel following the 7 October attack.

Rev Malcolm Weisman

Amand Bowman, Sheila Gewolb, Phil Rosenberg and Michael Ziff

Labour candidates set to stand against Corbyn

A former BBC Newsnight presenter and a local councillor are battling to be selected as the Labour candidate to take on Jeremy Corbyn in Islington North at the general election, Jewish News can reveal, writes Lee Harpin.

Meanwhile, at least four names are seeking support to fight the Hackney North and Stoke Newington seat if veteran MP Diane Abbott does not have the Labour whip returned in time to stand for the party again.

Former Newsnight business editor Paul Mason is understood to have confirmed to Labour chiefs he wishes to seek selection as the Labour candidate to take on Corbyn but faces a challenge

from Islington councillor and innovations entrepreneur Praful Nargand.

Corbyn, who lost the Labour whip in 2020 over his response to the equality watchdog’s antisemitism report and was barred last March from standing as a Labour candidate by his successor, Keir Starmer, has yet to confirm he will run as an independent in the constituency.

Some Labour insiders believe Corbyn is considering standing down, although he is being encouraged by his most committed supporters who relish the challenge of campaigning against a pro-Starmer candidate.

There is even speculation Corbyn

would consider entering a political alliance with George Galloway, but Jewish News understands there are now significant tensions between the two men, making such a pact unlikely.

Neither Mason nor Nargand would comment on their plans but friends of Mason confirmed he had “made it clear” he wished to seek selection “to challenge the politics of division that had become associated with Corbyn”.

The 64-year-old, once a prominent Corbyn supporter, has become a fierce critic of the former leader, particularly over antisemitism and security and foreign policy matters.

On his personal website Nar-

gand confirms he has spent the past decade “using innovation to tackle inequalities in fertility treatment”.

He has campaigned for a “skills revolution so that skills and training can help end the lottery of birth and background” and is a member of the Labour Party’s Council of Skills Advisers.

In Hackney North and Stoke Newington, Hackney Council deputy mayor Anntoinette Bramble, London Assembly member and Hackney councillor Sem Moema and Stoke Newington councillor Susan FajanaThomas are all likely to seek election if Abbott does not stand for Labour.

march has been dismissed for procedural reasons.

Ibrahim Hlaiyil, 38, was arrested on 14 October and charged under the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act under which a police o cer has the power to “require any person to remove any item which the constable reasonably believes that person is wearing wholly or mainly for the purpose of concealing his identity”.

However, during his evidence, the o cer, Pc Dan Quinn, did not say he believed Mr Hlaiyil was trying to conceal his identity – a key part of the charge.

Due to this omission, the case against Hlaiyil collapsed. Judge Michael Snow said Pc Quinn seemed

to have taken the view that he was able to arrest anyone who refused to take o their face mask at the protest, adding: “There is no evidence to prove the essential element of the charge. The charge must be dismissed at this stage.”

In a statement read to the court, Hlaiyil said he was wearing the scarf over his face because he had a “bad cough”. He said when Pc Quinn approached him and asked him to remove the covering, “I tried to explain to him that it was not a mask. He did not listen to me and dragged me away before arresting me.”

In his evidence, Pc Quinn said that Hlaiyil told him he had “an allergy to particulates”.

However, he said he arrested him as he failed to remove the covering when asked. He said he would not have told him to remove the covering if he thought it was a medical mask.

After the judge dismissed the case, Hlaiyil burst into tears and then hugged his lawyer, Audrey Mogan, and supporters.

A far-right activist has been jailed for two years by a judge who said antisemitism “has been used before to tear at the heart of Western democracy” and “it must not be allowed to do so again”.

Samuel Melia was found guilty earlier this year of stirring up racial hatred by running an online library of downloadable white supremacist stickers.

Melia ran the Hundred Handers, an anonymous group responsible for a spate of anti-immigration “stickering” incidents between 2019 and 2021, Leeds Crown Court heard.

Judge Tom Bayliss KC told the 34-year-old: “Your mindset is that of a racist and a white supremacist. You hold Nazi sympathies and you are an antisemite.”

Case against protester who wore mask at rally dismissed SUPREMACIST JAILED

“Whilst your activity ceased in 2021, recent events in the United Kingdom demonstrate that there is, for the first time since the 1930s, a real risk of gross, potentially violent, antisemitism becoming normalised on our streets.

“The publication of this kind of material is corrosive to our society and highly damaging.

Antisemitism, in particular, is a destructive force.”

Judge Bayliss outlined some of the ethnic slurs about a range of groups Melia used on Telegram channels, telling him: “You clearly demonstrate a deep-seated antipathy to those groups, and you do so by your uninhibited use of language that no right-thinking person would ever consider appropriate.”

The case against a protester who refused to remove a face mask at a pro-Palestine

Jeremy Corbyn in his constituency for the 2019 General Election

Ibrahim Hlaiyil ouside court

Samuel Melia

HOSTAGE GROUPS WIN GENESIS PRIZE

Five Israeli groups supporting Israelis held hostage in Gaza and their families are to receive the 2024 Genesis Prize, the £790,000 award known as the “Jewish Nobel”.

Presented annually since 2013, the award is given by the Genesis Prize Foundation and has historically gone to Jewish celebrities or public figures.

More recently, the foundation has given the prize to organisations that together are tackling a crisis in the Jewish community.

In 2022, it honoured groups supporting Jews in Ukraine.

This year, the foundation turned again to a collective – groups working to support Israelis taken hostage in the Hamas attack on 7 October.

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum, which quickly became one of the central organising groups

advocating for the release of the prisoners, will share this year’s prize with four other groups: the JAFI Fund for Victims of Terror; Lev Echad; NATAL – The Israel Trauma and Resiliency Centre; and OneFamily – Overcoming Terror Together.

The groups will not be allowed to use the prize money “to fund political activism, lobbying and other activities inside Israel not directly related to humanitarian assistance,” according to the foundation.

Instead, the prize — which is intended to spur further giving from Jews around the world — is aimed toward supporting medical and psychological treatment for former hostages as well as hostages’ families.

More than 250 Israelis were taken into Gaza on 7 October when Hamas attacked Israel. More than 100 were

freed in November during a temporary ceasefire. An estimated 136 people remain hostage in Gaza, with about 100 thought to be alive. Talks are under way that would see Hamas release at least some of them.

Families of the hostages have emerged as a potent political force in Israel and beyond, with some arguing Benjamin Netanyahu has been inadequately attentive to their plight.

For the families of the hostages, the attention that comes with the Genesis Prize prize is of utmost importance.

Rachel Goldberg, the mother of 23-year-old Hersh Goldberg-Polin, said in a statement, “We fervently pray this gift will be instrumental in continuing the family organisations’ valiant and tireless e orts to bring the remaining 134 beloved hostages home, now.”

PMQS IN HAMPSTEAD WITH SIR ANTHONY

More than 200 guests attended a talk given by noted biographer Sir Anthony Seldon at Hampstead Synagogue.

Knighted in 2014 for his services to education and modern political history, Sir Anthony was delivering the 21st Isaiah Berlin Lecture, with the theme Has the job of Prime Minister become impossible? Can the next PM possibly succeed?

VIP guests included Prince Pavlos of Greece, Lord Peter Mandelson, Lord Jitesh Gadhia and president of the United Synagogue Michael Goldstein, as well as current and former o cials from the Royal Household and the UK government.

Richard Abramson, chairman of Hampstead Synagogue, said:

“Our community was delighted to host this important lecture, the latest in our series of Isaiah Berlin annual lectures.

“We had a large audience, including many distinguished individuals. We all left the hall feeling enriched and inspired.”

Lecture co-ordinator Zaki Cooper said: “Anthony gave a scintillating lecture and all those who were fortunate to attend were stimulated by what he had to say.

“Talking about PMs could not have been a more suitable subject, in the year of a general election.

“This series, which we started in Isaiah Berlin’s memory in 2003, continues to go from strength to strength, with the support of the shul and the Berlin family.”

Genesis Prize co-founder Stan Polovets, right, with 2024 awardees

Plot twist

A home in Jerusalem being built for the Einstein Archive is a tribute to every aspect of the physicist’s life, writes Beatrice Sayers

The physicist Prof Hanoch Gutfreund has a passion and excitement for the project we are discussing that certainly can’t be explained by rules and theories. Albert Einstein was unique, he tells me in a Zoom conversation from Jerusalem this week: possibly the greatest scientist who has ever lived, but someone who tackled all human problems – of morality, and of political dilemmas – with the same interest and energy he brought to physics.

Gutfreund’s fascination with Einstein, whose work he has taught to hundreds of students at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, where he has a chair in theoretical physics and is a former president, has extra force just now. Construction work has begun on Einstein House, a stunning building on the Hebrew University’s Safra Campus at Givat Ram. Designed by the world-renowned architect Daniel Libeskind, it will contain the full Einstein Archive. As curator of the archive, which the physicist and co-founder of the Hebrew University left to the institution on his death in 1955, Gutfreund says he has decided to devote the rest of his own life to promoting Einstein.

Another unique aspect of the Nobel laureate is his enduring appeal: nearly 60 years after his death the

written

fascination is only growing. In 2008, a historian of science wrote an article complaining that too many books are written about Einstein and suggesting a moratorium until all the material in the archives is explored, Gutfreund says. “It had no e ect. Since 2008, there have been more than 85 new books on Einstein,” and, with a smile and a silent davka, “Four of them are mine.”

For someone interested in politics and morality, Einstein certainly had plenty of material to work with. He lived through two world wars, the disintegration of empires and the quest of the Jewish people to establish a homeland. He wrote about it all and his letters form part of the archive, which extends to more than 80,000 items. “He corresponded with politicians, with philosophers with thinkers with members of the Zionist movement, so there is a lot.”

But there is also Einstein’s personal library, which is very much that of a young Jewish intellectual in Berlin in the 1920s and contains not a single book of physics.

“Scientists in those days were

well-read,” Gutfreund says, Einstein no less than his contemporaries. “The canon of western philosophy is mightily represented there, [as are] literature, history and Judaica.”

At the heart of the archive is Einstein’s masterpiece, his 46-page manuscript of the general theory of relativity from 1915, which introduced the famous E=mc2. “Everything that we know today about the universe, about the Big Bang, black holes, all these household names, gravitational waves, everything that we know today follows from that from that manuscript,” Gutfreund says. “So it’s mind-boggling. It’s so exciting, once you grasp it.”

Libeskind, the New York-based architect of the Jewish Museum Berlin among other notable buildings, has designed a building for the archive in the form of a twisted

cube. Its complex geometry is influenced by the physicist’s drawings, which flowed from his insights into the nature of the universe: its curve is the curve of spacetime.

A cornerstone for the threestorey building, which will extend to 29,000 square ft and will include a reconstruction of Einstein’s o ce, was laid in June.

The project has received generous support from the philanthropist and art collector Jose Mugrabi, as well as funding from the Israeli government.

his thoughts on the world ever since I recognised the name.” Libeskind’s aim was to create something that touched on all the aspects of Einstein’s genius, he said, including his political belief in Zionism, adding: “Translating scientific breakthroughs and knowledge to the level of everyday perspectives, that’s the challenge.”

Libeskind had always had an interest in Einstein. “[He] is not something that just landed on my desk,” says the architect, whose son Noam studied at the Hebrew University and is now an astrophysicist. “I have been thinking about the implications of

to the level of everyday

the violinist is replied that the building

Libeskind, a child prodigy on the accordion in his native Poland, when asked whether Einstein the violinist is included in the design replied that the building itself was a kind of musical composition as it does not have a front, a back and a side. “It’s conceived as a continuum. And the continuum is ever-shifting and ever-changing.” The acoustics in the building will also show that the building is based on the mystery of geometry itself, he adds, and he hopes visitors will have “a musical sense to their experience of the spaces”.

The building is not – that soulless of words – a ‘centre’, or even a museum. Einstein House will be a home for the archive in every sense, a purpose-built residence that will welcome visitors. Once the building is complete, the hope is that it will welcome schoolchildren, university students and the public, including, once Israel’s conflict with Hamas is over, some of the thousands of tourists who will visit Jerusalem once again.

• Hanoch Gutfreund and Daniel Libeskind will speak at JW3 on 12 March, in partnership with the British Friends of Hebrew University. Tickets: jw3.org.uk/whats-on/ einstein-new-home-jerusalem

Daniel Libeskind’s twisted-cube design for Einstein House at the Hebrew University

Einstein House, the future home of the 80,000 books, papers and photographs in the archive, will be for students, schoolchildren and the public

Prof Hanoch Gutfreund

Photograph: Moy Volcovich

Daniel Libeskind

Photograph: Stefan Ruiz

Prince William at synagogue / News

In a poignant encounter towards the end of his historic visit to Western Marble Arch Synagogue last week, the Prince of Wales clasped hands with 94-year-old Holocaust survivor Renee Salt as she asked him to convey her best wishes to his wife Catherine, who is recovering from abdominal surgery. He immediately agreed.

The warmth of the meeting was echoed throughout Prince William’s hour-long visit. It was originally planned to coincide with Holocaust Memorial Day and the princess was also due to attend. But with the rise in antisemitism following the 7 October terror attacks in Israel, it was decided to expand the content of the visit so that William could take part in conversations about the recent rise in antisemitism in the UK, and some of the invaluable work that is being carried out to combat this.

William was escorted around the synagogue by its rabbi, Daniel Epstein, and his wife Ilana, together with the chief executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust, Karen Pollock.

A clearly impressed prince was shown some of the Judaica treasures of the synagogue’s Hartog Gallery, which displays 12 beautiful stained glass windows designed by artist David Hillman, who is the uncle of Israel’s President Isaac Herzog.

But the focus of the visit was a remarkable encounter with a group of young people, Jewish and non-Jewish, who spoke frankly to the prince about antisemitism and the Holocaust.

The Jewish students included UJS president Edward Isaacs, who told Prince William about the di culties facing Jewish students on various campuses. And four of the HET’s young ambassadors, guided by their programme director Kirsty Fraser, shared their commitment to spreading the word about the Holocaust.

“How do we keep the story of the Holocaust alive, as the last survivors drift o ?” asked the prince. Pollock responded: “I think if you ask

the survivors, in their 80s and 90s, they are determined still to share their testimony in schools. They want people to know, to tell their families, to tell their children and grandchildren. But we are at a crucial juncture, where living history will become just history, and so it will become even more important for our young people to carry that legacy.”

Given the events of 7 October, all present were conscious that — as Pollock said — “Holocaust education isn’t just about the murders of six million men, women and children. The nature of antisemitism did not go away, and it has emerged in di erent guises”.

When UJS president Edward Isaacs told Prince William about “the explosion of antisemitism” on British campuses after the

Prince William with 94-year-old survivor Renee Salt at Western Marble Arch Synagogue

she now had to worry about where antisemitism was more prevalent.

Another student recounted the story of two friends who were walking to synagogue, wearing kippot. A car drew up to them and the occupants asked if they were Jewish. When they said yes, those in the car shouted abuse and then turned the car round as though to drive into them. “It’s just constant, neverending,” she said.

rienced before,” conceded Isaacs, but added that UJS was doing its best to “see that Jewish students remain resilient”. He told the prince about the support programmes for Jewish students, and also about the antisemitism awareness programmes for “campus allies”.

7 October attacks, the prince was plainly appalled. One teenager, who had previously considered universities solely on basis of courses o ered, said that

He also met with young Jewish leaders to discuss concerns about rising intolerance

The prince is presented with a gift for his wife

Rabbi Daniel Epstein shows Prince William a Torah scroll during his synagogue visit

by Jenni Frazer jenni@jennifrazer.com @Jennifrazer

‘I was given five years to live –a donor changed everything’

by Michelle Rosenberg michelle@jewishnews.co.uk

A 57-year-old from London has been given a desperately needed lifeline by a stem cell donor he has yet to meet.

As James Whitehill told Jewish News, it was all “pretty much out of the blue”. The father of two was diagnosed with an aggressive and life-limiting blood cancer called Myelofibrosis in February last year following routine blood tests. It took more than three months for doctors to work out what it was. When they were finally able to diagnose what was wrong, they realised it was serious.

Whitehill didn’t have any notable symptoms and says: “I was lucky my wife Tina told me to get myself checked. The only symptom I had was itchy skin on my legs after a shower.”

The couple saw “countless specialists” and were finally referred to Guy’s and St. Thomas’s to see the specialist there to “hear the diagnosis and the risks to life expectancy, but also to hear that if you can get a donor and have a transplant, you could be OK”.

Referred again to UCL, Whitehill met renowned Myelofibrosis specialist Donal McLornan, who told him he was a good candidate for a stem cell donor as he was relatively young, and fit and healthy.

Whitehill says it took from February to October to sort out the details, working with an international database run by DKMS, a German organisation working in the UK with the Sue Harris Trust to recruit adult stem cell donors for blood cancer patients.

He adds: “It takes a long time to process a donor. It’s not just a blood match. It needs to be a blood tissue type match and the donor needs to be fit and healthy too. There may be issues with illnesses they may have had and I haven’t, or vice versa.

“It’s also very ethics-focused, as the hospital has to take the time and be gentle so they are not pressuring the donor, who has to get advice on his side and confirm he’s happy to do it.”

Recalling his sense of relief when a donor was found, Whitehill said: “We had some trials and tribulations. The first thing they do is test siblings, but both mine were only a 50 percent match and not ideal. That was hard to take but the consultant was always confident someone would be identified.”

Once Whitehill heard there was a potential way for him to get better, his focus shifted to what he could do to help others. He was put in touch with the Sue Harris Trust through friends and “it all kicked on from there”.

Whitehill says he “wanted to do something positive and we had really good momentum through the trust and huge support from

family and friends, the stem cell charity DKMS and through my company at work. We got more than 2,000 new potential donors on the international registry. The stats show one in 800 prove a match for somebody, so that’s hopefully two to three lives possibly saved.”

He’s not allowed to contact his donor for up to two years. They’ve exchanged messages without knowing each other’s identity, but Whitehill says “assuming he wants to meet me, I’d love to meet him”.

He adds that it’s “far too early to say if I’m cancer free as I’m only a few months in. Frankly, loads of stuff can go wrong and I try not to read everything the hospital gives me to read, though so far so good and hopefully everything will be fine.”

His experience has demonstrated the importance of swabbing campaigns: “I never knew anything about blood cancer or how many different conditions need stem cell transplants. There’s a whole new world out there I became aware of.

“Increasing the number of new donors on the register is incredibly important. There are 40 million donors on the world-wide registry. It seems a lot but as a proportion of the world population, it’s pretty low. However, it is relatively easy and painless if you are matched to a patient and become a donor and save a life.”

A donor in Italy was found to be a 90 percent match for Whitehill and on 18 October last year he began six days of chemotherapy before having his transplant a week later.

“It’s been a tough period and it’s not over yet,” Whitehill said. “I’ve come through the initial phase. Because I’ve been relatively fit and healthy, that’s been a good thing in terms of recovery. I’m at home on lots of tablets and immune suppressants. They now need to start reducing the medication and that’s when there may be rejection issues or reactions.”

Whitehill chose to speak to Jewish News to increase awareness and “let people know it’s an easy thing to do and anyone could become a life saver for somebody”.

Sue Harris Trust secretary Lionel Salama said: “James is an inspiring patient. Launching your own campaign while fighting blood cancer brings stress you really don’t need. His campaign has delivered donors for three other patients and I’m sure there will be more.”

* This year marks the 27th anniversary of the death at age 34 of Sue Harris, who together with her friends founded the blood cancer charity the Sue Harris Campaign in 1993.

US roles break down disability barriers

The United Synagogue has appointed two specialists, community participation manager Danielle Neifeld and lead advocate for additional needs Rivka Steinberg, to improve ways to include people with disabilities and special needs in its communities.

It is estimated 20 percent of people in the UK have a disability, equating to about 60,000 members of the Jewish community.

Neifeld, whose background is in Jewish education and strategic development, has worked with Jewish communities worldwide, including in Israel, the USA and Australia.

She has begun working on an accessibility inventory of US shuls to see where accessibility improvements can be made and to showcase best practice among communities.

Steinberg worked in scientific research and for voluntary organisations and local authorities before training as an adviser on independent

legal advice for children with special education needs and disability.

Among improvements, Woodside Park United cheder adapted its classroom layout to ensure a pupil with cerebral palsy has full access, and Belmont shul has built a new bimah with lower steps and a wider entrance, and Golders Green and Kenton shuls moved their women’s sections downstairs for wheelchair and disability access.

Barnet and Cockfosters and New Southgate United have installed Shabbat lifts.

The US said: “Inclusion must go beyond access to buildings”, adding it was working with its communities “to consider how people with neurodivergence can be included”.

In other examples, Muswell Hill shul runs informal and abridged services at chagim and on Shabbat including using Makaton, a communication tool to support communication skills.

Richmond United Synagogue celebrated a barmitzvah for a boy with severe sensory issues and autism in a way that made him feel empowered.

Finchley United Synagogue holds a monthly informal ‘Shabbat-style’ service on a Sunday for people with dementia and their families who would be unable to attend shul on Shabbat.

Welcoming Neifeld’s and Steinberg’s appointments, the Chief Rabbi said: “Our tradition teaches that the Jewish people are just like a Sefer

Torah, a complete and perfect whole. If one single letter is missing, then the entire scroll is not able to be used.

“Similarly with the Jewish people, every single person counts. Our concept of community, within which

every single person is valued, underpins our commitment to making everyone feel welcome and included in our synagogues. I wish Danielle and Rivka hatzlacha with their vital work.”

James Whitehill with his wife Tina and, inset, in his sports gear

Jess looks forward to using the Siddur Lakol. Photograph: Robert Shack

Rivka Steinberg

Danielle Neifeld

Non-Jewish shul membership

The members of East London and Essex Liberal Synagogue (ELELS) have voted overwhelmingly to o er full membership to any non-Jewish person who commits to the principles and values of their communities, writes Joy Falk.

Both ELELS, previously Woodford Liberal Synagogue, and Progressive Judaism as a whole have long welcomed mixed faith couples and families, as well as those considering conversion.

However, in the past non-Jews, including those raising a Jewish family with a Jewish partner, could

only join as an ‘associate member’ or ‘friend’.

Now, in what Rabbi Richard Jacobi described as an “historic day for equality”, ELELS has become the latest Progressive community to equalise its membership.

A passionate EGM (Extraordinary General Meeting) heard from many Jewish members with nonJewish spouses.

They spoke about how, despite being warmly welcomed on a personal level, the old categories and the restrictions they placed on full involvement in communal life had

caused pain and hurt.

It was also noted that many people took several years of associating with the community to feel ready to commit to conversion and that the current policy left some of them feeling like outsiders or no longer wishing to be members.

The changes were proposed after a working group reported on its year-long consultation with members, examination of the principles of Liberal/Progressive Judaism, and research into how other Progressive communities operate, both in the UK and around the world.

Rabbi Richard Jacobi said: “From these discussions, it was evident that a clear majority of members considered the ‘Friend’ category problematic.

“As well as being described as ‘taxation without representation’, the membership rules were felt by most to be an obstacle to families or individuals joining our community, and also not in line with our Progressive Jewish values of inclusion and equality.

“This change means our community can now fully include everyone, and they in turn can become fully involved in our community.”

22 YOUNG LEADERS CELEBRATE GRADUATION

The newest and largest cohort of emerging lay and professional leaders on the famed Adam Science Leadership Programme (ASLP) have celebrated their graduation, writes Michelle Rosenberg.

The programme, now run by Lead (the leadership development division of the Jewish Leadership Council) was established in 1992 in memory of the late Adam Science, a pas-

sionate lay leader who worked tirelessly to get people involved in the community.

Since that time the ASLP has become an institution, with more than 300 alumni, many of whom have gone on to take senior lay and professional roles in the community.

This cohort, which brought together young leaders of all denominations with a cross-section of skills from Jewish com-

munal organisations, began in late 2022.

This programme was the largest so far, with 22 graduates.

It was also the first to feature a northern cohort, with participants in Manchester supported by UJIA and the Manchester Jewish Rep Council, who will shortly be holding their own graduation ceremony.

The group had originally been scheduled to graduate in

November, but events in Israel meant postponing. Although not all graduates were able to be present on this rearranged date, some joined online, and those absent were present in spirit.

Certificates and awards were presented by JLC chair Keith Black and the group was addressed by Avi Goldberg, one of the founders of the programme and a close friend of Adam Science.

Rabbi Richard Jacobi

ASLP cohort 2022-23 group photograph

The Hebrew at the top of this mural, installed at the site of the Nova festival in southern Israel, reads: ‘We will forever remember you, with a light and joy that will last for eternity.’ Hamas terrorists killed 360 people at the music festival near Kibbutz Re’im, three miles from Gaza, and took 40 hostage

Hostage families at Biden speech

When President Biden delivers his State of the Union speech today the audience will include 17 relatives of Americans held captive or murdered by Hamas terrorists in Israel, writes Joy Falk.

A list published by the Families of the American Hostages in Gaza coalition named relatives of six hostages still held captive, two released captives and two hostages who were killed.

The relatives will be guests this evening of a bipartisan group of members of the US House of Representatives and US Senate.

Hamas is believed to be holding more than 130 hostages. Dozens are thought to be dead.

The six hostages believed still to be alive who will be represented are Edan Alexander, Itai

Chen, Sagui Dekel-Chen, Omer Neutra, Hersh Goldberg-Polin and Keith Siegel.

The two released hostages who will be represented are Liat Atzili and Abigail Mor Edan, who turned four in captivity and was freed in November. The two murdered hostages represented are Judy Weinstein and Gad Haggai.

The group said it urged Congress members in a letter to “show solidarity and a firm commitment to securing the swift and total release of the hostages by wearing yellow ribbons and dog tags” during thespeech. Yellow ribbons and dog tags that have become a symbol of solidarity with the hostages were included in the letters.

Among the hosts this evening are the speaker,

Families of the hostages have met with senior officials, including Joe Biden, and have joined vigils calling for their release in Washington and in other major cities.

Josh Gottheimer, a Jewish Democrat, will be hosting Jonathan Dekel-Chen and Adi Alexander. “I am honoured to have Adi from my district and Jonathan attend the State of the Union as my guests,” Gottheimer said in a statement.

“Their presence is a strong reminder that Americans, including Adi’s son Edan and Jonathan’s son Sagui, are still being held hostage at hands of

Hamas terrorists. It’s been 150 days since they were captured. Nothing is more important than getting them home now. Period.”

More than 100 of the hostages were exchanged for Palestinian detainees during the break in fighting in November. The Biden administration is pushing negotiations for a second temporary ceasefire to trade some of the remaining hostages for more prisoners.

Israel has agreed to the terms broadly but wants an accounting of which of the remaining hostages are alive or dead. Hamas has said it does not have the means for such an accounting, in part because some of the hostages were taken by or sold to other terror groups and criminal gangs.

UN FINDS REASON TO BELIEVE 7 OCTOBER RAPES

The United Nations has finally found “grounds to believe” that rape and gang rape were committed by Hamas terrorists against Israelis on 7 October, writes Jotam Confino.

A team found “reasonable grounds” to believe conflict-related sexual violence occurred in multiple locations, “including rape and gang rape” in at least three locations.

The UN team also found a pattern of victims, mostly women, “fully or partially naked, bound and shot across multiple locations, which may be indicative of some forms of sexual violence”. The report was conducted by a team of experts from the UN following a 17-day visit to Israel.

Pramila Patten, UN special repre-

sentative on sexual violence in conflict, stated that the team of experts had also found “clear and convincing information” of rape and sexualised torture being committed against hostages after 7 October.

The mission team interviewed 34 people, including “survivors of the 7 October attacks, released hostages, three first responders, health and service providers and others.

“The mission team, specifically the forensic pathologist and the digital analyst, reviewed over 5,000 photos, around 50 hours and several audio files of footage of the attacks,” the report said. The Israeli government and women’s right groups have railed against the UN and interna-

7

saying: “It’s time for action, Antonio Guterres. Hamas must be globally recognised as a terrorist entity, its supporting nations labelled as terrorism sponsors.”

Katz also recalled Israel’s ambassador to UN, Gilad Erdan, to Jerusalem, as a response to Guterres “acting to soften the serious report that he himself ordered on the sexual offenses of Hamas, trying to keep Hamas from being held responsible and not ordering that the Security Council be immediately convened to discuss the report and recognise Hamas as a terror group, with all the sanctions entailed, while calling for an unconditional release of all hostages.”

Louisiana Republican rep Mike Johnson, and the minority leader, New York Democratic rep Hakeem Jeffries.

tional rights organisations for their silence on the rape in the months after

October.

Foreign minister Yisrael Katz lashed out at the UN chief’s “silence” following publication of the report,

A team interviewed 34 people, including survivors and witnesses

have a fantastic holiday whilst at the same time granting a respite break to their families.

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Police will return Mia Janin’s lost SIM card

The Metropolitan Police has said “arrangements have started” to return a lost SIM card and mobile phone that belonged a schoolgirl who killed herself after she was bullied.

Mia Janin, a 14-year-old Year 10 pupil at Jewish Free School (JFS) in Kenton, north-west London, died on 12 March three years ago.

The Met said after the investigation into her death Mia’s family had requested the return of the SIM for her main phone and a second handset, but o cers had been “unable to locate them within the property store”.

The force said the items have since been recovered and o cers had spoken with family representatives about sending them back.

Mia was found dead at her family home in Barnet. A subsequent inquest was told she had been bullied by other JFS students.

Barnet coroner’s court was told a TikTok post by Mia was shared to a Snapchat group run by pupils, some of whom made fun of her.

However, Mia’s father Mariano told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme the govern-

ment’s calls to ban children from having phones in schools is “not the way”, adding: “We need to learn to live with this technology.”

Janin said: “I didn’t know about this online world. They say that she was bullied. We found a screenshot saying that she was prepared to be badly bullied, naming the kids that were bullying her.”

He claimed that JFS “organised an assembly” and “asked kids to

delete the messages”, adding: “My common sense says that if you have a police investigation and you have this potential group, you should notify to the police. Maybe this group of kids, they have information on their phone, but that’s what they did.”

Janin then went on to discuss the government’s proposal to prohibit children from using phones in schools, saying: “(They) will have a phone anyway, it’s like this, they will hide the phone, and it’s not the way –they need to learn to use their phones in a responsible way. Social media platforms need to have some kind of responsibility as well.”

Janin praised the Online Safety Bill, passed last October, which is aimed at protectecting people from harmful content. He told Kuenssberg:

“I think it is an amazing thing that we will have something, of course, because technology, it is changing.

“If you have a young kid you need to understand where are they because that’s the thing I discovered after –there’s some places on the internet that the kids can get access in a way that we would never try to do.”

Five Jewish schools have made it into the top 20 comprehensive schools in Britain in the annual Parent Power league tables — and a jubilant Dr David Moody, head teacher of JFS, which has topped the league, has praised Jewish mothers for their input.

The league tables, published in The Times, showcase the achievements of schools all over the country based on GCSE and A level results. JFS — which was 45th in the table of best comprehensives last year — has

shot up the rankings to become the top school in the country.

Also in the top 20 are Menorah High School in seventh place, Yavneh College at number nine, with Hasmonean Girls in 13th position and JCoss at number 14.

All the Jewish schools have improved their rankings by leaps and bounds — last year, for example, Yavneh was down at 106, while in 2023 Hasmonean and JCoss languished at 121 and 125 places respectively, with Menorah at 91st place.

A conversation that a “fun day out” could be spent walking the length of the Northern Line from High Barnet to Morden inspired student Eitan Okrent to think: “Why not the whole Underground?”

Enter Tubeathon, a massive e ort devised by Okrent in which 27 teams of young people walked to almost every station in the o cial

Underground to raise money for the Lives Not Knives charity.

After the event last

Sunday, the 120 footsore walkers, about 80

percent of them Jewish, celebrated having raised nearly £9,000 for Lives Not Knives.

Okrent, who lives in Finchley, is 17 and in his last year at Christ’s College, which gave him space at the school for the after-walk celebration.

He is also a member of Noam Masorti youth movement and a barmitzvah teacher.

Mia Janin died three years ago

Organiser Eitan Okrent

Laughing matters

In a gravelly voice, a man faces the camera and tells the audience: “Two old Jews on the Titanic. One starts sobbing. The other say, what are you crying for? It’s not YOUR boat,” writes Jenni Frazer.

Welcome to Is Anything Okay?, a series of riotous, free, online webinars from YIVO, the New York-based Institute for Jewish Research, exploring the history of Jews and comedy in America.

Launching on 21 March and running for seven weeks, the comedy masterclasses dig deep into the essence of the Jewish funnyman, and funnywoman. On board will be 12 comedians, five film-makers and producers, 20 academics and writers, each uncovering a different aspect of what has shaped comedy in America.

YIVO has come up with hundreds of unique archival objects which will be included in the sessions, from vintage joke books, early comedy records, film, radio, and television clips, photographs, and posters. Drew Friedman, known as the Vermeer of the Borscht Belt, proudly

displaying his collection, says it’s his “Jewseum”.

Among those paying tribute to the roots of kosher comedy will be the Black stand-up W. Kamau Bell, Lewis Black (well-known as a serial ranter about history, politics and religion), stand-up comic, and writer Judy Gold, presenter of a podcast called Kill Me Now , Israeliborn comedian Modi Rosenfeld, actor Paul Reiser, and the Yiddish specialist Michael Wex, author of, among other things, the definitive handbook, Born to Kvetch

The presenters say Jewish comedy has echoes of “survival because of living on your wits”, and examine how “complaining becomes an art form”.

One comedian, asking what were taboo subjects, speculates as to whether “they were cracking jokes at the pyramids”. If you want to add to your store of terrible simcha jokes, this is certainly the place to be.

 You can sign up now at: https://yivo.org/comedy

A menu signed by Albert Einstein at a dinner at the Savoy in London is expected to o ered for auction in Somerset on 21 March, writes Joy Falk.

It was signed by the physicist and others in October 1930 at an event to raise money for the Joint British Committee of the Societies Ort-Oze in support of European Jewry.

It will go under the hammer in the traditional manner at the sale of books, maps, manuscripts and photography, with bidding also enabled online.

Robert Ansell, of the auctioneer Lawrences, in Crewkerne, near Yeovil, said: “This is a great rarity, a symbol of unity from a time of increasing oppression for the Jewish people in the years approaching the Second World War.

“By mid-October 1930, the Nazi party had taken su cient seats in the Reichstag to form the second largest voting bloc in the German Parliament, foreshadowing the escalating oppression of the Jewish people.”

He added: “Against this tide, the Joint British Committee of the Societies Ort-Oze for promoting the Economic and Physical Welfare of East-European Jewry was established. At the invitation of this cause, Albert Einstein made a trip to London as the guest of honour at a special appeal dinner at the Savoy organised by Chairman of the committee, the Rt Hon Lord Rothschild.”

At the event, Einstein spoke about the “the

plight of the Jewish communities scattered throughout the world” and stressed that Jews should not have survived as a community all the centuries “if we had a bed of roses. Of that I am strongly convinced.”

George Bernard Shaw proposed a toast for Einstein, saying: “Within the last month or so, there has come to me, and come to many of you, our visitor’s profession of faith, his creed. And that has interested me very much because I must confess to you that there is not a single creed of an established church on earth at present I can subscribe to. But to our visitor’s creed I can subscribe to every single item.”

The dinner was attended by more than 370 people, with Einstein seated between HG Wells and Lord Rothschild.

The series of free masterclasses from YIVO in New York digs deep into the essence of Jewish comedy

The October 1930 menu signed by the scientist

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Send us your comments

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

SHOULD WE TURN TOWARDS DOUGLAS MURRAY? WHY NOT?

Your columnist Josh Glancy (22 February) asks: “Should Jews be turning towards Douglas Murray?”, to which the resounding answer should be... “Yes!” That goes not only for Jews, but everyone with a sense of decency and genuine liberal values, not faux ones that many on the left confuse with real freedoms which are now under threat in the west.

Mr Glancy, by his own pen, has exposed the intellectual gulf between himself and Mr Murray, using, instead of reasoned argument, slogans such as “people absent-mindedly buying into a set of broader right-wing culture war positions that don’t actually fit their world view”.

He has revealed his own insecurity, fearing that many people have realised that they were mistaken in their world view, (his own), when the cataclysmic events of 7 October shattered their long-held illusions, patronising them by suggesting that they are “absentminded”, rather than admitting that it is good when people have the integrity to admit they were previously mistaken.

Thus he exhorts “liberal or centrist Jews not to give up on a lifetime of political convictions amid the current tempest”, denying the reality that the “current tempest” has exposed in all its horror, and that the status quo ante has been consigned to the garbage bin.

Murray does, indeed, hold “we are in a war for western values against Islam”, and many Jews, and others, agree with this perspective because, increasingly, they see quotidian evidence of it, most chillingly in the latest threats to our elected parliamentarians in a direct assault on our democracy.

Here’s a suggestion. Jewish News should host a debate between Douglas Murray and Josh Glancy. It would be a sell-out, with no prizes for guessing the winner. The money raised could go towards supporting Jewish News . What’s not to like?

James R Windsor, Ilford

Douglas Murray is the most steadfast friend of Jews and Israel, long before 7 October. He has been our best spokesman bar none, and for Josh Glancy to throw doubt on his intentions I find distasteful and disingenuous. Perhaps there is a little jealousy creeping in. No doubt Mr Glancy’s obvious Labour-leaning is part of his comments. I would certainly enjoy seeing how he would handle a discussion on, say, Gaza, in the way Mr Murray has done many times with skill and knowledge.

Sidney Sands, N12

7 October exposed the hollow core of interfaith

Your columnist David G Kibble (22 February), a Christian lay preacher, asks whether it is inevitable that Israel’s actions in Gaza have led to a cooling of interfaith relations, particularly between Jewish and Muslim communities.

The answer is yes, and that’s good, because the shocking response by many Muslims to Israel’s justified war of self-defence has revealed intolerance in parts of the Muslim community towards Israel – “the heart of our religion”, as Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis so eloquently put it.

It was ever-present in interfaith dialogue, but Jewish leaders refused to see it. Indeed, interfaith initiatives have bestowed respectability and social opportunities on many prominent Muslims who are being exposed in the Jewish and national press as harbingers of hatred and intolerance.

Michael Gove, the levelling up secretary, recently pulled government funding from the Inter Faith Network, because of the

reputational damage to the government by the appointment of a certain trustee who is a member of the Muslim Council of Britain, which the government has stopped engaging with.

Christian/Jewish dialogue also has its issues, most conspicuously in the hostile joint statement issued by the archbishop of Canterbury and House of Bishops on 31 October in response to the Gaza war, which is shocking for its lies and distortions masquerading as fair comment.

Kibble is a decent and honest man, but his plea that we should continue with interfaith on all its levels is misguided. Real interfaith is the genuine respect between different faiths toward one another, rather than meeting up to “discuss Israel and Palestine in-depth”, for example, as Kibble suggests.

Let us consign these mushrooming interfaith activities to oblivion, where they belong.

D Rosenthhal,

NW4

COLLAPSING COALMINE

“In each and every generation they rise up against us to destroy us.” This verse from the Passover service gives a clear warning though the source of this threat has constantly changed – Babylon to Rome to the inquisition and the Nazis. In his statement to the nation, the prime minister addressed the challenge to political and social stability from Islamists and their fellow travellers as well as the farright. It is said Jews are “the canaries in the coal mine”, the first to sense danger. This canary, while aware of recent history, believes bracketing the unpleasant but relatively inconsequential farright with the hard-left’s accelerating menace was disingenuous and distracting. It is clear where the intimidation, dangerous propaganda and disorder comes from. We need the government to focus unequivocally, and through legislation and robust policing deal with this generation’s real threat before the mine collapses.

David Bernstein, By email

SAME AS LAST CENTURY?

Sadly, I fully agree with the contents of David Bernstein’s letter, “Replacing 1920s with 2020s” (22 February). The lessons of history are rarely learnt, so each generation gets its fingers burnt. The letter merits a wider audience, including secular media outlets and social media sites. Please God, may the 2020s not become the 1920s.

JD Milaric, Middx

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DON’T HOLD YOUR BREATH

The world’s voice is currently weak in support of Israel’s attempt to eradicate the evil, barbaric Hamas.

Having been voted into its position by a majority of the Palestinian population, what makes anyone believe Hamas no longer has that support, even when those same people are and have been used as human shields? Remember the oftrepeated adage – when they start loving their children more than hating Israel, peace might descend on this troubled region.

I suggest no-one should be holding their breath waiting for such a miracle to come about.

Stephen Vishnick, Tel Aviv

‘Oh, oh! As if the plagues weren’t bad enough, they’ve brought in Douglas Murray. He’s very persuasive’

“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?

T:

Keep extremists of all stripes out of public life

RABBI DAVID MASON MUSWELL HILL SYNAGOGUE

George Galloway is a divisive politician who has had a corrosive impact on British politics. His claim that Keir Starmer is controlled by Zionists is deeply o ensive and has been called out as antisemitic by many commentators and public figures. Galloway is one of the hard-left activists who use the the Israel–Palestine conflict as a vehicle to express o ensive views.

The vast majority of people in the Jewish community will likely read that first paragraph and nod in agreement. Consider this next one:

Lee Anderson is a divisive politician who has had a corrosive impact on British politics. His claim that Sadiq Khan is controlled by Islamists is deeply o ensive and has rightly been called out as an example of anti-Muslim hatred by many commentators and public figures.

Anderson is one of the hard-right activ-

ists who use the Israel/Palestine conflict as a vehicle to express o ensive views.

How many of the Jewish community will read that paragraph and nod in agreement with the same vigour that they did when reading the paragraph about Galloway?

We need to ask ourselves some questions about why the responses might be di erent. Let’s put aside the fact that Islamism and Zionism are not equivalents. Let’s also put aside that Sadiq Khan has been a steadfast and reliable friend and supporter of the Jewish community. Sadiq’s first o cial act as mayor was to attend a Yom Hashoah event.

I, alongside many leaders in our community, have stood by Sadiq’s side at various events to celebrate Jewish festivals.

Yes, Sadiq may have moved early to call for a ceasefire in Gaza, but he did so on humanitarian grounds and denounced Hamas and called for the release of hostages as he did it. Sadiq hosted the Chief Rabbi in his o ce a few days later to discuss what more City Hall could do to help stamp out antisemitism during these times of heightened tension.

Those things aside, on the strength of his

words alone, what Lee Anderson has said was racist. And if he’d been talking about Zionists controlling a politician, we’d want that called out. And we’d be appalled if the prime minister, deputy prime minister and various other ministers had done no more than simply term his words ‘wrong’.

Lee Anderson is not alone. Suella Braverman has crossed a line in her language about Islamists controlling Britain. Nigel Farage has always been on the wrong side of the line when it comes to stoking fear and hatred. Yet these are politicians some in the Jewish community have been willing to platform or encourage.

The same is true for Douglas Murray. We can acknowledge it’s tempting to say these people, whatever they’ve said in the past, are saying the right things now in support of Israel. But we need to ask ourselves why.

We have to be clear-eyed about the fact some politicians and commentators are using the Israel/Palestine conflict to stoke division and advance their own ends.

After the war, we will have to consider how we rebuild – both in the Middle East and here at home in our communities.

Jews rightly condemned the silence of those who did not come to our aid during the antisemitism of the Jeremy Corbyn days. We need to recognise we have a duty to come to the aid of our Muslim brothers and sisters during this period of hatred towards them.

Our Jewish values dictate there can be no hierarchy of racism. And our struggle for equality is not helped by extremists of the left or the right gaining a foothold in communities because it might feel convenient right now.

Our struggle for peace and equality will be strengthened only by showing we stand by Muslims today as we would want all communities to stand with us during our darkest hours.

It is upsetting to see some of the hatred on display at the marches in support of the Palestinian cause. But I believe the majority of people pledging support for the people of Gaza do so out of pain and in horror at the scale of destruction going on there.

Yes, the cause has been hijacked by extremists like Galloway. But our calls for those extremists to be kept out of the conversation gather much greater moral clarity when we call for the hard-right to be kept out too.

A birthday to remind us of good among the bad

RABBI NAFTALI SCHIFF CHIEF EXECUTIVE, JEWISH FUTURES TRUST

Smartphones have been the symbol of our individualistic age’s obsession with ourselves.

As the British author and journalist Will Storr charted in his book Selfie, individuals in today’s economy have been transformed into a currency, with influencers marketing themselves and battling one another for popularity and followers.

Yet in the Jewish community, we have seen the rise of another currency, of giving, volunteering and countless acts of charity.

Next month, GIFT turns 20, marking more than two decades of immense charitable activity.

At its inception, there was a perception that GIFT was simply an organisation that would provide challot and food packages for struggling families, coordinating with drivers

to deliver these bags across London.

Yet we always held a deeper vision, of educating and inculcating an activism and spirit of giving to others, of focusing outwardly and not inwardly. Our smartphones, for example, seen by many as tools of selfishness, have been used to give to others.

WhatsApp groups of thousands of people, ready to volunteer, tutor, deliver food packages, shop, and support are active almost every hour of every day.

GIFT celebrates 20 years of spreading this message, of the importance and pleasure of giving to others, across the entire communal spectrum of British Jewry, Israel and beyond.

As a result of the work of 20 years, it is a profound pleasure to see the beginnings of a palpable transformation from ‘Me’ to ‘We’ happening within our community, from London to Manchester, Jerusalem to Tel Aviv. Giving and volunteering are increasingly the norm among young people in our communities.

There is a second wave change in which GIFT has also played a significant part. In today’s world, we are stricken by a sense of

Ghastly

disaster. The recent crises that have stricken us, from the Covid-19 pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to the horrendous massacre of 7 October and Israel’s ongoing war against Hamas, are earth-shattering catastrophes, all di erent in scale and personal impact of course, but all catastrophic and, for many, paralysing.

GIFT has served the vital role of enabling us to respond to each of these events positively, of facilitating giving on an unprecedented scale, mobilising an army of volunteers to help provide for those shattered in the wake of those tragedies.

We do not have to focus only on the negative, dwelling on the pervading despondency and destruction, but also

❝

stand up and act,-improving the lot of many around us. We need not simply be coloured by the terror around us, but can fight back actively through acts of kindness, changing society for the better.

GIFT exists thanks to the thousands of volunteers, supporters, and friends that make it what it is, a grassroots movement educating, inspiring, and enabling a positive attitude toward giving, transformed daily into thousands of acts of giving.

GIFT, and its spirit, have now come of age, a permanent and much beloved feature of our community.

Happy 20th birthday to a movement, part of the Jewish Futures family, that just keeps on giving.

AFTER 20 YEARS GIFT AND ITS SPIRIT HAVE NOW COME OF AGE – A PERMANENT, MUCH BELOVED FEATURE OF OUR COMMUNITY

spectre on our streets must be tackled

DR JEREMY HAVARDI

DIRECTOR, B’NAI B’RITH UK BUREAU OF INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

The last five months has seen a surge in extremist behaviour quite unprecedented in modern times, with the UK’s Jewish community bearing the brunt. The CST’s figures indicate a huge spike in antisemitic incidents since 7 October, something mirrored in hate crimes faced by Muslims. The nearly 2,700 incidents that occurred after 7 October have been described as ‘a watershed moment for antisemitism in the UK’.

None of this has come in a vacuum. Since ‘Black Shabbat’, the day when members of a genocidal death cult carried out a murderous wave of violence in Israel, the streets of London have witnessed weekly carnivals of hatred.

They have featured repeated calls for jihad, chants to eradicate Israel and genocidal slogans beamed onto Big Ben. This cacophony of intimidation and bigotry has turned parts of our capital into no-go areas for British Jews and others. Jewish pupils have also been targeted by

this wave of prejudice, with a tripling of antisemitic incidents, according to the CST.

The first major rally on our streets was organised while Hamas terrorists was still inside Israel, continuing its violent rampage

What gives the lie to the idea that this tidal wave of hatred was a response to Israel’s aggression was that the biggest spike in racist attacks came in the immediate aftermath of the attacks, prior to a ground invasion.

The first major rally on our streets was organised while Hamas terrorists was still inside Israel, continuing its violent rampage.

Many of those who organised the protest rallies were doing so either to celebrate the attacks, including three women who wore ‘paraglider’ stickers, or to whitewash Hamas’ crimes.

Such extremism has metastasised into incendiary attacks on MPs. Following the furore over his handling of the ceasefire debate, Speaker Lindsay Hoyle said that he did not want to pick up a phone to find an MP had been murdered by terrorists, citing “absolutely frightening” threats.

He may have been thinking of Mike Freer, a well-known defender of Israel, who has been forced to step down due to intimidation, as well as the fatal assault on Sir David

❝

THE FIRST MAJOR ANTI-ISRAEL RALLY WAS HELD WHILE HAMAS WAS STILL INSIDE ISRAEL

Amess by an Islamist extremist. Recently,

Tory MP James Grundy, MP for Leigh, told the Commons that his parents were threatened with death following an opposition day debate while the o ce of shadow Welsh Secretary, Jo Stevens, was daubed in red paint after she abstained on a ceasefire vote.

Within this context, the spectre of Islamist intolerance is particularly chilling. It was recently revealed that the Charity Commission was examining a series of ‘repugnant’ sermons held in British mosques since 7 October.

One imam at Leyton’s Tawhid mosque reportedly claimed that the victims of the Supernova attack were “killed by their own people”, echoing the absurd conspiracy theory put about by the suspended Labour candidate for Rochdale, Azhar Ali.

During a sermon held in a mosque in Manchester, there was an alleged call for that mosque to be freed from “dirty, usurping and aggressing Zionists” while a preacher at a Birmingham mosque called for Jews to be killed. There are many other examples cited of such incendiary and dehumanising rhetoric, all of which paint a disturbing picture of support for Hamas terror.

A number of things are vital now. First, Parliament cannot be cowed by anti-Israel thugs. While security for MPs is essential, it is equally important for political business to continue as normal and not appear as if it is at the mercy of an intolerant minority.

Islamist preachers of hate should face the full force of the law, as should any people that incite violence or disorder.

While calls to ban marches will seem draconian, there is surely an argument for limiting their frequency, duration and location. The government should also address the deep concerns about the Prevent programme identified recently by Sir William Shawcross.

The shadow of Hamas’ war against Israel has been felt on our streets, in our schools and within the halls of power.

This ghastly spectre must be reversed through action, not words.

Jewish student life in the face of adversity

GUY DABBY-JOORY UJS HEAD OF CAMPAIGNS

There’s no hiding it, it hasn’t been easy since 7 October. We all know the unprecedented explosion of antisemitism, the denial of Hamas’ atrocities and support for extremism that seems to be pervasive through society.

It’s also unsurprising that these issues have been magnified and amplified on campus. From 7 October until New Year’s Eve, 148 universityrelated antisemitic incidents were reported to the CST – roughly one for every 60 Jewish students, and likely the tip of the iceberg when we consider under-reporting.

This has included eggs being pelted at visibly Jewish students, death threats being sent to JSocs, and a professor even encouraging her followers to blow up JW3.

It’s therefore understandable that many parents and prospective students are fearful of university spaces right now. If you look at social media, then one might be advised to pack a bullet-proof vest if one plans on venturing

even close to a campus. Jewish student life, it might be fair to assume, is characterised by unshackled and omnipresent hatred.

But – and hear me out here – I think Jewish life on campus may be better than most people realise. With Deborah Lipstadt in the UK last week, I decided to read her book Antisemitism: Here and Now. Written in 2018, events have unfortunately rendered it in parts somewhat dated, but history seems to repeat itself.

The book concludes with an account of a Hillel House defaced with gra ti – an eerie parallel of events in Leeds a fortnight ago.

At the time, Lipstadt was phoned by parents of students, who were deeply concerned about an antisemitic environment at the university. Simultaneously, the university sent an email to tens of thousands of people unequivocally condemning the gra ti, as did the Students’ Union. The next day, students across campus wore blue in support of the Jewish student community, showing solidarity in the face of antisemitism.

While the gra ti was horrific, the actions of one person should not overshadow the actions of the entire campus community. To paint

Leeds University as institutionally or structurally antisemitic, or an unsafe place for Jewish students, o the back of the gra ti alone, would be misguided.

Lipstadt argues, I think correctly, that we should focus less on the ‘oy’ and more of the ‘joy’ of Jewish life on campus. And this applies in the UK too. Since 7 October, Jewish student life has – in a perverse manner – thrived.

In the wake of Hamas’ attack, Jewish students came together to mourn and stand in solidarity with Israel, organising vigils on campuses across the UK. The rise in antisemitism spurred record attendance at peer-led, Friday night dinners up and down the country.

On the eve of the gra ti in Leeds, Jewish students organised a nationwide challah bake to campaign for the safe return of the 136 hostages still in Gaza, with hundreds of students joining the campaign across the country.

UJS’ national events have also flourished in the face of adversity. Over 400 students, the most ever, came to UJS’ cross-communal convention in December, taking part in peerled learning and celebration of Shabbat.

On the final day of convention, we hosted

our largest ever UJS conference, with over 100 motions submitted, heated debates, and the results from the UJS presidential election which had UJS’ largest ever voter turnout. Jewish students showed that they’re tougher than anything antisemites can throw at them.

And in the face of hatred, Jewish student leaders were galvanised. One of the many privileges of my role at UJS is mentoring and supporting Jewish student leaders on the ground on individual campuses.

Since October, a new generation of Jewish leaders have cut their teeth advocating for change and support from their universities. Forming the inaugural cohort of UJS’ flagship leadership fellowship, these student leaders will form the future of the Jewish community, whose continuity is safeguarded by these experiences on campus.

And so, while it would be easy to proclaim that campuses are unsafe or dangerous for Jewish students right now, this would be wrong. Jewish student life continues to be vibrant and rich, even when those who hate us try to stop it from being so.

Despite everything, the kids are still alright.

Rachel

Emily

A Shoah masterpiece I will never watch again

DARREN RICHMAN WRITER AND JOURNALIST

The Zone of Interest is like nothing you’ve ever seen, because nothing is. Jonathan Glazer’s follow-up to Under The Skin was 10 years in the making and saw the filmmaker repeatedly come close to abandoning the project altogether. Indeed, his parents begged him not to make it. It is, by design, the most ethical narrative feature film made about the horrors of the Holocaust. It is a masterpiece I have no intention of ever watching again.

This is the banality of evil made flesh, as we follow Nazi commandant

Rudolf Höss and his wife attempting to achieve domestic bliss with their young family in a home bordering Auschwitz concentration camp. Glazer, who has confessed he was too nervous to speak to survivors while preparing the film for fear of what they might make of the

project, has made an art film that feels closer to a video exhibit in an art gallery than Life is Beautiful.

It is quite clear the director felt any kind of conventional three act structure would be crass and, using a combination of improvisation and hidden cameras while filming on location in Auschwitz, he created what he dubbed “Big Brother in the Nazi house”. The events presented in the film we see might be entirely mundane but what we hear, not far away, are the sounds of unimaginable horror. Not for nothing has Glazer described the sound design as “the other film” and “arguably, the film”. Glazer chose not to embellish or invent. The real Höss actually hired someone to rev a motorcycle engine in order to overshadow the sound of gunshots and screams coming from the camp and so that is what we hear.

Steven Spielberg’s Schindler’s List focused on a thousand people saved to tell the story of six million lives lost but The Zone of Interest finds a way to capture the latter in a way that leaves one feeling overcome by despair. There is room for both approaches

and Spielberg is on record as describing Glazer’s achievement as, “The best Holocaust movie since my own.”

I saw The Zone of Interest at the London Film Festival in October and my reaction was visceral; I was overwhelmed by a pounding headache for the duration. No amount of trigger warnings could have prepared me for the space between what we see and what we do not and the way in which I would, inevitably, think of my grandfather and what he endured beyond those walls.

When my grandfather would share his testimony with young people and warn about the dangers of hatred and racism, he would make a point of mentioning that these atrocities were not carried out by ignorant people but by doctors, lawyers and accountants. In Zigi’s own words: “Every day I ask myself how human beings could possibly behave that way and then sit down with their wife and children. How could they eat dinner? How could they listen to music?”

Some have complained that the film

Masterpiece: The Zone of Interest

humanises the Nazis but the point is that they were human. We are let off the hook if we allow ourselves to simply imagine those capable of such acts as inhuman monsters closer to something from a fairly tale than those that walk among us.

We can lie to ourselves and pretend these people were uniquely evil or we can accept the reality of human history.

The characters in The Zone of Interest close their eyes to what is happening around them but we should be on our guard and be sure not to make the same mistake.

1 SHABBAT IN SOUTHEND

The Southend and Westcliff’s Hebrew Congregation (SWHC) held a “One Southend Shabbaton”, dedicated to unity in the local Jewish community and solidarity with Israel. The Travelling Chassidim were invited as special guests together with Steven Winston, managing director of the National Jewish Assembly. A group of local Chassidic families, plus one from London and another from Canvey Island arrived at the synagogue on Friday for a packed programme, including a bake-off and challah bake. On Shabbat, an additional 130 candles were lit, representing the hostages still in captivity.

2 JOHN HUMPHRYS IN CONVO

On Thursday 29 February, Magen David Adom UK’s Impromptu committee hosted a lunch with renowned broadcaster John Humphrys. The event was held in the Radlett home of MDA UK supporters Ally and Daniel Rubin, and organised by Sue Rubin, the chair of the Impromptu Committee. Humphrys was interviewed on a variety of topics, ranging from his career in broadcasting to the way the current war in Gaza is being covered by the UK media. In a comment that could well have been directed at his previous employer, Humphrys was unequivocal that Hamas should be termed ‘terrorists’.

3 NEWS AND COFFEE – LIVE

News editor and co-publisher of Jewish News Justin Cohen was interviewed by Danny Hockman at Cockfosters & North Southgate United Synagogue’s five-year anniversary of Coffee&Company.LIVE, a weekly morning event that started in February 2019. Justin’s memorable take on the Jewish world was followed by words of thanks and lunch.

4 MUSICAL INTERLUDE

Mosaic Jewish Community Culture Hub hosted to a concert by The London Jewish Male Choir on Sunday 25th February. Joseph Finlay, the musical director, conducted a wide-ranging programme of Jewish music, including songs by modern Jewish composers and traditional liturgical music. Joseph arranged several of the pieces and the choir was accompanied by Leo Nicholson on keyboard, and guest soloist, David Djemal. The lively encore, Bashanah Haba’ah, was welcomed by the audience, who enthusiastically joined in.

5 100 REASONS TO CELEBRATE

And be seen!

The latest news, pictures and social events from across the community

6 BELMONT ROCKS

A group of 10-to-16-year-olds from Belmont United Synagogue in Stanmore raised £4,100 for a local Norwood with a sponsored walk around Gibraltar. The five-mile trek was the centrepiece of a Jewish heritage and identity tour of the British Overseas Territory, made possible by a grant from Oxford & St Georges Jewish Youth Trust.

Robert Wall from Northampton was presented with a special commemorative certificate by KKL for the planting of trees in Israel to mark his 100th birthday. Born in Berlin in February 1924, Robert was sent to school in Sweden to escape the Nazis.

Picture: David Lerner

Will they be CHOSEN?

Brigit Grant and Linda Marric mull over our Oscar contenders

The Oscars are all about stamina, especially this year. You need fortitude to sit through nominated films, some of which threatened to exceed the average working day (Oppenheimer and Flowers of the Killer Moon) in length. Steadfastness is required to fathom plots, such as the foul mystery that is Poor Things, and then there’s the ceremony itself which is an endurance test for those in black tie at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles as well as for those in pyjamas in Bushey.

The Jewish audience has not had a genuine reason to stay up since Steven Spielberg swept the board with Schindler’s List in 1993, but 2024 has delivered some worthy tribe contenders. Oppenheimer may be said to be problematic because of what the title character did, but he was one of ours and Christopher Nolan’s biopic of the theoretical physicist has 13 nominations.

Director Todd Haynes’ May, December is nominated for Best Original Screenplay and because of Barbie’s Jewish creator Ruth Handler we’re connected and the film’s Jewish co-writer Noah Baumbach is nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay with real-life partner Greta Gerwig, also director Barbie has made a chunk of change at the box office because audiences love it, but has yet to bank many gongs, so it’s up to Jewish musician Mark Ronson to win Best Original Song and with Ryan Gosling singing I’m Just Ken how could he not. Hoping to win in the same category is songwriter Diane Warren for The Fire Inside from Flamin’ Hot, which we know nothing about. Bold enough to tackle the Holocaust without showing the horror, former JFS pupil Jonathan Glazer (Sexy Beast, Birth, Under the Skin) is nominated for best picture, best director and Best International Feature Film with his chilling Zone of Interest

Adapted from the late Martin Amis’ novel about Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höss and his wife Hedwig living a dream life beside the camp, the Germanlanguage stripped-down Shoah drama was a huge research project for Glazer who told the Financial Times: “I didn’t want drama... I’m very suspicious about people making films about the Holocaust. I was even suspicious of myself.”

Elsewhere, producers David Heyman (Barbie), Dan Friedkin (Killers of The Flower Moon) and Spielberg (Maestro) are all nominated in the best picture category.

Directed by and starring Bradley Cooper in the principal role, Maestro has been about as unlucky as Barbie when it comes to gongs. Here’s hoping Cooper ditches his tuxedo for the T-shirt he wore while portraying composer Leonard Bernstein, but the Harvard in Hebrew slogan might not fly with his new girlfriend, the pro-Palestinian model Gigi Hadid.

Others on the faith roster include the acclaimed composer Laura Karpman for best original score for the excellent American Fiction

and for Best Documentary Feature the two Jewish hopefuls are British producer John Battsek for Bobi Wine: The People’s President and Raney Aronson-Rath for the Baftawinning Ukraine war documentary 20 Days in Mariupol.

Renowned for his collaborative work with Ridley Scott on Gladiator and other films, Arthur Max could scoop Best Production Design for the historical epic Napoleon and the Best Cinematographer Jewish contenders are American Edward Lachman for El Conde and Dutch filmmaker Hoyte van Hoytema for Oppenheimer

For Best Documentary Short cheer for Sheila Nevins (The ABCs of Book Banning) or John Hoffman (The Barber of Little Rock), while Jewish-American producer Steven Rales could see The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar win Best Live Action Short Film.

If murmurs are true, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will be making changes, and if the woke get their way they will remove the male and female categories. At least the golden genderless statuette still fits

and we hope that Oscar is handed to Israeli filmmaker Tal Kantor for her Holocaust story Letter to a Pig in the best animated short film category.

In these sad, contentious times, politics pervades culture, so we wish Karen Hartley and Suzi Battersby mazal tov for their hair and make-up nomination for transforming Helen Mirren in Golda Tinseltown’s Jewish legacy was acknowledged by Barbra Streisand at the SAG awards last week, and in her Lifetime Achievement Award speech she referenced cinematic pioneers – Szmuel Gelbfisz (Sam Goldwyn) Lazar Meir (Louis B Mayer) and the four Wonskolaser brothers (Warner Brothers ) – who had fled “the prejudice they faced in eastern Europe, simply because of their religion”.

“They were dreamers too, like all of us here tonight,” she continued. “And I dream that that prejudice is a thing of the past.”

See you on Sunday in your PJs.

 Watch the Oscars on ITV1 and ITVX, with a new companion show hosted by Jonathan Ross from 10:30pm on Sunday 10 March

Oppenheimer

Golda Maestro

Ed Lachman’s El Conde

Jonathan Glazer’s Zone Of Interest

Todd Haynes’ May, December

Mark Ronson’s Barbie

Tal Kantor is an Israeli animation filmmaker

SINCE 07/10

To mark 150 days since the Hamas attack photographer Blake Ezra has curated a collection of images he has taken in the UK and in Israel

It is said that 7 October is something that happened to every Israeli, but as we look around the world it is obvious that 7 October and what has come since has in fact happened to every Jew.

This is an era of division, of polarisation and of antisemitism, the likes of which most of us have never seen. An era of not only Holocaust denial, but Holocaust inversion, with many denying what happened in the 1930s and 1940s as well as the Hamas atrocities, and accusing the victims of the Nazis of being Nazis themselves; in other words, accusing the victims of the greatest genocide of all time of committing genocide.

In an era of mass manipulation and of industrialscale gaslighting and a daily tsunami of lies being hurled towards the Jewish community, documentation is crucial. Like many, my life as I knew it on 6 October last year died the following day..

We are all learning how to navigate this post-7/10 world, a world in which everybody seems to have a platform and in which content is king.

Life must go on, and we as a Jewish community must celebrate the rites of passage that have kept us together and connected to our heritage for thousands of years. While I’ve still been honoured to photograph many corporate events, portrait shoots and simchas, as a photographer, writer and public speaker I’ve also felt a responsibility to document this historic era in any way possible.

This collection of work may be my most significant ever, and it will grow as time goes by, because 7/10 did not end on 7 October. For every day there are hostages still in Gaza, and for every day Jewish communities around the world feel the ramifications of that lifechanging day, it continues. It is still 7 October.

Since 7/10 I’ve curated photoshoots with Holocaust survivors to campaign for the release of our hostages. I’ve visited Kfar Aza and Re’im in the Gaza Envelope, meeting people whose heartbreaking stories must be shared. My camera has documented The Empty Shabbat

the historic March Against Antisemitism, Jewish News’ Big Balloon Launch at Tower Bridge, the Voices from the Tunnels exhibition, the protest against the abhorrent silence of UN Women – one of the greatest acts of antisemitism of all time – and many others.

When I saw that the statue of the late Jewish singer Amy Winehouse in Camden had been defaced, there was no choice but to visit. More recently, I’ve identified many key voices in this conflict, people who have been willing to speak up often to their own personal detriment, and I will be creating portraits of these inspiring people over the coming year. They are the modern-day heroes.

Away from the camera, as a keen writer and an avid student of the Middle East for 30 years, I’ve helped others to navigate this challenge and to have those difficult conversations with colleagues and friends. Indeed there are now thousands globally who follow my content online, not for the photographs but for the words, and for as long as I’m helping others to find the words, it’s a responsibility I’ll embrace.

I’ve watched the unedited footage of 7 October, met families of hostages, and given talks about my understanding of the conflict. We must all do what we can.

In my photography career, having begun in photojournalism, the challenge is always finding new angles to illustrate a story.

Viewing this collection together illustrates the impact 7 October has had on us all: the trauma, the pain, the abandonment and the anger. However, it also illustrates the incredible mobilisation, the increased activism, and the eternal hope that courses through the very fabric of the Jewish community. In order to defeat the darkness, one cannot battle alone. We must create light.

7 October has stirred up a strength of identity in many for whom it previously lay dormant. It has made the disconnected want to connect again. It has made us all realise that we are stronger together. This is Since 07/10

We will dance again.

Table at JW3,

The March Against Antisemitism in London (top) and images from Israel

The Empty Shabbat Table installation (above) and Lovelock Hostage Bridge were both held at JW3

Above: The March Against Antisemitism in London in November

Vigils and protests for the hostages in London, with (below) Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis

Why is this Mother’s Day di erent from all other Mother’s Days?

Because Louisa

Walters’ daughter will be heading up the aisle on Sunday

Mother’s Day is going to be a rather different for me this year. No breakfast in bed, no lunch out with the kids, no bunch of flowers... instead I am buying a ballroom full of them. For this is the day that my daughter gets married.

It was in December 2022 that her boyfriend asked for her hand in marriage. Old-school style, he first asked the father.

was also the best call I made. I know these days the kids tend to do it all themselves, but a wedding planner is crucial. It’s like having a project manager on a building job – you can do it yourself but why would you? How much experience do you have? How much time do you have?

This wedding has been a team e ort. We’ve ALL been involved. And that’s been one of the best things about it. Venue visits, meetings, phone calls, WhatsApps - we’ve spent so much time together with the bride and groom either in person or online and it’s bonded us all beautifully.

Tissues at the ready

Jewish style, the father told the mother. And then we waited. And waited. For it took four months for everything fall into place for him

to pop the question. ‘Everything’ involved having a ring made in Israel, some clandestine tactics to guesstimate her ring size, and relying on someone flying over who could bring it.

He asked, she said yes, and then the fun began.

To complicate (but massively enhance) matters, our son had got engaged just three months earlier, and had booked his wedding for June 2024. Daughter and fiancé didn’t want to wait that long and mooted March 2024.

Was there a broiges? No. Did I lay awake at night worrying there would be a broiges? Of course.

The first call I made was to the wedding planner. It

There are many, many things to think about but very quickly certain options were narrowed down by default. If you want to have the chuppah at the venue (which the kids did) and you don’t want the chuppah in the dinner/dance room (necessitating a very long reception while the room is flipped) there are only a few venues that have a separate, large enough chuppah room. If you want to get married under the auspices of the United Synagogue, you cannot have the chuppah at the venue unless you have licensed kosher catering. If you have licensed kosher catering it looks very expensive at first but once you consider that all drinks are included it’s not as much of a jump from nonkosher as you might think.

that the meat should be kosher and the desserts pareve so that everyone is comfortable. Some things are just deep rooted.

Right at the start my daughter announced that she’d found her dream dress... in Manchester.

My son is having a reform ceremony (hopefully outdoors) at a beautiful countryside venue so there are no restrictions on catering and yet... he and his fiancée still feel

“I’m sure it’s lovely darling but we live in London with more wedding dress shops per square mile than Indian takeaways so I’m sure we can find one here,” I said. Obviously we ended up in Manchester. This meant lots of divine day trips - non-stop chatting on the journey there and back, co ees and lunches. I’ve loved it.

premiere that was so heavy I couldn’t wait to take it o . Then there was the Vampire’s Wife dress that looks stunning on statuesque Trinny but was so clearly wrong for my short, curvy Jewish body. There was the “Mum you look like you’re going to a 70s disco” one, and the “Mum you look like a grandma” one. And then there was THE one and I can’t wait to wear it.

It’s all been very high maintenance. There have been makeup trials and hair trials. Pilates twice a week. A course of facials to try and inject some life into my saggy 50-something face. The other day someone asked whether I’d had Botox. Does it sound weird to say I was flattered? I gave myself 10 weeks to lose 10 pounds because I work better under pressure – and I’ve done it. I dropped carbs, stopped latenight noshing, reduced my portion sizes and did a 24-hour fast once a week. I feel much better for it but I’m very excited to have a Gail’s cinnamon roll the morning after the wedding.

We’ve done a motherdaughter spa day to de-stress and to have a sneaky body scrub all ready for the de spray tan. I had a Mother of the Bride lunch with all my girlfriends where they showered me with love, words of wisdom and ‘survival kits’ (tissues for my happy tears, sleep spray, handbag mints and my very own Mother of the Bride mug and tote bag).

We went shopping for a new dinner suit and bow tie for my husband only to realise that none of them are as nice as his existing set, but we did buy him a fabulously shiny pair of shoes. I, on the other hand, didn’t buy new shoes. I’ve opted for a comfortable pair that I already own.

I do have a new frock though. I had great fun trying on all the evening dresses I’d lusted after. There was the Jenny Packham ‘cape dress’ that Kate Middleton wore for a Star Wars

They say that when your kids are young, you should be their mother, not their friend. But the truth is that in a daughter you can have a confidant, a fashion adviser and a holiday companion. You can also have a backseat driver, the harshest critic and the staunchest defender of your husband! But if you’re lucky you have the very best friend - and my daughter is mine. We may o cially be giving her away, she may o cially be changing her surname, but those are just facts. So when people ask me how I feel about her getting married, the answer is that I feel excited, happy, proud and grateful, because she’s going to get what every mother wants for their daughter - a wonderful man to share life with. And the wedding day of her dreams.

Surely there is no Mother’s Day gift better than that?

Taking delivery of the dream wedding dress

Louisa’s daughter and her son get married this year

Louisa with her daughter Georgia

Getting over-excited about the wedding? Moi?

BY Candice Krieger candicekrieger@googlemail.com

PROPERTY SPECIALIST WITH A HEALTHY OUTLOOK

Harry Hyman took a gamble on his idea that a focus on primary healthcare sites would work. Now, 30 years on, he’s stepping down from a thriving business

hen Harry Hyman came up with the idea for a property company specialising in primary healthcare sites, he approached his boss at the time, who didn’t think it would work. But Hyman, wanting to explore the opportunity, decided to leave his role as finance director of property investor Baltic to start working on his vision.

WFast-forward three decades and Hyman has reshaped the primary healthcare landscape with his company, Primary Health Properties (PHP), now valued at more than £1.2bn. With a £2.7bn portfolio comprising 514 sites, including hundreds of NHS surgeries across the UK, as well as health centres in Ireland, it has become one of the largest healthcare real estate investment trusts in the UK.

As Hyman prepares to step down as chief executive of PHP after 29 years, he tells Jewish News: “My original idea for PHP came when I discovered that GPs in the UK have their rent paid for by the NHS.

“I thought that was interesting.

The NHS is technically an agency of the UK government and although the leases are written to GPs, it is actually the UK government, through the NHS, which pays their rent.

“So, there is a yield and covenant mismatch. I thought this was interesting – private landlords could provide what the GPs needed and in return receive a strong rental income source.”

Quite. PHP, which is listed on the FTSE 250, has grown its dividend yield every year since inception – most recently the figure was 7.18 percent.

After the company’s annual meeting next

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.

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. We give special rates to schools and colleges buying in bulk.

If you have any questions please give us a call and we will be happy to talk to you.

month, Hyman, 67, will switch from CEO to chairman and will remain involved in a nonexecutive capacity.

He will be succeeded by experienced FTSE 250 executive Mark Davies. “It’s time for someone else to take over the reins,” says Hyman, polite, warm and softly-spoken. “There is still a huge job of work to be done.”

The need for modern and improved healthcare sites, he notes, is not going away.

“We have an ageing population with longer life expectancy and need to improve the primary care facilities in the UK, moving them out of expensive inflexible and inadequate hospitals.”

PHP has plans for 1,000 new primary centres, costing around £5m each, a total of £5bn. The 514 state-of-the art PHP sites, which already span the UK and Ireland, seem a far cry from the doctor’s surgery he recalls visiting as a child growing up in Stanmore, Middlesex.

“GP surgeries would be part of the doctor’s house with patients waiting in their front room, and this is what much of primary care still is in the UK today – run from a knackered semidetached house,” he says. “This is what we need to move away from.”

A former Haberdashers’ Aske’s School pupil and a Cambridge graduate, Hyman trained as a chartered accountant with Price Waterhouse (now PwC) and has remained at the helm of PHP since laying the foundations of the company in 1995.

A “standout moment” was the company’s merger with MedicX in 2019. “It was an exceptionally important deal. We acquired £800m worth of assets. It took around 18 months to negotiate and has been a precursor to some of the other big tie ups the company has achieved.”

Listed on the main market since 1998, PHP initially floated on AIM in 1996. “It was exceptionally hard,” recalls Hyman. “Raising your first monies as a public company is always difficult. Although it seems like a very small amount of money – we raised £16m of equity – it was really tough.”

Hyman was also battling cancer, undergoing treatment for non-hodgkin’s lymphoma, “doing presentations with no hair to investors”. Now in remission, he was treated at the Royal Marsden Hospital, for which he still fundraises.

“Thankfully this is now in the past for me, but it was either ironic or a driving force to give something back.

“Sadly, we have a lot of healthcare inequalities in our country, and economic deprivation tends to be associated with healthcare problems. The poorer an area, the more intense the pressure on the healthcare system. The ability to improve the social infrastructure by building new medical centres is very

much a way of breaking down the barriers and helping to remove these inequalities.”

Hyman says that whichever political party is in power will need to accept that the NHS has to work with private landlords.

“It doesn’t matter who gets in, the demand for healthcare is still going to be there,” he says, adding: “Over the past few years, we have been somewhat hijacked by Covid and political uncertainty and instability, which has meant that some of the things that should have been done in healthcare have not been actioned because people’s minds are elsewhere.

“It would be good to have a new longer-term plan, and a government with a substantial majority so they can crack on with the plan.”

Passionate about healthcare, property and education, the father of two also owns Nexus Media Group, where his daughter Sarah is chief operating officer. Nexus is a leading B2B publishing and events company and counts HealthInvestor UK, Caring Times and Healthcare Property among its titles.

He is also a shareholder in his son Adam’s business Knife & Fork, which owns the hospitality trade media platform CODE and The Good Food Guide, which Adam relaunched in 2022 as a digital-only product.

Outside business, opera lover Hyman founded The Opera Awards Foundation in 2012, to promote excellence in international opera and support aspiring talent. The organisation has provided around £50,000 a year to individual artists and companies.

While the curtain raises on a new era for Hyman, it’s clear he won’t be short of things to do. Dividing his week between his homes in Shepherd Market in Mayfair and West Berkshire, Hyman – a member of Edgware and Hendon Reform Synagogue – will be spending more time gardening, playing the piano and watching Saracens play. And making the most of his extensive wine collection.

A half-glass-full kind of person, he is looking forward to spending two days a week on PHP while continuing to pursue other ventures and pro-bono initiatives.

“I like creating things and driving things forward, and giving back both culturally and socially. I like to make things happen.”

PHP Eastbourne

Harry Hyman

MAKING SENSE OF THE SEDRA

In

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

BY RABBI ARIEL ABEL LLM CHAPLAIN AND LAWYER

Synagogues have roles that extend far beyond ritual

Vayakhel, the word signalling ‘gathering’ the people, launches the assembly of the Tabernacle in the desert with a short paragraph on keeping the Shabbat day holy. Part of this includes six days of labour and earning one’s keep, which gives meaning to resting. Only work gives meaning to rest.

Conversely, rest is a function of work. An esteemed senior lecturer at Manchester University, Dr Alexander Samely, told me in 2012 that it is necessary to also take time to do nothing; that is also doing something and is necessary to be productive.

At risk of workaholism and consequent burnout, I have spent the last 12 years since his wise words to me applying them to being more e ective and productive at what I do.

Vayakhel mentions the Aron Kodesh – the Holy Ark. Nowadays we use the term Aron Kodesh to denote the Ark in which we place the holiest objects we have – the Torah scrolls. Sephardim refer to the Aron Kodesh as the heychal, which means sanctuary or palace.

The gathering of Israel to address the holiness of Shabbat and refraining from creative work was a necessary precursor to advancing the building of the Mishkan, the Divine place, or residence on earth. The Mishkan in the desert was, unintentionally, the forerunner of our modern synagogues.

When we gather in synagogues for Shabbat this week we will read that when Moses gathered with the Israelites, he did so not only so that he could tell them about how to keep Shabbat at home, but how the Mishkan, the synagogue community, would need to be built by them as a communal project. Our challenge is to see how to build for the future.

Are synagogues primarily places of prayer or centres for wider communal activity? Wthout the centrality of the religious aspect, a synagogue loses its raison d’être However, social activity is the lifeblood of a Jewish community. In Hebrew, a synagogue is known as a bet knesset, a place of assembly: a sacred space, with uses extending beyond ritual alone.

The supplementary reading

of Shekalim, read last week in Ki Tissa, registers the interest of every Israelite to contribute to the future construction of Israel’s central sacred space. Dayan Yitzchok Yaakov Weiss, former head of the Manchester Beth Din, pointed out that whereas members of the community under the age of bar/batmitzvah cannot validly transfer ownership in commercial matters, their contribution of the half-shekel, though not incumbent on them to make, was

accepted as valid. Perhaps this is to demonstrate that all our youth, as soon as they are ready, are needed in the e ort to act for the community in respect of charitable work, and as advocates and ambassadors to the rest of the world.

At times as challenging as these, with the big rise in antisemitism in the west and accompanying adversity in politics and public life, we need to summon every potential we have to counter ignorance and extremism.

We purchase a wide range of Antiques, including Furniture through the ages, from Georgian, Regency and Victorian, to the more rare 20th century modern pieces. We also specialise in diamond jewellery, gold, silver, and paintings of any period, with an emphasis primarily on quality.

If you would like advice or to sell direct, do get in touch. Selling direct eliminates the high commissions involved with auction houses. In fact, we encourage sellers to obtain an auction estimate before contacting us, to be certain of receiving the best possible price.

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Progressive Judaism

LEAP OF FAITH

BY RABBI REBECCA BIRK FINCHLEY PROGRESSIVE SYNAGOGUE

Children inherit status from either parent

One of the many things that sets Progressive Judaism apart from other branches of the religion is our approach to Jewish status. In British Progressive Judaism, a child can gain inherited status if either parent is Jewish, no matter if it is their mother or father. We call this equilineal descent and of course it depends on the family and the individual wishing to lead a Jewish life.

For the movement, this is an opportunity to welcome a new family, and enable Jewish continuity. We prefer

the term ‘marrying in’ to ‘marrying out’. It means that our communities are bustling with individuals who have a Jewish father (often termed patrilineal Jews) but whose mother is of a di erent, or no, faith… and vice versa.

It’s also important to note that the inheritance of Jewish status in Progressive Judaism isn’t restricted to the religion of a biological parent, but also applies to adopted parents.

As Jews, we love the Groucho Marx line: “I wouldn’t want to belong to any club that will accept me as a member.” Maybe it’s because Judaism has always had strict membership rules.

In some cases these have protected and strengthened, but sometimes – as in the

rule that restricted inherited Jewish status to only the mother – they have excluded in a very profound way.

We are not entirely sure why there was a change in the rules - from the Torah’s patrilineal lineage to the matrilineal concept that some branches of Judaism still follow today – but the latter first appears in the Mishnah in 200CE. At the start of the 20th century, in the Englishspeaking world, this became something of a problem.

Why would children born to Jewish fathers and nonJewish mothers raised in a Jewish household and congregation not be considered formally Jewish?

In 1909, the American Reform Rabbis adopted a new policy: the child of a Jewish

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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.

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 Events organising experience

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Application details:

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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

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

father and a non-Jewish mother would not need to undergo formal conversion.

By the late 1920s, the same idea was first spoken about in what is now known as British Liberal Judaism. Equilineal descent became o cial policy in 1955 and was made even clearer in the early 1980s.

Later, the Movement for Reform Judaism adopted a policy whereby someone raised as a Jew can have this recognised in their status without being required to go through conversion, uniting our UK Progressive family and reflecting our joint belief that Jewish life must be uncompromisingly egalitarian.

Progressive Judaism is predicated on a belief in continuous revelation, and ongoing renewal of our

Whichever parent carries the line, the family is welcomed

Jewish principles and experience for every generation. Jewish status is one of those.

A verse in Deuteronomy 29 recalls the covenant agreement between Israel and God: “Not only with you who are standing here with us today… but also with those who are not here today.”

Most commentators understand that it refers to future generations. It informs and instructs such an idea today

that Jewish ideas and status must keep renewing.

Our wider, more diverse community reflecting our 21st-century identity will ensure that more families are included within our Jewish congregations and welcome them all.

Whichever parents carried the Jewish line, the family will be encouraged and welcomed to raise their children as Jews in our communities.

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Ask our experts / Professional advice from our panel

Our Experts

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

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

ACCOUNTANT

ADAM SHELLEY

Qualifications:

• FCCA chartered certified accountant

• Accounting, taxation and business advisory services

• Entrepreneurial business specialist including start-up businesses

• Specialises in charities; personal tax returns

• Maurice Wohl Charitable Foundation Volunteer of the Year JVN award

SOBELL RHODES LLP 020 8429 8800

www.sobellrhodes.co.uk

a.shelley@sobellrhodes.co.uk

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

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CAREER ADVISER

LESLEY TRENNER

Qualifications:

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

• Offers mock interviews and workshops to maximise job prospects

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

RESOURCE

020 8346 4000

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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

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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.

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

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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.

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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

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GOAL ATTAINMENT SPECIALIST

DR BEN LEVY

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

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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

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• Works with clients individually to maximise success

MAKE IT HAPPEN

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CHARITY EXECUTIVE

SUE CIPIN OBE

Qualifications:

• 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

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Who We Are:

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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

CROSSWORD CODEWORD

11 Commonplaces (7)

SUDOKU

Fun, games and prizes

SUDOKU

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

12 Month of All Fools’ Day (5)

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)

13 Stand firm (6)

15 Seafood delicacy (6)

18 Border of grass by a road (5)

20 Appends (7)

22 Experience (7)

23 Mediterranean fruit (5)

24 Device that changes AC voltage (11)

DOWN

2 Mournful poems (7)

3 Dirt and squalor (5)

4 Most senior (6)

5 Seclusion (7)

5 ___ basket, wickerwork carrycot (5)

6 Bishop’s area (7)

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

6 Large, evergreen, coniferous tree (5)

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)

7 Playfully wicked (11)

8 Wearing smart, stylish clothes (4,7)

14 Inaugurate by oath (5,2)

SUGURU

16 Cloth, fabric (7)

17 Reward (3-3)

19 Aircraft location system (5)

22 Practise for a feat of endurance (5)

21 Storey (5)

CODEWORD

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

direction, 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

but always in a straight, unbroken line.

The listed calligraphy-related words 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

GN IR ET TE LD G

IOI AR UM

SMB WH PO OL NV QI E EQS CD IF E

LH GU FL UT AOE

MA DHR SI

EA IN LE IR MU S

OL UI AR LF BN I

GM S ELS O

L EKS W TOT CT T

ATS DN AB H

TS KD I NUD AA C

SH IR EAP

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.

or backwards, in a horizontal, 4 5 3 3 5 314 2 5 4 3

IS N ETV OR AIA

OM P ETE U

ATE PM UR TE

with I I

brass S S

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.

forwards ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

bands can all be found in the 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

Last issue’s solutions

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

See next issue for puzzle solutions.

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

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

Sudoku Suguru Wordsearch Codeword