LONDON’S PALESTINE EXPO
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Exposed
Sheikh who compared Jews to fleas addresses controversial Westminster conference
BRITAIN’S BIGGEST JEWISH NEWSPAPER 13 July 2017
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19 Tamuz 5777
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Issue No.1011
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@JewishNewsUK
Pages 4 & 19
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British cop saves Israeli from armed Jerusalem gang Hero up for bravery award after rescuing man from hammer attack An Essex policeman has been nominated for a bravery award after saving the life of a Jewish man from Jerusalem who was violently attacked, writes Jenni Frazer. Detective Sergeant Richard Burgess (pictured, inset) told Jewish News this week that he “didn’t think twice” despite nearly being killed in last year’s vicious incident. But he did detect “God’s purpose” in helping the Jewish man. DS Burgess, 45, who is based in Rayleigh, has served in Essex and the intelligence community and has been a police officer for 25 years. But his real ambition is to become a priest, and he has been studying with Canon David Tudor of St Nicholas’ Church in Canvey Island. Together with friends from the police – PC Sophie Ford and PC Katharine Pearson – DS Burgess was making his first visit to Israel on a pilgrimage tour arranged by the church. The group’s week-long visit was nearly at an end when, at DS Burgess’ initiative, they arrived the grave of Oskar Schindler, who saved hundreds of Jews during the Holocaust. Schindler is buried in the Catholic cemetery on Mount Zion, near the Old City’s Zion Gate. The police officer has worked as a historian and a Holocaust guide, teaching many young people and guiding them around sites in eastern Europe. “Because I’d been to the
How Ilan took Mole position West End star Ilan Galkoff on becoming Sue Townsend’s much-loved teen diarist
Page 27
Schindler factory in Poland [where Schindler employed the Jews he saved], I wanted to go to see where he and his wife were buried and pay my respects,” DS Burgess said. “As we came out of the cemetery, there was a young child screaming in an alleyway opposite, and a woman who pointed down the alley and was begging, ‘please help’ in broken English. “I saw three Arab-looking males assaulting a Jewish man wearing a kippah. I saw him being dragged and assaulted, and some sort of noxious substance appeared to have been sprayed at his face because his eyes were streaming.” The burly police officer ran down the alley “without a thought”. He said: “I curled my arm around one of the men – who was hitting the Jewish man with a belt, which he was using as a knuckleduster – and put him in a headlock. With my other arm, I pulled at the Jewish man’s clothing and literally threw him up the alley, shouting ‘go, go!’ He soon got the message.” But the drama was not over, as the men began hitting DS Burgess round the face with the belt buckle. “A third man came into the area with a claw hammer and hit me on the back of my head.” The police officer slumped against the wall and the assailant raised the hammer once more – and this second blow could have killed him. Continued on page 3
THE JEWS OF THE ROCK We speak to Jewish residents of Gibraltar about life on the sundrenched peninsula Page 28
A Maccabiah marriage! Couple ties the knot during the opening ceremony of the Jewish sporting spectacle in Israel Page 2
LOACH GIVES RADIOHEAD THE CREEPS
Radiohead’s Thom Yorke has hit back at film director Ken Loach over criticism of the band’s concert in Israel next week. Responding to calls to cancel the show, Yorke said: “Music and art is about crossing borders not building them, about open minds not closed ones.” Editorial comment, page 16
Coming out strong Former Chasid Izzy Posen on why modern Orthodoxy must sever ties with his former community Pages 20