Marie van der Zyl visits Thompson’s Lane

then that one of the rare dramatic moments is enacted: a scene of huge bathos. This is by no means anywhere near the best of Stoppard. In the past his plays have been wildly funny and mentally exhausting. It is however probably his most important play. His personal identification with and implied portrayal of the Shoah, his commitment to exposing on stage the utter brutality and banality of those years, is something to see. It is no easy ride. A hard watch, not for the faint-hearted. Moreover, the night we saw it felt a lot like a shul outing; Jews were perhaps a third of the audience. There is just so much to criticise in the paucity of drama in Leopoldstadt. In some quarters it will quite properly be panned. Perversely, I urge you to buy tickets and take all your friends and family. It is in many ways a masterpiece of understatement, a theatrical non-drama that conveys an essential and perennial message: “Never again.”

Robert Marks Marie van der Zyl, President of the Board of Deputies, visited Cambridge at the end of February. She came to Thompson’s Lane for Shabbat on the 29 February, and afterwards went on to Beth Shalom. She was also scheduled to speak to the students at their Friday night meal, but due to a last-minute change of plans by the students this couldn’t happen. Marie gave a talk during the kiddush describing the Board of Deputies’ work. A major thread of the Board’s activities include communicating with the Government on matters of concern to the UK’s Jewish communities. Amongst issues that have come up recently are new rules on organ donations, changes to the way deaths are recorded (the introduction of Medical Examiners to review deaths), and delays in coroners’ courts.