1169 by Jewish News

‘I’m just a nice old lady really’ She’s an anti-Zionist, but actress Miriam Margolyes can’t stand being called a self-hating Jew

THE VOICE OF OUR COMMUNITY 30 July 2020

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9 Av 5780

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Issue No.1169

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Page 21

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Silence speaks

a thousand words VOICE OF THE JEWISH NEWS

Why did it take almost a week for Twitter to remove a British grime artist’s hateful antisemitic content? Why wasn’t it dealt with the moment it was flagged? And why are we forever asking these questions? Wiley’s online outpourings, about Jews being “snakes” and “cowards” and com-

parable to the Ku Klux Klan, were posted in a two-day volley of venom to one million combined followers on sites such as Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. He was banned, first for several hours, then for several days, and finally for good, but many hateful messages stayed up for a long time. Was this ultra-mild moderation,

absurdly slack internal processes, or something else? Whatever the reason – and we may never know – this is far from the first time that the Jewish community has seen Jew hatred placed online and stay online despite complaints, and despite it appearing to contravene sites’ own policies.

A successful 48-hour boycott of Twitter by some of its most popular users did the trick. It also helped to nudge the issue all the way up to 10 Downing Street, via some very supportive MPs. No one wants a raft of new laws if changes can be made voluntarily, and tech Continued on page 14

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Jewish News 30 July 2020

News / Anti-social media

People power repels Wiley’s anti-Jewish hate

Grime artist Wiley

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Some of the most prominent British voices on Twitter this week boycotted the platform in a two-day protest of silence prompted by the social media giant’s lethargy in removing antisemitic posts by musician Wiley, writes Adam Decker. Names such as footballer Gary Lineker, satirist Armando Iannucci, talent show judge Amanda Holden and businessman Lord Sugar joined Jewish actress Tracy-Ann Oberman in the online walkout from 9am on Monday. Their anger was prompted by inaction over comments from Stepney-born artist Wiley, 41, whose real name is Richard Kylea Cowie Jr. He is known in the music industry as the ‘Godfather of Grime’ and was awarded an MBE for services to music in the 2018 New Year Honours List. Wiley addressed his fanbase of almost one million followers on social media platforms such as Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, built with the help of his Jewish manager, when he launched his extraordinary antisemitic outburst on Friday night. It continued over the weekend and into this week, with his various posts calling Jews “snakes” and “cowards” and likening Jewish people to the Ku Klux Klan. Others peddled the antisemitic conspiracy theory that 80 percent of slave owners were Jewish, while others said Jews “look down on” black people. In one tweet posted to his 492,000 Twitter followers, he wrote: “Jewish people you make me sick and I will not budge hold this corn.” The latter reference is a slang term for being shot, literally ‘taking bullets’. In another, a video he uploaded to his 450,000 Instagram followers, he said: “Crawl out from all your little rocks and come and defend your Jewish privilege now,

come and do it… Get your top Jewish man and put him on Zoom with me.” Twitter first removed only some of his tweets, before suspending his account for several hours. It then suspended his account for seven days. Finally, almost a week after Wiley first launched his antisemitic rant, Twitter closed his account. Instagram, which is owned by Facebook, also suspended his account for seven days, before likewise blocking him permanently after the 48-hour protest. Wiley’s management team was quick to cut all ties to the musician, saying there was “no place for antisemitism”, to which the artist later wrote: “If you work for a company owned by 2 Jewish men and you challenge the Jewish community in anyway [sic] of course you will get fired.” Amid calls for Wiley to be stripped of his MBE this week, some music venues that had been due to host him were reportedly re-evaluating their positions, but it was the grassroots protest to boycott Twitter that seemed to capture the public mood. Big names such as Countdown presenter Rachel Riley and singer Sophie Ellis-Bextor quickly signed up to the silent protest, which was hastily arranged on Sunday evening around the #NoSafeSpaceForJewHate hashtag. Several MPs, notably from Labour and the Liberal Democrats, said the incident highlighted the need for a much-delayed Online Harm Reduction Bill, the introduction of which had been promised this month. Euan Philipps, one of the organisers of the Twitter walkout, said it was “not about one single case, but about sending a clear message: that anti-Jewish racism has no place on social media”. He added: “The platform providers must adhere to their own terms of service. Our silence was heard around the world. Now we expect the companies to listen, remove hate speech from their platforms and make social media a safer space for everyone.” Wiley attempted to clear him name in an interview with Sky News last night. He said: “I just want to apologise for generalising and going outside of the people who I was talking to within the workspace and workplace I work in. My comments should not have been directed to all Jews or Jewish people. I want to apologise for generalising, and I want to apologise for comments that were looked at as antisemitic.” Reponding to calls for his MBE to be removed, he added: “Take it back. I never had an MBE. John Woolf [his former manager] has got the MBE. I have never had the MBE. It’s framed in his house. Now, who was the MBE for, really? “Don’t think that I was sitting here like, ‘where’s my MBE? I need my OBE. I need my knighthood.’ I never felt comfortable going to get it. Just look at Britain’s colonialism history.”

30 July 2020 Jewish News

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Anti-social media / News

Chief Rabbi: Twitter’s inaction is complicity

25,000 SIGN PETITION OVER MBE More than 25,000 people have signed a petition urging the government to strip Wiley of his MBE. The call was made after the musician was removed from Facebook, Twitter and Instagram after launching his antisemitic outburst. He is also being investigated by police over the posts and was dropped by his management company. Before being removed from social media channels, a 48-hour Twitter boycott took place to highlight the company’s inaction, after many of his incendiary tweets remained live for hours. Writing to Parliament and the Prime Minister, the petitioner on Change.org says Wiley “shared deeply antisemitic messages and videos ... inciting violence against the Jewish community, with no thought about the people this will hurt and the children who will see

these messages.” “The Cabinet Office must remove his MBE, to make clear to the British Jewish community and wider society that these messages are unacceptable and dangerous. “He cannot be allowed to hold such an important title whilst being a known antisemite. Prominent Jewish barrister Jeremy Brier of Essex Court Chambers also wrote to the Cabinet Office, saying “the honour of MBE bestowed upon the musician Richard Kylea Cowie Jr, known as ‘Wiley’, should be forfeited by reason of his extraordinary and sustained publication of vicious antisemitic views”. When approached by Jewish News for comment, a Cabinet Office spokesperson said: “The forfeiture process is confidential and it would be inappropriate to comment on individual cases.”

These hateful comments ‘burn deep’ Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis joined politicians, celebrities and others in a 48-hour Twitter boycott

The Chief Rabbi has accused Twitter and Facebook of lacking “responsible leadership” in their lacklustre response to Wiley’s racism. Ephraim Mirvis joined politicians, celebrities and other high-profile figures in the 48-hour boycott of the social media sites this week. In letters sent to Twitter boss Jack Dorsey and Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg, Mirvis said: “This cannot be allowed to stand. Your inaction amounts to complicity.” Police are investigating a series of comments made on the musician’s Instagram and Twitter

accounts last Friday that led to him being banned from both. Meanwhile, the home secretary has called on social media companies to act faster in removing “appalling hatred” from their platforms following Wiley’s outbursts. Priti Patel said: “The posts are abhorrent. They should not have been able to remain on Twitter and Instagram for so long, and I have asked for a full explanation. “Social media companies must act much faster to remove such appalling hatred from their platforms.”

Emma Barnett has said Wiley’s antisemitic tweets “burn deep”. Speaking on her BBC Radio 5 Live show, the broadcaster read out a string of his tweets and said: “Those words burn, I’m sure I don’t need to tell most of you that, but just in case I do, they burn deep and they are deeply dispiriting and they play on a very well hidden fear a lot of Jewish people have, that some day antisemitism will rise up once more, because anti-

rampant” after prosemitism is fresh and so moting the viral raw for us.” hashtag which conShe added: tained numerous “Only two weeks antisemitic tweets. ago I opened Addressing Twitter on my Wiley, Barnett phone and what did continued: “Just I see? I saw ‘Jewish in case you need privilege’ trending. Emma Barnett something clariDo you know how that feels, how frightening that fying, Jews don’t run the law, Jews don’t run the banks, is? How angering that is?” Twitter was accused Jews don’t run, as you put it, of “allowing racism to run the world.”

PEOPLE LOOKED THE OTHER WAY – UNTIL THIS WEEK BY TRACY-ANN OBERMAN

ACTRESS AND CAMPAIGNER

Today I opened my Twitter account for the first time in two days. I’d been following the #48Hour social media ban I and Saul Freeman had instigated, in response to social media sites allowing grime artist Wiley days and days of anti-Jewish hate speech. Our grassroots ban under the hashtag #NoSafeSpaceForJewHate snowballed into a global phenomenon, with high-profile politicans, journalists, lawmakers, actors, musicians and hundreds of thousand of others demanding to know why Twitter, Instagram and Facebook had effectively given a megaphone to Wiley to spew out Jew-hate to more than 600,000 followers. Most significantly, social media CEOs have had to sit up and see what I have been saying for a very long time: that antisemitism is running rampant unchecked, infecting their sites. But I logged in to Twitter and the first tweet of the morning to me read: “F***ing shut up, sticking your nose into literally everything apart from an oven where it actually belongs.” When I was four, my mum and dad took me to Yad Vashem in Jerusalem. My dad went into the Hall of Names to look for relatives he wanted to verify had died in the concentration camps. No four-year-old should have to process what I saw that day, pictures of skeletal bodies piled in open graves, a pile of Jewish childrens’ shoes, teeth and hair. The picture I have never been able to erase from my memory was of a naked dead Jewish woman’s body being placed

into an oven to be incinerated. That would be the ‘oven” the tweeter told me I deserved to be in. My great-uncle Josef, who survived the Warsaw ghetto and two concentration camps, was my hero. When I would ask how the world allowed the Holocaust to happen, he would answer in his thick Polish accent: “Because people looked the other way.” I’m a successful actress and a writer. I’m not a politician or an activist. It was never my aim to take the job of speaking out against race hate, especially towards Jewish people, so vociferously. But I have spent my life making sure I would never be one of those people who would “look the other way”. By standing up on social media ( Twitter especially), I have become the target of much antisemitic and misogynistic abuse, but I’ve been told by Twitter many of these tweets don’t violate their terms and conditions. People have told me I’m lying about antisemitism and weaponsing it. People looked the other way. Until Wiley. The amazing outcome of Wiley’s hate was that it was so obvious. There was no dressing it up as something else. Jews live under rocks, are slippery cowards, are worse than the KKK, and are deserving to be shot (sprayed with corn)... Multiple tweets, Instagram and Facebook posts. His accounts should have been closed instantantly. And yet Instagram removes pictures of a woman breastfeeding as an “offensive image” and Twitter will remove accounts with a star of David in the picture. If these sites want a veneer of respectability by having guidelines, they have to act according to them. That Wiley has been removed permanently from all platforms is a step towards a safe space for us all.

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Jewish News 30 July 2020

News / CST report / Labour payouts / ‘Racist’ funders

Antisemites find new methods of attack Lockdown led to fewer antisemitic incidents recorded the first half of 2020, according to the Community Security Trust, but also introduced new lines of attack for antisemites, writes Adam Decker. In an update, the CST dis-

closed that from January to June the number of antisemitic assaults almost halved: 47 were recorded compared with 85 in the first half of 2019. The lowest numbers were recorded in March and April, when all but essential

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workers were told to “stay at home”: the monthly total fell below 100 for only the third time in four years. Likewise, there were 28 percent fewer antisemitic threats, 28 percent fewer incidents involving damage or desecration to Jewish property, and 50 percent fewer instances of mass-produced antisemitic literature. However, CST chiefs said the pandemic had forced people to find new ways of communicating, and that had led to new categories of antisemitism: there were ten reported instances of educational or religious online events being “hijacked with antisemitic content”. The CST said: “This is an entirely new type of incident, informed by a sudden widespread reliance on such platforms, demonstrating the ability, opportunism and speed of antisemitic offenders to adapt to a new social reality.” The pandemic also provided fertile ground for conspiracies about Jewish involvement in creating

Incidents almost halved from January to June

and spreading the virus, to “simply wishing and hoping that Jewish people catch the virus and die from it”. The report also highlighted the continuation of a trend, whereby an increasing proportion of incidents are online antisemitism. The proportion rose four percent during the first six months of 2020. Online incidents now com-

prise 44 percent of the total. The report’s The lockdown has had a major impact publication follows a 48-hour Twitter boycott in six months, equivalent to by prominent British com- almost ten a week. CST chief executive David mentators. The social media giant will have further pause Delew said: “History tells us for thought by the CST’s fig- that antisemitism grows at ures, which show that 238 times of great social upheaval. instances of antisemitism on We need to ensure the same is the platform were reported not happening here.”

Lawsuits decimate Labour’s finances Litigation arising from Labour’s handling of antisemitism cases has decimated the party’s finances its leaders have been told, with further lawsuits threatening to be destructive. New legal action, expected by the end of this week, follows Labour’s apology and six-figure payout to former complaints handlers who voiced grievances over antisemitism cases to Panorama. They later sued the party for defamation and libel. Manchester-based 3D Solicitors was this week expected to sue Labour for breaches of data protection and privacy rules on behalf of nine current and former

members, according to The Observer. The cases relates to the release of names and private emails when an internal report on Keir Starmer (left) and Jeremy Corbyn the handling of antisemitism cases was hundred thousand pounds,” they said. “If it reaches court leaked to the press in April. According to the news- and Labour loses, it will cost paper, the party’s command the party many millions.” A report by the Equalities was told last week that the litigation had already wrought and Human Rights Comhavoc on Labour’s finances. mission is still pending. It is “If the party agrees to settle expected to lay the groundthis, which it will if it has any work for more civil claims sense, it will cost Labour a few that could bankrupt Labour.

‘HITLER’ BANKROLLS CORBYN’S LEGAL BATTLES Jeremy Corbyn’s legal battles against antisemitism whistleblowers and the journalist John Ware are being bankrolled by donations from self-proclaimed racists. A Go Fund Me page set up for the former Labour leader raised more than £308,000 in just five days, thanks in part to the generosity of individuals identifying as ‘Adolf Hitler’ and ‘B’stard Son Of Netanyahu & Starmer’. Other donor names include ‘Bored Of Deputies’, ‘Benjamin Netanyahu’ and “John Ware’s Mum’, while ‘Jack T’, who gave £20, wrote that Corbyn had been targeted “by people within the Labour Party working on behalf of the racist State of Israel’.

A further three donations have been falsely made in the names of two prominent Jewish Corbyn critics, @mishtal and @GnasherJew. The page was set up by Carole Morgan, who wrote that Jeremy Corbyn was “a man who only ever wanted the best for the people of this country, and who lead [sic] with humility, integrity and honesty”. Among the named most generous donors are former deputy leader of Liverpool City Council Derek Hatton who gave £1,000, anti-Israel campaigner and Labour member Susanne Levin, who has offered £500, and music producer Brian Eno, who donated £500. One anonymous donor gave £4,500.

30 July 2020 Jewish News

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School admissions / Inspection changes / News NEWS IN BRIEF

ACTRESS WADES INTO IDENTITY ROW Legendary British actress Juliet Stevenson has waded into the debate about actors playing identities other than their own, arguing that Jews can be played by non-Jews and vica versa. In an interview with the Telegraph, the star, 63, said she had no wish to be picked for roles due to her race, religion or background being the same as the character’s, a phenomenon she said a “strong push in culture” was forcing on the industry. “Where does that leave Macbeth?” she asked.

IOC SAYS SORRY FOR NAZI GAMES VIDEO The International Olympics Committee has apologised for including a video of the first Olympic torch relay at the 1936 Nazi Berlin Olympics along with the words “stronger together” in a series of short videos celebrating the “message of unity and solidarity” of the Games. But the apology did not note the substance of the objection to the inclusion of the video. The Auschwitz Memorial and Museum condemned the IOC’s decision to post the message in a tweet.

Temporary criteria for Jewish studies gets relevency revamp faith school applicants The Chief Rabbi this week explained how families of prospective secondary school students can still show the level of religious observance needed for entry despite synagogues being closed. It comes after the government advised state-funded faith schools to “vary admissions arrangements” for the September 2021 intake because families have been unable to attend places of worship to “demonstrate membership or practice”. Faith schools can use faithbased criteria if the school is oversubscribed, and this can mean parents having to demonstrate membership or practice of the faith through regular attendance at a place of worship over a specified period. However, with synagogues closed since March, parents hoping to gain Certificate of Religious Practice (CRP) points to send their children to Jewish schools have been unable to do so,

School criteria will change because shuls closed their doors

leaving families anxious. This week the Office of the Chief Rabbi and the United Synagogue issued Temporary CRP measures “to ensure that families applying for places at Jewish schools next September can still do so in the most streamlined way possible”. Families who have previously established faith priority for a sibling at the school being applied to, will automatically receive all four points needed and need only to make this clear on the form.

There is also now the provision for attendance at some ‘online services’, on erev Shabbat and erev Chag, rather than physically attending synagogue, to count towards CRP points, something which previously was not possible. In addition, there is now extra time to complete some of the CRP requirements. Applicants for secondary school need to submit their applications by 31 October and applicants for primary school by 15 January 2021.

The Board of Deputies has revised its guidelines for schools’ Jewish studies inspections, with “major differences” from the current practice to tackle “complete disinterest” in the subject. The Pikuach Inspection Handbook, which replaces one drawn up four years ago, takes “a far closer look at the Jewish studies curriculum” using a new Ofsted model focusing on intent, implementation and impact. It also gives schools five days’ notice of inspections

rather than 24 hours. “The most fundamental change, and the reason this has taken three years to develop is the major focus on Jewish pupils’ spiritual development,” said the Board’s Jeffrey Leader. “In the 2016 edition we spend seven lines describing Jewish spirituality, whereas in the new edition we spend 15 pages on the subject. The reason being, we see many children showing a complete disinterest in Jewish studies.”

‘Israel is coming to you’ UJIA has said it will still be providing a summer of Israel engagement activities despite coronavirus safety measures cancelling its usual Israel Tour programme. The UK–Israel charity launched a £100,000 fund in June to provide grants to help 16 year-olds experience Israel in other ways. “They might not be able to visit Israel, but we’re bring-

ing Israel to them,” said new UJIA chief executive Mandie Winston, as she unveiled activities “that engage parents and grandparents as well as young people”. More than 25 programmes have had backing from the fund. Many have an online dimension, while others have adapted social distancing measures to give some degree of in-person connection.

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Jewish News 30 July 2020

News / Polish property / Charity scandal

Campaigners for the restitution of Jewish-owned property in pre-war Poland celebrated after legislation to block it was withdrawn from the country’s lower parliamentary chamber, writes Adam Decker. The British government’s special envoy for post-Holocaust issues, Lord Pickles, welcomed the “very good news” about the Bill on Warsaw property rights, earlier calling Poland “an anomaly” for not setting out a programme for restitution. Pre-war Poland was home to one of the world’s largest Jewish populations. In 2009, it was one of 46 countries to convene at Terezin in the Czech Republic, agreeing to make “every effort to rectify the con-

PLAYER FINED FOR ROTHSCHILDS SLUR A professional British footballer has been banned for six matches and fined £3,500 for tweeting about the Rothschilds in a post deemed antisemitic. Tom Pope, who plays for Port Vale, was posting on the social media site in January after scoring against Manchester City in the FA Cup when he was asked by another Twitter user to “predict the WWIII result”. In a tweet he later deleted, Pope replied: “We invade Iran then Cuba then North Korea then the Rothchilds [sic] are crowned champions of every bank on the planet.” The ban and fine were levied after Pope was found guilty of an “aggravated” breach of FA regulations His club said it would appeal.

sequences of wrongful property seizures, such as confiscations, forced sales and sales under duress”. The countries also outlined measures to assist, redress and remember victims of Nazi persecution in what became known as the Terezin Declaration, whose signatories include the UK and US. The timing of the Bill’s withdrawal may be related to the Just (Justice for Uncompensated Survivors Today) Act in the United States. In 2018, US lawmakers passed the Act, which requires the US State Department to report on the progress or otherwise of Terezin signatories in progressing restitution claims. That report is due soon – and is expected to highlight Poland.

Photo/Czarek Sokolowski

Polish block on restitution withdrawn

NEWS IN BRIEF

Polish nationalists march against plan to compensate Jews

In response, right-wing Polish lawmakers had tried to introduce laws that would have made restitution dependent on a family’s heirs living in Poland. Pickles told Jewish News the Bill’s withdrawal helps create an atmosphere where people

“can work towards righting an old injustice”. Baroness Ruth Deech has repeatedly pushed the government to raise the issue with Poland, which she said was “squatting on the property of three million” Shoah victims.

Muslim charity boss: Jews ‘grandchildren of pigs’ The Jewish community has reacted with horror after the head of Britain’s biggest Muslim charity called Jews the “grandchildren of monkeys and pigs”. Heshmat Khalifa resigned from Islamic Relief Worldwide (IRW) following the dis-

Khalifa and one of his posts

covery of the Facebook posts revealed by The Times. A former trustee and director of the charity, whose income of nearly £600 million derives partly from the UN and British taxes, he called Hamas “the purest resistance movement in modern his-

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tory”, and said labelling its armed wing a terror group was a “disgrace to all Muslims”. He also described Egypt’s president as a “Zionist pimp”. The Board of Deputies said: “Mr Khalifa ought to be ashamed of these disgraceful, racist comments, which

attempt to pit two minorities against each other.” Stephen Silverman at Campaign Against Antisemitism, said: “It is appalling that Mr Khalifa was able to lead for so long one of Britain’s largest charities. Islamic Relief has questions to answer .”

NEWS IN BRIEF

GERBER TO STEP DOWN FROM LFI The director of Labour Friends of Israel is to step down after 10 years, as the parliamentary lobby group said the party’s new leadership represented “an opportunity to make it both pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian”. Tributes were paid to Jennifer Gerber yesterday, after it was announced she will be taking up a communications position within the NHS, covering top hospital trusts such as UCLH, King’s and Imperial. Gerber said: “It has not been easy to be a friend of Israel on the left, but we have never shied away, and continue to make [its case].

WEST BANKSY ART SELLS FOR £2.2M Paintings by Banksy that have hung in the Bristol artist’s West Bank hotel for three years have been sold for £2.2million to raise funds for a Palestinian hospital. The paintings, titled Mediterranean Sea View 2017, have been displayed in the lobby of the artist’s Walled Off Hotel in Bethlehem since its opening in 2017. The triptych shows a typical seascape with the addition of an assortment of used life jackets lining the shore, which is a reference to Europe’s refugee crisis.

30 July 2020 Jewish News

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Eighty Over 80 / Limmud online / News

Still time to honour oldest role models Nominations for Jewish News and Jewish Care’s 80 Over Eighty project, to profile and honour the achievements of older people in the community, are entering their final week. Inspired by the exploits of Col Tom Moore and at a moment when many older people are feeling particularly isolated, we are calling for nominations of older role models from eight categories: war heroes, boundary pushers, Jewish communal contribution, philanthropy, Holocaust survivors still relaying their experiences, legendary volunteers and mitzvah angels ‘still making it happen in the wider world’.

Nominees can have made their mark in one or several of these areas but ideally their impact will still be being felt today in some significant way. It will then be down to a panel of judges to select the final 80 before they are profiled in these pages. Unlike our younger lists, this one will not be ranked. Justin Cohen, co-publisher of Jewish News, said: “There could not be a better moment to shine a spotlight on the older role models in our midst. We believe this to be one of the first such ‘overs’ lists launched anywhere.” � Nominations close on 7 August

SUNDAY IS YOM LIMMUD Rachel Riley, Howard Jacobson, Jonathan Freedland and Luciana Berger are among the big names featuring at Limmud Together on Sunday. The virtual event will include more than 60 speakers from across the world, with talks ranging from Labour’s antisemitism row to Jewish art, and Israel’s annexation to the Black Lives Matter movement. Speakers include author journalist Peter Beinhart, who

will be in conversation with Freedland, Countdown presenter Riley, mental health campaigner Jonny Benjamin, and MP Kate Green, who will be in conversation with the Jewish Labour Movement’s Peter Mason. Also featured are writer Anne Sebba, and former artistic director of London’s National Theatre Sir Nicholas Hytner, in addition to Stephen Bush of the New Statesman,

who is tasked with leading the community’s commission into racial inclusivity. Limmud Together UK Summer chair Phil Peters, said: “We are proud to have compiled a diverse and cutting-edge programme, with speakers from all walks of Jewish life.” The event – for which tickets are still available at £10 – will begin at 10am and run for 12 hours.

Kids, show how we held hands During the summer holidays children are being asked to get creative, and show how the pandemic has brought communities together. The Connected Communities youth initiative calls on young people to share their stories through written word, pictures or videos, about how the lockdown impacted their relations with others. Supported by charities from Jewish, Muslim, Christian and Sikh communities, as well as interfaith organi-

sations, the competition’s winners and prizes will be announced in September. Maurice Ostro, chair of Faiths United, said: “We want to give young people the opportunity to share their stories of how the lockdown period, with all its difficulty and suffering, has also brought people together.” Dame Helen Hyde, who is on the judging panel, said: “We are excited to see what they come up with.” Entries are invited in

three categories from youngsters aged seven to 18. Partners in the initiative include: Faiths United Youth Network, Storytelling Schools, the Church of England Newspaper, British Muslim TV, Asian Voice, Sikh Channel, Jewish News and the Ostro Fayre Share Foundation. � Entries must be submitted by 28 August through a page on the Faiths United website: https://faithsunited. co.uk/competition

Shoah masks condemned Sick anti-virus masks featuring Holocaust imagery have been condemned as a “disgrace”. Website holocaustfacemasks.com is selling the face-coverings depicting Shoah victims and Auschwitz’s crematoria. The site says: “Choose from different Holocaust related images and inspire those around you to think for themselves, and question authority. Our goal is to provide a reminder of what can happen when millions of people follow seemingly innocent ‘orders’ and ‘rules’… these images are meant to be reminders of what can happen when tyranny is ignored.” The American Jewish Congress said: “Efforts to create false equivalences between

Sick, and sold on holocaustfacemasks.com

an action designed to save lives and genocide are shocking, and profiting from them is disgraceful. We are calling for the removal of the website.”

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Jewish News 30 July 2020

News / JN panel / Genesis role / Catering advice / Uni plea

Uyghur persecution turning ‘genocidal’ tive MP Nusrat Ghani. N a w a z Bright ideas! recently went on hunger strike to have the issue of Ch illing echoes the Uyghur dis13 tonnes of hair taken from China’s Uyghur Muslims has ‘Nazi resonanc e’ cussed in Parliament and his petition reached the 100,000 sigBECK WEDDING natures needed LABOUR SENT EHRC ANTISEMITISM REPORT to trigger a debate. Now, he said, he was urging people to demonstrate outside the big sports supply companies, such as Nike. “Everyone knows, it is an open secret, that we are broadly dependent on enslaved labour. Rahima Mahmut, top, and Chilling Echoes panellists If we do not seize this moment to protest, we Marr Show last week, in Gross said future relabecome complicit,” he said. which he denied what was tions between Britain He explained that the happening to the Uyghurs, and China should be Uyghurs were not just despite being shown video measured by its treatbeing abused, but being footage of blindfolded men ment of the Uyghurs, and exploited. Nike and other being herded on to trains. urged: “Don’t be silent, companies are thought In fact, the MP said, the be an ally”, while Marksto source most of their ambassador’s denials had Woldman said there were 10 classical stages of sports shoes from Chinese “helped our argument”. She said there were genocide, each building forced labour camps, populated by captured Uyghur an estimated two million on the previous one. The Muslims, who have been people in the camps, and tenth stage was denial. All the panellists urged separated from their around half a million chilchildren. Nawaz predicted: dren separated from their for more publicity and “If Nike caves in, all the parents. Women – who renewed awareness of companies will follow,” were subjected to rape and what was happening to the and called on people to forced abortions – “are Uyghurs, of the “dehuman“put your money some- given a choice, to be steri- isation and re-education away from their own cullised or go to a camp”. where else”. Ghani said she wanted ture”. Nawaz also warned Ghani, who has raised the abuse of the Uyghurs the UK to set up its own that if people did not repeatedly in Parliament, tribunal, in alliance with respond, protest and pubreferred to the appearance other western nations, to licise, then “the unaccepof the Chinese ambassador monitor China’s rights table becomes routine, the Hasenson- new normal”. to Britain on The Andrew abuses. 6 a 4p n d ag FR e E s E

A horrifying description of the use of technology by the Chinese to abuse its Uyghur minority has been given by Rahima Mahmut, UK-based spokesperson for the World Uyghur Congress, writes Jenni Frazer. At a special panel called Chilling Echoes, co-hosted by Jewish News and the René Cassin rights group, Mahmut, who left China 20 years ago, said persecution of the Uyghur Muslims had evolved into a “more genocidal policy”. From April 2017 onwards, she said, there had been mass arrests. Police would arrive, place black hoods on Uyghurs, handcuff them and take them away. However, it was impossible to get proper feedback as to what was happening just now because of the monitoring of Uyghur families. “We learnt that anyone who receives a foreign call, whether on their landline or their mobile phone, police will arrive in five or 10 minutes. And voice recognition technology — the Chinese have recorded the voice of all dissidents, so they have a very sophisticated hightech surveillance in place.” Joining her on the panel, chaired by Jewish News editor Richard Ferrer, were Mia Hasenson-Gross of René Cassin, writer and broadcaster Maajid Nawaz, the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust’s Olivia MarksWoldman and Conserva-

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A senior member of an influential parliamentary committee on China this week spoke of “distressing echoes” for Jews in China’s “brutal suppression” of its Uyghur minority after 13 tonnes of human hair was found on a US-bound ship, writes Adam Decker. It follows a huge US Customs seizure of human hair products believed to have been taken from Muslim Uyghurs, more than a million of whom have been detained in vast indoctrination camps in China’s western Xinjiang province. US Customs and Border Protection assistant commissioner Brenda Smith said Human hair shipped from China the production of the weaves and other hair products found onboard the ship “consti- contemporary incident to the Holocaust,” tutes a very serious human rights violation”. said Carmichael. “My fundamental rule is The news, together with the implication that nothing can be compared to the Holothat hair is being forcibly removed from caust. I know, however, that this report has thousands of prisoners then sold, has horri- many distressing echoes for those who know fied UK Jewish groups – including the Board the history of that most dreadful episode. of Deputies, Rene Cassin and the Jewish “Events in Srebrenica and Rwanda Council for Racial Equality – with in some recent decades should teach us that genociting its “chilling and obvious resonances” cide can still happen and that no one is safe with the Holocaust. unless everyone guards against it.” Alistair Carmichael MP, vice-chair Carmichael, a Liberal Democrat (human rights) of the All-Party Parliamenand senior MP who served as Secretary of State tary Group on China, said states around the for Scotland under the coalition government, world “need to hold the Chinese Govern- has supported Israeli-Palestinian peacement to account for their brutal suppression building programmes and in 2018 spent a day of the Uyghurs”, which is understood to be on with London’s Jewish community to better an industrial scale, comprising 1,200 camps. understand the issue of antisemitism. “It is never a good idea to compare any Mia Hasenson-Gross, director of René

Enough Is Enough in Westminster

Cassin, said: “A trade in forcibly removed human hair has chilling and obvious resonances. This is yet another terrible example of the systematic de-humanisation of the Uyghur Muslims by the Chinese state.” She said the Uyghurs’ suppression already includes mass internment, “re-education,” slave labour, forced sterilisation, organ-farming and other abuses. “The Chinese Communist Party is engaged in genocide in Xinjiang, attempting to wipe out an entire culture, language and way of life,” she said. “It is time for the world to take a stand against such inhumanity. There can be no ‘business as usual’ with a government that abuses its own citizens on such a scale.” Dr Edie Friedman, director of the Jewish Council for Racial Equality (JCORE), said the report “naturally rings alarm bells for those concerned with human rights and will arouse particular emotions for Jewish people given the Nazi resonances”. She added: “The international community must call for a fully independent inquiry into this episode.” Board of Deputies’ vice president Edwin Shuker said the news was “further evidence of the systematic persecution of the Uyghur minority in China”, adding: “We ask that the Government uses its position at the UN to raise these matters on the international stage, and with the Chinese government.”  Editorial comment, page 14

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Victoria and David Beckham’s eldest child Brooklyn is to marry American Jewish actress Nicola Peltz, heir to her father Nelson’s billion dollar fortune.

The Labour Party this week commission’s final report, said: “As a third-party received the long-awaited expected to the Antisemitism, said: “Under antisemitism ‘out by its in 28 days. “We are investigation, we have not Jeremy Corbyn’s draft of the Equality and committed leader- roots’, as he has promised. to co-operating had sight of the draft report. ship, the party Human Rights Commis- fully became The EHRC’s report is a with the Commission’s We hope pivit will provide the institutionally sion’s report on its investiga- investigation antisemitic. otal moment in this and imple- kind of impartial and cortion into antisemitism in the menting inde- It must be forever changed rective process.” He added: its recommenda- pendent scrutiny required after this episode so this party, writes Richard Ferrer. tions when the final report to force can “The EHRC has considered the party to comply never happen The party said it had is published,” again. a great deal of evidence from a Labour with its duties under been sent as “part of a pro- Party the “Those responsible us and we will have statement said. more to Equality Act.” cess afforded to us” ahead remain in the party and say A spokesperson for the when the report is pubGideon Falter, chief exec- must be of the publication of the Jewish held to account if lished in due Labour Movement utive of Campaign course.” Against Sir Keir Starmer is to tear  Opinion, page 18

Genesis names new chief said Yudborovsky’s familiarity One of the Jewish world’s bigwith the group’s work would gest philanthropy groups has help with continuity. named a new chief executive “Marina has made many after the death of her predesignificant contributions to cessor shocked the diaspora. the foundation over the years Marina Yudborovsky will and I am certain she is now replace Ilia Salita at Genesis ready to take on the helm of Philanthropy Group (GPG) Marina leadership,” he said. “It is a after his death from cancer Yudborovsky testament to this readiness was announced on 29 June. Yudborovsky, a Ukrainian-born GPG and her skillset that Ilia chose to work executive since 2009, has a “deep back- very closely with Marina over the years, ground in the Russian-Jewish com- tapping her to head complex projects munity”, the organisation said, and has and implement the foundation’s vision.” Yudborovsky, who studied in New most recently been director of strategy and operations, overseeing a global York before entering project management, said: “After years of serving alongportfolio of grants. Salita led efforts by GPG to bolster side Ilia, I am humbled by the opportuJewish communities and Jewish youth nity to continue in his footsteps. “As head of GPG, I will seek to build engagement around the world. London community centre JW3 and youth on his legacy, while creating new and movement JLGB are among the British innovative pathways to Jewish comcharities to have received grant money munal life at a time when this work from GPG, whose chair Gennady Gazin couldn’t be more critical.”

KOSHER CATERER GUIDELINES Caterers supervised by the KLBD — the kashrut arm of the United Synagogue — have received new guidelines this week in an effort to revive the community’s ability to celebrate under post-lockdown conditions, with the threat of new outbreaks of Covid-19 still present. In its guidance to its

licensees, the KLBD says its emphasis is on safety for both the caterers and those employing them. At the moment, events taking place in private homes are limited to a maximum of 30 people. The KLBD says: “Appropriate social distancing must be in place. KLBD caterers must not cater an event at a

private home for more than two households inside or 30 people outside.” Strictures also apply to events held in other venues. All events, for the time being, will be seated celebrations with appropriate social distancing in place and no standing receptions will be allowed.

SOAS centre appeals for funds The Centre for Jewish Studies at a big London university appealed for support this week as coronavirus-related cuts threatened its teaching provision. An online petition to save the professorship in Jewish Studies at SOAS, University of London, attracted more than 1,600 signatures as the centre said savings would need to be made across the institution after the pandemic. Dr Yair Wallach, a senior lecturer in Israel Studies who heads the Russell Square-based centre, said the department realistically needed around

£100,000 in funding for the professorship, held by Prof Catherine Hezser. “Covid-19 has put us under huge pressure, with the need to restrict the curriculum and move our teaching online,” he told Jewish News on Monday. “We will only know the impact in the next few weeks.” The Centre, which is home to the Jewish Music Institute, currently offers students modules in Hebrew, Jewish music, Israel Studies and Jewish Studies, with specialisms such as the Holocaust.

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30 July 2020 Jewish News

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Jewish News 30 July 2020

Special Report / Our post-Covid community

‘Being back? It’s emotional’ In the second instalment in our series on the pandemic’s lasting impact on Jewish life, leading rabbis tell Sandy Rashty how their shuls are operating and their hopes for the future For years, Rabbi Harvey Belovski, the senior rabbi of Golders Green Synagogue, would make a daily short walk from his north-west London home to his congregation. He would wear traditional rabbinical clothes to lead morning services, deliver sermons on Shabbat and preside over simchas, from weddings to bar and batmitzvahs. But when Covid-19 hit, all that changed. Minyans were prohibited and synagogues across the country closed their doors. Communities adapted by hosting shiurim and weekday services over Zoom and Facebook. From 4 July, the government allowed shuls to reopen under certain conditions that included social distancing. And for Rabbi Belovski, that meant finally returning to synagogue. “For the past few months there has been no

routine, it has been very odd,” he said. “Initially it was quite upsetting as it’s part of the routine and you miss seeing people who come to pray and meet their friends. Now services have resumed, I am going to shul every evening and we are hoping to start morning services soon.” For the first time in months, he took his rabbinical coat out of the cupboard and his hat out of its box – before he went on to lead the synagogue’s first Shabbat service in its garden. Ordinarily 200 people, including children, would attend Shabbat services – but on its first reopening Friday night and Shabbat morning, about 60 people attended the synagogue. Rabbi Belovski said guidance for attendees to be aged over 12 accounted in part for the reduction. He said the service was “emotional” but noted that congregants struggled to adapt to

The new normal: gloves and masks are temporary but Covid will also bring lasting changes

conditions. “Many people find wearing masks unpalatable, including me,” the rabbi said. “I set up davening outside, as masks are not required outside. But when the weather will change, we will have to make contingency plans.” Going forward, Rabbi Belovski notes that some systems that have “worked well” under lockdown will continue. “We are now able to have international speakers talk to our community online, without flying them in and paying them large amounts of money,” he said. Rabbi Joseph Dweck, senior rabbi of the S&P Sephardi community, has also had to adjust. “Speaking publicly and at universities was a large part of my weekly diary that hasn’t happened for many months. We have had to adapt with all our S&P rabbis delivering more content online, from Zoom to Facebook.” This month, Rabbi Dweck delivered his first in-person sermon on Shabbat at Lauderdale Road synagogue, attending with his eldest son. “I couldn’t believe we were finally going back to synagogue, it was surreal.” Normally, more than 100 congregants would attend a service, but for the first service post-lockdown, 30 people came to synagogue. “Everyone was wearing masks and sitting separately. I was wearing a visor guard and we didn’t have people coming up to touch the Sefer Torah,” he said. “Our service is normally

2.5 hours, but we kept it down to 90 minutes, which we may take on going forward because younger families prefer it.” Rabbi Dweck says the lockdown period has led to permanent changes. The S&P is looking to install cameras to allow more people to engage in synagogue life if they are vulnerable or live far away. But he is keen to stress the importance of people returning to shul. “In the same way the economy needs to rev up again, the community needs to be present to keep the lifeblood flowing.” But Laura Janner-Klausner, senior rabbi at Reform Judaism, is more cautious about the physical return to synagogues. She says the movement has seen a 40 percent rise in synagogue attendance on Shabbat since services were streamed – and she hopes it continues. “What is so beautiful about it – even though it is a situation that we never would have wanted – is that people who couldn’t leave the house before can now come to services. There’s now a smaller gap between the old and the young in our community.” Going forward, she sees online forums and engagement with a synagogue life as a permanent element that is here to stay. “We could not go back now,” she said. “How could we hold our values of inclusivity, but then say to people who can’t get to shul, ‘tough luck’?”

WE NEED TO COEXIST WITH VIRUS, WHITTY TELLS RABBIS England’s chief medical officer, Prof Chris Whitty, has told 115 senior rabbis that the country will have to “coexist” with coronavirus for a year or so, adding that the deadly second wave in Israel serves as a warning. Addressing attendees online during the first day of the Chief Rabbi’s two-day Annual Conference for Rabbis, Whitty (pictured) said “science will ultimately come to the rescue” in the form of vaccines and drugs, but not for some time. “We need to assume, for the sake of argument, that from now until this time next year, that we’re going to have to coexist with this as a significant threat,” he said. “We are in a relative lull in the UK, but the opening up of society obviously carries risks that there will be some kind of resurgence, either in geographical areas such as we’ve seen in Leicester, or across the country as a whole. “All of you will be watching with sadness at

the situation in Israel where there has been, after the releasing of some of the measures, it went down in Israel and then came back up again. That’s an example of what we need to be very mindful of as we go into the next period.” Numbers in the UK could stay low for two months and the next rise might be children going back to school in September. Whitty was optimistic about the medium-term, but added that “the next nine months are going to be really quite problematic, and bringing people together in closed environments is the biggest risk”. He answered rabbis’ queries in “a very extensive” Q&A session, held under Chatham House rules.

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Jewish News 30 July 2020

World News / Lebanese clash / Bibi mocked

Israeli soldiers repel Hezbollah incursion Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab this week accused Israel of violating his country’s sovereignty with a “dangerous military escalation” after Hezbollah operatives snuck into Israel and shot at troops, writes Adam Decker. The Israel Defence Forces said a cell of the Shi’ite militia crossed into Israeli territory and fired on Israeli troops, deliberately not hitting them, before fleeing back into Lebanese territory, where Hezbollah is based. Israeli leaders have been told to expect a reaction after the terrorist group blamed Jerusalem for an attack on its operatives in Syria last week, killing one. A Hezbollah spokesman said: “Reports in Israel about an infiltration and gunfire at our fighters are Israeli lies. Our response to the death [of the operative] will still arrive.” Lebanese sources said the IDF fired artillery shells over the border after the cell had fled, leading Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab to accuse Israel of a “dangerous military escalation”, but Christian leaders in Lebanon said the incident showed that the

WORLD NEWS IN BRIEF

Your weekly digest of stories from the international press UNITED STATES

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York caused a stir on Twitter last week by posting a photograph of what it said was ‘an Egyptian amulet’ – only to be told by users that it was tefillin. The Met bought the object, labelled ‘Islamic art’, in the 1960s and said it was about 1,500 years old.

NETHERLANDS

Residents in northern Israel were told to stay at home after a ‘serious incident’

government “doesn’t have sovereignty in the south”. Analysts said it was notable that Israeli soldiers had watched the infiltration attempt unfold but refused to fire on the operatives, let them back into Lebanese territory, and refused to release video footage, suggesting that the IDF did so to avoid an escalation.

After a briefing from IDF leaders on Israel’s northern border, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: “We will continue to take action to thwart Iran’s military entrenchment in our region, to do whatever is necessary to defend ourselves. I suggest that Hezbollah consider this simple fact: Israel is ready for any scenario.”

The Dutch Human Rights College has said the national airline KLM discriminated against a female passenger based on gender when it asked her to move seats last year to accommodate an Orthodox Jewish man who said he could not sit next to a woman. The College, whose members are appointed by the king, investigated the incident, which involved the wife of a Dutch MP being asked to move.

AUSTRALIA

A rabbi selling a hand-carved

walking stick who asked the buyer for extra for postal delivery was hit by a barrage of antisemitic messages in response. The Jewish religious leader was left shaken after being told that he “should have been gassed” and “your people got killed off because they are pieces of garbage”. On receiving the messages, he said: “I went through a series of emotions: shock, panic, and then pity.”

HUNGARY

One of Budapest’s leading rabbis has been taken ill with symptoms similar to those of the coronavirus along with five others from Óbuda Synagogue in the Hungarian capital. Services were suspended as the United Hungarian Jewish Community, an affiliate of Chabad-Lubavitch, confirmed that Rabbi Slomó Köves was among those recovering. All members of the shul are now being tested.

‘NOT ONE OF THOSE PRESENT WILL BETRAY ME’ An exhibit depicting a life-size statue of Benjamin Netanyahu enjoying a lavish meal alone in a mock re-enactment of The Last Supper on display in Tel Aviv. Itay Zalait’s installation, in Rabin Square, is the latest twist in a summer of demonstrations against the prime minister. NEWS IN BRIEF

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SPANISH GOVERNMENT ADOPTS IHRA ANTISEMITISM DEFINITION

CENTRAL COUNCIL OF JEWS IN GERMANY MARKS 70 YEARS

The Spanish government has adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism. The Federation of Jewish Communities of Spain last week thanked the government for its decision. The IHRA working definition describes various forms of antisemitism, including hatred and discrimination against Jews, Holocaust denial and expressions of criticism of Israel. Spain has been a member of the alliance since 2008. The parliament of the Balearic Islands Autonomous Community last month passed a law declaring the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel a form of antisemitism.

The representative body of post-war German Jewry has celebrated its 70-year anniversary with one eye on an even bigger celebration next year. Reflecting on the fact the Central Council of Jews (CCJ) in Germany held its inaugural meeting in Frankfurt on 19 July 1950, establishing what was intended to be a provisional set-up, community leaders said Jewish life in Germany today was once again vibrant. At its inception, the CCJ’s main task was to support the Jewish families who had managed to survive the Holocaust and to facilitate their emigration, yet CCJ leader Josef Schuster said many families surprisingly wanted to stay in Germany.

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Editorial comment and letters ISSUE NO.

1169

Socially distancing the social networks Continued from page 1 giants, when asked, say they are doing their best. Wiley shows they are not, or that if they are, then their best is not good enough. Legislation and seven-figure fines have a habit of ushering in change where polite requests fail, but since 2017 we have had a Green Paper, a White Paper, a statement of intent, and a promise that by this week – how ironic – an Online Harms Bill would be introduced in Parliament. Yet MPs are on holiday, in Spain or elsewhere, and there is no Bill in sight. Any new law should give a new or newly-empowered online regulator “real teeth” to marshal sites’ adherence to their newly-enshrined duty of care. In part, this would be through common-to-all community standards. Crucially, the regulator must be able to fine firms that fail to uphold these standards. Whether publishers’ liability is conferred on these platforms in the process is a hot topic, and not beyond the realms of possibility. Another MBE recipient, Danny Stone from the Antisemitism Policy Trust, has long lobbied for such a change. For those worried about censorship, like us, consider that Facebook was recently asked why a post threatening to “bomb the Board of Deputies of British Jews” was not removed. They said it “does not go against any of our community standards”. Time is of the essence. Technology outpaces legislation – algorithms already struggle to keep pace with things like memes – so MPs’ foot-dragging on online harm is now itself harmful. Let’s hope lawmakers spend their 14-day quarantine wisely. CONTACT DETAILS Publisher and Editor Richard Ferrer 020 8148 9703 richard@jewishnews.co.uk

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Wiley needs an education Richard Cowie, aka Wiley MBE, the rapper who has been broadcasting repellent antisemitic tropes on Twitter and then mocking his detractors on Facebook, has been represented for the past 12 years by A-List Management. A-List Management was founded by John Woolf, who this week called himself a “proud Jew”. His company removed Wiley’s name from its website and said it was cutting all ties with him. However, Woolf was also reported as having said he would be ‘helping educate’ Wiley privately. What is beyond doubt is that Wiley does indeed need some serious re-education, but whether that can be provided by Woolf remains to be seen. Twitter, which waited nearly a week before suspending Wiley’s account, apologised for being slow to act. But the public, and

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Anne Cohen’s small-minded reluctance to preface Charley Baginsky’s name with ‘Rabbi’ is par for the course. She’s wrong about Devarim 10:15 though. Nary a mention of ‘Hashem’, the sanctimonious alternative to God, Lord, Eternal. Even with the nonsense of vowels left out, none of these conflict with us not pronouncing the tetragrammaton ‘yad, hey, vav, hey’. The verse says ‘Adonai’, defined as Lord or God in a Hebrew

It was deeply moving to hear exiled Uighur spokeswoman Rahima Mahmut reveal the extent of her people’s suffering during your panel debate

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IF RABBI ABEL CAN USE ‘GOD’ RATHER THAN ‘HASHEM’ THEN SO CAN OTHERS dictionary, and certainly not the weird ‘Hashem’. The good old Soncino, both the Cohen version for the most devout and the Hertz for the modernists [it quotes non-Jewish sources!] agree. Oh, and Rabbi Ariel Abel uses ‘God’ three times in his moving piece about persecution of the Uyghurs. If he’s ‘Abel’ to use it, perhaps Anne could reconsider.

Barry Hyman Bushey Heath

CHINA MUST ANSWER FOR ITS CRIMES

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indeed the Jewish public, are still waiting for a hint of an apology from Wiley. Naz Shah MP was readmitted to the Labour Party in 2016 after convincing it that while posts about Israel she had made two years previously were antisemitic, she was not. She engaged with the Jewish community, admitted to having been ignorant about antisemitism, and was rightly welcomed back into public life. Woolf has reportedly said he does “not condone what Wiley has said today online”. We need more than this from him. And we need a proper apology from Wiley. Otherwise, as some have suggested, Wiley must have his MBE (for ‘services’ to the music industry) revoked (for the shame he has brought on it). Karen Leigh By email

last week. China is a superpower, but must be forced to answer for its crimes.

Emma Leon Barnet

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Editorial comment and letters

BBC SELECTIVE ON ISRAEL I read an article on the BBC news website this week headlined: “Israel-Palestinian conflict. Life in the Gaza Strip.” While the article spends much time on percentages, numbers, etc, it does not once mention the amount of aid the Gaza Strip receives in actual money from the United Nations’ network, European Commission network, various other aid groups and indeed the aid from Israel. Nor on what this money is spent. It does not mention the amount of money the Hamas organisation uses for weapons from small arms to hundreds of missiles;

money used to build expensive tunnels to infiltrate the sovereignty of Israeli territory to commit terrorist actions; money used to pay the family of terrorists killed in perpetrating acts of murder on children, women and innocent civilians in Israel; it does not mention the use of UN allocated and specified schools for terrorist acts against Israel, launching missiles from them, using them as a shield. The BBC once again has shown itself to be too selective and rejective of key facts.

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Israel taking right course Kol hakavod to Israel for remaining shut to foreign visitors, ‘Israel shut until 1 September’ (Jewish News, 23 July). One country at least, and one that many Jewish people in the diaspora are desperate to visit, is taking the right action to contain, and protect its citizens from, any further devastating effects of the coronavirus pandemic. We have missed being able to go there over Pesach this year, and now more than

likely, can’t go for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Ultimately, healthwise, this is good news for Israelis and tourists alike. With a spike in casualties of Covid-19, and a likely lockdown nationally or in some regions being implemented, we should be kept away. I look forward to going to Israel again, but only when it’s deemed safe to do so.

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Jewish News 30 July 2020

Opinion

Time to take action on social media hate DANNY STONE

ANTISEMITISM POLICY TRUST

or 48 hours, leading Jewish and non-Jewish celebrities, politicians and others left Twitter. The walkout followed a failure to act, by both Instagram and Twitter, against a litany of anti-Jewish racist and hateful posts by grime artist Richard Cowie, otherwise known by his moniker Wiley. Cowie’s messages were widely shared and likely absorbed by his fans, many of them impressionable young people. Jewish individuals, organisations and allies are beginning to return to the digital platforms after the walkout. The key question is what now? The answer is action, and the focus must be, the government’s Online Harms Bill. For those who have not followed the story, there has been work over more than 10 years, not just in the UK but across the world, to try to encourage governments to introduce appropriate regulation for social media and other

platforms online. Lord John Mann, then an MP in the Commons, worked to establish an international parliamentary coalition that brought together social media company heads of safety for the first time but, despite some progress, voluntary efforts have been insufficient. Our government declared an intention to be world leaders, promising an internet safety strategy that would both ensure businesses could thrive and users could be safe online. First there was a ‘Green Paper’ between 20172018. Then the next stage, the Online Harms White Paper. It has now been more than 15 months since the government began consultation on the latter, but the full response is yet to be issued. The government promised a full Bill in July, but the House of Commons is now on recess until September. We could bring forward the Bill, but it must not be weak if we are to be the world leaders the government wishes us to be. First, it must establish the right regulator. That means Ofcom, the communications regulator, with additional expertise drawn in from others. Second, we need a statutory duty of care

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IT SHOULDN’T BE FOR MINORITY COMMUNITIES TO HAVE TO PROVE THE CASE FOR ACTION

on the books. Not only must social media and internet companies have terms of service or community standards in place, but these should meet minimum thresholds. Platforms should be accountable for the terms and must face sanction when they fail to enforce them. Similar to the liability held for financial services or health and safety executives in the UK, platform leaders should be made personally liable for major breaches of the duty of care. This would force executives to act. It shouldn’t be for minority communities to have to prove the case for action. Fourth, we need to see action on legal but harmful material. Cases such as the ‘Pizzagate’ affair, when a gunman in America attacked a family pizzeria after imbibing legal but harmful material online, underline why

companies must have plans in place to address these issues. Fifth, there should be statutory codes of practice guiding start-ups and others on how to address harm uncovered and dealt with by others. Finally, and perhaps most controversially, I believe introducing a form of publisher’s liability should be on the government’s mind. Defining content service providers as separate from internet service providers may help. This is going to be the battleground over the coming months. Many others, not least the companies themselves, will push back but, for over a decade, they have facilitated the broadcasting of hate and have helped to toxify our public life and discourse. The question is what now? The answer is action.

Indoctrination is the biggest barrier to two-state solution FLEUR HASSANNAHOUM

DEPUTY MAYOR OF JERUSALEM

n a somewhat unprecedented move, Prime Minister Boris Johnson spoke out directly to the Israeli public last week about the annexation. He published an op-ed in Hebrew, in the most widely circulated daily in Israel (Yediot Aharonot) warning Israel, as a friend, that “annexation”, or more accurately the application of Israeli law to the Jewish communities of the Jordan Valley and Judea and Samaria, would prevent the two-state solution and destroy any hope for peace. Although I do not agree with him, I believe his concerns come from a good place. He is a supporter of Israel and the Zionist vision and has never fallen for the honey trap set by those who believe the entire Middle East regional conflict is attributed to the mere existence of the only Jewish country in the world. He is warning but not threatening. While other countries are murmuring under their breaths about sanctions, and the chorus of disapproval from the UN is gaining momentum, Mr Johnson is not mentioning sanctions – he’s telling us as a friend that maybe we need to rethink our strategy.

Why he chose to do it publicly and not directly through the diplomatic channels is another question, but having met Johnson when he was Mayor of London, and knowing his record on the Jewish community and Israel, I know his intentions are pure. Now let me explain where he errs. Most of the critics of the application of sovereignty seem to ignore the most basic premise of the plan: the end goal of the Deal of the Century is indeed two states. What the plan seeks to do is to help Israel define its own borders, while empowering the Palestinian people economically. The plan seeks to build up Palestinian institutions, civil society and governance, in a corruption free democratic system that does not indoctrinate children that the only outcome to their predicament is for Israel to be wiped out. In my view, indoctrination in Palestinian society, and in the school system in particular, is the main obstacle to peace. The geography books have us erased from the maps, the maths and physics books have exercises based on counting martyrs and dead Jews and the literature books elevate terrorists to national hero status. This is undoubtedly a larger strategic barrier to a long-lasting peace than applying Israeli law to the Jewish communities in Judea, Samaria and the Jordan valley. These communities are

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THE DEAL OF THE CENTURY SEEKS TO EMPOWER PALESTINIANS

in Area C, which is controlled by Israel and the population concentrations there are mainly Jewish. It is also widely accepted that in any future peace deal, these areas will remain in Israeli hands. Applying Israeli law replaces an archaic Ottoman, Mandate law blended with military civil administration law, making day to day life impractical. It is not and has never been the real barrier to a long lasting peace. The Deal of the Century ensures Israel does not get punished for the outcome of wars it did not start and decades of Palestinian rejectionism. Therefore, it was most ironic that less than a week after the Mr Johnson’s op-ed, the British government allocated £33 million to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). Over half of those funds go to UNRWA schools whose curriculum of indoctrination ensures peace will never be a reality. Their curriculum, created

by the Palestinian Authority (PA), perpetuates incitement, antisemitism and the glorification of martyrdom. Its main mantra is the fabricated ‘right of return’ and not a two-state solution. A further examination of the UNRWA curriculum shows it is woefully inadequate in basic English, mathematics and technological skills. UNRWA and the PA are systematically keeping their people poor and ignorant, perpetuating a victim’s mindset. Most recently, even the EU Parliament condemned hate speech in the PA curriculum, and in its budget report calls for a halt in funding for educational materials inciting religious radicalisation and martyrdom among children. The last Commissioner-General of UNRWA resigned following a pair of critical inquiries into his management of the organisation. Additionally, Hamas, recognised by the UK as a terrorist organisation, has penetrated UNRWA in Gaza to the extent that most teachers and administration are Hamas members. It is not the Deal of the Century or “annexation” killing the chance of peace – it is the brainwashing of children through an educational system, partly funded by the UK, that teaches innocent children the best they can hope for is to martyr themselves for their cause – and tragically that cause is the annihilation of the state of Israel.

30 July 2020 Jewish News

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Jewish News 30 July 2020

Opinion

Social media antisemites keeping the courts busy JENNI FRAZER

hree years ago I interviewed the lawyer Mark Lewis, fresh from securing a libel victory for the food blogger Jack Monroe against the controversial, and contrarian, Katie Hopkins. Hopkins had erroneously claimed on social media that Monroe had supported the daubing of a war memorial. A furious Monroe, from a military family, invited Hopkins to apologise, and when she did not, took her to court — and won. A lot has happened in the last three years: Hopkins, who was obliged to apply for an insolvency agreement after losing her libel case, was permanently removed from Twitter in June this year after breaching the company’s “hateful conduct” policy. And Mark Lewis himself, having established a high-profile media presence with his work on the News of the World phonehacking case, decided that the growing

antisemitism in Britain was simply too much. He and his partner Mandy Blumenthal moved to Israel in 2018, but thanks to technology he is able to run his career, as a partner in Patron Law, from his new home. Lewis takes no prisoners and his Monroe victory, said to be the first ‘Twibel’, or Twitter libel, case, has catapulted him into a unique position: the go-to lawyer to be consulted whenever alleged antisemitism is in the frame. Some of his cases are ongoing and thus cannot be commented on, but last week’s stunning U-turn by the Labour Party in apologising to the Panorama whistleblowers, and journalist John Ware, was a victory initiated, and then secured, by Lewis and his admirable barrister colleague, William Bennett QC. In my interview with him, Lewis admitted frankly that he liked to take people on. He added: “There’s a Jewish choice in life. You can either be the Jew that people want to pick on — or they can say, oh, typical Jews, so belligerent.

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REPELLENT GRIME ‘ARTIST’ WILEY DRAPED HIS ANTISEMITISM ALL OVER TWITTER I always think, well, if people don’t like me, at least I’ve hit them.” He told me then that it was necessary to be aggressive against antisemites on social media. Everything in the ensuing three years has proved him sadly correct. He predicted then that he would wring apologies and damages wherever he could, and he has done so, including achieving a humiliating climbdown by the Israeli musician Gilad Atzmon, who accused Campaign Against Antisemitism director Gideon Falter of personally profiting from fabricating antisemitic incidents. So here we are, three years on, and

Lewis — whose multiple sclerosis, a degenerative neurological condition, led him to seek treatment in Israel — is one of the busiest lawyers one could imagine. It’s hard not to think that if this is what he is like with MS, how many more cylinders could he fire on without it? All of which brings me neatly to the repellent grime ‘artist’, rap musician Wiley, whose vile antisemitic outpourings were draped all over Twitter and Facebook in the last few days, prior to him being banned. So, some questions. Why immediately ban Hopkins but not Wiley? Did he not breach “hateful conduct” regulations? And why does Wiley retain an MBE, which he was awarded for services to music in 2017? And while we are talking of honours, why shouldn’t Mark Lewis become Sir Mark, a recognition of his services to the legal profession — and to restorative justice? An amused Lewis agrees that “a knighthood would be fun”. Antisemites won’t agree but Lewis’s approach has proved rewarding in the courts — and the court of public opinion.

You do have a say in organ donor system AMANDA BOWMAN VICE PRESIDENT, BOARD OF DEPUTIES

new organ donation system for England has been put into place by the government. Now is the time to understand the new legislation to ensure the wishes of our loved ones are respected. We all need to engage with the new approach to consent in order to fulfil the core Jewish values of saving lives (pikuach nefesh) and respect for the dead (kavod hamet). Originally, when almost three years ago, there was an announcement of a new system, it caused concern for many in the Jewish community. There was fear that some people would lose control of what happened to their bodies after their death and that their families would be powerless. Thankfully, that will not now be the case. Politicians describe the new system as ‘opt out’, or, to use legal language, ‘deemed consent’. However, the Board of Deputies and other communal stakeholders worked

closely with civil servants and government to ensure safeguards are in place to protect individuals from becoming an organ donor without their consent. Critically, communication with families under all circumstances is upheld as ‘essential’ throughout. It is relatively straightforward to ensure that your wishes are respected, whether you want to be a donor, you want to be a donor subject to certain considerations, or you do not want to donate under any circumstances. If you want to donate, there is a continued emphasis on eliminating any doubt of the potential organ donor’s wishes before organ donation goes ahead. It is vital that we and our loved ones trust the system. A lack of trust in the system was expressed as a significant concern by other minority groups during the pre-legislation consultations. If at all possible, we must eliminate any confusion about our wishes around organ donation. If our loved ones are unclear about what we wanted, this creates family distress. If an individual has not actively expressed consent, his or her family (or a nominated

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IF OUR LOVED ONES ARE UNCLEAR ABOUT WHAT THEY WANT IT CREATES DISTRESS person) can give information that would guide the specialist nurse who works with families of potential organ donors. This will enable the nurse to understand whether the person did not want to be a donor, and so donation should not proceed, or that donation should proceed in line with religious beliefs. If an individual has not actively expressed consent, and family, a close friend or a nominated person cannot be reached, then organ donation should not go ahead. If religious beliefs are important to you, we recommend that the first step you take when coming to a decision is to speak to your rabbi or religious authority. You should communicate the decision you have reached clearly to your family. And then you should log that decision on the government’s online Organ Donor Register

at organdonation.nhs.uk. The changes mean that you can now indicate on the Organ Donor Register not only consent/nonconsent, but also that faith is important to you. The register is used to guide professionals in dealings with the families of potential organ donors. The Board of Deputies is working with all Jewish religious authorities to ensure that families of potential organ donors can be provided with a phone helpline from which they can seek rabbinic advice. Healthcare professionals will be able to provide this number to families, and will also be able to consult it themselves. With these safeguards in place, everyone can be encouraged to engage in the system, so we can save as many lives as possible by organ donation carried out in accordance with our Jewish values.

30 July 2020 Jewish News

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Scene & Be Seen / Community

1 MUDDY IMPACT

ImpACT rose to the challenge of a muddy obstacle course, raising money for Leket, Save a Child’s Heart and United Hatzalah. The sun shone as the teenagers took part in the outdoor experience at Wild Forest in Essex. “This has been my best day since lockdown started,” said Aitan, 14. “I hope they run it again”. This was echoed by Freddie, 12, who said: ‘It feels good to be able to do something outdoors for charity during this time.”

And be seen!

2 CYCLE SERVICE

The latest news, pictures and (virtual and real) social events from across the community

Kisharon welcomed customers back to its Bike Shop, Equal Bikes, after the lockdown. The team specialise in rebuilding, fixing and selling bikes, taking social enterprise innovation to new levels. They said: “We are thrilled to service the community, especially with cycling on the increase. The first week attracted both existing and new customers.”

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3 SPECIAL GRADUATION

Lord Winston told graduating primary school children at Clore Tikva to “never be afraid to fail”, as they said goodbye to their teachers. Year 6 students and their families took part in the virtual graduation ceremony, during which they heard the scientist, writer and TV personality’s keynote speech. He spoke about “the Jewish tradition of looking at things scientifically to understand how things work to help nature and ourselves”.

4 EMOTIONAL SEND-OFF Jewish primary school children graduating to secondary school were given an extra special send-off on Monday during a socially-distanced event in the car park of the RAF Museum in Hendon. Teachers and Year 6 pupils from Menorah Foundation School, along with their families, all said goodbye during an emotional evening described by school leaders as “spectacular”. During an evening featuring presentations, Divrei Torah and celebrations of the children’s time at the school, headteacher Karen Kent spoke of “the pride and nachus that they have given the school” .

5 HOSPITAL BAKING

For the fifth year in a row, Mya, 11, Michael, 10, and Matan Dahan, seven, hosted a charity bake sale. This year, their chosen charity was the Royal Free Hospital to thank staff for their work. They raised more than £500 for the hospital. Michael said: “I look forward to the bake sales every year with my brother and sister.”

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Jewish News 30 July 2020

JDA’s door-to-door hearing aid service is a lifeline at this time of isolation

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30 July 2020 Jewish News

Interview / Weekend

‘I’m just a nice old lady’

She supports boycotts, hates Netanyahu and loves Corbyn – but self-hating Jew she is not, hears Francine Wolfisz in a tell-all interview with Miriam Margolyes

uggesting Miriam Margolyes as my next interview was always going to be hard to pitch to the editor. A glance at the rap sheet made me wince. She’s an open advocate of boycotts against Israel, a signatory of Jews for Justice for Palestinians and a staunch Corbyn supporter. She even admitted having “difficulty not wanting Boris Johnson to die” when he was fighting for his life with coronavirus. Backwards in coming forwards this veteran Oxford-born actress is not – and yet, perhaps, there’s another side to Margolyes, the one that puts as much passion into her acting as she does into the opinions many in the Jewish community find unpalatable. Curiosity won out and so it was that the 79-yearold Harry Potter and Call The Midwife star and I meet, albeit virtually during an amicable Zoom chat. We speak ahead of her short online play, Watching Rosie, which explores the intimate bond between Alice (played by Margolyes), a woman living with dementia, and her granddaughter, Rosie (played by writer Louise Coulthard). “Dementia is something we are all concerned with, it’s something we all know about and have seen – and I experienced it with my father,” reveals Margolyes, her BAFTA for the 1993 film Age of Innocence peeking out on the mantlepiece behind her. “Alice has dementia, but she’s not totally gone, and she talks to her grand-daughter every day. She’s very keen that Rosie gets married, because she was very happily married herself for many years. “In a way, it has a very Jewish feeling, because Jewish mothers always want their daughters to marry. I know mine did. Even when my mother had a stroke and was unable to speak, she used to clutch my arm and say, ‘get married, get married’ with a very ferocious intensity.” She pauses. “Of course, that wasn’t going to happen the way she wanted it to,” Margolyes adds with a smile, without referring further to long-term partner, Heather Sutherland, with whom she lives between their homes in south London and Australia. Just a few minutes into our chat, Margolyes has already mentioned her parents and her Jewishness. It feels like a nice segue to ask about her Jewish identity as a whole and to address claims by some that she is a “self-hating Jew”. Her response is measured, although she emphatically denies that is the case. “I know people hate me,” she replies. “But there are two names I refute completely. I am not antisemitic, I am a very proud

Jew, and have never denied my Jewishness anywhere in life. And secondly, I am not a selfhating Jew. If anything, I am a self-loving Jew.” But the Cambridge graduate, clearly articulate, intelligent – and at one time training to be a barrister – acknowledges the Miriam alongside Louise Coulthard in Watching Rosie It’s time to steer the conversation away from ill-feeling towards her views on Israel. conspiracy theories, but not before she informs me “I am anti-Zionist and the reason why is that that “antisemitism, my darling, is in the Tory Party, I have seen the devastation and misery the not in the Labour Party – and it has been for many, Palestinian population is experiencing and has many years”. experienced from the beginning of Israel’s creation. I ask if she has ever personally experienced That makes me sad. I believe Jewish people are racially-motivated hatred. “Once, many years ago, just and compassionate and our religion strongly when I was going to be a barrister and eating dinners emphasises that. at Gray’s Inn, one of the people sitting opposite me “Every day, I am reminded of the Holocaust said, ‘Why don’t you go back where you came from?’” and the terrible things that have been done to our She seems pensive as the memory comes back people. I don’t forget or overlook that. I just don’t to her, before recalling another incident when as a want us to be doing similar things to other people young child, she was enjoying a picnic on a field with in the misguided belief that we have the right to do her parents, until a farmer came along and said, “You so. We don’t.” people, get off, we don’t want you here.” Her staunch beliefs have not been without a “Otherwise I haven’t met antisemitism to my hefty cost. “I’ve been called all kinds of names,” she face, because everyone knows I’m Jewish and I’ve continues. “I get filthy emails and people call me always been very open about it,” she adds. “I’m worse than Hitler. But I can’t help it – I have to tell proud of it. My life is informed by being Jewish.” the truth as I see it.” Yes, she is anti-Zionist, no question about that. We turn to events closer to home. Corbyn, She supports the boycott movement and will defend Livingstone and accusations of antisemitism in Corbyn to the hilt, but even I have to admit there’s the Labour Party seem like an obvious next stop, no denying just how much her Jewishness means to although I’m not convinced I’ll hear anything other her. In many ways, there’s no worse barb for her than than praise for the former leader. Surprisingly, there being called a self-hating Jew. is a slight concession from her on that matter. “I’m seen as the enemy. That is extremely hurtful “I think he’s done some slightly silly things,” she and quite wrong,” she tells me. “If they knew me as concedes. “That mural that went up [by Mear One], a person, they would know that’s not who I am. I think that was antisemitic and he probably should “Israel has practically a criminal as prime have been aware of that.” minister. Why don’t people make more fuss about That said, Corbyn is, in her opinion, not an antithat? Why don’t they care that people are being semite and neither is Ken Livingstone. tortured? Let’s focus on what’s going on there and “When he [Livingstone] made that remark about don’t worry about me. I’m not doing any harm. Hitler having an arrangement with the Zionists – all I’m just a nice old lady.” perfectly true,” she tells me, but the words still grate. Meanwhile, she describes Keir Starmer as “fabuWatching Rosie is available free from lous” and hopes he wins the next election “because 6 August, 7pm, until 30 September at I can’t stand the guy we have at the moment,” she adds with a laugh, not even uttering Johnson’s name. www.originaltheatreonline.com. Donations are encouraged in support of Dementia UK. But she remains unshaken that Starmer was Miriam Margolyes: Almost Australian is wrong to apologise to the Labour whistleblowers, showing on Fridays, 9pm, BBC Two and saying: “I may be wrong, but I think it was motivated BBC iPlayer by a very clever campaign from Israel.”

In association with

A look

Inside Film: Shiva down your spine with new horror flick, The Vigil

Tech That: Four Shabbat-friendly gadgets to transform your day of rest!

Competition: Win family fun with Treasure Trails

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Jewish News 30 July 2020

Weekend / Entertainment

FILM

Midas Man A new film about the life of Beatles’ manager and music impresario Brian Epstein will be directed by multi-Grammy winning director Jonas Akerlund, it was announced this week. Epstein – referred fondly by the Fab Four as “the fifth Beatle” – signed up the chart-topping band in 1961 and also worked with the likes of Gerry and the Pacemakers and Cilla Black, as well as helping to promote musicians such as Jimi Hendrix, The Who and Pink Floyd. Midas Man, written by Jewish News supplements editor Brigit Grant and Jonathan Wakeman, is described as “an emotional, witty, heartfelt story” about “the man from Liverpool with the Midas Touch, whose influence on popular music and culture resounds to this day”. The film will be shot in London, Liverpool and the United States for release next year.

COMPETITION

IN THE WORKS Rodham

Author Curtis Sittenfeld’s bestselling alternative history, which imagines a world in which Hillary Rodham never married Bill Clinton, is heading for the small screen. Hulu has optioned the rights to the novel for a series, which is described as “telling the story of an ambitious young woman, developing her extraordinary mind in the latter part of the 20th century, moving from idealism to cynicism and all the way back again”. In the novel, Hillary meets and starts dating a fictionalised version of Clinton, but

the relationship hits the buffers when the former president’s dark side is revealed. The Handmaid’s Tale’s Warren Littlefield will executive produce, with writer Sarah Treem (The Affair) on board. The pair are also working on an Apple+ series about Jewish film star Hedy Lamarr, starring Israeli actress Gal Gadot.

MUSIC Peter Green

Tributes have been paid to Fleetwood Mac co-founder Peter Green, who died last Saturday aged 73. The influential blues rock guitarist was born Peter Greenbaum into a Jewish family in Bethnal Green. He teamed up with drummer Mick Fleetwood to form the influential group in London in 1967, alongside John McVie and Jeremy Spencer. Stevie Nicks signed with the band in 1975, five years after Green had quit amid struggles with his mental health. Tributes poured in from across the music industry, including Fleetwood, who described Green as “my dearest friend” and said they “trail blazed one hell of a musical road for so many to enjoy”. Under Green’s direction, the band produced three albums and well-loved tracks, including Black Magic Woman, Man of the World and Oh Well. He also penned the instrumental Albatross, Fleetwood Mac’s only UK number one single in 1969.

Win a self-guided adventure with Treasure Trails! Jewish News is offering 10 lucky readers their choice of Treasure Trail booklets! Solve the clues and uncover the secrets with one of more than 1,200 self-guided adventure trails across the UK. With themes including Treasure Hunts, Spy Missions and Murder Mysteries, Treasure Trails provide the perfect solution to responsible, social distancing entertainment. Lasting around two hours, each trail has its own specific ENTER theme and makes use of ONLINE: well-known local landmarks, jewishnews.co.uk signs, statues, monuments, Closing date Trails are also available to buy images, engravings or any 27 August 2020 online and download to print at home, other unique or eye-catching and therefore can remain completely features to create an exciting contactless. adventure. From remote locations to wide-open To be in with a chance of winning, answer spaces, there are hundreds of Treasure Trails the following question: to choose from across the country, whether There are more than how many Treasure you’re budding buccaneers, mini Miss Marples Trails across the UK? or undercover secret agents. A: 12 Treasure Trail booklets cost £9.99 (plus P&P B: 120 if required), are suitable for up to five people C: 1,200 and designed to appeal to all ages.

This week we review four of the best Shabbat-friendly tech available right now. They do all the work, so you don’t have to! TIMER YOUR LIFE: TP LINK HS100 KASA SMART WI-FI PLUG It may look like a regular old plug, but this nifty gadget allows you to insert any device into it (a lamp, hot plate, air conditioner) and control the timer settings straight from your phone before Shabbat. They’re pretty good value too, retailing at a bargainbusting £14.99.

WAKEY WAKEY! SHABBAT ALARM APP Don’t be late for synagogue again with a plethora of Shabbat Clock apps available, including Shabbos Clock by RustyBrick. Have it ring for 10, 20 or 30 seconds before it silences itself. Too bad you can’t hit the snooze button on Shabbat. Available to download for £0.99/iOS and £0.89/Android.

LET THERE BE LIGHT! PHILIPS HUE SMART LIGHTING It’s fine in the summer, but not being able to turn the lights on and off can prove one of the most inconvenient Shabbat laws. Philips Hue Smart Lighting products have a solution for Shabbat-observing folk. Just install Hue bulbs in all your existing light fittings and connect them up to the internet. Using the Hue app, you can have them turn on and off according to sunset times, or a time of your choosing . Prices vary.

A HELPING HAND: GOOGLE NEST HUB Despite being a great Google assistant during the week, this handy smart display could be used on Shabbat as a digital photo frame, pulling in images from your Google account. It also constantly shows you the current temperate outside on the home screen, so you’ll always know how to dress for the day without having to lift (or press) a finger. Available from £59.99.

COMPETITION TERMS AND CONDITIONS: Ten winners will receive a Treasure Trail of their choice. Prize winner must claim their prize before 31 December 2020. Travel costs are not included. Prize is as stated, not transferable, not refundable and cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer or exchanged in whole or in part for cash. By supplying your email address, you agree to receive marketing information from the JN Media Group or any of its affiliates and carefully selected third parties. The promotion excludes employees of Jewish News and the promoter, their immediate families, their agents or anyone professionally connected to the relevant promotion. @daniel_elias Proof of eligibility must be provided on request. For full Ts and Cs, see jewishnews.co.uk. Closing date: 27 August 2020

Reviewed by: Daniel Elias

@daniel_elias

30 July 2020 Jewish News

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Interview / Weekend

SHIVA down your spine! Stephen Applebaum speaks to film-maker Keith Thomas about his heimische horror flick The Vigil

here have been great horror films made by Jewish filmmakers, but Keith Thomas had never seen one that “dived into Jewish theology”. But that’s all changed now with his accomplished directorial debut, The Vigil. The film is nothing less than his attempt “to give the Jewish community our own Exorcist,” he tells me over Skype. “I wanted to make a horror film that Jews could say, ‘Yes, that shows our community,’ or ‘Yes, that shows our themes, and that is a look into our beliefs.’ “For personal reasons, that’s what my intention was, and my hope is that’s how it will continue to be received.” Shot in the Borough Park neighbourhood in Brooklyn, the film follows Yakov (Dave Davis), a troubled young Jew who recently left the Hasidic community. In need of money, he agrees to a rabbi’s request to watch over the body of a Holocaust survivor for the night. Alone in a shadowy house with the dead man and his widow, Yakov is forced to confront a tragic event from his own past and the Mazzik – a demon whose name

Yakov and Reb Shulem (Menashe Lustig)

means ‘destroyer’ in Hebrew – that tormented the deceased survivor from the Shoah until his last breath. The film and its protagonist walk a fine line between the rational and the supernatural, the secular and the religious. It reflects the way Thomas’s life was before becoming a filmmaker – from premedical studies, with an English major, to rabbinical school, where he wrote his master’s thesis on monsters in the Torah, and then on to a 10-year stint in clinical research, with writing on the side. “I realised when I was in rabbinical school that I’m not particularly religious,” he says. “I do go to an Orthodox shul, but I don’t go often, and I’m certainly not frum.” His parents were both from New York and his upbringing, with a non-Jewish father and Jewish mother, was “of the bagels and lox kind of [cultural] Judaism”, he says. When his maternal grandfather died, his mother became more religious, “and in my teens, I finally stepped foot in a shul”. Thomas, his lead actor, and his producers all lost family in the Holocaust, and “grew up aware of that,” he reflects. “For me, it is very tough with trauma and guilt in terms of how much do you let go? How do you move on through it?” The Vigil drills into the psychological and emotional legacy of the Shoah, touching on themes such as survivor guilt, generational trauma, and the transmission of trauma through memory. Even Thomas’s interpretation of the Mazzik – a demon that in Jewish lore inhabits abandoned houses and leaves chicken-feet imprints if flour is left on the floor – is imagined as a creature with a head turned backwards, staring into the past, embodying the intention to ‘never forget’. But it’s a paradox. How do we remember and yet still go forward? Such questions became even more pronounced when the story’s setting was moved to Brooklyn, into a Hassidic community that, Thomas says, is “a reflection of both the Holocaust and kind of long-term

antisemitism, in that they’ve become very insular to protect themselves.” Yakov faces his own demons but also, in his fight with the Mazzik, engages in a struggle that the filmmaker hoped would have wider communal resonance. “We can never forget, but we have to move on, and sometimes moving on means facing things you do not want to face. “If we run from the things that we’re afraid of, that traumatise us, that we feel guilty about, they will always chase us. “You must face them, and if you emerge on the other side, it doesn’t mean they won’t be there, but it means you are stronger.” Antisemitism runs through the film as a continuing, but not explicitly identified scourge: the shared root of a pogrom in Kiev, the Holocaust, and an attack in present-day New York. When Yakov exorcises the Mazzik wearing tefilin that belonged to one of the producers’ grandfathers, holding a lit candle and reciting the Shema, it is a moment of empowerment and release. For the producer, “it was very much about confronting antisemitism,” says Thomas. Almost everyone involved in making the film had experienced Jew-hate (the tormenting incident in Yakov’s past was inspired by something Thomas witnessed), either in their families’ pasts or personally. The writer-director, for example, doesn’t have a Jewish name, but whenever he’d tell people he was a Jew, “the inevitable jokes would follow.” Working on The Vigil has been

cathartic. “When I wrote the story, it was me pouring all this stuff out. And then having that final battle, that release, I felt like that’s the Jewish way to end this.” Thomas made the film for Jews and gentiles, but the former, he has discovered, “have a deeper, more emotional reaction to it, particularly if they’re the grandchildren or children of survivors. I’ve seen a number of people come out of the theatre in tears.” I can well believe it. Even I was sobbing by the end. Thankfully, this isn’t the last time Thomas will venture into this territory. He has been signed up to direct a new version of Stephen King’s Firestarter, but is also planning a TV series with his Vigil producers that will “deal with a lot of the same themes in a different way, and also look at how the Jewish community interacts with other communities living right alongside them, and both those tensions and appreciations that go back and forth”. He also believes there’s a “Jewish renaissance” happening, with programmes like Netflix’s Unorthodox in the vanguard. “If there’s going to be a horror side of it,” he says, “then I would like to be the one participating in and continuing to make that.” The Vigil (15) is released in UK cinemas on Friday, 31 July

Yakov (Dave Davis) and Mrs Litvak (Lynn Cohen)

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Jewish News 30 July 2020

The lighter side

Weekend / Inspiration

Brigit Grant’s little bit of this and little bit of that...

Brigit@jewishnews.co.uk

Where there’s a will, there’s OY VEY LAST FRIDAY was National Tequila Day. I only know this because of Robert Speker, a 41-year-old care worker from Newcastle who uses inconsequential anniversaries, as a means to entertain more than 40 residents at Sydmar Lodge in Edgware. So, armed with shot glasses, he taught the residents to suck limes, lick salt and down tequila; it was very rock ‘n’ roll, but fitting for Sydmar, which sprang to fame three weeks ago, when the residents appeared on Facebook disguised as album cover stars. Robert took the photos and, had he realised his post would lead to a media frenzy, he might have released them after his shift, as within hours he was being hounded by the newspapers. Next came appearance requests from the BBC, Channel 5 and radio stations but, as he was busy playing piano for the residents, I agreed to help field calls in the UK, while his sister dealt with requests from

Marian Casher as Johnny Cash

America’s ABC, CBS and CNN and then Australia. The interest was inevitable with so few happy stories around, and Robert’s pensioner project provided a ray of sunshine as poignant as the NHS rainbow. Over 24 hours, I went from not knowing Robert to planning his interview schedule, only to realise I was working with a Supermensch intent on spreading joy. At Pesach, when the Sydmar lounge was shut, Robert put Palwin and a seder plate on a trolley and took it to the rooms of residents to perform one-to-one mini services. That’s more than 40 “Baruch Atai Adonai” and he kept going with his Haggadah on wheels until everyone had charoset. For Yom Ha’atzmaut, he brought banners, for VE Day there were flags and, when it came to the rarely celebrated Guinness World Records Day, Sydmar lodgers set records by keeping three balloons in the air. Robert seemingly breaks records in care every

week by doing wonderful things such as taking residents for tea at The Ritz; sourcing pen pals at Jewish primaries and he had planned to hit a casino for some shpieling. All this fun is reminiscent of the alien rejuvenation enjoyed by the elderly in Ron Howard’s 1985 sci-fi film Cocoon and Sheila Solomons, 94, would concur, as Robert disguised her as Elvis, and The Clash bassist, and took her to see Rag ‘n’ Bone Man in concert. Sheila also appears as the tattooed singer and TV crews gathered at the care Residents celebrate VE Day at Sydmar Lodge home window to meet the hip nana nonagenarian. Sadly, resident Marian Casher died before Robert’s big reveal, but her pose as Johnny Cash delighted her family. “Something to treasure,” Robert tells me, which is also true of his image of the carers as Queen. “Carers deserve to be acknowledged,” he argues – and none more so than him.

Sheila Solomons as Rag ‘n’ Bone Man

Hamiltonstein The chance to see Hamilton at home and avoid the painful ticket price was a gift to fans and, as an ‘Alexander’ advocate, I suggest you drop into the Disney channel to sample the brilliance. For those with a reluctance to embrace rap, here are the Jewish facts about Ham: 1. Lin-Manuel Miranda, the show’s creator, is not Jewish, but feels the vibe as he joined a Jewish a cappella group, the Mazel Tones, when he was at uni and also worked as a barmitzvah dancer for extra cash. After receiving an honorary degree from Yeshiva University, he tweeted: “The day I became a Jewish doctor!” and at his wedding performed a surprise rendition of To Life! from Fiddler on the Roof to bride Vanessa Nadal. Best of all, in March, a Twitter debate about his best musical (Moana? In The Heights? Hammy?) resulted in his Hebrew response: “Hey hey hey what’s going on here?” 2. Alexander Hamilton, the main man grew up in the Caribbean, and some scholars believe his paternal grandmother was Jewish. He also studied at a Jewish day school and learnt Hebrew. 3. If Hamilton wasn’t Jewish, he did a good job standing up for us during debates, reportedly saying: “Why distrust the evidence of the Jews? Discredit them and you will destroy the Christian religion.” 4. Jewish historian Ron Chernow’s book, Alexander Hamilton, inspired Lin to create a modern musical. 5. The Broadway production of Hamilton is the work of Jewish director Thomas Kail, who is about to direct the remake of Fiddler, and the associate choreographer, Stephanie Crain Klemons, is also of the faith. 6. Broadway’s Lafayette and Thomas Jefferson were played by Jewish and African-American actor Daveed Diggs, who won a Tony Award for his performance. He was also one of many Jews who were part of the original production, so many in Daveed Diggs fact that they called themselves the “Hamil-Jews”.

Sheila with Rag ‘n’ Bone Man at a concert

Just a JEP (Jewish English Princess) Now nail bars are open, ear-wigging is back in action. This week’s ‘overheard’ was about a woman who spent lockdown challishing for Chanel sunglasses. Apparently when the stores opened, her doting husband offered to drive her to Chanel, but she had second thoughts because of Mayor Khan’s congestion charge hike and was also not yet ready to shop in person. Turns out that for £12, a Chanel concierge will come to your home with a full range of sunglasses and so that’s what she arranged. Evidently it was worth saving £3 on the congestion charge to acquire a pair of £800 sunnies. I wonder if Primark offers the same service?

Parting Sorrow

I should not really use this column for personal gain, but news this week that Rabbi Emily Reitsma-Jurman is leaving Edgware and Hendon Reform Synagogue to go to West London as the new Associate Rabbi made me sad. All the rabbis at our shul are wonderful, but Rabbi Emily got my daughter through her virtual batty while I was going batty and gave us limitless support during lockdown, particularly when we lost Rabbi Kraft. West London should rejoice for its new recruit, while I can only weep.

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30 July 2020 Jewish News

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Jewish News 30 July 2020

Orthodox Judaism

Torah For Today

SEDRA Vaetchanan BY RABBI ALEX CHAPPER It would be easy to conclude that a sedra containing the Ten Commandments is all about laws. But that would be too simplistic an analysis, because if we look more carefully, we notice it is in fact about something far more important and life-changing than that. It is about relationships and, specifically, our relationship and connection to God. To understand this, we just need to review the opening statement of the Ten Commandments: “I am Hashem your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, the house of slavery.” The commentaries ask why it specifically refers to the Exodus from Egypt. Does God not have an even greater entry on His CV? Did He not create the entire universe ex nihilo? Chizkuni [Hezekiah ben Manoah] explains that the Exodus is a unique event, not just in history, but in God’s relationship with the Jewish people, because it was the moment we became God’s people.

At the same time, we know that for relationships to be successful, they have to be reciprocal. That is why, although Moses foresaw our eventual exile from the Land of Israel, he was not a prophet of doom, because he also left us with an inspiring message of hope. Few in number and scattered among other nations, “from there you will seek God, your God, and you will find Him, for you will seek Him with all your heart and all your soul”. It is clear from Moses’ words that the key to finding our way back to God is for our search to be done with all our heart and all our soul. The Zohar sums up this idea with the phrase: Rachamana liba ba’ei God desires the heart. To consign the Torah as just a book of rules is to misread it. The Torah is, in fact, a sustained tutorial on the importance of relationships.

◆ Rabbi Alex Chapper serves Borehamwood and Elstree United Synagogue

What does the Torah say about: Shamima Begum’s UK return BY RABBI DANIEL FRIEDMAN Shamima Begum (pictured) has petitioned the Court of Appeal successfully for the right to return to the UK to contest the removal of her British citizenship. What does the Torah say about this? While Judaism’s concept of national belonging does not align exactly with modern conceptions, the Torah nonetheless is an eternal guide to life and provides important perspectives to consider. First, let us consider Shamima’s age. She joined Islamic State at 15 and sought to return home at 19. While the Torah’s judicial system commences at bar/batmitzvah, heavenly punishment only begins at 20. Until that age, our sages consider the delinquent too immature to appreciate the gravity of their actions. Age is thus a relevant factor. Next, should we accept her back? During the Middle Ages, the choice of baptism, exile or execution forced many Jews to flee with little more

than the shirts on their backs. Not everyone was willing to sacrifice everything and took the conversion route, buying time to convert their assets into transferable property. They, too, would eventually emigrate, but upon arrival in the new country were often shunned by the Jewish community. “They made a choice to be Christian. Why should we accept them back?” was the attitude of those who had given up everything for Judaism. Debates raged until Rashi decreed: “Even though he sinned, he remains a Jew.” From then on, we accepted that “once a Jew, always a Jew”.

You can imagine how unfair that felt to Jews who felt betrayed by their brethren, but Rashi felt they deserved a second chance, even if they’d converted voluntarily. Finally, we turn to the story of King David, who was betrayed by his general, Yoav, and Sheba ben Bichri. David faced life-and-death leadership challenges on multiple occasions. Yoav was clearly deserving of execution. However, the king waited until his deathbed to order their punishment. Why? He didn’t want it to look politically expedient. If indeed Shamima is guilty – and we must trust MI6 on this one – she should be punished for her crimes. But if there’s even the slightest whiff of political expediency, the judges should err on the side of justice and fairness. ◆ Rabbi Daniel Friedman serves Hampstead Garden Suburb Synagogue

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30 July 2020 Jewish News

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Progressive Judaism

Progressively Speaking

The Bible Says What?

Aren’t abortion laws just an attempt to police women’s bodies?

Boris Johnson wasn’t the first to warn against obesity BY RABBI DANNY RICH “Ehud did not pull the sword out, and the fat closed in over it.” (Judges 3:22) Boris Johnson has declared “war on obesity”, with measures including banning junk food discounts, supermarket promotions and ads before 9pm. Experts believe that, if successful, it will help people live longer, reduce deaths from coronavirus and save the NHS £100 million. But if we turn to the Book of Judges, we find an even more stark example in our own Bible. One of the lesser known ‘baddies’ is Eglon, the King of Moab, who oppressed the Children of Israel for 18 years. The story starts around the 12th century BCE, soon after the entry to the Promised Land (Canaan) under the leadership of Joshua. In accord with Biblical theology, the Book of Judges relates that soon after the conquest, the children of Israel forgot about God and the society became both weak and corrupt.

As a result, the Israelites were defeated and ruled over by Eglon. Realising the folly of their ways, they repented and God sent a ‘judge’ named Ehud to defeat the oppressor. Very unusually for a Biblical character, Eglon is described as “‘very fat: obese”. Malnutrition was very common in the ancient world, so Eglon’s obesity may imply that he was a glutton, feasting while his subjects nearly starved. When Ehud tells him: “I have a message from God to you” and stabs him in the stomach, it seems a fitting punishment. The Bible then recounts that because the sword was covered by the fat of his belly, it could not be drawn out and the king then had a slow, painful death. This might not be what our PM has in mind, but it’s a clear warning from an earlier time about the dangers of gluttony and obesity.

◆ Rabbi Danny Rich is a vice president of Liberal Judaism

BY RABBI SYLVIA ROTHSCHILD Kanye West (pictured) recently launched a bid to become US president on an anti-abortion ticket and the issue has since been in the headlines. Discussion about abortion is necessarily complex and frequently freighted with contextual perspectives. Yet an examination of Jewish sources reveals that certain matters are clear since Biblical times. Firstly, Biblical law does not treat abortion as murder, but as a civil matter. We find the legal status of the foetus encoded in Mishnah Ohalot (7:6), which speaks of therapeutic abortion even during childbirth: the life of the unborn child is of less legal weight than that of the mother right up to the point of the emergence of the head, because until that point it is not a nefesh, or living soul. The mother’s right to life supersedes that of the unborn child. Our tradition also deals with the emotional well-being of the mother. Mishnah Arakhin teaches a pregnant

woman who is convicted of a capital crime is executed quickly so as not to prolong her agony while she carries the child to term. Commentary on this somewhat grisly text makes clear that the rights of the foetus are not greater than the emotional distress of the mother. Again, the mother’s needs take precedence over those of the unborn child. Interestingly both rabbinic law (that describes a pregnancy of 40 days as “water”) and early church law (which permitted abortion until the child “quickened” – about 16 to 20 weeks), were the norm for centuries. Not that anyone doubted that the body belonged to God, and that abortion was a serious matter, but punishments were not severe, nor was the perpetrator deemed criminal. In the UK, abortion after “quick-

ening” attracted the death penalty only in 1803, and in 1937 earlier abortion was added. After that, a succession of laws increasingly limited access to abortion and criminalised those involved. Similarly, in the Jewish world, some eminent legal scholars narrowed abortion to life-saving situations only. In part, this was a response to the Shoah – Jewish lives lost should be replaced, went the thinking. But something else is at play – the rights of a woman over her own body and her own fertility, accepted for centuries as being in the private domain, were brought into public discourse to control them. Once again, the rhetoric is ramping up. But the Jewish view is clear – our focus should be to look after the children and families who are living and who need society’s help, not police women’s bodies. ◆ Rabbi Sylvia Rothschild has been a community rabbi in south London for 30 years

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Jewish News 30 July 2020

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Business / Property

candicekrieger@googlemail.com

With Candice Krieger

HOMEBUYERS REASSESSING THEIR PRIORITIES COVID-19 has ripped up the rulebook and turned property trends on their head, Simon Rubinsohn, the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors’ chief economist tells Candice Krieger

ccording to a survey conducted sought-after. “And I wonder if transport hubs last month by the Royal Insti- will still be viewed as quite so important to be tution of Chartered Survey- located near to. All these things could alter the ors (RICS), the organisation dynamic of house buying. where chief economist Simon “We are in that price experimentation phase. Rubinsohn has worked for more Zoopla and Rightmove are talking about this big than 13 years, buyer and seller priuplift in activity, but it’s early days in orities are likely to change in the really grappling with what it means post-pandemic housing market. in terms of relative prices.” “We are still early in the proThe latter has reported that cess, but I wouldn’t be surprised buyers appear to have reasif we see a material shift,” says sessed what they want interRubinsohn. “There are already nally; a better domestic signs that those looking to buy a workspace, good internet and house are responding to the cona spare room are now higher up ditions created by the pandemic, on wish lists, whereas commuting seeking out properties with gardens or times and transport links are less balconies and near a green space. Simon Rubinsohn important. These and other similar features Rubinsohn, a member of are likely to increasingly command a premium Finchley Reform Synagogue, acknowledges that over higher density urban locations, according to a shift could benefit those relatively cheaper respondents to the survey.” commuter areas around London that have traHe questions whether flats will become less ditionally been more affordable, as well as some

of the more familiar suburban locations. “There the second health wave, but a second macro wave. are going to some interesting changes to where That’s the pessimistic view.” people might want to live going forward.” But when it comes to property, he remains According to reports by estate agent Barrows cautiously optimistic, despite indices reports that & Forrester, spikes in divorce as a result of lock- UK property could fall by 13 percent this year. down could boost property sales by £9.3 billion, “The forecasts are all over the place at present, meaning a surge of homes entering the market, if which reflects the lack of visibility surrounding these divorces lead to the sale of the family home. the macro environment.” “Recently, the recycling of family homes has He explains: “I don’t think we will see a big been problematic, so it will be interesting to see if fall in the market. Prices only tend to fall sharply more family homes do come on the market. Some when there’s distressed sales, and distressed sales people do look to downsize, but others hang on to happen when either interest rates rise signifithe family home when it’s far too big for them, cantly, or where there’s a sharp and sustained rise which meant there were some real challenges in in unemployment, leaving borrowers in a posifinding the appropriately proportioned home in tion where they can’t make their payments. a desirable location, but that could change now. “It is noteworthy that lenders appear quite “And another critical point will be how keen to maintain a greater level of forbearance the house builders respond to ensure there is than in the past, should borrowers run into difenough good quality and high spec accommoda- ficulties.” tion for the older generation.” The recent series of innovative announce“Even before the Chancellor’s recent ments from the government demonstrates to announcement of a stamp duty holiday on trans- Rubinsohn it is determined to remain on the actions up to £500,000, it was unlikely the typ- front foot and step in if need be, offering support ical drop off in activity over the summer months for mortgage holders. was going to be replicated this time around,” “Economically, the government has shown explains Rubinsohn. “Partly because I don’t a real agility. It has pulled together a substantive think many of us will be going on a summer hol- package that, so far, is as good as we could have iday. People will be around, could keep an eye on expected,” he said. the market and might put their money towards “We had the budget just before the lockdown a property instead. The additional tax benefit started (in March), which was the start of the now available will provide a further sweetener response to the ‘levelling up’ agenda, including for house buyers.” the promise of £100bn of investment in infraAnd it’s not just the property rubric being structure over the next five years across the UK, rewritten. Against the uncertain and unprec- and everything I have heard since is that the edented backdrop, policymakers have had to reo- government will stick with that strategy. rientate fiscal policy, taking extraordinary meas“I think it will do whatever it can to get this ures to tackle the downturn. economy moving again.” In June, the Bank of England pumped an extra £100bn into the UK economy taking the total of its Coronavirus Crisis quantitative easing (QE) bond-buying programme to £300bn since March. Interest rates remain at a record low of 0.1 percent. Rubinsohn, who entered the financial services industry in 1985, has “never seen anything like this in terms of economic policymaking. No one has”. He joined RICS in 2007, having previously been a senior strategist for Barclays Wealth, where he played a key role in managing client asset allocation. A former lecturer in economics, in 1985, he joined ANZ Merchant Bank as a UK economist. “Economic cycles rarely end in quite the same way and this one for obvious reasons has had a really damaging conclusion. Moreover, there are likely to be some lasting scars. And we must remember that there isn’t a financial crisis at the moment. Banks aren’t having problems, unlike in 2008, but that may come if the recession proves particularly severe and that’s the big risk in all of this – not just Buyers are predicted to seek homes with green space

30 July 2020 Jewish News

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

DIRECTOR OF LEGACIES

DYSLEXIA PRACTITIONER SARAH BENARROCH Qualifications: • Director of Literacy Specialist Ltd, educational services for children with literacy difficulties and dyslexia. • MA in Specific Learning Difficulties (dyslexia), APC, British Dyslexia Association, PATOSS, 20 years’ experience in child education and development. • Full diagnostic assessments and reports for dyslexia. • Primary-age tuition in reading, writing and spelling.

LITERACY SPECIALIST LTD 07940 576 286 sarah@literacyspecialist.co.uk

JEWELLER

ADR CONSULTANT DONIEL GRUNEWALD Qualifications: • Accredited mediator to International Standards offering civil/commercial and workplace mediation; in a facilitative or evaluative format, or by med-arb. • Experienced in all Beth Din matters; including arbitration, advocacy, matrimonial settlements and written submissions. • Providing bespoke alternative dispute resolution (ADR) to the Jewish community.

JEWISH DISPUTE SOLUTIONS 020 3637 9638 www.jewishdisputesolutions.co.uk director@jewishdisputesolutions.co.uk

ISRAELI LAWYER ELI ROSENBERG Qualifications: • All aspects of Israeli law. Specialising in property law, property tax, inheritance law and dispute management. • Third generation lawyer from Israeli firm established in Israel in 1975. • Authorised and regulated by the Israeli Bar Association and Ministry of Justice of the State of Israel, with teams in Tel Aviv and London.

ROSENBERG & ASSOCIATES 0203 994 2278 www.israeli-lawyer.co.uk eli@israeli-lawyer.co.uk

CHARITY EXECUTIVE

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

JONATHAN WILLIAMS Qualifications: • Jewellery manufacturer since 1980s. • Expert in the manufacture and supply of diamond jewellery, wedding rings and general jewellery. • Specialist in supply of diamonds to the public at trade prices.

SUE CIPIN Qualifications: • 18 years’ hands-on experience, leading JDA in significant growth and development. • Deep understanding of the impact of deafness on people at all stages of life, and their families. • Practical and emotional support for families of deaf children. • Extensive services for people affected by hearing loss/tinnitus.

KKL EXECUTOR AND TRUSTEE COMPANY 0800 358 3587 www.kkl.org.uk enquiries@kkl.org.uk

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

JEWISH DEAF ASSOCIATION 020 8446 0502 www.jdeaf.org.uk mail@jdeaf.org.uk

• • •

Got a question for a member of our team? Email: editorial@thejngroup.com

Thinking about ALIYAH? Contact the Jewish Agency for Israel certified by the Israeli government to facilitate Aliyah!

0-800-051-8227 | 020-8371-5250 | gci-en@jafi.org

TRAVEL AGENT

CRIMINAL DEFENCE SOLICITOR

DAVID SEGEL Qualifications: • Managing director of West End Travel, established in 1972. • Leading UK El Al agent with branches in Swiss Cottage and Edgware. • Specialist in Israel travel, cruises and kosher holidays. • Leading business travel company, ranked in top 50 UK agents. • Frequent travel broadcaster on radio and TV.

CARL WOOLF Qualifications: • 20+ years experience as a criminal defence solicitor and higher court advocate. • Specialising in all aspects of criminal law including murder, drug offences, fraud and money laundering, offences of violence, sexual offences and all aspects of road traffic law. • Visiting associate professor at Brunel University.

WEST END TRAVEL 020 7644 1500 www.westendtravel.co.uk David.Segel@westendtravel.co.uk

NOBLE SOLICITORS 01582 544 370 carl.woolf@noblesolicitors.co.uk

REMOVALS MANAGING DIRECTOR

PRINCIPAL, PERFORMING ARTS SCHOOL

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.

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 10 years ago.

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

DANCING WITH LOUISE 020 8203 5242 www.dancingwithlouise.co.uk louise@dancingwithlouise.co.uk

30 July 2020 Jewish News

www.jewishnews.co.uk

Professional advice from our panel / Ask Our Experts

ACCOUNTANT

PROPERTY DEVELOPER

DENTIST

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.

JOE GRIFFIN Qualifications: • More than 13 years’ experience in the construction and property industry, with a specialism in high-end residential and commercial property. • Negotiation of site acquisitions and property deals; design and planning strategies. • Focus on niche market purchasing airspace above commercial and residential blocks to create additional stories of accommodation and penthouse apartments.

DR ADAM NEWMAN Qualifications: • Dentist at the Gingerbread House, a Bupa Platinum practice in Shenley, Radlett. • Regional clinical lead for Bupa Dental Care UK. • Providing NHS and private dentistry, whitening, implants and cosmetic treatment. • Bachelor of Dental Surgery and member of the Royal College of Physician and Surgeons Glasgow; GDC registered 212542.

SOBELL RHODES LLP 020 8429 8800 www.sobellrhodes.co.uk a.shelley@sobellrhodes.co.uk

LONDON PENTHOUSE 020 7665 9604 www.londonpenthouse.com info@lphvgroup.com

GINGERBREAD HOUSE 01923 852 852 www.gingerbreadhealth.co.uk Adam.newman@gingerbreadhealth.co.uk

INTERNATIONAL PAYMENTS SPECIALIST

INSURANCE CONSULTANCY

IT SPECIALIST

NAOMI FELTHAM Qualifications: • Leading currency transfer provider since 1996 with over 500 expert employees. • Excellent exchange rates on your transfers to/from Israel. • Offices worldwide, with local support in Israel, the UK, mainland Europe and the USA. • Free expert guidance from your dedicated account manager.

ASHLEY PRAGER Qualifications: • Professional insurance and reinsurance broker. Offering PI/D&O cover, marine and aviation, property owners, ATE insurance, home and contents, fine art, HNW. • Specialist in insurance and reinsurance disputes, utilising Insurance backed products. (Including non insurance business disputes). • Ensuring clients do not pay more than required.

IAN GREEN Qualifications: • Launched Man on a Bike IT consultancy 15 years ago to provide computer support for the home and small businesses. • Clients range from legal firms in the City to families, small business owners and synagogues. • More than 18 years’ experience.

CURRENCIES DIRECT 07922 131 152 / 020 7847 9447 www.currenciesdirect.com/jn Naomi.feltham@currenciesdirect.com

RISK RESOLUTIONS 020 3411 4050 www.risk-resolutions.com ashley.prager@risk-resolutions.com

MAN ON A BIKE 020 8731 6171 www.manonabike.co.uk mail@manonabike.co.uk

ISRAELI ACCOUNTANT LEON HARRIS Qualifications: • Leon is an Israeli and UK accountant based in Ramat Gan, Israel. • He is a Partner at Harris Horoviz Consulting & Tax Ltd. • The firm specializes in Israeli and international tax advice, accounting and tax reporting for investors, Olim and businesses. • Leon’s motto is: Our numbers speak your language!

HARRIS HOROVIZ CONSULTING & TAX LTD +972-3-6123153 / + 972-54-6449398 leon@h2cat.com

ALIYAH ADVISER

PHOTOGRAPHER

CHARITY EXECUTIVE

HARRISON GALGUT Qualifications: • Experienced wedding and event photographer. • Specialism in portraits and light management. • BSc(Hons), BTEC music tech, specialising in film, and member of Royal Photographic Society.

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.

EDIT6 07962599154 www.edit6.co.uk harrison@edit6.co.uk

JEWISH BLIND & DISABLED 020 8371 6611 www.jbd.org Lisa@jbd.org

CAREER ADVISER

DOV NEWMARK Qualifications: • Director of UK Aliyah for Nefesh B’Nefesh, an organisation that helps facilitate aliyah from the UK. • Conducts monthly seminars and personal aliyah meetings in London. • An expert in working together with clients to help plan a successful aliyah.

LESLEY TRENNER Qualifications: • Provides free professional one-to-one advice at Resource to help unemployed into work. • Offers practical support, workshops and networking opportunities to maximise job prospects.

NEFESH B’NEFESH 0800 075 7200 www.nbn.org.il dov@nbn.org.il

RESOURCE 020 8346 4000 www.resource-centre.org office@resource-centre.org

DIVORCE & FAMILY SOLICITOR

PALLIATIVE CARE MANAGER

VANESSA LLOYD PLATT Qualifications: • Qualification: 40 years experience as a matrimonial and divorce solicitor and mediator, specialising in all aspects of family matrimonial law, including: • Divorce, pre/post-nuptial agreements, cohabitation agreements, domestic violence, children’s cases, grandparents’ rights to see grandchildren, adoption, family disputes. • Frequent broadcaster on national and International radio and television.

POLLY LANDSBERG Qualifications: • Polly has worked in health and social care for more than 35 years. • Has a degree in nursing and a diploma in health visiting. • Polly is responsible for the day-to-day management of the palliative and end of life care service.

LLOYD PLATT & COMPANY SOLICITORS 020 8343 2998 www.divorcesolicitors.com lloydplatt@divorcesolicitors.com

SWEETTREE HOME CARE SERVICES 020 7644 9500 www.sweettree.co.uk polly.landsberg@sweettree.co.uk

Got a question for a member of our team? Email: editorial@thejngroup.com

Patient Health freely advises the community on Private Health Insurance 020 3146 3444

Jewish News 30 July 2020

www.jewishnews.co.uk

IF YOUR BUSINESS IS STILL IN BUSINESS, YOU NEED OUR HELP. In these difﬁcult times our readers can’t ﬁnd you without a personal introduction. We can provide the opportunity by creating sharp and interesting editorial in an original layout that tells the story of your company. Presented in print and online with links to your website or service. CREATE YOUR BESPOKE ADVERTORIAL NOW and spread the word about you. sales@thejngroup.com or call 0207 692 6929

30 July 2020 Jewish News

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Fun, games and prizes

THE JEWISH NEWS CROSSWORD 1

8 9 10 13 17 18 19 20

7 8

15 16

ACROSS 1 Scoff at (4) 3 Be connected to the side of (6)

Z V N B

U C N E C D H F A O U O

X T

S S

L N W F E X R P V N E

R Y O T

F N P

A S S R C

B O

S T

W E S

A T S P G S R V D X Z

BASKETS BERRIES BUSHES COST COUNTRY

Q L N R G S P I

M L K B W

CURRANTS EATING FARM FIELDS FRUIT

PICKING PRICE PUNNETS SCALES STALL

Last issue’s solutions Crossword ACROSS: 1 Motor 4 Samba 7 Aim 8 Workman 9 Clan 10 Open 13 Gag 15 Urge 16 Ever 19 Sticker 21 Imp 22 Token 23 Power DOWN: 1 Mead 2 Time lag 3 Rowing 4 Sore 5 Mum 6 Awning 11 Preview 12 Russet 14 Gear up 17 Akin 18 Spar 20 Ink

6 8 2 7 3 9 4 1 5

SUMMER THORNS WEIGHT

4 1 7 2 6 5 3 9 8

13 17

10 26

5 7 9 3 8 2 1 6 4

3 6 1 9 4 7 5 8 2

1 2 3 5 7 8 6 4 9

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

7 8 6 3 5 7 8 1

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.

4 4 2 3

1 4

4 3 2 5

15 3

3 9

See next issue for puzzle solutions.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z 1

9 22

Suguru 2 4 8 6 5 1 9 3 7

6 7 9

22 23

22 13

14 16

Sudoku 9 3 5 8 1 4 7 2 6

A C B U S H E S W I

E M H D Z

F C U H Y K A N P G

S T E K S A B E N G S E R M R Q K N G T U B S T

11 22

Y O U C O T U

S U M M E R R R R C E F

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 8, 13, 15 and 22 with their letters in the grid will help you to guess the identity of other letters.

The words that relate to pick your own, 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.

G S E H T

Spread throughout (7) Small bird of various kinds (3) Classic automobile (7,3) Basic naval rank (4,6) Fuel used for heating (3) Fretful (7) Is expected to (6) Russia’s Ivan, eg (4)

CODEWORD

WORDSEARCH I

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

DOWN 1 Act disconsolately (4) 2 Short‑legged canine (5) 4 Rightful treatment (3) 5 Of sight (5) 6 Type or disposition (6) 7 Spiny plant (6) 11 Small green or dark purple fruits (6) 12 Scottish offal and oats dish (6) 14 Cowboy rope (5) 15 Operatic solos (5) 16 Cleaner (4) 18 Mate (3)

12 13

SUDOKU

7 9 6 4 2 3 8 5 1

8 5 4 1 9 6 2 7 3

1 3 4 3 1 2

4 2 1 2 4 3

1 5 3 5 1 5

Wordsearch 2 4 1 2 4 3

5 3 5 3 5 1

1 4 2 1 2 4

2 3 1 4 2 3

1 5 2 5 1 5

2 4 1 3 4 3

1 3 2 5 1 2

2 5 1 4 3 5

1 4 3 2 1 4

H E R L G L F J U C M X H

S E N N I H C R U A E S T

I B R A O Y S T E R P U N

F Z N M O D T M S O R Q W

Y S C H I L X E A T T L A

A L L A E T L T L L J O R

R W E F E C C E D W C B P

Codeword C A I S A T O R T O I S E

S S S N S Q Z R A C Q T W

H G R V K U Y A M B I E T

B A B N I L M P U S K R R

B N K D Y Y E I J F V Z E

P O L L A C S N P C X M J

F U T R U NWA Y E D I S P E L L B C R O O P P OR T I E B U N D E R A S H E X Z U M E A RW I G N L T

M S J E R K E L N I I N D T E Q U N E P O E X R F I C I E N I L V E C U T I V D D O D E D U C D S

A D V E R T T R E A T Y

V MG O D C A T QWX E J F K Y S P H Z N B L R U I30/07

www.jewishnews.co.uk

Jewish News 30 JUly 2020

Business Services Directory ANTIQUES 44

The Jewish News 22 September 2016

www.jewishnews.co.uk

BUSINESS SERVICES DIRECTORY

Stirling of Kensal Green

Top prices paid

Antique â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Reproduction â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Retro Furniture (any condition)

Carer

Clothing

WE BUY ANTIQUES Carer FURS WANTED Auxiliary Nurse VERY HIGH PRICES PAID. FREE HOME VISITS.

Epstein, Archie Shine, Hille, G Plan, etc. Antiques

Dining Suites, Lounges Suites, Bookcases, Desks, Cabinets, Mirrors, Lights, etc.

Cash paid for Mink Available support Allto Antique Furniture Hille & Epstein jackets, coats, you in your home. Diamond Jewellery, Gold, Silver,boleros, Paintings, stoles, Porcelain, also fox coats, etc. Glass,Days/nights. Bronzes, Ivories, Oriental & Judaica Antiques jackets etc. Very reasonable rates. Full house clearances organised. Wardrobes cleared Call Please 0208 look 958 at 2939 our website for more details Call 01277 352 560 or 07495 026 168

Established over 60 years. Know who you are dealing with.

Top prices paid

House clearances

All quality furniture bought & sold.

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Single items to complete homes

(any condition)

Best prices paid for complete house clearEpstein, Archie Shine, Hille, G Plan, etc. ances Lounges includingSuites, china, Bookcases, books, Dining Suites, clothing etc. Also rubbish clearance Desks, Cabinets, Mirrors, Lights, etc. service, lofts, sheds, garages etc House clearances

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WE BUY ANTIQUES

07866 614 744 (ANYTIME)

www.antiquesbuyers.co.uk

VERY HIGH PRICES PAID. FREE HOME VISITS. All Antique Hille & Epstein 0207Furniture 723 7415 (SHOP) Diamond Jewellery, Gold, Silver, Paintings, Porcelain, closed Sunday & Monday Glass, Bronzes, Ivories, Oriental & Judaica Antiques etc.

Computer FOR APPOINTMENTS CALL SUE ON:

0800 840 2035 or 07956268290

Single items to complete Please contact Gordonhomes Stirling

STUART SHUSTER - e-mail - info@maryleboneantiques.co.uk

Man on aOPEN Bike8am will TOget 9pm 7 DAYS. you working fast! RD LONDON. PORTOBELLO

020 8960 5401 or 07825 224144

Full house clearances organised.

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MAKE SURE CONTACT BEFORE SELLING Please look YOU at our websiteUS for more details

Í&#x201D;Í&#x203A;Í&#x153;Í&#x161;Í&#x161; Í&#x161;Í&#x2022;Í&#x2DC; Í&#x203A;Í&#x2DC;Í&#x2DC; (ANYTIME) Email: gordonstirling65@gmail.com

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Rapid Response IT support for your PC & Mac Networks, virus problems, broadband, wireless systems, new computers and everything else you may need. CHARITY & WELFARE For small businesses & home users.

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Call Ian Green, Man on a Bike on

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020 8731 6171 â&#x20AC;˘ www.manonabike.co.uk

closed Sunday & Monday STUART SHUSTER â&#x20AC;? eâ&#x20AC;?mail â&#x20AC;? stuart@churchstreetantiques.net

MAKE SURE YOU CONTACT US BEFORE SELLING

WESTLON HOUSING ASSOCIATION

ARE YOU BEREAVED?

Sheltered Accommodation

Charity & Welfare Bereavement Counselling for adults and children individually. Support Groups available.

Labels are forTURN, jars. Refer yourself or aKNOW loved one by IF YOU DONâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;T WHICH WAY TO Not people. calling 020 8458 2223 orOUR visit HELPLINE. REMEMBER

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Contact Jewish Bereavement Counselling Service in confidence. Counselling for adults & children who are

www.jamiuk.org

For confidential advice, information and support donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t forget Jewish Care Direct.

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020 8922 2222

jcdirect@jcare.org

020 & 8951 3881 â&#x20AC;˘ 07765 693 160 CHARITY WELFARE

jewishcare.org/helpline

HOUSE CLEARANCE

E: enquiries@jbcs.org.uk

PLUMBSAFE (UK) LTD Jami supports and represents people with mental illness across Fast & Efficient House the Jewish community.

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Not shabbat

PLUMBSAFEUK.COM

We have an open waiting list for our friendly and comfortable For further details and application forms, please contact warden assisted sheltered housing schemes for Jewish people Westlon on 020 8201 8484 in Ealing, EastHousing Finchley Association and Hendon. We provide 24-hour warden support, seven days a week; a residentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; lounge and kitchen, laundry, a sunny patio and garden.

BUY/SELL For further details and application forms, please contact Westlon Housing Association on 020 8201 8484

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Town & Country House Clearance We buy quality items, furniture and bric-a-brac We also clear unwanted items and rubbish For free advice or a quotation Are you a Jewish woman experiencing domestic violence? With abuse in your home, do you worry about your children?

We are here to help Contact Finlay with free support, advice and information and confidential counselling. Mobile: 07973 542018 Kosher Refuge available for women and children in need. Email:Freetowncountrymove@aol.com Confidential National Helpline 0808 801 0500 advice@jwa.org.uk â&#x20AC;˘ www.jwa.org.uk

HOME & MAINTENANCE

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PLUMBSAFE (UK) LTD

No further, your

LOCAL PLUMBERS

Hall & Randall Plumbers

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) *" " - *'

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PROFESSIONAL A. ELFES LTD PAINTING, DECORATING memorials & New PAPER HANGING Additional inscriptions Over & 20renovations years experience Friendly, reliable & Gants Hill service. Edgware personal

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Gary Green ad 84 x 40mm JM Group v2.indd 1

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LONDON

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18/03/2019 12:50:51

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30 JUly 2020 Jewish News

www.jewishnews.co.uk

Business Services Directory COMPUTER

SILVER

AERIAL REPAIR

Man on a Bike will get you working fast! Rapid Response IT support for your PC & Mac Networks, virus problems, broadband, wireless systems, new computers and everything else you may need. For small businesses & home users.

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Call Ian Green, Man on a Bike on

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ADVERTISE IN THE UK’S BIGGEST JEWISH NEWSPAPER FOR LESS THAN £24 A WEEK Email Sales today at sales@thejngroup.com

DOMICILIARY CARE FREE CARE if you book before 31st October 2019, for every 4 hours of care booked the 5th hour will be 50% Free.

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Professional Care at Home Day & Night Care available North and Central London T: 020 8088 2789 info@kells-care.com kells-care.com

LEGACY- LEAVE A GIFT IN YOUR MEMORY

JEWISH WAR VETERANS

Leave the legacy of independence to people like Joel.

& THEIR DEPENDANTS NEED

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PLease remember us in your wiLL.

eNABLeD

Tel: 020 8202 2323 Web: www.ajex.org.uk Email: headoffice@ajex.org.uk

visit www.Jbd.org

Registered Charity

or caLL 020 8371 6611 No. 259480 18-361-JM Small legacy advert v1.qxp_Legacy 09/10/2018 10:27 Page 1

Registered Charity No: 1082148

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Email Sales today at sales@thejngroup.com

Charity Reg No. 802559

WASTE REMOVAL

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children’s future

Please include

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ISRAEL PROPERTY

Legacy advert 84x40.indd 1

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07/04/2017 14:47

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Jewish News 30 July 2020