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VOICE OF THE COMMUNITY 3 December 2020

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17 Kislev 5781

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Issue No.1187

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Chanukah edition of our awardwinning lifestyle magazine inside this week’s issue of Jewish News!

@JewishNewsUK

LIFE

Jewish News

3 December 2020 •

ISSUE NO.4

Magazine

THEATRE DREAM: Claude Michel Scho enberg, Nica Burns and Ken ny Fox

PLUS In To The Wood s: Chanucah miracle fashi on, Shtisel surprise, Festi ve food

Valley Of Tears: Inside Israel’s epic new series

AMY WINEHOUSE: Her father’s story

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Jewish News 3 December 2020

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Business (not quite) as usual SERVICE AND REPAIRS As an essential business, our aftersales department remains open throughout the second lockdown so we can continue to provide service and repairs throughout this time.

We are operating according to covid-secure guidelines including: • Strict appointment only system • Extended opening times • The two-metre rule is adhered to at all times • ‘Sanitiser stations’ throughout our centre • Specialist sanitisation process for all customer vehicles • Staff have been provided with face masks • Touchless thermometers are in use • Restricted access and one-way system in place • Regular cleansing throughout the day Opening times: Monday to Friday 07.00 to 20.00 Saturday 08.00 to 17.00 To book your appointment, please contact: E: servicing.te@jemca.co.uk T: 020 8860 1315

SALES – OUR ‘DIGITAL STORE’ IS OPEN Sadly, our physical showroom has had to close its doors for the second time, but we’re well placed to provide a contactless sales experience and our digital ‘store’ remains well and truly open.

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Our priority is the safety of our customers and our employees and we are delighted to be able to offer a contactless sales process as well as continuing to meet your service, repair and maintenance requirements at this time.

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Finally, I am delighted to wish you all peace and happiness at this time of year. May this Joyous Season bring you peace, health and happiness throughout the coming year.

Happy Hanukkah.

Diana Mackinnon

Specialist sanitisation process - all demonstrator vehicles undergo a deep clean between use Unaccompanied test drives - strict terms and conditions apply but our unaccompanied test drives provide you with the opportunity to experience the vehicle in your own time

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LIFE 3 December 2020 •

ISSUE NO.4

Jewish News

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VOICE OF THE COMMUNITY 3 December 2020

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17 Kislev 5781

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Issue No.1187

•

@JewishNewsUK

AM: THEATRE DREnberg , Claude Michel Schoe y Fox Nica Burns and Kenn

Valley Of Tears: Inside Israel’s epic new series

s: PLUS In To The Wood n, Chanucah miracle fashio e food Shtisel surprise, Festiv

AMY WINEHOUSE: Her father’s story

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Revealed: Pandemic’s toll on Jews worldwide

Report sheds new light on virus’ devastating impact

by Tali Fraser tali@jewishnews.co.uk @TaliFraser

The impact of the coronavirus on Jewish communities worldwide during the pandemic’s first wave is laid bare for the first time today in a major report.

It reveals that among the communities to suffer a “significant Jewish penalty” with high mortality rates between March and May this year were England, Scotland, France, Germany, Sweden, Belgium, Italy and the United States.

According to findings from the Institute for Jewish Policy Research’s (JPR) European Jewish Demography Unit, Jews in these countries showed unusually high mortality rates compared with non-Jews, twice as high as might normally be expected – a trend dubbed the “British pattern” by the report’s authors.

Here in the UK, communities in London, Manchester and Scotland were particularly affected. As of last week there have been 570 Jewish funerals carried out in the UK where the deceased contracted Covid-19.

However, the study, the first to draw on data from Jewish burial societies worldwide, found no common pattern among populations in different countries. Rather, Jewish mortality rates largely follow the patterns seen in areas in which they live.

Professor Sergio DellaPergola, chair of the JPR European Jewish Demography Unit and the world’s leading expert in Jewish demography, expressed disappointment at “shortcomings” in measuring the spread of the virus internation-

ally, including in Israel, which he claims led to a “grossly inadequate” response to the threat.

He added: “If there is one lesson for Jewish community research that emerges out of this crisis, it is that the routine gathering of vital statistics is one of the fundamental responsibilities community bodies must take.”

The authors rule out the idea that Jewish mortality rates in certain countries is higher than expected due to largely elderly populations or common underlying health issues within certain communities.

However, they do consider the possibility Jewish networks could have facilitated the spread of infections, as higher mortality “may have been enhanced by intense social contact”.

The report adds that there is only “limited understanding” of the effect regular synagogue attendance and Purim festival celebrations had at the very start of the coronavirus outbreak.

Its authors, Dr Daniel Staetsky and Ari Paltiel, are now urging Jewish communities to collect and analyse data on Jewish deaths at all times, as they say this is the only way an appropriate response to the pandemic can be tailored to the Jewish community.

JPR executive director, Dr Jonathan Boyd, said: “By focusing on Jews in many parts of the world, this report offers a unique perspective on the spread of the virus.

“The pandemic has laid bare the critical importance of thoughtful, systematic data collection and analysis, and we remain steadfastly committed to that goal.”

THE WORLD ACCORDING TO DAVID Sir David Attenborough this week paid tribute to his mother and father, Mary and Frederick, who opened their home to Kindertransport refugees Irene and Helga Bejach during the Second World War. The beloved natural historian was speaking at an online event hosted by The Association of Jewish Refugees. Full story, page 29

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Jewish News 3 December 2020

News / JLM conference

Starmer builds bridges at JLM Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer will consider readmitting people to the party who campaigned for other parties after leaving because of antisemitism, writes Jenni Frazer.

In a packed keynote session at the Jewish Labour Movement (JLM) One Day conference on Sunday, more than 630 people heard Sir Keir reply to a question by an audience member, saying that “the usual rule is a fiveyear exclusion”. He continued: “But I think we need to look again at that, in terms of people who felt driven out of Labour because of antisemitism. We need to find a way of making [readmission] happen, because every rule must have an exception for exceptional circumstances”.

In an at times emotional conversation with the former Labour MP Ruth Smeeth, Sir Keir said he was aware “the last few weeks have been really painful and hurtful for the very people we owe so much to. I absolutely feel that and I am deeply frustrated we are in this place”.

He said he had it made it clear in his acceptance speech when he was elected as leader in April that he was determined to do everything he could to root out antisemitism. “I felt that, in the last six or seven months, we had

Sir Keir during his party’s online conference and, inset, at the JLM event

slowly taken steps in that direction.

We had put better processes in place, and I wanted the publication of the Equality and Human Rights (EHRC) report to be the defining moment, where we could move on to the ‘mend’ part of the exercise”.

He added: “I can’t tell you how disappointed I was with Jeremy Corbyn’s response, because what he said, coming from the former leader, was just about as bad as you can get. Eve-

rything that has followed in the last few weeks [regarding people receiving abuse at Constituency Labour Party (CLP) meetings, or being forced to leave meetings because of antisemitism] follows from those words.”

He said Corbyn’s comments had “exacerbated the pain and hurt. I still think we can mend things… we are very conscious of the atmosphere at some CLP meetings, and we are determined to deal with that. But we have to get on

with the action plan, and the events of the last few weeks only underline the case for an independent process to deal with the issue”.

But Sir Keir emphasised: “We have to change the culture of the Labour Party. For me, success will only be when everyone in our Jewish community feels safe in our Labour Party, and when those who have left feel safe to return. I’m determined we are going to get there, and I will not be deflected.”

Smeeth, however, pointed to a recent CLP meeting in Nottingham East “in which a Jewish member had to leave because of the abuse they faced… and had to call the police this morning because of the ongoing abuse they received for daring to be abused.

What message do we send to them, and how do we say that this is not a Labour Party we recognise?”

The Labour leader responded sharply: “We are not going to tolerate this. And that has to come from the top of the party. I have to be the message carrier for that, Angela Rayner does.

I didn’t want to be in this position in the last few weeks, and we are only in this position because of Jeremy Corbyn’s response to the Commission.”

He argued that dealing with antisemitism was “not about whether this makes us more electorally attractive.

It’s about the core values and principles of our party”. The issue was about “the soul of the Labour Party… I don’t want us still to be talking about Labour antisemitism in the weeks and months to come”.

Regarding the 2024 general election, and acknowledging Labour had suffered four election defeats in a row, the latest being its worst results since 1935, Sir Keir said: “The task is huge.

What we have achieved in the last few months is a change of mindset in the party, from a position of ‘it’s not possible’ [to win the next election] to people beginning to think ‘it might be difficult but it’s still possible’”.

He added: “The next four years of history will be written by us,” and asked his audience: “Be part of the team to change the future.”

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Shadow Foreign Secretary Lisa Nandy has confirmed Labour’s opposition to both the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement and settlements in the occupied territories, writes Jenni Frazer.

Speaking about settlements during the Jewish Labour Movement conference, Nandy said: “We believe they are not just a breach of international law but, by changing the facts on the ground, they make a two-state solution more distanced than it would otherwise be.

“We’ve repeatedly urged the Israeli coalition government not only to stop the settlement-building, but also to drop their plans around annexation.”

The former chair of Labour Friends of Palestine added: “We’re not in favour of boycotts or the BDS movement.

I’ve always felt the best way to advance the situation is to take people with you. BDS pushes people away instead of bringing people together.

“What we’re trying to do is fight for the rights of people for safety, security and dig-

nity, and also to unravel some of the harm that has been done. We want to create the context in which progress is possible.”

In July Nandy controversially suggested that if Netanyahu’s government pressed ahead with annexation plans, the UK should block goods from the Occupied Territories.

The Wigan MP also told delegates about being inspired by her grandfather who, as a Liberal MP, felt very strongly about the establishment of Israel and played a small role in that process.

‘GRAVE CHALLENGE’ FOR ISRAELI LEFT Leading figures in progressive Zionism in the UK have warned of “grave challenges” in putting a left-of-centre case for Israel while there are so few Labour members of Knesset and the government is increasingly right-wing.

But, in discussion at the JLM conference, Hannah Weisfeld (pictured), director of Yachad, Rabbi Lea Mühlstein, chair of Arzenu, the Reform Zionist caucus at the World Zionist Organisation (WZO), and Adrian Cohen, chair of the London Jewish Forum and lay chair of Labour Friends of Israel, agreed that participation in movements such as the WZO gave progressive groups a voice they needed to deploy.

Weisfeld told the 130-plus viewers: “The real challenge is the state of the state of Israel,” in which “a very right-wing government could ride roughshod” over progressive ideas “in favour of a narrow brand of rightwing politics”.

Because there were only three left-of-centre Knesset members, two of whom had joined the coalition, she said it was often the only recourse for people to go through the courts or campaign in civil society.

The panel was moderated by Harrison Engler of Habonim-Dror, a co-sponsor of the conference together with JLM and Labour Friends of Israel.

3 December 2020 Jewish News

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JLM conference / News

Rayner: We may need to suspend thousands Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner has pledged to suspend “thousands and thousands” of party members unless they “get real” about antisemitism.

Speaking at the JLM conference, she warned Labour members: “If they think making people feel unsafe or unwelcome in our meetings is a response to the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), report, then they need to be out of our party immediately.

“We should have some humility and humbleness and we should be listening and aware of how hurt and upset people are. If I have to suspend thousands and thousands of members, we will do that.”

Rayner’s unequivocal pledge came as she confirmed there had been suspensions following a Nottingham East Constituency Labour Party meeting on Friday, in which party rules were broken after a motion calling for the restoration of the whip to Jeremy Corbyn was passed.

Addressing Corbyn’s reaction to the EHRC report, Rayner delivered a blistering attack on the former Leader for his “totally unacceptable” comments, adding that “any attempts to downplay the issue of antisemitism are part of the

Pledge: Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner

issue”. “I don’t think Jeremy quite gets how really upsetting it is when he made those comments,” she explained.

“I understand he thinks he’s always tackled issues of antisemitism and racism, but on this he’s wrong. He has to accept, as a leader, we failed.”

In October, the EHRC’s report into Labour’s antisemitism crisis concluded that there were “unlawful acts of harassment and discrimination for which the Labour

Party is responsible”.

Corbyn was thereafter suspended by the party for claiming “the scale of the problem was… dramatically overstated for political reasons by our opponents”.

Joining Rayner for the panel discussion on ‘Manchester, the UK’s Jewish 2nd City’ was Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester.

Pressed on whether the party had done enough to win back former Jewish Labour

‘CORBYN REMAINING WITHIN LABOUR CAUSES CONFUSION’ Lord Peter Mandelson has going to render the Labour Party warned that former leader unelectable.”

Jeremy Corbyn’s presence in In October, the EHRC’s report Labour threatens to “render into Labour’s antisemitism crisis the party unelectable”, writes concluded there were “unlawful Joy Faulk. acts of harassment and discrimiHis stark comments came nation for which the Labour during the final evening sesParty is responsible”. sion of the JLM conference.

Corbyn was suspended by the “There still seem to be party for claiming “the scale of two Labour parties,” he said, the problem was… dramatically while being interviewed by overstated for political reasons journalist Gabriel Pogrund. Lord Peter Mandelson by our opponents”.

“A party that is recognisably On the road ahead, Labour’s mainstream with decent core values, that has former director of communications added: inherited the tremendous social democratic “Under Jeremy, the party’s brand was trashed achievements of successive Labour govern- and its organisation was reduced to rubble. ments.

Nobody knew what a vote for Labour meant “But alongside that during the past four years anymore and didn’t much like it. has been a completely different Labour Party: “In many respects, Keir is building from the A rag-bag of far-left individuals who people base upwards. He must relay the moral foundacannot relate to… and throughout have associ- tions of our party… a formidable task.” ated with the poison of anti-Jewish racism.

Meanwhile, co-author of Left Out: The Inside “As long as Jeremy Corbyn and the people Story of Labour Under Corbyn, Pogrund told delaround him are there, I think this is going to egates: “Corbyn appeared at points to feel more create endless confusion for the public. And sorry for himself than those on the receiving while Jeremy persists in what he is doing, he is end of abuse.”

‘The defining fight’ Two of Israel’s greatest friends in the last parliament, former Labour MPs Mike Gapes and Joan Ryan, passionately addressed their decision to leave the party last year, as antisemitism appeared to overwhelm left-wing politics.

In discussion with London Jewish Forum chair Adrian Cohen, Gapes and Ryan were panellists in an opening session of Sunday’s online JLM conference.

Ryan, former MP for Enfield North and parliamentary chair of Labour Friends of

voters ahead of crucial elections next year, he admitted “probably not”.

“It would be wrong to think it’s fixed,” he added.

“I think we’ve got to recognise it’s a five to 10-year job as the damage is so profound.”

The senior Labour figures also praised the work of the Jewish Strategic Group operating across Greater Manchester to help manage social care during the Covid-19 pandemic, with Burnham highlighting it as a “real model for how all communities should organise”.

On security, Rayner expressed how “absolutely devastating” it was that Jewish students must worry about security when travelling to school, promising to ensure “the funding and resources are there to ensure the Jewish community has the safety it deserves”.

Israel, said leaving Labour, of which she had been a member for 40 years, was “a huge wrench”. But she noted: “You can’t be loyal to something you feel is so wrong.”

Gapes, an MP since 1992 and a member of Labour for 50 years, said he felt “tainted” by the 2017 election campaign and could not fight another election under Jeremy Corbyn.

He said he believed dealing with far-left antisemitism and anti-Zionism was “the defining fight for [new Labour leader] Keir Starmer and the party”.

MPs ‘abused more than ever’ Labour grandee Dame Margaret Hodge revealed on Sunday she was receiving an unprecedented amount of abuse, despite the change in party leadership.

Speaking during the conference, the MP for Barking said: “During these last couple of weeks, I’ve had more abuse than ever. It’s always much worse against women. [Louise

 Editorial comment, p20

Ellman and I] get abused because we are women, Jewish and older.

“It’s not just the abuse itself, it’s also the fake news. Over recent times, the moment I say anything a whole load of it goes onto social media.

“The abuse is still virulent and horrible, and it’s muddled with this fake news stuff.

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The connection continues with a UJIA legacy gift

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When Nina Padwick looks back on her life, some of her most treasured memories occurred in Israel. Her personal connection with the country is something she is keen to secure long into the future.

By leaving a legacy gift to support Israel’s underprivileged children, Nina will change the lives of those who represent her hopes and dreams for the future, in a meaningful and enduring way.

To find out more about the huge difference a legacy gift to Israel through UJIA can make, call Harvey Bratt on 020 7424 6431 or email harvey.bratt@ujia.org United Jewish Israel Appeal is a registered charity No. 1060078 (England & Wales) and Sc 039181 (Scotland).

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Jewish News 3 December 2020

News / JLM conference

Miliband: Corbyn repelled voters left, right and centre Former Foreign Secretary David Miliband has admitted that watching the situation in the Labour Party today was “frustrating”, mixed with “admiration for those fighting an incredibly good fight”, writes Jenni Frazer.

Speaking to an audience of more than 300 at the Jewish Labour Movement’s one-day conference, Miliband, now chief executive of the New York-based International Rescue Committee, took part in a wide-ranging discussion with journalist Jonathan Freedland in a conversation about what he designated “the age of impunity”.

He meant “the abuse of power to the extent where crimes are not punished… the power balance has got out of whack in war zones around the world. And that is linked to the retreat from democratic values, where countries have suffered a reduction in domestic political freedoms.

David Miliband in conversation at the JLM conference

At the international level, there has also been a retreat from democratic norms”.

Miliband noted that in America, “a re-elected President Trump would have been given impunity to take things further”. But he warned that “while Trump may have been defeated, Trumpism has not”, suggesting there were still elements in the Republican Party that supported his policies.

Turning his attention

to UK politics, Miliband said: “My party lost with the worst results since 1935. You shouldn’t need a Biden victory to tell you that you are more likely to win with an attractive candidate rather than one who pushes away the voters.

Jeremy Corbyn repelled voters left, right and centre.”

Politics of the left, he said, required people to be “both radical and credible. Unless you get both, you’re not going

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to get people to put their faith in you”. He believed “a broad coalition” was “absolutely key to being able to govern”.

He said that “never in my wildest nightmares, in any of the arguments I had with the hard-left, did I ever dream we would argue about antisemitism. Maybe I was naive.

“I don’t think people ever looked at me and said, ‘Oh, there’s a Jewish Foreign Secretary: I think they said, ‘Oh, there’s a Labour Foreign Secretary who is Jewish’, which is different. So the idea that this has become the hill on which the hard-left wants to fight is repugnant.”

Miliband declared: “People say we’ve got to deal with antisemitism because it’s offending the Jewish community. No! We’ve got to stop antisemitism because it’s offending everyone. Never did I think the words ‘Labour’ and ‘antisemitism’ would be in the same sentence”.

President-elect Joe Biden

‘Existential questions’ The executive director of the Jewish Democratic Council of America, Halie Soifer, told JLM that president-elect Joe Biden would not move the American Embassy back to Tel Aviv from its new home in Jerusalem – “which we recognise as the capital of Israel”, writes Jenni Frazer.

But Soifer, who has had a long career in Washington, including being national security adviser to the vicepresident-elect Kamala Harris during the Obama administration, was at pains to denounce the “false narrative” peddled by Donald Trump that Jews would vote for him because of his policies on Israel.

In fact, she said, figures

showed that more than 77 percent of US Jews had voted for Biden, and only 21 percent for Trump.

In conversation with former Labour MP Ruth Smeeth, Soifer reminded her audience Biden had received “more votes than any other presidential candidate in history, and that Jewish votes [for him] were overwhelming”.

On Trump, she said: “We have never had a president whose policies were such a betrayal of our values.

“We had issues in this election that didn’t exist in the past: existential questions in terms of our own security, the health crisis over rising Covid; and the issue of rising hatred in America and antisemitism.”

3 December 2020 Jewish News

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Government role / EHRC role / Labour suspension / News

WJR chair is new No 10 chief of staff Boris Johnson has appointed Dan Rosenfield, the chair of World Jewish Relief (WJR), as his new Downing Street chief of staff.

Rosenfield will begin working at No 10 later this month before formally taking over from acting chief of staff, Lord Udny-Lister, in the new year.

The move comes after a row over a proposal to appoint No 10 communications chief Lee Cain to the post led to both Cain and his close ally Dominic Cummings leaving Downing Street.

Rosenfield joins No 10 from Hakluyt – a strategic advisory firm for businesses and investors – where he has been global head of corporate clients and head of the UK business since 2016.

He had previously worked as a Treasury official for more than a decade, serving as principal private secretary to chancellors Alistair Darling and George Osborne.

In addition to his senior position at WJR, Rosenfield has been an active member of the Jewish community, with roles at the RSY-Netzer youth movement and the Jewish Leadership Council.

His appointment was welcomed by Osborne’s former chief of staff, Rupert Harrison, who worked with him in the Treasury.

“Dan is a class act and an inspired appointment,” he tweeted. “He was the principal private secretary in the Dan Rosenfield, far left, at a JLC meeting at Downing Street chancellor’s office who managed the pro-Remainers purged from the Tory Party by Boris transition from Alistair Darling to George Osborne. Bright, tough and politically savvy Johnson, agreed he was a sensible choice.

“Dan Rosenfield is smart, likeable and effective. with a small ‘p’.”

Former Treasury Minister David Gauke, one of the This should be a good appointment,” he tweeted.

Labour names standards chief LOCAL LABOUR CHAIR SUSPENDED Labour has appointed a top legal adviser to oversee the implementation of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC)’s recommendations to tackle antisemitism.

Jane Ramsey (pictured) has been named as the senior advisor on standards and ethics, a move that was welcomed by leader Sir Keir Starmer.

This comes after the EHRC found evidence of “unlawful acts harassment and discrimi-

nation” as well as “political interference” in cases of antisemitism within the party.

Among recommendations it made was the implementation of an independent complaints process for claims of racism, antisemitism, bullying and harassment.

Ramsey will lead on establishing an independent process to investigate complaints.

Labour will provide its action plan to the EHRC by 10 December.

The chair of Nottingham East’s Constituency Labour Party (CLP) has been suspended after a Jewish party member felt “they had no choice but to leave” an online meeting.

The suspension of Louise Regan is understood to be linked to a decision to press ahead with a motion that

included a call for the party whip to be restored to Jeremy Corbyn.

Labour is also believed to be looking into an allegation that a man who took part in last Friday night’s meeting had verbally abused a Jewish party member.

Nottingham East MP Nadia Whittome described the “atmos-

phere and tone” of the CLP meeting as “wholly unacceptable”.

In a statement on Twitter, Whittome said she had made contact with and was prioritising the welfare of a party member who had staged a virtual walk-out.

She expressed disappointment the motion had been called.

NEWS IN BRIEF

STARMER SET FOR LIMMUD FESTIVAL Sir Keir Starmer will take part in this year’s virtual Limmud Festival.The Labour leader will discuss topics including the antisemitism row in his party, Brexit and rebuilding ties with the community. Starmer will be in conversation with Carolyn Bogush, chair of the Limmud Trustee Board. Festival chair Rob Simmons said: “Limmud Festival 2020 will engage the community in key issues facing us today.”

The festival takes place from 25 to 29 December.

CST REVEALS HATE LINK IN NEW REPORT Antisemitism is often a warning sign of extremism, a new report by the Community Security Trust reveals. The Pathway to Terror briefing, which focuses on the recent terrorism trial of Shehroz Iqbal – who threatened the Jewish community and was sentenced to eightand-a-half years in prison – shows the link between antisemitism, hate crime and terrorism. CST said this case was an example of why reporting anti-Jewish hate plays a vital role in keeping communities safe.

This Chanukah, will you bring light into the lives of isolated people like Leslie?

Leslie has been self-isolating since the first lockdown began.

This Chanukah thousands of Meals on Wheels will be delivered to Jewish men and women who rely on them, just like Leslie.

But it isn’t just the hot, Kosher food that they rely on, by staying indoors they miss the company too. That’s why our delivery drivers always go out of their way to chat to clients when they bring their food – in a socially distanced way of course.

The number of Meals on Wheels we have to produce has more than doubled since March and we receive no government support to provide this vital service.

So please make a gift to Jewish Care this Chanukah and help to bring more light into the lives of people like Leslie.

To make your gift, please call 020 8922 2600, or visit jewishcare.org/donate Leslie receiving Meals on Wheels from volunteer, Leon.

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18/11/2020 15:48

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Jewish News 3 December 2020

News / Arab refugees / Supporting Righteous / Composer honoured

Envoy rebuffs Nakba Day ‘lies’ Israel’s Ambassador to the UK has challenged the “lies” spread by the Nakba Day movement – and called for more recognition of the plight of Arab Jewish refugees, writes Sandy Rashty.

At an event to mark the persecution of Jews from Arab countries and Iran on Tuesday evening, Ambassador Tzipi Hotovely said: “In this country, the perception about Israel is: ‘Some European colonialists came to the Middle East and found shelter for the Jewish people’. This is not historically right.”

She added: “It’s important to remember Jews were always part of the Middle East and are natives like our Arab neighbours. We are not colonialists who came from Europe.”

She also condemned the Nakba Day movement – the ‘disaster’ day designated by Palestinians after the state of Israel was founded in 1948. “They choose to deny the right of the Jewish State to exist… as if they were exiled from Israel. They don’t tell the whole story.”

Hotovely said the persecution of Jews from

Rabbi Dr Elie Abadi, senior Rabbi of the Jewish Council of the Emirates in Dubai

the Middle East was a key part of the current political narrative. “All too often their plight has been forgotten outside Israel. Jews born in Arab states came to rebuild their future in Israel. It’s so important we remember it.”

She added: “Many are not aware of the fact

“Education is the most important thing to that almost one million [Arab Jews] had to leave [their homes]. Israel accepted them – bring these stories, this history, to light,” said Rabbi Abadi. “It’s incumbent on us to do so.” they are an integral part of the Israeli story.

He called on the international community “I really hope that every Jew in this community, in general, people around the world to recognise that Arab Jews were refugees of conflict, “not just Palestinian refugees”. will know this important chapter in history.”

Reflecting on the need to preserve Jewish Hotovely was speaking at one of a series of online events held to commemorate the sto- sites and artefacts left in Arab lands, Rabbi ries of Mizrahi Jews and coordinated by the Abadi revealed that two years ago he “in Israeli Embassy, the Board of Deputies and person” asked Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to release 250 Torah scrolls from the Harif, which represents Mizrahi Jews. country. “He’s willing to give us copies,” Attendees also heard from Rabbi Dr he said.“We ought to demand they be Elie Abadi, senior Rabbi of the Jewish returned to the rightful community, Council of the Emirates in Dubai, who wherever they are in the world.” is of Syrian descent; Baghdad-born Shuker, whose family fled Iraq in Edwin Shuker, vice-president of the the 1970s, said he saw the Torah scrolls Board; and Yeminite academic Ben that had been recovered from Saddam Dror Yemini. They shared their famiHussein’s intelligence service lies’ stories of persecution headquarters. He said he tried to and called for more educa“take two or three” back to his tion both within the Jewish community but was stopped. community and outside it.

Ambassador Hotovely

HELP FOR FEW SURVIVING RIGHTEOUS living, a British-born activist, Jonny Daniels, has begun a scheme to support them.

As of 2019, 27,362 had been recognised by Yad Vashem, Israel’s national Holocaust memorial museum. With an average age

Jonny Daniels (second left) with Righteous in Poland.

Survivor Edward Mosberg is third from the right

A campaign to support elderly ‘Righteous Among The Nations’ has been launched for the festive season, with less than one percent of the group still alive.

With just 209 non-Jews who saved Jews during the Shoah still

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in their 90s, this group is highly vulnerable during the pandemic.

Daniels, who set up Holocaust foundation From The Depths, called for support for the group of non-Jews. Items such as masks and hand sani-

tisers, alongside festive gifts and a Christmas tree will be delivered to members of the group.

Those unable to help financially have been asked to send a card or write a letter that will be personally delivered alongside the gifts.

Israel Phil’s big film night The Israel Philharmonic Foundation is to stream a concert on Sunday featuring music by and an interview with Hans Zimmer, one of Hollywood’s most prolific score composers. The free event will also feature discussions with the orchestra’s director, Lahav Shani. The group

will perform music from The Prince of Egypt, The Lion King and the thriller Inception — just a few of the blockbusters Zimmer has worked on.

Zimmer, 63, didn’t publicly discuss his Jewish identity until a Berlin Film Festival appearance in 1999. His mother fled Germany in 1939.

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3 December 2020

Jewish News

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Food charity / MDA fundraiser / Community friend / News

Kosher charity signs NHS deal A new charity providing free kosher meals to meals to hospitals across the hospital patients has confirmed its partnership UK. He told Jewish News: “We are with the Royal Free NHS Trust, writes Tali Fraser.

Bedside Kosher, a service providing Jewish not going to rest until every UK patients with three fresh kosher meals a day hospital provides the option of will now be working within the Royal Free, the fresh kosher meals.”

Until then, Feferkon said, the local hospital for the north-west London Jewish community, as its official provider of kosher charity would continue to deliver food, after the partnership was confirmed meals to hospitals and patients yesterday. itself, through its voluntary The charity, which was set up scheme.

by Ari Feferkon after an unexpected fiveweek hospital stay in New York when his wife went A Friday night meal kit, giving patients “a taste of Shabbat” into labour providing china plates for all of the meals early, will start providing meals The charity to be served on. Feferkorn explained: “If we are inside the Royal Free started by providing doing it, we are going all the way and providing from Tuesday evening. breakfasts, which were five-star worthy dining; we are not cutting previously unavail- corners.”

Feferkon called it Shepherd’s pie, cauliflower and beans Patients can also get dedicated Shabbat and able to kosher patients, “a huge moment”, after even frozen, and they are now offering a variety Yom Tov meal kits. “We try to give people a taste “a long process, starting a few months ago”.

Previously, patients had only been able of lunches and dinners, from Teriyaki salmon to of Shabbat,” Feferkorn added about the kits, to receive frozen meals, but Feferkorn, the shepherd’s pie – and even a selection of desserts, which contain a Kiddush cup, two challot and grape juice. founder of JTrade, argued: “There is no reason, including apple and apricot crumble.

People who were in hospital over Shavuot Bedside Kosher also caters to any other just because you are kosher, that you should not dietary requirements and offers vegetarian, received a slice of cheesecake. There is also a get fresh meals.” child-friendly menu available.

Beginning with its launch in January, gluten free, lactose free and sugar free meals.

It even provides training to hospital workers, • Bedside Kosher has a 24-hour phone line when it had just two deliveries at the start of the year, Bedside Kosher registered as a charity and explaining the principles of kosher food and that can be called for orders: 020 3764 3803. now has more than 100 volunteers delivering how the meals should be heated and served, https://bedsidekosher.co.uk

MDA UK raises £2m Celebrities including Robert Rinder, Fauda’s Lior Raz and Wonder Woman actress Gal Gadot helped Magen David Adom UK raise more than £2 million in 36 hours.

The charity’s National Lifesaving Day fundraising initiative, which began on Sunday with a target of raising £2,000,000 by Monday, was quickly topped.

On Monday night, MDA UK live streamed an event hosted by barrister and TV presenter Rinder, with messages of support from celebrities including Gadot and Raz, as well as entertainment from Israeli mentalist Lior Suchard and musician Idan Raichel.

More than 1,400 people tuned in to the event, which showcased the breadth of work from Israel’s only National Medical and Blood Emergency Service.

MDA UK said its phone lines were “ringing off the hook” at the end of the show, with donations flooding in to take the total to £2,050,000, with more donations still coming through.

Dismore awarded One of the Jewish community’s greatest political friends, Andrew Dismore, the former Labour MP for Hendon, has received a lifetime achievement award from the Jewish Labour Movement conference.

Dismore played major roles in communityrelated campaigns, including reforming the law to resolve issues concerning Jewish divorce, defending religious slaughter, securing exemptions for Jewish schools in admissions policies and calling for the return of Nazi-looted art.

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Jewish News 3 December 2020

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News / Imperial War Museum-Jewish News exhibition

JN survivors exhibit at IWM The Imperial War Museums (IWM) has given the public its first glimpse of the new Holocaust Galleries in London while revealing that it will host an historic photography exhibition in partnership with Jewish News, writes Justin Cohen.

In an announcement late last week, IWM unveiled its much-anticipated 2021 programme, showed how its permanent Shoah exhibit was being built and revealed that Jewish News-commissioned portraits of survivors will take centre stage.

“We’re delighted to confirm IWM London will host a photography exhibition in partnership with the Royal Photographic Society (RPS) and Jewish News, sharing 75 portraits of Holocaust survivors with their children and grandchildren,” said Gill Webber, its director of content and programmes.

“Each of the portraits depicts the special connection between a survivor and younger generations of their family who, over the coming years, will carry the legacy of their parents and grandparents.

“The exhibition also aims to inspire visitors across the UK of our collective responsibility to remember and share stories about those who endured conflict and persecution.”

It is expected to open next summer and remain in place while the IWM opens its Second World War and Holocaust Galleries next autumn.

The portraits were commissioned to mark

Steven Frank and his granddaughters; right, Yvonne Bernstein and her granddaughter, Chloe Wright, pictured by the Duchess of Cambridge

75 years since the end of the Shoah, in partnership with the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, and released last January.

Of the 75 portraits, two were taken by RPS patron the Duchess of Cambridge.

Kate Middleton, who visited Stutthof concentration camp during her visit to Poland in 2017, photographed Steven Frank, originally from Amsterdam, and Yvonne Bernstein, from Germany. She later said: “Their stories will stay with me forever.”

With a behind-the-scenes look at the

museum’s new permanent and “groundbreaking” Shoah exhibition, IWM Holocaust Galleries content leader and historian James Bulgin showed how they were still under construction.

“This is the first time we’ve been able to show the space to anyone outside the teams who are building it,” he said. “Next year, they’ll be filled with previously unseen objects, untold stories and unheard voices that will help our visitors understand the most devas-

tating global conflict in modern history.”

The new space already includes a V1 flying bomb, built by slave labourers in the camps. It is one of more than 2,000 objects the team needs to move, interpret and display before autumn 2021.

“These galleries are desperately needed,” said Bulgin. “The war and Holocaust will soon pass out of living memory, leaving us without the first-hand testimony of veterans, eyewitnesses and survivors.

“We need to preserve their stories and ensure the world never forgets what they experienced.”

Webber said IWM would establish “an innovative learning programme to coincide with the launch of these new galleries, for schoolchildren aged 13 and up”.

Designed by digital studios and awardwinning playwrights, she said the programme “will use technology, storytelling and IWM’s collections to encourage reflection, discussion and understanding of the Holocaust, both at IWM London and online”.

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Jewish News meets... Luisa Porritt

‘After discovering my roots, antisemitism felt personal’ Lib Dem London mayoral candidate Luisa Porritt tells Stephen Oryszczuk about her plans and Jewish identity The woman who could be London’s next mayor has just found out she’s Jewish.

Political spring chicken Luisa Porritt, 33, the Liberal Democrats’ answer to Sadiq Khan, is the recent discoverer of a varied and vibrant Jewish family history stretching from Turkey to Kenya via Egypt, Bermuda and Camden.

She is uneasy about calling herself Jewish because she was not ‘brought up Jewish’, yet it is all there, on the maternal side, as she has been finding out gradually for a few years. Even now, new details keep coming to light.

Her family ends up being the star of the show in an hour-long Zoom call (that could easily have been longer) with this cat-loving Europhile and proud standard bearer for London’s young who, she fears, will be hit harder by the pandemic’s fallout than she was in 2008, when she graduated out of history and into a recession.

“Oh, I’ve been there, scrabbling around for job opportunities [as a journalist], moving between different rental accommodation…

The young today face more challenges than I as a millennial faced. I want to keep the City an attractive place for the young.”

Gunning for the mayoralty of a major trading hub in a post-Brexit world in a Covid-delayed election in May, she says: “Don’t write me off.”

She has fought two elections (for the council and European Parliament) and won both “against the odds”.

The election was supposed to be in May of this year, which seems a very long time ago.

She was only selected as candidate last month, after Geeta Sidhu-Robb dropped out when a video from 1997 surfaced that showed her baiting Jews.

Inspired into politics in her late 20s after Brits voted to leave the European Union, Porritt has since gained political experience locally (Camden) and internationally (as an

“She was…” Awkward silence.

“It doesn’t seem, from her upbringing, that any obviously Jewish practices or cultural references MEP in Strasbourg), so now wants executive were part of her daily responsibility. But before we get to the ‘CV’ part, life.” No chicken we need to work out the Jewish bit first. What soup, then. a question.

“She was born in “It’s been a bit of a late discovery for me,” she Bermuda and grew says. “I wasn’t raised with much consciousness up in Turkey – her father was in the of my Jewish roots, but I’m proud of them.”

What has she discovered? “My maternal Navy and posted great-grandmother was Jewish Orthodox. She there.

“I was never was half Spanish, half Turkish, so Sephardi, and she married my great grandfather, who was half really told about my Egyptian, half Austro-Hungarian, and lived in a extended family, so it’s been a journey French-speaking household – so a real blend.” self-discovery. At an anti-Brexit march It was researching her family history of that sparked both an interest and questions. It was only when I “I’m not sure why some of the religious and was 20 that I went to a family reunion and first cultural elements were dropped,” she says. met my grandmother’s side.”

She grew up in north London with lots of “My grandmother now has Alzheimer’s. Some of her memories are clear nods to that Jewish friends “but never made the link that upbringing, but I can’t really quesit was part of my own heritage as well”, tion the detail. she says. “Likewise, I never under“I know they left Egypt stood the implications, because in part because it was it comes down the mother’s side, however observant you are.” becoming oppressive under [former president Interestingly, she says it now Gamal Abdel] Nasser, affects her on a different level more antisemitic and when she sees and hears instances of antisemitism, whether this be intolerant.

“They moved to Kenya from within the Labour Party, and it’s there that my greatfrom grime artist Wiley, or from grandparents are buried, in her former rival Sidhu-Robb.

“It really hit home, even a Jewish cemetery in Nairobi.

Very recently I found a though it wasn’t at me or photo of their graveabout me. It felt perstones, written in sonal, and that’s part of the journey I’ve been Hebrew, so I suppose there’s the proof.” on as well. It just This interest “has feels,” she pauses, only really come “slightly different now. When hate late in life”, says the 33-year-old. Was is directed at any her mother aware? community, of Lib Dem mayoral candidate Luisa Porritt

Luisa talks to a businesswoman in Brixton

course it’s deeply upsetting and something we should all speak out against. But with Wiley’s tweets, it hurt.”

She keeps checking that I’m interested. I am.

In fact, I’d much rather talk about this than her policies, but I’d better ask what she’d do if and when she reins over us, so test her liberalism.

Decriminalise cannabis? Tick. Allow assisted dying with safeguards? Yes, sir. So far so good, so what’s her big plan for London? Turn empty offices into homes, she says, because Covid has changed everything – and they’re lying empty.

Finally, given that she is now Jewish (my description), can we end with an example of chutzpah? “When I pointed and shouted at Nigel Farage in the European Parliament.

I said all he did was stamp his feet and collect his allowance.” She’ll go far.

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News / Kosher concerns / Job fears / Hate definition / Designs selected

Beth Din warns of unkosher Norwood restructures mezuzot and tefillin for sale The London Beth Din this week raised the alarm over the sale of tefillin and mezuzot that “fall below the required standard of kashrut”, writes Jack Mendel.

In a letter sent to rabbis its head, Dayan Menachem Gelley, warned items from an unnamed shop in Golders Green may not be suitable for use. He said the issue was a “cause for great concern”, reflecting on both “immediate” implications for those who have bought

The KLBD has warned rabbis about key items

items, and “how we can reassure our members” for the future and said a rabbinical authority for sifrei Torah, tefillin and mezuzot’ has been set up

to “address the lack of regulation”. It has published a list of six approved scribes for writing and checking items, and two outlets for purchasing them.

These concerns were echoed by Rabbi Alex Chapper of Borehamwood, Britain’s largest Jewish community, who said the KLBD “is aware of the situation and advises that anyone who purchased tefillin and mezuzot from this shop should have them checked at their earliest convenience”. He added that “only a minority were found to have fallen below standard”. The United Synagogue has been approached for comment.

BIRMINGHAM UNI ADOPTS IHRA DEFINITION The University of Birmingham has agreed to adopt the internationally accepted definition of antisemitism following calls from Jewish students and the university’s guild, writes Tali Fraser.

Home to the largest Jewish society in the UK, Birmingham University’s Guild of Students had already adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance

(IHRA)’s definition of antisemitism in June.

The group’s education officer, Amanda Sefton, said it was “a fantastic step forward into ensuring we are supporting our Jewish students”.

The Union of Jewish Students, thanking the Guild of Students and Jewish staff at the university, said: “The adoption of the IHRA definition will go a long way in ensuring

Jewish students are safeguarded from antisemitism on their campus.”

Lord Mann, the government’s independent advisor on antisemitism, said: “This is the 18th of the 24 Russell Group Universities to adopt IHRA and I look forward to every university following this good example. It gives a clear message that Birmingham intends to be a safe place for Jewish students.”

Norwood is set to lose a number of jobs as part of the charity’s restructure, which has been accelerated by the pandemic, writes Tali Fraser.

The charity, which supports thousands of people with learning disabilities, has made changes to its staffing structure and working arrangements, creating just the “one point of access” to assess the needs of those support.

Norwood clarified that the restructure was going through a consultation period to determine the exact changes, but any outcome would still leave “a team representing all the key disciplines”.

It added that although the impact of the virus had quickened the process, these changes were always part of the charity’s future planning

and that, while there would be job losses, there could also be new posts created.

A statement from the charity said: “Norwood has recently developed a new forward looking strategy to make sure we continue to offer the best possible support to those who need our services; enabling not just the individual but the family as a whole to live fulfilling lives.”

Director of services and development, Mikkel Togsverd, said: “Even before Covid-19, Norwood had decided to restructure its services in order to ensure that we always offer the right support to the right people at the right time, ensuring the most efficient and effective use of our resources for the people we support.”

JNF UK mask masters revealed JNF UK has announced the three talented winners of its Design A Mask For Israel Competition.

Out of almost a thousand pupils from 14 schools across the country who submitted their creations, the winners – selected by a panel of judges – were Monty Stateman, three (Brodetsky Primary School in Leeds), Keitlin Bambans, seven (Mathilda Marks-Kennedy School, London) and Eden, 10 (Etz Chaim, London).

Their designs will be manufactured and distributed to children supported through JNF UK projects in Israel.

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Book launch / Blood campaign / News

Launch event for Sacks’ new book A free event launching the latest book by the late Rabbi Lord Sacks takes place later this month, writes Joy Faulk.

Jewish News has partnered with the London School of Jewish Studies (LSJS) to inaugurate Rabbi Sacks’ latest work, completed before his untimely death earlier this month, entitled Judaism’s Life Changing Ideas.

Taking place on Sunday, 20 December from 8pm, in association with the book’s publisher Koren, the celebration of his life will feature speakers including S&P Senior Rabbi Joseph Dweck, Rabbi Dr Raphael Zarum of LSJS, Dr Tamra Wright and Gila Fine.

Rabbi Sacks had a long association with LSJS, having trained to be a rabbi at the college, before becoming a lecturer, and principal in 1984.

As Chief Rabbi he served as its president and taught regularly, delivering his most recent talk one week before Rosh Hashanah.

Following his death, which led to an outpouring of heart-

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An MDA bloodmobile like this will honour Rabbi Sacks

felt tributes from across the community and around the globe, Zarum wrote for Jewish News “in tears” at his teacher’s passing.

He said Rabbi Sacks “made the world see that Torah was on a par with any contemporary philosophy or ideology, that our faith had something to say in the court of great ideas and deep truths,” adding: “He enabled us to hold our heads up high and be proud to be modern Jews.”

For more information, or to book tickets, visit www.lsjs.ac.uk

Meanwhile, the campaign to donate a life-saving vehicle for Israel in memory of Rabbi Sacks by Jewish News and MDA UK has raised £40,000.

It is hoped £135,000 will be raised to be able to buy the first of a new batch of bloodmobiles to transport teams to collect some of the 1,100 units each day that keep the country’s blood supply full.

Proudly bearing the name of the Rabbi Sacks, it will eventually find a home at the new British-funded Blood and Logistics Centre, due to open next year.

Charles to attend memorial Prince Charles and Israeli PresiElaine Sacks, Chief Rabbi Ephraim dent Reuven Rivlin will join former Mirvis, Archbishop of Canterbury Prime Ministers Tony Blair and Justin Welby and Rabbi Yisrael Gordon Brown at a special virtual Meir Lau, the former Ashkenazi commemoration dedicated to Rabbi Chief Rabbi of Israel. During the Lord Sacks. commemoration, which will be High-profile communal, national hosted by Lord Robert Winston, and international figures will come Tribute: Prince Charles Dayan Ivan Binstock will recite together online to remember the a prayer to mark the end of the former Chief Rabbi who died one month ago. period of mourning, while the memorial prayer The event, which marks the end of an intense will be read by Rabbi Lionel Rosenfeld.

30-day mourning period (the Shloshim), will The pre-recorded programme will be prefeature a series of reflections on a pre-recorded miered on www.RabbiSacks.org/Shloshim and programme, including from his wife, Lady will available to watch afterwards.

Chag Chanukah Same’ach!

Rabbi Lisa Barrett, Honorary Officers, Council and staff of SWESRS would like to wish the entire Jewish community a very Happy Chanukah.

We invite you to join SWESRS for Candle Lighting each evening which will be held remotely via Zoom.

Throughout the year our doors are always open, ready to welcome you to our range of wonderful Shabbat morning services, including choral, family and Neshamah meditation services, along with our weekly Tuesday Lunch Club, Sunday@SWESRS Adult Education programme, and our varied and engaging Social and Community events.

We would be delighted to see you at any time of the year….

Full details are available on our website - www.swesrs.org.uk

www.lineaazzurro.com 07951 595550

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LI N EA A Z Z U R R O M A D E I N I TA LY

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Jewish News 3 December 2020

News / Lockdown joy / Domestic abuse

Against all odds, a tiny miracle You could be forgiven for thinking very little good news has come out of 2020. But for Gemma and Daryl Isaacs, the arrival of their baby boy is more than a happy event – it is virtually a miracle, writes Kari Kolmans.

Gemma, 33, is putting her newborn son, Jack Alfie, down for a nap and three-year-old daughter Ella in front of Paw Patrol as we chat, a week before she is scheduled to have her ovaries removed. She had been waiting for the results of a genetic test when she received her breast cancer diagnosis aged 31, the very age both her grandmother and cousin were when they also discovered they had the disease.

Her father and many people on his side of the family had the BRCA1 gene mutation, which means a high risk of developing breast and ovarian cancer.

“I just had a bad feeling that something wasn’t right,” she says. “I wasn’t in control of my breast cancer diagnosis, but choosing to have my ovaries out is in my control. I’d rather be one step ahead.”

But rewind to the beginning of the year, when the couple found out they were expecting, 18 months after Gemma’s diagnosis and endless rounds of chemotherapy, radiotherapy and a double mastectomy.

After being told by more than one consultant gynaecologist that her ovaries were no longer functioning, she took matters into her own hands to get as fit as she could, running marathons with her fellow “BRCA sisters” (a group of female friends who share the gene) and going vegan to cut out all possible hormones

from meat. Then, against all the odds – including an unrelated struggle to conceive her daughter – Gemma was ecstatic to be pregnant again, having worried constantly that she would never be able to have another child.

“It was so amazing to go to a doctor and be given good news,” she beams. “It made me feel normal.

The doctor said to me: ‘Ironically, you’re the healthiest person I’ve seen all year.’

“I had gone in there feeling like I was already on the back foot and I left feeling like you know what, I am going to boss this!”

A few weeks later, the country was plunged into the first lockdown, and Gemma ended up keeping her growing belly under wraps for nearly five months. “You can only see top halves on Zoom,” she laughs, “and the rest was nothing a baggy jumper couldn’t hide.”

Husband Daryl, 35, was only able to attend one scan, having to dial into the rest over FaceTime.

Gemma’s first time leaving the house mid-April was for an ultrasound on her own, which was “pretty scary”.

Her breast cancer team

Above: Gemma and Daryl Isaacs with baby Jack and, inset, with sister Ella

also couldn’t see her, because of her pregnancy and being in the highrisk category of catching Covid-19 in hospital, which presented an extra dimension of anxiety. But after a long lockdown pregnancy, she gave birth by caesarean on 21 August.

Gemma has been balancing working from home with a job in advertising and raising her little ones with Daryl, who works in finance, through a second lockdown.

With all the obstacles that have been thrown at her, she is nothing but positive. And while, like the rest of us, she longs to meet a friend for coffee with Jack, or go to a baby class – or anything that isn’t standing in a park in December – she’s thankful for what she does have.

“Going through what I’ve been through has given me a lot of perspective. I no longer sweat the small stuff.”

Domestic abuse is still ‘shrouded in shame’ happening in your Broadcaster and journalist community.”

Emma Barnett said domestic Yet that same comabuse was “still a submunity can also prove ject shrouded in shame”, extremely helpful in as she appeared on a panel providing the right to raise greater awaresupport for victims, added ness of the issue, writes Jacobs, explaining that Francine Wolfisz. when a woman is subject Adressing a virtual audito abuse, “there’s so much ence of 530 viewers, Barpressure, so much fear, nett – who next month that of course the first becomes the new presenter step you want to take is to of Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour Warning: Emma Barnett someone you trust, who – was joined by economist and bestselling author Noreena Hertz you know, who you know would understand and designate domestic abuse commis- you and your background”.

Dickson added: “We are completely oversioner Nicole Jacobs for the event hosted

by Jewish Women’s Aid (JWA) last whelmed, not just by the scale of attendance, but also the expressions of supThursday evening.

In revealing how domestic abuse has port we received throughout and after increased on a national level, CEO Naomi the event.

“The whole JWA team feels like there is Dickson said: “We’ve seen the same at Jewish real support for a more open discussion about Women’s Aid. “Women are telling us that they’re increas- domestic abuse in our community and that ingly anxious, increasingly prone to experi- can only be a good thing.”

The event was part of JWA’s campaign encing physical abuse and they’re very, very launched last concerned about their children, who are #AMaskWontProtectHer traumatised by what they’re witnessing in month to raise awareness of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on domestic abuse in the the home.”

Hertz, in conversation with Barnett, Jewish community and coincides with the talked about the problem of “optimism international campaign, 16 Days of Activism bias”, whereby a close community can fail to Against Gender-Based Violence. acknowledge that its own members can be  Watch the event at www.jwa. affected by such issues.

She said: “If you’re Jewish, you may org.uk/unmasked. To donate to the find it extremely hard to believe that that’s campaign, visit www.jwa.org.uk/appeal

3 December 2020 Jewish News

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Jewish News 3 December 2020

News / Mayor dispute/ Communal tributes / Chanukah tunes

Rabbi sues over anti-gay claim Tributes to Tabachnik The Jewish mayor of Hertsmere is suing two local councillors who accused him of using “homophobic language”, writes Jack Mendel.

Rabbi Councillor Alan Plancey is taking legal action against Potters Bar Councillors Christian Gray and Chris Myers after they opposed his appointment as mayor, calling him “prejudiced”.

The two Hertsmere councillors, who have set up a crowdfunding page to cover legal costs, cited comments made by Plancey in an interview with Jewish News in 2014, in which he urges the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community to be “quieter”.

In an open letter on 17 November, the Hertsmere Labour group cite a young gay constituent who contacted Gray and Myers in “distress”, claiming that the interview “explicitly enters the territory of homophobic statements”.

A Hertsmere Labour spokesperson told Jewish News: “Following Mayor Plancey’s threat of legal action for defamation against our two gay Labour councillors, we felt that funds were needed to contest the action.

“We are so very grateful to the people who have supported our councillors and are thrilled that [we received] £2,000 in the first 24 hours. The mayor must not go unchallenged.” As of Tuesday the fund had reached £2,265.

Heartfelt tributes have been paid to former Board of Deputies president Eldred Tabachnik, 77, who has died.

The QC (pictured) who served as head of the communal organisation for two terms, from 1994 to 2000, oversaw a vast modernisation of the Board.

After growing up in South Africa, Mr Tabachnik taught law at University College London before turning to the Bar. He was appointed a QC just 12 years after being called to the Bar and was a leading employment lawyer.

Eldred also served as presi-

Rabbi and Councillor Alan Plancey in a Jewish News interview from 2014

Last week, Plancey was confronted about his 2014 comments on the BBC’s Three Counties Radio. He told listeners: “I wasn’t giving my views. I was asked to explain the Orthodox view on LGBTQ. Nobody can turn round and say to me I’m homophobic. I’m not.” Plancey added his views were “against the act not the individual”.

Oliver Kasin and Ella Rose, LGBT Labour London co-chairs, said there were

“no excuses for homophobic language”, and called on Plancey to “retract his remarks” and “sincerely apologise”.

Defending Plancey, leader of Hertsmere Borough Council, Cllr Morris Bright, said: “The Conservative group was very clear that he should not feel coerced in to stepping back.” Plancey has been approached for comment.  Opinion, page 24

dent of the European Jewish Congress from 1996 to 1998 among other appointments.

Current Board president Marie van der Zyl said: “As president, Eldred oversaw a radical modernisation of the organisation to make it more ‘democratic, efficient, effective and accountable’, and travelled widely throughout the UK and beyond reaching out to communities in farflung locations.

“It is a testament to his farsightedness that the results have served us for more than a generation.”

Chanukah songs online A special online event is being hosted by the World Zionist Organization of the UK (WZO UK) for this year’s Chanukah celebrations, featuring a live concert by Israeli singer Yehoram Gaon and songs by the Jerusalem Boys’ Choir.

Global audiences will be able to join the celebrations for free on Sunday, 13 December between 6pm and 8pm, during

which the fourth candle will be lit live from Israel.

Held from Israel’s Petah Tikva Cultural Hall, the online stream will feature Gaon, whom WZO UK have branded ‘Israel’s equivalent of Tom Jones’, as well as Israel’s representative boys choir.

The free registration can be found at www.tinyurl.com/ chanukah2020

The life-changing ideas of

Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks zt”l A celebration of his life and an introduction to his newest book Sunday 20 December 8–9:30pm Presenters include: Rabbi Dr Joshua Berman, S&P Senior Rabbi Joseph Dweck, Gila Fine, Rabbi Alex Israel, Rabbi Barry Kleinberg, Rabbi Dr Sam Lebens, Dr Daniel Rynhold, Rabbi Jonny Solomon, Rabbi Gideon Sylvester, Tanya White, Rabbi Joe Wolfson, Dr Tamra Wright, and Rabbi Dr Raphael Zarum

“God believes in us even if we don’t always believe in ourselves.

Remember this, and you will find the path from darkness to light.”

In this very special online event, you will hear about Rabbi Sacks’s new book, Judaism’s Life-Changing Ideas, from a huge cast of his students as they reflect on what he taught them and what they will never forget.

Book online at www.lsjs.ac.uk/bookings or call 020 8203 6427 Special offer to buy the book for £15 when booking for this event

www.jewishnews.co.uk

3 December 2020 Jewish News

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Jewish News 3 December 2020

www.jewishnews.co.uk

World News / Scientist killed / 2021 vote / News briefs NEWS IN BRIEF

WOMAN THREATENS RABBI WITH KNIFE An unidentified woman stole the kippah of a rabbi whom she threatened with a knife on a street in the Austrian capital of Vienna, police said. The woman fled the scene of Thursday’s incident in Vienna’s 3rd district, the OE24 website reported.

The assault happened after several minutes during which the woman shouted anti-Semitic slogans at the rabbi as multiple passers-by looked away, he said.The rabbi has declined to be named. Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz condemned the incident in a statement.

LAB-GROWN MEAT ON TEL AVIV MENU The world’s first lab-grown meat restaurant has opened near Tel Aviv, the Los Angeles-based VegNews reported. The eatery, whose name is “The Chicken” – a reference to the pseudo-intellectual quandary over whether it precedes the egg or the other way around – is adjacent to the factory of its mother company, SuperMeat, in the Tel Aviv suburb of Nes Tziona, according to a VegNews report from last week.Tables must be reserved in advance and the restaurant is still in the test phase.

Iran blames Israel for death of nuclear chief Iran this week laid the blame for the death of one of its leading nuclear scientists at Israel’s door.

The assassination of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh came two years after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said about the scientist: “Remember his name”.

Iranian state media blamed Israel’s Mossad spy agency for the killing and its defence ministry

The funeral of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh

confirmed last Friday earlier reports of a drive-by shooting in the Iranian countryside. There was an

exchange of gunfire with Fakhrizadeh’s bodyguards.

Western intelligence agencies have

long named Fakhrizadeh as the man behind Iran’s nuclear weapons program.

Iran says its nuclear development is only for peaceful purposes and that Fakhrizadeh was a professor.

In 2018, Israel unveiled documents it acquired that showed Iran had at one point planned a weapons programme, and that Fakhrizadeh was involved in its development.

FOURTH ELECTION IN TWO YEARS LOOMS Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz announced this week that his party will back a bill crafted by the opposition to dissolve the government, likely sending Israel to its fourth election in two years.

The votes from Gantz’s Blue and White would provide the

needed votes for the measure to pass in the Knesset.

Gantz and Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister, formed a unity government earlier this year by agreeing to rotate the premiership after 18 months, but the two have been at odds from the outset

of the partnership. Their latest logjam involves a two-year national budget that both said they would finance in their coalition agreement. But Netanyahu has agreed to pass only a one-year budget. A twoyear deal would set in motion Gantz’s transition to power.

WORLD NEWS IN BRIEF

Your weekly digest of stories from the international press US

The body of a dead pig was found outside the door of a rabbi in the heavily Orthodox township of Lakewood, New Jersey. It was found on Shabbat and the police are treating the incident as a hate crime. ‘We will not tolerate such acts,’ said Lakewood Police Chief Greg Meyer.

UAE

A member of the United Arab Emirates’ royal family has announced his interest in buying half of the Israeli football team Beitar Jerusalem.

Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Nahyan sent representatives of the team’s Israeli owner, Moshe Hogeg, a letter of interest pending appraisals by Al Nahyan’s team, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported.

POLAND

One of the country’s leading synagogue architects has died, aged 100. Maria Piechotka,

along with her late husband Kazimierz, dedicated much of her life to documenting Jewish religious buildings in and around Warsaw. Among her most influential books are Wooden Synagogues, published in 1957 and Heaven’s Gates: Wooden Synagogues in the Territories of the Former PolishLithuanian Commonwealth, published in 2004.

ARGENTINA

Jewish tennis star Diego Schwartzman has paid tribute to his namesake, Diego Maradona, following the football legend’s death.

Schwartzman posted a video of Maradona, writing in Spanish, ‘I love you forever.’ The tribute included ‘D10S’, or ‘dios’, the Spanish word for God – a nickname given to Maradona, who is revered in Argentina.

Schwartzman also wrote in a second post that he is crying constantly and, in Spanish, ‘My name is Diego because of you.’

JEWISH WOMEN ’S A ID

A MASK WON’T PROTECT HER More women are turning to Jewish Women’s Aid during this pandemic.

There is a national domestic abuse crisis and we are the only charity in our community supporting Jewish women and their children who are experiencing domestic abuse and sexual violence. We need your support if we are to meet this ever-growing demand for our services.

HELP US TO HELP THEM. DONATE TODAY AT JWA.ORG.UK/APPEAL

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Jewish News 3 December 2020

www.jewishnews.co.uk

Editorial comment and letters ISSUE NO.

1187

Party’s willingness to listen bodes well It’s been a week of lows but also, for once, significant highs in the ­psychodrama that is Labour’s relations with the Jewish community.

Yet another errant councillor — Puru Miah in Tower Hamlets — has been suspended over claims of antisemitism. And senior figures from constituency Labour parties in Nottingham East and Hampstead and Kilburn have been ­suspended for defying orders from party headquarters regarding debate around Sir Keir Starmer’s refusal to reinstate Jeremy Corbyn as a Labour MP. There can be no doubt about the scale of the challenge facing the new leader if he is to make good on his pledge to restore the trust of British Jews but the willingness of the party to engage and the community to listen was very evident on Sunday at the Jewish Labour Movement’s online conference.

It was about as impressive a political conference as the community has ever witnessed, with far more on the agenda than just antisemitism.

No fewer than seven shadow ministers turned out for the 12-hour event during which deputy party leader Angela Rayner said she would be prepared to expel thousands of members if need be and Starmer hinted that party rules could be changed to allow back those who left Labour over antisemitism and campaigned for other parties.

The words were faultless; now action must follow. The fact that 1,000 people logged on during the event showed a strong appetite for relations with a leadership that undoubtedly appears to be on the right tracks but also knows how much work is still ahead.

CONTACT DETAILS Publisher and Editor Richard Ferrer 020 8148 9703 richard@jewishnews.co.uk

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VOICE OF THE JEWISH NEWS

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Jackie is still a joy!

Thanks for publishing Jackie Mason’s column about Thanksgiving last week. Many years ago I went to see his comedy show and found myself sitting next to a very nice non-Jewish lady from New York.

A short way into the show we found ourselves talking – me explaining the Jewish jokes to her and she translating the broad Brooklyn accent for me. We both benefited from the acquaintance.

Marilyn Finester By email What a treat to read Jackie Mason’s piece about Thanksgiving in last week’s edition. I could hear

his Brooklyn Jewish accent in every sentence. How we miss his comical eccentricities!

I went to one of his last shows in London about eight years ago.

Reading this piece felt like I was watching the great man back where he belongs ­— on a stage in front of an adoring audience.

I hope he writes for you again soon.

Emma Wilman By email Politics aside, I enjoyed every word of Jackie Mason’s Thanksgiving column.

I despair at his loyalty to Donald Trump and referring to Joe Biden as the real Thanksgiving turkey but he was spot-on about everything else including, dare I admit it, the silver lining of this pandemic being not having to suffer insufferable relations at unavoidable family functions. His wit is as wicked as ever.

Steven Gesper By email

Sketches & kvetches

Shabbat goes out Saturday night 4.46pm

Operations Manager Alon Pelta 020 8148 9693 alon@jewishnews.co.uk

Sedra: V ayishlach

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“I’m sorry you’ve suffered so badly since joining the trial, Mrs Cohen, but to be fair, you haven’t had an injection yet!”

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My 80-year-old aunty lost her darling husband two months ago.

While talking to me last week she was reminiscing about being a 15-year-old young Jewish girl who, as part of the Habonim youth movement, studied Hebrew in a large Edwardian home in Pevensey Bay in East Sussex.

She said that the house was beautiful and that the garden led on to the beach. Talking about this memory seemed to fill her with so much joy.

I am writing to you because I wondered if anyone knew where exactly where the home might have been located?

It would mean so much to her to know. I very much hope your readers can help.

Talitha Smith By email

SUCCESSES OF TRUMP WHITE HOUSE

benny@jewishnews.co.uk

THIS WEEKEND'S SHABBAT TIMES...

Shabbat comes in Friday night 3.38pm

CAN YOU HELP MY AUNT WITH MEMORY OF ‘45?

*

I cannot let Hannah Weisfeld’s assertion in her article (26 November) that Donald Trump “was not good for the Jews” go unchallenged. The picture is more nuanced. From a Jewish and an Israeli perspective, the Trump administration did some good things. The US pulled out of the Iran nuclear agreement as it was clearly not working. Trump also recognised the reality of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. The US brokered peace deals with UAE and Bahrain as these states have common interests including fear of Iranian intentions. It is also interesting that these Gulf States now recognise the Palestinians are authors of their misfortunes. It is time Ms Weisfeld recognised all this.

Keith Laurence, Edgware

3 December 2020 Jewish News

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Jewish News 3 December 2020

Opinion

Why Yad Vashem must stay politically neutral JENNI FRAZER

W

ho is Effi Eitam and why should you care about him? On the one hand, he is a decorated Israeli soldier, who retired 20 years ago from the Israel Defense Forces with the rank of brigadier-general.

On the other hand, he has made pronouncements regarding Arabs, which even the most disengaged of Israelis regard as inflammatory.

Try this for size: in 2006, while addressing a memorial event for a fallen soldier, Eitam said: “We’ll have to expel the overwhelming majority of West Bank Arabs from here and remove Israeli Arabs from the political system.”

He referred to the Arab minority in that speech as a “fifth column” and “a group of traitors”. Menachem Mazuz, attorney general at the time, warned Eitam that he could face criminal charges if he repeated such statements.

He’s not just your casual bigot, either.

He’s a former Knesset member and leader

of the National Religious Party, a minister of infrastructure under Ariel Sharon who quit his post and the party when Sharon announced his intention of pulling Israel out of the Gaza Strip in 2005.

So, again, why should we care about Mr Eitam and his controversial opinions?

Because he is Benjamin Netanyahu’s pick to succeed Avner Shalev as chairman of Yad Vashem — and much of the Jewish world, not least Holocaust survivors, are up in arms.

There have been protests from those inside Israel and in the diaspora, particularly Australia. If Yad Vashem’s central mission is to remind the world that all people are created equal, Eitam’s critics say, “and to show the consequences to which baseless hatred can lead”, then his nomination is a disaster waiting to happen.

Yad Vashem has reportedly not been told when or whether the appointment is due to happen. All its staff know is that Mr Shalev, who has been chairman since 1993, is standing down on 31 December. After that, it’s anyone’s guess as to whether the appointment is ratified.

❝

ONE OF RETIRED SOLDIER EITAM'S SHARPEST CRITICS IS SURVIVOR HAIM ROET

Eitam, who has no background in Holocaust education, was brought up on the non-religious Kibbutz Ein Gev, but became strictly-Orthodox after the Yom Kippur War in 1973. Married with eight children, he lives on the Golan Heights and presently runs the Israeli subsidiary of an American energy company.

One of Eitam’s sharpest critics is survivor Haim Roet, who has written to Netanyahu and Defence Minister Benny Gantz, whose parents were both survivors. Roet warned the two politicians that they would be playing into the hands of “haters of Israel, antisemites, Holocaust deniers, and promoters and supporters

of the BDS [boycott, divestment and sanctions] movement” if they approve the appointment.

But Eitam, it should be stated, has his supporters – although one of them, writing in the right-wing newspaper Israel Hayom, characterised the “venomous campaign” against his appointment as “a struggle for the character of the memory and history of the Jewish people and its place in Israel”. Apparently the attacks on Eitam, who is “being cast as the embodiment of Israeli fascism”, are all part of a left-wing plot to take over Yad Vashem.

So much of Israeli society has been made up of “jobs for the boys”, backscratching appointments to reward those who can offer political favours, on both right and left of the spectrum.

But Yad Vashem’s USP has been – and ought to remain – its political independence, and its abiding lesson of what happens when some people are regarded as of less importance than others.

There may be other avenues in which to channel Effi Eitam’s energies. Yad Vashem should not be one of them – and British Jews should be paying attention.

A glimpse of the future at the JLM conference ANDREW GILBERT

JLM ONE DAY CONFERENCE CHAIR

L

ast Sunday's Jewish Labour Movement (JLM) Conference will be seen many years in the future as a critical and historic event.

Never in the 100-year history of JLM have so many of the Labour Party’s leadership, past and present, come together in such numbers. If it had been live in-person, it would have been broadcast worldwide, but then it would never have happened.

Zoom, with all its disadvantages, allows us to do things that in person could never happen.

To create a 12-hour event with more than 40 sessions in less than a month attended by more than 1,000 people.

To have Lord Peter Mandelson telling us “bedtime horror stories” at 9pm interviewed in conversation with The Sunday Times’ Gabriel Pogrund, who had just finished a session on his book with Patrick Maguire, Left Out, immediately beforehand.

To be able to listen and watch former Foreign Secretary David Miliband from New York in conversation with Guardian journalist, Jonathan Freedland. To have members of

the Knesset in conversation with MPs, and a former member of the Knesset in conversation also with someone in New York.

To have seven members of the shadow cabinet, including the leader (Sir Keir Starmer), deputy leader (Angela Rayner), shadow Chancellor (Anneliese Dodds) and Shadow Foreign Secretary (Lisa Nandy), and in total 17 members of the Labour Party front bench, not forgetting the Mayor of Manchester (Andy Burnham) on panels, in conversation, many at the same times as each others, all with large audiences.

That might make it newsworthy, but critical and historic? I believe we showed the Jewish community and the Labour Party a glimpse of the future. If Sir Keir and Ms Rayner continue to implement the Equality and Human Rights Commission in full and if, as Ms Rayner said, they expel thousands and thousands of members if they don’t accept this, we can then look forward and make this future happen.

The Labour Party, with JLM support, can focus on winning elections in London, Manchester, Scotland and metropolitan centres in 2021. The Labour Party, with JLM support, can focus on winning councils in 2022. The Labour Party, with JLM support, can focus on

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THERE IS AN INCREDIBLE AMOUNT OF WORK TO BE DONE. BUT WE NEED TO BE THERE winning the next election. The Labour Party, with JLM support, can get past Brexit and the emergency. The Labour Party, with JLM support, can focus on the recovery from the pandemic and move away from fake news.

The conference gave a snapshot of what the party could be if and when it eradicates the perpetrators and enablers of antisemitism.

Ms Rayner is right; they will have to expel thousands. Sir Keir is right; they will have to work on new rules for those who left because of antisemitism but may now be prepared to rejoin.

I hope the taster JLM gave Keir, Angela and the other front benchers fortifies them for action as that is what it will need. There is no way back for Jeremy Corbyn. If John McDonnell has a problem with what Angela Rayner said, he may need to go too.

It is not going to be easy. There is an incredible amount of work to be done. There will be days of bad news as members or staff do the

wrong thing, but we need to be there nationally and locally to stand up and shape this different Labour Party.

I urge readers of Jewish News to think hard and, if you share any of these beliefs, then join or rejoin the Labour Party now, for we can change the future and make sure it was not just a glimpse of the future, but the future itself.

Removing antisemites and those who have enabled antisemitism is a task we should never leave to others.

Curating the event was also the opportunity to bring together a resurgent Labour Friends of Israel, to re-establish the relationship with Habonim Dror and gave us the opportunity to focus on so many issues of the day.

It all happened with an incredible group of volunteers, mainly young adults. They will get to live that future, and when they have their 1997, they will remember this conference as a key building bloc.

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3 December 2020 Jewish News

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Jewish News 3 December 2020

Opinion

We stood up to Rabbi Plancey for who we are CHRIS GRAY AND CHRIS MYERS

HERTSMERE BOROUGH COUNCILLORS

W

hen a young gay Jewish man sent us a video report entitled Loud, Proud and Jewish made in 2014 by a Jewish LGBTQ+ organisation together with this newspaper, we watched in discomfort at the language and tropes voiced by Councillor Rabbi Alan Plancey, a man with whom we disagree on most things but had always respected for his civic work. Given his candidacy for mayor of Hertsmere, we could not remain silent.

Councillor Plancy denies being homophobic and has sought to explain the video by saying he was not giving his own views, but was instead explaining the Orthodox view to the film-makers. However, his language crossed the line from religious teachings into statements which we consider to be hurtful, offensive and homophobic.We cannot comment on intent.

However, as queer councillors we live daily with the hurtful effect of such language.

We were privileged to be elected as Labour councillors last May, winning a solid Tory ward.

Many people of faith supported us. We unequivocally support the right to hold religious beliefs. We know how much faith communities contribute to the enrichment of local civic life.

Our Jewish communities play an awesome role in that civic engagement. It is inspiring to see. We’ve stood against antisemitism within our own party and beyond. We attended the Labour Friends of Israel fringes at party conference and were proud to meet with its then chair, Louise Ellman. We’ve enjoyed meeting Jewish people and learning about the beauty of the plurality that exists inside the Jewish community.

Tory colleagues sought to excuse the views articulated by Councillor Plancey due to his age. We understand that his stance may be generational. We would have welcomed the chance to sit with him to explain the anguish his words have caused. The damage that being told to “be quiet and unobtrusive” does to young LGBTQ+ people cannot be overestimated.

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WE CALLED OUT MAYOR ALAN PLANCEY’S LANGUAGE. NOW WE FACE THREATS OF A LIBEL CLAIM

The controlling Conservative group at Hertsmere could have initiated LGBTQ+ inclusivity training for Councillor Plancey.

Instead, every single Tory councillor voted for him to become mayor. Our objections were censored. Even then, we were hopeful the damage could have been repaired.

Sadly, matters escalated. Councillor Plancey used an interview with BBC Three Counties Radio to double down on his rhetoric, stating that “we are against the act not the individual” and “I don’t want them to come and tell me I’m not living a proper life or that my children should be gay.”

We are now being threatened with a libel claim by Councillor Plancey. It makes accusations of antisemitism towards us – they are

false. More importantly, they harm the ongoing struggle against genuine antisemitism.

As two gay men working alongside our Orthodox Jewish group leader Councillor Jeremy Newmark, we are deeply sad at being unjustly targeted for calling this out. However, since speaking out last week, we have been inundated with support from Hertsmere residents, overwhelmingly from the local LGBTQ+ and Jewish communities. We have had supportive messages from local Conservatives.

We won’t be deterred from working to improve community relations. This commitment is strengthened by the humbling and deeply moving solidarity of the Jewish and LGBTQ+ community towards us.

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Opinion

Shining light on race hate better shows our empathy MARC CAVE

CEO, NATIONAL HOLOCAUST CENTRE, NOTTINGHAMSHIRE

I

looked out the window this morning and saw a black person. Then a white person, talking in French. Then a father and two children of Asian background on the way to school. And do you know what?

I don’t think any of them was Jewish.

So with all the criticism of Florida’s Maitland Holocaust Museum, which recently housed an exhibition related to the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, I think: ‘Well, at least they’ve been looking outside the window.’

For many years, the view in Florida would have been ghastly: segregation, lynchings, men in pointy white hats.

Shouldn’t we always ask ourselves how we can be helpful to the communities in which we live? Be true to ourselves while making our ‘self’ – our knowledge, our resources, our kindness – helpful to others in the present? In other words, tikkun olam. There are places of Holocaust remembrance in 32 US states and more

than 100 in total. There should be room for an exhibition like this in one of them – in theory.

In practice, the Maitland exhibition seems a bit ‘so what?’ At the UK’s National Holocaust Centre and Museum, every exhibition or learning programme links to its core purpose.

Intriguingly, it is the only place of Holocaust remembrance in the world founded by nonJews (the remarkable Smith family). It says things Jews cannot easily say. It teaches what Jews cannot easily teach about the 2,000 years of Christian Jew-hate that enabled the Shoah… and which is a reservoir of myths from which Jew-haters continue to draw.

I have the privilege of running this awesome place and, to paraphrase Daffyd from Little Britain, I am the only Jew in the village of Laxton, where this treasure trove of testimonies,

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FAKE SCIENCE HELPED TO PRODUCE GENOCIDE IN BLACK AFRICA – IN NAMIBIA – AND THE HOLOCAUST

Exhibit fits with mission to create a just society LISA BACHMAN

ASSISTANT DIRECTOR, HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL RESOURCE & EDUCATION CENTER OF FLORIDA The Holocaust Memorial Resource & Education Center of Florida knows it’s doing something right when its work draws the ire of detractors.

When we bring in travelling exhibits to complement our permanent Holocaust exhibit, our goal is to identify the common thread that ties the past to the present. As a result, we promote thoughtful reflection on the causes, events and consequences of the Holocaust as well as the deeper issues at stake still today. We stimulate thinking about the nature of prejudice, bigotry, antisemitism, hate and extremist ideologies that marginalises people, leading to violence.

This is not a comparison of pain, but a recognition of the pain that sadly still exists in our society, and the need for respect and humanity, as well as productive dialogue around these complex issues. We remember and reflect on

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THIS IS NOT A MEMORIAL TO GEORGE FLOYD. IT IS ABOUT EXPLORING OWN REACTION TO INJUSTICE

artefacts and interactive exhibitions resides. So if it were our museum taking a look at the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, we’d be asking, ‘Can we as Holocaust educators and exhibitors bring anything relevant to the debate?’ Our answer might be to highlight: 1. The fake science of ‘race theory’ and how it helped to produce the 20th century’s first genocide in black Africa (Namibia – perpetrated by Germany), and then the Holocaust.

2. The Nazi world view – lifted directly from fake race theorists such as Houston Stewart Chamberlain, as well as people like America’s own Henry Ford – that ‘Aryan’ (or ‘Caucasian’) white people were the Übermensch, and that Slavs, Roma, Sinti and black people Untermenschen — with Jews being beneath even that.

3. The victimisation of Germany’s black

the past for a reason, for a purpose. We want to ensure that what happened to the victims of the Holocaust doesn’t happen to others today or in the future. This is about humanity and treating everyone with respect.

Uprooting Prejudice: Faces of Change by John Noltner contains 45 black and white portraits that capture visceral reactions to the violent death of George Floyd, an incident captured on video that sparked protests across the world.

His death became synonymous with the deaths of many others that are seen as being rooted in acts of violent prejudice or racism.

This exhibit has drawn criticism from a few voices who have mischaracterised or misunderstood its subject matter and goals. This exhibit is not a memorial to Floyd and he is not pictured and there are no judgments made about police.

Instead, this exhibit invites visitors to explore their own reactions to any injustice. Some may wonder whether history’s worst atrocity might have been averted had there been similar widespread protests to the violence witnessed against Jews in Nazi Germany. What would have happened had someone protested against Jews being taken from their homes in the early 1930s?

What would have happened had someone created an art exhibit with messages suggesting we unite?

The centre sees this as an opportunity to wholeheartedly reaffirm its mission: to use the history and lessons of the Holocaust to build a just and caring community free of antisemitism and all forms of prejudice and bigotry.

£5 £5 £5 £5 £5

community from 1933 to 1945, including the stripping of their citizenship and the sterilisation of the so-called ‘Rhineland Bastards’ born to German mothers and Afro-French fathers.

4. The fact this race theory is alive and well and unites right-wing nutters in their hatred of black and Jewish people alike today. They are called white supremacists. They hate black people and march with fire torches in Charlottesville, proclaiming “Jews will not replace us”; the white displacement belief that ‘Aryan’ land is being taken over by blacks and Jews.

Maybe this would demonstrate empathy with our black neighbours in a more comprehensible way. Not by shallow virtue signalling, but by offering historical information on which we are expert. By showing the bigger picture.

And leaving the audience to work out if we believe that black lives today matter or not.

I am dismayed some in BLM UK, Wiley, Ice Cube and Louis Farrakhan wish to divide blacks and Jews. Maybe the meta ‘history of hate’, shining a light on lesser-known aspects of Nazi ideology and supremacist empire-building at the expense of both peoples, could help reunite.

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Community / Scene & Be Seen

1 WARMING SOUP

Celebrated chef Yotam Ottolenghi taught 200 teenagers to make soup and croutons in an event with Project ImpACT. The event centred around warmth, with the idea of bringing warmth to those in need by providing soup and warm clothes distributed to homelessness charities. More than 300 soups were dropped to shelters and food banks run

by Centre Point, The Trussell Trust, Unitas, as well as the food bank at JW3. Speaking after the event, Chayli Fehler, ImpACT founder and director, said, “I’m incredibly proud of these teens who, despite being in Lockdown II, are doing what they can to help others less fortunate.”

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And be seen!

The latest news, pictures and (virtual) social events from across the community Email us at community@jewishnews.co.uk

MEMORIAL CYCLE

Friends Mason Jacobs and Amelie Peters completed a 10km bike ride to raise money for Sands, the UK’s leading stillbirth and neonatal death charity. The ride was in memory of Mason’s big brother, Joshua Alfie, who would have been celebrating his 10th birthday next week. Speaking about Joshua, Mason said: “I always talk and think about him.”

3 POSITIVE MESSAGE

Jewish author Deborah Fajerman has worked with the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) to release a book for children aiming to show a positive representation of disability. The main character in Red and the Wolf, a reimagining of Little Red Riding Hood, features a girl with vision impairment who uses a long cane and is highly skilled at martial arts. The audio version of the book has special sound effects designed to help children ‘read along’. RNIB wants families to take part in a virtual ‘readalong’ next month in the hope it will break a world record with the aim of highlightling the need for more positive representation of disability in children’s literature.

4 SPECIAL DINNER

More than 400 guests watched Shalva UK’s virtual dinner. Guests received a gourmet food hamper from Adam Zeitlin, along with a chef’s manual put together by the charity, which supports thousands of people with disabilities. The Shalva Band, made up of eight musicians, all of whom live with a degree of disability, performed for guests, while Israeli actor Lior Raz spoke from the heart and shared his journey to fame. Raz virtually joined UK guests from Dubai in a live Q&A session, which finished the evening’s entertainment.

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Legacies change lives forever

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Virtual talk / Weekend

Francine Wolfisz hears how the family of Sir David Attenborough helped two Jewish sisters who fled to Britain on the Kindertransport

S

ir David Attenborough well recalls the moment the Second World War began – because it was in that very same moment his parents turned to the two young Jewish refugees staying with them and declared: “We are now one family.”

The beloved 94-year-old broadcaster and natural historian spoke movingly, during a virtual event organised by The Association of Jewish Refugees (AJR) on Monday, of the role his parents played in giving a safe and loving home to Irene, 13, and Helga Bejach, 11, who fled on the very last Kindertransport to Britain.

A 700-strong audience watched as Attenborough, in conversation with Dame Esther Rantzen, revealed how the girls – who he considered as his own

sisters – came to live with his family for seven years.

His mother, Mary, was a social activist during the 1930s and “organised relief for Basque children from the bombing of Guernica,” adding that she had looked after a group of youngsters who arrived in Britain in 1937.

Meanwhile, his father, Frederick, was the principal of University College Leicester and, prior to the war, had been helping to get German-Jewish academics over to Britain.

David Attenborough, above, presents Extinction: The Facts earlier this year

Irene and Helg a Bejack lived with the Attenborough family for seve n years

“He was the chairman of a group who did what they could to bring people out by offering them jobs. They were nearly always on their way to relations in America. There were a number of distinguished scientists who came through University College Leicester to do menial jobs for a month or so before moving on.”

It was during this time Dr Curt Bejach, who had been Berlin’s chief medical officer until 1933, asked Frederick if he could host his two daughters for a short time before they went to their uncle and aunt in New York.

“The idea was they would be with us for maybe a couple of weeks, three weeks. And then they would get on the ship and off to America, so of course he said yes. In the event, of course, what actually happened was the children arrived from the Kindertransport and that was the last transport.”

Just days later, Attenborough and his brothers John and Richard gathered around as Neville Chamberlain announced that Britain was at war with Germany.

“It’s moving to think about it now, but my dear father and mother were standing by the radio.

And my mother turns to the three of us and the two Bejachs and said: ‘Well now we are one family. Irene and Helga will be your sisters until such time as the war is over.’”

Attenborough recalls that Helga viewed the outbreak of war and her stay in Britain as “a big adventure – I think she was too young to realise the significance,” but says Irene “was much more aware of things and more profoundly upset by what was happening”.

While the girls could not speak English and the brothers didn’t speak German, the sisters quickly adapted to their new home and grew close to the Attenboroughs. Irene even helped spark the future broadcaster’s fascination with the natural world by giving him a piece of amber.

Attenborough acknowledges that they lived in relative safety and

Photo: University of Leicester

‘Who could react otherwise given what we know?’ unaware of the “unimaginable” horrors taking place in Europe.

“We didn’t know,” he explains.

“We didn’t know about Auschwitz or concentration camps at all until the allies overran Germany and then discovered these dreadful revelations, which are difficult to speak of actually.

“Britain didn’t go to war over concentration camps. We certainly should have done had we known.

The atrocity was on such a scale that it was almost unimaginable how appalling it was.”

He added: “Irene and Helga would receive letters through the Red Cross from their father saying he was alright, which of course wasn’t the case.”

In fact, Dr Bejach was taken by the Nazis and eventually deported to Auschwitz, where he was murdered in October 1944.

The girls’ mother had died years previously and so when the war finally ended, Helga and Irene bade farewell and joined their relatives in America.

But the Attenboroughs continued to keep in touch. He adds with a smile: “Whenever I went to New York I would go to see them. Irene sadly died young, but Helga married and had several children. We kept in touch with them and are still in touch with them. It’s a great pleasure to see them.”

Asked whether, given his conservation work and advocacy on climate change, Attenborough had inherited his “parent’s rescue instinct”, he simply replied: “Who could possibly react otherwise in the face of what we know?”

He added: “I think we have good intentions in all of us. They can be warped and they can be suppressed, but then they are all the more powerful.”

The session also featured Lord Alf Dubs and Sir Erich Reich, who came to Britain on the Kindertransport; Jo Roundell Greene, the granddaughter of Clement Attlee, whose family gave refuge to Jewish child refugee Paul Willer, who was also present; and Marigold Bentley, representative of the Quakers in Britain, who were instrumental in helping refugees travel to Britain and finding homes for them once they arrived. The event can be viewed on The AJR’s YouTube channel

A look

Inside Television: Homeland writers adapt novel about IsraeliPalestine conflict

Lockdown love: Meet newlyweds Katy and Ollie

Chanukah gifting: The little presents making a big difference

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Weekend / Entertainment

DIGITAL THEATRE

ART EXHIBITION

The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk

We Returned

Artist Marc Chagall and his writer wife Bella are immortalised in his artworks as the picture of romance, but in real life, they walked through some of the most devastating times in history, as portrayed in Daniel Jamieson’s The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk.

Emma Rice’s sumptuous and physical production, woven with music (by Ian Rice) and dance (choreographed by Etta Murfitt),

is inspired by Russian-Jewish traditions and traces this young couple as they navigate the pogroms, the Russian Revolution and each other.

The production will be broadcast live from the Bristol Old Vic over three days.

The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk broadcasts live from today (Thursday), www.wisechildrendigital.com/book-tickets

COMING SOON Boss Baby 2

Avengers actress Ariana Greenblatt and Friends star Lisa Kudrow feature in DreamWorks animation Boss Baby 2, which released its first trailer this week.

The much-anticipated sequel to the Oscar-nominated family comedy is set years later when the Templeton brothers – Tim (James Marsden, X-Men franchise) and his Boss Baby little bro Ted (Alec Baldwin) – have become adults and drifted away from each other.

While Ted has become a hedge fund CEO, Tim is married to Carol (Eva Longoria) and is a stay-at-home dad to super-smart seven-yearold daughter Tabitha (Greenblatt) and adorable new infant Tina (Amy Sedaris).

But when Tina reveals she’s actually a top-secret agent for BabyCorp on a mission to uncover the dark secrets behind Tabitha’s school and its mysterious founder, Dr Edwin Armstrong (Jeff Goldblum), the brothers are brought closer together than they have been in years.

Boss Baby 2 will be released in the UK next spring

IN THE PIPELINE

Dinner At The Center Of The Earth Homeland creators Howard Gordon and Alex Gansa are set to adapt Dinner At The Center Of The Earth, Nathan Englander’s gripping novel about the Israeli-Palestine conflict, for a new television drama.

The book by Englander (pictured) revolves around Prisoner Z, who is being held at a secret prison site in Israel’s Negev Desert. He’s an Israeli spy who betrayed his native country to atone for actions that led to the death of innocent individuals – and perhaps break the cycle of violence in the region.

Gordon and Gansa have worked together

on numerous shows, including 24, and converted the hit Israeli series Prisoners of War into Homeland for American audiences.

That show earned the pair two Emmys, including for best drama series.

Englander, who grew up Orthodox and usually writes on Jewish themes (he told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency last year that everything down to “the weather” in his books is Jewish), has published five acclaimed books.

His latest, Kaddish.com, involves a Charedi man who leaves his religious community and then returns to it.

The works of Beverley-Jane Stewart, Liorah Tchiprout and David Hochhauser feature in the inaugural exhibition of the Jewish Art Gallery in Islington.

We Returned, which opens to the public from tomorrow (Friday) and will run until March 2021, is hosted by the Chabad Islington Jewish Community Centre in Upper Street.

The exhibition, which includes paintings, sculptures and photographs, is a celebration of British-Jewish identity, culture and history.

Head curator Nicole Zisman says: “As the presence of a synagogue inevitably nurtures a community so, too, may the presence of Jewish art in this space foster connections between artist and audience within a wider community.”

Describing herself as a “visual writer”, Stewart tells the story of the Jews from past to present and looks at how Jewish heritage operates in contemporary society. Miri by Liorah Tchiprout Tchiprout, concerned with belonging, girlhood and the theatrical, builds physical puppet characters to construct her own pantheon from which to draw images, while Hochhauser explores themes of nostalgia and the diaspora in his sculptures and paintings.

We Returned opens from 4 December, www.jewishislington.co.uk/art-gallery

COMPETITION Win a starter set of doddl cutlery!

Jewish News has teamed up with doddl to offer 15 readers a set of doddl cutlery (rrp £16.95) to help teach their little ones to eat independently with ease.

If you’ve ever felt the pain of scraping purées off the floors and walls, this is the perfect prize for you.

Doddl is a British business, based in Gloucestershire and the brainchild of Catherine Dodd. While on holiday attempting to feed her three children under two, Cat reached breaking point – literally – as the fork her oldest was using snapped at the dinner table.

Unprompted, her daughter picked up the broken fork and continued eating - with greater success than before. Cat realised that most children’s cutlery is a cut-down version of adult cutlery and not designed for babies or toddlers’ hands. And so, the idea for doddl was born.

The company makes clever children’s cutlery, ergonomically designed with input from child development specialists to teach little hands and support independent eating.

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Care-ful gifting / Weekend

Little gifts that make a big difference Naomi Frankel on how you can buy Chanukah treats for loved ones while helping good causes receive a children’s pack of Chanukah goodies, including a menorah, candles, glowstick dreidels and arts and crafts, www.shaarezedek.org.uk

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JAMI has come up with the Chanukah Celebration Box to spread some joy and to support anyone affected by the pandemic, as well as raising awareness of mental health.

Available in three prices – £10 (children/young professionals), £25 (regular) and £35 (family) – the boxes contain doughnuts, mini bagels, chocolate coins, chocolate-covered strawberries, candles and a hot drink voucher for the Head Room Café. Jami staff and volunteers will hand deliver the boxes around north-west London and are happy to stop for a friendly chat. Each box also contains eight well-being tips, one for each night of Chanukah. www.jamiuk.org

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SHAARE ZEDEK UK is sending care packages to staff at the charity’s medical centre in Jerusalem where, in recent weeks, more than 200 employees have needed to isolate at one time owing to the pandemic. In return for sponsoring a care package, priced at £35, donors will

KISHARON, which supports adults and children with complex and profound learning disabilities, is selling Chanukah gift packs put together by Kisharon College student. The £7.50 Family Chanukah Gift Pack and the £10 Children’s Chanukah Bumper Gift Pack contain a box of colourful candles that can be personalised with a message, as well as a wipe-clean gloss laminated card with the Chanukah candle lighting blessings and songs. The children’s pack includes Kisharon’s dreidel challenge game, along with dreidels, chocolate coins and Jelly Belly sweets and a craft set for your child to create their own wooden menorah. https://equal.kisharon.org.uk/shop

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CAMP SIMCHA, which supports seriously ill children and their families, has opened an online gift shop for Chanukah. Offering a range of fun and low cost Chanukah arts and crafts kits, the charity has pledged that for every gift purchased, one will be donated to a Camp Simcha family. The charity is also offering virtual gift certificates for anyone wanting to make a donation in honour of a loved one. www.campsimcha.org

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JEWISH CHILD’S DAY has opened its traditional Chanukah Toy Shop online. During Chanukah in December 1947, Jewish children in the UK raised £14,000 to help displaced children from Europe.

Since then, Jewish Child’s Day’s motto, in all challenging times, has been ‘that by doing at least one good thing each day, you can make it a good day for you and many others’. Anyone who purchases a toy, priced between £7.50 and £100, for a child supported by the charity, will receive a little gift and certificate from Jewish Child’s Day. https://jcd.uk.com/shop

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Jewish News 3 December 2020

Weekend / Love scenes

‘This year has shown anything can happen’

LOVE In the time of corona

This week: Katy & Ollie Get married, don’t get married; thousands of couples have had to alter their altar – or bimah – plans this year in line with the ever-shifting rules. Kari Colmans interviews resolute newlyweds who tied the knot against the odds in true Covid style

K

aty Shaf and Ollie Cohen’s paths crossed four years ago when Ollie – working as an estate agent – showed Katy around her first home. And while sparks didn’t fly immediately for Ollie, 28, and Katy, 33 – it would be another four years until they’d meet again – it only took one date before he knew she was “the one”.

It was actually a colleague of Ollie’s who asked Katy if she’d be up for a blind date and their paths crossed once more. That was on the Monday, their date was on the Friday, and six months later they were sharing a new home.

“It was love at first sight,” laughs Katy.

with Katy are the dinners she cooks us every night,” he says. “I’ve also learnt how patient she is with me, and how caring and helpful she is to everyone around her if they’ve needed anything during lockdown.”

Understandably, Katy doesn’t want to give too much away about Part Two, as the big party plans for 2020 have been “copied and pasted” to April 2021, keeping all fingers and toes crossed.

But I can tell she’s desperate to spill the beans a little, her big smile filling my screen as she thinks about the dress.

“When all my friends and family see it, I know they’ll think ‘that’s so me, but with a little twist’”.

And while they obviously can’t wait to do it all again under a chuppah, nothing will take away from their

“For him, not me!” A romantic proposal followed at home, complete with roses, candles and balloons. Katy was totally shocked: “I didn’t expect it,” she says, beaming at the memory.

“Everything was set for December.

Wedding at the Rosewood, Holborn – it’s the most beautiful hotel, the décor is stunning.

Totem was doing the music, Philip Small was in charge of catering. Jamie Paskin was toastmaster, of course! A lady called Alina was doing the flowers, and I’d already found my dress at The Wedding Club in South Kensington.”

But as Corona news only worsened, Katy and Ollie decided to push the big party to next year and have a civil ceremony on the same date

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Katy Shaf and Ollie Cohen on their big day

as their first dinner, but a year later.

So on 1 November, just before the second lockdown was announced, they managed to pull together their nearest and dearest – while the extras kept it 2020 and joined in on Zoom – for a civil ceremony at The Haven in Whetstone.

“I wanted to keep it as much like a ‘real’ wedding as possible, so I stayed at my parents for two nights beforehand so that I wouldn’t see Ollie,” she recalls.

They had 15 of their immediate family join them, with another 70 or so dialling in. Her bridal attire consisted of a white jumpsuit from ASOS that arrived “literally two days before”, having kept the postman pretty busy with a constant flow of rejected bridal ensembles.

“I still wanted to feel like a bride!”

Her closest friend made the cake, they chose music over a band, and her wedding florist still pulled together a beautiful bouquet.

“To be honest, it was a blessing when the numbers went from 30 to 15, as 30 can cause a broigus, but 15 really is just immediate family,” admits Katy.

After nearly most of their relationship spent in lockdown, the couple are excited for the future, although it seems Ollie is quite happy with the arrangement.

“The best thing about being in lockdown

Katy and Ollie cut their wedding cake

‘little big day’.

“I’ll remember Part One because we were with our families. And I definitely can’t forget locking Katy out the house the morning of the wedding, and her banging down the door at 8am so she could get her make up done,” Ollie laughs. “Don’t worry I didn’t see her!”

“I think this year has shown us that anything can happen,” adds Katy. “We have just tried to make the best of it and have ended up, PG [please God], with two celebrations instead of one.

“Win win! All I can say is let’s get 2020 done – and get on with 2021.”

3 December 2020 Jewish News

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Orthodox Judaism

SEDRA Vayishlach

BY TAMARA JACOBSON Leadership, we learn in this week’s parasha, requires bravery. Jacob lived in fear of Esau after tricking their father Isaac to receive the birthright due to his brother.

After leaving the house of Laban 20 years later, Jacob receives word that his brother is coming to confront him with 400 men.

Rashi tells us Jacob prepares for this in three ways: he sends gifts, he prays and he prepares for war.

Jacob was faced with a monumental choice; he could have simply fled in the opposite direction and avoided an encounter with Esau, at least for the time being.

Instead, he chooses to confront his brother. When they meet, they embrace, kiss and cry. Jacob tells Esau: “Kach na et birchati” (“Take these gifts, take my blessing.”) The parallels to the last time they saw each

other are clear. Jacob once took a blessing from Esau; now he is asking Esau to take one from him. Esau accepts and leaves in peace.

Jacob is no longer a man on the run, neither from his previous actions nor from his own family. He has the courage to face up to a difficult situation head-on and accept the consequences.

He chooses the more challenging path, which ultimately results in peace.

In the words of the late Rabbi Lord Sacks, in his Covenant & Conversation: “We all have opportunities in our lives to step up and be proud to be Jews, whether in conversations, or with our external appearances, in our actions and in our choices.

“We each need to feel proud of who we are and how we live our lives.”

◆ Tamara Jacobson is head of operations at Tribe

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Torah For Today What does the Torah say about: Miscarriage

BY RABBI GARRY WAYLAND The Duchess of Sussex revealed last weekend that she had a miscarriage a few months ago. What does the Torah say about this sensitive issue?

“Rav Simlai (who lived in the third century) taught: To what is the baby in the mother’s womb compared? To a folded book… Her mouth is closed, the umbilical cord is open: she eats what the mother eats and drinks, and her waste does not kill the mother.

When she comes into the air of the world, what is opened closes and what is closed opens – otherwise she could not last for one hour.

“There they teach her the entire Torah and once she emerges into the air of the world, an angel comes and taps her on the lips to forget it all. And they make her swear an oath: be righteous and not a sinner!”

Thus reads one of the most poignant passages in the Talmud, describing prelife in utero: a miraculous fusion of physical and spiritual, the body – still, calm, being sustained through coun-

terintuitive physical process. The soul – part of but beyond: seeing the essence of everything, learning divine wisdom.

The mother, bearing this precious responsibility, prays and waits for the moment when everything will change – for when ‘what is opened closes, what is closed opens’ – the traumatic birth pangs, the miraculous moments, followed by joy and relief.

Yet painfully, tragically, this moment does not come for many: she is a custodian for a few months, but no more. Silently, alone, often unbeknown to her family and friends.

The passage concludes, “God is pure, his angels are pure, and the soul He gave you is pure…”

Sometimes this purity is too much for this world: the soul may be above or beyond, not for this particular time.

May God grant every mother, who was unable to see the purity of the soul that was entrusted to her for long enough, comfort and strength, and may He grant all of us the sensitivity, insight and depth to support them. ◆ Rabbi Garry Wayland is a teacher and educator for US Living and Learning • Anyone affected by this issue can contact The Miscarriage Association (www.miscarriage association.org.uk) or Chana (www.chana.org.uk)

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Jewish News 3 December 2020

Progressive Judaism

The Bible Says What?

Progressively Speaking Chanukah’s true meaning will see us through this pandemic

‘Crows aren’t all bad in the Torah’

BY RABBI MARK GOLDSMITH

BY RABBI DANNY RICH There is one bird that appears several times in the Bible and which, to this day, continues to evoke fear or disgust. The crow.

The four species of crow – three black and one hooded grey – found in Israel are referred to as ‘unclean’ (Leviticus 11:15).

The Mishnah further records that metal spikes were placed on the roof of the Temple to prevent crows landing, presumably because they might steal meat from the sacrifices and their raucous ‘cawing’ might disturb the services.

This haunting cry of the crow has enhanced its portrayal as something unpleasant or evil and its reputation as a killer of baby birds and a scavenger of all types of dead meat, including from roadkill and rubbish bins.

Yet there is a Biblical story (1 Kings 17:2-6) where crows are portrayed positively.

The famous Hebrew prophet,

Elijah, has predicted a drought upon the kingdom of Israel ruled over by Ahab.

For a reason that is not wholly clear, God instructs Elijah to hide in a wadi at C’rit, which is located on the other side of the River Jordan.

While there, on God’s instructions, crows appear twice a day – in the morning and the evening – bringing both meat and bread for Elijah to eat.

If you have ever watched an unkindness or a murder (the collective terms) of crows squabbling over a run-over squirrel or a mouldy loaf of bread extracted from a bin, it hardly seems likely that the story is true – but have faith!

God has remarkable ways of sustaining and protecting those who listen to the Divine voice and showing loyalty to those who work to fulfil it.

◆ Rabbi Danny Rich is a vice president of Liberal Judaism

The story of Chanukah that we tell when we light our Chanukiah is based on the one day’s supply of oil, which lasted for eight days when the Maccabees rededicated the Temple.

This year as we light the candles, we can celebrate one month’s patience for the most recent restrictions on our lives, and the eight – and who knows for how many more – months of disruption Covid-19 has brought.

Just as when we light the Chanukah candles we do so in a spirit of hope for the Jewish future, so, too, can we do so in a spirit of hope for our community despite this awful year.

The word Chanukah means “dedication” and that is why we can have great hope today.

Jews have continued to dedicate themselves to Judaism, despite the virus, by finding ways to safely attend worship at their synagogue and online through a wonderful variety of virtual services.

We have dedicated ourselves to

Jewish learning. The ability to do so from home has made learning accessible to people who couldn’t normally participate.

My Talmud class now includes many people who would have found it very difficult to come into synagogue to learn on a Sunday morning, but can easily do so from home.

Our synagogues have dedicated themselves to the creativity needed to keep their congregations engaged in Jewish life. A large number of volunteers have been dedicated to relieving the loneliness of the isolated by phoning, visiting from the end of the front path, making

extended family bubbles, being in contact more than we would normally do. Many synagogues have organised food deliveries to their congregants’ doorsteps.

We have found ways to remain dedicated to the memory of the loved ones we have lost, whom we were unable to physically accompany to their final resting place or hold an in-person shiva, by virtual shiva prayers which felt especially meaningful as we included relatives from around the world through screens.

The terrible restrictions Antiochus Epiphanes put on Judaism led to the Maccabee rebellion, resulting in a newly-strengthened Jewish people under the Hasmonean dynasty.

If we retain the dedication to creativity and accessibility we have shown through this period to continuing Jewish life, think how we could thrive as a people when it is over. ◆ Rabbi Mark Goldsmith is senior rabbi of Edgware and Hendon Reform Synagogue

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3 December 2020 Jewish News

35

Professional advice from our panel / Ask Our Experts

Ask our

Struggling to hear the TV? Missing out on family conversations?

Hearing just not what it used to be?

Our trusty team of advisers answers your questions about everything from law and finance to dating and dentistry.

This week: Difficult conversations about end-of-life care, sending money abroad and help selecting the right printer POLLY LANDSBERG PALLIATIVE CARE MANAGER

SWEETTREE HOME CARE SERVICES

Dear Polly How do we start conversations with friends and family about living well until we die?

Bernard Dear Bernard Few things are quite as challenging as when a person and their loved ones face a diagnosis of a life-threatening illness, or when age and deterioration are taking their toll. Being able to face the difficult conversations honestly and openly is something we are often not prepared for.

The truth is that people can feel very relieved when innermost thoughts are expressed and even recorded. Speaking openly can give peace of mind, reduce emotional burdens and reas-

NAOMI FELTHAM INTERNATIONAL PAYMENTS SPECIALIST

CURRENCIES DIRECT Dear Naomi My son is living in Israel and, due to the current restrictions, we cannot visit. My husband and I want to send him money for living expenses and wondered if there was an easier way to do this. We have used our bank in the past but it was very expensive. How do your services differ?

Marlene Dear Marlene

Thanks for getting in touch. This is definitely something we can help with.

As well as being able to offer you much better exchange rates than a bank, Currencies Direct can move the money to your son’s account in Israel fee-free.

We provide an unrivalled level of personal support, with every customer being assigned their own dedicated account manager as well as access to our quick and easy-to-use online app.

To get started with Currencies Direct you simply need to open an account — which can be done in minutes online or over the phone.

As soon as you’ve opened an account you’ll be able to

sure others. Being open about illness or dying, and being together in facing whatever comes, may make situations easier to cope with. The person at the centre of the conversation can give instruction on how and where they wish to be cared for and nominate someone to help make decisions for them. This prevents misunderstandings and puts the person in the driving seat of their own life.

SweetTree specialises in caring for people at the end of their lives and facilitates support that flexes around personal care and health needs and promoting the best possible quality of life. We ensure that we understand what each person wants, so they can get on living day to day as normally as possible. SweetTree helps people to live well to the end of life by adding ‘life to days’.

Please contact us at SweetTree and ask how to start a very important conversation.

There is so much more to say.

talk through your requirements with your account manager and find out what service is right for you.

When you are ready to make the transfer, you will send us your pounds to our UK Barclays account in London and provide us with you son’s bank account details in Israel. As soon as we receive the funds, we will send him the shekels from our Bank Leumi account.

We transfer any amounts from £100, giving you the flexibility to send small or large amounts. The process is quick, smooth and you will be kept updated every step of the way.

Thank you again and if you need any further information please let me know.

IAN GREEN IT SPECIALIST

MAN ON A BIKE Dear Ian Now I’m doing more work from home can you give me advice on a printer suitable for a home office?

Marc Dear Marc This is something I’ve been asked a lot over the two periods of lockdown.

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a whole set-up with large copier/printers, networks and possibly even an IT department, now they are fending for themselves at home, often using their own equipment.

The type of printer you need will depend on the work you are doing. For large quantities of printing a laser printer is usually preferable: these can be either black and white or colour.

Where it’s just occasional printing, an inkjet would be a cheaper purchase. Printers now often have the option of a scanner. If you are likely to be scanning or copying multi-page documents you should look for an all-in-one with a document feeder to make things easier.

Having a device that is wireless will give you more options of where to place the printer especially where office space is tight. They can also let you print from your tablet or phone.

If your work requires heavy-duty printing and copying then there is a new type of ink printer that will give laser-quality results but are significantly cheaper to run. I am able to advise on the best solutions for your needs and space.

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Jewish News 3 December 2020

Ask Our Experts / Professional advice from our panel

Our Experts Got a question for a member of our team?

Email: editorial@jewishnews.co.uk PRIVATE HEALTHCARE SPECIALIST TREVOR GEE Qualifications: • Managing Director, consultant specialists in affordable family health insurance.

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

• Excellent knowledge of health insurers, cover levels and hospital lists • LLB solicitors finals • Member of Chartered Insurance Institute

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

DIRECTOR OF LEGACIES

DYSLEXIA PRACTITIONER

EMPLOYMENT LAW AND DATA PROTECTION EMMA GROSS Qualifications: • Specialist in claims of unfair dismissal, redundancy and discrimination.

• Established record for negotiating out of court settlements, as well as handling complex tribunal cases.

• HR services including drafting contracts and policies, advising on disciplinaries, grievances and providing staff training.

• Contributor to The Times, HR Magazine and other titles.

SPENCER WEST LLP 020 7925 8080 www.spencer-west.com emma.gross@spencer-west.com

COMMERCIAL LAWYER

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.

ADAM LOVATT Qualifications: • Lawyer with more than 11 years of experience working in the legal sector. Specialist in corporate, commercial, media, sport and start-ups.

• Master’s degree in Intellectual Property Law from the University of London.

• Non-Executive Director of various companies advising on all governance matters.

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

LOVATT LEGAL LIMITED 07753 802 804 adam@lovattlegal.co.uk

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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.

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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

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 19 years ago.

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3 December 2020 Jewish News

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Professional advice from our panel / Ask Our Experts

ACCOUNTANT

ADR CONSULTANT

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.

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.

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

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

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

INTERNATIONAL PAYMENTS SPECIALIST

PROPERTY DEVELOPER

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.

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.

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

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

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

INSURANCE CONSULTANCY

CHARITY EXECUTIVE

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!

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.

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.

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

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

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

ISRAELI ACCOUNTANT

ALIYAH ADVISER

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.

CLAIRE STRAUS Qualifications: • Free professional one-to-one advice at Resource to help unemployed into work.

• Practical support, workshops and networking opportunities to maximise prospects.

• Career coach with MSc in career management and coaching with a background in human resources and general management and experience of private, public and voluntary sectors.

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, pet disputes, 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

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info@mriplus.co.uk

HENDON, NORTH LONDON

LEIGH-ON-SEA, ESSEX

0208 205 1100

01702 478 885

30-100 COLINDEEP LANE, HENDON, NW9 6HB

Jewish News AD 3.indd 1

Quote ORANGE for £10 off

1629 LONDON ROAD, LEIGH-ON-SEA, SS9 2SQ

10/11/2020 13:20

3 December 2020 Jewish News

www.jewishnews.co.uk

39

Fun, games and prizes

THE JEWISH NEWS CROSSWORD 1

2

3

4

5

6

10 13 17 18 19 20

7 8

9

10 12 14

15 16

17

18

19

20

ACROSS 1 Message in cipher (4) 3 Siren (6)

8 Break or burst (7) 9 Despondent (3)

G T K Q A E Q L

L

S

23

Y N Y M A

L C P D

I

G F

E W E

B O X W

I

S

J

R U W W T

J

C A B E

E A

L

L

Y O E

12

K P

O B Z N P E R W P C O R O S A G

I

20

L C M

I

16

A O Z O T I

M O R A E

L

E

16

H

L

H M R M

X E E G J

U T Y S C P O L M U S S E

I L

B

I

A C S

L

K W Q L

T

21

10

19

10

15

15

20

17

4

5

7

F N

5

7

7

21

2

5 13

8 5

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

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.

22 15

5

A

18

5 15

10

18

23

15

21

23

7

2

5

16

16

10

13

15

18

2

23

5

18

1

4

23

23

26

11

23

18

20

See next issue for puzzle solutions.

ANGEL WING

JEWEL BOX

RAZOR SHELL

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

CLAM

LIMPET

SCALLOP

1

2

COCKLE

MUSSEL

SEA SNAIL

14

15

CONCH

OYSTER

WHELK

Crossword ACROSS: 1 Tacit 4 Manic 7 Far 8 Rosette 9 Taxi 10 Scam 13 DNA 15 Hank 16 Trot 19 Monocle 21 Pug 22 Dated 23 Terse DOWN: 1 Tuft 2 Curtain 3 Torrid 4 Mess 5 Net 6 Creamy 11 Chopper 12 Themed 14 Attest 17 Iced 18 Ogle 20 Nut

Sudoku 7 5 4 3 8 9 6 2 1

3 2 6 7 1 5 8 4 9

8 9 1 4 2 6 3 5 7

16

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

H A

Suguru 9 6 7 1 5 3 2 8 4

4 1 5 8 6 2 9 7 3

2 8 3 9 7 4 1 6 5

5 4 9 2 3 8 7 1 6

1 3 2 6 4 7 5 9 8

6 7 8 5 9 1 4 3 2

1 3 1 5 2 4

2 5 2 4 3 1

4 1 3 1 2 4

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

Wordsearch 3 2 5 4 3 1

1 4 3 2 5 2

5 2 5 1 3 4

2 4 1 3 2 3

1 3 2 4 1 5

2 4 1 5 2 4

1 5 3 4 3 1

3 2 1 2 5 2

1 4 5 4 3 1

3 1

5

PERIWINKLE

3

4

4

17

COWRIE

N

2

5 2

19

23

5

25

17

5

8

15

6

16

19

4

15

15

11

16

15 7

5

11

12

21

23

23

19

23

16

19

18

13

ABALONE

Last issue’s solutions

9 4

12

21

N

21

17

24

3

2

2

25

16

17

17

5

25

23

19

2 1

8

14

23

23

4

19

23

L N H A F S S K A R W H P E H U B S A H L

9

2

N V C

K V N L R C K N C Z W

24

21

Z R X X C D H I

6

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 2, 16 and 17 with their letters in the grid will help you to guess the identity of other letters.

The shell-related words can all be found in the grid. Words may run either forwards or backwards, in a horizontal, vertical or diagonal direction, but always in a straight, unbroken line.

I

Quality of being naff or kitsch (10) Assemble (10) Inhabitant of a convent (3) Over‑exposure in summer (7) Move out from, leave empty (6) Skin irritation (4)

CODEWORD

WORDSEARCH G O

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 Pasteboard (4) 2 Opposite of ‘height’ (5) 4 Mineral containing a precious or useful metal (3) 5 Sample (5) 6 Small red salad plant (6) 7 Building containing relics (6) 11 Treasure ___, adventure story by Robert Louis Stevenson (6) 12 Car’s GPS computer (6) 14 Sceptic (5) 15 Jeer at, ridicule (5) 16 ___ High, Private Eye, 1970s cartoon series (4) 18 Film location (3)

11

13

SUDOKU

H V C F P S T U N S Y N D

Y L O M A I X S K I R T R

E A L G C B H N O G C Z Y

M R L K C I R O N E D V C

S S E R D G N I D D E W L

S T C F I A Y T C Q P S E

R N T W Z R R A R I N O A

Codeword E B I K D O T R H I Q F N

G D O A U C L E A N E R I

N T N S T X M T V S J D N

A E E G J S R L T U U L G

H R U R B U W A U I D I K

S P I Z C D E S S E R P T

OM I A S Q F U O S T E A D

I T BOOK S HO P W L R A W P I R E I N V E N T N E G E S S D I A T R I B E E M U A T I S T I C A L L Y U R L J U DG E D T I D Y N G U W O GA U C H E S NOO Z E X L S T R E R E C E N T L Y K E R B F X PMB U AQH V G JW T S D C N Y O E R I K L Z03/12

40 Jewish News

www.jewishnews.co.uk

3 December 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 – Reproduction – 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.

Antique – Reproduction – Retro Furniture

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

MARYLEBONE ANTIQUES - 8 CHURCH STREET NW8 8ED

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.

CHURCH STREET ANTIQUES � 8 CHURCH STREET NW8 8ED

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

͔͚͚͛͜ ͚͕͘ ͛͘͘ (ANYTIME) Email: gordonstirling65@gmail.com

www.antiquesbuyers.co.uk

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.

0207 723 7415 (SHOP)

FOR APPOINTMENTS CALL SUE ON: 0800 840 2035 or 07956268290 OPEN 8am TO 9pm 7 DAYS.

Call Ian Green, Man on a Bike on

PORTOBELLO RD LONDON.

020 8731 6171 • www.manonabike.co.uk

closed Sunday & Monday STUART SHUSTER � e�mail � 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.

During the pandemic, we offer telephone and online counselling.

ARE YOU BEREAVED? Contact Jewish Bereavement Counselling Service in adults confidence.

Counselling for & children who are 0208Support 951 3881groups offered. experiencing loss. enquiries@jbcs.org.uk | www.jbcs.org.uk Call The Jewish Bereavement

Labels are forTURN, jars.

Refer yourself or aKNOW loved one by IF YOU DON’T WHICH WAY TO Not people. calling 020 8458 2223 orOUR visit HELPLINE. REMEMBER www.jamiuk.org

For confidential advice, information and support don’t forget Jewish Care Direct.

REGISTERED CHARITY NO. 1003345

020 8922 2222

Counselling Service in confidence

jcdirect@jcare.org

020 & 8951 3881 • 07765 693 160 CHARITY WELFARE

jewishcare.org/helpline

HOUSE CLEARANCE

E: enquiries@jbcs.org.uk

We have an open waiting list in our friendly and comfortable warden assisted sheltered housing schemes in Ealing, East Finchley and Hendon. We provide 24-hour warden WESTLON HOUSING ASSOCIATION support, seven days a week; a residents’ lounge and kitchen, laundry, a sunny patio and garden.

Sheltered Accommodation For further details and forms, We have an open waiting list for ourapplication friendly and comfortable pleasesheltered contact Westlon Housing Association onpeople warden assisted housing schemes for Jewish in Ealing, East Finchley andjohnsilverman@btconnect.com Hendon. We provide 24-hour 020 8201 8484 or email: warden support, seven days a week; a residents’ lounge and kitchen, laundry, a sunny patio and garden.

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

Charity Reg No. 802559

ADVERTISE IN THE UK’S BIGGEST JEWISH NEWSPAPER FOR LESS THAN £24 A WEEK

PLUMBSAFE (UK) LTD “Better Safe Than Sorry�

Jami supports and represents people with mental illness across Fast & Efficient House the Jewish community.

For all your heating and plumbing requirements | boiler repairs and installation | complete central heating | | power flushing | complete bathroom installation service | | landlords certificates | project management | home purchase reports |

Clearance

Are you a Jewish woman experiencing domestic violence?

With abuse in your home, do you worry about your children?

#jamithinkahead We are reliable, cover all neighbourhoods & suit all budgets.

Give support • Get support • Get involved We also buy good quality furniture, old books & Judaica.

All NW-London postcodes covered

07860 881505 or 0800 610 12 12

Email today at We are Sales here to help sales@thejngroup.com

with free support, advice and information and confidential counselling.

Kosher Refuge available for women and children in need.

020 8458 2223 | info@jamiuk.org www.jamiuk.org

Call: 078 060 79299 Reg Charity No. 1003345

Not shabbat

PLUMBSAFEUK.COM

Free Confidential National Helpline 0808 801 0500 advice@jwa.org.uk • www.jwa.org.uk

HOME & MAINTENANCE

Home & Maintenance

L

K

PLUMBSAFE (UK) LTD

No further, your

LOCAL PLUMBERS

Hall & Randall Plumbers

CENTRAL HEATING, PLUMBING REPAIRS & ADVISORY SERVICE EMERGENCY REPAIRS, BLOCKED PIPES DRAINAGE GUTTERING, ROOFING, CENTRAL HEATING AND BOILERS 12 MONTHS GUARANTEE, 40 YEARS EXPERIENCE

| boiler repairs and installation | complete central heating | | power flushing | complete bathroom installation service | | landlords certificates | project management | home purchase reports |

Not shabbat

) *" " - *'

Home & Maintenance

STONEMASON

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

Edgware personal

The specialist masons in creating bespoke Granite and Marble Memorials for all Cemeteries.

Email : info@garygreenmemorials.co.uk

12Very Beehive Lane 130rates High Street competitive Gants Hill, IG1 3RD Edgware, HA8 7EL Telephone Telephone

STEPHEN: 07973 342 422 0207 754 4659 0207 754 4646

www.garygreenmemorials.co.uk

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

LOFT CONVERSIONS & UPVC Fitter

+ " ) "# ,! " " ! #

!

•DRIVEWAYS •PAINTING London 020 8485 8176 •PATIOS •PLASTERING •BRICKWORK •PLUMBING ADVERTISE IN THE AUTOMOTIVE •ROOF REPAIRS •ALL BUILDING UK’S BIGGEST •GUTTERING WORKNEWSPAPER JEWISH City and Guilds Electrician MOTOR VEHICLES

PLUMBSAFEUK.COM

office@hallandrandall.com

Edgware Showroom 41 Manor Park Crescent Edgware. HA8 7LY T: 0208 381 1525

!

! # ! " " #

All NW-London postcodes covered

07860 881505 or 0800 610 12 12

020 8953 2094 office

Clayhall Showroom 14 Claybury Broadway Ilford. IG5 0LQ T: 0208 551 6866

HI LINE ROOFING

For all your heating and plumbing requirements

020 8207 3286 home 020 8386 8798 hallandrandallplumbers.com

LONDON

“Better Safe Than Sorry�

18/03/2019 12:50:51

srindsmc@hotmail.com

www.memorialgroup.co.uk

All types of electrical work undertaken

FOR LESS THAN

PURCHASED A WEEK £24.00 FREE ESTIMATES & ADVICE Rewiring, extra sockets, BT points, Economy 7 CLASSIC OR CARS storage heaters, Shabbat time switches, security lighting, ALL tests, WORK FULLYCall GUARANTEED for vehicles 10 CCTVportable appliance LED spotlights, over fault finding, Marc today landlord tests and house buyer’s surveys. years old preferably on 020 7692 6943 581 Bowrons Ave, Wembley HA0 4QP withan low mileagereliable and friendly For efficient service.

Call Harvey Solomons on

020 8958 Anthony 6495 / 07836 Contact: – 648 554

07850 590415

01245 211 002 / 07773 102 386 Jewish hilineroofing.site123.me

3 December 2020 Jewish News

www.jewishnews.co.uk

41

Business Services Directory SILVER

KITCHEN INSTALLATION

AUCTIONEERS

Bespoke German Kitchens Konig experienced designers will plan, supply & install a stunning new kitchen to suit your lifestyle & budget giving you the best use of space, quality & value.

Enjoy your dream kitchen - contemporary or traditional for many years.

ADVERTISE IN THE UK’S BIGGEST JEWISH NEWSPAPER FOR LESS THAN £24 A WEEK

German kitchens at affordable prices.

Contact: 020 8946 3539 info@konigkitchens.com konigkitchens.com Instagram: @Konig_Kitchens

Email Sales today at sales@jewishnews.co.uk

OFFICE FURNITURE

LEGACY- LEAVE A GIFT IN YOUR MEMORY

JEWISH WAR VETERANS

Leave the legacy of independence to people like Joel.

& THEIR DEPENDANTS NEED

YOUR LEGACY

Need to furnish your home or office?

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

London’s leading supplier of new and reconditioned furniture.

Free assembly and delivery next working day on most items – call now!

HELP US CONTINUE TO BE THERE FOR OUR COMMUNITY WITH A GIFT IN YOUR WILL. Call Alison on 020 8922 2833 for more information or email legacyteam@jcare.org Chancellors House, Brampton Lane, London, NW4 4AB Tel: 020 8903 8746 | Fax: 020 8795 2240 www.bfiwd.org | email: info@bfiwd.org

Charity Reg No. 802559

STONE WORKS

Secure our

children’s future Charity no. 1042391

Outstanding live-in and hourly care in

Providing outstanding care for 20 years based Primrose Hill, HelpingLocally people toin live independently at home

your home at flexible, affordable rates.

Every gift makes a difference legacy@cst.org.uk

020 8457 3700

PillarCare’s friendly, experienced

www.cst.org.uk

COMPUTER Legacy advert 84x40.indd 1

Man on a Bike will get you working fast!

07/04/2017 14:47

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.

Call Ian Green, Man on a Bike on

HOME CARE

Quality care in your home for independent living.

Please include

CST in your Will

Call 0800 559 3917 Email sales@andrewsofficefurniture.com www.andrewsofficefurniture.com

020 8731 6171 • www.manonabike.co.uk

Quartz & granite worktops Give your kitchen the wow factor with a stunning granite or Quartz worktop.

We template, manufacture & fit.

Amazing colours & patterns.

Best quality stone worktops to last a lifetime at very competitive prices Factory in Enfield. 25 years in business

Tel; 02088265724 Sales@rossistoneworks.co.uk www.rossistoneworks.com

team have been helping people live

Outstanding live-in andin their hourly care in as independently as possible own homes since 1999. Our fees your home at flexible, affordable rates. are fully inclusive with care service provision 365 days a year.

Outstanding live-in andOutstanding hourly care live-in in and hourly care in find out more 020rates.

7482 2188. your home atToflexible, affordable yourcall home at flexible, affordable rates.

020 7482 2188

pillarcare.co.uk

Live-in care

365 days a year enquiries@pillarcare.co

Hourly day care

Hourly night care

020 7482 2188

pillarcare.co.uk 020 7482 2188 www.pillarcare.co.uk | enquiries@pillarcare.co.uk

020 7482 2188

pillarcare.co.uk

42

www.jewishnews.co.uk

Jewish News 3 December 2020

JEWS HAVE WON 59 NOBEL PRIZES FOR MEDICINE. THIS ISN’T ONE, BUT IT IS GOOD FOR YOU.

AVA I L A B LE AT WA ITROS E & PA RTN E R S LOC K U P

AVAIL ABLE

AT

Available at Waitrose_Single Line_PMS370_v3

With its name inspired by the date when Jews first arrived in this country, 1070 KITCHEN is Britain’s first brand celebrating the world of Jewish cuisine, made under the supervision of the London Beth Din, and now available in Waitrose and on Waitrose.com.

AVA I L A B L E AT

Available at Waitrose_Stacked_PMS370_v4