1201 by Jewish News

Matt Luca on 50 yea s of Mr Me rs n, p30

The remarkable life of the Jewish composer behind Billie Holiday’s iconic song Page 31

VOICE OF THE COMMUNITY 11 March 2021

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27 Adar 5781

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Issue No.1201

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Strange times

Branson’s innovator

Israeli prize winner is mourned Page 10

@JewishNewsUK

Jump for joy!

Let my people Lego!

Excited pupils return to school Page 9

Will you win our Pesach Lego prize? Page 6

‘Meghan deserves empathy, not hate’ Mental health expert praises candid revelations

Meghan spoke of her mental health struggle

The Jewish community’s leading mental health campaigner has praised the Duchess of Sussex for opening up about her suicidal thoughts and vehemently rebuked those who belittle her, writes Jack Mendel. In the aftermath of Monday night’s Oprah Winfrey interview, Jonny Benjamin called for more to be done to change attitudes while paying tribute to Meghan and Prince Harry, as well as the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, for their efforts in raising awareness. Meghan revealed in the wide-ranging interview that she had struggled with life as Harry’s girlfriend and as a working member of the royal family, telling Winfrey: “I just didn’t want to be alive any more.” Good Morning Britain host Piers Morgan faced a backlash on Tuesday after saying he

did not believe the duchess, branding her claims a “diatribe of bilge”. He walked off the programme midway through the live broadcast and later resigned from his role. More than 41,000 complaints were sent to Ofcom over Morgan’s remarks. Benjamin, who was diagnosed with schizophrenia aged 20 and attempted to take his own life in 2008, told Jewish News: “Because it’s an invisible illness, people seem to think they have the right to comment. “If Meghan had told Oprah she was struggling with a physical illness such as cancer, I’m certain that the response by figures such as Piers Morgan would have been entirely different.” He condemned the attitude of the former GMB anchor, saying: “I’m deeply concerned that the likes of Mr Morgan doubting

Meghan’s admission to her state of mind will put others off talking. Anyone that dares to talk about mental health and suicidal ideation so publicly deserves our admiration, not our critique.” Urging people to seek help, he added: “Suicide takes the life of someone every 40 seconds around the world. It’s a shocking figure. Surely we should be doing more to encourage people to come forwards and open up if they are struggling with suicidal thoughts and feelings.” In 2008, Benjamin had been preparing to take his own life before being talked down from Waterloo Bridge by a stranger, Neil Laybourne, who later became a friend and campaigner. He released his memoir, The Stranger on the Bridge, in 2018, with the Duke

Continued on page 3

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Jewish News 11 March 2021

News / Charedi ‘sacrifices’ / Communal study / Loophole closed

Illegal weddings mask ‘sacrifices’ Illegal weddings hosted during lockdown have unfairly masked sacrifices made by London’s Orthodox Jewish community in the coronavirus pandemic, Charedi leaders claim. Stamford Hill hit headlines earlier this year when authorities said about 400 people had gathered in one of the area’s schools, Yesoday Hatorah, for a wedding. These figures were eventually revised down to 150, prompting anger among some locals. Levi Schapiro, a founding director of the Jewish Community Council of North London, said circulation of the initial figures by authorities had “damaged” and “created hate” towards the community. He criticised those who had thrown the wedding but said their actions were not representative of everyone. He told the PA news agency: “We are very, very upset with those two families who did that wedding. But as a community, the vast majority of us have sacrificed a lot. We have sacrificed seven or eight different celebrations and holidays. Look at Christmas – Chanukah is in the same month, and we asked the government for the ability to celebrate Chanukah, but were told no.” Following the high-profile wedding, a Jewish News investigation revealed the extent of lockdown rule-breaking, revealing there had been

A vaccination centre in Stamford Hill

more than 50 Charedi simchas across London during lockdown, with lookouts used to raise the alarm. Rabbi Herschel Gluck, president of Shomrim, said: “People should be aware of all the positive things being done in the community. There are good stories that should be celebrated, but they are often ignored.” He said the internet had enabled people to stay connected and more than 30 Shomrin volunteers patrol the area, providing support. The community would have marked Purim at the end of February, but many celebrations were “put on hold”, Rabbi Gluck said. “It was very difficult for the community because it’s certainly one of the real highlights of the Jewish year.”

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POLARISATION RISK AS CHAREDIM GROW Rapid growth in the UK’s Charedi population could create tensions with other Jewish groups, a think-tank warned this week in a study of how communal life has been hit by the pandemic, writes Michael Daventry. Research by the Institute for Jewish Policy Research (JPR) within Jewish communities in Britain has found the impact of the virus has created several urgent challenges. Growing Charedi communities, falling synagogue attendance and disruption to youth leadership programmes were among the issues identified in its report published this week. It said estimates that half of all Jews born in Britain will be into strictly-Orthodox homes within this decade would widen the scope for “more acute tensions and polarisation” between different communities. Pointing to instances of civil unrest with Charedi communities already seen in Israel, it continued: “We should not rule out the prospect of similar problems occurring in the UK. “Structures need to be established to look seriously at the issues, and to establish better means of co-operation between these parts of the Jewish community.” JPR also said that the pandemic might have permanently altered the way many Jews in Britain interact with their own communities, with the habit of regular synagogue attendance broken as a result of the series of lockdowns. It said the proportion of synagogue members paying full fees had declined in 2020 and called for more funding for communities experiencing financial difficulties. “It cannot be assumed that attendance levels will simply bounce back to pre-pandemic levels once life returns to some semblance of normality,” the report said. “Thus, the challenge of maintaining and enhancing synagogue life is far from straight-

JPR report warns of possible tensions

forward, and a great deal of effort will be needed to ensure that these key institutions continue to thrive. It is “very likely” that many synagogues will be trying to rebuild Jewish communal life with fewer financial resources, it added. The pandemic has also affected informal education in the community, JPR said, especially in youth movements, where cancelled summer camps, fewer social activities and the absence of trips to Israel had reduced the number of youth leaders for the future. “[By] missing out on the educational components of Israel summer tours one of the most important opportunities young people have to engage seriously with the role of Israel in their Jewish identities has been missed, with all the knock-on implications that has for the future,” the report said. It called for “immediate endeavours” to ensure that summer activities can still take place this year and that groups that have suffered economically during the pandemic are provided with subsidies.

Sex abuse law fix Campaigners for Jewish victims of sexual abuse have welcomed changes to child abuse laws announced in Parliament this week, writes Jack Mendel. The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill closes a legal loophole under so-called position of trust laws, widening the law to cover religious leaders. The legislation, which already applied to teachers and doctors, makes sexual relationships between people in these roles, and those they supervise, illegal. It follows “an extensive review which raised concerns that predators could exploit the particular influence these roles can often have in a young person’s life – making them vulnerable to abuse”, the government’s website says. The move to extend the law to religious leaders was welcomed by Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis, who said: “Sadly, wherever relationships of trust exist, there follows the danger for those relationships to be exploited in the most destructive way. Nothing could be more vital than keeping young people in our communities safe and the closing of this loophole, as recommended by the Independent Inquiry in Child Sexual Abuse, sends an important mes-

sage in that regard.” Reform Judaism welcomed the move, with Rabbi Celia Surget, chair of the Assembly of Reform Rabbis and Cantors UK, saying: “We are absolutely in support of the widening of the laws outlined in this new legislation. “We welcome it wholeheartedly and look forward to seeing its implementation.” This comes after the government stepped in last week to protect victims of religious divorce, trapped by abusive husbands who refuse to grant a get. Yehudis Goldsobel, who in 2013 established Migdal Emunah, a charity that supports victims of sexual abuse, backed the “exciting and welcome change to legislation”. She said: “Over the years I have had the privilege to work with colleagues from other faiths in advocating for more robust safeguarding in faith and religious organisations. “This is a first step towards better safeguarding standards and I look forward to further recommendations being implemented in the near future. I am optimistic to see the recommendations from IICSA [Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse] in their final report.”

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11 March 2021 Jewish News

International Women’s Day / News

Israelis and Arabs link hands on Women’s Day It was an International Women’s Day with a difference: for the first time since their countries agreed a peace deal, Israeli and Emirati women came together to celebrate their new-found ties of business and friendship, writes Michael Daventry. The online meeting on Monday, organised by the UAE-Israel Business Council, brought together entrepreneurs, politicians and social media influencers for a breakfast conversation. It was chaired by Jerusalem’s deputy mayor Fleur Hassan-Nahoum and Justine Zwerling, the British-Israeli entrepreneur. One story came from Norah Alawadhi, the social media influencer who became a viral hit appeared of her holding hands with her Israeli friend Ronny Gonen, both women draped in their country’s flags. Alawadhi said the experience had been frightening, and not just because Arm in arm: Norah Alawadhi and Ronny Gonen standing they were standing precariously upon together wearing their national flags in Dubai metal railings high up on the 80th floor of spent a day showing Gonen around Dubai: she a Dubai skyscraper. “We were scared because we were standing said she had never had an encounter with an on something that was moving,” she said. Israeli or a Jewish person before. Also attending the session was Ruth Was“People kept saying it was staged, but it was not serman Lande, the MK from Benny Gantz’s fake, it was real. “I was getting death threats, it was a bit scary, Blue and White party and former advisor to Shimon Peres during his presidency. but I decided not to pay attention to the hate.” She recounted her experiences as a dipThe photograph was taken after she had

lomat based at the Israeli embassy in Egypt. Some observers have contrasted Israel’s longstanding but “cold” peace with Egypt against its new, fast-moving and warm relations with the United Arab Emirates (UAE). A different account of blossoming Israel-UAE relations came from Efrat Roman, an Israeli breast cancer survivor whose difficult recovery experience led her to invent a light, sterile, disposable bra that women could put on and adjust by themselves. The product, EZbra, has been successfully marketed to countries around the world — but in the United Arab Emirates, the “made in Israel” tags would have to be removed prior to shipping. Roman recounted the moment when the Abraham Accords were agreed last autumn. “I got a call from my US distributor saying we can ship to the UAE,” she said. “We saw the effects immediately.” There was a similar story from Leah Tedrow, a marketer whose Israeli-made reusable face mask is made of substances that can kill Covid-19.

Dana: United, women would be so powerful Transgender superstar and Eurovision winner Dana International has urged domestic abuse and women’s rights to be “talked about all year long, not on just one day”, during a candid chat this week with radio and TV presenter Yigal Ravid., writes Francine Wolfisz. More than 350 people from all over the world joined the virtual event, which was hosted by Israel Bonds UK and World Zionist Organisation UK in celebration of International Women’s Day. The glittering Israeli singer, who won the Eurovision Song Contest in 1998 with her song Diva, added: “Women around the world should be uniting to support each other. They don’t know how much power they would have if they became more united.” As the first trans winner of Eurovision, the singer – who is also known as Sharon Cohen – said she was propelled to international fame and people still recognise her in the street 23 years on. “It changed my life. In Israel, everyone says ‘hi’, everyone feels like a friend. They shout out, ‘You are a queen, we love you.’” She also admitted that the past year with the pandemic has been “horrible”, adding: “I’ve been like a prisoner in my home.”

NUS AND BDS TO SHARE PLATFORM The president of the NUS has sparked a backlash after agreeing to take part in an ‘Israel Apartheid’ event alongside the co-founder of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement. Student leader Larissa Kennedy is due to speak at the online ‘United Against Racism – Resisting Israeli Apartheid’ talk next Thursday, alongside the activist Omar Barghouti. Barghouti (pictured) does not believe in a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict, and instead advocates a single secular state. Critics say this ultimately would mean the end of Israel as a country. Both the Union of Jewish Students and

Board of Deputies have criticised the event. Board president Marie van der Zyl said: “We support the UJS, which has been forthright in its condemnation. Mr Barghouti has made it clear that his activities and intentions are to bring an end to Israel as a country.” The NUS has said its president is attending the event as “she is committed to international solidarity and liberation for people across the world. NUS believes all marginalised groups should feel safe on campus.”

‘Meghan showed courage’ Continued from page 1 of Cambridge writing the foreword, after he met Prince William and Princess Kate in 2016. Having worked with both the William and Harry on mental health issues, he praised them for the “key role in raising awareness”. He said the Oprah interview and backlash would not hinder their work, adding they are “hugely passionate” about the issue. “All the young royals, including Meghan, have helped to shine an important spotlight on mental health, and now suicide prevention. Regardless of everyone’s opinion of the situation, I hope that people will realise the

courage it takes for anyone to open up about their mental health.” Benjamin also expressed some regret that while the princes are both passionate about mental health campaigning, in the future “it may not be together anymore as previously”. Jewish mental health charity Jami urged members of the community struggling with mental health or suicidal thoughts to reach out for help. It warned: “More than 6,500 people across the UK take their own lives each year and tens of thousands more attempt suicide.”  More information at jamiuk.org

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and Nina wants to support UJIA’s mentoring there long into the future.

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 11 March 2021

News / Flight settlement / School scandal / Oberman video

Airline compensates woman for seat swap EasyJet has compensated a BritishIsraeli woman after she was twice asked to switch seats on flights departing from Israel because a strictly-Orthodox man would not sit next to her, writes Michael Daventry. The budget airline reached the settlement with 38-year-old Melanie Wolfson, who said at the time she was facing discrimination for being female. She recounted how she ultimately made the switch on the first

flight out of Ben Gurion Airport in October 2019 out of fear she would be held responsible for delaying the flight. But she refused to leave her seat on the latter flight two months later and instead two female passengers switched with two Charedi men and took the seats next to her. In a statement that was agreed with Wolfson, easyJet said it did not believe female passengers should be asked to move seats “simply based

on their gender”. It continued: “The airline has a policy to politely inform any customer who raises this request that this will not be accommodated. “Unfortunately, according to Melanie Wolfson, this policy was not followed in her case.” The statement was agreed with Wolfson and released through the Israel Religious Action Center, which is affiliated to the Reform movement in Israel and had filed

A woman had to move as a strictly-Orthodox man would not sit beside her

a lawsuit. Wolfson was suing on an Israeli law from 2000 that prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, religion, nationality, land of origin,

gender, sexual orientation, political views or personal status. EasyJet said it would introduce additional crew training and guidelines to prevent a repeat incident.

Apology for ‘Jews killed Jesus’ class ACTRESS SPEAKS ABOUT MISOGYNY The director of an educational website has removed a homework assignment in which Jews were blamed for killing Jesus. Chris Spolton, who runs the Topmarks site, removed the assignment earlier this week following a complaint by Joanne Bell. Her seven-year-old son had been instructed by his school’s religious studies teacher to complete the assignment, but Bell saw it and flagged it on social media, the Daily Mail reported. The school also apologised to Bell. “What harm has it ever done to portray Jews as bloodthirsty and solely responsible for the

NG I M O C

death of the believed son of God, Jesus?” she tweeted. The assignment included a slide that said “the Jewish leaders wanted Jesus to be guilty” and “paid people to lie about him” and had him taken to Roman governor Pontius Pilate on charges of insulting God. Another slide says Pilate bowed to the will of the Jewish masses and their “chief priests, who wanted Jesus to die”. In the 1965 Nostra Aetate, the Catholic Church asserted Jews today could not be held responsible for Jesus’ death. Spolton told Bell he made the slides 20 years ago when he was “naive”.

N O SO

Jewish actress Tracy-Ann Oberman features in a video for International Women’s Day highlighting antiJewish misogyny. The former EastEnders star appeared in the production as part of a campaign run by Antisemitism Policy Trust (ATP). In the clip, which was filmed last summer and is the third in a series from the ‘We Are Truthers’ campaign exposing conspiracy theories and extremism, she asks: “What special place does a Jewish woman have in the heart of

an antisemitic misogynist?” Detailing abuse she has received, the actor spoke about her great-grandmother’s experience of antisemitism and hardship in Belarus. When her relative arrived in the UK, she said, being a housewife would have meant “being decorative, passive, unopinionated, gentle. Everything that would probably get you killed in the hard existence of being a Jewish woman in Eastern Europe. Everything a misogynist hates. Strong, sexual, opinion, powerful, intelligent.”

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11 March 2021 Jewish News

Vaccine expertise / Special Report

The Brit sharing Israel’s vax skills A British expat is helping to mastermind the first operation aimed at sharing Israel’s vaccine expertise across the developing world, writes Nathan Jeffay. And as Tamar Kosky Lazarus directs the aid trip she helped plan from mission control in Tel Aviv, the epidemiologist who recently relocated from London to Israel is part of the team getting to work in Africa. Kosky Lazarus, 39, is senior development director at IsraAID, a non-profit organisation that has 350 staff helping in crisis and post-crisis spots. This week it launched what it says will be the first of several vaccine-focused aid operations and sent a team to the small African country of Eswatini (formerly Swaziland). The euphoria felt in Israel as vaccination got under way at record speed pushed her and her colleagues to think how the knowhow could be shared with those less fortunate. “When I received a vaccine in Israel it was emotional,” she said. “We’re very lucky and privileged. Global vaccine roll-out has been concentrated on a small number of wealthier countries, but we cannot allow the pandemic

to rage on uninhibited across lower shots to rural villages and inform income countries. It’s important we citizens about the benefits and safety take responsibility to help create a of vaccines. “People around the world have situation where every person in the seen what’s been happening in Israel,” world can have a vaccine.” Eswatini is a country of just over one said Kosky Lazarus. “The Eswatini million people bordering South Africa government was interested in learning and Mozambique. It faces intense pov- how our organisation could provide erty, sky-high Aids rates, and is reeling a holistic approach to the vaccine from the pandemic, following high roll-out.” As Kosky Lazarus and her Tel Aviv infections and the death of prime minister Ambrose Dlamini in December, colleagues assembled a crack team in four weeks after he tested positive less than a month, she tapped fellow British-Israeli Michael Edelstein, a for coronavirus. South Africa-based Jewish bil- key figure in Public Health England’s lionaire Nathan Kirsh, a citizen of pandemic strategy, before his move Eswatini, provided funds to IsraAID last summer to Bar Ilan University’s Azrieli Faculty of Medicine. for the mission. The government, “I am hoping my experiwhich invited the nonprofit, ence in managing vaccine already has vaccines on the way, but wanted help planprogrammes, and in particular vaccination data, ning the logistics and will help Eswatini run public education ahead a successful vaccine camof the roll-out. The mispaign,” he said. sion involves meetings The graduate of Leeds with health officials and University and UCL, who doctors, and addressing made aliyah 10 years ago, many questions facing said the issue of vaccine the vaccination caminequality was on her paign, from mind ever since how best to Israel and the transport Tamar Kosky Lazarus

IsraAID is a non-profit organisation helping in the world’s crisis hotspots

UK started vaccinating. She is accustomed to working under pressure on missions planned at short notice, but said even for her, this one presented new difficulties. “We faced challenges like airports opening and closing, Different countries’ Covid regulations, and need for extra tests along the way.” Kosky Lazarus is motivated in the current mission not only by a desire to see an end to illness and death caused by the virus, but also by dismay at the knock-on effects: malnutrition,

growing education gaps, increased gender-based violence rates and child protection issues. “The pandemic has led to many indirect side effects and has reinforced the vulnerability of already vulnerable communities.” But, she added, it was very exciting having the team on the ground. “This isn’t just another mission; it feels really groundbreaking. We expect to stay in Eswatini for the long-term, and will look into replicating this type of ‘vaccine access’ mission in other countries.”

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Jewish News 11 March 2021

News / Chesed fundraiser / Sacks bloodmobile / Pesach competition

Appeal helps 4,000 in need

HUB EXPANDS KOSHER MEALS

I found it very hard to take,” he said. “She was so full of life, such a lovely, kind person.” However, he added that the befriending calls and food parcels he gets through the service are a “lifeline”. Another, a mother of teenage children who began to struggle financially when the family lost work during the pandemic, added that the food boxes she received through her shul “brings the struggle right back down”. Meanwhile, Jewish Care this week launched its Pesach appeal to help the charity’s social work and community support team and Helpline. The organisation needs to raise more than £150,000 each month to keep these services going. The Helpline has answered 20,000 calls since the start of the pandemic and the social work team is looking after 1,200 clients. The charity has also supported many older people to make the transition from their own home or following a hospital stay into a Jewish Care home where they are cared for and can share in celebrating festivals and Shabbat in a close community group.

A charity providing free kosher meals to hospital patients has seen a surge of volunteers after announcing a new Golders Green hub. Bedside Kosher, which has a deal with the Royal Free in Hampstead to provide a full kosher menu, opened the hub on Monday. Executive director Anthony Shaw said it had allowed more people to volunteer with the service. “Our fresh meals have so far reached patients in every London hospital, but this new hub will allow our food parcels to reach patients in north-west London at a much faster rate,” he said. “It’s extraordinary to see so many volunteers step forward during the pandemic and deliver our free meal service – highlighting the best of our community.” Since the start of the pandemic last year, the charity estimates that it has delivered more than 40,000 meals throughout London, with the majority of its volunteers coming from Stamford Hill’s Charedi community. Alongside providing meals, the charity delivers kashrut training to NHS staff and helps mediate complaints from the community about the lack of kosher hospital meals.

An appeal to help more than 4,000 people and families in crisis this Pesach has smashed its original target to raise £440,000, writes Joshua Salisbury. The United Synagogue’s Chesed appeal, which ran over Sunday and Monday, originally hoped to raise £300,000. The money raised will provide food vouchers, seder boxes and general supplies for those in need. “We are so grateful to all those who donated and we truly appreciate all of the support,” said Michelle Minsky, head of United Synagogue Chesed. “Every donation will make a real difference to the families and individuals we help.” She added her thanks to those who had matched the donations, enabling them to be doubled. Those who’ve been supported by the Chesed department have opened up to Jewish News about their experiences of loneliness or financial difficulties. One, a 72-year-old man who Jewish News has called Samuel to protect his identity, said he had fallen into difficulty after the death last year of his partner of 25 years. “When she passed away,

Sacks fundraising feat by the generosity of our Nearly £100,000 has been community who have raised towards a lifenow raised the majority saving bloodmobile for of what we need to comIsrael in memory of Lord pete this fitting tribute to Sacks, writes Justin Cohen. a truly remarkable and Following the passing humbling man who was of the former chief passionate about the liferabbi aged 72 last saving work of MDA. We November, Jewish News are extremely grateful and Magen David Adom to Jewish News for launched a campaign to making this possible and purchase the first of a helping us secure the new batch of bloodmovital funds needed. biles which will transport teams around the country Lord Sacks with Tony Blair. Nearly £100,000 has been raised When the Israeli ambulance supplier heard of to collect some of the 1,100 chief rabbi, it will eventually find who it was in memory of, they also units a day that keep supplies full. Around 80 percent of the coun- a home at the new British-funded donated generously!” Tony Blair hailed the project try’s total blood supply is collected Blood and Logistics Centre, which this way but much of the current is due to open next year. The vehicle when it was launched while Rabbi Lord Sacks’ family said the opportufleet is two decades old and close to costs a total of £135,000. MDA chief executive Daniel nity to save lives was a fitting tribute being beyond economic repair. Bearing the name of the former Burger said: “I’m absolutely thrilled to his legacy.

Pesach building contest for our younger readers

Budding builders and ambitious architects are being invited to create Pesach-themed models as part of a Tribe-Jewish News competition launched today. Weareaskingouryoungerreaders to get out their building blocks, construction sets or Lego kits and design something that will take pride of place on your seder table. Setting the challenge, the US’s Richard Verber said: “Maybe you will build Moses crossing the sea, the pyramids or 10 Plagues? We are delighted to enlist the support of an expert panel of judges – all under 10 years old.” The competition is open to anyone at primary or secondary school and one win-

INDEPENDENCE. DIGNITY. CHOICE. “ I have peace of mind here knowing that if I fall over, help is on hand – I can just pull a cord and someone will be here within minutes.” Daniel, Jewish Blind & Disabled tenant

ning entry in each age category will receive a 500-piece Lego set and be featured in the Jewish News! Send a picture of your masterpiece, along with your name and age, to competition@tribeuk.com for your chance to win. You must have permission from a parent and include their contact details so we can let them know if you’re the winner! The closing date is 22 March at 1pm and winners will be picked by Lyla and Eli, the children of Jewish News editor Richard Ferrer, and Motti and Sara, nephew and niece of news editor Justin Cohen, along with a representative of the US’s young division Tribe.  More competition details on page 25

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11 March 2021 Jewish News

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Jewish News 11 March 2021

News / Family visits / Vaccine drive / PTSD study

At last, that human touch...

Emotional: Nina Doltis, left, finally holds hands with her daughter Jacky

Residents in Jewish care homes were reunited with loved ones this week, almost a year after the first national lockdown was imposed. Great-grandmother of 17, Nina Doltis, was able to hold her daughter Jacky’s hand, saying the experience was “lovely and overwhelming”. Jacky called it a “very emotional” encounter, and said she “greatly missed seeing my Mum”, who is a resident at Jewish Care’s Lady Sarah Cohen House in Friern Barnet. The move comes as coronavirus cases fall and the number of vaccines delivered soars past 20 million, allowing for social care organisations to restart physical visitations. Jewish Care locked down its homes

to external visitors on 12 March 2020, before the national lockdown. Norma Nash, who lives at Jewish Care’s Anita Dorfman House in Sandringham, was reunited with her daughter Amanda Patashnik. Before visiting the grandmotherof-three, Amanda said: “When I had my vaccine, I cried with relief. I’m so excited see Mum, it’s been a year and we are all so close. The pod visits were amazingly well-organised, but it was sad – it’s not the same speaking through a monitor and a sheet of glass. It’s a blessing to see her.” Sheila Cohen, who moved into Jewish Care’s Kun Mor and George Kiss Home in Friern Barnet in November was visited by her

daughter Adrienne Cinna. During the catch-up, the pair rang Adrienne’s brother, Ian, who lives in Newcastle, as Adrienne said the “visit made an enormous difference to Sheila”. She added: “I’d like to say a huge thank you to all the staff for making Mum feel so welcome and at home there, for acting responsibly and giving us the first opportunity for this visit. I really appreciate it.” Jewish Care Chief Executive, Daniel Carmel-Brown said: “We are delighted these visits can begin now and look forward to welcoming many more designated visitors as they reunite with their loved ones in the coming days and weeks.”

GP SHOWS PRINCE VACCINE POP-UP A north London GP welcomed Prince Charles to a pop-up vaccine centre in Staples Corner this week, as part of a drive to persuade people from ethnic minorities to be vaccinated against Covid-19, writes Jenni Frazer. Dr Charlotte Benjamin, the vice-chair of the North Central London Clinical Commissioning Group – which looks after five boroughs in the capital – welcomed the heir to the throne at Jesus House, along with church pastor Agu Irukwu and Dr Nayeem Azim. The member of Ner Yisrael Synagogue said: “The take-up from the Jewish community

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has been fantastic; it’s not been as good in other ethnic minorities. But we have found we can set up pop-up vaccine centres in places of worship, and that people who were nervous of having the vaccine are reassured if their church or mosque tell them it’s a good thing to do.” The prince was interested in the progress of the vaccine roll-out, which, Benjamin said, had shone a spotlight on health inequalities in the different communities. She said: “Giving the vaccine is so enjoyable because people are really grateful. We are proud to be part of the solution.”

Prince Charles and Dr Charlotte Benjamin tour the centre

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were deemed to have a mental health disorder between 27 May and 23 July last year. And 22 percent met the criteria for PTSD, according to the study led by researchers from UCL and the University of Haifa. The researchers also found 47 percent had clinically significant anxiety and 47 percent had depression.

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11 March 2021 Jewish News

Back to school / News

Party feel as schools open gates to all chair of the the school’s PTA, said: “We really wanted to give a special welcome back to our school community and spread some cheer with these beautiful balloons.” Karen Kent, headteacher at Menor-ah Foundation School in Edgware, praised staff for their hard work delivering the curriculum online, adding: “I am so proud of how the children have shown resilience through such a challenging time. They were excited to walk through the balloon arch which was donated by our PTA and it was a delight to see their smiling faces.” Visits to care homes also resumed on Monday, under strict conditions, and individuals are now allowed to leave home to meet one other person outdoors for a coffee or picnic. Boris Johnson said that the “small relaxation of the rules” will bring “joy and relief” to families after months of “tough restrictions”. One scientist advising the government acknowledged that it was “inevitable” there would be a rise in infection numbers as schools go back. Professor Calum Semple, a member of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies “Oy! Haven’t you grown?!” Thousands of Jewish pupils returned to schools across the country this week as the first steps were taken on the government roadmap out of lockdown, writes Francine Wolfisz. After two months of home learning, youngsters finally bounded away from their parents and through the school gates on Monday morning. Among them were nearly 500 pupils at Hertsmere Jewish Primary School in Radlett, who were welcomed back with a colourful balloon arch and helium letter balloons with the school’s initials. They were donated by PrtyPrk, a Camdenbased party decoration specialist. Adam Pratten-Stone, vice-

Teachers jive their delight

Pupils from the newly-named Shalom Noam Primary and Menorah Foundation School

(Sage), said a small increase in the R number – representing the reproduction rate of the

virus – is less important than the absolute numbers being admitted to hospital and inten-

sive care. Ministers believe that the rollout of the Covid-19 vaccine

should break the link between case numbers and hospital admissions and deaths as more people are protected. Semple said schools were “absolutely” safe for children to return to as surveys showed that even secondary school pupils are far less likely to contract the disease or transmit it than adults. “The main driver is not the pupil-teacher relationship,” he told BBC Breakfast. “When we talk about schools, it is the fact that the school brings adults together, whether that’s teaching staff, the domestic staff, the catering staff, and it’s an opportunity for mixing.”  Editorial comment, page 22

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Teachers at a Borehamwood primary school welcomed back students in an unusual and creative way– with a spoof video of Gloria Gay-nor’s 1970s hit I Will Survive. Yavneh staff created the parody, called We All Survived, before the return to school on Monday. The four-minute video pays tribute to the hard work of students and staff throughout the pandemic, with lines such as “How strange to see the children with no screen around their face, but we survived!” Headteacher, Caroline Field, said the rewritten lyrics to the clip, which features teachers singing and dancing in classrooms, was the brainchild of class teacher Leanne Altberg. “My wonderful creative teachers have done such an amazing job during lockdown, lifting the spirits of everyone and keeping the children motivated with songs and activities,” she said. “We wanted to finish the lockdown with a finale. The past few months have been challenging, but we have survived!”

To find out how, please call 020 8809 8809 or visit norwood.org.uk/jnappeal Yavneh Primary’s creative video

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Jewish News 11 March 2021

News / Israeli executive / Kinder refugee

Branson mourns inventor Sir Richard Branson has paid tribute to an Israeli marine biologist after her death in a road accident in Tel Aviv, writes Jenni Frazer. Dr Shimrit Perkol-Finkel was chief executive of ECOncrete, a company she co-founded with Dr Ido Sella. She had been due to take part in an International Women’s Day seminar on Monday together with Israel’s ambassador to the UK Tzipi Hotovely and executive producer of Shtisel Dikla Barkai. The event was to have taken place under the auspices of the UK’s Tel Aviv University Trust. Branson, who awarded Dr Perkol-

Finkel a business development prize in 2019, told Jewish News: “I was inspired by Shimrit’s vision and drive when she presented her ideas in Tel Aviv. My thoughts are with her family.” The 46-year-old, who leaves three children, also won the EU women innovators award. She died after being knocked off her e-scooter on Sunday night following a collision with a lorry in central Tel Aviv. She won the Pitch to Rich award in 2019 as part of Virgin Atlantic’s inaugural flights between London and Tel Aviv. Her company makes environmentally sensitive concrete that can be

used to strengthen marine infrastructure, often damaged by climate change or erosion. In 2019, the company put in place its first UK fixture, a tide pool coastal installation at North Portsea, next to Plymouth, designed to preserve the coastline of Portsea Island and offer a habitat for marine life. Virgin’s chief executive Shai Weiss said: “I share my sincere condolences with Dr Perkol-Finkel’s family and loved ones. May her legacy inspire the next generation of female engineers and bring positive change to maledominated industries.”

Dr Shimrit Perkol-Finkel, right, and receiving her prize from Richard Branson

TRIBUTES TO REFUGEE WHO HELPED SURVIVORS

Tributes: Herbert Haberberg

Heartfelt tributes were paid this week to a Kindertransport refugee who supported survivors of Belsen, writes Jack Mendel. Herbert Haberberg, 96, used his Yiddish to help destitute victims of the Nazis move to pre-state Israel. Born in Germany in 1924, he arrived in the UK on the Kindertransport aged 14, with his younger brother Manfred, but the two were separated and only able to see each other every six months. Herbert learnt English and Yiddish flu-

ently and by 1941 had moved to London. He joined the British Army in 1944 as part of the Jewish Brigade, fighting the Nazis in Italy, before being moved to Brussels and then to Hamburg. Last year, Herbert told Jewish News how he worked with “the wonderful Jewish Relief Unit”, an arm of Jewish Committee for Relief Abroad, which was set up by World Jewish Relief, to support Belsen survivors. Herbert said he joined the army “to fight the Germans” but by 1946 was still

in uniform and was stuck in a records office in Hamburg. By chance a Church of England clergyman suggested that he meet the Unit. He spent weekends at the camp, witnessing the “abysmal conditions”, including a rampant typhoid infection. He said: “The British government didn’t want to know, and their main idea was to prevent these people getting in to [mandate] Palestine.” He used his Yiddish to persuade the survivors – who he described as “frus-

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trated, demoralised, they felt they had no future” – to go to southern Europe and board the illegal ships to Mandatory Palestine. The Holocaust Educational Trust’s Karen Pollock said: “Herbert was a wonderful man, with a fascinating story and hugely generous with his time.” Michael Newman, of the Association of Jewish Refugees, said: “Herbert was a popular presence at our gatherings with his jovial and humorous manner. He will be greatly missed.”

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Jewish News 11 March 2021

News / eBay apology / Care ruling / News briefs

Toy Nazis removed from eBay Online retail giant eBay has apologised and removed numerous Nazi-themed items from sale, writes Jack Mendel. At least 15 products, including Nazi soldier figurines, fake Lego-style weapons sets, Panzer tanks and models of SS guards, were taken down after Jewish News brought them to its attention. The company confirmed the items broke its policy on offensive materials, which include ‘historical Holocaustrelated and Nazi-related items, including reproductions’, and “any item that is

antisemitic or any item from after 1933 that bears a swastika” or which has been “identified as Nazi propaganda”. An eBay spokesperson told Jewish News: “These listings are banned on eBay, were removed, and action taken against the sellers. “We have zero tolerance for hate or discrimination both on and off our platform, and apologise for any upset caused by these items.” “In order to promote respect among our diverse community of members, items that promote or glorify hatred, violence, or intoler-

Some of the Lego figurines that were available to buy on eBay. They have been removed

ance are banned. “Any seller in breach of our policies will find their listing removed and action taken on

their account.” This comes after the owner of Polish toy manufacturer COBI apologised after

the company produced sets of Nazi-themed toys, marketed at children aged six and older.

COUNCIL ‘WRONG’ OVER ORTHODOX TEEN’S CARE Council bosses were wrong to offer a disabled Orthodox Jewish teenager 12 weeks of respite care at a residential home that was not “exclusively Orthodox Jewish”, a judge has concluded. A relative took legal action on the 15-year-old boy’s behalf and argued he would not be able to comply with kosher dietary laws or fully observe

Shabbat, and other holy days, if he was not in an Orthodox Jewish home. At a recent High Court hearing, Judge Stephen Davies ruled in favour of the boy, who lives with his parents and five siblings in a strict Charedi community in north Manchester, and concluded that Manchester City Council acted unlawfully.

He heard that the options were a non-Jewish residential home in the Greater Manchester area or an orthodox Jewish residential home in the London area. The teenager was offered a 12-week placement at the non-Jewish home in Greater Manchester. Judge Davies said a care plan envisaged he would spend all 12 weeks at the non-Jewish

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home, including Shabbat and any other religious festival within that period, apart from visits on Sundays. In a ruling published online, the judge said the proposal would not allow the teenager to “manifest his religion in worship, practice or observance” and would breach his human rights to respect for family life and

religious freedom. Council bosses, who had plans to allow the boy to manifest his faith at the non-Jewish home – as far as “practicable” – had disputed the claim. A case on behalf of the teenager’s 11-year-old brother, who is also disabled and had also been offered respite care at the non-Jewish home, was dismissed.

NEWS IN BRIEF

NEWSPAPER ALTERS LOCKDOWN PICTURE The Guardian has amended an article about lockdown which used an image of Charedi Jews – despite it not referencing the Jewish community. The piece, headlined ‘Covid lockdown a success but UK ‘not out of the woods’ used an image of strictly-Orthodox Jews next to a coronavirus information poster. When asked why the image was used, the Guardian told Jewish News a footnote has been added to the post, saying: “This article was amended to replace the picture with a more appropriate image.”

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Jewish News 11 March 2021

Special Report / Spill recovery

Turtles heal with fish and love Israel’s National Sea Turtle Rescue Center is saving animals tragically hit by last month’s catastrophic oil spill, writes Sue Surkes

Flapping their tiny flippers, the baby sea turtles were not enjoying their moment of fame in front of the cameras. But they are lucky to be alive after what has been, in turtle terms, the gravest oil spill-related disaster in living memory. Last month, following serious storms, vast quantities of tar began appearing along most of Israel’s Mediterranean coastline, apparently resulting from an oil spill at sea, which is still being investigated. Of 21 young sea turtles washed to shore along with copious amounts of tar and brought to the National Sea Turtle Rescue Center earlier this month, 15 were already dead, suffocated by the sticky black goo. Nearly all of them were between six to 18 months old and weighed just 100g to 200g. Nobody knows how many more may have perished further out to sea. The centre’s director, Yaniv Levy, thought hundreds, or even more, could have been affected. Most were washed up between Palmachim, south of Tel Aviv, and Haifa in the north.

Others were swept onto beaches in Lebanon and are being treated there, although no precise figures are available. At the turtle rescue centre at Michmoret, the surviving six – three green turtles and three loggerheads – are well on their way to recovery. “All they need now is TLC [tender loving care],” said Levy during a media visit last Tuesday. Turtle hatchlings spend up to a decade in the open seas until they return to coastal waters to forage, mature and Feeding time for the six lucky turtles that survived the Israeli oil spill. They are being looked after in Michmoret eventually mate. During their oceanic stage, they feed on aboard, before getting stuck. After cleaning away the external tar with plankton and like to crawl onto floating mats of seaweed. Many of the turtles brought to the vegetable oil, centre staff initially spent several centre were covered in tar from the head down days inserting diluted mayonnaise into the surto the middle of their bodies, indicating they had vivors’ stomachs. This captured the attention mistaken the tar for seaweed and tried to climb of the media worldwide although, according to Levy, using mayonnaise in such circumstances is now established procedure among turtle doctors worldwide. The oil in the mayonnaise helps to dilute and push out the tar stuck onto the walls of the Clearing up the result of last month’s spill digestive system so food doesn’t get blocked, An estimated 8,000 loggerhead and 2,000 while the egg supplies critical fats and proteins green turtle egg clutches are laid in the central to a turtle that may not have eaten for days. Now the little survivors are flapping around and eastern Mediterranean each year. The centre has been in operation since 1999 in a row of six tanks, enjoying fresh fish (loggerheads eat shellfish out at sea) or lettuce (green and helps individual turtles that are found turtles usually eat algae). But the danger is not and also works on rehabilitating local populaover. Because turtle metabolism is slow, it can tions, as well as marine turtle research. Turtles take two to three weeks for infections and other affected by the oil spill are the minority there, health problems to be detected. “The tar is very where some 30 injured turtles are currently in toxic and can affect the gall bladder and the kid- residence, named by whoever found them. Bougi (the nickname of former Labour Party neys,” Levy said. Furthermore, a healthy turtle secretes salt Leader Isaac Herzog) was found in the Ashdod from the water through special glands next to port in southern Israel having almost drowned the eyes so, that in effect, it always looks as if it’s in a fishing net. Hofesh (freedom) had become crying. If these become blocked, heart problems tangled up in trash. Shlomit, found in Nahariya in northern Israel, sustained a head injury, and death can ensue. If all goes well, the juveniles will be taken out probably from a marine vessel or a fishing hook. Among the treatments the turtles get is a to sea and released in the coming weeks. The centre is launching an ecological moni- weekly scrubbing by staff and volunteers. Out toring programme to chart what happens as at sea, turtles visit “cleaning stations” where the result of this disaster – to help it prepare for fish attend to their ablutionary needs by picking the algae off of them. They also rub themselves the next. Levy said the oil disaster was not of the same against rocks to get rid of barnacles and other magnitude as the Exxon Valdez tanker, which small creatures that set up home on their shells. Last Tuesday it was Tanga’s turn for the spilled 37,000 tonnes, or 10.8 million gallons, of crude oil into the sea west of Alaska in 1989. “But weekly superwash. Brought in by the navy, she for Israel, it’s very significant. There is no record is one of a long list of mature turtles that have of so many turtles being damaged like this by come to the facility suffering from shock sustained from underwater explosions. oil,” he said. These are carried out during the laying of A spokeswoman for the Israel Nature and Parks Authority (INPA), which is respon- marine infrastructure, naval exercises, seismic sible for the centre, said people who had been surveys, oil and gas exploration and the illegal working for it for 30 years had never seen such use of explosives for fishing. The explosions cause injuries to turtle ears and lungs. Tanga is quantities of tar on Israel’s beaches. Green sea turtles are endangered, according being treated with antibiotics and plenty of rest. to the International Union for Conservation Volunteers Barak and Hilik scrubbed her shell of Nature, while loggerheads in the Mediterra- before measuring (64.9cm) and weighing her (34.3kg. Happily, she has put on weight. nean are listed as a species of least concern.

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11 March 2021 Jewish News

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Jewish News 11 March 2021

News / Uyghur genocide / Israeli election / Mask appeal

China ‘meets all criteria for genocide’ China’s treatment of its Uyghur minority meets each of the five criteria for genocide set out by the United Nations and is a breach of international law, a think tank has found following an independent review, writes Michael Daventry. A report by the Newlines Institute for Strategy and Policy said authorities in Beijing had violated all five articles of UN Genocide Convention, including “intent to destroy [a group] in whole or in part”. There has been widespread condemnation in the west over mounting evidence of atrocities being committed against Uyghur

Muslims, including reports of torture, sexual abuse, forced sterilisation and family separation. As many as two million Uyghurs are thought to be held in a network of internment camps across Xinjiang province in the China’s north-west. It is not known how many people have died. Some MPs in Britain have called for the government to review its trade ties with China. The five acts of genocide specified in the UN convention, which was adopted in 1948 following the Holocaust and the Second World War, include killing members of

a group, causing serious bodily or mental harm and acting to prevent births. Forcibly transferring children to another group and inflicting conditions on a group calculated to bring its physical destruction are the two other clauses outlined in the UN definition. The independent Washingtonbased Newlines Institute said China bore state responsibility for breaches in all five. Its report is based on research and interviews involving dozens of experts in the field and thousands of witness testimonies.

A Jewish man protests against China’s detention of Uyghur Muslims

BRITS SET OUT STALLS FOR ISRAELI ELECTION Deaf teen’s mask petition

British olim at the forefront of the Israeli election campaign set out their candidates’ stalls at a Union of Jewish Students debate three weeks before the polls open. Jason Pearlman, a British adviser to Israeli politician Gideon Sa’ar – whose party, New Hope, is presenting a right-wing challenge to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the 23 March elections – was among seven campaigners and supporters of the main parties vying for power in the election, Israel’s fourth in two years. Hosted by the Union of Jewish Students in the UK, and presented in Israel

as a showcase for the seven parties, it was moderated by the American Jewish Committee’s Avi Mayer in Jerusalem. Four of the candidates were ex-pat Britons who had made aliyah; one, Yair Zivan, speaking for Yesh Atid, described himself as having “cut my political teeth” with UJS. All the participants applauded UJS for its initiative in staging the event, and praised Bristol’s Jewish students for their fight against academic David Miller. At opposite ends of the political spectrum were ex-Briton and Reform rabbi Haim Shalom, an activist for the left-wing

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Meretz group, and Avi Hyman, another British immigrant who runs the Anglo campaign for the Likud party. The line-up was completed by American-Israeli Councillor Penina Solomon, who volunteers for Naftali Bennett’s campaign in Zichron Yaakov, and Jason Silverman, an American who fronts Young Labor in Tel Aviv. Hyman, a Netanyahu loyalist, said the election was really only between the prime minister and the leader of the centrist Yesh Atid party, Yair Lapid. All the panellists said Israel must give equality for every stream of Judaism.

A deaf teenager’s petition for clear face masks in schools has reached the height of government, after gathering more than 35,000 signatures, writes Joshua Salisbury. North London student Dinah Mandell, 17, had told Jewish News she feared isolation as a result of new government guidance that recommends masks in the classroom. Other deaf Jewish students also called for clear masks to allow for easy lipreading, a move supported by the Jewish Deaf Association. The A-level student started a petition calling on the government to roll out the measure, which was responded to by education secretary Gavin Williamson. “Our guidance does say that secondary school age pupils and their teachers should wear masks where possible,” he said.

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11 March 2021 Jewish News

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Jewish News 11 March 2021

World News / Vaccination programme

Israel reopens as 55% get jab With millions of citizens already vaccinated and infection rates in the country steadily dropping, Israel began to reopen last weekend, ending its third lockdown of the coronavirus pandemic. The reopening came as 41 percent of the country has been fully vaccinated and 55 percent have received a first dose of the vaccine. The reopening is not complete, with a mask mandate remaining in place and continued capacity restrictions and distancing requirements for gathering places such as restaurants and event halls.

But fully vaccinated Israelis will now benefit from “green passports” attesting to their immunity status, which allow them to dine indoors and to gather in greater numbers than those not vaccinated. According to the new rules, restaurants can reopen at 75 percent capacity indoors for vaccinated Israelis, while unvaccinated people can be served at restaurants outdoors. Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport, which has been kept largely closed since January, will also allow 1,000 people to enter the country per day, with the number set to

increase to 3,000 later this week, according to the Times of Israel. Israel’s vaccination campaign has already had an impact since it began in December. According to Eran Segal, a computational biologist at Israel’s Weizmann Institute, the country has seen a 71 percent reduction in deaths and 55 percent fewer cases since the country’s mid-January peak. The country has been vaccinating at the fastest rate of any country in the world, although Palestinians in the West Bank have not been

Tel Aviv’s newly-opened cafes report a roaring trade

included in the country’s vaccination campaign. Israel’s military announced last week

that it would begin vaccinating Palestinians who live in the West Bank and work in Israel.

FIRST PALESTINIAN WORKERS GET JAB Israel has begun offering vaccines to Palestinians after criticism its inoculation programme excluded the West Bank and Gaza. On Monday, the first workers crossing into Israel from the West Bank were offered doses of the Moderna vaccine by paramedics from Magen David Adom.

NEWS IN BRIEF

‘YOUTH ENGAGEMENT BENEFICIAL’, SAYS UAE The United Arab Emirates’ engagement with its youth has helped it navigate the world shaped in the two decades since the 11 September attacks, a government minister has said.Omar Saif Ghobash told a panel by the Emirates Society his country felt privileged to have a government that engages with its people, particularly the youth, and that this had helped it combat the surge in extremism since the turn of the century. He was joined on the panel by the former Labour MP John Woodcock.

ORTHODOX DERIDE CONVERSION RULING Israel’s Sephardic Chief Rabbi has said Reform and Conservative Jews “have nothing” and that Reform conversions are not Jewish. The comments, made by Yitzhak Yosef and published by Israeli media, come after Israel’s Supreme Court last week recognised Reform and Conservative conversions that take place in Israel. The decision was celebrated by non-Orthodox groups, but derided by Charedi Israelis, who do not recognise non-Orthodox conversions as valid.

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11 March 2021 Jewish News

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PLO claim / Turkish textbooks / Far-right scrutiny / ICC inquiry / World News

‘Hamas two-state deal’ The Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) says it has secured Hamas’ agreement to a two-state outcome and the terrorist group’s commitment to peaceful action. Details were laid out in a letter the PLO sent to Hady Amr, the Biden State Department official dealing with Israel and the Palestinians. The letter was based on an official state-

ment that came out of a meeting in September between Hamas and the PLO, and was aimed at outlining for the Biden administration common Palestinian agreement on the terms for a deal with Israel. Israeli and Palestinian media have reported on the letter to Amr and the September statement. Last week, the French version of The Arab News, a Saudi newspaper,

Hamas fighters: PLO makes claims about the group

confirmed the September statement’s existence, and Hamas’ commitment

to peaceful resistance, with senior Hamas figure Husam Badran.

TURKEY’S LESSONS IN ‘INFIDEL JEWS’ A study of school textbooks in Turkey shows they have been revised to refer to Jews and Christians as “infidels”. Whereas previous books referred to members of those faiths as ‘people of the book’, texts such as Fundamental Religious Knowledge, released after 2017 and part of the mandatory curriculum in Turkish elementary schools, have switched to calling them by the pejorative, according to IMPACT-se. However, Holocaust studies have been introduced under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, making Turkey the second Muslim-majority country, after Azerbaijan, to include the topic as a man-

datory part of the curriculum.Erdogan has invoked the Shoah in speaking about the treatment of Muslims. The changes coincide with radicalisation in Turkish schools following the failed 2016 coup against Erdogan, leader of the Islamist Justice and Development Party, says IMPACT-se CEO Marcus Sheff. “School books have been weaponised in Erdogan’s attempts to Islamise Turkish society and to hark back to a nostalgic age of Turkish domination,” Sheff wrote, adding his group has identified “increased demonisation of Israel and antisemitic aspersions”.

ICC ‘is turning GERMAN FAR-RIGHT PARTY UNDER SCRUTINY against Israel’ opposition party Germany’s far-right in the national AfD has been put parliament. under surveillance by The intelligence the country’s domestic agency, known as intelligence agency the BfV, declined over suspicions of to comment on the extreme political symreports in multiple pathies, according to German media local media. AfD’s ‘Eurabia’ warning outlets, including The move to investigate the party, whose initials stand the broadcaster ARD and Der for Alternative for Germany, comes Spiegel news magazine. The party’s co-chairman, Tino six months before a federal election Chrupalla, said the agency was in September. AfD is currently the largest making a “scandalous” attempt to

influence public opinion. Its coleaders, Alexander Gauland and Alice Weidel, added it was “no coincidence this information was leaked to the press in the year of a federal election and only a few days before two important state elections”. They said: “A targeted attempt is being made here to reduce the AfD’s chances with the help of the domestic intelligence agency.” Elections are to be held on Sunday in states including the south-western Baden-Württemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate regions.

The International Criminal Court’s decision to investigate alleged war crimes in the West Bank and Gaza is “the epitome of antisemitism and hypocrisy”, says Benjamin Netanyahu. The Israeli prime minister pledged to reverse the decision soon after it was announced by Fatou Bensouda, the prosecutor of the court. She said the inquiry, which would look into alleged crimes committed in the territories by both Israelis and Palestinians, will be conducted “independently, impartially and objectively, without fear or favour”.

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Jewish News 11 March 2021

Special Report / Museum role

African genocide survivor heads Holocaust museum Role will be personal mission for lawyer with remarkable biography, writes Phyllis Braun

Gugulethu Moyo: ‘This work matters’

A Holocaust museum in the United States has named a Jewish survivor of an African genocide as its new leader. Directors at the Jewish History Museum/Holocaust History Center in Arizona unanimously chose Gugulethu Moyo, operations director since 2019, as executive director, making her probably the first Jew of colour to lead a major Jewish museum in the US. Moyo brings experience as an international human rights lawyer and as someone who has gone on her own Jewish journey. “Gugu has the most remarkable biography I have ever seen in an applicant for a position,” said Barry Kirschner, president of the museum board and himself an lawyer. That biography includes a childhood in Zimbabwe, a law career in support of media freedom and a Jewish journey inspired by South African anti-apartheid lawyers.

Moyo takes over a 15-year-old institution at a time of intense change for museums, memory and Holocaust education in Arizona. The Covid pandemic has curtailed access to the museum; its typical stream of non-Jewish visitors, especially children on school trips, has stopped. Some programming has moved online in a shift that Moyo described as a “great opportunity and innovation” laced with uncertainty. At the same time, Arizona has newly mandated education about the Holocaust and other genocides in schools, giving the museum a role in creating materials that draw on its archive of testimonies from survivors who have lived in the southern part of the state. And the national reckoning over racism that erupted last spring following the killing of George Floyd in police custody means that Moyo’s vision for the museum’s future has renewed resonance.

“The core work,” she said, “is to continue with the mission of the museum, which is to tell the story of Jewish experience in this particular region and also to place our history alongside the history of others, to make connections between the things we have experienced as Jews with the experience of others in our wider community.” Moyo draws inspiration from stories on her Jewish husband, Joshua Polacheck’s, side of the family. Polacheck’s father was a civil rights activist, arrested and beaten in Mississippi in 1964. His grandfather, Walter – their six-yearold daughter’s great-grandfather, she notes – was a doctor serving in the US Army in the Second World War. After the war in Europe he was sent to Nuremberg, where he treated the Nazi leaders on trial for war crimes. The family included several Holocaust survivors, she said, adding that “There are a lot of very personal reasons why this work matters.”

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11 March 2021 Jewish News

Hamburg synagogue / Salmon mania / African Jewry / Neighbourly support / Diaspora News

Synagogue rebuild ‘will hide Nazi crimes’ A project to rebuild a huge synagogue in Hamburg destroyed by Nazi thugs in 1938 has come up against some unlikely opposition. The city’s Jewish leaders complained of “a terrible insult” after activists said reconstructing the synagogue was tantamount to “rewriting and erasing its history”. Dedicated in 1906, the synagogue once held 1,200 people, making it the largest in northern Germany. It was burned during the Kristallnacht pogrom, when Nazi militias attacked dozens of synagogues and Jewish properties. The Hamburg Municipality later demanded the local Jewish community demolish the remains of the building at its own expense, before selling the land to the municipality for a nominal charge.

The synagogue was situated at Joseph Carlebach Platz, named after the city’s chief rabbi who was killed in the Holocaust, but it was originally known as Bornplatz in the Grindel neighbourhood, home to the city’s pre-Holocaust Jewish community. A vote last year made rebuilding the Bornplatz synagogue official. Today, about 2,500 Jews live in Hamburg, where support for the project is supplemented by finance from local and national government, but some do not think reconstructing an early 20th century synagogue is a good idea. Among them is historian Miriam Rurup, the former head of Hamburg’s German Jewish History Institute, who is now the head of the Moses Mendelssohn Center for European Jewish Studies in Potsdam.

Your weekly digest of stories from the international press NETHERLANDS

Jewish representatives in Amsterdam and other Dutch cities have remembered the victims of the ‘February Strike’ on the 80th anniversary of the Nazi-era round-up of 400 Jews, who were deported to Buchenwald and Mauthausen in 1941. At the time, it prompted tens of thousands of Dutch citizens to begin a general strike in response. Bornplatz synagogue in Hamburg: destroyed on Kristallnacht

She signed a petition against the Bundestag decision to label the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement ‘antisemitic’, calling it a violation of free speech and Germany’s constitution. Israeli Professor Moshe Zimmerman, a descendant of Hamburg Jews, said: “They are rebuilding here something that

was in the past and erasing the traces [of Nazis crimes].” However, Daniel Schaefer, an Israeli-born businessman and member of the Jewish community, called the remarks “absurd, vile, and an absolute insult”, saying the project had “the largest support for this kind of issue Germany has ever known”.

London smoked salmon is hit in US

Salmon being smoked

WORLD NEWS IN BRIEF

A Londoner now living in New York is making headway convincing his new American friends that British smoked salmon is a cut about the States’ salty lox. After Simon Joseph married Stacey, from Long Island, he found himself hankering after the thin, mild, buttery slices he was used to back home, but it was only when she made the reverse trip to Blighty that she realised he was on to something. The revelation – Stacey called it a “Eureka moment” – came just before the pandemic, so Simon contacted family friend Nick Goldstein of Goldstein Smoked Salmon in Edgware, whose company cured and smoked the salmon he favoured.

A first shipment was arranged, and New York couldn’t get enough of the British version. With Goldstein’s help, the couple set up a smoked salmon import and concierge delivery service, called Across the Pond. “People were going crazy for it,” Stacey told The Jerusalem Post. Simon added: “I think they liked the personal touch, this Brit showing up at their door with a bag of smoked salmon.” Since moving the business largely online, Goldstein said he is now getting custom from places as far away as Japan and is due to open a new production factory in the East End of London, where his great-grandfather was a fish curer. This salmon, it seems, has swum full circle.

UAE

The first ambassador to Israel from a Gulf state has taken up residence in Tel Aviv. Mohamed Mahmoud Al Khaja from the UAE presented his credentials to Israeli President Reuven Rivlin, who said it was ‘a special moment’, adding: ‘Israelis warmly welcome you here.’ The two states agreed to normalise relations last year.

IRAN

The leader of Tehran’s Jewish community has said Iranian Jews are ‘freer to practise their religion today’ than before the Islamic revolution in 1979. Arash Abaie said Muslims respect Jews who pray, fast, abstain from certain foods and believe in the Messiah, adding: ‘They look for commonalities. This leads to peaceful existence.’

UKRAINE

Gravity provided proof that repairs were needed on a 18th century former synagogue in western Ukraine last week when the roof collapsed. The Great Synagogue in Brody, which opened in 1742, is listed as a national monument, but has been neglected by cash-strapped authorities. It was nationalised during the Soviet era.

HELP FOR KEBAB SHOP IN YOM KIPPUR ATTACK Jews in the German city of Halle have stepped in to rescue a Muslim-owned kebab restaurant targeted by a far-right terrorist who also attacked a synagogue. In 2019, on Yom Kippur, the far-right sympathiser attacked the crowded Halle synagogue, and the death toll would have been far higher had he been able to gain full access. As it was, the gunman killed a woman passing by before entering the Turkish Kiez-Döner and killing a customer.

Now, Halle’s Jewish residents are helping Kiez-Döner to survive the pandemic, with the effects of Germany’s national lockdown meaning that it was facing bankruptcy. The German Jewish Student Union launched an international fundraising drive, amassing £26,000, while a local Jewish leader paid for £1,000 of kebabs in advance, handing out coupons for members of the community to collect them. “It’s really amazing what they did,” said restaurant owner Ismet Tekin.

African Jewish odyssey in photos Rabbi’s two-for-one deal on matzahs An American-British photographer living in Tokyo is to release an e-book chronicling his travels through Africa, meeting some of the world’s least known Jewish communities. Jono David, who is Jewish, spent four years from 2012 to 2016 travelling to 30 countries over eight trips, meeting both remote and established groups the length and breadth of the continent. His book, The Jews of Africa: Lost Tribes. Found Communities. Emerging Faiths, available through Amazon Kindle Publishing from 1 April, includes 230 photos and access to a gallery of 300 images.

It explores the Jewish history of Africa in essays by Jewish African scholars, rabbis, curators, politicians and communal representatives, all of whom were asked: who are the Jews of Africa? Some groups he encountered, such as the diverse and scattered Lemba in Zimbabwe, were isolated, while others, such as those in Cameroon, were makeshift, operating from somebody’s house. Some, such as those in Egypt, numbered fewer than 15, while communities in places such as Kenya were “not at all far-flung or rural, not hiding away, but open”.

A quick-thinking Chabad rabbi in Moldova who arranged medical aid for a stricken Israeli tourist solved two problems in one by getting a crate of matzahs loaded on to the rescue plane sent from Tel Aviv. Israeli-born Rabbi Mendy Axelrod, mindful of Pesach and Moldova’s relative exile in a region of suspended air and land traffic, managed the work-around after a medical insurance firm got involved to arrange a flight from Israel to bring back the poorly traveller. Speaking to JTA, Axelrod said he had come to the aid of the Israeli man aged in his 40s, who had been passing through Moldova when he was laid low by the coronavirus. The man was so ill he needed a ventilator, something Moldovan hospitals could not provide. Unable to get any matzahs in the capital Chisinau, where Axelrod has been based for

four years, the rabbi used both quick-thinking and chutzpah to get a box put on to the plane that was sent to pick up the man with Covid. The patient is now recovering and Moldova’s Jews have the Pesach matzahs.

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Jewish News 11 March 2021

Editorial comment and letters ISSUE NO.

1201

VOICE OF THE JEWISH NEWS

The long road back starts at our schools Aside from the human cost – 892 lives lost in the UK Jewish community and 125,000 nationwide – the greatest tragedy of the last 12 months has been the impact on education. Schools that shut last March and have barely opened since. The academic damage visited on a generation will take many months, even years, to mend. Jewish primary and secondary schools have worked logistical miracles under the most trying circumstances, negotiating bubble systems and remote learning provisions that have been subject to weekly – sometimes daily – disruption. Education Secretary Gavin Williamson, who has faced criticism for his handling of schools and universities during the pandemic, earned house points from teachers and parents alike this week by suggesting longer school days, a five-term year and shorter summer holidays could be the way to get struggling students back into learning mode. These ideas merit swift and serious consideration. The palpable relief of parents, who have endured weeks of home schooling, was underlined in red ink by one school reporting an unprecedented 100 percent attendance (“This never, ever happens!” noted the headteacher). Another happy headteacher, Hertsmere Jewish Primary School’s Rita Alak-Levi, said: “Not only did pupils have happy smiling faces, so did their parents.” You don’t need to be a relieved parent to sense that the reopening of our schools signals a decisive corner being turned on the long and winding road back to stability and – one day soon we hope – post-pandemic normality.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Send us your comments PO Box 815, Edgware, HA8 4SX | letters@jewishnews.co.uk

Forced marriages are a fact I wish to reply to Chaya Spitz’s column, entitled ‘Forced marriage is an alien concept in Judaism’ (Jewish News, 18 February 2021). This title is a huge insult to all victims that have suffered, and are suffering, from abuse and being forced to marry a person their family is telling them to marry or stay in a marriage unwillingly. Victims feel trapped and sometimes ashamed of leaving a marriage and the person who is at fault. Ms Spitz asks: “How has a connection between forced marriages and the Charedi community made its way to the public sphere?” Is she insinuating that, before now, there was never a connection between forced marriages and the Charedi community? This is ridiculous. Forced marriage is not alien to Judaism. It may be unspoken, but this doesn’t change the fact that forced marriages and forced relationships are not happening,

Sketches & kvetches

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Shabbat goes out Saturday night 6.48pm

Sedra: VayakhelPekudei

REDIRECT YOUR CONCERN Your columns have been overflowing with fire and brimstone directed against my neighbourhood for allegedly braving the bug and ignoring the scientists for albeit the most vital reasons. Ignoring those who are clearly acting under the well-recognised disposition to iconoclasm, much of this has been attached to a declared

concern for the Torah and the need for preservation of life. Could I anticipate that this concern might now be redirected towards the rampant disregard of kashrut, Shabbat and moral laws in the Torah of which it is proclaimed: “For they are your life and the length of your days.” Geoffrey Niman Stamford Hill

VIPS FOR A VACCINE PASS

alon@jewishnews.co.uk

THIS WEEKEND'S SHABBAT TIMES... Shabbat comes in Friday night 5.45pm

because they are. Thankfully, we have the amazing organisation Jewish Women’s Aid. Yet still, many Charedi women find it excruciatingly difficult to confess to being a victim of abuse, leading to shunning in their community and fear of what the man may resort to doing in response. We need more education, more understanding, more openness and less fearmongering and taboos when addressing these issues. Victims of abuse will feel more encouraged to speak up and seek help once children are more educated about signs of abuse and the help that’s available. This cannot be unspoken. Ms Spitz should stop denying the existence of the problem and come to terms with the reality in order for us to work together and break the silence of suffering. Shiri Elias By email

“Sorry, Our algorithm doesn’t allow for Jewish customers squeezing challah!”

You report that Israel is set to introduce a green vaccine passport, which may also be rolled out in England and Scotland (Jewish News, 25 February). All eyes are on the Israeli model. To get the green light to visit our homeland once again, and probably many places here, we may well follow in Israel’s footsteps. We may all need to be VIPs (Vaccinated, Immunised Person). J D Milaric, By email

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11 March 2021 Jewish News

Editorial comment and letters

FLAT EARTH VIEWS GET GREAT NEWS I must compliment you on having the courage to print a letter other newspapers would dismiss as ignorant, unpleasant drivel. You have obviously identified the true wisdom and religious insights displayed by your correspondent, Ann Cohen, who criticises Vivian Wineman for his trenchant views as to Charedi Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky’s responsibility for so many deaths, due to Covid, in his community (Jewish News, 4 March 2021). She has emphasised Mr Wineman’s lack of scientific knowledge and, indeed, the fact he went to yeshivah and Cambridge University, pursued a successful legal career and was elected president of the Board of Deputies illustrates a lack of intelligence. Of course, those of us who are proud to call our-

selves Modern Orthodox Jews, who believe science and religion perform different functions, also must come within her fire. She would have us prefer the attitude of some in the Charedi community, who revel in ignorance and who are determined to prevent children having any meaningful secular education. Theirs is the cult of “meshugas”, one resembling Catholic doctrine of having every decision in life made by a priest with divine authority. Given your decision to publish her views and the fact she is a regular correspondent, perhaps you would consider giving her a column to enable her to advise us of the dangers of following science. A first topic could be whether the Earth is round or flat? Howard Youngerwood By email

I was delighted to read that husbands who refuse their wives a religious divorce are more likely to be prosecuted after changes to the government’s Domestic Abuse Bill. Perpetrators have felt entitled to act with impunity for far too long. It is a relief to see legislation put in place that enables the state to stand up for victims. Emma Allen, By email

LEARN LESSONS I AM LONELY BUT Like many, I was dismayed by relevations that a significant minority of the strictly-Orthodox comminity brazenly ignored lockdown regulations. I welcomed this information being brought into sharp public focus. Now, with more than 20 million people vaccinated and the end in sight, it’s time to heal wounds, learn lessons and move on. Adele Ormond, By email

Reaction is too little The AJEX Jewish Military Association was outraged and immensely disappointed by the failure of Bristol University to take swift action against Professor David Miller following his conspiratorial comments about Jewish students. His derogatory remarks created unrest among Jewish students on campus and his statements are causing enormous offence to the wider Jewish community. More than 65,000 British Jews fought during the Second World War against the Nazi regime to ensure such hatred is removed from

society and enable young Jews to live and study in a peaceful and harmonious environment. The feeble reaction by Bristol University is too little too late. We support this serious matter being raised in the Commons and implore the vice chancellor and senior management to take appropriate action. We note that so far more than 100 members of the Commons and Lords have written to the vice Chancellor of and hope he heeds their call to action. Mike Bluestone AJEX national chairman

OBEY THE RULES I was incensed to read the letter from the 21-year-old Chasidic married man (Jewish News, 4 March 2021). It is the choice of his community not have TV. internet or radio. Nowhere in the Torah is there a prohibition against instruments of enlightenment. This choice has led to the profound ignorance that has enabled Covid to proliferate in the Charedi communities. These poor souls are bored. What a shame. I lost my mother and my husband in the last year. I did not go on a spree of selfindulgence to compensate my grief and loneliness, but I’m a mere woman and do not understand the deprivations of these men who excuse their behaviour by saying they must get together to pray for the community. I have known loneliness, this last year, at the age of 79, like no other time in my life, but I obey the rules nevertheless. Mr Green, married at 21, must be made aware of the contribution to antisemitism his way of life engenders. Brenda Lyons, By email

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Jewish News 11 March 2021

Opinion

Why was a villiain laid to rest among heroes? ALEX BRUMMER

CITY EDITOR, THE DAILY MAIL

ne of the great curiosities of the late 20th century is why publishing magnate Robert Maxwell was accorded what amounted to a state funeral on the Mount of Olives attended by a posse of rabbis, the then Israeli President Chaim Herzog and Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir. After all, for much of his life, Maxwell abandoned the orthodoxy of his childhood – including a stint at yeshiva – and was comfortable with the Christianity of his French wife, Elisabeth. As a student of Maxwell’s business affairs, I was hopeful John Preston's new biography, Fall: The Mystery of Robert Maxwell, would provide answers. My interest in the late proprietor of The Daily Mirror and founder of Pergamon Press dates back to my early days in financial journalism at The Guardian in the 1970s. It was then that Maxwell had his first run-in with the authorities over ‘window dressing’ of Pergamon's accounts. Department of Trade and

Industry inspectors concluded, after investigation, that Maxwell was unfit for the ‘stewardship’ of a public company. That did not prevent the entrepreneur from going on to head two quoted enterprises, Mirror Group Newspapers and Maxwell Communications Corporation (MCC), and lead a media empire spanning the Atlantic. My Guardian colleagues and I played a role in the tycoon’s after death disgrace in February 1991, when we uncovered and confirmed that Maxwell had looted the Mirror pension fund to make good on a black hole in MCC’s finances. Preston does shed light on how Maxwell reconciled himself to his blotted out Jewish identity and fell in love with Israel. The conduit for this reboot was property and petrol station tycoon, community leader and philanthropist Gerald Ronson.

As Maxwell remade himself as a media proprietor, Ronson encouraged Maxwell to throw out his ill-fitting cheap clothes and introduced him to his own tailor and to abandon his bashed up Rolls-Royce in favour of a new model befitting of someone of his status. In 1984, Ronson (just before Maxwell bought The Mirror) arranged for the media tycoon and his wife Betty to accompany him on a trip to Israel to meet Prime Minister Shamir. They travelled to Tel Aviv on Ronson’s private jet and were surprised to see Maxwell (who lost almost all his family in Auschwitz) sobbing and repeating the words ‘I should have come here years ago,’ soon after they landed. The next day, the two men visited Shamir, and Maxwell declared he wanted to invest one quarter of a billion dollars in Israel. Preston recounts that, within four years, he

❝

THEY WERE SURPRISED TO SEE MAXWELL SOBBING: 'I SHOULD HAVE COME HERE YEARS AGO,' HE SAID

became the biggest single investor in Israel. Among Maxwell’s investments was a big stake in the emergent Israeli pharma giant, Teva. When his empire was untangled after his death, the Teva stake, then a valuable asset, played a part in paying down the debts. The basis of Maxwell’s early fortune was Pergamon, which published scientific papers from the Eastern bloc in the Cold War years, as well as laudatory autobiographies of authoritarian leaders. He became a great favourite in Moscow. After the USSR’s leaders allowed the emigration of Russian Jews to Israel, it was Maxwell who organised the first official airlift. When in 1991 Maxwell’s body was released from Canary Island custody and flown to Israel to be buried, Betty and accompanying members of the family were disquieted when Israeli fighter jets met the chartered plane carrying his body over the Med. They feared being shot down. The financier, despised in Britain, was receiving the honour of a military escort. On arrival, the casket was draped in an Israeli flag. A surprising hero of the Jewish people was to be laid to rest among the nation’s martyrs.

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Opinion

Chipping away at the Orthodox monopoly RABBI MIRIAM BERGER FINCHLEY REFORM SYNAGOGUE

s a reform rabbi, I have far greater religious freedoms in the UK than if I were in Israel. So when I read headlines last week like “recognition by Israel’s Supreme Court of Reform and Conservative conversions”, my cynicism tempered my celebration. While the BBC is interrogating whether Jews are an ethnic minority, Israel continues to struggle with who is a Jew. Is this recognition of Reform converts worthy of celebration? Most certainly... but! For many years, my colleagues and I in the UK, USA and around the world have been performing conversions that have been recognised in Israel and therefore given people the right to make aliyah and become Israeli citizens. My Israeli colleagues, however, have not been able to offer their conversion candidates the same access to Israeli citizenship. Despite also having been guiding people through rigorous conversion processes and increasing

the number of practicing committed Jews in Israel, their converts could have been included as Jewish on the “population registry”, but yet they were not deemed Jewish “enough” to be eligible for citizenship as a fully-fledged Jew, eligible for the “right to return”. Although Israeli citizenship is open to all born of Jewish lineage or who converted in the diaspora, until this week it has not included those who chose to embrace Judaism while already living in Israel. Reform Judaism in the diaspora is often marginally more tolerated in Israel than on its own soil. They try to argue that in the diaspora it is at least clinging to a thread of Judaism, but more realistically it is because of the money Reform communities around the world bring into the Israeli economy. In America alone, Reform Jews outnumber the other Jewish denominations put together. This announcement is a huge achievement for, and the result of, a long and tedious battle by the Israel Movement for Reform and Progressive Judaism and the Israel Religious Action Centre. Yet it feels a small battle,

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IT'S A SMALL BATTLE IN A WAR FOR RELIGIOUS FREEDOMS THAT NEEDS TO BE ADDRESSED

affecting a small number of converts, in a war for religious freedoms that needs so desperately to be addressed in its entirety. The timing of the decision brings a whole other level of scepticism. A 15-year struggle when the Supreme Court maintained the issue as within the Knesset’s remit, while the Knesset expertly avoided and delayed the issue. Eventually the Supreme Court has taken it on. However, it could be seen as an own goal for progressive Jewry. Israel, like the UK and America, also vilifies immigration, despite being a country built by wandering, displaced Jews. This conversion debate is easily sullied by one of making borders more permeable. Likud has been quick to say such a ruling endangers the Law of Return. The left is already associated as being friends of the Reform, with its rabbinic leadership

being fourth on the Labour list and which could discourage from the party those more comfortable with the traditional Israeli dati (religious)/ chiloni (secular) divide and the timing of the announcement potentially construed as an anti-liberal manoeuvre. I genuinely hope this is in fact one more way in which Israel is chipping away at the political monopoly the Orthodox have over Judaism in Israel. This issue may affect only a small number of people and yet if it is a step towards legitimising non-Orthodox Judaism in Israel, it should be cause for great celebration. However, I will truly celebrate when my Reform colleagues in Israel can perform weddings, use municipal cemeteries and receive the same state funding as their Orthodox colleagues. May the next 15 years bring equality to all denominations of Judaism in Israel.

Calling all budding builders and ambitious architects Tribe, the United Synagogue and Jewish News challenge YOU to build a building block model fit for the Seder table this Pesach! What can you create? Can you build Moses Crossing the Sea, the Pyramids in Egypt or the Ten Plagues?

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Jewish News 11 March 2021

Opinion

We are writing a new chapter in diplomacy MOHAMED MAHMOUD FATEH ALI AL KHAJA UAE AMBASSADOR TO ISRAEL

EITAN NA'EH

HEAD OF MISSION, EMBASSY OF ISRAEL, ABU DHABI

ix months ago, an Emirati and an Israeli diplomat were unlikely to be seen together, much less co-author a newspaper article. Opening up direct relations and Embassies seemed even more far-fetched. But here we are now, an Emirati Ambassador in Israel and an Israeli Head of Mission in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in public, together, writing in one voice. Conflict can last for generations but peace can happen in an instant. With that diplomatic flash last summer, our nations and our

people are now in a rush to make up for lost time. The speed of normalisation has been nothing less than breath-taking, even amid a worldwide pandemic and the regular challenges of sharing the world’s most troubled neighbourhood. We are diplomats, representatives of our nations and agents of warming ties between the UAE and Israel. We believe in the power of our profession, that building trust through open and direct ties, combined with bold political leadership can produce regional transformations.

❝

WE BELIEVE IN THE POWER OF OUR PROFESSION, THAT BUILDING TRUST CAN PRODUCE REGIONAL TRANSFORMATIONS

Over recent weeks, we have met and talk, often. Our conversations focus on growing economic ties, trade and tourism, health and educational exchanges, and deepening people-to-people contacts. We facilitate and update each other on the near daily announcements of new agreements between our universities, research institutes, startups, and medical centres. Just last week, we recognised the joint partnership between the Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence and the Weizmann Institute of Science. We celebrated together the UAE space probe’s successful arrival at Mars and wondered about future Israeli-Emirati space cooperation and missions. We write this article together, proud that the UAE and Israel are leading the world in vaccinating our populations against Covid-19. With open and direct ties, our medical professionals are sharing data, learning from each other, and charting new areas for research and for collaboration on vaccine distribution around the region and the world.

As we move towards reopening our economies and restarting travel, UAE-Israeli cross border trade, tourism and investment growth will quicken. As the two most dynamic and advanced societies in the region, the potential is limitless. Last week, Ambassador Al Khaja entered the official residence of Israeli President Reuben Rivlin to present his diplomatic credentials. Meetings followed with Prime Minister Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Ashkenazi. Work will start on locating a site for a new embassy. For Head of Mission Na’eh, now entering his second month of work in the UAE, the days are already filled with official government meetings and direct engagement with Emiratis. Six months ago, it would have been hard to imagine. But here we are, each of us and together, supported by and in the interests of the governments and people we serve. We are helping to write a new chapter in diplomacy and chart a new course of peace, prosperity and progress for the Middle East. B'Al Najah wa’tawfiq – B' hatzlacha to both our countries.

Out of a pandemic can come new possibilities CLAUDIA MENDOZA JOINT CHIEF EXECUTIVE, JEWISH LEADERSHIP COUNCIL

e have all seen the articles about women, especially mothers, being disproportionally affected by the pandemic. There are few positives from Covid, but the transformative ways of working during this unprecedented time could present a silver lining, especially when it comes to an inclusive workforce. The use of technology and the huge increase in flexible working shows what is possible. I remember when Anne Marie Slaughter, the first woman to serve as the director of policy planning for the US State Department quit her job saying that juggling a high-level government position with the needs of two teenage boys was not possible. Women, she begrudgingly came to accept, could not ‘have it all’. Women who want to have a career and a family need to have the ability to control their own schedule or else a lot of balls are going to get dropped. Since most women are not in a position

to do that, they have to make difficult choices. Slaughter was criticised for betraying the feminist utopia by challenging the notion that if we women are just determined and ambitious enough, anything is possible. When it comes to career and fatherhood, high achieving men don’t usually have to deal with difficult trade-offs in the same way. There is no point in debating how fair or unfair that is – although we should perhaps return to this issue another time – as it is often the reality. Indeed, during the pandemic, it has mostly been women who have had to juggle jobs – if they have managed to keep them – with domestic duties. Today, there is a once in a generation opportunity to have more control and change the way we work for the better. Covid has accelerated the pace of change, as most organisations have had to move to remote working almost overnight. Changes that might have taken years were achieved in just a few months with office meetings, external meetings, and conferences taking place online, changing the meaning of being ‘physically present’.

The culture of office face time and rigid hours needed to evolve, not just to accommodate people with care duties, but to allow a better work-life balance for all. The ability for many more people to work flexibly without it impacting their output and, in many ways, actually enhancing it, should not be lost. When the Jewish Leadership Council organised a day-long conference on women’s progression in the Jewish community, we examined whether it was an organisation’s policy or culture that determined a woman’s success. We looked at everything from the so-called “hot tub culture” – where decisions are made in male only spaces – to the #MeToo Movement, to flexible working. An organisation that offers flexible working hours may seem attractive to a working mother who wants to balance childcare with a career, but if the belief that more face time equals more value persists, what your contract says doesn’t count for much. Good policy needs to be augmented by good culture. When the pandemic eases, men and those without care-giving responsibilities will be able to bounce back to the old ways sooner.

❝

THE CULTURE OF OFFICE FACE TIME AND RIGID HOURS HAD TO EVOLVE TO ALLOW A BETTER WORK-LIFE BALANCE FOR ALL

In order to stave off the discrepancy that will further widen the gender gap, digital working practices must become part of our new normal. There will not be a one-size-fits-all approach and it will be a case of trial and error. It is important that we share our successes and failures. Integrating digital innovations with more traditional approaches to form a hybrid working arrangement will give many more working mothers, and others, increased flexibility over their own schedules. Let’s not just hit reset and lose this opportunity.

11 March 2021 Jewish News

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Community / Scene & Be Seen

1 REFUGE SUPPORT

Fiona Hulbert, of East London and East Sussex Liberal Synagogue, led an International Women’s Day appeal for charity Bags of Kindness. The charity supports women’s refuges across London, Essex and Hertfordshire, which have seen an increase in demand during lockdown. Fiona, who is married to the synagogue’s Rabbi Emeritus David Hulbert, said: “We were overwhelmed with very generous gifts of toiletries, cosmetics, bars of chocolate, treats and felt-tip pens for kids.” Donations came from the synagogue’s members, but also from the neighbourhood group for Woodford Green.

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

ELSA’S MILESTONE

Elsa Howard celebrated her 100th birthday last Wednesday, having battled Covid for seven weeks in Barnet Hospital. Elsa, who was discharged from hospital last week, escaped Austria with her sister just before the war, aged only 18, and found work as a cleaner for a Jewish family in Leicester. She met her now late husband soon after, who was also an Austrian refugee, and set up home in Willesden, where they had daughter Ruth. The classical music enthusiast and regular Jewish News reader has two grandchildren, Nikki and Laurence, and seven great-grandchildren.

3BRICK BY BRICK

Staff at Keren’s Nursery in Belsize Park have come up with a creative way of teaching children the Pesach story. Scenes of the Passover story have been recreated out of Lego to teach nursery children and preschoolers. The scenes include the splitting of the Red Sea, pictured.

4BIG QUIZ

More than £4,000 was raised for Chai Cancer Care with a virtual ‘Big Quiz of Everything’. More than 70 household teams took part in the quiz, organised by husband-and-wife duo, Andee and Barry Roback, and celebrities Matt Lucas and Rob Rinder made appearances. “It was a real privilege to be part of the team that delivered such a fun and enjoyable quiz,” they said. “It is never easy to write a quiz that can appeal to all ages and all levels of knowledge but, judging by the smiles on everyone’s face, I think we may have got it right.”

Jewish News 11 March 2021

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Television / Weekend

Francine Wolfisz speaks to Eli Ben David about his semi-autobiographical drama, The Attaché, about a husband who suffers a midlife crisis when he moves to Paris for his wife’s career

The life he never dreamed of

aving a mid-life crisis is hard enough without moving to a different country, learning a new language, adapting to a foreign culture – and then being right in the throes of a deadly terror attack. But that’s exactly where TV writer and actor Eli Ben David found himself after he relocated from his native Tel Aviv to Paris with his French-born wife, Eleanor, when she was appointed as the Israeli cultural attaché in the French capital. Just weeks after their arrival, Ben David was shocked to open his front door and find an armed security guard waiting outside as Paris came under siege in a series of deadly Islamist terrorist attacks on 13 November 2015. Three suicide bombers struck outside the Stade de France in Saint-Denis during an international football match, before another group of attackers opened fire on crowded cafes and restaurants. A third group carried out a mass shooting and took hostages at a rock concert inside the Bataclan theatre.More than 400 people were injured, while 130 more lost their lives following the events of that night. For Ben David, it was impossible not to be reminded of those close to him who had been caught up in terror attacks back home and the “post-traumatic memories just flowed.” It could have been a breaking point for the couple and their three children at the start of an otherwise new chapter in their lives, but Ben David worked through the upheaval by first keeping a diary – and then penning a compelling new drama based on his experiences. The Attaché, which airs on Starzplay from Sunday, tells the story of Avshalom (played by Ben David), an Israeli-Jewish musician from a Moroccan family, who relocates to Paris after his wife Annabelle is appointed as the new attaché at the Israeli embassy. But Avshalom swiftly begins to feel lost: he misses his friends, can’t speak French, believes antisemitism is everywhere and suffers a crisis of masculinity as he forgoes work to look after the couple’s young son. In contrast, his French-born wife blossoms in Paris, where she is reunited with family and her career ambitions continue to soar. Avshalom might be thousands of miles from home, but it’s the growing distance between himself and his wife that he fears most. Just like the writer’s own experience, the opening

Top: Eli Ben David stars as Avshalom in a scene from The Attaché. Left and below: Heloise Godet as Annabelle with Ben David, who plays her husband

episode shows how Avshalom is only newly arrived in the country when the 2015 attacks take place. During a candid online chat alongside co-star Heloise Godet, who plays Annabelle, Ben David recalled how that night brought back memories of his own father being caught up in a terror attack in Israel. He tells me: “When I was teenager, my father used to work on an Israeli base, which you could only get to by bus. There were no smartphones in those days and there started to be rumours in the school that there had been an attack on this bus, with the terrorists shot and killed. “I remember they told us to stay at school, but I took my bag and ran. When I reached the house, I saw my father sitting in the kitchen. He had been on this bus. So [when the 2015 attacks happened] it was totally post-traumatic for me.” French-born actress Godet was also in the French capital when the terrorists opened fire at the cafes and restaurants close to where she lived. “I think that my way of experiencing this huge, life-changing trauma was to be paralysed. I was shocked like everybody, but I didn’t know what to do. When the bars reopened, we said we had to go, we have to do this as a way of survival.” The attacks are, of course, just one part of the overall sense of unease Avshalom feels in having so much change in his life all at once or, as Godet explains it, “becoming the attaché of the attaché” in giving up his career to support his wife in her ambitions. “Eli’s wife was very busy [and] independent, becoming one of the most important women in

A look

Inside France,” she says. “So, the story really related to his life in this way. It was a very challenging time for him.” For Godet, too, changes were aplenty when she accepted the role just after becoming a first-time mother and went to Israel to immerse herself in the culture and language. “I was put in this Annabelle situation of dealing with motherhood, family and work. I felt myself in this emotional tornado,” she reveals with a smile. Given all the original anxieties Ben David felt moving to France six years ago, does he feel more acclimatised to his adopted country’s way of life? “I love Paris, I don’t feel racism, I don’t feel antisemitism at all. You know, I don’t want to go back now – I would love to spend more years here, maybe stay forever,” he says. “The Attaché is a beautiful story like that, because it’s about someone who needs to go far away from home to find exactly what he’s been looking for.”  The Attaché is released on Starzplay from Sunday, 14 March

Food: Spice up your day with breakfast hash tacos!

Music: The littleknown story of Strange Fruit’s Jewish composer

Competition: Win a luxury beanbag worth £269!

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Jewish News 11 March 2021

Weekend / Entertainment

IN THE PIPELINE

MUSIC

Lives in Secret

Charlotte Gainsbourg is set to star as a real-life Jewish espionage agent during the Second World War in new spy thriller, Lives In Secret. Based on Sarah Helm’s A Life In Secrets, the film explores the real-life story of Vera Atkins, who made it her mission to discover the fate of missing agents she had dispatched to Occupied France between 1941 and 1945. Born Vera Rosenberg in Galați, Romania, in 1908, to a German-Jewish father and British-Jewish mother, Atkins was educated at the Sorbonne in Paris and a Lausanne finishing school, before emigrating with her mother to Britain in 1937 in response to growing antisemitism. Recruited to the Special Operations Executive, she was involved in the interrogation of notorious commandant of Auschwitz-Birkenau Rudolf Hess, and testified as a prosecution witness in subsequent trials. Awarded the French Légion d’honneur in 1995, she has also been cited as the inspiration behind Miss Moneypenny in Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels. Gainsbourg, who is the daughter of French-Jewish musician Serge Gainsbourg, stars along Hugh Bonneville in the thriller, which is directed by John Hay.

TELEVISION

Drake’s Wants and Needs One of rapper Drake’s latest tunes gives a nod to his Jewish roots — even as he hints that he might be finding Jesus. In Wants and Needs, one of three tracks in his Scary Hours 2 EP released last Thursday, Drake meditates on his many sins. In one line, he raps: “Yeah, I probably should go to yeshiva, we went to Ibiza.” The 34-year-old Jewish rapper insinuates that he could have used more of the structure and discipline of Orthodox Jewish schooling in his life, but instead chose to immerse himself in a party culture. But later in the song, he adds: “Should repent, I need me some Jesus in my life.” Born Aubrey Drake Graham in Toronto to a Black father and Jewish mother, Drake attended Jewish day school as a child and had a barmitzvah, which he parodied on Saturday Night Live. He has since become guarded in talking publicly about his Jewish identity, despite hinting at it with a bar mitzvah-themed birthday party and a nightclub named after his Jewish grandparents.

COMPETITION

Win a luxury beanbag chair from Armadillo Sun worth £259! ENTER ONLINE:

jewishnews.co.uk Closing date 25 March 2021

50 Years of the Mr. Men Super fan, writer, actor and comedian Matt Lucas will take a nostalgic walk down memory lane as he presents 50 Years of Mr Men – a new Channel 4 film celebrating half a century of the beloved children’s books. In 1971, eight-year-old Adam Hargreaves innocently asked: “Daddy, what does a tickle look like?” Little did he know those words would fire the imagination of his illustrator and writer father, Roger Hargreaves, to produce the wellknown Mr. Men and Little Miss books. Adam has now taken over the reins from his

late father and, in celebration of this milestone anniversary, will create five new characters for a global public vote. The two most popular will join the others from September. Lucas said: “I considered the Mister Men and Little Miss characters my friends! I am delighted to be meeting them all again and look forward to finding out the story behind this much-loved, iconic series.” 50 Years of the Mr. Men will air later this year. Voting for the new characters is now open at www.mrmen.com

COMING SOON...

All Star Musicals TV personality Robert Rinder and ITV News journalist Robert Peston are putting on their top hats and channelling their inner razzmatazz for ITV’s All Star Musicals. They will be joined by Bafta-winning actress Jessica Hynes, presenter Dr Ranj Singh, actor Barney Walsh and EastEnders actress Luisa Bradshaw-White. The six famous faces will take a musical theatre masterclass before performing a hit song in a bid to impress a virtual audience, as well as a panel of critics. Musicals featured will range from contemporary to traditional, including The Greatest Showman, Chicago and Guys And Dolls. John Barrowman returns as host, with West End star Elaine Paige heading up the panel, which includes Hamilton star Trevor Dion Nicholas and Les Miserables actress Samantha Barks. The four-strong group will open the show

with You Can’t Stop The Beat from Hairspray – performed “in a way never seen before”, according to ITV. Veteran journalist Peston said he has been a fan of musical theatre since childhood, but has not performed in public since university. “I have always adored old Broadway and Hollywood musicals, a passion I inherited from my late dad. So, in the middle of lockdown, when asked by ITV whether I fancied learning how to sing and perform one of my favourite show numbers, I thought ‘Yes!’ I will make a fool of myself, but I could not care less.” Rinder, known for his TV alter ego Judge Rinder, said: “I’m really excited to take part in All Star Musicals. Musicals are a real passion of mine and this is a real bucket list activity for me.” All Star Musicals airs on ITV later this year

Jewish News and Armadillo Sun have teamed up to offer one lucky reader a beanbag chair in a design of their choice worth up to £259! This adult luxury bean bag chair makes a perfect addition to your bedroom, TV room, garden or terrace. Lightweight and portable, and constructed from durable, water-resistant fabric, it makes outdoor and indoor living super easy. Handcrafted in Kent from material that is weatherproof, mould- and fade-resistant, this luxury beanbag chair will last for many years and provides great comfort for your family and friends.

Armadillo Sun is a UK-made luxury beanbag and bean furniture company that has developed (almost) indestructible fabric used across their range, making it perfect for any setting. For more information, visit www.armadillosun.com To be in with a chance of winning, answer the following question: In which county is Armadillo Sun based? A. Hertfordshire B. Gloucestershire C. Kent

COMPETITION TERMS AND CONDITIONS: One lucky reader will win a beanbag chair in a design of their choice worth up to £259! The prize is as stated, not transferable, not refundable and cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer or exchanged in whole or in part for cash. By supplying your email address, you agree to receive marketing information from the JN Media Group or any of its affiliates and carefully selected third parties. The promotion excludes employees of Jewish News and the promoter, their immediate families, their agents or anyone professionally connected to the relevant promotion. Proof of eligibility must be provided on request. For full Ts and Cs, see www.jewishnews.co.uk. Closing date: 25 March 2021

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Television / Weekend

The man behind the ‘song of the century’ Billie Holiday became famous for singing Strange Fruit, but few know the story behind its Jewish author, writes Francine Wolfisz Three young black men had been accused of shooting a white man. A mob came to the town jail, demanding to be let in. The sheriff refused, but people took sledgehammers to the jail doors. They carried away two of the young men, beat them and hung them from a nearby tree. Meeropol could not get the horrific image out of his head. His poem is full of explicit imagery of black people explaining that “Southern trees bear a strange fruit, blood on the leaves, blood on the root … strange fruit hanging on the poplar trees.” The evocative poem was first published under the title Bitter Fruit in January 1937 in a teachers’ union magazine, before Meeropol set it to music. First performed by Meeropol’s wife, Anne, and their friends, it began to gather some momentum at protest concerts before it was introduced to Holiday. Barney Josephson, the proprietor of Café Society, the first racially integrated nightclub in the United States, heard the song and brought it to Holiday’s attention. According to journalist David Margolick, who wrote Strange Fruit: The Biography of a Song, Holiday performed it at the club for the first time in 1939 with a certain degree of trepidation, fearing how the crowd might react. Abel Meeropol The waiters silenced the room, the lights were dimmed and she closed her eyes as she began to perform. aunting and controShe later wrote in her versial, 1930s jazz autobiography that her father, ballad Strange Fruit Clarence, died as a result of did more than just being denied medical treatment propel Billie Holiday’s for a fatal lung disorder and fledgling music career – that Strange Fruit was a stark it sparked a debate that reminder of racial prejudice. became the beginning of Holiday wrote: “It reminds me the civil rights movement. of how Pop died, but I have to keep While the song was written singing it, not only because people into history books for perpetuity, ask for it but because, 20 years after including being inducted into the Pop died, the things that killed him are Grammy Hall of Fame in 1978, the story Andra Day as Billie in still happening in the South.” behind Strange Fruit’s Jewish composer The United States vs While her producers at Columbia found and lyricist, Abel Meeropol, has largely been Billie Holiday the song too controversial, Commodore records forgotten over the decades. agreed to record it on 20 April 1939. It remained in her Interest in the song has now resurged thanks to Sky repertoire for the next two decades and was subsequently covered Original’s new biopic, The United States vs Billie Holiday, which by Nina Simone among other artists. places Strange Fruit right at the heart of the plotline. Meeropol continued writing songs, including the Frank Holiday (played by Andra Day, who won a Golden Globe for Sinatra and Josh White hit, The House I Live In, which best actress in the role) was adored by fans across the globe as described a utopian America where people of all races live in one of the greatest jazz musicians of all time. peace and harmony. But she was also plagued by drug and alcohol abuse and Sinatra starred in a short film based on the song in which he endured harassment at the hands of the FBI, which viewed chases away some boys who are harassing a Jewish child then Strange Fruit as incendiary and likely to cause civil unrest. sings this song to a group of children. In an effort to take her down, they assigned a black agent In the film, Meeropol’s line about blacks and white was excised, named Jimmy Fletcher (played by Trevante Rhodes) to track and much to the author’s anger. arrest her, but the pair become romantically involved – resulting Strange Fruit, The House I Live In and the Peggy Lee hit, in Holiday falling victim to the greatest betrayal of all. Apples, Peaches and Cherries, provided most of the royalty income Through it all, the lyrics of Strange Fruit – which was denoted for Meeropol’s family. as the “song of the century” by Time magazine in 1999 - continued Meeropol, who died in 1986 at the age of 83, was also a commuto resonate and give her strength even as she endured addiction nist and sympathetic to the plight of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, and career setbacks. the Jewish couple convicted of spying for the Soviet Union. The iconic song began life in 1937 as a poem written by Having been left orphaned following their execution in 1953, Meeropol, a Jewish writer, teacher and songwriter of Russiantheir sons Robert and Michael were adopted by the songwriter Jewish extraction, under his pseudonym Lewis Allan – which was and formally changed their surname to Meeropol. taken from the names of his two stillborn sons. His emotions were stirred after seeing Lawrence Beitler’s  The United States vs Billie Holiday is graphic photograph of the 1930 lynching of Thomas Shipp and available now on Sky Cinema and NOW TV Abram Smith in Marion, Indiana.

Billie Holiday

Strange Fruit Southern trees bear a strange fruit Blood on the leaves and blood at the root Black bodies swingin’ in the Southern breeze Strange fruit hangin’ from the poplar trees Pastoral scene of the gallant South The bulgin’ eyes and the twisted mouth Scent of magnolias sweet and fresh Then the sudden smell of burnin’ flesh Here is a fruit for the crows to pluck For the rain to gather For the wind to suck For the sun to rot For the tree to drop Here is a strange and bitter crop Songwriter: Lewis Allan. © Edward B Marks Music Company

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Jewish News 11 March 2021

Weekend / Food & Drink

BREAKFAST HASH

iven that we can’t get enough of them, we thought that tacos for breakfast seemed like a good idea and this recipe is the result. Vibrant and packed full of punchy flavour, these are the perfect weekend pick me up and a great way to start the day!

Pickle the onions Peel and finely slice the red onion and add to a bowl. Add the vinegar, salt and sugar and toss to combine, squeezing them firmly with your fingers. Set aside.

SERVES: 4 (2 TACOS EACH) PREPARATION TIME: UNDER 15 MINUTES

Cook the potatoes Chop the potatoes into 1–2cm chunks and put them into the microwaveable bowl. Cover with clingfilm and microwave for 5 minutes until soft.

INGREDIENTS 200g baby potatoes 200g mushrooms (preferably chestnut) 4 vegan sausages 2 tbsp olive oil 8 corn tortillas 1 ripe avocado ½ lime 200g cherry tomatoes 4 spring onions 1 garlic clove 2 tsp fajita seasoning 100g fresh spinach a bunch of fresh coriander salt and black pepper

Meanwhile, cook the mushrooms and sausages Slice the mushrooms and roughly chop the sausages. Put the large frying pan over a high heat and add the oil. Add the sausages to the hot oil and stir roughly to break them up. Add the mushrooms and pinch of salt. Fry for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

For the pickled red onions 1 red onion 3 tbsp red wine vinegar big pinch of salt big pinch of sugar To serve hot sauce (optional)

Extracted from Speedy BOSH!: Over 100 New Quick and Easy Plant-Based Meals in 30 Minutes by Henry Firth and Ian Theasby, published by HQ, HarperCollins, priced £22. Available now

Make the tacos Put the medium frying pan over a high heat. When the pan is hot, drop in a tortilla and toast for about 15 seconds. Flip and toast for another 15 seconds. Transfer to a plate and cover

TA C O S

with a tea towel. Repeat with the remaining tortillas. Prep the veg Halve and stone the avocado, peel and slice the flesh, place in a bowl and set aside. Cut the lime into wedges. Quarter the tomatoes. Slice the spring onions. Finish the hash Take the potatoes out of the microwave and toss them into the sausage pan. Peel the garlic then grate it into the pan. Sprinkle over the fajita seasoning. Cook for 2 minutes. Add the spinach and cook until wilted. Add the chopped cherry tomatoes and half the spring onions. Season to taste. Remove from the heat. Serve Shape the tortillas into pockets in your hands and fill them with hash. Top with picked onions, sliced avocado, hot sauce, if using, fresh coriander and the remaining spring onions. Or bring everything to the table and let everyone build their own!

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Jewish News 11 March 2021

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

E G D

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RI B D RE RY Y! IN VE A W E SD O R N U TH

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Orthodox Judaism

SEDRA Vayakhel-Pikudei

This week we roll the dice and get a...

What’s in a number?

BY RABBI ZVI SOLOMONS

RABBI NAFTALI SCHIFF In Vayakhel-Pikudei, the creative and collective efforts of the Jewish people come together to create a transportable building serving as a focal place of connection between man and God on earth. But something strange occurs as the Tabernacle is about to be set up. It is too heavy and unwieldy. No one can lift the beams and assemble the structure. After everyone has tried, God instructs Moses to do so. Without flinching, he steps up and recites a verse from Psalms. The whole structure comes together at his hands with incredible ease. The “magical” verse begins with the words: “May the pleasantness of Hashem rest upon us and all the work of our hands be focused in the right direction....” Life is replete with attempts to achieve a goal or a certain outcome that seems to end nowhere. This can be deflating. EE

Uncivil war

Stakes are high as Americans 11 & 26 head to the poll P10,

Extraordinary Care from Extraordinary People

• Residential • Respite • Independent Living 020 8908 4151 jewishchoice.org

TY E COMMUNI VOICE OF TH @JewishNewsUK Issue No.1182 • • 12 Cheshvan 5781 •

Unmasked

30 October 2020

Labour over • Corbyn suspended by g EHRC report reaction to damnin guilty of • Watchdog finds party nation’ ‘unlawful acts of discrimi ess to • There was ‘lack of willingn to do so’ inability tackle hate, not

• Starmer speaks of ‘day ofe’shame’ and vows ‘zero toleranc

ent • Lawyers warn employm now follow tribunal cases could

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‘Their stories will stay with me forever’ Duchess of Cambridge photographs survivor s for our Holocaust Memori al Day edition

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APER ISH NEWSP IGGEST JEW BRITAIN’S B JewishNewsUK

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hundreds, if not to Israel been approved, definition of anti-Semitism, of Labour and Momentum leading Jewish Alliance’s Labour MP Dame Margaret thousands, need to be expelled. Today, Britain’s three News, Jewish provoking her leader an anti-Semite to members would in Brexit disnewspapers – Jewish to call With the government Telegraph – take Hodge yet. danger Chronicle and Jewish face, was the most sinister there is a clear and present of speaking as his to IHRA defini- array, the unprecedented step Labour has diluted the man with a default blindness same front page. government that a a man one by publishing the community’s fears, accepted in full by the the existential tion, deleting the Jewish that hateful We do so because of more than 130 local councils, has a problem seeing this country that and key examples of who can easily step threat to Jewish life in and amending four rhetoric aimed at Israel Jeremy Corbyn-led to Israel. could be our next would be posed by a anti-Semitism relating a Labour into anti-Semitism, guidelines, adapted its government. Under Israel’s prime minister. party that was, MPs vote on We do so because the member is free to claim On 5 September, Labour home for our Party and comthe is a racist endeavour motion, calling for until recently, the natural values and integ- existence policies to those of Nazi Ger- an emergency IHRA definition full the community, has seen its Israeli adopt pare to contempt for – whatever that party rity eroded by Corbynite many, unless “intent” Jew” is into its rulebook. it will face a binary – can be proved. “Dirty Jews and Israel. Following that, of anti-Sem- means bitch” fair game? IHRA in full or be seen The stain and shame “Zionist implement wrong, choice: Maja distinction through Her itism has coursed people as an institutionally In so doing, Labour makes targeting by all decent Jeremy Corbyn party. esty’s Opposition since between racial anti-Semitism anti- racist, anti-Semitic years for became leader in 2015. (unacceptable) and political After three deeply painful to Livingstone, Jews (acceptable). September is finally From Chakrabarti Semitism targeting Israel Had the full our community, alarming lows. Last there have been many The reason for this move? relating make or break. to adopt the full week’s stubborn refusal definition with examples Remembrance IHRA International Holocaust

I’m not neurotic!

Woody Allen on the upside of social distancing and remembering his barmitzvah portion

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THE COMMUNITY THINKS WHITE PEOPLE CAN BE ONLY JEWS

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SOME BLACK JEWS DON’T FELLOW JEWS BECAUSE SOCIALISE WITH OF RACISM

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STARMER OVER CORBYN GOES TO WAR WITH WHISTLEBLOWERS HIGH COURT APOLOGY TO

‘I’m sorry’

workings of the parmomentous inner handling Labour issued a staffers ty’s complaints claims of public apology to former Wednesday unit contained in the High Court on interference in the fallout political after they sued over have been an investi- what should disciplinary from a BBC Panorama handling independent was strenugation into the party’s Jack process. This of antisemitism, writes ously denied by the party Mendel. before the at the time. However, just hours According to the were reports lawyer, announcement, there Jeremy whistleblowers’ that former Labour leader William Bennett, Labour Corbyn, his former communications accused them of “acting and Labour’s and chief Seumus Milne in bad faith during Jennie with the former secretary-general that after their employment Formby had sought assurances of harming” the party, be connected intention their names would not accusations false. of lasting calling the defended to the apology. In a sign Mark Henderson, who the anger, Corbyn later dismissed not the Labour Party, said he “acknowldecision, about the apology as “a political edges that these claims a legal one”. are untrue, and we retract Claimants members, Seven former staff them and undertake about and withdraw who voiced their concerns them. Actions are being among not to repeat those who repeat the how claims of Jew-hatred with, sued taken against dealt were against those taken members will be of libel in libels and after they were accused to do so in future.” broad- who choose the Panorama documentary, cast last year. of the The hour-long dissection

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Who knows six? I know six. Six are the orders of the Mishnah, known as Shas, which is the abbreviation for Shisha Sidrei (Mishna), and Yeshiva Bochurim call the complete Talmud the Shas. It consists of more than six books because of all the commentary and takes a lifetime to master. This is a special number. The six days of creation culminate in Shabbat, the day of rest. However, the number six is a multiple of two and three, the female and the male. The marriage of male and female is a joining. Indeed, the animals and then finally mankind were created on the sixth day of creation, which makes it a special number for mankind. Six is delineated in Hebrew as the letter vav. This is the joining letter, and its name means ‘hook’. The hooks in the tabernacle held the structure together and allowed the curtains to be hung, creating its structure. It is therefore symbolic of unity. “Six days shall you labour and do

Shabbat shalom.

I WAS TOLD I WASN’T COULDN’T BE IN SHULJEWISH SO – IT’S BRUTAL

Jessica Morgan

Photo by Marc Morris

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In physics, the first law of conservation of energy means energy can neither be created nor destroyed; it can only be transformed or transferred. On a spiritual plane, the same is also true. Moses has rallied a disparate people and spurred them on to achieving a collective dream. They have expended enormous effort, only to be faced with despair at the finishing line. But energy is never lost! The good deeds we do, the blessings we make, our prayers for the sick are never lost. We may not see where they land or the immediate impact they have, but spiritual energy is never futile. The master designer and builder receives every prayer, mitzvah and bit of goodness and the building is built. ◆ Rabbi Naftali Schiff is the founder and chief executive of Jewish Futures

2 Continued on page

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all your work!” God made the world in six days. The six days of work are holy, and without them we cannot be useful people. It is no coincidence humans need one day’s rest to six days’ labour. The work is holy as it allows the Shabbat to be so different. Tradition tells us that Torah was given on Shavuot, the sixth day of the month of Sivan. Six hundred thousand Jewish men of military age (not to mention the women, elderly and children) stood round the mountain to receive our most precious gift. We shake the lulav on Succot in the six cardinal directions. This is to request that God, who surrounds us, provides material good for us and

particularly in the land of Israel. The Magen David, a Kabbalistic symbol, represents the human being using the number six. The two intersecting triangles represent heaven and earth. The six points can be made to represent different things. For example, the seder plate has six items on it arranged as two intersecting triangles, a configuration some say reflects Rabbi Isaac Luria’s system. According to the Kabbalists, the seven compartments of the Magen David represent the seven higher sefirot or aspects of God’s nature. On the sixth day, we say Psalm 93, which talks about God being clothed in majesty. It is the last of the psalms said during Kabbalat Shabbat. The numerical value of the Hebrew word for roof, gag, is six which, seeing God made the world in six days, is the completion of the building. ◆ Rabbi Zvi Solomons serves the Jewish Community of Berkshire, JCoB.org

St John’s Wood Synagogue is an established flagship United Synagogue community in Central London with over 1,250 members, 500 children, three rabbinical couples and two minyanim operating every Shabbat. The synagogue is also home to a very successful kindergarten and a Cheder. We are seeking a full time Youth Director team to develop the range of current religious, cultural and social activities provided for the youth of our Synagogue, with the focus of their work on the 4-17 year old age group (school years Reception to Y12). This will include organising and running youth services on Shabbatot and Festivals, parties on Festivals, and a full range of social and educational programmes throughout the year. The Youth Director thri team will also thrive to ensure that the older youth of the community feel involved and empowered including by training them to lead services for the community on a regular basis. Applicants should have proven experience in youth leadership, including working successfully with religious, non-religious, committed, and non-committed young people. They should have plenty of initiative, feel comfortable working in large teams, excellent organisational, administrative and communication skills, as well a genuine desire to promote modern Judaism to all youth. Closing date for receipt of applications: Friday 19th March 2021 To view the job description and apply for this position, please visit our website www.theus.org.uk/vacancies

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Jewish News 11 March 2021

Progressive Judaism

The Bible Says What? ‘Pesach can be postponed’

Progressively Speaking Perhaps it’s time to remember the forgotten new year of Nisan

BY RABBI MIRIAM BERGER When the roadmap out of Covid restrictions was presented to the British public, we Jews had our eye on seder night. So many of us dread another Zoom seder at a time when we crave the ability to sit around our dining room tables with our families, particularly after a year that has left us praying for our freedoms – with sadly so many more empty chairs at our sedarim than those left for Elijah. Yet we are not even permitted on the first two nights of seder to have guests join us in the garden. While some try to lobby for a date change, and others are tempted to bend the rules, the Torah gives us a perfect blueprint that stops us putting our health at risk for the good of a seder and simply tells us to postpone it for a month. In Numbers, chapter nine, we are given the gift of Pesach Sheni, a second Pesach exactly one month

after the primary one. Even on the first anniversary of the Exodus from Egypt there were “some people who were in a state of impurity and could not offer the Passover sacrifice on that day.” (Numbers 9:6). The solution is simple – if you can’t do seder at its proscribed time, you can do it exactly one month later. The Torah uses either impurity, or being on a long journey, as the two causes to enact a delay. I would suggest being in a state that could potentially cause danger to someone else’s health is our own Covid impurity and this year has been the longest of all journeys out of a pandemic. Don’t prolong this journey for yourself or others by taking risks this seder night. Make your sedarim Covid safe, be it online or just with your own household, or wait for your garden seder on Pesach Sheni.

◆ Rabbi Miriam Berger serves Finchley Reform Synagogue

BY RABBI DANNY RICH “This month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year.” (Exodus 12:2) A decision to declare the end of a period and the beginning of a new one may seem arbitrary but, frequently, it serves a practical function. In England, there are a number of ‘new years’ including that ordained by the Inland Revenue (6 April), the academic year of universities and, most recently, the return to school after the coronavirus lockdown. Judaism also has a number of ‘new years’, as Mishnah Rosh Hashanah 1:1 records: “There are four days in the year that serve as the new year, each with a different purpose. “On the first of Nisan is the new year for kings, it is from this date that the years of a king’s rule are counted.” It is, of course, the Tishri new year that is best known to the Jewish community with the marking of Rosh Hashanah and the beginning

of the atonement period leading to Yom Kippur. Nevertheless, it is the somewhat forgotten first of Nisan – which is marked on Sunday night – that has pre-eminence in the Torah itself, as God declares to Moses and Aaron in Exodus 12:2. Coming as this verse does in Parashat Bo, it is, of course, a precursor of the dramatic liberation of the Hebrew slaves from Egypt – the Exodus. The Exodus is the beginning of the process that will transform a bunch of slaves (and others) into a people who undergo wandering in

the desert, a covenantal moment at Sinai and entry into the Promised Land, thereby fulfilling its national identity. The contrast between Rosh Hashanah – which heralds a period of introspection that might be seen as a universal human need – and this commemoration of national transformation is reflected throughout the Torah. This tension between universalism and particularism is reflected in the prediction of the Book of Numbers that ‘Israel’ is ‘a people who dwells alone’ and Isaiah’s vision of Israel as a ‘light unto the nations’. It remains the predicament of the modern Jew to advocate for the particular interests of the Jewish people but, more importantly, to affirm the universalism of ‘One humanity on earth, even as there is one God in heaven’. ◆ Rabbi Danny Rich is a vice president of Liberal Judaism

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Ask our

Professional advice from our panel / Ask Our Experts

Our trusty team of advisers answers your questions about everything from law and finance to dating and dentistry. This week: International tax reforms, best kitchen storage options and redundancy after being furloughed LEON HARRIS ISRAELI ACCOUNTANT

HARRIS HOROVITZ CONSULTING & TAXLTD.

Dear Leon Do Rishi Sunak and Israeli Finance Minister Israel Katz have any budget aces left up their sleeves? If so... where? Penny Dear Penny The answer is in America. On 28 January, Janet Yellen, the new US treasury secretary, announced that the US will re-engage actively in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) moves to reform international tax. This should enable countries such as Britain and Israel to collect many billions of pounds in taxes from firms that sell products or services over the internet.

SHANTI PANCHANI KITCHEN CONSULTANCY

THE KITCHEN CONSULTENCY Dear Shanti I have a growing family and love to bake. I want the best storage for my kitchen. What do you recommend? Juliet Dear Juliet Most modern kitchens offer a wide range of storage solutions. Firstly, decide what you need to store and in what they are stored. Like most people,

we have collected storage containers over the years and have always found a home for them – normally at the back of the cabinet. For base units, you can have up to three internal drawers, which can be hidden behind a full door. These are normally spaced equally by the manufacturer; alternatively, you can have wire baskets that can be installed with spacing to suit you.

Much high street and office business is now done digitally from an overseas server, with no need to pay British (or Israeli) tax. So last year, the OECD issued proposals to allow income tax to be levied on international firms in both the market country and the supplier’s home country. Trump blocked the proposals, Yellen has just unblocked them. The OECD proposals are expected to be adopted later in 2021 and will boost state coffers in 137 countries aligned with the OECD. One alternative mooted is an extra tax on digital sales, but online sellers can dodge that bullet by passing the tax on to customers. But the OECD proposals mean businesses would have to pay the new income tax out their profits. If you conduct international business, you should check out the new rules, in case you face multiple taxes in multiple countries. We have reviewed the proposals and they are not fully baked.

Tall units are also available with the same options. Wall units can have a pull-down shelf, which means you can lower the usable shelf making it easier to take things out. Corner units offer three options, starting with a simple half-moon carousel, followed by a ‘magic corner’. This allows more usage of the hidden section of the corner. The latest innovation is the ‘Le mans’ corner. This clever device allows you to extend the shelf all the way out of the unit for even easier access. Tall units can also benefit from pull-out shelves, which will accommodate your baking appliances. These units can have a power socket installed within, allowing you to use them without taking them out.

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SPENCER WEST LLP Dear Emma I have just been made redundant. I was initially on furlough last March, but returned to work in the summer for my regular full-time hours. I don’t understand how my employer can do this to me when the furlough scheme has just been extended to September. Can I appeal the redundancy on the basis I should have been

Dear Jake I am sorry to hear you find yourself in this situation. While the furlough scheme has been extended, your employer only has to consider it as one of the options available to avoid making a redundancy. If the role is genuinely being made redundant, either through lack of available work, or to protect the business from closing due to a situation such as finances, it would be wrong for your employer to place you onto the scheme simply to delay the inevitable.

It is also possible that with the tapered contributions as well as the Employers National Insurance and Pensions Contributions, keeping you on furlogh may not be financially viable. That being said, if your employer has not properly considered furlough or all other reasonable alternatives to redundancy, this could result in a claim for unfair dismissal.

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Jewish News 11 March 2021

Ask Our Experts / Professional advice from our panel

Our Experts Do you have a question for a member of our team? Email: editorial@jewishnews.co.uk PRIVATE HEALTHCARE SPECIALIST

FINANCIAL SERVICES (FCA) COMPLIANCE

KITCHEN CONSULTANCY

JACOB BERNSTEIN Qualifications: • A member of the APCC, specialising in financial services compliance for: • Mortgage, protection and general insurance intermediaries; • Lenders, credit brokers, debt counsellors and debt managers; • Alternative Investment Fund managers; • E-Money, payment services, PISP, AISP and grant-making charities.

SHANTI PANCHANI Qualifications: • Experienced designer with 25+ years’ experience in German and English kitchens. • We provide a full-circle approach: from designing and supplying to installing your new kitchen including appliances and speciality worktops. • Our suppliers are flexible in design, ensuring the customer remains the priority. • We have been supplying kosher-friendly kitchens for over 15 years.

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BREAST, GROIN & HERNIA SURGEON

EMPLOYMENT LAW AND DATA PROTECTION

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.

SIMON MARSH Qualifications: • Consultant General Surgeon with specialist interest in dealing with both breast cancer and non-cancer breast conditions. • Surgical Director of the Gilmore Groin and Hernia Clinic experienced in hernia surgery, including “non-mesh” hernia repair and Sportsman’s Hernia. • Local anaesthetic surgery including lipomas, cysts and skin cancers.

EMMA GROSS Qualifications: • Specialist in claims of unfair dismissal, redundancy and discrimination. • Negotiate out-of-court settlements and handle 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.

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

DIRECTOR OF LEGACIES

JEWELLER

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.

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11 March 2021 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

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INTERNATIONAL PAYMENTS SPECIALIST

IT SPECIALIST

CHARITY EXECUTIVE

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.

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.

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.

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ISRAELI ACCOUNTANT

INSURANCE CONSULTANCY

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.

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ALIYAH ADVISER

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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

If you would like to advertise your services here email: sales@ jewishnews.co.uk

40 Jewish News

11 March 2021

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11 March 2021 Jewish News

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Fun, games and prizes

THE JEWISH NEWS CROSSWORD 1

11 14 17 19 20 22 23

18 19

ACROSS 1 Celebrities (5) 4 Organic material laid to protect plant roots (5)

7 Female sovereign (7) 8 Natural fuel (3) 9 Scoundrel (3)

M O C C X T V A N R M W P L

L M Z O P

S D T S Q L

C Z R K O Z H R Y

A B A T

F K D L R V I

B O R

A X Y

N A M T S E K A G

23 14

2 19

A N

O L S M N S N D T N U E U

N S A R A R S F O L E Y M

O B G F D W L Q

A R S D

L O J

D X N O

A Y S E N H A B K S

C N M J AMSTERDAM ATHENS BERLIN BRUSSELS HELSINKI

I W G H R V O

E K H M A N LIMA LISBON LONDON MADRID MANILA

MOSCOW NAIROBI OSLO PARIS ROME

Last issue’s solutions Crossword ACROSS: 1 Also 3 Starve 8 Limeade 9 Bag 10 Land-owning 13 Unsinkable 17 Ben 18 Cutlery 19 Byword 20 Ends DOWN: 1 Able 2 Samba 4 Tee 5 Rabbi 6 Engage 7 Maiden 11 Wealth 12 Hubbub 14 Sinew 15 Lie-in 16 Eyes 18 Car

TOKYO WARSAW

1 14

2 1 9 5 8 7 6 4 3

5 7 3 6 1 4 9 2 8

1 2 5 8 7 6 4 3 9

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

9 9 2 6 7

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.

15 17

6 3 7 4 9 1 8 5 2

6 10

5 5

10 7

2 3

3 5

1 5

G R A

10 13

7 25

23 14

17 23

Suguru 4 9 8 2 5 3 1 6 7

See next issue for puzzle solutions.

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

Sudoku 8 6 4 3 2 9 5 7 1

L A

2 15

10 25

L U B

O B R U S S E L S O M B P W E M O R T

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 13, 14 and 19 with their letters in the grid will help you to guess the identity of other letters.

The capital cities 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.

Beauty treatment (6) Modernise (6) ___ up, unearthed (3) Couple (3) Connection, collaboration (7) Lumley/Saunders sitcom (2,3) Guitar‑plucking noise (5)

CODEWORD

WORDSEARCH

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 Public oration (6) 2 Venomous serpent (3) 3 Terrace or ledge (5) 4 Harmonious sounds (5) 5 Dancer’s costume (7) 6 Derelict ship (4) 10 Utter fluently (4,3) 12 Intend (3) 13 Drink of yolk, beer and spirit, traditionally drunk at Christmas (3‑3) 15 Unrehearsed reply (2‑3) 16 Braid (5) 18 Thought (4) 21 Mineral spring (3)

13 14

SUDOKU

3 4 1 7 6 8 2 9 5

7 8 2 9 4 5 3 1 6

9 5 6 1 3 2 7 8 4

1 4 3 2 4 2

3 2 1 5 1 5

1 4 3 4 2 4

Wordsearch 3 2 5 1 5 1

4 1 4 3 2 3

5 3 2 1 5 1

1 3 1 3 2 4

2 5 2 4 5 1

4 1 3 1 2 4

3 2 4 5 3 5

1 5 1 2 4 2

3 2 4 3 1 3

D U T Y F R E E A G J R I

L D E L A Y S P L B Q C Y

U T O L I P A O T T A T C

G V P E G S V N I H I L R

G A U A S M K R T R A O E

A U T P S G N Y U N D N W

G Z O E L S N C D N W I B

Codeword E R S S A E E I E S W B P

T A E Z V S N N D X L A F

C A Y M I G J A G R L C Y

T R O P R I A D L E A F X

T R I S R H Q W C P R O P

K A E L A N I M R E T S B

ROGU B U N O P T I C O L K E E N E I X S T E R E H C Q T U T U A T I J O I N T A V Y R E E D

I S H A F L E S T Y O R S WO A L Y E A D A

C H I C V A E I P P E D R H E T R A Y Z P U E C A L L R A R L D L Y E P A R I S E L N N MA N T

T I D V K CQMY Z A J S B N X L P E O G F R H U W11/03

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Jewish News 11 March 2021

Business Services Directory ANTIQUES 44

The Jewish News 22 September 2016

www.jewishnews.co.uk

BUSINESS SERVICES DIRECTORY

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

House clearances Single items to complete homes 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

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

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

Full house clearances organised.

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

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

ARE YOU BEREAVED?

Stirling of Kensal Green Established over 60 years. Know who you are dealing with.

Top prices paid

All quality furniture bought & sold.

Antique – Reproduction – Retro Furniture (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 Single items to complete Please contact Gordonhomes Stirling

020 8960 5401 or 07825 224144 CHURCH STREET ANTIQUES ‐ 8 CHURCH STREET NW8 8ED

͔͚͚͛͜ ͚͕͘ ͛͘͘ (ANYTIME) Email: gordonstirling65@gmail.com 0207 723 7415 (SHOP) closed Sunday & Monday

STUART SHUSTER ‐ e‐mail ‐ stuart@churchstreetantiques.net

MAKE SURE YOU CONTACT US BEFORE SELLING

WESTLON HOUSING ASSOCIATION 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.

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

Charity Reg No. 802559

PLUMBSAFE (UK) LTD “Better Safe Than Sorry”

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

SAFE AND DISCREET PROFESSIONAL PEST CONTROL

Clearance

#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

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

Call: 078 060 79299 Reg Charity No. 1003345

Not shabbat

PLUMBSAFEUK.COM

We cover all aspects of pest control for residential and commercial properties. Are you a Jewish woman experiencing domestic violence? With abuse in your home, do you worry about your children? Including mice treatment and mouse prooﬁng with We are here to help1 year guarantee. with free support, advice and information and confidential counselling. Kosher Refuge available for women and0203 children 405 in need.5000 Email: info@inoculand.co.uk Free Confidential National Helpline 0808 801 0500 Web www.inoculand.co.uk advice@jwa.org.uk • www.jwa.org.uk

HOME & MAINTENANCE

Home & Maintenance

PLUMBSAFE (UK) LTD

No further, your

LOCAL PLUMBERS

“Better Safe Than Sorry”

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

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020 8953 2094 office

Not shabbat

020 8207 3286 home 020 8386 8798 hallandrandallplumbers.com

PLUMBSAFEUK.COM

office@hallandrandall.com

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

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

Email : info@garygreenmemorials.co.uk

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

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

18/03/2019 12:50:51

srindsmc@hotmail.com

www.memorialgroup.co.uk

LINE ROOFING

LONDON

& UPVC Fitters

58a Bowrons Avenue, Wembley HA0 4QP

+ " ) "# ,! " Head Office: 145 New Chelmsford CM2 0QT Rochester House, "London Road, Tel: ! # 07773

/ 01245 211 022 ● Fax: 01245 211 001 ● Direct: 102 386 07428 264 454 ! ) *" " - *'

www.hilineroofing.site123.me

Family run business

London 020 8485 8176

DRIVEWAYS PATIOS AUTOMOTIVE LANDSCAPING FENCING City and Guilds Electrician MOTOR VEHICLES All types of electrical work undertaken BRICKWORK PURCHASED JET WASHING Rewiring, extra sockets, BT points, Economy 7 CLASSIC OR CARS storage heaters, Shabbat time switches, security lighting, NEW ROOFS for vehicles overfinding, 10 CCTVportable appliance LED spotlights, fault tests, years old landlord testspreferably and house buyer’s surveys. ROOF REPAIRS withan low mileage For efficient reliable and friendly service. UPVC FASCIAS Call Harvey Solomons on UPVC SOFFITS 020 8958 6495 / 07836 648 554 Contact: Anthony – 07850 590415

LOFT CONVERSIONS

! ! # ! " " #

GUTTERING REPOINTING IN THE ADVERTISE PAINTING UK’S BIGGEST PLASTERING NEWSPAPER JEWISH PEBBLE DASHING LESS THAN FOR ELECTRICS A WEEK £24.00 PLUMBING Call Marc today ALL BUILDING WORK on 020 7692 6943 WINDOWS & DOORS

Jewish

FREE ESTIMATES & ADVICE / ALL WORK FULLY GUARANTEED

11 March 2021 Jewish News

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Business Services Directory AUTOMOTIVE

SILVER

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

CARS WANTED (Also vans) CASH TODAY

½ HOUR ANYWHERE GOOD CLEAN/DAMAGED HIGH/LOW MILAGE MOT OR NOT £500 MINIMUM £20,000 MAX SMALL FAMILY RUN BUSINESS

Email Sales today at sales@thejngroup.com

CLEANING We at Clean the City know that Pesach is a joyful festival but it’s also a lot of work, so why not let us take care of the cleaning, under your supervision? No job is too large or too small, and customer satisfaction is our primary concern. Clean the City staff are friendly, experienced and professional. Whether you need residential, office and commercial cleaning; deep/one-off cleans or oven cleaning, we offer this and more at competitive prices. Call us on 07907 017869 or email us via our website, www.cleanthecity.co.uk, to discuss your specific requirements – we are happy to provide a free quote.

07760 752 834 Honest and Reliable OFFICE FURNITURE

LEGACY- LEAVE A GIFT IN YOUR MEMORY

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& 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

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HOME CARE

Secure our

children’s future

Please include

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