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LIFE

Jewish News

September 2021

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ISSUE NO.6

Magazine

BUMPER PRE-ROSH HASHANAH ISSUE! 26 August 2021

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18 Ellul 5781

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Issue No.1225

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@JewishNewsUK

DRESSING WITH HAART

: Inside Julia’s unorthod ox wardrobe

YIZKOR – Living with loss

New Beginnings

Pink Rabbit turns

Torn apart? Our community’s left-right divide See pages 16-17

Operation Exodus VOICE OF THE JEWISH NEWS There are two human abilities that religion helps us channel: reaching inwards and stretching outwards. Jews might say there is no greater moment to contemplate the first of these than the upcoming High Holy Days, when they seek to be inscribed in the next Book of Life. But the truth is that these two abilities are not distinct. They are inseparable. We have all been shocked by the images from Afghanistan as the country endures its worst crisis since the turn of the

century and its people attempt to flee. Tens of thousands want safe passage out, yet most will be left behind when controlled of Kabul Airport is relinquished. Western nations led by the United States should push until the last moment to secure safe passage for every possible person, but the grim truth is that might be a stretch too far. Meanwhile, as many as four million Afghans have escaped to neighbouring countries and they, too, are in desperate need of help. In a turbulent world it can feel as if this is just another catastrophe, the latest in a long line of calamities, but for Jews everywhere it comes as we prepare for a month of self-reflection. These are the days when we step out of our routines to consider who we are,

Continued on page 42

www.jewishnews.co.uk

Jewish News 26 August 2021

News / Afghanistan appeal

Community unites firmly in d by Jack Mendel jack@jewishnews.co.uk @mendelpol

Community organisations across the religious and political spectrum this week united to support an emergency appeal for Afghan refugees fleeing the Taliban for the UK. After a week in which community has donated clothes and other essential items in their hundreds and backed other individual efforts, World Jewish Relief last night launched a campaign that is being promoted by the Board of Deputies and Jewish Leadership Council as well as the Chief Rabbi, United Synagogue, Reform, Liberal, Masorti, Spanish and Portuguese movements. WJR, which led the community’s efforts to support Syrian refugees, said it is working with local authorities and the fundraising drive will support a host of measures for those fleeing, including food vouchers, shelter and employment opportunities in the longer term. The charity pledged to “be there for Afghans in the coming months... Jewish values teach us not to stand idly in the face of suffering and injustice”. Thousands of refugees have already arrived in the UK since the Taliban’s swift takeover of Kabul, with more expected over the next few days. The charity, which was founded to support Jews fleeing the Nazis in the 1930s and 40s and was one of the UK’s leading providers of employment support for resettled refugees,

PRECIOUS STONES

also said it would work with partner charities around the world to support Afghans. WJR’s chair, Maurice Helfgott, whose father Sir Ben was given refuge in the UK after surviving the Shoah, said: “Almost 90 years of purposeful experience means that World Jewish Relief is very well placed to provide the Jewish community with exactly what it clearly wants and needs now – the ability to contribute to a trusted, effective and professional response to the urgent needs of Afghan refugees, both at home in the UK and in the affected region.” The Union of Jewish Students, JW3, London Jewish Forum, Zionist Youth Council and Jewish News have also thrown their weight behind the drive, with Jewish News handing over the website pop-up usually dedicated to supporting our journalism to the appeal. Board of Deputies president Marie van der Zyl said: “As we watch the awful scenes coming out of Afghanistan, many British Jews are understandably asking what we can all do to help. I applaud World Jewish Relief for stepping up to offer their support for Afghans, and I commend their appeal to our community for vital funds.” Last weekend, hundreds of people donated to a collection held by Bushey United Synagogue, with clothes and other essentials donated to more than 30 Afghan families in the Hertfordshire area, many of whom worked as interpreters for the British army over the last two decades. The shul said it was “overwhelmed” with the response as thousands joined a Facebook

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We have all been moved by the horrors unfolding in Afghanistan and the uncertainty of what it brings both in country and beyond. The failure of Western powers to bring peace and stability to a nation ravaged by disaster is deeply depressing. The takeover by the Taliban has created great fear for many Afghans and in particular for women and girls, and religious and other minorities, who are most at risk of human rights abuses, retribution and persecution. If it was me and my family, I would do all I could to escape. Understandably, the news is focusing on those desperately trying to get on a plane out of Kabul as the doors begin to close. At a time when it would be fair to say many Western nations have become slightly ambivalent towards refugees, it is heartening to see the outpouring of empathy, support and welcome being directed at those who have made it to the UK. The constant ringing of calls into the World Jewish Relief office (yes we are back in!) from supporters asking how they can help is mind-blowing. Synagogue clothing collections, campaigns and outpourings of help show our community at its very best. As World Jewish Relief has come to realise in recent years, however, successful

refugee integration into Britain, particularly for women, is a long, slow and complex process and can leave many isolated. English-language and employment support, as it was for Jewish refugees into Britain many years ago, in addition to basic material needs are critical. While my heart is drawn to mobilising all we can to assist those arriving in the UK, my head recognises that by far the greatest level of need is in Afghanistan itself and in those nations shouldering the burden of vast numbers of Afghan refugees. There is no doubt that humanitarian access constraints are extremely high and we wouldn’t compromise on accountability standards and assurances that our assistance reaches those that require it. Nine years ago a close friend of mine working for the Red Cross was brutally murdered by the Taliban in Pakistan so the realities of delivering assistance, even through local partners is stark. But we will try to navigate this complex field and do what we can to assist those in greatest need. As we become more attuned to the fear and terror that the Taliban may bring to certain groups in Afghanistan, perhaps we will also begin to show greater empathy and understanding towards those who have fled for their lives from Afghanistan and elsewhere in recent years and have arrived to the UK through less safe and legitimate routes.

26 August 2021 Jewish News

www.jewishnews.co.uk

Afghanistan appeal / News

desire to aid Afghan refugees group to organise the operation and new of their efforts spread around the globe. The communal response has been widely praised, with Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer saying the “compassion and generosity” was “inspiring”. A father of four from Jalalabad, Afghanistan, who had been evacuated with his wife and children because he worked as an interpreter for the British forces, said he was “really thankful” to those donating. “My mes-

kforce high-fives an Afghan boy

sage to all the British people is that they have helped, and we really, really appreciate it.” The United Synagogue pointed out that Afghans who arrived in the UK from Kabul will be processed as refugees and given a right to remain, while those who arrived by crossing the channel may be viewed as asylum seekers. Richard Verber, the United Synagogue’s communications director, said: “We’re likely to continue to see large numbers of people coming to the UK to claim asylum. The United Synagogue’s asylum seeker drop-in centres will be well placed to support Afghans and others in need.” Meanwhile, Dan Fox, a reservist soldier who is now deputy national chair of the Association of Jewish ex-Servicemen and Women – the Jewish Military Association (AJEX-JMA), outlined how the charity is helping those in need. The Radlett Reform member, who served in 2010-11, said the organisation mobilised to help refugees from Afghanistan. “From just beyond the short term need for clothes, food, toys, other items, we’re also hoping that in the longer term, AJEX will be there for those people coming here, often with just a one bag each, to help with mentoring, support and advice.” He said its volunteers will be supporting refugees with everything from job searches to financial and legal advice, adding: “It’s very much a continuation of what we’ve done in our military service. We’ve helped people on the ground in those countries, through serving and fighting with the armed forces.”

Fox added that AJEX-JMA will also work with other charities and assist in getting supplies to the refugees including at quarantine hotels, while asking its members to assist with things like storage. He said: “These were people who served very bravely. I think for us as Jewish servicemen and women, there’s the affinity that we feel to those people and their families. But I think as Jewish servicemen and women, there’s also the affinity we feel through our own history. We’re all descendants of refugees from across Europe ourselves. We recognise the need to help these people.” In addition to the initiatives by WJR, United Synagogue communities and AJEX, progressive movements have quickly mobilised. “We have a responsibility to help,” said Rabbi Jonathan Romain, of Maidenhead Synagogue. “With our long history of being refugees and with biblical commands to help strangers who are vulnerable, we will be offering practical help to existing refugee centres, and supporting local initiatives that have already leapt into action to house these poor people.” Among those calling for action is Edgware and Hendon Reform Synagogue, which is collecting toiletries for the Paiwant Centre in Edgware, which offers counselling and therapeutic help.

To support the World Jewish Relief appeal go to: www.worldjewish relief.org/afghancrisis

n ec t i o n The con

s e u t in n o c

Amanda was able to go on Israel Tour thanks to the UJIA bursary fund

don’t forget me And don’t forget to leave a gift to World Jewish Relief in your Will you can help end jewish poverty For more information about leaving a gift in your Will, or about our Free Will service, please contact Richard Budden richardb@worldjewishrelief.org 020 8736 1250

www.worldjewishrelief.org/will

reg. charity 290767

a fund that Simon has earmarked for his support long into the future.

wit

haU JIA legacy gift

The UJIA legacy team will make this happen and take care of administering Simon’s estate.

When Simon Winston BEM was hiding in a pigsty in Poland in 1944 he would not have believed that just a decade later he would be visiting Israel. Today, as he reﬂects on his personal journey and dreams for the future, Simon wants to ensure that young people in the UK have the same opportunities to visit Israel that inspired him all those years ago. As Simon is a Holocaust survivor with no close family, UJIA’s Legacy team provide much needed assistance and act as Executors of his estate. To ﬁnd out more about how UJIA can act as the executors for your estate, 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).

www.jewishnews.co.uk

Jewish News 26 August 2021

News / Afghanistan crisis

#JewsForSafePassage launch on social media Jewish News today launches a campaign to lobby for a safe passage for Afghans desperately trying to flee the country, as a senior activist praised Anglo-Jewry’s support over the past 48 hours. The #JewsForSafePassage campaign, led by the Jewish Council for Racial Equality (JCORE) and this newspaper together with the Refugee Trauma Initiative (RTI), draws parallels with the experience of our community during the Kindertransport, and the choices Afghan families are making now. It calls for safe corridors to be established so Afghans at risk from the Taliban can leave. Our campaign urges readers to write to their MP, to prepare donations of food and clothing and to spread the word of the situation in Afghanistan. “In the late 1930s, Jewish parents put their children in the hands of strangers as part of the Kindertransport to save them from Nazis,” states our campaign. “We can see Afghan parents are doing the same now at Kabul airport.” Lord Dubs, whose life was saved on the Kindertransport, said: “I agree with the call for a generous and humanitarian response from the UK government to the

for standing with Afghans in our hour of need,” said RTI CEO Zarlasht Halaimzai, who supported the coordination of the campaign. “I feel a deep respect for the community that has always stood for those being persecuted. “There is a deep affinity and understanding from my friends in the Jewish community for what I and many Afghans have been going through for decades.” Barbara Winton, the daughter of Sir Nicholas Winton, who supervised the rescue of 669 children from occupied Czechoslovakia, backed the campaign (see right). “The Jewish community understand the price paid by endangered families who are left behind,” she said. Boris Johnson this week said evacuations must continue beyond 31 August, following a meeting of the G7. “The number one condition we’re setting as G7 is that they have got to guarantee, right the way through from 31 August and beyond, safe passage if you want to come out,” he said.

Jewish News is part of the campaign

current crisis unfolding in Afghanistan, especially towards those who have helped us in the past and women who have been active in public life in Afghanistan who are now in great danger.” Already the community has rallied around in an incredible show of support for those in need in Kabul, with hundreds donating items to refugees at Bushey Synagogue. The charity AJEX has established a WhatsApp group to coordinate donations, while Griggs Homes in Radlett is collecting donations of toiletries, clothes, books and toys. “I am so grateful to our Jewish allies

• Support the campaign on social media with the hashtag #JewsForSafePassage

27 May 2020

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16 Sivan 5781

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Issue No.1212

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@JewishNe

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DRESSING

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New Beginnin

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A Conservative peer issued a reminder of the UK’s “proud record of welcoming immigrants” on the 110th anniversary of anti-Jewish riots in the Welsh town where his family lived. Lord Wolfson of Tredegar, who is Jewish, said he was “well aware of the timing” of his message on Twitter. It corresponded with the unveiling of the UK government’s plan to provide refuge in this country to 20,000 Afghans fleeing the Taliban. The former QC, who is a junior minister in the Ministry of Justice, revealed that his greatgrandfather and family had lived through the Tredegar riots of 1911. On 19 August that year, he recalled, a group of drunk workers had

attacked a Jewish shop and properties in the town in South Wales. Lord Wolfson tweeted that “importantly, we remember the Tredegar riots because they were exceptional”. He added: “The relationship between the Jewish and non-Jewish inhabitants of Tredegar and other towns in the Valleys was generally excellent. My family lived in Tredegar for years afterwards. Tredegar gave my family a refuge – and yes, I’m well aware of the timing of the tweet. This country has a proud record of welcoming immigrants – who have in turn contributed to UK society in so many ways.” Lord Wolfson said: “I chose Tredegar as the geographic part of my title as an expression of that gratitude. And we are also thankful that we came to, and still live in, a country which, to quote the late Chief Rabbi Lord Sacks, is a medina shel chesed – a kingdom of kindness.”

ISSUE NO.6

Magazine

YIZKOR – Living with

In January 1939, my father, Nicholas Winton, stood in a refugee camp in central Czechoslovakia, seeing families with no way out, pleading for sanctuary for their children. The Nazis were marching across Europe, threatening those they hated or who stood against them. Despite having no authority or influence, he decided to try at least to get the children to safety. That decision led to the Czech and Slovak Kindertransport. Today, witnessing the scenes in Afghanistan, we see similarities to the past and fear for those abandoned to their fate. We can feel impotent, but we needn’t be. My father did not accomplish the 1939 rescue alone – many volunteers played their part: lobbying government, fundraising, offering homes to children, organising and publicising.

by Lee Harpin lee@jewishnews.co.uk @lmharpin

BRITAIN’S BLIND SP O T

ANTI-JEWIS

BY BARBARA WINTON

So although as individuals we may feel helpless, we can all do something! We can join together with those groups sending strong messages. Jewish News, JCORE and Refugee Trauma Initiative have launched a campaign and supporting that campaign would be a good first step. Other initiatives can be found through synagogues and community groups. When war started in September 1939 and the rescue effort had to stop, my father and his colleague Trevor Chadwick both felt they had failed. They had 5,000 names on their list and only 669 of them were brought to safety. In 1988, 50 years after the Kindertransport, my father began to meet those rescued children and he discovered that many thousands were now alive due to the work he and his volunteers had done. They gave him a ring as a token of their gratitude, inscribed with words from the Talmud, “Save one life, save the world”.

Peer recalls Welsh riot

Support your Jewish community. Support your Jewish News Thank you for helping to make Jewish News the leading source of news and opinion for the UK Jewish community. Unlike other Jewish media, we do not charge for content. That won’t change. Because we are charity-owned and free, we rely on advertising to cover our costs. This vital lifeline, which has dropped in recent years, has fallen further due to coronavirus. Today we’re asking for your invaluable help to continue putting our community first in everything we do. For as little as £5 a month you can help sustain the vital work we do in celebrating and standing up for Jewish life in Britain. Jewish News holds our community together and keeps us connected. Like a synagogue, it’s where people turn to feel part of something bigger. It also proudly shows the rest of Britain the vibrancy and rich culture of modern Jewish life. You can make a quick and easy one-off or monthly contribution of £5, £10, £20 or any other sum you’re comfortable with. 100% of your donation will help us continue celebrating our community, in all its dynamic diversity...

TIME TO FOLLOW DAD’S EXAMPLE

TALIBAN SCOOP BY ISRAELI STATE TV A Taliban spokesman accidentally conducted a TV interview with the Israeli state channel Kan. Suhail Shaheen, who has been giving interviews in English from Qatar since the Taliban retook control of Afghanistan, said he had no idea he was speaking to Israeli news. The Taliban, an Islamic fundamentalist group, has a history of supporting al-Qaeda, which routinely makes threats against Israel and uses anti-Israel rhetoric in its propaganda. When Shaheen spoke over video with journalist Roi Kais at Kan, the journalist named his network but did not tell Shaheen that he or it was Israeli. In the interview, Shaheen said the Taliban would protect non-Muslim minorities in Afghan-

istan, including Zebulon Simantov, understood to be the last Jew living there, whom he said he did not know. He also said the Taliban does not have ties to Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that runs Gaza and opposes Israel’s existence. Kan’s interview was circulated widely, eliciting surprise that Shaheen had agreed to it. But several hours after it aired, Shaheen tweeted he had not understood to whom he was speaking. “I do many interviews with journalists every day after the falling of provincial centres of Afghanistan and the capital Kabul to the Islamic Emirate,” Shaheen wrote. “Some journalists may be masquerading but I haven’t done interview with any one introducing himself he is from an Israeli media [sic].”

26 August 2021 Jewish News

www.jewishnews.co.uk

Afghanistan refugees / News

Will parents send children alone? BY ZARLASHT HALAIMZAI & GABRIELLA BRENT Over the past week the world has watched as desperate Afghans attempt to flee their country via the only route out – Kabul airport. Following the Taliban takeover, Afghan women, human rights defenders, journalists and many more have been at immediate risk. Watching the panic and fear has been distressing for many including ourselves. The events brought back memories for both our families. Zarlasht is Afghan and arrived in the UK at the age of 15 with her family. Gabriella comes from a family of Jewish refugees. Her grandmother arrived in the UK on the Kindertransport. Some were not so lucky to make it out. Our families know how it feels to desperately try to get your family to safety, of closing doors, and of too few outstretched hands of help. Over the past week we’ve heard stories from our friends and family in hiding, scared of what will happen if the Taliban finds them. Others have spent days trying to reach the airport for a chance to reach safety. One friend said: “It feels like we were having a dream,” referring to the situation now as “torture”. These are people who believed in and fought for democracy and women’s rights; their lives and dreams have been suddenly shattered.

As the events of the past week unfolded we couldn’t help but think about our own histories. We were seeing, live, the desperate decisions that our families also had to make years ago. What do you take you with you when you flee and what do you leave behind? How and to whom do you say goodbye? Can you even say goodbye? Do you send your children alone in the hope you’ll be able to join them later? We met as part of our work at Refugee Trauma Initiative. At RTI we provide trauma-informed psychosocial support to refugees, to help people heal from experiences of trauma. Our work enables people to build resilience as they navigate the uncertain next steps of their lives. Humanitarian crises take huge tolls on mental health. In fact, people living in conflictaffected areas are three times more likely than the general population to be affected by mental health issues. These issues don’t go away overnight and refugees and asylum seekers also experience high rates of depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress. RTI uses identityinformed approaches to psychosocial support to address the effects of intergenerational trauma – something our families know about all too well. Our families histories have greatly informed the path we took in our lives. We stand for antiracism and inclusivity and practise this in our activism, our work with RTI and conversations with friends and family. We hope one day

A British soldier with an Afghan baby in Kabul

arriving Afghan refugees will be able to return to Afghanistan, as we hope for other communities we support. Jewish tradition places great importance on just treatment of refugees and the Jewish community has long stood behind those fleeing persecution. We know what happens when people look away and too often, we’ve also had to stand alone. That’s why we came together with Jewish News and the Jewish Council for Racial Equality (JCORE), on a coalition building campaign to support the safe passage of Afghans.

WHAT IS VIOLET LOOKING FORWARD TO MOST IN THE NEW YEAR?

Time is running out for those at risk to be taken to safety and we’re terrified at what will happen when Afghanistan is no longer the top news item. We’re calling for humanitarian corridors immediately to save those at risk. The UK has precedent in this. The Syria resettlement scheme, launched in 2014, welcomed 20,000 Syrians, in 1972 Ugandan Asians found refuge after being expelled by Idi Amin and of course the Kindertransport in the late 1930s provided refuge for many of the Jewish community’s grandparents. These initiatives only happened because of pressure from the public. The Jewish community in particular has played a big role in securing the safe passage of vulnerable persons, for example the Dubs amendment in 2016, introduced by Lord Dubs, himself a former Kindertransport refugee. At times like this, a collective voice is so important. That’s why we are asking the Jewish community to stand with Afghans at the time of suffering. Events like what is unfolding in Afghanistan can cause immense suffering but have also built bridges of support between communities. We’re proud to stand together as Jewish-Afghan allies saying together: Afghans are welcome here.  Zarlasht Halaimzai is co-founder and CEO of the Refugee Trauma Initiative  Gabriella Brent is Refugee Trauma Initiative’s clinical lead and head of programmes

Violet lives on her own. But she’s not alone. Violet, along with other members of our community centres, was supported over the pandemic through our online virtual programme. Violet said it was her highlight week after week. But now Violet is waiting in anticipation for her centre to reopen to see old friends and the new ones she has met online; “it will be a real party”. So, whilst we are continuing to support the community through our virtual programmes, Meals on Wheels and telephone befriending service, we can’t wait to welcome back Violet and thousands of others in our community who both deeply rely on our centres – and miss them. But we can’t do it without your help. We rely on generous people like you to ensure we can continue to provide all our vital services and bring sweetness and joy to more people like Violet this Rosh Hashanah.

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Jewish News 26 August 2021

News / Stamford Hill assault

Police hunt this man after attack The Jewish victim of an assault in Stamford Hill has said it will “not change his feelings one iota” towards the Muslim community, as police hunt for the assailant, writes Jack Mendel. Jacob Lipchitz was attacked as he walked to shul last Wednesday by someone wearing Islamic dress. The 64-year-old was knocked unconscious and taken to hospital with a broken ankle. Authorities are now searching CCTV footage to find the perpetrator. The alleged assailant also appears in footage of two other incidents, all of which are being treated as hate crimes against the local strictly Orthodox community. Police said a 30-yearold-man was hit on the head with a bottle and a 14-year-old boy was struck with a newspaper, before Lipchitz was attacked. Speaking to Jewish News about the incident, Lipchitz said he had been attacked so viciously that he had “no idea” what happened. “I was on the way to synagogue in the evening and then all of a sudden I am on the floor. I woke up laying down.” He explains that Jewish emergency responders at Hatzolah “hauled me up on to a chair. They started to examine me and told me what my injuries were,” before taking him to Homerton hospital. The grandfather said initially he didn’t realise he had been assaulted. A little boy on a scooter “started telling people someone hit me”, he said. “By Friday afternoon one of my grandchil-

ened sense of concern, especially s long as this blighter is at large”. After police released an appeal to track down the alleged perpetrator, officers visited the victim in his home yesterday. He said the attack was “really out of the ordinary” in terms of community relations. “It’s not representative of the Muslim community. We get on very well with them. This is almost certainly a lone wolf, and it will not affect one iota as far as I’m concerned, my feelings about the local Muslim community.” The Metropolitan Police has so far not made any arrests.  Anyone with information about the incident is asked to call police via 101 quoting reference Cad 4492/20Aug

The man police want to question and (right) the victim being quizzed

dren went to the synagogue, checked the CCTV, and that’s when the attack came to light.” Asked whether it was his first experience of antisemitism, he said: “We all have [come across it], but not from Muslim people as such. Certainly not in Stamford Hill. We generally live in harmony with them. We work

together.” Despite the assault, he said: “I’m not concerned, I’m not going to be worried or something,” but that his friends and family do feel a “height-

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26 August 2021 Jewish News

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Jewish News 26 August 2021

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26 August 2021 Jewish News

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Uni investigation / News

Miller’s backers pile on rhetoric A campaign backing Bristol’s “end Zionism” professor has reiterated its inflammatory claim that the university’s Jewish Society whitewashes “Zionist colonisation of Palestine”, writes Adam Decker. The Support David Miller campaign issued the statement after Jewish News reported that the sociology lecturer is apparently teaching next year – despite an investigation into his conduct passing the 160-day mark. Miller was roundly condemned by Jewish communal figures and parliamentarians after calling for an “end to Zionism” and labelled Bristol’s J-Soc “pawns of Israel”. Now a campaign supporting him has repeated the claims, accusing the Union of Jewish Students (UJS) of “manufacturing hysteria” over Miller. It said in an email to Jewish News: “Both the UJS and Bristol J-Soc exist to whitewash Zionist colonisation of Palestine and promote Israeli diplomatic objectives in the UK.” The email also accused this newspaper of failing to maintain “even a pretence of journalistic integrity”. It added: “No serious observer should take the claims of ‘discomfort’ made by these pro-Israel campaigners at face value, and they should not be allowed to dictate policy.” The Union of Jewish Students has criticised

WHY IS BRISTOL UNIVERSITY REFUSING TO TALK TO US? BY MARIE VAN DER ZYL BOARD

OF DEPUTIES

David Miller: under investigation for months

the university for failing “to protect Jewish students”. Bristol J-Soc president Edward Isaacs has said he was targeted for abuse following the academic’s broadside against the J-Soc. Bosses at Bristol University, one of the country’s leading academic institutions, have refused to discuss the probe, citing legal reasons. It refused to tell Jewish News whether Miller would be teaching next year, citing the ongoing investigation. “We cannot jeopardise the integrity and rigour of what is a confidential process by discussing it with the media or third parties, ” said a spokesperson.

Universities and all institutions of higher education have an obligation to care for their students. Unfortunately, we believe Bristol University is failing in this most basic duty. Over the past two years, Prof David Miller, a sociology lecturer at the university, made statements that caused Jewish students, a number of whom were being taught by him, to say that they no longer felt safe at the university. Miller said Bristol’s Jewish Society were “political pawns” of a “violent, racist foreign regime”. This statement was jawdroppingly offensive. It touched on the antisemitic trope that UK Jews have a primary loyalty to a foreign country – in this case Israel – and so are not to be trusted. Given that Bristol J-Soc has

members drawn from many religious and political affiliations and are a diverse set of people – to call them “pawns” was crude stereotyping unworthy of an academic. On top of his statements, he produced slides for his lectures full of basic errors and an intention to characterise the Jewish community as a web of Islamophobia under the control of the Israeli government. Jewish students at Bristol found his comments offensive and felt discriminated against. They and the UJS led an excellent campaign to ensure that consistent pressure has been applied to the university, though the lack of action taken forced them to release a statement last month saying the university had “failed to provide a basic duty of care to its Jewish students”. Six months ago, the university promised to investigate. Meanwhile, Miller remains in post and is preparing to teach modules in the new term.

We wrote to Vice-Chancellor Hugh Brady asking why there had been silence. We asked why Miller had not been suspended pending the results of the inquiry. We suspected that the university might be hoping that if it stayed silent for long enough, the problem would go away. The university’s answer was no to suspension and no to a meeting. The letter said suspension would pre-judge the result of the investigation. The university’s own ordinances appear to state that they are able to suspend an academic during an inquiry as a “neutral” act. As an employment lawyer I can confirm this is standard practice in many workplaces. Bristol University needs to complete the investigation promptly and Miller must be suspended pending its outcome. Anything less leads us to believe that the university simply does not care about its Jewish students. We can draw our own conclusions.

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Jewish News 26 August 2021

News / US guidance / Scientist’s warning / Vaccine drive / Tribe camps

‘Get tested before new year services’ The United Synagogue is urging members to take a Covid test before Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, writes Joshua Salisbury. The new guidance, introduced because of an expected higher number of attendees at the services, also states that those living with a positive Covid case or identified as a contact should not attend. Those blowing the shofar are being asked to record a negative lateral flow test on erev yomtov, and to keep two metres away from everyone else when blowing the shofar.

At community social events, guests might be expected to demonstrate their Covid status before attending. The policy also recommends that services for youth should be held in a separate building, or outdoors, because of higher infection rates in children. Rabbi Nicky Liss, who helped to develop the guidance, said: “Our communities have been carefully planning for the upcoming Yamim Noraim for many weeks now and the latest United Synagogue guidance takes into

account the recent changes in government guidance. “After the challenges posed by the pandemic last Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, we know that our shuls are looking forward to welcoming back bigger crowds this year but will still want to make sure members feel comfortable and can daven safely.” A range of online services will be streamed from the movement’s broadcasting site, www.TheUS.tv, for those who do not feel comfortable attending in person.

Fourth wave ‘deadlier than predicted’ A top scientist advising Israel on its pandemic response has alerted the world that the fourth coronavirus wave will be “deadlier than anyone predicted”. The Weizmann Institute’s Eran Segal issued a stark warning this week as cases surge in Israel, and the effectiveness of the

double Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine was “waning”. Writing for MailOnline, he said the country is responding with booster jabs, but Israel’s experiences “have several implications for Britain” and other nations. Segal urged countries to

“redouble their efforts to persuade vaccine refuseniks” to get a jab, while ensuring boosters are given to the vulnerable. “It would be wise to act now to prevent a deadly wave in the UK”, he said. This comes after a surge in cases in Israel, with more than

‫שנה טובה‬

6,000 cases a day on average. So far 6,752 deaths have been recorded. Segal also highlighted that waves in France and Iran have been “deadlier than anyone predicted”. Saying Israel was “cautiously hopeful” that by vaccinating most of its population it had

beaten the virus, he said it is “seeing that the combination of a highly transmittable variant, reduced vaccine effectiveness and the 15 percent of those eligible for the vaccine who remain unvaccinated has changed the course of the pandemic”.

Eran Segal

JABS DRIVE FOR YESHIVA STUDENTS FLYING HOME A vaccination drive will be held for returning Yeshiva students ahead of Rosh Hashanah. The Hackney-based Jewish Community Council (JCC) has arranged the initiative with the local authority and public health groups, amid concerns that strictly Orthodox men have not got the jab while studying overseas. Working with Hackney Council, the NHS and Clinical Commission Groups, the drive will begin on 2 September ahead of the High Holy Days, which start on 6 September. The JCC said there will be a series of mobile and temporary vaccine clinics outside busy shuls and community halls in Stamford Hill – which will run throughout the month. Following the lifting of restrictions, it is

expected that the Jewish new year, and Yom Kippur on 15 September, will include large gatherings of people. It is hoped that more than 2,000 Yeshiva students returning to London after studying oversees will participate in this drive. Levi Schapiro, JCC Founder, said: “This drive is extremely important to ensure hundreds of Yeshiva bocherim [students] who were away oversees studying during this latest year, are able to receive their vaccine. “Many have been worried that they may have missed their opportunity, because those who left before April, at the time, were not eligible; and it only opened to over-18s in June, which is why this is now more important than ever.”

Covid camp outbreak

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Parents were forced to take journeys of up to nine hours to fetch their children early from summer camp after a Covid outbreak at a site run by the United Synagogue. Tribe, the US youth movement, held all this year’s summer camps – one of which was hit by a serious Covid outbreak – on the Isle of Wight. One mother told Jewish News she had to take a nine-and-a-half hour journey and two ferries to fetch her daughter after a camper in her dorm tested positive. She alleged that testing was not done properly and the outbreak was not localised. Tribe’s head of operations, Tamara Jacobson, told Jewish News that all the correct procedures were followed and children were tested before going to the camp. But one mother, who wishes

to remain anonymous, said her daughter was discouraged from testing properly when a Covid case was discovered in her dorm. “My daughter said when they did the test, the madrichim (leaders) said ‘don’t worry about doing the one in your throat and you don’t need to do both nostrils, just give it a quick wipe in one nostril and that’s fine,’” she said. The organisation said correct testing and guidance from Public Health England was followed. “In line with government guidance for residential camps, the Tribe team isolated them, and anybody sleeping in the same bedroom as them,” it said. “Parents were then asked to collect their children as we had advised would be the case. “

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26 August 2021 Jewish News

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Jewish News 26 August 2021

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Interfaith run / Israel trips / Wellbeing resource / News

Hundreds of people from all walks of life are set to take part in an interfaith fun run on Monday to raise money for more than 30 charities working across religious communities, writes Adam Decker. The London Interfaith Fun Run, media partnered by Jewish News, takes place from 9am to 3pm on Monday, 30 August, at the StoneX Stadium in Mill Hill. Organised by the Faith and Belief Forum and Maccabi GB, it is being supported by Her Majesty’s Lord-Lieutenant of Greater London’s Council on Faith and Dangoor Education. “With its annual Community Fun Run, Maccabi GB has developed an amazing event that engages the whole community of all ages and backgrounds,” said philanthropist David Dangoor. “The Lord Lieutenant of Greater London’s Council on Faith, which I have the privilege to chair, has brought together Maccabi GB and the Faith and Belief Forum to create a special event. “We hope it will inspire many of those who form the beautiful social tapestry of our great capital city, be they young or old, whatever their ethnic group or faith to join together in

Photo by Blake Ezra Photography

JN putting faith in fun run

Shoah survivors, with friends and family and Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis, at the 2019 Maccabi Fun Run

strengthening the bonds that can help make London a strong and welcoming community of diversity.” Participants can walk or run 1km,

5km or 10 km routes, and money will be raised for charities such as Faiths for the Climate, Humanists UK, Stand Up! Education against

Discrimination and CitySikhs, among others. The event also promises a food court and an interfaith fun zone for a “summer festival vibe”.

Members take tea in Sandringham centre Jewish Care has unveiled its state-of-the-art community centre at Sandringham. Attendees who previously used the charity’s Edgware and Harrow facility before the pandemic were greeted with tea and honey cakes ahead of Rosh Hashanah. Many had not seen each other – or volunteers – for 18 months. The new Ronson Family Community Centre is part of the Sandringham campus, situated on the border between Hertfordshire and Stanmore. It includes 16 acres of natural woodland, and has a synagogue and kosher café. Jewish Care’s chief executive, Daniel CarmelBrown, said: “It was wonderful to see so many members and volunteers enjoying their first day of inperson activity at the Ronson Family Community Centre. Sandringham has much to offer the local community and we are excited the doors are now open for our members, tenants and residents.”

UJIA targets 10k trips UJIA, the charity that promotes young people’s connections to Israel, says it will facilitate 10,000 visits in three years to the country to make up for lost time during Covid. The charity supported more than 30 programmes of Israel engagement this summer, benefiting youth movements, synagogues, schools and special educational needs specialists across the country. But now it has pledged increased investment to boost the number of youngsters taking organised trips to Israel. “Our goal is to facilitate 10,000 such visits to Israel in the next three years. Formative experiences in Israel are crucial to the future strength

A group event run by UJIA this summer

of our Jewish community,” said the charity’s chief executive, Mandie Winston. Extra bursaries will be on offer for the trips, she added, so “cost will not prohibit anyone from participating”. While trips have been on hold for the previous two summers, informal educa-

tion events have still gone ahead. “We are so proud of our partners in the youth movements and across the community for the amazing job they have done under really challenging circumstances,” said Winston. “We can’t wait to start resuming trips to Israel and making up for lost time.”

MENTAL HEALTH RESOURCE LAUNCHED A new resource has been launched to promote better wellbeing and mental health within the Jewish community. The Five ways to Wellbeing and Judaism leaflet was created in consultation with Rabbi Miriam Berger and Rabbi Daniel Epstein, with the support of communal organisations. It promotes stronger mental health with recommendations, including connecting with other people, being physically active, learning something new every day, giving to others and paying attention to how you feel. Delivered through animations and videos,

as well as a leaflet that draws on teachings – including from the late Rabbi Lord Sacks – the initiative is supported by the London Jewish Forum, Jami, Maccabi GB and the London Borough of Barnet. Jami chief executive Laurie Rackind said: “This initiative highlights the role of community and faith in supporting our mental health and wellbeing, providing support essential for a mentally healthy community.” Since its 2017 launch, the NHS Good Thinking online mental wellbeing platform has released toolkits to London communities.

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Jewish News 26 August 2021

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Jewish News 26 August 2021

Special Report / Community consensus

Divided

In our previous issue we published the first part of an in-depth look at the Jewish community’s leftright divide. It certainly got tongues wagging. Today we bring you part two. We’ve heard about the different factions or caucuses, the splintering of the left beyond Yachad and the organising of the community’s ‘right’ to win key positions on sub-committees at the Board of Deputies. We’ve considered the effect of Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour leadership on the community’s political centre ground, asked if there even is a centre ground any more, grappled with the idea that the Jewish left-right gap has become a chasm and wondered aloud whether the community is still governable. This week we continue our inspection of the faultlines, asking where next for a community that some suggest is made for the phrase ‘two Jews, three opinions’ and others claim is now more united than ever. Report by Stephen Oryszczuk

SHIFTING TECTONIC PLATES Some certainly feel that we are more divided than ever. On Israel, Likut Herut UK chair Zalmi Unsdorfer puts this down to two things : “more attacks on Israel by the woke, but also more pride in Israel for its achievements, most recently on Covid”. He says the right are fighting back. “There’s a swelling defence movement. We’re not going to let our only Jewish home be sullied in this way. “The more Israel is subject to moral relativism and woke commentary, the more it irritates people who understand and realise that we only have one Israel, and if we don’t support it and underpin it, it’s going to go down.” Unsdorfer adds that the right “have no truck with those who do the West Bank talk, which they’re incensed by, so yes, the faultlines are very severe”. From the other side of the spectrum, Jon Lansman, the Jewish founder of socialist grassroots group Momentum, agrees that the clouds are looming. “The venom and hostility from the extremes are pulling the tectonic plates apart,” he says. “If you can’t speak to people elsewhere on the spectrum, if you’re always looking over your shoulder when trying to work with others, that level of intolerance pulls people apart. The JCORE vote was indicative of the plates breaking away.” Former Board president Jonathan Arkush reminds us that left-wing JCORE was not alone in having its membership rejected – the right-wing Zionist Central Council (ZCC) also failed to get the required 66 percent. It shows a polarisation, he says. “It seems to indicate a fairly strong ‘right’ at the Board, and a fairly strong ‘left’,” says Arkush. “Though neither has enough dominance to get a two-thirds majority.” This chimes with the experience of Andrew Gilbert, a left-wing deputy. “On Israel, we’re further apart than ever, because Israel is so divided. But the community is generally much more divided on all political issues,” he says. “It’s not just Israel.”

HARMONY AND COLLECTIVISM Others disagree, arguing that we are not as riven as at times we seem. Interestingly, the ‘keep-calmand-carry-on-agreeing’ camp is led by unlikely ideological bedfellows. Paul Charney, who until recently chaired the ZF, says that while people “may disagree on Israel, no one disagrees on policies” in the UK. “Antisemitism is the emergency issue here. Everyone agrees on that, left and right.” The things Jewish leaders deal with, such as education and social care, “are broadly agreed upon by the vast majority”, Charney says. “Even in shuls, the difference between the United Synagogue

and Reform is not that great, and nobody even cares. There are no major battles. They’ll hang me for saying it, but everyone really does agree. You want disagreement? Go to Israel. I don’t see any here. It’s homogenised. Arguments are only on the fringes.” David Davidi-Brown, new head of New Israel Fund UK and until recently at the Union of Jewish Students (UJS), finds himself on the same page. “The community is more united today than at most points in history,” he says. “The big fallouts – Louis Jacobs, the Hugo Gryn funeral – or on Israel – two states, mutual recognition – were much more fraught in the 20th century. “When Chief Rabbi Mirvis was installed, the progressive leadership was there. Support for two states is now mainstream. Step back and on all the big issues, there’s much more common ground. It’s just that there are some louder fringes.” Arieh Miller, a former ZF director who succeeded DavidiBrown as CEO of UJS, says the “boundaries” of the community’s left-right split haven’t changed. “They’re the same as they were 50, 60, 70 years ago. It’s just that the divide has become more accentuated, more prominent. It’s talked about more, in more places.” Perhaps expectedly, Jewish Leadership Council (JLC) chair Jonathan Goldstein stresses the “major elements in our community where there is a degree of collectivism and harmony”, citing religious tolerance, social care, and antisemitism. On tackling anti-Jewish racism, he says: “There has been a huge amount of agreement about what is acceptable and what is not, and the actions that the central organisations took. There is still a very wide agreement about the way forward.”

ONLINE AND INTOLERANT

Miller says the conversation “isn’t that different, but the way people talk about it and the amount of people who see it has changed, because social media didn’t exist 15 years ago”. Joseph Cohen, of the Israel Advocacy Movement, agrees. “Social media hasn’t created echo chambers, but it’s let people to see views they disagree with,” he says. “So, when a group says Kaddish for Hamas, for instance, it’s now all over their social media and the views are much more obvious.” Rabbi Shaw recalls taking part in a panel debate two years ago. “There were two left-wingers, LFI types, and two right-wingers, one was me. I said Israel was an oasis of peace in a desert of savagery and was screamed at and called a racist. “I explained what I meant but it made me realise that I just can’t talk to these people, they’re so angry and mad. Likewise, you had someone from the right in the audience calling them Nazis. You can’t do that! Just talk about the facts. “It can still be done within certain parts of our community, but it’s getting a lot less tolerant, absolutely. The whole culture now, especially on social media, is ‘as long as your view agrees with my view, you can speak’. It’s very worrying.” Lansman agrees that we are “increasingly intolerant” and says this “was obvious from the debate on antisemitism in the Labour Party… It became very difficult for people to speak to each other, because they were attacked by the extremes. There’s a sense now in which that’s true of speaking about Israel.” Like others, Arkush is “worried about loud noises from both left and right, clamouring for longer and louder, each watching the other, each struggling for mastery,” adding: “I don’t like it. Most Jews are neither very left nor very right. “The ‘Jew in the pew’ would like the louder mouths to be quieter,” he says. “They find Board debates too shrill. Most people are moderate. Shrill shouting by people at either end [of the political spectrum] simply doesn’t make for rationale debate.” While Arkush thinks the louder online activDr Edie Friedman ists are now left-wing, Mike Katz, chair of the of JCORE Jewish Labour Movement (JLM), says “the voices

A protest in London, held by Na’amod (British Jews Against Occupation), against Israel’s policies in Gaza

we hear in the community online sound more right-wing than they used to, particularly on Israel”. When it comes to discussing national politics in the community, Katz thinks some partisan activists “still use Corbyn as a stick with which to beat Labour, acting as if he were still leader, which seems to be wishful thinking on their part”. He says: “They’re still fighting their war, despite the terrain having changed. It’s a problem and one of my biggest worries, because it isn’t healthy for our community. If we can’t get back to a non-partisan approach, that has ramifications for the way the community is perceived, let alone the way its members interact. “We’re not a big community. If we spend more time arguing among ourselves, we’ll lose our outward focus and lose the right to be heard in wider debates, where previously we have been heard and respected.” Amen, says JCORE’s Dr Edie Friedman. “We need to learn how to talk to each other and how to differ. Rather than slag each other off and tell each other to shut up, I think we just need to get back to basics.”

TO SPEAK OR NOT TO SPEAK Ephraim Borowski, director of the Scottish Council of Jewish Communities and a candidate for vice-chair of the Board’s defence division, is one of many who caution against “representative” public statements on things like Israel. “My main worry for the future for any organisation representing the Jewish community is consensus,” he says. “The function of a representative body is to represent. That presupposes a common consensus. On too many matters there are lots of people at each end and not many in the middle. If you have that kind of bimodal distribution, you’ve lost the centre. An umbrella representative organisation has to represent the centre… [but] there isn’t a centre to speak for anymore.” He says that while Israel is important to 93 percent of British Jews’ identity – “a pretty good consensus” - there is “an enormous

26 August 2021 Jewish News

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Community consensus / Special Report

on division WHOSE REMIT IS IT ANYWAY?

On non-specifically Jewish issues such as climate change, KahnHarris says there is “disagreement over how far the community should speak out on things that aren’t narrowly concerned with Jews and Israel”. This very point was raised as a reason not to admit JCORE to Board membership, with a narrower focus having been something that Board presidential candidate Jonathan Neumann pushed for the May election. “He got quite a few votes, so clearly it resonates to a degree,” says Kahn-Harris. “Supporters aren’t necessarily climate change deniers. They just think the Board should stay a parochial body. Yet in the still-dominant liberal centre, there’s a feeling that Jews should speak out on wider issues, albeit very carefully.” Carefully is how Arkush trod, doing his best to avoid Israel debates. “It’s so futile, British Jews in north-west London or north Manchester discussing somewhere we don’t live, don’t pay taxes, don’t vote, don’t undergo the daily realities,” he says. “On occasion I criticised the Israeli government, but I was generally careful not to, because I don’t think it’s appropriate. Our job as British Jews is to turn up the volume on Jewish life and defend Israel. That’s what chimes a chord with most.” Had Israel pressed ahead with annexation, and had Arkush still been in the hot seat, would the Board have criticised it? “If the majority of the Israeli public were in favour, I don’t think it would be appropriate for the Board to set up some sort of chorus of denunciation,” he says, adding that “annexation is misunderstood”. Statements or not, it matters not a jot. “It’s irrelevant,” says Charney. “When I was ZF chair, I said ‘I don’t care about your politics, because you can’t be so far left or right that it influences, affects or harms Israel. Israelis will do that.’ For me, the further Jewish leaders stay away from politics, the more representative they are.”

difference between that and, say, the West Bank [or Judea and Samaria], where we can’t even agree what to call it”. Likewise, in just a few years, some youth movements have gone “from ‘socialist Zionist’ to wanting to hang on to every inch of ‘Greater Israel’, he says. “That’s a hell of a shift, a hell of a gulf. The problem for anyone speaking for ‘the communal view’ is how to bridge that. Otherwise, there isn’t ‘one’ communal view. Perhaps, as Wittgenstein said, ‘Of what we cannot speak we should remain silent.’” Human rights barrister Adam Wagner is more blunt. “I don’t think the Board should say anything on politics,” he says. “Once you start, silences become statements, and you have to be consistent. Why is a parliament making statements on international politics or controversial topics? These statements usually depend more on the temperament of the president at the time. It’s a hiding to nothing. Stick to things directly relevant to the community.” Yachad’s Hannah Weisfeld agrees. “It would be much better for Anglo-Jewry – and the Board – if they just said nothing on Israel. When they refused to say anything about annexation it showed where their progressive credentials were.” We’ve been here before, of course. In 2011, then Board president Vivian Wineman reacted to deputies voting against a resolution anchoring support for a two-state solution. “They felt we might be dictating to the government of Israel,” he said. “That came from quite left-wing people, saying it was not our business.” Just three years later, the Board’s pronouncements on Israel proved a lightning rod again, says sociologist Keith KahnHarris. “The 2014 conflict in Gaza led to the growth of several self-defined grassroots pro-Israel organisations, born out of dissatisfaction over the Board and the JLC’s response. “It led to a series of new organisations, including Campaign Against Antisemitism, and a more assertive right-wing response [because] they think the Board is not vociferous enough in defending Israel.”

The Kaddish for Gaza held outside Parliament on 16 May 2018 following the killing of dozens of Palestinians that week

that it is still, by some distance, the biggest fault-line in the community. But it is not the only fault-line. Rabbi Andrew Shaw, chief executive of Mizrachi UK, says there is increasingly another, one that comes down to insularity in the 21st century. “It’s between ‘engaged Orthodoxy’ – Orthodox Jews who want to engage with the modern world, whether on secular education, Israel, or women’s issues – and non-engaged Orthodoxy, which is a more ghettoised form,” he explains. The pandemic – and our response to it – perfectly showcased this divide, he says. The split isn’t between the modern Orthodox and Charedim, he stresses. “Some Charedi Jews are engaged. The Federation is led by Rabbi Zimmerman and he’s very engaged, very firm on Covid guidance to his shuls. Others stayed open. THE TIMES THEY ARE A-CHANGIN’ “The engaged camp would say ‘We’re part of this society, Go back 30 years, Charney says, and left-wing Jews “disagreed we’re going to follow its rules.’ The non-engaged would say ‘No, over settlements but understood the rationale of land for defence, we’re our own world, we can decide for ourselves’. It’s a different of the lack of a partner for peace, of the need to build houses for worldview.” Another fault-line, according to some, is social justice. Rabbi people to live and populations to grow”. Compare that to today, he says. “They see them simply as an Moshe Friedman, a senior educator at the Forum for Jewish evil, a right-wing hoax, and see settlers more like those far-right Leadership, explains this by saying “many of us today have a strong desire to want to help out, to take up a cause”. white nationalists from the US South.” Friedman cites issues such as Uyghur genocide, Greta ThunLikewise, when Rabbi Shaw was in Bnei Akiva, he had friends in RSY. “We differed on Israel, but we all loved Israel.” Students berg, Twitter mobs and universal debt cancellation. “Social juson the left back then “never overstepped the line by being anti- tice is not just a Jewish value, it’s a Jewish invention,” he says. But Davidi-Brown of NIF UK thinks there is “a mainstream Israel, supporting our enemies, supporting boycotts”. London Jewish Forum co-chair Andrew Gilbert recalls that interest in wider social justice issues that would typically have there were “much greater battlelines over denomination than been viewed as left-wing”, citing the Chief Rabbi’s Ben Azzei scheme, and support for WJR campaigns and the Uyghurs. over Israel” 30 years ago. One left-wing deputy says mainstream Jews are “typically proArkush agrees. “When I grew up, Zionist politics were basically irrelevant,” he says. “You had old left organisations like immigration but cynical of other progressive issues” and accuses Poale Zion and old right organisations like Herut, but very few the right of “feeding a culture war”. Reform Rabbi Laura Janner-Klausner says another fault-line people took any notice of them.” Another with a long view is Alex Brummer, a former Board is gender. “You saw that with [Orthodox rabbi] Lindsey president who chairs The Abraham Initiatives UK. He says [Taylor-Guthartz, who was reinstated by the London “the mainstream United Synagogue majority here - of School of Jewish Studies last month after a backwhich I’m part – has, if anything, become more moderate lash]. It’s about women and religion, what they’re on Israel”. allowed to do. That’s a new fault-line, which is a British Jews “are now much more conscious of good thing.” Meanwhile James Harris, the recent UJS presisettlement policy, the suppression of NGOs inside Israel, the Nation State law,” he says. “It’s nardent vying to be vice-chair of the Board’s defence rowed the democratic window and alienated the division, says we are “still split on Israel” but moderates. I’ve seen it in terms of fundraising that the communal divide is “far more obvious for charities like mine, people who before on other issues since the pandemic, as many would never have wanted to be involved.” took to social media to express their views”. Echoing JCORE’s Friedman, he says: THE OTHER FIGHTS “We have to be willing and open to work with those with whom we fundamenDr Lindsey Taylortally disagree [but] we have a long One of the very few points about Israel Guthartz way to go on this.” on which most British Jews agree is

Jewish News 26 August 2021

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Jewish Women’s Aid wishes the community a Happy and Healthy New Year

‫שנה טובה ומתוקה‬

Thank you for your continued support during this pandemic. Your generosity has enabled us to support over 700 women experiencing domestic abuse and sexual violence, and to provide support to 159 children. We were also able to answer 285 calls to our helpline, an increase of 62%, and deliver 2,837 counselling sessions and 387 children’s therapy sessions.

If you would like to support us to continue our work, please visit jwa.org.uk/donate PO Box 65550, London, N3 9EG • 020 8445 8060 • info@jwa.org.uk • www.jwa.org.uk Registered Charity No. 1047045

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Anti-vaxxer protest / McCluskey account / News briefs / News

Yellow star ‘ultimate tribute’

Another demonstrator wears a yellow star. Photo: Lee Harpin

An anti-vaxxer protester wearing a yellow star outside the House of Commons has said his badge is the “ultimate tribute” to the victims of the Holocaust, writes Lee Harpin. The yellow star attached to his left arm bore the words ‘Not Vaccinated’. The man, who identified himself as Geoff Wyatt, was one of several people seen wearing badges that incorporated the yellow star – which Jews were forced to wear by the Nazis – at the demonstration on Tuesday. Beneath the words ‘Not Vaccinated’, Wyatt’s badge

included the German translation ‘Nicht Geimpft’. Asked if he did not consider the badge to be insensitive to the those who suffered in the Holocaust, Wyatt said: “It’s the ultimate tribute – because where we are heading is where the Jews went.” Pointing to the Commons building, where MPs had gathered to debate the crisis in Afghanistan, he said: “This lot are creating a genocide against the people.” He added: “Bear in mind in the 1930s, the Nazis didn’t just suddenly become the tyrants they were – they slowly had

their evil way over the public of Germany. “And the Jews, for years and years said ‘just do what they say’ – and eventually they gassed them.” The small gathering of protesters held placards urging the public to reject vaccinations against Covid and a call to ‘Stop Medical Apartheid’. Wyatt said he would describe himself as a “prominent” member of the group of around 50 demonstrators who regularly protested in Westminster. “People need to wake up to what is happening,” he claimed.

UNION BOSS: MY CORBYN TALK WITH STARMER Unite boss Len McCluskey has given his account of talks he says he had with Sir Keir Starmer on Jeremy Corbyn’s suspension from Labour, writes Lee Harpin. The union’s outgoing general secretary has used memoirs to detail his account of the discus-

sions, which he admits were meant to remain confidential. Corbyn was suspended from Labour in October over his response to the Equality and Human Rights Commission report into antisemitism – and remains suspended as a party MP.

McCluskey entered talks with the Labour leadership about the suspension on Corbyn’s behalf. In promotional copies of the book, Always Red, full details of what McCluskey writes on this matter had been redacted – with the publisher describing the

material as “sensitive”. Always Red is due to be published at the same time as the Labour conference in September. The first of several redactions relates to a phone call when Starmer told the Unite leader he had suspended Corbyn. Defending his deci-

sion to give his account of private conversations about Corbyn, the Unite leader writes: “I am so confident of the account I have given here that I have submitted it for use in legal proceedings and will stand by it in court.”

Len McCluskey

WJR urges support after Haiti quake The community has been urged to support an emergency appeal for Haiti after a deadly earthquake killed almost 2,000 people on the weekend. Jewish groups have rallied behind World Jewish Relief’s campaign following the 7.2 magnitude quake on Saturday which caused untold devastation. The charity is working with a local partner on the ground, Haiti Survie, as chief executive Paul Anticoni warned it was a “race against time” to act, due to possible tropical storms on the horizon.

TV star ‘mortified’ after Instagram post Reality TV personality Oliver Proudlock has apologised and said he is “mortified by his actions” after appearing to refer to the Holocaust in a selfie he shared on Instagram. The 32-year-old Made In Chelsea star received a backlash after he posted a photo from his holiday in Greece, captioned “Boy in the stripe pyjamas”. The book The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas is set in a Nazi concentration camp, with the title referring to the clothes prisoners wore.

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The Friendliest Shul I have ever found The Secret Shul-Goer, in the Jewish Chronicle

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Jewish News 26 August 2021

News / Online post / Survivor’s book

MEND boss: ‘Hitler remark wasn’t insult’ The chief executive of advocacy group Muslim Engagement and Development (MEND) wrote on social media that “Israel’s generosity is like the ‘generosity’ of Hitler”, writes Lee Harpin. Azhar Qayum made the claim during a heated online debate sparked by the 2014 conflict between Israel and Hamas. He also appeared to endorse a suggestion by another contributor to the Facebook discussion that supporting Zionism is the equivalent of backing the Nazis, the Ku Klux Klan in America and the apartheid regime of South Africa. Commenting on a suggestion that Israel had been “generous” when it withdrew from Gaza in 2005, Qayum wrote: “So generous, push four million Palestinians off their land, then relinquish a tiny corner of it, whilst maintaining a crippling blockade even on that, invade every few months

WISHING ALL CUSTOMERS WISHING ALL OUROUR CUSTOMERS

RONI’S

Azhar Qayum leads advocacy group MEND

killing a thousand or two at will. Israel’s generosity is like the ‘generosity’ of Hitler.” Qayum told Jewish News: “The comment you have sent is from 2014 and before my time in MEND. I used the word as you would of any nation that had recently used its armed forces to kill thousands of unarmed civilians and not as an insult to any people. “Having had a huge amount of anti-racism training in my MEND years I would now not

use the word ‘Hitler’ in this context, particularly as I now know how some have made antisemitic comments when making comparisons to Nazi Germany. “However, it was never intended to be antisemitic and any insinuation that it was will be challenged. I will continue to work with all communities, including the Jewish community, to challenge all types of racism and bigotry, including antisemitism.”

Grenfell helper’s race hate charge

‘ISRAEL WILL RECREATE AFGHANISTAN SCENES’

A Grenfell Tower volunteer coordinator has appeared in court charged with two counts of publishing written material in order to stir up racial hatred. Tahra Ahmed Tahra Ahmed, who was running a volunteer network to assist victims of the fire, is alleged to have made comments about supposed Jewish involvement in the Grenfell fire tragedy. The charges come after a report to the police by Campaign Against Antisemitism. Westminster Magistrates’ Court declined jurisdiction, sending the case up to the Old Bailey. Yesterday’s hearing addressed case management. A plea hearing is expected later this year.

A TV pundit has claimed the scenes around Kabul airport will be repeated at Ben Gurion. Abdel Bari Atwan, who has Abdel Bari Atwan appeared on mainstream channels such as the BBC, said Israelis should learn how to swim because their only option to escape “will be the Mediterranean Sea”. Speaking in Arabic on a Lebanese channel, the former editor of Al Quds Al Arabi said Yasser Arafat told him he would see “Israelis fleeing Palestine like rats on a sinking ship,” adding: “Today I believe that this prophecy will come true.”

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Lily Ebert and great-grandson Dov Forman hold a printed copy of her autobiography for the first time. Lily’s Promise: How I Survived Auschwitz and Found the Strength to Live, was written together with Dov and is published next week by Macmillan.

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COME ON IN! It’s been a while!

We’re so excited that we are ready to open our community centres again.

From July through to October, we will carefully and safely be reopening all of our dementia day centres, community centres and Connect@ services. Our Meals on Wheels, telephone befriending, online activities and social work and family carers support services will all also still be there to support our community.

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What's the difference? LEAH

LEAH

Age: 5

Hair: Blonde

Height: 110cm

Lives: London, England

Lives: Odessa, Ukraine

Loves: Dancing Reading Playing Drawing

Two girls. On the face of it, with so much in common. Leah on the left has grown up in North London. She loves her after school dance classes and reading with her siblings. Leah on the right is the same age. She goes to the Tikva school in Odessa, Ukraine. She also dances after school and loves stories. However, if you would have seen Leah from Ukraine 18 months ago, the differences wouldn’t have been so hard to spot. Leah was born into dire circumstances. Her father’s whereabouts are unknown. At as young as two years old her alcoholic mother would send her to the streets to beg for money and to find clients for her work as a prostitute. When Tikva rescued Leah she was malnourished, her hair was matted, her skin sore and infected. She had very limited speech and was frightened when any adult approached her. After help from Tikva’s medical and psychological team, Leah has made amazing progress. She has formed friendships and has started to accept love and care from trusted adults. Your support enables us to continue to search for and rescue children like Leah, ensuring their futures are a world apart from their start in life. Thank you for your generosity this Rosh Hashanah. To make a difference this New Year, please visit www.tikvauk.org/donate Registered Charity 1151993

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26 August 2021 Jewish News

A new Middle East? / Special Report

Abraham Accords: one year on While most of the foreign policy world is focused on President Joe Biden’s decision to pull US troops out of Afghanistan and the disturbing turn of events there, the anniversary of another important Middle East development quietly took place: the first part of the Abraham Accords, the historic cooperation agreements between Israel and several of its Arab neighbours, brokered in large part by the United States, turned one year old last week. The United Arab Emirates signed a treaty to normalise relations with Israel for the first time, opening up collaboration on tourism, trade, technology sharing and more. Bahrain soon followed suit, followed by Sudan and Morocco — all of whom had never before had formal relations with Israel. Almost all the individual agreements came with significant incentives, or compromises to keep good relations ticking over. Here is a rundown of how those incentives are holding up, and a look at each country’s relations with Israel 12 months on. By Ron Kampeas The United Arab Emirates

The biggest success of the four. Israel and the UAE have already exchanged official ambassadors. This is not in any sense a low-profile bromance: the UAE has rolled out the red carpet for senior Israeli officials, including Israeli foreign minister Yair Lapid. Commercial ties are also thriving. A massive UAE investment in Israel’s offshore natural gas extraction is going ahead. Tens of thousands of Israelis visited the UAE in the months after the signing and a kosher food industry is blossoming in Dubai. There is still one important point of tension: Israel’s military actions against the Palestinians. Before the latest round of fighting between Israel and Hamas in May, the UAE criticised Israel’s crackdown on Palestinians protesting against evictions in east Jerusalem.

Bahrain

Bahrain, which houses a Jewish community that’s more than a century old and which has had quiet relations with Israel and the proIsrael community since the 2000s at least, did not need a lot of convincing to buy into the accords. Two months after the signing, Bahrain’s commerce minister was in Jerusalem formalising already-existing commercial ties. Bahrain has named an ambassador to Israel, but unlike the UAE has not yet established an embassy in the country. Houda Nonoo, who in the 2000s made history as the first Jewish ambassador from an Arab country to Washington, said she expected the relationship with Israel to flourish. “As we embark on a new era in the Bahrain–Israel relationship, it is important to remember that at the core of this agreement is the desire to create a new Middle East, one built on peace and prosperity for all,” Nonoo, who is still working for the Bahraini foreign ministry and who attended last year’s signing, told the JTA agency. “I believe that the growing partnerships between Bahrain and Israel will lead to sustainable peace in the region.”

Morocco

Morocco was always seen as the easiest get: not least because of the huge Moroccan

Jewish community in Israel that has since the 1990s travelled back to the country on pilgrimages. And of the four countries in the accords, it has the largest remnant Jewish commuUAE delegates wave to the departing El Al plane after normalisation talks in Abu Dhabi last September nity. A number of Moroccan Jews are advisers to King Mohammed VI. Morocco and Israel have existing commercial BS''D and, reportedly, security ties. The countries have so far exchanged envoys and, for the first time ever, have launched direct commercial flights. Israel’s Yair Lapid visited the country last week and had talks with his counterpart. He made it clear that Israel wants the deal to advance. “What did we achieve from all these years, during which the relations between our two ancient and proud nations were severed?” he said. “Nothing. What did our citizens gain? Nothing. Today, we are changing this for the benefit of tourism and the economy, for trade and cultural exchange, for friendship and cooperation.”

Sudan

Another country that has long had offline ties with Israel, it played a critical role in the 1980s in the wave of Ethiopian Jewish immigration. Right now, its deal with Israel is stuck, as the two sides hash out details — not because any of the parties are having second thoughts. Sudan’s government is contending with internal tensions as it transitions to democracy that have frustrated its overall efforts to engage with the international community. “There have been a few delegations from Israel to Sudan, not the other way around, that’s been postponed and postponed and postponed,” said David Pollock, a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy who tracks public opinion in the Middle East. “There’s a lot of potential in Sudan, for technical cooperation in many different areas — water, agriculture, energy. But it continues to be of course a country that has many internal divisions, and a very fragile, kind of government. Although it’s muddling through pretty well considering.”

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26 August 2021

News / Book criticised / Parental plea / Union challenged Jewish supporters group for Watford

The first Jewish supporters club for a Premier League side has been launched by Watford FC fans. The move was welcomed by former Israeli international, Liverpool, Tottenham and Watford player Ronny Rosenthal, who said it shows how football can be a “force for good”. The Watford FC Jewish Supporters Group was established to provide a forum for Jewish supporters and allow dialogue with nonJewish fans on issues such as antisemitism.

Streisand scores her sixth decade of hits

Barbra Streisand has become the only woman to record a top 20 album on the US charts in every decade from the 1960s to the 2020s. The only other person to achieve that feat is another Jewish artist, Bob Dylan. Streisand’s latest album, Release Me 2, came out on Saturday and debuted at number 15 in the Billboard charts, The album features duets with Willie Nelson and Kermit the Frog..

Tiger came to tea… and faced harassment claim The children’s classic The Tiger Who Came To Tea reinforces harmful gender stereotypes that lead to violence against women and girls, a campaigner has claimed, writes Joshua Salisbury. Rachel Adamson, of Zero Tolerance, a charity working to end men’s violence against women, said Judith Kerr’s 1968 picture book was “problematic” because of its “old fashioned” portrayal of gender roles. The charity co-director claimed on Monday that removing some books featuring gender stereotypes would be “a small price to pay for the lives of women”. The book, one of the most popular picture books in the UK, is about a girl called Sophie, her mother and a tiger who consumes all their food and drink. Adamson told BBC Radio Scotland: “We need to recognise these aren’t just stories. We know that gender stereotypes are harmful and they reinforce gender inequality, and that gender inequality is the cause of violence against women and girls,

such as domestic abuse, rape and sexual harassment.” She added: “I know this will make a lot of people unhappy, but one of the books is The Tiger Who Came to Tea … Judith Kerr is a wonderful author. However, it is reflective of a society that we need to think more closely about.” The activist did not suggest banning the book, but said it should be used to provoke a conversation about gender roles. Meghan Gallacher, the Scottish Conservatives’ spokeswoman for children and young people, told The Daily Telegraph: “While attitudes understandably change over time, parents will be left bemused at some of these claims by Zero Tolerance. “This sort of language is completely unhelpful as we try to educate children about much-loved publications from days gone by.” It has been suggested that the tiger reflects Kerr’s experiences as a child in Nazi Germany, an assertion the writer herself always denied.

Judith Kerr’s picture book ‘reinforces harmful stereotypes’, an activist says

‘Let our Alta die at home’

From all members, trustees, and staff at the Council of Christians and Jews we wish you a Happy New Year!

The father of a desperately ill girl about to be taken off life support has pleaded with doctors to let her be taken home to die, writes Jack Mendel. Abraham Fixsler’s request came as the Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust is removing medical help that keeps Alta alive. His two-year-old daughter, Alta, suffered a severe brain injury at birth and her doctors say she cannot breathe, eat or drink without medical treatment. In May, the trust won a High Court decision to have life support removed, arguing it was in Alta’s best interests. Lawyers representing the trust told the court there is “no prospect of her ever getting better”.

Two-year-old Alta in hospital

Alta’s parents, Abraham and Chaya, who are dual US-Israeli citizens, said their faith means they cannot agree to steps that would lead to her death. Speaking on BBC Radio 4 on Monday, Abraham said he felt doctors and nurses were “going against me and against my wishes”, adding: “And this is making it very difficult to go to visit Alta, to see her for a few hours and to sing to her

and to talk to you her. You feel like a fool. Alta should be in our house for the last moments of her life.” Saying he has doctors advising him from the US, he has advised once she is taken off life support, “it could take minutes, hours, days, weeks and even months” for her to die, “so it gives us the last wishes that we want to be with our child in our comfort zone and in our house”. With life support set to be taken away this week, her father said it was a “big tragedy for the family”. “It’s going to be a very sad thing. And it’s going to be very hard for us. At least if this is going to happen, at least they should let me take her home.”

EQUITY ‘BROKE OWN RULES’ The actors’ union Equity has been accused of breaking its own rules in encouraging members to attend pro-Palestinian rallies. UK Lawyers for Israel has written to general secretary Paul Fleming pointing out what it calls “one-sided” interventions in the Israel/ Palestine conflict, which it says falls foul of the union’s own rules. The intervention comes after a small group of protesters gathered outside Equity’s HQ, criticising its “marginalisation of Jewish members”. The union caused controversy when it urged

its members to take part in a central London pro-Palestinian demo in May, where antisemitic slogans were seen on display. As a result, several high-profile members resigned, including actress Maureen Lipman. Jonathan Turner, chief executive of UK Lawyers for Israel, said the union taking a stance on the conflict could encourage “bullying, victimisation and harassment of those considered to be on the ‘wrong’ side”. Jewish News has contacted the union for comment.

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26 August 2021 Jewish News

Shana Tova from the

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team

Wishing the community a healthy, happy and sweet New Year

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Jewish News 26 August 2021

News / Expats fundraiser / Exhibition U-turn

Olim event funds heart ops for six-year-old by Jack Mendel jack@jewishnews.co.uk @mendelpol

A six-year-old girl from Zambia received life-saving heart surgery thanks to funds collected by two British expats in Israel. Victoria Changanya was operated on by doctors in Israel after more than £8,000 was raised during a Euro 2020 final watch-a-long on a Tel Aviv beach. The proceeds from the event, organised by Matt Keston and Natasha Gee-Firsht, were donated to Israeli charity Save A Child’s

Heart (SACH), which operates on children with heart conditions from around the world. Victoria, from the Ngombe region of Zambia, was referred to SACH after experiencing breathlessness, turning blue, and having pain in her joints. She was diagnosed with two heart conditions, tetralogy of Fallot and pulmonary atresia, but was unable to get treatment at home. After she was brought to Israel, she underwent two bouts of surgery in May and August at the Wolfson Medical Centre in Holon, and is now in recovery. Gee-Firsht said she and Keston

“were kindly invited to spend the morning at Wolfson Hospital and the Save a Child’s Heart home, meeting all of the special people working and volunteering behind the scenes and of course the brave patients and their families”. She added: “We were surprised to be greeted by this gorgeous little sixyear-old girl, Victoria, and her mum, Anna, from Zambia. “We learned that the money raised from the England fan zone directly covered the costs towards saving her life. She is doing well and will hopefully be returning home soon to start school.”

Matt Keston and Natasha Gee-Firsht with Victoria and her mother Anna

GALLERY U-TURN OVER ‘ONE-SIDED’ EXHIBIT

The Whitworth Art Gallery in Manchester

The Whitworth Art Gallery in Manchester will reinstate a controversial statement about Israel at one of its exhibitions after artists threatened to pull their work. Critics had called the statement preceding its Cloud Studies show, which purports to show the environmental impact of Israel’s actions in Gaza and the West Bank, “dangerously one-sided”.

The statement spoke of “struggle against apartheid” and “settler colonial violence”. It was set to be removed after UK Lawyers for Israel suggested it could encourage antisemitism. But it is to be reinstated after artists Forensic Architecture threatened to pull their work. Alistair Hudson, the gallery’s director, said: “The university, as a non-political organisation, has tried to balance extremely complex

issues raised by the exhibition, but we believe that the worst outcome for all parties concerned would have been to close this exhibition for an extended period of time.” The exhibit at the Whitworth, part of Manchester University, will now have a “space which gives voice to different perspectives on the issues raised by the exhibition and help contextualise them,” added Hudson.

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26 August 2021

News / Students abroad / Olympic memories

Fivefold jump in Brits enrolled at Israeli unis The number of UK students studying in Israel has risen fivefold compared with previous years under a new government scheme. Under the Turing Scheme, which replaced Britain’s participation in the EU’s Erasmus+ Scheme, 94 students have chosen to study in Israel, compared to an average of 18 who chose Israel over the past five years under Erasmus. The government has billed the new scheme as creating a “global Britain”, with 40,000 British students eligible to work and study abroad. UK Ambassador Neil Wigan said he was not surprised at the significant increase in Brits studying in Israel. “Over the past two years I have had the privilege to get to know the Israeli academic landscape, and discovered a vibrant, innovative sector,” he said. “I strongly believe in the power of global academic relations to benefit students from both sides, and hope to see an even larger increase coming to Israel to benefit from its world class education in coming years.”

Ninety-four students will be in Israel under the Turing Scheme

Among those making the move is Maddy Butcher, a British MA archaeology student at Tel Aviv University. “I have always loved Israel and the opportunity to come here and explore the country was something that was very appealing to me,” she said.

EX-JFS BOY PUTS ON THE GLAM Former JFS student Steven Reingold helps Glamorgan win cricket’s Royal London One-Day Cup Final at Trent Bridge.

STARS MARK 85TH ANNIVERSARY OF BERLIN GAMES Leading figures from the world of politics and sport came together in Tel Aviv on Tuesday to mark the 85th anniversary of the 1936 Berlin Olympics, writes Michael Daventry. The Games, which were used by Adolf Hitler as an opportunity to promote his ideals of racial supremacy, were notorious for banning German Jewish athletes.

Many other countries did not send Jewish athletes for fear of offending the hosts. Tuesday night’s event in Tel Aviv, which organisers said was intended discuss the need for action against hate, saw the launch of a collaboration with the basketball club Maccabi Tel Aviv. Former Israeli president Reuven Rivlin, who spoke at the ceremony, said the 1936 Olympics

taught that “there will always be some dark forces, that will try to promote some besotted ideas of hate and violence, and unfortunately, we see that without comparison in every community in the world. “The Nazis were willing to create false views of openness, prohibited Jews from coming into certain areas, allowed female, male, Jews and black sportsmen to participate

in the Olympics. Now we’re going to lead and direct youth in Israel, especially the initiative of this event in which we’re celebrating the victory of sports over racism and Antisemitism.” Over the coming yeaer Maccabi Tel Aviv will host representatives of local Jewish communities during a number of away games in the Euroleague competition.

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Special Report / Tokyo Paralympics

Games on! Rowing, shooting, swimming and tennis: Israel is aiming high at the Paralympics Israel brought home four medals at the recent Olympic Games, but its shot at picking up more hardware is far from over. The Paralympic Games kicked off in Tokyo on Tuesday and with them comes the chance of hearing Hatikvah echo on the podium once again, writes Amy Spiro. Israel has sent 33 athletes in 11 sports across the Games’ many different categories of disability to the Tokyo Paralympics, which run for just under two weeks. A combination of familiar faces and fresh talent make up the delegation, which includes some serious medal contenders. And just like at the Olympics, each and every member of the Israeli delegation fought his or her way to qualify for a spot in the Games, where more than 4,000 athletes from 135 countries are competing. “We have a very good delegation, very high quality – both in their sporting abilities and their humanity,” Ron Bolotin, general manager of the Israel Paralympic Committee, and the head of its Tokyo delegation, told The Times of Israel. “It’s a group that I’m proud to be a part of.” Rower Moran Samuel and boccia player Nadav Levi served as Israel’s flag bearers at the opening ceremony, which was delayed by a year

due to the COVID pandemic. As COVID cases surge in Israel, Japan and around the world, the Paralympics, like the Olympics, will be held in the shadow of the virus. The athletes are competing largely without spectators and with constant testing and restrictions on their movement. “The athletes understand that they have to focus on the competitions – that’s what’s important and that’s what they’ve been working on for five years,” said Bolotin. “For some of them, the year delay has been good, and for others less good. Our athletes are mostly young, in good shape and don’t have serious complications.” Bolotin is himself a decorated former Paralympian swimmer. After losing a leg to a landmine during his IDF service in 1975, Bolotin went on to represent Israel at six Paralympic Games and bring home 11 medals, including three gold. This year, Bolotin said, he is confident the delegation will add to Israel’s impressive medal haul. “It’s a good delegation and I hope they’ll bring good results,” he said. “The expectations are mostly from sports that got medals in Rio – swimming, rowing and shooting.” Two of Israel’s Rio medalists have returned to the Games this year and aiming to add more hardware to their collection. About half the the

Israel’s Iyad Shalabi wins the Men’s 100m Backstroke S1 Final at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre on day one of the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games in Japan

delegation to Tokyo has competed in the Paralympic Games in the past. Doron Shaziri, 54, is at his eighth consecutive Paralympics, after winning medals in shooting at six different Games so far. Shaziri, who lost his leg when he stepped on a landmine near the Lebanon border during his IDF service, has a whopping eight Paralympic medals in his collection already. Wheelchair tennis player Shraga Weinberg, 55, competed in the last four Paralympics, taking home silver in the mixed doubles in Beijing in 2008 with Boaz Kremer, and bronze in the quad doubles in London in 2012 with Noam Ger-

shony. Weinberg was born paralyzed, as well as with bone density abnormalities, and has used a wheelchair since birth. For Pascale Berkovitch, Tokyo is her fourth Paralympics, after she competed in Beijing, London, and Rio. This time around, the 53-yearold, who lost both of her legs in a train accident, competes in paracanoeing, after previously representing Israel in both rowing and cycling. Elsewhere, twin swimmers Mark and Ariel Malyar also compete for Israel this year. The 21-year-old brothers were born with cerebral palsy, and started swimming at age five for physical therapy.

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After the Cathedral Road Synagogue in Cardiff closed in 1989 amid a decline in the local Jewish population, its stainedglass windows went missing. Now, some of the oncemajestic synagogue’s stainedglass panels have resurfaced – in a backyard chicken-coop renovation that a garden supplies company has just declared best budget shed of 2021. Cuprinol runs an annual shed competition to promote its products, which include both prefabricated sheds and the supplies to build bespoke Les Rowe’s Tranquility Base with the synagogue windows sheds. This year’s winner in the ‘budget’ category was Les Rowe for his seven- they came. But identical panels featuring a patsided Tranquility Base, featuring a wooden tern of overlapping red and green circles are floor reclaimed from a local church and at least clearly visible in photographs taken before the five stained-glass panels, several of which say synagogue’s closure that are available online through the People’s Collection Wales. ‘In Memoriam’. The Jewish Historical Association of South Rowe told local media that while he had got lots of materials from friends and family, the Wales reported that a local museum stored the panels were from a synagogue in Cardiff and windows until 2013, at which time the winhe had bought them on eBay “many years ago”. dows were offered to relatives of those who had While some of the news reports about paid for them. No one accepted the offer, so the Rowe’s shed have noted the windows’ origins, windows were sold to a salvage firm and the none has identified the synagogue from which local community lost track of them.

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Special Report / Wartime secrets

The ghetto ‘police’ who sent fellow Jews to die Historian Katarzyna Person’s new book quotes first-hand accounts to reveal the bleak reality that set the stage for the creation of the infamous Jewish Order Service, writes Rich Tenorio Already suffering from disease and hunger, Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto started to be rounded up for deportation to the Treblinka extermination camp in 1942. The German authorities directed the operations, but they also relied upon Jewish policemen in the ghetto — a group formally called the Jewish Order Service — to round up the Jews. A painful chapter of Holocaust history, the narrative of the Jewish police in the occupied Polish capital is the subject of a new book, Warsaw Ghetto Police: The Jewish Order Service During the Nazi Occupation, by historian Katarzyna Person. “It’s a topic of great emotion, even more so after the war,” said Person, who works at the Warsawbased Jewish Historical Institute. “It’s a topic that linked, after the war, collaborators with their actions against their community during the war.” I felt it’s something we should talk about,” she said. “Nobody has really carried out a proper look into it.” A market in the Warsaw ghetto in Nazi-occupied Poland First published in which they answered nuel Ringelblum. She consulted documents Polish, the book has and worked with the from the archive as source material for the book, been translated into Blue Police and the her second after Assimilated Jews in the Warsaw English by Zygmunt German authorities Ghetto, 1940-1943. N owa k- S o l i n s k i Person calls the archive “the most important was different.” and released by She noted that of the testimonies in the Warsaw Ghetto and Cornell Uni“the vast majority really the Holocaust itself; an important collecversity Press in didn’t train to be a tion with a complex, different picture of compartnership with munity social life of the ghetto, trying to show policeman.” the United States Other scholars the whole truth in sometimes difficult circumHolocaust Memorial have praised her book, stances.” Museum. That includes the Jewish Order Service. including Brandeis UniThe book is based on versity emeritus professor “People acted differently,” she said. “We have to primary sources such as Antony Polonsky. “This is understand it.” diaries and journals. Some When the call to join the Jewish Order Sera major study of the were written by memdifficult question of vice first went out in 1940, there were more bers of the Jewish The Nazis appointed a Jewish police force Jewish collaboration applicants than positions filled. underground who “At that point, no one had any sort of employsaw their families devastated by policemen’s and it deals with the complex moral questions actions. Others were written by the Jewish which this raises in a clear and dispassionate ment for one year,” Person said. “The Warsaw policemen themselves — including Stanislaw manner,” Polonsky wrote in an email to The Ghetto was hermetically closed. One year after, Adler, who went on to hold political leadership Times of Israel. “It should be read by all those families had to support [themselves]… People tried to help each other when the opportunity positions in postwar Poland but died by suicide interested in the Holocaust in Poland.” Born in Warsaw, Person understands the appeared to allow people to make a living.” in 1946, following the Kielce pogrom. Jewish Order Service members included Over 1,000 individuals served in the Jewish charged nature of the topic. Although she said Order Service in the Warsaw Ghetto, as other the existence of the Jewish Order Service is people who were born into the faith but consuch groups were founded in Nazi ghettos else- “something really pretty well-known,” she verted to Christianity, such as the future head of where in occupied Europe. In Warsaw, Jewish added that “it’s part of an antisemitic narra- the Jewish police in Warsaw, Jozef Szmerynski. “[Szmerynski] had a very illustrious career policemen answered to the ultimate authority tive, as well, in my country. It’s a symbol of of the Germans, but were under the more direct collaboration. I’m trying to dispel the myth of before the war,” Person said. “He had many friends. He knew everybody in the Blue Police.” the story”. supervision of the Polish Blue Police. Each Jewish policeman’s uniform consisted Person’s work at the Jewish Historical InstiMeanwhile, their official role was to work with the council of Jews, or Judenrat, which tute focuses on documents from the Ringel- of a cap, badge and numbered armband. They blum Archive — a trove of information about wielded a baton — Jewish police in Warsaw and held nominal oversight over the ghetto. “In every ghetto, their responsibilities were the Warsaw Ghetto secretly compiled during other ghettos were generally forbidden from a little bit different,” Person said. “The way in the war by a group headed by Polish Jew Ema- carrying any other weapons.

The cover of Person’s new book

Although the top brass sported shiny uniforms and rode in rickshaws, the rank and file lacked regular pay and their waistlines shrank from the same hunger that wracked the rest of the overcrowded, disease-ridden ghetto. Their boots developed holes from frequent foot patrols on rubbish-strewn streets, although some members got to ride bicycles. Some policemen survived the end of the ghetto, serving as guards in the “workshops” that replaced it. However, this often proved to be a temporary reprieve, as was the case with Judenrat members. “We know the workshops were deported just as well,” Person explained. “Members of the Jewish council, members of the Jewish police were told they would not be deported. It was not so.” Some policemen escaped the ghetto. But after the war, many could not escape coreligionists who had documented their actions and brought them before Jewish honour courts. Internal communal trials were conducted in Poland before the phenomenon spread to Austria, Germany and even, in the 1950s, the newly-independent State of Israel. “In basically all of Europe,” Person said, “it became a place of… searching for justice against people who were complicit,” including not only ex-policemen but former Judenrat members. Person noted that “there is a lot of scholarly attention nowadays on the postwar trials.” As for her book, “I’m very happy it’s being quite widely read,” she said. “Hopefully it will lead to a bit more complex picture… It really is my aim [to present] the complexity of such choices, as multidimensional a perspective of these people as possible.”  This article was first published in the Times of Israel.

26 August 2021 Jewish News

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Kashrut competition / Special Report

Private certifiers in Israel are ushering in a kosher revolution Agencies working outside the Chief Rabbinate, already used by some restaurants, are in line to be officially sanctioned by the Knesset, writes Linda Gradstein The Eucalyptus, a restaurant just outside the Old City in Jerusalem, draws in diners by offering “authentic biblical cuisine” — using ingredients and dishes found in the Bible. The chef, Moshe Basson, has an unusual way of sourcing his food, foraging for some of the biblical-era herbs in forests and fields around the city. So when he decided to certify the restaurant as kosher in 1997, he made arrangements with Israel’s Chief Rabbinate that would allow him to keep finding the herbs for himself rather than buying them from a certified merchant. “I use all of the sheva minim, the seven species mentioned in the Bible, as well as all kinds of wild herbs,” Basson said. “I had a written agreement with the Rabbinate that I could continue to do that, as long as I checked them for bugs the way they instructed me to.” But other chefs began to complain that they were not allowed to use products Basson was allowed to use. Eventually, three years ago, the Chief Rabbinate suspended his kashrut certificate and Basson began to look for other options. He landed on Tzohar, a group of relatively liberal Orthodox rabbis who offer an alternative service. Basson asked older observant diners if they would accept Tzohar’s certification. “Half said yes and half said no,” he reported. The response from younger patrons was more enthusiastic. “I went to each table that had someone wearing a kippah and asked them if they would accept the Tzohar kashrut,” he said. “And almost all of them between the ages of 20 and 50 said yes.” The Eucalyptus is one of more than 200 Israeli restaurants that has eschewed the Chief Rabbinate’s kosher certification in favour of Tzohar’s. It’s the latest sign that Jewish Israelis, who had been divided into ‘religious’ and ‘secular’, are seeking different ways to practise their religion — many of them outside the Chief Rabbinate’s control. Now that increased diversity in kosher certification is getting government backing. Religious affairs minister Matan Kahana this month announced a plan to reform the certification system, effectively turning the Chief Rabbinate into a regulatory agency for private kosher certifiers like Tzohar — a role it hasn’t played before. The Chief Rabbinate will continue to provide its own kosher supervision to restaurants that want it. But private agencies like Tzohar would get government recognition, and in those cases the Chief Rabbinate’s role would be shifted to ensuring the agencies are complying with a set of transparent standards. The goal is to give restaurants a broader range of kosher certification options while allowing those who want to avoid direct contact with the Rabbinate that opportunity. The plan must be approved by the Knesset. “The kosher revolution will introduce competition to kosher certification for the first time ever,” Kahana said. “It’s a move that will improve kosher certification, streamline services, reduce prices and make the process easier for restaurateurs, hoteliers and the entire food industry.”

The Chief Rabbinate has pushed back against reforms and has succeeded in making life difficult for its competitors. Current Israeli law means Tzohar’s certificates cannot use the word ‘kosher’ or its derivatives, which are exclusive to the Chief Rabbinate. Instead, a typical certificate will say: “All raw materials were checked and approved by the Tzohar rabbinic organization.” Rabbi Eliezer Simcha Weisz, a member of the Chief Rabbinate council of Israel, said the its certification remains the best way for a restaurant, and its patrons, to make sure they are eating kosher food.“I come from England and I appreciate the tremendous superiority of the Israeli Rabbinate kashrut over any organisation that gives kashrut throughout the world,” he said. “Obviously the fact that it’s legalised and it’s part of the government is a big advantage.” Weisz said there were dozens of private certifiers, including Tzohar, that profess to offer kashrut supervision but cannot be trusted. “Nobody knows who they are or what they are. You wouldn’t think of this in any other situation, but when it comes to religion everyone seems to think they can control it.” Despite repeated government attempts to sap its power, the Chief Rabbinate retains broad control over religious life in Israel, with a monopoly on officially recognised marriage, divorce and burial for Israeli Jews. Tzohar, which claims more than 1,000 rabbis and educators as members, has been a pioneer in offering an alternative to Orthodox Israelis turned off by the Chief Rabbinate’s strict policies or tortuous bureaucracy. It was founded in 1995 after a Jewish extremist assassinated Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. Whereas the Chief Rabbinate’s supervisors come to restaurants only to check that rules are being followed, Tzohar supervisors work in the kitchen. They check the vegetables or rice for insects that would make them non-kosher, and often pitch in cutting vegetables or even cooking. Restaurant owners who are chafing at the Chief Rabbinate’s demands appear to be taking action. Take the case of Cafe Kadosh, a Jerusalem bakery and restaurant founded in 1967. This year, the Chief Rabbinate told the cafe to put stickers on its products saying they were dairy and make its croissants into triangles. The latter mandate was part of the Chief Rabbinate’s attempt to institute a nationwide standard in which dairy pastries would be shaped as triangles to make them more identifiable. “The Rabbinate really started to bug us,” said owner Itzik Kadosh. “Everyone knows all of our croissants are dairy. There is no way I was going to change the shape or put a sticker on it.” After Kadosh protested publicly, the Chief Rabbinate took away the restaurant’s certification and posted on Facebook that it was open on Shabbat, which was not true. That’s when Kadosh contacted Tzohar. He said his business has not suffered and that even strictly Orthodox

Jaffa’s Sarona food mall. The changes effectively herald competition in kosher certification

Jews continue to patronise his restaurant. “The Rabbinate behaved like the Mafia,” Kadosh said. “Maybe people used to be afraid of them, but

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Special Report / Sbarro pizzeria attack – 20th anniversary

Pizza shop bombing was a turning point for terrorism Attack 20 years ago occurred in a very different Israel from today’s, writes Ben Sales Twenty years ago, a deadly suicide bombing in Jerusalem plunged Israel into grief and, for its citizens, crystallised a feeling articulated by the city’s mayor: “We are in a war.” The attack at Sbarro pizzeria on 9 August 2001, which killed 15 civilians and injured more than 100, occurred in a world and an Israel that looked very different from today’s. Less than a year earlier, President Bill Clinton was still making a final push for a comprehensive Israeli-Palestinian peace. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who had taken office just months before, was still known as a fierce pro-settlement hawk — not the leader who would one day evacuate Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip. And the date of 11 September 2001 — which was more than a month away — didn’t yet signify anything. In the months and years afterward, the Sbarro bombing would come to be seen as

a turning point in a renewed period of terrorism, in which Palestinian attackers carried out major suicide bombings regularly and hopes for peace crumbled. Coverage of the bombing and its aftermath in the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) showed how the bombing was experienced at the time — and how it shaped Israel and Jews in the years that followed. ‘There was not enough time’ When a suicide bomber tripped the device that tore through the pizzeria, Israelis were already grappling with the second intifada, or Palestinian uprising — and reeling from a series of bombings across Israel. But aside from a suicide attack in June at the Dolphinarium, a Tel Aviv disco, which killed 21 people, most of the bombings had few casualties. The number murdered in the Sbarro bombing was the second-highest of any attack thus far that year and showed that the

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Dolphinarium bombing two months previously could no longer be seen as an isolated event. “I saw so many babies in an awful state,” one emergency volunteer said at the time. “I wanted so much to help save them all, but there was not enough time. I saw dead and wounded, an experience I’ll never forget.” In the days and months after the attack, Israeli officials appeared to hold out hope that Israeli-Palestinian peace talks would resume, and one Israeli government minister said Israel’s response to the attack should be “reasoned”. But Jerusalem Mayor Ehud Olmert suggested in a statement near the scene of the tragedy that Israelis would have to steel themselves for more attacks. “We tried to do everything to prevent it. Unfortunately, this time we were not successful,” said Olmert, who would later become prime minister before resigning in the face of corruption charges. “I fully understand the pain and concern and fear of many people,” he said, adding that “we are strong” and “nothing will break us”. A sense of familiarity The bombing struck at the heart of Jerusalem’s touristy commercial district, and resonated with American Jews more than previous ones. It occurred at a busy intersection, near Ben Yehuda Street, familiar to British and American Jewish tourists. Sbarro was a familiar brand for Americans. A JTA article about the victims, published about a week later, focused on Shoshana Greenbaum, 31, a pregnant victim of the attack from New Jersey who was spending the summer in Jerusalem as part of a master’s degree programme. “She spent her whole life helping people,” said one of Greenbaum’s childhood friends. “She was beautiful inside and out.” Another immigrant to Israel, New York City-born Chana Tova Chaya Nachenberg,

The aftermath of the bombing, which killed Malki Roth (left). Top inset: perpetrator Ahlam Tamimi

is still in a coma as a result of her injuries 20 years after the attack. A third victim, Malki Roth, 15, who died, was also American. ‘Grappling with grief ’ The Sbarro bombing was the second attack in Israel that year that left more than 10 people dead. Other incidents would follow in the months ahead – sending Israel into the worst wave of terrorism it had ever experienced and prompting a military offensive against Palestinian terrorist groups in the West Bank. In the years that followed, the impact of the attack faded for the general public. In 2004, the Sbarro franchise relocated to another spot in Jerusalem. By the attack’s 12th anniversary, Sbarro had encountered financial issues and closed its branches in Israel, which had been taken over by another licencee and renamed ‘Il Fresco’. In a first-person reflection published five years after the bombing, Frimet Roth, the mother of Malki Roth, acknowledged that Israel was then in the midst of fighting a different enemy — Hezbollah, in Lebanon. Roth also worried in the article that one of the perpetrators of the Sbarro attack, Ahlam Tamimi, would be released in exchange for the captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. That ended up happening five years later, when Israel swapped more than 1,000 prisoners for Shalit, who was being held by Hamas. Tamimi now lives in Jordan. Roth wrote in 2006 that the families of the victims “have been grappling with grief”. Even as the years pass, she wrote, “Encountering other Sbarro victims strengthens my resolve to keep the memory of this crime alive.”

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Diplomatic row / Graves defaced / World News

Poland’s ‘propaganda’ jibe A senior Polish diplomat has issued a warning that his government is “reviewing” changes to the annual educational school trips from Israel to former Nazi death camps. Amid a diplomatic crisis between Israel and Poland, Paweł Jabłoński, deputy minister of foreign affairs, called the trips “propaganda”. Before the pandemic, tens of thousands of Israeli youths annually visited former death camps in Poland as part of programmes overseen by Israel’s education ministry. Israel and Poland have

Poland is ‘reviewing’ Israeli trips to former Nazi death camps

recalled their respective ambassadors over a new Polish law that effectively blocks

Holocaust-era restitution for Jewish-owned property. “This propaganda, also

based on hatred towards Poland, is seeping into the heads of young people from the early school years,” Jabłoński said. “We are dealing with various kinds of school trips from Israel to Poland. The way in which these trips take place is clearly not the right way. We are reviewing this matter and we will make appropriate decisions.” The current spat follows a similar exchange in 2018, when Poland passed legislation that outlawed blaming the Polish nation for Nazi

SYMBOLIC NAZI VICTIMS’ GRAVE DEFACED Praise for Adolf Hitler has been etched on a grave-shaped monument in Poland for Holocaust victims whose bodies were burnt. The incident in Rudzica, near Krakow, was on the tombstone-shaped memorial for 1,500 people murdered there in 1941 by German troops, the news site Jewish.pl reported. In 1944, the Germans dug up and burnt the bodies to try to cover up the crime, the report said. Poland’s communist rulers erected the monument, and signage was added following the downfall of communism

crimes. Critics, including Israel’s government and Holocaust scholars, opposed the law, saying it would limit research and discourse on the Holocaust. Polish nationalists have for years sought to disentangle war crimes carried out by Poles and those committed by the occupying Nazi forces during Second World War. Some see the changes as revisionism, an attempt to remove blame from the Poles who collaborated with the Nazis and murdered Jews during the war.

FLAMING BATTLE

acknowledging the Jewish identity of the victims. The perpetrators broke some of the signage. Police have no suspects. The dispute has exacerbated antisemitic trends that already were on the rise, Piotr Kadlcik, a former president of the Union of Jewish Religious Communities in Poland, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “There is a wave of hatred online,” he said. “There are few antisemitic assaults, but something is definitely happening and I fear it’s getting worse.”

An Israeli firefighter battles wildfires in wooded hills near Jerusalem. The fires raged for three days before they were contained. No serious injuries were reported in the worst fires in the area for years.

Bahrain barmitzvah is first since 2005 Bahrain’s small Jewish community celebrated its first barmitzvah in 16 years as the kingdom prepares to mark the first anniversary of the Abraham Accords. The ceremony took place in the House of the Ten Commandments in the country’s capital Manama, which hosts the only operational synagogue in the Gulf region. The Association of Gulf Jewish Communities did not name the barmitzvah boy, but said he read from a Torah commissioned for Bahrain’s king by Jared Kushner, the former White House senior adviser.

Turkey frees French Jew after four years A French-Jewish man who had been serving a 16-year jail sentence for buying a party drug online has been freed by Turkish authorities and repatriated. Fabien Azoulay, 43, landed in France last week after four years in prison, his lawyers wrote on Twitter. Azoulay, who came to Istanbul in 2017 for hair implants, ordered GBL, which is popular in French nightclubs and had been legal in Turkey until being outlawed six months before he bought it with his credit card. President Emmanuel Macron had intervened, asking Turkish officials to release Azoulay.

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26 August 2021

Diaspora News / Internment anniversary / Crete archives / Portuguese hero / Israeli youth

Cyprus ‘puzzle’ to be a teaching tool Jewish former detainees of British post-war internment camps in Cyprus have recalled their time there at an event to mark 75 years since the first Jews were imprisoned on the island. Among those to remember this little-known period of post-war Jewish history in the Mediterranean was Rose Lipszyc, who survived the Holocaust by trekking across the Alps in the winter, before crossing the Med in an overcrowded boat. In the aftermath of war, authorities in British Mandate Palestine were struggling to deal with both a nascent Jewish underground movement and an influx of Jewish immigrants arriving by boat, typically on false papers. British armed forces were charged with intercepting the boats and imprisoning the Palestinebound Jews on Cyprus, which they did across 12 camps between 1946 and 1949. Historians have recorded 53,100 Jewish detainees. Internment camps in Cyprus “The English soldiers, who I would have kissed the to “teach to the next feet of for liberating me in Germany, were leaping into our little boat with batons,” said Lipszyc, 92, recalling the how she generation a very important piece of the and 300 others were seized and detained. “They weren’t starving us, they weren’t killing us like the Ger- puzzle” between the mans, but it was so traumatic, that the very same people who had Holocaust and Israel’s foundation in 1948. freed me just a short time ago now incarcerated me.” He added that he Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust centre, says the British wanted the cramped Cyprus camps to be a “deterrent” aimed at “breaking discovered a farmer using one of the the power of the ‘Hebrew resistance movement’ in Palestine”. Over the three years, more than 400 died of sickness in the camps’ last remaining camps, while more than 2,000 babies were born within the net- metal huts as a tractor work of metal huts, which were described as “boiling in the shed and plans to make it the centrepiece of the Jewish Museum of Cyprus being summer, freezing in the winter”. Now Arie Zeev Raskin, Chief Rabbi of Cyprus, says he wants built in the port city of Larnaca.

Crete archives are catalogued

Etz Hayyim Synagogue

Staff at the last remaining synagogue on Crete say they will make public some of the archives of Nikos Stavroulakis, who single-handedly revitalised Jewish life on the island. Beginning in the 1990s, Stavroulakis – who died in 2017 – refurbished the Etz Hayyim Synagogue in the city of Hania, which now draws tourists and schoolchildren as one of the last testaments to 2,300 years of heritage. Jews first arrived on Crete from Egypt, while others arrived from the Land of Israel during the Maccabean Revolt a century later. Together, they established one of the world’s oldest dias-

pora communities. Cretan Jewry prospered under the Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Andalusian Arabs, Venetians and Ottomans, but was destroyed by the Nazis, who deported Hania’s 350-strong Jewish community to Auschwitz. The full history is now being told thanks to Stavroulakis, an artist and historian who founded the Jewish Museum of Greece. Today, two decades after its rededication, Etz Hayyim is once again an active place of worship, with a vibrant community and a cultural centre. Staff there are now cataloguing Nikos’s private collection of artefacts, books, and documents.

Senate honours diplomat hero

A street in Vienna named after the Portuguese envoy

The United States Senate has passed a resolution honouring a Portuguese diplomat who issued visas in June 1940 allowing 30,000 people to escape the Nazis, including 10,000 Jews. Aristides de Sousa Mendes do Amaral e Abranches was Portugal’s consul-general in Bordeaux, France, before being sacked by Portuguese dictator António de Oliveira Salazar for defying his edict prohibiting the admission of Jews. De Sousa fought unsuccessfully to clear his name and died in his homeland in 1954 in poverty and disgrace, with no family members present at his death or funeral. History has set the record straight and two years ago Portugal’s parliament voted unanimously to memorialise de Sousa in the Pantheon in Lisbon, alongside tombs of other national heroes such as the footballer Eusébio and explorer Vasco da Gama.

WORLD NEWS IN BRIEF

Your weekly digest of stories from the international press LITHUANIA

BULGARIA

SPAIN

GERMANY

Government plans to build a £20 million conference centre atop an old Jewish cemetery in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius have been dropped after scholars’ criticism. A sports centre already sits on part of the Piramont Cemetery, where thousands of Jews are buried, including sages such as the Vilna Gaon.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center has written to the Spanish minister for higher education complaining about a seminar at the University of Santiago de Compostela called ‘Auschwitz/Gaza: Testing Ground for Comparative Literature’. The US-based centre called it “the banalisation of the Holocaust” and urged its cancellation.

An abandoned synagogue in the Bulgarian port city of Vidin is to become a cultural centre and interfaith hub with £4.5 million in EU funding. Visible from afar, with a turret on each corner, the shul on the Danube was built in 1894 and modelled on the Great Synagogue in Vienna, with stained glass and intricate murals.

The European Court of Justice has ruled that employers can forbid staff from wearing religious clothing or symbols at work in a long-running case involving two Muslim women in Germany who wanted to wear a headscarf. The Conference of European Rabbis said it was “a step backwards from religious freedom”.

GAP-YEAR ISRAELIS EASE COVID DAMAGE Scores of young Jewish Agency emissaries are arriving in Jewish communities around the world to help with the effects of the pandemic during their gap year. A total of 145 Israeli youngsters are beginning their year of voluntary service to help strengthen world Jewry’s relationship with Israel before their IDF stint. Among the countries into which they will parachute are the United States, Canada, Paraguay, Mexico, South Africa, the UK, France, Hungary, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Belgium and Monaco. They will work closely with local Jewish organisations and provide educational activities for youth movements, Jewish day schools and community centres, while living with host families. Jewish Agency head Amira Ahronoviz said the emissaries would “act as a living bridge between Israel and Jews around the globe”.

Ukraine pilgrimage only for vaccinated Ukrainian authorities have given the green light for Chasidic pilgrims to travel to the grave of an 18th century rabbi on Rosh Hashanah – but only if they can prove that they have been fully vaccinated. The annual pilgrimage to the grave of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov in the city of Uman, typically undertaken by tens of thousands from Israel and elsewhere, got the go-ahead last week, under strict conditions. Ukraine banned the pilgrimage last year amid concerns about Covid infection, but last week the deputy health minister said the higher vaccination rates this year had led to an improved situation. Last year, both Israel and Ukraine enacted measures

Rabbi Nachman’s tomb

to prevent the pilgrimage, yet hundreds of Chasidic followers tried to circumvent the ban, convening unsuccessfully at the border with Belarus. This year, Israelis who can travel to Ukraine must selfisolate for two weeks on their return, as Ukrainian authorities launched a vaccination drive in Uman ahead of Rosh Hashanah, with police patrols to ensure social distancing.

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26 August 2021 Jewish News

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Jewish News 26 August 2021

Editorial comment and letters ISSUE NO.

1225

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

VOICE OF THE JEWISH NEWS

Reach inwards, stretch outwards Continued from page 1

where our lives are heading and how we can become better people. It is clearly a process of reaching inwards, yet so many of us have already concluded that we must simultaneously stretch outwards. Think of the magnificent response in Bushey, north of London, where hundreds responded with clothes and other essential items to an appeal by the local synagogue. The call was put out after a cohort of Afghan refugees — interpreters who assisted the British army, along with their families — arrived in the area. Rabbi Elchonon Feldman said their appeal generated so much interest that he had to appeal for a team of “sorters and schleppers” to assist the sorting process. The Bushey shul is but one heroic example. Many Jewish organisations that are asking for help and the Board of Deputies has compiled a list that shows not all seek money: some want donations of physical goods, others simply need volunteers with time on their hands. Yet as the world’s attention moves away from Afghanistan, as inevitably it will, the Afghan crisis will, paradoxically perhaps, only escalate. This week World Jewish Relief warns that women, girls and ethnic minorities are facing acute threats to their safety and security and have no choice but to try escape. They will not stop trying just because Western forces have gone. That is why it is important so many Jewish organisations have joined WJR’s appeal to speak as one. Jewish people understand more than most what it means to be a refugee. We are all taught the horrors of Europe in the 1930s and the generosity of the Kindertransport; some of us are blessed to still have living relatives who witnessed and escaped. That history carries a responsibility and it is why the community has a proud record in coming to the aid of other communities facing a similar plight — most recently to China’s persecuted Uyghur minority, a major Jewish News campaign. As the year 5782 draws ever nearer, the question for Jews everywhere must not be whether they should help, but how they can. There is more than one way to offer it. We wish all our readers well as they reach inwards and stretch outwards.

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

Role is to expose hate Keith Kahn-Harris’s description of Labour Against Antisemitism as “online activists” is inaccurate (Jewish News, 12 August). Most communal Jewish groups understand that our activity has been and always will be researching and reporting antisemitism in the Labour Party: since 2017 we have reported about 1,500 members, including three Labour councillors in the last week alone. We submitted a 15,000-page dossier of evidence to the Equality and Human Rights Commission and have provided important evidence to the community Jewish bodies, the police and legal professionals. While we do have a strong online presence

Sketches & kvetches

CONTACT DETAILS Publisher and Editor Richard Ferrer 020 8148 9703

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Reporter Publisher and News Editor Joshua Salisbury Justin Cohen josh@jewishnews.co.uk 020 8148 9700 justin@jewishnews.co.uk Supplements Editor Brigit Grant Features Editor 020 8148 9696 Francine Wolfisz brigit@jewishnews.co.uk 020 8148 9698 francine@jewishnews.co.uk Sub Editor Alex Galbinski Foreign Editor alex@jewishnews.co.uk Michael Daventry 020 8148 9704 Online Editor mike@jewishnews.co.uk Jack Mendel 020 8148 9699

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THIS WEEKEND'S SHABBAT TIMES... Shabbat comes in Friday night 7.44pm

Shabbat goes out Saturday night 8.46pm

Sedra: K i Tavo

FACTS ON THE GROUND Your columnist Ilan Baruch denies Israel’s rights to territories liberated in self-defence, which any country in similar circumstances would claim as its own (12 August). In 1948, on Israel’s declaration of statehood in the area of land allotted to it by all 51 members of the League of Nations, six Arab states invaded in a declared war of extermination against the fledgling state. The area erroneously described as “occupied territory”, where the vast majority of Palestinian Arabs live, is an areas where they are denied civil and human rights, living as they do under the corrupt Palestine Authority. James R Windsor, Leytonstone

PERILS OF OPPRESSION

benny@jewishnews.co.uk

marc@jewishnews.co.uk

it is just part of our wider public-facing campaign. Over recent years we have supplied stories and comment to national and regional newspapers and television and exposed the antisemitic track records of innumerable Labour Party candidates. Our current aim is to work with the Jewish community to maintain pressure on Keir Starmer to continue reforms to make the Labour Party a safe space for all Jews and an electable party of government once again. Mr Kahn-Harris is welcome to contact us to better understand who we are and what we do. Fiona Sharpe, community liaison, Labour Against Antisemitism

“Okay, parents... let the matchmaking begin!”

OW N ER ST I G RE

At last the Holocaust memorial in Westminster, the centre of tourist London, has been given the go-ahead. Victims and their families could have been helped more by this country during the war. The site will remind visitors of the perils of oppression. Let us hope lessons can be learned as people walk into the soul of the building and emerge into Victoria Gardens. Norma Neville, Hendon

TREK AND SAVE LIVES 3RD – 10TH OCTOBER 2021 Register now for MDA UK’s ground-breaking trek, Jordan360, taking place later this year.

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26 August 2021 Jewish News

www.jewishnews.co.uk

Editorial comment and letters

Why I quit the Board As a former member of the I write regarding your frontpage report on the left-right caucus this person maligned, I political split in our commucan say truthfully that despite e a range of opinions, the group id iv d t nity (12 August). ea gr e h Ts our community still have a centre ground? Doe As a former deputy who is devoted both to the Jewish resigned this year, largely community and Israel. While because of the influence of generally accepting that Israel left-leaning officers of the is no more perfect than other movement my shul belongs to, countries, it is united in believI would like to refute the assering that people who are of the tion of an unnamed member of mindset to say kaddish for those who express their desire to annihia left-wing organisation that the group late Israel need to be opposed. That’s the formed to combat extremism from the crux of the matter. left at the Board of Deputies are “basiEric Bradman, By email cally a bunch of vigilantes”. 26 AUGUST! ISSUE OUT ER NEW YEAR WEEK – BUMP NEWS NEXT King of NO JEWISH

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celebrate stellar exam results despite diﬃcult year Page 11

I OMMUN F THE C VOICE O

2021 12 August

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4 Ellul 5781

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Issue No.1223

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@JewishNew

the Jews? Revealed: Elvis’ kosher ancestry Page 26

sUK

pages 6 & 7 Special report,

AN UNGOVERNABLE COMMUNITY Kudos on your well-written and researched piece about the schism in British Jewry (12 August). One of the great tragedies is that the current leadership of the Board of Deputies – and primarily among them Marie van der Zyl – is that they don’t... well... lead. And unfortunately, the left – far left and centrists – didn’t put up a viable alternative candidate in the

election. It was a vote against Jonathan Neumann, not a vote for Ms van der Zyl. There seems to be an inclination to lean towards whatever the far-right caucus wants, whether on Israel or any other subject. So, as someone in your piece pointed out, British Jewry is ungovernable by a single body that claims to be its voice. Dov Chaim, By email

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HELP ON WHAT TO DO ABOUT CLIMATE CRISIS The recently published report from the United Nations – the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s 6th Assessment Report – finally allowed no further wiggle room for those who wanted to say that we do not need to act swiftly to avoid the very worst consequences of the climate crisis. Our rabbis advise that, ‘Even though we are not able to complete the task, neither are we free to desist from it’ (Pirkei Avot) and we know, too, that even though we are one of the smallest people on the planet, we still have managed to make a disproportionate impact on the development of humanity.

No doubt, however, people may still feel daunted. It is in this context that I wish to bring to readers’ attention our recently published and very warmly received climate manifesto: In Pursuit of Climate Justice (available on our website, www.cjc.org.uk). Whether your wish is to lobby others or to implement changes yourself, this manifesto presents an easy-to-act-on guide to seeking to make a difference. And surely, if we feel any kind of responsibility for our children and the future, doing nothing cannot be an option. Clive A Lawton, CEO, Commonwealth Jewish Council

BIG DIVIDE ABOUT UNDERSTANDING ISRAEL The Anglo-Jewish community is indeed divided, between those who take the trouble to acquaint themselves and their children with Israel’s current situation and its legal history, and those who appear not to, while repeatedly criticising Israel. The charters of the PLO, Fatah and Hamas say their goal is the destruction of Israel, rather than the establishment of a Palestinian state. This is stated repeatedly,

despite peace negotiations. The Palestinians have declined to have their own state at least five times. Neither international law nor history are issues about which there can be differing opinions between left and right or old and young. Until all Jews in the UK start to educate themselves about Israel, we will continue to be a divided society. Naomi Benari, By email

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Jewish News 26 August 2021

Opinion

America’s withdrawal is a sign of its incompetence JEREMY HAVARDI DIRECTOR, B’NAI B’RITH UK

he withdrawal from Afghanistan is one of the most shameful and embarrassing foreign policy failures in decades, and one that will leave deep scars for years to come. It is a betrayal of national self-interest, a boon to the west’s enemies and the precursor to a humanitarian disaster of potentially appalling proportions. Yet nothing about this debacle was inevitable. The US was not fleeing under fire from the Taliban and there had been no American fatality for 18 months. This was a scuttle born of cynical political choice and short-term populism, reflecting a strong desire to bring troops home and end an unpopular conflict. Already, Taliban forces have freed thousands of al-Qaeda terrorists from jail and there are alarming reports of brutal crackdowns by the country’s new leaders. Some 20 years after overthrowing a regime that had given sanctuary to jihadist murderers, the west has allowed the

barbarians back without a shot fired in protest. A future generation will lament the speed of this capitulation. How might all this affect Israeli interests? Although Afghanistan is far from the Mediterranean, Israelis are entitled to worry about the consequences of this lamentable pull-out. If the country again becomes a safe haven for al-Qaeda or other extreme Sunni jihadists, it raises the prospect of attacks on overseas Israeli and Jewish targets. Worse, the US withdrawal will embolden the most anti-western actors in the Middle East, none more so than Iran. It is true that Iran is worried by waves of refugees pouring out of Afghan territory as well as blowback from the renewed trade in Afghan opium. Yet Iran has provided the Taliban with weapons and intelligence and hosted al-Qaeda fighters in the past. Such arrangements could continue with the new government. In another sense, the humbling of American power will embolden the Iranians in the negotiations over their nuclear programme. The failure of the US to stay in Afghanistan is

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ISRAELIS ARE ENTITLED TO WORRY ABOUT THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE AFGHANISTAN PULL-OUT be likely to be interpreted as a form of political weakness, one that strongly reflects America’s lack of staying power. This matters greatly in the context of nuclear talks. One of the biggest flaws in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action – Iran’s nuclear deal – was its sunset clauses, which meant that, after a period of years, the provisions constraining the nuclear programme would be lifted. The pull-out will also make America seem a most unreliable guarantor of regional security. Its scuttle from Afghanistan will alarm India, which sees the US as a bulwark against its regional enemies, as well as an independent Taiwan, which fears the predations of its Chinese neighbour. Nor will Israelis necessarily feel differently. If a US administration claims that it will have Jerusalem’s back in the event

of a withdrawal from the West Bank, Israeli leaders may well feel profound unease. When the same US administration demands Israeli acquiescence to any future nuclear deal with Tehran, Israelis will rightly be sceptical. No other country or alliance can guarantee Israel’s interests or prevent existential threats. If Jerusalem must act, it may have to act alone. In sum, the precipitate withdrawal from Afghanistan has showcased the weakness, naivety and political incompetence of this US administration, as well as its predecessor. It reflects badly on America’s allies, including the UK, and gives strength to all those threatening the liberal order. The long-term consequences are unlikely to be pleasant.  Jeremy Havardi is writing in a personal capacity

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Jewish News 26 August 2021

Opinion

Why are Taliban’s fellow jihadists still not banned? MICHAEL M C CANN

DIRECTOR, ISRAEL BRITAIN ALLIANCE

ast week, the Iranian-sponsored terror group Hamas offered its congratulations to the Taliban for routing western-supported Afghan forces. The scenes played out on our TV screens of people clinging to aeroplanes have been heart-breaking, and while western democracies, including our own, seek to limit the fallout of this swift and devastating expulsion of liberalism from Afghan soil, it’s the ominous future that awaits the Afghan people that is both terrifying and certain. It’s highly unlikely that this is a new ‘woke’ 2021 version of the Taliban that will champion the education of women and girls, embrace diversity and allow basic freedoms. It’s more likely that we will again see minorities persecuted, enemies tortured and executed and the clock will be turned back several centuries. Afghanistan will be a failed state, again. Terror will be cultivated and promoted, poppies

will be grown to export drug abuse to the west and, some years down the line, another calamitous western adventure will be planned. Anyone celebrating the Taliban victory is an enemy of freedom, justice and life in general. So, it’s no surprise that Hamas was first in line to offer its congratulations. But while our parliamentarians were busy wringing their hands in SW1A 0AA this week about the tragedies about to unfold at this crossroads of central and south-east Asia, few will acknowledge their abject hypocrisy. If you scan any debate in the House of Commons on the Israel/Palestinian conflict, you will find numerous mentions of Hamas. It’s been active since 1987 but, since taking over Gaza in 2006, it has been responsible for three major conflicts, and of course, it hijacked the Gaza border dispute in 2018. It has caused a conservative 6,000 civilian deaths, persecuted religious minorities and thrown political opponents and members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community off buildings. But you’ll be hard pressed to hear howls of derision and scorn poured on

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THERE IS A LACK OF SANITY ON THIS ISSUE IN THE COMMONS

Hamas from many MPs. Most of the time, the best you will find is a sentence mildly rebuking its activities. More likely you will hear (quite unbelievably) attempts to equate the actions of this Iranian-sponsored nihilistic group to the actions of the only democracy in the Middle East, Israel. I routinely receive the correspondence our supporters receive from their MPs, and the Israel Britain Alliance (IBA) stores those responses for posterity. So I can report with some authority the lack of sanity on this issue. Note to the House of Commons authorities: Someone should explain the rules of armed conflict to MPs. But while we will have to admit defeat in our attempts to nation build, and (Joe Biden)

that is exactly what we were attempting to do in Afghanistan, we cannot shirk our responsibilities to protect our own people from the mission of the likes of Hamas and the Taliban. So why has our government not outlawed Hamas in the United Kingdom? Why does our government allow Hamas to operate in our country? The government claims Hamas has separate military and political wings. If that sounds familiar, it’s because the government deployed the same argument to defend the activities of Hezbollah in the UK, until they admitted defeat and fully proscribed that Iranian-sponsored terror organisation in 2019. Hamas has military, political and what it calls social services activity. Hamas’ social service activities fund the network of terrorists who fire rockets into Israel and their political activities support the terrorists who fire rockets into Israel. That’s why the IBA is calling on Priti Patel to fully proscribe Hamas. Don’t just talk tough on terror Priti – use your power to protect us.  To join the IBA campaign, go to www.israelbritain.org.uk

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26 August 2021 Jewish News

Vaccinated staff help protect our homes against Covid-19 L

ooking for a care home which is safe as possible in the current pandemic? Then you could do no better than to join us as a resident in one of the homes in the Springdene Group, one of the premier care organisations in north London. We’re delighted to announce that our staff are undergoing a programme of vaccination against Covid-19. In addition, they are subjected to daily testing to avoid infections being brought into the homes. By the end of the autumn all our staff will be fully vaccinated. This, combined with exemplary and scrupulous hygiene controls, make a Springdene home as Covid-secure as it is possible to be. Not only do we have a rigorous regime of cleaning and disinfecting, but we use special ozonegenerating machines, which are highly effective in sanitising the air. New residents can be sure of a warm reception. Our homes have been established for more than 50 years, run continuously by the same family. All our homes – Spring Grove in Hampstead, Spring Lane in Muswell Hill and Springview in Enfield – are rated as good by the Care Quality Commission. Residents enjoy hotel-style luxury, with their own spacious room, complete with full en-suite facilities, personal telephone and wi-fi. There are three delicious meals a day, and a varied choice of menus. And there are lots of regular activities, including quizzes, short stories, art competitions and poetry readings, live-streamed concerts and film-showings on a big screen, as well as walks in delightful gardens. ‘We’ve a great team, offering terrific care and everyone is brilliantly looked after,’ says CEO Jeremy Balcombe. As our motto says: ‘Life is for living!’

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Opinion

Police killings in Israel and USA offer telling contrasts VIVIAN WINEMAN FORMER PRESIDENT, BOARD OF DEPUTIES

n late June 2021 Israel’s Justice Ministry announced that the policeman who shot Eyad Hallaq was to stand trial for reckless homicide. Eyad, 32, was an Arab resident of Jerusalem who was killed in May 2020. He had autism and, it was estimated, a mental age of eight. Here, I declare an interest as I too have a son with special needs. I feel a certain empathy with Eyad’s parents. Eyad was frightened by the Israeli police without properly understanding who they were; with good reason it transpired. He was challenged by them on his way to the college where he was cared for and subsequently killed by them. Five days earlier George Floyd, a black American, was also killed by police, this time on the streets of Minneapolis. In both cases a member of a minority group, posing no threat, fell victim to police brutality. The difference I was told at the time was that in Israel these cases are dealt with firmly: justice is done and

seen to be done. As the common perception goes, no people are as self-critical as the Jews. In fact the reverse has proved to be the case. Floyd’s murder was recognised immediately for the crime that it was. Numerous celebrities visited his family to offer comfort, including the Democratic candidate and soon to be president, Joe Biden. Eyad’s family by contrast had a visit from the police who, having killed their son, then searched their home. It took some time for the prime minister, then Benjamin Netanyahu, to make a statement. When he did, he regretted what he called a tragedy, as though this episode was some unfortunate accident. Floyd’s killer, Derek Chauvin, was arrested and his bail was set at $1.25 million. He has now been tried and found guilty of second and third degree murder. Eyad’s killer’s identity has not been publicised and for over a year and no charges were brought against him. Now, finally, he has been charged, though not with murder. One hopes the Israeli criminal courts will deal with his case with integrity. Part of the delay, I understand, has been caused by people who felt that Israeli police should not

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be charged for killing Palestinians. An important question is how was Eyad perceived: as a mentally challenged civilian in need of protection in an environment he found perplexing and frightening? Or as a possible terrorist intent on causing damage to Israel even at the cost of his own life? His mother bought him a mobile phone, a step taken by many parents of vulnerable children, thinking it would give him protection. It would enable him to call for help in case of danger. It proved to be his undoing. The police saw it, thought it might be a gun and killed him. In fairness it cannot have been that easy for the police. They had information that there was a terrorist around and Eyad’s behaviour was suspicious. But was it suspicious enough to justify taking his life when he was lying on the ground and begging for mercy? His carer too was begging for mercy for him. Could they not have tried to neutralise him instead of filling him with more than half a dozen bullets. In the week before this article was written, four Palestinian civilians were killed by the Israeli police. One was 12, one was 17. Another,

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PART OF THE PROBLEM LIES WITH OPENLY RACIST RELIGIOUS ZIONIST LEADERS aged 20, was attending the funeral of the 12-year-old when he was shot. The chief of staff, Aviv Kochavi, himself expressed concern that since May this year 40 Palestinians have been killed. Part of the problem lies with openly racist religious Zionist leaders who say an Arab life is not worth a Jewish life. Recently a racist rabbi has been convicted of hate speech, fined and given a suspended sentence. The prosecution argued he should have been jailed. But part of the problem lies with the rest of us who do not call out this racism. As has been said, for evil to triumph all it needs is for good people to remain silent.

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Jewish News 26 August 2021

Opinion

Loach’s role in enabling antisemitism – discuss JENNI FRAZER

enerally speaking I’m not in favour of ad hominem attacks on people, in much the same way as I’m not keen on boycotts — because I believe that both can so easily be turned upon the accuser. In the case of film-maker Ken Loach, however, I’m ready to make an exception. Loach, now 85 and thus apparently a ‘national treasure’ who is beyond criticism in some circles, has finally been kicked out of the Labour Party for his support of groups that had already been proscribed because they were “not compatible with Labour values”. The four groups — Resist, Socialist Appeal, Labour in Exile Network and Labour Against the Witchhunt — were, according to Loach, “purged” by Sir Keir Starmer in his pledge to root out antisemitism from the party, which in my opinion is about the only true thing Loach has ever said in this whole sorry debate. Yes, they were purged, and so was Loach, and about time, too. For me, there is no place

for Loach and his ilk in the Labour Party, and I congratulate Sir Keir for kicking him out. It ought to be recorded that this is not the first time Loach and Labour have parted company. He flounced out in the 90s over some deeply-held criticism of Tony Blair, but by 2017 he was back, living it large among the Corbynistas at the party’s Brighton conference. Notoriously Loach was asked about the remarks made by Israeli anti-Zionist Miko Peled at a fringe meeting in Brighton the previous day. Peled had suggested that nothing was off limits for discussion, including “the Holocaust, yes or no”. Interviewed by the BBC’s Jo Coburn, Loach first attempted to dismiss Peled’s comments by asking “Reported by whom?” as though the identity of the reporter, or the place in which it was reported, would immediately offer proof of bad faith. Since I was sitting only yards from Peled when he made his remarks, and subsequently went on to report them, I suppose I must now, indeed, confirm Loach’s prejudices. But then Loach went on to say: “History is there for us to discuss” — immediately adding:

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A CERTAIN TYPE OF SOCIALIST REALLY LOATHES ISRAEL MUCH MORE THAN IS STRICTLY NECESSARY “The founding of the state of Israel, based on ethnic cleansing, is there for us all to discuss. The role of Israel is there for us to discuss”. He later wrote a letter to the Guardian in which he categorically rejected the charge that he was a Holocaust denier. Whew, glad you cleared that one up, Ken. Back in 1987, Loach was the director of the infamous Jim Allen play Perdition, due to be performed at the Royal Court and cancelled 36 hours before its first night because of fury from the Jewish community about its antisemitic content. Loosely based on the controversy around Rudolf Kastner and his ‘deal’ with Adolf Eichmann to free Jews during the Holocaust, the play, according to the late historian Sir Martin Gilbert, contained 60 separate errors of fact.

More recently the CST’s Dave Rich called Perdition “a Stalinist lie”. As with so much extreme left propaganda, the play blames Jews as both victims and architects of their own fate. There is a particular type of well-educated left-wing socialist who really, truly, deeply, loathes Israel much more than is strictly necessary. I give you Jeremy Corbyn, Ken Loach, Ken Livingstone, Seumus Milne… the list goes on and on. More power to Sir Keir’s elbow as, one by one, he rips these creatures out of the Labour Party. It’s a cleansing the swamp process. Just unfortunate that it takes so long. And frankly, if you stand alongside proven antisemites at every opportunity, people are bound to have a particular view of you. Loach has aired his expulsion as a badge of pride. It’s not. It’s a badge of shame.

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30 YEARS OF RESILIENCE

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Community round-up / Scene & Be Seen

And be seen! The latest news, pictures and social events from across our community Email us at community@jewishnews.co.uk More than 600 young people have enjoyed summer camps with Bnei Akiva in recent months. Day camps for children in Years 3-5 and residential camps for Years 6-11 gave everyone a much-needed break from the routine of the past 18 months. Among the activities were Bnei Akiva chanichim (participants) visiting theme parks, taking part in adrenalinefilled adventure activities, and enjoying some fantastic educational and ruach-filled tochniot (programmes) prepared by their madrichim (leaders).

Mum-of-two Lara Lipsey from Elstree decided to scale the Three Peaks in 24 hours to raise funds for Camp Simcha – and says it was the most gruelling thing she has ever done. Completing her challenge earlier this month, she has raised more than £2,300 for Camp Simcha’s Care Necessities project, which provides practical care packages for families admitted to Great Ormond Street for urgent cancer treatment. Lara hurt her knee during the challenge on Scafell Pike but said she could not stop because it was for “an amazing cause”.

More than 20 Year 11 students took part in charitable activities this summer as part of a programme run by GIFT. It included cooking for the homeless, visiting the Felix Project food bank in Deptford, east London, and picking up litter on Herne Bay, Kent (pictured). The trip culminated with the GIFT Supermarket Challenge, where the students had to shop for a family of five for a week, spending only £10.

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Jewish News 26 August 2021

Scene & Be Seen / Community round-up

Sydney Assor, the founder of the Moroccan Jewish Association in the UK, was honoured by the Moroccan embassy to mark his 90th birthday. Ambassador Abdesselam Aboudrar hailed the birthday boy as a bridge between the UK and Morocco over many years as he hosted the community leader and his family at a reception also attended by his deputy and several other senior diplomats. Assor said: “I don’t feel like I’m at an embassy. I’m at a gathering of friends and brothers”.

More than 130 young people have taken part in summer camps run by RSY-Netzer, the youth movement for Reform Judaism. The camps included 10- and 11-year-olds at the Briyah camp in Stourbridge, West Midlands, the Shachar group in Norfolk, and the older groups of Remunah and Atid. Rabbi Miriam Berger, whose 10-year-old son Ben enjoyed his first ever camp away from home, said the summer camps “managed to keep them safe during a pandemic whilst giving them a feeling of being completely carefree”.

Ben Winston, producer and director of Friends: The Reunion, was the special guest at Young US and St John’s Wood Synagogue’s evening last week. Winston told guests how he got into Hollywood and gave the inside story of how he created the reunion special. Guests enjoyed a barbecue, cocktails and music in the first Young US face-to-face event since before the pandemic. Rabbi Yoni Golker, assistant rabbi at St John’s Wood Synagogue, said: “The event was a huge success and a wonderful experience to see 150 young professionals at our first in-person gathering in 18 months”.

Leonie Lewis unveiled her recently published book, The Tin Lady, which gives tips on recruiting charity volunteers and how to fundraise. Ms Lewis, who has worked as a charity collector for Harrow Mencap, held a book launch at the Head Room Cafe in Golders Green, and in the process raised £300 for Jami and £200 for Mencap through book sales. All profits from the book go directly to charities. Also pictured are Laurie Rackind, CEO of Jami, and Cllr Sara Conway.

Photo: Sharna Kinsley

The Ark Synagogue hosted an in-person appreciation afternoon tea for the volunteers of their Care Team. It was the first time the team had met in-person since March 2020. Over the last 18 months the 35+ volunteer team have provided outreach and support to more than 350 of their community

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Television / Weekend

‘Trump told me he wanted to be president – and I just laughed!’ Francine Wolfisz speaks to Ruby Wax as she looks back at her best – and most cringe-making interviews from the 1990s – in a new BBC2 series Broadcaster, author and mental health campaigner Ruby Wax redefined celebrity interviews with her edge-of-the-seat encounters, tongue-in-cheek humour and unrivalled access to some of the most famous – and infamous – names of the 1990s, including Pamela Anderson, Carrie Fisher, Imelda Marcos, OJ Simpson and the Spice Girls. Confined to the BBC’s vaults for more than two decades, her candid chats are now seeing the light of day again in a new retrospective series, When Ruby Met…, which began airing this week Francine Wolfisz: The last time these shows aired was 25 years ago – and apparently you never saw a single episode? Ruby Wax: No, I hadn’t seen any of them! You can see my reaction, there’s a distance to it. I don’t even really recall that time. I mean I know it’s me, but it’s not familiar. It’s like a different version of me. FW: The opening episode takes a look back at your interview with Donald Trump and his then girlfriend, Melania, years before they became President and First Lady – but he really took a dislike to you. During your interview with him on his plane, he walked away and locked himself in the cockpit for the rest of the flight. How did that make you feel? RW: Yeah, it was a bad interview. I don’t get intimidated normally, but he really frightened me, because he has so much aggression. He has so much hatred, I could feel it. You know I don’t usually get that from people I interview. FW: I think in a strange way that added to the interview though? RW: People definitely like that kind of thing, but you know, it wasn’t pleasant to do. He walked away and didn’t want to talk to me. When he said he wanted to be president I thought he was joking! So I just started laughing. It was a car crash interview, but it makes good TV. FW: But then he actually did become the president… RW: No, no I don’t believe you – it’s unbelievable! FW: We also see you meet late Star Wars actress and author Carrie Fisher, who went on to become one of your closest friends. Had you met her prior to the interview? RW: No I hadn’t. When I met her, it was like getting a best friend. Carrie was everything, it was a really great

match. She was a genius and had the fastest mind I’ve ever encountered. The words would come flowing just ready for a book without the need for editing. FW: I have to ask you about your interview with OJ Simpson, which took place after he was cleared of all murder charges in the “trial of the century” – and the fact you turned up at his home in a large white car! What did you think of him? RW: I thought, ‘Here’s a guy who’s deluded.’ I don’t know what he knows. But he’s sitting on something and convinced himself that he’s innocent. On the other hand that’s not really the case either, because he kept taking me by Judge Ito’s house and screaming “asshole” and teasing me all the time about whether he murdered his ex-wife, Nicole. It was bizarre. FW: Let’s turn to your infamous interview with former First Lady of the Philippines, Imelda Marcos – you even convinced her to show you her collection of 3,000 pairs of shoes! RW: Oh yeah, I hit the jackpot with that interview. We went all the way to the Philippines and I was told that I had just 10 minutes with her. But I was still there four days later. I was just thrilled that she liked me so much. Then finally she said, ‘Do you want to see my shoes?’ She wouldn’t have done that on day one. When she showed me the accounts, I thought what kind of world are we in? Like OJ, she was an interesting mind to pick, you know, to figure out what motivates her. FW: Over the years, you were very vocal about Louis Theroux and even claimed he had stolen your niche and ended your TV career – but you recently did meet up for a podcast with him. Have you buried the hatchet with Louis? RW: Oh yeah, I think he’s a really, really kind man. You know he said, ‘Why aren’t they doing your show anymore?’ He was very, very generous. For many years I thought he took my job. And, you know, maybe he did. I was 50, which is maybe too old for a woman to be on TV, but on the other hand I have to thank him because I went off to Oxford, got my master’s [in mindfulness-based cognitive therapy] and have a whole new career now. FW: Where do you think you got your questioning mind from? RW: I don’t know, because my parents didn’t have it! I was always trying to figure out life, you know, I was always curious and wanted to be a shrink when I was

n Ruby Wax with OJ Simpso

Ruby with Donald Trump...

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Inside Caring is sharing: Gifts that help others ... and with Imelda Marcos

young. Then that turned it into TV, and now writing books, including my latest, A Mindfulness Guide For Survival, which I wrote during lockdown. FW: What inspired your latest book? RW: I was running these virtual cafés every night. I got hundreds of people telling me about what was going on for them and how they were facing these realities that were horrific. But the realities were always there. Now, as we come out of the pandemic, we have to figure out a way to make our brains a little more resilient to these times. When Ruby Met… continues next Sunday, 9pm, on BBC2. Her book, A Mindfulness Guide For Survival, is published by Welbeck Publishing and priced £14.99. Available now

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Weekend / Book

From Russia with LOVE Author Margarita Gokun Silver, who emigrated from communist Russia to the US, tells Alex Galbinski she thought western streets really were paved with gold

n one of his sketches, the comedian Trevor Noah mocks Russian accents. “Everything the Russians say sounds dangerous and menacing,” he quips. The author Margarita Gokun Silver is inclined to agree. “Losing my villainy-sounding Russian accent when speaking English”, along with “stop being Russian” were just two of several of her stated aims when she left the Soviet Union with her parents in 1989. Silver, 52, has detailed her other objectives in I Named My Dog Pushkin (and Other Immigrant Tales): Notes From a Soviet Girl on Becoming an American Woman, a collection of short stories relaying the often laugh-out-loud accounts of her struggling to make a new life for herself in a new country. While those who grew up in the west took such things for granted, top of her list was to acquire a pair of Levi’s, which were a hugely sought-after item. From a young age, Silver and her contemporaries were fully immersed in the revolutionary ideology spouted by the

youth organisations of the Communist Party. “We wore a pin with the picture of Lenin and we had to participate in all sorts of activities that glorified the revolution,” she recalls. “We put on the red tie, knew to always say the right things and never argue,” adds the former Moscovite who now lives in Boston, all the while toeing the party line because “you want to believe all of that beautiful tomorrow”. Her witty account does not gloss over the difficulties she and her family experienced. Aged nine, she learnt – from a classmate who sneaked a look at the teacher’s file – that she was Jewish. From then on, she also endured insults and taunts and not just in school. “During Gorbachev’s policy of glasnost, people could write and say anything they wanted, which is great – freedom of speech – so the young people embraced it.

Margarita Gokun Silver growing up in the Soviet Union. She was 20 when she left with her parents in 1989

But then the bigots embraced it too. And there were all sorts of antisemitic articles that started appearing and Jews were blamed for everything, for revolution and for anti-revolution. “I immediately recognised that I was a second-class citizen, that Jews are disliked a lot more than

other ethnic minorities.” She was desperate to leave Russia but had to convince her parents who finally agreed to leave, by way of Vienna, Italy and finally the United States. While Silver longed to assimilate, to be free of the thought police and of antisemitism, she also wanted to shake off not having a voice. “Growing up in the Soviet Union as a young Jewish woman basically meant being ordered around by everyone – your parents, the Communist Party, babushkas, store clerks, Komsomol [young Communist league] leaders and dentists,” she writes. In the mainly patriarchal Russia, she, like others, had to do what she was told. So her parents were shocked and upset at who she became in America: she changed her name (ditching Rita for Margarita), chose her own career rather than continue to study medicine or become a doctor and, later, ignored their parenting advice. She recounts trying to lose her Russianisms and describes the surprises she found in the US . “There were practically no streetlights where I lived and here was this tiny town compared to Moscow and it was all lit up. And then the supermarkets – my God, a whole aisle dedicated to dog food. I didn’t even know dog food existed! I still can’t stomach American cereal with cold milk – that’s just weird. And the costs – when I got my first heating bill, I nearly fainted.” Not long after she arrived she met Keith, a nice Jewish man whom she went on to marry, despite his lack of a nice car, she jokes. He became a diplomat and they, along with their daughter, have lived in several countries, including a four-year stint in St Petersburg – where she felt like a fluent Russianspeaking outsider. Silver was determined not to make

the same parenting mistakes as most Soviets, who “believed positive change is only achieved via criticism and disparaging commentary”, a mode she describes as “parenting while too Russian”. “It’s this baggage that you brought from how you grew up. In Russia, or the way I grew up, you controlled your offspring; you told them what you expected of them, what to do, what not to do, who they should become and where they should go to university. “It took me years to try not to be controlling and I’m still fighting it sometimes. I was trying to get used to the idea that the more freedom you give them, the more responsible they become.” Silver decided to share her stories because those to whom she told about her life would listen in awe. She also wanted to relate what it was like as a Jewish woman to come of age in the Soviet Union and her perspective as an émigrée. Jewish identity formed under Soviet conditions is very different, she emphasises. “Our identity did not conflate with religion because we grew up in an atheist society. My grandfather was the only one who remembered religion was a thing,” she tells me. Silver found her tribe in the Reform movement and her daughter has grown up with a strong Jewish identity. But she is perturbed by the fact antisemitism is still very much with us, even in the west. “I had to hide being Jewish for fear of being insulted – and I have to do it again, 30-somewhat years later?” she asks. “It’s bizarre. These experiences are important to know because they get forgotten and the Soviet Union no longer exists.”  I Named My Dog Pushkin (and Other Immigrant Tales) by Margarita Gokun Silver is published by Thread Books, £8.99 (paperback). Available now

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26 August 2021

Special Report / Year of belly laughs

Sketch ‘n’ kvetch Paul Solomons’ mischievous take on a year of Jewish news From Pesach to Chanukah to Shavuot and from the coronavirus to the weather and the American elections, Paul Solomons manages to conjure up chuckles in every edition of Jewish News. Here, in celebration of the magical – some might say vital – art of finding humour in unexpected events and situations, are some of the illustrations that brought the most smiles from readers and staff alike. Londonbased Solomons, who works as an animator as well as a cartoonist, has said he loves drawing characters with big noses (“They amuse me”) and, judging by the feedback we get, they amuse readers too. Well, most of them! “Oh-oh! This could be the start of a second wave”

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26 August 2021 Jewish News

Year of belly laughs / Special Report

“No, your husband’s not got coronavirus – he’s got kenahoravirus”

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Jewish News 26 August 2021

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26 August 2021 Jewish News

Special gifts / Weekend

Rosh Hashanah Gifts After a year that has been challenging for many – and during which charities have also felt the strain – Alex Galbinski selects some gorgeous gifts that share the love

2021

COMFORT EATING Nineteen-year-old student Talia Pavell has written a digital cookbook to raise money for Jewish Women’s Aid, where she volunteers. Cooking for Comfort is created with students in mind, but is a great addition to any kitchen and is full of tasty and easy-to-make recipes, including marinated duck legs and brownies. JWA supports women and girls and all proceeds will go towards its services including webchat, helplines and counselling. £10 (or £5 for students), www.jwa.org.uk/cookbook

GOODIE BAGS TABLE CHIC Bring some colour and elegance to your New Year table with this stunning hand-finished 100 percent white linen table runner featuring a pomegranate motif in rose pink (also available in red). The 48cm x 230cm runner is sold through Fine Cell Work, a charity that makes beautiful handmade products in British prisons. £85, https://finecellwork.co.uk

It can be hard to keep the young (and young at heart) entertained over the chagim, but these goodie bags will surely help. Available in three sizes (pictured is the large), the packs – which come in a bee gift box – include items such as scratch art, stencil sets, honey dippers and a honey bee wind catcher, as well as items for Succot. Purchase of the bags supports the work of Shaare Zedek’s neonatal intensive care unit, paying for items to help the tiniest of infants. From £42, https://shaarezedek.org. uk/product/rosh-hashanah-goodie-bags (use voucher code ‘free postage’ at checkout to get free P&P)

CALMING SCENTS This on-trend candle (it’s vegan, paraben-free and made in recyclable glass jars) combines pomegranate with other fruits, including apple, passion fruit and lime against a floral backdrop. Retailer Global WAKEcup is a zero-waste resusables brand that donates 10 percent of all its profits to the Marine Conservation Society. £13, www.globalwakecup.com

NEW CHALLENGE Becca refuses to try any new foods, until her family persuades her that Rosh Hashanah is a time to try something new. While Dad suggests shaving off his moustache for a new look and Mum thinks she’ll take up knitting as a new project, Becca finally decides she’s ready to try something new for Rosh Hashanah, too. This book, by Jane Yolen, is geared towards ages five to 10. £5.99 (paperback), from various bookshops

DOUGH SAVER SWEET NECTAR As well as selling its honey jars this year (each label is personalised with a name and/or Yom Tov message), Kisharon is offering a stunning selection of gifts. Sets on offer from the charity that helps adults and children with learning disabilities include honey cake dishes and themed napkins, with treats such as chocolate-coated almonds and cranberries, caramelised honey nuts and Ooh La La confectionery that is exclusively sold at Equal, Kisharon’s Temple Fortune shop. Honey jars from £2.50, gifts at selected prices, www.equal.kisharon.org.uk

CHOCS AWAY This beautiful cookbook dedicated to chocolate traces its Jewish links and features recipes from 50 of the world’s best-known Jewish cooks and writers. And if that wasn’t enticing enough, all sales of Babka, Boulou & Blintzes, compiled by Gefiltefest founder Michael Leventhal, will go to supporting Chai Cancer Care. £25, www.chaicancercare. org/chocolate

This reusable linen bread bag featuring a handprinted bee design is perfect for storing loaves and patisserie to keep them fresher for longer. Made in Cornwall from 100 percent linen with a natural cotton tie, it’s machine-washable and measures approx. 42cm x 28cm x 12cm. The Bower Collective has teamed up with the Marine Conservation Society and is making a 20p donation to the charity with every purchase. £24, https://bowercollective.com

SOUL FOOD If you’re looking for a great gift or meal to impress friends and family, a copy of Cooking From the Heart will surely hit the spot. London born and raised, Sally-Ann Thwaites now lives in Israel and although she’s not a trained chef, she does enjoy cooking and entertaining. This book is a tribute to her late mother, Monica Slater, whom she describes as her best friend and inspiration. From £30, www.jewishcare.org/ cookingfromtheheart

LETTERBOX LOVE These brownies, freshly baked at Jami’s Head Room Café, are the perfect gift for a sweet new year (order by 1 September). Containing a decadent slab of chocolate brownie with an edible Shana Tova icing sheet and a bag of the café’s 100 percent Arabica Espresso signature blend coffee, they come in a box that fits through the letterbox and can be posted nationwide. All proceeds go to Jami, the mental health charity for the Jewish community. £15, www.headroomcafe.org/shop

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Jewish News 26 August 2021

of Temple Fortune

Wishing our customers a Shana Tova! ORDER NOW IN TIME FOR ROSH HASHANAH All major credit cards accepted ● Free local deliveries daily

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26 August 2021 Jewish News

Food & Drink / Weekend

his may sound an unlikely combination, but nutty tahini brings rich creaminess to crisp schnitzel. Serve with a green salad or a more traditional potato salad.

PREPARATION TIME: 15 MINUTES COOKING TIME: 50 MINUTES SERVES 4

INGREDIENTS 2 shallots, peeled and sliced into very thin rounds (90g net weight) 1 tbsp lemon juice Salt and black pepper 2 large eggs 80g good quality tahini 2 tbsp Dijon mustard 130g panko breadcrumbs 50g sesame seeds 50g plain flour 4 large skinless chicken breasts (680g net weight) 300ml sunflower oil, for frying For the dressing 60g good quality tahini 2 tbsp lemon juice 1½ tbsp Dijon mustard 1 clove of garlic, peeled and crushed 2-3 tbsp finely chopped parsley leaves Reprinted from From Beder’s Kitchen: Recipes and reflections to raise awareness around mental health and suicide prevention from foodies all over the world. © 2020 Beder & Meze Publishing Ltd, RRP £22. All proceeds support Beder in its work.

HI’S YOTAM OTTOLENG HNITZEL C S N E K IC H C I IN H A T

1 Preheat the oven to 240°c fan. 2 Put the shallot, lemon juice and an eighth of a teaspoon of salt in a small bowl, toss to combine, then leave to soften while you make the rest of the dish. 3 Whisk all the dressing ingredients in a small bowl with 50ml of water and a quarter teaspoon of salt until smooth. 4 Whisk the eggs, tahini, mustard, a quarter teaspoon of salt and a tablespoon of water in a shallow container (or on a plate with a lip). 5 In a separate container (or plate), mix the panko, sesame and a teaspoon of salt. Put the flour on a third plate. 6 Lay the chicken breasts on a board and, using a meat mallet (or the base of a heavy saucepan), lightly bash them, until they are about 1.5cm thick. 7 Sprinkle lightly with salt and pepper, then, one by one, coat the breasts in the flour and shake off any excess. Dredge them one by one in the egg mixture, then coat in the breadcrumb mixture. 8 Put the sunflower oil in a saute pan on a medium-high heat. 9 Once hot, fry one chicken schnitzel for about two minutes on each side, until golden, then transfer to a rack set on an oven tray (the rack ensures the bottom of the schnitzels won’t go soggy in the oven). 10 Repeat with the remaining chicken, one breast at a time, then bake in the preheated oven for seven minutes, or until cooked through. 11 Cut each schnitzel widthways into 2cm wide strips, then use the knife to transfer each breast neatly to a large platter. Scatter the shallots on top, drizzle over half the dressing and serve with the rest alongside.

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Jewish News 26 August 2021

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26 August 2021 Jewish News

THE TEL AVIV FOUNDATION (UK) IS SEEKING AN OPERATIONS LIAISON (BASED IN LONDON) RESPONSIBILITIES OF OPERATIONS LIAISON

telavivfoundation.org

1. Administrative Duties (including processing donations, database management, correspondence, income/expenditure reports, working closely with accountants, etc.), reporting and working closely with the CFO of the Tel Aviv Foundation. 2. Research and Grant Writing (including inquiring about potential grant opportunities, researching potential donors, writing up applications). 3. Potential for Marketing (including generating marketing materials for events and fundraising missions, general marketing communications). JOB REQUIREMENTS • • • • • •

Ideally, relevant work experience (preferably in the charity sector) Strong interpersonal skills IT and numerate skills Work from home on flexible basis Hourly rate to be agreed 15 hours per month

22 Beehive Lane, Ilford, Essex, IG1 3RT

Rabbi Steven & Rebbetzen Siobhan Dansky, Reverend Gary & Gillian Newman, the Executive and Synagogue Council wish the whole Community Shana Tova V’Gmar Chatima Tova. During these difficult times we wish you good health and hope that you keep safe.

To apply, please send CV and cover letter to info@telavivfoundation.org (E-mail title: Operations Liaison UK)

‫שנה טובה‬ Shana Tova!

Best wishes from The United Synagogue for a happy and healthy New Year

Our warm and welcoming communities are here for you this Rosh Hashanah. For information on booking a place at services, shofar blowings and other community events and programmes, please contact us on 020 8343 5687 or email welcome@theus.org.uk

Beds & Cambs Luton Peterborough

Romford & District South Tottenham Woodford Forest

Central London Central Chelsea Hampstead New West End South Hampstead St John’s Wood Western Marble Arch

Herts Borehamwood & Elstree Bushey & District Hemel Hempstead Potters Bar & Brookmans Park Radlett Shenley St. Albans Watford & District Welwyn Garden City

Essex & East London Chigwell & Hainault Cranbrook Hackney & East London Highams Park & Chingford

Merseyside Southport

North London Barnet Cockfosters & N. Southgate Enfield & Winchmore Hill Finsbury Park Hadley Wood Highgate Muswell Hill Palmers Green & Southgate Woodside Park North West London Alei Tzion Brondesbury Park Finchley Golders Green Hampstead Garden Suburb Hendon

Magen Avot Mill Hill Mill Hill East North West Middlesex Ahavat Yisrael Belmont Edgware Kenton Kingsbury Northwood Pinner Ruislip & District Stanmore & Canons Park Wembley

South & West London Catford & Bromley Ealing Kingston, Surbiton & District Richmond South London Staines & District Sutton & District West Midlands Birmingham Central Yorkshire & the Humber Hull Sheffield

There will also be a variety of religious and educational video content available on www.TheUS.tv 020 8343 8989

www.theus.org.uk

unitedsynagogue

unitedsynagogueuk

unitedsynagogue

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Jewish News 26 August 2021

Business / On the high street

candicekrieger@googlemail.com

With Candice Krieger

RATES ARE A TAX ON EXISTENCE, NOT PERFORMANCE Entrepreneur who brought Flying Tiger to the UK tells Candice Krieger about physical retail’s continuing struggle and why he’s leading a campaign for business rates reform

The former boss be the last to benefit or at same time of Tiger UK is as shareholders, not before. ramping up “The government should have calls for the worked out by now that you governcan’t have one business paying ment to one lot of tax and others reform the business rates (online businesses) paying system, which he says is different rates. “fundamentally flawed”. “Rates have remained high Philip Bier, who brought despite what happened in the the Danish chain (now Flying market. It’s not about not wanting Tiger) to the UK in 2005 believes Philip Bier to pay tax, it’s about a tax that is current rates for physical retailers detrimental to the development of are damaging the high street, which is this country. Something different needs to be plagued with empty sites. introduced.” “Fundamentally it’s a tax on existence, The retail property sector has pinned its not performance,” says Bier. “Business rates hopes on a long-term reform due in the autumn are a fixed overhead whereas they should be but Bier is not convinced. performance-related. It’s wrong for people to He is part of a committee representing pay whether they succeed or not.” the sector and recently met with Labour He continues: “The system is broken and leader Sir Keir Starmer to discuss the future should have ended last century. Why should the of the high street, and earlier this year signed state benefit before anyone else? They should an open letter, drafted by the Tesco CEO Ken

Bier, right, now runs Eyeye.me with Mark Fluri

Murphy, which was sent to the government calling change. “The Treasury has promised to do a fundamental review of business rates in the autumn and whether they do remains to be seen.” Bier, who lives in north London and is a member of Muswell Hill Synagogue, discovered Tiger, which sells quirky lifestyle products at affordable prices, after a trip to Copenhagen, where he was born. A commercial photographer, he thought it would do well in the UK and remortgaged his house to take a 50 percent stake in the company and roll it out on the country’s high streets. The chain grew exponentially and when Bier made a multi-million pound exit in 2017, he had opened more than 40 stores and Tiger Retail had a turnover of £44 million. Bier, who sits on several retail advisory boards, saw first-hand how business rates impacted Tiger some 10 years ago. “In 2012, there was a shop I didn’t take in Muswell Hill; the rates were the same as the rents and there was no negotiation about it. Rates have become prohibitively high.” Unsurprisingly, two of his latest projects are online: EyeEye and Sharesy. EyeEye.me is an online-only venture launched together with his friend and fellow photographer, Mark Fluri. The business sells limited-edition, museumquality black and white prints at affordable prices (they start at £60), mainly from negatives that Fluri has assembled over time. Bier is also on the board of Sharesy, which launched in June and is a kind of Airbnb for community halls. Founded by Felix Atkin, it lets users book venues around north London for their events. Through the platform, venues can take control of their earning potential, hiring out their spaces with a hassle-free solution that puts listing, booking, payment and reporting in one place. Meanwhile, bookers can discover and book affordable venues, simultaneously giving back to their local community. Bier accepts that the shift to online is

Bier opened more than 40 Tiger stores in UK

“permanent and relentless”. He says the government needs to come up with a strategy to ensure town centres don’t become ghost towns. “Physical retail will never come back to what it was and will struggle with ‘just need’ purchases. Less and less sales are being done in store and we need to address this by what the space should be used for. This is a three-way responsibility between local authorities, the government and private landlords. “There needs to be a national plan for what empty spaces are used for, such as whether they are turned into community centres with libraries /workshops or for housing.” So what will retail look like a year from now? “Low-cost bargain stores and the top end will be fine, but it’s the middle markets that will be hit. The ‘holy cow’ John Lewis is also coming into question. It used to be aspirational but I don’t think it’s somewhere my son (age 23) would shop. They have lost the next generation – people under 35.” He adds: “Retailers need to make the experience of going into store something you want to do. Their has to be really good customer service and give consumers something they can’t get online, whether that means a ‘hello’ or ‘goodbye’, or simply a smile.” Bier and his wife Emma have two children. His sister Suzanne directed the hit BBC drama series The Night Manager. www.eyeeye.me www.sharesy.com

26 August 2021 Jewish News

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Orthodox Judaism

SEDRA

Torah For Today

Ki Tavo

What does the Torah say about... Exile and asylum

BY RABBI ARIEL ABEL This week we read about first fruits. The first produce of orchards is dedicated to the Temple or to the poor of Jerusalem depending on the year in the agricultural cycle. It is no coincidence that the centrEpiece of donating the first fruits is a “confession” in the Temple. The confession is a reflection of history concerning Laban, the fatherin-law of Jacob. He is referred to as the “Aramean”, who “practically destroyed our father”. The physical continuity of our people is thus symbolised by the first produce yielded agriculturally. The command is given to transcribe the Torah on to big stones once the Israelites cross the river Jordan. Multi-lingual access to the Torah on the web are the modern lime-covered stones which were set and translated into many languages for the benefit of any foreigners who otherwise would have no idea what the Torah says. It is a Jewish responsibility to disseminate

the words of the Torah to the world. The people are also instructed to prepare themselves for an event on the mountains of Gerizim and Eval in North Samaria. This took place some years later after the initial conquest of Canaan. During this event, the 12 tribes of Israel split into two camps. The camp on Mount Gerizim is said to have “blessed” the people but in fact the tribe of Levi is among that group to issue warnings cursing anyone who dares to practise evil against his follow human being. The tribes who answer “Amen” are situated on the opposite mountainside. It is remarkable that severe admonitions can be called “blessings”, but an admonition can be a blessing if the hearer will now take greater care and not fall into danger in the first place. In this spirit the portion finishes one of two “reproaches” to be found in the Torah.

◆ Rabbi Ariel Abel is based in Liverpool

BY RABBI GARRY WAYLAND In his search for a burial place for his wife Sarah, Abraham declares the people of Heth that, “I am an immigrant [ger] and a resident [toshav] among you.” (Gen 23.4, trans. Living Torah). Rabbi Soloveitchik, in his seminal essay on interfaith relations, Confrontation, (1964), wrote that this declaration of Abraham, despite being apparently paradoxical – how can one live both transiently, as a foreigner, yet a permanent member of society? – was indeed the modus operandi for Jewish life: “We are rooted in the here and now reality as inhabitants of our globe, and yet we experience a sense of homelessness and loneliness as if we belonged somewhere else.” Thus was Jewish life for millennia: to wander whilst retaining as sense of wonderment; to be rooted whilst en route;

to invest whilst not really being entrenched. And, for millennia, the Jewish story was one of arrival, alienation, adaptation, assimilation and acculturation, affluence and then exile. We, unfortunately, have too many tales to tell the world about exile and asylum: Abraham’s attitude, perhaps, prepared us for what would be the unfortunate fate of many of our ancestors. In the words of David Goodhart, we are both ‘somewheres’

and ‘everywheres’: we appreciate the value of a home, of roots, of a past, but at the same time, value the experiences of those with a past different from our own, of a fluidity greater than any one time or place. We are blessed to be, nowadays more often than not, on the receiving end of those begging for asylum, for those without a somewhere who have been everywhere, seen everything. There are, of course, no easy solutions in a world that is becoming more fraught for communities and dangerous for individuals, but Abraham’s attitude is surely one that can guide us and the wider community in dealing with those begging for help with compassion and empathy. ◆ Rabbi Garry Wayland is a teacher and educator for US Living and Learning

Romford & District (Affiliated) Synagogue Incorporating Havering Jewish Ladies

25 Eastern Road, Romford, Essex, RM1 3NH 01708 741 690

Wishing the community a Happy and Healthy New Year

For enquiries please call: 01708 741 690 Charity No. 1121253

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Jewish News 26 August 2021

Progressive Judaism

Progressively Speaking

The Bible Says What?

Israel’s Olympic hero should be allowed to get married in his own country

‘Judaism prays for peace but isn’t pacifist’ BY RABBI DR MARGARET JACOBI “‘There’s a time for war and a time for peace” (Ecclesiastes 3:8) It is often said that Judaism is a religion that values peace, and that is true. We pray for peace at all our services. Hillel tells us: “Be of the disciples of Aaron, loving peace and pursuing peace.” But Judaism is not a pacifist religion. It recognises that there are times when it is necessary to go to war. There may be no other way to stop an aggressor and prevent a greater evil. The difficulty is knowing when is a time for war. As we watch Afghanistan being taken over by the Taliban, we cannot help but ask questions about our own intervention there. These will be complicated questions, which cannot be answered here. What we need to do now is focus on the victims. There is a lot of fear, especially for the women in Afghanistan. The Taliban have in the past denied

them education and the right to work and seen them as property. We fear, too, for men: those who have worked with the British and American forces and those who do not adhere to the Taliban’s narrow understanding of Islamic law. There are things we can do. We can support charities that help those fleeing. We can press our government to accept now as refugees all those who have helped the British in Afghanistan, and to contribute to international efforts to support refugees and find homes for them. Our Torah recognised the necessity for war, but also recognised that war wreaked destruction and death. Let us take to heart Hillel’s injunction to love peace and pursue it, but as long as wars continue may we also reach out to help the victims in whatever way we can.

◆ Rabbi Dr Margaret Jacobi serves Birmingham Progressive Synagogue

BY RABBI MIRIAM BERGER He was Jewish enough to make aliyah under the right of return for Jews around the world to make Israel their home. He was Jewish enough to live as an Israeli citizen with Jewish on his identity card. And absolutely Jewish enough for Jews all around the world to say, “we won gold” when the Israeli gymnast Artem Dolgopyat celebrated his victory at the Tokyo Olympics. Yet what a painful irony emerges when that same national hero is not “Jewish enough” to get married in that Jewish homeland, in the country to which he gives so much pride. It is a shameful fact of the stronghold that the Orthodox Rabbinate has over Israeli politics that Dolgopyat is subject to such prejudice. The 24-year-old, who immigrated from Ukraine aged 12, is engaged but cannot be married in Israel because the Orthodox rabbinate say he is not Jewish. Only the father’s side of the Dolgopyat family is Jewish. Artem’s fiancée was interviewed on Israeli TV

deliberately, and defiantly, flashing her engagement ring to the camera. Reform Judaism in the UK began to articulate a few years ago what it means to inherit one’s Jewish status from either parent in an egalitarian way. And now a person living a Jewish life, who wants to be considered Jewish, can confirm their inherited Jewish status according to the Movement for Reform Judaism when either the mother or the father is Jewish. Let us hope that Dolgopyat’s Olympic gold success will reignite the debate in Israeli society. The State does not at the moment offer civil

marriage ceremonies and, remarkably, it prohibits Jewish weddings conducted outside the auspices of the Chief Rabbinate, despite the thriving Reform communities in Israel. This means that children who have grown up, and marked becoming bar/batmitzvah with their community rabbi, cannot stand under the chuppah with that Reform rabbi presiding over their ceremony. Reports suggest a growing number of Israelis support instituting civil marriage and their voice is growing louder year by year. With the new Israeli government promising reforms to religious policy, it will be interesting to see if and perhaps when they decide to include ending marriage restrictions in their political agenda for the future. I long for a time when Dolgopyat can wear gold medals around his neck and a gold wedding band on his finger. ◆ Rabbi Miriam Berger serves Finchley Reform Synagogue

Gary Green L’Shanah Tovah, uM’tukah! All of us at South West Essex and Settlement Reform Synagogue would like to wish the entire Jewish community a very Happy and Healthy New Year for 5782. We invite you to join SWESRS for the High Holy Days Services which will be held in our beautiful building as well as remotely via Zoom and streamed via our website. Non-members are very welcome to be a part of the SWESRS community for our High Holy Days services (and Shabbat services too). We are ready to welcome you to our range of in person and online services and activities, including erev Shabbat services, our special Shabbat morning services and a range of social activities. For details of times, joining details and further information, please call the Synagogue office on 020 8599 0936 or email admin@swesrs.org.uk. We would be delighted to see you at any time of the year including our special family Kol Hamishpachot Shabbat services for everyone aged 0-100+ Why not take a look at our website for further details?

www.swesrs.org.uk

Memorials

Wishes all the community a Happy New Year 14 Claybury Broadway, Clayhall, Ilford, Essex, IG5 0LQ Tel: 020 8551 6866 Fax: 020 8503 9889 41 Manor Park Crescent, Edgware, Middlesex, HA8 7LY Tel: 020 8381 1525 Fax: 020 8381 1535 www.garygreenmemorials.co.uk

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26 August 2021 Jewish News

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: The shutdown of traditional telephony, phones for people with hearing loss and inheritance tax planning BENJAMIN ALBERT TELECOMS SPECIALIST

ADWCONNECT

Hi Benjamin One of my colleagues has told me that BT is switching off the phone network and I will lose my landline and phone numbers. Is this true & if so what can I do about it? Tal Hi Tal, The simple answer is yes, your colleague is correct. In 2015, BT announced that it would be starting to switch off the PSTN and ISDN phone network (traditional telephony) from early 2021, with it being completely shut down by 2025. Salisbury was the first exchange to be turned off and this shutdown is being rolled out the rest of the UK. Your local exchange

of Ilford North (exchange code: LNILN) is due to be turned off on 5 October, just over a month away. Our advice to all businesses has been to keep an eye on local shutdown dates to ensure against last-minute panics. Whilst this may sound worrying, it doesn’t need to be and will actually enable better phone and internet services now and in the future. The key consideration is ensuring you know what alternative options are available to you. Many customers that we work with have made the switch, upgraded their system, improved their service and not paid much, if any more. In fact, some have saved money! Therefore, if you are one of the millions of businesses who rely on traditional telephony you should review your options and make the change to avoid disruption to your business. Now is the right time to start exploring switching to these alternative technologies.

I can do that? Stella

SUE CIPIN CHARITY EXECUTIVE

JEWISH DEAF ASSOCIATION Dear Sue I have a hearing loss and am struggling to hear on the phone. I would like to get one I can hear better on, but I’m worried that I’ll buy something and then find out it’s not much better. Now that I feel a bit braver going out and about, I would really like to try a phone before I buy it – is there anywhere

Dear Stella There certainly is – and it’s right here at the JDA’s community centre in North Finchley! Our Technology & Information Centre (TIC) is stocked full of specialist devices made for people with a hearing loss. From phones that make incoming speech louder and clearer, to systems that help you hear the TV or conversation, to gadgets that alert you to the doorbell or intercom… and much more. Thanks to the success of the vaccination programme, we’re delighted to be able to

ADAM SHELLEY ACCOUNTANT

SOBELL RHODES LLP

welcome people back to the TIC for face-to-face appointments. As long as you can show you’re fully vaccinated, you can come along and try out our phones, to see which works best for you. To book an appointment, please call Gabrielle at JDA on 020 8446 0214 or email gabrielle@jdeaf.org.uk. We look forward to seeing you!

Dear Adam, I am keen to understand further about the importance of taking charge of planning your estate. Do you have any guidance you are able to provide? Emma Dear Emma Inheritance tax is usually charged at 40 percent on the value of your estate (your property, money and possessions) over the £325,000

Private Health Insurance – Who is your broker? Many of you have a health insurance broker, who you have never met and with whom you conduct an impersonal relationship. Patient Health is local. I will always be happy to come and see you, or you can pop in for a coffee and chat in Finchley. What could be more personal?

Professional, FCA licensed and specialised

Trevor Gee, your local friendly specialist. Putting People First.

020 3146 3444/5/6

nil-rate band. There’s an additional allowance of up to £175,000 if you pass your family home to children or grandchildren. If you’re married, you can effectively combine your thresholds and transfer assets between each other tax-free. When one dies, the surviving spouse can inherit without any inheritance tax liability, and you can utilise their unused thresholds on your death. Writing a will is the most basic, but also one of the most neglected forms of estate planning. For some, there’s a misconception that there’s no point in making a will if you’re married as your surviving spouse will get everything anyway. That’s not necessarily the case, particularly if you have children and

hold joint assets with other individuals. Without a legally valid will, your estate could be distributed according to intestacy rules and a larger portion might be taxable. Outside of having a legally valid will, one of the simplest ways to protect your estate can be to put assets into trusts. This can mean they fall outside of your estate when you die but there can be tax charges for gifts into trust. Placing insurance policies into trust is a tax-efficient estate planning strategy. Gifting assets over time is an option such as using your annual exemption to give away £3,000 worth of gifts in 2021/22 without them being added to the value of your estate.

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Jewish News 26 August 2021

Ask Our Experts / Professional advice from our panel

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

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.

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

108 HARLEY STREET 0207 563 1234 www.108harleystreet.co.uk info@108harleystreet.co.uk

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.

• •

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

KKL EXECUTOR AND TRUSTEE COMPANY 020 8732 6101 www.kkl.org.uk enquiries@kkl.org.uk

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

•

Got a question for a member of our team? Email: editorial@jewishnews.co.uk

COMMERCIAL LAWYER ADAM LOVATT Qualifications: • Lawyer with more than 11 years of experience working in the legal sector. Specialist in corporate, commercial, media, sport and start-ups. • Master’s degree in Intellectual Property Law from the University of London. • Non-Executive Director of various companies advising on all governance matters.

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

CONSULTANT DERMATOLOGIST

CHARITY EXECUTIVE

DR LAURENCE LEVER Qualifications: • MBBS FRCP, private practice at 108 Harley Street The Skin Clinic. • Consultant Dermatologist with a special interest in the management of malignant and pre-malignant conditions of the skin • Looks after all dermatological conditions, including dermatitis, eczema, psoriasis, acne, moles, warts, cysts, skin tumours/cancer/oncology, dermatological surgery.

SUE CIPIN Qualifications: • 20 years+ hands-on experience, leading JDA in significant growth and development. • Understanding of the impact of deafness on people, including children, at all stages. • Extensive services for people affected by hearing loss/tinnitus. • Technology room with expert advice on and facilities to try out the latest equipment. Hearing aid advice, support and maintenance.

108 HARLEY STREET SKIN CLINIC 0207 563 1234 www.108harleystreet.co.uk info@108harleystreet.co.uk

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

REMOVALS MANAGING DIRECTOR

PRINCIPAL, PERFORMING ARTS SCHOOL

STEPHEN MORRIS Qualifications: • Managing Director of Stephen Morris Shipping Ltd. • 45 years’ experience in shipping household and personal effects. • Chosen mover for four royal families and three UK prime ministers. • Offering proven quality specialist advice for moving anyone across the world or round the corner.

LOUISE LEACH Qualifications: • Professional choreographer qualified in dance, drama and Zumba (ZIN, ISTD & LAMDA), gaining an honours degree at Birmingham University. • Former contestant on ITV’s Popstars, reaching bootcamp with Myleene Klass, Suzanne Shaw and Kym Marsh. • Set up Dancing with Louise 19 years ago.

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

DANCING WITH LOUISE 075 0621 7833 www.dancingwithlouise.co.uk Info@dancingwithlouise.com

26 August 2021 Jewish News

www.jewishnews.co.uk

Professional advice from our panel / Ask Our Experts

FINANCIAL SERVICES (FCA) COMPLIANCE

ACCOUNTANT

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.

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.

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.

RICHDALE CONSULTANTS LTD 020 7781 8019 www.richdale.co.uk jacob@richdale.co.uk

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

THE KITCHEN CONSULTANCY 07738 067 671 www.thekitchenconsultancy.com shanti@thekitchenconsultancy.com

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.

CURRENCIES DIRECT 07922 131 152 / 020 7847 9447 www.currenciesdirect.com/jn naomifeltham93@hotmail.com

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

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

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.

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

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

ALIYAH ADVISER

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

CAREER ADVISER

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

ERIC SALAMON Qualifications: • Provides free professional one-to-one advice at Resource to help unemployed into work. • Offers mock interviews and workshops to maximise job prospects. • Expert in corporate management holding director level marketing, commercial and general management roles.

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

TELECOMS SPECIALIST

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.

BENJAMIN ALBERT Qualifications: • Co-Founder and Technical Director of ADWConnect – a specialist in business telecommunications, serving customers worldwide. • Independent consultant and supplier of Telephone & Internet services. • Client satisfaction is at the heart of everything my team and I do, always striving to find the most cost-effective solutions.

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

ADWCONNECT 0208 089 1111 www.adwconnect.com hello@adwconnect.com

Design and supplying Kitchens for over 15 years

www.jewishnews.co.uk

Jewish News 26 August 2021

JDA’s hearing aid maintenance clinic is now open again!

got extra d an y da to A JD to t en w e sh me ld to ma nd Gra of my stories. re mo in e ez ue sq to , aid ing ar he r he in e ac memory sp love her. I e us ca be ng alo y pla I t bu up it g kin ma I know she’s Thanks to JDA, everyone can have clean, working hearing aids and remain connected to their loved ones and the world around them. Extra memory space by special order! Appointments every Monday 10am to 1pm in North Finchley Telephone 020 8446 0214 or email andrew@jdeaf.org.uk

020 8446 0502 www.jdeaf.org.uk Registered Charity No. 1105845 Company Limited by Guarantee 4983830

26 August 2021 Jewish News

www.jewishnews.co.uk

Fun, games and prizes

THE JEWISH NEWS CROSSWORD 1

8 9 10 13

15 16 19 21 22 23

ACROSS 1 Metal fastener (5) 4 Removed moisture (5)

7 Small combustion‑driven automobile (3)

Y O K D C Y W M U D R S R

O R Y R R E B N A R C A B

E S R R Y

P C

P F E E V P E E M S T E T

W H E O B W P D

L M A N

C G Y G A E A N F X G

Z V

F N P T U D S R G H R

A R N D L H Q U N H

P Y E M

A L B B K

F R X N C R B A N A N A T

J D U J O R S U L

T A N A

Q K A N T U U R J

X Q P H

B B O T E C A T

F Z

APRICOT

CRANBERRY

FIG

BANANA

CURRANT

MANGO

BLUEBERRY

DATE

PEACH

CHERRY

DRIED FRUIT

PEAR

Last issue’s solutions Crossword ACROSS: 1 Matter 4 Gala 8 Cob 9 Jaywalk 10 Weedy 11 Elbow 13 Mousy 15 Colic 17 Sternum 19 Owe 20 Care 21 Lawyer DOWN: 1 Macaw 2 Tableau 3 Enjoy 5 AKA 6 Askew 7 Lyre 12 Billowy 13 Music 14 Yank 15 Comma 16 Cheer 18 Ear

PRUNE RAISIN SULTANA

Sudoku 8 3 5 9 7 2 4 6 1

12 19

6 23

12 22

6 1 9 7 2 5 8 4 3

5 8 3 6 4 1 9 2 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.

14 8

3 1

4 5

11 23

22 6

4 2

25 7

4 1 5 3 5

5 5 3

8 22 4

Suguru 2 7 4 8 9 3 6 1 5

7 6 4

26 23

3 4 7 2 2 1 3 8 9

22 23

25 6

4 11

18 5

See next issue for puzzle solutions.

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

1 9 2 5 6 4 7 3 8

7 4 6 3 1 8 2 5 9

C C

8 6 5

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 1, 6, 14 and 23 with their letters in the grid will help you to guess the identity of other letters.

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

G T A Z

3 7 2 6 4 3 1 9 3

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.

Not the same (7) Lower body joint (4) Very top (4) The ___ of the World News, novel by Anthony Burgess (3) Story acted on stage (4) Currency of Germany (4) Bony, sharp‑cornered (7) Without exception (3) Homo sapiens (5) Lid joint (5)

DOWN 1 Pile of hay (4) 2 Portico at the side of a building (7) 3 Partial wig (6) 4 Thing done (4) 5 Promise of payment (inits)(3) 6 Sumptuous (2,4) 11 Refer (7) 12 1984 film featuring Daryl Hannah as a mermaid (6) 14 Lack (6) 17 The Monarch of the ___, Landseer painting (4) 18 Run away (4) 20 Glue (3)

16 17

SUDOKU

3 2 7 4 5 9 1 8 6

9 5 1 2 8 6 3 7 4

4 6 8 1 3 7 5 9 2

5 1 4 2 4 1

3 2 5 1 3 5

4 1 3 4 2 4

Wordsearch 2 5 2 1 3 5

3 1 3 5 4 2

2 5 4 1 3 1

1 3 1 2 1 3

4 2 4 5 4 5

5 1 3 1 2 1

2 4 2 4 5 3

1 3 1 3 2 4

2 5 2 4 1 3

G V O L L O F Y P A S S S

O A L N U K I T J V Q T A

M A M S O U B L N G D I M

B Q T E F S I A M E C C X

U M P I R E Z N F E I K X

E L B B I R D E R T R H C

Y E C F K E N P I V C K L

Codeword W E G D L C A X X Q L P D

J U K K E L R T F T E J P

K B C C W A A D T W T I Y

Y A T R O P S O G A T R E

T Z Y L H H P P G C C L A

U N F A U C Z B H L V K H

AM O S T T F O E A S GA C S H E T S

U S I N U O A R S V E X E S Y K I NG N R N GWA Z OWR E A S A R S

S T O J O QU AWK R J OU R N R E S I GH U Y F L U U A E L T A N E B A S S I

O P P E D R A L E N F O L D S

D F K T

Y N F V P SWO K M J A X C Q B L U D I T G E R Z H26/08

Jewish News 26 August 2021

www.jewishnews.co.uk

Business Services Directory ANTIQUES 44

The Jewish News 22 September 2016

Stirling BUSINESS SERVICES DIRECTORY Antique – Reproduction – Retro Furniture Top prices paid (any condition)

WE BUY ANTIQUES VERY HIGH PRICES PAID. FREE HOME VISITS. All Antique Furniture Hille & Epstein Diamond Jewellery, Gold, Silver, Paintings, Porcelain, Glass, Bronzes, Ivories, Oriental & Judaica Antiques etc. Full house clearances organised. Please look at our website for more details

www.antiquesbuyers.co.uk FOR APPOINTMENTS CALL SUE ON: 0800 840 2035 or 07956268290 OPEN 8am TO 9pm 7 DAYS. PORTOBELLO RD LONDON.

Hille, G Plan, etc. CarerEpstein, Archie Shine,Clothing

Dining Suites, Lounges Suites, Bookcases, Desks, Cabinets, Mirrors, Lights, etc. Carer FURS WANTED Auxiliary Nurse Cash paid for Mink House clearances Available to support

jackets, coats, you in your home. boleros, stoles, Single items to complete homes also fox coats, Days/nights. jackets etc. MARYLEBONE rates. ANTIQUES - 8 CHURCH STREET NW8 8ED Very reasonable Wardrobes cleared Call 0208 07866 958 2939 614 744 (ANYTIME) Call 01277 352 560 or 07495 026 168

Computer

0207 723 7415 (SHOP) closed Sunday & Monday

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

Man on a Bike will get MAKE SURE YOUfast! CONTACT US BEFORE SELLING you working Rapid Response IT support for your PC & Mac

CHARITY & WELFARE

Networks, virus problems, broadband, wireless systems, new computers and everything else you may need. For small businesses & home users.

of Kensal Green

Antiques

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

All quality furniture bought & sold. Best prices paid for complete house clearances including china, books, WE BUY ANTIQUES clothing etc. Also rubbish clearance VERY HIGH PRICES PAID. FREE HOME VISITS. service, lofts, sheds, garages etc

Bereavement Counselling for adults and children individually. Support Groups available. During the pandemic, we offer telephone and online counselling. Contact Jewish Bereavement Counselling Service in confidence. 0208 951 3881 enquiries@jbcs.org.uk | www.jbcs.org.uk

Full house clearances organised. 020 8960 5401 or 07825 224144

www.antiquesbuyers.co.uk FOR APPOINTMENTS CALL SUE ON:

HOUSE CLEARANCE 0800 840 2035 or 07956268290 OPEN 8am TO 9pm 7 DAYS.

Labels are for jars. Refer yourself or a loved one by YOU BEREAVED? ARE Not people. calling 020 8458 2223 or visit Counselling for adults & children who are www.jamiuk.org

experiencing loss. Support groups offered. REGISTERED CHARITY NO. 1003345 Call The Jewish Bereavement Counselling Service in confidence

020 8951 3881 • 07765 693 160 E: enquiries@jbcs.org.uk

Sheltered Accommodation

For all your heating and plumbing requirements

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 support, seven days a week; a residents’ lounge and kitchen, laundry, a sunny patio and garden.

07860 881505 or 0800 610 12 12

For further details and application forms, please contact Westlon Housing Association on 020 8201 8484 or email: johnsilverman@btconnect.com

Not shabbat

PLUMBSAFEUK.COM

Dave & Eve House Clearance Friendly Family Company established for 30 years

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

020 8922 2222 jcdirect@jcare.org

jewishcare.org/helpline

We hav warden a in Eal warden

For furth West

Charity Reg No. 802559

Jami supports and represents people with mental illness across the Jewish community.

A Wi

#jamithinkahead

Give support • Get support • Get involved

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

Reg Charity No. 1003345

HOME & MAINTENANCE

PLUMBSAFE (UK) LTD

No further, your

LOCAL PLUMBERS

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

MOTOR VEHICLES PURCHASED CLASSIC OR CARS for vehicles over 10 years old preferably with low mileage Contact: Anthony – 07850 590415

All NW-London postcodes covered

07860 881505 or 0800 610 12 12

020 8953 2094 office

Home & Maintenance AUTOMOTIVE

“Better Safe Than Sorry”

Hall & Randall Plumbers

hallandrandallplumbers.com

For a free quote please phone Dave on 07913405315 any time.

IF YOU DON’T KNOW WHICH WAY TO TURN, REMEMBER OUR HELPLINE.

Home & Maintenance

Not shabbat

020 8207 3286 home 020 8386 8798

We clear houses, flats, sheds, garages etc. No job too big or too small! Rubbish cleared as part of a full clearance. We have a waste licence. We buy items including furniture bric a brac.

MAKE

WESTLON HOUSING ASSOCIATION

“Better Safe Than Sorry”

HOUSE CLEARANCE

PORTOBELLO RD LONDON.

Charity & Welfare

PLUMBSAFE (UK) LTD All NW-London postcodes covered

Email: Please lookgordonstirling65@gmail.com at our website for more details

020 8731 6171 • www.manonabike.co.uk

CHARITY & WELFARE

Ep Dini D

All Antique Furniture Hille & Epstein Diamond Jewellery, Gold, Silver, Paintings, Porcelain, Please contact Gordon Stirling Glass, Bronzes, Ivories, Oriental & Judaica Antiques etc.

Call Ian Green, Man on a Bike on

ARE YOU BEREAVED?

Anti

office@hallandrandall.com

PLUMBSAFEUK.COM

STONEMASON

PROFESSIONAL PAINTING, DECORATING & PAPER HANGING

Over 20 years experience Friendly, reliable & The specialist masons in creating bespoke Granite service. personal and Marble Memorials for all Cemeteries. competitive rates Very 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

STEPHEN: 07973 342 422 srindsmc@hotmail.com

Email : info@garygreenmemorials.co.uk

www.garygreenmemorials.co.uk

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

18/03/2019 12:50:51

A. ELFES LTDGuilds Elect City and

All types of electrical work un

New memorials Rewiring, extrainscriptions sockets, BT points, Economy 7 Additional storage Shabbat time switches, securi & heaters, renovations

LED spotlights, fault finding, CCTVportable ap Gants Hill Edgware landlord tests and house buyer’s surveys.

12 Beehive Lane 130 High Street Gants 3RD Edgware, HA8 7EL For Hill, anIG1 efficient reliable and friendly Telephone Telephone Call Harvey Solomons on

0207 754 4646 0207 4659 020 754 8958 6495 / 07836 648 554

www.memorialgroup.co.uk

26 August 2021 Jewish News

www.jewishnews.co.uk

Business Services Directory SILVER

INSPIRATIONAL SPEAKER

Inspirational speaker available to book

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

Enhance your special event. With a unique & meaningful presentation or speech by Elie Schwartz

Email Sales today at sales@jewishnews.co.uk

Contact me 07973696548 Or email eitzeh4u@gmail.com

OFFICE FURNITURE

CLEANING

Professional standard with elegant finishing. End of tenancy, deep cleaning, post renovation cleaning services. We create a clean environment with our clean projects.

Need to furnish your home or office?

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.

London’s leading supplier of new and reconditioned furniture. Free assembly and delivery next working day on most items – call now!

LEGACY- LEAVE A GIFT IN YOUR MEMORY

JEWISH WAR VETERANS

Leave the legacy of independence to people like Joel.

& THEIR DEPENDANTS NEED

YOUR LEGACY

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

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

Registered Charity

or caLL 020 8371 6611 No. 259480 Legacy Classified advert v1.qxp_Legacy 16/06/2021 10:57 Page 1

Registered Charity No: 1082148

HELP US CONTINUE TO BE THERE FOR OUR COMMUNITY WITH A GIFT IN YOUR WILL. Call our Legacy Team on 020 8922 2840 for more information or email legacyteam@jcare.org Chancellors House, Brampton Lane, London, NW4 4AB Tel: 020 8903 8746 | Fax: 020 8795 2240 www.bﬁwd.org | email: info@bﬁwd.org

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

Charity Reg No. 802559

HOME CARE legacy@cst.org.uk ► www.cst.org.uk ► 0208 457 3700 ►

Together

we protect our children’s future Please include CST in your will

Charity no. 1042391 and SC043612

COMPUTER Legacy advert 84x40.indd 1

16/04/2021 10:55

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£24 A WEEK

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

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pillarcare.co.uk

80 Jewish News

26 August 2021