1240 by Jewish News

A good egg?

Ben still looks left

Meet serial sperm donor Ari Nagel, father to 96 kids VOICE OF THE COMMUNITY 9 December 2021

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5 Tevet 5782

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Issue No.1240

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@JewishNewsUK

Pages 22-23

latantly overage

Comedy icon on his Jewish roots Pages 14-15

ogus

Fury at BBC for portraying victims of antisemitic bus attack as racists bus”. A BBC spokesman said: “We have changed our story to clarify only one such slur can be heard clearly.” Not only did the teenagers on the bus categorically There was outrage across the Jewish community deny they uttered any abuse, but Jewish News learned this week at the BBC’s reports of the Chanukah bus that the claim of anti-Muslim slurs was added after the attack in Oxford Street, appearing to blame the Jew- reporter filed his story, apparently by senior BBC staff. The Board says the footage “clearly shows a group of ish teenagers on the bus for “anti-Muslim slurs” — while describing the spitting and Nazi salutes from men making Hitler salutes, spitting, attempting to smash windows, chasing and threatening a bus-load of Jewish outside the bus as “alleged” antisemitism. The row between the BBC and the community esca- children. By reducing this obvious antisemitic incident lated on Tuesday with a formal complaint from the Board to a mere ‘allegation’, your report has the effect of casting doubt on the attackers’ antisemitic motivations.” of Deputies, addressed to BBC director-general The Board asks: “Does the BBC reporting Tim Davie, chairman Richard Sharp and team believe making Nazi salutes at head of news Fran Unsworth. Jewish children could have any other The blistering letter was copied in interpretation?” Efforts to secure an to culture secretary Nadine Dorries, apology have failed, the Board says. a longtime critic of the BBC. It adds that “your reporter outBoard president Marie van Call police on 101 or tweet rageously states, as if fact, that ‘you der Zyl said the reporting of the @MetCC quoting 6184/29Nov. can hear some racial slurs about 1 December attack sought to “treat Alternatively, call the Charing Cross Muslim people… from the bus’, and racisms differently”. What was Hate Crime Unit on 07900 608 252 proceeds to suggest that there is worse, she said, was that “while a possibility that the Jewish victims reporting the clear antisemitic or email AWMailboxmay have been responsible for instithreats and abuse as ‘allegations’”, the HateCrimeUnit@met. gating the attack”. It calls this allegation BBC news article and broadcast “was police.uk “horrendous” and “deeply incendiary” . unequivocal about alleged ‘anti-Muslim The core disputed line in the audio is slurs’ coming from the victims on the bus”. The Board had gone to great lengths to discern exactly someone saying in Hebrew “Tikra lemishehu, ze dachuf” what was heard on the recording of the incident, Van der – “call someone, it’s urgent”. The BBC reports insist Zyl said. “We investigated every second of footage and we someone on the bus shouted in English “dirty Muslims”. Campaign Against Antisemitism is planning a protest contend that the BBC is mischaracterising a Hebrew cry for help, by a distressed Jewish man, as a slur in English”. about the coverage outside Broadcasting House, W1A After the initial complaints about the reporting of the 1AA, at 6:30pm on Monday 13 December. On Sunday, members of the original Chabad bus group attack, the BBC slightly amended its stories. Instead of stating that there had been “anti-Muslim slurs” (plural) returned to Oxford Street to complete what had been coming from the bus, later reports said that “the audio interrupted the previous week: lighting of a chanukiah. appears to show that a slur can be heard coming from the  Editorial comment, page 16 by Jenni Frazer @Jennifrazer

Police issued this image of key suspects they are looking for

Can you help catch these yobs?

Violent yobs spat, banged on windows and chased the bus

The group returned to the scene of the attack on Monday to light Chanukah candles, accompanied by police and CST

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Jewish News 9 December 2021

News / Boycott role / Councillor independent / Candidate apology

Gove tasked with leading the fight against Israel boycotts by Lee Harpin lee@jewishnews.co.uk @lmharpin

Michael Gove has been given responsibility for overseeing the government’s commitment to legislation preventing public bodies from imposing their own boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaigns against foreign states such as Israel. In a written statement, Boris Johnson confirmed that responsibility for the issue would transfer from the Cabinet Office to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, headed by Gove (pictured). The move means Lisa Nandy, the former shadow foreign secretary, who was moved into the shadow Levelling Up role by Sir Keir Starmer in this week’s reshuffle, will now oversee Labour’s response. In the past, Gove has been outspoken in his attacks on BDS. He has said: “Israel is dealing with a prejudiced, sys-

tematic attack against its existence. The BDS movement, which claims that it is working against apartheid, in retrospect is using methods of apartheid in that it calls for the s h u n n i n g of Jewish academics, the boycott of Jewish goods, the delegitimisation. “It is up to us to show solidarity with the Jews and with their right to national sovereignty.” Nandy has previously voiced her opposition to the use of BDS as a means of putting

pressure on Israel – as has the Labour leader. She said earlier this year: “We’re not in favour of boycotts or the BDS movement – I never have been. I’ve always felt that the best way to advance the situation is to take people with you. BDS pushes people away instead of bringing people together.” The Conservatives pledged at the 2019 general election to introduce legislation making it illegal for public bodies to boycott Israel. Former prime minister David Cameron had first introduced guidance to local A still from a video released by the late Rabbi Lord Sacks councils on how they invest their pension funds, which unions, and had support from organisations stated that they may not insti- such as War on Want and the Palestine Solitute BDS policies “contrary to UK darity Campaign, although Jewish groups have challenged their legality. foreign or defence policy”. But in April 2020, a three-to-two majority Some local authorities in the UK have voted to support the BDS movement of the Supreme Court’s judges ruled that the by boycotting settlement products, most BDS ban was against the law. However, the government is still planning notably Leicester City Council’s decision in to go ahead with legislation, and has placed its November 2014. Boycotts have also been adopted by several faith in Gove to make it happen.

‘FROM THE RIVER TO THE SEA’ CLLR EXPELLED BY LABOUR A Liverpool councillor who once described Dame Louise Ellman as “a disgrace” and former MP Luciana Berger as a “hideous traitor” has said on Twitter he has been expelled from the Labour Party, writes Lee Harpin. Party sources told Jewish News that a message from the Liverpool Labour Group whips office to local councillors confirmed that Sam Gorst would now sit as an independent. In September, Gorst had been filmed chanting “From the river to the sea Palestine will be free” at an anti-arms industry demo. Former Liverpool Riverside MP Ellman accused the councillor for the local Cressington Ward, of “singing Hamas chants” and of “bringing Labour into disrepute”.

Gorst, who has now removed all Labour Party branding from his social media pages, had previously been investigated over antisemitism allegations. He was suspended from Labour for 12 months in August 2020. When former Wavertree MP Berger launched a bid to become Merseyside mayor in 2016, Gorst branded her a “hideous traitor”. He said it was a “disgrace” that Ellman had cited antisemitism when quitting Labour ahead of the 2019 election. In further posts, he had praised the Jewish Voice For Labour group and shared a post that claimed it was not possible to “differentiate between Nazism and Zionism”.

Lib Dem hopeful’s apology over Goebbels link to Patel

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The Liberal Democrat candidate in the North Shropshire by-election has been forced to apologise after accusing Priti Patel of using methods adopted by Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels. Helen Morgan was responding to a tweet by the home secretary about asylum seekers arriving in the UK. Patel said: “Today we removed people who came here via small boat. They had previously claimed asylum

elsewhere and had no legal right to be in the UK. “Removals continue to be frustrated by activist lawyers, but I will not let up until this route is unviable.” The Lib Dem hopeful wrote: “I think we would all appreciate an explanation of the difference between a lawyer and an activist lawyer. In the meantime, please tear up your copy of Goebbels’ manual; it is most unbecoming of one of the Great Offices of State.”

Her comments sparked a backlash. The co-chair of the all-party Parliamentary Group Against Antisemitism Andrew Percy said: “Comparisons to the Nazis are not only sick, they are inaccurate, offensive and diminish the memory of the six million Jewish and other victims of the Nazi murder machine.” Morgan later said: “I apologise for this insensitive tweet, which I have taken down.”

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9 December 2021 Jewish News

Polish prosecution / Beijing Olympics / Margaret Hodge / Rabbis’ concern / News

‘My country was stupid to prosecute historians’ by Michael Daventry mike@jewishnews.co.uk @MichaelDaventry

Poland’s prosecution of historians for their research into the Holocaust was an act of stupidity, according to a government official appointed to improve his country’s relations with Jews. Jaroslaw Marek Nowak said it had been a “huge mistake” to seek court action against historians such as Barbara Engelking and Jan Grabowski, who were found guilty of “tarnishing the memory” of a suspected Nazi collaborator and ordered to apologise to his relatives. The cases stemmed from a government amendment to a law on the Institute of National Remembrance, known by its Polish initials IPN, which granted powers to prosecute persons who accuse “the Polish nation or the Polish state of being complicit in Nazi crimes committed by the Third German Reich”. Nowak said that amendment had been “one of the stupidest amendments that were ever done by any law”.

Barbara Engelking and Jan Grabowski

“In order to challenge somebody’s research and publication, the only way to do it … is just to publish another article that discusses the issue and find counter arguments. There is absolutely no role for judges or anybody else in this process.” Engelking and Grabowski’s convictions were overturned this year by an appeal court. Nowak, an activist and entrepreneur, was appointed by the country’s foreign minister in July to help improve relations between Poland and Jewish communi-

ties around the world. He told Jewish News in an exclusive interview that will be published later this week that he regretted Poland did not have a restitution law for Jews to recover property seized during the Holocaust. An attempt to pass a compensation law was vetoed in 2001 by the president. He said the academics’ court case had come to be critical in the outside world’s perception of Poland. The ruling nationalists have previously said studies showing complicity by some Poles in the killing of Jews by Nazi Germany are an attempt to dishonour a country that suffered hugely in the war. Almost all Poland’s 3.2 million Jews were killed during the Second World War, many of them in death camps. A further three million non-Jewish Polish citizens died under Nazi occupation. Research suggests that while thousands of Poles risked their lives to help Jews, thousands took part in the Holocaust. Many Poles reject such findings.

UK PLANS ‘DIPLOMATIC BOYCOTT’ OF GAMES Boris Johnson has said there will “effectively be a diplomatic boycott” of the Beijing Winter Olympics – after coming under pressure on the issue from MPs. Former Conservative leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith and the SNP’s Kirsten Oswald had urged him to follows the lead of the US by having a full diplomatic boycott of the games in China in February 2022. Responding first to Oswald’s call for a diplomatic boycott the PM said: “As I have said before we do not support sporting boycotts” He then added that there were “certainly no plans for ministers to attend the Winter Olympics” and said he had “regularly” raised concerns over human rights with the Chinese government. Duncan Smith told the House that “sadly” the prime minister’s words were “not strong enough”.

Johnson then told MPs: “There will be effectively a diplomatic boycott of the Winter Olympics in Beijing. “No ministers are expected to attend and no officials.” But the prime minister again stressed: “What I can tell the House is I don’t think sporting boycotts are sensible and that remains the policy of the government.” Last week Lord Polak, a Conservative Friends of Israel honorary president, had urged the UK government “stand up on the world stage and refuse to participate” in the Olympics. ”As we speak Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang are being detained in concentration camps with testimonies of torture and rape taking place daily,” he added. The life peer said the UK should boycott the event “in response to China’s disregard for human rights and human dignity.”

Margaret Hodge makes ‘tough’ decision to stand down as MP The Jewish Labour Movement parliamentary chair Dame Margaret Hodge has said she will step down as an MP at the next election, writes Lee Harpin. The member for Barking, who was a prominent campaigner against antisemitism under Jeremy Corbyn, broke the news to local members last week. She later spoke to Jewish News about her 27 years in parliament, saying the time spent under Corbyn’s leadership were the “most difficult I have lived through”.

Dame Margaret Hodge

At the height of the antisemitism crisis, Hodge branded Corbyn a “racist and an antisemite” in a confron-

tation in Westminster. She went on to speak at communal gatherings across the country, urging Jewish Labour members to fight back against the scourge of anti-Jewish racism. Elected to represent Barking in 1994, when Labour came to power in 1997 she was given ministerial roles in the education, culture and work and pensions departments. In parliament last week, she urged the government to introduce a Bill to tackle economic fraud. She said she had “loved the job” and the decision to leave had been “tough”.

RABBIS TELL PATEL: RETHINK THE ASYLUM BILL Twenty-eight rabbis have written to the home secretary about the “deep concern and dismay” they say is felt by many in the Jewish community over the government’s asylum bill, writes Lee Harpin. Rabbi David Mason, of the United Synagogue, and Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg, senior rabbi of Masorti Judaism, are among the signatories

of the letter co-ordinated by the Jewish Council for Racial Equality (JCORE), which was sent to Priti Patel on Tuesday. It was timed to coincide with a debate in the House of Commons on amendments to the Nationality and Borders Bill’s proposals. The rabbis, who include Rachel Benjamin, Rebecca Birk, Dr Barbara Borts and

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Bill ‘negates Jewish values’

Warren Elf, say the bill’s measures, which would restrict the rights of many refugees arriving outside official routes, “strongly negate our Jewish values of justice and fairness”.

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Jewish News 9 December 2021

Special Report / Starmer’s charm offensive

Labour launches

T E N R A B N O I T A R E P O Has the fear factor finally vanished from the doorsteps of London’s most Jewish borough? by Lee Harpin lee@jewishnews.co.uk @lmharpin

Labour has made Barnet Council one of its top targets to win at next year’s local elections – with the Jewish vote viewed as crucial to its chances of success. Party chiefs are “optimistic” that Sir Keir Starmer’s high-profile attempt to tackle antisemitism in his party has started to win back “significant numbers” of voters from within the community. They have put Barnet along with Wandsworth at the top of a list of target councils in the capital, ahead of 5 May elections across the UK. Barnet Labour Group leader Barry John Rawlings believes the “fear factor” among local Jewish voters about the party under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership is now disappearing on the local doorstep, largely down to the leader’s efforts on anti-Jewish racism. But Dan Thomas, the Conservative leader of the council, told Jewish News he believes antisemitism is “still rife within the local Labour Party”. The Conservative group has controlled the council in Barnet, which has a Jewish population of about 15 percent, since 1964, apart from brief periods of no overall control. At the last local elections in 2018, Labour was 13 councillors behind the Tories. A huge revolt by Jewish voters against Corbyn’s Labour handed the local group their worst result in decades. But Barnet, along with Wandsworth, is now deemed by Labour to be a winnable seat. Under campaign plans drawn up by party strategists, Starmer himself will visit Barnet in the run-up to the election – with other highprofile Jewish Labour figures such as Dame Louise Ellman also expected to urge Jewish voters to back the party. It was also no coincidence that last weekend Rachel Reeves, Labour’s shadow chancellor, began a campaign to introduce policies she claims will help small businesses with a visit to Whetstone to speak with shop owners. Locally, the Barnet Labour group has also been encouraged by the reaction on the doorstep to approaches from party activists. Rawlings told Jewish News that in the run-up to both the 2018 elections and the general election the following year, a mezuzah on a front door tended to signify a hostile response to requests to back a Corbyn-led party. “It is a relief to find that the fear factor over Labour has now largely disappeared from

Sir Keir Starmer welcomed Louise Ellman back into the fold last month

doorsteps across Barnet,” he said. “I am optimistic that Labour could take Barnet on 5 May – but we are not taking any votes for granted and part of that is continuing to rebuild trust with the Jewish community.” But the Tory Leader of the council responded saying: “Starmer clams to be addressing antisemitism but it is still rife within the local Labour Party. I was shocked when, just last year, members of the Chipping Barnet Labour Party criticised Starmer for carrying out the legally mandated recommendations of the EHRC. “Rampant antisemitism was previously referred to by a Barnet Labour councillor as ‘whipped up’ and ‘weaponised’ and I believe this is still a view widely held in the local Labour Party.” Labour will complete selections for candidates to fight the elections next week. One senior party figure said they believe that if Labour are two or three points ahead in the national opinion polls at the time of next May’s election they will take Barnet. With the polls tied, as they are at present, they believe the Barnet result “could go either way”. A lead for the Tories in the national poll would translate into a win for the party in Barnet, it is believed.

It is understood at least 10 of the candidates will be Jewish – again reflecting a drift back to the party from within the community – with six of these contesting wards deemed ‘winnable’ by Labour. On Tuesday night Josh Tapper, best known for his appearances on television with his Jewish family on Channel 4’s Gogglebox, was selected as one of two Labour candidates in the Edgwarebury ward. Edgware United Synagogue member Tapper joined Labour the day Corbyn stood down as leader, leaving his most recent job as a civil servant in the Cabinet Office to pursue political aspirations. It is hoped Tapper can convince voters in the ward who had not previously voted Labour to switch allegiance. He told Jewish News he was confident Labour could now win in wards like Edgwarebury but only if they can convince previous supporters of other parties to switch. Other Jewish candidates include Andrea Bilbow in West Hendon, Sara Conway in Burnt Oak and Rabbi Danny Rich in West Finchley. Jewish Labour Movement members Ella Rose and Liron Velleman also face selection contests next week. JLM ally members are also standing:

Emma Whysall in High Barnet and Anne Clarke in Cricklewood. With conventional local issues returning to the top of most voters’ agendas in the borough – rather than fears around antisemitism – Labour insiders are predicting the Barnet Council result could revolve around five key battle areas, including East Barnet, High Barnet and Brunswick Park. Frustration with Boris Johnson is also believed to be increasing across Barnet, according to Labour. It will attempt to capitalise on local concerns about the impact of privatisation of services. There is also a view that local Tories’ open support for the campaign to stop a mosque taking over the Golders Green Hippodrome may have played well among the party’s ‘base support’ but it infuriated many Jews.. Thomas told Jewish News his Conservative administration is “a passionate believer in inclusion and tolerance, and I am proud of the work we do with the many faith groups in Barnet - from the Abrahamic to Zoroastrian”. He said hate crime was also not tolerated in the borough. The 2022 election will also be fought in new election boundaries and will involve the election of 51 councillors across the borough. Labour data, shared with Jewish News, shows that had the 2018 election been fought in the new boundaries, party chiefs believe the Tories would still have won, with a reduced majority of 37-27 councillors. But without the ‘Corbyn factor’ the party is confident it can now challenge in at least five wards, leaving the result in the balance. It is confident of regaining wards such as West Hendon, and even believe there is an outside chance of success in Childs Hill. Party strategists speak of renewed enthusiasm for Labour among younger Jewish voters living in new-builds in Mill Hill and Cricklewood. But they accept that “more difficult conversations” are still found among older voters in the community – leading to what one Labour insider said was a “generational divide”. The Liberal Democrats and the Greens will both hope to make a big impact locally. Gabriel Rozenberg, the Barnet Lib Dem leader, said the council elections “are our best chance to make gains on the council for more than a decade”.

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9 December 2021 Jewish News

Extremist crackdown / Mizrachi UK / News

Textbook reform: ‘Could do better’ by Jenni Frazer @JenniFrazer

An Israeli monitoring group has detected “a slow improvement” in the content of school textbooks in Qatar, with the removal of some problematic passages relating to praise of violence, hatred of Jews and ‘jihad’ martyrdom. But IMPACT-se’s latest report, a follow-up to its reports of June this year and August 2020, shows that there are still books that retain “passages that demonise Jews, praise martyrdom and blame holy faiths for corrupting holy texts”. The US State Department presented IMPACT-se’s August 2020 report to the Qatari government on 15 December 2020 in Doha and discussed its findings with senior officials in the foreign and education ministries. The report cited IMPACT-se findings of Jew hatred and extremist messages as a central problem in the Qatari curriculum. Since then, the Israeli group says, Qatar’s

books have improved, with adjustments made toward moderation including adding lessons on tolerance and racial discrimination. The improvements are “encouraging” and suggest a willingness for further positive change in textbook revisions”, it said, adding: “There is, however, a great deal of room for improvement and these updated editions still contain numerous passages that teach hateful antisemitic misinformation and myths”. Marcus Sheff, the British-born chief most antisemitic and hate-filled textexecutive of IMPACT- In this school textbook, physics students are asked to calculate the forces at books in the Middle East. “We are now seeing change and se, said: “Qatar’s text- play when a slingshot is fired at Israeli soldiers. Pupils are also tasked with recent improvements are to be combooks have improved analysing ‘energy transformations’ in a slingshot aimed at Israelis mended but there is quite a long way somewhat since our review of last year’s autumn term. That report books that was offering stiff competition to Iran to go. IMPACT-se will continue to work for posiunearthed teaching material in Qatari text- and the Palestinian Authority in producing the tive change to the Qatari curriculum.”

THOUSANDS HELP MIZRACHI UK RAISE £750K

Rabbi Andrew Shaw

More than £750,000 has been raised by Zionist organisation Mizrachi UK. The organisation held an online fundraiser which included nearly 2,300 donors from across the world, including £55,000 generated from volunteers in its school mentoring scheme, Yehudi. The funds will go towards religious

Zionist education in the UK, supporting leaders and shaping the organisation’s future. Mizrachi UK CEO Rabbi Andrew Shaw said: “The support for Mizrachi UK from across the community has been inspiring. This has reaffirmed our standing in the communities that we

support. The money raised from this campaign will go a long way to ensuring we can continue to provide Leadership Programming, Community Engagement Programmes and further the Yehudi Initiative. As the campaign came to a close, its UK’s Chairman, Steven Blumgart said,

“It was important for us that our campaign not only raised money but also the profile of Mizrachi UK. “We are working with schools, campuses and communities and we hope the success of this campaign will serve to inspire our dedicated team to do even more across the UK.”

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Jewish News 9 December 2021

Special Report / Afghanistan exodus

Chat between translator and vet sees rescue of 92 Afghans by Jenni Frazer @JenniFrazer

A conversation between a British Jewish translator living in Jerusalem and her friend, a veterinarian based in Britain, has led to the rescue of 92 people from Afghanistan after the Taliban resumed control in August. The Operation Magic Carpet rescue mission was co-ordinated from London by animal welfare campaigner Dominic Dyer, and carried out by a team employed by the AmericanIsraeli humanitarian rescue specialist Moti Kahana, who has told Jewish News this was likely to be his last such land-based operation, so great has the danger become. The group, brought out from Kabul and now living in safe houses in Islamabad in neighbouring Pakistan, comprises 60 former staff members (and dependents) from the animal welfare charity Mayhew, of which Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex, is a patron. At the core of the rescue are 13 men and women who are qualified veterinarians, and who brought five dogs and a cat with them. A baby girl was born during the evacuation from Afghanistan, and a 90-year-old woman, believed to have been the oldest person rescued from the country, was also part of the group. In addition to the former Mayhew staff and family members, the evacuation group involved 32 other people, including business executives, former military and security specialists and their families, all of whom were at risk under the Taliban regime. Operation Magic Carpet was the result of a unique collaboration between a small group of dedicated volunteers based in Britain, Europe and the Middle East. The Jerusalem-based translator (who has asked not to be named), who follows animal welfare charities, became aware of the work of Dyer, who had been involved in the operation to evacuate Pen Farthing – who runs an animal shelter – and his Nowzad employees and animals from Kabul. She knew of Kahana’s previous humanitarian work, particularly with Syrians, and made contact with a British vet (who has also asked not to be identified). The two introduced Dyer to Kahana to see if a further rescue operation could take place. Following an urgent rescue appeal, the substantial funding for Operation Magic Carpet came from two sisters, one living in Gibraltar and the other in India, both of whom felt a deep connection with the plight of Afghan refugees, based on their own father’s history. The donation was made to honour the life of their late beloved

❝

Above and below: People show their relief

mother. A businessman and owner of the World Trade Center Gibraltar, Gregory Butcher, also helped finance part of the operation, along with several individuals from Britain and the US. Kahana said the rescue, which took more than two months, was “one of the most dangerous operations my company has ever undertaken”. Escalating violence and ensuing economic collapse after the Taliban takeover meant the evacuation of the 92 took place with extreme caution,

THE TWO-MONTH RESCUE WAS ONE OF THE MOST DANGEROUS OPERATIONS MY COMPANY HAS EVER UNDERTAKEN

at being free from Taliban control. Above: The baby born during evacuation

with people crossing the border in escorted jeeps containing only two or three people at a time. Now the 92, and their companion animals, will be securely accommodated in Islamabad. Funds are still needed to help maintain the group until they find a permanent home, which could take several more months. Dyer said: “The evacuation of Pen Farthing, his people and animals from Afghanistan in August, was a beacon of light in the dark tragedy of Afghanistan. “However, due to circumstances outside my control, the Mayhew vets, their families and animals were left behind. Operation Magic Carpet allowed us to go back into Afghanistan to rescue the animal rescuers, along with many other people who faced significant risks under the Taliban regime”.

9 December 2021 Jewish News

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Jewish News 9 December 2021

News / Festival first / Heroic supporter

Hero’s CPR saves fan’s life at match A Jewish fan who saved a man’s life during last week’s Premier League clash between Watford and Chelsea has urged the community to learn CPR and first aid skills, writes Joy Falk. Darren Rolfe spoke to Jewish News after giving life-saving treatment to a fan who suffered a cardiac arrest. The Bushey United Synagogue member was entertaining guests at Watford FC when he saw what looked like a scuffle 10 rows below him. “The match kicked off with a good atmosphere and Watford were playing well. As a Watford fan for 36 years, being in the premiership is what it’s all about,” he chuckles. “Suddenly, everyone was running for a steward. At first I thought someone had got hurt in a fight between opposing fans.” Not unusual at football, he notes wryly. Yet instinctively he became convinced that something more serious was happening.

EYE TURNS INTO A CHANUKIAH The London Eye was lit up on Sunday, the eighth night of Chanukah, to celebrate the festival in an initiative organised by the Jewish Leadership Council together with Jewish News. JLC’s Claudia Mendoza said: “So many people have been in touch to tell us how heartened they were to see this.”

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We’ve never been so focuse d on fighting racism, so wh y the deafen ing silence as antisemitism spirals out of control? • Hospital probes ‘cutt

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Issue No.1207

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Rolfe quickly headed down towards the scene below. “I saw a guy lying on the floor, not being attended to by anyone. I started to ask his friend about what had happened and realised he was having a cardiac arrest. “I cleared his airways, tried to make him respond and began compressions to his chest. He had a very faint pulse.” Despite the chaos around him, Rolfe kept his focus for another few minutes until paramedics arrived with vital equipment. “When situations like that happen, I block out what’s happening around me. I’ve gained that from my training as a first aider.” Rolfe trained as a first aid responder in his job as CEO of Steps Together, a private treatment provider for drug and alcohol rehabilitation. However, this was the first time he had put that training into practice. The 45-year-old adds: “The reason I’m doing this interview is to get the message across around people having CPR [cardiopulmonary resuscitation] and first aid training. “I’ve worked with many synagogues right across the community supporting people with addiction. We need as many community members as possible to be trained in resuscitation and other critical life-saving skills.” Watford FC have named the supporter who had collapsed as Larry Brooks, and he is currently in a stable condition in hospital, Rolfe has been in close contact with Brooks and his close family via a WhatsApp group. “He’s looking forward to taking me for coffee when he’s back on his feet,” Rolfe said. The father of three shrugs off any suggestion that he is a hero. “I’m a humble man,” he said. “If what I did saved someone’s life, then that’s wonderful, but really what matters now is making sure others gain the same skills to save lives.”

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...& CLUB KICKS OFF FESTIVAL Watford hosted the Premier League’s first Chanukah celebration, writes Adam Decker. Nearly 100 attendees enjoyed a festive mix of music, candle lighting – and, of course, doughnuts. The sold-out event, hosted at Vicarage Road, was organised by the Premier League’s first Jewish supporters club. The Jewish Hornets supporters’ group, formed earlier this year following a spike in antisemitic incidents across football stadiums, was established to provide a forum for Jewish supporters and allow dialogue with non-Jewish fans on issues such as antisemitism. Welcoming supporters, Sam Gillings, the equality, diversity and inclusion man-

ager at Watford Football Club, said: “We are really delighted to host this celebration and showcase our inclusive culture. It’d be excellent to see other clubs hosting similar events and we look forward to supporting the Jewish Hornets moving forwards.” Well-wishers also included former Chelsea FC manager, Avram Grant, and former Watford and Israeli football star, Ronny Rosenthal. Tom Wyse, founding member of the WFC Jewish Supporters’ Group, said: “I’ve been a victim of antisemitism in football and the silence in response is often deafening. “Football is a reflection of society. By improving the state of our game, we improve society.”

Lord Mann, the government’s independent adviser on antisemitism, told Jewish News: “[The] celebration is a moment of real significance and optimism. “This is precisely what football and sport should be all about – this is our national game at its finest.” The antisemitism tsar concluded by calling on all football clubs to replicate the example of Watford FC, who deserved “full credit” as trailblazers. Earlier this year, Watford FC also adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism. The candle-lighting was led by Rabbi Mordechai Chalk of Watford Synagogue, accompanied by singer Tally Koren.

www.jewishnews.co.uk

9 December 2021 Jewish News

Travel battle / Rabbi role / News

Pregnant woman takes on the Israeli state to let in her mum by Jenni Frazer @JenniFrazer

Batya campaigned for her mother to come from Edgware

She is due to give birth in the next few days – and Batya Tenenbaum has won a battle with the Israeli government so her mother, Shulamis Levy, can travel from Edgware to be with her. Tenenbaum, who lives in Harish, northern Israel, told Jewish News that her parents, Shulamis and Daniel, were hoping to be in Israel for the birth of her first child. But last week, with the discovery of the new Covid virus variant, Omicron, Israel shut its borders to all incomers. The restrictions, however, did not apply to the Miss Universe contestants who were arriving in Israel for the contest in Eilat. With the aid of former MK Dov Lipman, Tenenbaum – who has not seen her parents for more than two years – began campaigning, taking her

complaint to the media and appearing on TV and in the Israel press. She said that exceptions were immediately made for first-degree relatives to enter Israel, but only for those attending bar and batmitzvahs or weddings. “There were no exceptions for people needing to attend funerals, or to see ‘lone soldiers’ – or people like me, who are pregnant and alone in Israel and wanted their mothers to be with them.” Each group lobbied the government for an exception in their case – and, on Monday, interior minister Ayelet Shaked changed the rules relating to pregnant women and their mothers who were outside the country. Tenenbaum, who works for multinational pharmaceutical company Teva, said: “Now my parents have to get a permit. My husband’s family is in Chicago and they were also stuck.”

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LSJS dean gets new Sacks role Rabbi Dr Raphael Zarum, dean of the London School of Jewish Studies (LSJS), has been named as the first holder of the Rabbi Sacks Chair of Modern Jewish Thought, a role established by the Zandan family of Austin, Texas, writes Jenni Frazer. Zarum, a long-time student of the late Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, who was once principal and then president of LSJS, said: “It is the honour of my life to spread the teachings of Rabbi Sacks, may his memory be a blessing, and to take the opportunity of this new appointment to focus further on teaching, writing and sharing in this wonderful tradition of ours.” Dr Peter Zandan, a member of the American family that has funded the new chair, said: “We very much want to keep Rabbi Sacks’ work and impact growing through our support of LSJS and the work of Rabbi Dr Raphael Zarum – a leader who will represent, communicate and build on the work of Rabbi Sacks for future generations.” LSJS has also announced that Michael Rainsbury is to become the new head of adult education at the college. He trained as a teacher at LSJS and has been a formal and informal educator.

The late Rabbi Sacks, left, with Rabbi Raphael Zarum

www.jewishnews.co.uk

Jewish News 9 December 2021

News / News briefs / Mortuary plaque

Twitter has suspended a new account set up by disgraced rapper Wiley that included a picture of him dressed as an Orthodox Jew and videos about “Satanic Jews” and controlling “Jewish faces”. The social media giant took action after it was alerted by Jewish News and Campaign Against Antisemitism. The account, called @WileyRecordings, was created despite Twitter having banned Wiley last year over a stream of antisemitic abuse.

School newspaper commemorates Shoah

Non-Jewish schools across Britain have joined forces to create a newspaper commemorating the Holocaust, to mark the 70th anniversary of the UN’s genocide convention. The 32-page Genocide Know More features articles about students’ family history in the Shoah, the Kindertransport, and genocides since the Holocaust. Read it at www.jewishnews.co.uk

‘Mincemeat’ mastermind is honoured in Hackney by Jenni Frazer @JenniFrazer

A plaque has been erected outside Hackney Mortuary remembering Operation Mincemeat, a wartime deception that saved thousands of British and American military lives. In spring 1943, the British and American Allies began to plan an invasion of Sicily, the first liberation of part of the continent from Nazi Occupation. Heavy Allied casualties were expected. A Jewish barrister, Commander Ewen Montagu, and a wealthy aristocrat, Flight Lt Charles Cholmondeley, both working in Secret Intelligence, used a dead body dressed as a fake Royal Marine officer, who would carry forged documents in a briefcase, but actually signed by senior Allied generals, saying it had been decided to invade Europe via Greece, and not Sicily. The body was prepared and dressed at the mortuary by Montagu and Cholmondeley, together with the chief coroner for London, and was driven to a submarine base in Scotland. From here,

The Operation Mincemeat corpse in the 1956 film The Man Who Never Was

the body was taken to near the coast of Spain. It was then floated in the sea at a spot where it was known that the current would wash it ashore near the town of Huelva. Here it was, as expected, discovered; and the local Spanish authorities –Nazi sympathisers – ensured that the local Nazi spies saw the contents;

they then photographed the letters and sent the documents to Berlin. Thus it was that German soldiers, tanks, aircraft and artillery were sent to Greece from both Italy and Sicily, resulting in far fewer casualties when the Allies landed in Sicily on 9 July. The story was told in Montagu’s

The plaque at Hackney Mortuary

1953 book, The Man Who Never Was, and a film (1956) and in Ben Macintyre’s 2010 book, Mincemeat. The plaque was financed by Jerry Klinger of the Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation, UK branch, with the initiative of the Stamford Hill branch of AJEX.

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School report / Harassment case / News

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Sugar’s abuser convicted Lord Alan Sugar has thanked police after a man who sent him abusive, antisemitic letters was convicted of religiouslyaggravated harassment. The businessman and star of The Apprentice said he had been reluctant to refer the matter to “already stretched” police, but thanked officers in Essex for “helping to shine a light on the fact this type of behaviour is simply not acceptable”. Patrick Gomes, 70, sent three letters to one of Lord

Sugar’s business premises in Loughton between October and December 2018, Essex Police said, adding that each was addressed directly to Sugar. They included abusive, threatening and offensive language and were derogatory towards the Jewish faith. Gomes was arrested at his home in Lyttelton Road, Leyton, on 19 March 2019, after his DNA and fingerprints were found on one of the letters. Officers found additional

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letters written by him, all of which were discriminatory in nature. They also found the address to which the original letters were sent listed in his address book. Gomes denied involvement throughout the investigation, but was found guilty at Chelmsford Crown Court last Wednesday of religiouslyaggravated harassment. He has been remanded in custody ahead of sentencing, which is due to take place on 23 December.

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Jewish News 9 December 2021

World News / Living survey / Jerusalem attack

Tel Aviv is the world’s most expensive city, report finds

The city rose from number five to top the EIU index

Tel Aviv is now the world’s most expensive city — and the reason why is tied in part to Israel’s successful Covid-19 vaccine rollout. The Israeli city rose from number five to number one in the annual Worldwide Cost of Living index compiled by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), the research arm of The Economist Group. The 2021 report explains that Israel’s world-leading pace in vaccinating its population helped the shekel reach a “soaring” value against the US dollar, leading to steep local inflation rates in dollar terms. By 1 January this year, Israel had vaccinated more than 10 percent of its population, earning

international praise and attention. The price of about one out of every 10 everyday goods found in Tel Aviv, especially grocery items, “increased significantly,” the report said. The city is also the second-most expensive place in the world to buy alcohol and public transportation, it added. The increased prices of household goods, cars and fuel are noted too. Tel Aviv’s real estate property prices also rose in 2021, but the EIU index does not factor those into its research. After Tel Aviv, the EIU ranking lists Paris, Singapore, Zurich and Hong Kong as the other most expensive cities in the top five.

Palestinian man killed after stabbing Orthodox Jew A Palestinian man was killed by IsraVideo of Saturday’s incident released el’s border police after he stabbed an by the police shows the assailant, identiOrthodox Jew near the Damascus Gate in fied as Muhammad Salima, crossing the Jerusalem’s Old City last weekend. street before attacking a man who had The stabbing was the second incident been walking behind him. Salima then of suspected terrorism in Jerusalem in starts to run towards two Israeli police less than two weeks. A gunman associated officers stationed nearby, who shot him, with Hamas opened fire in the Old City on causing him to fall to the ground. The 21 November, killing an Israeli man, Eli- officers shot Salima again while he lay on yahu Kay, andADVERT wounding several others. 1 09/01/2020 the ground, where he died. HALF PAGE JAN 2020:Layout 16:04 Page 1

The victim in Saturday’s attack, a young Orthodox man, was taken to the hospital with what news accounts said were moderate-to-severe wounds. The 25-year-old assailant was from the West Bank town of Salfit and had entered Israel illegally. The Arab cab driver who drove him to the site of the attack is reported to have been taken into custody by police on suspicion of helping Salima.

Police shot the attacker

Vandals attaack three chanukiahs

Large Chanukah menorahs on display in three areas of Ukraine have been vandalised in suspected hate crimes. The latest incident occurred last Tuesday in Kyiv. A menorah that was erected in the Troieshchyna district in the city’s north-east was knocked down and its lamps were smashed, Eduard Dolinksy, the director of the Ukrainian Jewish Committee, wrote on Facebook.

Teen Palestinian girl stabs Israeli woman

An Israeli woman was stabbed by a Palestinian teenage girl near the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah yesterday morning in the latest suspected “lone wolf” terror attack in recent weeks. The woman, 26, was walking her children to school when the girl stabbed her in the back before fleeing. She was later arrested. The Israeli woman was taken to hospital with light injuries.

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www.jewishnews.co.uk

9 December 2021 Jewish News

Beauty pageant / Working together / World News

There’s Eilat to love about Miss Universe

Noa Cochva will represent Israel

Participants in this year’s Miss Universe competition are making the most of everything Israel has to offer ahead of Sunday’s pageant in Eilat, writes Michael Daventry. In the past week, contestants toured Jerusalem’s Old City and the Dead Sea, with beauty queens donning swimsuits and bikinis for a photoshoot next to the salt lake. There was also a visit to the headquarters of El Al, Israel’s national airline. Most contestants have arrived inthe country for the pageant but a

Namibia’s Chelsi Shikongo in Eilat

small number of them – including Miss France – have been forced to

quarantine after Israel introduced restrictions on foreign nationals to prevent the spread of the Omicron coronavirus variant. The United Arab Emirates was due to take part in this year’s Miss Universe for the first time, but was forced to withdraw after its national selection contest was cancelled. Morocco is set to make a return for the first time in four decades. The winner will be crowned Miss Universe 2021, succeeding Mexico’s Andrea Meza, who won a delayed 2020 pageant held in May this year. Meza said she hoped the contest would not be politicised.

She told the Associated Press: “Everyone with different beliefs, with different backgrounds, with different cultures, they all come together and when you are in there you forget about politics, about your religion. It’s about embracing other women.” The Israel-Palestine conflict has led to some withdrawals: Malaysia said it would not take part but South Africa’s contestant, Lalela Mswane, will, despite being criticised by her home government. During Sunday’s event, contestants will compete in national costumes, evening gowns and swimwear, and will answer questions.

‘JEW-ARAB PARTNERSHIP IS ISRAEL’S FUTURE’ The first Arab woman to be deputy speaker of the Knesset, Ghaida Rinawie-Zoabi, has spoken of a “deep change” in Jewish Israeli society, writes Jenni Frazer. In London as the keynote speaker at the Abraham Initiatives UK Friends, Rinawie-Zoabi said there had been “fundamental social and economic changes” in the Arab community. “There is a growing middle class, and more academic people in more important jobs in public and private sectors,” she said. Young Arab families now aspire to a different kind of living. “They don’t just want equality, they also want quality in education, housing and

employment. And this has led to major shifts in Jewish-Israeli society.” One such shift, she said, was “a new understanding that partnership with Arab society can be used to build a new future for all of us”, adding: “There can be partners in culture, employment, but also in politics.” A member of the left-wing Meretz party, Rinawie-Zoabi – who founded Injaz, the Centre for Professional Arab Local Governance, and has been named both one of the most influential people in Israel, and one of the 50 most important women in the Israeli economy – described the entry of Arab parties into the new governing

coalition as “something that never happened before and is truly historic”. But she acknowledged that the emergence of Arabs into new areas of Israeli society had led some Jewish Israelis to be “more resentful, perhaps more frightened or anxious”, explaining: “If you look at the splits in parliament they are mainly about Arab society in Israel and about Arabs being part of the political game.” While conceding that there remained “pockets of tension” in mixed cities, she believes partnerships between Arabs and Jews can withstand them. She urged the government to be “more proactive” and invest in shared societies.

Deputy Knesset speaker Ghaida Rinawie-Zoabi

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www.jewishnews.co.uk

Jewish News 9 December 2021

Jewish News meets... Ben Elton

‘Even non-racists can be Celebrated comedian Ben Elton talks with Lee Harpin about his upcoming London shows, David Baddiel’s take on antisemitism and his own family’s escape from Nazi persecution

omic legend Ben Elton has heaped praise on his good friend David Baddiel’s “obviously superb” book, Jews Don’t Count – before admitting most ideas around the concept of Jewishness actually leave him baffled. The 62-year-old, who shot to fame in the 1980s with the smash hit television sitcoms The Young Ones and Blackadder, has subsequently published no fewer than 17 novels since, written and directed several awardwinning plays and sitcoms and had a few flops along the way. His 2012 novel Two Brothers was inspired by his Jewish father’s family experience escaping Nazi persecution, but the outspoken celebrity also previously raised questions as to why his mother’s Church of England background is rarely brought up for discussion. Today, having flown into the UK from Western Australia – prior to lockdown, he and his wife Sophie Gare had split their time

between the two countries – has nothing but praise for the acclaimed book of his Jewish atheist pal Baddiel. Elton told Jewish News: “I am not going to subscribe to your appraisal of what that book is about – be careful of that. But if you would like my opinion of that book, it was obviously superb. “His point that antisemitism is the one politically acceptable form of racism – he argues it very well, and I think he makes an extremely strong argument. It’s not everything about antisemitism, it’s a very niche part of antisemitism. But a crucially important part of it. “He is not saying, even remotely, that antisemitism is ‘worse for us’. It’s a peculiar issue, that most people who consider themselves non-racist, the one little bit of racism they allow themselves is antisemitism. It’s sort of jokey and it’s been around for 2,000 years.” Elton – who is in the UK to do a 10-day

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solo stand-up stint at the Harold Pinter Theatre later this month and to continue directing the Queen play, We Will Rock You, from February – then recalls his regular interactions with his “dear, dear, dear friend” Rik Mayall, who died aged 56 in 2014. “I miss him so much,” he says, before revealing that on occasions Mayall, best known as the Young Ones’ madcap anarchist, sometimes greeted Elton by saying ‘Hey, Jew!’ as a joke”. Elton adds: “Maybe I shouldn’t quote him because people will misunderstand it totally. The things one says as a kid. The word ‘gay’, you know, ‘What are you gay?’ “I learnt a very big lesson the day the word ‘spasmo’ was used. After that I went away, I did what everyone claims to do, and I learned. I did. I wrote Gridlock, whose hero reclaims that word.” We then attempt to discuss Elton’s thoughts on his own Jewishness – and this is where things become complicated. His father was born Ludwig Ehrenberg in the German university town of Tübingen. He moved with his family to Prague in 1929, and from there to England in February 1939, to escape Nazi persecution. Naturalised a British subject, Ludwig changed his name by deed poll in June 1947. But Elton says that, mirroring his father’s life in many ways, he has subsequently grown up knowing Jewish people but without any real connection to the religious side of Jewishness. Growing up in Catford, south-east London, in what he describes as “ordinary” circumstances, Elton has said that in his early childhood, he knew more about Christianity than he did about Judaism and attended a Church of England primary school. Meanwhile his father, now known as Lewis, a physicist and higher education researcher, adopted “atheist, socialist” values that would influence his son. “I don’t think I have a Jewish side and I know people will think I’m in denial,” he says. “But that’s because you are appropriating characteristics. I remember going to see Jackie Mason – he was hilarious. “‘The Jew does this’, ‘the Jew does that’. But what he was actually talking about was a certain type of splendidly not very practical but interesting type of person. “Every culture has Jewish

www.jewishnews.co.uk

9 December 2021 Jewish News

Jewish News meets... Ben Elton

a bit antisemitic’ mamas. They are called Italian mamas or Muslim mamas. What we are essentially talking about is mothers who want to cook for their kids – believe me, every culture has the figure of the Jewish mother. “Also, the person who is always worrying about the bill, or whatever.” Elton says he is aware that good friends of his “who are Jewish” become irritated when he “declines the invitation to buy into their ideas” around Jewish excellence of arenas such as comedy. He adds: “I have good friends who identify as Jewish. I don’t know many of them who actually believe in God. “They like the festivals because they like the parties. I don’t know many seriously faith-driven Jews, but I know a f**k of a lot of culture-driven Jews.” Still a member of the Labour Party, Elton suggests Sir Keir Starmer was “handed a difficult pack of cards” when he took over from Jeremy Corbyn. But he suggests that Starmer has now “started to put together some tricks”. When we had previously spoken in September 2019, Elton said Corbyn had “let us down horribly”. e is still of the opinion that part of Corbyn’s failure on antisemitism was because “he did not want

to inflame a part of his base that conflates Israeli foreign policy with all Jews”. But the former Labour leader is the last thing on Elton’s mind now. The day after we speak, he will see his 92-year-old mother for the first time in 22 months. An ultra-strict lockdown in Australia prevented Elton and his wife from leaving her native country. He returned to writing lengthy monthly letters to his mother to make up for the absence of contact. Elton is excited about his nightly twohour long stand-up stints at the Harold Pinter Theatre. And the return of We Will Rock You to UK theatres will see the resumption of an Elton-directed show that was abruptly halted in Sheffield when lockdown was imposed. When the Queen musical reopens in February, Elton will be reunited with his wife and he will remain in Australia looking after elderly family members. This month’s Harold Pinter Theatre dates are an updated version of the 90-date solo tour he did in Britain in 2019 and the further 60 he did in Australia last year when he was allowed to travel there. One area he won’t be discussing is Brexit. “I spoke about that for f**king 90 days in a row in 2019,” he fumes in a jokey fashion.

TECHNION UK

But there is room for what some describe as “political correctness gone mad”. Elton reasons that “what is being called mad now is something everybody will just accept 20 years from now”. In the show, there are just two lines on Prime Minister Boris Johnson, about whom Elton has been a ferocious critic in the past. He says the central theme is of a future about which he has never been so uncertain. “After 40 years of pontificating and mouthing off at people, now there is a greater Ben Elton, right, with his ‘dear friend’, the late confusion. But you realise that Rik Mayall is where the comedy lies. “You get to realise you are the older generation and there  Ben Elton Live is on at the Harold are a whole bunches of ideas, be they poliPinter Theatre in London from 20 to tics, social, music, taste or fashion. 30 December. “In many ways, it’s dad comedy. But For tickets see benelton.live hopefully very interesting and original and We Will Rock You will tour the UK linked to the fact I’ve got three kids in their from 7 February to 10 September 20s. 2022. For tickets and venues visit “I’m not cast adrift, but I’m definitely one wewillrockyou.co.uk of the older ones now. “

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Jewish News 9 December 2021

Editorial comment and letters ISSUE NO.

1240

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

VOICE OF THE JEWISH NEWS

BBC has a serious question to answer Like red phone boxes and black taxis, the BBC, our national broadcaster, was once the pride of Britain. It was independent and even-handed, committed to showing a balanced picture of our lives. But in its passion for that very balance, the BBC seems to have overstepped the mark in its reporting of the distressing Chanukah attack on a bus load of Jewish teenagers in Oxford Street. It told its audience that while there had been “alleged antisemitism” from yobs outside the bus, inside the bus there had been an unqualified “anti-Muslim” slur. This mania for “whataboutery” – flying in the face of all analyses of the soundtrack to the video of the attack – has now rightly drawn a trenchant and unprecedented letter of complaint from the Board of Deputies to the BBC. It puts the Jewish community unnecessarily at war with the BBC, all because some editors higher up the food chain than the original reporter thought the Jewish victims must have, in some way, instigated the repellent behaviour outside the bus. The BBC may have thought it could weather the outrage by refusing to apologise. But the Board’s complaint has been copied in to the anti-BBC culture minister, Nadine Dorries. The BBC may come to regret its insistence that an understandable Hebrew-language call for help had suddenly morphed into non-existent English Islamophobia.

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

Biased reporting the norm Sorry isn’t just the easiest word, it arguably is the most nauseatingly overused platitude that’s evolved into a catch-all term for getting off the hook. Azeem Rafiq, the former Yorkshire cricketer, used the word, but only after he was caught in the slips, as it were, maligning Jewish people. Had he apologised for bringing his antisemitic slur to the attention ‘off his own bat’ at some point before his public onslaught against Yorkshire, one might have found the ‘apology’ approaching something akin to sincere. Likewise the Royal Court Theatre, which foisted its ‘sorry’ on us for a play that gave an unsavoury non-Jewish character the name Herschel Fink, claiming ignorance that ‘Her-

Sketches & kvetches

STOP AZEEM RAFIQ MELODRAMA – HE’S MADE SINCERE APOLOGY

“But surely my son’s exempt from wearing a mask because he’s so handsome, kenahora!”

Why did Jewish News make such an issue of what one columnist branded the Azeem Rafiq Affair? This type of melodramatic response is a perfect example of indulgence in victim culture. It is not worthy of Jewish News. You have enough real, truly nasty and worrying antisemitic issues to report. So why prolong this story and shame a man who, after suffering prolonged racist abuse himself, has made the connection and had the integrity to make a public and heartfelt apology for one stupid comment made in his teens? How many of us can recall toe-curling incidents or comments from our youth, which we now regret? Azeem Rafiq has himself suffered years of constant racist bullying by colleagues, including them pouring alcohol, forbidden to Muslims, down his throat, as a ‘joke’. After years of such humiliation, he has spoken out powerfully about racism, including antisemitism. We should applaud his courage in publicly apologising. It is so wrong to rebuff a heartfelt apology when repentance and forgiveness are fundamental to us as Jews. Fiona Hulbert, Woodford Green

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schel Fink’ borders on being a mocking Jewish name. One can almost hear the pseudo-intellectual thesps pleading in their defence that they thought the name was that of some medieval pope! And then there is the Manchester Evening News, which has “apologised profusely” for using a headline regarding the tragedy of Eliyahu Kaye’s murder that “did not reflect the story in an accurate and balanced way” (pictured). This revelation is reported as if it’s the first time such blatant bias has occurred in the world of the press and broadcast news. This kind of biased reporting, especially when it comes to Jews and Israel, has been the norm since time immemorial. Michael White, Finchley

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9 December 2021 Jewish News

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Editorial comment and letters

REJECTING CLAIM ABOUT LOACH Regarding your article headlined “Outrage after local Labour group passes motion praising Ken Loach” (Jewish News, (26 November), I write to correct inaccuracies. The meeting that agreed a proposal to screen Mr Loach’s films locally was debated fairly, in line with our usual procedure, and not as you describe. The proposer moved the motion and it was seconded as a formality, without a speech. We heard two speakers against and one in favour before the proposer was allowed a final word as usual. The discussion was calm, as was the

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entire meeting. Nobody at the meeting voiced the sensational opinions claimed by your unnamed sources. As chair, I corrected a member who thought Ken Loach had been expelled for antisemitism. He was not. Readers may infer from the article that Ken Loach is equivocal about the Holocaust. He is categorically not and has stated: “The Holocaust is as real a historical event as the Second World War itself and not to be challenged.” (Letters to The Guardian, 5 Sept 2017). Anne O’Daly, chair, Hornsey & Wood Green Constituency Labour Party

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Don’t fret about Warwick My husband and I were so emotional when our son sent us a photograph of a large lit chanukiah at Warwick Univeristy. Surely a newspaper should be focusing on all the positive things currently going on at the university? Your recent article noted that Warwick had recorded the most antisemitic incidents during the past academic year but made no mention of the fact the Jewish Society (JSoc) is

going from strength to strength (Jewish News, 16 November). The JSoc may not have many members, but the executive is doing a great job. It is a pity you did not speak to any Jewish students who are incredibly happy in Warwick and enjoying getting involved. To parents who may have been put off sending their children there, I say: think again. Nadine Adam, By email

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KISHARON ARE RECRUITING FOR TWO EXCITING ROLES Jewish Life Facilitator

Volunteer Coordinator

Kisharon Adult Services

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London NW4, NW11, N16 £24k - £26k p.a. pro-rated for part-time hours Part time: 25 hours per week

NW London £32k - 34k p.a. pro-rated for part-time hours Part-time: 18 - 22 hours per week

Yiddishkeit is at the heart of Kisharon, and to bring this to the core of everything we do, could you be our ‘Jewish Life Facilitator’? The role is to champion religious engagement with the people we support, train employees to facilitate this, and check that they are enabled both at home and in the community to celebrate every aspect of Jewish cultural and halachic life according to their wishes – such as Kashrus, Shabbos, Yom Tov, learning, etc.

We are looking for an experienced Volunteer Coordinator to engage and inspire volunteers to support Kisharon’s service delivery, ethos and fundraising activities. The successful candidate will build on Kisharon’s valued relationships with the wider community and support with events. Experience of volunteer management and contacts within the community are essential.

You will work with people we support, deliver training to staff and volunteers in the supported living services, and build strong relationships with the community.

Applicants should have experience in most of these areas: strategic planning, role analysis, recruiting and retaining, support and training, performance evaluation and creating new opportunities.

Closing date for applications: 16th December 2021 For details about this role, including full benefits, job description and an application form, please visit www.kisharon.org.uk/about-us/current-vacancies For an informal discussion contact Hadassa Kessler on 07815 479 814 or for general enquiries contact Donna Deena Jacobs, HR Administrator, 020 3209 1182.

Kisharon is an award-winning learning disability organisation. Through our education, employment and social opportunities, and innovative social enterprises, we are passionate about supporting each person to progress, enjoy life and have a valued role in the community. Kisharon expects all staff to share our commitment to safeguarding the welfare of children and vulnerable adults. An Enhanced DBS criminal check is required for most roles.

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Jewish News 9 December 2021

Opinion

Short-termism surrounds us but our legacy matters ALEX BRUMMER

CITY EDITOR, THE DAILY MAIL

he UK’s political and corporate cycles are geared to the shortterm. Governments, from the day they achieve office, are thinking about how best to win the next election, and companies about how they will pay the next dividend. Contrast with the biblical story of Joseph that has just been read in most Jewish communities. His dreams led Egypt to think longerterm. Over a 14-year cycle, there would be rich harvests, with the grain kept in newly built storehouses, ready for the seven years of famine that followed. The ideas of legacy and ‘good ancestors’ was the theme of a sermon delivered by Rabbi Josh Levy of Alyth Synagogue last Shabbat when we celebrated the batmitzvah of my granddaughter Natasha. In her Dvar Torah, Natasha referred to the Jewish values she had inherited from her great-grandfather Michael (my late father) as a legacy that had inspired her.

Ancestry takes all forms. Native Australians rose up in revolt last year when it was revealed that the mining giant Rio Tinto had wantonly destroyed an ancient burial site at Juukan Gorge while exploiting reserves of iron ore. The lack of respect for ancestry led to condemnation in Canberra and a clearout at the top of Rio. Soon after the state of Israel was born, foundations supported by the Rothschild family recognised the need to plant some longterm roots for the Jewish state. The Knesset building, the more modern Supreme Court and the idea of a National Library are all about creating a legacy for Israel. Many of these projects took decades and long-term thinking to be brought to fruition. Here in Britain, legacy is hugely respected. With the help of planning laws, designed to preserve great buildings, the Jewish community has been able to maintain its own legacy in the shape of Bevis Marks in the City and other synagogue gems such as the now deteriorating Middle Street Synagogue in Brighton. Among the reasons why I am such an avid supporter of the proposed £100 million Holocaust Memorial adjacent to Westminster is

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AS JEWS HAVE RECOGNISED, LEARNING IS ONE OF THE KEYS TO SURVIVAL OF IDEAS that it is vital that future generations, long after the last survivors of the death camps have passed on, will not forget the horror. Modern Britain still enjoys the legacy of its Victorian ancestors. In London, the Bazalgette sewage system is tribute to the willingness to invest to make the capital a more liveable place. Most of our modern railway system is a tribute to the investment of the barons of the industrial revolution. Prime Minister Boris Johnson often finds himself under attack for his lack of attention to detail. But he does see the value of creating legacy. ‘Boris Bikes’, the rebuilding of the great St Pancras station, including a magnificent hotel, and countless other projects are part of his mayoral legacy. Building back better is a vision for the country. Speeding up the roll-out of fibre broad-

band is part of the nation’s online legacy. HS2 is a visionary project that would have reshaped transport in the UK. The Leeds leg of HS2 and with it an HS3 trans-Pennine route to the North East has been sacrificed. As ancestors we need to think about what values and legacies we leave or future generations. As Jews have recognised down the ages, learning is one of the keys to survival of the ideas of a people. The value of education can never be underestimated. Among the great economic advantages this country has is its great research universities, themselves the legacy of their 15th-century founders. Their contribution to preserving life, a great Jewish tenet, has been more than evident in the pandemic, as exemplified by the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine. It is the result of an ancestry of scientific inquiry that benefits the human race.

9 December 2021 Jewish News

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Jewish News 9 December 2021

Opinion

A rabbi might give a great sermon but is he an ally? YEHUDIS FLETCHER CO-FOUNDER, NAHAMU

grew up the daughter of a pulpit rabbi – we were Charedi, his congregation was not. I married a Satmar Chasid when I was 18. I now inhabit a hybrid identity; a woman whose roots and heritage are Charedi, who has a voice outside of the Charedi community, an education, a career, and a reputation. When I started speaking, I thought that if I only explained the problems well enough, people would listen and take action. I now know differently. So many of those whom I hoped would understand the urgency of my message agree with me, not because they see Charedim as deserving citizens and community members, but because they love to hate the next awful thing to hit the news. And others, of whom I expected so much more, refuse to change anything because, they say, they like it that way. Have you ever met a Chasidic man? One who speaks in heavily accented English, who wears

tzitzit, has peyot and a large black yarmulka and an obvious lack of social nous? Maybe you looked at him and appreciated the shtetl-esque image, maybe you chuckled at the jokes he told as he tried to find common ground with you. Maybe you looked away in disgust at the picture he projected of unpolished, unapologetic Jew. Maybe you laughed at him or with him. I raise this because Radio 4’s Beyond Belief recently hosted a panel discussion with three Orthodox Jewish women, including a social worker and a rebbetzin. Its premise was to counter the stereotype perpetuated by Shtisel, Unorthodox and other recent media depictions of Orthodox Jewish life. All three guests had nice London accents and none had a husband who wears a furry hat. They tried so hard to prove how different they are from those Charedim – but when one described the role of Orthodox women as ‘separate but equal’ from those of men, she sounded just like the other Charedi women I’ve heard over the years, the women she wants to assure you she is nothing like. The line between ‘mainstream’ and ‘Charedi’ Jewry is an illusion. Many of the rabbis to the

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THE INTOLERANCE AND MISOGYNY IS THERE NONETHELESS so-called mainstream community are making halachic decisions that are imbued in Charedi thinking. They may be more self-aware, and thus covert, in their intolerance, misogyny and sexism, but it is there nonetheless. Rabbis need to be well-spoken so they can deliver entertaining sermons, but they don’t need to be feminist allies or welcoming to LGBT [lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender] people. Sure, the odd mainstream dayan had an affair, but only with an adult woman. It was only a few months ago when Batei Din doubled down on their profoundly unhelpful attitude to women subjected to get abuse, taking the strictest possible view in interpreting halachah, ignoring commandments to pursue justice.

Do you think about how they treat their wives, or whether their sons are withdrawn from school before the legal leaving age? – the fun, energetic young emissaries who run our cultural events and the school trips to Gateshead and Eastern Europe that are popular and promoted in our mainstream schools. Do you question the practices, ethics or ideologies that fuel the kiruv world? We all enjoy feel-good events and charismatic rabbinic couples and want a shul with a good children’s service and a better kiddush. If women are seen but not heard in the shul environment, that’s just too bad. As long as no one points out where we fall short, our shiny surfaces and clean lines can be maintained. But I don’t believe this community doesn’t want more: from our leadership – lay and rabbinic – and our membership. I don’t believe we don’t want to progress and grow. I don’t believe we want to drive away so many people. It’s not as if we don’t have examples of good practice. They should be the rule, not the exception. Chasidim make good headlines, but we risk overindulging in easy stereotypes as a way of deflecting from our own deficiencies.

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9 December 2021 Jewish News

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Community / Scene & Be Seen

1 CHAI FUNDRAISER

Baking, wacky hairstyles and special events in synagogues helped a cancer charity to raise £2.6 million. Chai Cancer Care’s ‘One BIG Community’ initiative galvanised more than 300 fundraising teams and 9,000 donors to help fund its services.

2WOODLAND PLANTING

Year 5 children from Etz Chaim Jewish Primary School in Mill Hill went with their headteacher, Yvonne Baron, and MP Matthew Offord to plant trees at the new Memorial Woodland in Mill Hill Park.

And be seen! The latest news, pictures and social events from across the community

JN GLOWS

Jewish News’ Justin Cohen scaled the giant menorah at Golders Green station to kindle the lights for the fifth night of Chanukah. Chabad of Golders Green arranged live lighting events every night except on Shabbat.

Email us at community@jewishnews.co.uk

4UNIVERSITY EVENT

Israel’s Ariel University held its first event in the UK at the residence of Israel’s ambassador, Tzipi Hotovely. She spoke of her personal connection with the university to a packed crowd of community leaders, business leaders and philanthropists.

BARCHESTER CYCLE

Staff from Barchester’s Magnolia Court in Golders Green showed their mettle by taking on a freezing cold 63-mile cycle ride across London to raise money for Macmillan Cancer Support and Barchester’s own Charitable Foundation.

6DELIGHTFUL PARTY

Sacks Morasha had an amazing week packed with magicians, entertainers, parties, Chanukahthemed learning activities and lots of doughnuts. Justin Kett, deputy headteacher and head of kodesh, said: “Having had last year’s Chanukah celebrations online, it was sheer delight to bring so much simcha into our school once again.”

7HAVDALLAH JAM

Mill Hill United Synagogue held a Pre-Chanukah Havdallah Jam. More than 70 people had hot chocolate and marshmallows while enjoying outdoor glow-inthe-dark football, garden Jenga and doughnuts with custard, jam and chocolate fillings.

8CARE APPEAL

Jewish Care is appealing to the community to bring light, joy and support to help fund many services caring for older people. The Jewish Care Direct Helpline, Social Work and Community Support Teams to Befriending services and the recently-reopened community centres are all vital services to Jewish Care and rely on the community’s generosity.

Jewish News 9 December 2021

LI FE

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Inside A look

Who, what & where New restaurants Sondheim tribute

Serial sperm donor Ari Nagel has fathered 96 children. Sandy Rashty chatted to the Big Daddy

FATHER OF THE TRIBE W

hen we speak, Ari Nagel, a New Yorker who grew up in an Orthodox home, is visiting one of his children in Jacksonville, Florida, for a few hours before he travels to Orlando to see another three of his offspring. It has been 14 years since Ari, a maths professor at City University New York, made his first donation. And he’s hardly stopped since. Since his first encounter, he has gone on to sire children across 20 states and 27 countries, including Israel, Russia, Thailand, Barbados and Ghana – fathering an approximate 50 percent split of boys and girls. While most people were locked down over

the pandemic, he was busier than ever. As college lectures went online, he used the time to meet more families seeking his services. In 2020, he set a personal record by fathering 21 children. This year, he is on course for a total of 30. If all the women Ari has now impregnated give birth, he will have fathered a total of 120 children over the next nine months. For his proficiency, Ari, who travelled to eight countries last month, has been dubbed ‘The Sperminator’. Educated, tall (he is 6ft 2in), blue-eyed and with a full head of curls, women seeking his sperm can contact Ari on social media. The majority are lesbian couples and single mothers, although he has also fathered children

in trans and heterosexual relationships. He rarely charges people for his seed, just for his expenses – from hotel rooms to flights. So what does he get out of it? “I want to grow my own modern family and I want to make people happy,” says the 46-yearold, while pushing his cooing three-year-old on the swings. He has met most of his children, but not all. Though some families do not want Ari in their lives, others see him – as well as the other children he has fathered – as part of their extended family. He says he spends his free time visiting as many children as he can, as often as he can. Do they call him ‘Dad’? “Well, they don’t call me The Sperminator,” he laughs. “Some call

Brooklyn-based Ari Nagel has fathered children for single mothers, lesbian, trans and heterosexual couples, and loves visiting his children around the world

me ‘Ari’, because that is what they hear their mother call me. But most do call me ‘Dad’.” Unlike traditional donors, who anonymously use a sperm bank, Ari offers a more ‘direct’ service. In the early years, he would often have sex with the women. Of late, he has focused on the task in hand by passing over a cup with the goods, allowing a woman to artificially inseminate herself. It was not a route he was expected to take. Born into an Orthodox family in Monsey, New York, Ari was one of seven children. He attended the Yeshiva of Spring Valley boys’ school and the Yeshiva Shaarei Torah high school, before going on to major in finance at St John’s University in Queens, New York. “I was a very typical Monsey boy,” he said. “I wore a black hat for davening and for school. The boys I was studying with spoke Yiddish. I didn’t know anything else. Monsey is a ghetto where you don’t see cars driving on Shabbes and you don’t know about the outside world. I was sheltered.” But after he was hit by a motorcycle aged 17, he used the $70,000 settlement money to visit 40 countries across the world, from Europe to Asia. He spent semesters in Italy and in the UK, studying at the London School of Economics. He ate non-kosher food, met new people, had a lot of sex and never looked back. “As a young guy travelling around the world, keeping kosher was not the easiest option; neither was keeping Shabbes. I saw people worshipping cows and monkeys and it

9 December 2021 Jewish News

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JN LIFE was to me. I visit them was responsible for me here and there, but losing faith. I still feel I am not telling them very Jewish, just not bedtime stories like Orthodox.” my dad did.” He returned home He adds: “I had with a new perspective a very traditional and made up for lost childhood, where we time. After impregwould shut off the TV, nating a Caribbean-born sit around the table and woman with whom he was sing Shabbes songs. Part of having a casual sexual relaAri at the Kotel, me does crave it – there would tionship, he married her – while Jerusalem be something nice about having all still having relations with other my kids around me. I will never have that. women and donating sperm after seeing Maybe at my funeral.” an advert online. After that marriage ended, he Ari’s modern family is not without complihad another two “fraudulent, fake marriages”, cations. In 2018, the Israeli Supreme Court including one to a mature Orthodox woman banned him from acting as a sperm donor and who did not want their child to be considered ordered the destruction of all his samples, a mamzer (bastard). citing a requirement for a donor who is not “We had a Jewish marriage with a rabbi and anonymous to co-parent a child. a ketubah,” he says. “We got dressed up, took a And while he clearly has amicable relationpicture, and got divorced a year later. The rabbi ships with some of the families he has helped said I was doing a very big mitzvah.” create, it is not always the case. Despite their His parents, who are in their 70s, disagree. casual agreements, he says some mums have While his dad has attended the brit milah of reneged and demanded financial support for one of the children Ari fathered, his mother is the children. As a result, nine of the mothers less accepting and is “very ashamed” of his lifewere granted court-ordered payments. Ari, style. “She is a typical Jewish mum. She wants who is based in Brooklyn and is paid around me to be normal, religious and married. Even $100,000 a year as a professor, says he though she doesn’t approve of my lifestyle, we struggles financially. are still close and love each other,” he explains. He says: “Because my salary is high, I am not He pauses when I ask whether they see his entitled to government support. The courtchildren as part of the family. “My parents have ordered child support takes around 50 percent 27 grandchildren, not including my children,” of my salary. Another $20,000 goes on taxes he says. “I think they feel sorry for the children and I am left with $30,000, which is not enough because I am not a full-time father. I am never in New York City. I try to help out the other going to be as good to the children as my father

Ari, who grew up Orthodox in Monsey, has fathered 96 children and has no plans to stop donating his sperm

kids. But there is not much I am able to do.” He gave one mum $10 the day before we spoke. “All the women I help out can file for child support, but 90 percent have not.” Ari is not perturbed and intends to continue donating his sperm. “I don’t do any vetting,” he says, when asked if he checks whether the mums, some of whom are anti-vaxxers, can emotionally and financially support the children he fathers. “But the clinics don’t check. All they want is for someone to be able to pay for treatment.”

Ari says he will stop donating by the time he is 50, and then possibly settle down. “It is difficult to be in a serious relationship when I am giving sperm to another woman,” he says. “Whoever I meet would have to love children and help me co-parent. When you fall in love, you fall in love.” For now, it is time for a less traditional type of love. “There is a lot of love between me and the mums,” he says. “Half of them are lesbian couples so it’s not romantic, but we do love each other very much.”

Young Writers Competition: WIN £100 of Amazon Vouchers .

Jewish News, in partnership with Ivor Baddiel, Pajes and PJ Library, is inviting young writers to write about their grandparents and what they have learned from them. To enter the competition, you will need to submit up to 300 words in the form of a poem, a wordle, a short story (fiction or non-fiction), fun facts, a song, an interview, a letter, a tribute, straight prose or a comic strip – whatever you feel like, as long as it uses words! You can include photos and pictures, too, if you want. Once you have completed your entry, please email it to candicekrieger@googlemail.com with your name and age clearly displayed. The closing date is Thursday 6 January. The competition is open to all primary school and secondary school children, and will be split into two categories: Seven to 10 years old and 11 to 16 years old. One winner from each category will be selected by a judging panel made up of Ivor Baddiel and representatives from Jewish News, Pajes and PJ Library. Each winner will receive a £100 Amazon voucher.

Ivor Baddiel (pictured with his family) said: “My grandmother made the best cauliflower soup in the world – I’ve never tasted anything else like it. This is a fantastic chance to celebrate our grandparents as well as giving them the chance to kvell at how brilliant their wonderful grandchildren are at writing.” Rabbi David Meyer, executive director of Pajes, says: “This is a wonderful initiative, connecting our youth with their heritage and encouraging budding authors to turn stories from our past into lessons for our future. I am sure we will be receiving some submissions of the highest quality and I can’t wait to read them.”

Jewish News 9 December 2021

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WHO WHAT WHERE PRIME VIDEO

Larry, right, coache s Jon Hamm

Housewife’s Choice Season 4: Act 1,Scene 1. Int/Day -The Stage Deli. Two women sit at a table eating salt beef sandwiches.

Midge: “You know what’s great about me?” Susie: “Your humility?” It may not be much, but two pithy lines of dialogue are all you need to know that The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel returns to Amazon Prime on 18 February. When we last saw dynamic housewife comic Midge, she had lost her gig with superstar Shy Baldwin and her apartment due to Susie’s gambling problem. Moving forward, Midge only wants to perform where she can say what she wants. “That’s not how the business works,” says Susie, which is the red rag that signals a season of marvellous mayhem in 1950s couture. Cue the song Rose’s Turn from the musical Gypsy and we’re off.

TELEVISION

THROW A CURB BALL Tell us honestly. Could the new season of Curb Your Enthusiasm be any more Jewish? Transgressive and risky, the comedy series that revolves around the misadventures of misunderstood and reluctant misanthrope Larry David has always been Jewish. And how could it not be, with balding Larry and his portly pal Jeff resembling the shul everyman and speaking nouveau shtetl (unfinished sentences peppered with Yiddish) that we understand. But the volume on Yiddishkeit has been turned up so high in the latest episodes it feels like being firebombed with kneidels. Lessons on the use of the words bashert and tsuris for actor Jon Hamm (a fitting moniker); a fake shiva, shofar blowing and a set-to with a Jews for Jesus cast member are all part of the blisteringly hilarious balagan. Do

EVENT

WIZO on the page Taking a break from quizzing MPs as ITV’s political editor, Robert Peston became the interviewee at WIZO UK’s annual Literary Lunch last week, offering insight on his latest, a work of fiction called The Whistleblower. Peston’s explosive thriller about the worlds of media and power politics becoming dangerously entwined, having investigative journalist John Ware asking the questions was a smart move and the audience was enthralled as they discussed fact and fiction based on their professional experience. Funds raised will support a child literacy programme in the WIZO-run day care centres. PJ Libray also plays its part as, once a month, each child receives a Jewish heritage book. “Reading and having books in our home is something we take for granted,” said WIZO UK chair Annabel Stelzer. “For many low-income families and immigrants, who benefit from this programme, the books they are given are the only books they have at home.”

Susie and Larry with Lucy Liu, centre

you have to be Jewish to appreciate it all? Probably not. But like Spaniards watching an Almodovar film, it’s useful if you are. “It doesn’t really matter that not everybody’s getting the details, they’re getting the idea of it,” says Susie Essman, who plays Jeff’s

confrontational wife Susie. But she notes that being Jewish helped her nail the part. Having known Larry since they hung out at LA’s Catch a Rising Star comedy clubs in 1986, Susie is surprised he has become so successful. “Back then, we knew he was a brilliant genius. His writing was so incredible and his stand-up was unlike anybody else. But he didn’t seem that ambitious, and he was never one to pander. He always just marched to his own drum.” Long may his beat go on.

Curb Your Enthusiasm is on Sky Atlantic

THEATRE

An Inspector Calls Esteemed Jewish thespian Sir David Suchet makes his eagerly-awaited return to the West End in POIROT AND MORE, A RETROSPECTIVE on 4 January 2022. Following a successful tour in autumn 2021 that took in more than 20 UK theatres, the show has a three-week residency at The Harold Pinter Theatre, where the actor will look back at his illustrious career and shed an intimate light on his performances in conversation with Geoffrey Wansell, journalist and co-author of Poirot and Me. Should Suchet utter: “If you will forgive me for being personal, I do not like your face,” he has slipped into Belgian detective mode. Or not!

www.haroldpintertheatre.co.uk

This Month In Jewish History... By Jewish News historian, Derek Taylor

On 9 December 1917, the Ottomans surrendered Jerusalem to the British Egyptian Expeditionary Force under General Edmund Allenby. It had been a hard-fought campaign in cold and rain, with 51,000 casualties among the XX Corps, the XX1 Corps and the Desert Mounted Corps, including men from Australia and New Zealand, India and the Gurkhas. Allenby chose to walk into Jerusalem out of respect for the city. The surrender document said: “To the severity General Allenby of the siege of the city and the suffering that this peaceful country has endured from your heavy guns; and for fear that these deadly bombs will hit the holy places, we are forced to hand over to you the city…. hoping that you will protect Jerusalem the way we have protected it for more than 500 years.” To celebrate the victory, music was added to an old Jewish folk song called Hava Nagila. It would have been better to ask Irving Berlin.

9 December 2021 Jewish News

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SONDHEIM’S Clockwise: Andrew Garfield as late composer Jonathan Larson; Larson at openings for Tick, Tick... Boom! and Rent; Garfield on location with Lin-Manuel Miranda directing his debut feature

Last Message

Lin-Manuel Miranda’s film features a final tribute from one great Jewish composer to another. It’s a huge moment worthy of the big screen, writes Brigit Grant

f only cinemas were like pubs. If they were, there would have been tussles at the box office when they opened after the lockdowns. Sadly, post-pandemic, movie-goers are not showing up like they used to, which means many will only see Lin-Manuel Miranda’s film Tick, Tick …Boom! on TV courtesy of Netflix. Some will have thought Miranda foolhardy to make his directorial debut an adaptation of a semi-autobiographical musical written by a relatively unknown Jewish composer. But what he did for Alexander Hamilton he has now done for Jonathan Larson, who died at the age of 35 from an aortic aneurysm on 25 January 1996 – the day his musical, Rent, premiered offBroadway. He had spent a decade in obscurity working on Rent, which eventually became the 11th longest-running show in Broadway history. Posthumously, Larson also won three Tony awards and the Pulitzer Prize for drama. But before Rent there was Tick, Tick…Boom!, Larson’s one man show about his difficult relationship with a dancer and the rejection of his first musical, Superbia. Tragically, the enormity of his composing talent was only realised after his death, and when Tick, Tick…Boom! eventually played in 2001 at a small hotel theatre in New York, Lin-Manuel Miranda was in the audience. That was when he decided to become a composer. The list of musicals without any Jewish contribution is a short one and Miranda, who performed Fiddler’s To Life at his non-Jewish wedding, has brought exemplary Jewish talent to his debut feature. There’s the screenplay by Dear Evan Hansen playwright Steven Levenson, cameos from Joel Grey, Frasier’s Bebe Neuwirth and composers Jason Robert Brown (The Last Five Years), Stephen Schwartz (Godspell/Prince of Egypt) and Marc Shaiman (Hairspray/Charlie and The Chocolate factory)

and a cast that includes Transparent’s Judith Light. Then there’s Andrew Garfield who, when asked by Miranda if he could sing, responded with: “I’ve never tried.” The Jewish actor, who was Oscar-nominated for his role in Hacksaw Ridge, didn’t know if he could play piano either, but both were required to play Larson

Composers Jonathan Larson and Stephen Sondheim

convincingly and he acquired the skills inside of a year. Another Oscar nomination seems likely for LA-born Garfield, who spent his formative years in Surrey, telling The Irish Times: “I am a mongrel. I do feel English and I don’t, I feel like nothing a lot of the time. But I feel very Jewish quite often, because of my father’s side.” Andrew’s father is Ashkenazi, like Larson’s family, but the composer embraced his faith, playing Tevye in a school production of Fiddler and attaching it to Mark Cohen, his lead character in Rent, who learnt to waltz “with Nanette Himmelfarb, the rabbi’s daughter”. That the release of Miranda’s film coincided with the death, last week, of Stephen Sondheim is profound, as Sondheim became Larson’s mentor after meeting him at college. Over the years, Sondheim assessed his work, sat through showcases and wrote letters of recommendation to producers. Larson’s tribute to the composer was to parody a song from Sunday in the Park With George in Tick, Tick...Boom!, but Sondheim, who is played in the film by Bradley Whitford, showed his respect by rewriting and recording a phone message that is heard in the movie’s penultimate scene. “It makes me weep to even think about,” Miranda told Variety. “Because he was a mentor to Jon and generations of songwriters. But yes, he rewrote that message and recorded it himself and just sent it to me.” Sondheim’s final words on film. A parade of Jewish talent. Tick, Tick …Boom! is too big for the small screen. And the cinema is open. • Tick, Tick..Boom! along with a pre-recorded Q&A with director Lin-Manuel Miranda and other creatives and cast members is showing at BFI Southbank tonight (Thursday) at 8.30pm. Tickets: www.bfi.org.uk

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Jewish News 9 December 2021

JN LIFE

Eat

be merry

Meadow

Six new restaurants to get your teeth into. By Louisa Walters, Brigit Grant and Angie Jacobs

INDER AT THE GROVE in Watford is gorgeously rustic and twinkly inside with lots of friendly staff to explain the menu and the concept – cooking over fire, sharing plates, two to three each. We nibbled on a plate of chargrilled bread with confit garlic tahini and burnt tomato salsa before ploughing through burnt leeks with pecorino and hazelnuts, the soft smoky leeks contrasting with the sharp cheese and crunchy nuts to create easily my favourite veggie dish this year. Then a squidgy butternut squash with yoghurt, chilli and toasted almonds – a riot of flavours and textures jostling for attention. Salmon cooked on cedar planks is itself a reason to try Jake’s cooking. Others had the lamb chops sweetened with maple and sage, triple-cooked new potatoes (sounds so much less sinful than chips, but don’t kid yourself) and green beans with

Cinder at The Grove

confit shallot and crispy onions. The wondrous smokiness of open-fire cooking pervades each dish. An interesting wine list led us to a light, crisp Italian Fiano and a smooth Carignan. The chocolate mousse has crunchy and chewy bits, while the lemon posset is all smooth and creamy with a lush blueberry compote. The bread and butter pudding will have to wait until next time. www.thegrove.co.uk/dining/cinder-at -the-grove How often do you walk into a restaurant and go ‘Wow!’? Argentinian restaurant SUCRE in a former concert hall on Great Marlborough Street is a large, high-ceilinged room that marries faded grandeur with industrial chic and cutglass decanter chandeliers. Add to this an open kitchen with an open fire grill and a fantastic atmosphere and you have all the ingredients for a great night – and that’s before you even get to the food. Highlights for our group were cheddar, chilli & onion empandas and steak tartare with wafer-thin plantain crisps, meltingly sweet roasted onions with artichoke purée, a tuna ceviche dish with lime and sesame, veal sweetbreads – almost tofu-like in texture with a refined, sweet, ‘poultryish’ flavour – and a glazed cabbage pungently flavoured with orange miso (an acquired taste). Two of us wanted the bone-in ribeye, but at 800g this was a step too far. There was no question that I was going to have the dulche de leche fondant – all your sweet dreams come true. You expect the wine list to be all big bold Argentinian reds, but

Italy, France and Spain are nicely represented. Downstairs is Abajo, a subterranean bar that is modern and atmospheric, with live music and a worldrenowned mixologist creating highly unusual cocktails. The central bar has been designed the ‘wrong’ way round so you can see your cocktails being made. I’m definitely going back for the wow factor – and that rib-eye. www.sucrerestaurant.com

that they didn’t manage to ‘gnocchi up’ the other pasta dish. The evening menu has sea bass, chicken, the Meadow Burger and other grills on offer. Charming staff and a relaxed ambience make it a lovely place to have a West End-style contemporary Italian meal. They also offer Steak at Sucre a £16 set lunch. After tiramisu and lemon tart plus a glass of red, we were really feeling Ealing. www.meadowrestaurant.co.uk

THE ENGINE ROOMS in East Finchley, on the site of the Hexagon garage, has given north London something it’s been missing – a destination restaurant. Our table started with a pretty-as-a-picture grey mullet ceviche with a sweet tomato dressing and a cured egg yolk in the centre of the bowl, followed by a ‘meaty’ halibut T-bone steak with a lovely buttery emulsion, and a rack of lamb with peas and broad beans. We ordered bbq sweet potato with ricotta and walnut, plus a superb hispi cabbage with wild garlic aioli, crispy shallots and chilli crumb. Desserts were a chocolate mousse with salted peanut butter and caramelised banana, plus an apricot frangipane tart with clotted cream ice-cream – comfort food at its best. In warmer weather, the courtyard is a superb option for lunch or dinner and the menu includes salads and lighter dishes. West-endworthy and you can park outside the door. The added bonus of going for lunch is that the fantastic deli and wine shop Bottles ‘N’ Jars is open during the day. https://theenginerooms.co.uk

An evening under the stars at CHAMELEON feels like a combination of all the Mediterranean holidays we missed out on over the past year. Set in a pretty courtyard with live music and the warm glow of flame patio heaters, who needs Mallorca when you can have Marylebone? We started with lychee and rose Bellinis while soaking up the atmosphere, of which there is plenty. Israeli chef Elior Balbul’s food is exciting and bursting with flavour. Kubana brioche, a veritable pillow of decadence, Chameleon came with zhug, crème fraîche and crushed tomato. Our group had beetroot cured salmon with pickled beets and quinoa, yellowtail sashimi with ricotta and fennel, aubergine carpaccio with goats’ cheese and crispy onion (favourite dish) and lamb sirloin with stuffed cabbage and garlic purée. We finished with a yuzu and bergamot curd with berries and sumac meringue, a suitably sweet and tangy finale to a phenomenal feast of flavours. www.chameleon.london

The novelty of cooking Sunday lunch at home fizzled out when we were unable to go to restaurants during the lockdowns. Throughout those arduous months, Sri Lankan chef extraordinaire Kushan Marthelis kept up morale by delivering meals as Cacao Catering. Now he is rescuing weekends at his newly-opened The Engine Rooms eaterie, the CACAO BEAN RESTAURANT AND CAFÉ in Borehamwood. Open weekdays for the typical café fare (only better), Kushan shines Newly-opened MEADOW in Ealing has been on Sundays when he serves brunch and then referred to as an oasis and it is easy to see why. Between the beautiful hanging baskets adorning lunch from 12pm to 4pm. However good your roast may be, his beef or chicken with steamed the restaurant and the birdsong in the toilets, broccoli, carrots, roast potatoes, Yorkshire we really did feel as if we had stepped into the pudding and rosemary jus is better, and the Secret Garden. We got the lunchtime party started with a signature cocktail – My Sweet portion sizes shame the most generous Temptation, which came complete with Jewish mother. Smoked beef short ribs and beef Wellington are also on the menu a cloche and Heston-eque flavoured and, if you have room for dessert, smoke. We mutually loved the Kushan will surprise you with his focaccia, the burrata, the salmon brownies or an apple Charlotte. and the broccoli fritti. Sadly So reasonably priced it’s there was only one veggie dish available at lunchtime – a embarrassing, so leave a good tip. malloreddus arrabbiata, which www.cacaobean didn’t smell bad as suggested by its A luscious restaurant.co.uk name. My friend was disappointed Cacao Bean dessert

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Shaina maidel maintenance Brigit Grant has potions for beauty restoration As any Jewish woman will tell you, “looking this good” is a daily commitment, so regular product updates can only help with the process of feeling, looking and smelling great. After all, life has changed exponentially. A hat worn to disguise a bad hair day is now teamed with a mask that covers half a sallow face. Lipsticks, liners and the like remain in semi-lockdown, leaving eyes, brows and lashes front of stage. When you add cold weather, more screen time and a general air of malaise, it’s obvious looking good will make you feel better Dolly! Jewish-owned company Let’s Sanitise supports the government’s mantra and, for every bottle sold (£7.99), donates another to care homes, schools and charities. Best of all, its hand sanitiser – which kills 99.99% of bacteria – smells delish. Available in citrus, lavender, peach, berry, watermelon and aloe vera, your mitts will never smell of Domestos again. https://letssanitise.com

A bright orange tube branded Tired Faace (£24) is a gift if your reflection looks like mine. Used daily or weekly, the mask gives back the glossy and glow with no sleep required. This is a punchy potion that also fights off free radicals, gently exfoliates, brightens, and helps keep skin plump and springy. From www.wearefaace.com, Cult Beauty, Liberty, Harrods and others Miller Harris (www.millerharris.com) make smells you can’t stop sniffing. Won over by LOST in the City (£120), described as “nature exploding through cracks of cement and brickwork, re-wilded rhubarb and the scent of green ferns”, you can now trial scents in the new Discovery Set, which features eight and, on purchase, Miller Harris will email a £30 voucher to be redeemed against a full-sized bottle. Once you find the fragrance you love, team it with a candle. Then your house can smell of sandalwood, pink pepper and frankincense (Santal). Yum.

The humble soap, which parents once threatened to use on mouthy children, is having a renaissance. It’s been reinvented by www.foamie.co.uk, a German company that has made a solid cleansing bar with perfect pH balance for skin and hair. It’s the “think outside the bottle” philosophy behind the ace Foamie shampoo bar (£7), and there’s no better wash to be had than with the rose oil face bar (£6).

With your punim (face) exposed to blue light damage, radiation, central heating and, for many, no sleep, chances are you don’t look like you did in that Marbella poolside pic. Thanks, then, to 35 Thousand, which has come up with a skin range containing the complex OTG7. The ingredients are too long to list, but it sorts stressed-out skin by calming irritation, reducing the effect of cortisol and restoring cell metabolism in such products as Really Radiant Cream (£90), which is a ‘facial in a bottle’ that gives that elusive ‘well-rested’ glow; Clever Cleansing Balm (£30), which removes make-up while nourishing, and the All-In A Day Serum (£40), which brightens and protects. As it doesn’t cost 35 thousand, it’s an improvement investment. www.35thousand.com

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Jewish News 9 December 2021

Orthodox Judaism

SEDRA

Torah For Today

Vayigash

What the Torah says about: Changing sex?

BY RABBI GARRY WAYLAND An experience many of us have had over the past two years has been that of joyous meetings after unfortunately prolonged and forced absences. We had got used to living in a world of being constantly in touch and, during lockdowns, stayed in touch through Zoom or the like, but the fact we could not so easily pop out to see our loved ones meant every call was bittersweet. Our interconnected world meant it had become the norm for families to be far-flung across the globe, and we now appreciate it is not so straightforward to go to Israel or beyond. In days gone by, merely news of the well-being of a loved one was delightful; years could go by without hearing from others living distances today considered trivial. The joy in seeing a friend or relative after a long time was immense; our sages mandated reciting the blessing Shechiyanu (said on auspicious occasions, festivals or on hearing good news) after 30 days, and Mechayei hametim (‘who revives

the dead’) after a year. Imagine the joy Jacob would have felt on reuniting with his beloved son after believing him dead for so many years, and discovering that not only had he survived, but he had thrived and become Egypt’s prime minister. What was his reaction to meeting Joseph? Joseph “fell on his neck and wept excessively”, but Rashi, noting Jacob’s apparent lack of reaction, quotes our sages that he was “reciting the Shema”, the prayer that above all others expresses our belief in the unity of God in all circumstances. Life is a series of cycles of closeness and distance – to God, to our families, to ourselves – emotionally, spiritually, physically. Jacob’s first reaction was to see the unity in the moments of closeness and joy, as well as those of estrangement and distance. May we all merit to draw strength to do the same.

◆ Rabbi Garry Wayland is a teacher and educator for US Living and Learning

BY RABBI ARIEL ABEL Kathleen Stock, professor of philosophy at Sussex University, has said she believes people cannot change their biological sex. The DNA information written into to every cell determines whether a person has a Y chromosome and is therefore biologically male, or does not and is biologically female. Once the biological sex is determined, in accordance with how the egg was fertilised before it became a foetus, it cannot change or be changed. Lord Robert Winston concurs, but also pointed out in a TV inter- X chromosomes determine females view on 15 October that there is more to sex than the DNA infor- have all sorts of psychological brain mation biologically embedded in sex – they’re all different.” In classical Judaism, gender one’s cells. is determined “I will say this categorically – identification that you cannot change your sex, according to the external genitalia. However, later rabbinical your sex actually is there in every single cell in the body. You have responsa admit other gender-indichromosomal sex, you have genetic cating non-genital signs – such as sex, you have hormonal sex, you developing breasts, facial hair or

a deepening of the voice – which previously were not in evidence. Abraham Hayim Miranda, an 18th century rabbi in Salonika, Greece, discussed whether a transman needs a circumcision. Rabbi Yosef Palaji, in 19th century Izmir, Turkey, ruled that a transman need not receive a get (bill of divorce) from a husband as the wife had transitioned and was no longer a woman at all. Palaji also discussed the possibility of a transwoman reciting a variation on the blessing “who has not made me a woman” and reciting instead: “Blessed are You who has turned me into a woman”. These responsa demonstrate that non-binary identities are positively identified and discussed in halachic Judaism. ◆ Rabbi Ariel Abel CF works at Liverpool Legal, a legal practice in Liverpool associated with E Rex Makin & Co Solicitors

The power and urgency of Rabbi Sacks’ message lives on in us all Great leaders relentlessly look ahead, writes Rabbi Raphael Zarum. For them, the future is full of opportunity and the past is a treasure-trove of valuable lessons. Directly after a meeting or completing a task, Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks would often say: “What’s next?” quoting Jed Bartlet’s adage from the fictional TV series The West Wing. And so, a year after the passing of Rabbi Sacks in which people have been reminiscing about meaningful encounters with him, and sharing his thoughts and writings, what’s next? Organisations around the world, including Yeshiva University in New York, Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and the London School of Jewish Studies (LSJS) are in the process of launching major long-term projects to further the Torah of Rabbi Sacks. He did not want people to simply follow him, he wanted them to critically engage with his ideas. Rabbi Sacks had an amazing ability to frame the challenges of the day and chart a pathway forward. Six months into the pandemic he wrote: “What will be the shape of a post-Covid-19 world? That will be the defining question of the years ahead. Will we use this unparalleled moment to re-evaluate our priorities, or will we strive to get back as quickly as possible to business as usual? Will we have changed or merely endured?” Of course, he is right, but I fear that we

To teach us how to be Jews in our secular involvements as well as in our private lives. To teach us what it is to create a society… based on ‘compassion, justice and righteousness, because these are what I desire, says God.’ To teach every Jew, left, right and centre, to find his or her place in Torah. Above all to rise above the smallness and recapture the greatness of Torah that once inspired every Jew by its grandeur, its compassion, its sheer nobility… Because from here on in there are no excuses.” How are we doing with that? Have we begun to achieve this? Rabbi Sacks had high standards, he wanted the best for us, but he understood this would take time. And he was never more passionate than when he spoke about Jewish education. The urgency of his message lives on. So what are we going to do about it? What are you going to do? What’s next?

Rabbi Sacks had high standards, he wanted the best for us, but knew this would take time

are too pressured and weary, and that the appetite for deep reflection and forwardthinking is limited. And yet Rabbi Sacks will not let us off the hook. “You are not expected to complete the task, but neither are you free to stand aside from it.” Taken from Ethics of the Fathers (2:21), that was the mission statement of his first

decade as Chief Rabbi. Indeed, I can never forget the challenge he set for Anglo-Jewry at the end of the landmark Traditional Alternatives conference he organised at LSJS (then Jews’ College) back in 1989 – “To make sure that every child has a Jewish education, as intellectually demanding and inspiring as the best secular education.

◆ Rabbi Dr Raphael Zarum is the dean of London School of Jewish Studies. In partnership with Jewish News, LSJS has just completed a year of fortnightly lectures about the Torah of Rabbi Sacks taught by his students, all leaders in their own right. The lectures are all available on the LSJS website. Later this month, LSJS begins a weekly online Torah class based on the writings of Rabbi Sacks, see www.lsjs.ac.uk for more information

9 December 2021 Jewish News

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Progressive Judaism

Progressively Speaking

The Bible Says What?

Christmas is coming, so what do Jews do?

‘Only the bald are pure’ BY RABBI RODERICK YOUNG Leviticus 13:40 contains my favourite verse: “If a man loses the hair of his head and becomes bald, he is pure.” My photograph shows that I am extremely pure. This strange verse comes in a part of the Torah that seems to link skin disease with divine punishment. As a hospital chaplain, I was called to the bedside of a Chasid with an infected arm. He said: “Tell me what sin I have committed that is making God punish me.” We became friends, but I could not comprehend a cruel God who would use disease as punishment. He could not understand a Jew who didn’t see disease as punishment. On festivals, we chant the Torah verse: “God merciful and compassionate, slow to anger, and abounding in kindness.” The verse end, which tells how the sins of parents are visited upon children, is omitted because we seek out the compassionate side of God. Ours is not

a God who punishes with disease. However, does Leviticus suggest that my Chasidic friend’s view of a punitive God is correct? My bald verse occurs in a section interpreting a leprous condition called tzara’at. Clothes could suffer from tzara’at (mildew?), as could houses (rising damp?). Tzara’at was evidence that a person or an object had been touched by ritual impurity. The Israelites felt that sometimes God used skin ailments as punishment, just as God sometimes used frogs, locusts, darkness and hailstones. But we cannot extrapolate from this that illness must be understood as punishment. Sometimes a frog is just a frog. The Talmud interprets tzara’at as punishment for slander. Claiming disease as punishment from God is to slander the ill. Rather we should treat the ill like God, with compassionate and abounding kindness.

◆ Roderick Young is a freelance rabbi living in Norfolk

BY RABBI CHARLEY BAGINSKY I’m asked to comment on a lot of things that have the potential to be controversial, but there is nothing that gets more comments in my inbox than when I talk about Jews and Christmas. My personal relationship with it also seems to antagonise or delight an already heated debate. After all, I am the rabbi who was born on Christmas Day. My mother is even called Mary. But it is not only the auspicious date of my birth that has shaped my thoughts on this topic. I grew up in a family where my mother had converted and so my Nana, a very religious Catholic, would want to mark the day. My children’s father also converted and so they, too, have a mixed faith family, for whom Christmas is very important. But all of us – unless we are completely cut off from the world – know Christmas is coming. We feel it, we see it and we hear it for

a good six weeks before it is upon us. Personally, it is an annoyance – reminding me that, since I no longer live in Israel, it is impossible to have a party on my birthday. But I know for many others it indicates some well-deserved time off is coming. Many love the chance to have a day when all those whom they care about are off work and school and can be together. Equally, there are Jews who feel the profound loneliness of this time of the year and we must be there for them.

But now the perennial question – should we have a Christmas tree?! Each of us has to walk those negotiations in our own way. There are no Christmas decorations in my house – they would detract from my birthday, obviously! But the children will visit their non-Jewish family during the season and will take them presents and, I am sure, feast on the chocolate on their trees. It is also important for us to recognise that, for some Christians, decorations and trees are trappings that distract from a holy time for them. For me, the principle lies in shalom bayit – the essence of this time is bringing light into what is a cold and dark world at the moment. So whether you have a menorah, a tree, both or neither, I’m wishing you all light in this time. ◆ Rabbi Charley Baginsky is chief executive officer of Liberal Judaism

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Ask Our Experts / Professional advice from our panel

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Fun, games and prizes

THE JEWISH NEWS CROSSWORD 1

9 11 14 17 19 20 22 23

18 19

ACROSS 1 Men’s gymnastics apparatus (5)

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

Significant public figure (inits)(3) Call in, visit (4,2) Abounding in broken rock (6) Ice-cream container (3) ___ de vie, brandy (3) Porky banger (7) Prohibited (5) Passed (time) (5)

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

DOWN 1 Eliminate (6) 2 Capture (3) 3 Well-built (5) 4 Old TV tape (5) 5 Daughter of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle (7) 6 Eternally (4) 10 Unsettle (7) 12 Fireside carpet (3) 13 Away from school (6) 15 Zest (5) 16 Opposite of ‘mine’ (5) 18 Animal hide (4) 21 High card (3)

13 14

SUDOKU

4 Regulating device (5) 7 Flecked (7) 8 Fib (3)

SUGURU Each cell in an outlined block must contain a digit: a two-cell block contains the digits 1 and 2, a three-cell block contains the digits 1, 2 and 3; and so on. The same digit must not appear in neighbouring cells, not even diagonally.

WORDSEARCH

CODEWORD

The words associated with botany 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.

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 with their letters in the grid will help you to guess the identity of other letters.

V A L X C A P D N Q U Z F L P K

O T F E O O B A G

R O S E T T E E

C X U B Y S C S T C O R M L N

V E S G

L D E C

A N T H E R E P R M D U L F B H L D M C S L

L W O Y E N P B L E X

ANTHER BULB CALYX CORM COROLLA

J G R O K N S

M N R E B U T T COTYLEDON FRUIT GERMINATION LEAF LEGUME

PISTIL POLLEN RHIZOME ROSETTE SEED

Last issue’s solutions Crossword ACROSS: 1 Fray 3 Factor 8 Segment 9 ATM 10 Hypothesis 13 Enrichment 17 Owl 18 Crudely 19 Scrawl 20 Lyre DOWN: 1 Fist 2 Angry 4 Aft 5 Tears 6 Remiss 7 Heroic 11 Humbug 12 Demons 14 Ruler 15 Needy 16 Tyre 18 Cow

9 6 8 4 3 5 7 2 1

17 17

24 21

10 5

3 2 1 7 6 8 5 9 4

2 1 9 5 4 6 8 3 7

3 7

12 24

1 5

18 24

2 3 5 1

4 24

4 3

25 11

See next issue for puzzle solutions.

Suguru 7 5 4 2 9 1 3 6 8

1 17

2 5

3 2

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

Sudoku 5 9 6 8 1 4 2 7 3

SEPAL STAMEN STEM TRANSPIRATION TUBER

1 3 7 6 5 2 4 8 9

J R E Z

8 4 2 3 7 9 6 1 5

N E M A T S T B

R R E O Y T I

U A T H W N S E L A

N H Q L

M O R Z N P A V S M U L K P

O A G Y

O A T R M A

3 7 8 1 3

6 7 5 9 8 3 1 4 2

4 8 3 1 2 7 9 5 6

1 3 4 2 4 1

2 5 1 3 5 2

1 3 2 4 1 3

Wordsearch 2 4 1 3 5 2

1 3 5 2 4 1

4 2 4 1 3 5

5 1 4 2 1 2

3 2 3 5 4 3

1 4 1 2 1 2

2 5 3 4 3 4

3 4 2 1 2 1

1 5 3 4 3 5

F F B N L X B S J G B G T

K X R J V A Z T O E O E J

T Y O U K D L R G R L M P

R B A E C P C I C S C L K

K I D N E Y H N V O D M Y

G N I P M U J G F O L N R

M F A T T Z J F R A O E I

Codeword O V R A R O E E D W T L Q

P K Y E E E C X W T S U N

L O M U N G O I U I E M Y

S G J N N C D B R H Z Q I

B W E F U Y H A I A W H V

B S J U R A O C O C H Y Q

CRUD E S U A E H S UC COU R U E D U RAD I O B P R S E Y E L I D D X S S QU A I N T S D N R WR I NG A A N F B EGS F E

A S

L I

A B A A Z O J O K V A

M A N H A N DWE L L I MO N P GN E

L E A E S Y S R GE P L L A N Y S D

I C W S F E R Y X L O 09/12 J V QH Z U N DKMA T GP B

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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

Charity Reg No. 802559

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

JEWISH TRADITION VIDEOS

JEWISH TRADITION FREE Talks-Music-Religion www.tinyurl.com/JewishTraditionVideos

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

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

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Jewish News 9 December 2021

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