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Going platinum Barry’s Queen’s 70 years of support for UK’s Jewish community

blessing

Personal tribute to comedy genius Page 31

FREE WEEKLY NEWSPAPER OF THE YEAR 3 February 2022 • 2 Adar Rishon 5782 • Issue No.1248 •

Pages 26-27

@JewishNewsUK

Auschwitz is a part of Met police ‘banter’

Repugnant behaviour revealed by watchdog Police officers exchanged racist WhatsApp messages, including an obscene joke about Auschwitz, a shocking report into bullying and harassment in the force revealed this week, writes Adam Decker.

Racist, sexist and homophobic messages were sent on the social media platform by serving officers, with one reported to have sent the message: “Opened my balcony door and loads of flies flew into the front room. So I got the fly spray and turned my gaff [flat] into Auschwitz.”

Detailed in a report from the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) into now-disbanded teams, the messages were uncovered as part of nine investigations into officers based mostly at Charing Cross police station, that began in 2018.

The report submits 15 recommendations for the Met to change its practices and culture.

The Operation Hotton investigation found evidence of a culture of ‘toxic masculinity’, sexual harassment and misogyny, with one officer nicknamed “mcrapey raperson” in a WhatsApp chat.

Racist and Islamophobic comments were also revealed, including remarks about African children, Somalian ‘rats’, black and Asian people.

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said: “I am utterly disgusted by the behaviour outlined in this IOPC report, which details the shocking evidence of discrimination, misogyny, harassment and bullying by police officers. The conduct of these officers was totally unacceptable and what has been revealed by these investigations will only further damage public trust and confidence in the police.

“It is right that the team concerned has been disbanded and the police officers found to be involved have been dismissed,

disciplined or have left the police. Anyone found to be responsible for sexism, racism, misogyny, Islamophobia, antisemitism, bullying or harassment does not deserve to wear the Met uniform.”

The report said: “When we spoke with victims who challenged perpetrators about their experience, they told us that there appeared to be attempts made to push any comments or behaviour into a ‘grey zone’. This meant that everything that happened in this zone was reduced to being banter or a joke or game” A spokesperson for Jewish Women’s Aid (JWA) said: “The investigation uncovers shocking conduct and there can be no doubt that sexism and misogyny in the Met needs to be further investigated.

For women to trust the police they need to know that this kind of behaviour, as well as racism, is not tolerated.”

DARKNESS LIGHTED Holocaust survivors gathered in Piccadilly Circus to light candles and remember victims of genocide on Holocaust Memorial Day at an event in partnership with Jewish News. Elsewhere, the capital’s best-known buildings were lit in purple. HMD round-up, pages 6, 22 & 25

• Record month for JWA, page 9

WHOOPI’S MISTAKE? TO SEE RACE AS REAL But it is also ridiculous: to the frustration of racists, both in the past POLITICAL EDITOR, and the present, racism is a hatred NEW STATESMAN without a shred of scientific evidence.

It’s one reason why there are so The trouble with racism is that it is many good jokes about antisemites, very, very silly – but it is also serious. people “who hate Jews more than is It is why British people from a Gypsy, necessary”: because a racist is, and Roma or Traveller background are always will be, a comical figure.

There is as much variation in more likely to be poor and malnourished. It is why our communal spaces terms of IQ between siblings of the have security guards and high fences. same family as there is among the

BY STEPHEN BUSH

general population: race is, essentially, a lie. There’s no history of race, only a history of racism.

So Whoopi Goldberg (pictured) – who has been suspended from her role as presenter of US talk show for claiming that the Holocaust “was not about race” – is half right. It is true to say that the Holocaust was

no more or no less about race than, say, a Klan rally or the complex list of racial categories that governed who you could marry, how you could live and whether you could vote in apartheid South Africa are “about race”.

What they are all about is racism.

It was racism which meant that

millions of people, many of whom believed themselves to be German, Austrian, Czech, Danish, French, Greek, Hungarian, Polish or Dutch first and foremost, some of who did not self-identify as Jewish at all, some of whom were practising devotees of other religions or no religion at all, were methodically tracked down via census records, birth certificates and other documents in Continued on page 14

2

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Jewish News 3 February 2022

News / JPR research / Trade visit / CFI chair

Europe’s Jews see themselves as religious– not ethnic– group

by Michael Daventry michael@jewishnews.co.uk @MichaelDaventry

European Jews consider themselves a religious minority rather than an ethnic one and believe antisemitism and the Holocaust play a more important role in their identity than Israel or God, according to research published this week.

The study, based on research in 12 European countries including Britain in 2018, suggested that Jewish identity was stronger in western Europe than east and that younger Jews are more likely to be religiously observant.

The Institute for Jewish Policy Research (JPR) report also found that while modern Orthodox streams of Judaism remained prevalent, they were losing ground to progressive and strictly-Orthodox denominations, both of which are growing.

Sergio DellaPergola, who chaired a unit that analysed data covering over 16,000 Jews, said they intended

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The study was based on research in 12 European countries

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Spain was identified as having the largest number of Jews identifying as Reform or progressive, following by Germany and the Netherlands.

The largest proportion identifying

themselves as Orthodox was in Belgium. The UK was second.

The 112-page study found: • Jews in Europe are likelier than those in the US to follow weekly rituals such as lighting candles every Friday night.

• Most European Jews attend a Passover seder and fast on Yom Kippur.

• Only small minorities keep kosher at home or attend synagogue every week.

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recent years, many generations after the Holocaust, that people living in eastern Europe were beginning to acknowledge their Jewish heritage.

The report’s authors acknowledged that Hungary and Poland were the only eastern European communities covered, but added that there was “much talk from community leaders and activists” in other formerly communist countries, such as Ukraine or Russia, of desecularisation — the process of people rediscovering their

Jewishness — “being a very important and real phenomenon”.

JPR executive director Jonathan Boyd said: “The report pulls together many of the key insights we have gained from the research we have done for the European Union and European Commission, and it should serve as a key reference on this topic in the coming years.

“There is a great deal of food for thought here, with potentially significant implications for Jewish education and community development.”

Trade secretary on Israel visit to ‘kick-start deal’ International trade secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan has flown to Israel to meet with minister of economy Orna Barbivai to “kick-start preparations” for a new trade deal between the UK and Israel.

The UK government has begun an eightweek consultation to seek the views of business and the public, ahead of negotiations starting later this year, as is standard.

As part of her three-day visit Trevelyan will also confirm plans to host a UK-Israel Innovation Summit this spring. The event will take place in the UK and will see entrepreneurs, investors and leading businesses attend.

The UK is Israel’s third largest trading partner, with £2.7 billion worth of British exports going there in 2020 and an overall trade

Anne-Marie Trevelyan at the Western Wall

relationship worth £4.8 billion. Trevelyan said: “We’re using our independent trade policy to revitalise old agreements we inherited from the EU. Unlike in the past, we can now work with friends and allies like Israel to strike deals that are truly tailored to our strengths in areas like digital trade, services and life sciences.”

Long-time CFI chair retires The chair of Conservative Frends of Israel is to retire from the post after 13 years.

Andrew Heller will be succeeded by current CFI treasurer and former Hampstead constituency chair Stephen Massey.

During Heller’s tenure, hundreds of parliamentarians visited Israel and CFI’s annual lunches and party conference receptions have become some of the biggest events in the political calendar. He said: “Israel has changed beyond recognition during my time as chairman and the support of the Conservative Party for Israel has grown ever stronger.

“There is so much of which I am proud and it has been a privilege to work with some extraor-

dinarily talented people, both in parliament and within the CFI offices. I know that I am leaving the organisation in the best position it has ever been and I very much look forward to watching Stephen and the team continuing its success”.

Saying he was “honoured” to take on the post, Massey – patron of the Hampstead and Kilburn Conservative Association – added: “Israel and the party are deeply important to me and I relish the opportunity to expand the fantastic relationship between these two great countries.”

Lord Polak, CFI honorary president, said: “Andrew has made an enormous contribution.

He leaves CFI in rude health and the UK-Israel relationship stronger than it has ever been.”

3 February 2022 Jewish News

www.jewishnews.co.uk

3

Amnesty ‘slur’ / Partygate findings / Rape allegation / News

Israel’s pre-emptive strike against ‘apartheid’ claim

by Michael Daventry mike@jewishnews.co.uk @michaeldaventry

Israel has projected a more adversarial stance after Amnesty International became the third major rights group to describe its treatment of Palestinians and its own Arab minority as apartheid.

In a 211-page report formally released on Tuesday, the Londonbased international human rights group said Palestinians were treated as an “inferior racial group and systematically deprived of their rights”.

It said Israeli policies both within its borders and in the West Bank were discriminatory and racially motivated against Palestinians.

But multiple Israeli government departments leaked the document in advance in what officials called a “preemptive strike”. They accused Amnesty of antisemitism.

Yair Lapid, Israel’s foreign minister, said Amnesty was “just another radical organisation which echoes propaganda, without seriously checking the facts”.

A statement by the foreign ministry

Amnesty International says Palestinians are treated as an ‘inferior racial group’

added that the report “denies the state of Israel’s right to exist as the nation state of the Jewish people”, adding: “Its extremist language and distortion of historical context were designed to demonise Israel and pour fuel onto the fire of antisemitism.”

With the report, Amnesty becomes the third major rights group to accuse Israel of apartheid, after the New

York-based Human Rights Watch and B’Tselem in Israel.

Many other Israeli and Jewish organisations condemned Amnesty ahead of publication.

In Britain, the Board of Deputies and the Jewish Leadership Council said it was “completely biased and applies standards to Israel that are not applied to any other country. “The emotive

Partygate report is ‘really damning’, says barrister The report by the civil servant Sue Gray into the Downing Street parties held during lockdown “really is damning” for Boris Johnson, leading barrister Adam Wagner has said.

Speaking after an initial version of the report was published – without the allegations of up to 12 gatherings in Downing Street now being investigated by the Metropolitan Police – human rights lawyer Wagner said of its impact on the prime minister: “There is no doubt that she [Gray] has herself come to the conclusion that a significant number of the gatherings breached the guidelines and potentially breached the law – that’s why its been passed over to the Metropolitan Police.

“It terms of how it paints the picture, even though its not the full report, just an interim set

of findings... it is damning, it really is damning.”

The Met police later revealed they had received 300 images and 500 pages of documents about the partygate allegations from the Gray inquiry.

Damningly for Johnson, the Gray report found “failures of leadership and judgment by different parts of No 10 and the Cabinet Office”. It said that some lockdown gatherings in government represent a “serious failure” to observe what was asked of the public.

Wagner, a New North London Synagogue regular, said one of the most significant sections of the report was that among those gatherings under investigation by police were the prime minister’s June 2020 birthday party and an alleged ‘bring your own bottle’ gathering the previous month in the Downing Street garden.

AQUITTED BRITON PURSUES CLAIM A British woman convicted of lying about being gang-raped

by Israelis in Cyprus has had the verdict overturned at the country’s supreme court.

The 21-year-old university student from Derby was given a suspended four-month jail term in 2020 by a Cypriot judge who found her guilty of public mischief following a trial at Famagusta district court in Paralimni.

She told police she was attacked by up to 12 Israeli tourists in a hotel room while

on holiday in the party town of Ayia Napa on July 17 2019.

She was charged after signing a retraction statement 10 days later but has since maintained she was pressured by officers to withdraw the rape allegation. Her team of English and Cypriot lawyers took her appeal to the supreme court in the capital Nicosia in September, arguing the conviction is unsafe and should be set aside.

On Monday, the court allowed the appeal and over-

turned the conviction. The woman’s lawyers welcomed the decision but said her original allegations should now be investigated. Her Cypriot lawyer, Nicoletta Charalambidou, said: “This is a very important day for women’s rights and in particular for victims of rape or other forms of sexual violence in Cyprus.

“The acquittal... points to the failure of the authorities to effectively investigate the rape claims she reported. This is what we will now pursue.”

term ‘apartheid’ against Israel is a preposterous slur,” it added.

Amnesty called for an ongoing inquiry by the International Criminal Court to be widened to include the crime of apartheid. It also said Britain should commit to a “major re-assessment” of foreign policy towards Israel.

Apartheid, which describes an institutionalised regime of oppression and domination by one racial group over another, was defined as a crime by a United Nations in 1976 in response to the regime in South Africa.

In a statement released before the report’s publication, Amnesty said: “No government is above criticism, and that includes the Israeli government. Our research shows that the Israeli authorities are enforcing a system of apartheid against the Palestinian people in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories and Palestinian refugees.

“The report documents how Israel treats Palestinians as an inferior racial group, segregating and oppressing them wherever it has control over their rights.”

• Opinion, page 22

Lipstadt to finally get monitor role

Deborah Lipstadt is finally set to be named President Biden’s antisemitism monitor with a confirmation hearing date set for next week.

The Holocaust historian has her application held up by Republican Senator James Risch, the minority leader on the committee, reportedly because of her past sharp criticisms of Republicans. Lipstadt will be responsible for reporting on antisemitism overseas.

Qatar rules out Israel normalisation Qatar’s Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani has ruled out normalisation with Israel. He said there had been ties in the past “when there were prospects for peace” but that his country had since “lost hope”, lamenting “the absence of a real commitment to a twostate solution.” Qatar has provided millions of dollars of aid to the Gaza Strip, with Israel’s approval.

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Jewish News 3 February 2022

News / Trustees investigated / Licoricia tribute / Noise warning

Charity Commission opens cases into two JNF trustees The Charity Commission has confirmed it has opened ongoing cases against two trustees of the JNF UK organisation – both in relation to their conduct, writes Lee Harpin.

Jewish News understands that chair Samuel Hayek and JNF UK’s honorary treasurer, Gary Mond, are the two trustees whose conduct is now being assessed by case workers with the regulatory body. At the centre of both cases are Hayek and Mond’s behaviour as trustees of the UK’s oldest Israel charity, following widely condemned comments made by the JNF UK chair about the alleged threat to British Jews from Muslim immigration.

The Charity Commission’s role is to look at how the charity acted in relation to Hayek’s comments made in December, in interviews with Jewish News and the Jerusalem Post.

Last month, the Board of Deputies passed a censure motion against JNF UK that noted that neither Hayek nor the charity had “retracted” or been “explicit in condemnation” of the chair’s remarks, which it said caused “widespread and foreseeable offence within Muslim communities, damaging interfaith relations”.

If the Commission does find evidence of wrongdoing, the next step would be to launch a

Samuel Hayek, above, and Gary Mond, inset

statutory inquiry. This next step, if taken, could lead to various routes, including police action in the most serious of cases, if a crime is deemed to have been committed, the Commission confirmed. Recent cases taken up by the Commission that have not progressed to the statutory investigation stage have resulted in charities and their trustees being given guidance and warnings on how to act in the future.

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during that process we will not be commenting in detail, other than to say that we are confident JNF has dealt with these matters appropriately.

“We note that Gary Mond apologised for his comments which were made a number of years ago and do not reflect his current view. We also note Samuel Hayek was not speaking for the charity or its trustees and has clarified his remarks in an article in the Jewish Chronicle.”

The Commission’s ongoing case against JNF UK trustee Mond will look into his response to Hayek’s remarks as a trustee of the charity.

Mond had suggested Hayek’s comments did not represent “JNF policy” and said his own “views on this subject differ profoundly with those expressed” by the JNF UK chair.

Mond last month stood down from his role as a Board of Deputies vice president after Jewish News uncovered social media posts from him – including support for a far-right anti-Muslim activist in America. Mond claimed he had been “cancelled” from holding his views.

A Charity Commission spokesperson confirmed this week: “We have an ongoing case into JNF UK, in relation to the conduct of two of the charity’s trustees. As such we cannot comment further at this time.”

Medieval Jewish icon is honoured in Winchester

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tions were among those to react furiously to the JNF UK’s comments – which included the claim “Jews have no future in the UK” as a result of immigration into this country.

In a statement issued last month Hayek, who has been JNF UK chair for 14 years, did not deny making the comments about Muslims, but suggested he did not believe “most Muslims” in the UK were Islamic extremists.

He said there was an “important debate” to be had around antisemitism praciticed by Islamist extremists. Hayek claimed that his comments made to Jewish News had been “misunderstood” and that he was not a “bigot”.

JNF UK told Jewish News: “It is normal for the commission to investigate complaints, and

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ISSUE NO.6

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A life-size bronze statue of “the most important Jewish woman in medieval England” is to be unveiled in Winchester after a huge fundraising effort bore fruit, writes Adam Decker.

The project to install a statue of Licoricia of Winchester, the renowned Jewish businesswoman, has been crafted by sculptor Ian Rank-Broadley to help mark the presence of a medieval Jewish community in England’s former capital city.

Installation of the statue of Licoricia – dressed as a wealthy woman and portrayed with her son Asher – has begun outside the Winchester Discovery Centre in Jewry Street, opposite the site of her house and of the city’s 13th century synagogue.

Widowed twice, Licoricia was a major financier to King Henry III and his Queen, Eleanor.

A leading personality in the Jewish community of the city at the time, she brought up her family as a single parent, conducted

her business, and prospered in what was a hostile society, where antisemitism frequently resulted in killings.

“The project to install a statue of Licoricia aims to inform people about England’s little-known but important medieval Jewish community,” organisers said.

Those behind the statue’s fundraising effort described Licoricia as “a role model for women today” and “highly educated, like many Jewish women of her time, which enabled them to be successful people in their own right”.

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A barmitzvah celebration scheduled for June on the premises of the Talmud Torah Tiferes Shlomo school in Hendon will now be unable to take place after Barnet Council served the establishment with a legal noise abatement notice, writes Jenni Frazer.

The Danescroft Avenue school and residents of the

small cul-de-sac have been in dispute for months over what the latter say is unacceptable noise when the school hires out its hall, often for events or fundraising efforts.

Last week, three members of the Council’s licensing committee decided the application to hold the barmitzvah could go ahead, after noise abatement officers visited the

premises during another, separate event. But this application was cancelled and a legal notice has now been served on the school. It means the school is required to stop an “unacceptable” noise level and take steps to prevent it from reoccurring.

Failure to comply could mean prosecution and a fine of up to £5,000 per offence.

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3 February 2022 Jewish News

5

Classroom incitement / News

PA ‘hoodwinking’ UK over textbooks

by Jenni Frazer jenni@jewishnews.co.uk @jennifrazer

The Palestinian Authority has been accused of “hoodwinking” donors – which include the UK – in a continuing row over “violent and hateful” school textbooks.

Parliamentary chair of the Conservative Friends of Israel, Stephen Crabb MP, has urged the government to reconsider its aid strategy to the Palestinian Authority (PA) after a new report from IMPACT-se, an Israel-based monitor group that studies education materials in the Arab world.

It has found that despite promises to revise its textbooks, the PA has produced new, parallel teaching materials for the current school year, “which contain a great deal of violent and hateful content”.

Marcus Sheff, the UK-born chief executive of IMPACT-se, said: “Faced with a clear call by the EU for them to create new textbooks free of hate and antisemitism, the PA simply reprinted the old ones, then produced thousands of pages of new teaching material with content worse than the textbooks themselves.” He said the PA had “doubled down on teaching the hate that donor nations said they could no longer tolerate”.

Among the new material, says IMPACT-se, is “teaching about the ‘characteristics’ of Jews who are devious and treacherous, and Israelis who are described as ‘Satan’s aides’. The material demands that students should die as martyrs to liberate the al-Aqsa mosque, and explains that those who do so by killing infidels (Christians and Jews), will receive grace and be greatly rewarded”.

Jews are routinely described as “devious, treacherous and hostile”, while Israel is characterised as Satanic. The report says that science instruction “is hijacked to radicalise students”, adding: “For example, potential energy is taught through the use of slingshots and an illustration of a young boy with a slingshot.”

The Geneva Convention, says the report, is taught by showing a graphic image of corpses, while accusing Israel of mass murder.

Israel is entirely erased from maps, and Israeli cities are mislabelled as Palestinian.

Sheff said IMPACT-se had presented its findings to the EU Commission, which “had no knowledge of the textbook status or the newly created material.”

He added: “The majority of the EU’s donation to the PA goes to its education sector, so one has to ask what the EU delegation to Ramallah actually knows about what goes on in PA schools.”

Children are tested on addition with a question about ‘martyrs’ killed in the two intifadas

Last year, the EU made a commitment to oversee an improvement in the content of Palestinian textbooks, notorious for their use of the counting of “martyrs” to teach mathematics.

Crabb told Jewish News: “I am deeply troubled by reports that the PA has continued its refusal to remove material inciting violence against Israel and promoting antisemitism from its school textbooks.

“I welcome the UK government’s decision no longer to fund Palestinian teachers directly to draft and teach this curriculum, yet our continued support for UNRWA funds the use of this curriculum in its schools in the West Bank and Gaza. I urge the government to deliver on its stated zero-tolerance approach to incitement

by reconsidering its aid strategy to ensure that UK taxpayers’ money promotes peace.”

Michael Rubin, director of Labour Friends of Israel, said: “The PA should demonstrate its commitment to peace with Israel by countering incitement, not actively promoting it to the next generation.”

The Palestinian prime minister, Mohammad Shtayyeh, told a PA cabinet meeting that “everything mentioned in the textbooks is an accurate and honest description of the suffering our people have been going through for more than seven decades” and the school curriculum “cannot be judged by standards far removed from [the Palestinian] people’s history and culture”.

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Jewish News 3 February 2022

News / Holocaust Memorial Day

Survivors honoured on huge screen Photographs of Holocaust survivors taken by the Duchess of Cambridge and other leading figures were shown on the giant screen at Piccadilly Circus last week at the conclusion of Holocaust Memorial Day, writes Justin Cohen.

As tourists and passers-by joined a group of those who endured the Nazi horrors in gazing up at the world-famous landmark, candles were lit in memory of those who were killed.

Leaders from the worlds of politics, religion and the police were also shown lighting candles to mark a moment of reflection, alongside school groups.

All 50 images from the Generations exhibition – initiated by Jewish News in partnership with Holocaust

The London Eye and Battersea Power Station are lit up in purple for Holocaust Memorial Day last week

Memorial Day Trust, Royal Photographic Society (RPS) and Dangoor Education – were displayed.

It came as the exhibition opened at the RPS’s Bristol HQ following

a four-month run at the Imperial War Museum. The exhibition was also shown at UNESCO in Paris.

Olivia Marks-Woldman, of Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, which

organised the event, said: “‘We were delighted to see Holocaust Memorial Day on one of our country’s most iconic screens. It’s been a joy working with Piccadilly Lights on

creating this special moment – and to see survivors’ faces light up today has been priceless.

“We know that HMD has the power to change people’s hearts.

Hearing from survivors, watching the national ceremony, seeing neighbours place candles in their windows and iconic landmarks light up in purple – we all take a promise to learn from the past for a better future.”

Jewish News’ Justin Cohen said: “As the survivors able to relay their experiences first-hand become fewer and fewer, it is heartening how Britain came together to mark HMD, culminating in a moving, unforgettable and unprecedented moment carried live on BBC.” • Opinion, page 25

Chief Rabbi plants Hyde Park Commons Speaker hosts event to unite against hate tree as part of AJR project Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis attended the planting of a tree in Hyde Park to mark Holocaust Memorial Day. He was at the event as part of the Association of Jewish Refugees’ initiative to mark 80 years since its founding.

Joined by the Lord-Lieutenant Robert Voss and representatives of the German and Austrian embassies in London, Holocaust educators and schoolchildren, the sapling was planted near the site of the UK’s first public Shoah memorial.

The AJR is running a campaign called 80 Trees for 80 Years, planting trees to mark eight decades since its founding. One oak, sponsored

by Michael Rosenstock, son of AJR’s founding secretary, Dr Werner Rosenstock, was planted on Holocaust Memorial Day, last Thursday.

AJR chief executive Michael Newman said:

The Chief Rabbi and other dignitaries

“As well as helping to mark the heritage of our members and a place of historic interest associated with them, the planting of this tree enables the AJR to give back to and create a living legacy within the country that became home to the Jewish refugees.”

House of Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle hosted a ceremony at Westminster to mark Holocaust Memorial Day at which he called for “unity against racism and hatred”.

During a 45-minute ceremony in Portcullis House, MPs, peers and journalists gathered to remember the six million Jews murdered during the Holocaust, and of the subsequent genocides that have followed in Cambodia, Rwanda and Darfur.

Commons Leader Jacob Rees-Mogg, shadow minister David Lammy, Rabbi Debbie YoungSomers and Laura Marks, chair of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, were among those who took part in the ceremony.

In his opening address, Hoyle warned: “The Holocaust threatened the very fabric of civilisa-

tion, and genocide must be still resisted every day,” adding that we should never be complacent in the fight against antisemitism and other forms of racism and hatred.

The Speaker, who has been a staunch ally of the Jewish community, said: “Here in the UK, as elsewhere, prejudice and the language of hatred must be challenged by us all.”

Among those to attend the event were MPs Robert Jenrick, Bob Blackman and Andrew Percy, Lord Ian Austin and Holocaust Educational Trust chief executive Karen Pollock.

Hoyle also spoke out against Islamophobia.

Video report at jewishnews.co.uk

JENRICK REVEALS FAMILY THREAT Ex-Cabinet minister Robert Jenrick has revealed he received a letter telling him to “teach his ‘Jewish Zionist wife’ to ‘put out fires’” – adding that the sender had “intended to burn our house down and cremate our children”.

Opening last Thursday’s Holocaust Memorial Day debate in Westminster, Jenrick gave the

personal insight into modern day anti-Jewish hatred as he spoke in the House of Commons.

At the end of a debate in which 40 MPs across all parties spoke, an emotional Jenrick said the prayer Oseh Shalom – telling parliamentarians that he was reciting it “in honour of the six million souls who perished in the Holocaust”.

‘My family are ghosts,’ says MP Jewish MP Alex Sobel fought back tears as he recalled how many of his family “are just ghosts of the past” after being killed during the Holocaust.

He said he still “feels the trauma” despite two generations passing in his family, adding that he hopes his children “don’t feel it and aren’t driven by some of the same fears generations of Jewish and other people have felt”.

The Leeds North West MP spoke of his paternal greatgrandfather, David Laks, who was murdered by the Nazis in the Belzec death camp in 1942.

Alex Sobel speaks to MPs

The Labour politician told the Commons: “David and Teresa [his maternal grandmother], had five children.

Salka and Fanka were the eldest daughters. They lived in

central Poland and were murdered along with their families by the Nazis.”

Sobel paused to compose himself as he spoke about how the family of the middle child, Zygmunt, were gone from the Lodz ghetto when he returned from work one day.

Sobel’s uncle, Karol, was shot aged just two in front of his mother.

“I’m the only child of only children, with very few relatives, and a lot of our family are just ghosts of the past who were taken away from us by the Holocaust,” he said.

SIX HUNDRED CANDLES LIGHT UP YORK MINSTER The Reverend Canon Michael Smith helped light 600 candles to form a giant Star of David during a memorial service at York Minster’s Chapter House to mark Holocaust Memorial Day.

www.jewishnews.co.uk

3 February 2022 Jewish News

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Jewish News 3 February 2022

News / Freddie Knoller: 1921–2022

Tributes to ‘cheeky’ hero Freddie Heartfelt tributes where paid this week to legendary wartime Jewish resistance fighter Freddie Knoller, following his death at the age of 100.

The centenarian, who led a remarkable life evading cap-

ture and surviving Auschwitz, was remembered as having an “infectious” smile and dedicating his life after the Shoah to helping others.

Olivia Marks-Woldman, chief executive of Holocaust

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Memorial Day Trust, said: “Life feels a little bit greyer with the passing of Freddie.

His smile was infectious, and everpresent. Cheeky, flirtatious and warm, Freddie charmed everyone he met.

His extraordinary experiences during the Holocaust were shared with hundreds of thousands of people; his impact has been deep.”

Knoller regularly spoke

in schools about his wartime experiences. Born in Vienna, Austria, in April 1921, he escaped the Nazis by fleeing to Belgium but was interned in a refugee camp until 1940, before being arrested on the FrenchB e l g i u m border.

He escaped prison and living as a Frenchman in Paris – while fighting with the Resistance.

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by a French girlfriend and rearrested and sent to the Drancy Transit Camp, before being deported to Auschwitz.

After a death march, he was taken by cattle truck to Bergen-Belsen, before being liberated by the British Army in March 1945.

Describing Knoller as “charming and popular”, the Association of Jewish Refugees said would be “greatly missed, but forever fondly remembered”.

He is survived by his wife, Freda, their two daughters Freddie and Freda in 2014 and and grandson. (inset) their wedding day in 1950

As the country came together to remember the Holocaust, we lost one of its most incredible witnesses.

Freddie Knoller BEM, who died last week, aged 100, lived a remarkable life.

All of our survivors make a huge impres-

sion whenever they speak, but there was something about Freddie that was unique.

When he spoke in schools, he engaged even the most challenging students, and despite telling a story of unimaginable horrors, he often succeeded in making them laugh. I was particularly struck by the rapport he built with disaffected boys, who went away having met someone they thought was a hero. And he was.

He charmed everyone, including poli-

ticians and royalty. When he accompanied the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall on their 2017 Vienna visit and shared memories of his birthplace, the Duchess entered the room with an exclamation of “Freddie!’’, greeting him as a dear friend.

Despite everything Freddie endured, he was one of the most positive people anyone could meet. He would light up a room and that light will continue to burn in all of us who knew and loved him.

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Union suspension / Safeguarding women / News briefs / News

Unite employee suspended

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

A communications officer for the Unite union has been suspended over allegations of antisemitism relating to a stream of social media posts including the claim “the Jews suffered great tragedy and now inflict it on others”.

Nick West has been employed for seven years as the union’s “lead on the social media policy for the London region” and according to his own LinkedIn page he also helps Unite to “originate marketing and promotional campaigns on key issues”.

But in posts uncovered by a colleague, West is revealed to have made comparisons between the Nazis and the alleged actions of “Jews” and “Zionists” against the Palestinians. He made online attacks on the Labour MP Dame Margaret Hodge – including a Facebook post calling the Jewish politician a “woman

Some of the material apparently posted by West

who weaponises her faith and the Holocaust to forward her own petty and Zionist aims”.

He also accused Hodge and the Jewish Newsnight presenter Emily Maitlis of having “no idea of what antisemitism actually is” adding they appeared on the BBC2 show to “tell a few lies on behalf of Israel”.

In a post last month West branded Ruth Smeeth and Rachel Riley as “bad bad people” who he claims “make your skin crawl.”

West’s history of posts on antisemitism were uncovered by Steve Cooke, a Unite member himself, who has been an outspoken campaigner exposing anti-Jewish racism in both the union and in Labour.

Cooke said: “Nick West’s posts are vile. This cannot be allowed to go on. How can a Unite fulltimer get away with this?”

In 2015, after Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis launched a warning about the prospect of a Labour government under Jeremy Corbyn, West posted a fake image of a mock ‘Get Corbyn film poster featuring an image of the rabbi brandishing a shot gun.

Unite was often at the centre of allegations of antisemitism under general secretary Len McCluskey, who has now been replaced by Sharon Graham.

Unite confirmed it was investigating West’s posts and therefore could not comment.

JWA HAD BUSIEST EVER MONTH IN AUTUMN Jewish Woman’s Aid experienced its busiest month on record last year, caring for 175 vulnerable women and girls in the month of September.

Throughout 2021, 546 vulnerable women and girls accessed its services including: counselling, children’s therapy, risk reduction, emotional support, legal options, financial advice, and

safety planning. Of the 546 women who sought JWA’s support, 57 were between the ages of 14 and 30.

The charity worked with 61 women who had experienced sexual violence and dealt with 18 high-risk situations that involved statutory authorities. On top of that, its helpline and web chat services were used 305 times, equivalent to

at least one contact every day the services were open (Monday-Thursday).

The charity also provided 2,890 counselling session to 126 women, and offered 392 one-to-one therapy sessions to 31 children.

This year JWA also delivered 179 outreach sessions to raise awareness about domestic abuse and sexual vio-

lence within the Jewish community.

Their educational team helped to facilitate 132 workshops in Jewish schools, 32 in British Shuls and a further 15 sessions in universities. According to one counselling client: “In a cruel, dark and isolated place, the JWA team have been a ray of light, hope and life.”  Editorial comment, page 18

Texas siege inquiry detainee is freed

A man arrested in Manchester as part of the investigation into the Texas synagogue siege was freed this week. Counter Terrorism Policing North West said officers were continuing to support authorities in the United States with their inquiry into the attack, carried out

by Malik Faisal Akram, originally from Blackburn in Lancashire, on 15 January.

The man was released from custody on Monday.

Publisher withdraws Anne Frank book

The publisher of a book that claimed Anne Frank and her family were betrayed by a Jewish man has withdrawn the title. Ambo Anthos, which published The Betrayal of Anne Frank, apologised to “anyone who felt offended”.

Rosemary Sullivan’s book claimed that a notary, whom she names, gave the Franks up to save his family. One historian called the findings “libellous”.  Opinion, page 22

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Jewish News 3 February 2022

News / Ofsted investigation / Grant accused

Nursery closed over safeguarding A Jewish nursery has been permanently shut amid safeguarding concerns, writes Sabrina Miller.

The United Synagogue this week confirmed that Little Goldies nursery in

Golders Green Synagogue was closed by Ofsted on 13 January – the full reasons for which remain unknown.

The nursery employed five staff members.

A statement from the

United Synagogue on Wednesday said: “The United Synagogue has resigned its registration at Little Goldies, which means the nursery is now permanently closed.

“We have taken this very regrettable decision with a heavy heart but in recognition that while the investigation is ongoing, Little Goldies is no longer viable and will not be able to reopen in its current form.”

US chief executive Steven Wilson earlier told Jewish News: “Safeguarding is of the utmost importance to

the United Synagogue in all of its settings. We recognise that the situation has left parents with no alternative but to make other childcare arrangements.”

A Barnet Council spokesperson said: “We followed our procedures and contacted the police after a series of concerns about the nursery. They are being investigated, which is likely to be for a period of not less than six weeks.” According to its website, Little Goldies was ranked “good” by Ofsted in February 2020.

Little Goldies nursery is located in Golders Green Synagogue

An Ofsted spokesperson said: “We inspected the nursery on 10 January following a risk assessment. We have since suspended the

nursery’s registration and are working with other agencies.” The safeguarding concerns are not believed to be of a physical or sexual nature.

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Trust changes / Mother’s battle / News

START YOUR BUSINESS WITH A BOOM

Role changes at Rabbi Sacks trust Two of Lord Sacks’ closest aides are to step down from the organisation set up to further his teachings following his untimely death – with two other well-known communal figures taking their places, writes Justin Cohen.

Henry Grunwald will leave his role as chair of the Rabbi Sacks Legacy Trust at the end of next month, as will the former Chief Rabbi’s long-term director of communications Dan Sacker.

Grunwald will be succeeded by fellow trustee and managing partner at executive search consultancy MBS Group Elliott Goldstein.

Sacker will become a director at global reputational advisory firm Milltown Partners after more than a decade working with Sacks and for the trust across a range of communications, strategic and programmatic areas. He is cred-

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Israel-based Jonny Lipczer, currently director of

communications at World Mizrachi and former head of Bnei Akiva in the UK, will join the trust in March.

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Global campaign launched for Beth to see her children A major global campaign was launched this week to support the bid of British mother Beth Alexander to be reunited with her twin sons, Samuel and Benjamin, writes Jenni Frazer.

The boys live in Vienna with Alexander’s exhusband, Dr Michael Schlesinger, whom she has been fighting in the Vienna courts after the breakdown of their short marriage.

Despite attempts to gain regular and normalised access or visitation rights, Alexander has had minimal success in the Austrian courts.

Last summer, the qualified solicitor was able to see her sons, now aged 12, for only one brief, supervised visit, for the first time in five years.

Schlesinger has successfully argued that Alexander is unfit to take care of their sons, who are due to have their barmitzvah in June.

In happier times: Beth with her twin boys

She said: “I don’t even know what date it is, or whether I am allowed to attend.”

Alexander said she had around 5,000 supporters, who are asked to contact Oskar Deutsch, president of the Vienna Jewish community, to protest against the rulings.

Oliver to become first TEACHER BANNED Jewish Metro mayor? OVER MISCONDUCT The UK could be on the brink of having its first Jewish Metro mayor, writes Lee Harpin.

Oliver Coppard, who famously declined to stand in the Sheffield Oliver Coppard Hallam seat in 2018 in protest at Jeremy Corbyn’s failure to tackle antisemitism, has been selected as Labour’s candidate for the forthcoming South Yorkshire mayoral contest.

The Jewish Labour Movement member received a 57 percent share of the votes in the second round of last week’s selection contest, after the incumbent decided not to stand again.

A former teacher has been banned from the classroom “indefinitely” over claims of inappropriate sexual misconduct.

A Teacher Regulation Agency ruling stated that Yankel Shepherd is “prohibited from teaching indefinitely and cannot teach in any school, sixth-form college, relevant youth accommodation or children’s home in England”. He is also not entitled to apply for “restoration of his eligibility to teach” although he has a right of appeal to the High Court for a month after receipt of his ban.

The decision was made after a five-day virtual hearing in which claims were made by two witnesses, who gave details of specific misbehaviour committed by Shepherd.

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Jewish News 3 February 2022

News / Hate crimes / Stabbing trial

Four incidents in 10 days cause fear Four incidents of suspected antisemitism in and around Stamford Hill in the past 10 days have “instilled fear”, a community leader warned this week, writes Jack Mendel.

Rabbi Herschel Gluck, president of neighbourhood watch group Shomrim, said he has met with home secretary Priti Patel’s team and is set to speak with Metropolitan Police commissioner Cressida Dick.

This comes after Malachi Thorpe, 18, was remanded in custody after he allegedly targeted two strictly-Orthodox men as they closed a shop in Haringey.

Other incidents reported by the group include a bus driving through Stamford Hill on Shabbat with speakers reportedly blaring “Yiddos go home”. Shomrim said: “They appeared to be targeting Orthodox Jews leaving synagogue.”

Police are also investigating after a five-yearold child was allegedly spat at, and youths “terrorised” families in a residential road.

Gluck said the incidents against Jews were “sadly part of a large spike that began about 10 months ago. It is ongoing and extremely little has been done to deal with it by the authorities.”

He added: “There’s a general feeling of negativity towards minorities, including the Jewish community, and that has percolated down to people on the street.” Asked if the community was scared, he said: “No, not scared to go out. But it’s certainly instilling fear.

“People are still getting on with their lives.

But people feel strongly that this needs to be

dealt with.” He added: “The authorities and the government have to change tack and take these issues seriously. Tackling the rise in antisemitism is certainly achievable. The amount of resources required for this isn’t large, but they need to be targeted to combat this situation.” Rabbi Gluck added that Charedi leaders are “constantly meeting” with politicians and local officials.

In a statement, the Met said it is “aware of a video posted by Shomrim of an open top bus in Stamford Hill, along with reports of antisemitic abuse being broadcast”. and was making enquiries. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Met or Shomrim, using crime reference 4602717/22.

Ensignbus, the firm that hired out the bus, told Jewish News: “We had absolutely no idea that this would happen... and we are now investigating the matter and will be speaking to the client.”

The driver “unfortunately did not hear anything due to the general amount of noise from the number of people upstairs”.

The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (UCKG), which hired the bus, denied the claim made by Shomrim. The video, which has no sound, has been handed to police and Ensignbus.

In a statement to Ensignbus, Shomrim and

A bus drives through Stamford Hill with loudspeakers reportedly blaring ‘Yiddos go home’. Left: The attack on two men outside a Haringey shop

the Met, UCKG said: “After speaking to our pastors who were in charge of the bus that day, and participants, we can absolutely deny these suggestions”, of antisemitism. It said the bus took a route via HelpCentres at Finsbury Park, Stamford Hill, Hackney, Wood Green and Kilburn to promote one of its initiatives.

“Volunteers shouted encouraging messages to passers-by and invitations to attend the event” as well as “the word ‘shalom’ in the phrase

‘shalom, shalom, shalom you can even come along’. We do not think that can be construed as antisemitic,” the group added. It told Shomrim: “We urge you to retract the Twitter post and police complaint as a matter of urgency.”

The Met confirmed it was called on 30 January to a report of a child being spat on at Clapton Common; crime reference 4791 30/01/22 Shomrim urged anyone with information about youths “terrorising” Jewish families to come forward using reference 6556 29/01/22.

Knifeman ‘believed M&S funds Israeli persecution’

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A knifeman stabbed two women in a Marks & Spencer store because he believed the retailer funded Israel in its “persecution” of Palestine, a jury in Manchester has heard.

Munawar Hussain wounded the manager in the neck and chased her through the store in Burnley, Lancashire, before turning his attentions to a customer.

He stabbed the customer in the arm and tried to land a blow in her back as she lay on the floor but “mercifully” the blade of his kitchen knife snapped from the handle after it became stuck in her handbag strap.

Hussain fled and was detained outside by a store security guard and members of the public before police arrived on the morning of 2 December 2020, the Crown Court heard.

Following his arrest, a note, written in Urdu, was discovered on him which read: “‘O Israel, you are inflicting atrocities on Palestinians and Marks Spencer helping you financially.”

Alex Leach QC, prosecuting, said the defendant earlier walked to the store from his home in Murray Street and attacked moments after entering and asking to speak to a manager.

He said it became apparent to police officers that he had a history of mental health problems but doctors later deemed him fit to answer questions the following March.

Leach said: “He told the police that he had targeted Marks & Spencer deliberately because he believed Marks & Spencer funded Israel in what he described as its persecution of Palestine. He said that had his knife not broken he would have gone on to kill others. He said that he expected that the police might kill him and he intended to be a martyr.”

The attack took place in Burnley, Lancashire

Store manager Samantha Worthington suffered a collapsed lung and nerve damage from the blow, which passed near her jugular vein.

She told police her assailant was wearing a Covid mask and his eyes “looked pure evil”.

She said: “If I had fallen he would have killed me. I just thought ‘this f***er is not having me, I’ve got three kids and he is not taking me away from my kids.’” She added: “I’m lucky to be here.”

Jurors were told Hussain the issue for them to decide was what was he knifeman’s intention was at the time of the stabbing. Judge Nicholas Dean told them: “The prosecution say Mr Hussain had a terrorist motive for his actions. Even if you are sure he had such motivation it does not necessarily follow he had an intent to kill.”

The Crown says it was “overwhelmingly clear” from the evidence that he had such intentions.

Hussain denies the attempted murder of Worthington and customer Janet Dell. He has also pleaded not guilty to two alternative counts of wounding with intent. The trial continues.

www.jewishnews.co.uk

3 February 2022 Jewish News

13

Jewish News meets... Christian Wakeford

‘I lost my best man for my wedding over this’ After his dramatic defection from Conservative to Labour, Christian Wakeford tells Lee Harpin he is sleeping better – and continuing his deep community involvement The MP Christian Wakeford has said he has “no regrets” about defecting from the Conservative Party to Labour, adding; “My politics in terms of the Jewish community and Israel, they haven’t changed.”

Speaking to Jewish News about last month’s shock move – he became the first MP in 15 years to jump ship in the same way – Wakeford rejected claims that he had betrayed those who had made the Bury South representative at the last election, including many local Jews.

“The notion of betrayal, this would never have happened were this still Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party – but it’s not,” he said, addressing those critics, who have accused him of disloyalty, and much worse since he walked out on the Tories in dramatic fashion one hour before Prime Minister’s Questions a fortnight ago.

Wakeford now says of Sir Keir Starmer-led Labour: “It’s essentially a new party, with a very different approach to antisemitism, and to the Jewish community.”

Five months ago, at a Conservative Friends of Israel reception at the party’s conference in Manchester, Jewish News was given a hint that all was not well between the MP and the Tory leadership. Earlier that October day, Wakeford had spoken at a fringe event in which he cast doubt on the Tories’ “levelling up” pledge, calling for funds promised since the election to finally be received in ‘Red Wall’ seats such as Bury South.

But the speech earned him two “bollockings” including one, he admitted, at the CFI party later that night from the Tory chief whip’s office.

“To be fair, that was the start of this journey,” he now confesses. “There had been lots of decisions I hadn’t been happy about.

“I think it was at that point, a speech I had given at Conference was being widely shared and was being commented on as being extremely unhelpful. I was saying that I couldn’t go back and explain some of the party’s policies, because they don’t make sense and they are damaging.”

❝

I WANTED TO SHOW THERE ARE FRIENDS – PEOPLE WHO WANT TO SUPPORT THE ­JEWISH COMMUNITY Wakeford plays down suggestions that he had been threatened by the Chief Whips office for speaking about the government’s failure to honour manifesto pledges. “It was a bollocking, but it wasn’t threatening,” he says of the Chief Whip’s actions. “It was temper your language, be careful what you say...” But that day was “the beginning of the soul-searching”, he says.

He confesses to having sleepless nights in the

❝

LABOUR IS THE ONLY PARTY ­SPEAKING ABOUT THE THINGS THAT ­REALLY MATTER weeks ahead that left him thinking; “Are we the nasty party again? Are we the bad guys?”

As he spoke to Jewish News from Portcullis House, Westminster, Wakeford said it was at this point he began conversations with Chris Elmore, the Opposition Whip, about making the switch. Nobody else in the shadow cabinet was aware of the defection until it was announced to Labour MPs an hour before PMQs last month.

Wakeford said he had come to realise his own political views had increasingly come to correspond with those of Starmer’s party. “Labour,” he now says, “are the only party that is speaking about the likes of the cost of living crisis, free school meals, universal credit – things that actually really matter. The Conservatives aren’t even talking about it. Let alone dealing with it.”

He is angry at suggestions he might have jumped party to save his political career. “When these conversations were taking place the Tories were still ahead in the polls,” he says. “I’ve lost my best man for my wedding over this. To believe that I was prepared to lose such close friends just for the sake of a job – that’s neither fair nor accurate. Friendships are very important.”

Though not Jewish, Wakeford had made friendships within the community, some at a local level, others nationally through his work as an official with Conservative Friends of Israel, and some in Israel, as a result of his staunch defence of that state. He says he first developed his admiration for the community as a student at Lancaster University. He became friends with a Jew, and he developed a desire to defend the community, its values and its culture.

“It was jumping in with two feet,” says Wakeford now of his decision to embrace communal life. “It was about educating myself – the religion, the culture, the community. I wanted to show there are friends out there, there are people who want to support the Jewish community.”

He revealed he continues to this day to “learn to speak Hebrew, badly”.

After his defection, some in the Jewish community felt a sense of betrayal. But to claim that there has been universal condemnation is a mistruth. “Some former colleagues have been incredibly nice about it,” says Wakeford, when asked how those in the CFI group he had been associated with had reacted. He adds: “Do I expect everyone to agree? Hopefully they will understand this hasn’t been easy. It has cost some friendships, and some very long-standing ones.”

Shaking up Westminster: Wakeford is welcomed to the Labour Party by Keir Starmer

But he is keen to stress the positives that have come out of the decision. “Being able to catch up on sleep ... not having to question myself on a daily basis anymore. He also confirms that if he did not believe Starmer’s “commitment to tackling antisemitism is so strong”, he would not have been able to join the party. He met with the Labour leader two days before defecting. During a 40-minute meeting, the main topic of discussion had been Starmer’s desire to continue his war on the antisemites in his party.

During the past fortnight, Wakeford has campaigned locally on no less than three occasions, with Bury Council seats up for grabs in May’s critical local elections. It has allowed him to come face to face with local voters, including the Jewish electorate. Some have accepted his decision to join Labour. Others have not.

“Those who voted Conservative before, both to keep Labour and to keep Corbyn out, some of them understand that Corbyn isn’t really involved anymore,” says Wakeford. “I’ve had some very nice messages indeed from members of the community locally who were never comfortable with voting Conservative, but had done

so to keep Corbyn out. They have told me how glad they are that I’ve now joined Labour.”

Last week Wakeford attended his first Bury South local Labour Party meeting and admitted that he was “nervous” beforehand. But apart from a couple of hostile voices, he was pleasantly surprised with the welcome he received.

And among Labour MPs, some of whom came across to greet him in Westminster as we spoke, the reception has been almost overwhelmingly positive.

He reveals only staunch Corbyn ally John McDonnell has openly spoken out against him.

The former shadow chancellor had suggested Wakeford’s voting record with the Tories did not match the pattern expected of a Labour MP. In May, all being well, Wakeford will fly to Israel as part of a Labour Friends of Israel delegation. It will, he laughs, probably make him the first MP to take part in visits to the Jewish state with both LFI and CFI. And as for Corbyn himself, asked how he feels being in the same party as the former Labour leader, Wakeford says he “wants nothing to do with him”.

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Jewish News 3 February 2022

World News / Holocaust comments / Maus controversy / News briefs

Whoopi sorry for race error Whoopi Goldberg has been suspended from her role as presenter of US talk show The View for two weeks following her “wrong and hurtful comments” about the Holocaust.

Kim Godwin, president of ABC News, said she had asked the presenter and actress to take time away to “reflect and learn about the impact of her comments”.

It follows a backlash after Goldberg said the historic events were not “about race”.

She made the comments on an episode of The View during a discussion about a school board’s decision to ban Pulitzer prize-winning Holocaust graphic novel Maus (see bottom right), later apologising for the remarks.

But in a statement posted online on Tuesday, Godwin said: “Effective immediately I am suspending Whoopi Goldberg for two weeks following her wrong and hurtful comments. While Whoopi has apologised, I have asked her to take

‘Let’s be truthful, the Holocaust isn’t about race’

time to reflect and learn about the impact of her comments.The entire ABC News organisation stands in solidarity with our Jewish colleagues, friends, family and communities.”

In the original discussion, Goldberg said: “Let’s be truthful, the Holocaust isn’t about race, it’s not.

“It’s about man’s inhumanity to man, that’s what it’s about. These are two groups of white people.”

Her words drew heavy criticism online including from Jonathan Greenblatt, chief executive of the Anti-Defamation League, and from StopAntisemitism.org.

In her apology the 66-year-old Oscar-winning actress, who has been on The View since 2007, said: “On today’s show I said the Holocaust ‘is not about race, but about man’s inhumanity to man’.

I should have said it is about both.

“As Jonathan Greenblatt from of the AntiDefamation League shared, ‘The Holocaust was about the Nazi’s systematic annihilation of the Jewish people – who they deemed to be an inferior race’. I stand corrected.

“The Jewish people around the world have always had my support and that will never [waver].

I am sorry for the hurt I have caused. Written with my sincerest apologies. Whoopi Goldberg.”

Prior to her suspension, Greenblatt had thanked the presenter for her apology.

GOLDBERG ALMOST RIGHT, YET BADLY WRONG Continued from page 1 order to exterminate Jews as Jews. How has Goldberg managed to be almost right while being so wrong?

For us to combat racism, in ourselves and in others, we need to take it seriously. Policymakers need to track its impact

and collect data on its effects.

We need to understand what racists say and think to combat them and to defend ourselves.

But what we have always to be on guard for is to accept the racist’s worldview as a serious one.

Goldberg sees Hitler’s description of Jews as a race

as, in her words, “a lie”: a falsehood to justify “man’s inhumanity to man”, but the difference between black people and white people as ‘real’. Now this, of course, is a falsehood.

Many would define me as ‘black’ but I am not the same colour as Goldberg. I look as

much like her as I do, say, Jeff Goldblum: that is to say, I don’t look like either of them at all.

If you take Goldberg’s argument to its logical conclusion, racism against Jews is based on “a lie”, but racism against black people is based on a tangible truth. It’s a position that dimin-

ishes the history of anti-Jewish racism and gives anti-black racism a patina of respectability. Her mistake is that she has taken American racism too seriously: when the reality is that racism is far from black and white, and that it is always more complex than what you can see.

Big jump in hate crime in France Reports of antisemitic incidents in France rose by 75 percent in 2021, the French Jewish community’s main watchdog group has said. SPCJ recorded 589 hate crimes against Jews last year, including a 36 percent increase in physical assaults.

The group released its annual report on Wednesday. Incidents targeting people – as opposed to buildings and institutions – accounted for 45 percent of all cases in 2021.

School bans Shoah memoir Maus A school has voted to remove Art Spiegelman’s graphic memoir Maus, about his father’s Holocaust experience, from its curriculum after board members objected to swear words, nude drawings and “not wise or healthy” content. Educator Mike Cochran, one of the district’s 10 board members, pointed out that Maus includes a drawing of the author’s mother naked. (Like the other Jews in the book, she is rendered as a mouse. Another board member, Tony Allman, said: “It shows people hanging, it shows them killing kids.”

Garry’s home was almost uninhabitable.

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15

UAE-Israel relations / Special Report

Emirati leader: Our attitude on Israel was wrong

The Israeli public’s support for cooperation surprised the UAE

by Justin Cohen justin@jewishnews.co.uk @CohenJust

A senior Emirati official has told of how both the United Arab Emirates and Israeli governments were taken aback by the level of support on the Israeli street for warmer relations before the Abraham Accords were announced, as he acknowledged a “mistake” in previously barring athletes from the Jewish state.

Dr Ali A Nuaimi, who helped pave the way for the Accords, told Jewish News the impact of the historic normalisation agreement on the ground had “exceeded” expectations in just over a year.

In an exclusive interview with this newspaper in Abu Dhabi, he suggested his generation of Arabs had been “hijacked by a narrative that created hate between us” and the IsraeliPalestinian conflict had been an issue people could not look beyond.

But the chair of the International Centre of Excellence for Countering Violent Extremism – who had behind the scenes been welcoming ever larger groups of Jewish leaders from abroad since 2012 – said: “When the issue between the Palestinians and Israelis came to a dead end and there was no hope, our leadership saw an opportunity to make a move in the right direction.

“There was engagement with some of our Jewish friends in the US and later on with the US administration. We also approached Netanyahu at that time.”

A watershed moment came with the publication in Hebrew of an article by the UAE’s Washington envoy. “We were shocked to see the great response from the Israeli people, which encouraged us to move forward. Netanyahu didn’t expect the majority of Israelis would accept and interact positively with the messages in that article.

“We were able to engage in a real discussion and negotiation, which end up with the announcement of the Abraham Accords.”

The process has confirmed, according to Al Nuaimi, that people in the region have changed. “Many outside don’t understand that,” he said. “If we’d made this announcement 20 or 30 years ago, you would see millions demonstrating against it in Cairo, Amman, Damascus, Beirut.

“The Arab people are fed up with wars and terrorism; they want peace. This is the message I want our friends in the west to understand don’t approach us with the same narrative.

“The Israelis have changed, the Palestinians have changed and the Arabs have changed.

Some leaders didn’t yet change, but they will.

We have to match the expectation of the people with a narrative that will build bridges between all those of this region.”

Al Nuaimi is especially proud of the engagement between young Israelis and their counterparts in the UAE as well as in Bahrain and Morocco since they signed up to the Accords, and pointed to the large turnout for the opening

appetite for peace with Arab states would also help to push Jerusalem to progress the Palestinian track, despite the current Israeli government having clearly stated two states are off the table under Naftali Bennett.

He said: “We believe we made a mistake – the Arabs – in the past 70 years. We didn’t engage with the people. Now when Israelis visit the UAE, they see with their own eyes that we are Arab,

Dr Nuaimi, third right, at a UAE accords conference

of Israel’s pavilion at the Dubai Expo. He insisted only Israel’s stringent Covid entry restrictions had prevented a travel boom to the Jewish state, in the same way Israelis have already flocked to the UAE. Even his enthusiasm for the Accords could not persuade him to spend a week in a quarantine hotel as he would have had to do to take up an invitation to attend a counterterror conference last September, he joked.

So had it been a mistake not to even let in Israeli sportspeople to compete for so many years? His answer was quick and unequivocal.

“Yes. The engagement people to people will change the region. When I sit with you, you will know about me from me and not from others.

We will build trust and respect and see the common interests.”

Al Naimi addressed the Abu Dhabi Forum for Peace (FFP) in December, joining hundreds of Muslim scholars, academics and civil society leaders at an annual gathering led by Sheikh bin Bayyah, chair of the UAE Fatwa Council, to tackle extremism and promote inclusive societies. He also welcomed plans to take the FFP to the UK. Asked if there was a need for moderate voices to be louder in the west, Al Naimi said: “They should be louder, not only in the west – everywhere. We need them. My wish is that those who spoke freely here go back to their country and speak the same way.

“We have to have courage and be willing to make sacrifices for our cause. There are risks when you speak publicly about these values, but that should not make us back off.”

The rise of antisemitism in Europe and fears of some to be openly Jewish in parts of the continent must be addressed through education systems and involve engagement with leaders from all faiths, he insisted, Returning to the Middle East, he said Saudi Arabia was “very supportive” of developments in the region and gave no indication that the Kingdom was about to join the accords. “The Saudi leadership have an obligation because they have Mecca. We have to understand that.

“This is why the question should not be when the Saudis will join, but when the negotiation between Israeli and the Palestinians will start because at that point the world, not only the Saudis, will push for a peace treaty from all sides.”

He hoped the fact Israelis have shown an

we are Muslim, but we believe they are part of the region. The message that went to them in the past 70 years was that they are not accepted, that whenever there is an opportunity to destroy Israel it will be taken.

“They see from our people, not only our leadership, it’s different. This assurance to the Israeli people will in the end make the Israeli politicians make the right decision to meet the expectation of the Israeli people in creating peace.”

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Jewish News 3 February 2022

Special Report

‘Bennett is wrong to block Kotel prayer space for progressive Jews’

by Michael Daventry mike@jewishnews.co.uk @michaeldaventry

A leading politician in Naftali Bennett’s government has criticised him for failing to enact his own plans to grant progressive Jews a prayer space within the Western Wall plaza.

Diaspora minister Nachman Shai said the Israeli prime minister must immediately revive a project for an egalitarian prayer area that was frozen following objections from strictlyOrthodox groups.

In recent years, many progressive Jews, especially women, have been physically attacked on the pretext of breaking rules set by the Orthodox authorities that operate the holy site.

But Shai’s remarks illustrated the contrasting views that exist within the coalition, after other ministers in Bennett’s government cancelled the reforms.

The diaspora minister was speaking during a wide-ranging interview for this week’s Jewish News Podcast, in which he also suggested Israel’s role organising military operations to help Jews around the world was over.

He said Israel was now home to more Jews than any other country and that position created “responsibility for Jewish life out of

Israel” as they combat resurgent threats, such as antisemitism.

Shai also acknowledged a generational shift had created different perceptions of his country among non-Israeli Jews, particularly young people. “We can’t do everything and we’re not going to send our troops to help troops in the diaspora. No more Entebbe. But yes, we can

help through states, NGOs [non-governmental organisations], public opinion and sometimes directly.”

On the 2016 deal to create an egalitarian space at the Western Wall, Shai said Bennett — himself a former diaspora minister — had been “very proud” to negotiate

British Jews arrive in Israel to make new lives under pandemic restrictions. Inset: Nachman Shai

the arrangement. “I said to him the other day, Naftali, now you should also complete the job,” he said. “You were there at the beginning and now you have to end the job and make it possible for everyone to come to the Kotel.”

There were hopes the plan would be revived under Bennett’s left-right coalition after it was put on ice by Benjamin Netanyahu under pressure from his strictlyOrthodox partners. But religious affairs minister Matan Kahana told Israeli media last month it had become a focus for incitement by Netanyahu and his allies and that the coalition was “not touching it”.

Shai said that approach was wrong. “I disagree with the prime minister... that he hasn’t brought it to an end and we lose time and there is no reason for that.

“And we continue to press the prime minister and other government ministers, but mainly it’s about him to bring it to a vote and to complete.”

But he said a deal on Palestinian statehood was not possible “as long as we sit together in the same cabinet room where half of the cabinet is for annexation and half of the government is for [almost full West Bank withdrawal] based on two nation-states for two peoples.”

3 February 2022 Jewish News

www.jewishnews.co.uk

17

Art restitution / Spanish searches / Antisemitism awareness / Diaspora News

Restitution battle for £22m Pissarro painting The US Supreme Court is adjudicating on the fate of an 1897 painting by the impressionist Camille Pissarro, pitting the heirs of its former Jewish owner against a museum in Madrid whose backer paid millions for it.

The piece – titled Rue Saint-Honoré in the Afternoon, Effect of Rain – was owned by the Cassirer family, who bought it directly from Pissarro’s art dealer.

Heirs argue that Lilly Cassirer Neubauer had to sell her painting to obtain the expensive exit visa needed to flee the Nazis in 1939. A Nazi-appointed appraiser offered her £280 for it, then paid the money into an account she could not access.

In 1958, she accepted around £10,000 in reparations from the German government but did not waive her right to seek the painting’s return, prompting her grandson, Claude, to pursue the piece, which is worth £22 million.

In question: Camille Pissarro’s painting

It was bought by Baron Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza in 1976, before passing to Spain in 1993, when a

state-backed foundation paid the baron £280m for much of his collection, to be installed at a museum in his name.

America’s top court agreed to consider the case in October last year and began hearing arguments on Tuesday.

Both Madrid’s Thyssen-Bornemisza museum as well as the Spanish state have rebuffed the restitution claims.

Claude died in 2010 and his Californiabased son, David, has taken on the challenge. The Supreme Court is being asked to rule on which country – the US or Spain – has jurisdiction, given they have different laws governing restitution.

The museum has said that both it and Thyssen-Bornemisza bought the painting without knowing it was Nazi-looted art, and that David’s great-grandmother had already “received her requested compensation – a then-fair market value of the painting – to compensate her for her loss”.

WORLD NEWS IN BRIEF

Your weekly digest of stories from the international press UAE

ROMANIA

ITALY

UNITED STATES

Gulf communities in Dubai and Bahrain have taken part in the Jewish festival of Tu B’Shvat by planting ‘trees of peace’.

The United Arab Emirates and Bahrain were signatories to the Abraham Accords, which normalise relations with Israel.

Organisers said it takes years for the trees to grow – ‘so it is with peace’.

A new opera that reimagines the classic story of an Italian Jewish family on the eve of war has opened in New York. The Garden of the Finzi-Continis, an Oscar-winning 1970 film based on Giorgio Bassani’s novel, has been adapted by composer Ricky Ian Gordon working with the National Yiddish Theatre.

A Holocaust survivor who became an acclaimed geneticist and famously debated an antisemite on live TV has died in Bucharest aged 93. Liviu Beris, who was deported aged 13 with his family to Transnistria, was considered a key asset and was banned from leaving the country until the death of communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu in 1989.

The first urban Jewish co-housing project in the United States, Berkeley Moshav, has passed the design stage and is set for completion in 2024. The site in Berkeley, California, includes a four-storey building around an open courtyard, with up to 39 residential units within walking distance of two synagogues.

SYNAGOGUE SEARCH CONTINUES Oporto Holocaust One year after archaeological work began to find the remains of Spain’s second largest synagogue, researchers and excavators have said they are still not sure if it is there.

The search is focused on a 14th century building in the small city of Utrera in Seville, in the south-west of the country, but clues as to its past are proving hard to come by.

“We still have no idea if the synagogue is there or not and what state it is in,” said Miguel Ángel de Dios, one of the archaeologists working on the Utrera project, speaking to JTA. “If we find it, we believe a mikveh, or ritual bath, should be located outside the prayer room, as well as some sort of building for the women’s gallery.

“It may not have been preserved, but we can certainly seek for traces of some kind of distinction between men and women.”

Professor Jorge Eiroa, an historian at the University of Murcia, said: “When a synagogue is converted into a church, any

museum building ‘antisemitism room’

The site of a suspected medieval synagogue in Spain

Jewish vestiges are promptly removed.

If we’re lucky, the Torah ark is transformed into a small altar, as in the case of Córdoba.”

Over the years, the building – which sits in the heart of the city’s Jewish quarter – has served as a hospital, a Catholic chapel,

an orphanage, a school and, more recently, as a restaurant and cocktail bar.

After a period of abandonment, the city council bought it in 2018 and began the dig in February 2021, after historians pointed to a city priest’s 1604 reference to the site having been a synagogue.

The new Holocaust Museum of Oporto in Portugal is building an “antisemitism room” to spread awareness about Jew-hatred.

It is due to house statues of modern antisemites and display their publications in a bid to show visitors how the world’s oldest hatred can take different forms.

Around 70 percent of the museum’s visitors are young people, and around four-fifths of the local Jewish population are descended from Jews expelled from north African countries in the last century.

The Oporto museum aims

to show Jewish life before the Holocaust, as well as Nazism, Nazi expansion in Europe, the ghettoes and Jewish refugees, plus the camps, death marches and liberation.

It includes a reproduction of the dorms at Auschwitz, a names room, a flame memorial, cinema, conference room and study centre.

“Contemporary antisemitism can be found in radical and fringe groups espousing right-wing, left-wing or Islamist extremism, it can hide behind anti-Zionism, but it can also be easily found in the centre of society,” it said.

Jewish leaders pay tribute to liberation of ghetto

Shoah memorial by Danube

Hungarian Jewish leaders have paid tribute to the end of the capital’s wartime Jewish ghetto, 77 years after its liberation by the Soviet Red Army in January 1945.

The ghetto was created in November 1944, on the orders of Hungarian fascist party Arrow Cross and was short-lived, with the city’s 70,000 Jews crammed into just a few streets for two

months. However, despite the best efforts of Red Cross volunteers, most received fewer than 800 calories per day and, during December 1944, the situation deteriorated further, as the Soviets lay siege to the Nazi-occupied city.

At one point, up to 120 dead bodies were being removed from the ghetto every day and, upon liberation, more than

3,000 bodies were found on Klauzál Square alone.

“Remembrance is a part of our shared future,” said András Heisler, president of the Federation of Hungarian Jewish Communities.

The event was organised by the Raoul Wallenberg Association, which is named after the Swedish diplomat stationed in Budapest who saved thousands of Jews.

A visitor at the new Holocaust museum in Oporto

18

Jewish News 3 February 2022

www.jewishnews.co.uk

Editorial comment and letters ISSUE NO.

1248

VOICE OF THE JEWISH NEWS

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Focus must now be Send us your comments on abuse prevention PO Box 815, Edgware, HA8 4SX | letters@jewishnews.co.uk

The response to our recent front page on a tenfold increase in serious cases support service Migdal Emunah is handling since the crimes of Chaim Walder came to light has been significant.

Beyond the obvious impact on victims, revelations of decades of child sexual abuse by Walder have ripped through the heart of Israel’s strictly-Orthodox community like an explosion, sending shockwaves around the globe.

The influential US-based Orthodox Union (OU) put it best when it said it had “created upheaval across the Jewish world, as it must”, and had “shattered an entire community’s sense of trust”. Its impact has certainly reached these shores. Those calling it “the Orthodox #metoo moment” are a little premature, but be in no doubt that this hasn’t just registered on the Richter Scale – it’s broken it.

The OU says that within the “flood of responses to this tragedy… some demonstrate a severe lack of understanding of sexual abuse”.

This is of immense concern. But there is hope. Misappropriated halachic concepts have been reappropriated (whatever some may say, the Torah does not prohibit disrespect for paedophiles). Likewise, those who urge silence in the face of child sex abuse have been faced down.

More importantly, influential Orthodox rabbis, such as Rabbi Shraga Zimmerman at the Federation of Synagogues, have used their pulpits to preach that “it is permissible – and an obligation – to report abuse to civil authorities”, namely the police. He said last week: “This is the only way that it will be stopped.”

Others have encouraged followers to “use this opportunity to expose and turn in predators”. Carpe diem, as it were. But along with justice for past sins, there must be a focus on preventing future crimes. Indeed, the groundwork is already being laid.

The Walder affair is forcing Orthodox parents to talk to their children about child sexual abuse, traditionally a taboo topic. This is a good thing. Forewarned is forearmed, especially since innocents are the most vulnerable.

It seems an awful thing to have to teach them, but predators can be wolves in sheep’s clothing, simulating sensitivity and understanding, providing guidance perhaps; using their charisma and power to abuse.

This is what Chaim Walder did. The community has an overarching duty to ensure men like him are exposed.

Israeli right is to blame Letter writer Malcolm Factor states that Israel controls the West Bank of the Jordan “because of the Palestinians’ refusal to accommodate a Jewish state anywhere” (Jewish News, 27 January).

This is strange logic.

With the possible exception of Yitzhak Rabin, Israelis have never accepted the right of the Palestinians to a state anywhere.

So why would anyone expect the Palestinians to recognise Israel?

The more plausible explanation for control of the West Bank is that the Likud and its predecessor party have always demanded a

Sketches & kvetches

I’m at a loss to understand why Jewish News troubled itself to report the nonsense about the “Jewish” content planned for the upcoming Beckham-Peltz wedding.

Neither party is Jewish and the prospects of a kesubah for a gentile woman along with the envisioned participation of a rabbi are grotesque non-starters. Why bother to waste precious column inches on such tripe?

FOCUS ON THE REALITY

Sedra: Terumah

“It’s just so tricky to choose which party best represents my views!”

Letter writer Jonathan Kay bemoans the small turnouts at rallies and demonstrations against antisemitism and how everyone seems to be trying to find ways to combat antisemitism (Jewish News, 27 January).

Since antisemitism is not a rational phenomenon it cannot be beaten or even reduced by demonstrations. We have to think about why things are as they are. Our efforts need to be directed there, nowhere else.

Ann Cohen, Golders Green

and

Shabbat goes out Saturday night 5.46pm

REPORT BECKS BELIEF

Abbott Katz, Edgware

THIS WEEKEND'S SHABBAT TIMES...

Shabbat comes in Friday night 4.40pm

policy of Greater Israel, in other words a policy of gaining and occupying maximum territory.

Any suggestion of land for peace such as in the ill-fated Oslo Accords was anathema to them.

That’s why Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud destroyed the Oslo peace progress in its years in power after 1995. And also why a right-wing extremist assassinated Prime Minister Rabin in 1995.

Without land for peace can there be a two-state peace settlement? I doubt it. This is one reason why the Israeli right wants to hold onto the West Bank.

Fraser Michaelson, Southgate

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Editorial comment and letters

Modern & Contemporary British & Irish Art Tuesday 15 February, 10:30am

Fine Art Auctioneers & Valuers

IHRA ADOPTION NOT ESSENTIAL Education secretary Nadhim Zahawi may well regard the adoption by universities of the deeply flawed International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism as “essential”, but this is not the view taken within the English higher education (HE) sector.

Of the 419 HE providers registered with the

independent regulator, the Office for Students, only slightly over half have to date adopted the definition. The institutional independence of English HE providers is protected by statute (the 2017 Higher Education Act). Does Mr Zahawi intend to remove this protection and what would he put in its place?

Less doom and gloom

Our guard must be up

Your letters pages have been consumed with comments about Samuel Hayek’s opinion of diaspora Jews. Do we have a future here and is Muslim immigration a major issue? As Jews, we have suffered throughout history as scapegoats for society’s many ills. However I see a lifestyle here with a variety of choices for the Jew, whether religious or not, and although the numbers could be on the decline with many making aliyah there is plenty to be proud of in our community. We can all learn from a variety of comments but please not more doom and gloom.

Norma Neville, Hendon

Antisemitism raises its ugly head in the most untoward places, for example, a Briton sought out a community synagogue in a fairly remote part of Texas, and in circumstances that clearly show we must be on guard. It is also a wake-up call that the main antisemitic protagonist, Iran, brazenly announces its message of hatred, and with it the threat to carry out the complete annihilation of the Jewish state.

It is imperative that we are fully aware and thoroughly prepared to be proactive when it comes to the protection of Jewish people around the world.

Stephen Vishnick, Tel Aviv

Professor Geoffrey Alderman, NW9

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Opinion

Why was abusive teacher allowed to keep his job?

JENNI FRAZER

T

here is a body known as the Teacher Regulation Agency (TRA), which most of us are unlikely to have come across in the general course of events.

I had the misfortune, however, of ploughing through 24 pages of the agency’s most recent panel hearing – and it makes shocking reading, not just because of its content, but of what it does not say.

The TRA panel was called to consider the case of a man called Yankel Shepherd, 57, who has now been banned “indefinitely” from teaching, in a case that went all the way up to the education secretary, Nadhim Zahawi.

Shepherd – who declined to attend the five-day virtual hearing – was accused of serious sexual misbehaviour towards two of his former students in strictly-Orthodox schools in London and Manchester. Two witnesses, known as Child A and Pupil X, gave chilling details of Shepherd’s behaviour to the

TRA panel. I freely admit that I thought I had made a mistake when reading the TRA report – because the actions reported by Child A took place as far back as the 1980s.

Child A is now an adult but indeed, Shepherd’s behaviour towards him – consisting of very specific sexual abuse – did take place more than 40 years ago. The actions occurred in a Jewish community centre and a synagogue; but Shepherd was able to get a job in Talmud Torah Chinuch N’Orim school, Salford, in 2009.

Child A made his allegations in November 2009 and Shepherd was duly arrested. But when Child A decided not to proceed with evidence against Shepherd, the police investigation was dropped. The panel report says that “Child A’s … numerous attempts to pursue this matter with the religious authorities had been frustrated”. Colour me astonished.

Now here is the truly shocking thing: not only, after this damning claim and arrest, was Shepherd able to obtain employment at two other schools –Talmud Torah Yetev Lev in London, and Oholei Yosef Yitzchok Lubavitch in Salford – but he was given favourable refer-

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IT IS CLEAR YANKEL’S BEHAVIOUR WAS KNOWN TO THE STRICTLY-ORTHODOX COMMUNITIES ences in order to do so. Despite the panel’s belief that Shepherd’s “actions were deliberate, calculated and sexually motivated”, the headteacher of Talmud Torah Yetev Lev gave him a sparkling reference, saying that he had “‘excelled’ in … planning and preparing lessons and courses for pupils; delivering lessons … assessing the development, progress and attainment… and reporting on progress and attainment of pupils”.

Serious questions need to be asked of the criminal justice system as to why the allegations against Shepherd were not pursued.

And, reading between the lines, it is clear that his behaviour was known to the strictlyOrthodox communities to which he belonged, not least because the parents of Pupil X, who had special needs, told Shepherd to stop – but

he resumed contact three weeks later. Child A, as we have seen, complained that he had been “frustrated” after numerous attempts to raise the issue with religious authorities.

It’s not the first time that such behaviour has been ignored or quashed by strictly-Orthodox communities. The recent case of Chaim Walder, the Charedi children’s author who turned out to be a serial sexual predator, proves that.

We now have Migdal Emunah, an organisation formed specifically to monitor sexual abuse in the Jewish community. It can help victims and advise schools and communal bodies, and provide an informed link to potential prosecuting authorities.

On the eve of UK Sexual Abuse Awareness Week, we don’t need more distressing cases of vulnerable people such as Child A or Pupil X.

Jew-bilee a chance to heal society’s recent wounds ZAKI COOPER TRUSTEE, COUNCIL OF CHRISTIANS AND JEWS

O

n Sunday we say mazeltov to the Queen as she reaches a historic and unprecedented 70 years as monarch. Having overtaken Queen Victoria as the longest reigning monarch in 2015, she just keeps going.

But Accession Day is not a wholly celebratory occasion. It also marks the 70th yahrzeit of the Queen’s beloved father, King George VI, who died in his sleep at Sandringham. It’s a bittersweet day and, as Jews, we have an innate understanding of that confluence of joy and pain (we observe this confluence when we smash the glass under the chuppah).

The main Jubilee celebrations will take place in June, over the four-day bank holiday weekend. This Jubilee is a trip down memory

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lane for me, as I had the privilege of working at the palace on the previous one. It gave me some unforgettable experiences, whether in the stunning ballroom at Buckingham Palace or on the road as the Queen and Prince Philip undertook a regional tour of the UK. The Queen’s previous Jubilees have all had certain recurring themes, such as street parties, beacons and special prayers, but also unique elements. For the Silver Jubilee in 1977, the Queen visited 14 Commonwealth countries and travelled more than 56,000 miles, while for the Golden Jubilee, there was a programme dedicated to visiting Britain’s faith communities (she visited the Jewish Museum in Manchester). The Platinum Jubilee will need to take into account a monarch who turns 96 in two-and-a-half months.

Thinking back to my work on the Diamond Jubilee, there were a number of values that shone through, which felt very resonant with

ACCESSION DAY ALSO MARKS THE 70TH ‘YAHRZEIT’ OF THE QUEEN’S BELOVED FATHER, KING GEORGE VI

our own Jewish community. Perhaps this is unsurprising considering that the concept of a Jubilee itself comes from the Torah.

The first was celebration, something we Jews know how to do. At its heart, a Jubilee is a joyous moment in the Queen’s reign and the history of our nation (and the Commonwealth). The Diamond Jubilee featured the spectacular flotilla of 670 boats on the Thames, a memorable pop concert outside the Palace as well as millions of people holding street parties and neighbourhood gatherings. It affirmed the remark of one previous courtier that the monarchy is in the “happiness business”.

The second was family, with three generations of the Royal Family travelling to all 15 Realms (countries where the Queen is head of state) and beyond. Other family members also joined the Queen on Royal visits. As an example, the Cambridges joined their grandmother on a visit to Nottingham. Walter Bagehot, the 19th century essayist and constitutional expert, explained: “A family on the throne is an interesting idea. It brings down the pride of sovereignty to the level of petty life.”

Third, prayer was part of the Jubilee celebrations, notably a service of Thanksgiving at St Paul’s, but also through all Britain’s faith

communities. The Chief Rabbi composed a special prayer and was part of a special multifaith event at Lambeth Palace that March.

Fourth, charity is woven into the fabric of both our community and the monarchy. In 2012, many charities ran Jubilee projects from the Woodland Trust planting millions of trees to Fields in Trust safeguarding playing fields.

Finally, the core theme of the Jubilee was about community and togetherness. The Queen herself, in her end of year televised Christmas message, highlighted “the strength of fellowship and friendship among those who had gathered together on these occasions”. This is reminiscent of our famous ditty sung in schools, youth groups and elsewhere: Hine Ma Tov, meaning “How good and how pleasing/for brothers (people) to sit together in unity.”

These five overriding values, so evident during the Diamond Jubilee and familiar to the Jewish community, are likely to shine through in this year’s Platinum Jubilee. Furthermore, it is hoped that after several years of political polarisation and Covid-induced suffering, the Platinum Jubilee is a trigger for people to come together all over the country to herald our majestic monarch and for our community to enjoy the Jew-bilee.

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3 February 2022 Jewish News

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Jewish News 3 February 2021

Opinion

My family is accused of betraying Franks JASON VAN LEEUWEN ACTOR & WRITER

M

y entire adult life I have espoused and jettisoned multiple theologies and philosophies after subjecting them to the ultimate test: Would they survive Auschwitz? Sometimes yes, sometimes no, almost always with some kind of caveat. Now Auschwitz presents a new test much closer to home.

Last week, the subject of who betrayed Anne Frank and her family exploded onto the airwaves. A new book claims the Franks were betrayed by Arnold van den Bergh, a member of the Joodse Raad, or the Jewish Council of the Netherlands. Van den Bergh was a scion of the Dutch-Jewish family that patented margarine and helped found the conglomerate Unilever.

He was also my cousin.

Anne Frank and her father, including Otto Frank, were Jewish refugees from Germany who went into hiding in Amsterdam during the Holocaust. They were discovered after two

years and sent to concentration camps. Anne Frank and her sister died, probably of typhus, in Bergen-Belsen, where my grandfather also was sent and also contracted typhus but survived.

Among the Franks, only Otto survived.

My father is the son of Henri (Opa) and Eva (Oma) van Leeuwen. Opa owned a casings factory in Holland, and Oma was the daughter of Nathan and Rosetta van Zwanenberg (née van den Bergh). Rosetta was the first cousin of Arnold van den Bergh. The allegations against Arnold and the story of my grandfather is a study in contrasts.

Opa is a hero to us, his descendants. After failing to get a visa to join his wife and children on the last boat out of Holland prior to the Nazi invasion, he forced himself into the Heineken Brewery and hid there as Nazis leveled Rotterdam. He was able to gain a fake identity and posed as a Protestant minister in order to pass notes to and from imprisoned members of the Dutch resistance.

He was arrested and sent to Westerbork (a transit camp ironically built as a haven for German Jewish refugees prior to the invasion),

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AFTER DOING MANY HOURS OF RESEARCH I HAVE COME TO A CONCLUSION OVER WHO BETRAYED ANNE – THERE IS NO CONCLUSION then to Bergen-Belsen, where he miraculously survived. He died when I was eight.

My grandfather, unlike most others in the world, believed early on that Hitler meant business. Before the war, he published and wrote for a small publication aimed at his fellow Jews. In the 1930s he helped convince scores of German Jews to leave Germany while they could.

He established the Dutch-based Jewish Colonisation Society (with generous contributions from his in-laws) and went to the infamous Evian Conference in 1938, managing to convince a few delegates to work with him in resettling Jewish refugees. He laid his own life on the line when a guard in Bergen-Belsen discovered a Hebrew Bible belonging to a child in his barracks. Opa lied and said it belonged to him. For some reason, the officer opened the Bible, recited the first verse in perfect Hebrew, handed it back to him and walked away.

Oma’s cousin Arnold survived in another way. A prominent philanthropist, he was among the original members of the Joodse Raad, convened by the occupying Nazi forces and its puppet government. Its raison d’être was to communicate and implement all laws and decrees impinging on the Jewish community.

Like similar councils set up across Europe, the Joodse Raad determined that things would go better for the Jewish community if they accommodated these decrees and did not resist them. They did manage to get permission to “hire” thousands of people, which initially shielded them from deportation, but they also helped to implement deportation orders and in some cases even determined which Jews would be deported and which would be spared. Their strategy turned out to be a tragic miscalculation of epic proportions. Around 75% of Jews in Holland, including some German refugees, ended up being murdered anyway.

The evidence against van den Bergh appears to be a letter sent anonymously in 1945 to Otto Frank, Anne’s father, claiming van den Bergh shared the family’s hiding place with the Nazirun Central Agency for Jewish Emigration in Amsterdam. Van den Bergh was able to escape deportation, going into hiding until after the war.

Dutch Jews still seethe when the topic of the Joodse Raad comes up. Hindsight is of course 20:20, but when Eichmann himself is quoted praising the remarkable efficiency with which Dutch Jews were being liquidated, you know

you’ve got a serious problem. Many others come to the council’s, and to van den Bergh’s, defense, saying that no one can judge the choices Jews and non-Jews made under great duress.

This inner conflict used to be abstract for me, but now it’s quite personal.

With respect to my cousin Arnold, the debate on social media and among Holocaust scholars has been quite fierce. Some say the coverage of the book is motivated by a desire to place more blame for the Holocaust on Jews and less on Nazis and their non-Jewish collaborators. Dutch Jewish scholars have called the report “rubbish” and “slander.”

Others say the report is quite credible. The Anne Frank Huis, the museum inhabiting the building Otto Frank once owned and where his family hid, has charted a middle path, praising the investigators for coming up with new evidence and calling for more investigation.

After doing many hours of my own research, and with gratitude to a Jewish genealogy Facebook page for providing ample documentation, I have come to a conclusion: There is no conclusion.

I have much less confidence than the investigators that there is a smoking gun. We have no evidence that van den Bergh was able to trade information in order to stave off deportation; indeed, many in his extended family were murdered by the Nazis, as were most members of the council. He may simply have been able to bribe a few key people and go into hiding without betraying anyone.

However, the Joodse Raad did have information on addresses where Jews were hiding, as they were known to pass along letters to them.

Van den Bergh is likely to have knowledge of some or more of them.

Also, at least two members of that council were not sent to Auschwitz, but rather to places like Theresienstadt and Bergen-Belsen, which were not extermination camps (cold comfort).

The investigators assert that van den Bergh not only was not deported, but rather he lived “openly” in Amsterdam – although I’ve found nothing corroborating this. And then, of course, there’s that anonymous letter.

I have always tried to model myself after Opa, the fundraiser-diplomat-fighter who embodied Hillel’s dictum: “In a place where there is not a mensch, strive to be a mensch.”

But now I learn that other members of my family chose a different course — one of accommodation, not defiance.

Whether or not he betrayed the Franks, van den Bergh belonged to a council that helped the Nazis control the Jews.

Did he go along to save as many Jews as he could, or to save himself? Certainly the Nazis knew they were presenting Jewish leaders with an impossible choice.

Although I am in no position to judge them for their behavior, I am left wondering: what would I do? Would I be Opa or Cousin Arnold? The truth is, unless one has personally traversed the crucible of the Holocaust, one cannot possibly know.

3 February 2022 Jewish News

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Opinion

Apartheid slur is attack on Jewish self-determination LUKE AKEHURST

DIRECTOR, WE BELIEVE IN ISRAEL

A

mnesty International’s new report labelling Israel as “apartheid” inside both pre-1967 Israel and the West Bank is not helpful to building peace and bringing about a solution to the conflict. It undermines the prospects of the specific criticisms it has of Israeli policies being addressed, by framing them as a part of an overarching “apartheid” system that can only be addressed by the abolition of Israel as a Jewish state in any meaningful sense.

Amnesty’s argument for using the term “apartheid” hinges on alleging that Israel has an “intention to maintain…a system of oppression and domination”. Israel’s intentions are to secure and preserving the national self-determination and freedom of the Jewish people, and protecting the lives of its citizens, Jewish and Arab, from military and terrorist threats.

Israel’s intentions were set out in its 1948 Declaration of Independence: “The state of

Israel will be open for Jewish immigration and for the Ingathering of the Exiles. It will foster the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants; it will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel; it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex; it will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture.”

It appealed to its Arab inhabitants “to preserve peace and participate in the upbuilding of the state on the basis of full and equal citizenship and due representation”.

The use of the term “apartheid” is absurd and open to ridicule as soon as one considers the presence in the Israeli Knesset (parliament) of 14 Arab MKs from six parties and in the government coalition of Ra’am, a Muslim Arab party, making its leader, Mansour Abbas, one of the most influential politicians in Israel. Israel within the 1967 Green Line is a society where the Arab minority are citizens with voting rights, who play a full role in society and use the same universities, hospitals, parks, beaches and shops as their Jewish counterparts. While

inequalities and discrimination do need to be tackled, they look nothing like “apartheid”, a system that in South Africa involved the majority black population being denied all civil and political rights and segregated into second class or non-existent amenities and services.

Israel is only present in the West Bank because of its 1967 war of national survival.

Its security forces operate there because of terrorism. Settlements were built to make a conventional military attack through the West Bank more difficult. The security barrier was built to stop the wave of suicide bombings.

Peace and national self-determination for the Palestinians as part of a two-state solution

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DELEGITIMISATION OF ISRAEL AS ‘APARTHEID’ WON’T SUCCEED BECAUSE IT IS SO FAR FROM THE TRUTH

will come when a deal is negotiated giving Israel security and peace in return. That cannot be imposed from outside.

Amnesty calls for Israel, which is threatened by terrorist organisations such as Hamas and Hezbollah, and by aggressive states expressing genocidal intentions such as Iran, to be the subject of a “comprehensive arms embargo” that would weaken its ability to protect its civilians. It calls for the “right to return to millions of Palestinian refugees” to Israel itself, which would mean there would be two majorityPalestinian states. It attacks Israel for making its Arab citizens exempt from military service, when Arabs can and do volunteer to serve.

The delegitimisation of Israel as “apartheid” won’t succeed because it is so far from the truth. Amnesty has a legitimate role in holding governments and powers to account for human rights violations.

It doesn’t have a legitimate role in deciding the Jewish people are not entitled to national self-determination and a state where they are the majority, when the existence of such a state is the Jewish people’s only guaranteed shield against pogroms and genocide.

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Jewish News 3 February 2022

ADVERTORIAL

Kickstart your business with Work Avenue’s Accelerator

W

ork Avenue has launched the Jewish community’s first Business Accelerator.

This intensive bootcamp training programme is designed to help members of the community navigate the early stages of starting a business, a time that is often fraught with challenges and difficulties.

The scheme will be open to a small number of hand-selected entrepreneurs who are either in the early stages of developing their business or have a well-developed business idea they wish to set up.

It will consist of six modules covering all aspects of building and running your own company – from setting it up to marketing and sales to developing a full plan for growth.

Experts leading the training modules will include Work Avenue’s business team and guest speakers from the worlds of accountancy, innovation, strategy, customer insight, marketing, digital media and brand building.

Best of all, it’s completely free.

The Work Avenue Business Accelerator is the result of a long period of planning by Joanna Sadie, Work Avenue’s head of business.

Joanna said: “We know only too well that starting a business can be a very daunting and isolating prospect and founders are unlikely to have all the skills necessary on their own. Many fledgling entrepreneurs can also feel lacking in confidence and overwhelmed by the sheer effort in getting going.”

The Accelerator is open to all business ideas and concepts

Joanna has identified three key reasons for entrepreneurs and start-ups to join the Work Avenue Business Accelerator: 1) It will provide an ecosystem of support, giving entrepreneurs access to highly qualified experts and mentors in finance, marketing, social media and other key areas. There is also the chance to learn from and collaborate with the other start-ups on the programme as ideas are pooled and successes shared.

2) It will help to develop key business skills. In six weeks, the successful entrepreneurs will have

developed a business plan, a financial forecast and a marketing strategy. Usually this would take months, if not years.

3) It is open to all business ideas and concepts. Many of the other accelerator programmes out there set strict criteria as to whether your idea is the right one for their scheme. Often it needs to be tech-based or address a particular market. But the Work Avenue Business Accelerator is truly OPEN to anyone who has a fledgling business or business idea of any kind.

Work Avenue chief executive David Arden said: “The Work Avenue Business Accelerator the first in our community.

“Successful participants will leave it with the confidence and motivation to take their business to the next step.”

Applications for the Work Avenue Business Accelerator will close on Friday 18 February.

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3 February 2022 Jewish News

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25

Opinion

Day of high emotion gives me renewed hope and confidence OLIVIA MARKSWOLDMAN

CHIEF EXECTIVE, HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL DAY TRUST

A

s Holocaust Memorial Day drew to a close last week, I was tired and emotional. I was in Piccadilly Circus, with the giant screens filled with images of Holocaust survivors, many with family members, smiling out across London.

These photos were from the Generations project, which the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust co-ordinated with Jewish News, the Royal Photographic Society and the Imperial War Museum. They are colourful and vibrant, showing resilient survivors who have rebuilt lives in the UK and contributed so much to our society.

We in the Jewish community rightly fear the rise of antisemitism. And yes, Holocaust Memorial Day reminds everybody – of all faiths and backgrounds – where antisemitism can ultimately lead.

But paradoxically, Holocaust Memorial Day, a day full of testimony of the most appalling trauma, should give the community hope. Confidence, reassurance and hope.

Confidence that hundreds of thousands of people are engaging deeply with Holocaust Memorial Day; learning more about the past, empathising more with people today, and taking action for a better future.

It reminds us that ideologies of identityhatred didn’t stop after the Holocaust, and that genocides have continued after: in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur.

And as candles were lit in homes across the country, and nearly 100 landmarks across the UK were lit up in purple, we can be confident that the day has a place in people’s hearts.

Reassurance that each Holocaust Memorial Day event has the life experiences of people at their heart, alongside broader contextual information.

We make sure that the voices and experiences of people who were murdered in the Holocaust and in genocides are integral to HMD events – Anne Frank, David Berger and

Struggling to cope is more normal than you think.

Uncertainty and isolation can cause any of us to experience feelings of distress or anxiety. Whatever you are going through, you don’t have to face it alone.

many more are alive in classrooms and civic centres around the country. Survivors have reached millions of people through the UK Ceremony, through the media and through online events – even during the pandemic.

Our precious Holocaust survivors can be reassured that people across the nation will carry their legacy forward.

And hope. The images shown on those

Olivia at last Thursday’s event in Piccadilly Circus

vast screens are full of colour and life.

As they shone out, passers-by stopped to look; many started weeping at the contrast between the smiling faces and the short text underneath: Leo Wieder, survivor of Auschwitz-Birkenau, Mittelbau-Dora and Bergen-Belsen camps; Mala Tribich, survivor of Ravensbrück and Bergen-Belsen concentration camps, Ruth Barnett, arrived on the Kindertransport aged four; Yvonne Bernstein, hidden in France as a child.

The photos on the giant screens were celebrations of lives rebuilt, here in Britain.

We live in a country in which Holocaust survivors can beam from huge screens in the centre of London and where people of all ages and backgrounds learned more, empathised more and took action.

So, yes, I was very tired after the hard work that my colleagues at Holocaust Memorial Day Trust and I put into making sure that Holocaust Memorial Day could be marked so comprehensively.

But I was emotional because I know that together with people across the nation, we make light in the darkness.

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Jewish News 3 February 2022

Photo by Blake Ezra Photography

JN LIFE

OF THE CAMERA

PHOTOGRAPHER BLAKE EZRA DESCRIBES THE FIRST TIME HE PHOTOGRAPHED THE QUEEN “In my first week as a full-time press photographer at a press agency in 2008, my picture editor sent me to Windsor for the afternoon, with the instruction to take some shots of local scenery and ‘use the lenses’, meaning getting to know how each lens operates and how focal length can change the entire shape of an image. While wandering around, trying my hand at creating silhouettes with fast shutter speeds and compressing images using long lenses, I spotted a poster announcing that Her Majesty the Queen would be opening a new wing of the Windsor Shopping Centre the following week.

Upon my return to the office, I asked the news editor if

I could cover that event. He explained that it wouldn’t be a priority as there would be many national press photographers there and my time would probably be better used shooting small stories with no competition for publication. A press agency is a business after all. The day came and no stories came in of sex offenders at Reading Crown Court, and no tales of dogs that could bark the alphabet were in the local papers.

“Off you go to Windsor,” I was told.

As a new press photographer with a career spanning a whole 10 days, I was not totally sure where to stand, which lenses to use, whether I’d get a clear shot, which way the Queen would face… and about a hundred other factors that could determine the success or failure of this trip. This was my first time photographing the Queen – it was a big deal.

I stood among a few other photographers and journalists who had assembled in a small pen near to the plaque that her

Majesty would unveil. The next few minutes passed in the blink of an eye, but there was just a split second where the most iconic person on the planet looked directly towards me.

I kept shooting and hoped that the camera settings were as they should be, knowing that in just a few moments it would all be over.

I immediately headed to review my photos and saw this shot above. There are so many photographs of the Queen, and this one didn’t really include a huge amount of context, but I had taken it, it was my shot, and it was one of the most exciting moments of my life as a photographer. I’d been keenly taking photos on my travels for a few years, sharing my shots and enjoying the process, but this was on a whole new level. I’ve been lucky enough to photograph her Majesty many times since that afternoon in Windsor, and it is always an honour, but this stands out as a very proud moment for me.”

3 February 2022 Jewish News

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JN LIFE

Monarch makes a meal of it

PLEASURE WAS MINE No one forgets meeting the Queen or what she means to the community, writes Brigit Grant

I

wasn’t quite sure where to stand.

Whether to hover at the end of the long 14th century vestibule and blend with the brocade drapes? Or to take a decisive position closer to the door and be seen by Queen Elizabeth II? Such dilemmas are rare for journalists, as a holding pen, cornered-off space or ropedoff area is traditionally our designate place.

It’s where we expect to be. So imagine my confusion when, in the summer of 1983, I found myself loitering freely in a room at the Guildhall waiting for the arrival of the Monarch.

I wasn’t the only one waiting, I should add, as the now all sadly deceased Dr Robert Runcie, Archbishop Of Canterbury, Cardinal Basil Hume and Chief Rabbi Lord Jakobovits were also there, biding their time in a dignified fashion, nodding at one another. I nodded too, while realising protocol had gone awry as I, along with a reporter from the Catholic Herald, a photographer and a few waiters were alone with three of the most prominent faith leaders ahead of them being honoured at a Variety Club lunch attended by the Queen.

As a journalist for a Jewish newspaper, following community leaders to all manner of events and grand occasions was part of the job, but never without credentials in lanyards or a list of forbidden zones. To think that only a year earlier, Michael Fagan had visited the Queen at the Palace without an invite, yet there I was with one, standing next to a Cardinal, an Archbishop and a Chief Rabbi, within touching distance of the Queen. Not that I would ever do such a thing, particularly in the building where Lady Jane Grey stood trial.

There was no call for silence when the Queen entered – a tiny figure towered over by three religious men – and I can only recall their bows and smiles, not my cursory curtsey, which was surplus to requirements. In truth, I was invisible, even in my smart skirt, but in that moment I was both moved and muted in awe to be in the same room as the woman who took the throne when she was just 25, and this

Above: The Queen is presented with a Chanukiah by Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks in 2006.

Left: The Queen and Prince Philip lay flowers at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 2015

year becomes the first British Monarch to celebrate a Platinum Jubilee.

It would be pointless and impossible to calculate the number of lunches, teas and dinners to which the Queen has been since, but I will never forget the three courses I ate in her company when I was 19 and she was 57.

My late mother, an ardent royalist, never forgot the meeting either and reminded me of it whenever she said the prayer for the Royal family on Shabbat or at a simcha. For nonHebrew readers, the prayer is a crowd pleaser, but it should also make us proud as it has not gone unnoticed by Her Majesty. How do we know this? Because Prince Charles told 400 Jewish guests at Clarence House that he had “grown up being deeply touched by the fact that British synagogues have, for centuries, remembered my family in your weekly prayers.”

One has to assume that, like the Prince, his less vocal, but steadfast mother also values our “contributions to society, and not just the most prominent members who, through the ages, have literally transformed this country for the better; but those who are the cornerstones of

their own local communities”. Living within those cornerstones are also the sovereign’s most devoted supporters and the first to buy Jubilee mugs, coins and flags to display and wave, because they are proud.

Proud that so many within our community have been honoured by the Queen during her reign, which raises our self-esteem, and we are reminded of this with photos of her knighting Kindertransport humanitarian, the late Sir Nicholas Winton, or being captivated by the late Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks.

The accolades given to Jews in Britain have a special significance when given by the Queen, who we all appreciate, just as we’ll appreciate that long weekend in June to mark her Jubilee.

Of course, she has her detractors, and not just republicans. There are Jewish people who felt that, as patron of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, she should have visited a concentration camp before 2015, when she went to Auschwitz for the 70th anniversary of liberation. In spite of this, survivors still wanted to meet the Queen in 2005, when a permanent Holocaust exhibition was opened at the Imperial War Museum.

We should also recall that the Queen is patron of 600 charities, but took up the role for the Council of Christians and Jews and Norwood when she acceded to the throne.

So it’s not surprising that ‘Meet the Queen’ still has a poll position on thousands of bucket lists. It was ticked on mine in 1983.

When Lord Jakobovits was inducted as Chief Rabbi, he was quick to send a list of kosher caterers to Buckingham Palace.

According to C.S. Teitelbaum of Ami Magazine, Rebbetzin Jakobovits had been told by her husband’s predecessor, Chief Rabbi Israel Brody, that he used to come home from royal occasions with indigestion because he was only served fruit. But Lord and Lady Jakobovits would have none of that and the palace gladly complied, alternating between choices of permissible caterers.

Lady Amelie also told Teitelbaum that their first exclusive invitation to Windsor Castle clashed with Passover, so they had to decline with a a letter of apology while explaining that “Jewish families stay home on the seventh day of the week, as well as on Jewish holidays”. The Rebbetzin begged her husband not to make them sound like such fools, “and just tell it like it is – that it’s Passover”.

The Palace took this on board and, now acquainted with the Jewish calendar, sent them an invite to a party 10 days later. It stated: “According to the diary of Her Royal Highness, there appear to be no Jewish holidays scheduled for that date.” Best of all, within the envelope was another card with a choice of three kosher menus from which they could reserve meals to their liking and, when they finally arrived at the Castle, all the other guests had a non-kosher version of their dish.

Lord Jacobovits pictured with Prince Philip

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Jewish News 3 February 2022

JN LIFE

TIME TRAVEL TO JEWISH

PROVENCE

Benjamin Ramm delves into the twists and turns of two centuries of the Jews of Provence

Sénanque Abbey, Vaucluse

Photo by InnTravel

T

he town of Carpentras, in the Vaucluse region of Provence, is home to the oldest active Jewish community in western Europe and the second oldest on the continent (after Prague). It’s a little-known destination for travellers seeking to discover more about the 2,000-year cultural legacy of Jews in the region. Throughout its many incarnations, Jews have remained, nurturing a distinct cultural legacy.

In November 1940, Henri Dreyfus’s sixteenyear tenure as mayor of the Provençal town of Carpentras came to an abrupt end. A month earlier, the Pétain regime at Vichy had passed a law barring members of the ‘Jewish race’ from holding office. Dreyfus – the nephew of Alfred, whose ordeal helped define the Third Republic – was arrested in 1943, after the German invasion of the region, and deported to Drancy.

He narrowly avoided being sent to Auschwitz, where his brother René perished. When the war ended, Henri returned to Carpentras, and was re-elected overwhelmingly to serve a final term as mayor.

This story is a small but significant chapter in the history of Carpentras. Jews first arrived in Provence more than 2,000 years ago, landing at Marseille in the company of Greek merchants. The region has been both a cultural

innovator and a neglected backwater; once part of the Holy Roman Empire, it became a seat of papal power before being subsumed into the French state. Throughout its many incarnations, the Jews have remained – resolute, at times flourishing, often suffering, and always nurturing a distinct cultural legacy.

During my visit, community elder Alain Freund gave me a tour of the synagogue – the oldest in France still in activity – and described how, 500 years ago, “they had to build up eight, nine, 10 storeys”. Forbidden from owning property, Jews were obliged to wear a yellow symbol, and by the 16th century their professions were restricted to second-hand trading and usury.

There was even a prohibition on windows that looked onto the town. Forced inward, this community soon developed its own dialect, Judéo-Comtadin, of the language Shuadit (or Judéo-Occitan) spoken in Provence.

Life in the ghetto revolved around the

elegantly ornamented synagogue, which attended to every aspect of community life, from the mikveh to the shechita. The site had two bakeries: one for challah (with an oven forge that could fit up to 2,000 loaves) and another for unleavened bread at Passover.

The synagogue was twice enlarged during the 18th century, in the Provençal baroque style, to reflect the growing community – a tenth of the town’s population.

After the revolution, the Provençal rite was replaced by the Portuguese Sephardic liturgy, which is still used by the community today.

Emancipation led to a degree of assimilation, and use of Judéo-Provençal declined. Alain tells me that one elderly lady still speaks a smattering of the dialect, but the last fluent speaker was Armand Lunel, a prominent writer who died in 1977. In 1926, Lunel won the inaugural Prix Renaudot for his novel, Nicolo-Peccavi, or The Dreyfus Affair in Carpentras.

The decline of Judéo-Comtadin raises Left: A lithograph marking the first batmitzvah in Provence some tricky questions about the nature (Marseille, 1865). Below: Plaque marking the consecration of Jewish identity in a secular age. How and reconstruction of the synagogue do we mourn the loss of a language that emerged as a consequence of ghettoisation? Every dialect is a unique way of seeing and being in the world, and its disappearance is a kind of obliteration of memory. But in recent years, particularly among Ashkenazi activists uncomfortable with Zionism, there has been a tendency to fetishise the ghetto – which ignores why so many Jews left as soon as they could. The corollary of these questions is: what does it mean to be Jewish in an environment in which the threat of extinction is not self-defining?

This was not something the Jews

A Sefer Torah in Carpentras Synagogue, built in 1367

of Provence had the luxury of finding out for themselves. Between 1941 and 1942, le Camp des Milles, outside Aix-en-Provence in Bouches-du-Rhône, was used as a transit camp for 2,000 Jews who were deported to Auschwitz, via Drancy. A museum at the site commemorates their journey. The Italian armistice with the Allies prompted the Germans to invade Provence on 8 September 1943, after which they formed specialised units to hunt down Jews. Within five months, 5,000 were caught and deported to Auschwitz.

After the war, the community of Carpentras welcomed Jews from Morocco, Tunisia, Libya and Algeria. The majority of the present community is from this region, including Alain’s Tunisian wife, Katia, who is the public face of the Association for the Enhancement of the Jewish Heritage of Carpentras. Alain is the sole Ashkenazi member of the congregation.

3 February 2022 Jewish News

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JN LIFE The old mikveh

The community today gathers on High Holy Days, and for a once-monthly Shabbat service, in the majestic prayer hall on the synagogue’s first floor. Alain opens the ark to reveal, behind a partition, two dozen Sifrei Torah, beautifully adorned and carefully maintained. Opposite is a spiral pulpit in the style of a baroque church, with a view of the most curious feature: Elijah’s armchair – a small, gilded, red velvet throne, for the ‘prophet of children’ to witness the circumcision of baby boys.

On a sultry Friday in June, congregants milled around the synagogue square. The Shabbat service was informal and convivial, led

by Dr Meyer Benzekrit, a charismatic Ladinospeaking dentist of Turkish origin. The minyan seemed like a large family, with each member keeping alive a flame that ought to have been extinguished long ago, but which – despite everything – still burns after seven centuries.

WHERE TO STAY IN PROVENCE

LUXURY

WALKING

Owned by a Jewish family, Crillon Le Brave is a chic, rustic 34-bedroom hotel nestled within a sleepy village eponymous of the Vaucluse region. The views over the Provence countryside are spectacular.

Refurbished in 2020, it is a stone’s throw away from beautiful vineyards, including Châteauneuf-du-Pape. www.crillonlebrave.com

Explore a wide range of walking routes from the charming Hotel du Poète in Fontaine-deVaucluse and visit hilltop villages and Roman monuments. The beautifully-decorated hotel has been converted from a 19th century water mill on the banks of the River Sorgue. From £1,245 for seven nights’ B&B, including seven days’ car hire, return rail from London St Pancras, one dinner at a local restaurant, GPS navigation, walking maps and cultural notes. www.inntravel.co.uk

FOODIE Chef Alain Ducasse’s Hostellerie de l’Abbaye de la Celle is a charming boutique hotel set in the middle of the vineyards of the Coteaux Varois, close to many pretty villages. The restaurant has a Michelin star. From £138 a night. https://abbaye-celle.com

medics, GPS technology and fleet of emergency response vehicles help save the lives of thousands of

while staying in boutique hotels along the way. www.cycling-for-softies.co.uk

CANAL Experience the beauty of Provence from the Canal du Midi. There is a range of different size boats to sleep between two and seven people. www.locaboat.com SELF-CATERING

Villa Madeleine

Just outside the little village of Lioux, a short drive away from Roussillon and the pretty Provençal perched villages, Villa Madeleine sleeps six in three kingsized bedrooms with a swimming pool and covered terrace. From £,1099 for seven nights. www.jamesvillas.co.uk

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Cycling for Softies offers tailor-made gourmet cycling adventures across France and Provence is a favourite. You can veer off the well-trodden path, take scenic country roads and be privy to the beautiful landscapes

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Excerpted with permission from issue 247 of The Jewish Quarterly

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To support the lifesaving work of United Hatzalah of Israel visit: www.israelrescue.org/uk or call: 020 3823 4650

30

Jewish News 3 February 2022

JN LIFE

&

www.jewishnews.co.uk

WHO WHAT WHERE REVIEW

Reel opinion

EXHIBITION

City of Jews

Very soon we will be bringing the Jewish News view on movies, theatres and all things entertaining, so you know how to line up your streaming and not to waste your money on a production that is worth bupkes (Yiddish for very little).

Our intention is to signpost what you might have missed while getting through The Handmaid’s Tale and, right now, that would be Maggie Gyllenhaal’s The Lost Daughter. Making her debut as a director with a film lead by Olivia Colman was a sharp move for the Jewish actress, who also picked Oliver Jackson-Cohen (son of designer Betty and her Jewish-Egyptian husband, David) to be the sun chair attendant, who we hope is the love interest, but isn’t. Shot on a pretend Greek island that is actually Spetses, Jewish mothers who kvetch about their kids, but stay put will want to slap Colman’s character and then book a holiday in the Aegean. With all the pretentions of a French film, it keeps you hooked, leaves you hanging and is a woman-only watch, so it gets five fish balls.

City of stars may have more of a ring to it, but St Albans is where you will find the Jews who wanted a bit more countryside with a dash of Roman history. On 5 February, a new exhibition, Arriving & Belonging, arrives at the St Albans Museum + Gallery and it focuses on the story of how Jewish people arrived in the Herts town and made their home there. Personal objects and family photographs bring these stories to life and you can explore the timeline of Jewish life by taking a virtual stroll around the city to see where the Jewish community

VALENTINE’S DAY

Isn’t she romantic?

Intent on inspiring women to burn her candles and follow her skincare regime, retired Jewish actress turned goop.com guru Gwyneth Paltrow has launched her spring collection for her brand G Label. With her Chang Sherpa fleece poncho coming in at £682, the “luxurious wardrobe essentials” modelled by the svelte star are even pricey for the St John’s Wood set. The Maverick jeans will “carry you through the current skinny-jean moratorium”, and if the £278 price tag fazes then take a look in the Valentine’s section for the perfect candle gift for engaged couples.

For £70, it comes with the addendum – “also good for burning legal documents”.

THEATRE

Border force Israel, Lebanon and Berlin play important roles in Borders, a risqué play that is opening in London in a couple of weeks. Boaz and George meet on Grindr. One is in Israel, the other in Lebanon. The distance, the ‘enemy’, and the experience of being gay in another culture entice them to try to meet up in Berlin, but the border between their home countries heats up, and they’re forced to make difficult decisions.

Israeli Neta Gracewell directs this awardwinning play, which was inspired by a real encounter. “What makes Borders really special for me is that it takes a topic that is usually treated with a lot of thinking and intellect, and instead approaches it with heart and feeling and emotions,” explains Yaniv Yafe, who plays Boaz.

Borders is at the Drayton Arms Theatre, London, from 15 to 17 February, draytonarmstheatre.co.uk

settled and how its members contributed to the wider community.

Arriving & Belonging runs from 4 February to 15 May. For tickets, visit www.stalbansmuseums.org.uk

AUCTION

A lot of legacy The late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg remains a cult figure in the US, where her face appears on all manner of collectibles. Such is the regard for her intellect that Bonhams knew an auction of her personal library – law school textbooks to celebrity memoirs – would bring in aspirational bidders, some of whom were of the faith and wanted such titles as Rabin: Our Life, His Legacy,, written and inscribed by Leah Rabin, wife of the assassinated Israeli prime minister, and It Takes a Dream: The Story of Hadassah by Marlin Levin. For the women who wear the shirts, the bidding was money well spent.

3 February 2022 Jewish News

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JN LIFE

CRYER

with laughter

Author and broadcaster Russ Kane writes a personal tribute about the wit and warmth of a comedian who was Jewish enough

Photo in circle by Steve Ullathorne

From left: TV producer Dan Patterson, JW3 chief executive Raymond Simonson and the beloved Barry Cryer

comedy fraternity, he was more than just a writer or comedy personality – he was a paragon of professionalism, a man who took the time to dive deep into what was coming next, not just bolster those on a higher rung of the ladder.”

For Raymond Simonson, chief executive of JW3, Barry will always be the mensch who saved the day – well, actually, the night. “In 2014, I was organising JW3’s first anniversary fundraising dinner. One week before, our guest speaker pulled out. Panic!”

Well-connected and with bounds of energy, Raymond desperately tried to pull in favours to get another (free) guest star.

“But I failed, “ he recalls. “Then Barry Cryer agreed and, after negotiating a reasonable fee – which was a lot for us at the time – he took part in a chat-show style 30 minutes with a Jewish joke-off that was side-splittingly funny. He was the most Jewish nonJewish guest ever. The next day I called to thank him personally and ask for his invoice and bank details, but he refused.

“Barry said he’d had such a wonderful evening with our fantastic hospitality and great food, and was so inspired by the incredible work of JW3 that he insisted on donating his fee towards our charitable activities.

Oh, and he didn’t want any public recognition or press.”

For Raymond, who spends his working

Photo by Blake Ezra Photography

A

Jewish accountant. There you go – a double bout 10 years ago I made the whammy! A Jew and an accountant. Top journey… no, a pilgrimage… to Trumps.

The Theatrebarn in Bretforton Tragically, Barry was only five when near Evesham on the edge of the his father died, as the comedian reflected: Cotswolds. It added a new dimension to “I have very few memories of him, which is ‘out of the way’. To any Londoner, it was a big sadness. My mum, Jean, was wonderful a drive that entailed several “Where bringing up my brother and me. She died the hell are we?” and “This can’t be in 1986.” right!” moments. I was travelling for one Despite the loss of his Jewish father, purpose only – to see my comedy hero, Barry still gravitated towards the Leeds the magnificent Barry Cryer. community and had Jewish friends, The thought of sitting in an intimate including the rabbi’s son. He also loved venue for an evening watching the ‘master’ the humour of the great Jewish comedians at work was the fulfilment of many years of Sid Caesar, Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner, George unashamed admiration. It was, of course, Burns, Lenny Bruce, Garry Shandling and a masterclass in storytelling, razor-sharp Phil Silvers. comic timing and how to engage, seemingly There’s no doubt his roots, pals and taste effortlessly, with an audience for two hours, in performers inspired the comedian’s armed with nothing more than a microphone natural sense of humour and certainly some and a lifetime of wit. In the following years, of his notable Jewish jokes. Cryer classics I was blessed by being in Barry’s company at include: “Jewish scientists are reported to dinners and luncheons, have discovered five new ways of bathing in his all-encompassing disappointing their mothers.” warmth and charm.

Or: “Four Jewish ladies It was a testament to have lunch in a restaurant. just how universally The waiter approaches loved Barry Cryer was, when they’ve finished and that when he died on asks, ‘Was anything all January 25th, not right?” even the sewer that My favourite? masquerades as ‘social “Quick: the noise made media’ contained one by a dyslexic duck.” negative comment. It Beloved by other was an outpouring of comedians, they were the love and unadulterated first to mourn his loss and adoration from his peers, Steve Furst rave about his natural talent and the public and anyone whom Steve Furst remembers how helpful he had touched with his legendary Barry was when he was starting the comedy humour. magazine The Heckler back in 1990.

Barry’s son, Bob, recently said: “Inciden“Barry really championed our corner,” he tally, he never really liked the terms ‘comedy recalls. “He would sit with us for hours in the writer’ or ‘comedian’, instead preferring Old Coffee House smoking Consulates and ‘hack’ and ‘entertainer’, and always thought regaling us comedy nerds with astonishing the term ‘national treasure’ meant he’d just stories. He always had time for young comics been dug up. He was, in his words, arrogant breaking through and was universally loved.” in his humility.”

Furst, whose Jewish alter-ego is cabaret That, indeed, was the man. star Lenny Beige, insists that Barry, despite This being Jewish News, the first question his dislike of being branded a national every reader will be asking is: “Yeah, fine, treasure, most definitely was one. “He served, but was he a clan member?” Well, depending wrote and facilitated so many other national on your definition, he was, or at least half treasures – Morecambe and Wise, The Two of him was, because Barry, who was born in Ronnies, Kenny Everett... To many in the Leeds in 1935, was the son of Carl Cryer, a

life trying to secure talent for JW3,it doesn’t get better than that. “In a ‘showbiz’ world where naked greed is revoltingly abundant, this was wonderfully refreshing – but that was the mark of Barry Cryer, a true mensch.”

For me, this encapsulates the brilliance of this much-loved, much-admired and now, sadly, much-missed man. As Barry wisely said: “Analysing comedy is like dissecting a frog. Nobody laughs and the frog dies.” Funny is funny so, thank you, Barry, for decades of wit, humour and charm.

Your memory will, indeed, be a blessing.

Catch Barry’s last laughs on his first brilliant podcast with his son Bob and other mirth-makers

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JN Junior

JN Junior The big question

What real-world issue would you use technology to help with and how?

Genius Jake says: Technology has become a massive part of our lives, even more so since the pandemic as people all over the world moved online, whether to communicate with loved ones, work, shop or, of course, home-school! And let’s not forget gaming. But there is a lot more to technology than getting social. People are using technology to tackle the world’s urgent social and environmental challenges. This is known as ‘tech-for-good’ and could help all sorts of issues such as poverty, pollution and people’s mental health.

For instance, did you know there’s a company that uses tech to help homeless people get training for jobs (Beam)? One that creates alternative packaging to plastic (TIPA)? And there’s a device that can help blind people to read (OrCam)! Technology is also used in schools to help teachers to teach, and improve the way we learn. If I could come up with a tech-forgood company, it would be an online book-borrowing website that sends requested books to children who can’t afford to buy their own.

“

Henry Seymour, age 10, North London

Some elderly people have been very lonely over the pandemic, especially during lockdowns. Research has shown that they enjoy the company of young kids and this improves their wellbeing. That is why I would create K+A (Kids + Adults), a website where the elderly could interact with kids by messaging on chat or video calling. This would allow them to play games, music and enjoy events together remotely, from anywhere in the world.

“

Good news for...

Israeli students and space Satellites designed and created by Israeli students have been sent into space! The eight satellites lifted off from NASA’s launch site in Florida using SpaceX’s Falcon 9 launcher as part of Tevel (which means ‘world’ and ‘strong’ in Hebrew) Project led by the Israel Space Agency and the Science and Technology Ministry.

The junior high school pupils got to watch the launch live via a NASA video. The satellites will be used to carry out various tasks and experiments and control of them will be possible through communication stations in several locations in Israel.

moving and inspiring words

Congratulations to Esti Cohen, 15, left, and Ariella Joseph, 11, who have won our JN Junior Writing Competition.

They moved the judges with their entries themed around grandparents and what they have learnt from them. Ariella impressed with her beautifully detailed cartoon entry about her grandad, who left Iraq aged 14 to come to London.

Esti’s entry was a poignant and emotive poem about her grandma. They will both receive £100 of Amazon vouchers.

Judge Ivor Baddiel said: “Esti’s poem was beautifully written and made me cry, and I loved the originality of Ariella’s cartoon and its inspirational message.”

New book by ‘Captain Calamity’

Best known as the popular bubble-blowing entertainer, Captain Calamity (aka Dov Citron) has written a children’s book! “I love that you can travel anywhere within a story and write about whatever you feel. I had taken readers down into the sewer, into space and across the sea so it was time to go deep into the ocean and let my imagination swim about. As my rhyming story grew, it became a story l ie d d a B about friendship, being kind r With Ivo y sa and the importance of having er offic f did the poreliecemem o rs somewhere to call home.” be

Just for laughs!

What ng th on seei ra's string section an orchegsttheir instruments? carryin

Cello,lcleollo, ce

Four things to enjoy this month 1 3 Peter Pan – Tiny Mites

Join Peter and Wendy as they fly to Neverland in this magical production of Peter Pan – Tiny Mites that is perfect for young children. On Sunday 27 February at 2.30pm. www.radlettcentre.co.uk

2

Beano Exhibition at Somerset House You can still see Roger the Dodger, the Bash Street Kids, Dennis the Menace et al at Beano: The Art of Breaking the Rules exhibition at Somerset House until 6 March. www.somersethouse.org.uk

Compiled by Candice Krieger candice@jewishnews.co.uk

www.hubbleandhattie.com/ shop/HK5746

Half-term at artsdepot

The artsdepot in Finchley has half-term covered for all ages. Younger children can enjoy a production of Rod Cambell’s Dear Zoo that includes puppetry, songs and, of course, all the animals from the zoo from 12 to 14 February. Those aged eight and up can set sail on a Viking adventure brought to life through storytelling, animation and live music in the production of Vinland: A Viking Adventure, a true(ish) tale of the Vikings’ last journey to North America. There are two showings on 18 February. www.artsdepot.co.uk

4

Imagine Festival The Imagine Children’s Festival is the largest (and mostly free) arts festival for kids of its kind in the UK and is dedicated to families experiencing art and culture at London’s Southbank. www.southbankcentre.co.uk

3 February 2022 Jewish News

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Orthodox Judaism

MAKING SENSE OF THE SEDRA In our thought-provoking new series, rabbis and rebbetzen relate the week’s parsha to the way we live today

BY REBBETZIN SHULI LISS HIGHGATE UNITED SYNAGOGUE

Money Talks A story is told about a wealthy Jew who was asked by his grandson how much money he owned.

He quoted a figure that was far below his net worth.

His grandson was surprised and questioned his calculations.

The wealthy Jew explained as follows: “This is the money that I have given to charity. Only this money truly belongs to me, for no one can take that mitzvah away from me.

“All the rest of the money that is now in my possession can be lost, or misused, or become worthless.

Money comes and money goes.

The money I give away to help others is really the only money I own.”

The Hebrew word zuz (the name of an ancient Jewish silver coin) means ‘move’.

We may know people who were millionaires and suddenly lost all their money, and seemingly random individuals who became extremely wealthy overnight.

It is our responsibility to be financially prudent and look after whatever money and possessions with which Hashem has blessed us.

Yet, at the same time, just like our talents, our money is also ‘on loan’ from Hashem.

If we have the opportunity to give some away, let us remember

that it is the best investment we will ever make (and Hashem promises us a great return).

It is not easy for a person to part with their hard-earned money, but if we remember where it truly comes from, then we will find it easier to give.

In this week’s Parsha, we read: “Speak to the children of Israel, and have them take for Me an offering; from every person whose heart inspires him to generosity.”

(Exodus 25:2).

The wording is difficult to understand. Isn’t Hashem asking us to give, not to take? The verse teaches us a fundamental principle here: whatever we give away to others will stay with us forever.

Over the past year, there

have been a large number of charity campaigns online, and I have been so inspired as I watched the numbers of donations steadily rise and reach the charity’s target.

Mi K’Amcha Yisrael – who is like

your people, Israel. Even after so many campaigns, we still open our hearts and give.

May Hashem bless us with ample sustenance, so that we can continue to give freely to help those in need.

LIFE Jewish News

F

R

E

E

Fascist Britain?

BBC’s neo-Nazi thriller Ridley Road Pages 20-21

VOICE OF THE COM MUN

Social Enterprise Manager Noa Girls is a charity supporting adolescent girls in the Orthodox Jewish Community We are seeking a highly creative and organised Social Enterprise Manager to join our busy and friendly team, to manage all aspects of Noa's Social Enterprise Programme.

The successful candidate will develop and run new and existing social enterprise projects, including the Noa Gift Shop, providing clients with an opportunity to grow their skills and confidence and earn some income.

Salary - £28 - 35K FTE per annum Part-time (20-24 hours per week) For an application pack please email HR@noagirls.com Closing date: 9am, Tuesday 8th February 2022

30 September 2021

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24 Tishrei 5782

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Issue No.1230

September 2021

Miriam’s memories

Actress on life and love Page 23

@JewishNew sUK

by Lee Harpin at the Labour Party Conference in Brighton lee@jewishnew s.co.uk @lmharpin

Dame Louise Ellman has said the only promise made to her by Keir momentous decision Starmer ahead of her this week to rejoin was that he would Labour “continue to eradicate semitism” and make antithe party “a better place”.

Speaking to Jewish News at the party’s ence in Brighton, conferthe former Liverpool Riverside MP, flatly rejected suggestions she had been promised a place in the House of Lords to secure her sensational return to the party she quit two years ago over Jeremy Corbyn’s failure Ellman said: “I haven’t on antisemitism. been promised anything except that Keir will continue his mission cate antisemitism. to eradiThat’s the only promise been given. I did I have speak to Keir after I made the decision to return.

I felt things were changing. I wanted to come back.

I was change. I’m back because waiting for the party to I feel that it is on to becoming electable the way again.”

Ellman, who was elected as MP for Liverpool Riverside in 1997, served as chair of the transport select committee for nearly a decade, having previously been leader of Lancashire County Council for 16 years.

She said she had first joined the Labour more than 55 years Party ago “because I wanted to change society for the better”.

The former Labour of Israel chair said Friends her political beliefs have not changed and she did not want her decision to go back into the party to be “all about me”.

The 75-year-old added: “I want an anti-racist society, a more equal society, a society that treats people more fairly.

That is something that has changed for me.

Under Corbyn, Labour never something very diff became erent. Now it’s coming and I want to be part back of it .”

Ellman said she was under absolutely no that the problem with anti-Jewish racism illusion had eradicated entirely.

“There are still antisemites been in the Continued on page 2

MEDIA SALES EXECUTIVE The picture that says Starmer welcomin the Corbyn nightmare is over: g Louise Ellman back to Labour

ISSUE NO.6

Magazine

ITY

Hug sameach!

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DRESSING WITH

Inside Julia’s unortho HAART: dox wardrobe

YIZKOR – Living with

Good basic, uncapped commission

loss

New Beginnings

Pink Rabbit turns

Keen to work in the Jewish community?

Looking for a fresh challenge to stretch your talents?

Here’s your chance to sell advertising across the Jewish News’ fabulous portfolio of products, including the 2021 Free Weekly Newspaper of the Year, Europe’s most read Jewish website, specialised supplements on everything from charity to travel and unmissable events including our wedding and bar/batmitzvah show.

Who we are:

The Jewish News brand is always finding for new ways to contribute to the UK’s vibrant Jewish community. Having launched 25 years ago, the newspaper has become the largest Jewish print product in the UK. Our website, partnered by Times of Israel, has more people flocking to it every week [one million page views a month and counting] and features household-name writers.

And you ain’t seen nothing yet! We’ve got ambitious plans in place to deliver lots more.

Who you’ll be: A bright, sociable and driven self-starter. Someone who enjoys talking on the phone [a lot!] and meeting clients face-to-face. Someone who enjoys the challenge of finding out what makes a client’s business tick and delivering the perfect package to help their business grow.

Helpful information:

• We work from home with a hub in Borehamwood.

• We have lots of products to sell – we’ll help you get to know them all and help you focus on you’re strengths.

Email a brief paragraph about yourself (and attach your CV) to Richard Ferrer – richard@jewishnews.co.uk

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Jewish News 3 February 2022

Progressive Judaism

LEAPS OF FAITH

A stimulating new series in which progressive rabbis consider how biblical figures might act when faced with 21st century issues

BY RABBI MIRIAM BERGER

SENIOR RABBI, FINCHLEY REFORM SYNAGOGUE

What would Moses do?

We know what Moses did. He sang. When Moses saw plagues, death and drowning, he rallied his people, celebrated survival and praised God for their redemption.

That moment of singing, celebrating and frivolity started to make a disparate bunch of slaves into a community.

Yet we also know he was rebuked for that singing. Singing while others are dying is simply not appropriate, whatever relief, fear or bonding it may be a response to.

As a rabbi during these pandemic years, I know what it feels like to hold a group of people together. We tried so hard to keep a sense of community, pivoting community life online and into different, often novel, formats to ensure support and connection.

But when I think back over the time when we were working a hundred times faster than normal to adapt in order to keep up with the change all around us, I have one deep regret.

One set of people I was looking past.

It was my extraordinary synagogue staff team, of whom I made so many demands – and yet who was there for them?

Who was there for them when our ad hoc cultural programming became a daily Zoom lecture at 2pm? Who was there

for them when funerals suddenly needed not just clergy but a technical team to host them online? Who was there for them when experienced educators, inexperienced with new online platforms, suddenly needed to exchange classrooms for virtual breakout rooms? Who was there for them throughout all of this, when they were working around the clock and out of their comfort zones while juggling their own family upheaval and their own debilitating fear?

For them, I wasn’t able to be Moses. We didn’t let our hair down and party like there was no pandemic. No birthday cakes or meetings with cheese and wine for us. Part of me wishes I hadn’t taken their incredible goodwill, their dedication, their immense hard work for granted. I wish I’d been able to make those months feel a little more collegial and a little less lonely for everyone working so hard from home.

As I read about the Downing Street ‘parties’, I question whether they were truly a frivolous disregard for the rules, or whether they were a desperate attempt to keep a team sane and functioning when they could see their decisions were costing thousands of lives. Would you have gone back to work day after day knowing you were being asked to balance impossible competing needs, which could only lead to economic collapse or more and more needless deaths?

What we’ve seen of civil servant Sue Gray’s report into

Civil servant Sue Gray

alleged gatherings on government property so far reflects the same midrash on those parties as Talmud Megillah 10b and Sanhedrin 39b, which chastise the angels when they join in with Moses: “How dare you sing for joy when My creatures are dying.”

It may have been their only outlet for the fear and horror of all they were witnessing and yet, still, we weren’t afforded the same opportunities.

We all needed those chances and none of us – the general public – were gifted them.

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3 February 2022 Jewish News

JDA – bringing families with deaf children together to form lifelong friendships

? e w ’t n o d , s d n e i r f w e n g n i k a m e v o l e Mummy, w

Please show you care by making a donation today.

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

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Jewish News 3 February 2022

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3 February 2022 Jewish News

Ask our

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Professional advice from our panel / Ask Our Experts

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

This week: Living at home with reduced mobility, starting a new job from home and monitoring employees LISA WIMBORNE CHARITY EXECUTIVE

JEWISH BLIND & DISABLED

Dear Lisa My husband was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) at the age of 44. He has been coping fairly well at home for the past few years, but his mobility is deteriorating as his MS progresses. We aren’t ready to move out of our home yet, but wondered if there was any support available. I am determined to make our home meet his needs for now and into the future. Are you able to help?

Amanda Dear Amanda We launched our Independent Living Advisory Service a few years ago to help people in this situation. One of our occupational therapists can

ERIC SALAMON CAREER ADVISER

RESOURCE Dear Eric I start a new job next week as a PA to the partners of a law practice in the City.

They are going to continue working mainly from home, with only one or two days per week in the office and my induction will all be online. Do you have any tips how best to mange this?

Danielle Dear Danielle Starting a new job online can

be quite daunting so you need to prepare ahead.

Even before your start date, try to get as much information as you can about the company, in particular an organisation chart showing who does what. Make a list of people with whom you need to build relationships other than the partners for whom you are working, such as the IT person, the finance person and other PAs. Make sure that during your induction you make an effort to “meet” with these people

come to you to assess what aids and adaptations could help your husband to continue to manage in your home and enhance his independence. They will then be able to make specific recommendations for you and help is at hand to fund the aids and adaptations, should you need it.

We can offer impartial advice on a range of areas, including managing transfers around the house such as in and out of chairs or on and off the bed, making specific rooms more suitable, installing ramps or assisted technology to allow control of functions within the home via remote controls.

The service is currently offered to people living within the M25; however, if you do need support and are outside this area, please get in touch and we will see if we can support you.

Our application form can be found at www. jbd.org/ila; alternatively, call us on 020 8371 6611 for a copy to be posted to you.

on or offline. You will need to be proactive to achieve this.

Try to arrange a day in the office as soon as possible so you can introduce yourself to as many people as possible and start networking within the organisation. Send an email to people introducing yourself and asking for a 10minute “meet”.

Make sure you know the technology you will be using – will it be Zoom or Teams or something else and practise using it before you start.

For the days you will work from home, prepare a structure to include breaks . Try to set up an “office” at home that you can walk away from at the end of the day.

At Resource, we run a workshop to help you settle in to your new job. Good luck!

at your service Our highly professional team can: • Assist in arranging for your Will to be professionally drafted.

• Help reduce inheritance tax liability or eradicate it completely.

• Act as Executor in the administration of your estate.

• Provide caring pastoral services.

Contact us to find out more and about leaving a legacy to support JNF UK’s vital work in Israel

Call: 020 8732 6101 Email: enquiries@kkl.org.uk

KKL Executor and Trustee Company Ltd (a Company registered in England No. 453042) is a subsidiary of JNF Charitable Trust (Charity No. 225910) and a registered Trust Corporation (authorised capital £250,000).

Dear David Employees’ use of email and the internet (including their activities on social network Jewish News (Ask the Expert) 10x2 - 2021.indd 1 sites and blogs) can lead to performance issues, damage EMMA GROSS to the employer’s reputation, EMPLOYMENT LAW AND loss of business and various DATA PROTECTION legal liabilities.

SPENCER WEST However, employers can only monitor employees’ actions to prevent liability Dear Emma arising in certain circumI’ve recently recruited a stances and there need to be new salesman to the team specific policies in place. and have noticed that he’s Monitoring employee always looking at dubious use of email and the internet websites. I’ve spoken to him involves the processing about it and he has promof personal data which, ised to stop. As an employer, according to the GDPR, may am I entitled to monitor my not be processed unless employees’ use of electronic there is a lawful basis for systems and websites in the doing so. office? Is there a right to Employees must also be privacy in the workplace? informed of the basis and the David

purposes for which it will be processed.

The Employment Practices Code contains guid11/02/2021 ance on monitoring at work, including that workers have a legitimate expectation of privacy and that monitoring must only be carried out if it is proportionate to do so and that workers are informed.

It also recommends encouraging workers to mark personal emails as such in the subject line.

I would recommend adopting an IT and communications policy that outlines the standards employees must observe when using these systems, when you will monitor their use, and the action you will take if they breach these standards.

15:17:31

38

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Jewish News 3 February 2022

Ask Our Experts / Professional advice from our panel

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

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

Email: editorial@jewishnews.co.uk

PRIVATE HEALTHCARE SPECIALIST TREVOR GEE Qualifications: • Managing Director, consultant specialists in affordable family health insurance.

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

• Excellent knowledge of health insurers, cover levels and hospital lists.

• LLB solicitors finals.

• Member of Chartered Insurance Institute.

EMMA GROSS Qualifications: • Specialist in claims of unfair dismissal, redundancy and discrimination.

• Negotiate out-of-court settlements and handle complex tribunal cases.

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

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

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

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

JEWELLER

Computer problems solved PC, Mac, WiFi, Laptops & Desktops Remote Support and On-Site Man on a Bike IT Consultancy Call now 020 8731 6171 www.manonabike.co.uk

EMPLOYMENT LAW AND DATA PROTECTION

JONATHAN WILLIAMS Qualifications: • Jewellery manufacturer since 1980s.

• Expert in the manufacture and supply of diamond jewellery, wedding rings and general jewellery.

• Specialist in supply of diamonds to the public at trade prices.

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

DIRECTOR OF LEGACIES

COMMERCIAL LAWYER ADAM LOVATT Qualifications: • Lawyer with more than 11 years of experience working in the legal sector.

Specialist in corporate, commercial, media, sport and start-ups.

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

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

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

CHARITY EXECUTIVE

CAROLYN ADDLEMAN Qualifications: Lawyer with over 20 years’ experience in will drafting and trust and estate administration. Last 14 years at KKL Executor and Trustee Company.

In close contact with clients to ensure all legal and pastoral needs are cared for.

Member of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners.

• •

SUE CIPIN Qualifications: • 20 years+ hands-on experience, leading JDA in significant growth and development.

• Understanding of the impact of deafness on people, including children, at all stages.

• Extensive services for people affected by hearing loss/tinnitus.

• Technology room with expert advice on and facilities to try out the latest equipment.

Hearing aid advice, support and maintenance.

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

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

•

REMOVALS MANAGING DIRECTOR

PRINCIPAL, PERFORMING ARTS SCHOOL

STEPHEN MORRIS Qualifications: • Managing Director of Stephen Morris Shipping Ltd. • 45 years’ experience in shipping household and personal effects.

• Chosen mover for four royal families and three UK prime ministers.

• Offering proven quality specialist advice for moving anyone across the world or round the corner.

LOUISE LEACH Qualifications: • Professional choreographer qualified in dance, drama and Zumba (ZIN, ISTD & LAMDA), gaining an honours degree at Birmingham University.

• Former contestant on ITV’s Popstars, reaching bootcamp with Myleene Klass, Suzanne Shaw and Kym Marsh.

• Set up Dancing with Louise 19 years ago.

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

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

3 February 2022 Jewish News

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39

Professional advice from our panel / Ask Our Experts

FINANCIAL SERVICES (FCA) COMPLIANCE

ACCOUNTANT

CHARITY EXECUTIVE

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

ADAM SHELLEY Qualifications: • FCCA chartered certified accountant.

• Accounting, taxation and business advisory services.

• Entrepreneurial business specialist including start-up businesses.

• Specialises in charities; Personal tax returns.

• Maurice Wohl Charitable Foundation Volunteer of the Year JVN award.

LISA WIMBORNE Qualifications: Able to draw on the charity’s 50 years of experience in enabling people with physical disabilities or impaired vision to live independently, including: • The provision of specialist accommodation with 24/7 on site support.

• Knowledge of the innovations that empower people and the benefits available.

• Understanding of the impact of a disability diagnosis.

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

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

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

INTERNATIONAL PAYMENTS SPECIALIST

IT SPECIALIST

LEE SHMUEL GOLDFARB Qualifications: • Hands-on service, with full and personalised support for international transfers.

• Get the most out of your currency exchange with regards to pension income, when purchasing your first house in Israel or benefitting from an inheritance from aboard.

• UK leader in financial exchange and partner to brands such as St James Place and Hargreaves Lansdown with industry-beating Trustpilot score.

IAN GREEN Qualifications: • Launched Man on a Bike IT consultancy 15 years ago to provide computer support for the home and small businesses.

• Clients range from legal firms in the City to families, small business owners and synagogues.

• More than 18 years’ experience.

CURRENCIES DIRECT 0786 0595 890 / 0207 847 9400 www.currenciesdirect.com/jn lee.goldfarb@currenciesdirect.com

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

If you would like to advertise your services here Email: sales@jewishnews.co.uk Registered Charity No. 259480

ISRAELI ACCOUNTANT

INSURANCE CONSULTANCY

LEON HARRIS Qualifications: • Leon is an Israeli and UK accountant based in Ramat Gan, Israel.

• He is a Partner at Harris Horoviz Consulting & Tax Ltd. • The firm specializes in Israeli and international tax advice, accounting and tax reporting for investors, Olim and businesses.

• Leon’s motto is: Our numbers speak your language!

ASHLEY PRAGER Qualifications: • Professional insurance and reinsurance broker. Offering PI/D&O cover, marine and aviation, property owners, ATE insurance, home and contents, fine art, HNW. • Specialist in insurance and reinsurance disputes, utilising Insurance backed products. (Including non insurance business disputes).

• Ensuring clients do not pay more than required.

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

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

ALIYAH ADVISER

Leave the legacy of independence to people like Hayley.

eNABLeD PLease remember us in your wiLL.

Visit www.jbd.org or call 020 8371 6611

CAREER ADVISER

DOV NEWMARK Qualifications: • Director of UK Aliyah for Nefesh B’Nefesh, an organisation that helps facilitate aliyah from the UK. • Conducts monthly seminars and personal aliyah meetings in London.

• An expert in working together with clients to help plan a successful aliyah.

LESLEY TRENNER Qualifications: • Provides free professional one-to-one advice at Resource to help unemployed into work.

• Offers mock interviews and workshops to maximise job prospects.

• Expert in corporate management holding director level marketing,

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

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

DIVORCE & FAMILY SOLICITOR

TELECOMS SPECIALIST

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

• Frequent broadcaster on national and International radio and television.

BENJAMIN ALBERT Qualifications: • Co-Founder and Technical Director of ADWConnect – a specialist in business telecommunications, serving customers worldwide.

• Independent consultant and supplier of Telephone & Internet services.

• Client satisfaction is at the heart of everything my team and I do, always striving to find the most cost-effective solutions.

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

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

Private Health Insurance – Who is your broker?

Many of you have a health insurance broker, who you have never met and with whom you conduct an impersonal relationship.

Patient Health is local. I will always be happy to come and see you, or you can pop in for a coffee and chat in Finchley.

What could be more personal?

Professional, FCA licensed and specialised

Trevor Gee, your local friendly specialist.

Putting People First.

020 3146 3444/5/6

40 Jewish News

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3 February 2022

JDA – keeping keeping older Deaf people safe, well and feeling loved.

I've waited two years for this!

No more virtual hugs for me thanks!

Please show you care by making a donation today.

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

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3 February 2022 Jewish News

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Fun, games and prizes

THE JEWISH NEWS CROSSWORD 1

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

Move slowly on a runway (4) Listen to (4) Children’s hideout (3) Rod on which a wheel turns (4) Strongly advise (4) Slicing (7) Small insect found near picnics (3) Parasitic worm (5) Heavy cloth (5)

7 Soaking (3) 8 Ban, prohibition (7)

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Last issue’s solutions Crossword ACROSS: 1 Jagged 4 Dial 8 Who 9 Blanket 10 Lucid 11 Tribe 13 Shyly 15 Wives 17 Rotunda 19 Ire 20 Meet 21 Meteor

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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

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DOWN: 1 Jewel 2 Grouchy 3 Embed 5 Ilk 6 Latte 7 Pact 12 Invoice 13 Strum 14 Yank 15 Whale 16 Swear 18 Tee

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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.

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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.

The listed words ending EE 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.

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WORDSEARCH Y Q N S N S C E E T A O G

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DOWN 1 Large loose hood (4) 2 Stumbling block (7) 3 Membrane used for blinking (6) 4 Bass trumpet (4) 5 Stain, blight (3) 6 Of poor quality (6) 11 Etch (7) 12 Bundle (6) 14 Small piece of gold or information (6) 17 Well off (4) 18 Knob on the sole of a football boot (4) 20 Fish eggs en masse (3)

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

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Wordsearch 1 3 5 2 4 5

4 2 4 1 3 1

3 1 3 2 5 4

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L M E A B R E N A M D U S

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C L R G N Z R F H V N M N

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Codeword G M S N Z R A V S J E M I

O O O A Z E D E H E O R S

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DR PG FMVOCNUQ K 03/02 I H Z Y T J L X E BWA S

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Jewish News 3 February 2022

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Business Services Directory HOUSE CLEARANCE

ANTIQUES

Stirling of Kensal Green

Top prices paid Antique – Reproduction – Retro Furniture (any condition)

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

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

Established over 60 years.

Know who you are dealing with.

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

House clearances

All quality furniture bought & sold.

Single items to complete homes

Best prices paid for complete house clearances including china, books, clothing etc. Also rubbish clearance service, lofts, sheds, garages etc

MARYLEBONE ANTIQUES - 8 CHURCH STREET NW8 8ED

07866 614 744 (ANYTIME) 0207 723 7415 (SHOP)

Please contact Gordon Stirling

closed Sunday & Monday STUART SHUSTER - e-mail - info@maryleboneantiques.co.uk

020 8960 5401 or 07825 224144

MAKE SURE YOU CONTACT US BEFORE SELLING

Email: gordonstirling65@gmail.com

CHARITY & WELFARE

We clear houses, flats, sheds, garages etc.

No job too big or too small!

Rubbish cleared as part of a full clearance.

We have a waste licence.

We buy items including furniture bric a brac.

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

HOME & MAINTENANCE

ARE YOU BEREAVED? Bereavement Counselling for adults and children individually. Support Groups available.

During the pandemic, we offer telephone and online counselling.

Contact Jewish Bereavement Counselling Service in confidence.

0208 951 3881 enquiries@jbcs.org.uk | www.jbcs.org.uk

Labels are for jars.

Not people.

Refer yourself or a loved one by calling 020 8458 2223 or visit www.jamiuk.org REGISTERED CHARITY NO. 1003345

CHARITY & WELFARE

SILVER

PLUMBSAFE (UK) LTD

WESTLON HOUSING ASSOCIATION

“Better Safe Than Sorry”

Sheltered Accommodation

For all your heating and plumbing requirements

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

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

All NW-London postcodes covered

07860 881505 or 0800 610 12 12 Not shabbat

PLUMBSAFEUK.COM

OFFICE FURNITURE

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

UTILITIES

Are you happy paying big household bills?

Need to furnish your home or office?

London’s leading supplier of new and reconditioned furniture.

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

Would you like to pay less?

Find out how ©

call Jeff on 07958 959 822

STONEMASON

A. ELFES LTD New memorials Additional inscriptions & renovations

Call 0207 205 4229 Email sales@andrewsofficefurniture.com www.andrewsofficefurniture.com

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

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

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

Email : info@garygreenmemorials.co.uk

www.garygreenmemorials.co.uk

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

18/03/2019 12:50:51

Gants Hill

12 Beehive Lane Gants Hill, IG1 3RD Telephone

Edgware

130 High Street Edgware, HA8 7EL Telephone

0207 754 4659 0207 754 4646

www.memorialgroup.co.uk

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

3 February 2022 Jewish News

www.jewishnews.co.uk

43

Business Services Directory LEGACY- LEAVE A GIFT IN YOUR MEMORY

JEWISH WAR VETERANS

Leave the legacy of independence to people like Joel.

& THEIR DEPENDANTS NEED

YOUR LEGACY

legacy@cst.org.uk ► www.cst.org.uk ►

PLease remember us in your wiLL.

eNABLeD

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

visit www.Jbd.org or caLL 020 8371 6611

Registered Charity No. 259480

Legacy Classified advert v1.qxp_Legacy 16/06/2021 10:57 Page 1

Registered Charity No: 1082148

0208 457 3700 ►

Together

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

Charity no. 1042391 and SC043612

COMPUTER

HELP US CONTINUE TO BE THERE FOR OUR COMMUNITY WITH A GIFT IN YOUR WILL.

Legacy advert 84x40.indd 1

16/04/2021 10:55

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

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

Antiques Buyers WE BUY ANTIQUES

TS. VERY HIGH PRICES PAID. FREE HOME VISITS. rcelain, in, All Antique Furniture Hille & Epstein Diamond Jewellery, Gold, Silver, Paintings, Porcelain, aica Judaica Glass, Lowry Prints, Bronzes, Ivories, Oriental & Judaica sed.

Antiques etc. Full house clearances organised. ails Please look at our website for more details

o.uk k www.antiquesbuyers.co.uk

ON: FOR APPOINTMENTS CALL SUE ON: 90 0800 840 2035 or 07956268290 OPEN 8am TO 9pm 7 DAYS. PORTOBELLO RD LONDON.

Wanted all Antiques & furniture including Lounge Dining and Bedroom Suites. Chests of drawers.

Display and Cocktail Cabinets. Furniture by Hille.

Epstein. Archie shine. G plan etc in Walnut. Mahogany.

Teak and Rosewood.

We also buy Diamonds & Jewellery. Gold. Silverware.

Paintings. Glass. Porcelain. Bronzes etc.

All Antiques considered. Full house clearances organised. Very high prices paid, free home visits.

Check our website for more details www.antiquesbuyers.co.uk Email: info@antiquesbuyers.co.uk Please call Sue Davis on Freephone: 08008402035 WhatsApp Mobile: 07956268290 Portobello rd London By appointments only.

44

www.jewishnews.co.uk

Jewish News 3 February 2022

teens teens teens

laugh

struggle

text

text us now on:

07860 058 823

@jteensupport Www.jteensupport.org

Remember Jteen is confidential and anonymous and is available for anyone between the ages of 11-20.

We can't see your number and we won't ask for your name.

Rabbinical board led by: Rabbi S.F Zimmerman (Federation Beis Din) and Rabbi S Winegarten.