1260

SEVEN DAYS TO GO – LOCAL ELECTIONS PREVIEW, P2&3 FR

EE

It’s a wrap battle! The Israeli The Kebab Awards launches a JN kosher category Page 15

Pets p32-33

metaverse

Its leading role in a £10 trillion future P34

FREE WEEKLY NEWSPAPER OF THE YEAR 28 April 2022

•

27 Nisan 5782

•

Issue No.1260

•

@JewishNewsUK

PLAITMITZVAH!

It was politicians versus journalists this week at Jewish News’ pre-Shabbat UK challah bake off as MPs Sajid Javid and Angela Rayner battled LBC’s Iain Dale and the Mirror’s Pippa Crerar. Find out who won during Shabbat UK – 13/14 May

‘Britain left us to rot in Belsen’ Survivor accuses UK of leaving fellow expats to mercy of Nazis

A British survivor of Bergen-Belsen has called for greater awareness of hundreds of fellow British expats “left to rot” in Nazi camps during the Second World War due to half-hearted prisoner exchange negotiations, writes Stephen Oryszczuk.

As Israel and Jews worldwide mark Yom HaShoah, Jack Santcross, who lives in Hertfordshire, said his family is “still affected by the government’s betrayal” of British citizens who were living on the European mainland when war broke out in September 1939.

He accuses Whitehall of “sweeping” their

negotiations did not see much profates “under the carpet” in the gress and, according to scholars years that followed. such as Professor Rainer Bergen-Belsen concentraSchulze at the University of tion camp was set up in the Essex, the British government spring of 1943 on the orders “bears some responsibility” of Holocaust architect Heinfor this. rich Himmler. It was to hold “It regarded proposals from Jews who had been temporarily Nazi Germany for such exchanges exempted from deportation to the as blackmail, and giving into it was extermination camps so they could be exchanged for German citi- Bergen-Belsen survivor unacceptable,” he said.

“It also insisted that the zens held abroad.

Jack Santcross with most important task of the antiHowever, prisoner exchange his granddaughter

Hitler coalition – and best chance of saving Jews from extermination – was a quick and unconditional victory over Nazi Germany.”

Prof Schulze added: “Instead of pushing for serious negotiations to secure the release of as many Jews as possible, the British Foreign Office played for time.

“It seems likely that a larger number of Jews held at Bergen-Belsen could have been saved if the negotiations about exchange had been conducted with greater urgency.”

Santcross said his family were among those Continued on page 4

2

www.jewishnews.co.uk

Jewish News 28 April 2022

News / Local elections – seven days to go...

Labour scents victory at l

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

Barnet Council’s Conservative administration faces “serious difficulties” in stopping Labour taking control of the borough at next week’s local elections, a leading Tory peer has told Jewish News.

Polling expert Lord Robert Hayward believes there is “every prospect” Labour could win Barnet for the first time in history as voters go to the polls next Thursday in England, Wales and Scotland.

Success for the Barnet Labour Group would be seized upon by leader Sir Keir Starmer and his supporters as the clearest evidence yet that the party has begun to rid itself of the stain of antisemitism that was so prevalent under former leader Jeremy Corbyn.

More than 15 percent of Barnet’s population is Jewish, around 55,000 people – the largest community in the country.

While Barnet Tories continue to retain strong support in wards such as Garden Suburb, Golders Green, Edgware, and Totteridge Woodside, the picture is believed to be less rosy for the party in some of the critical marginal seats.

Publicly, Labour is refusing to talk up its chances of seizing Barnet, which has been under continuous Conservative control since its crea-

tion in 1964, except for two terms between 1994 and 2002 when Labour governed but only with the support of the Liberal Democrats.

But in the past week, at least three senior MPs, including shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves, have been helping activists, many of whom are linked to the Jewish Labour Movement (JLM), with door-knocking sessions in target wards in Barnet.

One senior Labour source, closely allied to leader Starmer, told Jewish News: “It would be a huge achievement for Labour to take control of Barnet given the short amount of time Keir Starmer has had to restore the Jewish community’s trust after the Corbyn era. It does appear possible, but it is a tough target.”

But Hayward, who has long specialised in predicting election results and patterns, said: “Barnet is one of the London boroughs that the Tories face serious difficulties in. It was a major surprise the Tories increased their majority on the council last time in 2018. This was not only to do with Labour’s antisemitism, there were also local issues. But there is every prospect Labour could win this time.”

Standing in Labour’s way are leading Barnet Tories such as Peter Zinkin, previously a candidate for United Synagogue president, who is standing in the Childs Hill ward, Dean Cohen, who stands in Golders Green and Melvin Cohen, the council’s longest serving councillor, who is

celebrating 40 years of public service. Eva Greenspan also stands in the Finchley Church End ward, while Mark Shooter contests Hendon again.

In a borough with many issues over major roads and concrete flyovers, Barnet Tories are attempting to capitalise on frustration among motorists over issues such as oversized cycle lanes, blaming the Labour Mayor of London.

The Tories also claim to be best placed Clockwise: Candidates Ella Rose, Gabriel to oversee development and Rozenberg, Peter Zinkin and Josh Tapper densification concerns, and claim success on issues such as around six marginal seats in the borough.

These include the Whetstone, East Barnet, rubbish collections.

Barnet Tory Group leader Dan Thomas, Edgwarebury and Childs Hill wards in which has blamed people from outside Barnet who votes cast by members of the Jewish commu“spread their antisemitism” and has said rising nity could make all the difference to the result incidents of anti-Jewish hate are a “London- on 5 May. Labour can seemingly also rely on wide issue” that needed to be dealt with. He has traditional strongholds such as the Colindale wards and that of Burnt Oak. But they are also said: “Within Barnet, cohesion is very strong”.

The national picture, with Boris Johnson at said to believe wards such as High Barnet and the centre of “Partygate” allegations, and with West Hendon are winnable.

The previously ultra-safe Tory seat of the rising cost of living crisis, is also hitting the Tory local election campaign hard. Hayward Hendon has also been affected by the emersaid he believed the “difficulties” faced by the gence of an independent candidate attempting to whip up support by opposing the current prime minister will “go on and on and on”.

With the LibDems concentrating their administration’s Hendon Hub plan.

Owing to ward boundary changes in Barnet efforts in the West Finchley part of the borough, the straight fight between Labour and the Con- ahead of next week’s election, there is an servatives is likely to come down to the result in increase in the number of wards from 21 to 24,

28 April 2022 Jewish News

www.jewishnews.co.uk

3

Local elections – seven days to go... / News

last in Barnet resulting in the election of 63 councillors.

Jewish News understands Labour’s decision to field young activists from the Jewish community such as Ella Rose and Liron Velleman in Whetstone is also deemed to be having a positive effect.

In nearby Edgwarebury, Josh Tapper, the former Jewish Googlebox star is also winning praise for his appearances at hustings events.

But one Labour source admitted “die-hard Tories are proving difficult to shift” in the newly- created ward.

Elsewhere in the borough, Tory sources insist the fact they are standing largely experienced candidates is working to the party’s clear advantage, as the electorate trusts those who have been in the game for longer.

Meanwhile Rozenberg, the LibDem Group leader, who is standing in West Finchley, insisted his party is “offering residents a strong message”.

Attempting to build on ex-Labour MP Luciana Berger’s impact in the area, where she stood as a parliamentary candidate, Rozenberg said: “Just like in 2019 in some wards we came first and Labour third.

The Conservative administration has run out of ideas and is going to be rejected by voters next week. I’m confident we will be key to giving voters a fresh start.”

Jewish News understands that if Labour wins the borough next week, leader Starmer will travel to the north London borough to take part in a press conference in which he is sure to thank Jewish voters for returning to his party.

Elsewhere, in CAMDEN, there seems little doubt that the council will remain under Labour control, with the local party fighting what is largely a defensive campaign aimed at maintaining the party’s sizeable majority over the other parties in the borough.

Council leader Georgia Gould, a close Starmer, has put considerable effort in making sure Camden Labour tackles problems around candidates and the Jewish community locally.

Sitting councillors deemed to be too close to the Corbyn era were deselected in advance of candidate selections.

The local Conservative Group, led by Oliver Cooper has decided not to be make the Labour antisemitism a major campaign issue, and the topic did not come up at a recent election hustings event at JW3. Cooper told Jewish News: “On issue after issue, Labour-run Camden isn’t listening to residents – and it needs a strong

Conservative opposition to hold it to account.

“Both Labour and LibDems voted this month against banning high rises at the O2 Centre – only Conservatives will stop high-rises across Camden. Ensuring every resident and community is heard by Camden is our top priority.”

The Tories want to avenge losses in Belsize at the 2018 election, when the LibDems seized two seats. It is one of the few wards where Labour is expected to struggle, leaving two opposition parties to fight it out on a redrawn boundary map.

In Camden’s Hampstead Town ward, traditionally a Tory stronghold, the decision of popular communal figure Adrian Cohen to stand for Labour has also been a talking point.

Elsewhere in the newly-created South Hampstead ward, Izzy Lenga, a leading member of JLM who was outspoken about the impact of antisemitism under Corbyn is one of three Labour candidates standing.

HARINGEY is again one of Labour’s safest boroughs. But eyes will be on the Crouch End ward, with Rabbi David Mason standing for Labour in one of the LibDem Group’s favoured wards, with three councillors. Labour managed to win two seats in 2014, but the LibDems won them back with a 10 percent lead in 2018.

In ENFIELD, the gap between Labour, which currently controls the borough, and the Conservatives, is slightly closer than in some other London boroughs. But it would still need the Tories to win all the marginals and pull off major surprises to win control again next week.

Main communal interest will be centred around the Oakwood and Cockfosters wards.

Father-and-daughter Tory candidates Julian Sampson (Oakwood), and Ruby (Cockfosters), are both expected to enjoy success.

Over in HACKNEY there are 57 seats up for grabs, representing 21 wards. Labour has previously held 52 seats and the Conservative opposition held five. This year, Labour and the Greens are fielding the full set of candidates, while the Independent Network is putting forward 10 – including three in Hackney Central – in the hope they can pick up votes from those opposed to low traffic neighbourhoods.

Hershy Lisser stands for the Conservatives in Stamford Hill West, Caroline Selman for Labour in the Woodberry Down ward.

In BRENT, Labour has again enjoyed overwhelming success in recent years, although there are signs of at least minor improvement for both local Tory and LibDem groups in the four early 2020 council by-elections, along with a 7.3 percent swing from Labour in Brent North at the 2019 general election. For the Tories, Michael Maurice stands again in the Kenton ward, having previously been outspoken on the need for Holocaust education in the borough, and on the need for interfaith work.

In the Tory-run borough of WESTMINSTER, there has been talk of a strong challenge

by Labour this time. And reductions to the number of councillors in the borough, as a result of ward changes, has certainly favoured the red party. But expected to perform strongly for the Tories in the Abbey Road ward is Alan Mendoza, an experienced operator in local politics.

Elsewhere, in RICHMOND, expected to perform well for the Greens in a borough where they enjoy increasing support is Andree Frieze, who stands in the Ham, Petersham and Richmond Riverside ward.

Frieze, who is involved in the EcoSynagogue, is married to Israeli husband Shimon Morad.

Local elections will be closely contested in Hendon Central and Borehamwood

REBUKE OVER ABUSE Five Conservative councillors in party chairman Oliver Dowden’s Hertsmere constituency have been formally reprimanded over their involvement in an election smear campaign waged against a Jewish Labour Party candidate.

An investigation led by an independent QC heard how Dr Dan Ozarow, who stood as a candidate in the Borehamwood Kenilworth ward by-election in Hertsmere in 2020, was told to “go to the gas chambers” and labelled a “Jew c*** in abuse targeted at him across social media.

Two years on, an investigation led by Richard Price QC for Conservative Party Central Office has found the five councillors engaged in negative campaigning, including allegations of antisemitism, along with breaches of the Nolan principals of standards in public life.

Tory Party co-chair Ben Elliot accepted the recommendations of the panel, which found that councillors Brett Rosehill, who won the by-election, Glenn Briski and Paul Morris were “party to a personal campaign against the claimant in relation to the 2020 by-election, and which continued for many months”.

The report concluded: “This negative campaigning may well have encouraged others to send antisemitic posts or messages to the complainant.” None of the five have been accused of making antisemitic remarks themselves.

Cllr Morris Bright, who is Hertsmere Borough Council leader and leader of the Conserva-

Reprimanded: Morris Bright, Glenn Briski, Paul Morris, Brett Rosehill and Jane West

tive Group, should have “taken steps to rein in the activities of these councillors at an early stage” given he must “have been aware of the negative campaign activities”, the investigation said. The same decision was also reached about former councillor and Hertsmere election agent, Jane West. All five have received formal reprimands and ordered to attend training seminars organised by the Conservative Party.

During the three days preceding the 2020 by-election, the Tories delivered a smear letter from Rosehill implying Ozarow supported terrorist organisations, along with other misleading and untrue claims. National media coverage of the abuse centred on a huge digital billboard – owned by Bright – at Elstree and Borehamwood station featuring an image of Ozarow with a headline on a fictitious newspaper insinuating he supported terrorist group Hezbollah.

BURY ON KNIFE EDGE? The sizeable Jewish vote in Bury will be hugely important in determining whether the Labour Group retains control of the Greater Manchester Council.

Bury is home to the secondlargest Jewish community outside London and is well represented on the candidate list at next week’s elections.

Russell Bernstein stands for the Tories in the Pilkington Park ward. Nathan Boroda stands for Labour in Unsworth, as does his fellow Board of Deputies representa-

tive Michael Rubenstein in Pilkington Park. Jackie Harris stands for the Conservatives in Bury West.

Labour leader of Bury Council, Councillor Eamonn O’Brien, told Jewish News: “Bury Labour Group have always stood shoulder to shoulder with our Jewish community, from standing up to antisemitism within our party and without, to delivering new initiatives like a Shabbos crossing in Sedgley Park.”

Labour has been attempting to capitalise on the local Tory

Group’s issues around candidates making comments around Zionism and Israel.

It was significant that Prime Minister Boris Johnson decided to visit Bury earlier this week, suggesting the Toris believe they are in with a chance of making in-roads, and possibly leaving Bury under no overall control next week.

Hayward told Jewish News if the Tories do enjoy success locally it will be because of issues such as criticism of Mayor Andy Burnham’s clean air zone policy.

4

www.jewishnews.co.uk

Jewish News 28 April 2022

Yom HaShoah 2022

Nazi-era archive works with tech firm Accenture to speed-read documents An extraordinary partnership between the global technology company Accenture and the keepers of the largest archives in the world relating to Nazi persecution will enable researchers to find information up to 40 times faster than at present, writes Jenni Frazer.

The Arolsen Archives, home to an estimated 110 million documents

and digital objects, are based in Bad Arolsen, Germany, and were set up in 1955 under the supervision of 11 member states – Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, America and Britain.

Their sheer scale, and the labourintensive nature of searching the material, led the Archives to set up a crowdsourcing project, #everynamecounts, for volunteers to extract information from documents. But the process remained laborious and slow.

The Archives said: “Every document needs to be reviewed and its information (e.g. the family name and birth date on a prisoner registration form) put into a database.

Translating, reading, transcribing, cataloguing and validating these documents could take decades.

“Each document is indexed independently by three volunteers and, if the entries don’t match, reviewed for accuracy by an employee. It can take up to four people to index and validate four documents in one hour.”

Volunteers use artificial intelligence to work more quickly

Ian Lever, an Accenture volunteer and a member of the company’s Jewish Employee Resource Group, realised that AI [artificial intelligence] could accelerate this process significantly.

Within ten weeks, he and other Accenture volunteers set up an AI solution to index the documents.

Because the AI captures the information faster and increases its accuracy, four volunteers can validate approximately 160 documents per hour.

Among the material most use-

fully scanned by the Accenture programme since last December are documents such as prisoner lists and concentration camp records. Because human volunteers retain oversight of the process, the AI is constantly updated, learning to recognise handwriting characters and abbreviations typical during the Holocaust.

The process has now allowed vol-

unteers to index more than 160,000 names of Nazi persecution victims.

David Metnick, executive sponsor of the project at Accenture, said: “We are proud of our people’s efforts to help keep alive the memories of those who endured unimaginable pain and suffering, at a time when antisemitism, racism and ultra-nationalism are rearing their ugly heads again.”

SENSE OF BETRAYAL Hungary award for Ebert Continued from page 1 to suffer. His paternal grandmother, the wife of his London-born grandfather, was killed at Auschwitz, while Santcross himself and his parents were prisoners at Belsen from January 1944 to April 1945.

Santcross’ uncle, who had two children, was killed at Seibersdorf, leaving a wife, a daughter, and a son, who were also held at Belsen as exchange prisoners.

“His wife and son were murdered there,” said Santcross. “Only their daughter survived.”

His aunt, who was a nurse, escaped from Belgium by accompanying a patient to Switzerland.

“While there are 278 Brits listed as living in the Netherlands before the war who were killed in the camps, there are many more who were entitled to the protection of the British government, such as married partners and dependants,” said Santcross.

“This is just the Netherlands. How many British citizens killed in camps were living in other countries occupied by Germany such as France, Belgium and Italy?

“The British authorities have not made it known and swept it under the carpet.

“The British wartime government left Jews with British citizenship to rot away in Belsen (pictured), rather than liberate them through exchanges when that opportunity presented itself. This should be more widely known.”

THE NUMBER OF UK-BORN VICTIMS OF NAZI CAMPS Amersfoort Auschwitz Beendorf Bergen-Belsen

Farsleben-Laagberg 1

Oud Leusden

1

179

Germany

2

Ravensbrück

1

1

Lüneburg

1

Sachsenhausen

1

Mauthausen

3

Sobibor

46

1

42

Buchenwald

1

Monowitz

1

Tröbitz

9

Central Europe

3

Netherlands

1

Westerbork

5

Dorohucza

1

Oranienburg

1

Zschipkau

1

Holocaust survivor Lily Ebert has been awarded Hungary’s Knight’s Cross of the Order of Merit in a special ceremony conducted by the Hungarian ambassador, Ferenc Kumin, writes Jenni Frazer.

Ebert’s great-grandson, Dov Forman, who has been instrumental in telling her story, told the audience that she had grown up in Bonyahd, “a small suburban Hungarian village where her Jewish Orthodox, established family had lived for over 200 years”.

Jews from Hungary were among the last in Europe to be sent to the death camps.

Lily (pictured) and her family, were deported on 5 July 1944, to Auschwitz Birkenau.

Forman told the audience, who included Holocaust Educational Trust chief execu-

tive Karen Pollock: “My great grandma, her mother, three sisters and youngest brother arrived at Auschwitz on July 9.

Lily’s mother, youngest sister and brother were sent straight to the gas chambers; they were gassed and cremated. She never saw them again.”

Today, said Forman, he and his great-grandmother had forged a remarkable bond in helping to educate others about her “incredibly harrowing Holocaust testimony”, adding: “I still find it hard to comprehend all that she went through, and the courage and determination that she has shown throughout her life.”

Ebert, 98, said: “When I was in the hell of Auschwitz I promised myself, if I survived against all the odds, I would do all I could to share my story,

for myself and for those that did not survive.

“I speak to students because I want them to know what happened... I am so happy that in the last few years I have been able to share my story alongside you all. You will continue to share my family’s story when I am no longer able to. The world should not forget the most terrible crime against humanity.”

Refugees join today’s march Refugees from Ukraine are expected to join today’s March of the Living commemoration event at Auschwitz.

The refugees are among 2,500 people from 25 countries who signed up for the mission to the former death camp in Poland.

The march brings young

people from around the world to Poland and Israel to study the history of the Holocaust.

Today’s event will culminate in the traditional twomile march between the Auschwitz and Auschwitz-Birkenau camps near Krakow in memory of the victims of the Holocaust, the statement said.

One Ukrainian participant is Yefim Podlipsky, a Jewish refugee from Vinnitsa, who ran a tourism company before fleeing Ukraine after Russia’s invasion on 24 February.

Lila Buzeniuk, another refugee taking part in this year’s event, also comes from Vinnitsa.

www.jewishnews.co.uk

28 April 2022 Jewish News

5

Yom HaShoah 2022

‘Sole reason’ for family’s existence given honour A Polish man was posthumously honoured last weekend for his role in hiding a wartime Jewish businessman from the Nazis and helping to ensure he could have a flourishing family in Britain, writes Michael Daventry.

Jozef Wegrzynowski spent many months during the Second World War providing food, shelter and money to Max Ostro, who was on the run after escaping from a train to the Treblinka death camp.

On Sunday, Wegrzynowski was named as Righteous Among the Nations, the honour bestowed by Yad Vashem upon non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews from the Shoah, at a ceremony at the start of

the annual March of the Living event.

After the war, Ostro took his family jewellery business to Britain, where he had a family including two children and many grandchildren.

His son, Maurice Ostro, told Jewish News his family and its future generations “only exist because of the actions of people who took personal risks to save my father’s life in the Holocaust”.

In the latter stages of the war, Ostro spent several months in hiding at Wegrzynowski’s house. For several weeks between November 1944 and January 1945, he was hidden in an unmarked outdoor grave as the Nazis searched for him in the midst of their

retreat from the advancing Red Army.

Wegrzynowski delivered food and water to him on a weekly basis – at great risk as he would have been shot as a traitor if caught. He is credited with saving Ostro’s life.

Meanwhile, a man named Witold Trzeciakowski protected the Ostro family fortune and made arrangements to send money to him.

Speaking this week, businessman and philanthropist Maurice said his father had been highly reluctant after the war to speak about the Holocaust and his own ordeals, saying: “I don’t want to live in a grave. I’ve done that.”

But he said he had contacted Yad Vashem even though it might

Jozef Wegrzynowski, right, is credited with saving the life of Max Ostro

have been against his father’s wishes because, with the Holocaust passing out of living memory, it was important to pass on his story. “[Trzeciakowski and Wegrzynowski] were

doing things that were the right thing to do and with the Ukraine crisis it’s critical to put across the message that when stuff happens, every one of us had the ability to make a difference.”

Upset over anti-racism event that ignored antisemitism A row broke out ahead of an anti-racism festival in Liverpool this week over the apparent lack of discussion about rising antisemitism, writes Lee Harpin.

Jewish News understands that Dame Louise Ellman was among those to raise questions with Liverpool mayor Joanne Anderson as to why the Liverpool Against Racism event, which took place this week, failed to include

debate on anti-Jewish racism.

Other communal figures in Merseyside have also questioned why there appears to be no acknowledgement of issues around antiJewish racism in the programme of events.

Liverpool Against Racism (LAR), includes a series of events across the city – with singer Rebecca Ferguson and groups The Christians and The Farm among the opening acts.

And a conference addressing racism will be held in The Spine in Paddington Village on Tuesday, featuring British historian David Olusoga, the BBC’s interim head of creative diversity Joanna Abeyie and journalist Kevin Powell, who will join the mayor as keynote speakers.

Mayor Anderson said she was proud Liverpool was “taking positive action against

social injustice”.

Ellman, the former MP for Liverpool Riverside, is understood to have written to Mayor Anderson last week querying the festival’s programme, asking:”I hope it is not the case that, as David Baddiel would say, ‘Jews don’t count.’”

The anti-racism festival continues until the end of the week.

Mental Health Awareness Week

9-15 May 2022

Many of us experience loneliness at one time or another, but it’s often overlooked or dismissed. And this is an issue.

Connecting to others in our community can improve our mental health and play a big part in helping to alleviate feelings of loneliness.

Choose from one of Jami’s special, free daily activities, online and in person, running during Mental Health Awareness Week. Get creative in our art and writing sessions. Join Jami’s Night School and our discussion groups for a friendly debate. Or take time to walk and talk with old friends and new.

Everyone is welcome!

Book or find out more at

jamiuk.org/mhaw JamiPeople |

JAMIMentalHealth |

jami_uk |

Jami UK

#MentalHealthAwarenessWeek

Jami Registered Charity 1003345. A Company Limited by Guarantee 2618170.

Jami_MHAW22_JN_HP_20Apr2022.indd 1

21/04/2022 13:27

6

www.jewishnews.co.uk

Jewish News 28 April 2022

News / Trade agreement / Debate request / Corbyn comments

UK and Israel close to formal trade deal Jayawardena said it was correct to point out the two economies have strong service sectors “but our current deal predomiThe UK government nantly caters for trade is due to begin “formal in goods”. negotiations” with Israel He added: “That is why later this year over an we intend to negotiate a “ambitious” free trade more ambitious, compreagreement between the hensive and innovationtwo countries. friendly trade deal, which Trade Minister Ranil will open up opportuniJayawardena told MPs ties for British businesses he was “thrilled” by the in areas such as tech, data “exciting new provisions and digital. in digital, data, technology, “My honourable friend services and innovation” will be aware that next outlined in the deal.

Boris Johnson as foreign minister at the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange month we are hosting the The announcement, made in the Commons last Thursday, launching formal negotiations, along first joint innovation and investment summit between our two countries. followed last year’s confirmation that with others, later this year.”

“That will be a key moment as we Conservative MP Robert Largan the UK and Israel had signed a trade and asked the minister to “go further” with deepen our relationship, creating partnership agreement.

Jayawardena said: “We have com- the services part of the deal, which he opportunities to increase trade and pleted our consultation and are ana- said “make up around 70 percent of investment between our nations, create new jobs and boost wages.” lysing the responses, with a view to both the UK and Israel’s economies”.

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

Honour a loved one

CARE FOR YOUR COMMUNITY Whether you choose to honour and celebrate your loved one in our Book of Memories, on a personalised Yahrzeit glass or on one of our Trees of Memories, Jewish Care’s Giving in Memory programme can help their memory live on.

For more information visit jewishcare.org/giving-in-memory

Members of the European Coalition for Israel gathered last weekend to commemorate the 1920 San Remo peace conference in the Italian town.

Delegates stayed in Royal Hotel, the original hotel for the British delegation.

The San Remo conference, held in April 1920, affirmed the conclusions of the First Zionist Congress in Basel, and incorporated the Balfour Declaration into international law.

It is widely described as the first stepping stone to the creation of the state of Israel.

The present Lord Balfour – the fifth earl – attended last weekend’s conference as the descendant of his greatgreat uncle, Arthur Balfour, in whose name the Balfour Declaration was written. Both he and the Israeli ambassador to Italy, Dror Eydar, received commemorative plaques from Edoardo Varese, the owner of the San Remo Royal hotel.

The focus of the three-day conference, run by the Christian advocacy organisation and hosted by Gregory Lafitte,

Conference in San Remo

Lord Reading and Tomas Sandell, was to discuss the launch of an annual Jewish culture festival in San Remo. Organisers said such a festival would “mark the importance of the Peace Conference as a rebirth, not only of the Jewish state, but also of Jewish culture”.

The plan has received support from senior Italian political leaders. In a special recorded message, the vice-president of the European Commission, Margaritis Schinas, commended the organisers for initiating the festival, which also received support from the former president of the European Parliament, Antonio Tajani.

MP demands debate on Palestinian rights A Scottish MP has called for a debate “on the rights of the Palestinian people” after referencing the violent clashes with Israeli police at Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.

SNP parliamentarian Anum Qaisar told MPs in the Commons that the mosque “is one of the holiest sites in Islam, and it is one of the very few places where Palestinians can exercise a degree of sovereignty”.

During the Topical Questions session, she said: “Recently, during this holy month of Ramadan, we have seen violence, with over 150 Palestinians injured in clashes with Israeli police.

“The conflict has the potential to escalate further, so will the leader of the House make way for a debate in government time on the rights of the Palestinian people?”

Responding, Mark Spencer said: “It should be the right of every human being to live in security and peace” and said she could ask Foreign

Palestinian rioters at the Temple Mount

Office ministers directly “how they can assist in bringing peace to the area”.

Meanwhile, Israel produced evidence showing Islamic extremists throwing stones and fireworks at Jews going to pray at the Western Wall. Yair Lapid, Israel’s Foreign Affairs Minister, also tweeted video footage showing Muslims wanting to take part in Ramadan prayers prevented extremists from provoking further violence at Al-Aqsa Mosque.

CORBYN RETURN IMPROBABLE

Call 020 8922 2840 or email givinginmemory@jcare.org

The Labour leader has said Jeremy Corbyn’s latest comments about Nato have made it “very difficult to see” how he could rejoin the party.

In 2020, Corbyn was suspended from Labour over his comments in response to the Equality and Human Rights Commission report on antisemitism. He was later rein-

Charity No. 802559 JC_GiM_Press Ad_JN_Quarter Page_165x128_V8.indd 1

COALITION GATHERS FOR SAN REMO TALK

24/04/2022 18:16

stated as a Labour member, but Sir Keir Starmer refused to allow him to reclaim the Labour whip, meaning Corbyn sits as an independent MP. Last week, the former Labour leader made controversial comments in which he criticised Nato and suggested it should be disbanded. In an interview with Times Radio, he

asked: “Do military alliances bring peace? Or do they actually encourage each other and build up to a greater danger?”

Starmer was asked on the BBC’s Sunday Morning whether Corbyn could now be fully readmitted to the parliamentary party. He said: “It is very difficult to see how that situation can now be resolved.”

www.jewishnews.co.uk

28 April 2022 Jewish News

%

7

8

www.jewishnews.co.uk

Jewish News 28 April 2022

MIZRACHI’S WEEKEND OF

INSPIRATION

INSPIRATION MIZRACHI’S WEEKEND OF

Rav Reuve

Steve Gar

Rabbanit S

n lsto

Rav Danny

rn

ab

ory

ra Ta

g in

imche

rvis Mi

n

Mi

Rav Shlom

Dr Tova Ga Rav Jesse Rav David

Hershe lS Rav Rabbanit R

olomon

Ho

oK

itzman We

Rav Gideo

yS

eir

el nz

ky ofs ot

Rav Ari Ziv

ilverman

aM

ni Taragin ha

Rav Moshe

Rav Antho

uS

Rabbanit K

anning

Rav Yedidy

yM

oc en H h h a u ar

T

Rav Shalom

y n

v Le

Rav Johnn

a Weitzman ivk

Rav Benjy

Rav Menac

Rav Doron

z

mmer Ha

r se

re Pe

Rabbanit T

im ila G pel eh

m Leibtag he

h

Rabbanit P

es

F helle raenk ac

a Fischer

Rav Aviad

Rav Dov B e

impel

oh en

a c h t er ch

e ir

Sivan Raha

Hillel Fuld

rody

vM

rC

yG

Rabbanit R

aragin nT

Rav Eliyah

Rav Shlom

oB

rshan-Leitn

el

Rav Jerem

Da

er

Nitsan a

12-15 MAY 2022

CULMINATING WITH THE ANNUAL MIZRACHI UK CULMINATING WITH THE ANNUAL DAY OF INSPIRATION MIZRACHI, KINLOSS AND STENECOURT BOOK FOR THE SUNDAY AT WWW.MIZRACHI.ORG.UK/WOI

Jewish News.indd 2

27/04/2022 17:40

www.jewishnews.co.uk

28 April 2022 Jewish News

9

NITSANA DARSHAN-LEITNER NEW WEST END SYNAGOGUE, CENTRAL SYNAGOGUE HILLEL FULD BUSHEY UNITED SYNAGOGUE SIVAN RAHAV MEIR FINCHLEY UNITED SYNAGOGUE, HIGHGATE SYNAGOGUE, HAMPSTEAD GARDEN SUBURB SYNAGOGUE RAV HERSHEL SCHACHTER MAGEN AVOT, NER YISRAEL, TORAS CHAIM SYNAGOGUE, BEIS HAMEDRASH NISHMAS YISROEL, BEIS GAVRIEL, NER YISRAEL RABBANIT SHANI TARAGIN KEHILLAT ALEI TZION, MAGEN AVOT, NER YISRAEL, HENDON UNITED SYNAGOGUE, BNEI AKIVA RAV REUVEN TARAGIN NER YISRAEL, HENDON UNITED SYNAGOGUE, BEIS GAVRIEL RAV SHLOMO BRODY GOLDERS GREEN UNITED SYANGOGUE, SHOMREI HADATH RAV DOV BER COHEN RADLETT UNITED SYNAGOGUE RABBANIT PESHA FISCHER BARNET UNITED SYNAGOGUE RABBANIT RACHELLE FRAENKEL COCKFOSTERS & N SOUTHGATE SYNAGOGUE, WOODSIDE PARK UNITED SYNAGOGUE, BARNET UNITED SYNAGOGUE DR TOVA GANZEL SHOMREI HADATH, HAMPSTEAD SYNAGOGUE, GOLDERS GREEN UNITED SYNAGOGUE STEVE GAR WHITEFIELD HEBREW CONGREGATION, STENECOURT SHUL RAV JEREMY GIMPEL BOREHAMWOOD AND ELSTREE UNITED SYNAGOGUE, OHR YISRAEL TEHILA GIMPEL BOREHAMOOD UNITED SYNAGOGUE, OHR YISRAEL RAV SHALOM HAMMER STANMORE AND CANONS PARK UNITED SYNAGOGUE RABBANIT KAREN HOCHHAUSER CHEADLE YESHURUN RAV JESSE HORN PINNER UNITED SYNAGOGUE RAV SHLOMO KIMCHE BIRMINGHAM CENTRAL SYNAGOGUE RAV MENACHEM LEIBTAG EDGWARE UNITED SYNAGOGUE, EDGWARE YESHURUN RAV DR BENJY LEVY ST. JOHNS WOOD SYNAGOGUE RAV ANTHONY MANNING NORTH MANCHESTER RAV YEDIDYA MEIR FINCHLEY UNITED SYNAGOGUE, HIGHGATE SYNAGOGUE, HAMPSTEAD GARDEN SUBURB SYNAGOGUE RAV DAVID MILSTON HENDON UNITED SYNAGOGUE, NER YISRAEL, MAGEN AVOT RAV DANNY MIRVIS FINCHLEY UNITED SYNAGOGUE RAV DORON PEREZ THE VILLAGE SHUL, SOUTH HAMPSTEAD SYNAGOGUE RAV ELIYAHU SILVERMAN EDGWARE ADATH YISROEL, EDGWARE YESHURUN, AHAVAT YISRAEL, EDGWARE UNITED SYNAGOGUE RAV JOHNNY SOLOMON BETH HAMEDRASH HAGADOL, ETZ CHAIM, UNITED HEBREW CONGREGATION RAV AVIAD TABORY HALE SHULE RAV MOSHE TARAGIN EDGWARE UNITED SYNAGOGUE, EDGWARE YESHURUN, EDGWARE ADATH YISROEL RAV GIDEON WEITZMAN NORTH MANCHESTER RABBANIT RIVKA WEITZMAN NORTH MANCHESTER RAV ARI ZIVOTOFSKY CHIGWELL & HAINAULT SYNAGOGUE

Jewish News.indd 3

27/04/2022 17:40

10

www.jewishnews.co.uk

Jewish News 28 April 2022

Yom HaShoah 2022

One hundred words to live by

By Jenni Frazer @Jennifrazer

One hundred Holocaust survivors from around the world – including recently-rescued people from Ukraine – have taken part in a project under the auspice of the Claims Conference to mark Yom HaShoah.

The 100 Words project features survivors speaking six languages, including Hebrew, Yiddish and English, in a powerful 100-word message to ask the world to continue to remember the Shoah.

Among those taking part from the UK are Eva Evans and Manfred Goldberg.

The core 100 words read: “Today is Holocaust Remembrance Day. We all survived the Holocaust. We are here to give voice to the six million Jews who were murdered.

“We are a reminder that unchecked hatred can lead to actions, and actions to genocide.

“Just over 75 years ago, one-third of the world’s Jews were systematically murdered.

“Among them, over 1.5 million children were killed in the name of

Manfred Goldberg meets the Duchess of Cambridge earlier this year

indifference, intolerance and hate.

Hatred for what was feared. Hatred for what was different.

“We must remember the past or it will become our future. On Holocaust Remembrance Day, we ask the world to stand with us and remember.”

Mrs Evans, who last month celebrated her 98th birthday, was born in Berlin to a non-religious family.

Her father, Dr Felix Klopstock, was a GP specialising in tuberculosis, who

was briefly sent to the Sachsenhausen camp before the outbreak of the war.

“He took a late decision that we had to leave,” she said.

Her elder brother and sister had previously left Germany for America and Palestine and, at 15, she arrived in Britain with her parents, knowing almost no English.

Klopstock was initially interned as an enemy alien before being allowed to work again in medi-

cine because of a national shortage of doctors.

Mrs Evans, who was made MBE for her work with the University Association for Contemporary European Studies, of which she was the first secretary, said she was “embarrassed” to call herself a survivor, because she spent the war years in the UK. Nevertheless, she has been a frequent and popular lecturer on her experiences, particularly to children in German schools. For 10 years, she was a regular volunteer at the Jewish Museum in London. She took part in the English version of the 100 Words project via the Association of Jewish Refugees.

Manfred Goldberg, one of the best-known of Britain’s survivors, is also originally from Germany, and has just turned 91.

He and his family were unable to escape to join his father in Britain and so he spent the Holocaust in a number of concentration and labour camps, tragically losing his younger brother in 1941.

His contribution to the 100-word project is in Yiddish, which he says he “doesn’t use really – but my par-

ents were Polish-born”, adding: “My mother always spoke German to me, but my father always addressed me in Yiddish. That’s how I learned it.

It’s stayed in my mind”.

He spoke in Yiddish for the phrases “against indifference, against hate”. He told Jewish News: “In my experience, the most effective way of educating young people is the voice of a survivor who can speak in the first person. For me, it is worth making every effort to reach them. It leaves a permanent impact. I will go to great lengths to reach youngsters”.

Gideon Taylor, the Irish-born president of the Claims Conference, which is based in New York, said: “The world is full of strife – from the pandemic to the crisis happening in Ukraine. On remembrance days like Yom HaShoah, it is so important to stop and reflect.

“The call to action these survivors put forth today is not only one of remembrance, but one of action, a reminder that we do not have to be bystanders.

“We can all stand up in our own way and we can choose to not let our collective history repeat itself.”

ALIYAH FINANCES WEBINAR Smart Investment, Pensions and Tax Planning

цѷрф – 0 . 4 рп/# 4 спсс

о

-& /-0 ' # -/ - -/$!$ *0)/ )/ 3 -&.

$(*) ) --* # # -/ - '/# ) " 4(*) ( . Ҟ *' -. -

Basics of the Israeli tax system

What should I do with UK property?

UK tax aspects of Aliyah

Mitigating UK Inheritance Tax

Tax issues with remote working

Benefits of Offshore Investing

Pensions & Maximising the 10-year tax free period

Enhancing your retirement income

"$./- /$*) 1$ *0- 2 .$/ ѷ

*' -. -

)ѵ 4(*) ( .ѵ0&ѵ *(

*- (*- $)!*-( /$*)ѷ псп чспс ршуу *' -. - )ҽ 4(*) ( .ѵ *( "$./- /$*) '*. . / с+( *) /# 4 *! /# 2 $) -ѵ # 2 $) - 2$'' # ' *1 - **(

With investing, your capital is at risk

Raymond James Investment Services Ltd is a member of the London Stock Exchange and is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Registered in England and Wales number 3669657. Registered office: Ropemaker Place, 25 Ropemaker St, London EC2Y 9LY.

)

28 April 2022 Jewish News

www.jewishnews.co.uk

11

Kindertransport hero / Twitter deal / News

Winton film producers say story ‘must be told’ Almost 30 years after Steven Spielberg brought the story of German industrialist Oskar Schindler and his rescue of Jews to the screen, a biopic about the ‘British Schindler’ Sir Nicholas Winton is about to start shooting in Prague, writes Brigit Grant.

Directed by Aisling Walsh, One Life will show how stockbroker and humanitarian Winton rescued 669 children, most of them Jewish, from Czechoslovakia on the eve of the Second World War. Winton arranged the children’s train journey, the Kindertransport, from Prague to Britain and

then helped find them new homes.

He never sought public recognition and his efforts went largely unnoticed until he was reunited 50 years later with some of the children he saved, now adult, on Esther Rantzen’s TV show That’s Life.

With a screenplay by Nick Drake and Lucinda Coxon, who wrote The Danish Girl, One Life will show how a 29-year-old Winton arrived in Prague in December 1938 intending to then go on a skiing holiday in Switzerland, but changed his plans when he heard about the refugee crisis in Czechoslovakia. Over the following nine months, he organised eight trains.

Actor Johnny Flynn, who portrayed David Bowie in the biopic Stardust, is playing the younger Winton while Sir Anthony Hopkins plays him in his later years.

This will be the second time the Silence of the Lambs star has played a Jew, the first being his depiction of Yitzhak Rabin in the 1976 TV film Victory at Entebbe.

STUDENTS TO PLAY FOOTIE FOR UKRAINE Two Jewish students, Jack Isaacs and Aaron Black, have organised an exhibition football match due to take place on Yom HaShoah to raise funds for Ukraine, writes Jenni Frazer.

The students run a team called Hapoel Hyde Park, which plays in Leeds University’s social sports leagues.

Now the pair have challenged Jewish students from Birmingham to play them, with the aim of raising money for Ukraine and refugees. Proceeds from the match will go to World Jewish Relief’s Ukraine appeal.

Black said: “We set a target of raising £500, however we have received an overwhelming show of support and have already beaten this, and are now aiming to raise over £1,000, making this one of the biggest student-led fundraisers of the year.”

He added: “With the events occurring in Ukraine, it is important to remember how fortunate and privileged we, as the Jewish community, are to have survived and be in the position we are now.

“We want to use this game of football to remember what our community has faced during the Holocaust, while celebrating our ability to take part in such an event, as our community has rebuilt in the years since.”

Anthony Hopkins (below left) will play Nicholas Winton, who was commemorated on a Royal Mail stamp in 2016 after a JN campaign

Hopkins was keen to play Winton because he sees it as an opportunity to highlight the Ukrainian refugee crisis.

Producers Iain Canning and Emile Sherman, of See-Saw Films, said: “Despite never wanting any attention for his altruistic act, Winton’s story and the story of those he saved must be told. To

be a part of sharing this moment in history with the world is an extraordinary privilege.”

Sherman, who is Jewish, began his career with a documentary about his great-great-uncle Chatzkel, a Lithuanian Jew who lived through both world wars and the Bolshevik revolution.

Winton died in 2015, aged 106.

MUSK WARNED OVER TWITTER

Elon Musk’s leadership of Twitter will be “paradoxical at best” if he allows hateful content to spread on the platform, a key campaigner against antisemitism has warned.

Danny Stone, chief executive of the Antisemitism Policy Trust, said there were about two antisemitic tweets for every Jew in the UK per year and people seeking to do harm online were excited about the new ownership.

Tesla and SpaceX chief executive Musk, who has 85 million Twitter followers, agreed this week to pay nearly £35 billion to buy it outright. He said he hopes to turn it into a haven where all speech is allowed.

Stone said that while Musk was right to defend free speech, “if that means Twitter returns to being a hate platform on which diversity of opinion is crowded out through bad actors spreading toxic bile, then his position will be paradoxical at best”.

He hoped that “the learning Twitter has developed over many years in relation to its hateful content policies will not be lost”.

Surge in young Jewish people seeking mental health support

By Jenni Frazer

Jewish mental health campaigners this week warned there has been an unprecedented rise in mental health issues in the community, particularly among younger people.

Activists were reacting to a new Nuffield Health survey, which reveals that, in a poll of 8,000 people in Britain, one-in-three adults believes their mental health has deteriorated over the past year, with 37 percent of adults more concerned about their mental health owing to coronavirus.

Laurie Rackind, chief executive of Jami, the mental health service for the Jewish community, said: “We certainly saw an increase right at the start of the pandemic in referrals, and we understood that the mental health impact would outlast the Covid curve.

“We have been getting three times the demand for assistance, and double the number of requests from young adults. Our staff are doing more and more, and we are taking on more staff.”

Rackind noted that the “great work” done at the start of the pandemic, in which people pulled together to visit and talk where possible, had largely been lost over the past months, and he hoped it could be revived.

Jami is now launching a pilot scheme, the CYP, or Children and Young Persons Service, aimed at 11- to 16-year-olds. The scheme, which will run initially for a year so it can be effectively monitored, will offer “person-

Acclaimed mental health campaigner and author Jonny Benjamin speaks to students

alised, one-to-one support”, which could include “advice and signposting to other statutory or voluntary sector services, joint work with carers and/or education teams to support families, carers and schools in the child’s ‘network’, or support from health professionals such as occupational therapists, social workers and children’s wellbeing practitioners”.

Jami’s CYP offers practical help to parents and families, with a range of immediate responses to people who say their child has been self-harming or having suicidal thoughts.

Additionally, the charity advises: “Look after yourself. Supporting someone who is

suicidal can be shocking and emotionally draining. Find ways of reducing the immediate stress and find someone to talk to about your experience.”

Louisa Rose, chief executive of the mental health charity Beyond, founded by campaigner and activist Jonny Benjamin, echoed the concerns. Beyond raises money to help young people with mental health issues.

She said: “The system [British mental health treatment] is not set up to cope with the demand we have seen.

“The number of referrals has risen in the last few years and people are stuck on waiting lists without internal support.”

12

www.jewishnews.co.uk

Jewish News 28 April 2022

News / London rally / Counterterror concerns

STUDENTS URGED TO AVOID ‘PREVENT’ The Metropolitan Police’s former head of counterterrorism has criticised as “highly dangerous and irresponsible” comments made during a National Union of Students workshop in which students were told not to report anyone to Prevent, the government’s strategy to tackle radicalisation, terrorism and extremist behaviour.

In a recording obtained

by LBC radio, a student asked what they should do if they had “genuine” concerns someone they knew was watching extremist content.

The conference speaker at the Federation of Student Islamic Societies (FoSIS) event in Liverpool, replied: “Report it to the right person... have that assurance that you’ve to be confident they’re not going to go to Prevent.”

During the event, students were also encouraged to “push universities to get Prevent officers there as decoration” and told: “We do Islamophobia training and in it we teach SU, disengage.”

Responding to the revelations, Sir Mark Rowley stressed the importance of Prevent’s role in saving lives.“It’s about helping people, who are perhaps at a vulnerable point in their lives,” he said.

Information revealed last year by MI5 suggested 31 latestage terror plots had been foiled over the past four years, many of which were brought to the attention of the intelligence agency by the public.

On FOSIS’ website, Israel is described as an “apartheid state” and it says “the conflation of anti-zionism [sic] with anti-Semitism [has] been weaponised to... silence Muslim students” describing it as a “Zionist narrative”.

In recent weeks, the NUS has been accused of tolerating antisemitism and an investigation is now under way.

The FOSIS recording has prompted Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi to say: “I worry that there is a pattern here and this could be systemic in the NUS.”

Major decline in numbers at London Al Quds protest There was a dramatic decline in numbers turning out to support the first post-lockdown anti-Israel Al Quds Day march in central London last weekend, writes Lee Harpin.

Around 1,000 activists took part in Sunday’s event, which is organised by the Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC) and goes from outside the Home Office to Downing Street.

Previous turnouts at the annual rally – initiated by the Islamic Republic of Iran in 1979 to express support for the Palestinians and oppose Zionism and Israel – have been three or four times the size.

As this year’s event began, marchers held aloft Palestinian flags and others anti-Israel placards.

But there was no sign at the front of the parade of Nazim Ali, who had led previous Al Quds Day marches and who once attempted to blame the Grenfell Towers fire on “Zionist supporters of the Tory Party”. Attendees were instead led by the IHRC’s Raza Kazim.

Unlike previous years, this year’s parade attracted a series of relatively lowprofile speakers.

As usual, members of the anti-Zionist

Above: Protesters at the Al Quds Day march. Left: Pro-Israel supporters at the counter-demonstration

Neturei Karta group were given a place at the front of the parade and, in a ritual designed to attract media coverage, were photographed setting alight Israeli flags.

A small group of pro-Israel activists staged a counter-march without much incident.

Ahead of the parade, the IHRC had tried to promote the first Al Quds Day

event since before lockdown as being “back by popular demand”.

The charity claimed the parade was a “chance to counter the violent extremism of the Zionist ideology”, and added that Israel “often escalates its attacks” during the holy Muslim month of Ramadan.

At previous demonstrations, flags of the Hezbollah organisation were frequently raised before Home Secretary Priti Patel’s 2019 full ban on the terror group in the UK.  Letters, page 22

“Isabel has been a true gift of independence to me.”

MONIRA

For people with impaired vision, IDF veterans suffering from severe trauma, and children learning to live with autism. But this can only happen with your support. To create more life changing partnerships, call 020 8090 3455 or go to israelguidedog.org.uk

GUIDE DOGS

SERVICE DOGS

SUPPORT DOGS

Registered charity no: 1188449

TRANSFORMING LIVES ONE DOG AT A TIME

www.jewishnews.co.uk

28 April 2022 Jewish News

13

Court case / Libel payout / Ofsted report / News

Teen unfit to plead in race assault case

A O m e o w r

N G v C a t r

y p e t s t y The search for great pet insurance can seem endless.

ManyPets makes it simpler to keep them in great shape.

And we’re pet insurance provider of the year too. Again.

CCTV footage of the attack in Stamford Hill

Lyons, said there was no dispute that Thorpe hit the two men, but asked the court to consider whether the racially-motivated element of his charge was applicable, the group Campaign Against Antisemitism said.

A case management hearing will be held in June where, following a doctor’s assessment, Thorpe might be able to enter a plea.

ACTRESS PAYS OUT FOR ‘HURTFUL’ TWEET Tracy-Ann Oberman apologised this week and agreed to pay “substantial damages” after accusing a British academic of having “a Jew blocklist”.

The former EastEnders actress, who recently appeared on The Great Celebrity Bake Off for Stand Up To Cancer, said she appreciated that her comments were “hurtful”.

Oberman, 55, had accused anthropologist and Middle East specialist Dr Philip Proudfoot, who is a research fellow at the Institute for Development Studies (IDS) at the University of Sussex and founder of the Northern Independence Party, of using an online tool that blocks Jews from interacting with him.

In a now-deleted post, she wrote: “So a man called @PhilipProudfoot of @FreeNorthNow has a Jew blocklist. I’ve been out of the Twitter politics loop for a few months but is this party continuation Corbyn? Seems like it. And will it end up the same way? Seems like it. Good luck all.”

In a statement shared on Twitter after the libel case settlement was reached, Oberman

M D r o o l u

wrote: “On April 4 2021 I tweeted that Dr Philip Proudfoot ‘has a Jew blocklist’.

“The following day Dr Proudfoot explained that this was wrong and that he had used ‘a tool to mass block an account I followed that was involved in targeted trolling, which also blocks followers.’

“He has since assured me that this was an account which he believed was trolling and harassing him and he had not deliberately blocked Jewish accounts.

“I accept that Dr Proudfoot had at no time had a Jew blocklist and apologise for stating otherwise. I made a mistake and appreciate that my comments were hurtful.

“I have therefore deleted my tweet, agreed to pay substantial damages and legal costs.”

Proudfoot’s lawyer, Zillur Rahman, of Rahman Lowe Solicitors, said: “Antisemitism is a serious problem in our society and it is unfortunate that some people, like Philip, who show solidarity with the Palestinians in their struggle for freedom from Israel’s oppression, have been falsely accused.”

Visit manypets.uk/jewishnews call us on 0345 340 4090 or scan the QR code

Love every moment ™. Bought By Many Ltd trading as ManyPets is a company registered in England and Wales with number 7886430. Address: 1-10 Summers Street, London EC1R 5BD. Bought By Many Ltd trading as ManyPets is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority - Register number 652623. This register can be checked for details of our permissions, history and contact details. Insurance underwritten by Great Lakes Insurance SE.

FA I R G R O U N D RIDES Charity Reg No. 802559

A teenage suspect accused of assaulting two strictly-Orthodox shop owners on a Stamford Hill street has been deemed unfit to enter a plea because of mental health problems, writes Michael Daventry.

Malachi Thorpe, 18, who allegedly attacked Israel Grossman and Erwin Ginsberg as they were closing their shop, is suffering from a psychotic illness, his lawyer said.

He faces two charges of racially or religiously aggravated assault, occasioning actual bodily harm, and one of possessing an offensive weapon following.

Security camera footage of the incident on 27 January, the eve of Holocaust Memorial Day, showed a hooded man throwing repeated punches and knocking one of the victims to the ground. Grossman and Ginsberg were treated in hospital for a variety of injuries, including a broken nose, fractured wrist and severe bruising.

Thorpe is currently in custody awaiting a transfer to Chase Farm Hospital for treatment.

At a hearing last week, his lawyer, David

z t l i c k f

CRAFT ARTS & IES ACTIVIT

WITH IN PARTNERSHIP

GIANT I N F L ATA B L E S

MEDIA PARTNER

KO S H E R FOOD COURT

Ofsted rates home ‘good’ A residential and respite home for disabled children and young adults in Stamford Hill has received a ‘good’ rating in all areas in Ofsted’s most recent assessment.

The inspection criteria for Bayis Sheli included overall experiences and progress of residents, how well they were helped and protected, and the effectiveness of managers.

The Ofsted report noted that “religious and cultural needs are expertly met” and “children’s emotional and mental health needs are very well met by staff”.

In its report on the school, Ofsted approved the appointment of an art therapist and the move to add an adapted kitchen at the premises, to enable residents to learn

domestic life skills. Chair of trustees Jacob Sorotzkin said: “We are thrilled Ofsted’s recent report has recognised the hard work of the whole team at Bayis Sheli, led by Micki Herzog, who continue to ensure the provision of the highest quality care and educational and therapeutic frameworks to all those living at the home”.

BY EVENT SPONSORED

S U N D AY 12 J U N E 2 0 2 2 12 - 4 pm Adm i s s io n: Chil dre n f re e | Ad u l t s £ 3 o n l i n e e a r l y b i rd / £ 5 o n t h e d o o r Alde nham Co u nt r y Par k E ve n t s F i e l d , A l d e n h a m Ro a d , E l st re e WD 6 3 BD Fo r m o re i nf o r m at i o n ple ase v i si t j ew i sh c a re .o r g/ f a m i l yfu n d a y

Family Fun Day JN 165x128mm V3.indd 1

25/04/2022 14:20

14

www.jewishnews.co.uk

Jewish News 28 April 2022

News / Controversial posts / Preacher concern

New UK Jewish group head made anti-gay posts and derided Reform The chief executive of a new communal organisation that was set up to rival the Board of Deputies has expressed sympathy for far-right activist and convicted fraudster Tommy Robinson in a series of social media posts, writes Lee Harpin.

James Marlow was confirmed on Monday as head of the National Jewish Assembly.

The organisation, which claims to represent “the opinions of ordinary Jews”, has been set up with exBoard senior vice-president Gary Mond, who quit the communal body ahead of an investigation into allegations of Islamophobia.

Social media posts sent to Jewish News indicate Marlow used his @James_J_Marlow account to back English Defence League founder Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, on at least three occasions. In March 2016, Marlow tagged the @TRobinsonNewEra account (now offline) as he appeared to support violent activity by someone associated with the former member of the antisemitic British National Party.

Marlow tweeted Robinson, writing: “Great right hander by your aid – watched it 3 times.”

The comment was made just days after newspaper reports and social media video footage emerged of Robinson in a violent confrontation with migrants in Italy.

James Marlow and some of his social media posts In another post, Marlow again appeared to side with Robinson after he appeared on LBC have gone through heavy media radio presenter James O’Brien’s show. He tweeted @TRobinson- training.”

In further tweets, Marlow appeared to express sympathy with NewEra, again in March 2016, stating: “Great call b/c [because] those singling out for criticism George Soros, the Hungariannot intimidated by liberal presenter.”

In March 2018, Robinson was permanently banned from born Jewish philanthropist.

He backed a commentator who appeared on Fox News to sugTwitter for violating rules governing “hateful conduct”.

Jewish News can also reveal that Marlow, who appears on the gest Soros “is supposed to be Jewish but you wouldn’t know it GB News television channel as a commentator, is also the author from the damage he inflicted on Israel and the fact that he turned of a series of openly homophobic social media posts – comparing on fellow Jews”. Marlow tweeted in 2018: “As a practising Jew within a strong well-known community I do NOT find this at all gay people to paedophiles, and claimed sexuality is a “choice”.

In a post from June 2015, Marlow shared an article from the antisemitic and indeed agree with all his words on this point.”

In November 2019, Marlow leapt to the defence of Nigel American fake news site TruthUncensored: “Pedophiles [sic] using same tactic as gay activists arguing desire 4 children is Farage and “anyone from Brexit Party” denying the existence of antisemitism within their ranks. sexual orientation no different than homos.”

He added: “And critiquing Soros doesn’t count because that In February 2017, he tweeted: “Can’t believe I finally agree with Jeremy Corbyn with his words ‘people choose to be gay’ and means when I criticise the mayor of London for a poor job, by choice is a wonderful thing!” Comments by the former Labour your definition I would be anti Moslem [sic] which is daft.”

Marlow has also used social media to post attacks on those leader, who said nobody should be persecuted because they practising Reform Judaism. In one tweet, in July 2015, he sug“choose” to be gay, were widely condemned.

Meanwhile, during the 2016 London mayoral election con- gested “a Reform conversion is not Jewish anyhow!”

In a March 2021 post he wrote about an unknown individual: test Marlow turned his wrath on the openly gay UKIP candidate Peter Whittle, writing that he “acts too gay to b mayor. Should “He wants to join a reform synagogue, but not for ‘religious’ rea-

sons. That’s like wanting to join weight watchers, but not for losing weight??”

In a press release on Monday, Marlow announced: “Together with former senior vice-president of the Board of Deputies, Gary Mond, we launched the National Jewish Assembly (NJA) today with three clear principles: to promote Jewish life, to support Israel and to fight antisemitism.

“We will not be involved with any other political issues which are not directly relevant to Jewish people exclusively. It is intended to voice the opinions of ordinary Jews who have never been, and do not attempt to be, part of the current system of Jewish organisational infrastructure.”

Westminster Synagogue member Mond is bankrolling the project, which asks individuals to pay £30 and contribute to determining its policy at regular assemblies. Former Zionist Federation chief Steve Winston will serve as the NJA’s vice-chairman,and its events manager will be former Zionist Federation employee Dalia Hajioff.

The NJA has so far received enthusiastic backing from Israel activist Jonathan Hoffman, who said: “Hopefully it will be immune to the leftists who have destroyed ZF.” Another supporter is Peter Baum, who was suspended as a deputy over “unacceptable” tweets including describing Palestinians as “Nazis” and “child abusers”. Baum said the NJA “will certainly represent my views on community and political issues”.

Asked to explain his posts supporting Robinson, Marlow said: “I am on record saying [during many talks and TV news appearances] that he is toxic, untouchable and creates division. I have personal experience of being physically attacked by some of his supporters, when covering the London Al Quds Day march as a journalist. One year members of the far-right turned up and as I filmed some of them when they shouted abuse, I was set upon, in front of police.

“Therefore to associate myself with Tommy Robinson is a desperate attempt to discredit me and the work I have done and continue to do in building community relations.”

Regarding his posts about gay people, he said: “I believe people are free to choose what they wish to do and how they wish to dress. I have never said anything to the contrary. Another tweet on this subject of more than seven years ago is clearly in an online debate, about a subject which made mainstream news at the time and was being discussed on multiple talk phone-in radio shows.”

Asked to explain his comments on Reform Judaism, Marlow said: “There was a debate about a Reform conversion, as opposed to Reform Jews, which is what I think you were implying. I replied that the Reform conversion was not halachically accepted.”

Jewish News has approached Mond for comment.

MP CRITICISES UK VISIT BY ‘HATE PREACHER’ An MP has demanded to know “how on earth” an Egyptian-born “hate preacher who has previously given sermons about killing Jews” was allowed to enter the UK. Robert Largan, Tory member for High Peak, recalled in the Commons last Thursday how Omar Abdelkafi, who last month gave a lecture at Finsbury Park Mosque, “is known to have directly inspired” a Stockholm suicide bomber.

Abdelkafi’s lecture in north London was part of a UK-wide tour, during which he also gave talks in Leeds and Liverpool.

Reports have previously revealed how Abdelkafi delivered a sermon that was posted

on YouTube in which he quoted: “The day of judgment will not come about until Muslims fight the Jews, when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Muslim, O Servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.”

In a 2015 video translated from Arabic by the Middle East Media Research Institute, he said: “This play to which Muslims are subjected ad nauseam across the world is the sequel to the comedy film of 9/11. The first part took place in New York and the sequel is taking place in Paris.”

Largan said: “Abdelkalfi has previously given

sermons about killing Jews and advanced antisemitic conspiracy theories, and he is known to have directly inspired the Stockholm suicide bomber, Taimour Abdulwahab.

“Given these facts, can we have a debate on how on earth such an individual was allowed to enter the country and how that is compatible with the government’s wider Prevent strategy?”

Responding for the government, Mark Spencer, leader of the House of Commons, said: “Antisemitism has absolutely no place in our society... I am aware the individual has made shocking remarks in the past, and I will raise concerns with the home secretary.”

The promotion for Omar Abdelkalfi’s talk

Finsbury Park Mosque said Abdelkalfi had given a “spiritual talk” about Ramadan that was “not political in nature”.

www.jewishnews.co.uk

28 April 2022 Jewish News

15

Kosher kebabs / School change / News

Time for doner... vote now!

The increasingly popular British Kebab Awards (BKA) will feature a kosher kebab category for the first time next year, thanks to Jewish News, writes Adam Decker.

Dubbed “the most delicious awards in Britain”, the BKA has gone from fringe event to social calendar highlight, with hundreds of parliamentarians now taking part alongside industry leaders, journalists and other professionals.

“We are delighted to be partnering with Jewish News to add a kosher category to the annual British Kebab Awards,” said founder Ibrahim Dogus. “The awards go from strength to strength. It is a great way of bringing communities together.”

In recent years, the humble kebab has undergone “a transformation in public

perception”, say organisers. “From unhealthy late-night snack, they are now enjoyed in a multitude of varieties and settings with families and friends.”

With 1.3 million kebabs sold every day, the British kebab industry is worth £2.8 billion annually to the British economy, providing around 200,000 jobs across restaurants, suppliers and the wider food industry but, until now, kosher kebab offerings could not compete for the coveted annual prize.

Dogus said a celebration of the kebab was a celebration of diversity and immigration into the UK, with Kurdish and Turkish

communities among the most prominent. “Immigrants put the reat into Great Britain,” he said.

The BKA said: “As a nation we’re proud of our locals; we love to think our town lays claim to the best kebab… Britain loves kebab takeaway and restaurants.

“This is how proud we are that they’re part

of the fabric of our diverse communities.”

Existing categories include best restaurant by region, best kebab house by region, and best kebab van, plus best fine dining, best takeaway, best value, best Lebanese and best chef.

North London eateries currently look up to 2022 winners Devran Kitchen in Haringey and Yaprak Restaurant in Pinner.

To vote for your favourite kosher kebab or shawarma (restaurant or takeaway), see: voting.britishkebabawards.com For more information and to book tickets see britishkebabawards.co.uk

SCHOOL ERASES OLIGARCH FROM ITS NAME Barkingside’s King Solomon High School has removed the name of its principal charitable funder, Moshe Kantor, from the school, after the Russian billionaire was sanctioned by the British government.

The school’s Tracy Rubery confirmed to Jewish News that it would no longer be known as Kantor King

Solomon and that the name was being removed from its website, building and all identifying material.

“We have been advised to do this by the charitable foundation,” she said. “It’s in line with the guidelines we have been given.”

King Solomon became Kantor King Solomon in 2016. The then

The Norwood Carnival Fun for all the Family!

headteacher, Matthew Slater, said Kantor’s support was “vital to the school’s success”, adding: “Dr Kantor’s involvement will enable the school to continue on its journey of improving the educational opportunities for children in east London and south Essex and provide a firstclass Jewish education.”

The Norwood

Sunday 22 May 2022 1.30pm – 5.30pm HJPS, Watling Street, Radlett BOOK NOW

norwood.org.uk/norwoodcarnival Everyone is welcome, this is an inclusive and accessible event

Britain put Moscow-born Kantor, who holds a British passport, on the oligarchs’ sanction list because of his association with President Vladimir Putin. He is said to be the largest shareholder in the fertiliser company Acron, which the Foreign Office said had vital strategic significance for the Russian government.

In partnership with

community@norwood.org.uk Patron Her Majesty The Queen Registered Charity No. 1059050 Scan the QR for tickets

In 2017, Putin awarded Kantor Russia’s Order of Honour.

Beit Shvidler, which changed its name in 2012 from Edgware Jewish Primary in honour of oligarch Eugene Shvidler, declined to comment when asked by Jewish News if it was considering dropping the name of now-sanctioned Shvidler from its title.

16

www.jewishnews.co.uk

Jewish News 28 April 2022

2 WEEKS TO GO...

GET READY TO EXP

13-14 M

FOR MORE INFORMATION AND RESOURCES, VISIT SHABBATUK.ORG 6232 Shabbat UK Campaign JN DPS v1.indd 1

www.jewishnews.co.uk

28 April 2022 Jewish News

17

PERIENCE SHABBAT

MAY 2022

27/04/2022 09:38

18

www.jewishnews.co.uk

Jewish News 28 April 2022

World News / French elections / Seder concern / Ally relations

France breathes sigh of relief Jewish and Israeli leaders have welcomed Emmanuel Macron’s reelection and far-right leader Marine le Pen’s defeat in the second round of Sunday’s presidential election in France, writes Michael Deventry.

Macron took just over 58 percent of the vote against Le Pen’s 42 percent, according to official figures released by authorities.

During the contest, which was a re-run of the 2017 election, Le Pen markedly increased her share of the vote from the 33 percent she received five years ago.

Francis Kalifat, the head of the French Jewish umbrella body Crif, said it was “a relief to see that Marine Le Pen was blocked from reaching power – but this time we were seriously worried”.

He told Haaretz: “We were concerned because some people, like [far-left presidential candidate] JeanLuc Mélenchon, who got 22 percent in the first round of voting, had made ambiguous statements, refusing to call on their supporters to vote for Macron.”

Ahead of the election, Crif had endorsed Macron and issued a public

Emmanuel Macron, pictured with his wife Brigitte, celebrates winning a second term as French president

call urging all French citizens to vote against Le Pen. Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett congratulated Macron in a tweet on Monday in which he said “under your leadership, I have no doubt that the ties between Israel and France will continue to grow stronger”.

Foreign Minister Yair Lapid tweeted a picture of himself

embracing Macron, describing the French president as “my good friend”.

“President Macron is an important leader of the global centre and a true friend of Israel. We’ll continue to work together to strengthen cooperation between our countries,” he wrote.

Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt from the Conference of European Rabbis

said: “Congratulations to President Macron on his re-election.

However, the fact that more than 40 percent voted for a farright candidate is troubling.”

The European Jewish Congress extended “warm congratulations” to Macron in a statement.

Marine Le Pen

“President Macron’s win is a victory for sane and moderate politics,” said Ariel Muzicant, the group’s new president. “Today, mainstream and healthy democratic politics again defeated extremism and division.”

Eric Zemmour, a Jewish far-right candidate in the contest, who did not make it to the second and final round on Sunday, called for unity among supporters of the French right to win future elections. “There will be no victory without alliances between all the parts of the right-wing bloc,” said Zemmour, who had called on his supporters to vote for Le Pen. Le Pen’s father Jean-Marie, who founded the National Front in the 1980s, is a Holocaust denier with a long record of making antisemitic statements.

Marine Le Pen succeeded him in 2011 and ejected him from the party, which she renamed National Rally, several years later.

She had promised to be a “shield” for Jews against radical Islam. Editorial comment, page 22

Interfaith seder rejected PRECIOUS STONES

PAINTINGS/ART WORK

FURNITURE

PAINTINGS/ARTWORK

JEWELLERY

PORCELAIN

MEN’S & LADIES

COSTUME PROPERTY JEWELLERY PROPERTY

WATCHES HIGH-END FASHION WINE & MEN’S & LADIES & CLOCKS ALCOHOL CARS HIGH-END FASHION QUALITY CARS SCULPTURE & BRONZES NAMED GLASS QUALITY SCULPTURE & BRONZES NAMED GLASS

GOLD

GOLD

PROBATE VALUATIONS

PROBATE VALUATIONS

SILVER

SILVER

Selling items value has has never simpler.

Selling items ofofvalue neverbeen been simpler.

WHETHER YOU’RE CLEARING A HOME, MOVING, REMODELLING, I WILL GET

WHETHER YOU’RE CLEARING A HOME, MOVING, REMODELLING, I WILL GET THE BEST PRICES FOR ANY ITEMS OF VALUE YOU’RE LOOKING TO SELL THE BEST PRICES FOR ANY ITEMS OF VALUE YOU’RE LOOKING TO SELL •

I AM A INDEPENDENT BROKER ACTING SOLELY ON YOUR BEHALF

•

I AM• A IINDEPENDENT BROKER ACTING SOLELY ON YOUR BEHALF SELL THROUGH MANY DIFFERENT AUCTION HOUSES, HIGH-END

•

DEALERS, COLLECTORS AND PRIVATE CLIENTS HOUSES, HIGH-END I SELL THROUGH MANY DIFFERENT AUCTION • HAVING BEEN IN BUSINESS OVER 10 YEARS LOOKING AFTER MANY, DEALERS, COLLECTORS AND FOR PRIVATE CLIENTS

•

MANY CLIENTS YOU WILLFOR ALWAYS RECEIVE MY PERSONAL DISCREET HAVING BEEN IN BUSINESS OVER 15 YEARS LOOKING AFTER MANY, ONE-TO-ONE SERVICE (REFERENCES AVAILABLE)

MANY CLIENTS YOU WILL ALWAYS RECEIVE MY PERSONAL DISCREET •

THERE IS NO COST OR OBLIGATION MEETING WITH ME AT YOUR HOME

ONE-TO-ONE SERVICE (REFERENCES AVAILABLE) • • •

Perry

OR STORAGE FACILITY

THERE IS NO COST OR OBLIGATION MEETING WITH ME AT YOUR HOME • PROBATE VALUATIONS CARRIED OUT

OR STORAGE FACILITY • BASED IN ST JOHNS WOOD, CLIENTS IN THE UK AND EUROPE PROBATE VALUATIONS CARRIED OUT Perry IN Field 07802WOOD, 157500 CLIENTS IN THE UK AND EUROPE BASED ST |JOHNS NEW HOME SERVICE AVALIABLE : I WILL BUY YOUR SILVER, GOLD AND JEWLLERY FROM THE COMFORT AND SAFETY OF YOUR HOME. DISCRETION GUARANTEED, IMMEDIATE PAYMENT MADE. Field | 07802 157500

A Muslim student group withdrew from an interfaith seder and Iftar event to commemorate Passover and Ramadan because of its Jewish partner’s support of Israel.

In an Instagram post, the Muslim Student Association (MSA) at American University (AU) in Washington, D.C., cancelled its participation, citing partner Hillel’s support of Israel amid last week’s renewed violent clashes at Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque.

“Hillel’s continued support for the state of Israel after this attack contradicts our values of human rights and justice and we are unable to partici-

pate in a co-sponsored campus event at this time,” the group posted to social media.

The previous day, Israeli police had raided the mosque in response to rioting by Palestinians at the holy site.

“We stand in solidarity with Palestine,” the post said, calling Israel “a settler-colonial and apartheid state”.

The student group’s post also said it did not discover Hillel would be a co-sponsor of the interfaith event until after the Muslim students agreed to be a part of it.

AU Hillel’s executive director, Jason Benkendorf, told the Jewish Telegraphic

Agency the seder went on anyway, with other campus partners. “[We] are hurt by [the MSA] decision to express their disagreement with Israel’s actions by boycotting our campus Jewish community,” he said, but added that AU Hillel would “continue to foster meaningful opportunities for interfaith and crosscultural engagement”.

The chapter’s website highlights its pro-Israel work, including bringing dozens of students to Israel every year as part of Birthright trips and facilitating “on-campus educational” programmes about Israel.

BIDEN ACCEPTS ISRAEL INVITE US President Joe Biden has accepted an invitation to visit Israel amid differences between the allies over how best to contain Iran and US concern over mounting Israeli-Palestinian tensions in Jerusalem.

A White House statement issued after Biden spoke by phone with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett on Sunday emphasised the closeness and friendliness of their relations, a contrast to the

years of tension and bitterness between Bennett’s predecessor, Benjamin Netanyahu, and US Democrats.

“The two leaders emphasised the strong personal bond they have developed since the prime minister’s visit to Washington last summer,” the White House statement said.

“This personal relationship has animated the work of our diplomatic and national security teams, enabling both countries to arrive at

common positions on difficult matters.”

In Bennett’s statement, he warned Biden not to accede to Iranian demands to remove the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) from the US designated terrorist list.

Biden is said to be opposed to delisting the IRGC, but Iran is holding out for the delisting as a condition for the US reentry into the Iran nuclear deal, a key Biden foreign policy objective.

www.jewishnews.co.uk

28 April 2022 Jewish News

19

20

www.jewishnews.co.uk

Jewish News 28 April 2022

World News / Roth row / Hate stats / Watch returned

Human Rights Watch defends chief over ‘antisemitism’ claim Human Rights Watch has strongly defended its outgoing executive director Kenneth Roth against claims of being “a supposed antisemite” as it announced his departure, writes Michael Daventry.

The 66-year-old will step down in August after building up the campaign and monitoring group into a globally recognised organisation over the past 30 years.

Roth was leader when the group shared the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize for its campaign to ban anti-personnel land mines.

But his term has also been punctuated by anger at Human Rights Watch’s stance on the Israel-Palestine conflict, which Israeli authorities have called one-sided.

In 2018 the group’s Israel and Palestine director Omar Shakir was expelled from the country on the grounds that his work supported Boycott Divestment and Sanctions, the Israel boycott movement.

Three years later, Roth himself was criticised by Britain’s Community Security for a tweet that “offered excuses” for a surge in global antisemitic incidents after fighting broke out across the Gaza border.

The group describes Israeli policies towards the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza as “apartheid”.

Human Rights Watch acknowledged

Kenneth Roth is standing down as the organisation’s executive director

the criticism in a statement announcing Roth’s departure: “Despite being Jewish (and having a father who fled Nazi Germany as a 12-year-old boy), he has been attacked as a supposed antisemite because of the organisation’s criticism of Israeli government abuses.”

The organisation appeared to remove the “supposed antisemite” reference from a later version of its statement.

Roth became executive director in 1993, when the group had a staff of around

60 and a $7 million annual budget.

Its annual budget now closer to US$100m (£80m), Human Rights Watch now employs more than 550 people in more than 100 countries to campaign against human rights abuses. “I had the great privilege to spend nearly 30 years building an organisation that has become a leading force in defending the rights of people around the world,” Roth said.

“I am leaving Human Rights Watch, but I am not leaving the human rights cause.”

Anti-Jewish hate up by 34% in US The number of antisemitic incidents recorded by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) in the United States in 2021 reached an all-time high, according to its latest report.

The 2,717 incidents identified in news articles by the ADL or reported to it directly last year represent a 34 percent increase from the 2,024 incidents of antisemitism tallied by the group in 2020.

Previously, the 2,107 incidents in 2019 were the highest total since the ADL began publishing annual counts in 1979.

In 2021, it counted 88 anti-

Incidents are at all-time high

semitic assaults, a 167 percent increase from the 33 assaults in the 2020 count.

“Jews are experiencing more antisemitic incidents than we have in this country in at least 40 years,” said ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt.

ABOUT TIME TOO

A pocket watch made by Jewish watchmaker Alfred Overstrijd, who died in the Auschwitz concentration camp, for his brother Louis, has been returned to his relatives, almost 80 years on. Overstrijd’s granddaughter Monique is pictured with the timepiece, which was found by Gustave Janssens, grandfather of Pieter, left.

An independent aesthetics clinic, whose warm and welcoming environment resides comfortably in North Finchley.

Our passion for aesthetics is the driving force behind our ethics, at Ambra Facial Aesthetics Clinic. Through a truly holistic approach, we want all our patients to receive the highest quality of care that exceeds far beyond its value.

Ambra Facial Aesthetics Clinic boasts the provision of a comfortable and relaxing environment, residing in the residential town of North Finchley, a suburb of London.

Conveniently placed among a wealth of local amenities, the clinic is easily accessible from both the bustling town and the surrounding areas, including: East Finchley, West Finchley, Friern Barnet, Brunswick Park and Whetstone.

We combine the use of excellent products with up to date treatment methods and techniques, to tailor each procedure perfectly to each individual patient.

Our warm and friendly attributes merge perfectly with our extensive knowledge, to enable trusting relationships to be formed between patient and Doctor. We take the time to get to know you as a person so you feel assured that every decision made is done so through caring and professional eyes.

Dr Maryam McMillan

info@ambraclinic.com | ambraclinic.com | 07967 090 365

28 April 2022 Jewish News

www.jewishnews.co.uk

Sababa Events

DELICIOUS

Why Sababa? a a? ress!

Stop P items! enu New m

…breakfasts… …b coffee… hot drinks…

fresh …f fr e h juice… soft drinks… fish… sandwiches… sushi… savoury / sweet crepes… pasta… pizza… salads… su waffles… froyo yogurt/shakes… iced tea… ice cream… w shakes… smoothies… choice of wines and beers… etc sh

Boost your body and mind with a Sababa Summer Refresh!

Events

Leave the worrying to us and we’ll leave the celebrating to you!

- Small size events, to big functions? In our premises or external premises e.g. your home?

- Enjoy your simcha!

- Reviews have been great!

When: Weekday or Shabbat

Location: Sababa, Shuls, communal buildings or home…

Occasion: Sheva Brachot, Birthdays, Bar-Mitzvahs, Bat-Mitzvahs, Brit Seudas, ‘Upsheren’, Kiddushim, Communal, Office Parties etc…

Of Business Breakfasts, Office a nan lemo

nge ora ce jui

ot rry carr e rawbe juic st anana b

ice ee coff

froyo

Facilities: Full Sababa Menu + Catering Menu, crepe stations, sushi stations, buffets, full service, breakfasts, dinners, lunches and more…

frozen yogurt f T Tastes Ta amazing! - as we w well as being healthier t than ha ice cream - just 15 159 59 cal per ser ving.

(A wide range of toppings are available.) t op

Sababa

TEL: 020-8191 0308

Contact our events department now!

Email: sales@sababa-events.co.uk Web: www.sababa-events.co.uk OPENING HOURS

33-35 Shenley Rd, Borehamwood, WD6 1AE

S u n d a y - T h u r s d a y : 9. 3 0 a m - 1 0 . 0 0 p m

Email: hannan@sababaa.uk

Fr i d a y : 9. 0 0 a m - 3. 0 0 p m

We b : w w w. s a b a b a a . u k

( S at u r d a y N i g ht : C l o s e d )

21

22

Jewish News 28 April 2022

www.jewishnews.co.uk

Editorial comment and letters

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

VOICE OF THE JEWISH NEWS

Relief is a good first reaction. Concern should be the second.

It is indisputably good news for Jews and for democratic-minded Europeans everywhere that Emmanuel Macron has prevailed. The French president overcame fears of a Brexit-style nailbiter outcome to defeat his far-right opponent by a wider margin in Sunday’s election than many opinion polls predicted. Everyone can relax.

But just for a short while. It was never only the risk of Marine Le Pen becoming the country’s first extremist leader since Vichy France that alarmed so many of us, including this newspaper.

Her divisive, populist ideology threatens our way of life in many other ways. It is worth dwelling on just three of them as we light our candles this Friday night.

The first is the immediate risk to France. Le Pen did lose, yes, but with a higher share of the vote for the far-right than ever before. That could lead to sweeping gains when French voters pick the new members of the National Assembly. There is not a prospect – yet – of the former National Front winning enough seats to seize power, but that party could become a much larger, louder minority. Those elections are barely six weeks away.

Second, this campaign has made clear that the far-right is now large enough to sustain itself without being tied to a single leader.

We do not know whether Sunday will prove to be Marine Le Pen’s last election. She has vowed to fight on, but others are vying for her mantle.

Chief among them today is Éric Zemmour, a rival candidate descended from French Algerian Jews who has shown that it is possible to be even more extreme than Le Pen and still attract millions of votes.

Another person to watch is Le Pen’s niece, Marion Maréchal, who recently joined Zemmour’s party and – aged just 32 – has the potential to attract a younger generation. Make no mistake: the far-right is growing.

Third, that rise is not limited to France. From Hungary and Poland to Germany and Spain, far-right populism remains a powerful voice, in particular for less affluent voters who feel abandoned by the traditional forces that have governed Europe since the Second World War. It makes for an easy narrative to blame an ethnic group or a religion for a nation’s troubles.

But as Jews everywhere know, the path traced by unchecked populists can end in calamity. We can never rest easy for long.

THIS WEEKEND'S SHABBAT TIMES...

Shabbat comes in Friday night 8.06pm

Shabbat goes out Saturday night 9.15pm

Sedra: Acharei Mot

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

Kitchener Camp research I write in connection with the forthcoming concert in memory of the Kitchener Camp refugees (Jewish News, 21 April 2022).

A group of passionate friends and relatives of Kitchener Camp refugees have sought to keep alive the memories of the camp through a distribution list, which has evolved into a thriving Facebook group.

It is wonderful that the government and Jewish News have recognised the historic importance of the camp. This is something not fully covered in histories of the time until recently.

However, organisation of this event has been disappointing insofar as Learning from the Righteous planned and publicised the event without involving or crediting two key individuals without whom the Kitchener Camp would be less well-known.

Clare Weissenberg developed a website (www.kitchenercamp.co.uk) based on many

hours of research. Clare Ungerson wrote Four Thousand Lives: The rescue of German Jewish men to Britain, 1939, again a key source of information.

The Kitchener Camp Project is now an essential website to learn about the history and people associated with the camp. Had it not been for the two Clares devoting years to researching the camp and making it publicly known via the book and exhibition, functions that have taken place would not have happened. We hope that, from now on, all literature will credit the two Clares as part of publicity distributed in connection with the Kitchener Camp. The Association of Jewish Refugees is aware of this.

Please can we encourage Jewish News to call on the Kitchener Camp family for their participation in promoting forthcoming events?

Simon Phillips and Monica Lowenberg on behalf of the Kitchener Camp friends

RELIEF AT LOW TURNOUT VENEER OF HARD LEFT FOR AL-QUDS DAY RALLY LURKS UNDER LABOUR I was enormously relieved to read on your website that this year’s Al-Quds Day rally was not as well attended as it has been in previous years.

For too long, this event has provided an opportunity for Israel-bashers who can spill over into antisemitism loud and clear – right on the streets of London.

Banners proclaiming allegiance to Hezbollah, which has thankfully now been designated a terrorist organisation and banned in the UK, have shamefully been displayed.

If you are truly after peace for all people in the Middle East, this is not the way to pursue it.

Sir Keir Starmer, who as leader of the Labour Party launched the campaign for the local elections in Barnet, tries to represent an air of respectability to his party, but it is a thin veneer.

Peel it away and underneath you still have the the ultra-left wing. Please do not be fooled. Momentum is behind the candidates in many seats across London and other major cities.

Allowing Labour control of councils with large numbers of Jewish residents would be devastating to our community.

I ask Jewish News readers to consider their loyalties to our community when deciding where to cast their vote next week. Antisemitism within Labour is still very much entrenched in its supporters.

Rachman Levin By email

Michael Maurice Conservative councillor, Brent

Support your Jewish community. Support your Jewish News Thank you for helping to make Jewish News the leading source of news and opinion for the UK Jewish community.

Unlike other Jewish media, we do not charge for content. That won’t change. Because we are charity-owned and free, we rely on advertising to cover our costs. This vital lifeline, which has dropped in recent years, has fallen further due to coronavirus.

Today we’re asking for your invaluable help to continue putting our community first in everything we do.

For as little as £5 a month you can help sustain the vital work we do in celebrating and standing up for Jewish life in Britain.

Jewish News holds our community together and keeps us connected. Like a synagogue, it’s where people turn to feel part of something bigger. It also proudly shows the rest of Britain the vibrancy and rich culture of modern Jewish life.

You can make a quick and easy one-off or monthly contribution of £5, £10, £20 or any other sum you’re comfortable with.

100% of your donation will help us continue celebrating our community, in all its dynamic diversity.

Support Jewish News by visiting our donor page at jewishnews.co.uk

27 May 2020

BRITAIN’S BLIND SPO T •

16 Sivan 5781

•

Issue No.1212

•

@JewishNews

UK

We’ve never been racism, so why so focused on fighting the deafenin g silence as antisemitism spirals out of control?

• Hospital probes ‘cutth

• Driver with Israel roat gesture’ to Jewish patient attacked in Golders Green • Crucifixion banneri flataghuge pro-Palesti • BBC journalist’s #Hitle nian demo • Nearly 300 antisemitic rwasright tweet revealed incidents in under

3 weeks RACISM – THE MADNESS SPREAD S: Pages 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 20, 22 & 23

ANTI-JEWISH

‘It’s okay not to be okay’ BOO KVE DRI

DONATE ONLINE

EE

AT ORTUK.O Alternatively, RG/BOOKS to donate via text Text 8ORT to donate £8 or 16ORT to donate £16 to 70085

Help ORT UK raise £50,000 children’s FR books to gift 7,000 across the globe

Journey’s end

Covid cancels Israel tours for second summer Page 10

VOICE 22 April 2021

•

OF TH E COM M

10 Iyar 5781

•

Issue No.1207

Freddie’s century!

Beloved survivor’s 100th birthday P31

•

@JewishNews

cohesion and common ground across the UK

UK

Jewish community and between British Jews

Landmark revie racism in the w of Jewish community calls for:

and wider society. Jewish News promotes these

• End to racial profi

ling events

• Synagogues to

create ‘welcoming committees’

aims by delivering dependable and balanced

• Word ‘Shvart zer’

to be understood as a racial

slur • Sephardi, Mizrah i and Yemen songs

ite

in Ashkenazi

Foundation, a registered UK charity promoting

UNITY

Time to en the divide d at communal

THE JACOB FOUNDATION Jewish News is owned by The Jacob

1105254

Relief for France is unlikely to last

Charity number

1260

UK registered

ISSUE NO.

• Schools to increas synagogues e focus colonialism on and black history Britain is namedgroup Jewish and shamed Jewish News

• ...and Facebo ok

LIFE FULL REPORT

& EXPERT

ANALYSIS

ON PAGES

Commission chair Stephen authored the Bush Board of Deputies report

6, 7 &September 26 2021

•

ISSUE NO.6

Magazine

news reporting and analysis and celebrating the achievements of its vibrant and varied readership.

Through the Jacob Foundation, Jewish News acts as a reliable and independent advocate for British Jews and a crucial communication vehicle for other communal charities.

DRESSING

Inside Julia’s

WITH HAART

unorthodox wardrob: e

YIZKOR – Living

with loss

New Beginnings

Pink Rabbit

turns 50

28 April 2022 Jewish News

www.jewishnews.co.uk

23

Editorial comment and letters

‘When I asked about your AS level, I meant your qualification, not your level of antisemitism’

HEROISM OF OPERATION MINCEMEAT NOW HAS A PERMANENT MEMORIAL At a special ceremony on Sunday, I unveiled a plaque in St John of Hackney’s churchyard to commemorate the extraordinary heroism, skill and sheer daring-do with which Operation Mincemeat was conceived and carried out during the Second World War. Together with the famous Trojan Horse, it was the most successful deception in the history of warfare, Ruth Montagu (second left) at the unveiling on Sunday completely duping the Germans into thinking that Greece would be attacked, allowing Operation Husky – the allied invasion of Sicily – to take place with minimal casualties, and saving hundreds of lives.

The scheme was put in place by Ewen Montagu, CBE QC DL, a leading Jewish lawyer, whose distinguished ancestry reads like a roll call of significant figures from AngloJewry, including Lord Swathling and Col A E W Goldsmid, founder of the Jewish Lads’ (now also and Girls) Brigade.

In order to misdirect the Germans, a body purporting to be that of Major William Martin was transported to the southern coast of Spain, where it was dumped at sea and washed up on to the beach. In the fictitious Major’s uniform pockets, false information implied that Greece – rather than Sicily – would be re-invaded. The ruse was swallowed hook, line and sinker by the Nazis, who redeployed their troops.

Hackney’s close involvement with the operation was due to the body, which was actually that of Glyndwr Michael, a homeless man who died after eating rat poison, being left in our mortuary for three months before being transformed into the fictitious major.

As I pointed out in my speech, given what is happening in Ukraine, history has a habit of repeating itself. We now have a permanent reminder of those associated with Operation Mincemeat’s contribution to helping win the war, with part of the inscription in Hebrew to ensure that the Jewish connection is also remembered.

Councillor Michael Desmond Speaker, London Borough of Hackney

FOOTBALL TRIALS FOR SCHOOL YEARS 1-9 WEDNESDAYS THROUGHOUT MAY 2022 AT MILL HILL POWERLEAGUE Providing Quality Football to the Community for Over Ten Years

FREE FOOTBALL TRAINING FOR CHILDREN AGED 5 - 6 THROUGHOUT MAY 2022 All of our Football Coaches are FA Qualified & DBS Checked

For more information, visit our website Playing in the Maccabi GB Junior Football League and Watford Friendly League

NWLJ.CO.UK and / or contact Aaron Weichselbaum:

AaronNWLJ@hotmail.co.uk

24

www.jewishnews.co.uk

Jewish News 28 April 2022

Opinion

Israel needs levelling up and Tech Hub’s the start JENNI FRAZER

mean, repudiating falsehoods about Israel and making its case in the world is supposed to be the work of the country’s diplomats, who, er, work for Lapid.

Just occasionally, as someone with a ringside seat in this endless war of words, I long for someone to cut through the rhubarb and waffle and actually do something.

And I may actually have found such a something — and it is, to my astonishment, a British initiative.

Long ago, back in the days when Matthew Gould was British ambassador to Israel, he helped to launch the UK Israel Tech Hub centre, a pragmatic approach to developing technology and cooperation between the two countries. Well, I say “long ago”, but in fact we are talking about 2011, though, admittedly, 11 years is a lifetime in international politics.

The Tech Hub is exactly what it says on the tin: it is the nexus for technology interchange, introducing British companies to their Israeli counterparts, and Israeli companies to potential UK partners. And it has been quietly successful, establishing a reputation for calm expertise, and, as it says on its website, “opening doors that might be closed”.

J

ewish News readers will be all too aware of the continuing backand-forth between supporters of the state of Israel and its opponents, most recently over the ‘A-word’ – apartheid.

In a much-disputed report, Amnesty International accused Israel of “perpetrating the crime of apartheid throughout Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories, and against Palestinian refugees”.

Israel, unsurprisingly, completely rejected this characterisation, as did many of its supporters.

Most recently, foreign minister Yair Lapid recruited the glamorous Noa Tishby (selfdescribed as “author, producer, actress and mom”) to be the country’s first “special envoy for combating antisemitism and delegitimisation”, which basically means she makes trenchant social media videos denouncing Amnesty and its ilk. She is a good thing, I suppose, but there is a certain “trying-toohard” sensation about the appointment. I

❝

MAYBE THE HUB’S HANDS-ON WORK IS WHAT’S NEEDED TO COMBAT THE A-WORD – APARTHEID

Towards the end of last year, the Tech Hub turned its attention to helping a previously neglected sector – people in the Arab community in Israel who want to work, or are already working, in high tech.

Pre-pandemic figures show that in 2019, only 1.2 per cent of Arab employees worked in tech, as opposed to 10.7 percent of Jewish Israelis. There are many reasons for this disparity, ranging from inequality in education to the fact that many Jewish Israelis frequently spend their army service in units with a technology bent, an option rarely, if ever, open to Arab Israelis. (The best known such unit is the renowned 8200.)

Ad design4.pdf 2 01/03/2022 11:50:32 PM

Enter the Tech Hub, which, together with an organisation called Hasoub, which exists to promote tech and entrepreneurship in Arab society, took a group of delegates to London. As a political adviser at the British embassy, Samar Hawila Bisharat, told Haaretz: “The entrepreneurs who participated in this delegation were already at an advanced stage and they only needed a push, support and the right connections.”

There are all sorts of obstacles that would-be Arab Israeli entrepreneurs have to overcome, from not having international connections, to cultural hurdles in their own communities, and, of course, not having their own version of Unit 8200. But the Hub’s practical, no-fuss programme – while not the only answer – is a huge step in the right direction.

We hear a lot in this country about ‘levelling up’; clearly, such a concept needs to be applied in several sectors in Israel, from Arab Israelis to the strictly Orthodox. So well done, the Hub. Maybe its hands-on, below-theradar work is what is needed to combat the A-word.

Not as glamorous as Noa Tishby, but you can’t have everything.

A

Bridging Finance

HANK ZARIHS S

S

O

C

I

A

T

E

S

Bridging, development & Buy to let finance

Bridging rates from

Max LTV up to

Loan Term up to

0.45%

80%

24months

100% funding available with additional security

Quick decisions Receive terms the same day

Security type: Residential, Commercial & Semi-Commercial

dEVELOPMENT Finance Development rates from

Max LTGDV up to

4.00%

Hank Zarihs Associates are an experienced financial services intermediary specialising in development and investment funding. We've successfully arranged over £500,000,000 in property finance for our clients

75%

bUY T0 lET

Call us now to speak to one of our senior lending managers and find out how we can help arrange affordable property finance for you today!

+44 (0) 20 3889 4403

Buy to Let rates from

Max LTV up to

2.65%

80%

contact@hankzarihs.com

Security type: Residential and Commercial

www.hankzarihs.com

28 April 2022 Jewish News

www.jewishnews.co.uk

25

Opinion

Israel Tour’s back – awesome and accessible for every teen DAVID DAVIDI-BROWN CHIEF EXECUTIVE, NEW ISRAEL FUND UK

I

’ve been to Israel more than 40 times.

One tough part of the pandemic was being distanced from places and people I love, so I’m excited by UJIA’s announcement that Israel Tour will return this summer.

Much has changed since my first visit in 1998, although one constant is an amazing opportunity to connect with community and begin a journey of personal discovery.

The really moving moments from that initial school visit came from being with old and new friends and being encouraged by my teachers and leaders.

In Jerusalem I appreciated the beautiful sound of a quietened city during Shabbat.

I was in awe of this small country’s changing landscape, abseiling by a machtesh in Mitzpe Ramon and splashing through the Jilabun.

We didn’t ignore the harrowing parts of our

history. I can still see the reflections, too many to count, of one candle burning at Yad Vashem.

We also didn’t ignore the complexities of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

I remember feeling conflicted being British and Jewish when touring the Akko prison, where British soldiers had guarded those struggling for their people’s freedom.

Working at the New Israel Fund is the culmination of a lifetime personally and professionally inspired by my experiences in and relationship with Israel.

I discuss with global colleagues the distinct

❝

TOUR IS AN AMAZING OPPORTUNITY TO CONNECT WITH COMMUNITY AND BEGIN A JOURNEY OF PERSONAL DISCOVERY

nature of the British Jewish community’s close and diverse relationship with Israel. A major part of that relationship is having half of our young people take up the opportunity to spend weeks in Israel with talented and dedicated leaders.

My hope in writing this is to encourage every 16 and 17-year-old and their parents or carers to take up this opportunity.

So much communal life, well beyond parts related to Israel, is supported and delivered by those who have been on and led Israel Tour.

I am forever indebted to my parents for their emotional, practical and financial support, including when I moved away to study and as I married and set up home with my husband.

However, when working out whether I could participate in Israel Tour, as a family, we needed – and were incredibly grateful to receive – bursaries from UJIA. Professionally, confidentially and compassionately administered, this scheme awarded £1 million in the most recent five years of Tour, supporting more than 1,000 participants. UJIA has been doing this for decades.

Israel Tour is open to all, regardless of finan-

cial situation or synagogue affiliation.

Young people can experience Israel with Orthodox youth groups Ezra, Sinai, C-Teens or Tribe, the progressive RSY-Netzer or LJYNetzer, or a traditionally Jewish experience for modern Jews with Noam.

They can be inspired by religious Zionism with Bnei Akiva or socialist Zionism with Habonim Dror.

For those who prefer pluralism and peerleadership, there is FZY and BBYO. There is also the adventure offered by JLGB. Wonderful previous additions to Israel experiences include Maccabi GB’s Challenge Israel Tour for those with mild to moderate learning disabilities and a partnership between Norwood and Birthright in offering the 10-day Limitless programme.

As I hope shows in my support for UJIA and Tour, as chief executive of our community’s leading organisation defending democracy and human rights for all Israelis and Palestinians, Israel Tour is an opportunity open to all.

The return of Israel Tour this summer is integral to a diverse, thriving future of our community.

PESACH APPEAL UKRAINE CRISIS DONATE NOW

www.worldjewishrelief.org/ukrainecrisis

020 8736 1250

26

www.jewishnews.co.uk

Jewish News 28 April 2022

Opinion

Let’s hope for positives from this shabby scandal JEREMY NEWMARK

LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION, HERTSMERE BOROUGH COUNCIL

A

s Hertsmere Borough’s Labour and Cooperative Party leader, I have mixed feelings about the news that the Conservative Party has reprimanded leading Hertsmere councillors and their electoral agent for promoting and pursuing a negative and unfounded personal campaign against Councillor Dan Ozarow.

The independent panel commissioned by the Tories concluded that this campaign led to those councillors “exposing themselves to allegations of antisemitism” and “may well have encouraged others” in the tirade of antisemitic abuse suffered by Cllr Ozarow and his family.

The investigation process bears all the hallmarks of the kind of system I and other Jewish Labour colleagues campaigned for our own party to adopt since the Chakrabarti report publication. A serious, heavyweight, legally experienced investigation panel. A reasonable

time frame from complaint to conclusion. Good communication with the victim. And, critically, party leadership acceptance of the findings without intervention or interference.

Labour has made huge strides in handling antisemitism under Keir Starmer’s leadership – I hope it pays attention to this textbook example of complaint handling as an exemplar.

Equally, I hope the Conservatives take heed of Labour’s new-found speed and assertiveness when it comes to suspending, expelling and punishing members who play fast and loose with antisemitism. Those reprimanded in this report must face meaningful sanctions.

Equally significant for me is how this shabby incident appears to be a new mutation of the weaponisation of antisemitism (and opposition to antisemitism) for party political gain.

What we now know were cynical, unfounded attempts to smear Cllr Ozarow as an enemy of Israel and supporter of terrorism were designed to leverage Jewish communal fear and vulnerability for party political gain.

In smearing a Jewish politician within his own community, they incited actual antisemites to embark upon a campaign of hate against Dr Ozarow, which included physical threats against his family and unborn baby.

We’ve seen Conservative councillors in Hertsmere engage in weaponisation, smears and incitement on multiple occasions over the past five years. I’ve been a victim of it myself.

At the same time, they failed to make good on a promise to allow a full discussion about tackling antisemitism at the council’s executive.

They target letters at houses with mezuzot,

❝

IN SMEARING A JEWISH POLITICIAN, THEY INCITED REAL ANTISEMITES IN A HATE CAMPAIGN

infantilising Jewish voters in the process.

Hertsmere’s Conservative MP, Tory national chair, Oliver Dowden, misappropriates the Jewish community in speeches at extremist American policy institutes, promoting hardline policies, yet he has remained silent on these latest developments in his own back yard.

His weaponisation of Jews in global political discourse is the international parallel to what his councillors were doing back home.

I say to my Conservative colleagues, enough is enough. Let’s collectively agree to fight antisemitism together, to fight the growth of groups such as Patriotic Alternative and Britain First, both active and growing in Hertsmere.

Political antisemitism appears in cycles and affects all parties. Recent reports from Enfield and Manchester indicate that Conservatives in local government must address such concerns.

I hope something positive will emerge from Cllr Ozarow’s experience and that this pernicious cycle will now be broken. Perhaps that long-promised Hertsmere Council discussion on antisemitism will happen and set a template for other local authorities to follow and adopt.

Need cash fast?

Sell your gold and coins today!

9 ct per gram £17.30 14 ct per gram £26.99 18 ct per gram £34.61 21 ct per gram £40.37 22 ct per gram £42.27 24 ct per gram £46.14 Platinum 950 per gram £19.89 Silver 925ag per gram £0.44 Half Sovereigns £169.07 Full Sovereigns £338.13 Krugerrands £1435.06 We also purchase any sterling silver candlesticks and any other sterling silver tableware

We wish to purchase any Diamond & Gold Jewellery

Can’t choose the diamond ring you are looking for?

Come and see us in our North London showroom for the best engagement ring selection.

We can create the design of your dreams... and at a wholesale price!

We can supply any certificated GIA or HRD diamond of your choice.

Personal & confidential Customer Service Price Offered Instantly Same Day payment A free valuation from our in house gemmologist and gold experts on anything you may wish to sell.

If you are thinking of selling, the price of diamonds has never been higher! In any shape, size, clarity or colour.

WE PAY MORE than all our competitors.

Try us, and you will not be disappointed!

Jewellery Cave Ltd, 48b Hendon Lane, London N3 1TT T: 020 8446 8538 E:jonathan@jewellerycave.co.uk www.howcashforgold.co.uk Open Monday to Friday 10am to 4pm (anytime) and Saturday 9am to 1pm (by appointment)

www.jewishnews.co.uk

28 April 2022 Jewish News

JDA – improving the learning environment for deaf pupils

. ss cla in er tt be ar he me ng lpi he r fo u yo k an Th The panels make the class quieter so I can y well! concentrate on my work. Now I’m doing reall 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

27

28

www.jewishnews.co.uk

Jewish News 28 April 2022

Attention Landlords Large Property? Big Savings!

We offer a fixed cost letting fee of £269.00 for any One-Bedroom properties or larger within Greater London.

If you’re a Landlord or Estate Agent, why not join our satisfied customer base!

One-Bedroom Properties or Larger

Quality Vetted Tenants Guaranteed Rent Top Market Rates Generous Cash Incentive

CONTACT US Email: office@choicelet.com 07502 541 963

Reg company number: 10872043

www.jewishnews.co.uk

28 April 2022 Jewish News

LI FE

29

Inside A look

Laughter Sunday Calling Copenhagen Pet Essentials

The Hidden Hero

The staggering Second World War story behind Ben Brown’s new play is unknown to most.

He reveals why to Jenni Frazer

J

ust when you think you have heard almost every astonishing story from the Holocaust, another one comes along. Playwright Ben Brown has written one of them.

The End of the Night, which opened at Park Theatre in Finsbury Park this week, is the extraordinary true story of a secret meeting in the closing weeks of the Second World War. Norbert Masur, a 43-yearold Jew from Sweden, went to Berlin on behalf of the World Jewish Congress, to try to persuade Heinrich Himmler to release the remaining Jews from the camps.

It was the most uneven of negotiations: Himmler was head of the SS and notorious as the architect of the Holocaust, while Masur, a German-born Jew, was a volunteer from the Swedish section of the World Jewish Congress, with “nothing to offer”, according to Brown.

“He was a very straightforward hero,” says Brown, and, indeed, reading Masur’s own account of the meeting with Himmler, you can’t help but admire his bravery.

“The two men met for two and a half hours on the night of 20-21 April 1945. Himmler had come directly from celebrating Hitler’s birthday, the last such occasion on which all the senior Nazis saw each other.

Brown, one of whose previous plays was 2010’s The Promise, about the Balfour Declaration, stumbled over this almost-unheard-of story about five years ago. “I was reading a book review, and there was a reference to Himmler having had a masseur who persuaded him to meet and negotiate with Jews.”

Exploring this intriguing premise, Brown discovered that the masseur was Dr Felix Kersten, who had written his memoirs – at the end of which was an account of the meeting. (In fact, Kersten was Himmler’s personal physical therapist, allowed to travel out of Germany as long as his housekeeper/secretary Elizabeth Lube remained on Himmler’s estate as a sort of hostage guarantee of Kersten’s return.)

There were two more versions of the

Ben Caplan as Masur and Richard Clothier as Himmler in The End of the Night

Above: Playwright Ben Brown. Left: Himmler with physio Felix Kersten

encounter. One was by Walter Schellenberg, who was head of foreign intelligence for the SS and was one of Himmler’s closest associates, and who met Masur before Himmler arrived; and the other was by the head of the Swedish Red Cross, Count Folke Bernadotte, who wrote his own account of negotiations with Himmler for the release of Jews.

Armed with these sources – although Bernadotte’s meeting followed on the heels of the Himmler/Masur encounter – Brown said he was “stunned” that the event had received so little attention.

He has his own theory as to why the meeting was not better known. “Perhaps it was because of the taboo of negotiating with Nazis, as illustrated by the Rudolf Kasztner case. There were Jewish historians who wrote about it, like [Yad Vashem’s] professor Yehuda Bauer. But then it seemed to drop out of sight.”

He also cites the tendency of Bernadotte “to claim all the credit for himself”, adding: “In his book he made out it was all him, and erased Kersten and Masur from the record.”

Brown’s cast for The End Of The Night

includes Ben Caplan (Call the Midwife) as Norbert Masur alongside Richard Clothier (Young Wallander) as Himmler. Michael Lumsden, who appeared in Brown’s first play, All Things Considered, plays Kersten. And completing the well-connected line-up is Alan Strachan, a long-time associate of Brown’s, who has directed six plays of his over 26 years, one of the longestrunning partnerships in British theatre.

By a weird coincidence, the play is opening almost exactly 77 years after the original meeting, which sends a chilling message, if it weren’t there already. It is pure chance, Brown says. “We did a rehearsed reading in 2019 at JW3, and then the play was due to go on at the Park in 2020 – and then Covid struck.

“So it was rescheduled. But [actor] David Horovitch came in to record a real-life speech made by Joseph Goebbels to mark Hitler’s birthday – and David suddenly said, hang on, today is April 20….”

Although Brown has dived in and out of Jewish history, he doesn’t really consider himself Jewish. His father was Jewish but not observant, his mother not Jewish. But he was brought up in north London and says his uncle, Malcolm Brown, was involved in the Jewish Historical Society of England, while his aunt by marriage volunteered at the Jewish Museum. So in a sense he has brushed past the Jewish community – and holds it in some affection.

And he speaks with admiration and affection of Masur, an unassuming man who volunteered to fly into Berlin in the dying days of the war when it became clear Germany had lost – and the danger was even more heightened.

“It was enormously courageous of him; he flew in on a German plane with a swastika on it that normally took Red Cross parcels. Anything could have happened; he could have been shot down – Berlin was under attack [by the Allies] and they were having to drive without lights to get to the house where the meeting was due to take place.

“Just being a Jew in Germany was incredibly dangerous. Himmler signed a pass for Masur to travel, but the meeting was totally secret, and if anyone had stopped him… it was beyond brave”.

Masur, incidentally, went to live in Israel after the war. He had a son, Kurt, says Brown, but little or nothing is known of Masur’s post-war life. Brown hopes the play will revive interest in this scarcely-known hero of the Holocaust.  The End of the Night runs until 28 May at Park Theatre. For tickets, visit www.parktheatre.co.uk or call 020 7870 6876

30

&

Jewish News 28 April 2022

JN LIFE

www.jewishnews.co.uk

WHO WHAT WHERE COMEDY

Cue the Chortle

Rachel Creeger

If you wake up on Sunday feeling a bit down, try to find a comedian to cheer you up as it’s World Laughter Day (WLD) and they’ll be touting their talents. Primed to make us cackle from the stage, ‘black dog’ days are a perpetual problem for professional funny people but, as laughter boosts immunity, reduces stress and improves mental wellbeing, it’s worth investing in WLD. To get things warmed up, we’ve quizzed a few Jewish comics for tactics. Josh Howie says getting once you get going, the rest follows: “The first laugh is always the sweetest and, once you’ve had your first, you’re more likely to have your second because the audience thinks you’re funny.” Like Josh, Isy Suttie gets her giggle buzz from seeing an audience respond well. “It’s a brilliant feeling, but you can’t really languish in it as you’re usually thinking of the next gag, whether to pop in that new bit, swap the order or address a latecomer; your brain is working on many different levels at the same time.” Sounds stressful, but according to Rachel Creeger, laughter is a shared experience. “It’s a gift that is specific to that group of people in a specific moment.” For Daniel Cainer, it’s about emotional connection. “Laughter is a form of escapism and can help you forget about everything else. It can be a way to broach serious or traumatic subjects and no subject is off limits if handled correctly. I think it’s important to be able to laugh at yourself and, as Jews, we are good at doing that.” Daniel has also found Jewish audiences to be frustrated comedians. “They sometimes think they are funnier than me and try to tell me their own jokes.” That doesn’t bother Aaron Simmonds, one-time winner of Jewish Comedian of the Year, as making someone forget about a rubbish day by laughing is a job well done. “But more important is the way I connect with people. I’ve always been on the outside looking in and laughter can show that someone else understands what you’re trying to say. Or they really don’t have a clue and are just being polite!” So remember to laugh fulsomely if you see Aaron on Sunday, even if you don’t get what he’s saying.

Aaron Simmonds

Daniel Cainer Josh Howie

Isy Suttie

BOOK

Pure of Haart

Brazen: My Unorthodox Journey from Long Sleeves to Lingerie.

No prizes for guessing whose tome this belongs to, as Julia Haart, the once-frum fashionista, shelved her modesty to become a Netflix star and hasn’t looked back. She has returned a few times to Monsey, her former New Jersey homestead, and will doubtless be signing copies of her new book there, given the chance. Now estranged from her Italian husband Silvio Scaglia and fired as CEO of his model and talent agency, Elite World Group, Julia has also petitioned for a restraining order against him as he berated her publicly. Evidently he hates everything about her and her family, who feature in My Unorthodox Life and he also, she alleges, hates Shabbat. “I hate Shabbos and I don’t want it in my house,” is what Julia attributes to her soon-to-be ex-spouse.

No doubt this and so much more will be available to view when season two starts in the summer. Until then, there’s the book and our interview coming soon.

This Month in Jewish History

By Jewish News historian Derek Taylor

Julia Haart and Silvio Scaglia

On 15 April 1840, 19 members of the Bevis Marks Synagogue and five members of the Ashkenazi Great Synagogue founded a new community. It was widely known as the Secessionist Synagogue. The founders wanted to make it clear that it wasn’t founded to split from Orthodox practice. They wanted a synagogue nearer their homes in the West End and a shorter service at more convenient times, more religious instruction and greater decorum. Otherwise, as one of their wardens said: “For any least deviation, unqualified censure will be heaped upon us and the selfstyled Orthodox of our co-religionists will gladly seize on the the minutest point to vilify our minister and cast obloquy on our congregations.” So Hebrew was maintained, men and women sat separately and there was very little difference between the Secessionists and the Orthodox for the best part of 100 years.

www.jewishnews.co.uk

28 April 2022 Jewish News

31

Photo by Alex Galbinski

JN LIFE

In search of

hygge Alex Galbinski finds comfort, culture and an abundance of smørrebrød in Copenhagen

The colourful townhouses of the 17th century district by the canal at Nyhavn are a must-see attraction

The calming lobby of the boutique Hotel Kong Arthur

The Danish word hygge loosely translates as the ideal of cosiness and, with the spring sunshine not yet putting in much of an appearance, there was no better place than Copenhagen to seek out that sense of comfort.

The city has something to offer everyone, with history, art and design, culture, architecture, food and shopping galore – and herrings.

Our accommodation, the sustainable boutique Hotel Kong Arthur, is a truly luxurious setting in a cobblestone cul-de-sac in the Nansensgade Quarter that surrounds the city lakes.

The hotel describes its décor as “inspired by classic modernism with a hint of medieval”. The emphasis is on a cosy and informal vibe, but this belies the attention to detail and friendliness of the staff. Warm and inviting, it completely fulfils the hygge brief.

There are tables and comfy chairs by the bar – which hosts a daily ‘cosy hour’ when guests are offered a complimentary glass of wine – and another area incorporating a real fire and seating area by the piano.

The breakfast area has large industrial-style black-framed windows that overlook the courtyard.

The Nordic-style buffet breakfast offers mostly organic (and seasonal) produce such as eggs, cheeses, oats and various breads and dairy and plant-based milks alongside tasty jams and teas.

The hotel is home to three restaurants – Sticks’n’Sushi (Japanese),

Pintxos (Spanish) and La Rocca (Italian) – and Copenhagen itself, the home of world-renowned restaurant Noma, is a foodie paradise, with fabulous Michelin-rated eateries.

Hotel Kong Arthur is close to the Torvehallerne food market, where a cornucopia of local and fresh produce is sold and you can dine at a variety of restaurants. Inside, there are plenty of sellers of smørrebrød (open-faced sandwiches) with a variety of toppings. My husband was particularly enamoured with the offering at the rustic waterfront Færgecafé in the picturesque maritime neighbourhood of Christianshavn, which included herrings on rye bread and serves more than 30 varieties of home-made schnapps.

The hotel’s location is the perfect base from which to explore the city’s many neighbourhoods, including the three ‘bros’ – Vesterbro, formerly the red-light and meatpacking districts and now home to many uber-fashionable restaurants; trendy Nørrebro, described as a cultural melting pot; and elegant and green Østerbro.

Not to be missed is a walk along Nyhavn (New Harbour), built in the second half of the 17th century, with its stunning townhouses in differentcoloured hues and previously the home of celebrated author of fairytales Hans Christian Andersen. He was inspired by the Tivoli Gardens, founded in 1843 and now the secondlargest amusement park in the world, which also has gardens, a concert hall, restaurants and shops.

There are several important museums and galleries, including Statens Museum for Kunst, the national gallery of Denmark and the largest art museum in the country.

At the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, you can view, among other things, Danish and French art and sculpture, Greek and Roman pieces and the Egypt collection. If you have more time, the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, on the coast north of the city, comes highly recommended.

The Danish Jewish Museum is in a prestigious position in the heart of Copenhagen, in the Royal Library Garden. Currently closed for refurbishment, it is expected to reopen in May, featuring a new entrance designed by Daniel Libeskind in the shape of a boat’s stern. The worldrenowned Polish-American architect also designed the museum’s interior, where the 400-year history of Danish Jewry will be explored.

Despite Denmark being occupied by Germany in April 1940, Nazi action against its Jews did not begin

by hippies in the 1971, has a 1980s until autumn 1943. About 7,000 Camden grungy vibe to it, with a people (95 percent of the Jewish relaxed attitude to cannabis (the population) made their main thoroughfare is known way safely to neutral as Pusher Street) and Sweden, with the homemade houses. majority later Home to only about returning to 1,000 people, it’s Denmark. This hugely popular with will be a special tourists – who are interest area in told not to take the museum. photographs!

Some 470 For some more Danish Jews conventional shopwho did not escape ping, Strøget Street is the were deported to main and pedestrianised Theresienstadt in preHerrings on rye shopping area, where there sent-day Czech Republic. are independent boutiques along Their experiences are detailed in with the more ubiquitous chains.

The Jews of Denmark in the HoloShould green spaces be more your caust: Life and Death in Theresienvibe, the Botanical Garden is a must. stadt Ghetto by Silvia Goldbaum It is home to the country’s largest Tarabini Fracapane. collection of living plants – there are Being Lukas Graham fans, we more than 13,000 species there – and wanted to visit the autonomous is free to visit. The Frederiksberg neighbourhood where lead singer Gardens, designed in the English Lukas Forchhammer grew up. romantic style, and the adjacent Christiania, formerly an abandoned Søndermarken are also worth seeing. military barracks that was taken over Copenhagen is small enough to walk around, but it’s easy to hire bikes and boats. Assuming a day of sightseeing has tired you out, you can relax in Ni’mat Massage & Spa, Copenhagen’s largest and oldest spa – handily part of the Kong Arthur Hotel (at an additional cost). Treat yourself to the whirlpool tub, steam bath and sauna, visit the fitness room or book an Asian-inspired treatment.

And if all that weren’t enough, Copenhagen frequently scores highly in the UN World Happiness City Index. As we returned home soothed and recharged, we could see why.

Strøget Street, looking towards Amagertorv, in the city centre

 Rooms at Hotel Kong Arthur start from DKK 1377 (approx £155) for a double economy to DKK 2206 (£250) for a junior suite excluding breakfast. www.arthurhotels.dk

32

www.jewishnews.co.uk

Jewish News 28 April 2022

JN LIFE / Pet corner

Mr Mendel and his many animals Having joined forces with splendid pet insurance company ManyPets, it’s time to meet the founder

DON’T JUDGE ME! With TV’s favourite legal eagle Robert Rinder as his owner, French Bulldog Rocco is ready to unleash...

Now I’m not one to complain (unless asked), as kvetching has no place in the life of a dapper French Bulldog living in considerable style. But it has come to my attention that my own personal space could be in jeopardy on account of the number of trophies we’ve been accruing of late. Not that he doesn’t deserve them. On the contrary, he was most deserving of his MBE for services to Holocaust education as was his wonderful mother, Angela.

But while medals are discreet and housed in a velvet case, I doubt the same might be said for the ‘Best Newcomer’ UK Pantomime Award. My owner has just picked up that little accolade for his performance as the Man in the Mirror in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs at Bristol Hippodrome. There are some mornings when the trophy for ugly sister would be more fitting for him, but that was snapped up by Duncan Burt and Nic Gibney for their snappy siblings in Cinderella at Theatre Royal Bath.

To see all these trophies about the place, with no mention of Rocco on any of them, triggers my insecurities about the elusive ‘Best in Show’ rosettes I’ve not received. Of course, one has to enter a contest to be considered and I’m not one for parading my assets beside the hound hoi polloi. After watching the Dutch dog, Nymeria, dance backwards on BGT last week and wow the judges in the process, I also realised I’d much sooner stay home and wow my own judge – just by rolling over when he tickles my tummy.

I don’t need awards to prove my worth – and we’ve no room for them anyway. I’m just glad we didn’t have to find a place for the Strictly glitter ball.

Until next time, Love

Rocco

If there was a human equivalent of a dog whistle, now would be the time to blow it. Pet owners need to pay attention when being introduced to Steven Mendel as they might need him one day – or, at the very least, the services he provides – as the welfare of the four-legged incumbent living with you rests in his hands. But we’ll come to that.

What you need to know about Steven is that he’s tall and is rarely spotted without a dog. He also bears an uncanny resemblance to actor Hugh Jackman which, when mentioned, makes him blush, but also gets him to the front of the queue at airports and other places.

Steven’s childhood memories are the stuff of Enid Blyton, as he was raised with dogs and was frequently squashed beside them in a car en route to the south coast for blissful summer holidays.

“My parents had dogs before they had children,” says Steven, who vividly recalls their individual idiosyncrasies (those of the dogs not of his parents).

“Soames, our golden Labrador, was named after a character in the ’60s period drama The Forsyte Saga who evidently was a very kind, Saga, but downtrodden and miserable man. The dog was not downtrodden in any respect but looked very sad because of the way his jowls hung – hence his name.

“I was 16 when Soames died and, after him, my parents got a beautiful black flatcoated retriever called Benson, named after the butler in the US TV comedy Soap. That dog was just mad. Wonderful, but mad and not small, so visitors were alarmed when he ran at them at full pace. Not that he ever hurt anyone – he was just enthusiastic.”

Accepting equal pegging in parental affection alongside these pups was never an issue for Steven, who talks about all this with great fondness, particularly in regards

to his mother, who became a trainer of hearing dogs assisting the deaf.

“She did that for many years, but now lives in an apartment where she’s not allowed pets, which she’s very sad about.

So she comes over to walk our dog instead.”

Everyone wants to know about Steven’s dogs because his personal pet ownership and love of animals somehow legitimises his position as the CEO of ManyPets insurance company. Not that owning dogs or even liking them is a prerequisite but, with so many animal insurance companies vying for custom, it’s nice to know that your Rover, Rex or Felix are not signed up with an ambitious cynophobic or ailurophobic.

Until a few months ago, ManyPets was known as Bought By Many, which was initially not a pet business. Well, actually, it was a bit, because pets did feature in the insurance brokering Steven’s company delivered when it launched in 2012, but it was really about sourcing niche and indemnity insurance for a more diverse group. Such as diabetics, yoga instructors, mobile hairdressers and landscape gardeners.

“Personal accident insurance for commuting cyclists was another and there was a plethora of other stuff,” said Steven. “At its peak, we were accessing better insurance

www.jewishnews.co.uk

28 April 2022 Jewish News

33

Pet corner / JN LIFE In association with

for 330 communities. The problem, however, was that while we could always get a better price and product tailored to the needs of those communities, we could never get a better customer experience. And though people were only buying insurance through us, they tried to renew with us, to claim from us and to complain to us.” Recognising the need, Bought By Many switched from being a digital broker to becoming an insurance provider and pets rose to the fore.

“We ranked all of our 330 communities in terms of engagement and realised pet owners were the ones who engaged the most. So in the summer of 2016, we messaged 120,000 pet owners asking the simple question: ‘If you could design your perfect insurance policy, what would it look like?’”

Help give a blind Israeli the gift of independence – Sponsor a puppy today!

020 8090 3455 israelguidedog.org.uk

Relax. We’re pet insurance provider of the year. Again.

Don’t miss out on

Up to £15,000 of vet fee cover Totally free video vet calls Discounted flea and worming treatment

Registered charity no: 1027996

ManyPets co-founder Steven Mendel relaxes with his pet pooch, Satchmo

Steven and his co-founder, Guy Farley, received 40,000 responses to that question and, off the back of that, announced seven new-to-the-market products, reimagining the whole customer experience.

“For the first time in the UK, ManyPets offered insurance to pets with a pre-existing condition,” explained Steven. “Some

people also wanted to pay more for their insurance and have no excess, so that when they claim they get back 100% of their claim. They wanted predictability of the cost of having a pet, so we launched a product with no excess.

“Something else we did was respond to those who said they didn’t like the fact that if you don’t claim on your insurance, it has no value. So, we launched and have since dramatically expanded the idea that, if you don’t claim, you can have 20 percent of your premium back in cash, not as a reduced premium for subsequent years.”

ManyPets has now attracted many more people, and with its move into Sweden and America, is fast fulfilling Steven’s dream of becoming the world’s number one pet insurer. Whether this will be of any interest to Steven’s black Labrador puppy Satchmo (the Mendels love jazz) is hard to ascertain, but he knows he’s in good hands. And Satchmo always gets served first when he’s out with Hugh Jackman.

More stories about Steven and his ‘Many Pets’ will be in the next Paws for Pets column. For more details, visit: www.manypets.com or call 0345 340 4090

See for yourself

Visit manypets.uk/pet1 call us on 0345 340 4090 or just scan the QR code

20% MoneyBack option

Love every moment ™. Bought By Many Ltd trading as ManyPets is a company registered in England and Wales with number 7886430. Address: 1-10 Summers Street, London EC1R 5BD. Bought By Many Ltd trading as ManyPets is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority - Register number 652623. This register can be checked for details of our permissions, history and contact details. Insurance underwritten by Great Lakes Insurance SE.

34

www.jewishnews.co.uk

Jewish News 28 April 2022

Business / Virtual success

candicekrieger@googlemail.com

With Candice Krieger

THE METAVERSE – MORE THAN JUST A BUZZWORD The co-founder of a venture capital firm tells Candice Krieger why the virtual world, where people can socialise, play, shop and work, has exciting opportunities for Israel

T

he metaverse has become one of this year’s hottest buzzwords. Although not a completely new phenomenon, the term, which broadly refers to a virtual world where people can socialise, play, shop and work, hit the mainstream when Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg announced the social network’s new name would be Meta.

The metaverse will grow into a $13 trillion (£10tn) market, according to a report by investment bank Citigroup, and Israel will play a key role in its future, says Eze Vidra, who has been investing in the space since 2017 when he co-founded Remagine Ventures, a venture capital firm focused on interactive entertainment, metaverse and consumer tech.

Vidra, a former general partner at Google

Ventures (GV), says: “Israel is already punching above its weight in metaverserelated tech and, talent wise, crypto and cybersecurity require a lot of similar skills, so there’s a pipeline of talent I believe will choose to tackle the opportunities in the Eze Vidra Metaverse and Web3 space.”

Remagine Ventures, which Vidra founded with Kevin Baxpehler, recently published the first ‘map’ of the Israeli start-ups building the metaverse, listing more than 50 start-ups that have collectively raised more than $3.5bn.

“On the infrastructure side, crypto custodian FireBlocks recently raised $550m series E and was valued at over $8bn,” explains Vidra.

GOLD’S MENSWEAR

MENS PURE WOOL BARRUTI BLAZER SUPER 150 NOW!

£199 £69.95 MENS PURE WOOL BARRUTI CHARCOAL TROUSER

RRP

NOW!

£79.95 £29.95 MACHINE WASHABLE

SALE NOW ON! SALE NOW ON! SALE NOW ON! TERMS AND CONDITIONS: This offer cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer Discount is on RRP only | We reserve the right to cancel this offer at any time

110-114 Golders Green Road London NW11 8HB | 020 8905 5721 | goldsmenswear.com 21P0567 Golds Second For 1 Pound Advert.indd 1

“Overwolf provides gamers with the ability to create user-generated content on top of games and attracted a significant commitment from Andreessen Horowitz. StreamElements raised funding from SoftBank to give steamers a virtual studio, and there are many more examples of exciting start-ups in this space in Israel.”

For the opportunity is huge. Gartner predicts that 25 percent of people will spend at least one hour a day in the metaverse by 2026 either for work, shopping, education, social or entertainment. JP Morgan estimates that on the virtual goods commerce alone, it is a $1tn opportunity a year. Some analysts are describing it as an $8tn opportunity.

What about those who are sceptical about the metaverse and say it’s just a fad? “We’re spending more time online than ever before and consumer habits are changing. For people below 50, for example, gaming has become one of the top forms of entertainment and over 90 percent of Gen Zers play games,” notes Vidra.

“So I’d say we need to be patient. When we talk about the metaverse it’s still a pretty amorphic term as it’s currently being built. I’m excited about the number and calibre of founders choosing to tackle opportunities in this space.”

He adds: “We’re still probably a decade away from what is collectively discussed as the vision for the metaverse, but there’s going to be lots of opportunities for technology companies and creators to play a role.”

Remagine’s map of the metaverse landscape is split by sector: decentralisation, spatial computing, creator economy, discovery, experiences. Vidra believes the potential of combining the metaverse with education, crypto gaming, NFT [non-fungible token] infrastructure and virtual goods commerce present exciting opportunities.

Start-ups to watch that Remagine have invested in include: Echo3D, which helps manage 3D content in the cloud, powering augmented reality [AR], virtual reality [VR] and gaming; Zoog, a mobile app connecting families with AR-powered storytelling experiences; Novos, the leading training app for gaming,

powering the athletes of the Metaverse; Toya, a gaming studio for the 1.3 million underserved female gamers, starting with Roblox and RebelBots – a new exciting crypto gaming studio, pioneering the ‘play to earn’ space.

At GV, Vidra led the fund’s first investment outside of the US. Before that, he was head of Google for Entrepreneurs Europe and the founding head of Campus London, Google’s first physical space for technology start-ups globally. He has also held leadership positions in product management at Shopping. com in Israel, Gerson Lehrman Group in New York, Ask.com in Silicon Valley and at AOL in London, where he was the principal product manager for search in Europe.

Ten years ago, he founded Techbikers, a non-profit bringing together the start-up ecosystem on cross-country charity bike rides.

It has raised money to build 11 schools and 50 libraries in the developing nations in partnership with Room to Read.

The Israeli start-up ecosystem is booming.

“It’s experiencing an unprecedented period of growth, both in terms of investment as well as innovation. The breadth of arenas where the start-ups are at the frontier of innovation is also growing. In the past, Israeli start-ups were mainly known for cybersecurity and semiconductors. While those are still major areas, we’ve seen over 70 unicorns in Israel across multiple sectors from enterprise tech to health tech, gaming and consumer applications, a much bigger range than ever before.”  www.remagineventures.com  www.linkedIn.com/in/ezevidra

110-114 Golders Green Road London NW11 8HB 020 8905 5721 | goldsmenswear.com

THE BIG RED BUILDING | KING SIZE SPECIALISTS

RRP

The metaverse will grow to become a £10 trillion market, according to a Citi group report

03/11/2021 11:35

Tech companies can play a role online

28 April 2022 Jewish News

www.jewishnews.co.uk

35

Orthodox Judaism

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

Condolences

BY MICHELLE BAUERNFREUND

Ivor Ross

DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS, OFFICE OF THE CHIEF RABBI

Striving for holiness In this week’s parsha, Acharei Mot, God instructs Moshe to tell the Jewish people: “You shall not copy the practices of the land of Egypt where you dwelt, or of the land of Canaan to which I am taking you, nor shall you follow their laws.”

It is a surprising directive. Why are the practices of Egypt and Canaan specifically problematic?

And why might the Jewish people be particularly inclined to follow their laws? God has already told the Jewish people that they must keep the laws of the Torah, so why did they need to be told this too?

Rashi, an 11th century commentator, tells us that Egypt and Canaan were the most

regressive of all the nations in their habits and practices, so God highlighted these two as the most important to avoid emulating. Perhaps a particular risk existed.

While the Jews were slaves in Egypt, they might have aspired to the Egyptians’ way of life, seeing it as the definition of liberty.

Similarly, when about to enter Cana’an, they might have looked around and seen an exciting and appealing way of life. A nation about to form its identity, it was crucial to ensure that this identity was virtuous.

So, in order to pre-empt a perhaps inevitable path of doom, God gives the people this warning.

He continues with: “My rules

alone shall you observe… I am the Lord your God.” We are told to live according to the laws of the Torah.

The Torah way of life gives the Jewish people a unique identity.

We can understand this further if we consider this section amid the rest of the portion, where we see a number of seemingly disparate parts.

We are told about Aharon’s sons, who were killed because they brought an incorrect sacrifice, then about the order of service for the High Priest on Yom Kippur, and then about forbidden relationships.

A common theme throughout is holiness – all these sections relate to being a holy people. Indeed, at the beginning of the next Torah

portion, we are told by God, simply: “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”

Holiness is the ultimate ideal we should be striving towards, regardless of what those around us are doing.

In previous generations, we, as Jewish people, may have contrasted ourselves with others by seeing the undesirable or negative elements of their ways; in today’s society, tolerance and inclusivity are key virtues, and ones about which we should be mindful.

While always being respectful of those around us, the commandment to be holy reminds us to be outwardly proud of our own unique way of life and what we stand for.

Born 18 July 1925.

Died 24 April 2022.

Survived by his wife Doreen, daughters Marsha and Alison and sons-in-laws Raymond and Ricky. Loving husband and wonderful father, loved by all his grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren. Will be greatly missed – one of the last true gentlemen.

The Western Marble Arch Synagogue, Central London

is seeking

A Choir Master & Choristers to accompany world-class Chazan

Simon Cohen for our High Holyday services on Rosh Hashana & Yom Kippur 2022/5783 Competitive remuneration will be offered and excellent accommodation & catering will be provided throughout the Festivals Please apply to Michael Ziff, WMA President, at President@marblearch.org.uk, highlighting your musical and singing experience, to be considered for interview.

All applications will be treated in the strictest confidence.

Registered Charity Number 1167711

36

www.jewishnews.co.uk

Jewish News 28 April 2022

Progressive Judaism

LEAP OF FAITH

BY RABBI MARK GOLDSMITH

EDGWARE AND HENDON REFORM SYNAGOGUE

King Eglon would have hated calories on restaurant menus Since the start of April, dining establishments with more than 250 employees are required by law to include calorie counts on their menus. The idea is to enable customers to make informed choices about what they eat, in order to combat obesity and being overweight.

According to government figures, more than 40 percent of children leaving primary school and 60 percent of adults are either overweight or obese. This is the second largest risk factor for cancer and the largest for type 2 diabetes.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, being overweight substantially increased the risk of death from the virus. The government’s thinking is that without information about food in the places where 20-25 percent of UK calorie intake takes place, we cannot make sensible choices.

The Torah commands a particular diet for Jews, based on the laws of kashrut, but this is not for health benefits. Rather, the point is that eating in this way is a route to holiness and

a distinctive Jewish identity. Schmaltz-rendered chicken fat smothered on challah is, of course, thoroughly kosher, as are piled-high salt beef sandwiches, but so are many low-calorie, healthy foods!

I have always struggled to keep my size out of the overweight category and photos going back generations show that this is a long tradition in my family.

There is one character in the Bible whose weight proved to be his undoing – King Eglon of Moab. Perhaps calorie counts on the royal menus might have helped him, but a high-calorie intake was a privilege of monarchy.

In chapter three of the Book of Judges, we hear that King Eglon invaded Israel and ruled over the country for 18 years.

Ehud became the champion warrior of the Israelites and was sent to Eglon to present their annual tribute.

Eglon was very obese. And so, Ehud was able to entrap Eglon while he was relieving himself and it was said (Judges 3:22) that so fat was King Eglon that Ehud’s knife disappeared entirely into the king’s belly.

In his 12th century Mishneh Torah (Hilchot De’ot 4), Maimonides wrote extensively on the need to look after our bodies, as every intellectual and spiritual pursuit is stronger when our bodies are healthy.

“A person should keep away from things which destroy the

A stimulating series where our progressive rabbis consider how biblical figures might act when faced with 21st century issues

Salt beef sandwiches may be tasty, but are they healthy?

body, and accustom oneself to healthy and curing matters, which are as follows: a person should never eat unless they are hungry, nor drink unless they are thirsty.”

If only King Eglon and I followed that advice, we would both have been much healthier.

10 Golders Green Road London NW11 8LL Opposite Cafe Nero

SUMMER Suits from £79.50BARGAINS FOR ALL, SPECIALISING IN LARGE SIZES Overcoats from £79.50 LIGHTWEIGHT SUITS AND JACKETS ALL ½ PRICE Trouser Bargains £25 JEANS AND CHINOS £25 EACH 2 PAIRS FOR £45 UP TO 46 WAIST Raincoats from £49.50 RAINCOATS FROM £29.50 SUMMER CASUAL JACKETS FROM £20.00

Large SHIRT OFFERS £15 EACHSizes ANY 2 a FOR £20.00 speciality Open everyday & Sundays til 5:00pm

We accept

NING R O M AND S T I U S UITS S R E DINN KED STOC

23 ize s o p t ck u s rt in sto Shi

www.jewishnews.co.uk

28 April 2022 Jewish News

Ask our

37

Professional advice from our panel / Ask Our Experts

Registered Charity No. 259480

Leave the legacy of independence to people like Hayley.

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

This week: Securing lock-up shops, new mobility apartments in London and gadgets to help hear the TV...

STUART WOOLGAR VACANT PROPERTY SECURITY

GLOBAL GUARDIANS

Dear Stuart I own a few lock-up shops in various locations across London, some with storage or accommodation upstairs. However, in the current uncertain retail climate, the tenants have closed down their businesses and vacated and, since then, I’ve been bedevilled with everything from squatters to vandalism, even though I have shutters across the fronts as a deterrent. What do you suggest I do to secure these premises until I can re-let them, which may be many months or even next year?

Simone

LISA WIMBORNE CHIEF EXECUTIVE

JEWISH BLIND & DISABLED Dear Lisa I have heard that you have planning permission for a new building near Mill Hill. Are you able to give any more details on when it is likely to be opening and what criteria someone needs to meet to be considered for a flat there?

Joanne Dear Joanne We are delighted to have

recently received planning permission for a new development in the heart of the growing Jewish community in Mill Hill East.

We plan to start works onsite in the next few months and the development will provide 23 one-bedroom and seven two-bedroom mobility apartments.

There will be an overnight studio apartment for an on-site house manager and a range of communal facilities including a lounge, garden and roof terrace.

At this stage, we expect the development will be complete and we will be in a position to welcome tenants in early 2024.

All our developments are for people with physical

eNABLeD PLease remember us in your wiLL.

Visit www.jbd.org or call 020 8371 6611

Dear Simone Your best solution is to put in property guardians. Shutters don’t keep determined trespassers out; they simply tell everyone the building is empty, not to mention inviting unsightly graffiti.

We can install what’s needed to make some safe and warm, temporary domestic accommodation and you won’t have any more trouble. The premises will appear occupied and secure and we will keep it in good order on your behalf.

Then, when the time comes, it will be far easier to re-let if it hasn’t been vandalised or broken into by squatters, the latter being extremely tiresome and expensive to get rid of, as you’ve no doubt discovered.

If necessary, we can help remove them for you and then secure the building.

disabilities and/ or vision impairments. This includes hidden disabilities or longterm illnesses and agerelated disabilities.

We have a range of tenants with varying reasons as to why they have moved into their own Jewish Blind & Disabled apartment.

We know that there are many more people who need our support in the community and this new development should help address the growing need in the Barnet area.

To register your interest for the new development, please email info@jbd.org or call 020 8371 6611.

To find out more about our criteria and application process, please visit www.jbd.org

SUE CIPIN

watching. Is there anything that would work just as well and let me hear my husband at the same time?

Rachel

CHIEF EXECUTIVE

JEWISH DEAF ASSOCIATION Dear Sue My hearing is deteriorating so I was advised to get a TV listener as I could no longer hear the programmes I love to watch. I now use a wonderful device that enables me to hear the TV beautifully clearly but, when I’m using it, I can’t hear anything else. I miss being able to chat to my husband about what we’re

Dear Rachel Yes, there is a fantastic new piece of equipment designed with you in mind. It has great sound quality and you simply press a button to switch between hearing the TV and hearing the people in the room with you.

You can use it with headphones or with a neck loop (if you have hearing aids with a loop setting).

If you’d like to try it out for yourself, please arrange

to visit Gabrielle at our Technology Room in North Finchley. You’ll also have the opportunity to talk about any other difficulties you may be experiencing with your hearing loss and ways to overcome them.

For a free appointment please contact us on 020 8446 0502.

38

www.jewishnews.co.uk

Jewish News 28 April 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

SUMMER TERM!

info@dancingwithlouise.com 07506 217 833

Broadband · Phone Services · IT Support

FOR ALL BUSINESS COMMUNICATION NEEDS

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.

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

VACANT PROPERTY SECURITY

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.

STUART WOOLGAR Qualifications: • CEO of London’s largest guardian company with more than 20 years’ experience • Well-known and highly regarded British security industry expert.

• Specialists in securing and protecting empty commercial and residential properties.

• Clients include small private landlords to major national property companies and managing agents, as well as those in the public sector.

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

GLOBAL GUARDIANS MANAGEMENT 020 3818 9100 www.global-guardians.co.uk info@global-guardians.co.uk

JEWELLER

NOW TAKING BOOKINGS FOR

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

•

6 MONTHS FREE SERVICE Contact us to find out how your business can get:

FREE – UK Landline & Mobile Calls FREE – Advanced Digital Desk Phone FREE – 6 Months Line Rental Call: 0208 089 1111 Email: hello@adwconnect.com Web: adwconnect.com Quoting

“Jewish News”

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

28 April 2022 Jewish News

www.jewishnews.co.uk

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

ISRAELI ACCOUNTANT

Email: sales@jewishnews.co.uk

INSURANCE CONSULTANCY

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

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

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

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

• Ensuring clients do not pay more than required.

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

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

ALIYAH ADVISER

If you would like to advertise your services here

CAREER ADVISER

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

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

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

• Offers mock interviews and workshops to maximise job prospects.

• Expert in corporate management holding director level marketing, commercial and general management roles.

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

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

DIVORCE & FAMILY SOLICITOR

TELECOMS SPECIALIST

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

• Frequent broadcaster on national and International radio and television.

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

• Independent consultant and supplier of Telephone & Internet services.

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

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

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

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

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).

40 Jewish News

www.jewishnews.co.uk

28 April 2022

JDA – providing a mums’ support network like no other, and helping their deaf children to form lifelong friendships

oup My mum is a member of a JDA WhatsApp gr and she is on her phone more than I am!

And I’m not even exaggerating!

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

28 April 2022 Jewish News

www.jewishnews.co.uk

41

Fun, games and prizes

THE JEWISH NEWS CROSSWORD 1

2

3

7

4

5

9 10 13 15 16 19 21 22 23

6

8

9

10

12

13

11

14

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

Period between birth and death (4) Almost closed (4) Guided (3) Topped, as a cake (4) Twitchy (4) Non-attendance from school (7) Close to the ground (3) Gently rolling hills (5) ___ towelling, nappy fabric (5)

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

DOWN 1 Insipid, dull (4) 2 Flight company (7) 17 18 3 Ornamental feature on curtains (6) 4 Swindles (4) 19 20 21 5 Wrath, rage (3) 6 Place where bread is made (6) 11 Circus performer (7) 22 23 12 Humorous in a vulgar way (6) 14 Fault, flaw (6) 17 Taverns, pubs (4) ACROSS 18 Oscillate (4) 1 Distinguishing quality (5) 7 Ruin, sully (3) 20 Toothed implement (3) 4 Go up (5) 8 Open area of a yacht (3,4) 15

16

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

5

WORDSEARCH

CODEWORD

The listed giants of jazz can all be found in the grid. Words may run either forwards or backwards, in a horizontal, vertical or diagonal direction, but always in a straight, unbroken line.

In this finished crossword, every letter of the alphabet appears as a code number. All you have to do is crack the code and fill in the grid. Replacing the decoded numbers with their letters in the grid will help you to guess the identity of other letters.

R Y H F Z O N V P C O M R E N O M I

I

S A E K T

I

H E

N L S U U O C D N T Y

N O

I

25 16

L

3

C G T E A G L D C L

H T D H P B A U S

L O O

A G A T U R S T A L

T

L E H E G A U E A N S K

E

L O

I

I

T A

A S R A M

A E S

B F P G ARMSTRONG BASIE BEIDERBECKE BOLDEN BRUBECK

I

L

I

L

COLTRANE DAVIS ELLINGTON FITZGERALD GILLESPIE

HOLIDAY MARSALIS MILLER MINGUS MONK

Last issue’s solutions Crossword ACROSS: 1 Cicada 4 Stub 8 Boa 9 Subsoil 10 Entry 11 Yarns 13 Party 15 Armed 17 Veranda 19 Kit 20 Tree 21 Stingy DOWN: 1 Cable 2 Chapter 3 Dusky 5 Two 6 Balls 7 Ably 12 Ramekin 13 Pivot 14 Yank 15 Adapt 16 Ditty 18 Rye

I

6 8 3 2 1 5 7 9 4

1

4 1 8 5 6 7 9 3 2

2

12

PARKER REINHARDT SIMONE TATUM VAUGHAN

13

22

23

2

F

14

4

23

23

2 9

7

20

17

7

17

2

14

13

15

11

6

2

13

1

15 13

7

21

26

19

14

14

15

16

14

23

22

9

3

20

13

19

2

20

10

13

I

1

17

19

3 7 2 4 9 1 6 8 5

1 3 4 7 8 2 5 6 9

6 2

Y

4 1 2

16 23

18 20

2

12

9

26

16

20

4

7

4

7

8

2

2 3

14

5

1 15

7

See next issue for puzzle solutions.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z 1 14

I

2

3

4

15

16

17

F

5

6

18

19

Y

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

Suguru 5 9 6 8 2 3 1 4 7

26

11 2

23

5

14

11

26

12

1

9

5

13

14

21 22

26

20

1

26

2

13

1

23

20

E P

2 4 1 9 7 6 3 5 8

2

17

16

Sudoku 7 5 9 3 4 8 2 1 6

24

22

O R R O

L E S P

1

14

9

7

Z N C V D K R T N I

I

2

D E R B E C K E

A E S T E E N S

26

12

R N Y R G N O R T S M R A B E

26

26 20

12

F B M

I

2

20

I

D

9

4 2

9 6 7 1 5 4 8 2 3

8 2 5 6 3 9 4 7 1

3 4 5 2 3 2

1 2 1 4 5 1

4 3 5 3 2 3

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

Wordsearch 2 1 4 1 5 1

4 3 5 2 4 2

1 2 1 3 5 1

1 2 5 3 1 3

4 3 4 2 5 2

2 1 5 1 3 1

3 4 2 4 5 4

2 1 5 3 2 3

4 3 2 1 4 1

S R O O M S E R V I C E E

R W N T L S D N U O R G F

A I I H N F N E A W I I D

B Z G M E A G E E N T L R

L Z H Y M N R I D N U A T

I U T S U I V U E R B A T

A C C O H A N S A K A E S

Codeword T A L A E U S G C T R G S

K J U S S S T A P R S A P

C J B D U I N T A O L E A

O D P I P S N C L O O H R

C H T G Y M E O N E E L I

Y E D E S R U O C F L O G

COB B L A O O NOX I O T R S DOV E S O UNMAD R I F UCH S A H A CR UMB E R L DON K E

E

ACR A O U S WH I S D I L E E I E A P P B I A DR N O J UGG O M Y L AR

OS P I Z U MM

S I Z E A B E A L Q E UM A C L E R L U Y N X

WB F OQ Z H A R U Y G P 28/04 X V L D E K T I C J N SM

42

Jewish News 28 April 2022

www.jewishnews.co.uk

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

PLUMBSAFE (UK) LTD

SILVER

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

CARPENTER

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?

Josef Carpenter Ltd SASH WINDOWS - FRENCH DOORS WARDROBES – KITCHENS – BATHROOMS GENERAL BUILDING WORK

TEL: 02085660113

joiner@josefcarpenters.com www.josefcarpenters.com

Would you like to pay less?

Find out how ©

call Jeff on 07958 959 822

STONEMASON

A. ELFES LTD New memorials Additional inscriptions & renovations 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

28 April 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.

YOUR LEGACY

PLease remember us in your wiLL.

& THEIR DEPENDANTS NEED

legacy@cst.org.uk ►

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

www.cst.org.uk ► 0208 457 3700 ►

Together

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

Charity no. 1042391 and SC043612

COMPUTER

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

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

Jewish News 28 April 2022

www.jewishnews.co.uk

YOUR FREE WEEKLY PAPER OF THE YEAR IS INSIDE THIS ADVERTISING WRAP FR

EE

It’s a wrap battle! The Israeli The Kebab Awards launches a JN kosher category Page 15

Pets p32-33

metaverse

Its leading role in a £10 trillion future P34

FREE WEEKLY NEWSPAPER OF THE YEAR 28 April 2022

•

27 Nisan 5782

•

Issue No.1260

•

@JewishNewsUK

Thousands have missed out on Israel Tour Israel Tour is back! After what will be three years, we are finally in a position to take our community’s 16 and 17 year olds on one of the most important, educational, seminal rites of passage for any Jewish teenager.

TAKE THEM ON

The Journey Home BURSARY FUNDRAISING CAMPAIGN 1ST – 2ND MAY 2022

Last September, UJIA launched ‘The Journey Home’ campaign.

We committed to take 10,000 teenagers and young adults on an organised trip to Israel within three years. This July and August will see over 1,300 young people take part in Israel Tour.

However, as we come out of the pandemic and into a cost-ofliving crisis, we are faced with a new challenge. Affordability.

To address this we have launched an enhanced UJIA Israel Tour Bursary Fund.

It is our aim that no young person should miss the opportunity of Israel Tour due to their family’s financial circumstances. We must raise an additional £1m over the next three years and we need £300,000 to cover the requirement for this summer alone.

To support the UJIA Bursary Fundraising Campaign please visit ujia.org/journeyhome, call 020 7424 6400 or scan this QR code.

We can’t afford to leave any more young people behind ujia.org United Jewish Israel Appeal is a registered charity No. 1060078 (England & Wales) and Sc 039181 (Scotland).

6347 FM 2022 Advert JN Wrap v9.indd 1

25/04/2022 16:02

B

www.jewishnews.co.uk

Jewish News 28 April 2022

CAMPAIGN

OUR ASK:

YOU 2X OUR COLLECTION OUR PLEDGE:

WE 2X YOUNG JEWISH CONNECTIONS across 27 schools, 19 universities & 22 communities nationwide

TOGETHER WE CAN! 8-9 May 2022 | www.charityextra.com/aishuk * WE PLEDGE to double the number of students we are connecting with in person this year. * WE THANK our generous matchers. They have pledged to double every donation.

www.jewishnews.co.uk

Our Jteen counsellors and therapists are just a text away

07860 058 823

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.

Www.jteensupport.org

28 April 2022 Jewish News

C

D

www.jewishnews.co.uk

Jewish News 28 April 2022

E V E RY D O N AT IO DOUBL N ED TAKE THEM ON

The Journey Home BURSARY FUNDRAISING CAMPAIGN 1ST – 2ND MAY 2022

1 IN 5

Israel Tour participants receives a UJIA bursary

UJIA works tirelessly so that all the young people in our community get to Israel - on the Journey Home. These educational trips make a difference and UJIA is behind that difference.

The typical grant for Israel Tour is £1,100 and on average we have provided bursaries to 1-in-5 participants over the past 10 years.

To support the UJIA Bursary Fundraising Campaign please visit ujia.org/journeyhome, call 020 7424 6400 or scan this QR code.

Come and celebrate Israel’s 74th Birthday at our

YOM HA’ATZMAUT BUSINESS BREAKFAST

United Jewish Israel Appeal is a registered charity No. 1060078 (England & Wales) and Sc 039181 (Scotland).

Thursday 5th May 2022 | 7:30am - 9:30am

West End Venue

Individual Tickets: £150 Table Price: starting from £1,500 Young Professionals: £75 There will be an appeal

For more information visit ujia.org/event/yom-haatzmaut-business-breakfast-london

Special Guest Speaker

Tony Danker CBI Director General

ujia.org

Promoted by UJ Events Plus Limited. Net proceeds from this event will fund the charitable activities of UJIA. UJ Events Plus Limited (No. 2194244) is a trading subsidiary company of UJIA. United Jewish Israel Appeal is a registered charity in England and Wales No. 1060078 and in Jewish Scotland No. Sc 039181.

A company limited by guarantee.

Registered in England No. 3295115. Registered office: 1 Torriano Mews, London NW5 2RZ. United Israel Appeal is a registered charity No. 1060078 (England & Wales) and Sc 039181 (Scotland).

6347 FM 2022 Advert JN Wrap v9.indd 2

25/04/2022 16:02