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FREE WEEKLY NEWSPAPER OF THE YEAR 7 July 2022

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8 Tamuz 5782

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Issue No.1270

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RedShield

ISRAEL “10 YEARS AHEAD OF NHS” In May, Magen David Adom UK was honoured to welcome Wes Streeting MP to Israel as part of a trip with Labour Friends of Israel.

The Shadow Health Secretary took part in a biomedical conference, learned more about Israeli medical tech during visits to hospitals and startups and met with key figures including Israel’s Minister of Health, Nitzan Horowitz. The MP also met medics working for Magen David Adom at the organisation’s National Dispatch Centre and toured the newly opened Marcus National Blood Services Centre in Ramla.

MDA’s Director of Blood Services, Professor Eilat Shinar, guided Mr Streeting around the £90m Blood Centre which was funded in a three-way partnership between Magen David Adom UK, American Friends of MDA and the Government of Israel.

Mr Streeting is the first Labour MP to see the sophisticated and ever-evolving software that MDA UK is helping MDA in Israel to showcase and sell around the world. He said he was “deeply impressed” by Israeli healthcare especially its use of cheap, widely available technologies to improve it. Mr Streeting praised the country’s “remarkable advances in medical technology” thanks to organisations like Magen David Adom.

He added, “Israel is ten years ahead of the NHS. MDA’s health system is digital, where ours is analogue. We need to emulate it to improve patient experience and to clear the enormous Covid backlog – and in many cases, this will save money.”

President Herzog opens new Marcus National Blood Services Centre Read more inside

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Jewish News 7 July 2022

BUILDING LIFESAVING PARTNERSHIPS AROUND THE WORLD

Welcome to the latest edition of Red Shield. It’s good to be back! As you can see from our cover story, the Labour Party is back in Israel as Wes Streeting MP becomes the most senior member of the shadow government to visit. We’re back with dedications in Israel too. It really is a pleasure and a privilege to share these precious moments with so many of our donors. In short, we’re back together. And, when we do things together - we get more done. We save more lives.

Nowhere is this more pronounced than the work we are doing with partners in Ukraine to help deliver emergency medical care and refugee support in partnership with the International Red Cross movement (of which Magen David Adom is Israel’s representative body). As you will read, wherever and however MDA in Israel and Magen David Adom UK can make a lifesaving difference - we will.

RED CROSS HEAD SEEKING STRONGER TIES Magen David Adom UK was privileged to host H.E. Dr Mohammed Al-Hadid, President of the Jordan National Red Crescent Society (JNRCS) at events across Manchester, London, Ireland and Paris. Dr Al-Hadid was the longest serving Chair of the Standing Commission of the Red Cross and Red Crescent.

Dr Al-Hadid in Dublin with President Michael D Higgins

During his week-long trip, Dr Al-Hadid met the President of Ireland Michael D Higgins, diplomats from around the world, MDA’s Director of Blood Services, Professor Eilat Shinar, valued Manchester Patrons and new supporters in Paris. He reflected on how he spearheaded the accession of Magen David Adom into the International Red Cross movement in 2006 – and how he’s seen humanitarian need rise above political differences time and time again.

This speaks to the heart of what Magen David Adom UK does - choosing humanity over politics in its mission to save more lives. Dr Al-Hadid has built strong foundations for collaboration between MDA and the JNRCS, seen by many as a model for Israel’s engagement across the region. Through people like Dr Al-Hadid, a Muslim from an Arab nation, MDA has a unique opportunity to promote all that is great about the State of Israel and give others a new perspective.

Dr Al-Hadid said, “It has always been important to me to look at each person as a human being and to treat each person equally. We must be welcoming as a universal movement. We are all part of one family – the family of the Red Cross movement.”

This was a theme that was evident when the Shadow Minister for Health toured our facilities in the spring. MDA displayed a fantastic example as to how Israel is developing medi-tech not just for its own people but for emergency and health services across the globe. Whereas once our role here in the UK was ‘just’ to raise money for our colleagues in Israel, now it is ALSO to help showcase what they have to offer to the rest of the world.

With your support we are making a difference and, most importantly, saving more lives.

Daniel Burger

Dr Al-Hadid in Paris with with MDA Italy Chair Sami Sisa, CEO of MDA France Victor Wintz, MDA UK CEO Daniel Burger and MDA Israel Paramedic Ilan Klein

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FREE WEEKLY NEWSPAPER OF THE YEAR 7 July 2022

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8 Tamuz 5782

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Issue No.1270

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@JewishNewsUK

Get an education!

Fury and disgust at Charedi ‘yellow star’ protest over school reforms

“For Charedi demonstrators to appropriate this symbol is utterly Around 100 members of the disgraceful. They UK’s strictly Orthodox commay or may not munity have sparked fury and have a valid point – disgust after wearing large but using the yellow star yellow stars, associated with demeans them and their arguNazi persecution of the Jews, ment.” at a protest against the government’s education reforms.

Karen Pollock, chief execuThe group, linked to the Rabtive of the Holocaust Educabinical Committee of the Tradi- The protesters this week; (inset) a persecuted Jew tional Trust, told Jewish News: tional Charedi Education, took part “It is absolutely shameful to see in the stunt outside the International Ministerial Conference the yellow star used and abused in this way. Whatever your grievon Freedom of Religion in Westminster, at which Chief Rabbi ance, this is wrong and offensive.”

Ephraim Mirvis and foreign secretary Liz Truss spoke.

Jewish Labour MP Dame Margaret Hodge added the use of The government’s Bill will close a loophole allowing yeshivas the Nazi era symbols on the protest was “totally inappropriate”. to teach a narrow religious curriculum because they do not count Many members of the Charedi community were equally disas schools under the present definition of the law. gusted. A communal figure branded the stunt “disgusting” when The Charedi protesters wore the yellow stars on their jackets, shown the images of protesters by Jewish News yestereday. in an apparent attempt to link the government’s attempt to Currently, yeshivas are not subject to Ofsted visits. More than clampdown on unregistered yeshivas with the Holocaust. Jews a thousand Charedi boys aged 13 and above in Stamford Hill are throughout Nazi-occupied Europe were forced to wear a badge estimated to be currently learning in institutions beyond the in the form of a Yellow Star as a means of identification after 1938. reach of state scrutiny and standards.

Rabbi Asher Gratt, a spokesman for the protesters, told Jewish The government will also be given powers to suspend schools News that the stars were worn because the Schools Bill’s impact where there are serious safeguarding failures. Schools will also on religious education was “equivalent to a death sentence”. be told to teach children on LGBT issues. At a separate protest He denied the stunt suggested the government was behaving three weeks ago, demonstrators claimed the proposals reprelike the Nazis. He claimed that the protesters were sporting sented a direct attack on the Charedi community and took away yellow stars to “express how they feel”. parents’ rights to practice their faith as they wish.

Former justice minister Lord Wolfson reacted angrily to On Tuesday, protesters outside the Queen Elizabeth II imagery on show at the protest. The Conservative peer and QC Centre, which hosted the conference, said strictly Orthodox said: “There are some things which are sacred and beyond poli- Rabbi Elyakim Schlesinger, who is 101, had written to new tics. And the yellow star is one of them. education secretary Michelle Donelan on the matter.

by Lee Harpin @lmharpin

VA-VA FROOME! Chris Froome pedals for Israel Premier Tech, which is competing in the Tour de France for the third time. He spoke exclusively to Jewish News ahead of the race. Pages 6-7

MAGISTRATE RAPPED OVER PALESTINE ‘WORTHY CAUSE’

Sanctioned: Paul Goldspring

The chief magistrate for England and Wales has been issued with a “formal advice” warning by the Judicial Conduct Investigations Office (JCIO) after he “gave the impression he endorsed” the Palestinian cause in a judgment, writes Adam Decker.

Senior District Judge Paul Goldspring was sanctioned after a private

complaint from a Jewish activist in December 2021.

The JCIO said his conduct had “fallen below the standards expected”, acknowledging that support for Palestine was a “contentious political cause”. It added that the Lord Chief Justice and Lord Chancellor “took into account that the judge had accepted his remarks were capable of giving

such an impression and expressed regret”.

It stems from Goldspring’s comments to Feras Al Jayoosi, who wore Hamas and Islamic Jihad T-shirts in Golders Green in June 2021, saying that while his support for the Palestinian cause was “worthy”, his backing for political violence was not.

“Support for the Izz ad-Din al-

Qassam Brigades of Hamas is not support for the Palestinian cause,” said the complainant, Gideon Falter. “Judge Goldspring’s remarks were thus ironically prejudicial to the Palestinian cause and to the cause of defending Jews from antisemitism in Britain.”

Goldspring leads about 300 district judges and deputy district judges across England and Wales.

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Jewish News 7 July 2022

News / Mass shooting / ‘Apartheid’ slur

Jews among dead as gunman kills seven at Chicago parade

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

The man suspected of killing at least seven people when he opened fire on a Fourth of July parade in a heavily Jewish area of Chicago was due to appear in court yesterday.

Robert Crimo faces seven murder charges as police faced questions over how he was permitted to purchase several guns.

As many of four of the victims are believed to be Jewish.

The mass shooting in Highland Park, Illinois, one of the most heavily Jewish suburbs in the Chicago area, is at least the 300th in the United States this year. At least a third of the 30,000 residents in the suburb are Jewish, according to some estimates, and they include many Israelis.

“People didn’t know right away where the gunfire was coming from, whether the gunman was in front or behind you chasing you,” a resident, David Shapiro, told the AP agency as he retrieved a buggy and chairs from the scene.

He said his four-year-old woke up screaming later that night: “He is too young to under-

PRECIOUS STONES

The aftermath of the Fourth of July shooting and (inset) suspect Robert Crimo

stand what happened, but he knows something bad happened.”

The authorities said five people, all adults, died at the scene and two died in hospital, and

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hospital officials said they had treated children among the injured.

Nine people, their ages ranging from 14 to 70, were still in hospital on Tuesday.

On Monday night, North Shore Congregation Israel in neighbouring Glencoe revealed that Jacki Sundheim was among the dead. She was the Reform synagogue’s events and b’nei mitzvah coordinator, according to its website.

“There are no words sufficient to express the depth of our grief for Jacki’s death and sympathy for her family and loved ones,” the congregation wrote. Sundheim was a lifelong congregant of the synagogue and had been a “cherished” member of its staff for decades, it added.

“Jacki’s work, kindness and warmth touched us all, from her early days teaching at the Gates of Learning Preschool to guiding innumerable among us through life’s moments of joy and sorrow.”

Washington bureau chief for the Chicago Sun-Times Lynn Sweet posted a video showing the Maxwell Street Klezmer Band, the city’s preeminent Jewish music group, playing in the parade as bystanders scatter and scream. She subsequently posted a picture showing bloodied bodies lying on the pavement.

REJECT ‘APARTHEID’ LIBEL, WORLD LEADERS URGE

by Jenni Frazer @JenniFrazer

World leaders this week denounced the appropriation of the term ‘apartheid’ from its historical South African context, with the goal of defaming and isolating Israel by portraying it as a racist entity.

At a conference co-hosted by the Combat Antisemitism Movement, NGO Monitor and the World Zionist Organisation, entitled ‘Trivialising history: how anti-Israel activists have hijacked the South African “apartheid” label to attack the Jewish state’, world leaders, diplomats, legislators, and policymakers discussed what must be done to restore the term to its proper context.

Vice-president of the European Parliament and its special envoy on combating religious discrimination Nicola Beer said it was “just plain antisemitic” to label Israel ‘apartheid’.

“In my opinion, such characterisation counters progress made in the region concerning the peace process; instead it deepens the rifts and fuels antisemitism around the world.”

The conference was held in

Leaders said word had been hijacked from historical context

response to the global rise in antisemitism.

During the past 18 months, both Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have published reports accusing Israel of apartheid, and the UN established two bodies where the claim of apartheid will be prominently featured.

Jiří Kozák, the Czech Republic’s deputy foreign minister, said: “The suffering of South Africans under apartheid was unique, and attempts to apply the same label to Israel trivialises that history and is unacceptable. We consider this open antisemitism.

“Claiming that Israel is a racist endeavour is in violation

of the IHRA working definition of antisemitism. Claims of apartheid is not about questioning a particular policy, but about challenging the nature of the Jewish state.”

Lady Deech, from the House of Lords, observed: “Whatever the world’s greatest and most unforgivable crime is in any particular moment of history, the Jews will be accused of it.”

At the conference, Combat Antisemitism Movement released a petition urging people to sign a pledge to “urge decision-makers at the international, national, and local levels to vocally reject and condemn the ‘apartheid’ libel of Israel”.

7 July 2022 Jewish News

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Memorial report / News

Memorial has ‘no plan B’

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

The government “does not have an alternative location if it is unable to build the Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre in Victoria Tower Gardens” next to parliament, according to a report.

An investigation published on Tuesday by the National Audit Office (NAO) also concludes that the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities “does not have a track record of managing programmes” such as the £102.9m Holocaust memorial project.

It also warns of spiralling costs for the project with “a risk that the contingency is not enough to cover further cost increases”.

The report concludes: “As at March 2022, the forecast cost to build the Memorial and Learning Centre was £102.9m (plus contingency).

“The department estimates that the total costs of running the Memorial and Learning Centre are ‘likely to be in the range’ of £6m to £8m per year.”

The report says the projected

set-up costs for the centre have continued to rise “partly due to changes in scope and the inclusion of expenses that had not previously been costed”.

The NAO said it had carried out its investigation in response to correspondence from members of parliament who raised concerns about the programme’s governance, cost transparency and management, and how the aims and specifications of the programme could be achieved.

In April this year, the High Court surprisingly quashed plans to build the memorial at Victoria Tower Gardens, despite the project originally receiving planning permission last year after a six-week public inquiry.

The London Historic Parks and Gardens Trust had brought a case against the decision, arguing that it was the “right idea, wrong place”.

But the NAO report reveals that there is now no alternative location for the memorial, with Victoria Gardens having been decided when David Cameron first approved the project when he was prime minister.

The NAO states: “The department does not have an alternative location if it is unable to build the memorial and Learning Centre in Victoria

Survivor Sir Ben Helfgott looks at plans for the projected centre

Tower Gardens. The department still considers the choice of Victoria Tower Gardens intrinsic to the Memorial and Learning Centre.

“It has decided not to develop a ‘Plan B’ for an alternative location should the planning application be ultimately unsuccessful (saying) changing to a different location would result in needing to start many aspects of the programme from scratch.”

999 ‘wasted time’ as Lady Winston died The health minister in the Lords has promised to find out from the Department of Health why a 999 operator allegedly wasted time before calling an ambulance when Lady Winston was dying in her husband’s arms last December, writes Jenni Frazer.

In a poignant contribution to a debate in the Lords on deaths caused by ambulance delays, fertility pioneer and Labour peer Lord Winston, described how the 999 call handler “bombarded” him with “a litany of questions” – including asking him to count his wife’s heartbeats.

Lady Winston, who was 72 and a renowned Jewish educator, collapsed in the family home. Her death shocked the Jewish community.

Lord Winston said: “As my wife lay dying in my arms, I phoned the 999 service. The man answering the call asked me a litany of questions.

“That waste of time is critical; with a cardiac arrest you have only a few seconds. I had

In a further criticism, the NAO warns that the Department of Levelling Up has no previous track record on projects of this scale.

It states: “In January 2015, the government chose the department to lead the programme because of its remit to support community and faith groups, rather than because it had any expertise in constructing and managing cultural centres and museums.”

The department, it added, was not involved in the prime minister’s earlier decision to develop the centre nor in the initial decision to allocate government funding of £50m.

The NAO concludes that while the department had recruited specialists from across the civil service and externally, “the team does not have staff with programme management expertise in senior positions”.

Although construction of the project has not started, a team led by Sir David Adjaye won a role to design it.

The report notes how “set-up costs for the Memorial and Learning Centre have continued to increase, partly due to changes in scope and the inclusion of expenses that had not previously been costed”. The government said it would consider its next steps but remained committed to the creation of a new national Holocaust memorial.

Lord Pickles, who leads the government’s work on post-Holocaust initiatives, told Jewish News: “While the report produced nothing new, it does emphasise the determination of the government to build the centre next to parliament. From recent discussions with ministers I can confirm that this is very much the case.”

Honour a loved one

CARE FOR YOUR COMMUNITY Whether you choose to honour and celebrate your loved one 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.

Lord and Lady Winston at theJewish News Schools Awards

to interrupt the cardiac massage that I was giving my wife until the emergency services arrived, but of course they had not been called yet.”

Lord Winston, 81 and emeritus professor of fertility studies at Imperial College, London, asked Lord Kamall to confirm that there was “proper training for people who answer these calls at these critical times, when they are dealing with someone who may recognise that their close relative is

dying and that the latter can hear what they are saying on the telephone”.

He added: “It is highly dangerous and that makes it very difficult. The last thing we hear as we die is usually the voice of someone who is with us”.

Lord Kamall thanked Lord Winston for sharing his “very personal story”, saying: “Clearly there are too many incidents of this kind. I will take that particular case back to the department.”

For more information visit jewishcare.org/giving-in-memory Call 020 8922 2840 or email givinginmemory@jcare.org

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News / Interfaith ties / Religion conference

Chief and Sheikh – faithful friends

By Jenni Frazer @Jennifrazer

One of the world’s most influential Muslim thinkers joined the Chief Rabbi this week for a landmark discussion outlining their visions for interfaith ties.

In a historic event at the House of Lords, a conversation took place between Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis and the Islamic scholar Sheikh Abdullah bin Bayyah.

The event, chaired by Canon Tricia Hillas, chaplain to the Speaker of the House of Commons, was attended by faith leaders and diplomats, including the Ambassador of the UAE. Sheikh bin Bayyah and Chief Rabbi Mirvis are long-time friends and have taken part in many dia-

logues and conferences together.

The sheikh founded the Forum for Peace in the UAE in 2013.

This week’s conversation, billed as “In Loving Kindness”, drew many mirrored responses from each man, as first the sheikh and then the chief rabbi spoke of the lessons that Covid had taught each faith community.

It had been, said the sheikh, “an opportunity to renew our religious traditions”, while the chief rabbi said that “as far as the virus was concerned, everyone was the enemy – and thus we are all on the same side”.

For Jewish members of the audience, there were frissons of famili-

arity in the sheikh’s remarks, not least when he spoke of the principle that “he who saves one life, it is as if he has saved the whole world” – an essential platform of Judaism.

Chief Rabbi Mirvis said that the sheikh’s address was “music to my ears”, not least because the founding of the Forum was a prime example of taking matters further than mere words, by showing that deeds were necessary. “Tolerance”, he said, “is not good enough” by itself, urging his audience to go one step further wherever possible.

Speaking with approvingly of the Abraham Accords – named for the joint founder of Judaism and Islam

MIRVIS WARNS: JEWISH RITUALS ARE UNDER THREAT IN EUROPE Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis used a speech at a conference on preserving religious freedom to warn of the threat in Europe to both circumcision and kosher meat slaughter.

At the International Ministerial Conference on Freedom of Religion or Belief at the QEII

Centre in Westminister, he praised the UK government for its “promotion, prevention, and protection” approach, to the wellbeing of the Jewish community.

He told more than 700 delegates gathered for the two-day event that the Hebrew Bible

– Sheikh bin Bayyah declared: “It is very important for religious leaders not to be demagogues but to be voices of reason and peace”.

He agreed with the chief rabbi who said he would like to “encourage dialogue” at grassroots level, not just at leadership level.

Chief Rabbi Mirvis also pointed out that it was incumbent on all people of faith to speak out where there was injustice and persecution, particularly on behalf of the Uyghur people. “We can’t be silent”, he said, “we have a responsibility to speak”.

The Chief Rabbi – to the great pleasure of founder Laura Marks, in the audience – praised Mitzvah Day as a great example of people of all faiths and none working to help other people. The event was hosted

by Lord Walney.

differentiates between two freedoms: chofesh – “freedom from” – and cheirut – “freedom to”.

He then noted that “in a number of countries in Europe today there is a threat to milah and shechita”, adding: “Surely these threats should have no place in Europe in 2022.”

He also called on all the countries represented to guarantee freedom from persecution, and ultimately genocide. He said he was mindful of the Uyghurs in China, of Christian minorities and “of a worrying increase in antisemitism”.

Chief Rabbi with Sheikh Abdullah and (inset) UAE’s Mansoor Abulhoul

Other Jewish speakers at the conference included Rabbi Alex Goldberg and deputy Israel foreign minister Idan Roll.

Foreign secretary Liz Truss also addressed the conference, telling delegates that Russian president Vladimir Putin was foolishly convinced that his country is “waging a holy war”in Ukraine. The truth was very different, she said.

“Churches, synagogues and mosques have been reduced to rubble. Religion is proving to be collateral damage from Putin’s aggression.”

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Anti-war art / News briefs / News Proposed Iran nuke deal is ‘not perfect’

A restored Iranian nuclear deal “is not perfect” but represents “a pathway for constraining Tehran’s nuclear programme” Foreign Office minister Vicky Ford has told parliament. She said a renewed Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action would help to ensure “that Iran’s nuclear programme remained peaceful in the long term”.

Ford advised Tehran to “urgently” accept the offer on the table suggesting: “There will not be a better one.”

Alzheimers linked to giving cash away

INVASION: AN INDICTMENT Invasion, by London-based Jewish artist David Breuer-Weil, will go on show in London in the

autumn. The same size as Picasso’s 1937 Guernica, it points to the seriousness of the situation in Ukraine. A note on the work, in acrylic on canvas in four parts, says: ‘This panorama is filled with

invaders, refugees, fluttering newspapers, bombarded cities and monuments. The whole scene is looked over by two mothers, because mothers on both sides are the ultimate victims of any war.’

Israeli scientists have shown that an older person’s willingness to give money away could be linked to the onset of Alzheimer’s disease.

Researchers found giving away more money was associated with worse cognitive performances. The study is important as people with early onset Alzheimer’s are vulnerable to exploitation, with instances of savings being handed over before the condition is diagnosed.

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Jewish News 7 July 2022

Special Report / Tour de France

‘Allez allez Israel!’ the su Michael Daventry speaks with members of the Israel Premier Tech cycling team as they set off on their third Tour de France

T

he crowd was vast and it was loudly cheering the name of Israel. That alone made this a rare spectacle. I was standing in the very centre of Denmark’s capital watching a celebration ahead of the Grand Départ, the launch event of this year’s Tour de France.

On the stage were the members of Israel– Premier Tech, the elite road cycling team that was preparing to compete in the sport’s biggest race for the third time.

For many people outside of the country, the word Israel is so often framed within the context of the Palestinian conflict, creating connotations that are not positive, but here in central Copenhagen the word was shouted with enthusiasm and support.

In the Tivoli Gardens, a huge cheer rose as the sponsor country’s name was announced around the tiny park. The team had one of the loudest receptions of the night.

For Sylvan Adams, the billionaire who owns the team, it is part of a vast promotional opportunity for his adoptive country — and a clear sign that it has fewer adversaries than many might believe.

“We discovered we have many, many, many more friends than the haters out there,” he told Jewish News.

“When I’m riding my bike ahead of the peloton and the roads are closed for us, and I’m wearing my Israel jersey... I’m hearing on the roads of France – 15 million people watch the Tour de France, live spectators, it’s an amazing thing – and I’m hearing ‘Allez, allez, allez, Israël, Israël, Israël.

“We have so many friends out there that we don’t even know about and I call these people the silent majority. [They are] regular folk, sports fans.”

Adams has made a mission out of trumpeting his adoptive country at every opportunity.

He was born and raised in Canada, a son of the Romanian-born Holocaust survivor Marcel Abramovich.

Marcel made his fortune as a property developer and investor in Canada after enduring years of hard labour in Nazi camps.

Sylvan, the second of his four children, made aliyah at the end of 2015 and has since orchestrated some events that most Jewish News readers will recall.

It was he who brought Argentina and its superstar striker Lionel Messi to Israel to face Uruguay in a friendly match. He arranged for Madonna to perform when Tel Aviv hosted the Eurovision Song Contest. He has also invested heavily in the Israeli space programme SpaceIL’s attempts to reach the moon.

And then there’s the cycling. Vast sums of money have been poured into the team that began life in 2014 as Israel Cycling Academy.

Three years ago, it reached the sport’s top tier by attaining World Tour status, meaning its cyclists could compete in the biggest races like the Tour de France.

It has signed on the likes of Chris Froome — who is someone even those who don’t follow cycling will have heard of.

Sporting success so far has been modest: no champions have emerged from the team quite yet, although it has claimed race stage wins in Italy, Spain and this week in the Tour de France.

It is, of course, superfluous to ask an oleh like Adams why he is so enthusiastic about Israel. But is a cycling team the best way to channel all that energy?

“There are people who defend our case who make the historical, political case for Israel, and I can do so, I’m able to do so.

“But the people we weren’t reaching

was that silent majority. They’re not interested in politics, they’re not interested in polemics and in being given a history lesson or a lesson in international politics and diplomacy.

“They’re interested in cycling, and football, and cricket, and tennis, and music.”

These are the people, he said, behind that unadulterated cheer for the Israeli team in the Tivoli Gardens –although perhaps team member Jakob Fuglsang, one of Denmark’s top cyclists, helped to drive that enthusiasm along a little.

There was a time in recent history when the team was not allowed to use the country’s name.

“We couldn’t even use the name Israel initially because we didn’t get any races with the name Israel,” recalled Ron Baron, the Israeli businessman who founded the team.

“They were a bit antiIsrael in the beginning in Eastern Europe. Not any more [but] in the first year or two, we called it Cycling Academy. It was with the Israeli flag and everything, but we didn’t call it Israel.

“We were refused

[entry to] some races. Yes we were. There is still antisemitism in Europe.”

He added that the problem disappeared as the team became more competitive and able to enter the larger races.

But perhaps that was why, in the two days I spent in Copenhagen, multiple members of the team told me unprompted that Israel would always retain top billing in the name and never be superseded by a sponsor.

This is unlike, say, the Ineos Grenadiers, who were rebadged after the British chemicals company after the broadcaster Sky ended its support in 2019.

That’s why Premier Tech, a manufacturing multinational that is little known outside of Canada, took second billing when it became a sponsor this year.

So, to put it bluntly, is this team a huge promotional opportunity on two wheels? It is in many ways, but not exclusively for Israel.

Adams and Baron are among the main backers for a vast infrastructure project in Rwanda that they say will create a racing track and cycling academy in the southern African country, and the team has used every moment of publicity during the Tour de France build-up to plug it.

They call it the Field of Dreams and it is, they say, a project that exudes Jewish values.

Even the Kenyan-born Froome used the term tikkun olam (“heal the world”) unprompted when he spoke to me about it.

7 July 2022 Jewish News

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Tour de France / Special Report

upportive crowd shouts

& Sewell of - this Quarter PageTour 165mmde high x 128mm 4 July 2022 04/07/2022 Cyclist Chris Froome (centre) and Israel Premier Tech team owner Sylvan Adams speak at the launch in Bishop Copenhagen year’s France.

Opposite: theFINAL.pdf peloton in1 Denmark

It was, he said, a concept he could get behind: “I used to do cross-country running and in Kenya, I couldn’t keep up with the Kenyans.

“Even at a teenage, schoolboy level, I was nowhere, yet I’ve come on to win seven Grand Tours in my career.

“So it leaves me with that question, ‘What could those guys achieve if they were given the support and the infrastructure to properly harness cycling as a sport there?’

“It’s thanks to these private projects, like building the Field of Dreams in Rwanda, that would give cycling a chance to flourish in Africa.”

Adams and Baron both say they will match every penny in any currency that is donated to the project. A €300,000 (£257,000) fundraiser was launched online last week.

But what’s next for cycling in Israel?

Adams was instrumental in bringing another major race, the Giro d’Italia, to Israel in 2018.

For three days cyclists zipped across the country, around Jerusalem and then in

stages from Haifa and Tel Aviv to Be’ersheva and Eilat, before the race transferred to the Italian mainland.

Froome was the overall winner then, albeit for another team. Surely the ambition now is to follow Copenhagen’s example and arrange for a Tour de France Grand Départ in Israel?

“The answer is that the invitation has been given and I bug them, I bug them frequently about this,” Adams said, before trailing off.

But the Giro’s success hasn’t exactly encouraged the French: “Of course the Tour saw that success but at the same time they’re thinking to themselves in their French Tour de France-dominant mentality, ‘Well, we can’t copy and do the same thing the Giro did.’

“Believe me, I have this from the source, I’m not telling tales out of school, I know that this is the way they think.

“So will we get them? I hope so.”

• To donate to the Israel team’s Rwanda campaign, visit my.israelgives.org/en/ campaign/RFC C

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Jewish News 7 July 2022

News / Jewish Care dinner

Boy George performed to more than 800 guests as one of the community’s largest dinners returned after three years to hail care workers and volunteers who worked on the frontline, writes Justin Cohen.

Social distancing was a distant memory as the Culture Club singer had hundreds of Jewish Care guests on their feet by the time his 15-minute set reached a crescendo with Karma Chameleon.

Much of the event as focused though on the charity’s work during the pandemic, with repeated praise for carers, donors and a growing army of volunteers including from former health secretary Sajid Javid, who addressed the charity as chancellor weeks before lockdown.

Joking that his return to the cabinet had been down to “that camera on the ceiling” – a reference to the downfall of Matt Hancock for breaking Covid rules – he hailed Jewish Care’s work during the pandemic in delivering 50,000 Meals on Wheels making over 50,000 calls to the isolated and lonely.

He told the audience including shadow health secretary Wes Streeting: “I know that in Judaism, there is no obligation more important than saving a life. Jewish Care leads the way, protecting some of the most vulnerable people in our society. For me, whether it’s organisations like Jewish Care, or the CST [Community Security Trust], something that distinguishes the Jewish community is the way you look after each other. That’s something we can all learn from.

Photo by Blake Ezra Photography

Good karma for Jewish Care

Boy George performs at the dinner, addressed by Sajid Javid (inset)

“Because I believe health and care begins in our homes, and in our communities. And in turn, I believe it’s the job of the government to look after our Jewish community.”

Listing the various ways he had personally stood up for Israel and the community in cabinet including furthering efforts for a Holocaust memorial in Westminster and banning Hezbollah and freezing their assets, he described the government’s relationship with the Jewish state as “an unbreakable bond of steel” and with British Jews as “steadfast”.

Adding to his achievements, he joked, was winning the Jewish News challah bake-off for Shabbat UK, after being paired with Labour’s Angela Rayner.

Jewish Care president Lord Levy led applause to the National Health Service and the charity’s care staff, some of whom were in attendance.

There was a special mention for two Jewish Care stalwarts who lost their lives to the disease, former chair Michael Goldmeier and

Mateo Aben, a much-loved care worker with the charity for 12 years.

The peer – who helped to raise more than £4m in just 10 days at the early days of the pandemic – also reflected on the opening last year of the charity’s Sandringham House site in Stanmore, describing it as “probably the finest care facility in the country today”.

Speakers queued up to hail the “unique style and energy” of Nicola Loftus, who chaired the dinner for the 10th and last time.

She said: “It really is great to be back together again after such a challenging time. As an organisation Jewish Care epitomises all that we as a community hold dear – we look out for one another.”

Former chair Steven Lewis hailed the work of “truly outstanding” chief executive Daniel Carmel-Brown during the challenges of recent years.

His successor Jonathan Zelios said: “For Jewish Care there has been no before, during or after the pandemic.

Even, sadly, when synagogues were closed, our care carried in in our homes and in people’s own homes, keeping hope alive.”

He also revealed that work would soon begin on a new 64-bed care home in Redbridge but warned of the financial pressures caused by higher wage bills to attract the best workers and soaring energy bills – up by £1m this year.

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7 July 2022 Jewish News

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Church vote / Irish centre / Diana Award / News

Methodists vote to boycott Israel again Methodists in the UK have once again voted to support a pro-Palestinian divestment and sanctions campaign against Israel.

At the church’s annual conference in Telford last week, the country’s 170,000 Methodists chose to continue supporting BDS, which the Chief Rabbi said would “further erode relations with the Jewish community”.

He added that “BDS does not in any way advance the cause of peace [in the Middle East],” and The vote was passed at the Methodists annual conference Methodists “should invest in constructive engagement with Israeli society”. “for and against BDS”, which was produced An Israel/Palestine Working Group was set in July 2014, coinciding with military action up by the Methodist Conference in 2009. In against Hamas in the Gaza Strip by the Israel 2010, the conference “adopted a resolution sup- Defense Forces.

Despite the difficulties, Jewish–Methodist porting a consumer boycott of settlement projects” and called for “the actions of companies in relations have been maintained. In 2020, the the Occupied Palestinian Territories to be taken Council of Christians and Jews built on six years of Middle East dialogue to work with into account in investment decisions”.

In 2013, the conference requested a the church on an Israel/Palestine resource, briefing document setting out the arguments following a Methodist grant.

Dublin Jewish renaissance Chabad is opening a Jewish centre in Dublin to cater for an expected rise in the size of the community in Ireland.

The Orthodox Jewish community-outreach group is to build the premises – which will provide kosher food, plus café and restaurant, Torah classes, and Shabbat dinners – on the site of a former Chinese restaurant in the Rathmines area.

Chabad Ireland says the centre, to open in September Chabad is to open a new centre run by Rabbi Zalman Lent and Rifky Lent, is needed to cater for Jewish people who may for “changing demographics want to use such a centre and within the Irish-Jewish com- see it as advantageous.

“It’s a positive and good munity”. It will be near a synadevelopment, and I wish him gogue in the Terenure area.

Alan Shatter, a former jus- [Rabbi Lent] well with it.”

The 2016 census had shown tice minister, told the Sunday Times the centre will “fill a gap a rise in the number of Jews:

2,557 compared with 1,984 in 2011. Figures from the 2022 census, not yet published, are expected to show a further rise.

Shatter said the Jewish population had grown as young executives with multinational companies such as Facebook and Google moved to Ireland for work. There was also a rise in those working in the pharmaceutical industry.

He praised the “disproportionate” impact the community had made to Irish life.

The first Jews arrived in Cork after a small number of Sephardis were expelled from Portugal and Spain in the 15th century. Portuguese Jews established the first shul in Ireland in 1660.

CIDNEY GETS DIANA HONOUR A young Jewish volunteer has been added to the Diana Award Roll of Honour, set up in memory of the late Princess of Wales’s social and humanitarian work.

Cidney Miller, a youth leader with JLGB, said she was “shocked and honoured” to receive the Diana Award, which recognises young people aged nine to 25.

Judges said Miller’s story was “truly inspirational” after hearing how she first got involved in social action aged 11, when she signed up to do 50 hours’ volunteering to gain her Yoni Jesner Award.

Since then, she has achieved all levels of her Duke of Edinburgh Award, with JLGB highlighting her skills at “engaging, inspiring and leading young people, as well as her dedi-

cation to selfless acts”. It described her as “a standout superstar” who had led and represented young people through Covid lockdowns, including through virtual activities.

“A hundred years from now, schools will look back at these past few years in their history lessons and study how the Jewish community - and how young people - reacted to the pandemic,” said JLGB’s Neil Martin. “The case study and role model they will learn about is Cidney Miller.”

Reacting to the news, she said: “Hosting nightly virtual programmes during the pandemic was a vital lifeline for young people for over a year during lockdown, helping us all to feel less alone and part of a community during a difficult period.”

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Jewish News 7 July 2022

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7 July 2022 Jewish News

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11

Boris Johnson / ‘Radio Aryan’ / Campus probe / News

Halfon joins calls for Johnson to resign Ex-cabinet minister Robert Halfon has joined calls for Boris Johnson to be replaced as Tory Party leader after saying the scandal over the appointment of deputy chief whip Chris Pincher changed his view of the prime minister.

The education select committee chair issued a statement on Wednesday in which he stressed his loyalty to the Conservatives, but added: “I have never come out against a party leader. Until now. If there is a vote for change in leadership, I will now vote for that change.”

The Jewish member for Harlow’s intervention followed the resignations of chancellor Rishi Sunak and health secretary Sajid Javid from cabinet on Tuesday. Javid had given the keynote speech at Jewish Care’s fundraising dinner the previous night.

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Robert Halfon says he supports a change in Tory leadership

The resignations continued yesterday, with speculation the backbench 1922 could change the party’s rules that prevent a leader facing a second no confidence vote within a year.

Alex Chalk, the solicitor general, said he could no longer defend “the culture and course” set by Johnson.

Former Jewish Leader-

ship Council employee Nicola Richards, the MP for West Bromwich, was among the intake of 2019 Tories to say she was standing down as parliamentary private secretary to the Department for Transport.

The exits also led to a reshuffle in which Nadhim Zahawi was moved to the role of chancellor.

‘Radio Aryan’ trial begins A man accused of setting up a “highly racist” and “highly antisemitic” podcast station called Radio Aryan has gone on trial.

James Allchurch, 50, of Church House, Gelli, Pembrokeshire, appeared at Swansea Crown Court accused of 15 counts of distributing a sound recording stirring up racial hatred.

The charges relate to audio files which were uploaded on or before 17 May 2019 to on or before 18 March 2021 to a website called Radio Aryan, which was later renamed Radio Albion.

The episodes are said to have been “insulting or abusive” about ethnic minorities, often uploaded along with inflammatory cartoons and given titles such as Rivers Of Blood, Banned In The UK, the Leftist Supremacist Mindset, and The Usual Suspects.

Prosecutor Ian Wright said it was the Crown’s case that Allchurch was responsible for distributing the audio recordings and was the owner of the website and the main host, despite often being joined by co-hosts and guests such as the founder of National Action, Alex Davies.

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Allchurch, who is on bail, appeared in the dock in a dark green shirt, tie and dark blue suit with his black hair tied into a tight ponytail and thin rimmed glasses and a walking stick.

He spoke only to confirm his name before the charges were read out. Allchurch denies all counts. The trial continues

STUDENT INQUIRY DEADLINE Jewish students past and present are being urged to submit their reflections of campus life as part of the independent QC led investigation into the way the National Union of Students (NUS) handled antisemitism claims.

The NUS opened a call for evidence on the issue on 7 June, but the final date for submissions is 7 July.

Jewish News understands there has been an impressive response from current students from the community.

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UJS has also issued a further reassurance that testimonies can be anonymised if requested.

The investigation follows accusations earlier this year against a newly elected NUS officer and concerns about the wider organisation. The investigation was launched by the NUS Board.

The probe will consider “whether NUS has done enough to make Jewish students feel welcome, included and safe in NUS spaces, activities, and in elected roles”.

UJS said many Jewish students who care deeply about the National Union and their Jewish identity had experienced unprecedented levels of abuse and antisemitic attacks online and in person.

“Some have even been driven to resign from elected positions,” the statement added.

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Jewish News 7 July 2022

News / Help for health / Shuls criticised

Community’s post-Covid health fears in sharp focus A new health body devoted to addressing mental and physical health concerns in the Jewish community has emerged in the wake of work done during Covid, writes Jenni Frazer.

The London Jewish Health Partnership (LJHP) is co-chaired by the public health consultant Dr Leonora Weil and London Jewish Forum co-directors Andrew Gilbert and Daniel Kosky. Dr Weil, who lives in Hendon and whose children attend Jewish schools, is also co-director, with Janine La Rosa, of NHS London Covid Legacy and Equity.

“We learned a lot working with different faith networks during Covid”, Dr Weil said, “and the purpose of this network is to work with Jewish partners, to engage with the London Jewish community on issues around their health”. This can range from issues such as mental health, healthy weight or activities, to specific matters affecting the Jewish community such as genetic conditions like Tay-Sachs.

The Jewish Health Partnership now includes representatives from the NHS, the UK Health Security Agency, the Greater London Authority and local public health teams, as well as local coun-

The LJHP is devoted to addressing post-pandemic health issues

cillors — and the London Jewish Forum as “our anchor organisation”.

To date LJHP has run a successful event with Charedi women in Stamford Hill, sharing health concerns and resulting in an immense amount of postevent feedback, Dr Weil says.

Two weekends ago LJHP ran a pop-up stand at the Maccabi Fun Run, funded, like the Charedi event, by the NHS. Every participant organisation within the Partner-

ship was able to offer runners and spectators information on the work they do, with representation from groups within the Jewish community, such as the mental health charity Jami, as well as the formal health authorities.

Health checks were carried out on the day – and those over 40 had the opportunity to have their cholesterol, glucose levels, blood pressure, cardiovascular risk, BMI and lifestyle assessed.

‘SLACK SHULS HAVE FAILED OUR YOUNG’ Top Jewish GP Dr Ellie Cannon has taken aim at synagogues for “lacking interest” in Jewish teens who had the disappointment of missing out on their bar or batmitzvahs during the coronavirus pandemic, writes Adam Decker.

Cannon, who writes for the Daily Mail, recalls her “disappointment and shock” at shul ineptitude during lockdowns in a new book called The Children’s Inquiry: how the state and society failed the young during the Covid-19 pandemic.

In it, she says: “It wasn’t the missing out on a party. It was the loss of a rite of passage that they had been made by us to look forward to and anticipate their whole life.

“Yet when it was taken away from them, nobody even thought to apologise or offer anything else. That was another real illustration to me of a complete lack of interest.”

The social restrictions of the pandemic led to families taking the initiative, including

Taking aim: Dr Ellie Cannon

the bar or batmitzvah driveby, in which celebrants handed out goody bags in front of their houses to a car parade of friends who shouted mazeltovs out of their windows.

But the actions – or inaction – of synagogues with regard to children’s welfare has been little discussed, with Cannon’s intervention likely to start a debate about whether they did enough to help their younger congregants throughout the period.

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7 July 2022 Jewish News

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13

Immanuel head / Navy probe / Emin art / News

One of Britain’s leading music head master of Streatham and scholars and educators has Clapham High School in south been appointed head teacher of London, and in his decade at the Immanuel College in Bushey, helm turned it into one of the and will take up his appointmost sought-after schools in the ment in September. area, with academic results putDr Millan Sachania is a ting it into the top 20 percent of familiar figure to those in the independents nationwide.

Immanuel community — he Dr Sachania, who graduwas the school’s director of ated with a double first and did Sixth Form from 2003 to 2007, Appointed: Dr Sachania his doctorate in musicology at followed by four years as ImmaChrist’s College, Cambridge, has nuel’s deputy head. become a widely published music scholar and Dr Sachania left Immanuel to become an expert on composers such as Poulenc and

Five liberal rabbis ordained Leo Baeck College (LBC) ordained five new rabbis in a service at the Liberal Jewish Synagogue. More than 150 people attended – the first time in three years a congregation had been possible at an LBC Ordination service – with 100 watching live on Zoom. Those ordained were Anthony Lazarus Magrill, who will serve Mosaic Masorti Synagogue; David Yehuda Stern, serving Radlett

Reform Synagogue; Gabriel KanterWebber, Brighton & Hove Progressive Synagogue; Lev Taylor, South West Essex and Settlement Reform Synagogue and Mathias Elasri, who founded Tselem – a Paris-based organisation operating in the UK and Europe with the aim of bringing people into museums and teach about God through art, play and tradition.

Stravinsky. During his ten years leading the Streatham school, he was a frequently published commentator on educational developments in the public and private sector. He served on the Council of UCAS (university clearing) as the representative of independent schools Dr Sachania says that Immanuel’s ethos, encapsulated in its motto ‘Torah im Derech Eretz’, interfacing the school’s Orthodox Judaism with the modern world, is strongly embedded in his DNA from his previous service at the school. As such, he said, he is “hugely excited” about returning to the Immanuel community and working with all its constituents.

EMIN’S MOTHER IN JERUSALEM The Mother, an 8ft 10in high bronze by British artist Tracey Emin, has been installed in Israel Museum’s Art Garden.

It shows a kneeling female looking at an absent form she is cradling.

A Royal Navy submariner was promoted to a supervisory position despite the Ministry of Defence knowing he had far-right affiliations, it has been revealed.

Kenneth McCourt, based in Scotland, joined the neo-Nazi Patriotic Alternative, a banned white nationalist organisation, according to research by anti-fascist group Hope Not Hate, and was promoted to the rank of petty officer.

His far-right allegiance came to light in 2019.

David Lawrence, senior researcher at Hope Not Hate, said: “The Navy’s failure to take disciplinary action against McCourt when we exposed him three years ago sent a message that farright activism would be tolerated in its ranks.

“The fact that he has since shifted towards an even more fascistic organisation, one that is rife with Holocaust deniers and run by a man who recommends Mein Kampf to his audience, is dismaying but also unsurprising.”

Patriotic Alternative is led by Mark Collett, who has praised Hitler and Mein Kampf.

McCourt is thought to have attended its Scottish conference in October.

The Royal Navy said: “Those who engage in extremist activities are fully investigated and suitable measures are implemented.

It would be inappropriate to comment on specific allegations.”

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Navy criticised over officer’s neo-Nazi links

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Jewish News 7 July 2022

World News / Journalist’s killing / Polish relations / Hatzalah ‘frustration’

UNHEALTHY COMPETITION They say competition is healthy, but the saying may have its limits, after a private Israeli ambulance service hired investigators to get the dirt on senior Health Ministry officials suspected of cosy relations with the state ambulance service.

On its website, United Hatzalah says it “complements the existing urgent medical service organisations”. But in 2018, it covertly sought information on ministry staff in their contacts with Magen David Adom.

The revelations are outlined in Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz: United Hatzalah members hired a private detective firm to surveil the then head of the rescue services field at the Health Ministry, Miri Cohen, and then senior coordinator of planning and budgeting at the deputy director-general’s office, David Azulay.

Over about six weeks, private investigators allegedly used electronic surveillance devices to try to uncover personal relations with MDA staff. MDA and United Hatzalah often fight over funds and prestige. Eventually ministry officials had to draw up a code of conduct for the services, laying out boundaries covering advertising, crew dispatch systems, hotlines and apps. It fell to Cohen and Azulay to police this.

A source, quoted by Ha’aretz, said the surveillance stemmed from “frustration”, adding that “appeals by United Hatzalah about complaints and improprieties at MDA went unaddressed, like they were invisible, [while] on the other hand, every complaint by MDA against United Hatzalah was met with an immediate response”.

IDF ‘likely’ to have shot Akleh Israeli forces were “likely responsible” for the death in May of Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh – even though the bullet that killed her could not be definitively linked to the IDF – according to an American-led investigation.

The findings were announced on Monday, a day after the bullet was handed to the United States by the Palestinian Authority.

Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid said its inquiry “showed conclusively” that there was no intention to harm Abu Akleh. But her family said they were left “incredulous” at the findings.

The Al Jazeera reporter was shot while reporting on an IDF raid near Jenin, in the West Bank, targeting the Islamic Jihad group.

Israeli officials initially suggested she have been killed by a shot fired by Palestinians, but subsequently proposed a joint investigation into the journalist’s death.

The offer was rejected by the Palestinian Authority, which said it did not trust Israel. It eventually handed the bullet that killed her to US officials last Saturday.

State Department spokesman Ned Price said that “independent, third-party examiners” were unable to reach a definitive conclusion regarding the bullet’s origin because it was badly damaged.

He said investigators had been given access to separate Israeli and Palestinian investigations and concluded that “gunfire from IDF positions was likely responsible”

Protesters in the West Bank after the Palestinian journalist’s death

for her death. But Price added: “The [Security Coordinator] found no reason to believe that this was

intentional but rather the result of tragic circumstances during an IDF-led military operation”.

Israeli-Polish relations back on track Poland will send its ambassador-designate to present his letter of credence in the coming days, Polish leader Andrzej Duda told President Isaac Herzog this week, in the strongest indication yet that the two countries are moving beyond a bitter year-long diplomatic spat.

Their phone call, during which Herzog requested the return of a Polish envoy, is part of

a months-long joint initiative with the Foreign Ministry, according to the president’s office. The two leaders spoke in English.

The two countries have been locking horns since last July, when Poland’s legislature passed a law effectively cutting off any future restitution to the heirs of property seized by the Nazis during the Holocaust. In response to the legisla-

tion, signed into law by Duda, then foreign minister Lapid called it “antisemitic and immoral”.

Israel recalled its envoy to Warsaw for consultations the following month. Lapid advised Poland’s ambassador to Israel to remain on vacation in his homeland, and instructed Israel’s new ambassador to Poland, Ya’acov Livne, to remain in Israel.

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Israel tours / Covid vaccines / Disgraced rabbi / World News

At last! Israel tours touch down British teens were kicking off a summer of sun, sea and iced coffees this week as the first Israel tours for three years touched down in Tel Aviv.

Four groups of 16-year-olds from Bnei Akiva landed at Ben Gurion on Tuesday, the first of 36 groups from 12 youth movements comprising 1,300 teens set to take part in what has become a rite of passage under the auspices of UJIA Israel Experience.

Israel tours had to be cancelled in 2020 and 2021 amid the pandemic, with UJIA instead giving grants to projects to keep youngsters entertained over the summer.

“It’s amazing to be here.

We didn’t always know it would happen but to finally be in Israel is a dream come true,” said a British participant at Ben Gurion.

Moriah Feiglin, an Israeli madricha who will be leading one of the tours, said: “It’s so exciting to bring people who have never been here, or even if they have been

here before, they’ve never experienced Israel this way.”

UJIA chair Louise Jacobs said she was thrilled to see tours resume. “It is not only a trip of a lifetime for teenagers – it is the start of a journey into Jewish engagement and

Covid jabs ‘halved child infections’

The world’s largest study on Covid vaccines and children has found that they halved the risk of infection during Israel’s winter wave.

The authors characterised this result as “moderate” protection – a far cry from the very high level of protection vaccines initially pro-

Bnei Akiva groups ready to depart and (inset) teenagers land at Ben Gurion

leadership. I am so excited that we can get back to giving young people this opportunity to connect with Israel and develop as future leaders.”

UJIA Israel Experience is also supporting immersive educational trips to Israel for older age groups, such as Birthright Israel.

vided, but much better that some earlier estimations that suggested that vaccines were giving children just 12 percent protection against infection with newer strains.

Researchers found that during the two weeks after children’s second dose kicked in, they had

ICE CREAM WARS Ben & Jerry’s is suing its own parent company Unilever for reversing its bid to end sales of its ice cream in Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

The ice cream maker filed a suit in a New York court in an effort to prevent Unilever from selling the Ben & Jerry’s brand to American Quality Products Ltd, the company that currently licences the Ben & Jerry’s brand in Israel.

Unilever said last week that its arrangement allowed the ice cream will continue to be sold under its Hebrew and Arabic names throughout Israel and the West Bank.

Last year, the company’s co-founders Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield announced a withdrawal of its ice cream products from Israeli settlements in the West Bank because it was “inconsistent with our values for Ben & Jerry’s ice cream to be sold in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT).”

But Unilever’s move to sell its Israeli business interests effectively sidestepped that this decision.

Ben & Jerry’s said in its lawsuit on Tuesday that its independence would be lost and “the company’s brand integrity forever tarnished” as a result of Unilever’s move.

94,728 Pfizer-vaccinated children and the same number of unvaccinated children with similar age and health profiles.

All the children surveyed in the study, conducted at the height of the winter Covid crisis in Israel, were aged five to 11.

51 percent protection against becoming infected. Protection against infection with symptoms was 48 percent.

The newly peer-reviewed study, led by Clalit Healthcare Services, one of Israel’s four healthcare providers, compared Covid records of

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World News / Simcha disruption / Anti-vax death

Progressive barmitzvah sabotaged

Orthodox males intimidate guests at the barmitzvah

Dozens of strictly-Orthodox protesters disrupted a barmitzvah at the egalitarian plaza of the Western Wall last week, shouting over the service, calling the worshippers “Nazis,” “Christians” and “animals,” blowing whistles and ripping up prayer books, according to eyewitnesses.

“It was all really, really ugly,” said Laura Ben-David, who was hired by the family to photograph the barmitzvah.

In one case, a young strictly-Orthodox man was filmed ripping a page out of a prayer book, or siddur, and then wiping his nose with it while smirking.

“How can a nation of Jews allow a reality in which people fear for their secu-

rity when they are just trying to pray in their own way in a plaza that was specifically designated for this type of prayer?” wrote the Masorti Movement, Israel’s equivalent to the American Conservative movement, in a tweet.

Rabbi Arie Hasit, who officiated the ceremony, said he was “broken” after the protesters called the barmitzvah boy “a Christian… a Nazi and more.”

“This was an American boy who wanted to celebrate reaching the age of mitzvot, a boy who could have forgotten any connection with the Jewish people and the land of Israel but chose to go up to the Torah in Israel, in front of his parents, his grandfa-

ther and grandmother, and some family,” Hasit wrote in a public Facebook post.

The egalitarian section, sometimes known as the “Israel section,” the “family section” or, inaccurately, the “Reform section,” is located on the southern part of the Western Wall, separate from the main plaza, which is segregated by gender. It is meant to be a prayer space for use by more progressive streams of Judaism.

According to Ben-David, a handful of strictly-Orthodox, or Charedi, boys were already milling around at the egalitarian section when the family arrived.

“It was strange. We thought, ‘What are they doing here?’” Ben-David said.

Anti-vax doctor dies at 48 ANGER OVER ‘HITLERIAN’ SLUR The doctor from an Orthodox enclave near New York City who rose to fame early in the pandemic for promoting an untested drug cocktail has died of cancer at 48.

The foundation that Vladimir Zelenko launched to advance his theories after he left his family medical practice amid controversy in May 2020 announced his death, saying that it would accept donations to continue his work, which included opposition to vaccines.

Zelenko, who went by Zev, was born in Kyiv, Ukraine, in 1973 and moved to the United States with his family four years later,

according to an obituary released by his medical company.

He graduated from Hofstra University and then earned a medical degree at the University at Buffalo, New York, before opening a practice in Monroe, New York, home to a large Hasidic community in Kiryas Joel.

Zelenko’s death comes two years after his rapid rise to prominence at the start of the coronavirus pandemic, when his community was hit hard early on and he began promoting a drug cocktail that he said cured the deadly disease.

Mexico’s president has doubled down on calling a Jewish critic of his administration “Hitlerian,” prompting protests from his country’s Jewish community.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, a left-leaning politician, had called Carlos Alazraki “extremely conservative, like Hitlerian” after the journalist criticised the government’s handling of immigration from Venezuela. Alazraki said the government is letting in undocumented foreigners without vetting them, though the government denies this, according to the El Pais newspaper.

Alazraki is the owner of an advertising agency and frequent contributor to various media outlets in Mexico.

The Central Committee of the Jewish Community in Mexico wrote: “Any comparison with the most bloodthirsty regime in history is regrettable and unacceptable.”

Obrador then doubled down on the analogy, saying during another press conference that Alazraki “is a follower of Hitler’s thinking”.

The methods of the Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels is “the essence of Alazraki’s publicity or propaganda strategy,” he added.

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Israel’s 14th premier / Special Report

Prime time to prime minister Yair Lapid has had a turbulent decade-long political career, from being Netanyahu’s finance minister to his key rival to taking on his country’s hottest seat Lapid with Britain’s Foreign Secretary, Liz Truss

Prime Minister Lapid speaking at a Jewish News conference in Westminster on UK-Israel relations

Some in Israel dismissed Yair Lapid as just another media star when the former news anchor, ad pitchman and soap actor launched his bid for political power a decade ago. But the 58-year-old, who has become the Jewish state’s new prime minister, has a history of surpassing expectations during a political career that even by Israeli standards has been turbulent.

Almost a decade ago, with his newly formed centrist Yesh Atid (There is a Future) party, he was not immediately taken seriously as a heavyweight or challenger in the lead-up to an election in January 2013.

But Lapid’s hometown of Tel Aviv had been rattled by protests against the surging cost of living. He and his party focused their campaign on Israel’s struggling middle class, asking why

so few were prospering from the country’s economic growth.

It worked.

Yesh Atid, whose leader had regularly featured on lists of Israel’s most desirable men, shocked pundits by finishing second to the right-wing incumbent, Benjamin Netanyahu.

According to Dov Lipman, who was elected to parliament on Yesh Atid’s 2013 slate, its first, Lapid was motivated by public service, not personal brand enhancement.

“He didn’t need any of this. His finances were set and he had fame,” Lipman, who has since left politics and the party, told AFP. “He got involved in this because he really felt that things need to change in Israel.”

Lapid’s late father Yosef, aka Tommy, a Hungarian-born Holocaust survivor, had also left the media to join politics,

while Lapid’s mother is a writer.

Following the 2013 polls, Lapid joined a Netanyahu-led coalition, had a rocky term as finance minister, joined the opposition in 2015 and became a key player seeking to oust Netanyahu.

That protracted effort ultimately succeeded in June 2021, when Lapid crafted an unlikely coalition of hawks, centrists, left-wingers, and Arab Islamists that ended Netanyahu’s 13-year tenure.

He clinched the deal by offering the prime minister’s job to Naftali Bennett, whose nationalist Yamina party had fared far worse in the polls than Yesh Atid. Lapid himself became foreign minister.

When Bennett announced last month that this coalition was no longer tenable, triggering Israel’s fifth election in less than four years, he said he would honour his power-sharing deal with Lapid, who will serve as prime minister and foreign minister of a caretaker government.

As they did when Lapid launched his political career, rising prices have again emerged as a challenge before he assumes the premiership.

“We need to tackle the cost of living,” he said, days before he was to become Israel’s 14th prime minister.

In December, an authoritative global ranking named Tel Aviv as the world’s most expensive city. Lapid then listed the geopolitical challenges that may dominate his time in office, including Iran and the Lebanese Hezbollah terror group.

It is unclear how long Lapid will hold the prime minister’s chair. Ostensibly he may only do so for several months, until a fresh government is formed following the next election, which is set for 1 November.

But the past four years of political instability have shown that interim governments can stay on for far longer than expected, and failure to reach a clear resolution in the upcoming vote could keep the Yesh Atid leader in power for a while yet.

On the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Lapid’s positions have been described as broadly centrist, with some right-leaning tendencies. Unlike Bennett, he favours direct talks with the Palestinians on a two-state solution.

But he has also voiced doubt about the Palestinian desire to make peace and, at times, defended settlement expansion in the West Bank.

...AND THE TURBULENT FEW MONTHS AWAITING HIM

He might only be Israel’s interim prime minister, but Yair Lapid appears to be determined to maximise the position in the four months he is guaranteed to occupy it, writes Michael Daventry.

In his first speech in the role, Lapid laid out a set of beliefs that he said bind Israelis of all ideologies, as well as his diagnosis for why widespread agreement on fundamental ideas hasn’t translated into political harmony. “The answer is politics,” he said. “In Israel, extremism doesn’t

come from the streets to politics. It’s the opposite,” he added. “It flows like lava from politics to the streets. The political sphere has become more and more extreme, violent and vicious, and it is dragging Israeli society along with it.

This we must stop. This is our challenge.”

Lapid assumed power days after the Israeli government officially dissolved and weeks after he and his predecessor, Naftali Bennett, announced that they could no longer maintain their coalition. In that announcement, Bennett

announced that Lapid, who had been scheduled to cycle into the prime minister role next year, would become the interim prime minister while the country awaits its fifth round of elections.

Lapid said Israelis agree that their country should be “Jewish, democratic, liberal, strong, advanced and prosperous.” He also said urgent issues including the danger presented by Iran and terrorism within Israel, the country’s “education crisis” — the school year just ended with a disruptive teacher strike — and the high cost

of living cannot wait until the country’s political turmoil is resolved.

Lapid also offered a vision for the country’s relations with its Arab citizens and Palestinian neighbours that is different from his two rightwing predecessors, Bennett and Benjamin Netanyahu. He also thanked Israelis for supporting a smooth transition of power, an apparent jab at Netanyahu, who sought to remain in power through multiple elections and now is seeking to return despite an ongoing corruption trial.

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Special Report

‘My shul believes in anti-Zionism’ Chicago’s Rabbi Brant Rosen insists there’s space for a synagogue anchored in belief that Judaism doesn’t belong in the Jewish state Members of a Chicago synagogue recently took the shocking decision to adopt antiZionism as a “core value” – becoming the first American congregation to take such an extreme stance, writes Jacob Magid.

The membership of Tzedek, a non-denominational congregation founded in 2015, voted to pass the measure.

“Jews have a moral precept of pursuing justice and standing in solidarity with the oppressed,” said Tzedek Rabbi Brant Rosen during an interview with The Times of Israel, arguing that anti-Zionism is an extension of that effort.

Seventy-two percent of Tzedek’s members backed the decision, with the remainder accepting the move and choosing to remain a part of the community, while a handful of American Jews reached out in order to join upon learning of the vote, Rosen said. There are around 200 families in the congregation.

The vote represents further proof that there is demand for such religious institutions in the American Jewish community, Rosen said.

Virtually all synagogues in the US are Zionist by default, given their affiliation with the various major denominations that back the Jewish state to varying degrees.

A handful of congregations do identify as non-Zionist in an effort to create space for proPalestinian activism, which has been increasingly popular among young, liberal Jews. But these communities are small and marginalised by mainstream Jewish organisations, which view a connection to the Jewish state as an essential part of the Jewish identity.

Rosen has long held views on the IsraeliPalestinian conflict that are outside of the mainstream, but he was trained in the Reconstructionist movement and led several Reconstructionist congregations throughout the US. He left the last of those positions at the

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The decision by Tzedek members will not have many practical implications as it has already been partner to a number of anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian coalitions and actions in the community. But Rosen said the statement against Zionism is important in its own right.

The Tzedek spiritual leader admitted there was concern among supporters and opponents alike within his community that the decision would lead to the synagogue being defined by what it is against as opposed to what it supports.

However, he insisted that actively supporting

anti-Zionism is part of a broader set of values that are anchored in the idea that the “diaspora is the locus of Jewish life”.

Despite his marginalisation, Rosen said he still felt his community is part of “am Yisrael”, the Jewish people. He maintains that belief, even while also subscribing to the notion that some of those very same “family” members are engaged in the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.

At the same time, Rosen and Tzedek have signed on to Palestinian calls to boycott his figurative Israeli relatives. “That’s what it means to be in a family. It includes people whose approach you very violently disagree with – and they feel the same way about us,” he said.

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A joyous return

Communal life has been slowly returning to something resembling normality for some months now but nothing says we’re fully up and running like the resumption of large-scale dinners at the Grosvenor House Hotel and of Israel Tour for hundreds of teens. This week, both made a triumphant return. The focus of the Jewish Care dinner was on its heroic work during the pandemic, with a reminder that many of our community – more than the 800 who attended on Monday night – lost their lives to Covid.

But there was no getting away from the joy at being reunited, dancing and singing together once again.

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Timeless question Maccabiah ‘error’ If time travellers arrived on Earth on a factfinding mission to see what makes us tick, they might try to fathom the reason – if one exists – as to why there is so much hatred of Jews.

They could travel back and forth throughout history to find the answer and reason for this seemingly unjustifiable and perplexing hatred.

They would find absolutely no reason from the past, or now, for so much unwarranted hatred of Jews. They would be at a loss, therefore, to understand why antisemitism is rife.

Jews are human beings like everybody else on this God-given planet, with the same needs and frailties as other beings. So why this unfounded, illogical, unnecessary and hurtful hatred? They largely mind their own business and are well educated and family-orientated.

Perhaps your venerated readers can provide a logical and reasoned answer to help the time travellers’ solve the mystery. Isaac Cohen, on behalf of the time travelling celestials

ADLER PLAQUE

KNESSET MERRY-GO-ROUND

The UK branch of the Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation, funded by Jerry Klinger from the USA and managed by me here in the UK, has placed a Jewish plaque on the corner of Adler Street and Coke Street in Whitechapel, where Adler House once stood. It will be a perpetual reminder to passers-by of the crucial role the area played in AngloJewish life for almost 100 years.

Here we go again. After a year of hope the Israeli government has collapsed and another election will take place in October. After only a year the merry-go-round will make the Charedi parties dance with joy, as once again they will be able to manipulate whoever forms a government.

Those who thought Netanyahu had gone forever will have to shed more tears. Why does it

Martin Sugarman, By email

Operations Manager Alon Pelta 020 8148 9693

alon@jewishnews.co.uk

THIS WEEKEND'S SHABBAT TIMES...

Shabbat comes in Friday night 9.03pm

Your story about Russia being included in the draw for the Maccabiah Games left me baffled.

I watched your video, which shows a team from Putin’s warmongering regime entered into the volleyball and junior basketball competitions – in front of event bosses and a legal invigilator.

The draw is completed. Nothing else is said.

Russia happily takes its place among the other 60 or so countries set to compete in Israel.

Months later, when asked why Russia had been allowed to take part, Maccabiah organisers say it was an “administrative error” and that the Russian team is in fact made up of people from different countries who moved to Israel. A cynic might assume that event organisers initially saw nothing wrong with inviting Russians to compete in the world’s third largest sporting event, then backtracked in the most inept and cumbersome way. Good luck to all taking part – as I did back in the 1990s.

S Greenstein, By email

Shabbat goes out Sedra: Chukat Saturday night 10.20pm

Robert Dulin, Herts

Some years ago my neighbour was hit and knocked down by a cyclist while on a pedestrian crossing. He was in intensive care for sometime. He recovered but not to his former self. He was never able to work again. Every day I cross Farringdon Road ,where it is a familiar sight for pedestrians to be abused, cursed and sworn at by cyclists. More should be done to protect pedestrians by introducing a mandatory insurance and number plates. Nathan Aziz Levi, NW7

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take so long for the Jerusalem District Court to come to consensus as to whether Netanyahu is guilty as charged? It doesn’t say much for the Israeli judiciary. I don’t live in Israel, but my daughter does. My numerous visits strengthen my love for the country and its vibrant people, but sadly its politicians leave a lot to be desired.

ACT ON DANGEROUS CYCLISTS

27 May 2020

BRITAIN’S BLIND SPO T •

16 Sivan 5781

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Issue No.1212

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@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

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The sight of Jews wearing yellow stars to make a point about an education bill they oppose is sickening. For years, and particularly during the pandemic, we have reported on a tendency for Holocaust analogies to be used against controversial policies, an approach as disgusting as it is ignorant. That Shoah educators have had to remind the world that the systematic annihilation of six million Jews bears no comparison with lockdowns and vaccinations is beyond belief. But the spectacle of Charedi Jews invoking the star those who suffered under the Nazis were forced to wear will shock the majority of our community. That a new Shoah memorial is being planned metres from where the demo took place is evidence of the ongoing need to educate future generations across society but, it seems, some in our own community need to be first in the queue when it opens.

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‘Just to be clear, is this about the flood, the NHS or Pride?’

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Opinion

Rabbis must act to stop abuse that is get refusal DANIEL GREENBERG BARRISTER SPECIALISING IN LEGISLATION

O

ppression of women was fashionable in western European society until relatively recently. Today it is neither fashionable or morally acceptable. This rapid refinement of prevailing morality has created an existential crisis for mainstream Orthodox Judaism, many of the institutional practices of which expose women to inferior treatment or, in some cases, exploitation and abuse.

It has, therefore, become a matter of extreme urgency for Orthodox Jewish institutions to examine all aspects of their practices and procedures, to ensure that, while maintaining halachic integrity, those habits of the poor treatment of women which we absorbed from our cultural surroundings are quickly eradicated and replaced by a sensitive and caring environment based on equality.

Nowhere is this more urgent than in relation to the practice of Jewish divorce law.

It is a simple fact that the halachic ritual of Jewish divorce requires to be invoked by a man giving a get (document of divorce) to a woman, thereby dissolving the contract that was ritually recognised under the chuppah (wedding canopy). There is nothing in Biblical or Rabbinic law to suggest that this ritual initiative of the man is intended to grant him a substantive veto or to provide a negotiating advantage for men in relation to financial settlements on matrimonial breakdown, access to children or any other matter.

That, however, is what it has become in the day-to-day practice of the batei din (Rabbinic courts) in the UK and elsewhere.

My new book, Getting A Get, discusses the details of this unacceptable situation from a number of perspectives, including highlighting that giving the man a substantive veto amounts to forcing women to remain in a marriage that they no longer desire, a form of marital captivity which is every bit as contrary to human rights as forced marriage.

a u t h e n t i c

I make a number of practical recommendations for how batei din could repair their reputation in this and other matters and render halachic observance consistent with morality, sensitivity and decency.

I also discuss the possible application of old criminal law (including blackmail) and new criminal law (including coercive control) as ways of incentivising parties to Jewish matrimonial breakdown, and the institutions that oversee religious divorce, to behave decently and properly, and to prevent the weaponisation of Jewish law as a tool of abuse and extortion.

Far from the Orthodox Jewish religious community being in the vanguard of moral refinement, all too often we appear to be playing a reluctant game of catch-up. The Domestic Abuse Act 2021, and amendments to the Bill tabled by Jewish peers, have shone a light on get practices as a source of domestic abuse; so much so that there is now an All Party Parliamentary Group on Get Refusal. Although the early signs of rabbinic responses to these events have not been

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To encourage and empower the rabbis to make the necessary changes to the practical implementation of immutable halachah, the community needs to be clear about the unacceptability of the present position. More than that: what is being done to women every day in batei din is being done in our name, by the institutional representatives of the religion which we espouse and of the community to which we belong: we remain complicit in the abuse of women for so long as we fail to bring about the changes necessary to eradicate it.

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Opinion

A step towards friendlier Jewish-Muslim dialogue CHIEF RABBI EPHRAIM MIRVIS

I

n recent times, Jewish-Muslim relations have been exceptionally challenging. While friendly and constructive dialogue is commonplace, it has too often been overshadowed by division and conflict. However, there are clear signs that a new, positive atmosphere is emerging.

My public meeting this week with Sheikh Abdallah Bin Bayyah provided welcome evidence of this.

Sheikh Bin Bayyah, one of the foremost Islamic scholars in the world and a passionate advocate for constructive dialogue, embodies the principle that we are taught in the Ethics of the Fathers, that we must both love peace and pursue it.

At our meeting, we contemplated the similarities between some of our Jewish principles and Islamic teachings. In both traditions, we celebrate our shared Abrahamic ancestry and seek to emulate the selfless warmth, kindness and hospitality of our patriarch.

Charity is a central feature of our communal lives. The Hebrew ‘tzedakah’ and the Arabic ‘sadaqa’ are both derived from a root meaning right, just and true. Both traditions, therefore, teach that charity is not an activity deserving of praise, but rather a duty which is expected.

Similarly, just as the Hebrew word for mercy, ‘rachamim’, comes from the same root as the word ‘rechem’ meaning womb, so too, the word for mercy in in Arabic is ‘rahma’ – coming from the same root as the word ‘rahim’ also meaning womb. Both traditions, therefore, teach that the mercy we show to the most vulnerable should flow naturally like the innate care and sensitivity that a mother extends to her child.

These examples show how much our faiths have in common but there is still much ground to cover. For too long, we have been largely unknown to one another. New frameworks, whether they be the Marrakesh Declaration or the Abraham Accords, mean engagement is now possible in unprecedented ways.

Harnessing this opportunity is a priority.

However, there is a further reason for better

❝

THE ESSENTIAL VOICE OF FAITH IS NOT AS LOUD AS IT SHOULD BE engagement and closer cooperation. It is so that we can better answer the first two questions ever posed to humankind.

The first question was asked of Adam by God in the Garden of Eden. When Adam ate from the tree of knowledge, God asked him “Where are you?” meaning, what responsibility have you taken for your life and for your future?

The second question was asked of Cain after he had killed Abel: “Where is Abel your brother?”

In response, Cain offered the tragic answer: “Am I my brother’s keeper?” He had abandoned any sense of compassion or responsibility for the wellbeing of his brother.

These are the two questions that all of us must answer. First of all, where are we? What responsibility are we taking for ourselves,

our families, our communities and our faith?

Second, what are we doing for the sake of all others on earth? Each of us has an identity that exists for the sake of our universal aspirations.

There is an urgent universal responsibility of faith communities to ensure that the moral voice of faith is heard with clarity.

Sadly, the essential voice of faith is not as loud as it should be on the big moral issues of our time, from war and humanitarian aid to climate change and our increasing reliance on artificial intelligence. Today, somewhere in Silicon Valley, programmers are making decisions about how the algorithm in driverless cars should address life-and-death decisions that were previously made by human motorists.

It is crucially important for communities of faith to engage in constructive dialogue to achieve peace and harmony and, in addition, to work together to bring our moral voices to bear on the essential issues of our time.

We have a long journey ahead of us towards achieving that aspiration, but I believe that the meeting with Sheikh Bin Bayyah this week represents a significant further step in the right direction.

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Opinion

New generation of Jewish activists is ready for action NINA FREEDMAN UJS PRESIDENT, 2021-22

I

went into my year as president of the Jewish Union of Students (UJS) thinking I would be leading the way, forging the path for the nearly 9,000 Jewish students in our community. After all, that’s what I had been elected to do.

But what I learned was that the students would really be leading me. In all our programming, advocacy work and grassroots campaigns, our students have taken the reins.

I have been so impressed by their wisdom, ingenuity and drive to make change in their local communities. We often say that UJS is an organisation that has students at its heart, but I can attest to the fact that it really is driven forward by their hard work and passion.

This year we found a way to harness the raw passion and skill of Jewish students and make it into something special. This past year has been one of firsts for UJS. We engaged more new members than ever, with more than 4,000 sign-ups to our website.

We have hosted the biggest event in UJS’ history, with hundreds of students coming together for our annual convention.

We spearheaded a new campaign called Antisemitism Awareness Week, educating the wider student population about Jew-hatred.

We hosted the first Supporting Jewish Students conference in collaboration with the Department for Education. We launched our first truly peer-led Liberation caucuses. We have elected our first openly LGBTQ+ president.

Despite these amazing achievements, this year has also been full of intense challenges.

We faced a very public battle with the National Union of Students (NUS) over antisemitism allegations and have had to rally together to counter this.

After we launched a powerful open letter, Jewish students rallied together in their thou-

sands to call on NUS to launch an investigation into its president-elect and to condemn the organisation for mistreatment of Jews.

On a local level, Jewish societies have faced a whole range of challenges, from the hateful rhetoric from a University of Bristol professor to a daunting Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement referendum at Liverpool, both of which were handled with grace and professionalism. Jewish students are standing up and fighting for what they believe in and remaining steadfast and proud of their Jewish identities.

And through it all, UJS has been there for them, offering a helping hand and being ready to catch them if they fall. We are upskilling students through political advocacy training and facilitating a nuanced understanding of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. We are

❝

UJS CAN ONLY CONTINUE TO DO THIS AMAZING WORK IF THE COMMUNITY STANDS BEHIND US

connecting students from across the country on various social, political and cultural fronts. We are enabling their local activities and Shabbat meals with generous funding.

Jewish life starts with Jewish students, but is enriched immensely by UJS. Having travelled across countless university campuses, I have seen the real impact UJS can make. Looking to the future, I am confident the new generation of Jewish activists are ready to take on the mantle and represent themselves with authority and conviction. UJS has an excellent new leader in Joel Rosen and I am so excited to see where he will take us next. It has been the honour of my life to lead UJS over the past year and I couldn’t be prouder of all we have achieved.

What we need now is your support. UJS can only continue to do all of this work if the community steps up and stands behind us.

Jewish students are not only the future of our community, they are the present.

They are working hard to combat antisemitism and create localised Jewish communities across the country every day.

Ordination in NY is proof that miracles do happen MIRIAM LORIE STUDENT RABBI AT YESHIVAT MAHARAT

L

ast week, in a hall packed with close to 300 people and 445 following online, the world gained nine new Orthodox female rabbis. I had watched three Yeshivat Maharat semicha (ordination) ceremonies online before and, with each, within the first few minutes both my husband and I were in tears. It’s hard to imagine the emotion of women achieving recognition for a level of study, dedication and character development that has historically been barred to them. Please God by me in 2024.

This year, in person in Riverdale, New York City, there were no tears, just a big soppy grin, as nine of my colleagues were called to receive their klaf, their certificate written on parchment. Scroll in hand, they walk under a banner with the Hebrew words for “our sister, may you become a thousand myriads”, the line said to the Biblical Rebecca as she steps out towards her new life with Isaac. Then each of them gives

an address, blending the Torah wisdom that most speaks to them with their most impactful memories from the programme.

I’d been told that the ceremony was “the best day in the year” and “like a wedding” and these descriptions were apt. The combination of gorgeous music, moving speeches and reaching a life milestone is a potent one. Like at a wedding, the ceremony ended with the crowd launching into spontaneous Israeli dancing. The main difference was how much Torah was shared at this ‘simcha’. At one point a friend leaned over and whispered: “If only the nay-sayers could see how frum we are.”

So why is it so controversial for women to become Orthodox rabbis? While scholars could quote tangential legalistic objections

❝

WHILE THE ORTHODOX WORLD IS GETTING ITS HEAD AROUND IT, THE CHANGE IS HAPPENING

like serrara – the halachic concept of who can and who cannot hold leadership positions – or the long-rejected idea that women shouldn’t learn Torah, the real objection is one of tradition: “It has never been this way.”

But our tradition is a developing one and in a world increasingly concerned with equality, Judaism needs to keep up. “We were trying to create a model of leaders who could confront the needs of 21st-century Judaism,” said Yeshivat Maharat founder Rabbi Avi Weiss in his address. “We wanted to form rabbis who are open, inclusive, non-judgmental and most important, loving.”

And while the Orthodox world is getting its head around this change, the change is happening. Rabbi Weiss closed with the words: “Who would have ever dreamt that in 10 years there would be 60 Orthodox women rabbis? That’s a miraculous achievement. So on this 10th anniversary we should, with humility, recognise what’s been achieved.”

With a spare Shabbat in the New York area, I decided to see how alumnae of the yeshiva are putting their work into practice. I travelled to south Philadelphia,

where Rabbanit Dasi Fruchter has set up the Shtiebel, a name which nods to the hundreds of shtieblach (little shuls) which used to pepper the area before the Jews moved to the suburbs. A little like parts of London, Jews are now moving back into this hip area, and the Shtiebel serves them.

I was blown away by my Shabbat there.

Think a cross between a Chabad house (except the rebbe is female) with a JSoc or camp Shabbat. Shepherding more than 100 regular congregants of various ages and backgrounds, Rabbanit Dasi has a strong and beautiful voice, a powerful sermon style and an apt way of answering her congregants’ halachic and life questions. She also cooks the huge kiddush lunch for all those people. I chat to a young congregant during kiddush. “I’ve moved 17 times in my life and never found a community like this,” she tells me. “We all bring our full selves into the room and feel a sense of home.”

Is this jet lag that’s making me feel giddy, or the possibilities for our future communities here in the UK? I think I know, and Rabbi Weiss’ words are still ringing in my ears: “Don’t be afraid. Jump in. Be part of this dream.”

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THE SENSATIONAL STORY OF WWII’S GREATEST ESCAPE

‘DARING AND INVENTIVE.’ Observer

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7 July 2022 Jewish News

LI FE

Jonathan Sandler felt that the story of his grandfather’s extraordinary wartime experience had to be told, in the most unusual way. By Brigit Grant

N

ew York. City of dreams. But not if you were stranded there on a school trip in 1939.

This happened to the late Bernard Sandler, and now his grandson, Jonathan, has turned this wartime experience in the Big Apple into a graphic novel.

Jonathan, who lives in Golders Green, hired American artist Brian Bicknell to work with him on a book that would illustrate the story of 17-year-old Bernard, whose fate was determined by his concerned Jewish parents. They felt it was safer for him to stay in NYC with family friends than to remain at home in Yorkshire. Then Pearl Harbor was bombed.

Old enough to be conscripted, Bernard was called up to the US army in 1943 and became an English GI. “That was quite unusual,” says Jonathan, a member of Dunstan Road synagogue. “My grandfather trained for 18 months and was then shipped off to war in August 1944 as part of the 26th Division.”

The convoy of 100 ships that sailed

from New York arrived in Cherbourg and spent a month in Normandy before joining up with General Patton’s Third Army and witnessing brutal fighting in the Lorraine campaign.

Injured within weeks, Bernard was evacuated to an American field hospital in Dorset and finally reunited with his parents after almost five years.

“As emotional as the reunion was, he still had to go back to the US,” explains Jonathan. “But he did propose to my grandmother there and came back to Britain in 1946 to run the family business in Leeds.”

Using Bernard’s memoirs to tell the tale, Jonathan also had a sketchbook by fellow soldier Victor Lundy, who had drawn scenes of the voyage to France.

Rosh Hashanah in Normandy features in the graphic novel, depicted as the improvised celebration that it was, and there is also a nod to a Jewish soldier’s anxiety about being captured with ‘H’ – for Hebrew – on his ID tag.

“We also put in my grandfather’s moving visit to Latvia in 1937 to see his father’s birthplace. This was a risky and frightening journey, given that they were a Jewish father and son travelling by train en route through Nazi Germany.”

New York clearly had its influence on young Bernard: he co-founded the Leeds Playhouse, produced plays, moved to London and became chair of the Tricycle Theatre in Kilburn, where his memorial was held in 1998. The book, as Jonathan intended, is a moving and longlasting memorial for his grandfather. But what would Bernard think?

“I think he would have appreciated the artistic and creative style of the book and, given his theatrical ideas, I definitely think this could work as a play one day.’’

Sounds like a job for Jonathan.

• The English GI, edited by Jonathan Sandler and illustrated by Brian Bicknell, is published by graphicmemoir.co.uk RRP £9.99

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Inside A look

The Zemel Choir Mayfair Art Brigit’s Bagel

30

Jewish News 7 July 2022

JN LIFE

&

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WHO,WHAT WHERE ART

MINDFULNESS IN MAYFAIR

Visitor V: a huge human has landed

If you happen to see two giant upturned feet poking out of the pavement in Berkeley Square you’re not hallucinating – they are part of the Mayfair Sculpture trail, which runs until 31 July.

David Breuer-Weil’s sculptures explore the feelings of outsiders in a place or society and have brought much excitement to one of the poshest parts of town. Visitor I emerges from the grass in the square and Visitor V (the feet) is outside Phillips auction house. Breuer-Weil studied at Central Saint Martin’s from 1985, where he was taught by Shelley Faussett, one of Henry Moore’s assistants. Impressively, he then studied English at Cambridge and, after graduation, was awarded a bursary at Sotheby’s. There is more of the sculptor’s work at the E & R Cyzer Gallery in Bruton Street, together with works by Picasso, Miro, Leger and Dubuffet. Breuer-Weil says of his work: “I am attacking the senses from different directions – one figure has fallen from the sky and the other rises out of the depths. These are my images of outsiders, arrivals from other places, but also from my Breuer-Weil with Visitor I own imaginative universe of Nerac. Visitor V represents two massive feet embedded in the ground, as if a huge human being has landed on the earth from another world. This is both comic and tragic – an archetypal image of a refugee – particularly relevant to this time of war and displacement.” Take a walk of deep thought in W1J and experience the art first hand.

Murder, she wrote

Best Bagel

PODCAST

JN’s Brigit Grant returns with her podcast Brigit’s Bagel on the JN website and audioboom. Marking the 50th anniversary of the movie Cabaret, she talks to Joel Grey, the Oscar-winning Emcee, about his loathing of Fosse, Fiddler on the Roof in Liza and Joel in 1972 Yiddish and Gay Pride as a 90-year-old. Fosse’s Cabaret has been restored and is now on at the Prince Charles, BFI and selected cinemas. It is also available on new platform Paramount+

The Untold Story

The Sephardi community, indeed all Jews, should be feeling the love from Netflix this Remember Baghdad includes home movies and archive footage week when Remember Baghdad launches on the platform. This film, which was commissioned and funded by Dangoor Education,is important because it takes the narrative away from the Palestinian plight to the untold Jewish story of Iraq. It’s an unmissable insight into how the country developed through the eyes of Iraq’s first wave of refugees, the Jews. From picnics on the Tigris and royal balls, to hangings, imprisonment and escape, the emotive individual stories unfold on to the wider story of the Middle East. After 2,600 years of living peacefully in the area, in one generation the community vanished and this is revealed through vivid testimony, home movies and news archive, as well as footage from Iraq today. With the participation of four families trying to make sense of the turbulent times, one man, Edwin Shukar(left) goes back to buy a house in Iraq.

His dream is to plant a seed of hope. Remember Baghdad gives us the fascinating back story of how the disintegration began in a country that has exploded into our lives today.

True to Form

IN CONVERSATION

Miriam Margolyes has plenty to say about her remarkable life. She has written it all down in a best-selling, award-winning memoir This Much is True, and on 11 July appears in conversation at the Cambridge Theatre. No-holds-barred Miriam will talk about how being conceived in an air raid gave her curly hair, what pranks led to her being known as the naughtiest girl at Oxford High School and how she posed nude for Augustus John as a teenager. With a cast list stretching from Scorsese to Streisand and a cross-dressing Leonardo di Caprio to Isaiah Berlin, this event will be trademark Miriam and every ticket includes a signed paperback copy of This Much Is True.

Book tickets at fane.co.uk

BOOK

Threatening plaques, vigilante killings, a Jewish community in an English town – what’s the link? North-London based journalist and editor Victoria Goldman ‘s debut novel is set in a small Hertfordshire town. After witnessing a racist incident, journalist Shanna Regan uncovers a series of threatening fake commemorative plaques, each of which highlights someone’s misdemeanour. Delving deeper, she discovers that these plaques are linked to vigilante killings spanning several decades, with ties to the local Jewish community. As her search for the truth becomes personal, Shanna puts her own life in danger. Can she stop the next murder in time?

The Redeemer is published on 12 July and will be available from Amazon and Waterstones

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NIL POINTS: • Although Samsung’s One UI software has come far over the years, it still felt sluggish • With a bigger battery you’d be forgiven for thinking that this phone would last longer.

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7 July 2022 Jewish News

31

JN LIFE

Living next door to the founder of The Zemel Choir is joyful in so many ways, writes Brigit Grant

Y

ou can hear the music before you ring the bell.

Sometimes it’s the mixed texture of chamber music, as played in the homes of nobility in the 18th century. On other days the sound of jazz comes from an open window or the notes of a familiar piano concerto bounces into the garden.

The joy of living next door to the Cohen family is the musical smorgasbord they provide, but it wasn’t until Dudley, the maestro at the helm, turned 90 that we realised that the founder of The Zemel Choir was our neighbour. Modesty, and the fact that he assumes everyone

has access to a cornucopia of music they can play, stops him from bragging about his choral success. But when the choir honoured him with a 90th birthday celebration after the pandemic he invited us to the event at Hampstead Synagogue. Suddenly, the man we normally see wielding a hedge trimmer was brandishing a baton and conducting The Zemel choir as they sang his arrangements of Ein Keloheinu, Dayenu and Shiru Ladonai.

These arrangements have been part of The Zemel Choir’s repertoire of Ashkenazi, Sephardi, Yiddish and Israeli classics since it was established in 1955. Always adding new

Dudley Cohen, 90, with his wife, Joan, and grandson Isaac

Dudley Cohen conducts The Zemel Choir, a name it officially took in 1961, at one of its early concerts

music by contemporary composers, the mixed-voice Jewish choir has sustained its international reputation as one of the world’s finest choirs and still regularly performs in major venues throughout the UK and overseas.

That Dudley Cohen doesn’t shout or at least sing about his achievement is more of a mystery, but as he only lives next door, it was an easy journey to the answers.

“Around 1954, I was a music teacher at a secondary modern school in Willesden and as I’d always been interested in music, I went to a study group summer school and was invited to look after the Jewish choral singing group.” Dudley was clearly a hit in the role as the young people he met that summer suggested he start a choir.

“I’d done an arrangement of the Hatikva for SATB [soprano, alto, tenor and bass] which I wanted to try and this coincinced with the Bnei Akiva choir coming to an end, so when their choirmaster suggested I take it over, I took it over, but as an independent as I didn’t want the choir attached to a youth movement.”

Starting with 25 young enthusiastic singers in their teens and twenties, within six weeks Dudley had a choir of 60.

“Five years later we were the first choir to do a concert at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, which had just opened and had rave reviews in The Times and The Guardian,” recalls Dudley with clear pride.

“The name Zemel was my father’s idea and I had formed a successful youth choir by that name in north-west London in 1948.”

Zemel is actually ZML, which stands for tsaphon (north) ma’arav (west) London. The choir took

that name officially in December 1961, with Dudley now having to audition new members, such was its popularity, and arranging the programmes, which expanded from Jewish music to Renaissance music – “after I saw a French choir singing it at a festival in Israel and loved it.”

Love also bloomed within the choir and in Dudley’s reign as choir

Vinyl destination: The Zemel Choir’s 1969 album

master about 70 couples met and married. Dudley was among them as he fell in love with Joan, then a Cambridge classics student, who joined Zemel within the first year, and they married in 1960.

“She was a very good alto and a super musician, so I was thrilled when she arrived,” said Dudley.

We can testify to that, as it is Joan’s delightful chamber orchestra we hear rehearsing on Friday mornings..

“I don’t know how many people have been in the choir all these years, but it must run into thousands and it is generational, with children and then grandchildren joining.”

Dudley and Joan’s own children are the definitive example of crossgenerational talent as all three went to Oxford. The eldest, Susanna, who

lives in Israel, played first bassoon in the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Ruth was with the Philharmonia Orchestra and son Jacques, who is known equally as a conductor and composer, also teaches composition at the Purcell School of Music.

“Until recently he also conducted the Ukraine Symphony Orchestra,” adds Dudley, who moves on to talk about grandchildren. Sam Scheer, 21, who is conductor of his own orchestra, Campanella, and 17-year-old Isaac Scheer, who plays viola at the Royal College of Music, took up the trombone and euphonium and is, Dudley says, “a super jazz pianist”.

With such musical prowess in the Cohen family, it’s not easy to stand out, but Dudley does with his stories, notably the one about The Zemel Choir recording music for the actor Laurence Olivier’s album of Bible stories.

“This is very funny,” warns Dudley, who adapted chants and arranged them into the traditional Jewish music required for the HMV record. “I was told I would be paid four shillings a bar, so I immediately changed it from the four/four I’d written to a two/four, which doubled the price.”

You have to be a musician to appreciate the humour, but Dudley’s giggle is as joyful as the music coming from next door. Not that Dudley was impressed with Olivier’s narrative over the Zemel singing. “All that Praise You the Lord, Hallelujah – I think it was a little bit over the top.” Dudley, as you’ll recall, is very low key.

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News 165mm high x 260mm wide 4 July 2022 FINAL.pdf

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7 July 2022 Jewish News

10:45

ADVERTORIAL

Leasehold Reform - Change on the Horizon?

A practitioner’s view

Laurent Vaughan Senior Associate, Bishop & Sewell Solicitors

when the term in the existing lease comes to an end. One of the Government’s proposals is to enable a leaseholder who applies for a lease extension under the statutory route, to extend their lease to a term of 990 years (also for a peppercorn ground rent). With a view to making the process fairer, simpler and less contentious, it was proposed that an online calculator would be introduced with prescribed rates.

As part of the Government’s levelling-up agenda, the Government introduced legislation in February 2022 that would bring an end to a freeholder being able to charge ground rent on a new ‘voluntary’ residential lease.

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What’s next for leaseholders and freeholders?

I anticipate that even if fresh legislation is introduced by the Government, it would have to navigate through a number of barriers in Parliament with the proposed radical reforms to the valuation mechanism likely to be challenged, inevitably leading to even further delay.

The appetite for the Government’s reform in this area emerged following the well-publicised scandal of leasehold houses being sold by developers with onerous and escalating ground rents. In essence, developers were taking two bites of the same cherry by firstly cashing in on the sale of a house and then granting it as a leasehold interest (rather than freehold), which enabled developers to receive significant income during the course of the lease term via the collection of ground rent.

It therefore remains uncertain as to how soon any of this might become law and, if implemented, the nature of these reforms are anticipated to be at least 1-3 years away, which in turn may then be dependent on the outcome of the next election.

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So, in other words, if you own a property affected by any of these issues, you will most likely still be required to act now as the mere ‘prospect’ of reform is not likely to be something that will resolve any existing issues, and certainly not any time soon!

Don’t fall foul of new legislation!

Following the introduction of The Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Act 2022 on 30 June 2022, the level of ground rent in any new residential lease that is entered into after that date, cannot be for more than ‘one peppercorn’ (a peppercorn is a metaphor for token rent). Any freeholder caught charging a ground rent of more than a peppercorn may face a fine of up to £30,000 - you have been warned!

What of existing leases?

Unfortunately, for the significant number of leaseholders across the country with spiralling ground rents in their existing leases, the Government has not to date declared its intention to introduce any fresh legislation. This is despite the eye-catching announcement of the (then) Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick on 7 January 2021 when he relayed his Government’s proposals to ‘make it easier and cheaper’ for leaseholders to buy their homes.

Bishop & Sewell acts for leaseholder and freeholder clients from its offices in central London. If you would like to discuss any of the issues raised in this article, please do not hesitate to contact Laurent Vaughan, Senior Associate, Bishop & Sewell Solicitors, on 0207 079 4193 or lvaughan@bishopandsewell.co.uk.

The award-winning Bishop & Sewell Landlord & Tenant team industry experts on Leasehold Reform legislation, including enfranchisement, lease extensions and Right to Manage.

As the law currently stands, a leaseholder is able to extend their lease for a peppercorn ground rent, but only for an additional period of 90 years from

Stanmore & Canons Park United Synagogue

Assistant Rabbinic Couple

Stanmore Synagogue is a vibrant, dynamic and inclusive community with approximately 2,200 members.

We are seeking to appoint an experienced, enthusiastic and charismatic Assistant Rabbi & Rebbetzen to work alongside and support our Senior Rabbinic couple and Youth Directors. The Assistant Rabbi will have a Certificate of Semicha, which is acceptable to the Chief Rabbi.

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To view the job description and apply for this position, please visit: www.theus.org.uk/vacancies

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Jewish News 7 July 2022

Business / Mental health

candicekrieger@googlemail.com

With Candice Krieger

CONFIDENTIAL HELP FOR STRUGGLING EMPLOYEES The founders of AzuraMinds left lucrative City careers and a high-stress environment to set up a business offering workplace mental health support, writes Candice Krieger

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London trader who left his lucrative career in the City now offers mental health support to those in the workplace.

Mark Martell, a former senior options trader at ADG Capital Management, launched AzuraMinds, which provides mental health MOTs to employees in a confidential and independent environment.

Martell, 40, co-founded AzuraMinds in 2020 together with former colleague George Sanders, a broker turned therapist who had struggled with his own mental health.

Martell says: “I spent 15 years as an equity derivatives trader, interning at Goldman Sachs and then on to a number of Londonbased funds. However, the initial excitement was slowly engulfed by stress, anxiety and the struggles of balancing work and family, and I saw first-hand how so many others were feeling the same, across all types of industry.”

AzuraMinds, which offers services from both its Harley Street clinic and remotely, prides itself on being a preventive tool for mental health concerns. Father-of-three Martell explains: “Most mental health services out there are reactionary, whereas the AzuraMinds model is to provide employees with regular ‘MOT’ check-ins. These identify any issues pre-emptively before they manifest into something greater and equip people with the tools to deal with situations early on.

Where necessary, AzuraMinds also provides easy access to a broad network of clinicians for those who need additional support.

“We want to normalise and destigmatise mental health, making going for a mental health MOT just as common as going to the dentist.”

According to reports, one in four employees experiences some form of mental health issue. This leads to 91m work days lost in the UK, at a cost of £42bn to employers.

Stanmore & Canons Park United Synagogue

Assistant Rabbinic Couple

Stanmore Synagogue is a vibrant, dynamic and inclusive community with approximately 2,200 members.

We are seeking to appoint an experienced, enthusiastic and charismatic Assistant Rabbi & Rebbetzen to work alongside and support our Senior Rabbinic couple and Youth Directors. The Assistant Rabbi will have a Certificate of Semicha, which is acceptable to the Chief Rabbi.

Closing date for receipt of applications is: Friday 15th July 2022 To view the job description and apply for this position, please visit: www.theus.org.uk/vacancies

Registered charity number 242552

Generous salary and benefits (accommodation provided)

Mark Martell (left) and George Sanders co-counded AzuraMinds two years ago

AzuraMinds works with businesses, enabling them to offer all their employees a free and confidential Azura MOT, as well as ongoing wellbeing services provided by their broad network of clinicians.

Martell acknowledges that attitudes towards mental health have improved greatly, accelerated by the pandemic, which took its toll on people’s wellbeing.

The NHS reports that a record number of people were referred for specialist mental health care last year – with 4.3 million people referred for conditions such as anxiety and depression.

“A lot has been done to put mental health at the forefront of people’s minds but current offerings by employers such as employee assistance programmes (EAPs) have a very low uptake – only approximately five percent.

"Others, such as in-house Mental Health Champions, have limited success as the majority of employees want to speak to someone objective, outside the workplace”.

A former pupil at Haberdashers’ Aske’s, after his internship at Goldman Sachs, Martell went on to secure top trading roles at Liquid Capital Group, Principle Trading and most recently, ADG Capital Management.

“We came up with the idea five years ago," Martell recalls. "George was a colleague who had struggled with mental health issues and alcohol addictions. His life had become unmanageable, he went into therapy and came out a changed man, deciding to train as a therapist.

"He has been clean for almost eight years, is four years qualified and is currently working on his doctorate, on addiction and stress in the workplace.

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“We started to talk about how we could help colleagues in the City as we were aware of people having breakdowns and even dying by suicide – and this was a few years ago when there was more of a stigma around mental health.”

Martell spent the next few years researching the market while still trading, before quitting his job in 2021 to focus on it full time.

He says: “I was one of those bravado guys who didn’t think mental health support was for me but I’ve been completely converted.

“I was definitely burnt-out trading, juggling family life and work – the stress was building. What I needed was a moment to put things in perspective, identify next steps and reconnect with my objectives.”

The benefits of positive mental health in the workplace are clear. Latest reviews in the UK state that every £1 invested by businesses in mental health programmes, returns up to £10 in improved health and increased productivity.

“Offering mental health provision enables companies to attract the best staff,” Martell enthuses.

“It’s an appealing proposition for new employees. It enhances your reputation as an employer and investor in people. You can build loyalty, retain good people, lower rates of absenteeism and reduce presenteeism.

“AzuraMinds has the potential to disrupt and improve the existing corporate mental health and wellbeing offer. Our goal is to provide employees, across all industries, access to regular mental health MOTs throughout their working lives.” www.azuraminds.com

I WAS ONE OF THOSE BRAVADO GUYS WHO DIDN’T THINK SUPPORT WAS FOR ME BUT I’VE BEEN CONVERTED

7 July 2022 Jewish News

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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 today

BY BATSHEVA WOLF

SECONDARY AND YOUTH EDUCATION MANAGER OF TRIBE

Short-term shame, long-term gain Moshe is undoubtedly one of the most exceptional leaders history has known. Throughout his years as the leader of the not-so-easypeople who are Israel, he manages to guide them through everything.

In this week’s Torah portion, Chukat, however, an uncharacteristic outburst of impatience leads Moshe to hit the rock he was instructed to talk to.

God, as a result, tells him in no uncertain terms he has lost his right to lead the Jewish people into Israel “because you did not trust me enough”. This is a devastating blow for a leader who has fought for his

people’s journey through all the ups and downs.

An interesting angle on this episode and why God uses such uncertain terms when punishing Moshe is provided by the Ohr Hachaim (Morocco, 18th century), who quotes the Midrash Bamidbar Rabba (19:12), which sheds yet another light on Moshe’s leadership.

When Moshe received word of his punishment from God, he made a quick calculation. If he were to die in the desert, he would be buried with all the people who had died there over the 40 years as a result of believing the gossip of the spies and rebelling against God. In future generations, this could lead to the incorrect conclusion that Moshe had also believed the words of the spies and had agreed with them, and that he,

too, had been a rebel. If the leader of the Jewish people had been placed in the same category as the rebels, the scandal would have been enormous.

So Moshe pleaded with God to write in very clear words why he was punished and buried in the desert. Despite the shame of picking apart the details of his inglorious moment of impatience, Moshe the individual was prepared to be embarrassed in order to save the good name of Moshe the servant of God, leader of the Jewish people.

One of the primary accolades given to Moshe is his humility (Bamidbar 12:3). The above explanation lends more colour to that characteristic and brings it alive. Moshe’s humility meant that his whole existence was in service of God and his people. If that meant experiencing some shame, he not only took it, he begged for it!

Uncharacteristic outburst of impatience: Moshe strikes the rock

So often in life, our motive is what other people (might) think. Moshe, whose leadership extends to this day and age, shows us how to put that into perspective. He was prepared to be embarrassed in the short term, in order to save God’s name in the long term. When all we care about is what

other people think in the short term, we end up losing ourselves in the long term. Yet, when we put ourselves in service of the greater good and use that as our yardstick for success, despite the short-term discomfort it might bring, we set ourselves apart and become leaders of our own kind.

Mill Hill Synagogue

Youth Directors United Synagogue Registered Charity No. 242552

Part Time - 25 hours per week including Shabbatot, Flexible weekday/ Sunday hours Salary depending on experience, accommodation can be included Mill Hill is a vibrant community with over 2,800 members and 1,100 children and youth.

The Shul has a warm, friendly, and informal atmosphere embracing communal diversity and celebrating spiritual growth. Our modern orthodox community has a varied membership and a Zionistic spirit.

We seek two new Youth Directors who will engage with our youth, and organise inclusive and enjoyable youth-led services and programmes.

Applicants should have proven experience in youth leadership demonstrating initiative, excellent planning, administrative and communication skills.

You will receive support from the Rabbinic team, office staff and lay team, receive professional development, and in turn, know that you are inspiring the future generation.

Closing date for receipt of applications is: Tuesday 12th July 2022 To view the job description and apply for this position, please visit: www.theus.org.uk/vacancies

Celebrating 150 Yea r s

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Jewish News 7 July 2022

Progressive Judaism

LEAP OF FAITH

BY RABBI RENÉ PFERTZEL KINGSTON LIBERAL SYNAGOGUE

Flashing the Cash “For 180 days, he displayed vast riches of his kingdom and the splendid glory of his majesty” (Esther 1:4) Last week it was reported that Lady Gaga was paid $1m to perform at the wedding celebration of Jewish British billionaire Alan Howard and Caroline Byron, a bash thought to have cost around $10million.

It follows a trend of some very lavish simchas for the super-rich, especially in America. Rappers Kanye West and 21 Savage received a similar amount to Lady Gaga for barmitzvah gigs, with pop star performances, rollercoaster simulators, mini-Broadway shows and even Cirque du Soleil seen at recent coming-of age-parties.

The benchmark was set in 2015 when Aerosmith, 50 Cent, Stevie Nicks and Tom Petty all played at a $10million batmitzvah mini-festival. The father of the batmitzvah girl was later imprisoned on charges including insider trading, tax evasion and raiding his company’s coffers to pay for the event.

This all reminds me of King Achashverosh and Queen Vashti. Achashverosh wanted to show his wealth

and strength by offering his courtiers and officials a banquet the likes of which nobody had ever seen. A man, immensely rich, who did not know what else to do with his power, decided to show it off. But who can sustain so many days of excess without losing any sense of decency?

The king decided to display his most treasured possession, his wife Vashti, as the pinnacle of his success.

She, however, did not want to partake of this orgiastic display of power, and turned him down. Achashverosh and his male guests saw the danger if they left this unaddressed, so he found a new wife. We know the rest: Esther is chosen and saves the Jewish people from the villain Haman. Vashti is replaced by someone who, at least in the king’s wishes, will be more obedient to his rule.

So what would the repudiated Vashti say about these lavish simchas of today? Probably that when one person is in possession of so much power and wealth, it becomes their raison d’être. Queen Vashti resented the fact that because of her husband’s position she was not considered a human being in her own right, but as an object.

Another strong queen, Elizabeth II, marked her 70 years on the throne with a series of events that brought together the whole country. As Vashti would tell us, money is a tool, not an end in itself.

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

Lady Gaga in full song at the $10m wedding of British billionaire Alan Howard

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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.

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

• Offers mock interviews and workshops to maximise job prospects.

• Expert in corporate management holding director level marketing,

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

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

DIVORCE & FAMILY SOLICITOR

TELECOMS SPECIALIST

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

• Frequent broadcaster on national and International radio and television.

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

• Independent consultant and supplier of Telephone & Internet services.

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

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

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

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

40 Jewish News

7 July 2022

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7 July 2022 Jewish News

www.jewishnews.co.uk

41

Fun, games and prizes

THE JEWISH NEWS CROSSWORD 1

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8 9 10 13 17 18 19 20

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7 8

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Elucidate (7) Elderly (3) Quality of being opportune (10) Return to a supposed previous life (10) Chum, mate (3) Late-1950s music style (7) Repudiate (6) Cut (hair) short (4)

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

DOWN 1 Sensitivity when dealing with others (4) 2 Drab military cloth (5) 4 Period of sunlight (3) 5 Thieved (5) 6 Person who goes around in the buff (6) 7 Variety of steak (3-3) 11 Firmly etch (6) 12 Photographer’s stand (6) 14 Very strong winds (5) 15 Proposal, suggestion (5) 16 Castle’s tower (4) 18 Join with stitches (3)

12 13

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

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ACROSS 1 Subtract (4) 3 Better than even chance in betting (4-2)

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 songs from the 70s and 80s 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.

S P B Y M E M O R Y F X K T

I W J H U S T

H T N B H C

I

I

1

P C A S

3

M O T A L U

I

T U P S A R

L E E N L

A S G E E N S O

E H A L

T R R A N U A R O

R N A

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L E E E

E C K

L

A O L

R

I

T S O O

I

B A E

I

B A R C E

L O N A

DONNA FAME GREASE HELLO JOLENE

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LOLA MEMORY NIKITA RASPUTIN RELAX

Last issue’s solutions Crossword ACROSS: 1 Sidle 4 Elbow 7 Foe 8 Thinner 9 Pope 10 Vast 13 Rut 15 Huns 16 Idle 19 Veteran 21 Ivy 22 Singe 23 Dread DOWN: 1 Safe 2 Die down 3 Either 4 Evil 5 Ban 6 Warmth 11 All-time 12 Chives 14 Tinned 17 Tree 18 Eyed 20 Tan

5 4 1 6 7 2 9 8 3

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25

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2 6 4 1 8 5 7 3 9

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5 1 4 2

D

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8

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L

17 21

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9

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13

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22

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A

D

Suguru 7 3 2 9 1 8 6 5 4

4 8

23 3

5

17 17

8

6

10

17

4 1 3 2

17 4

23

1

17

8

15

21

17

9

5

17

25

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4

See next issue for puzzle solutions.

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

Sudoku 3 2 6 8 5 7 4 9 1

14

2

E P G

9 1 5 4 6 3 2 7 8

13

18

RIO SAILING THRILLER WATERLOO XANADU

4 7 8 2 9 1 3 6 5

2

23

G G

L S K R W T N A

12

1

1 23

5

S D A D

N N E M J AGADOO ATOMIC BARCELONA CARS DENIS

3

T D L U C A

I

2

18

I

12 17

23

E O A D O P S T R X R F

L H M O N

8

5

R S T E F Y D E C D G E N I

18

5

1 5 7 3 2 9 8 4 6

8 9 3 7 4 6 5 1 2

1 4 5 2 1 3

3 2 3 4 5 2

4 1 5 2 3 1

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

Wordsearch 2 3 4 1 4 2

1 5 2 3 5 3

3 4 1 4 2 1

1 4 3 2 1 2

3 2 1 4 3 5

1 4 3 2 1 2

3 2 1 4 3 4

1 5 3 5 2 1

2 4 2 1 4 3

T S N K O L E L S R N S E

B I S N A T R O H S C U P

A S N O E G A H E A U E B

H T O T C O I F F U R E H

A E A T E M S C D M L K N

I L B Y P D R E E B Y O I

R G S K C O L D A E R D P

Codeword S N H S P S N I E E G R R

T I N P U R D Y A L N T I

Y R E O I Y O U T T I A A

L D T A E N E A O A G O H

E A F D E M M I R T I I C

G F R I Z Z Y N C L M L P

QU B R OWN O R E J I U S E X H T P A S P P RO A S N E E

I CK L Y G O A B E R UN L O G R O O I C E NO L D I SM Z E N C S I R T HOU A O N P P E D S C E G E D MY S T I

R A V I S H I N G

AM A E D E E W T H I H T T OW L A E F Y

WQ Z M K D I O V F H A U 07/07 C L EGY X T R BN S P J

42

Jewish News 7 July 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.

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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.

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

UTILITIES

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

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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

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

7 July 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

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HELP US CONTINUE TO BE THERE FOR OUR COMMUNITY WITH A GIFT IN YOUR WILL.

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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

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

Need cash fast?

Sell your gold and coins today!

9 ct per gram £17.07 14 ct per gram £26.63 18 ct per gram £34.14 21 ct per gram £39.83 22 ct per gram £41.70 24 ct per gram £45.52 Platinum 950 per gram £20.00 Silver 925ag per gram £0.39 Half Sovereigns £166.81 Full Sovereigns £333.61 Krugerrands £1415.86 We also purchase any sterling silver candlesticks and any other sterling silver tableware

We wish to purchase any Diamond & Gold Jewellery

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44

www.jewishnews.co.uk

Jewish News 7 July 2022

Yad Vashem: the World Holocaust Remembrance Centre, is the ultimate source for Holocaust education, remembrance, documentation, and research. As the Jewish people’s living memorial to the Holocaust, Yad Vashem safeguards the memory of the past and imparts its meaning for future generations.

In addition to the Holocaust History Museum, the Yad Vashem campus has other memorials you can visit. The Yad Vashem Museum, complex and grounds are open and free to all visitors. Private guided tours and special ageappropriate tours for families with children are available on request. Scan the QR code above to book online.

Yad Vashem UK promotes Holocaust education and awareness in the UK through:

»

Travelling Exhibitions – designed to promote dialogue about the Holocaust, imparting its universal lessons relevant to daily life in the 21st century.

»

Bar & Bat Mitzvah Twinning – young people, on their special day, can share it with a named child Holocaust victim who was denied a future.

»

Guardian of the Memory – guarding the memory of a named victim of the Holocaust. ‘Yizkor, Never Forget’.

»

Holocaust Education Seminars – held each year for teachers and Youth leaders at the Yad Vashem International School for Holocaust Studies.

Charity No. 1099659

|

www.yadvashem.org.uk

|

020 8187 9881

www.jewishnews.co.uk

7 July 2022 Jewish News

C

PRESIDENT HERZOG OPENS £90M MARCUS NATIONAL BLOOD SERVICES CENTRE On 2 May, Israel’s President, Isaac Herzog, opened Magen David Adom’s Marcus National Blood Services Centre. The 48,000 square-metre facility is the world’s most secure national blood bank.

Ensuring a life-saving supply of blood in the face of rapid population growth and in all emergencies, the Centre can withstand a direct ballistic missile attack, biological and chemical weapons, earthquakes, and cyber-terrorism. It will allow MDA to process double the 300,000 units of blood per year than it can currently collect and supply.

Photo: Jonathan Straight organisation’s first trip back to Israel since the start of the pandemic.

The state-of-the-art facility, located in the city of Ramla, has been built over five years at a cost of £90 million, funded by a three-way partnership between MDA UK, American Friends of MDA and the Government of Israel. MDA UK was privileged to be joined at the opening by a group of generous supporters in the

Shalvata Band performing at the opening ceremony of the Marcus National Blood Services Centre in Israel

MULTIFAITH MEZUZOT Magen David Adom UK would like to thank all those who generously funded rooms and areas in the newly opened Marcus National Blood Services Centre, as well as those who contributed to the Mezuzah Project. Through this initiative, MDA UK supporters donated over 80 mezuzot, each of which was designed especially for the Centre by students from Bezalel art college in Jerusalem and subsequently affixed to a door frame within the building.

One Mezuzah in the entrance of the building was sponsored by Christian Friends of Magen David Adom, while another was designed by Mohmad Saadi, an Israeli- Arab art student - a true reminder of the diversity of those involved across Magen David Adom.

Speaking at the dedication ceremony, President Herzog said, “Here, in this important, precious blood bank, we feel the essence of human co-dependence. It teaches us that we are brothers and sisters, even if we argue and disagree — but blood donations must be above any disagreement.”

Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz also commended the centre, “During the operations and wars over the years, MDA has had to stop processing blood and move the country’s blood services into bomb shelters. This actually interrupted blood production when it was most urgent for both civilians and soldiers alike.”

Art student Mohmad with the mezuzah he designed.

Photo: Jonathan Straight

MDA UK is grateful to everyone who took part in the project and whose generosity is now commemorated in one of Israel’s landmark constructions. There are still opportunities to be part of this amazing project and to sponsor a mezuzah in the Blood Centre from £75 per month. Please visit mdauk.org/mezuzah for more information.

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The Centre was built to replace the old facility in Tel Hashomer, which dates back to the 1980s and was no longer sufficient for the demands of Israel’s growing population. It is named in honour of Bernie Marcus, the founder of American home improvement chain Home Depot, and his wife Billi.

A mezuzah was dedicated to the Blood Centre in honour of the Redeemed Christian Church of God by Pastor Dele Oluwu and Pastor Comfort Oluwu.

Photo: Jonathan Straight

SAV E MO RE LIV ES I N I S RAEL TO DAY CAL L 020 8201 5900 O R V I S I T W W W.MDAUK .OR G/DONATE

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Jewish News 7 July 2022

DEDICATED BY YOU

www.jewishnews.co.uk

Alan and Sheila Diamond Charitable Trust - Medicycle

Lady Joy Bourne – Management Support Wing, Marcus National Blood Services Centre

Rosemary Rosen and Family - Vehicle Safety Offices, Marcus National Blood Services Centre

Arwas Family - Defibrillator

Judith and Martin Clarke – Mobile Intensive Care Unit

Russell and Irina Jacobs – Lobby, Marcus National Blood Services Centre. Photo: Jonathan Straight

Dangoor Family - Ambulance

Christian Friends of MDA – Escalators, Marcus National Blood Services Centre. Photo: Jonathan Straight

K C Shasha Charitable Foundation – All Terrain Vehicle

A RAY OF LIGHT FOR UKRAINIAN ORPHANS In March, Magen David Adom UK facilitated a rescue flight to bring 54 Ukrainian orphans safely from Poland to the UK, dubbed ‘Project Light’.

The orphans, together with their legal guardians, had been evacuated to safety in Poland by charities Dnipro Kids and Save a Child UK after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Following an intervention

by MDA UK ambassador Robert Rinder, who heard about their plight while broadcasting from the Ukrainian border, MDA UK contacted Virgin Atlantic CEO Shai Weiss. Within hours, the airline had donated a fl ight to bring the group to London.

Clairfield and Ashton Families – Mobile Intensive Care Unit

The Jerusalem Channel – All Terrain Vehicle

The mammoth operation, which also involved British humanitarian Sally Becker, was the largest airlift of child refugees from Ukraine. Upon arrival the group were taken to Scotland, where accommodation had been secured. They are living there while the conflict continues, before hopefully returning home to a peaceful Ukraine.

Daniel Burger, CEO of Magen David Adom UK, said, “This operation has only been possible thanks to the generosity of so many people.

Lifesaving is Magen David Adom’s reason for being and we wanted to support Ukraine in any way possible.”

Photo: Virgin Atlantic

FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA: Project Light garnered national coverage, including features on BBC Breakfast, The Guardian and Sky News

@Magen David Adom UK @mda_uk Photo: Virgin Atlantic

Photo: Virgin Atlantic

@MDAUK_

Magen David Adom UK, Winston House, 2 Dollis Park, London N3 1HF | T 020 8201 5900 | E info@mdauk.org | www.mdauk.org