There are 271,327 Jews living in England and Wales, according to the latest census data –an increase of just over 6,000 during the past decade.
The figure, published on Tuesday by the O ce For National Statistics, shows that despite the small increase in number, Jews continued to account for 0.5 percent of the population.
Those who identified as Jewish by religion increased from 265,073 in 2011 to 271,327 in Census 2021representing a rise of 2.4 percent.
Greater London accounts for
53.6 percent of the total Jewish population of England and Wales, with 145,466 Jews living in the capital.
The census also confirmed that the area with the largest number of Jews is Barnet, with 56,616, followed by Greater Manchester, with 28,072 and Hertfordshire, with 26,436.
The data also noted that Hertsmere is now the most densely populated Jewish hub: 17.01 percent of the population are Jewish
In several parts of Britain Jewish populations have fallen markedly since the 2001 census, notably: Redbridge (-57 percent), Harrow (-44 percent) and Brent (-42 percent).
But growth in Jewish communities in the areas such as Hackney, Continued on page 2
Continued from page 1 Salford and Bury in Greater Manchester appears to be the result of the increase in Charedi num bers, with their traditionally larger families.
Jewish life can be found in most local author ities in England and Wales - including the five in Merthyr Tydfil, Wales.
Data from Census 2021 confirms 67,984 identified themselves as being “ethnically Jewish” an increase on the 33,770 who identi fied the same way in 2011.
For the first time in a census of England and Wales, less than half of the population (46.2 per cent , 27.5 million people) described themselves as Christian. No religion was the second most common response, increasing by 12 percentage points to 37.2percent (22.2 million) from 25.2 percent (14.1 million) in 2011.
Census 2021 showed those identifying as Muslim rose from 2.7 million to 3.9 million people in England and Wales.
Hindus accounted for one million people, up from 818,000, while those identifying as Sikh rose from 423,00 to 524,000.
The number of Muslims stands at 3.9 million (up from 4.9 percent to 6.5 percent).
London remained the most religiously diverse region of England.
Dr Jonathan Boyd, executive director of the Institute for Jewish Policy Reseach, said: “Few people today understand or appreciate just how important the census is.
Table 3 Regional population size, 2021
Region Jewish population in region
Total population in region
% of total Jewish population in region
% of total population of E+W in region
% of region that is Jewish
London 145,466 8,799,728 53.6% 14.8% 1.7%
East of England 42,012 6,335,072 15.5% 10.6% 0.7%
North West 33,285 7,417,397 12.3% 12.4% 0.4%
South East 18,682 9,278,068 6.9% 15.6% 0.2%
Yorkshire and The Humber 9,355 5,480,774 3.4% 9.2% 0.2%
South West 7,387 5,701,186 2.7% 9.6% 0.1%
West Midlands 4,394 5,950,756 1.6% 10.0% 0.1%
North East 4,389 2,647,012 1.6% 4.4% 0.2%
East Midlands 4,313 4,880,054 1.6% 8.2% 0.1% Wales 2,044 3,107,494 0.8% 5.2% 0.1%
Total 271,327 59,597,541 100.0% 100.0% 0.5%
Source: Office for National Statistics E+W = England and Wales.
“But there is nothing like it. Its extraordinary detail allows us to see and understand the UK’s entirely unique ways. It is, without question, the most important research exercise in the UK.”
The Archbishop of York said the decline in people identifying as Christian is “not a great surprise” but acknowledged it “throws down a challenge”.
The Most Rev Stephen Cottrell said: “We have left behind the era when many people almost automatically identified as Christian but other surveys consistently show how the same people still seek spiritual truth and wisdom and a set of values to live by.”
The data, released on Tuesday, covers eth nicity, religion, national identity and laguage.
The census data show clearly how the location of the Jewish population has been changing over time. Over the last decade at the regional level, the strongest growth has been in East of England (which includes Hertfordshire) growing by 21%. But the second strongest growth was surprisingly, in the South West, which grew by 16% and recorded 7,387 Jewish peo ple in 2021 While it is too soon to assess why this area has grown by this much, particularly bearing in mind that it declined in the previous decade, one possibility may be related to people moving out to more rural areas during the pandemic It is also possible that the pandemic influenced the slight decline recorded in the size of London’s Jewish population over the decade (down 3.2% from 2011).
It also found:
• 81.7 percent (48.7 million) of usual resi dents identified their ethnic group as white, a decrease from 86 percent (48.2 million) back in 2011.
• In 2021, 91.1 percent (52.6 million) of res idents aged three and over had English (Eng lish or Welsh in Wales) as a main language.
Not shown in the table is the Jewish population of Greater Manchester which totalled 28,075 Jewish people in 2021. This is 12% higher than in 2011 when the population was enumerated at 25,013.
Table 4. Jewish population and change by region, 2001, 2011, and 2021
• 90.3 percent (53.8 million) of usual resi dents identified with at least one UK national identity (English, Welsh, Scottish, Northern Irish, British and Cornish).
The 2021 survey, carried out last March 21, was filled out by more than 24 million house holds across England and Wales.
Number Percent change 2001 2011 2021 2001 2011 2011 2021 2001 2021 London 149,789 150,329 145,466 +0.4% 3.2% 2.9%
Region
More data will be published in stages over the next two years.
• Editorial comment, page 14
East of England 30,367 34,830 42,012 +14.7% +20.6% +38.3% North West 27,974 30,417 33,285 +8.7% +9.4% +19.0% 17,761 18,682 6.7% +5.2% 1.9% 9,929 9,355 14.1% 5.8% 19.0% 6,365 7,387 5.7% +16.1% +9.5%
Stamford Hill community continues to grow
Page 5 of 9
Barnet remains the UK borough with the highest number of Jews living within it, according to the results of the 2021 Census.
Data confirms the community numbers 56,616 – up on the last census in 2011, when 54,084 people said they were Jewish.
Census 2021 also showed an increase in the number of Jews living in Greater Manchester, with the community numbering 28,072, a rise on the 25,013 in 2011. Driving the growth in Greater Manchester’s overall Jewish popula tion is an increase from 7,681 to 10,373 in Sal ford. A small increase also took place in Bury.
The census also confirmed a rise in the number of Jewish people living in Hertford shire – with the new results showing the com
munity now numbers 26,436, up from 21,345 in 2011. In Hertsmere, which is the most Jewish borough in the county of Hertfordshire, the community now numbers 18,436. It numbered 14,271 in 2011. Overall, the census confirms London has the largest Jewish population in England and Wales, followed by Greater Man chester, then Herts, Essex and Yorkshire.
But the new census results also confirm big declines in Jewish populations in some areas previously known for a sizeable community.
In Redbridge, the community is shown to have fallen from 10,208, to 6,412 over the past decade. But in nearby Havering it rose from 1,158 to 1,305, probably as a result of some migration from Redbridge.
The number of people in England and Wales who identify as ethnically Jewish doubled over the past decade.
The Institute for Jewish Policy Research (JPR) looked at data made available after further data was published from the ONS Census 2021 and found that 67,984 identified as being eth nically Jewish. This compared with the 33,770 who identified as ethnically Jewish in 2011. It is unclear how many of these total identifying themselves as ethnically Jewish also identified themselves as religiously Jewish as well.
In total, 271,000 people identified as Jewish in the 2021 census. “The total enumerated Jewish population is larger than that recorded by religion data alone but we will need to wait to find out just how many,” JPR reported in its census analysis. ‘Jewish’ was listed in the optional census question on religion, but was not specifi cally listed in the question on ethnicity.
Respondents could answer ‘Other’ and then tick the ‘Jewish’ box. In 2011, three-in-four of those who identified as ethnically Jewish also identified as religiously Jewish.
Panorama journalist John Ware has been awarded damages of £90,000 after winning a libel case against an online publisher who suggested his documentary examining antisemitism in Labour under Jeremy Corbyn was “rogue journalism”, writes Lee Harpin.
High Court judge Mr Justice Knowles said an article by Press Gang editor Paddy French “did cause, or was likely to cause” serious damage to experienced journalist Ware’s reputation.
Knowles said the scale of the £90,000 damages reflected the seriousness of French’s defamatory allegations, and the fact he had circulated them widely to senior journalists, adding to Ware’s “palpable anger and distress”.
Ware had sued for libel after French published an online article and pamphlet attacking the July 2019 Panorama episode ‘Is Labour antisemitic?’
He had initially sued French for £50,000 over a pamphlet entitled, “Is the BBC anti-Labour?”, which he published via his website.
French had claimed Ware’s Panorama programme had been “a piece of rogue journalism that presented just one side of the argument, ignored basic facts and bent the truth to breaking point”.
His arguments were similar to those taken up by a string of pro-Corbyn activists who aimed to discredit Ware, and Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, who ordered the party to pay “substantial damages” to seven whistleblowers over “defamatory and false allegations” made
about them, and the journalist, after the Panorama episode was broadcast. He had distributed the slurs about the programme to more than 100 senior figures at the BBC, Channel 4 News, Sky News, LBC, the Guardian, the Times, the Sunday Times and Sun on Sunday.
Justice Knowles also issued a permanent injunction stopping French from repeating the allegations at the centre of the claim.
Ware said he decided to take legal action “whatever the risk” after seeing a demonstration outside New Broadcasting House in London in 2019 organised by French in connection with the article and pamphlet.
Ware said he expected to take some criticism as a journalist but what French published was “not acceptable”.
• John Ware: Why I went to court over claims, p20
What does this new census data tell us? First, it provides more evidence that the Jewish population of this country is growing, or, at the very least, is stable – the simple fact that the number of people self-identifying as Jewish by religion climbed slightly from 259,927 in 2001 to 271,327 in 2021 indicates this.
There are caveats around those figures. Jews are not compelled to answer the religion question – it is voluntary.
Jews who identify as Jewish by ethnicity and not by religion are excluded (there were 8,558 in 2011; we don’t yet know the equivalent figure for 2021); and we don’t yet have counts for Scotland or Northern Ireland, so the counts only apply to England and Wales. But other evidence points to growth at this level too, so the fundamental story rings true. Nevertheless, the best current estimate for the size of the self-identifying UK Jewish population is 292,000.
After proper data processing, that will likely be revised slightly, probably upwards, but not by very much.
But the bigger question is about what is driving the growth? The UK Jewish population declined by a third between 1950 and
2000; how did we stop that?
The answer lies partly in census data from Hackney and Salford, and, to a lesser extent, Bury and Barnet, all of which have strong Charedi communities.
They are all growing – rapidly – providing the key engine of growth, even as other parts of the Jewish population slowly decline.
Ultimately, the key value of these data lies in community planning.
The census shows us the Jewish population in extraordinary detail, giving community organisations the potential to understand their ‘markets’ in unprecedented ways. As more data is released, our work will focus on that – using this information to help the community plan for all of our futures.
Hertsmere Conservative MP Oliver Dowden has branded his own party’s complaints process “not fit for purpose” after claiming it had been “exploited for political advantage by a Corbyn-supporting Labour candidate”.
Richard Price KC had been asked by Conservative Party HQ (CCHQ) toinvestigate four Hertsmere Borough Council members and a former councillor for their 2020 Borehamwood Kenilworth by-election campaign which targeted Labour opponent councillor Dr Dan Ozarow.
In his submission, Price found they were responsible for a “negative campaign” which left Ozarow facing a bar-
rage of antisemitic hate from members of the public, on the back of claims he was a supporter of Jeremy Corbyn. While still co-chair of the party Dowden had backed the decision by Hertsmere council leader Morris Bright to appeal against the findings against them. But last week it emerged that the party’s Individual Member Review Committee agreed that no new evidence had been submitted which could have made a di erence to the outcome. Dowden slammed the decision, stating: “This has been a flawed process. The complaints process is clearly not fit for purpose and has been exploited for political advantage.”
Rishi Sunak has emphasised Israel is “an incredibly important ally of the United Kingdom” and identified himself as a “proud friend of Israel”, in a letter written to the Conservative Friends of Israel group.
Outlining his “dedication to Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people”, the PM wrote of a “friendship that makes our citizens healthier through our joint collaboration on COVID
vaccines, more prosperous thanks to record trade flows, and also safer as a result of close security and military cooperation”. He added he is “determined to further strengthen the breadth and depth of our bilateral relationship”, reiterating his commitment to securing a UK Israel Free Trade Agreement and fulfil the 2019 Conservative manifesto pledge to combat BDS policies with legislation.
Prominent business leaders from within the community are offering their support once again to Labour under the leadership of Sir Keir Starmer, writes Lee Harpin
Former Jewish Leadership Council (JLC) chair and prop erty investor, Jonathan Goldstein, has confirmed the trend, insisting “strong backers of the Blair and Brown governments are coming back under the new environment”.
Goldstein, now co-owner of Chelsea Football Club, had previ ously been one of the most out spoken critics of the party under Jeremy Corbyn. He was one of the main speakers at the 2018 ‘Enough Is Enough’ rally against antisem itism in the party, which took place outside Parliament.
But Goldstein, who had previ ously been a member of the Labour Party until becoming disaffected, told Bloomberg UK it had become more normal to support Starmer’s party in today’s business circles.
Indeed, the Labour leader was Goldstein’s guest in the Chelsea directors box for the Arsenal game.
City solicitor Ian Rosenblatt also confirmed to the same news site that he had started to donate to Labour again “in the last few months”. He said Corbyn had previously “toxified the Labour Party and wasn’t inter ested in people like me”.
There was further support for Starmer from Gary Lubner, the chief executive of vehicle glass repair company Belron, who, according to Parliament’s Register of Members Financial Interests, showed he had
recently donated £42,000 to Labour, to pay for a staff member in the office of shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves.
It also confirmed Sir Victor Blank, a JLC vice president with a very successful business career, had donated £100,000 to pay for the sal aries of staff in Reeves’ office.
Jewish News has learned Reeves has been hosting speaking events specifically to convince leading fig ures in the business world that they can trust Labour under Starmer.
Former Middle East Minister Alistair Burt has warned that British politicians are finding it “more difficult” to criticise the actions of the Israeli government without their support for the Jewish state “being called into question”.
The ex-Tory MP told an audience at an event held at Muswell Hill Synagogue organised by the group Yachad: “It has become dif ficult – and that is wrong. It’s become more difficult for politicians to criti cise the actions of the government of Israel, without their support for the
state of Israel being called into question. That’s highly dan gerous.
“You have to make sure in the UK you give your politicians the license to criticise the gov ernment and not feel they are in any way anti-Israel or anti- the state itself. The dias pora should make sure people don’t accept it in relation to Israel.”
He berated the lack of credible leadership amongst the Palestinians and said he feared the situation could quickly deteriorate in Jerusalem and elsewhere in the region.
Tributes have poured in for the popular and long-serving Jewish Labour councillor Judi Billing MBE, after her family confirmed she had died, aged 71.
The Jewish Labour Movement, of which Billing was a member, described her as “an amazing woman and a true friend to us”. Her death was confirmed on social media on Thursday.
Labour NEC member Luke Ake hurst said: “Very sad to hear that the
wonderful Judi Billing, one of Labour’s local government heroes, and a member of the party’s national con stitutional committee, has passed away. She will be deeply missed.”
Billing represented Hitchin Bearton on North Herts Council for 42 years and Hitchin North at Hertfordshire County Council for nine. A mother, grandmother and great-grandmother, she was awarded an MBE in 2015 for services to local government.
It is with immense pain and sorrow that we at Chana mourn the passing of Dayan Ehrentreu ל”צז
The Dayan was Chana’s Rabbinic Patron, and a mainstay of our organisation as a whole, from our earliest beginnings nearly 30 years ago. The Dayan was a towering figure in the Jewish world, whose Halachic rulings were internationally sought and respected. Alongside this, he was also a giant in his understanding of reproductive medicine, with an expertise in combining the two fields that was second to none.
The Dayan’s passing leaves an aching chasm at the very core of our organisation. We will miss his clarity of vision, his warmth, his support and his encouraging guidance, more than words can ever express. We will always benefit from the direction he set for Chana over many years, and his influence will be ever present going forward
by Lee Harpin lee@jewishnews.co.uk @lmharpin
Boris Johnson has told shul members in his west London constituency that ousting him as prime minister was “a mistake”.
At the event at Ruislip Synagogue on Monday, he was answering a question from an audience member about his exit this summer as leader.
An audience member told Jewish News: “Boris used the ‘mistake’ word unprompted when asked for his view now on the decision of his party to oust him.
“It was clear throughout the conversation he felt he was wrongly removed. And it’s clear he definitely still has political ambitions.”
Johnson has pledged to support Rishi Sunak’s government from the back benches and had pulled out of last month’s Tory leadership race, after which Sunak replaced Liz Truss as leader.
He resigned in July, blaming the “herd instinct” of party MPs for his downfall.
In a question and answer session chaired by former London Jewish Forum director Daniel Kosky, Johnson said it
was “absolutely” his intention to stand at the next election, even though polls suggest he would lose his seat.
During the hour-long event at the only synagogue in his Uxbridge and South Ruislip constituency, he praised the “enormous contribution” of Jews in the capital and elsewhere in the UK. He spoke of his own family roots, which “traced back to a rabbi in Moscow”.
On antisemitism, he spoke of the need to remain vigilant against “a hatred which simmers and can pop up out of nowhere”.
He said that he expected the war in Ukraine to continue for the foreseeable future and that there was no deal Ukraine could strike with Russia. “You can’t negotiate with a crocodile which is eating your leg,” he said, adding: “I genuinely believe Ukraine can win.”
Turning to the Middle East, he was surprised Iran has been unable to produce a nuclear weapon given its size and resources.
He defended the decision of the UK to sign the JCPOA while he was foreign secretary as “the right thing to do”, but stressed the UK, Israel and
other countries around the world must keep up pressure on Iran.
Asked about former health secretary Matt Hancock’s participation in I’m A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here, Johnson
stated he wouldn’t follow in the footsteps of his father and take part. But asked whether he voted for Hancock, he said he could not work out how to, but that “Carrie worked it out and managed to vote for him.”
The Conservative Party has dismissed an appeal by three Hertsmere councillors and their election agent who were found guilty of “negative and personal campaigning” that incited antisemitic hatred
against a Jewish Labour candidate.
A committee agreed that new evidence would not have a ected the outcome.
The original ruling, in April, against five Tories was made
by a KC, Richard Price, and approved by then national cochairman Ben Elliot.
The committee had investigated a smear campaign against Dan Ozarow during a 2020 council by-election. Ozarow
received comments from the public including being told to “die in the gas chambers”.
Jeremy Newmark, leader of Hertsmere Labour & Cooperative Group, said: “Cllrs [leader Morris] Bright, [Brett] Rose-
hill, [Glenn] Briski and [Paul] Morris must now consider their positions.”
Ozarow recently joined the Local Government Association’s steering group on preventing abuse of councillors.
A rebbetzen and female priest have completed a unique 18-month joint educational pro gramme, writes Michelle Rosenberg.
Ilana Epstein, of Western Marble Arch Synagogue, and the Reverend Susan Bolen, of St Paul’s Wimbledon Parkside, worked side by side during the programme, titled In Good Faith and co-sponsored by Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis and the Archbishop of Can terbury, Justin Welby.
The project is aimed at cultivating better engagement between Jewish and Anglican religious leaders and providing better oppor tunities for interfaith activity at grass roots level.
Epstein and Bolen met with religious leaders from Jerusalem online as well as edu cators and theologians from both Christian and Jewish worlds, and recently travelled together to the National Holocaust Centre and Museum in Nottinghamshire.
Following the final meeting of the project, at the library of Lambeth Palace, Epstein said what she found most compelling from her experience was the reaction of her fellow graduates after sharing news of antisemitic rants from the American rapper Kanye West.
Guests and graduates of the Jewish Leadership Coun cil’s development division, Lead, enjoyed a lively reception last week to mark its 10th anniversary.
Keith Black, chair of the JLC and chief executive of the Regatta group, and James Timpson, CEO of the Timpson retail empire, discussed leadership values at the event at JW3.
Lead works cross-communally with trustees, lay leaders and professionals, offering development opportunities, programmes, events and networking.
Simi Ben Hur, chief executive of Shaare Zedek UK, is a graduate of the Adam Science Leadership programme. She said: “It really pushed me to think strategically about how the community could work better together. That’s something I’ve taken into the role that I do now.”
Dan Sherman, chief operating officer of a UK charity and a Lead alumnus, said the programme gives participants “the confidence to be able to think broadly, to be able to draw in partnerships with other
people, to seek new ideas and new ways of thinking. People that you can trust from your cohort come back and challenge you but do it in a way that is for the bet terment of that idea.”
Dan Bacall, director of external affairs at the office of the Chief Rabbi, said Lead’s programmes create “more self-aware and effective professionals and lay leaders”.
Epstein told Jewish News: “I’d felt very stressed that morning and very, very alone. When I shared what I’d seen with Susan, I was taken aback by the horror on her face.
“The shock she felt was real. As a Jew, in this world, we often feel very alone. Having these other faith leaders actually realise that what was happening was wrong was a real moment for me. I do know that their sense of empathy rather than sympathy was present.”
On her bond with the reverend, she added: “Susan is a lovely fellow American expat with deep insight into community.”
In Good Faith is a project in which rabbis, rebbetzens and priests debate pressing issues.
These include the challenges of combating religious extremism, of creating and sus taining thriving faith communities, of Israel and its implications for inter-religious rela tions, alongside reflections on the opportuni ties that exist, within both the Christian and Jewish faiths, to contribute to the common good together.
The hope is that relationships formed as part of the project will mean longstanding interfaith partnerships that lead to collabora tion between communities on the ground.
Israeli eighth-grade students on a tour in Azor, five miles south-east of Tel Aviv, have discovered a 3,000-year-old scarab, or seal, depicting what appears to be an Egyptian Pharaoh. The scarab shows a figure sitting on a chair and a standing figure, with what appears to represent the crown of a pharaoh
Jewish charities were among unsung heroes receiving awards at Westminster Abbey at a ceremony for London’s faith and belief community, writes Michelle Rosenberg.
Jewish Care was honoured in the category ‘community resourcefulness in response to Covid-19’.
Sir Ken Olisa, Lord-Lieutenant of Greater London, who presented the Faith & Belief Forum Community Awards, said: “Jewish Care adapted their o ering for older people living at home, including presenting events and programming to an on-line audience.”
He recounted his conversation that morning with King Charles, who o ered personal congratulations to all the organisations involved.
Other Jewish charities recognised in the Covid-19 category were the Paperweight Trust, which helped 3,500 clients on more than 5,000 cases, requiring more than 70,000 volunteer hours, and Hackney’s Hotline Meals Service, where 175 volunteers made meals for people who cannot shop or cook.
Project ImpACT was recognised in the ‘inspiring youth’ category. It helps teenagers to learn about social responsibility, while supporting worthwhile causes.
Following the lockdowns, ImpACT started to o er online volunteering and social action opportunities for 12- 18-year-olds. It encouraged teens to be as active as possible and take breaks from their screens during remote learning.
Founder and director Chayli Fehler told Jewish News: “It was humbling to be surrounded by so many wonderful charities and inspiring people, all working together to create a more supported and connected community.” She
praised her young volunteers for “cooking healthy meals at our youth community kitchen for food banks and shelters in Barnet and Camden”.
Richard Shone, Jewish Care’s director of community services, said the charity was “honoured” to received the award for its services, “which are a lifeline to thousands of older people in the London Jewish community”.
More than 300 people attended the event last Wednesday, held for the first time in Westminster Abbey; 38 projects were given awards in categories that included health and wellbeing, supporting women and environmental sustainability.
Olisa said: “This event is about saying thank you to those who help to increase Londoners sense of belonging through their actions and principles. The amazing projects celebrated through this scheme show us how faith teaches selflessness and strength.”
Kol Bonaich a non-profit organisation providing support for teens at risk, also received an award.
David Dangoor, chair of the forum’s Faith Council, closed the event by saying: “You all represent so many people ... showing how important it is to reach out to someone.”
NHS England has appointed the charity Jnetics, in partnership with Chai Cancer Care, to promote a new programme of genetic testing to identify individuals with a BRCA gene fault, writes Joy Falk.
The testing programme will launch next year as part of the NHS’s drive to catch tumours early when they are easier to treat.
The NHS plans to identify many hundreds if not thousands more ‘BRCA carriers’ over the next three years so they can seek early access to surveillance and prevention programmes.
The engagement campaign from Jnetics and Chai Cancer Care will help to raise awareness in Jewish communities and encourage a significant number of men and women over the age of 18 with Jewish ancestry to come forward for a free BRCA test, once the programme is rolled-out next year.
BRCA refers to two genes, BRCA1 and BRCA. Some
individuals are born with a fault in one of these genes, and this increases their likelihood of developing certain cancers, including breast, ovarian prostate and pancreatic cancer.
People with Jewish ancestry are more than 10 times more likely to carry such genetic faults than the general population.
NHS England is launching its BRCA Testing Programme, which will see anyone with Jewish ancestry o ered a simple genetic test to look for the presence of BRCA1 or BRCA2 faults.
Following a competitive tender process Jnetics, in partnership with Chai Cancer Care, were appointed to lead a communications campaign to promote the programme.
Together with communications agency Creative & Commercial, the organisations will launch a campaign to engage all members of the Jewish community
Jewish Ukrainian composers are on the musical bill when the Zemel choir performs in central London on 11 December.
The concert by the internationally celebrated mixed-voice group is a key fundraiser for World Jewish Relief’s Ukraine crisis appeal and celebrates European Jewish culture and Chanukah.
It will feature works by composers including Ernest Bloch, Max Janowski and Meir Finkelstein, and guest soloists include Cantor Robert Brody, Cantor Paul
Heller, Ann Sadan, and Benjamin Seifert accompanied by Dr Franklyn Gellnick
British ambassador to Ukraine Melinda Simmons will make an online address from Ukraine. Henry Grunwald, president of the WJR and former president of the Board of Deputies, will compere the evening.
The 40-strong Zemel Choir was established by Dudley Cohen in 1955. For tickets and venue details, visit www.zemelchoir.org/wjr. All proceeds go to World Jewish Relief.
Adult internet users will be offered more control over social media they do not wish to see, including those that are antisemitic, the government has said, writes Lee Harpin.
Under the newly-announced amendments to the Online Safety Bill, which returns to parliament next week, platforms must provide tools to help people avoid material that glorifies racism or misogyny.
While the proposals, also aimed at stopping encouragement of self-harm, will help shield chil dren, critics have rounded on the government’s decision to remove plans to regulate ‘legal but harmful content’. MPs had raised concerns that such regulation would limit the right to free speech.
While companies will still need to remove content that is illegal or prohibited in their terms of ser vice, the Bill will no longer define specific types of legal content that companies must deal with.
Shadow culture secretary Lucy
Powell said: “Replacing the preven tion of harm with an emphasis on free speech undermines the pur pose of this Bill, and will embolden abusers and hoaxers, who feel encouraged to thrive online.”
The ‘legal but harmful’ meas ures will be replaced with duties
that strengthen the Bill’s free speech requirements on big online platforms to make them more accountable for their policies.
Digital secretary Michelle Don elan has confirmed that she has removed the ‘harmful communi cations’ offence from the Bill to
ensure its measures do not unduly criminalise content that some may find offensive.
Donelan said the legislation had been “freed from any threat that tech firms or future governments could use the laws as a licence to censor legitimate views ”.
Another set of amendments is aimed at boosting protections for women and girls by adding the criminal offence of controlling or coercive behaviour to the list of priority offences in the Bill.
Danny Stone, director of the Antisemitism Policy Trust, said he welcomed some of the changes but found a focus on “content over sys tems” to be “disappointing”.
The government claims that parents and the wider public will benefit from changes to force tech firms to publish more information about the risks their platforms pose to children. Firms will have to show how they enforce user age limits, and publish details of when Ofcom takes action against them.
A staff member at a London Jewish care home has been named manager of the year at the Nursing Times’ Workforce Summit & Awards.
Roshni Shah, from Nightingale Hammerson in Hampstead Garden Suburb, was winner in the non-clinical category. Judges praised her approach to care management at the home for older members of the Jewish community.
Some 700 professionals from the health and care fields gathered at the Hilton London Metro pole for the awards. Nightingale Hammerson’s director of care Nuno Lopes said: “Roshni always puts residents, relatives, team members and vol unteers at the centre of everything she does.”
Nursing Times editor and ceremony host Steve Ford congratulated winners across 17 cat egories, saying the awards “highlight some of the brilliant work being carried out during what continues to be an incredibly difficult period”.
One of the Jewish community’s greatest rabbin ical figures and former head of the London Beth Din has died, aged 90.
Dayan Chanoch Ehrentreu, who passed away at the Royal Free Hospital last Thursday, was described by the Chief Rabbi as “an excep tionally learned and fearless leader”. Ephraim Mirvis added: “His warmth touched countless hearts and his enduring legacy of commitment to Torah values and scholarship will enrich our communities for generations to come.
“He will forever be remembered as ‘The Dayan’, whose sincerity and sense of principle established him as a great leader of our genera tion. We extend our heartfelt condolences to his extraordinary Rebbetzin Ruchie and all of his illustrious family.”
Ehrentreu was born in Frankfurt in 1932 to a family of rabbis and was aged six during Kristallnacht. His grandfather was the Chief Rabbi of Munich during Hitler’s attempted coup in 1923. When his family emigrated to the UK, Ehrentreu went to school in Letchworth, then on to Hasmonean High School, before studying at Gateshead Yeshiva.
Rabbi Daniel Epstein, of Western Marble Arch Synagogue, said: “He wasn’t just at Gates head Yeshiva, he was Gateshead Yeshiva. He was our gold standard for everything. It’s devas tating. He was the ultimate Dayan. He was a real and very strong figure, kind and compassionate.
“We all felt very reassured that he was here. He married [my wife] Ilana and I at Western Marble Arch and told us we should dedicate our lives to Torah. Twenty-five years later, here we are. He always took an interest in everything we did. He was the ultimate pastoral carer for us. He was the rabbi’s rabbi.”
Ehrentreu founded the Sunderland Kollel in 1960, which he led until 1979, before becoming the communal rabbi of Manchester from 1979 to 1984. He is credited with the success of the UK’s first public eruv in north-west London and lobbied for improving the lives of agunot, or chained wives, through his lobbying for the 2003 Act of Parliament that prevented Jewish
men from receiving a civil divorce without a get, or religious divorce.
Dayan Ehrentreu was internationally respected. He was awarded the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in recognition of his contribution to the Jewish community.
Dayan Menachem Gelley, of the London Beth Din, said: “Dayan Ehrentreu’s towering pres ence crowned Anglo Jewry and European Jewry for many decades. He was a giant in Halacha, in chesed [loving-kindness] and in wisdom, acces sible to young and old alike. His courageous leadership, wise counsel, warmth and empathy won him the respect and admiration of all who came into contact with him.”
Pinchas Goldschmidt, president of the Con
ference of European Rabbis and Chief Rabbi of Moscow, said: “Dayan Ehrentreu was a true Torah giant. His contribution to deciding com plex issues of Halacha was of unparalleled importance in our age in the UK, in Europe and far beyond. As Av Beth Din of the European Beth Din of the Conference of European Rabbis, his passing is a huge loss to us all. May his memory be for a blessing.”
Michael Goldstein, president of the United Synagogue, said: “This marks the end of an era. Under Dayan Ehrentreu’s leadership, the London Beth Din became an institution respected across the Jewish world and by all sections of the community. His deep humility and personal touch will be remembered by eve
ryone he came into contact with.”
A spokesperson for the Community Secu rity Trust (CST) said: “We mourn this sad loss together with all the Jewish community. He was an exceptional person who was instrumental in guiding CST in Halachic matters.”
Fertility support organisation Chana said: “Dayan Ehrentreu was our rabbinic patron and a mainstay of our organisation as a whole, from our earliest beginnings nearly 30 years ago. He was a towering figure in the Jewish world, whose Halachic rulings were internationally sought. He was also a giant in his understanding of reproductive medicine, with an expertise in combining the two fields. His passing leaves an aching chasm at the core of our organisation.”
A former Royal Marine has spoken of the life-changing impact of an initiative bringing together injured Israeli and British ex-servicemen at an event to mark the launch of the 2023 Veteran Games.
And Israeli ambassador Tzipi Hotovely praised the annual project organised by Beit Halochem UK at the launch at her home in London.
Voting in parliament prevented the UK’s newly installed veterans minister Johnny Mercer from joining the event on Tuesday night.
Joe Winch, a father of four, was among those to travel to Israel for the contest last May. The Royal Marine was medically discharged from the military in 2018 with complex post-traumatic stress disorder.
He described how a lack of financial support following the diagnosis meant he was on the verge of losing his home.
However, at the mental health conference that took place on the sidelines of the Veteran Games, he met a senior British o cial who
“remained at our side until we got the right solution for me” and ended up helping to “give me back my life”. After highlighting shortcomings in the system, his pension was adjusted and he no longer had to sell the family home.
Winch told the gathering, which included sponsors and supporters of the project: “Words can’t express the relief we are feeling. None of this would have happened without the
Veteran Games. No other veteran events puts the veterans alongside policymakers... and enables policy changes in the blink of an eye.”
He described the Games – con-
ceived by Beit Halochem UK’s chair, Andrew Wolfson, and CEO, Spencer Gelding, and first run in 2019 – as “truly a once in a lifetime journey” that had also enabled the family to take a holiday together for the first time in years.
Having enjoyed tours of the country with fellow veterans during
their time in Israel, he said his children cannot wait to return.
Beit Halochem is partnering with 11 UK veteran charities for the 2023 Games, with each putting forward former servicemen and women who have experienced mental or physical trauma and who they feel would most benefit from participation.
Glynis Gillam, of Blind Veterans UK, said of the 2022 event: “We were treated like kings and queens
for the whole time we were there. The Games recognise the role families play and also the role that sporting activities can play in recovery.”
The initiative is supported by the Pears Foundation, the Charles Wolfson Charitable Trust, the Maurice Wohl Charitable Foundation, Patron Charitable Initiatives, Rachel Charitable Trust, the Exilarch’s Foundation, the Wolfson Family Charitable Trust and the Gerald and Gail Ronson Family Foundation.
Hailing the Games as “the best of British and the best of Israel coming together”, Hotovely said: “No matter how many dinners I host, this will always remain the most special event. Nothing we can do on tech… can make this human di erence.”
Veteran Games CEO Andy Garland said the Games had led to veterans sharing their experiences in schools and the creation of social media groups involving alumni from di erent parts of the country to o er support and combat isolation.
Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to appoint Avi Maoz, the anti-LGBTQ Noam Party’s only MK, head of a new “Jewish identity” authority has been fiercely criticised by outgoing ministers, writes Jotam Confino.
Maoz is known for his homophobic comments and policy proposals aimed at curbing the rights of the LGBTQ community in Israel, opposing women in combat positions, support for legalising gender segregation at public events, and warning against the influence of Arab teachers in Jewish secondary schools.
The newly-created role of head of Jewish identity falls under the Prime Minister’s O ce. Moaz will also be appointed a deputy minister as part of the coalition agreement.
Outgoing prime minister Yair Lapid tweeted following the announcement: “This is the man who opposes women’s enlistment to the IDF [Israel Defence Forces], opposes women in senior roles, supports conversion therapy for the LGBT [community], and supports every other backward view imaginable. Is this
what you wanted? For this backward nationalist to make decisions over your life? Over your daughters? Over your gay nephew? Is this how you want the state of Israel to look?”
Maoz will also be have authority over the organisation Nativ, which deals with Jewish immigration to Israel from the former Soviet Union.
Outgoing Diaspora a airs minister Nachman Shai called the decision to let Maoz deal with immigration “unreal” and said forming the new body for Jewish identity “cheapens those words”. He added: “MK Avi Maoz, soon a deputy minister, will screen potential immigrants from Russia and Ukraine.”
A former Mossad chief this week told Jewish News that Itamar Ben-Gvir, leader of the far-right Jewish Power party, could ignite the entire Middle East and damage Israel’s normalisation deals with Arab countries if he makes good on his promise to visit the Temple Mount after being sworn in as national security minister, writes Jotam Confino.
When asked if Ben-Gvir’s visit could be compared to Ariel Sharon’s infamous visit to the Temple Mount in 2000, which helped to provoke the second intifada, Danny Yatom replied: “No doubt.” He added: “It will ignite the vicinity of the Temple Mount” as well as the West Bank and possibly the entire Middle East.
Falling short of promising to change the status quo on the Temple Mount, which forbids Jews to pray there, Ben-Gvir said on Sunday that he would “work against the racist policy on the Temple Mount” and that he intended to visit the area in the coming months in his new role.
Yatom said Netanyahu would “destroy his achievements, including the signing of the Abraham Accords, if he allowed Ben-Gvir to visit the Temple Mount. It would also a ect
Israel’s relationship with Jordan and Egypt, he added.
Yatom said the new government, which he called the most “extreme right-wing in Israel’s history”, will make it more di cult for Israel to build on the Abraham Accords and normalise ties with other Arab states.
“Until a few years ago, those extremists weren’t accepted at the Knesset and all of a sudden they are normalised,” he said. “We are going to face very di cult times, [and a] tense relationship with the Palestinians that might a ect our ties with the US.”
The former Mossad chief also said the ultra-Orthodox parties in the government would be powerful politically and work against American Jewry’s interests. “I am worried,” he concluded.
The Office For National Statistics’ 2021 census data for ethnic groups and religion provide fascinating insight into the cultural and religious identity of England and Wales in March last year.
Three numbers jump out. In a watershed moment, for the first time, fewer than half the population describe themselves as Christian. The number of selfdescribed Christians is now 27 million, six million fewer that 10 years ago.
Second, those who identify as Muslim rose more than one million – from 2.7 million to 3.9 million.
Third, the number of Jews in England and Wales has barely changed in 10 years. In 2011, there were 265,000, and in 2021 there were 271,000 – an increase of just 6,000. The 2021 results mean that as a percentage UK Jews remain a mere 0.5 percent of the overall population.
Of course, these numbers are merely indicative; the religion question was voluntary so the figure of 271,000 is an undercount. Many Jews will have avoided self-identifying, especially in the strictly-Orthodox community, which tends to be suspicious of such data collection but where population numbers are rising fastest. So, the questions of who is a Jew and how many of us there are, as ever, complex, but the true number is nearer 300,000.
Despite their shortcomings, these stats will provide an invaluable guide for organisations such as the Board of Deputies, the Jewish Leadership Council and the Institute for Jewish Policy Research in planning communal life over the next decades in areas such as schools, housing and social care.
There are two final points to ponder. One is that it is remarkable how stable Jewish population numbers in England and Wales have been since the post-war high of 410,000 in 1955: in the past 20 years the dial has barely shifted, a reflection, perhaps, of the vast diversity in modern-day Judaism and the multicultural society we live in.
The other point is a that these figures offer a poignant reminder of how precious and unique our community is.
Your columnist Alex Brummer complains that Netanyahu’s election win, supported by the “far right, is an affront to democracy and the principles behind the nation’s declaration of independence”. Yet no one complained that Israelis of all stripes were disenfranchised, and liberals, including Brummer, didn’t object to the inclusion of an Arab Islamist MK into govern ment, even though Ra’am’s policies would mean the end of Israel as the Jewish nation state.
Brummer might be shocked to discover that Israelis voted the way they did because terrorism against Israeli Jews is now at pre-2006 levels and Israelis want a government that protects them from Palestinian terror. Since May, 40 Jewish Israeli civilians have been murdered, leaving behind devastated families.
In Brummer’s caricature of the former US Presi-
dent Donald Trump, there’s no mention of the Abraham Accords he enabled, bringing unprec edented rapprochement between Israel and some Arab states, or the cutting of funding from the Palestinian Authority’s ‘pay
Similarly, his depiction of the “ultra-right iron-fist rule of Hungary’s Viktor Orban” ignores the safety and protection Hungarian Jews enjoy, unlike under Western Europe’s ‘liberal’ governments.
Brummer thinks British Jewry’s “right to take the moral high ground” (from a safe distance) to speak out against the election results, reminds one of the great Thomas Sowell, the American author/ economist, who said: “It is usually futile to try to talk facts and analysis to people who are enjoying a sense of moral superiority in their ignorance.”
Colin Rossiter, WC2
Jewish News should win an award for double standards. Recent editions have been dominated by a smear campaign against two politicians who have been elected through Is rael’s celebrated democratic system. Every kind of inflammatory language is used to rubbish these gentlemen.
At present there is an MK who is quoted as saying that “Charedim should be thrown to the garbage”, and a minister who supports terror ism and calls for the dismantling of the state. Where is the outrage?
The ultra-left is not bothered about other people’s suffering because its agenda takes priority. Maybe Israelis have decided that an increased dose of the national religion is a price worth paying so they do not have to live under siege.
Suzy Bennett, Edgware
Leila Cumber clearly identifies with Is raelis who “abhor the result”, namely, by electing “extremists” of the Na tional Religious Party (Jewish News Opinion, 24 November 2022).
I don’t recall letters from her com plaining about the inclusion in the last government of an anti-liberal Islamist Arab party, whose number three was virulently homophobic and held up legislation affecting the LGBTQ com munity, as [deputy mayor of Jerusa lem] Fleur Hassan Nahoum reported in her article last week.
As she further commented, the appeal of Itamar Ben-Gvir was based on security, not bigotry, not only be cause of the huge uptick of terrorism against Jews, but also the lawless ness and gun violence in Arab cities. Doesn’t Ms Cumber care about that?
Warren S Grossman, By email
Thank
Unlike other Jewish media, we do not charge for content. That won’t change. Because we are charity-owned and free, we rely on advertising to cover our costs. This vital lifeline, which has dropped in recent years, has fallen further due to coronavirus.
Today we’re asking for your invaluable help to continue putting our community first in everything we do.
For as little as £5 a month you can help sustain the vital work we do in celebrating and standing up for Jewish life in Britain.
Jewish News holds our community together and keeps us connected. Like a synagogue, it’s where people turn to feel part of something bigger. It also proudly shows the rest of Britain the vibrancy and rich culture of modern Jewish life.
You can make a quick and easy one-off or monthly contribution of £5, £10, £20 or any other sum you’re comfortable with. 100% of your donation will help us continue celebrating our community, in all its dynamic diversity.
Support Jewish News by visiting our donor page at jewishnews.co.uk
The decision to drop the charges for “legal reasons” against the perpetrators of the Palestinian car convoy begs a question. Perish the thought, but were a six-car convoy, draped with Israeli flags, blasting their horns and screaming, “F*** the Muslims, rape their daugh ters” to descend on Brad ford, might the same “legal reasons” be drawn upon by the CPS, resulting in it similarly having to drop all charges? I have my doubts, or is that just me being a typical Jew with a persecu tion complex?
Michael White, N3
In his recent book, Jews Don’t Count, English Jewish comedian David Baddiel urges the non-Jewish world to see Jewish humanity while calling out how certain elements of progressive identity politics have failed Jews in particular. In the wake of a recent surge in antisemitism in the UK and the US, Baddiel’s project appears to be particularly acute.
Unfortunately, any gains made by the book – and subsequent documentary of the same title that recently aired on Channel 4 – are immediately negated by the creator engaging in harmful stereotypes about the Jewish people. Though it may appear that Baddiel is ringing the alarm in an e ort to protect Jews writ large, it turns out that he is only talking about his kind of Jews.
Baddiel’s attempt to galvanise support for Jews by encouraging non-Jews to fight stereotypes that harm our people falls flat as he commits the very sins against which
he rails by stereotyping and isolating a wide swathe of his own community.
Baddiel’s first transgression comes when he denies any connection that Jews have to the state of Israel. When asked about his position on Israel, he writes, “I don’t care about it more than any other country, and to assume I do is racist.” He also says that his family’s history of escaping the Nazis during the Holocaust has nothing to do with Israel, which he dismisses as simply “a Middle Eastern country three thousand miles away”.
Of course, Jews shouldn’t be obligated to have to defend every decision made by the Israeli government. But Baddiel’s disposition is ignorant of the history and culture of the Jewish people. In my book, The Wrong Kind of Jew: A Mizrahi Manifesto, I carefully map the history of the Jewish people, which began in the land of Israel thousands of years ago. If not for our people being continually exiled and exterminated throughout the centuries, we would have remained there – in fact, almost half of world Jewry still does.
Further, in his unempathetic repudiation of Israel, Baddiel disseminates harmful stereo-
types about Israeli Jews. “Israelis aren’t very Jewish anyway,” he writes, calling us “too macho, too ripped and aggressive and confident” while oddly highlighting a Jewish character he made up with the catchphrase, “Jews without angst, without guilt. So not really Jews at all”.
I’m sorry, but did a prominent Jewish figure really make a movie about a book in which he claims who is and isn’t Jewish? Not to mention that the film aired on a prime time network with critics calling it “thoughtful,” “fascinating and timely,” “powerful and important,” and worthy of a five-star review.
As a Mizrahi Jew of Iraqi and Tunisian heritage, it’s di cult to not see Baddiel’s work as a direct attack on me and my community. To wholly dismiss the connection between Israel and the Jewish people while making uneducated determinations about what characteristics constitute a “real” Jew is a slap in the face to the 53 percent of Israeli Jews whose diasporic experience was in the Middle East and North Africa. So while Baddiel appears desperate for the non-Jewish world to recognise the antisemitic or racist ideas they hold about Jews, his entire perspective is drenched in racism against his own people.
Baddiel further exacerbates antisemitism within our own community by who he elects to interview for his film – or, more importantly, who he elects to not interview. The Guardian heralded the film’s “all-star” cast, headlined by celebrities such as David Schwimmer, Sarah Silverman and Stephen Fry. Although I like these individuals for their cinematic contributions, is this who we really needed to hear from?
Though the film does feature a couple of
cast was mostly wealthy
for the most part can pass
interviews with Jews of Colour, this is a far cry from the full representation we deserve in a movie about racism. Even worse, no interviews were conducted (or at least made the final cut) with Israeli Jews or Orthodox Jews, two groups who are most often the victims of violent forms of antisemitism. Rather, the cast was mostly wealthy and powerful Jews who for the most part can pass as White.
Overall, Baddiel’s film is a 70-minute contradiction wherein he emphatically asserts that he is European, an atheist and has no connection to Israel, all while trying to convince the viewer to understand that Jews su er from racism. The reality is that Baddiel tries to have it both ways, by painting Jews as exclusively European (other than a few anomalies) but then arguing that Jews are not White.
If Baddiel had only met with Israelis for his film, he might have realised that our disconnect is simply due to the fact that we have a di erent culture. The Jewish people are beautiful and diverse, a fact we should embrace and not reject. Even if he detests our culture, it is still valid and will not disappear. Ignoring this crucial part of Jewish history and only recognising a modern Jewish identity does nothing to put an end to antisemitism, and in fact only erases my community’s Jewish identity.
I’m sorry Mr. Baddiel, but all Jews count, not just some.
Hen Mazzig is a writer and the author of The Wrong Kind of Jew: A Mizrahi Manifesto. He is a Senior Fellow at The Tel Aviv Institute. Follow him: @henmazzig
“Israelis aren’t very Jewish without guilt. So not reallydeserve in a movie
cut) with Israeli Jews often the victims of
as White.David Baddiel chats with comedian Sarah Silverman for Channel 4’s Jews Don’t Count
Anyone who has worked on a newspaper or magazine will be familiar with the concept of the media lawyer. Even community journals, like this newspaper, funded with the assistance of charitable money, can find themselves in the crosshairs. Britain’s onerous libel lawyers and chippy, litigious critics can threaten the very existence of the free press.
Most of us have experienced disquiet when a carefully-researched article, banging wrongs to rights, is returned to an editor or journalist with a blue pen through much of the transcript making publication all but impossible.
Instead of regarding the ‘legal’ department or outside advisers as allies, reporters at times see the lawyers as a menace.
Eddie Young , the Daily Mail’s former senior legal adviser who died on 17 November aged 80, was the antithesis of this. He set about making the Associated Newspapers legal department
an extension of the newspapers he represented. Initially Young worked on the Evening Standard and later the Mail titles. His ‘can do’ attitude still drives the Mail’s legal department.
Young’s leadership meant the philosophy of his team was to get material into the paper, however controversial. He would take the fight to the courts and confront the establishment pomposity of the judges, in the name of ‘freedom of the press’, even for the most obscure cause.
His former colleagues, such a the Sun’s chief legal o cer, Adam Cannon (a board member and informal adviser to Jewish
News), have spread across Fleet Street, helping to make it a more fearless place. A looming 6ft 3 and athletic in build, Young cut a formidable figure. His greatest claim to fame was his close collaboration with Daily Mail editor-in-chief Paul Dacre. He was instrumental in bringing one of the most famous headlines of the late 20th-century, ‘Murderers’ – accusing five suspects of the racist killing of Stephen Lawrence in south-east London – of a crime of which they had been acquitted. It was a turning point for justice, eventually leading to the Macpherson Report, which exposed institutional racism in the Metropolitan Police.
More privately, Eddie had another great passion. Although he prided himself on editorial independence, he was a fierce supporter of Israel. Scrolling through my emails after his death,I found several tart critiques of articles that had appeared in the Mail, which he found derogatory of Israel.
He was particularly critical of one columnist whose views (I later discovered) had been fortified by a family member’s senior British army background and the death toll at the King David Hotel explosion in 1946. The strong views of the
two colleagues would never be reconciled. Occasionally (because he refused to directly engage in editorial policy), Young sought to use me as a conduit to Mr Dacre on Middle East reporting.
Born to a large Roman Catholic family and educated at St Benedict’s school in Ealing, and University College London, Young converted to Judaism after meeting his wife, Diana. The family lived in north London, where Young developed a wide circle of Jewish and Israeli friends. He later set up home in Herzliya, where he spent holidays and many of his later years. He is survived by Diana and their children, Danielle (who lives in Israel), Nadine and Ilan.
Young, the strapping captain of his school’s cricket team and regular member of the rugby XV (where he played alongside Chris Patten), would have looked down at the shiva in the family home in Finchley with pride.
Ilan took control, reading every word of the Ma’ariv service in a beautifully lilted, modern Hebrew. Eddie may have been born Catholic but he died a robust Jew, proud of his identity and as fearless a defender of Israel as he was of a free press. He has a vibrant legacy as part of the golden chain of Judaism.
We purchase a wide range of Antiques, including Furniture through the ages, from Georgian, Regency and Victorian, to the more rare 20th century modern pieces. We also specialise in diamond jewellery, gold, silver, and paintings of any period, with an emphasis primarily on quality.
If you would like advice or to sell direct, do get in touch. Selling direct eliminates the high commissions involved with auction houses. In fact, we encourage sellers to obtain an auction estimate before contacting us, to be certain of receiving the best possible price.
Payment is immediate, by cash or Bank Transfer and we collect free of charge. We are here to help.
Please call Sue for a free valuation on: Freephone 0800 840 2035. Mob: 07956 268 290. email: antiquesbuyers8@gmail.com. Visit our website for more details: www.antiquesbuyers.co.uk
EDDIE MAY HAVE BEEN BORN CATHOLIC BUT HE DIED A ROBUST JEW, AND A FEARLESS DEFENDER OF ISRAEL
❝
John Ware took Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party, the group Jewish Voice for Labour and a pro-Corbynite journalist to court for defamation over his 2019 BBC Panorama exposé on antisemitism. In the first of two articles, he reveals the background to his marathon litigation to defend the programme against a campaign that belittled the anxieties of Jews and tried to destroy his reputation
Yesterday marked the successful end of my three-year campaign to defend, in the forensic setting of a courtroom, the 2019 BBC Panorama programme Is Labour Antisemitic?, for which I was the reporter.
I sued the publisher of a website called “Press Gang exposing rogue journalism” who launched a defamatory campaign “exposing” my “dirty tricks” to deliberately deceive two million viewers by knowingly exaggerating the scale of antisemitism in Labour under Jeremy Corbyn.
It was the last of my three cases against Labour under Corbyn and two of his highprofile supporters who’ve tried to destroy every vestige of Panorama’s credibility, belittling the anxieties of many Jews in Labour under whose leader antisemitism had secured a foothold. Undermining Panorama has been central to Corbynite attempts to rewrite history because they consider the programme helped deprive Corbyn of the premiership.
Posturing as the high priests of ethical journalism, their attacks have relentlessly vilified the professional integrity of me and my BBC colleagues. Press Gang publisher Paddy French disseminated his “evidence” in glossy pamphlets and to many thousands on social media parroting the language of a quasi-statutory body with portentous assertions like “Our Charge sheet...” and “This damning report finds against the BBC...”
Around 300 of the pamphlets were sent to editors and senior journalists in television and radio networks and newspapers to inflict maximum harm on my reputation and BBC journalism. Flyers were handed to BBC employees outside Broadcasting House.
My motive for knowingly deceiving two million viewers? To help prevent Corbyn becoming prime minister, according to French – despite my having accused Boris Johnson of lying as prime minister in another documentary just three weeks before the 2019 election.
French’s website claimed he could prove all his allegations and that his lawyers were “confident” he had “a strong defence”. He said that a “landmark John Ware v Paddy French libel trial will decide who was right in the Labour antisemitism issue”.
Among his supporters were the celebrity Corbynites Ken Loach, the film director, and Roger Waters, the co-founder of Pink Floyd. The multimillionaire musician was French’s main financial backer. In one of Waters’ social media tirades against me, he said I was “entirely controlled by the oligarchs... bought and paid for”.
For months, French had told his supporters that only a trial o ered the “unique opportunity for the issue of antisemitism in Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party to be explored in a forensic setting”. But as the trial date drew close, French said he wouldn’t be coming to court after all. He announced there was no longer any need to contest my claims, because others had made his case for him and, anyway, a ruling earlier in the case had prevented him from defending himself.
Giving judgment, Mr Justice Knowles said this was a ”knowing, deliberate and cynical distortion” of the truth. The ruling had not deprived French of “any ability to defend himself on the grounds of truth, public interest or any other defence he wished to plead and advance”. French’s “whole attitude to these proceedings” had been “one of contempt”. Meanwhile, French stayed in his house in the south of France.
He knew I had no desire to bankrupt him –and that an apology, minimal damages and my costs would su ce. But he chose to leave his fate to the court, which has now awarded me £90,000 in damages for French’s “aggravating conduct” and my costs. He must also apologise.
This brings to £5.6m the estimated cost to Corbynites thus far from losing 17 out of 23 cases, the vast majority defamation and antisemitism-related. Another six are ongoing. French says that by suing a fellow journalist I’ve breached a sacred convention and made a fundamental assault on free speech. In my view that’s a whiskery bit of nostalgia. To borrow from the Irish poet WB Yeats, since social media licensed mass character assassination, all is “changed, changed utterly”.
As my lawyer Mark Lewis says, social media has made “everybody a publisher unhampered by the shackles of an editor”.
Corbyn supporters make much of how progressive and anti-racist they are. Yet French made the odious suggestion that we’d used “what appears to be a woman of British Muslim heritage to voice” the Labour Party’s 16 written responses in the programme in order to “give the impression that Labour is more sympathetic to Muslims than Jews”.
He also suggested the fact that my wife and children are Jewish might have breached BBC impartiality guidelines. “I find this particularly distasteful,” said the judge. “No credible or reputable journalist could possibly have thought that the claimant’s
family’s faith had any relevance to the accuracy, or otherwise, of the programme.”
So relentless have been the allegations against me and Panorama that my many rebuttals have been largely ignored. Testing the evidence before a judge was the only way to set the record straight for me, my BBC colleagues and the many Jews demeaned by this uncompromising assault.
Supported by interviews from seven Labour whistleblowers, Panorama’s thrust was that antisemitism within Labour had markedly increased under Corbyn and that he hadn’t done enough to eradicate it. The Equality and Human Rights Commission’s statutory investigation similarly found there had been a failure of leadership.
Corbyn’s o ce pinned the blame squarely on party o cials in Labour headquarters for failing to handle antisemitism complaints fast enough, inevitably, given their exponential rise reportedly to some 1,300 by the end of 2016. And the numbers kept on rising. Corbyn and his associates declined our o er of interviews, so we reported comprehensively Labour’s written rebuttals.
Of course, I expected criticism – it goes with the territory. But Corbyn and his associates were incensed, and the fact that, like French, several of them were themselves journalists added to their appearance of credibility.
French describes himself as an “investigative journalist” of “more than 40 years’ experience”. Yet he baldly asserted that the BBC had unlawfully breached the Broadcasting Code regulated by Ofcom, despite this warning from the footnote to the regulation he claimed we’d breached: “For the avoidance
of doubt, it does not apply to any BBC services.”
influence the 2019 election to do! Emails show that, just
campaign against me before
hundreds of pamphlets to they’d be persuaded to take the heat o Corbyn on antisem-
ously traduced by the BBC.
It also turns out French’s accusation that I had tried to influence the 2019 election was exactly what he’d sought to do! Emails show that, just days before the election, French rushed to launch his campaign against me before completing his research, hoping that by sending hundreds of pamphlets to broadcasters and newspapers they’d be persuaded to take the heat o Corbyn on antisemitism because he’d been grievously traduced by the BBC.
French bluntly told his friend, the media professor Brian Cathcart: “...research not finished and rushed but will be something before the election”.
friend, the media professor Brian Cathcart: “...research not finished and rushed but will be something before the election”.
O ! – the campaign for a free and accountable press – the strictures against improper research did not stop Cathcart from tweeting his support with
As a founder of Hacked O ! – the campaign for a free and accountable press – the professor is noted for his strictures against improper journalism. But French’s rushed research did not stop Cathcart from tweeting his support with a link to French’s defamatory campaign pamphlet: “If your view of Labour was influenced by the Panorama programme Is Labour Anti-Semitic? you should read this report now. I don’t see how the BBC can defend this kind of journalism.” Personally, I didn’t see how Cathcart could have defended French’s journalism.
Of all journalism’s ethical principles, the most fundamental is o ering an accused the right to respond to specific allegations. Yet I wasn’t sent a right to reply letter prior to French’s publication of his defamatory allegations despite his insistence that his work “met the highest standards of ethical journalism”.
Another media academic, Dr Justin Schlosberg, urged his followers to contribute to French’s defence fund, saying: “This is an opportunity to have the truth exposed further in open court. Support Paddy’s defence.”
Like Cathcart, Schlosberg will also have been taken seriously because he is head of media studies at Birkbeck, University of London. He’s also a Jewish Voice for Labour (JVL) activist and strong Corbyn supporter. However, the judge criticised what he called the “apparently reputable” Schlosberg and Cathcart. “One might have expected (and hoped)” that both had been “less quick to rush to judgment and to have noted” that French hadn’t given me “a right of reply pre-publication”.
In court, flanked by French’s JVL supporters, Cathcart was chided by the judge for not having “spotted right away that Mr Ware had not been o ered a right of reply or an opportunity to comment”.
Another elementary rule in basic libel law for journalists is to avoid at all costs attributing dishonest motives to someone without solid proof of what’s gone on in their head. After French published, Schlosberg tweeted that there seemed to be “compel ling evidence” of “intentional misleading reporting” by Panorama, the first of some 100 tweets fired at me and the BBC, some highly defamatory for which he had no proof what soever. There were “lies” at the “core” of my journalism; I “helped to cement a demonstrably false narrative” and “deliberately omitted counter evidence”.
And so on.
Like French, Schlosberg also asserted that the BBC “breached both the letter and spirit of the broadcasting code”. He continued with this fiction by challenging Ofcom in the High Court, even after Ofcom’s senior regulator explained to him why that simply was not the case. His failed legal challenge cost his funders £34,000. The only reason I didn’t sue Schlosberg was because he has a young family.
Like French, the JVL’s Naomi WimborneIdrissi also takes pride in her 20 years of journalism as “an editor and correspondent for the highly respected Reuters agency”. In her fury at Panorama, she told 1.4m BBC listeners that my journalism had included “right-wing, racist work” and that I had “engaged in Islamophobia and extreme, farright politics”, as a consequence of which the BBC had had to “apologise” for my conduct.
Her evidence? “Look him up on Wikipedia” she exclaimed when challenged by the BBC’s
Jeremy Vine. “Look him up!” No responsible journalist relies on Wikipedia and my case shows why: the misleading entries she appar ently took at face value had been inserted into my Wikipedia two days before transmission, presumably to undermine my credibility.
Last October, Wimborne-Idrissi and JVL had to apologise in open court, and the JVL was left with legal costs of well over £200,000. Yet, like French, JVL also sought to claim its criti cisms of Panorama remain valid. JVL’s crowd funding site says its apology and settlement “did not require us to retract or qualify our criticisms
of the programme itself”. Omitted is the fact that the JVL only sought a settlement with me after I rebutted in detail their criticisms.
Then there’s James Schneider, also a journalist before becoming Corbyn’s director of strategic communications. Labour’s public attacks on me and Panorama’s whistleblowers were so obviously defamatory because, like Schlosberg and French, they asserted knowl edge of what was in our heads. I had “flouted journalistic ethics” by “knowingly” promoting “falsehoods... by fabricating facts” while the whistleblowers had “deliberately” delayed
disciplinary cases “acting in bad faith” because they had “personal and political axes to grind”. The wording cost Labour some £750,000 in costs and damages. I asked Schneider if, as Corbyn’s head of communications, he’d approved them. He declined to respond.
So affronted was Schlosberg about Labour under [its new leader Sir Keir] Starmer apol ogising in open court for defaming me and the whistleblowers, that he described it as “an assault on truth” and promptly established an outfit called “Truth Defence” to “confront what he calls “attacks on progressive political voices (presumably like his), whistle-blowers (presumably not Panorama’s) and truth tellers” (presumably like him).
On “Truth Defence’s” website, Schlos berg complains about “lawfare” being waged “against progressive and radical left activists, journalists and scholars” with a “chilling effect” on free speech.
It almost sounds like “progressive” activ ists like himself and French should be free to defame whomever they like – and that the victims should just shrug their shoulders!
At a “Truth Defence” Q&A, even Schlos berg’s fellow panellist, the lawyer Sir Geof frey Bindman KC, intervened to say: “Can I say something? You have to remember that a defamation law is actually necessary because people can be devastatingly damaged by false statements. There has to be some redress against those who publish extremely damaging statements.” Quite.
Next week: how the Corbynites tried to rewrite history
More than 50 activity and group stalls were on offer to explore as 250 visitors discovered Edgware and Hendon Reform Synagogue’s showcase of community clubs, many of which were closed during the pandemic. The two communities have recently merged and welcomed a new rabbinical team.
Committee co-chairs Holly Nineberg and Jack Margolis welcomed more than 100 guests to the Jewish Care Annual Round Table Property Dinner 2022, raising £24,000 for the organisation’s vital services for older people.
PaJeS (Partnerships for Jewish Schools) hosted the final presentation of the Schools Wellbeing Project, with awards given to all pilot participants, including Rimon Jewish Primary School, JCoSS, Yavneh College, Hertsmere Jewish Primary School, Broughton Jewish Cassel Fox Primary School, Sacks Morasha Jewish Primary School and Wolfson Hillel Primary School.
A Remembrance Day service took place at the grave of the First World War RAF Jewish pilot 2nd Lt Harry Jassby, who died in the last week of the war, on 6 November 1918, at the age of 22. It was only after he was buried at St Peter’s churchyard in Aldborough Hatch, Redbridge, that it was discovered that he was Jewish.
The chairman of JNF UK, Samuel Hayek, led a delegation of trustees on a four-day mission to Israel visiting new and existing projects in the Negev, culminating in meetings with Prime Minister Yair Lapid (pictured) and President Isaac Herzog.
Arsenal fan Marley Brown walked the 10 miles between Wembley and the Emirates Stadium to raise more than £2,000 in sponsorship for Camp Simcha. Marley, accompanied by his family, undertook the challenge as part of his barmitzvah and was waved off by charity mascot Simi the monkey.
A warm welcome to Rabbi and Mrs Birnhack in their appointment as the new Chabad Shluchim to Southend-on-Sea. This brings the number of Chabad centres in Essex to four, alongside houses in Gants Hill, Buckhurst Hill and Epping.
Email Michelle Rosenberg at community@jewishnews.co.uk
The latest news, pictures and social events from across the community
Israeli ambassador Tzipi Hotovely hosted a dinner, sponsored by Yakir and Elena Gabay through their Future Directions Foundation, to promote the work of the start-up Beit Issie Shapiro, based in Ra’anana. Chef Assaf Granit and his new London Coal Office chef, Ben Pelles, served up a three-course menu. CEO Ahmir Lerner, who joined Beit Issie Shapiro after 30 years of working in defence, said: ‘Beit Issie prides itself in innovation, which often leads to legislative and policy changes in the disabilities world, highlighted by our advisory role at the United Nations.’ The organisation’s services and expertise have reached 500,000 people throughout Israel and London via institutions like Kisharon, which has built its stimulating sensory room designed on the ‘Issie Senses’ therapeutic model.
A look
The jazz singer Maldives magic My Unorthodox Life
Eyal Shani is a culinary genius. The Israeli celebrity chef is known for filling his famous pita with ‘unusual’ foods and, at his Israeli street food restaurant, Miznon (meaning ‘kiosk’ in Hebrew), he varies it according to local tastes.
In the Paris Miznon, for example, he serves minute steak and boeuf bourguignon, while in England, where he has just opened his second Miznon, he o ers chicken liver, fish-and-chip and all-day-English-breakfast pitas.
The corner restaurant, on Elgin Crescent, right by Portobello Market, is prime location material (he opened the Soho branch of Miznon in July). They are not kosher but both, of course, follow his ‘eat with your hands’ ethos.
I was lucky enough to try out a bowl of the ‘lima beans stew topped with olive oil, tomato’s ovaries and hot peppers’ nestled in some of the best and creamiest hummus I’ve ever tasted, accompanied by warm and flu y pita. I noted that the hummus is described as
‘the best hummus plate you will ever eat’; this is not an overstatement.
Eyal has now opened 40 restaurants worldwide with his business partner Shahar Segal – including in the USA, Singapore and Melbourne – so what is the secret to his success? Eyal, who has been described as eccentric, is considered in his reply.
“For me to be focused on a thing is so natural and easy that I can look at that glass and suddenly there is no world around me any more,” he explains. “I see this water and I’m entering into this water and I’m becoming one with the water and all you have is this water.
“Something in your mind is completely changing and there is a belief coming out of you… now you are carrying a belief of something that mostly is not realistic, but you believe that if you combine this and this together, something great will came out of it. If you analyse [it], there is no sense, no logic… And I’m carrying that belief into my audience – that is my power.”
By audience, Eyal means his customers, because he considers his restaurants to be a “stage”. He likes to keep things simple in his cooking, telling me that he tries to avoid seasoning or adding herbs to food, preferring to let their natural flavours shine through.
“If I will cook something [with tomato], it will carry all the information of that original tomato. I swear to it that nothing will be changed; the texture will remain, the flavours, the aromas, the shapes, so when you are eating my food, it looks very simple [but], it’s not simple. I just represent the tomato in the way it wants to be [represented].”
Eyal’s interest in food was piqued from a young age by his grandfather, an agronomist and committed vegan, who took him to local markets and vineyards. But the 63-year-old, who starred in the Israeli TV series Food for Thought and is a judge on the country’s MasterChef, says that when he decided he wanted to cook, he knew nothing about cooking.
He served in the Israeli navy but a missile had damaged his ear, so he was no longer
allowed on the front line. He asked to go into the kitchen but, he says, laughing: “I invented a terrible thing! A chicken dish cooked with black co ee where the co ee was glued to the skin. I saw that people were opening their windows [in the ship] and throwing the chicken out.”
The restaurateur refined his recipe and is pleased to report that it is now the “most traditional” dish the navy serves. It is also an example of how people have not always understood his culinary vision.
Aged 22, after being heartbroken over a woman, he spent a year on a farm in the Carmel mountains and says he didn’t buy food but cooked from the land. “I was very romantic,” he recalls.
Following a meal of porcupine and red wine with friends, Eyal had a “vision” that he should cook and, in 1989, he opened his first restaurant, Oceanus, in his home town of Jerusalem, where he o ered dishes based on regional Mediterranean products, including his beloved tomatoes.
He is known for being the brains behind the whole roasted cauliflower – another of his signature dishes – and one he cooks simply by boiling it first and then oven-cooking it with only olive oil and salt. It is, of course, on the Miznon menu.
When Eyal started cooking 35 years ago, the Israeli food culture that we now know and love did not exist. Food, he tells me, even in restaurants, was a domestic version brought
by Jewish immigrants from places including Iran, Iraq, Lebanon and Morocco.
At his HaSalon restaurant in Tel Aviv, he perfected the art of fine dining, but was castigated for serving, for example, a $24 tomato. It was not until 2011 when Eyal, who studied cinematography in Tel Aviv, launched Miznon, that his fortunes changed.
“People in Israel admired me and hated me because they pay so much money for my food,” he said, explaining that he didn’t personally benefit from the high prices as he paid for the most expensive ingredients and his chefs. “But I knew that if I will put my food inside the pita, it will force me to sell it cheap… then young people will come.”
And come they did – and do. There is nothing Eyal wouldn’t try to make work in a pita – the steam inside of which, he says, cooks food to perfection – although he won’t cook with pork (but doesn’t mind shellfish).
He is very happy to share his recipes, he says, but we will have to wait for a cookbook. He has put pen to paper for one tome, which is 700 pages long and, he acknowledges: “I don’t know how to cut it – so much information. It’s not just how to cook, it’s a whole religion.”
For now, we’ll have to make do with eating his food in his restaurants – and that is certainly no hardship.
AlexGalbinski
meets the food magician who is famous for filling pita with unusual foods
There’s nothing like a musical to li the mood, so the arrival of NEWSIES at the Troubadour Wembley Park Theatre is good news. Who wouldn’t want to hear the Alan Menken score with lyrics by Jack Feldman and a book by Kinky Boots’ Harvey Fierstein? Lots of Jewish creativity then in this production based on the true story of a ragged band of teenage newspaper sellers who dream of a better life and join forces to fight the exploitation of publishing tycoons. Michael AhomkaLindsay (Emmett in Legally Blonde at Regent’s Park Open Air) will hit all the right notes as lead newspaper hawker and you’ll be humming the tunes by Menken, best known for his Disney songs for Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin, who won a Tony for NEWSIES. And you only have to travel to HA9! www.newsiesthemusical.co.uk
Divorced, but very much survived, Julia Haart returns to Netflix this week in Season 2 of My Unorthodox Life. She’s flighting for her rights vis-à-vis Elite, the modelling agency from which her husband has fired her as CEO and, worse still, he cancelled her credit cards. “He has lost his frickin’ mind,” she says. But family comes first for all Jewish mothers and we see her reconnect with her daughter Batsheva (who also got divorced), guide her younger daughter Miriam in her first serious relationship and counsel her son, Aron, as he makes some rather surprising decisions about his education. Spoiler alert: he wants to go back to an Orthodox life. Julia ain’t happy, but you will be when the drama unfolds.
You can’t have missed the She Said posters on the side of buses. The film stars actors Zoe Kazan and Carey Mulligan star as real-life NewYorkTimesreporters
Vogue has a video series called Beauty Secrets
It’s one of those online reels on which celebs demonstrate their makeup routines. That’s fine and sometimes informative, but this week Kate Hudson, daughter of Goldie Hawn, made it a must while talking makeup tricks, as she suddenly veered into her ties to Judaism.
This revelation moment happens in the midst of applying mascara: “My grandmother is Jewish – was Jewish,” she says, blinking. “Of all the religions I’m made up of [Goldie is Jewish and her father, Bill Hudson, was Roman Catholic], Judaism was the one I knew the most because she lived with us and she was very religious.
“She lit candles every Friday and put a napkin on her head. I remember when we were little, she would put the napkin on her head, and we all thought it was funny, and she was like ‘it’s not funny! But Gram was the best, so Judaism was everything that I ever knew.” Here’s to the next celeb pledging allegiance while applying lipstick.
and Megan
the team who led the paper’s investigation into Harvey Weinstein’s history of abuse and sexual misconduct against women. Sharing the Pulitzer Prize with Twohey for the book on which the film is based, Kantor, 47, is a graduate of the Dorot Fellowship in Israel and her grandparents are Holocaust survivors. Kantor also wrote The Obamas, chronicling the first couple’s adjustment to the White House, but it is the Weinstein investigation which initiated the #metoo movement that has been her most significant work to date, though it was as a Jew that the former hit-making producer tried to appeal to her for understanding. “Harvey Weinstein and his representatives were constantly trying to approach me ‘Jew to Jew’, almost in a tone of ‘You and I are the same, we understand each other’,” revealed Kantor. “We found dossiers later that they had compiled on me and it was clear they knew I was the grandchild of Holocaust survivors, and they tried to sort of deploy that. Privately, I thought that was o ensive.” That scene appears in the film and there is another in which Kantor shares a moving moment with Weinstein’s longtime accountant, Irwin Reiter, a child of Holocaust survivors, as they discuss the importance of speaking up about wrongdoing. Crucial to the investigation, Kantor says: “He made a very brave decision to help us.” That poster on the bus now has context.
Tel Aviv’s central bus station, the focus of South African director Julie Shles’ LastStop, is an eye-opener as it is home to thousands of refugees, children of migrant workers with no real identity and impoverished Israeli families who feel like strangers in their homes. This gritty and mesmerising picture of a city in transition is available to watch on streamisrael.tv.
Available from Samsung, Amazon, Currys and John Lewis RRP from £999
The Z Flip 4 is Samsung’s fourth iteration of its clamshell folding phone.
• Design of the phone is solid, premium, and very impressive. It’s guaranteed to turn heads!
• New processor upgrade makes this phone snappy and very responsive.
• Battery life has improved – but not substantially.
• New so ware features make the cover display more useful, with added widgets and clocks
• When the phone is folded it is one of the most compact phones on the market.
• Its side-mounted fingerprint sensor is faster than those of most rival phones.
• Samsung guarantees five years of so ware updates.
• The folding nature of this phone can be an annoyance, with it having to be opened and closed every time. I found myself just leaving it in the open position all day (first world problems, admittedly).
• The phone is slightly slimmer than a normal smartphone, making it tricky to grip.
• Cameras are great but not amazing
compared with its bigger brother, the Galaxy Fold 4.
The price of folding phones is still out of reach for many but if you’re willing to splash the cash on a unique model, you won’t regret it!
Reviewed by: Daniel Elias, TikTok @daniel_ _Elias Instagram @daniel_elias
Gili Yalo was only four when his family made the treacherous journey from Ethiopia to Sudan to find freedom in Israel as part of Operation Moses, but he kept spirits alive by singing from his seat on his father’s shoulders.
Today, as one of Israel’s top jazz and funk musicians, he is on a journey of a di erent kind – telling his story to the world through his incredible music, which merges his native Amharic with Hebrew and English, creating something unique.
Last week he made his debut at the home of British jazz, Ronnie Scott’s, and won rapturous applause from a packed crowd. Even in this, one of the endlessly coolest places in London, his charisma stands out.
“Knowing that this was the last place Jimi Hendrix performed, and where so many other greats have been, means I am really flattered to be on the stage at Ronnie Scott’s,” Gili told me, shortly before his appearance. “I’d like to think they won’t have seen someone like me before. So few people even know that Ethiopian Jews exist.”
In between songs, in perfect English, he tells his story of escape and finding a new home.
“Ethiopia was not a good place for the Jews – we weren’t allowed to buy land and were told we did not belong,” he says. “We had a lot of di culties and always had this dream of coming to Jerusalem. We thought it would be like paradise on earth. It took more than a month to walk to Sudan and many people died along the way – around 10 percent of the people walking.
“It was a big price to pay but we knew that once we got to Sudan there were ways of getting on to a plane to Israel and that’s what we did. It is a journey that has shaped our community.
“When we got to Israel, I learned Hebrew in a couple of months and I loved everything about being there. People were saying, ‘Our su ering is gone’ – but when you grow up you realise things weren’t perfect at all.”
Gili’s musical talent was spotted quickly. “I always knew I wanted to be a singer but my father wanted me to be a doctor,” he laughs. “When I was eight years old, I joined a religious choir. I’d only been with them for a few weeks when the manager asked me if I had a passport. I didn’t, but he said, ‘Get one.’ One or two weeks later I found myself in Paris singing and since then I have travelled the world.”
when he started to realise the racism that his community had been subject to.
“As a kid I didn’t really think about racism – if I bumped into it, I just thought the person being racist was stupid,” he says. “It was only as I got older that I realised the problem was much bigger than I knew. It made me realise there was a big problem.
“You know when you are in a relationship with someone but they are hurting you so much that you hate them for a while? That is how I felt and I know a lot of black people all around the world were feeling it. My
purpose is to stand up and say what I feel about it because I must. That is the only way we can deal with these problems – talk about them, not act like they don’t exist.”
way and I have to stand up and protect that part of my identity. People are really shocked because they don’t know us.”
We speak as those two sides of his identity – black African and Jewish – are at the centre of a nasty war of words thanks in part to the overt antisemitism of the American rapper Kanye West. Gili admits that dealing with it has been a struggle.
his dad would still prefer him to be a doctor.
He says his family are proud that he is taking their music around the world – even if his dad would still prefer him to be a doctor.
“My family were surprised I was singing in Amharic at first because I really ran away from my culture for many years. But now I think the majority of the community are really proud of me for bringing our voice –the Israeli Ethiopians – into the world.
“I am trying to find the exact words to describe my emotions and how I feel about it exactly,” says Gili, quietly. “It makes me feel so sad. I couldn’t believe that a person like that whose community has been through all of those things could say something like that about another community.
At first, Gili sang mainly in English and Hebrew. He started to incorporate Amharic into his music
At first, Gili sang mainly
“So many people don’t even know we exist – and we made this journey that we were waiting to make for 2,000 years. And I get to tell the story of my community on stages in so many countries.”
Just as he’s su ered from racism, he also su ers from antisemitism. “I confuse people because when I’m in the States they just see me as a black guy and
from my culture for many years. But now the Israeli Ethiopians – into the world. in the States they just see me as a black guy and
“I am not the same as an African American because I am not American – we didn’t su er as they did. But as a black person I can relate to their su ering. From the other side, I know what it is like to su er from antisemitism too.
“It feels like when something like this goes on, both sides are losing. When we start to blame each other that becomes a big problem. We are meant to be on the same side. We need to be together and relate to each other’s pain.”
■ To find out more about Gili Yalo go to www.giliyalo.com
If I were condemned to one resort for the rest of my travelling life, this would be it. We arrived at Gili Lankanfushi in the Maldives as fraz zled city folk several years ago and have returned many times over the years, this time with our children.
No longer is luxury synonymous with bling. Spectacular yet understated, eco-luxurious yet a Robinson Crusoesque home away from home; the only bragging here is the number of stingrays at your vast overwater villa that day, or your face-to-face encounter with a turtle.
You arrive by speedboat to this tiny pictureperfect island of white sand and swaying palms. Leave your shoes, as the motto is ‘no news, no shoes’. This is a barefoot resort –something you will grow to love.
You are encour aged to leave the worries and pressures of the outside world behind. Each of the 45 villas is allocated a Mr or Ms Friday. They are your personal hosts, there to make your stay memorable. And this they do from simple, practical things such as unpacking to creating once-in-a lifetime experiences including lantern-lit dinners and private jungle cinema nights. Our Mr Friday, Makif, became part of
our extended island family. To our little ones, he was tennis buddy, driving instructor, buggy taxi service and friend with whom they shared their teddy collection.
Most people cycle here. It’s a total pleasure and gives gentle but much-needed exercise, given the temptation to overindulge. The island is small enough to walk around in a matter of minutes, but you can get a bit of speed-up along the jetties. Island living is outdoors, unless you count the refrigerated, state-of-the-art glass deli room beside the restaurant, or perhaps some of the rooms, complete with glass floor tiles, in the sublime overwater spa, or the villa bedrooms or the gym.
It’s an allvilla island. From the ultimate Private Reserve – the largest overwater villa in the world, which comes with a full staff, kitchen, gym, spa, cinema, waterslide, pool and boat – often rented by extended families, to the standalone Crusoe Residences, providing the ultimate in seclu sion, set a short boat ride away from the island in blissful solitude and, finally, the family villas and villa suites with spectacular infinity pools. Each and every one is the ultimate in rustic, luxury eco-chic.
Constructed from reclaimed light wood and
bamboo, with thatched roofs, they are the stuff of which dreams are made. Bedrooms with floor-to-ceiling windows, vast bathrooms with huge, round stone baths complete with pano ramic views of the sapphire seascape, windows that open out as if you are truly bathing in the sea and semi-open-air showers with secluded ocean access – you won’t believe your eyes.
There are open-air living rooms that give way to vast, overwater sundecks, complete with catamaran nets, private sea access and your own sea hammocks. There are rooftop Jacuzzis and rooftop living areas where you can dine or sleep under the stars.
Everything here is possible and encouraged. “You have to sleep under the stars,” we are told. And so we did. One cloudless, balmy night, beds were made and we lay staring up at the vast canopy of shimmering stars above us. It was simply unforgettable.
The Maldives may have a reputation as a honeymooners’ destination but nowadays you are just as likely to encounter families with children and mindful learning experiences. One firm favourite for us was spending time with Tiana, the resident marine biologist. In charge of all that surrounds Gili, the biologists are dedicated to replanting and protection, so their
house reef is thriving. Whether snorkelling or just observing from the comfort of your sun lounger, prepare to be thrilled. For the active, there’s a superb dive school, a separate surf school, a resident tennis pro and a gym.
One day, my 10-year-old threaded a coral line and dived with Tiana to the nursery to plant it, giving something back to the place that has given us so much. We monitor it via videolink. There’s no kid’s club; instead, activi ties are bespoke. In fact, it was hard for the chil dren to readjust to the fact that they weren’t the centre of everyone’s universe when we arrived back home. Whether whisked away for a private yoga session in the outdoor yoga champa, or invited to private pizza-making, crafting sushi with the chef in the restaurant or doing a choco late tasting, they were treated like kings.
As a foodie, I can confirm food here is fault less and can be kosher by prior arrangement. Personalised service personified. Mention a favourite dish to chef Harry and it magically appears in its most authentic form. Children can expect spectacular pancakes shaped in the form of their favourite characters. At Gili Lankanfushi, even the impossible is possible!
Rooms at Gili Lankanfushi are about £1,000 a night. www.gili-lankanfushi.com
enjoys blow-the-budget perfection with her family in the Maldives – and kosher food is an optionThe eco-luxurious overwater rooms with a pool at Gili Lankanfushi are a ‘home away from home’
candicekrieger@googlemail.com
Candice Krieger looks at some of the Israeli startups that are researching and harnessing new technologies to help global banks and fintechs prevent fraud
While you’re reading this, someone somewhere is being hacked. Thousands of cyberattacks happen every day, a number which is only set to increase as our lives move increasingly online. While cybercrime is nothing new, our growing use of and reliance on technology means the threat is rising rapidly. And cybercriminals are becoming more sophisticated.
The top types of cybercrime include; phishing scams, malware attacks, identity theft, password attacks and online bullying, to name just a few.
The cybersecurity market is projected to be worth a staggering $403bn (£336bn) by 2027, according to Forbes 2021, and is
growing at an annual rate of 15 percent.
Unsurprisingly, investors are jumping on opportunities to back the industry. 2021 was a record year for investment. Global cybersecurity companies secured $21.8bn in venture capital, up from $8.9bn in 2020 – and nearly half (40 percent) of this was by Israeli firms, which raised $8.8bn in more than 100 di erent deals – triple the amount from the previous year, according to data from the Israel National Cyber Directorate (INCD).
curity companies secured $21.8bn in
Moritz says: “Because Israel is not considered to be a threat by most nations, Israel’s cybersecurity industry is like Switzerland. Funding for its cybersecurity startups flows in from global investors while Israeli cybersecurity vendors face few obstacles selling solutions everywhere. This gives Israeli cybersecurity startups an edge, especially where buying ‘American’ or ‘Chinese’ raises flags.”
With more than 30 years ‘experience in the cybersecurity world, Moritz says the sector will only get stronger as the ‘bad guys’ innovate as fast as the ‘good guys’.
Cybersecurity expert Ron Moritz is a venture partner at Our Crowd, the online venture investing platform, which has been investing in Israeli cybersecurity since its inception.
It now has 20 active cybersecurity companies in its portfolio (at the time of writing), Among them are BioCatch and ThetaRay.
“The adversary innovates and evolves their attack methods quickly forcing the good guys to create new solutions. This dynamic is why the cybersecurity industry accelerated during the pandemic and why, in comparison to most other technology sectors, it has been relatively unscathed by the economic turmoil of the past year.”
Another way to understand Israel’s strength in cybersecurity, says Moritz, is by comparing the number of cybersecurity vendors against its total population. According to Richard Stiennon, chief analyst with IT Harvest, Israel ranks at the top of the list with roughly 25.08 vendors per million people. In comparison, second-place Ireland has 8.78, fourth-place United States has 4.73, and ninth-place United Kingdom has 3.10.
BioCatch uses behavioural biometric technology to help large global banks and fintechs fight fraud. The company analyses physical and cognitive digital behaviour, such as the way a person uses their mouse or types on a touchscreen, to distinguish between genuine users and criminals to detect fraud and identity theft and to improve customer experience.
BioCatch was founded in 2011 by Avi Turgeman and Benny Rosenbaum to help banks and fintechs determine whether or not online banking users are who they appear to be based on their online behaviour.
While serving in the 8200 unit of the Israel Defence Forces, BioCatch founder Avi Turgeman first researched the hypothesis that individuals interact with technologies in unique, measurable ways. With years of expertise investigating whitehat hacking, system vulnerability management, and cyberterrorist activities under his belt, Turgeman focused on financial fraud and the detectable signs of cybercriminals, co-founding BioCatch with Benny Rosenbaum.
Before BioCatch, Rosenbaum was a member of the team that founded Magic Software Enterprises.
BioCatch was formed to address next-generation digital identity concerns by concentrating on online user behaviour. Customers all over the world are now leveraging BioCatch’s unique strategy and insights to fight fraud more e ectively, drive digital transformation, and accelerate corporate growth.
BioCatch raised $215m to date, including a series C round in 2020 led by Bain Capital in the US. Additionally, its client Innovation Board is comprised of five industry investors: American Express, Barclays, Citi Ventures, HSBC, and National Australia Bank.
BioCatch has more than 90 customers, including American Express, Barclays, NatWest, and HSBC.
BioCatch is headquartered in Tel Aviv with o ces in the UK, US, Brazil, Australia, India and Singapore.
BioCatch started in the UK and it has been embedded in the UK financial services industry since 2015.
How and why have cyberattacks increased over the past few years and in which areas?
Gemma Staite, BioCatch head of threat analysis, EMEA: “Each year, the risk of becoming a victim of cybercrime grows with creative fraudulent schemes, including screen-sharing, NHS testing scams and insider fraud due to hybrid working models. These cyber-criminals capitalise on socio-cultural trends, fears and financial ambiguity, with Covid and the cost-ofliving crisis being examples that will drive fraud cases. Indeed, we recently unearthed that Covid fraud increased by 167 percent in 2021 in the UK, highlighting the opportunistic nature of the modern-day cybercriminal.”
testing scams and insider fraud we recently unearthed that Covid
How has cybersecurity grown during the past few years?
Gemma Staite: “Biocatch focuses on
account frauds. What we see in that respect is that one of the most significant changes in cybersecurity over the last 20 years has been its pervasiveness. As cybercriminals become more creative and skilled in their approaches, psychology and behavioural science are becoming as crucial as coding in modern cybersecurity.
Along with developing new technology advancements, banks are realising how important the human factor is becoming. For example, social engineering scams, also known as Authorized Push Payment Fraud, are the fastest growing fraud problem today. These scams manipulate consumers, psychologically, convincing them to submit a bank transfer that then results in the loss of large amounts of money. Because the genuine account owner is activating the transfer of cash it is far harder for banks to detect fraud until it is too late.
Another trend we are seeing, especially in the face of the cost of living crisis in the UK, is the growth of ‘money mules’. These are people who either knowingly or unknowingly transfer money from one account to another, helping cybercriminals to launder stolen funds. This month Lloyds Bank shared that the percentage of money mules over the age of 40 has grown 29 percent since last year. Cybercrime flourishes in times of uncertainly and 2022 has been no exception.”
Gemma Staite: “The technology we’ve developed at BioCatch all started during our founders’ time in the 8200 unit. The creative problem-solving nurtured in the IDF allows for innovation at lighting speed. Many of our team members are veterans of the intelligence units and we’ve worked to foster the same values to solve new and complex problems for our customers.”
What are the big trends within cybersecurity?
Gemma Staite: “Social engineering – the manipulation of victims to transfer funds to cybercriminals – is the mega trend within financial fraud. The challenge with detecting many social engineering scams is that the cybercriminal does not interact directly with the banking platform and instead convinces the victim to execute a payment. Device, IP [internet protocol] and authentication activity will appear genuine, rendering traditional layers of security redundant.
“Behavioural biometrics looks for subtle changes in more than 2,000 digital behaviour patterns that build a picture of a user’s emotions or intention during a session and suggest a social engineering scam may be in progress.
“Mobile attacks – the use of mobile devices has grown exponentially in the last decade, with nearly 5.3bn unique mobile phone users globally and more than 250 billion apps expected to be downloaded in 2022. Thus, it is hardly a surprise that mobile fraud attacks have been on the rise for years.
“Targeted ransomware – account takeover is a type of identity theft in which a fraudster acquires access to a victim’s account and utilises it to make unlawful purchases or transactions. It is a massive challenge for financial institutions, e-commerce merchants, and nearly any company that o ers monetis-
able items or services. According to Javelin Strategy & Research, account takeover theft would cost US customers $11.4bn in 2021.”
Where do you see the big opportunities within this space, both in terms of necessity, innovation and investment?
Gemma Staite: “Criminals in fraud are always getting smarter and more sophisticated, we need to be too. This demands more sophistication and innovation. We work closely with some of the most advanced fraud teams in the world to identity new trends and then layer in our behavioural data to identity user behaviour and root out criminal tells.
The depth of the data is enormous and we are only scraping the surface for what is possible both in financial services and beyond.”
ThetaRay is the world’s preeminent authority and leading provider of AI-based big data analytics for the prevention of financial cybercrime, specifically fraud and moneylaundering. ThetaRay’s solution is the first and only AI-based technology detecting criminal schemes across complex, cross-border transaction paths. Clients include Santander, Payoneer and Travelex. With over 1 billion users, ThetaRay monitors around $15 trillion worth of transactions a year.
ThetaRay was founded in 2013 by Amir Averbuch and Ronald
Coifman. Chief executive o cer Mark Gazit has been there since inception. A worldrenowned leader in the cybersecurity, Gazit is also chairman for Cyber and FinTech at the Israel Export Institute.
Around $100m from a mix of VCs such as Jerusalem Venture Partners, OurCrowd and ABN AMRO Ventures, plus major global companies including General Electric.
Headquartered in Hod HaSharon, Israel, the company has o ces in New York and Madrid.
How and why have cyberattacks increased over the past few years?
Mark Gazit, ThetaRay CEO: “The world of cybersecurity has shifted in past few years, partly due to Covid. Years ago, cybersecurity was more about defacing websites but today, it’s more about stealing money and organised crime. What can be better for criminals than to hack into a bank and steal money from a remote location, so they don’t fear going to jail because they are in a di location. Money has become more digital. Today, there is more digital money than paper money.
“Cybercrime has moved far beyond just petty theft by individuals. We are taking about organisations/governments and millions of dollars being moved around. This is the next generation of cybercrime and ThetaRay is fighting this threat.
“Financial institutions were not ready for the sophisticated levels of cyberattacks. We want to provide highways for good people allowing them to move money fluently and to not let the bad guys to launder money and finance bad activities such as human tra cking, terrorist activities and sex slavery, all of which need to be financed.”
What makes Israel so well-positioned when it comes to Cybersecurity?
Mark Gazit: “It’s two ingredients; first, the ecosystem that Israel has built, and second, necessity – the mother of all invention.
“Israel is a small country and has had to use technology to protect itself and fight the ‘bad’ guys. Studying before the military enables Israelis to develop their technology skills and become
experts in cybersecurity before then trying out systems in the military, going on to build start-ups deploying these technologies for commercial companies. Israel has created an ecosystem that brings the best investment into the country. This is coupled with the facts that many international companies, like Google, Amazon and Intel, have built their R&D centres in Israel.”
What is the importance of Israeli innovation in cybersecurity as we move past Covid?
Mark Gazit: “Covid hugely advanced remote-working technology - things that were supposed to happen five years from now are happening now. People don’t use cash anymore as during Covid companies had to develop systems for touch payments and cashless payments, but of course, these advances created a new world of threats. It has become easier for hackers to take over people’s identities, making threats more imminent and everyone is susceptible. Attacks are getting more sophisticated.
these advances created a new world hackers to take over people’s identi-
Where do you see the big opportunities within this space, both in terms of necessity, innovation and investment?
Mark Gazit: “The combination of cyber and fintech is a huge area.
“The fact that cybersecurity attacks are being used to steal money and potentially take over your identity and your home makes it a big issue. This bordering of financial risks and cybersecurity is a key area for investment.
Healthcare is also an opportunity; healthcare institutions are not really protected and we see threats in those areas as technologies such as smart home solutions make us more susceptible.
“Many homes are connected through smart devices like Amazon Alexa and I think we will see more hackers hacking into our homes through these devices. It’s scary but also exciting as we have so many AI-operated technologies helping us to fight the bad guys.”
In Vayetsei, we learn that when Jacob first arrived in Haran, he met his cousin Rachel – one of Laban’s two daughters (the other being Leah) – at the well with her father’s flocks. Laban agreed to shelter him for a month, in exchange for Jacob tending to his flocks.
Jacob and Rachel loved each other, and after a month passed Jacob asked Laban for permission to marry her. Laban agreed, but he stipulated that the marriage take place after Jacob would tend his flocks for seven years.
Jacob put huge e ort into his work, and Laban’s flocks and family prospered. Unbeknownst to Jacob, Laban
was planning to substitute Rachel with Leah so Jacob would be forced into working longer for Rachel’s hand. The wedding was due to take place at night, so Jacob would not see that it was Leah who was brought to him.
Knowing Laban’s deceitful ways, Rachel and Jacob had prepared for this eventuality by agreeing on secret signs to identify each other. But when Rachel realised how embarrassed Leah would be when Jacob discovered the trick, she told Leah the signs.
Jacob confronted Laban, who said that in Haran, the eldest daughter must marry first. If Jacob still wanted to wed Rachel, he could do so in a week’s time — but must tend Laban’s flocks for another seven years.
Following the second round of seven years, Jacob and Laban agreed that Jacob would now work for a
share of the newborn animals, with di erent deals covering speckled, spotted, striped and brown sheep. Laban would routinely switch the agreement when he felt Jacob was getting too many animals, but with God’s help, Jacob became very wealthy.
Jacob faced adversity throughout his life. His twin brother was strong and a skilful hunter, whereas Jacob was a quiet scholar. Jacob knew that his father loved his brother more than him. He found himself at the mercy of Laban, a possessive man who took advantage of his vulnerability.
Jacob – as almost all of us do at some time or other – found that life is unfair. Yet he represented the refusal of the weak to accept the hierarchy created by the strong. His acts are born of defiance, an insistence on the dignity of the weak (vis-a-vis
Esau), the less loved (by Isaac), and the refugee (in Laban’s house). In this sense he is one element of what, historically, it has been to be a Jew.
But the Jacob we see in these chapters is not the figure whom we are called on to emulate. At each stage, although Jacob wins the battles, he does so by having eventually to flee.
There is one episode where Jacob ultimately wins: in his battle with Esau’s angel, which earns him the name Israel. The new identity is
“because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome”. As Israel, he is unafraid to contend with people face to face and no longer needs to outwit them by clever but futile stratagems. His children will become the people whose dignity lies in the unbreakable covenant they make with God.
Ultimately, smart manoeuvring might earn a short-term pass, but it is moral courage and qualities of the mind that build an everlasting future.
One of the things I love about our Biblical characters is that they were imperfect. Sometimes, especially at times of eulogy, commentators focus on perfection. Rashi comments on Sarah’s age being written in the Torah as “a hundred years and twenty years and seven years” (Gen 23:1) – not 127 years, as “they are written out this way to show that all of these years were equal in goodness”.
A clearer reading of our ancient ancestors in the Torah is that no human life is perfect. We are created in the Divine image but we are not Divine ourselves. Sarah is not immune, as a biblical character, to actions that we might question.
We might be imperfect but I do like the idea of a legendary model in life, especially an imperfect one. I am sure that we have all found ourselves creating legends around a character, most usually a relative whom we loved dearly. These legends become aspects of our life that we try to emulate in our highest moments, not just occasionally but on a daily basis. In that way, we provide life after death for those we love. This is the kind of role that I see Mitzvah Day playing in our annual calendar.
Mitzvah Day has become an absolute phenomenon. It is praised by our politicians and justifiably held up as an exemplar for other segments of society. The Hindu Community have adopted it in their Sewa Day and the Muslim community with their Sadaqa Day. It is just one of the events that breed interfaith activity and understanding.
In my synagogue we have shared projects to bring joy to the lives of children in hospital and found ourselves in a field north of St Albans, planting trees for the Woodland Trust alongside Hindu families and youth groups. Our Kabbalat Torah class has joined the local Roman Catholic confirmation class collecting goods outside a supermarket for the Hillingdon Live at Home scheme. We have gathered spectacles for World Jewish Relief, toiletries for Jewish Women’s Aid and laptops for local refugees, as well as supporting the AJEX at the Cenotaph.
But what of Monday? Indeed, what of Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and so on throughout the year? Mitzvah Day is a true exemplar that has successfully demanded our attention and a place in our Jewish calendar. But its legend is created if it seeds in each of us the desire to perform mitzvot every day of the year.
The challenge Mitzvah Day gives each of us is whether we can harness the enthusiasm for doing a mitzvah on one day into a desire to volunteer our precious time for small deeds on Monday.
This year, I was happy to return to my usual Mitzvah Day haunt,
rabbis consider how Biblical figures might act when faced with 21st-century issues
Email: editorial@jewishnews.co.uk
TREVOR GEE
Qualifications:
DONNA OBSTFELD
Qualifications:
• FCIPD Chartered HR Professional
• 25 years in HR and Business Management.
• Mediator, Business Coach, Trainer, Author and Speaker
• Supporting businesses and charities with the hiring, managing, inspiring and firing of their staff
DOHR LTD 020 8088 8958 www.dohr.co.uk donna@dohr.co.uk
STUART WOOLGAR
Qualifications:
• CEO of London’s largest guardian company with more than 20 years’ experience
• Well-known and highly regarded British security industry expert.
• Specialists in securing and protecting empty commercial and residential properties.
• Clients include small private landlords to major national property companies and managing agents, as well as those in the public sector.
GLOBAL GUARDIANS MANAGEMENT 020 3818 9100 www.global-guardians.co.uk info@global-guardians.co.uk
Qualifications:
• Jewellery manufacturer since 1980s.
• Expert in the manufacture and supply of diamond jewellery, wedding rings and general jewellery.
• Specialist in supply of diamonds to the public at trade prices.
JEWELLERY CAVE LTD 020 8446 8538 www.jewellerycave.co.uk jonathan@jewellerycave.co.uk
Qualifications:
• Lawyer with over 20 years’ experience in will drafting and trust and estate administration. Last 14 years at KKL Executor and Trustee Company.
• In close contact with clients to ensure all legal and pastoral needs are cared for.
• Member of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners.
KKL EXECUTOR AND TRUSTEE COMPANY 020 8732 6101 www.kkl.org.uk enquiries@kkl.org.uk
STEPHEN MORRIS
Qualifications:
• Managing Director of Stephen Morris Shipping Ltd.
• 45 years’ experience in shipping household and personal effects.
• Chosen mover for four royal families and three UK prime ministers.
• Offering proven quality specialist advice for moving anyone across the world or round the corner.
STEPHEN MORRIS SHIPPING LTD 020 8832 2222 www.shipsms.co.uk stephen@shipsms.co.uk
ADAM LOVATT
Qualifications:
• Lawyer with more than 11 years of experience working in the legal sector. Specialist in corporate, commercial, media, sport and start-ups.
• Master’s degree in Intellectual Property Law from the University of London.
• Non-Executive Director of various companies advising on all governance matters.
LOVATT LEGAL LIMITED 07753 802 804 adam@lovattlegal.co.uk
SUE CIPIN
Qualifications:
• 20 years+ hands-on experience, leading JDA in significant growth and development.
• Understanding of the impact of deafness on people, including children, at all stages.
• Extensive services for people affected by hearing loss/tinnitus.
• Technology room with expert advice on and facilities to try out the latest equipment. Hearing aid advice, support and maintenance.
JEWISH DEAF ASSOCIATION 020 8446 0502 www.jdeaf.org.uk mail@jdeaf.org.uk
LOUISE LEACH
Qualifications:
• Professional choreographer qualified in dance, drama and Zumba (ZIN, ISTD
& LAMDA), gaining an
•
DANCING WITH LOUISE 075 0621 7833 www.dancingwithlouise.co.uk Info@dancingwithlouise.com
•
Qualifications:
• A member of the APCC, specialising in financial services compliance for:
• Mortgage, protection and general insurance intermediaries;
• Lenders, credit brokers, debt counsellors and debt managers;
• Alternative Investment Fund managers;
• E-Money, payment services, PISP, AISP and grant-making charities.
RICHDALE CONSULTANTS LTD 020 7781 8019 www.richdale.co.uk jacob@richdale.co.uk
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.
CURRENCIES DIRECT 0786 0595 890 / 0207 847 9400 www.currenciesdirect.com/jn lee.goldfarb@currenciesdirect.com
Qualifications:
•
•
•
ADAM SHELLEY
Qualifications:
• FCCA chartered certified accountant.
• Accounting, taxation and business advisory services.
• Entrepreneurial business specialist including start-up businesses.
• Specialises in charities; Personal tax returns.
• Maurice Wohl Charitable Foundation Volunteer of the Year JVN award.
SOBELL RHODES LLP 020 8429 8800 www.sobellrhodes.co.uk a.shelley@sobellrhodes.co.uk
LISA WIMBORNE
Qualifications:
Able to draw on the charity’s 50 years of experience in enabling people with physical disabilities or impaired vision to live independently, including:
• The provision of specialist accommodation with 24/7 on site support.
• Knowledge of the innovations that empower people and the benefits available.
• Understanding of the impact of a disability diagnosis.
JEWISH BLIND & DISABLED 020 8371 6611 www.jbd.org Lisa@jbd.org
If
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.
MAN ON A BIKE 020 8731 6171 www.manonabike.co.uk mail@manonabike.co.uk
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.
RISK RESOLUTIONS 020 3411 4050 www.risk-resolutions.com ashley.prager@risk-resolutions.com
Email: sales@jewishnews.co.uk
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.
NEFESH B’NEFESH 0800 075 7200 www.nbn.org.il dov@nbn.org.il
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,
• Frequent broadcaster
LLOYD PLATT & COMPANY SOLICITORS 020 8343 2998 www.divorcesolicitors.com lloydplatt@divorcesolicitors.com
Qualifications:
• Provides free professional one-to-one advice at Resource to help unemployed into work.
• Offers mock interviews and workshops to maximise job prospects.
• Expert in corporate management holding director level marketing, commercial and general management roles.
RESOURCE 020 8346 4000 www.resource-centre.org office@resource-centre.org
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.
ADWCONNECT 0208 089 1111 www.adwconnect.com hello@adwconnect.com
Harass (5)
Roadside parking place (3-2)
Inner nature (7)
Sentence components (5)
Commonplace (5)
Small four-stringed Hawaiian guitar (7)
Stomach disorder (5)
Rough fabric (5)
Tedious time-consuming tasks (7)
Detroit’s nickname (6)
Perceives (6)
Crop-growing (land) (6)
Cause of fear or anxiety (5)
Digressed (7)
Fills with cargo (5)
Big payout (7)
Amateurs, non-experts (6)
Barred enclosures (5)
Sumptuous (7)
Import illegally (7)
Usage (6)
Shrieks (5)
Reduces speed (6)
Confer (5)
Brand-name plastic footwear (5)
Looking for a care home for yourself or a loved one? Then you could do no better than to join us as part of our Springdene family. Unlike other care homes, which are often part of large corporations, we are a family business. And we’re still run by the same family that founded it more than 50 years ago.
New residents at Springdene can be sure of a warm reception. All our homes – Spring Grove in Hampstead, Spring Lane in Muswell Hill and Springview in Enfield – are rated as good by the Care Quality Commission.
Residents enjoy hotel-style luxury, with their own spacious room, complete with full en-suite facilities, personal telephone and wi-fi. There are three delicious meals a day, with a varied choice of menus.
And there are lots of regular activities, including quizzes, short stories, art competitions and poetry readings, live-streamed concerts and film-showings on a big screen, as well as walks in delightful gardens.
We’ve a great team, o ering wonderful care and everyone is brilliantly looked after.
As our motto says: Life is for
Ben was absolutely amazing! We had him for our company party and he didn’t disappoint. His show was the highlight of the night, it was full of surprises and left us all speechless! He was so professional and easy to work with. Will definitely use him for future events.
Patron Law
Can’t thank Ben enough for the brilliant Shabbat friendly mind reading and magic show at our son’s Bar Mitzvah lunch. Kept the whole crowd involved, including 35 boys aged 13. So easy to deal with, personalised show and left us all enthralled!
Penina Edel
