1302 - 16th February 2023

Most UK Jews view Israel’s new

The extent of concern among British Jews about the new Israeli government is laid bare today in the results of an exclusive Jewish News poll, writes Adam Decker.

A survey of more than 700 people in the UK, commissioned by this newspaper, was conducted by Survation over three weeks last month, concluding amid news of the new government’s reform of Israeli’s judiciary, which has prompted hundreds of thousands of citizens to

take to the streets in protest.

Pollsters asked a representative sample of the British Jewish community about their attitudes towards Israel and the country’s government, which for the first time now includes members of Israel’s far-right.

Three quarters of those surveyed said Israel was important to their identity and an even higher number said Jews living abroad were within their rights to criticise Israel’s government in public if the situation demanded.

The younger the respondent, the less likely they were to consider Israel ‘very’ or ‘quite’ important to them, results show. From 82 percent of those aged 55 and over, that figure fell to 75

percent for those aged 35-54, then to 68 percent for the 18-34 age group.

Commensurately, openness to criticising Israel in public also varied according to age.

More than 85 percent of Jews aged 18-34 were happy to criticise Israel in public, but fewer than 70 percent of those aged 55 and above felt they would do so.

ANGER IS HUGE BUT THE PROTESTS ARE PEACEFUL

At least 70,000 Israelis demonstrated outside the Knesset this week as the government advanced judicial reforms critics say will significantly weaken the High Court of Justice, writes Jotam Confino in Jerusalem.

The area around the building was blocked, with demonstrators shouting “shame” and “this isn’t Hungary” in yet another show of contempt for prime minister Netanyahu’s government, which so far has refused to compromise on its plans.

Extra trains carried thousands of protesters to Jerusalem and a nationwide strike was held by workers from the high-tech sector, law firms and private companies. Some 300 tech companies and venture capital funds encouraged sta to demonstrate.

David Lenitz from the central Israeli city of Ra’anana said he was still optimistic the judicial overhaul could be stopped.

“Eventually they will feel the pressure,” he said. “I haven’t seen anything like this in Israel before.”

Amid the sea of Israeli flags, signs depicted Hungary’s Victor Orban alongside Netanyahu, a clear message to the government its reforms will remove the checks and balances needed in a liberal democracy and thus turn Israel into a country like Hungary.

Opposition leader Yair Lapid told protesters: “We will not stay quiet as they destroy everything that is precious and sacred to us.

“They hear us, and suddenly discover we’re not ready to play the game the way they planned. We’re not here just to pay taxes.”

Netanyahu lashed out in a video message

after the protests, saying: “The opposition is going wild in the Knesset and its lawmakers are jumping on chairs. (Tel Aviv mayor) Ron Huldai is expressly inciting violence and in the left-wing protest they are calling the prime minister a traitor. Get a grip. Show responsibility and leadership.”

• The Jewish Labour Movement has written to the Israeli ambassador to the UK expressing “utter disgust with the coalition agreement and programme of government, writes Lee Harpin.

The unprecedented letter, signed by national chair Mike Katz, highlights the steps being taken by Israel’s government to curb the independence of the judiciary and the checks and balances placed on the Knesset. The trio wrote to Tzipi Hotovely to suggest the moves were “a severe blow to Israel’s credibility as a democracy, as are the threats being made by ruling party o cials against opposition members”. They add: “These moves will shatter Israel’s oft-declared pride in being the only democracy in the region.”

BY JOTAM CONFINO AT THE KNESSET

There is something humbling and chilling about witnessing history. Being in the middle of a 70,000-strong crowd at the Knesset with demonstrators chanting “shame!” at the government was one of those moments.

Something huge is happening in Israel. The entire nation is fighting over the essence of society’s most important asset: democracy.

It doesn’t matter which side you are on (in my case I was reporting); seeing religious, secular, older people and kids chanting “democracy” with their parents, who had taken a day o from work to protest against the government’s judicial overhaul, is truly inspiring.

But it is also worrying. The threat of a civil war is being mentioned as a real possibility by some of Israel’s prominent and high-ranking people, including former prime ministers and opposition lawmakers. The reason is that the reforms are considered an

actual threat to democracy by those who believe in a strong, independent Supreme Court.

The anger and frustration on display at demonstrations shows just how divided the nation is. It takes one deluded person to change the course of history. The assassination of Prime Minister Rabin in 1995 by right-wing extremist Yigal Amir is one example of that.

Israel is particularly sensitive to political violence, which is why opposition leaders and the government are warning against any incitement at a time where Israel is facing the worst crisis in its history.

Zeev Raz, a former Israeli Air Force pilot, said this month Benjamin Netanyahu deserves to die if he assumes dictatorial powers. This statement is from a man who led the squadron that bombed the Iraqi nuclear reactor in 1981, making him a hero in most Israelis’ eyes.

One can only hope that Israel learnt its lesson from the hateful protests against Rabin in 1995, and that Israelis who are furious with the government’s plan virtually to eliminate the Supreme Court will remain peaceful and continue to use demonstrations to fight for democracy.

Chaos in the Knessset this week as MKs clash over the government’s advancement of its judicial crackdown

■ 52 percent say far-right ministers in coalition ‘impacts’ their view of Israel

■ 70 percent believe Israelis don’t care about diaspora Jewish communities

■ Israel still ‘important’ to more than three quarters – but less so for young

■ Vast majority say British Jews must criticise Israel in public if the need arises

‘We won’t be quiet. We’re not here just to pay taxes’

Protesters issue clear warnings

Tens of thousands demonstrate outside the Knesset

new government with dread

Jewish leaders should still meet these politicians if called to do so.

This question highlighted another disparity in age: Jews aged 18-34 were almost twice as likely as older adults to advise Jewish community leaders against meeting Israeli far-right politicians. The figure was 38 percent of younger adults advising against such a meeting whereas among those aged 55+, only 20 percent would shun them.

outside Israel can openly criticise the Israeli government. Geography also appeared to play a role in some thinking, with Jewish respondents living in the north-west of England almost 12 percent less bothered about the Israeli government’s inclusion of far-right politicians than their kin in London.

To what extent, if at all, would the inclusion of politicians in the Israeli government, deemed to be far right, impact your feelings toward Israel?

In another telling statistic, 70 percent of those polled said they thought Israelis did not care what diaspora Jews thought about Israel’s government or its policies. This was broadly true across age ranges, locations, and even religious denominations.

A little over half – 52 percent –said the inclusion of far-right Israeli ministers in power in Jerusalem ‘impacts’ their feelings towards Israel, but 58 percent said British

Data showed differences between the sexes, with 61 percent of female respondents citing Israel as ‘very’ or ‘quite’ important to them, compared with just 50 percent of men who said the same, yet men were five percent more likely to consider that Jews

For the fifth consecutive week, tens of thousands of Israelis demonstrated at multiple locations across Israel on Saturday night, braving the bad weather to protest against the judicial reform being advanced by the government.

On Kaplan Street in Tel Aviv, mayor Ron Huldai told the 100,000-strong crowd: “We are determined to continue to fight for the state of Israel’s image. They’re trying to frame us as being out of

Kotel bikini protester may face three years in prison

An Israeli woman has stripped down to a bikini at the Western Wall to protest against a new law that would make “immodest dress” at holy sites a crime.

The 35-year-old, who was arrested in the women’s section under the current “insult to religion” law, has not been named but is understood to live in Jerusalem.

Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovitch, who heads the group charged with administering the site, said: “We are horrified by the despicable act of provocation which desecrated the holiness of the site and deeply o ended the public and worshipers.”

He added that the Western Wall was “a

sacred site for every Jew and Jewess… It is not a place for dispute or provocation of any kind”.

Current Israeli law prohibits anything that “destroys, damages or defames a place of worship or any object considered holy to a group of people, with the intention of degrading religion or with the knowledge that their action would be seen as insulting religion”.

Police said the protester, who had the word ‘Bibi’ written on her leg, could face up to three years in jail.

Netanyahu’s coalition partner Shas, a Charedi political party, has insisted on a new law criminalising “immodest dress” as well as anyone participating in mixed-gender prayer.

Haley bids for White House

Nikki Haley, the former US governor who became a pro-Israel favourite during her two years as the Trump administration’s ambassador to the United Nations, has announced her bid for the presidency, becoming the first Republican to challenge the former president ahead of 2024.

In a video released this week, Haley did not name Donald Trump but alluded to him as a polarising figure,

emphasising her e orts as governor at easing racial tensions and suggesting that the Republican Party was alienating moderate Americans.

“We turned away from fear toward God and the values that still make our country the freest and greatest in the world,” Haley said, describing her 2015 decision to remove Confederate flags from state properties after a racist gunman murdered nine black worshippers in a church.

Haley was already on the pro-Israel radar when Trump in 2017 named her as his first ambassador to the United Nations. Heading into the job, she consulted closely with pro-Israel groups and forged a close alliance with Israel’s delegation to the body.

Israel plays an important part in my Jewish identity

Israel plays an important part in my Jewish identity

touch instead of listening to our principled positions.”

In a direct warning to the government, he said: “If you take things to the extreme, you’re liable to produce extreme counter-reactions.”

His comments were backed up late last week by polling from the Jewish People Policy Institute (JPPI), which showed 60 percent of Israelis believe that the judicial reforms will lead to violence on the streets if they are pushed through. Elsewhere, Israel’s former police commissioner Roni Alsheich said the reforms “don’t contain a single element that is designed

It is acceptable for Jewish people who do not live in Israel to publicly express concern about the Israeli government or its policies

It is acceptable for Jewish people who do not live in Israel to express concern publicly about the Israeli government or its policies

to correct”. He added: “They’re trying to remove all checks and balances today, at once. All the power is to be given to the executive branch without any constraints. Things that are illegal will become legal within days.”

President Isaac Herzog called on the government to “stop the whole process for a moment, take a deep breath, and allow dialogue”. He also called on the far-right to cease what he referred to as incitement and threats.

 Editorial comment, page 18

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EHRC draws

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

The Labour Party has been lifted out of special measures in relation to antisemitism, the UK’s equality watchdog has confirmed.

In a big boost for party leader Keir Starmer, the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) said yesterday it had concluded its monitoring of Labour “as we were satisfied that the party had implemented the necessary actions to improve its complaints, recruitment, training and other procedures to the legal standards required”.

torial nature attracts those who would have no truck with any other form of prejudice. Indeed, it can be those who call themselves ‘anti-racist’ who are most blind to it.”

Writing exclusively for Jewish News (see page 20), Labour general secretary David Evans – who has been at the very centre of Labour’s response to the EHRC report – said: “Of course this is not the end. I see today’s announcement as another important step out of the morass we got ourselves in.”

At a press conference taking place later yesterday morning, Starmer described the EHRC’s announcement as an “important moment in Labour history”.

But critically, he will cautioned against celebration of the news.

that the party had implemented the necas

The Labour leader warned his party: “Be in no doubt, the job of restoring Labour is not complete. I don’t see today’s announcement as the end of the road. I see it as a signpost that we are heading in the right direction.”

In an op-ed for The Times yesterday, Starmer wrote: “Antisemitism is an evil. It is a very specific type of racism, one that festers and spreads like an infection. Its conspira-

In October 2020, Labour had been ordered to implement an emergency action plan on driving out anti-Jewish racism or face legal action after the EHRC uncovered “serious failings” under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership.

In a damning indictment of the party’s failure on antisemitism, Labour became only the second political party ever, after the farright British National Party, to be investigated by the UK’s human rights watchdog.

The EHRC had accused it of three breaches of the Equality Act 2010, relating to political interference in antisemitism complaints, a failure to provide adequate training to those handling complaints on anti-Jewish racism, and harassment.

But confirming that Labour is no longer under special measures, Marcial Boo, chief executive of the EHRC, said in a statement:

A selection of Jewish News front pages during the darkest days of Corbyn-led Labour Party

draws line under Corbyn era

“In October 2020, following a thorough investigation of the UK Labour Party that found unlawful acts of harassment and discrimination, we made detailed recommendations to ensure that the Party adheres to equality law.

“We have reviewed progress with the agreed action plan since then. On 31 January 2023, we concluded our monitoring as we were satisfied that the party had implemented the necessary actions to improve its complaints, recruitment, training and other procedures to the legal standards required.

“This will help to protect current and future Labour Party members from discrimination and harassment. No organisation is above the law. Every employer and every public body must take steps to address racism and all illegal discrimination.”

Board of Deputies president Marie van der Zyl immediately welcomed the EHRC’s decision, adding that it was “an important moment in Labour’s fight against antisemitism, recognising the party’s strong move in the correct direction.”

Van der Zyl continued: “Since taking office, Keir Starmer and his leadership team have made it clear that removing antisemitism from the party is a top priority.

“This process is not over. But through significant effort, Labour is painstakingly

rebuilding relationships which were wilfully shattered during the Corbyn years.”

The Jewish Labour Movement’s national secretary, Adam Langleben, described the watchdog’s announcement as “a hugely significant moment for the Labour Party and for British politics”.

He added: “We welcome the EHRC giving Labour a clean bill of health. When JLM, as the primary complainant, submitted testimony from hundreds of Jewish members and more than 70 whistleblowers to the EHRC in 2019, Labour was in moral turpitude and political denial. Under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership, it had become an unsafe space for Jews.

“Under Keir Starmer, Labour has moved at a pace and with a rigour few expected, expelling antisemites and introducing a new independent disciplinary system to address all equality discrimination grievances. It has been transparent with all members on the challenges through the publication of quarterly complaints figures.”

Lord Mann, the government’s independent adviser on antisemitism, is expected now to write to the Labour leader to ask how Starmer will continue to “root out” antisemitism now that the EHRC measures are over.

Jewish Leadership Council chair Keith Black and Community Security Trust chief

THE DAMNING REPORT THAT FORCED ACTION

The EHRC’s 130-page investigation was a damning indictment not just of Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership on the issue, but also of a party ill-equipped in its structures to deal with a problem it had always vowed to campaign against – racism, writes Lee Harpin.

“We found specific examples of harassment, discrimination and political interference in our evidence,” the equality watchdog said in the foreword to its October 2020 report, adding: “But equally of concern was a lack of leadership within the Labour party on these issues, which is hard to reconcile with its stated commitment to a zero-tolerance approach to antisemitism.”

The EHRC had been responding to a submission from the Jewish Labour Movement, which in 2019 submitted testimony from hundreds of Jewish members and more than 70 whistleblowers to the watchdog, along with the Campaign Against Antisemitism, which submitted its own dossier of evidence.

The EHRC’s report into the crisis did not single out Corbyn himself for blame. But the EHRC’s lead investigator, Alasdair Henderson, said at a press conference that the failure of leadership must ultimately stop with him.

The former leader’s response to the publication of the document – in which he suggested that the anti-Jewish racism problem was “dramatically overstated for political reasons” – was also evidence enough of the fact that Corbyn was part of the problem.

The EHRC said there had been “a clear breakdown of trust between the Labour

Party, many of its members and the Jewish community”. It ruled that the party had broken the law by failing to prevent “acts of harassment and discrimination”.

It also concluded that Corbyn’s leadership “did not do enough to prevent antisemitism and, at worst, could be seen to accept it”.

Analysing 70 complaint files between March 2016 and May 2019, the EHRC concluded that there were 23 instances of political interference by staff from the leader’s office and others. “These included clear examples of interference at various stages throughout the complaint-handling process, including in decisions on whether to investigate and whether to suspend,” it said. It held Labour responsible for this action which it said “was indirectly unlawful.”

The EHRC also said there was “political interference” in decisions about whether to investigate complaints, citing the example of a complaint made in April 2018 about Jeremy Corbyn, who had previously posted a statement in support of an artist responsible for antisemitic mural in the East End of London.

It emerged that staff from Corbyn’s office called for the case to be dismissed, emailing the party’s governance and legal unit, which was responsible for complaints. The email said: “The complaint seems to fall well below the threshold required for investigation.”

The report found Labour breached the Equality Act in two cases – relating to Ken Livingstone and councillor Pam Bromley – “by committing unlawful harassment” against Jewish people.

executive Mark Gardner issued a more cautious statement suggesting: “We always maintained that we would judge the Labour leadership on its actions rather than its words. The Labour Party under Sir Keir Starmer has gone a significant way towards making the Labour Party an unwelcome home for antiJewish racists. There is still much work to do.

“Cultural change is always slow and whilst there are visible green shoots, there remains a clear issue, as demonstrated so clearly by the quarterly complaints’ figures released by the party.”

The EHRC also confirmed it had carried out three inspections and regularly monitored the Starmer party over its Action Plan to Drive out Antisemitism – the party’s response to the 2020 report.

This included a “zero tolerance” approach to antisemitism, an independent complaints process, the implementation of antisemitism training led by JLM, and strengthening of checks on candidates and their social media.

Labour has also held regular meetings with an antisemitism advisory board, which includes representatives from the Board, the JLC and the CST. The EHRC confirmed it received regular reports on progress and met with the Labour Party to discuss issues.

Labour stressed how the party has cleared the backlog of antisemitism complaints and its complaints handling processes have been transformed, including training for all staff and NEC members on decision-making panels. Since two independent complaints boards were made fully operational in 2022, they have scrutinised more than 120 cases.

The party also noted how hundreds of individual memberships have been terminated and groups proscribed that expressed a desire to “campaign against the recommendations of the EHRC report”.

Campaign Against Antisemitism, however, claimed the party had not carried out investigations into “dozens” of their complaints, and it was “hard for us to feel that a corner has been turned”.

 Opinion, Page 20

Former leader won’t be Labour candidate

Jeremy Corbyn will not be a Labour candidate at the next general election, party leader Sir Keir Starmer has said.

Speaking at a media conference held by Labour as Britain’s equality watchdog lifted the party out of special measures on antisemitism, Starmer said:”Let me be very clear about that: Jeremy Corbyn will not stand for Labour at the next general election, as a Labour party candidate.

“What I said about the party changing, I meant, and we are not going back, and that is why Jeremy Corbyn will not stand as a Labour candidate at the next general election.”

Keir Starmer, Marie Van der Zyl, Baroness Anderson and Dame Louise Ellman at the EHRC Labour media conference

Starmer also repeated his call, made in an article for The Times newspaper, for the hard-left in his party to either back him, or leave. He said: “The changes we have made aren’t just fiddling around the edges or temporary fixes. They are permanent, fundamental, irrevocable.

‘The Labour Party I lead today is unrecognisable from 2019. There are those who don’t like that change, who still refuse to see the reality of what had gone on under the pre-

vious leadership. To them I say in all candour: we are never going back. If you don’t like it, nobody is forcing you to stay.”

The former Labour leader was suspended in October 2020 for saying that that while “one antisemite is one too many” he believed that “the scale of the problem was also dramatically overstated for political reasons by our opponents inside and outside the party, as well as by much of the medi

yesterday

The former Labour leader had hoped to be readmitted so he could stand for re-election as a Labour candidate. In now means he faces the prospect of fighting the Islington North seat as an independent, with a Labour candidate standing against him.

Despite securing a big majority in the seat in 2019, it becomes notoriously difficult taking on official Labour candidates in a seat as an independent at a general election.

Starmer also said the party had changed under his leadership and “we are not going back”, adding that if others did not back him they could leave.

During Wednesday’s event, Dame Margaret Hodge and Board of Deputies president Marie Van der Zyl both gave speeches at the venue in Aldgate, east London.

Starmer speaking

Keir Starmer with Jeremy Corbyn in 2019

Board ‘won’t support demonisation of BBC’

Board of Deputies chief executive Michael Wegier has confirmed his organisation “will not be associated with any demonisation of the BBC”.

Wegier was asked about allegations that the slowness of the BBC’s response to the misreporting of the Chanukah bus incident in Oxford Street in November 2021 justified claims of some kind of antisemitic bias at the broadcaster.

Speaking to Roger Bolton for the Religion Media Centre’s Big Interview, the board’s chief thanked the host for his “excellent” question. He added: “We believe the BBC is a wonderful organisation that contributes huge amounts to British life.”

But on the issue of the reporting of the Chanukah bus incident, in which the BBC claimed, without evidence, that Muslim male attackers were subjected to taunts, Wegier said: “We do think

there was a specific problem in the newsroom that night. The BBC was slow to uncover what happened and to correct itself.

“And the BBC needed to be called to account for that act, but I also get very nervous and uncomfortable when people describe the BBC as an antisemitic organisation. The Board of Deputies has no truck with that position.”

Wegier’s comments come in the wake of claims the Jewish community is being “misled” over a so-called “parliamentary investigation” announced by a group of peers into the BBC and its reporting of issues around Jews and Israel. In December, the Jewish Chronicle claimed “victory” for its anti-BBC campaign by confirming the

HATE TWEETER OUSTED

launch of a “probe” into the broadcaster, which was being led by Lord Ian Austin.

There has been no update as to its progress since.

Wegier also spoke of his “absolute faith” in Sir Keir Starmer’s “root and branch” approach to stamping out antisemitism in Labour.

But while insisting the Jewish community is “mainly very satisfied” with the Labour leader’s approach to tackling the problem, Wegier stressed that within some local Labour constituency groups and among some trade unions, there is still evidence of denialism over the scale of the antisemitism crisis.

He said: “I have absolute faith, absolute belief, in the commitment of Keir Starmer and his team to deal with the problem root and branch. The Jewish community is, generally, satisfied with the work he has done so far.”

A Labour activist selected to stand as a local election candidate has stepped down after Jewish News alerted the party to his worrying track record of posts relating to antisemitism.

Jim Bradbury had been selected as the Labour candidate in the forthcoming city council elections in Stoke-on-Trent, where he was due to stand in Trent Vale and Oakhill on 4 May.

But Bradbury’s Twitter page, which has been taken down in recent weeks, showed he had a lengthy past of liking comments made by or about figures including George Galloway, Ken Loach and Jackie Walker denying or downplaying claims around antisemitism.

In one instance, he had liked claims made by former Respect party leader Galloway that condemned former MP Luciana Berger, accusing her of spending “every hour and every day trying to sabotage the possibility” of a Labour government.

In a further “like” he also showed his support for the proscribed Labour Against The Witch Hunt group, which has repeatedly downplayed or denied antisemitism claims in the party.

Elsewhere, Bradbury o ered his support to Ken Loach, who was expelled from Labour over antisemitism claims.

He also liked false claims about the Board of Deputies being Tory Party supporters, and backed claims the BBC is under the influence of the ‘Israel lobby’.

Further tweets from warehouse worker Bradbury show that he liked tweets from Jackie Walker, expelled from Labour for allegations involving antisemitism that condemned Lord Mann, the government’s independent adviser on the subject.

Checking out the BBC News website on a desktop computer

Jim Bradbury

Judge steps down from Halpern probe

The former judge due to chair the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations’ inquiry into allegations against Golders Green rabbi, Chaim Halpern, has stepped down and been replaced by a non-Jewish chair, writes Jenni Frazer.

The former Recorder of Redbridge originally due to chair the inquiry, Judge Martyn Zeidman, has withdrawn from the role. He told Jewish News: “With great regret, I am now unable to conduct this important inquiry. It is for personal reasons, in that my wife has suddenly been taken seriously ill”.

But for his wife’s sudden health decline, the judge would have been expected to begin his inquiry imminently, into the allegations of inappropriate sexual behaviour by Rabbi Halpern.

He had made it clear that he would not invite witnesses until any police inquiry had concluded. Last week police announced its inquiry into allegations against Rabbi Halpern had been closed, because it had been unable to make contact with, or identify, the latest accuser.

Jewish News undersands Zeidman has been

replaced with an as-yet unnamed non-Jewish chair, sparking concerns that strictly-Orthodox women may be reluctant to confide in someone outside the community.

Rabbi Halpern insists he is innocent of all allegations and claims it is not his voice on the recordings.

Court date set for ‘failed’ university essay case

A Jewish graduate who is suing Leeds University after her essay about crimes committed by Hamas against the Palestinians was failed has been given a 26 June date for the court case to proceed, writes Lee Harpin.

Danielle Greyman (pictured) is alleging “negligence, discrimination and victimisation” after claiming her essay was failed by an academic because it did not blame the Jewish state. Greyman, who said she has never before had an essay failed at university, was forced to resit the module

two years ago, which she subsequently passed. But she had to wait almost a year for the result of her appeal and was unable to take up a place on a Master’s course.

Greyman confirmed to Jewish News her case would now he heard at Clerkenwell and Shoreditch County Court on 26 June. She claimed: “No institution, or academic, should behave this way and I’m glad to have the opportunity to hold Leeds accountable.”

In her initial essay, Greyman had referred to Hamas’s use of human shields, saying it was

viewed as “a betrayal of the Palestinian people by their government”. But a moderator’s note by that section said: “This ignores the fact that the Israeli state commits acts of violence.” The University of Leeds said: “The university strenuously denies the accusations of antisemitism.”

DOZENS HEED MINYAN REQUEST FOR FUNERAL

Forty men and eight women have paid their respects at the funeral of a Holocaust refugee they never met, writes Michelle

Rosenberg.

Their mitzvah followed a public plea by the Association of Jewish Refugees (AJR) to attend after the death of 91-year old Betty Shane in a fire. The former teacher’s father was murdered at Auschwitz and she had almost no family.

She was one of around 800 survivors in Britain given help and assistance by the organisation. While AJR requested enough mourners to form the minyan quorum of 10 men to ensure Betty could be buried at Bushey Old Cemetery, the community ensured there were enough four times over.

Michael Newman, CEO of the AJR told Jewish News: “Betty had a passion for English. She was a lovely and cultured lady with

a deep interest in poetry and literature who wrote her memoirs about her time in Israel in the 1950s.”

beacon; a beacon not only for care but also of Jewish life. RESIDENT

Betty Shane pictured on her 90th birthday

Rabbi Chaim Halpern

Briton killed in Ukraine was former IDF soldier

The 45-year-old man killed in Ukraine in December has been identified as British Jew Jonathan Shenkin, writes Jotam Confino.

Shenkin, who originated from Glasgow, also served in the Israeli army. He is survived by his son and daughter, to whom he was devoted.

His family paid tribute to him on social media, saying he “died as a hero in an act of bravery as a paramedic, receiving a medal for ‘Valour In Combat’.”

“On enlisting in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, he made the ultimate sacrifice to defend values we all believe in.

Spending much of his life helping others, he was notably involved in the 2009 rescue of an American citizen held hostage in the West Bank,” his brother

Daniel wrote.

Daniel added that Jonathan started his own security business, which led him to “missions in many hostile arenas around the world. These included two tours of Iraq, UN military contracts in Afghanistan, a military medic in Oman, close protection in Somalia, security detail in Angola, amongst many more.”

Shenkin also volunteered during natural disasters in the Philippines, receiving multiple awards from various Philippine government authorities for training hand-to-hand combat, close protection and firearms.

He also trained the Special Forces in both the Philippines and South Korea, marines in Kabul, Drug Enforcement Agencies, The Philippine Bureau of Investigation, the military

COHEN MEETS WITH ERDOGAN

Israel’s Foreign Minister Eli Cohen met with Turkey’s President Erdogan on Tuesday, one week after the deadly earthquake which has left more than 33,000 people dead.

and the police in multiple countries.

Daniel concluded the family tribute by saying that his brother, who had a “lifelong passion for Israel”, lived by the words of Winston Churchill: “All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honour, duty, mercy, hope.” We are supporting the family of a British national who died in Ukraine, and are in contact with the local authorities,” a Foreign O ce spokesman told the Daily Mail.

In a statement, the prime minister said: “Russia’s unjustifiable attack brought war and destruction to our continent once again and it has forced millions from their homes and devastated families across Ukraine and Russia. I am incredibly proud of the UK’s response.”

Cohen promised Erdogan that Israel would continue to provide humanitarian assistance to Turkey in light of the many victims in need of help. “The relations between Israel and Turkey are important for the stability of the region. We have been working to continue strengthening them recently,” Cohen said.

Cohen’s meeting with Erdogan comes after an Israeli search and rescue delegation, led by the IDF Home Front Command, wrapped up its mission to Turkey on Sunday, saving 19 people from the earthquake rubble.

UK CONDEMNS SETTLEMENTS

Israel has been condemned by the UK, US, Germany and Italy for announcing it would take steps toward legalising nine further illegal settlement outposts in the West Bank and build 10,000 new homes in existing settlements.

The nine outposts are all illegal under international and Israeli law, some of which are built on private Palestinian land and Israeli military zones. The Security Cabinet, led by Prime Minister Netanyahu, announced the moves this week.

Jonathan Shenkin served in the Israeli army

Relief fl ight / Turkey-Syria earthquake

MDA flight heads to disaster zone as victim search goes on SCHOOLS RAISE £4K FOR AID

by Jotam Confino jotam@jewishnews.co.uk @mrconfino

A specially-chartered cargo flight containing more than £350,000 worth of vital supplies was sent from the UK to Turkey on Tuesday to help victims of the deadly earthquake that has left more than 33,000 people dead.

Magen David Adom UK partnered with Virgin Atlantic, which operated the special service destined for Adana in southern Turkey, a city some 115 miles from the epicentre of the earthquake in Gaziantep province.

The cargo included 64 pallets of clothing and other essential aid, 31,000 coats and blankets and 990kg of infant milk powder. It is estimated tens of millions of people are a ected by the disaster.

“The UK public has made a heartfelt and generous response to those a ected by the Turkey-Syria earthquake but it is vital those donations turn into aid as quickly

as possible to help those in need,”

Magen David Adom UK CEO Daniel Burger said. “The response by charities to turn around such a huge aid operation so quickly has been an incredible e ort and we’d like to thank all those involved for making this happen.”.

Virgin Atlantic CEO Shai Weiss said the airline was “pleased” to partner once again with MDA UK.

“We are doing all we can to

support the relief e ort. Virgin Atlantic and its partners are united in the belief business can be a force for good and we’ll continue to stand ready should further opportunities arise,” Weiss said.

The emergency aid to Turkey is a joint e ort by MDA and crisis response charity Goods for Good, medicines and essentials supplier Durbin and Virgin Atlantic, which donated the flight.

Israeli lifesavers escape Turkey ‘concrete threat’

One of the Israeli teams dispatched to Turkey to assist after the devastating earthquakes there headed home early after being informed of a “concrete and immediate threat” against them.

United Hatzalah told its team of roughly two dozen personnel in Turkey to end their rescue mission and leave the country, the emergency services organisation announced. Because of a shortage of available aircraft to evacuate them, the philanthropist Miriam Adelson donated her private jet to facilitate the evacuation, the group said.

“We knew that there was a certain level of risk in sending our team to this area of Turkey, which is close to the Syrian border, but we took the necessary steps in order to mitigate the threat for the sake of our lifesaving mission,” Dov Maisel, the group’s vice president of operations, said in a statement. “Unfortunately, we have just received intelligence of a concrete and immediate threat on the Israeli delegation and we have to put the security of our personnel first.”

Maisel said the Hatzalah team had rescued 15 people since arriving shortly after the quakes. The o cial death toll stands at more than 35,000 and is expected to rise.

More than 500 Israelis have travelled to Turkey to aid in rescue and recovery. Among them, the Israeli Defense Forces team says it rescued 19 people from the rubble, and provided medical care to more than 180 others. It

was also responsible for locating the body of Fortuna Cenudioglu, a stalwart with her husband Saul of Antakya’s nearly 2,500-year-old Jewish community, who died when her apartment building collapsed.

The Israeli delegations received the express permission of Israel’s Ashkenazi chief rabbi, David Lau, to work through Shabbat as the window for rescues closed. The IDF medical team and the team from a third group, IsrAid, have so far remained in Turkey.

Israel has at times warned of plots targeting Israelis and Jews in Turkey. Last summer, Israel evacuated its citizens from Istanbul after warning of an Iranian plot against Israelis there. The day before the earthquake, police in Istanbul arrested 15 people they said were part of an ISIS plot targeting synagogues there. The earthquake was most destructive in eastern Turkey, close to the border of Syria, which is Israel’s enemy and home to militant strongholds.

MDA also worked with disaster response and logistics non-profit Airlink, which coordinates and transports aid for 150 NGOs and charities. Airlink partner SEKO logistics, which provides trucking services, is also part of the e ort.

Goods for Good CEO Rosalind Bluestone said: “We are overwhelmed by the UK industry’s response to the devastating earthquake. Since we announced our support, we have been inundated with o ers of goods, logistics and storage. As a humanitarian aid charity, we depend on the goodwill and collaboration of the UK corporates and the community to provide our emergency response in these human catastrophes.

“And while we are incredibly grateful for the support, more is needed. This is still a life-or-death situation and we’re urging the corporate community and potential partners to assist in any way they can to help us source more goods, help with logistics and fund this emergency e ort.”

Yavneh schools (college and primary) have raised just over £4,000 for the victims of the earthquakes that struck Turkey and Syria.

Sixthform students Maya Aharon, Aimee Jayes, Mia Rose, Emily Sinclair and Dahlia Leaman reached out to the school asking for help in raising money for the charity, IsraAID, who are deploying emergency response teams following the earthquakes that have claimed the lives of thousands. Alongside the schools informal Jewish education (IJE) department, the Yavneh primary Tzedakah Tzevet and amazing volunteers, the girls raised £4,066.03 over three days, by selling tuck, holding a bake sale and pupil and parent donations.

The schools said: “Yavneh primary and Yavneh college students spent hours during and after school dedicated to this cause.”

United Hatzalah’s rescue team in Turkey

The MDA UK flight preparing to depart on Tuesday

Yavneh fundraisers answer the call

News / Plaque unveiled / Cancer trials / Women celebrated

43 Group gets Soho plaque

by Michelle Rosenberg

A plaque honouring the secret London headquarters of a group of Jewish anti-fascists has been unveiled in Soho.

In 1946, the 43 Group was formed by 38 Jewish ex-servicemen and five women, to fight back against the resurgence of Oswald Mosley’s British fascists.

With the return of the so-called Blackshirts to the streets of the UK, spouting antisemitic and racist rhetoric in the aftermath of the Holocaust, the group was named after the 43 activists who turned up to start the movement at the Maccabi club building (now demolished) in Compayne Gardens, Hampstead. However, the commemorative plaque, pictured, is fixed outside the main and secret

headquarters of the group, at 4 Panton Street, not far from Trafalgar Square.

It was organised by AJEX (Association of Jewish Ex-Servicemen and Women) archivist Martin Sugarman and financed by Jerry Klinger of the UK branch of the Jewish American society for historic preservation.

Over five years, using spies inside the British Fascist Party to gather intelligence about their plans and rallies, the 43 Group prepared violent ‘warm welcomes’ for them, in places like Ridley Road in Hackney. Veteran Jewish soldiers would rush and force their way to the speaking platforms at the rallies, turning them over and causing enough chaos to stop the meetings taking place.

Sugarman told Jewish News: “When violence ensued, the police then broke up the fas-

cist rallies as a disturbance of the peace. Many Jews were arrested at these events and went to court where they were freed or fined; fines were paid by philanthropists and lawyers representing the 43 Group, for free.”

No lists or archives of the 43 Group were kept, as some of their activities, such as breaking into fascist stores, warehouses and printing presses, were illegal.

Sugarman has collected about 250 names from books, obituaries, and personal interviews with 43 Group survivors. Only one known member is still alive, but documentaries and films made about them are stored in various archives around the UK.

Well-known individuals such as the hair stylist Vidal Sassoon were part of the 43 Group, and celebrities giving financial sup-

RATS – IT’S CANCER Fabulous females

Israeli scientists training rats to sni out lung cancer from human urine are hoping to conduct a next-stage trial in the UK, after tests showed a 93 percent accuracy rate.

Rats are known for their sensitive sense of smell and tests show that in nine times out of 10 they can identify which urine samples come from lung cancer patients. An Israeli firm, Early Labs, which has spent two years training the rats, now wants to test it in the UK. The test can be taken at home; the sample is taken to GP surgeries or pharmacies to be sent o to a lab.

Lung cancer is the UK’s biggest cancer killer. Every year, 50,000 people are diagnosed, and 35,000 die of the disease.

United synagogues across London have celebrated women in their communities. Special Shabbat services, kiddushim and lunches were held to honour ‘n’shei chayil’, women of the year.

Pinner United held a women’s Kabbalat Shabbat with a dvar Torah from Esti Hamilton. Northwood United invited their locum rebbetzen, Leah Green, to give a talk, and Muswell Hill United heard from their women’s o cer, Ruth Jampel.

Naomi Cohen, community development manager, said: “Women’s Kabbalat Shabbat services brought women and girls of all ages together in prayer and song, while female speakers gave inspirational talks in many shuls.”

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port included the comedian Bud Flanagan and the boxing promoter Jack Solomons. Sugarman told Jewish News: “The plaque reminds us that when antisemitism, fascism and racism rear their ugly heads, we must all take action to stop it and ensure children learn about the horrors of these hateful views.”

Schools recognised

Eleven schools across Scotland have been recognised for good practice in Holocaust education at an event at the Scottish Parliament hosted by Jackie Baillie MSP and Jackson Carlaw MSP. The programme is delivered by University of the West of Scotland (UWS) as part of the Vision Schools Scotland Holocaust education initiative, launched in 2017 in partnership with the Holocaust Educational Trust.

A Vision School is one committed to the view that learning about the Holocaust is a vital part of young people’s education. To receive the award, schools must demonstrate commitment to the importance of Holocaust education.

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27 academics and educators named Rabbi Sacks scholars

The Rabbi Sacks Legacy has selected the first 27 educators and academics for the Rabbi Sacks Scholars programme.

The 27 participants all shared a personal connection with Rabbi Sacks and come from the UK, the US, Israel, Australia, Canada and South Africa.

The scheme allows the participants to delve into Rabbi Sacks’ teachings and will kick off with a retreat in Jerusalem that will provide access to the highest level of Israel-based leaders.

The programme will be guided by Rabbi Sacks’ philosophy that “leadership at its highest transforms those who exercise and those who are influenced by it” and that “the great leaders

make people better, kinder, nobler than they otherwise would be,” according to a statement.

Joanna Benarroch, chief executive of The Rabbi Sacks Legacy, said: “Rabbi Sacks was a master communicator, distilling complex Jewish concepts into understandable insights for people of all ages and backgrounds.

“His timeless messages continue to inspire and guide communities of faith and society as a whole.

“This programme will continue his legacy by empowering his students to share his philosophy with future generations.”

The programme will feature 10

monthly online seminars taught by global Jewish leaders in education, academia, politics and the media.

It will also provide each scholar with mentorship, partnering them with experts in leadership development, communication and new media.

The group of scholars who have been selected to participate from London include Rabbi Daniel Epstein of the Western Marble Arch Synagogue, Ilana Epstein of the Jewish Futures Group, Rachel Fink of the S&P Sephardi Community, Nicky Goldman of the Jewish Volunteering Network and Joanne Greenaway of the London School of Jewish Studies.

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks’ messages ‘continue to inspire’

HEBREW FESTIVAL RETURNS TO UK

A festival celebrating the Hebrew language returns to the UK this month for a fifth consecutive year.

Running between 22 February and 3 March, the Festival of Spoken Ivrit is a collaboration between London-based arts company Tzemach Productions, the World

Zionist Organisation (WZO) and private donors.

This year, there are 75 performances to celebrate each year of Israel’s modern existence. The festival, which is partnered with the Hashaa Theatre, a leading Israeliperformance company for children

and young people, brings Israeli language shows to Jewish kindergartens, schools and community organisations in London, Liverpool and Leeds. Each performance carries an educational message in Hebrew and schools are supported with work packs and exercises cov-

ering vocabulary and grammar.

Tali Tzemach, CEO, Tzemach Productions said: “It’s a highlight to see how happy the children are and how they listen and interact with the actors in Hebrew.”

Some performances are still available at JW3 in London.

How did your portfolio perform during 2022?

School found wanting in sexual identity teaching

A Jewish boys’ boarding school in Gateshead has become the latest to ‘require improvement’ by the national schools’ inspectorate after school leaders refused to teach pupils about different sexualities or gender identities, writes Adam Decker.

In an otherwise good report, Ofsted inspectors assessing the 120-pupil Gateshead Jewish Boarding School said this was “limiting pupils’ understanding of the legal rights of people with protected characteristics, as defined in law, and not preparing them fully for life in modern Britain”.

Following an inspection in November 2021, at which the same point was raised, school leaders “met with their community more widely” to discuss the approach they intended to take, said lead inspector Zoe Lightfoot.

“Leaders considered whether to prepare a curriculum offer that made reference to specific protected characteristics that were not taught at the last inspection. It was intended to allow parents and carers to opt out of this.

“However, they felt that this approach did not align with their cultural beliefs. Leaders have not made the necessary changes to their programme for personal, social, health and economic (PSHE) education.”

The school takes boys aged from 10 to 16. Elsewhere in the town, the Keser Torah Boys’ School, with 220 pupils aged from 5-11, was also recently deemed to ‘require improvement’ for similar reasons.

New Madrid-Tel Aviv link

Madrid has o ered to become Tel Aviv’s Spanish twin city after the mayor of Barcelona severed its ties, citing claims that Israel is guilty of “apartheid”.

Madrid mayor José Luís Martínez-Almeida o ered to step up in a

letter to Tel Aviv mayor Ron Huldai and during a press conference, saying the twinning was “a great opportunity to show Madrid’s commitment to strengthening relations with a democratic and a law-abiding state like Israel”.

Barcelona and Tel Aviv entered their relationship in 1998 when both cities jointly signed a “twin city” agreement with Gaza City. Madrid said Barcelona’s decision to quit the partnership “has a clear antisemitic overtone”.

S AFRICA RUGBY SHAME

Israeli rugby team Tel Aviv Heat which played Saracens in north London last November has been stopped from playing in South Africa after political opposition to Israel reportedly resulted in death threats against o cials.

were “ironic” after it emerged Palestinian supporters had pressured rugby authorities.

Pupils are Keser Torah “are not taught enough about people in society who are di erent from themselves”, inspectors noted in the October 2021 report.

“Pupils are not taught about sexual orientation or gender identity within relationships education. In addition, their knowledge of other cultures and faiths is very limited. This reduces their ability to be respectful and tolerant of others in society.”

The South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD) told The Citizen the reasons for the withdrawn invitation

Zev Krengel, vice-president of SAJBD, said the South Africans “pulled their invitation when BDS [Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions] and other antisemitic groups put pressure on them and [issued] death threats”.

Bosnia Judaism in focus

The Jewish Community of Bosnia Herzegovina is creating an archive of Balkan Jewish history, including documents, photographs, artifacts and genealogies to preserve the Bosnian Jewish story.

Eli Tauber, author of several books on the area’s Jewish culture and history,

is leading the project and the group has acquired a 7,500 square foot space in Sarajevo for an archive museum.

Tauber, 72, said: “What is important is that we will establish some computer program with family trees for all those people who have their roots in Bosnia, and find all that they did.”

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‘British Muslims can learn from success of the CST’

Philanthropist Asif Aziz tells Adam Decker why he hopes the Jewish community will back his campaign over the UN Day to Combat Islamophobia

The founder of an Islamic charity supporting Muslim students through university has appealed to the Jewish community for its help in persuading the government to recognise the UN’s annual Day to Combat Islamophobia on 15 March.

Businessman Asif Aziz, who set up the Aziz Foundation, wants MPs to enshrine the date in statute to facilitate the flow of resources toward fighting intolerance in education.

In his first interview for 30 years, Aziz told Jewish News the Jewish community had “always been great friends” and Jews and Muslims “should be allies in the fight” to eradicate religious and racial hatred.

“We learned from each other. I cannot ever know what it is like to be a victim of antisemitism, but I can identify with what it is like to be targeted for my religion, my looks and what I wear,” he added.

His foundation has spent more than £7 million putting Muslim students through university and recently launched a major campaign to have the UK recognise officially the 15 March date, chosen because it is the anniversary of the Christchurch mosque shootings in 2019, in which 51 people died and 40 were injured when a 28-year-old white supremacist went on the rampage in New Zealand.

discriminate against people of different faiths, “we are seeing Islamophobia run free in many areas of the UK… we believe this is mainly because of a lack of understanding and negative perceptions about Islam”.

Enshrining the day in law would send “a positive, powerful and hopeful message, set a precedent for the treatment of Muslims in this country and encourage the government to allocate more resources for educating young people about Islamophobia”, he said.

“We have already seen religious hate crimes increased by 37 percent, reaching 8,730 offences, of which 3,459 – 42 percent –were targeted against Muslims. Antisemitism accounts for around 20 percent, so our two communities account for roughly two thirds of all religious hate crime in the UK.”

For years, politicians have debated the definition of Islamophobia, with Labour, the Liberal Democrats and the Scottish Conservatives all accepting a definition put forward by the All-Party Parliamentary Group for British Muslims. “Abusing, discriminating, judging, or targeting someone because they are a Muslim is simply racism,” said Aziz. “Tackling Islamophobia is a key part of creating a more inclusive and equal society.”

A philanthropist for more than 35 years, Aziz has supported several interfaith initiatives, including in 2010 the Olive Tree Programme which paid for young Israelis and Palestinians to study at City University London.

He also supported the MuJu Crew, a Muslim-Jewish collaborative theatre group.

Another on the list is the West London Mission’s Night Shelter project in Westminster, which brought together mosques, churches and synagogues to host rough sleepers.

“To enshrine the UN Day into law is the next logical step in creating conditions to eradicate Islamophobia from the institutions around us,” said Aziz. “This campaign is about education for all faiths and none.”

People, he said, “need to be honest that there has been a lack of awareness and tensions from members of both our communities about our respective faiths. To deny this would be naïve”.

The businessman went on: “My friends in the Jewish community have been, and continue to be, a tremendous source of education for me. [Murdered MP] Jo Cox famously said ‘far more unites us than divides us’, and this is why we have been engaging with other faithbased communities about our campaign.”

While Islamophobia is racism, it is often not seen as such, he argued, explaining that although the Equality Act makes it illegal to

“There is a misconception that our charitable nature is confined to giving to Muslim causes, but we are committed to helping any person or community who we can support,” Aziz noted.

“For example, when the only synagogue in Bradford was almost sold due to financial constraints, it was the Muslim community that stepped in to help.

“Mosque representatives and local Muslim individuals not only donated to the effort themselves but also helped with a wider fund- raising effort which secured a total of more than £100,000 to enable the synagogue to avoid closure.”

Aziz noted that interfaith cooperation in other causes “will help strengthen ties between communities”, adding: “The Equality Act makes religious discrimination illegal but unless it is reported to the police, its impact is limited.

“We can learn from the work CST has done

for the Jewish community.”

The Trustees are delighted to invite our Alumni to a reunion to mark the retirement of Mr Michael Kramar a most valued member of the kodesh department from 1991 to 2023.

8pm to 10pm Monday 13th March 2023 at a North West London venue ---------------  ---------------

Asif Aziz wants MPs to enshrine a day in the diary to combat Islamophobia

I CAN IDENTIFY WITH WHAT IT’S LIKE TO BE TARGETED FOR MY LOOKS, RELIGION AND WHAT I WEAR

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Say a little prayer for Burt

Walk on By, I Say a Little Prayer, Alfie, Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head. These are some of the songs that were played on TV and radio last week to mark the death of the 94-year-old Burt Bacharach, the multi-award winning hit-writer, writes Brigit Grant.

Best music Oscars for the films Arthur and Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid; eight Grammys including a Lifetime Achievement Award and a memorable songs list that might start with Arthur’s Theme (Best That You Can Do) and end with Trains and Boats and Planes

There’s no end to Bacharach’s stable of classics. Although he did his best not to talk about being Jewish, Bacharach was born to Jewish parents in Queens, New York, and he carried on learning the piano, so as not to upset his mother. As he wrote in his 2013 autobiography, Anyone Who Had a Heart: “The Jewish guilt started creeping in and I thought, ‘Jeez, I can’t do this to my mother.’ So I kept taking lessons... and maybe even practising a little harder.”

As a teen in Forest Hills, Bacharach formed a band and went under the name Happy Baxter, which, he wrote, “was as close as I could get to Bacharach without sounding Jewish”.

His family broke their ties with organised Judaism shortly after he was born because of his maternal grandfather being unable to pay the shul fees after losing his money in the Wall Street Crash of 1929. Grandpa Abe, as a gesture,

also offered to resign as president of the Reform synagogue in Atlantic City but, when they accepted it, he never returned. “Whatever connection my mother might have had with being Jewish also ended right then and there, which helps explain the way I was raised,” he said.

It was evident that his family never took him to shul and the young Burt avoided mentioning he was Jewish. “I got the feeling this was something shameful I should hide.” Hanging out with Catholic students, when his football team played a Jewish team he would echo the captain, saying:

“‘Let’s go and kick the s*** out of these Jews.” But Bacharach’s identity was more conspicuous than he hoped as no sooner had he arrived at McGill University in Montreal, he received an invitation from B’nai Brith to attend services.

Drafted during the Korean War, he entertained at military bases before being sent to Germany, where he wrote orchestrations for the resident band at the army recreational centre.

Remarkably, it was Marlene Dietrich who took him to the Holy Land as, after the army, he became her orchestra director and her tour

included Israel. Bacharach claims she was the first person to sing in German on an Israeli stage.

He ended up working alongside and within a Jewish collective at the Brill Building, where he teamed up with Jewish lyricist Hal David and composed across the corridor from Jerry Leiber, Mike Stoller and Jerry Moss. From the window he could see Carole King and Gerry Goffin, Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil coming up with chart hits for Don Kirshner.

Bacharach and David wrote for Perry Como, but it was Dionne Warwick who made the most of their easy listening, songs. Walk on By was the hit she was singing in the photo she posted on Twitter to mark the composer’s death: “Burt’s transition is like losing a family member.”

Married four times, the hitmaker had two Jewish wives: Paula Stewart (née Dorothy Paula Zürndorfer), 93, and lyricist Carole Bayer Sager, to whom he was married for nine years. Together they wrote Arthur’s Theme and the song That’s What Friends Are For Bacharach’s career spanned seven decades and he found a new audience after appearing in the 1997 film Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery. In the second Austin Powers film, he appeared alongside Elvis Costello. With Costello, who was a great fan of his work, the duo recorded Painted from Memory in 1998, which won a Grammy. Their final collaboration, The Songs of Bacharach & Costello, featuring 19 unreleased recordings, drops on 3 March.

Burt Bacharach and, inset, with Marlene Dietrich in Jerusalem during a 1960 concert tour

Our polling reveals generational divide

It will not have escaped regular readers’ notice that, as a newspaper, we have been strident in our coverage – and criticism – of Israel’s new far-right ministers, most recently of their intention to rip up established democratic checks and balances.

At Jewish News , we have always believed that newspapers do not have a right to preach but do have a right – dare we say duty? – to reflect the general thoughts and feelings of its readership, if there is a groundswell of opinion one way or another.

Faced with the inevitable rage, we decided to institute a little checking and balancing of our own, asking respected pollster Survation to take the community’s temperature on the new Israeli government and our right – or otherwise – to criticise it.

The results both surprised us and reassured us that we had – over various front pages in recent weeks – been on the right lines: a Brexit majority (52 percent) felt the inclusion of the far-right in the seat of power in Jerusalem had “impacted” how they felt about Israel.

Moreover, a staggering 77.26 percent of British Jews, including a whopping 85.25 percent of young Jewish adults, said: “It is acceptable for Jews outside Israel to publicly express concern about the Israeli government.”

So, when those of a certain political persuasion write to us to complain (as they have done once again opposite...), they should remember they are complaining about the vast majority of the British Jewish community, who overwhelmingly feel Israel matters to them.

Laying to rest that particular argument, the results should give pause for thought to Israelis who care about the country’s relationship with the diaspora.

It worth noting some of the 700 respondents were polled before concerns over the coalition’s targeting of the judiciary, so it’s likely the results would have made for even more concerning were these questions being asked today.

THIS

WEEKEND'S SHABBAT TIMES...

Shabbat comes in Friday night 5.04pm

Shabbat goes out Saturday night 6.08pm

Sweeping generalisations do not help tackle racism

I was appalled to read Eve Sacks’ opinion piece reacting to the terrific national billboard campaign organised by the Campaign Against Antisemitism (Jewish News, 26 January). She conflated two unrelated arguments.

One was that there may be more hate crime in other faith communities than we realise as they may have less of a culture of reporting incidents. Perhaps so, but why that should detract from raising awareness of antisemitism is anyone’s guess.

Her second argument, however, was downright

I concur with letters in response to Eve Sacks’ recent opinion piece. Those shocked readers correctly take offence to Ms Sacks’ deep disdain of Charedim, rightly noting that “aside from causing hatred… this piece accomplishes nothing”.

I would venture, however, that she indeed sets out with the singular aim of causing hatred of the strictly-Orthodox community.

Her public work does not simply advocate for people’s wellbeing or for those who find themselves in distress, which would be commend-

offensive – essentially contending that antisemitic abuse towards Chasidim is irrelevant because there are problems (as she sees them) in that community.

If Ms Sacks believes the racist violence Chasidic children routinely endure should elicit no concern because someone was told to wear different tights at a simcha, I pity her moral priorities.

The response to efforts to tackle rising antisemitism by making sweeping generalisations about other Jews is shamefully ironic and wrong.

Colin Rossiter, By email

able. Rather, her hurtful endeavours are a militant assault against the value system of the Charedi community as a whole. By railing against their religious norms, she reveals her true aim – to sow the seeds of discord and division.

These bustling, historic Jewish communities are a vital part of our people and, in our great democracy, should be allowed to flourish.

Her sneering is nothing but hateful and should never have been published.

Name withheld, Essex

AN UNHEALTHY OBSESSION

Sedra: Mishpatim

Robin Rothfield (Letters, 2 February) shows an unhealthy obsession with Israel’s new ‘far right’ (i.e. right of centre) government, but it is perplexing his authority for criticising comes from ‘Al Jazeera’s senior political analyst’. I’m sure Al Jazeera always has Israel’s interests at heart (not!).

WHEN WILL HATE END?

I watched the recent TV documentary Getting Away with Murder, which dealt with the Holocaust and revealed how many nations knew of Jewish suffering in Europe and were not prepared to help and neighbours of Jews who they led to their deaths.

As for the suggestion Israel should negotiate in order to stop Palestinian Arabs murdering Jews – sure!

Who will Israel negotiate with, and why will negotiation succeed, when Israel has been trying to negotiate since 1948, to absolutely no avail?

Terry Davis, Australia

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If more people could see this film, they might understand the hatred people have for the Jewish race. It has been the same for thousands of years, with Jews being thrown out of countries or killed in pogroms. There is so antisemitism, even today after the mass murder of six million. When will such hatred end?

M. Cross, By email

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Jewish News is owned by The Jacob Foundation, a registered UK charity promoting cohesion and common ground across the UK Jewish community and between British Jews and wider society. Jewish News promotes these aims by delivering dependable and balanced news reporting and analysis and celebrating the achievements of its vibrant and varied readership. Through the Jacob Foundation, Jewish News acts as a reliable and independent advocate for British Jews and a crucial communication vehicle for other communal charities.

BLINDBRITAIN’SSPOT

WRONG KIND OF SUPPORT

David Davidi Brown, writing on behalf of the New Israel Fund (NIF), states: “I stand with Israel” (Jewish News, 2 February).

It’s a funny kind of standing with Israel to grant large sums of money to organisations that actively pursue an agenda of delegitimising it. NIF was founded in 1979 following the election of Likud and its theme has always been “restoring democracy” to Israel.

In press releases, conferences, UN sessions and submissions to the International Criminal Court, NIFfunded NGOs [non-governmental

organisations] emphasise unsupported allegations of “deliberate, systematic, widespread targeting of Palestinian civilians, war crimes and crimes against humanity”.

The respected NGOMonitor, which has the ear of many democratic governments, has compiled reports about NIF’s activities.

Anyone can access these online.

Your readers should be disabused of the notion that NIF supports Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people as mainstream Anglo-Jewry understands it.

D Rosenthhal, NW4

WE’RE FLEXIBLE ON GOD’S GENDER

Regarding the Church of England’s consideration of gender-neutral pronouns, Judaism is pretty flexible on the use of different genders when talking about God.

Hebrew is a language in which all nouns and pronouns are gendered male or female, with no ‘neutral’ or genderless option, so much of (though not all) our

Hebrew refers to God in the masculine. In Jewish thought, however, God is beyond gender, which is a purely human matter, and Jewish literature and prayers will sometimes use female metaphors in relation to God, such as ‘mother’, or ‘queen’, especially when referring to the ‘Shekhinah’, the Divine Presence.

In translation, many

use gender-neutral terms, such as ‘Ruler’, or ‘Eternal’ when addressing the divine.

The use of different metaphors and genders in reference to God helps us to avoid the ‘idolatrous’ idea of God as gendered that we might form if we restricted Godlanguage to only one gender.

Rabba Dr Lindsey Taylor-Guthartz,

W WE BUY ANTIQUES

I was dismayed by Jewish News’ publication of Nicole Lampert’s column Trans and female communities feel marginalised –Jews should stand alongside both. While couched in a tone of reasonableness, it was full of factual errors and anti-trans points, and was basically an argument about whether trans people have a right to exist. This should be particularly repellent to Jews; we know how evil a place this road can lead to. Consider how you would feel if an LGBT news site published an editorial using unfounded accusations of the threat Jews pose to argue that we should be kept out of spaces we need to access for our own safety. Because this is exactly what Ms Lampert’s article does. If you can’t see it I would be happy to spend half an hour substituting nouns in the article to synthesise the antisemitic counterpart for you to read.

I am also disturbed by Ms Lampert criticising trans campaigners’ use of Holocaust comparisons. One of the Nazis’ first targets was Magnus Hirschfeld’s groundbreaking transgender clinic, founded in 1919. Eldan Goldenberg, By email

I entirely agree with Valerie in last week’s letters page about the state of lst year’s Chanukah candles, made in China. They were the worst we’ve ever bought and dripped all over the place. I would gladly pay double for a UK-made candle.

I disagree with Israel’s minister of diaspora affairs Amichai Chikli, MK, about our Reform movement. He believes “it has identified itself with the radical left’s false accusations” and says: “I cannot identify with them.”

As a ‘Reform’ (Liberal to be exact) Jew, I would like the minister to understand progressive Jews in the UK (not unlike many Israeli Jews) have diverse views on Israel’s politics but most, if not all, are Zionists.

This is evident in bodies such as Arzenu (founded in 1980). I acknowledge some members of our movement

may strongly oppose certain policies of the Israeli government, but none of us (unlike some of the strictly-Orthodox Jews) rejects the legitimacy of Israel or questions the democratic mandate of any of her governments, the current one included.

ANTI-TRANS VIEWS LET’S KEEP IT RESPECTFUL ON MY WICK!

I would also stress the importance of respectful dialogue in the community and the importance of the Kol Yisrael arevim zeh bazeh principle (“all Jews are responsible for one another”) when interacting with diaspora Jews who may hold different political views.

David Frencel, By email

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The changes Labour has instigated are irrevocable

DAVID EVANS

LABOUR GENERAL SECRETARY

It won’t be news to Jewish News readers that the Labour Party has had a problem with antisemitism. But what I hope will be news is that today marks an important milestone in our journey to tear it out by its roots.

In October 2020, the Equality and Human Rights Commission issued its report into antisemitism in the Labour Party. Its findings didn’t come as surprise but were nonetheless shocking. They represented a stain on the Labour Party and a breakdown of trust between the party, its Jewish members, the wider Jewish community and all those who were rightly outraged by what had happened under the previous leadership.

A two-year work programme started immediately to implement the Action Plan for Driving out Antisemitism agreed with the EHRC. The EHRC monitored us closely. And this week it announced that the monitoring has formally concluded and we are out of special measures.

But of course, this is not the end. Rather, I see the announcement as another important step out of the morass we had got ourselves stuck in.

As Keir Starmer has said, we do not see this as a moment to celebrate but rather as a moment of reflection; a time to apologise once again. Ultimately, our success will be judged not by me, or Keir, or even by the EHRC, but by whether those who were so badly let down feel ready to call Labour their party again.

Words alone cannot fix the pain caused to our Jewish members and will not o er much solace to those who faced bullying or intimidation. But I hope our actions will go some way to extending an olive branch to persuade those Jewish members to return.

In the 1980s I visited the concentration camp Sachsenhausen in Germany with a young delegation of the Greater London Association of Trades Council. Like so many others who have made this trip, I was horrified beyond words.

That experience has stayed with me and has made me even more determined to ensure the party shows zero tolerance to any acts of antisemitism today.

Never did I imagine that so much of my time as general secretary would have to be spent dealing with that evil within this party.

Throughout the lifetime of the Action Plan for Driving out Antisemitism, I chaired the Labour Party’s advisory board made up of senior representatives from the Jewish community.

This board has helped us to get where we are today. Board members held our feet to the fire and challenged us to make changes that will have a lasting impact in protecting Jewish members now and into the future. As a result, I believe we are in a far better place to drive out antisemitism whenever it rears its ugly head.

We have professionalised our complaints procedures, with comprehensive training for those in the frontline of complaints and automated processes to give us the right data, tools and expertise. This means we now deal with complaints more e ciently having long ago eliminated the backlog that had built up.

Antisemitism complaints to the party are half of what they were in 2020. But we will not be rejoicing until that number drops to zero.

We have set up two independent complaint

boards so that professionals, independent of the party, have the final say in all antisemitism complaints, as well as complaints involving other protected characteristics.

Alongside the Jewish Labour Movement, we have run an antisemitism awareness training programme and, as a result, have trained thousands of politicians, members and sta . During 2021 and 2022, the National Executive Committee determined that a number of organisations were incompatible with the party’s aims and values, including those whose objectives included “campaign[ing] against the recommendations of the EHRC report” and who considered themselves a network for those expelled from party by the “witch-hunt” against the left.

Since then, hundreds of individuals have had their party membership terminated for being members of, or having supported, such groups.

Every one of these changes we have made aren’t just fiddling around the edges or temporary fixes. Keir and I are determined that they are permanent, fundamental and irrevocable.

So be in no doubt, whether you are inside or outside the party, we are never going back.

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Visiting Israel is only way to begin to understand it

CAT MCKINNELL, MP LABOUR FRIENDS OF ISRAEL, VICE-CHAIR

Last week, I visited Israel for the first time as part of a delegation organised by Labour Friends of Israel. As we heard repeatedly, our trip comes at a time when the state faces both immense challenges and huge opportunities.

There is perhaps no more powerful reminder of the reason so many see the State of Israel as important than the Hall of Names at Yad Vashem, which bleakly recalls the scale of the tragedy which befell Jewish people at the hands of the Nazis 80 years ago.

Today, Israel remains the ultimate haven for Jewish people throughout the world, as well as fulfilling their historic demand for selfdetermination.

As we travelled around the country, we were constantly reminded of the scale of its achievements over the past eight decades: a robust democracy, vibrant civic society, a strong welfare state, and a thriving economy.

Some of those achievements are now under challenge like never before by the new government, which is seeking to divide people

and undermine democratic norms by rushing through dangerous and ill-conceived judicial reforms. Israel sadly is not immune from the rise of far-right populism which we have seen in other western democracies in recent years including the US, France, Sweden and Italy.

The divisions within society which the right is seeking to deepen and exploit – between Arabs and Jews and secular and ultra-religious Israelis – were frequently a feature of our discussions. They are particularly dangerous given the security situation: the rise in terrorism over the past year – seen in the terrible events in Jerusalem in recent weeks – and the constant threat posed by Hamas, Hezbollah and their paymasters in Iran. We saw this first-hand close to the Gaza border at Kibbutz Kfar Aza, whose residents live under the constant shadow of rocket attack.

At the same time, the lack of progress in the peace process – which has been stalled for the best part of a decade – is preventing movement towards a two-state solution. This threatens the most precious aspect of Israel’s character: that it is a Jewish and democratic state. As our meetings with civil society organisations and the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah underlined, it also increases the sense of despair and

hopelessness among the Palestinian people and weakens the position of those leaders who reject violence and terrorism in favour of negotiation and compromise.

But I was also stuck by the fact that, amid the di culties and challenges, there remain grounds for optimism.

Meeting Isaac Herzog, we were reminded of the strength of Israel’s democratic institutions and that principled individuals – epitomised by the president himself – are determined to defend them. Indeed, our discussions with Merav Michaeli and our friends in the Israeli Labor party showed the Netanyahu government has a real fight on its hands.

Indeed, as political leaders in Israel and Palestine have failed to show courage to further the cause of peace over the past decade, civic society has begun to fill the void. As we learnt from groups such as Tech2Peace, EcoPeace and visiting the Peres Centre for

Peace and Innovation, programmes which bring together Israeli and Palestinians, Jews and Arabs, and Israelis and their regional neighbours are working to foster mutual understanding and trust and peace-building and conflict-resolution values on which any future political settlement will have to rest.

And, as the Abraham Accords are proving, once unthinkable ties are being forged which can harness Israel’s strengths in innovation and tech to help meet regional challenges, including climate change, water scarcity and energy insecurity.

Ultimately, our trip reinforced my belief that the complexities and nuances of Israel’s domestic challenges and the conflict with the Palestinians are best understood and appreciated by seeing the situation firsthand – and above all, by speaking to Israelis and Palestinians themselves about their reality today and their hopes for the future.

Spiritual abuse can be dressed up as halacha

YEHUDIS

GOLDSOBEL

FOUNDER, MIGDAL EMUNAH

Aposition of trust. It’s a legal term that refers to a person who holds authority over another person and uses that position to harm or commit a crime against another.

When we hear about abuse perpetrated by someone in a position of trust, whether that person be a teacher, a doctor or a police o cer, we react in a di erent way from how we would if the o ender was someone close to the victim or a member of their family.

It will always evoke a gut reaction of horror and fear, because at one point or another we have all developed an attitude of safety towards people in these roles; society tells us when we are children that these are caring roles, and this went unchallenged.

In 2022, the government added sports coaches and religious leaders to the ‘position of trust’ category, acknowledging that these

settings can be used to manipulate and abuse vulnerable young people.

Rabbis are higher up in our communal structure and hold power and influence. They hold leadership roles in our shuls and lead the community in a range of life matters beyond shul participation; for births and deaths, for charity and goodwill and even visiting those who are isolated due to age or illness.

We have all heard an extraordinary rabbi story, where they went the extra mile for someone. By default, a feeling of safety developed around the rabbinical role; they embody our religious practices and model cultural norms. Over time, rabbis establish their skill set and this makes them stand out as experts in certain areas.

While some undertake training to further enhance their skills, it would be presumptuous to assume all those with a ‘speciality’ have undertaken further training, let alone qualified. Yet this doesn’t prevent rabbis holding specialist roles, and members of the community are sent to them for ‘expert’ guidance.

Some are deemed experts in chinuch, or parenting challenges, medical ethics, marital

relationships or handling cases of sexual abuse. They often mediate between victim and o ender and exclude secular outside agencies, either social services or the police.

For many Jews, spirituality is an integral and all-encompassing part of Jewish life. All materialistic and mundane tasks are elevated by carrying them out according to halacha.

Spiritual abuse is a form of emotional and psychological abuse that can be characterised as a pattern of controlling or coercive behaviour within a religious context. This is deeply damaging to those who live a religious lifestyle.

Spiritual abuse is a separate form of abuse from emotional, sexual or physical abuse as the abusive acts impair a person’s third self, their spiritual life and self. A rabbi who behaves inappropriately with a Charedi woman is already impacting her spiritual self by talking about sexual acts.

When sexual abuse is alleged to have occurred, any manipulation, exploitation or coercion through the use of religious or spiritual practices, such as mikveh rituals or niddah, constitutes spiritual abuse. But it can be dressed up as halacha and spiritual guidance.

Throughout my career of hearing disclosures, there have been situations in which the alleged o ender would schedule meetings for after the victim’s menstruation or mikveh immersion. In this twisted logic she was now permitted to him. The abuser would use a cloth to demonstrate intimate acts, under the guise of helping to improve her marital relationship.

When this abuse is perpetrated by a rabbi, deemed a ‘specialist’ in this area, these acts become sanctioned by the community.

Last week was Sexual Abuse & Sexual Violence Awareness Week; together we can continue to say: not in our name, not in our community, #itsnotok

WHEN THIS ABUSE IS PERPETRATED BY A RABBI, THESE ACTS BECOME SANCTIONED BY THE COMMUNITY

❝

AS POLITICAL LEADERS HAVE FAILED, CIVIC SOCIETY HAS BEGUN TO FILL THE VOID

It’s time for Mr Cleverly to live up to his name

prime ministers in the past three years, Britain’s influence internationally is not what it might be, to say the least.

There is something rather delicious in the fact that the current foreign secretary, James Cleverly, is the MP for Braintree, and I am sure he and his family have heard all the jokes — and then some — by now.

But while Cleverly, a former Middle East minister, has a vast remit in his current role, there are some flashpoints which inexorably arise more often than most issues in his department.

At the moment, I would guess, Ukraine, Iran and, to a lesser extent, Afghanistan, are likely to be top of Cleverly’s in-tray. Smaller squabbles such as rows over Gibraltar or the Falklands, not so much. The apparently eternal issue of Israel and the Palestinians — scarcely at all.

Being the British foreign secretary these days is not an enviable job. Thanks to Brexit and a scarcely believable revolving door of

In fact, when a national newspaper’s comparison of the then prime minister, Liz Truss, with a lettuce went global, it was pretty much an open invitation for the world to laugh at us. And boy, did the world take up that invitation.

So I was intrigued to read a closelyargued article in a recent edition of Arab News by Alistair Burt, one of Mr Cleverly’s predecessors as Middle East minister in the Foreign Office, in which he put the case for Britain to take the lead in not just reviving but indeed managing the all-but moribund Middle East peace process.

Mr Burt, who stood down as an MP in 2019, was a well-thought-of minister in his day, liked and trusted by both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But things have changed massively in the Middle East since his time at the Foreign Office, thanks to the Abraham Accords.

Now, pragmatism and realpolitik stalk

the Arab courts, many of whose leaders have clearly decided to jettison the electronic shackle represented by the Palestinians. Besides deals with the UAE, Bahrain and Morocco, a peace agreement with Sudan is due to be signed later this year.

So what is Mr Burt’s message for James Cleverly? The former politician says when he was first appointed Middle East minister in May 2010, he “asked Downing Street if the UK could become actively involved in assisting the efforts being made by the US to revive and deliver on the Middle East peace process”. He was, he says, told almost immediately “there was no point”.

Now, however, Mr Burt says he believes it’s “time for the UK to take a lead in a situation which, a dozen years later, is on the brink of catastrophe”.

He notes “a new Israeli government containing elements unthought of in o ce a decade ago, and a sclerotic Palestinian leadership, will not self-start a peace process. There is no status quo. It is going to get worse”.

This is perfectly true, as witnessed

by the dreadful terror attacks of the last couple of weeks. But Mr Burt reckons Britain’s somewhat chequered history in the region — ie, the British mandate, which ran from 1920 to 1948 – gives it a “unique” advantage in dealing with the players; and that its strong ties to both sides in trade and security are a good starting point.

Too often, however, “Britain has not said publicly” what it could have done, in order to keep the peace. Mr Burt adds: “I think this ought to allow some licence to the UK to be more focused and blunter with both.”

He is aware of the ability of less wellintentioned actors in the region, namely Iran, to continue to disrupt and exploit any future breakdown of relationships.

I think Alistair Burt makes a good case for Britain acting as an honest broker between the two sides, telling each what each probably doesn’t want to hear but banging heads together to positive e ect.

One can only hope James Cleverly can live up to his name and be open to persuasion in this regard.

JENNI FRAZER

“Are you sure you didn’t just get Chat GPT to write 10 more commandments in the style of God?!”

1 SEED IS SOWN FOR A SAFARI ADVENTURE

Seed held a safari-themed event at its London Centre, where 150 people enjoyed a jungle trail, arts and crafts, and a chance for the kids to meet and hold exotic animals. Director of education Rabbi Daniel Fine said: “It’s great to see so many families coming into Seed with an expectant smile on their faces and leaving with an even bigger smile.”

2 HOW TU BISHVAT IS TURNED INTO A GIFT

GIFT gave hundreds of students in London, Manchester and Jerusalem the chance to take part in giving activities such as planting hyacinth flowerpots for Norwood Care Homes and decorating Tu Bishvat-themed cards for older people. Fruit baskets were assembled by young children for GIFT recipients.

3 HERE’S TO THE NEXT 150 YEARS

House of Life volunteers at Willesden Jewish Cemetery, which is marking its 150 anniversary, planted trees with Mayor of Brent Abdi Aden and United Synagogue trustee Saul Taylor. The mayor said the cemetery was a “special resting place for thousands of people who record the history of the Jewish community through Victorian, Edwardian and Elizabethan ages”.

4 FIDDLER ON THE HOOP!

A team of circus performers – and a rabbi – visited Kingston Liberal Synagogue to tell the story of the Blumenfelds, the first German Jewish family to establish an independent circus enterprise in 1811. The event was the brainchild of Rabbi Miri Lawrence, of Ealing Liberal Synagogue, who performs as a circus artist in her spare time. (Photo credits: Dan Pluck, Pluck Photography)

5 AISH MANCHESTER PONDERS HEROISM

Aish Manchester took 40 Year 11 students away for a hero-themed Shabbaton in Penmaenmawr, Wales. The students prepared desserts and Shabbat food together before enjoying social and educational activities focusing on the theme of heroes.

6 LOVE SONGS AND WISE ADVICE

Jewish Care’s Brenner Community Centre celebrated Valentine’s Day with roses and a singalong. Phyllis and David Cohen, who will celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary in May, have some advice for relationships: “Make the most of each day” and “remember that love is all about give and take”.

7 JDA MEMBERS WIELD HANDCUFFS

Thirty Jewish Deaf Association members, staff and volunteers became ‘top cop’ for the day on a visit to Bow Street Police Museum. John Wilson, a British Sign Language tour guide, told the history of the station. Members equipped with handcuffs and batons donned helmets to ‘police’ the museum, and sent each other to the cells for having too much fun. The visit ended at Court Number One, followed by lunch at the Royal Opera House.

Jews, Goblins and Money

In his new book Dave Rich tackles

hatred

By Nicole Lampert

Dave Rich starts his new book on antisemitism mulling the di erent types of Jew hatred that have been in the news: a Nazi salute at a menorah, a Jewish boy punched on a bus by a woman shouting racist abuse, and a student being chased down the road by men shouting: “We’ve got a knife, we’re going to get you, Jew.” That’s just page one.

There are several new antisemitism debates going on. JK Rowling haters are claiming that she is antisemitic because the video game of her Harry Potter franchise features goblins. Meanwhile American podcaster Joe Rogan told his millions of followers: “The idea that Jewish people are not into money is ridiculous. That’s like saying Italians aren’t into pizza.”

Both link ancient tropes about Jews with the most modern of things – a computer game and a podcast. This is why it is so important that the first half of Dave’s book Everyday Hate: How Antisemitism is Built into Our World and How You Can Change It explores these views of Jews, which are so embedded into society that it feels almost impossible to extricate them.

“All your readers will have come across these tropes,” says Dave, 52, who has worked for CST for nearly 30 years and is an associate research fellow at the Birkbeck Institute for the Study of Antisemitism. “I think the reason antisemitism keeps coming back is that it is so deeply wired into so many assumptions about how our world works. It is so deep in di erent parts of our

culture. You can see it in low culture, high culture, left-wing, right-wing.

“Most of the time it is just on the fringes but certain things can trigger an upsurge in antisemitism and it can suddenly become mainstream. I think the idea of it being literally being built into the fabric of our world has to be the starting point for us to consider how we dismantle it.”

The goblin thing is a case in point about how antisemitism is part of our society. “A lot of these ideas are so deep and so old it is hard to know where the antisemitism starts and stops,” he says.

“I don’t go along with this whole idea of antisemitism within Harry Potter. I think David Baddiel described it very well when he said we can take a goblin as simply a goblin but the reason why some people think a creature with a grotesque face and a big nose is Jewish is because that is how Jews have been depicted for centuries.

“But I am keen that we accept the world we live in – we don’t try to shame or cancel people.

“Antisemitism should be judged in context. JK Rowling is absolutely not antisemitic, quite the opposite. She’s been very supportive of the Jewish community.”

He finds Rogan’s comments more problematic. “If you ask anyone what they think when you say Jew, you will often get the word ‘money’ back. The association of Jews and

money has created so much antisemitism, so much hatred and murderous treatment of Jews over the centuries that it’s not something the biggest podcaster in the world should be playing with.

“But it is an indication of how widespread these ideas are that they are treated as normal. I do think with Rogan, as we saw with Dave Chappelle [who joked about Jews running showbusiness: ‘It’s not a crazy thing to think but it’s a crazy thing to say out loud’], there is this pretence that they don’t realise the power of o ence. But really, they are quite enjoying the frisson of breaking the taboo and getting away with it in plain sight.

“On one hand these stereotypes are so common that sometimes people don’t realise they are being antisemitic but there are examples where you know they know exactly what they are doing and they are doing it to get a rise out of us.”

Dave, who was born in Manchester and now lives in north London, has personal experience – as most Jews probably have – of that everyday antisemitism from people who don’t appear to stop and think about what they are saying.

“I think there is an element where non-Jews are just unaware of the tropes that many of us will have experienced. One of the examples I put in my book which, even when I think about it, I shake my head, is when I was paying the bill at a restaurant in Finchley and I asked the waitress, ‘Do you get to keep the tip?’ And she said, ‘Yes, we do keep the tips here. Not like the last restau-

rant I worked at where the owners kept it. But they were Jewish and you know what they are like with money.’

“My jaw hit the floor. Mainly I was thinking, ‘You are in the middle of Finchley, a very Jewish area – of all places to come out with this.’ But you know when you have that splitsecond moment of thinking, ‘Do I say something or not?’ I didn’t but then found myself in this di cult position. If I gave her a good tip, would I be overcompensating? If I gave too little, would she think ‘tight Jew’? You can’t win.”

Dave is keen to stress that we live in a country that is still mainly safe for Jews and where most people don’t harbour antisemitism. But he is worried about the growing number of young people who believe conspiracy theories about Jews.

“Polls show that if you are under 40 you are much more likely to believe antisemitic conspiracy theories about Jews running the media and the banks because conspiracy theories are much more popular among young people. I do stress that the majority of people reject this stu but the trend lines are not heading in the right direction.”

How to tackle the age-old

problem of antisemitism isn’t easy but Dave has some thoughts about how we can change the direction of the trend. His first is better Holocaust education, as well as explaining that you don’t need to be a Nazi to be an antisemite. The second is for Jews to be recognised as an ethnic minority and to insist that antisemitism is part of any anti-racism training. And the third is having Jews step up: meet people, argue with people, explain who we are rather than let the Jew of their imagination do that.

“We are a small community and there are many parts of the country where there are no Jewish people at all,” he says. “We need to try and find more formal, structured and sustained ways to encourage regular human contact because that will break down a lot of these prejudices and stereotypes. That is something we can all do.”

• Everyday Hate: How Antisemitism is Built into Our World and How You Can Change It is £20 and available from all good bookshops or direct from the publisher: www.biteback publishing.com

antisemitism, so much hatred and

Joe Rogan

Dave Rich

Jew

and says each one of us has a role to play by stepping up and explaining who we are.

The Eye of Photography

The art historian, dealer and collector James Hyman tells Debbie Collins about his new photography project in Mayfair, which is open to the public

We all have the capability to capture images every day on our smartphones, from frost-covered spiders’ webs on dog walks to ornate doorways spotted in London backstreets. Taking lots of photos doesn’t necessarily make you a great photographer but someone more than qualified to explain what does is do is the art historian James Hyman.

A lecturer on 20th century British art with a PhD from the Courtauld Institute, James has been an art dealer for 25 years, specialising in modern British art, with Freud and Kosso displayed in his Maddox Street gallery. He is also London’s leading specialist in vintage photographs from the 19th and early 20th century. His latest venture is the Centre for British Photography in Mayfair, a light and incredibly inviting space for school kids, university groups and organised art tours. He is keen to make the distinction between this and his other work: the centre was set up as a charity and opened as a public space – a free one at that. Working with his wife Claire, a specialist oral surgeon, the two-strand approach in establishing the centre was first to make their collected works visible to the public. With a shared passion that grew from “just wanting to find some artwork for the living room”, they have amassed an impressive collection which they are only too happy to share with the public. Second, but just as important, was the aim was to provide a platform for others. James says: “For us it’s very important to have partnerships and collaborate with others and empower them to help shape it. Strange as it seems, by actively taking a step back and letting it almost run

itself, I view that as a sign of success. Our business plan is to involve others in its direction because whilst we’ve seedfunded it privately, unless other people get on board such as the Arts Council or foundations or individuals, it won’t survive.”

The Hyman Foundation was set up in 2020 to promote photography in Britain in all its diversity and the Centre for British Photography supports the cause. “With photography, there are no barriers,” James says. “ It doesn’t have to be part of your education or culture or class – it’s genuinely democratic and communicates with a diverse audience that a historic oil painting maybe doesn’t.”

The opening showcase was curated by an outside organisation, Fast Forward Women in Photography, a research project designed to engage with women and non-binary people in photography across the globe. The playful exhibition, Headstrong, is about self-portraiture and empowerment in British photography. There are works (some from James’ private collection) from Paloma Tendero and Haley Morris-Cafeiro exposing cyberbullies and dated concepts of expectations for female behaviour. James comments: “The contributors showcase huge multiculturalism in British photography, including those from Iranian, Spanish and American backgrounds. We’re really pleased to be able to provide this platform to improve the visibility and representation of women working in photography.”

Proud to reflect on his own family history, James says: “I was involved in a Holocaust project called Generations at the Imperial War Museum North, featuring an image of my mum in the back garden with my siblings and me. It really pushed me to consider my back-

ground and I found it interesting to explore these issues, as somebody Jewish, about what it means being the child of a refugee.”

James cites being Jewish as an important part of his private identity, but not necessarily part of his public one. “The project exposed a Jewish background that people wouldn’t necessarily have known about me, which is pretty core to who I am – culturally, socially, historically. Being Jewish and British.”

Asked how he would define his Judaism, he says: “I keep kosher…? We married at South Hampstead Synagogue and we’re members (but not regular attendees) of Norrice Lea.” He and his siblings were recently able to reclaim their Austrian citizenship.

In a deliberate continuation of female-led works, upstairs showcases works by Heather Agyepong, Jo Spence and Fairytale for Sale by Natasha Caruana, an installation that explores wedding customs in the UK. The series consists of photos showing online adverts of brides wearing their now-redundant wedding dresses, faces scratched out or blocked out to make the anonymous sale.

The basement space is based on Bill Brandt’s first book, The English at Home (1935) and Picture Post, a photo journalistic magazine set up by immigrants in 1938.

English at Home features about 120 photos from James’ collection, including works from Brandt and Kurt Hutton that take you on a journey from street to porch to living room. James enjoys seeing a story play out through photographs, so the work of Daniel Meadows and Martin Parr is of great appeal.

As students at Manchester Polytechnic in the 1970s, they wrote to 20 locals for permission to photograph inside the Victorian terraced houses of June Street, to highlight how each looks the same on the outside, but the décor inside vastly di ers.

James admits to having never printed a single photo from his camera roll of over 90,000 memories, so this must make for a pretty tough decision choice of screensaver –Hockney? Bacon? Auerbach? “It’s actually a black and white photo of my three daughters at the centre’s opening.” Picture perfect.  www.britishphotography.org

NatashaCaruanaweddingdress

James Hyman

Heather Agyepong

Haley Morris-Cafeiro, No to Food

Paloma Tendero, Veins

Daniel Meadows and Martin Parr, JuneStreet, Salford 1973

Jo Spence, OnlywhenIgottofi ydidIrealiseI was Cinderella

West Country Folk

Naomi Price talks to London-born fiddler Joel Segal about his klezmer band… in Devon!

Halfway through a gig at an arts centre venue in Exeter, there’s a bit of commotion. “I thought this was supposed to be a proper klezmer band,” an indignant punter is kvetching to no one in particular. “I came to see a proper klezmer band!” O he flounces, muttering about the lack of double-bass and clarinet.

Meanwhile, the fiddler pays not the slightest bit of attention. The picture of serene intensity, chin on the violin that’s an extension of him, Joel Segal sends the melody soaring and leaping between minor and major keys. It’s the essence of klezmer, lifting the spirit with its infectious joyousness. Below, the dance floor is alive with the swirling presence of people in a room only just large enough to contain both them and their enthusiasm.

The band, Ruach, is the fruit of a project that Joel, folk musician and gifted fiddler, has been working on for years, following the success of his other klezmer band, Kevara. What he doesn’t know about the music of his Carpathian ancestry may be written on the back of a piece of rosin. Later, backstage, Joel enthuses about the irony of the shtick: “So very telling.” Ruach is as authentic as it gets.

Joel, 69, grew up in north London but has lived in Devon for 50 years and raised his grandson and granddaughter there after the death of his daughter. Always interested in Israeli tunes and Jewish music, he put together a band called Hot Beigels and started playing for simchas. This band became Kevara, and Ruach followed. He’s founded several other bands and played in many, including The Bootleg Swing Band. Spinach for Norman, Joel’s English folk band, has been going for 37 years. Jewish tunes are an occasional part of their repertoire at weddings.

Joel lives in Exeter, home to the third oldest shul in the country after Bevis Marks and Plymouth. He was shammas of this

Grade II*-listed shul, which he saved from a fire in 2001 caused by water ingress over antiquated wiring while he lived in it.

Klezmer music is one of most defining expressions of Jewish identity, its roots stretching back to 18th-century Chasidism and beyond into in a vanished world. While some of its origins are in the music of the leyning liturgy, there are connections that run as deep in the mutual inextricability of gypsy and Jewish music, in which it’s impossible to know where one starts and the other finishes.

The revival of klezmer in the 1970s, influenced by jazz, in turn fed back into jazz, giving way to other genres of music, like gypsy jazz, with its swooping arpeggios and, more recently, electroswing.

But in the meantime, klezmer has strayed further and further from its origins into something that an Ashkenazi Jew in 19th century

central or eastern Europe may not have recognised if they’d fallen across it in the shtetl.

What is a proper klezmer band? It’s easier to define it in terms of what it wouldn’t have been: neither the showy big-band sound of modern experience, nor the stu of a tame ensemble – accomplished though many are – playing to an audience rooted to their allocated seating in awed silence.

At the other extreme, the originally Chasidic melody Hava Nagila (or Zayt Lustig, originally) is now routinely banged out at Jewish weddings on that symbol of ersatz entertainment, a lone electric organ, almost as lip service to tradition – before giving way to smash-hit favourites for the rest of the evening. But at least it’s played to be danced to.

The clue to klezmer is in the name. Combining the Yiddish kle – key – and the Hebrew zemer – melody, it is the means of making music. Once upon a time, a band of klezmorim, restricted by the relevant regime to three or four men, would have travelled from settlement to settlement, over the Steppes and the far reaches of the Balkans.

Their instruments would have been necessarily portable, comprising only occasionally something much smaller than the double-bass that’s come to be associated with klezmer music. A xylophone would have been knocked up from di erent-sized stones for semitones and jammed between bales of straw. “I don’t believe there was one shred of virtuosity going on here,” says Joel.

Not that there’s any shortage of virtuosity in Ruach, featuring the equally accomplished Iowerth Pugh, conductor and retired head of music at Exeter College, on low brass, and his son Alfie (bassoonist, percussionist, composer and conductor), who multitasks on xylophone, melodica and crotales – a series of cymbalonlike discs chosen for its silvery “other-wordly” e ect, as Joel puts it.

For Joel, who’s somewhere between populist and purist, this isn’t about a nostalgia trip to a literal reconstruction of an old-country klezmer band, but about finding expression for the heimische atmosphere of the celebrations of Ashkenazi Jewry that has been all but obliterated by the passive spectator experience that klezmer has become. “Jewish people have lost connection with dancing,” says Joel, for whom the dancing takes precedence over the music.

This vital connection is supplied by musician and caller Pam Hayes. With her knowledge of 35-plus dances, she teaches the steps as the tune unfolds.

As the melodies swoop between plangency and super-charged exuberance, they open a door on to a lost world that also gives forward on to the present. The nuanced complexity of klezmer involves a contradiction in which the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. In theory it’s practical, by definition: “the means to the end of making music”. Yet in practice, it’s almost ethereal, full of the decompressed breath of spirit and inspiration, expanding as it reaches the surface. In a word: ruach

• Joel is available between London and the south-west for weddings, batmitzvahs and barmitzvahs

Photography by Jenny Steer (jennysteer.co.uk)

Joel Segal Iowerth Pugh Pam Hayes

Ruach in action: Joel Segal on violin, Alfie Pugh on percussion and his son Iowerth on brass

Business / Aleph Farms

With Candice Krieger candicekrieger@googlemail.com

CULTURED MEAT THAT’S KOSHER... AND HERE SOON!

Aleph Farms, whose investors include Hollywood actor Leonardo DiCaprio, recently received a game-changing kosher nod from the Chief Rabbi of Israel, David Baruch Lau, for its cultivated thin-cut beef steak, opening the door for a full kosher certificate ahead of its market launch later this year in Israel, pending regulatory approval.

Aleph Farms has applied for regulatory review in Israel and expects to receive a positive response soon. It is now in advanced talks with premier chefs, restaurant owners and hospitality groups to help make this happen. And the company’s founder and CEO, Didier Toubia, tells Jewish News that it is “working with UK regulatory authorities in order to move closer to market launch”.

Aleph Farms’ products are made from

starter cells that come from a fertilised egg, which was sourced from a premium Black Angus cow named Lucy. From a one-time collection of Lucy’s fertilised egg, Aleph Farms can grow thousands of tons of cultivated meat without engineering or immortalising cells, avoiding harming the animal and acting as part of an inclusive solution for sustainable and secure food systems.

The company will still need to work with local rabbinic authorities on the issuing of an actual kosher certificate, and while it’s not the first time a rabbi has recommended that Aleph Farms’ products be certified as kosher, it is the first time a Chief Rabbi, as leader of the Chief Rabbinate, has made such a decision.

Toubia, a food engineer and biologist, says it’s a key moment for Aleph and for the

cultivated meat sector. “It sets a foundation for an inclusive public discourse about the intersection of tradition and innovation in our society,” he says.

“At Aleph we innovate in order to provide quality nutrition to anyone, anytime, anywhere in service of people and the planet, and that includes people with different culinary traditions. We’re excited that more groups of diners can enjoy our products safely within the bounds of their religious tradition, helping us to advance our inclusive vision for food security and tap into different food cultures around the world.”

Toubia says the UK has demonstrated its support for cellular agriculture as one of the key solutions that can ensure food security and address food-related climate challenges. “The UK mentioned cultivated meat in its Plan for Growth as part of the benefits of Brexit and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) allocated £14m more in funding to 11 research projects. This includes research being conducted by Royal Agricultural University (in collaboration with Aleph Farms) that examines the impact of cultivated meat on livestock farmers.”

Prince William and Sir David Attenborough have endorsed Aleph Farms’ technology, highlighting the company during an episode of the BBC’s Earthshot Prize.

How long before a majority of restaurants and caterers offer cultivated meat options? “Availability of our product in 2023, pending regulatory approvals, will be on a limited scale in the form of intimate tasting events and exclusive restaurant offerings. This soft launch will better enable diners to provide us with direct feedback upon tasting the product, which will inform our marketing and product development strategies. It might take a few years before our products reach the mainstream market in the form of widespread sales.”

In the meantime, cultivated meat is a

growing business, expected to reach $25bn by 2030, according to McKinsey. The global kosher beef market is expected to reach approximately $100bn by 2030.

Founded in 2017, Aleph Farms is the brainchild of Toubia, together with leading food company Strauss Group and top research university Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. It has raised more than $118m to date, including an investment from DiCaprio, an environmental activist as well as an Academy Award winner who sits on the company’s sustainability advisory board.

The company has announced ventures with Mitsubishi Corporation in Japan, BRF in Brazil, CJ CheilJedang in South Korea and Thai Union in Thailand.

“These MoUs [memorandums of understanding] will accelerate these countries’ transitions to becoming robust, self-sufficient and climate-neutral leaders in food production. Other large producers, including Cargill in the US and Migros in Switzerland, have also invested in Aleph Farms. They view cultivated meat as an opportunity for new production streams alongside core conventional production and as an enabler for meeting their countries’ and organisations’ respective climate and food security goals.”

Lau’s ruling signifies an openness among religious authorities to assure adherents that cultivated meat products are appropriate to eat. Aleph Farms is also contacting Muslim, Hindu and other religious authorities for approvals.

Toubia says it could take a few years from launch before the price of cultivated meat, once it hits the market, is on par with the general kosher beef market. Initially the steaks will be priced similarly to ultra-premium beef until strategic agreements across supply chains can be reached. So you might have to hold the cheese on that burger for a little while longer. ▶ www.aleph-farms.com

An Israeli start-up responsible for creating the world’s first kosher cultivated meat hopes to bring the product to the UK, writes Candice Krieger

Didier Toubia

Aleph Farms’ research is being taken forward by top chefs around the world

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MAKING SENSE OF THE SEDRA

BY MA’AYAN RAISEL FREEDMAN

counting is appropriate or required. Rather, that when it is done, this is the prescribed manner of doing so.

This Shabbat heralds the arrival of the month of Adar and the beginning of the four special Shabbatot leading to Pesach. In addition to the weekly portion, Mishpatim, we read an additional segment this week for Shabbat Shekalim, commemorating the counting of the Jewish people via a half-shekel donation.

The opening verse states: “When you count the sum of the children of Israel according to their number...”

The first two words, “ki tisa” (“When you take”), indicate that this is a directive about the method of counting. It does not explain when

Indeed, the following verses explicitly say that should this procedure be abandoned there is a risk of a plague engulfing the nation, which occurred at the end of King David’s reign as a result of one of his counts. Yet we also know that the Jewish people had an annual census during the time of the Beit Hamikdash and that the half-shekel contributions served a crucial role in paying for communal sacrifices. If a census is integral to the running of the Beit Hamikdash, how do we reconcile this with the warning that counting can cause a plague?

Despite ‘tisa’ being used as the word for ‘count’ at the beginning, the rest of the Shekalim portion describes counting as “li od”. The root of this

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word, p’kad, harks back to Genesis 21:1 where God “pokad” (“remembered”) Sarah, and is the key to understanding the real purpose of a census and then how to ensure it is done successfully. A plague strikes when people are treated as numbers and a census has the potential to focus on the total as more important than the sum of its parts. This is in contrast to a census by individual contributions, which gives the indication of the inherent worth of the individual and the value we put on their unique donation.

In a week after more data from the UK National Census is released and we use this to learn even more about our own community, we must remember that the data comes from and relates to each of us as individuals and we are all the better for appreciating the worth of the individual.

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In our thought-provoking series, rabbis, rebbetzins and educators relate the week’s parsha to the way we live today

Progressive Judaism

LEAP OF FAITH

BY RABBI AARON GOLDSTEIN THE ARK SYNAGOGUE

In Biblical times, one would not have known the wide-ranging details of a devastating natural disaster that occurred elsewhere. ‘Our’ flood story in the Book of Genesis is shared with other near-eastern texts but information would not have been on the level that we are used to today.

As I write, the number known to have died in the earthquakes that have hit south-eastern Turkey and northern Syria is 40,000. By the time you read this it may be far higher.

Such events usually lead someone in the Jewish community, in this case the Safed Chief Rabbi, to suggest something that the rest of us find abhorrent: that the victims are paying the price for individual or communal sins, and that the earthquake is a “sign of divine justice”.

A redundancy of theology that promoted reward and punishment was already raised in the time of the prophet Ezekiel. In contemporary times of tragedy, Judaism will o er a plethora of responses, the humblest of which is admitting that one does not know what God wants or where God is at such a time. All we know is that there are lives to be saved in the immediate aftermath, and then a commitment to supporting the bereaved, who in this case are whole villages, towns and cities.

And so, we turn the question and ask what humanity can do. There is a short-term response for which the Jewish community can be justifiably proud: the role of World Jewish Relief (WJR) as our way to contribute to nonsectarian causes.

Able to channel funding for local response workers on the ground, the strength of feeling we have as individual Jews is translated into support for those who we see broken and in tears on our screens. Even when we learn of the di culties faced by local networks – human and infrastructure – that have been destroyed,

stimulating series

with 21st-century issues

and heinous local politics that obstruct aid we, through WJR, supply not just support but hope.

There is a wider issue that such disasters highlight: that they are not purely ‘natural’, but that there is a human element.

As I listened to my daughter revising for her geography A-level, I heard that almost exclusively the destructions brought by nature are exaggerated by a ‘poverty trap’. It is a mechanism that, according to the Economic Times, “forces people to remain poor… leading to the over-exploitation of natural resources and land”, especially in the poorest places. That is before mentioning the human greed that the Turkish-born novelist Elif Shafak has been the latest to rail against.

Our task on earth would be simpler if we did not know about horrific disasters that do not occur on our doorstep. But we do. “Lo tuchal l’hitaleim” (Deuteronomy 22:3) is translated by Onkelos (the translation of the Torah into Aramaic) as: “You may not hide yourself.” We do not hide ourselves when we donate through WJR in the short term. However, while we

might try to limit our selfishness, we may admit that, just as we do not know the nature of God, we also do not know the answer to human greed.

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The review is being overseen by an advisory group of Shoah survivors and Jewish community representatives, chaired by Marie van der Zyl OBE

The Anne Frank Trust UK is an education charity that empowers young people aged 9 to 15 to challenge all forms of prejudice, inspired by the life and work of Anne Frank.

The review is part of a plan to rebuild trust with the Jewish community after lapses in due diligence and organisational culture caused concern in 2022.

Application details at: www.annefrank.org.uk/ourvacancies

A

where our progressive rabbis consider how Biblical figures might act when faced

In giving support to quake victims we also give hope

We can be proud of our short-term response

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Our trusty team of advisers answers your questions about everything from law and finance to dating and dentistry. This week: Helping with a six-year-old’s emotional di culties, climbing out of an exercise rut and mitigating inheritance tax

Dear Jenny

Thank you for sharing with me the di culties you are experiencing. I am sorry to hear of the impact this is having on your family and, clearly, on your son.

Dear Dr Quadir

My six-year-old has struggled with managing his emotions for a few years. As a toddler he would have huge meltdowns, which often lasted for hours. Things seemed to improve when he started primary school, though the birth of our youngest child has seen an escalation in these behaviours.

We have tried various parenting techniques, some of which have been helpful, though we are concerned about an increase in aggressive behaviours, which have led to him lashing out physically at his siblings, as well as at school. Is there anything you can suggest that might help us to help him?

Jenny

LOUISE LEACH

PRINCIPAL, PERFORMING

ARTS SCHOOL

DANCING WITH LOUISE

Hi Louise

I’m desperate to get back into exercise. Since Covid, I have put on weight and feel like I have no energy or motivation to do anything. I used to love your ladies’ Zumba classes. However, the thought of putting on workout clothes and going to a class with numerous people has me feeling very

Children often experience high levels of anxiety when there are changes in the family home, such as the arrival of a new baby, despite parents doing everything in their power to make the transition as smooth as possible.

It sounds as if your son may have found the change particularly di cult. At six, talking to your son is one of the most powerful tools you can employ. Sometimes using visuals in the form of a ‘social story’ can be really useful. Also, as hard as it is, being consistent with enforcing boundaries is imperative.

Last, it is also really important to reward positive behaviours and praise your son when he behaves in a way that is collaborative or makes a good choice. I hope this helps.

Terms and conditions apply info@dancingwithlouise.com 07506 217833

anxious. I am stuck in a rut so any help or advice you can give me would be great.

Anon

Dear Anon, Please don’t despair, your situation is not uncommon, especially coming out of Covid this past year which has been a di cult adjustment for many. It can feel daunting being outside your comfort

zone after so long, but the fact you have written in is the first positive step.

You clearly have the drive and determination to get fit and feel more confident in yourself. Since Covid forced many of our classes online, we now have an on-demand video library of all our recorded classes and this would be a great way for you to get back into a routine without the fear of seeing people.

Not only will you enjoy the convenience of working out at home at a time that suits you, you can also literally dance like no one’s watching!

Good luck taking that first (dance) step – I have no doubt you will quickly get your mojo back and we look forward to welcoming you back to our in-person classes very soon!

CAROLYN ADDLEMAN DIRECTOR OF LEGACIES KKL EXECUTOR AND TRUSTEE COMPANY

Dear Carolyn

My mother passed away six months ago, appointing me and my brother as executors and leaving a large estate to be divided equally between us. The value of her assets significantly exceeds her inheritance tax allowance, meaning that there is a substantial tax liability.

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this stage or is it too late?

Judith

Dear Judith

I am sorry to hear your mother passed away. You don’t say how big the estate is, but you mention that it exceeds her tax-free allowances, which triggers an inheritance tax liability at a rate of 40 percent on the remaining assets.

The most tax-e cient way of redirecting assets after death is for the beneficiaries under the will to execute a Deed of Variation. This document e ectively changes the terms of the will by ‘rewriting’ part of it. It is most often used to mitigate inheritance tax and, as long as it is done within two years of death, is a useful

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• 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

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

INSURANCE CONSULTANCY

ASHLEY PRAGER

Qualifications:

• Professional insurance and reinsurance broker. Offering PI/D&O cover, marine and aviation, property owners, ATE insurance, home and contents, fine art, HNW

• Specialist in insurance and reinsurance disputes, utilising Insurance backed products. (Including non insurance business disputes)

• Ensuring clients do not pay more than required

RISK RESOLUTIONS

020 3411 4050

www.risk-resolutions.com ashley.prager@risk-resolutions.com

CAREER ADVISER

LESLEY TRENNER

Qualifications:

• Provides free professional one-to-one advice at Resource to help unemployed into work

• Offers mock interviews and workshops to maximise job prospects

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

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

TELECOMS SPECIALIST

BENJAMIN ALBERT

Qualifications:

• Co-founder and technical director of ADWConnect – a specialist in business telecommunications, serving customers worldwide

• Independent consultant and supplier of telephone and 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

Invest in Israel with Israel Bonds

2-yr term

5.00% GBP Jubilee bond £1,000 min.

Current Fixed Rate at: Rate as posted valid to 28 Feb. 2023. Subject to conditions.

New!

https://online.israelbondsintl.com

Development Company for Israel (International) Ltd.

Your capital may be at risk.

This advertisement has been issued by the Development Company for Israel (International) Ltd., which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and registered in England No. 01415853. This is not an offering, which could only be made by prospectus. Your capital is at risk, the rules under FSMA for the protection of retail clients do not apply. An investment in any of these bonds will not be covered by the provisions of the Financial Services Compensation scheme, nor by any similar scheme. Israel bonds are intended as a long-term investment as they are not listed or admitted to dealing on any recognised investment or stock exchange nor is there any established secondary market, as a consequence Israel bonds are not readily realisable before their maturity date. DCI (International) Ltd is not the issuer of these bonds, they are issued by the State of Israel. In the event that the information regarding offered bonds on the State of Israel’s official records differs from the information contained here, the information on the State of Israel’s records shall control and take precedence. 02-23

THE JEWISH NEWS CROSSWORD

9 Crowing, boasting (8)

10 Crossword diagram (4)

11 Actually (6)

12 More foolhardy (6)

15 Sliding box (6)

18 Increase (in sales or profits) (6)

20 ___ the Engine, children’s story (4)

22 Infatuated (8)

23 Sparse (6)

24 Take away illegally (6)

25 Gobble up (3)

DOWN

1 Gradation (6)

2 House with no upstairs (8)

3 Freaky thing (6)

4 Accountant’s book (6)

5 Amphibian (4)

6 Variety of chicory (6)

11 Crimson (3)

13 State of being alone (8)

14 Long-tailed rodent (3)

16 Take back, cancel (6)

Fun, games and prizes

SUDOKU

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

SUGURU

ACROSS

3 ‘Crude’ fossil fuel (3)

7 Give back (money) (6)

8 Going wrong (6)

17 Variety of steak (3-3)

18 Dethrone (6)

19 Soft warm garment (6)

21 Play about energetically (4)

WORDSEARCH CODEWORD

The listed words related to UK history can all be found in the grid. Words may run either forwards or backwards, in a horizontal, vertical or diagonal direction, but always in a straight, unbroken line.

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

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

AGINCOURT

BOUDICCA

CHARLES

CIVIL WAR

CULLODEN

GEORGE HENRY MONARCHY NORMANS

PARLIAMENT

Last issue’s solutions

Crossword

ACROSS: 8 Rehouse, 9 Train, 10 Worse, 11 Lioness, 12 Body language, 16 Balance sheet, 20 Set sail, 23 Muses, 24 Trial, 25 Glucose.

See next issue for puzzle solutions.

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

ANTIQUES

Top prices paid

Antique – Reproduction – Retro Furniture (any condition)

Epstein, Archie Shine, Hille, G Plan, etc. Dining Suites, Lounges Suites, Bookcases, Desks, Cabinets, Mirrors, Lights, etc.

House clearances

Single items to complete homes

MARYLEBONE ANTIQUES - 8 CHURCH STREET NW8 8ED 07866 614 744 (ANYTIME)

0207 723 7415 (SHOP)

closed Sunday & Monday

STUART SHUSTER - e-mail - info@maryleboneantiques.co.uk

MAKE SURE YOU CONTACT US BEFORE SELLING

WESTLON HOUSING ASSOCIATION

Sheltered Accommodation

We have an open waiting list in our friendly and comfortable warden assisted sheltered housing schemes in Ealing, East Finchley and Hendon. We provide 24-hour warden support, seven days a week; a residents’ lounge and kitchen, laundry, a sunny patio and garden. For further details and application forms, please contact Westlon Housing Association on 020 8201 8484 or email: johnsilverman@btconnect.com

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