1321 - 29th June 2023

Celebrating 100 years of courage

Holocaust survivor turned Army heroine finally receives war medals on 100th birthday

A Holocaust survivor turned British Army stalwart has received medals for her wartime service to which she never knew she was entitled to mark her 100th birthday, writes Michelle Rosenberg.

Henny Franks was given the Defence Medal and HM Armed Forces Veteran Badge yesterday at a birthday party at Jewish Care’s Holocaust Survivor Centre.

She escaped Nazi persecution as a teenager, leaving Cologne for Britain on the Kindertransport. A member of the women’s branch of the British Army, volunteering for the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) for many years, she had no idea she was entitled to receive medals for her galant service to her adopted country.

She told Jewish News: “I love England very much. I felt so proud to be in the army. I did my bit. I was one of the lucky ones. I want people to know that Jewish people did their bit to fight back.”

LILY LAPS UP FUN RUN

Holocaust survivor Lily Ebert, 99, and great-grandson Dov were among 6,500 people taking part in the Maccabi GB Fun Run. P26

Franks’ family story is tragic. Her father was arrested and deported to Sobibor, where he was murdered by the Nazis, but her mother survived the Holocaust.

Her cousins in England, who had four children of their own, took her into their home.

Continued on page 6

Birthday girl Henny Franks with AJEX’s chair Dan Fox and (inset) in the British Auxiliary Services

Labour ‘absolutely shares’ concerns

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

Labour frontbencher Lisa Nandy has said her party “absolutely shares” the government’s belief that boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaigns against Israel can be adopted in this country to “whip up hostility against the Jewish community”.

Confirming her own long-held view that BDS “singles out the world’s only Jewish state to di erent standards” and can also be used “as a way to strip up hatred towards the Jewish community here in the UK”, Labour’s shadow communities secretary told Jewish News her party was “not going to change our position on this, not now, and not in government”.

Pressed to confirm that Labour would not reverse its anti-BDS policy if voted into government at the next election, Nandy said forcibly: “We absolutely will not.”

The Wigan MP added that under Sir Keir Starmer’s leadership the party was “not just concerned about the way in which BDS has become used to stir up hostility towards the Jewish community here in the UK, but because we don’t believe there is any meaningful route to peace for the Palestinians or for Israel without bringing people together, without coexistence projects, without supporting joint ventures that have emerged”.

BDS, Nandy said, “drives coaches and horses through this”. She added: “The context of this is that we have seen a dramatic rise in antisemitism over the last decade and we’ve also seen BDS used particularly on social media, along with the word Zionist, as a term of abuse towards Jewish people.”

Despite this firm pledge, Nandy revealed that after studying the anti-BDS bill introduced by secretary of state Michael Gove in parliament last week, which promised to make it illegal for local authorities, or any public body, to implement BDS, Labour will be raising objections to some parts of the proposed legislation.

“We’ve taken legal advice over the bill,” she confirmed. “It’s not at all clear the bill does what the government thinks it does.”

One concern lawyers had raised was that it could open up the prospect of endless litigation in the courts over the practice of BDS, she said, adding: “The legislation itself is a real mess. It needs a lot of work to resolve this.”

Nandy said she had already discussed some of Labour’s concerns with Jewish groups, and would be publishing the legal advice ahead of the bill’s second reading in parliament.

Having spoken with communal organisations on a frequent basis about the need for legislation preventing BDS, Nandy stressed that

ANTI-BDS LEGISLATION A ‘GRUBBY, AWFUL BILL’

The Liberal Democrats’ foreign a airs spokesperson Layla Moran has branded the proposed anti-BDS legislation an “awful” bill that was introduced as a political “trap” for the Labour Party over antisemitism, writes Lee Harpin.

She told a packed communal audience at a fundraising event for the Yachad organisation that Michael Gove’s Economic Activity of Public Bodies (Overseas Matters) Bill was “actually the brainchild” of immigration minister Robert Jenrick, and was a “huge democratic overreach”.

She was loudly applauded by the audience as she said: “It’s a purely political bill, it’s an awful, awful, grubby bill, and I wish it didn’t exist.

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“What they [the Conservative government] are doing, they’ve lost all the other arguments so the only one left is ‘elect us because we are going to stand up against antisemitism’, and this is a trap we are going to leave Labour.”

The Oxford West MP added she was of the view that Sir Keir Starmer had “not actually fallen into the traps” set for him by the Tories, and “had long enough to reposition his party” and “had been partially successful, although that’s not for me to comment on”. She added: “I don’t think this attack is going to work.”

Moran, who said she would oppose the bill after its second Commons reading, appeared as a guest at the event on Tuesday, alongside Israeli human rights lawyer Michael Sfard, in a conversation chaired by journalist Jonathan Freedland. Explaining further her opposition to the bill, she said: “It makes no distinction between Israel and Occupied Territories at all, and that for me is a pure red line. Illegal settlements are illegal under international law, so logically you

shouldn’t be wanting to buy from them.” She said the bill in its current form threatened to stop “anyone saying anything about foreign policy”. It was “unlikely” it would get through parliament before the next election, she believed.

In further conversation, Moran and Sfard discussed their own family backgrounds, before moving on to issues around Israel and Palestine.

Sfard, the grandson of Holocaust survivors, whose parents were later expelled from Poland over their involvement in uprisings against the Communist government in the 1960s, spoke of his work as a human rights lawyer, mainly representing Palestinian activists and rights organisations, and of his involvement with the anti-occupation bloc of activists at the protests against Benjamin Netanyahu’s judicial reforms.

He urged ‘centrist’ protesters to recognise the role occupation played in undermining Israeli democracy. And he said he understood why Palestinians were reluctant to join demos in which thousands of Israeli flags were waved.

“Jewish Care meant everything to my mum, Bertie. That’s why I’m leaving them a gift in my Will”.

Brian, Legacy Pledger

Labour’s shadow communities secretary Lisa Nandy with party leader Keir Starmer

Jonathan Freedland (left), Layla Moran MP and Michael Sfard at the Yachad event

concerns about BDS agenda

organisations such as the Board of Deputies, the Jewish Leadership Council and the Holocaust Educational Trust remained “important partners for us in terms of hearing the concerns of the Jewish community in the UK”.

She added: “I’ve been talking to the JLC and the Board about [this bill] for some time. We’ve heard very loud and clear that this is legislation that they have long wanted to see on the statute books, but until recently we didn’t know what that legislation has looked like.”

Jewish News has previously reported how Israeli human rights organisations had joined with groups such as Yachad in raising objections to the bill, while the Union of Jewish Students had passed a motion saying the bill would “do nothing” to assist the fight against antisemitism.

Nandy noted that a Labour amendment to the government’s public procurement bill “sought to prevent councils in particular from singling out Israel for special treatment and standards that wouldn’t apply to others”.

Labour had tabled the amendment, in response to an attempt to introduce BDS on Wirral Council. But a subsequent Labour amendment was opposed by the Tories in the Lords. In a response to Nandy’s letter to him, Gove said that on the issue of the Labour amendment he had been advised it would “not meaningfully stop BDS”.

She said Labour opposed the singling out of a country like Israel for boycotts, in the same way

it would oppose the singling out of a country like China. She also noted that concerns had been raised about the bill by senior Conservative politicians, including Alicia Kearns, chair of the foreign a airs committee. While supporting the principle that public money should not be used to undermine foreign policy, Kearns said she was concerned that Gove’s bill named Israel.

Nandy said the bill “seems to overturn a long-standing government position, on which there is cross-party consensus”. She said this particularly applied to the settlements and the impact they were having both on the Palestinians and for a two-state solution. Labour continued to believe that settlements in the West Bank were illegal, adding that “until recently this was a view shared by the government”.

Nandy also said Labour also had concerns that by singling out Israel, the bill was doing “what it set out to prevent”. This naming of Israel “seemed to set an unhelpful precedent in law”, adding that “it was unclear why the government had decided to do that”.

She said there was added concern that as the bill is currently conceived “it will prevent councils and other public bodies taking action in support of the Uyghur Muslims in the Chinese province of Xinjiang and that is obviously a major concern to a lot of people in the House, including the Labour Party.”

She added: “The Board and many other Jewish organisations have been superb in

standing up for the rights of the Uyghur Muslims. Jewish leaders across the board have spoken out and were right to do so.”

Supporters of the bill, including some communal leaders, have attempted to argue that local councils have no right to engage in foreign a airs issues, and should concentrate on more immediate concerns of local residents. But Nandy disagrees. “To give you an example, in my constituency in Wigan, the council is currently developing the town centre,” she says. “It has contracted a Chinese company to do the construction work, and the Conservative council in Bolton has used the same company. Thousands of locals signed a petition. This bill would e ectively prevent the council from even responding to that petition and expressing a view.”

Nandy said a simpler way to prevent BDS being used to whip up hostility against the Jewish community in this country “is to introduce a clause in the bill that seeks to prevent councils or public bodies from taking investment or procurement decisions in relation to one country or territory that they would not have taken in relation for others”.

Asked if Labour’s decision to push for change in Gove’s bill was a result of new-found confidence in the party that this issue would not fuel charges of antisemitism from critics, Nandy said: “I think there is a general view that Keir has been true to his word. That we’ve made huge strides forward. “

veterans

Security taskforce

Labour’s oldest member dies at 105

Jewish Care this week led tributes to Beatty Orwell, the oldest registered member of the Labour Party, who has died at her Tower Hamlets home at the grand old age of 105, writes Lee Harpin.

Orwell, who grew up in Aldgate in the East End, was interested in politics from any early age and is renowned for having taken part in the Battle of Cable Street in 1936 against Oswald Mosley’s fascists.

Her husband John became mayor of Tower Hamlets in 1966, while Beatty was mayoress and, after his death in 1972, she became a councillor in her own right.

Jewish Care chief executive Daniel CarmelBrown said Orwell was “a truly remarkable person and a role model to us all”.

He added: “She was never afraid to stand up for what she believed in and to fight for others.

£1.25M RAISED FOR VETERANS

She inspired an abundance of love, warmth and sense of community.”

Beatty joined Jewish Care’s Brenner Stepney Jewish Community Centre around 20 years ago.

In 2020, when her physical health prevented her from attending “the Club”, as she affectionately called it, friends, staff and volunteers from the centre stayed in touch, visiting Beatty at home, where her family took turns to be with her.

Her children, June, Benny and Maureen said that they were deeply saddened at her death, adding: “But how lucky we are to have had mum in our lives all this time.

“She worked hard all her life and along the way met the Queen at Buckingham Palace and had tea at 10 Downing Street and met then prime minister Harold Wilson.”

They added: “It really isn’t bad for a girl from Petticoat Lane.”

Braverman chairs Jewish security meeting

Home secretary Suella Braverman has chaired the first meeting of the Home Office Jewish Community Crime, Policing and Security Taskforce, writes Lee Harpin

She was joined by representatives from the Community Security Trust (CST), police minister

Chris Philp, police leaders and home office officials. The meeting is understood to have included talks about tackling hate crime, following concern in the community about antisemitic incidents not resulting in prosecutions.

Before the meeting, CST chief

executive Mark Gardner and head of policy Dave Rich sounded out the main communal organisations about issues of concern.

Gardner said later he hoped the meeting “will be the start of a process that will see tangible improvements to the policing of antisem-

itism and anti-Jewish extremism”. He added that the commitment to this issue from Braverman, Philp and the senior police officers who attended was “deeply appreciated”. Braverman pledged to set up the task force in a speech earlier this year.

More than 400 guests helped to raise £1.25m to support the rehabilitation of injured veterans in Israel at Beit Halochem UK’s annual dinner in central London, writes Joy Falk.

The ballroom at the Royal Lancaster Hotel was silenced by paratroop brigade veteran Ido Lazan, who seven years ago was shot in the chest and leg in a terrorist attack while celebrating a friend’s birthday at a Tel Aviv bar.

“To this day I clearly remember the feeling of dying,” the 41-year-old said. “Thanks to being mentally and physically fit I survived.”

Having taken part in physiotherapy at one of Beit Halochem’s centres, he recalled: “It was there that my feeling of the healing power of community was formed. This place quickly became my second home. A few months after I was shot I opened up a cross-fit studio called Bulletproof, close to the place of the attack.”

Lazan has played a key role in the Veteran Games, which brings together British and Israeli veterans with physical or psychological injuries. It was founded by Beit Halochem UK in 2019 and 62 British former servicemen and women, along with their families, recently returned from the third annual event in Israel.

The Veteran Games recently became a charity in its own right.

Its CEO, former Royal Marine Andrew Garland, read testimony about the impact of the 2023 Games from a participant and said other countries had been in contact about joining the Games.

Daniel Korski pulls out of mayoral race I CHOSE JEWISH CARE OVER VOTE – SUNAK

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

Daniel Korski yesterday withdrew from the race to be the Conservative candidate for London mayor after being accused of groping by the television producer and novelist Daisy Goodwin.

He said he was pulling out “with a heavy heart” as he again denied the allegation.

He added in a statement:

“However, the pressure on my family because of this false and unproven allegation, and the inability to get a hearing for my message of ‘the London Dream’ makes it impossible for my campaign to carry on.”

The vice-president at the Jewish Leadership Council repeated yesterday that he “categorically” denied the allegation, which relates to a meeting he and Goodwin had at 10 Downing Street in 2013.

At the time of the meeting, Korski was a special adviser to prime minister David Cameron; the Conservative Party said it “does not conduct investigations where the party would not be considered to have primary jurisdiction”.

Asked if Rishi Sunak believes No 10 is a safe environment for women, the

prime minister’s o cial spokesman this week said: “Yes.”

Asked if the prime minister thought it was important that allegations of harassment should be investigated, the spokesman said: “Without wanting to be drawn into specifics, in any walk of life, I think the prime minister would expect that to be the case.”

Rishi Sunak said he showed his integrity by resigning from Boris Johnson’s government as he defended having skipped a Commons vote on the Privileges Committee report.

The prime minister reiterated his full support and respect for both the committee’s “diligent work” and the decision made by MPs on Monday.

He said his absence from the Commons was due to his involvement in an event organised by Jewish Care, but stressed that his resignation from Johnson’s government had already demonstrated his commitment to his principles.

MPs voted to approve the Privileges Committee report last week, which found Johnson deliberately misled parliament over parties at Downing Street during lockdown.

Since his absence during the debate and vote Sunak has faced accusations of being too “weak” to stand up to his former party leader.

Asked whether he agreed with the verdict of the committee, he told BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg: “I do fully support and respect not just the work of the committee, who I think did a very thorough job, but also the decision of the House.

“It’s right for people, whatever

their position, face responsibility and accountability for their actions. That has happened and most importantly, Boris Johnson is no longer an MP.”

Sunak reminded viewers that he had resigned as Johnson’s chancellor, adding that he missed the vote “because I was speaking and attending an event at a fantastic charity called Jewish Care, which does an extraordinary job looking after people around the country”.

He went on: “What I demonstrated by resigning from Boris Johnson’s government was that I was prepared to stand up for my principles. Keir Starmer sat there for four years next to Jeremy Corbyn, saying he was the right person to lead our country. That speaks to his principles. My resignation speaks to mine.”

Rishi Sunak at the event hosted by ‘fantastic’ Jewish Care

Tory former hopeful Daniel Korski yesterday again denied a groping allegation

News / Army heroine / Ukraine plea / Taskforce meets

Survivor turned army heroine receives medals

Continued from page 1

By the time Henny was 16 she had learned to speak English and at 19 she was recruited by the British Army to the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS). She went to Nottingham for training and then worked as a driver transporting ammunition in Westcli -on-Sea.

Henny rebuilt her life in the UK after the war with her late husband and said that her two children and three grandchildren are a constant source of support to her.

Until recently she visited schools in Cologne to teach pupils about her experiences.

On awarding Henny her medals,

Dan Fox of AJEX said: “It was an honour to surprise Henny. As the greatest generation become fewer, lasting recognition of their service and commitment is more important than ever. The restoration and reclamation of medals is a striking way of ensuring this. They are artefacts or personal history, but also meaningful to families, communities and the nation as a whole. They help us remember what veterans went through and to take pride in what they did.”

Daniel Carmel-Brown of Jewish Care said: “Henny is a much-loved member of the centre and tells us that she considers it to be her

second home. It is an amazing gift and the source of much pride for Henny, as a Holocaust survivor and veteran, to be recognised for her service and receive her war medals.”

AJEX recently launched a ‘Family Medals’ campaign so Jewish families who do not have their own or family members’ medals from war and other service can be reunited with them.

Whether a family with veterans has lost medals or never claimed them, AJEX will help identify and find them.

While the number of Second World War and National Service veterans declines, their families and direct descendants continue to thrive

and are active with AJEX.

Fox said: “Medals are some of the most personal artefacts of military service. For individuals and their families, they are markers of commitment and bravery.

“As a community, they are collective badges of honour and of pride in the Jewish contribution to our nation. I hope many spouses, children, grandchildren and greatgrandchildren of those who have served will join us in bringing these decorations home.”

As part of her centenary, Jewish Care organised for Franks to twin her birthday with three young women in their 30s. Nicole Gilbert, Debra

Binder and Rachel Miller, who added their upcoming birthdays together (30+35+35) to make 100.

• Editorial comment, page 20

UK envoy wants Israel to ‘do more’ to defeat Russia Police probe into pupils’ ‘racism’

It is in Israel’s national interest to help Ukraine more in the war against Russia, UK’s ambassador to Israel has said, writes Lee Harpin.

Neil Wigan told The Jerusalem Post: “Iran’s links with Russia threaten Israel’s national security, which is why we would like Israel to do even more to defeat the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The outgoing ambassador also said the UK understood the “concern” about Russia’s army in Syria and the Russian Jewish community.

“We clearly think it is in Israel’s national interest (to help Ukraine more). I have spoken to Israelis at length about that,” Wigan said.

Ukraine has received humani-

tarian assistance from Israel during the conflict but Kiev is still pressing Israel to support it militarily.

Israel, which has had three prime ministers since the start of the

war, has been reluctant to provide such assistance, fearing it would endanger its close military coordination with Russia in Syria’s skies.

Israeli airstrikes are coordinated with Russia, so as not to hit Russian troops or military bases.

On the UK proscribing the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Wigan said the government had “sanctioned 350 Iranian groups and individuals, the whole of the IRGC and many of its leaders.”

On Iran in general, Wigan said UK-Israeli cooperation is ‘really close’, adding: “We’re not under any illusions... (Iran) directly threatened attacks on British soil… We are taking it very seriously.”

Police are investigating allegations of racist abuse at a private Orthodox Jewish school in Edgware.

It is alleged that “racist and sexual” language was directed at a PE teacher at Menorah Foundation by students at the neighbouring Menorah Grammar school.

A police spokesperson confirmed: On Tuesday 20 June, police received a report of racist and sexual comments made by pupils at a school in Abbots Road, Edgware. These allegations are being investigated. Enquiries continue.”

Menorah Grammar, which charges up to £48,000 a year and has nearly 300 male students between the ages of 11 and 21, refused to comment. Menorah

Foundation is yet to respond to a request for comment.

In 2020 Menorah Grammar was downgraded to ‘inadequate’ by Ofsted, which labelled the school ‘unhygienic and unsafe’ in a damning report, which also warned pupils were ‘at risk of harm’. Ofsted again deemed the school to be ‘inadequate’ in 2022.

Speaking out: Neil Wigan

Menorah Grammar School

pride in the Jewish contribution to spouses,

Mia death / School lifeline / Nursery success / News

Mia’s classmates had ‘girls chat group’

Male JFS pupils set up a group chat about girls at the school attended by a 14-year-old who is believed to have killed herself, a pre-inquest review has heard.

Mia Janin, a Year-10 pupil at the Kenton school, the largest Jewish secondary in Europe, was found dead at her family home in Harrow on 12 March 2021.

Her father, Mariano Janin, told a previous pre-inquest review hearing in March that his daughter had been “cyber bullied”.

Discussing the inquest’s potential scope, assistant coroner Tony Murphy, sitting at Barnet Coroner’s Court, said male pupils at JFS set up a social media group which was about some of the female pupils.

Rabbi Howard Cohen, former deputy headteacher at the school,

told the boys to close down the group after Mia’s death but Mr Murphy said it would have been helpful if the group chat had been “preserved” to see “what, if anything, it contained about Mia”.

Emails suggest bosses at JFS “only became aware of the group chat after Mia’s sad death”, Mr Murphy said.

An email was sent to the school on 17 March about the group chat, the hearing was told.

Lily Lewis, counsel for Mia’s brother Douglas Stewart, said a Snapchat group was “quite widely known of”. She added that Mr Stewart wished to put questions to Rabbi Cohen about what he knew either before Mia’s death or in the immediate aftermath.

Rabbi Cohen said in a statement he thought “he’d done a good thing”

but the family “would certainly disagree”, Sefton Kwasnik, counsel for Mia’s father, said.

Susan Jones, counsel for JFS, said

the school had “always co-operated” in terms of information disclosure.

She said there could be multiple social media groups, adding: “There’s nothing that’s come to my attention that JFS were aware of any group chat prior to 17 March.”

Gary Lesin-Davis, counsel for Rabbi Cohen, said: “All the evidence points to the fact that he or the school did not know of the presence of this social media group. How can the school or its employees act on something when it was not known?”

Mr Lesin-Davis said there were a number of social media sites included in the material for the inquest, including a group where “images and videos of girls” were shared.

The Metropolitan Police apologised last month after confirming it had lost a sim card from Mia’s main

phone and a second mobile but Mr Janin told the hearing he would “not accept the telephone was lost within the police department”.

Mr Murphy said that although the phone could not be found, the data from it had been analysed.

He decided the group chat set up by some male pupils while Mia was at JFS is in the inquest’s scope.

He said the events involving Rabbi Cohen were potentially relevant in relation to preventing further deaths as it “would have been helpful if the content had been preserved to see if anything in the content is about Mia”.

He said Rabbi Cohen would not be called as a witness of fact but would be called as a witness in relation to preventing further deaths.

The inquest is set to take place on a date to be confirmed.

S Hampstead nursery rated ‘Good’ by Ofsted

The headteacher at Europe’s largest Jewish secondary school is offering an educational lifeline to students at an Orthodox school whose places are in doubt for September 2023.

Dr David Moody confirmed he was ready and prepared to offer up to 35 Year-7 students at Hasmonean a place after the summer. His announcement comes after plans for students at the Orthodox Jewish secondary boys’ and girls’ schools to study on the same premises were blocked by strict Green Belt environmental regulations.

As reported by Jewish News, it was hoped 150 incoming Year-7 pupils including 50 on a waiting list from Hasmonean Boys’ could be located in Portakabins on the same site at the girls’ school on Page Street, Mill Hill.

It follows growing concerns the boys’ campus is over-stretched, with twice as many students than originally designed for. With Hasmonean returning to the drawing board for other ideas, Dr. Moody said: “I’ve been approached by a number of Hasmonean parents. It was just really nice to listen to them and what they wanted for their children because that conversation also informs what’s good for our children in JFS as well.

“The (Hasmonean) appeals are due to be outlined on 11 July. If there are a group of families who want to come to JFS, we are building something special. If 30 parents said that as a group they want to bring their children here, we are set up to cater for that.”

• Dr David Moody interview, pages 32-233

BabyiSH, South Hampstead United Synagogue’s day-care centre for children aged three months to three years, has been praised by Ofsted for the quality of its education and its leadership and management.

Ofsted said “children make progress” and “behave well” at the nursery with “children arriving at this nursery to a warm welcome from staff who are caring and attentive to their needs”.

BabyiSH staff were further praised for “creating activities which create excitement”. The report said that “when exploring the bug garden out-

side, children scuttle to find the insects under pots and squeal in excitement when they find one”.

The report noted improvements made by nursery manager Rachel Simon since the last inspection, with

the inspector saying “she is ambitious in her vision for the nursery and shares this with her staff to ensure that improvements and practice remain consistent”.

The synagogue’s rabbi and executive director Eli Levin said: “We are delighted BabyiSH has once again been recognised by Ofsted to be the good nursery we and our parents know it is – testament to hard work and dedication by Rachel Simon, her team and Early Years consultant who have addressed the issues raised by Ofsted and made the necessary improvements.”

Mia Janin died in March 2021

‘Don’t ram through’ Holocaust memorial

A planned national Holocaust memorial centre next to parliament should not be “rammed through”, the government has been told as a rethink was urged by ministers, writes Joy Falk.

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The plea came as a change in the law was debated by MPs, aimed at enabling the project to go ahead in Westminster.

The draft legislation was introduced after campaigners won a legal battle to quash planning permission for the Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre in Victoria Tower Gardens, immediately next to parliament.

The plan ran into di culties over a 1900 law protecting the small, Grade II-listed park.

The Holocaust Memorial Bill, which had its second reading in the Commons last week, will update the historical legislation, removing the legal obstacle that has prevented the Victoria Tower Gardens project.

But pressed to reconsider the decision on the siting of the centre, communities minister Baroness Scott of Bybrook said: “The government remain determined to build a Holocaust memorial in Victoria Tower Gardens so that the memory and lessons of the Holocaust remain prominent in British life.

“The Holocaust Memorial Bill currently before parliament is intended to remove a

statutory obstacle and enable progress toward construction.

“Victoria Tower Gardens is a site that is uniquely capable of meeting the government’s aspirations for a memorial.”

Responding, Liberal Democrat Lord Lee of Tra ord said: “It is very sad that a memorial to such an appalling crime against humanity should controversially be rammed through against the views of the Royal Parks, Westminster City Council, local residents and so many others.”

Lady Scott said: “The memorial is a manifesto commitment which has crossparty support and has been endorsed by all living prime ministers.”

Independent crossbencher Baroness Deech criticised the lack of consultation, saying: e orts to open dialogue and have discussions and round tables “have been met with silence and sometimes abuse”.

Lady Deech added: “Victoria Tower Gardens is a green enclave, and the dangers of digging down two storeys with pile drivers, which could cause unimaginable damage, have not been taken on board when there are decent alternative sites with as much dignity and more space.

“I speak for a number of Holocaust survivors in this.”

But Tory former Cabinet minister Lord Pickles, who is co-chair of the UK Holocaust Memorial Foundation, said: “The time for talking is over.”

Former Labour MP Lord Austin of Dudley, who quit the party under Jeremy Corbyn over antisemitism, said: “There is no more appropriate location for a memorial that shows what can go wrong when politics is infected by extremism, racism and hatred than here in Westminster, at the centre of our politics. That is the whole point.”

LAST BRITISH GLIDER PILOT SGT ASHLEIGH DIES AT 98

Sgt Frank Ashleigh, the last surviving glider pilot of the Second World War, has died, aged 98.

He was born in Stepney on 23 December 1924, to two Jewish immigrants, Isaac Greenbaum, a tailor from Russia, and Annie.

My brother concluded his much- viewed TED Talk with the following words. “a nation is strong when it cares for the weak. It becomes rich when it cares for the poor. It becomes invulnerable when it cares about the vulnerable” said Eliot Sacks, brother of the late Rabbi Lord Sacks Zt”l. ” It would be hard to think of an organisation that embodies these values more fully than Yad Sarah”

Speaking at the dedication ceremony in Jerusalem Eliot Sacks quoted. www.YadSarah.org.uk

In 1942, at the age of 18 he joined the British Army. Two years later Ashleigh became a glider pilot after passing the aptitude tests. He was then sent to Fargo camp, Salisbury Plain, which he described as “six weeks of hell on earth”.

After just 10 hours of flying experience, he was posted to Stoke Orchard in Gloucestershire where he recalled seeing a Jewish chaplain and was given the usual small Jewish soldier’s prayer book and Book of Jewish Thoughts

It was here that he began training on Hotspur gliders, which had two pilots in tandem. After qualifying to fly the Horsa heavy glider, he was promoted and presented with the Army Flying Badge. He was then dispatched to Oosterbeek in the Netherlands, where he had to hide in a church after encountering armed SS Troops of the Hermann Goering Division.

After days of fighting, Nazi soldiers eventually caught him and his comrades in the church, taking them as prisoners of war, sending them to a camp near Opole, in modern-day Poland.

In January 1945, the POWs carried out a forced march to escape the approaching Soviets. Ashleigh and his surviving comrades were finally freed by Soviet soldiers, who he described as “saving angels”, in April 1945 in a POW camp near Berlin.

The site of the proposed memorial in Westminster

Frank Ashleigh joined the army at 18 in 1942

‘Oh yes they will!’ JW3 to stage Chanukah panto

Finchley Road cultural hub JW3 is to stage what it claims is the first professional Jewish panto over the Chanukah festival.

Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Pig will fill what JW3 director of programming William Galinsky says is a “gap in the market” later this year by appealing to both young and older members of the community.

He told The Guardian: “Panto is one of the oldest and best-loved British traditions, one of the few times a year people young and old come together to experience the joys of the theatre.

“The Jewish community has a long history of theatre, and now is the time we

brought those two traditions together.”

The panto will be set during the Festival of Lights and tell how Little Red Riding Hood’s village is in need of a new electricity source at an affordable price.

Other characters include Bubbe, the Jewish grandmother, who may save the day with her “special wind”.

Galinsky says he has looked to assemble a team from within the community, including writer Nick Cassenbaum, director Georgia Green, musical director Josh Middleton and associate producer Becky Plotnek. An onstage band will also perform Jewish pop and traditional songs, but with panto lyrics.

“Like all the best family entertainment, it works at a number of different levels,” Galinsky said. “I’m confident a four-year-old will find it very funny. But also [adults] will find it funny at a more sophisticated level.”

YOU ONLY

CORK GETS SET FOR TORAH CELEBRATION

A Torah scroll gifted to a Jewish community in Ireland by an American synagogue will be read from for the first time in August.

Cork’s Jewish community (CJC) has been without a Torah since its synagogue closed in 2016. Earlier this year, however, the community was presented with a Torah scroll from a

Yad Sarah dedicates ambulance for Sacks

community in Massachusetts.

The transfer from Congregation Agudas Achim-Ezrath Israel in Malden took place in March, when it was received by CJC secretary Sophia Spiegel and transported back to Ireland.

CJC has since made a successful application to The National Heritage Council for funding to build an Aron Kodesh, a storage unit for the Torah, plus a reading table and a scroll stand.

In addition, Cork City Council Heritage funds have been secured by CJC for an inaugural event on 17 August during National Heritage Week when Rabbi David Kudan will open the scroll. There will also be a video of the transfer of the Torah, its arrival in Ireland and the event for dissemination to the Cork Jewish diaspora and the wider Cork heritage community.

The UK branch of Israel’s largest national volunteer organisation has unveiled an ambulance dedicated to the late Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, writes Michelle Rosenberg.

UK Friends of Yad Sarah hosted the event in Jerusalem, welcoming Brian, Alan and Eliot Sacks – brothers of late Chief Rabbi, among other guests including Yad Sarah founder Rabbi Uri Lupolianski.

The vehicle will be added to Yad Sarah’s fleet of wheelchair accessible vehicles, which last year year alone executed more than 12000 rides. Transport services are available six days a week and volunteer drivers provide transportation services to hospitals, schools and work places as well as a trip to the beach or shopping trip to those who have no other means of leaving home.

Eliot Sacks said: “My brother concluded his much-viewed TED Talk with the following words. ‘A nation is strong when it cares for the

weak. It becomes rich when it cares for the poor. It becomes invulnerable when it cares about the vulnerable’. It would be hard to think of an organisation that embodies these values more than Yad Sarah.” Adam Caplin, chair of trustees, UK Friends of Yad Sarah, said the organisation was “delighted to be able to dedicate this needed ambulance in memory of the Rabbi Sacks.”

Amanda Seyfried in a 2011 film version of Red Riding Hood

Sophia Spiegel receiving the Torah in March

The ambulance dedication in Israel

Every day UJIA is making a difference to the lives of young people. Both here in the UK and in Israel. This is made possible by the generosity of our many supporters who want the causes that are important to them in their lifetime to benefit all over again through a legacy.

SABRINA JOINS PRINCE’S HOMELESS CAMPAIGN

by Jenni Frazer

A Jewish female firefighter – a rare category in the UK – has become one of the Prince of Wales’ “ambassadors” in his groundbreaking initiative announced this week, a five-year mission to try to reduce homelessness, writes Jenni Frazer.

Sabrina Cohen-Hatton, a senior firefighter, has joined Prince William in his ambitious plan, “Homewards”, which will be rolled out in six locations across Britain.

She is helping the prince, together with TV presenter Gail Porter, Aston Villa footballer Tyrone Mings and David Duke – because each of them has experienced homelessness, and

overcome it after life challenges.

Dr Cohen-Hatton, 40, is today the chief fire o cer of the West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service. But at 15 she was sleeping rough, on the streets in Wales. Her father, who came from a Moroccan-Israeli background, died of a brain tumour when she was just nine and is buried in a local Jewish cemetery. She describes her mother as “of Jewish heritage” and has said that her family did not have much to do with the local Jewish community where they lived in Wales.

After Sabrina’s father died, domestic life grew complicated and the teenager, although continuing to attend school, left home. In her 2019 autobiography, The Heat of the

Moment, she writes of how she slept in a derelict building while trying to keep her school textbooks secure and take examinations, because she knew education was her way out. She hid her books in old boxes in the building where she and others were sleeping.

But one day one of the other rough sleepers found her books, each labelled with her “very Jewish surname” – and he attacked her, holding a lit cigarette to her arm and spewing antisemitic abuse. When he brandished a broken bottle in her face, she froze, and was eventually dragged away by a friend from the building. Ultimately Sabrina

spent two years living on the streets, joining the Fire Service in South Wales aged 18 and completing a degree and later a doctorate. She also sold copies of charity magazine The Big Issue, which she has said “saved my life”.

A former Jewish Care Woman of Distinction, Sabrina Cohen-Hatton has now joined Prince William as a powerful advocate for his bid to reduce homelessness in Britain. She said: “Having had my own experience of homelessness and surviving it, it means the world to be part of something that is working towards ending it. No one should experience the vulnerability that comes without having a home.”

LIVE TWICE

LIVE TWICE

Kanye ‘abused’ Jewish associate

A former business partner of racist rapper Kanye West has alleged that the American rapper used “o ensive phrases” about him being Jewish towards him.

Alex Klein, a tech entrepreneur, was speaking in a new BBC Two documentary where he is described as the 46-year-old musician’s former friend.

Journalist Mobeen Azhar, who fronted the broadcaster’s Battle For Britney documentary, presents The Trouble With KanYe.

It looks at the musician, now legally known as Ye, and his 2024 US presidential campaign.

Klein, who created music streaming platform and remix device Stem Player in collaboration with Ye, which released the Donda 2 album, told Azhar about

the alleged reaction his former business partner had when they parted ways.

He said: “We turned down 10

million dollars. Kanye was very angry you know, he was saying ‘I feel like I wanna smack you’, and ‘You’re exactly like the other Jews’ – almost relishing and revelling in how o ensive he could be, using these phrases hoping to hurt me.

“I asked him and I said ‘Do you really think Jews are working together to hold you back?’

“And he said ‘Yes, yes I do, but it’s not even a statement that I need to take back because look at all the energy around me right now. Without that statement, I wouldn’t become president’.”

Klein announced in November 2022 that his company Kano Computing had ended its relationship with the musician.

Ye, one of the world’s most successful musicians with more than

160 million records sold, made an unsuccessful bid for the White House in 2020.

Adidas cut ties with Ye in late October saying it “does not tolerate antisemitism”.

The German sportswear company did say in May it will put his Yeezy shoes on sale and donate some of the proceeds to social justice organisations.

John Boyd, who ran Ye’s 2020 US presidential campaign, will also feature in the BBC programme, with poet Kevin Coval and Ye collaborator Malik Yusef.

Accompanying the documentary is an eight-part podcast series The Kanye Story.

• The Trouble With KanYe airs at 9pm on BBC Two on Wednesday

Pro-Corbyn doc screened during Glasto

A controversial documentary supporting Jeremy Corbyn over antisemitism allegations was shown at last weekend’s Glastonbury Festival’s despite organisers cancelling its screening. Glastonbury previously said that although the film, titled Oh, Jeremy Corbyn: The Big Lie, had been booked “in good faith”, it had decided that it was not appropriate.

Reel News, an “activist video collective”, is believed to have brought the film into the festival on a USB stick and shown it at the Speakers Forum tent. One onlooker told The Telegraph that people “were cheering” as the film was played. The collective tweeted a video of the audience, saying they were “defying the Glastonbury festival’s ban on the Jeremy Corbyn film and showing it right now”.

Prince Williams and, left, Sabrina CohenHatton

‘Abuse’: Alex Klein

Bibi demo / Envoy carpeted / Election alarm / Biden backed / Keane appointed / News

Israeli expats protest at Brighton court case

Around 200 Israeli expats staged a noisy and colourful protest outside a courtroom in Brighton this week as a Hollywood producer made his video testimony in the Benjamin Netanyahu corruption trial, writes Jotam Confino.

Arnon Milchan, known for his production role in the Pretty Woman blockbuster, is a key witness in one of the three corruption cases against the Israeli premier.

Netanyahu’s wife Sara was present during proceedings, having arrived via a hotel entrance to avoid clashing with protesters from the Defend Israeli Democracy movement.

Prosecutors in the trial allege Netanyahu and his wife accepted luxury gifts in quid pro quo dealings with Milchan and Australian billionaire James Packer.

Netanyahu denies all allegations.

Milchan, who lives in Sussex, began his two-week testimony by greeting Netanyahu, who was viewing the proceedings from a Jerusalem courtroom.

The producer was set to be quizzed about the reason for gifts including cigars and bottles of champagne being sent to the Israeli leader.

Security concerns were said to be a reason for staging the hearing in Brighton, rather than in central London.

Protesters outside the Brighton venue held up placards and Israeli flags which

have become synonymous with the Defend Israeli Democracy movement.

One sign read: “If there is no bread, let them drink champagne” referring to allegations over gifts received by the Netanyahus. Another said “fraud” and “breach of trust” – to mirror the claims lodged by prosecutors against the Israeli PM.

Sharon Shochat, one of Defend Israeli Democracy’s leading figures in the UK said of the decision to congregate on the south coast: “An indicted

ALARM AT GERMAN ELECTION RESULT

Jewish leaders have reacted with alarm after a local election in the former East German state of Thuringia, where for the first time a farright Alternative for Germany (AfD) candidate has won the top political post in his district.

Robert Sesselmann won Sunday’s district council runo in Sonneberg with 52.8 percent of the vote, unseating district administrator Jürgen Köpper of the centre-right Christian Democratic Union

(CDU). The area, one of Germany’s smallest districts, has about 48,000 voters, but the victory marks the first time the AfD party will have administrative control of an area.

Critics say any win for the party undermines Germany’s democracy, while polls show the AdF is supported by 18-20 percent of voters.

Launched in 2013 on an ultra-nationalist platform, the party won its first seats in the parliament in 2017.

Spurs star is new Tel Aviv manager

prime minister is not fit for government, and we will be reminding him that from every corner of the world.

“Protesters have demanded that Sara Netanyahu, who in ‘Godfather’ fashion will be present at the testimony, should be ridiculed for the corrupt first lady that she is, but this is not personal. We stand here for democracy.’’

Sunday’s demonstrations also featured in Israeli television coverage broadcast from Sussex.

Ukrainian envoy under fire

Israel’s foreign ministry is expected to summon Ukraine’s ambassador to Israel after he issued a statement criticising Israel for its “path of close cooperation” with Russia.

Foreign ministry Eli Cohen said Yevgen Korniychuk would be reprimanded for his embassy’s “unacceptable” criticism.

In a statement on its Facebook page, the embassy said while Ukraine, including its

substantial Jewish community, were bleeding under the onslaught of Russian mis-

siles and Iranian drones, "the Israeli leadership, hiding behind verbal demagoguery about their neutrality... actively forges relations with the Russian federation.”

The embassy also lashed out at prime minister Netanyahu for “speculative and fictional” assumptions after he said Israel should be cautious about providing weapons systems to Ukraine.

Tottenham Hotspur legend Robbie Keane has been named new manager of Maccabi Tel Aviv in a move that surprised the football world.

Maccabi, who finished third in last season’s Israeli Premier League, announced the deal on Monday. It will see the Irishman, 42, take charge for the 2023-24 season, which includes fixtures in the qualifying rounds of the Europa Conference League.

“I am happy to take on this challenge at Maccabi,” Keane

said, after signing a two-year deal with the Israeli side.

“My team and I are already looking forward to starting work and we are confident in our ability to do what is necessary to prepare the team for the upcoming season.”

The former Republic of Ireland, Spurs and Coventry striker most recently spent the final weeks of last season as assistant manager to Sam Allardyce at Leeds United in their failed attempt to stop Premier League relegation.

JEWISH VOTERS BACK BIDEN

Jewish voters would heavily favour Joe Biden over Donald Trump by 50 percentage points in a 2024 general election battle, according to a survey released this week – a stark contrast from polls of the national electorate that predict a close race between the two leading candidates.

between the

The survey of 800 registered Jewish voters, taken by the Jewish Electoral Institute, shows Biden leading Trump 72 percent to 22 percent among respondents. A poll of registered voters nationally, released on Sunday, gives Biden just a four-point lead over Trump, 49 per-

cent to 45 percent.

The Jewish Electoral Institute, which is led by a board comprised mostly of Jewish Democrats, commissioned GBAO Strategies to run the survey, which took place from 4-11 June. It has a margin of error of 3.5 percent.

If the two men do face each other and the survey results bear out, the Jewish vote will fall roughly along the same lines as it has for decades.

CHAI GAVE US OUR MUMMY BACK

“When I was diagnosed with breast cancer last year, I just didn’t know what to do. I had my surgery in Israel as both mine and my husband’s families live there. Then I had a big decision to make - where would I have my treatment? How could I uproot my husband and girls? But equally, how would I get through my chemotherapy here without our families’ support? Then my oncologist told me about Chai. They have been amazing – I truly believe there is nothing like it in the world.

Being able to rely on Chai’s all-encompassing support gave me the confi dence to come home to my husband and girls.

Thanks to Chai, we’re together as a family again”

Demonstrators outside the courtroom at Netanyahu's corruption trial

Reprimand: Eli Cohen

Progressive leaders meet Justin Welby

The leader of the Church of England has met with two senior reform rabbis to discuss plans to create a unified Progressive Jewish movement for the UK, writes Michelle Rosenberg.

Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, personally requested the get-together with Reform Judaism CEO Rabbi Josh Levy and Liberal Judaism CEO Rabbi Charley Baginsky.

As reported by Jewish News, Liberal Judaism and the Movement for Reform Judaism announced their merger in April.

The meeting between the trio was an acknowledgment of the changing demographic of the Jewish community and the role Progressive Judaism – which will represent around 35 percent of UK Jews – will play in British religious life.

Rabbis Charley Baginsky and Josh Levy said: “This was a very important discussion on how the Archbishop

and Church of England can support the diversity of the British Jewish community.

“It was a real recognition of the growth and role of Progressive Judaism in the UK and a strong example of how much more we can achieve as one movement.”

Archbishop Justin Welby added: “It was good to meet

and discuss hopes and plans for the future.”

The meeting, which lasted an hour, involved a wideranging discussion including how Progressive Jews engage with scripture, core beliefs and response to modernity, the challenges facing Jews in the UK today, and the current situation in Israel.

LEADERS GET READY FOR ISRAEL TOUR

Leaders from a range of Jewish youth groups have spent four days in the north of Israel on educational outings.

The training event, organised by UJIA for movements including BBYO, Bnei Akiva, Ezra Youth, FZY, Habonim Dror, JLGB, LJYNetzer, Noam, RSY-Netzer, Sinai Youth and Tribe, comes ahead of a record-breaking summer for Israel Tours, with an expected 1,250 Jewish teens participating.

The 135 leaders from both the UK and Israel visited sites including the Atlit Detention Centre, post-Biblical Caesarea and multi-cultural Akko.

Shira Neville, from Bnei Akiva, said: “It was great to spend time in Israel learning and preparing for what we know will be a fantastic summer. We have enjoyed exploring our connection to Israel and engaging with the other movements.” Josh Kaye, from RSY-Netzer, said: “Coming together was a valuable experience and has helped us strengthen our own ideology whilst understanding other youth movement’s perspectives.”

Josh Dubell, UJIA’s head of Israel experiences, said: “We are proud to bring together leaders from 11 diverse and special youth movements and organisations. It was inspiring to see them working together so that we are all prepared to provide a transformative summer for 1,250 young Jews.”

The first Israel Tour group, Bnei Akiva, departs on 3 July.

Rabbis Josh Levy and Charley Baginsky with the Archbishop

Team GB’s tribute to Sir Ben at Auschwitz MAN DIES ON FLIGHT TO NEW YORK

Team GB visited Auschwitz-Birkenau this week after arriving in Poland for the 2023 European Games, writes Joy Falk.

The Holocaust Educational Trust facilitated the tour and led the team through the Nazi death camp.

tration and death camp AuschwitzBirkenau, and pause to reflect on the great loss su ered by the Jewish community,” Scott Field, Director of Marketing and Communications at Team GB said.

A young man from Stamford Hill has died following an asthma attack on board a flight from London to New York.

caust survivor and

month at the age

Team GB honoured the victims of the Holocaust and showed particular respect for the life of Holocaust survivor and British Olympian Sir Ben Helfgott who passed away earlier this month at the age of 93.

“In recognising the legacy and diversity of our great Olympians, we wanted to take time to visit the former Nazi concen-

of our great

Ben Helfgott, who truly embodied

caust Educational whose port to facilitate this visit has been

“This is particularly important given where we are currently competing, in nearby Krakow, and even more so given the sad passing of Sir Ben Helfgott, who truly embodied the values and spirit of the Olympic Movement. Our thanks go to the Holocaust Educational Trust, whose support to facilitate this visit has been exceptional. Their work remains as important as ever,” Field added.

lock said he was proud to facilitate the “important” visit to AuschwitzBirkenau by Team GB.

Jewish News understands that 25-yearold Shimoin Brauer, on route to volunteer at a summer camp in the US, su ered an attack around 45 minutes before the plane was due to land.

A member of the Orthodox Stamford Hill community said that Brauer took out his inhaler in a panic but it dropped from his hand.

Holocaust Educational Trust chief executive, Karen Pol-

Holocaust Edu-

We are hugely grateful to the delegation for giving up their time to learn more and to pay their respects to the six million Jewish men, women and children who were murdered during the Holocaust. Even more poignant is the delegation’s special tribute to Sir Ben

Helfgott, an Olympian himself – I am sure he would have been proud that this important visit has taken place,” Pollock said.

“We know the power of role models and believe that future Olympians will be inspired by the dedication and values displayed on this visit by the delegation from Team GB,” she added.

 Vivian Wineman, page 23

It is believed he then fell unconscious and the crew attempted to give him oxygen, unaware that his airways were closed due to the asthma.

The crew then attempted emergency CPR but tragically were unable to save his life.

Jewish News understands an investigation by a coroner is pending.

Shimoin Brauer

BIDS FOR US VISA WAIVERS

More than 60 US senators have urged the Biden administration to finalise Israel’s entry into America’s visa waiver programme by the end of September.

Israel has sought to join the programme, which enables citizens to travel to the US without a visa, for decades. Currently, Israelis who do not hold citizenship in any of the 40 countries included in the scheme must apply for permission to travel to the US, a process that typically results in a visa being granted but can be time-consuming.

The senators’ letter was sent to US secretary of state Antony Blinken and homeland security secretary Alejandro Majorkas.

The move was spearheaded by Jacky Rosen, a Nevada Democrat, and Rick Scott, a Florida Republican. It alludes to the final roadblock keeping Israel out of the programme, the profiling of Arab Americans seeking entry into the US, while pressing for the September deadline.

The letter says it recognises there are still “outstanding issues that must be addressed before Israel’s participation in the programme can be finalised”, adding: “We urge both sides to continue working toward addressing these issues – including the reciprocal treatment of US citizens – to ensure Israel’s compliance with all programme requirements before the deadline of 30 September.”

Finally, UN passes a vote condemning antisemitism

The United Nations Security Council has unanimously passed a joint United Kingdom-United Arab Emirates-drafted resolution that, for the first time in the 77-year history of the body, condemns antisemitism, writes Jotam Confino.

The measure, o cially Security Council Resolution 2686 on Tolerance and International Peace and Security, addressed concern at hate speech and incitement to violence.

It also called for action on the persecution of religious and other minorities in conflict settings – a key find of the report commissioned by Jeremy Hunt when foreign secretary from the Bishop of Truro.

The text of the resolution includes an expression of “deep concern at instances of discrimination, intolerance and hate speech motivated by racism or extremism or directed against persons belonging to religious communities, including cases motivated by Islamophobia, antisemitism or

GENERAL MANAGER

Christianophobia.”

The UAE has taken strides in recent years to address antisemitism, and encourage the growth of a Jewish community,

Its spokesman said of the resolution text: “Among a number of other firsts, resolution 2686 is the

first UN Security Council resolution to directly refer to antisemitism, Islamophobia, and Christianophobia, and also the first resolution to acknowledge that hate speech, racism, and extremism have the potential to stoke tensions, fuel grievances, and descend

into conflict.

“The resolution acknowledges these phenomena as threat-multipliers and really is an unprecedented step forward for the Council.”

The historic measure cites the 2019 meeting in Abu Dhabi between Pope Francis and Ahmed al-Tayeb, the grand imam of Egypt’s al-Azhar mosque.

The UN charter mandates all UN member states to comply with council decisions.

The Abu Dhabi meeting was the catalyst for the UAE’s creation of the Abrahamic Family House religious site, which includes the first purpose-built synagogue constructed in the Arab world in nearly a century.

The UK’s deputy permanent representative at the UN, ambassador James Kariuki, said of the vote: “Freedom of religion, including the freedom not to have a religion, is a fundamental right. And yet religious minorities have time and time again been specifically targeted.”

The kosher burger with a whopping £137 price tag

Dining out in New York is expensive – especially at a kosher restaurant. But Mocha Burger Lux, a new midtown venue, is upping the ante with a gold-plated “Golden Burger” for £137.

have had a renaissance over the past 15 years or so, according to Elan Kornblum, founder of the 80,000-member Great Kosher Restaurants Foodies group on Facebook.

Due to exponential growth, JRoots is looking for a General Manager to manage and expand the organisation. The General Manager will be responsible for the expansion and management of the business, developing the sales, penetrating new markets, developing new destinations, as well as managing the organisations procedures from initial enquiry through to the execution on the ground. This is a very exciting time to join JRoots as it embarks on unprecedented growth and is looking for the right person to take the organisation to the next level. This is a full time role based in our North London office.

REQUIRED SKILLS & EXPERIENCE

· Proven Business Development skills

· Line Management experience with excellent leadership skills

· Excellent communication skills and the ability to negotiate with suppliers

The 12-ounce short-rib burger is wrapped in leaves of 24-carat gold, grilled and topped with black Australian tru e, crunchy onions and chips, house-made sauce and pickles.

It arrives in a custom hand-carved wood treasure chest, which is opened at the table, triggering a smoke show and illuminating its contents. “You’re not paying for the piece of meat,” proprietor Naftali Abenaim told the New York Jewish Week. “You’re paying for

Social media has upped the ante, he said, and kosher diners, like all diners, have higher expectations than before. “The palate of consumers is more educated and sophisticated, demanding more,” Kornblum said.

“People don’t just go out to eat anymore –that’s like old-school cuisine,” said Abenaim, whose other restaurants include the casual 70-seat Mocha Burger venue and the more upscale Mocha Red Steakhouse and Mixology Bar, which he opened in 2021. “You’re walking into a theatrical experience.”

· Highly adaptable; able to multi-task and prioritise an ever-demanding work-load

· Good knowledge of the Jewish community

· Experience in the travel industry would be advantageous.

For more info and application details visit:

MB’s super-burger jobs.jfutures.org

With its focus on hamburgers and steaks, Abenaim hopes that Mocha Burger Lux will be a destination for New York workers for lunch as well as happy hour. “We’re the only kosher restaurant with a real happy hour,” he claims. “There is nothing in the area to go to – we’re gonna have the Jewish and the non-Jewish crowd.”

Abenaim knows a thing or two about generating buzz. Being a restaurateur was a later-inlife switch for the 47-year-old, who previously was a sofer, mashgiach, shochet and cantor.

He was also a one-time dental student, an accomplished spin instructor and, perhaps most notably, a hatmaker to the stars.

ating buzz. Being a restaurateur was a later-inperhaps learned to cook from his paternal grandmother whom he called “Mémé” and whom he credits

With demand for hats waning, Abenaim made the switch to hamburgers, which he had learned to cook from his paternal grandmother whom he called “Mémé” and whom he credits with helping to raise him while growing up in his modern Orthodox family in Montreal.

The UN Security Council in session

JROOTS | FULL TIME – SALARY COMMENSURATE WITH EXPERIENCE

IDF and Shin Bet condemn ‘settler terrorism’ attacks BIBI: LAND GRAB ‘UNACCEPTABLE’

The Israeli army and intelligence agency Shin Bet this week condemned dozens of settler attacks against Palestinian cars, homes and fields in the West Bank, referring to them as “nationalist terrorism”, writes Jotam Confino.

In a joint statement, IDF chief Herzi Halevi, Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar and Israel police commissioner Yaakov Shabtai said the “violent attacks” by Israelis in Judea and Samaria against innocent Palestinians “contradict every moral and Jewish value. They constitute, in every way, nationalist terrorism and we are obliged to fight them”.

The statement said Israel security forces were operating against the rioters, risking the lives of IDF soldiers, Israel Police officers and ISA (Shin Bet) personnel. It added: This violence increases Palestinian terrorism and harms the State of Israel and the international legitimacy of Israel’s security forces to fight Palestinian terrorism. It also diverts the security forces from their main mission of operating against Palestinian terrorism.”

The settler rampage began after a terror attack by two Hamas members at a West Bank restaurant and petrol station, where four Israelis were killed.

Hundreds of settlers have been involved in daily attacks on dozens of Palestinian towns and villages, burning homes, cars and fields as well as physically attacking innocent Palestinians.

The security chiefs’ description of the attacks as “terror” was met with harsh criticism from far-right ministers and coalition MKs, including national missions minister Orit Strock who said: “They issued a message about Jewish nationalist terrorism. Who do you think you are? The

Wagner Group? Who are you to issue such a message under the government’s nose?”

Finance minister and Religious Zionism leader Betzalel Smotrich claimed the “attempt to create an equivalency between murderous Arab terror and (Israeli) civilian counter-actions... is morally wrong and dangerous”.

Likud MK Danny Danon also weighed in, saying: “Serious violence of a handful of settlers does not come close to the murderous Palestinian terrorism.”

Israel prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu says it is “unacceptable” to him that national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has called on settlers to grab land in the West Bank illegally, writes Jotam Confino.

Neyanyahu said such calls “undermine law and order in Judea and Samaria and must stop... not only will we not back such actions, but our government will also take strong action against them”.

His remarks came after a statement by Ben-Gvir at the illegal and abandoned West Bank outpost of Evyatar, in which he called on settlers to “run for the hilltops” and “settle them”.

He added: “We have to settle the land of Israel and at the same time need to launch a military campaign, blow up buildings, assassinate terrorists. Not one, or two, but dozens, hundreds or, if needed, thousands. We are behind you.”

Netanyahu accused Ben-

Gvir of “hurting” the settlement enterprise: “These calls hurt the vital interests of the state of Israel and must stop.

“For years I have been saying that the proper response to terrorism is to fight the terrorists and – at the same time – to deepen our roots in our country.”

Ben-Gvir immediately fired back saying a “right-wing government must realise its vision” by expanding settlements while showing “zero tolerance toward those who threaten if we do not accede to their requests there will be war. Israel must not fold.”

A shop destroyed by settlers in the West Bank town of Al-Laban al-Sharkiyeh

Itamar Ben-Gvir

renowned antiques expert BBC’s Dealing with Dickinson, Antiques Master and ITV’s Storage Hoarders.)

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Henny’s recognition an inspiration to all

Henny Franks escaped the clutches of Nazi persecution, bravely leaving Cologne behind and finding refuge in Britain through the Kindertransport. It was here that she dedicated herself to the war effort, proudly serving in the women’s branch of the British Army. Despite her invaluable contribution, Henny never received official recognition for her service. Until this week, to mark her momentous 100th birthday.

The AJEX medals campaign has fast become a beacon of hope for individuals like Henny, ensuring any Jewish person who has not been honoured with their own or their family members’ war medals can reclaim them.

This commendable initiative not only acknowledges the sacrifices made by Jewish service personnel but also safeguards the legacy of Jewish service for generations to come.

The significance of this event extends far beyond the presentation of medals. It is a testament to the resilience and strength demonstrated by survivors like Henny, whose experiences have shaped the collective memory of humanity. Initiatives such as the AJEX medals campaign serve as a powerful reminder that it is never too late to right the wrongs of the past.

Henny’s story and her long-overdue recognition inspire us to ensure that the stories of all those who selflessly served are not forgotten. Through these acts of remembrance, we honour their sacrifices and perpetuate the enduring legacy of Jewish service.

Scratching the 53-year itch

Rabbi Debbie Young-Somers’ article on marriage and divorce recalls my attendance at a Jewish community event decades ago.

A poster on the marriage guidance read, ‘We’re no different. There are also many divorces in the Jewish community’. I paused and the duty woman, spotting a possible target, asked: ‘Can I help you?’ I replied: ‘Well, perhaps you can advise.’

I saw her mulling over my possible issues. Divorce? Separation? Money troubles? Violence... my wife and a rolling pin? Me and a Palwins bottle? ‘Well,’ I explained. ‘We’ve been married for over 30 years [it’s 56 now] and I wonder where we’re going wrong.’ ‘Oh, please join me,’ she begged, ‘and explain to people how to make it work.’

Barry Hyman, Bushey Heath

ARCH-ENEMY IN OUR MIDST

It is no exaggeration to brand the hateful BDS movement as an arch-enemy. Those deluded do-gooders in our ranks who claim it’s “just about Israel” will never, in their ignorance, grasp the immutable fact our enemies don’t hate Jews because of Israel, they hate Israel because of Jews. Including them.

As history over the last 2,000 years has proved, Jews to our enemies are Jews no matter what. An eminent secular professor, whenever asked if he was Jewish, knowingly replied: “For persecution purposes only.” He clearly knew what he was talking about.

In my extensive Holocaust studies, I’ve yet to come across a case of crackpot young Jews seeking an appointment with Hitler to explain they disliked his Jew-hating rants, but he should rest assured they defended his right to do so.

If these groups, are as they proclaim, “future leaders of the British Jewish community”, then I, together with all other sanethinking Jews, despair for the future.

Michael White, N3

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SIR BEN A TRUE HERO

Your coverage of the passing of Sir Ben Helfgott was extensive but entirely justified. This was a man who deserved every tribute that was paid to him, not only a true Holocaust hero but an example of an almost unbelievable spirit of forgiveness. His dedication to ensuring the lessons of history should never be forgotten is also a lesson for us all. Caroline Abbott, Southgate

MORE TENNIS CHAMPS WE SHOULD REMEMBER

With reference to your article on notable Jewish tennis players, I am surprised no mention was made of Angela Buxton, who won the women’s doubles title at both the French Championships and Wimbledon in 1956 with her playing partner, Althea Gibson.

What is most significant is Buxton was not accepted as a member of the All England Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club in Wimbledon, albeit there is

some disagreement as to the exact reason this was so.

In the male equivalent, there was no mention either of Jonathan Erlich & Andy Ram, who excelled in the men’s doubles game having won the title at the 2008 Australian Open. Together, they are known in Israel as “Andyoni”.

All were worthy of a mention in your article Stephen Brownstone, NW11

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.

The passing of Sir Ben Helfgott was a signal moment for British Jewry. As the myriad of tributes from the Jewish and wider community have poured in, it has been possible to recall his unrelenting role in making sure Holocaust remembrance in this country is properly and regularly commemorated.

As former trustee of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust (HMDT), one of Ben’s greatest legacies, I witnessed the passion he brought to the cause until his final days. He accepted that since the Shoah the world had not rid itself of genocides, from Darfur to Rwanda. However, HMDT should never lose its focus on the six million Jews (including so many members of my own family) who died in the death camps along with Romany and gay minorities.

Ben’s departure reminded me of other British Jewish heroes lost to us in recent years. Last Sunday the memorial stone was consecrated for my dear friend the late Alex

service and

truly

Faiman. His narrative of escaping from Russia to Harbin in China, at the outbreak of war, and eventually to Australia was powerful enough. But what really set him apart was his life in retirement working for Ukraine’s elderly and hard-pressed Jewish community. With no thought for his own health Alex, in his late seventies and eighties, working on behalf of B’nai B’rith UK, would travel to Kyiv and other centres in deepest winter to make sure feeding and health programmes for older and infirm people were in good shape. He thought nothing of taking his complaints about gaps or failures directly to the door of government. It was heroic and largely unsung work.

Another of my lost friends is Sam Freiman who, like his friend Ben Helfgott, was one of The Boys. For three decades he sat in front of me in Richmond Shul exchanging wartime

memories of derring do and recounting his lifetime support for Zionism and Israel. Sam’s was not passive support. Following his early stay in the Lake District, he made his way to Palestine, joined the embryonic Israel Defense Forces and fought in the 1948 War of Independence, emerging as a military hero. Sam’s memory is now at the core of Jewish remembrance. His legacy as a successful entrepreneur endowed the monument and Holocaust garden at New Bushey, consecrated by the Chief Rabbi this spring. His was a survival filled to the full, who brought joy to all who knew him. He faced family travails with optimism and generosity.

Currently, I am reading journalist Daniel Finkelstein’s brilliant family memoir Hitler, Stalin Mum and Dad. Few of us could claim such intellectually and politically significant antecedents as Danny. But, like my own family,

Hungarian speaking farmers living close to the Czech border in Ruthenia, they found tolerance in England as refugees and survivors.

My own father Michael (z’’l) was among the last souls to escape war-torn Europe, arriving in the belly of a boat from Belgium. As a preIsrael naval rating he was turned back from Haifa by British mandate troops. His parents died at Auschwitz and two older brothers were conscripted into the Hungarian militias by the Fascist Arrow Cross and never heard of again. The human spirit triumphed and a younger brother, Martin, made it to Israel, after sojourns in four work and death camps. His two younger sisters and niece were rescued from Auschwitz and Nazi doctors by the Swedish Red Cross. Now 95, my Aunt Sussie and cousin Sheindy are true women of valour. The time I spend with them, both sharp of mind and forgiving, is so precious. Sheindy’s clear, first-hand testimony, down to the moment when our grandmother let go of her hand on the dreadful train platform at Auschwitz, is living remembrance to the Shoah. Their lives of sacrifice, service and spirit are living memory of the horrors and an incomparable blessing.

Sir Ben never gave way to hate or lost his zest for life

VIVIAN WINEMAN FORMER PRESIDENT, BOARD OF DEPUTIES

There have been many tributes to Ben Helfgott, who died this month, but I would like to add my own to a man who was one of the most iconic Holocaust survivors in the UK and throughout the Jewish world.

His extraordinary life began in 1929 in Piotkrov, a small town in central Poland, just a few kilometres from the textile city of Lodz, where my own grandparents lived.

Brought up in a Polish-speaking environment, he was caught in the maelstrom of the Holocaust after the Germans invaded Poland in 1939. His early adolescence was spent in a series of concentration camps, of almost unimaginable cruelty, until he was finally liberated by the Russians from Theresienstadt in 1945.

Ben was a triumphant survivor in all senses of the word. Though weighing less than six stone when liberated, he went on to take part in the British weightlifting team, only 11 years

later at the Melbourne Olympics and to captain it in the following Olympiad.

But he was a survivor in a deeper sense as well. He never romanticised the Holocaust and saw clearly the horrifying and degrading e ect it had on everyone it touched. But he also never gave way to bitterness or hatred, and above all never lost his zest for life.

He was brought over to the Lake District in Britain in 1945 as member of a group of orphan survivors later known as The Boys. Once in Britain he rebuilt his life, creating a successful business and raising a wonderful family, who shared in his universal popularity.

When I was at the Board of Deputies one of my greatest pleasures was the annual dinner of The Boys, presided over by Ben, full of fun, humour and positivity.

We were colleagues too in the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, in the Conference for Jewish Material Claims against Germany and in the Institute of Polish Jewish Studies, where he was once chairman and then life patron. In all these it was a pleasure to work with him and he and his wife, Arza, became valued friends to my wife Naomi and me.

❝

The Institute in particular, brought out the best in him. It looks with a clear eye at the ghastly details of the Holocaust and confronts the realities of Polish antisemitism before, during, and after the Second World War. But it nevertheless recalls also the acts of heroism and support from people and the institutions, like Zegota and its precursors, who at great personal risk managed to help Jews.

After all, Poland has more Righteous Gentiles recognised by Yad Vashem than any other nation. Above all, the Institute seeks to

understand the lives of the Jews in Poland, the rich culture they created, their achievements in the arts, music, history, literature, science and philosophy, as well as in Jewish thought, law and mysticism.

For centuries the Polish Jewish community was the largest in the world. Today a majority of world Jewry are descendants of Polish Jews. The history of Polish Jewry is about how Jews lived, not just about how they died.

Ben epitomised their spirit and his life was an inspiration to all who met him.

We’re on a mission to get members of the Jewish Community to protect their wellbeing, equipping them to respond to their own and other’s mental health issues before they escalate.

Hundreds of people of all ages have joined one of our professional 90 minute or 3-hour Zoom training sessions. Book now and learn the vital skills we all need.

HE SAW CLEARLY THE HORRIFIYING AND DEGRADING EFFECT THE HOLOCAUST HAD ON EVERYONE IT TOUCHED

Sir Ben receiving his knighthood

In 2021, I wrote an article entitled You can’t be an activist if you’re Jewish for Jewish News . I didn’t expect many people to read it, but after it was published I received countless supportive emails and Facebook messages – many from people who had experienced a similar type of antisemitism to me. At a time in which I felt incredibly alone, many people reached out to let me know that I wasn’t.

A lot of things changed after the events described in the article. I started new, private social media pages, to prevent the receiving of any more swastikas or death threats. I stopped wearing my Magen David. I tried to put my first year of university behind me.

I had help, of course. Many of my friends are also ethnic minorities who have been targeted by racism at some point in their lives, and could sympathise with me. Both CST and UJS reached out to me and supported me. CST sent security to the Jewish Society’s Friday night dinners after they received threats.

If there was anything I learned from the entire experience, it was that far more people were willing to stand up for Jews than I had ever expected.

I was surprised and relieved to meet so many people, Jews and non-Jews alike, who sympathised and wanted to stand up to antisemitism.

After the success of my article, The Times reached out to me and interviewed me for a follow-up article, and I realised that this was not an issue that only those in the Jewish community care about.

They sent me an email after the interview requesting a picture of me for the article, and I sent one without much thought, assuming it would be a footnote. One the day that it was published, one of my friends sent me a screenshot of it, and another bought the newspaper to show me.

My face was the entire banner at the top of the article’s web page. Everyone, from my professors at university to my rabbi, informed me that they had seen the article.

Perhaps the most important takeaway from the experience that I had was the desire to learn more about my own religious and cultural background. Instead of shying away from Judaism altogether, I found myself

wanting to learn more about it and to understand it better. I started having important conversations with my family members about where, exactly, we had come from. I thought carefully about how to harbour and use the momentum that had been created online.

I learned that the attitude of individuals at universities like Warwick is only encouraged by corrupt student unions and the antisemitism that ran deep within the structure of the National Union of Students.

Previously, my anger had been directed only at specific people, but I learned to become angry at the entire British higher education system and its total disregard for its Jewish students.

Members of Warwick Students Union and other actively antisemitic societies reached

out to me and attempted to apologise, but when I listened to their apologies, I found them empty and insincere.

The inclusive campus that’s silent on racism Driving optimism across the Jewish charity sector

They were apologising because they had been caught, not because they believed they had done anything wrong. They were apologising for my specific experience, not for the antisemitism that their beliefs contained.

They understood themselves to be right, but my experience to be unfortunately abrasive.

This is also the attitude of the NUS. I cannot comment on the university itself, because they never reached out to me. I know from my time working on the Shame On You Warwick Campaign that the university’s press o ce is acutely aware of any mention of the university’s name in the news, so I have no doubt that they have seen the articles.

Many people, most of whom I had never met, called the university out on social media for their silence and passivity surrounding my case. Others directly contacted the university and asked why nothing had been done. But they said absolutely nothing, and I doubt they ever will.

Warwick, a university that prides itself on inclusivity and diversity, has never been as silent as it is now.

those of the past years of the pandemic, we can still find reasons to be hopeful.

professional roles and development.

Leading is tough at the best of times. It requires resilience and a considerable personal reserve of optimism – especially when leading through crisis and uncertainty. Leading with optimism isn’t just about naïve positivity though. It’s about being aware of the reality of a situation, understanding the bigger picture, exploring possibilities and taking action.

Optimism and realism can coexist and both hold value.

We hear from those who choose to work in community organisations that they do so to serve their community and contribute to the success and sustainability of our services. Simultaneously, we hear about their appetite for development, the thirst for prospects in their role, their ambition to succeed and excel. Service and ambition, both things are true.

As we face new difficulties, distinct from

We know, for example, that recruitment and retention in the charity sector is a current challenge but we also know that there are hundreds of skilled and dedicated people working professionally in our community organisations.

Five years ago, I talked with the team at Lead (the leadership development division of the Jewish Leadership Council) about gathering Jewish Community Professionals together. Our aim was to provide a space for networking and idea sharing among professionals from across the community.

We believed that this would foster a sense of value and investment in their

Despite the challenges posed by the pandemic, during 2020 and 2021, we successfully organised two online conferences, over the last week we held our second set of in-person conferences in London and Manchester, welcoming over 200 individuals.

I feel immense pride as I witness this seedling of an idea taking root and growing in our community. There may be challenges but there are also wonderful things to be optimistic about.

In the face of an uncertain economic landscape, where many individuals face hardships and organisations face significant recruitment challenges, it is important that we deepen our understanding and find tangible solutions.

This is why, alongside our ever-growing opportunities to bring community professionals together, comes the launch of a ground-breaking employee experience survey in partnership with US organisation Leading Edge. This pilot survey gives us the chance to work with community organisa-

tions to understand, analyse and consider key areas of strength as well as opportunities for growth. This will inform strategic planning of provision to further support the development of the landscape in the UK Jewish charity sector. Twenty organisations have already signed up to take part.

The survey focuses on key engagement factors with questions exploring various aspects of employee experience, including what they value from their workplaces, what motivates them to stay and how they feel about their prospective development in their role and organisation. Results of the survey will allow participating organisations to benchmark their data against equivalent UK-wide results by sector and comparable global counterparts.

It will help us understand key drivers and opportunities to attract and retain highly skilled talent while supporting organisations to develop and improve and plant more seeds of possibility that will allow the community and the individuals working within it to thrive.

 See see thejlc.org/leadingedge

LEADING WITH OPTIMISM ISN’T JUST ABOUT POSITIVITY

I LEARNED TO BECOME ANGRY AT THE ENTIRE HIGHER EDUCATION SYSTEM

EMILIE EISENBERG UNIVERSITY OF WARWICK

MICHELLE JANES CO-CHIEF EXECUTIVE, LEAD

1 CELEBRATION TIME FOR A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN

The League of Jewish Women held its 80th anniversary tea at the House of Lords. The organisation was founded in May 1943, three years into World War lI and is where day centres, friendship clubs and meals on wheels began, before being adopted by local councils. Many of their children have continued volunteering in their footsteps, becoming CEOs of major Jewish charities such as Olivia Marks-Woldman, chief executive of Holocaust Memorial Day, Paul Anticioni, chief executive of World Jewish Relief and Laurie Rackind, chief executive of Jamie, to name a few. From left to right, Olivia Marks-Woldman, CEO of Holocaust Memorial Day, Lord Pickles and Yvonne Brent, chair of the Executive of LJW; second picture features past presidents.

2 BEST FOOT FORWARD FOR CAMP SIMCHA

Seventy-five Camp Simcha runners took part in several races at the Maccabi Fun Run, to raise funds for families with a seriously ill child. Joining them on the 1k circuit was charity mascot Simi the monkey, who braved the heat to finish in good time. Among the runners were 21 community members fundraising for a joint project with Jewish Digest to provide support groups and information evenings for families who have a child with Inflammatory bowel disease.

3 ... AND CHAVA HEART IS THERE FOR JEWISH CARE

Jewish Care volunteers joined their charity’s mascot Chava Heart and 15 runners at the Maccabi GB Community Fun Run. Participants Freddie and Tristan said: “We’re so excited to have participated in the fun run and to raise money for Jewish Care after doing their Bnei Mitzvah programme. It was hot but we made it.”

4 JN TEAM INSPIRE NEXT GENERATION OF STAFF

Year 4 pupils from Torah Temimah in Brent enjoyed a visit from Jewish News team members Daniel Elias (production) and Michelle Rosenberg (community editor) to find out how the newspaper is put together every week. The pupils wrote their own headlines and interviewed each other. Class teacher and school deputy head Jennifer Wilks said: “Thank you so much for the day. The boys were so excited and really enjoyed the session.”

5 UP ON THE ROOF AT EPHRAIM COURT

Ephraim Court, the newest development of specially adapted mobility apartments from Jewish Blind & Disabled, has reached the third and final floor of construction. When it’s complete next year, it will provide 30 one and two-bedroom apartments for people with vision impairment and/ or physical disabilities, together with an overnight studio apartment for the on-site house manager and a range of communal facilities. L to R: Gary Cullum (trustee, Ephraim 1998 Charitable Trust), Lisa Wimborne (CEO Jewish Blind & Disabled), Marc Gordon (chair, JBD), Stuart Cutler (trustee, Ephraim 1998 Charitable Trust), Daniel Chakimi (director of property and development, JBD,) Joseph Moloney (JB Structures), Alex Vathay (JB Structures)

6 BOOK HIGHLIGHTS SHOAH EDUCATION

An educational afternoon at the National Holocaust Museum in Nottinghamshire saw child refugee and survivor Hedi Argent in discussion about her new book ‘The Day the Music Stopped – How I Became a Refugee from Nazi Europe’ with Year 6 students from Robin Hood Primary School in Nottingham.

7 A PAWFECT DAY WITH CAMP SIMCHA

Manchester’s canine supawstars came out for the inaugural Camp Simcha dog show –with entrants vying for titles ranging from waggiest tail and best party trick to best dressed and most agile. The Whitefield fundraising event was hosted by Shelley Kersh and Deborah Lederberg and served as the launch for Camp Simcha’s pet therapy service recruitment drive in Manchester.

8 UJIA SAYS ‘L’HITRAOT’ TO AMBASSADOR NEIL

UJIA held a lunch in London last Friday to say thank you and farewell to the outgoing British ambassador to Israel, Neil Wigan, after four years in the post. In his speech alongside Harvey Bratt, UJIA’s director of fundraising and planned giving, Wigan shared his admiration for Israeli culture, mentioned his and his wife’s love of hit Israeli TV shows such as Fauda and Shtisel, his fondness for the hummus at Abu Hassan in Jaffa and his children’s love of Byzantine churches and Crusader forts. The ambassador also expressed his love for hiking in the Israeli countryside.

9

MICHELLE’S BLANKET OF REMEMBRANCE

A Leeds woman hopes a giant blanket based on the final telegram sent by her grandmother before she died in a Nazi gas chamber will help to ensure people never forget the horrors of the Holocaust. Michelle Green, 70, from Alwoodley, lost her Viennese Jewish grandparents Gisela and Josef Schwarz and her uncle Kurt in the Holocaust. The giant woven blanket was created by artist Laura Fisher as part of an artists’ residency at Holocaust Centre North in Huddersfield.

10

COMMUNAL BEST PRACTICE IN FOCUS

Over 150 attendees came together for the 4th annual Jewish Community Professionals’ Conference at JW3, the largest ever gathering of its kind in the UK, attracting staff from more than 50 Jewish organisations to learn, network and share best practice.

Pic: Mark Thomas

AUTISM AND ADHD IN THE SPOTLIGHT

Edgware & Hendon Reform synagogue welcomed Carrie Grant, autism, ADHD, invisible disability and inclusion campaigner, and Barnet Carer Forum treasurer and coordinator Lisa Coffman to a Let’s Talk Autism & ADHD event. The audience heard about the speakers’ lived experiences and knowledge and were able to ask questions.

WORD POWER RULES AT SACKS MORASHA

Year 4 students from Sacks Morasha Jewish Primary School in Finchley triumphed on the UK leaderboard of LiteracyPlanet’s global literacy competition Word Mania, with 2,445,953 games played by 132,907 students from 1,817 schools worldwide. Sacks Morasha were ecstatic with with pupil Lielle saying: “What a fun way to get smarter!”

From Vienna to Wimbledon

Like many doting Jewish grandparents, Liesl Herbst regaled her granddaughter Felice with happy stories of her life growing up in AustriaHungary a century ago. What she didn’t tell Felice, however, was that she escaped the Nazis and the rest of her family were murdered, and that she ended up playing tennis at Wimbledon, alongside her daughter and Felice’s mother, Dorli.

When Felice Hardy stumbled across her fascinating family history, she went to work researching her grandmother’s life and recorded it in a book: The Tennis Champion who Escaped the Nazis

“Throughout my childhood, my grandmother told me lots of stories about her childhood, but she told me only the nice, sweet stories, to make me laugh,” explains Felice. “Her father owned a distillery, and she had a very privileged childhood in what is known today as the Czech Republic but was then the AustriaHungary empire.

“She was always optimistic, but as I got older, she told me some stories which weren’t quite so nice, such as how my grandfather had to travel with a smuggler to get out of Austria and journey to England.

“Liesl told me she had played tennis, but not that my mother had played at Wimbledon so many times, because my mother had given up tennis by the time I was born and had taken up golf.

“After she died, in 1990, I found a suitcase full of letters and photographs and documents related to her tennis. They were mostly in German, but I got them translated. It turned out that she played tennis all over Europe in the 1930s.”

In 1930, aged 27, Liesl Herbst

was the Austrian National Tennis Champion, and a celebrity in Vienna. She played in more than 70 tournaments throughout Europe, winning at least 15 singles titles.

Liesl’s husband, David, was also involved in sport, spending 10 years as president of the Jewish sports club Hakoa Vienna.

The rise of Hitler meant that Liesl, David and their daughter Dorli fled to Britain to escape the Nazis.

In London, though initially stripped of their Austrian passports and rendered stateless aliens, Liesl and Dorli competed at Wimbledon. They remain the only mother and daughter ever to have played doubles together at Wimbledon.

Liesl played at Wimbledon twice,

representing Czechoslovakia in the singles competition in 1939. She also partnered her daughter in the 1946 Wimbledon doubles tournament. Dorli competed in the ladies’ singles at Wimbledon in 1946, 1947 and 1948.

“Liesl lost her main playing years because of the war,” says Felice. “She was always ranked in Austria’s top two, but life became di cult for her when Hitler came to power in Germany, and she wasn’t invited to play in the main events.

“She never told me any of this, but I found it out during my research. My grandmother never got that far at Wimbledon, but she was 35 and it was the first time she had played on grass. She had to beat three women to qualify, including Tim Henman’s grandmother, Susan Billington, who was a regular at Wimbledon.

“Their record as the only mother and daughter to have played doubles together at Wimbledon is unlikely to be broken because tennis was an amateur sport then and you could be playing at 40.”

Felice adds: “My mother wanted me to play tennis, but I never went to the lessons and my passion has always been skiing. I wish I had taken it more seriously when I was a child, but I wasn’t very interested.”

Despite her escape to England, life wasn’t all rosy for Liesl, as she

lost her mother and both sisters during the Second World War. Her mother and one sister were killed at Terezin concentration camp, and her other sister was murdered during the Slovak National Uprising. She then lost Dorli in 1978 (Dorli was 52) but went on to live another 12 years; she died in 1990, aged 86.

Felice, who is a travel writer based in Somerset, says: “There is something called ‘survivors’ guilt’, not just related to Holocaust survivors, and my grandmother felt guilty because she was the only member of her family who survived. I don’t think she was ever really happy. Those feelings get passed down the line, so writing the book has been very cathartic for me, sharing the experience with my own children over the nine years it has taken me to complete.

“Initially, I wanted to write the story for them and their children, but then I told some friends, and they assured me that other people would be interested.

“I went to a creative writing class and was encouraged by the teacher to get it out there. It is so important for families to talk about the past, find out more, and pass it on.

“I am really worried that the last

Holocaust survivors are now dying. What is going to happen then? It is so important to write down stories like this and challenge the deniers. We must educate people about what our ancestors went through.”

 The Tennis Champion Who Escaped the Nazis: Liesl Herbst’s Journey, from Vienna to Wimbledon by Felice Hardy is published by Ad Lib on 3 July (paperback RRP £9.99) and available from all bookshops and online

One film-maker’s extinction activism JFS’s inspiring head

Liesl and David, also a sportsman, on honeymoon in 1924

Liesl and Dorli on holiday, early 1930s

Liesl Herbst played at Wimbledon twice

Having fl ed the Nazis and lost most of her family, Liesl Herbst played championship tennis with her daughter, writes Neil Silver

All Change

For climate activists, 2019 will be remembered as a standout year. While wildfires were ravaging Australia, Sir David Attenborough was making a shock appearance at Glastonbury to talk about plastic pollution.

Meanwhile, climate prodigy Greta Thunberg, just 16, went to a UN climate conference in New York and scolded world leaders for inaction, telling them: “You are failing us.” And across the UK, a fledgling group known as Extinction Rebellion was beginning to galvanise.

It was also in these heady preCovid days that filmmaker Josh Appignanesi found himself in a career lull. With far too much time on his hands – he began contemplating not only about his own existence, but also that of life itself. What kind of world were his two young sons growing up in and why had he neglected doing more to think about that?

Out of this anxiety sprang the idea for a wry, autobiographical documentary that follows Josh on his path from hapless Jewish father of two and self-described “waste man” from London fumbling his way through life to a political activist making speeches alongside Zadie Smith, Simon Schama, Juliet Stevenson and other leading voices on climate action.

The resulting work, My Extinction, is being released in cinemas nationwide this week.

Josh, 48, is no stranger to having his life play out on the big screen: his latest film is the final part of an autobiographical trilogy featuring his wife, the writer and academic Devorah Baum. His 2016 documentary The New Man follows the couple as they embark on parenthood for the first time,

and Husband, released last year, is a searingly honest look at modern marriage as Josh accompanies his wife on her book tour.

The writer and director – best known for Song of Songs and The Infidel – describes his latest film as “the same shtick, where I play a slightly amplified comic version of myself, the butt of the joke, the selfinvolved entitled guy who goes on a journey. But this time round it’s much more political.”

The journey Josh refers to is one that sees him at the start making adverts for car companies, perhaps even – though it makes him flinch to think of it now – taking the odd gig from an oil company. His biggest crises are centred on himself and the minutiae of his own life. We even see him getting angry at ‘those’ people, the protesters who cause tra c to come to a grinding halt. But then everything changes.

Josh told Jewish News: “I had some career things that I thought were going to work out, but they didn’t. And then you’re left sort of wringing your hands, thinking I’m forty-something, I should have made it by now, I should have had these

successes and I’ve got all these ego demands. Then you begin to think about the world in general and realise really bad things are happening and you have children. In that moment of failure I asked myself, why am I avoiding the elephant in the room?”

He slowly realises the state of the planet is a much bigger deal to him than he realised. But like many others in his ‘privileged’ position, Josh makes varying excuses as to why he’s not doing more to bring about change, including the notquite-so-accurate disclaimer that he’s “got a lot on at the moment”.

Josh is keen to discover what’s holding him back. A chat with his slightly crazy, anti-natalist conspiracy theorist pal Danny Shine, who believes the world would be better o if people didn’t procreate, doesn’t quite hit the mark – perhaps because Danny himself is a father of three.

But then Josh receives a glimmer of insight during a tennis rally with another friend, the writer Peter Pomerantsev. “In a way, the nutters are us,” explains Peter in a deadpan manner.

“We know the science, we admit that it’s real – and we do bugger all.”

Josh looks despondent, but his ‘awakening’ has just been given a kickstart. We see him starting to go to protests as a bemused observer, before signing himself up to attend Writers Rebel and Extinction Rebellion meetings, where participants are planning their next action.

At this point, Josh’s dedication to the cause still appears to be slightly on the fence, but then the group discuss their greatest fears. One woman speaks emotionally about the threat of mass starvation from climate change and her words evoke an emotional reaction from the filmmaker, whose maternal family perished in the Holocaust.

“When she started talking, almost in tears, about the possibility of seeing friends, of people we know or our children, our children’s children, really su ering and going through starvation, it was very moving. We don’t like to think about these things because they’re bloody ugly, horrible and hard to think about. It’s just much easier to have functional denial.

“I don’t particularly want to think about such things as starvation and deprivation, but it’s not like this is such a distant fantasy in the future. It’s literally in my past. My mum’s side came from Poland, and apart from her mother and father who managed to escape, everyone else in our family was wiped out.”

This history, combined with a strong sense of Jewishness has, says Josh, inspired him to delve deeper into making an impact.

“My favourite line in the film is where I’m at a protest and telling my friend [and comedian] Dave Schneider that I’m just really hopeless and depressed about the whole thing – and he says: ‘Of course you’re depressed, you’re Jewish!’ Cue me looking depressed on a

lonely riverbank,” he says, wryly. “But I do think Jewishness, that history and that tradition, is partly one of having feelings. You have to be able to say, ‘This is really, really hard’ before you can then say, ‘Well, now what? [As Hillel says] If not me, then who?’ ”

For all his agonising and despondency, Josh really begins to step up into the role of climate activist, helping to organise protests and rallying the troops –though, in something of a running gag throughout the film, he nervously laughs and firmly shakes his head every time someone asks: “Are you up for being arrested?”

While happily shirking the chance to spend time behind bars by locking himself to a lamppost or similar as an act of non-violent protest, Josh plays more of a central role during the September 2020 protest outside 55 Tufton Street, the headquarters of the Global Warming Policy Foundation, which has been accused of promoting climate change denial.

By the film’s end, there’s a feeling Josh is not in the same place where he began. He’s now a man of action, not just words, and making commercials for oil companies is now very far o his much greener radar. Surely now he doesn’t still feel like a “waste man”?

“Of course I’m still a waste man!” he laughs. “I don’t think in this dysfunctional world of ours with these incredibly high expectations that many feel they haven’t failed in some way.

“But what I have learnt is that when it comes to climate it’s not all or nothing. Being an activist doesn’t mean having to quit my job, abandon my family and run o to the Amazon. You can spend a few hours a week or even a month helping in whatever way you can. The point is that everyone should just do something.”

 My Extinction is released in cinemas tomorrow. Josh Appignanesi will appear alongside Devorah Baum and David Baddiel for a postscreening Q&A at JW3 on Sunday 2 July at 3.30pm.

Tickets: www.jw3.org.uk

Sarah Miller meets filmmaker Josh Appignanesi ahead of the launch of his autobiographical documentary on climate action

Josh Appignanesi with a fellow protester in a scene from the film

Family life: Josh with one of his two sons

I’m looking forward to the summer holidays!” smiles Dr David Moody, who has spearheaded an extraordinary turnaround at Europe’s largest Jewish secondary school.

Under his leadership, JFS, which will celebrate its 300th anniversary in 2032, has in just over 18 months progressed from being placed under ‘special measures’ to being named one of the UK’s top 10 schools. It’s a stunning transformation. The Times ranks the school, based in Kenton, sixth in its annual list of comprehensives, with 87.8 percent of students achieving A-level grades between A* and B. Moody, 44, took over at JFS in December 2021, becoming its eighth head teacher in just six years.

Holding a PhD in organic chemistry from Cambridge, he was previously head at Harris Academy Battersea for five years and a regional director overseeing 10 secondary schools for the Academies Enterprise Trust.

During his time at Battersea, he transformed it from ‘special measures’ to ‘outstanding’, and it too became one of the top 10 performing schools in the country. Now he’s repeated the feat.

Nine months before the head teacher joined JFS, the school was rocked by the tragic death of 14-year-old Mia Janin. The Year 10 student took her own life on 12 March

2021, one day after returning to the school at the end of the coronavirus lockdown.

Investigating JFS after Mia’s death, Ofsted found a series of failures, including: that standards of education were unacceptable; that pupils did not observe “appropriate boundaries”; and that persons responsible for leading the school “are not demonstrating the capacity to secure the necessary improvement”.

Inspectors downgraded the school from ‘good’ to ‘unsatisfactory’ and said many students had been subjected to harsh bullying with little to no intervention from staff. A pre-inquest review hearing into Mia’s death, held in March this year, heard that her parents had raised concerns with staff about bullying.

So, where does JFS now stand in terms of mental health provision and pastoral care? “Safeguarding at JFS is the best I’ve ever seen it in my entire life,” says Moody. “Obviously it’s been one of the main focuses of the school over the past two years and the amount of resource that we are able to put into it is incredible when you look at a normal state school.”

JFS now has three full-time senior leaders, five full-time safeguarding o cers, two full-time counsellors and five volunteer counsellors. Moody says that “at a time when the NHS is stretched, I think the school is in a

really lucky position to be able to o er a lot of that internally.

“The attention to detail is exceptional. I want to go bed every night knowing that the school has done everything it can to stop anything like what’s happened in the past happening again.

Dr David Moody

“We get a student who is a little off the pace in their maths lesson – someone picks it up, they talk to them, and they discover there is a problem at home. We get the family in and we discuss what extra support is needed.

“It’s the little changes in people’s behaviours that the school is picking up and hundreds of comments a day, many of which just add to a fuller picture, but when you unpick them, there are some there that really do allow you to get into someone’s life, by the simple fact that they may have looked a little tired in the morning.”

This is not just another job for Dr Moody, who has a four-year old daughter with his wife, Sarah, and they are expecting their

they move to their new house

second child at the same time as they move to their new house in Beckenham, in Bromley. Moody is clearly devoted to the school, its sta and pupils. Indeed, when Jewish News asks about his hobbies, he laughs and names two: “JFS and my daughters.”

Uniquely for the principal of a Jewish school with more than 2,000 students across the religious spectrum, he was christened but is Jewish News suggests this is purely because he hasn’t yet had really good smoked salmon and remains hopeful when Moody admits that his favourite Yiddish word is nachas

agnostic.

“I’ve sacrificed a lot of time with my family to be at JFS. I’m here at 6am, I leave at 9pm at night. The flipside is that I’m finding a new family at JFS, and I’ve not felt that as keenly at a school for a long time. The sense of community here far outstretches anything I’ve ever felt anywhere else.”

When he started, there was “justifiably a lot of frustration and anger about where the school was at and that has given way to lots of positive emails. That’s a lovely thing, especially at this time of year, when the Year 11s have finished their GCSEs and the Year 13s have finished their A-levels.”

Michelle Rosenberg meets the change-maker at one of the oldest Jewish institutions in the world

JFS has worked hard during the past 18 months to reshape its direction and reputation. Other schools have been in touch with with regards to how to handle mental health issues.

“We always invite them in to have a look at our provision here. I’m humble by nature and want to make sure we’ve got it as well as we can. But I never want to purport ourselves as the experts as we’ve always got something to learn. There will always be people doing it better and I want to make sure we are learning from them.”

Looking ahead to September and the next academic year, he says the school is at “an exciting point”, adding: “We’ve got brilliant teachers and they’ll be able to do brilliant things in the school next year.”

He compares JFS with a lot of other schools of similar size, where “you’ve got maybe 40 trainee teachers” because the school “doesn’t have the funds to support the experienced staff that we have at JFS”.

Moody says the school recently ran a grandparents’ tea, noting that if he’d tried to put on an event like that in any other school he’s worked at he’d be “laughed out of the staffroom”.

“There is a huge desire from grandparents to come to the school,” he says. “It was really humbling to stand and listen to people’s stories about JFS over the past century and I got an idea of the depth of this place in the community.

“The loveliest thing about this community is how ambitious it is for its children and how much it cares about their success.

I have never worked in a school like it before. It’s multi-generational care.”

Looking ahead to the 300th anniversary, where does he think the school will be? “By 2032 I hope we are one of the highest-performing schools in the country, that we are sustainable, free of our PFI (private finance initiative) contracts, we own our building, we own our future and we are a place of expertise when it comes to nurturing happy children who go on to lead successful lives.”

He thinks that in 2032 JFS will feel “ever more like a family. I would like to think that JFS has gone from a period of turmoil into a place where we can be important to the

community and the broader community. When you think of the number of different synagogues and communities we have represented at JFS, I hope that we can bring them together under one umbrella.”

Moody says he knows what ‘outstanding’ teaching looks like.

“I think the staff are as excited as I am to explore the edges, the extremes of best practice in the country so we’ve got that at JFS. All the noise has settled and you see the green shoots of lots of different positive things across the school.”

He is clearly excited about the autumn term. “We have an exceptional setup for September 2023 with a huge team of experi-

enced teachers and breadth and depth that you don’t get at many schools.”

Obviously, that comes at a cost and Moody’s job is also to balance the school financially. “When I joined, I cut £1.2mworth of staff within the first six months. I’m confident families haven’t experienced any difference in provision.”

There is, of course, the cost of living crisis, and with inflation “hitting every aspect of the country at the moment” the school is in “an unfortunate position in that we have a PFI contract, which is essentially a mortgage, which we have to pay until 2027. It’s inflation-linked, not interest-linked. So, when you’re seeing high inflation it’s deeply concerning to a school that has to pay a significant amount extra because of it.”

This weekend the school is running a match-funding campaign to ensure it enters the next year debt-free. “We’re not looking to parents to fund all of the shortfall,” says Moody. “We’re working with the broader community to see if there are other avenues by which to receive some support.

“People think that JFS is bullet-proof in many ways – it’s been around for 300 years. I’m a cost-cutting head teacher and I always want to make sure that every pound is focused on hiring the very best members of staff. Over the course of the next four years, I want to make sure that we see out the mortgage. I just want to do a good job for the parents. That’s what I’m excited by.”

 To support the crowd-funding campaign, visit charityextra.com/jfs

Business / Climate technology

With

Candice Krieger candicekrieger@googlemail.com

CLIMATE TECH A HOT MATCH FOR UK AND ISRAEL

In the face of intensifying global climate challenges, the urgency to combat climate change is greater than ever. Cue climate technology – a rapidly growing sector using tech to tackle climate and environmental challenges and create sustainable solutions.

While not a new phenomenon, climate tech has become a red-hot area. Investors are realising the pressing need for solutions, and tech entrepreneurs are doing their best to provide these solutions. And nowhere is this more evident than in Israel, which is at the forefront of the innovation.

Ten stand-out Israeli companies have been in London this week as part of a pioneering ClimateTech delegation, organised by the Bilateral Chamber of Commerce, UKIsrael Business and Climate First.

Israel’s leading climate tech accelerator was founded by Nadav Steinmetz and Guy Cherni.

The ClimateTech companies were welcomed at a reception at the House of Lords, hosted by Lord Austin with a video address from Israeli president Isaac Herzog.

They then took part in a series of meetings with venture capitalists and investors, organisations and industry figures including Lord Browne, the former CEO of BP and founder and chairman of BeyondNetZero and managing director of General Motors.

Among the companies were Criaterra Innovations, which creates low-carbon and sustainable building materials to build o ce and residential buildings that can be recycled and reused, and Zohar CleanTech, a revolutionary waste management solution that converts unsorted residential waste into clean energy onsite, reducing landfill and GHG emissions (more details on these later).

Dor Bershadsky, executive director of UKIsrael Business, says: “Israel is known for being strong at developing software, but we are seeing high-calibre teams shifting their focus to take the very challenging road of deep tech and hardware to address the urgent need for climate tech solutions. The UK government has shown a strong commitment to tackling climate change and transitioning to a low-carbon economy. This commitment provides a conducive environment for ClimateTech companies as it ensures stability and support for initiatives that align with the country’s climate objectives. Additionally, the UK’s financial sector boasts the funding required to back com-

panies’ pioneering solutions to some of the world’s environmental challenges.

“In recent years, we have witnessed exponential growth in UK-based corporate investors and institutions showing increasing interest in the Israeli ecosystem.”

Major institutions such as BlackRock UK, Barclays and J P Morgan have launched dedicated funds for climate tech solutions.

Danny Kessler, chairman of UK-Israel Business, says: “Amidst the pressing challenge of climate change, we are acknowledging that the path to a sustainable future can only be forged through global collaboration and steadfast support of entrepreneurs.

“As 10 leading Israeli ClimateTech companies embark on this transformative visit to London, we find solace in the profound alliance between the UK and Israel, a partnership uniquely

positioned to nurture the growth of the solutions our world urgently needs.”

Nadav Steinmetz is the co-founder and managing partner of Climate First. He says: “Our mission at Climate First is to empower

companies that can help us meet our netzero goals. Through this UK-Israel delegation, we are furthering that mission by bridging the gap between innovative Israeli companies and the UK’s vast network of investors, policy makers and business leaders.”

CRIATERRA INNOVATIONS

Founded 2015 by industrial designer and sustainability expert Adital Ela, Criaterra develops technologies to produce strong and regenerative building products. The company’s cement-free and kiln-free technology produces low-carbon and nearly zero-energy construction solutions for many precast materials, including tiles, cladding and masonry blocks. Criaterra’s materials are used globally including in Israel, the UK, Holland and Hong Kong.

Rationale:

Criaterra was founded to re-engineer the way construction materials are manufactured and introduce fully-regenerative building products that embody the vision of a circular economy. It aims to address the two main challenges when it comes to decarbonisation

in buildings – the embodied carbon in the materials used, and the energy consumption over the lifetime of the building. Many proposed solutions for one of these challenges can negatively impact the second; however, Criaterra uses nonfired pre-cast building products developed with its BioGeo Agglomerated Stone Technology, to replace commonly used products including masonry blocks and tiles while reducing 86 percent of the carbon footprint.

Investment

impact the second; how-

€4m has been raised in equity investment, and €2.4m in grant funding

Location

R&D centre is in Holon, Israel with a registered Joint Venture registered in the Netherlands towards manufacturing and selling in Europe.

Where are the big opportunities for linkups between the UK and Israel in the ClimateTech space?

Adital Ela, founder and CEO Criaterra Innovations: “There is a strong synergy between Israel’s innovative ecosystem and the UK market, as a leading European economy that is committed to the green transition and has the tools to measure impactful technology. In Criaterra’s area of activity, the transition to low-carbon building materials will be made possible through regulations to measure carbon impact across all materials used in a building’s lifecycle, mandatory LCAs/EPDs for obtaining a building permit and a net zero concrete/

A selection of Israeli climate tech companies were in London this week to showcase their innovations to investors and industry figures as part of a UK–Israel Business Climate First delegation, writes Candice Krieger

Criaterra tiles were used by SwitchUp studio for its fitout of Torq’s offices in Tel Aviv and (inset) by Samuelov Studio for its fitout of Bara Herbs in Kfar Saba

Danny Kessler

Adital Ela

Daphna Wiener

Dor Bershadsky

Nadav Steinmetz and Guy Cherni

Photo by Uzi Porat

Photo by Eyal Tagar

10 START-UPS AT THE DELEGATION

• HELIOS Pioneering sustainable resource utilisation in space and on earth through innovative technologies.

• HYDRO X Accelerating the adoption of clean energy and combating climate change with e icient and eco-friendly hydrogen storage technology.

• CRIATERRA INNOVATIONS Redefining construction materials with regenerative, recyclable and high-performance solutions.

• DAIKA Revolutionising materials with 100 percent natural wood-based products, retaining wood’s unique properties and minimising waste.

• GIGATON CARBON Harnessing the ocean’s natural processes for cost-e ective and large-scale carbon capture and restoration.

cement industry roadmap. Leadership in these domains will pave the way for other economies. Specific collaboration in practice can be in targeted research, in being first adopters of new technologies and in being partners toward finding the right economic models to incentivise green technologies.”

Why is Israel so well-positioned to innovate in this area?

Daphna Wiener, chairperson at Criaterra Innovations: “Israel has one of the rarest resources for innovation, which is also the most important one: human capital that is well educated and highly skilled but also innovative and can take educated risks, without fear of failure. Being able to try and fail is part of the innovation process. In Israel it is socially accepted – and even admired – so ideas can be explored and breakthroughs can be achieved. Israel is also really adept in bootstrapping and getting things done independently with minimal resources. Specifically in climate, with Israel’s economic challenges, turning this mindset to innovation in energy, water, agriculture, construction and more is about solving some very closely-felt problems.”

ZOHAR CLEANTECH

Founded in 2017 by material engineer Dr Chanan Gabay (CBDO) and mechanical engineers Uzi Segal (CTO) and Isaac Shohat (VP R&D), Zohar CleanTech aims to revolutionise waste management, with its compact, containersized system that converts various types of waste into energy. The company’s mission is to transform the waste management landscape by o ering a localised solution, eliminating the need for landfilling and long-distance transportation. By doing so, it not only achieves substantial cost savings in waste treatment but also makes a significant impact on reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. By adopting Zohar CleanTech systems, the company says, organisations can improve their ESG ranking while actively creating a more sustainable future.

Rationale

Co-founder Isaac (Tsachi) got stuck in a tra c jam behind a waste collection truck, making him late for work. Frustrated by the increasing number of trucks on the roads and the rising amount of waste being gener-

ated daily (which worsened after the Covid pandemic), he started pondering why waste needed to be transported at all. Realising that the population growth and increasing waste production would only lead to more trucks in the future, he concluded that a local waste solution was necessary. Such a solution would eliminate the need for waste collection and transportation, as well as the harmful e ects of landfilling and incineration on the environment, including carbon emissions and negative impacts on water and surrounding areas.

Investment

Zohar CleanTech has secured grants from the Ministry of Energy in Israel and investments from Doral Energy group, Israel’s largest renewable energy group. Zohar CleanTech is now entering the pre-sales phase and will soon commence its fundraising stage.

Location

Ramat Gan, Israel.

Where are the big opportunities for link-ups between the UK and Israel in the ClimateTech space?

Moran Kirshner Goldberg, CEO at Zohar CleanTech: “There are many fields in which both countries share mutual interest, such as waste management and the circular economy. Although we see a measure of progress year over year, still big amounts of waste in both countries are not being used as a resource yet, and specifically not used for energy production. Adopting technology-based solutions that do not require vast expenses on infrastructure changes and on education but that focus on technology can help combat climate change and reduce GHG emissions dramatically.”

Why is Israel so well positioned to innovate in this area?

Moran Kirshner Goldberg, CEO at Zohar CleanTech: “I think that the long-term thinking, involving vision, responsibility, and care for the next generations, together with the huge financial concerns that the climate change is causing, combined with the great technological minds, make Israel such a great incubator for startups in the climate tech area. Tech minds are eager to use their best knowledge and experience to have a positive impact on our planet.”

• MOMENTICK Revolutionising environmental monitoring with advanced computer vision for accurate and autonomous detection of greenhouse gas emissions, driving a cleaner and more sustainable planet.

• QD-SOL Leading the green hydrogen revolution with sunlight-based hydrogen generation, driving a sustainable, zero-carbon future.

• ZOHAR CLEANTECH Revolutionising waste management, converting unsorted residential waste into clean energy onsite, reducing landfill and emissions.

• LUMINESCENT Revolutionising clean energy generation with its e icient, emissionfree liquid-based heat engine.

• NAKAI Transforming vessel cleaning and inspection, contributing to a healthier ocean ecosystem with innovative technology.

Adult Social Care Arrangements –

Team Leader

Due to overwhelming demand, Paperweight is expanding and is looking for an enthusiastic, energetic, motivated experienced person to launch and manage our adult social care arrangements department, enabling us to provide focused, practical guidance and direction on adult social care.

The ideal candidate will have experience of navigating the system; social care protocols relating to short and long-term care due to illness, disability or age; protecting those in vulnerable situations and liaising with local authorities.

This is a part-time role with some occasional out-of-hours working.

The heart of Paperweight is the welfare of its clients. You will have an ability to learn and research the constantly changing welfare landscape and you will be expected to absorb the culture and approach we have developed.

Join our dynamic team – we are a friendly, energetic office, based in Hendon.

To apply or to arrange a preliminary chat, please send your CV to chaniecooper@ paperweight.org.uk

Closing date 14th July 2023.

Salary dependent on experience.

Moran Kirshner Goldberg

Zohar CleanTech is based in Ramat Gan

0330 174 4300 paperweight.org.uk

MAKING SENSE OF THE SEDRA

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

BY RABBI SHAULY STROM AISH UK

Clean speech helps build a better world

In this week’s Torah portions, Chukat and Balak, there’s a common theme that stands out: clean speech. The Torah emphasises the significance of using our words wisely. In these portions, we see Moses reaching a pivotal moment in his leadership journey, which would ultimately lead the Jewish people to their everlasting home in Canaan.

Moses was given a specific command to speak to the rock. Remember the actor Will Smith’s

mishap at last year’s Oscars? Well, Moses had a similar slip-up. Instead of speaking to the rock, he ended up hitting it, resulting in him being denied entry into the Promised Land.

Now, in the case of Will Smith and The Rock (Dwayne Johnson), we might have suggested they talk it out to resolve their di erences. But with Moses, we can’t really o er that advice. Speaking to the rock instead of hitting it might not seem logical in terms of extracting water, but the miracle itself remains the same – water flowing from a rock.

In another intriguing instance from these portions, we encounter King Balak of Midyan, who commanded the pagan prophet Bilam to curse the Jewish people.

However, Bilam surprised

everyone by blessing them instead of cursing. When questioned about this unexpected turn of events, Bilam stated that God had taken away his power of speech.

Last year, a wonderful initiative called The Clean Speech Project was launched in the UK by Gift, together with Seed. It aimed to promote positive communication and involved around 75 schools, synagogues and communities. Rabbis Avraham Zeidman and Daniel Fine have made a tremendous impact on how schoolchildren understand the power of words. Recent headlines in our community have awakened us to the importance and value of our speech, reminding us that words have the ability to build or destroy.

The Clean Speech Project has been a game-changer, encouraging

The actor Will Smith hits comedian Chris Rock at the 2022 Oscars

Torah portions and strive to use our speech in a way that uplifts and inspires, creating a world where kindness and understanding flourish. Together, we can build a better world, one word at a time.

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Progressive Judaism

LEAP OF FAITH A stimulating series

BY RABBI CHARLEY BAGINSKY LIBERAL JUDAISM CEO

Last weekend, our Progressive Jewish clergy joined leaders of the Christian, Muslim and Hindu faiths in a national call to prayer aimed at drawing attention to rising levels of hunger in our schools and the impact of this on children.

At Shabbat services around the country, congregants will also have heard sermons supporting the Week of Action taking place until 30 June, calling for the extension of free school meals to all children in primary schools in England.

The campaign is organised by the National Education Union’s No Child Left Behind – a coalition of more than 240 organisations and civil society leaders that includes religious groups, charities, public health bodies and individuals ranging from London’s Mayor

Sadiq Khan to the football pundit and former player Gary Lineker. All of us agree this is a policy whose time has come and that the government must act. More details can be found at freeschoolmealsforall.org.uk

I’m often asked why faith leaders have the right to speak about political issues. Indeed, there are many clergy who feel nervous about speaking politically from the pulpit. In fact, one rabbi beautifully put it thus: “You have a wonderful community and you love them and they love you, until the moment you stand up and you give your political sermon.” The phenomenon even has an informal name: ‘Death by politics sermon’.

And yet the Torah is political not partisan. Of course, it does not tell you who to vote for but it is political for it lays out a vision for a

just, civil society. It is also political because it forms the basis for a social contract for humanity, where those of us with more wealth take responsibility for those with less and those with more power are forbidden from taking advantage of those with less. Thus, it is not only OK for clergy to be

political, it is incumbent upon us to be so. All religions must be a voice to defend the individuals who experience poverty because to do otherwise is to lack compassion for the human experience – and to lack understanding of the role of social living on the individual, which is so much at the heart of who we are.

We need to talk about a vision of our country that aspires to something di erent.

Rabbi Joshua Abraham Heschel, the theologian and social justice activist who marched alongside Martin Luther King, said: “Prayer is meaningless unless it is subversive, unless it seeks to overthrow and to ruin the pyramids of callousness, hatred, opportunism and falsehoods.”

Religion must constantly call out injustice and call for radical action for change. We cannot settle for being a service provider, papering over the cracks of a lack of imagination from the government. That is why I am proud that we have entered the conversation demanding something di erent from our elected representatives.

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where our progressive rabbis consider how Biblical figures might act when faced with 21st-century issues

Faith leaders must be political because the Torah certainly is

‘Now that , Mizzy, is how to prank’

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• Lenders, credit brokers, debt counsellors and debt managers;

• Alternative Investment Fund managers;

• E-Money, payment services, PISP, AISP and grant-making charities.

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

PRIVATE HEALTHCARE SPECIALIST

TREVOR GEE

Qualifications:

• Managing director, consultant specialists in affordable family health insurance

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

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

• LLB solicitors finals

• Member of Chartered Insurance Institute

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

ADAM SHELLEY

Qualifications:

• FCCA chartered certified accountant

• Accounting, taxation and business advisory services

• Entrepreneurial business specialist including start-up businesses

• Specialises in charities; personal tax returns

• Maurice Wohl Charitable Foundation Volunteer of the Year JVN award

SOBELL RHODES LLP

020 8429 8800 www.sobellrhodes.co.uk a.shelley@sobellrhodes.co.uk

CHARITY EXECUTIVE

JEWELLER

CHILD AND ADOLESCENT PSYCHIATRIST

DR MONICA QUADIR

Qualifications:

• Consultant child and adolescent psychiatrist with more than 12 years of experience in treating young people and their families, both in the NHS and privately

• Expertise in assessing neurodevelopmental conditions, such as ADHD and autism, and supporting families to manage these conditions

• Medical director at Psymplicity Healthcare, a private mental health clinic based in London, with a national online presence

PSYMPLICITY HEALTHCARE 020 3733 5277

www.psymplicity.com

enquiries@psymplicity.com

FINANCIAL SERVICES

LISA WIMBORNE

Qualifications:

Able to draw on the charity’s 50 years of experience in enabling people with physical disabilities or impaired vision to live independently, including:

• The provision of specialist accommodation with 24/7 on-site support

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

• Understanding of the impact of a disability diagnosis

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

JONATHAN WILLIAMS

Qualifications:

• Jewellery manufacturer since 1980s

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

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

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

DIRECTOR OF LEGACIES

CAROLYN ADDLEMAN

Qualifications:

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

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

• Member of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners

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

REMOVALS MANAGING DIRECTOR

STEPHEN MORRIS

Qualifications:

• Managing director of Stephen Morris Shipping Ltd

• 45 years’ experience in shipping household and personal effects

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

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

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

JOE OZER

Qualifications:

• Executive director for the United Kingdom at DCI (Intl) Ltd

• Worked in finance for more than 20 years

• Specialists in distribution and promotion of Israel Bonds

DEVELOPMENT COMPANY FOR ISRAEL 020 3936 2712

www.israelbondsintl.com

joe.ozer@israelbondsintl.com

GOAL ATTAINMENT SPECIALIST

DR BEN LEVY

Qualifications:

• Doctor of psychology with 15 years’ experience in education and corporate sectors

• Uses robust, evidence-based methods to help you achieve your goals, whatever they may be

• Works with clients individually to maximise success

MAKE IT HAPPEN 07779 619 597 www.makeit-happen.co.uk ben@makeit-happen.co.uk

CHARITY EXECUTIVE

SUE CIPIN OBE

Qualifications:

• 24 years+ hands-on experience, leading JDA in significant growth and development.

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

• Extensive services for people affected by hearing loss/tinnitus

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

• Hearing aid advice, support and maintenance

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

PRINCIPAL, PERFORMING ARTS SCHOOL

LOUISE LEACH

Qualifications:

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

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

• Set up Dancing with Louise 19 years ago

DANCING WITH LOUISE 075 0621 7833

www.dancingwithlouise.co.uk

Info@dancingwithlouise.com

Superb care in a setting

Looking for a care home for yourself or a loved one? Then you could do no better than to join us as part of our Springdene family. Unlike other care homes, which are often part of large corporations, we are a family business. And we’re still run by the same family that founded it more than 50 years ago.

New residents at Springdene can be sure of a warm reception. All our homes – Spring Grove in Hampstead, Spring Lane in Muswell Hill and Springview in Enfield – are rated as good by the Care Quality Commission.

Residents enjoy hotel-style luxury, with their own spacious room, complete with full en-suite facilities, personal telephone and wi-fi. There are three delicious meals a day, with a varied choice of menus.

And there are lots of regular activities, including quizzes, short stories, art competitions and poetry readings, live-streamed concerts and film-showings on a big screen, as well as walks in delightful gardens. We’ve a great team, o ering wonderful care and everyone is brilliantly looked after.

As our motto says:

To arrange a visit, or for more information, just call 020 8815 2000 or visit www.springdene.co.uk Follow us on

Muswell Hill

One of the finest and best-appointed homes for older people in North London, Spring Lane is just a short distance from Muswell Hill Broadway.

Hampstead

The ultimate in comfort, Spring Grove is situated on the Finchley Road near to Swiss Cottage and is close to local shops, cultural facilities and a tube station.

Enfield

Standing in tranquil surroundings, Springview is a purpose built home, situated near to Enfield Town with its local shops and public transport.

PREMIER CARE HOMES IN NORTH LONDON

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

ARE

Bereavement

Would

THE JEWISH NEWS CROSSWORD

14 Eraser (6)

16 Angelic child (6)

19 Soldier’s metal ID disc (3,3)

21 Quick cut (4)

23 Source of heat and light (3)

24 Unpunctual (4)

25 Decorative wall-band (6)

26 Nearly (6)

DOWN

1 Carpenter (6)

2 Look at (4)

3 Quiet lane (6)

4 Computer network trespasser (6)

5 Breeding farm (4)

6 Carved figure (6)

13 Sticky black substance (3)

15 Plastic carrier (3)

17 Wanting to eat (6)

18 Old measure of wheat (6)

19 Pertaining to teeth (6)

20 Verify in evidence (6)

10 Acorn-bearing tree (3)

11 Tax on goods (4)

12 Shredded (cheese, eg) (6)

WORDSEARCH

The listed African capital cities 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.

ES STY AO UND EU

IOI IE HE LO STP J

BK DL NE CT UA SD N

OI EO OU UG LA ATA

RG EH MP TG IK NE B

IA CR A AI VAB MD N

AL AMA EO R AS BTA

NI IY RR EM TC ATA

LR RS NN AA JU BA R

EP OO SK TH R EAB C

LH MN OY EMA IN AC

SE LU SAKA CR ER A

MAPUTO

MBABANE MOGADISHU MONROVIA NAIROBI

NIAMEY

Last issue’s solutions

Crossword

ACROSS: 1 Watchdog, 5 Mesh, 9 Debriefed, 10 Una, 11 Marc, 13 Rustler, 16 Uses, 18 Recite, 19 Sirens, 21 Warn, 23 Nosiest, 25 Arty, 27 Ado, 28 Epicentre, 30 Dust, 31 Very well.

DOWN: 1 Wade, 2 Tub, 3 Haircut, 4 On fire, 6 Ebullient, 7 Headrest, 8 Odds, 12 Ancestors, 14 USSR, 15 Drunkard, 17 Sews, 20 Inanely, 22 Attire, 24 Ever, 26 Bell, 29 Tie.

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

22 Seaside projection (4)

24 Peru’s capital city (4)

HILARIOUS HEBREW Word of the Week

Learning Hebrew can be fun and sometimes hilarious! Join one of the WZO's Ulpan classes near you and find out for yourself! The subsidised Ulpanim are based in North West and East London, Manchester, Brighton, Borehamwood and Bushy. Contact- ulpanuk@wzo.org.il or call 020 83715336

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.

RABAT TRIPOLI TUNIS YAOUNDE

See next issue for puzzle solutions.

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

From the book Hilarious Hebrew- the Fun and Fast Way to Learn the Language, available on Amazon and in book and gift shops throughout London. www.hilarioushebrew.com

We’re right up your street. And we’re going to stay there.

We believe branches are important to our customers. So, if we have a branch in your town or city, we’ll still be there until at least 2026.