1341 - 16th Nov 2023

YOUR FREE WEEKLY PAPER OF THE YEAR IS INSIDE THIS ADVERTISING WRAP a Un re i st ted ro w n e ge r

Take a stand

A call to our fellow British citizens to stand up and be counted at next weekend’s march against antisemitism See inside

Survivor’s story

16 November 2023 • 3 Kislev 5784 • Issue 1341

Kidnapped

by Hamas and lucky to be alive Pages 16-17

Free Weekly Newspaper Of

16 November 2023 • 3 Kislev 5784 • Issue No.1341 •

@JewishNewsUK

Dennis Ross’ three-point plan to get rid of Hamas Pages 8-9

Message to our fellow British citiz

ens…

Will you stay silent in the face of this?

Masthead FREE WEEKLY NEWSPAPER OF THE YEAR

The Year

Eliminating evil

Men dressed as Hamas terrorists

Swaskita inside a Star of David

An obscene sign comparing Gaza to Auschwitz at a rally

Women wearing paraglider pictures

Paint on a Jewish school door

‘Jew die’ on a car window

If the sight of intolerable Jew hate on our nation’s streets offends your British values, the Jewish commu nity implores you to stand up and be counted at a march against antisemitism in London on 26 November See inside

COME AND SUPPORT THE MARCHERS SIDE

BY SIDE AT THE AJEX REMEMBRANCE PARADE & CEREMONY THIS SUNDAY

SEE PAGE 27 FOR FULL DETAILS

NATIONAL SOLIDARITY MARCH AGAINST ANTISEMITISM SUNDAY 26TH NOVEMBER, 13:30, CENTRAL LONDON ROUTE DETAILS WILL BE SENT TO THOSE WHO REGISTER AT ANTISEMITISM.ORG/MARCH

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Jewish News 16 November 2023

Week after week, central London has become a no-go zone for Jews.

We have witnessed mass criminality, including glorification of terrorism, support for banned terrorist organisations such as Hamas, and incitement to racial or religious hatred against Jews.

Every day, Campaign Against Antisemitism fights for the future of our community.

• We have been exposing the dangerous nature of the marches through London.

• We are explaining to the

British public exactly how our community feels.

• We are working with senior

politicians to address woeful law enforcement.

• Our lawyers are ensuring that antisemites will be held to account.

• We are providing free legal representation to those affected by antisemitism.

• We are providing free training to schools, campuses and workplaces.

The demand on our services is immense.

Please help us to stand up for Britain’s Jews by giving at antisemitism.org/donate.

Justice, justice, you shall pursue | ‫ | צדק צדק תרדף‬Charity reg. 1163790 | PO Box 7393, London W1A 5XQ

www.jewishnews.co.uk

Survivor’s story

Eliminating evil

16 November 2023 • 3 Kislev 5784 • Issue 1341

Kidnapped

by Hamas and lucky to be alive Pages 16-17

Dennis Ross’ three-point plan to get rid of Hamas Pages 8-9

Free Weekly Newspaper Of The Year

A question to our fellow citizens…

Will you stay silent in the face of this?

Men dressed as Hamas terrorists

Swaskita inside a Star of David

An obscene sign comparing Gaza to Auschwitz at a rally

Paint on a Jewish school door

‘Jew die’ on a car window

If the sight of intolerable Jew hate on our nation’s streets offends your British values, the Jewish community implores you to stand up and be counted at a march against antisemitism in London on 26 November See inside

COME AND SUPPORT THE MARCHERS SIDE

BY SIDE AT THE AJEX REMEMBRANCE PARADE & CEREMONY THIS SUNDAY SEE PAGE 27 FOR FULL DETAILS

Women wearing paraglider pictures

2

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Jewish News 16 November 2023

ISRAEL AT WAR

IDF conducts ‘targeted raid’ in al-Shifa hospital

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

The Israeli army launched a “targeted” assault in the al-Shifa hospital in Gaza yesterday, hours after the United States confirmed Israel’s allegations that Hamas is using the hospital for military purposes.

The IDF said the raid was taking place in a “specified complex for which there is intelligence information indicating terrorist activity”.

“Before entering the hospital, our forces encountered explosives and terrorist squads and a fight ensued during which terrorists were eliminated,” the IDF said. Soldiers had delivered medical equipment, incubators and baby food to the hospital, it added.

Four Hamas terrorists were killed in clashes with the IDF yesterday.

Israel has provided evidence to western leaders of Hamas using both al-Shifa and several other hospitals as military bases, a claim which is now officially backed by the US and EU. “Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad members operate a command and control node from al-Shifa. They have stored weapons there and are prepared to respond to an Israeli military operation against that facility,” US national security spokesman John Kirby said on Tuesday.

Despite the US and EU backing Israel’s claims about Hamas using the hospitals, which in itself is a war crime, Martin Griffiths, the UN’s chief of humanitarian affairs, said he was “appalled by reports of military raids in al-Shifa hospital in Gaza”,

adding: “The protection of newborns, patients, medical staff and all civilians must override all other concerns.

Hospitals are not battlegrounds.”

On Monday evening the IDF spokesperson released video material of what he said was clear evidence of Hamas storing hand grenades, suicide vests, RPGs and kalashnikovs in the hospital’s basement. The IDF also said it had reason to believe that Hamas had held some of the hostages in the basement.

Defence minister Yoav Gallant said that Hamas had lost control of

Parts of northern Gaza have been razed to the ground. Inset: IDF troops in Gaza City

Gaza, with terrorists fleeing south, and civilians “looting Hamas bases.”

“They have no confidence in their government,” Gallant said. “In recent days, we have intensified activities targeting [Hamas] tunnels- this will get the terrorists out of the tunnels, and they will either be eliminated or they will surrender unconditionally; there is no third option.”

As of yesterday, 48 Israeli soldiers had been killed in Gaza since the IDF launched its ground invasion. The army also announced that Israeli soldier Noa Marciano had been killed while taken hostage by Hamas.

The IDF also said it had killed

about 1,000 terrorists since the invasion began, in addition to targeting tunnels, weapons depots, anti-tank terror cells, rocket launchers, some of which were stored in schools, mosques and universities.

Israeli soldiers were also photographed inside Hamas’ parliament building in Gaza City, in what was seen as a symbolic victory for Israel.

Most of the hospitals in Gaza had stopped working due to lack of electricity, causing the UN and some countries to call for an immediate ceasefire to allow for patients to be saved and more aid to enter Gaza.

The World Health Organisation said it had recorded at least 137 attacks on health facilities, killing 521 people.

Hamas said more than 11,00 Palestinians had been killed since 7 October, when it carried out an unprecedented terror attack against Israeli civilians.

On Israel’s northern front with Lebanon, Hezbollah continued to fire anti-tank missiles and mortars at Israeli villages, killing Shalom Abudi, an employee of the Israel Electric Corporation, and wounding 20.

Israel is retaliating to every crossborder attack, expanding its targets to some 40km into Lebanon. Hezbollah said 74 of its members had been killed in Israeli attacks since 7 October.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a warning: “I suggest that Hezbollah not try the State of Israel – it will be the mistake of its life.”

Gallant also sent a warning to

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, saying Beirut would “look like Gaza” if the terror group makes a mistake.

A drone from Syria was shot down over Eilat, while the Houthi rebels continued to fire missiles at the southern most Israeli city in the past week, all of which were shot down by the Arrow defence missile system.

Dozens of families began marching from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem on Tuesday to call for the release of the hostages held in Gaza. The march began at Habima Square, which has become known as “hostage square” owing to the many demonstrations held there by families of hostages.

The march is scheduled to end at outside Netanyahu’s residence in Jerusalem on Saturday.

UK doing ‘all we can’ to release hostages Rishi Sunak has insisted the government is doing “everything we can” to try to secure the release of British hostages kidnapped by Hamas terrorists in Gaza including engaging “intensively in diplomatic activity” in the region, writes Lee Harpin.

The prime minister was responding to a question at PMQs from Dawn Butler, the Labour MP for Brent Central, who mentioned her constituent Noam Sagi, whose mother Ada was kidnapped by Hamas in Israel on 7 October.

Sunak said it had been a “pleasure” to meet with Sagi, and to hear her “pain” over the hostage ordeal.

But then updating MPs on efforts to bring

home hostages taken by Hamas in the 7 October massacre in Israel, the PM added: “We are doing absolutely everything we can to bring hostages home.

“We are engaged intensively in diplomatic activity in the region and working together so foreign and British nationals are released.

Well over 200 have now left Gaza and we will continue to do everything we can.”

Butler had said “we all condemn Hamas’s actions and fight for the return of all hostages” adding that her constituent Noam “wants the language of love to be louder than the language of hate”.

Sunak faced criticism for Stephen Flynn the

SNP’s Westminster leader who claimed Gaza was an “open-air prison” that faced being into a “graveyard” if there was no immediate ceasefire.

No one can deny the suffering that the people in Gaza are undergoing,” Sunak said.He said the government is doing “everything we can to get aid into the region”, and believes in “humanitarian pauses” to get aid in and let hostages out.

Flynn claimed it was |”a question of values and it is a question of conscience,” as he called for a free vote for MPs on calling for a ceasefire.

Former Conservative minister David Davis raised concerns that the government had still not proscribed Iran’s IRGC in the aftermath of the 7 October.

300,000 people at a rally in Washington DC

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16 November 2023 Jewish News

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ISRAEL AT WAR

Fuel for UN lorries enters Gaza as UK considers aid Israel has agreed to allow 24,000 to get humanitarian aid into Gaza litres of fuel to enter Gaza, ear- in the quantities needed, but we are marked for UN lorries, marking the also considering air and maritime first time since the war began that it options, including through our has allowed fuel to enter the Rafah bases in Cyprus.”

The families of Israeli hosborder crossing between Gaza and tages in Gaza continued to demEgypt, writes Jotam Confino.

The fuel, however, is far from onstrate against the government enough and will not reach hospitals throughout Israel, demanding an owing to Israel’s fear it will end up in immediate release of their loved ones. the hands of Hamas.

While Reuters reported that Meanwhile, UNRWA chief Phillips Lazzarini warned yesterday that Qatar is seeking a hostage deal that “our entire operation is now on the would free 50 civilians from Gaza in verge of collapse. By the end of today, exchange for a three-day ceasefire, around 70 percent of the population Prime Minister Netanyahu seemed in Gaza won’t have access to clean to downplay the expectations, saying: “If and when there will be water.

“To have fuel for trucks only will something concrete to report, we not save lives anymore. Waiting will do so.”

Hamas continued to release longer will cost lives.”

Israel has said it is willing to allow hostage videos of hostages, causing more aid in to Gaza as the ground Israel to once again accuse the invasion deepens and the need for terror organisation of psychologassistance to the 1.5 million dis- ical warfare.

The families of hostages in Gaza continue to demonstrate throughout Israel, calling for their release placed Palestinians increases.

While the border crossing was briefly shut over the weekend, lorries with aid continued to enter Gaza. According the Palestinian Red Crescent, some 155 more aid trucks entered the Gaza Strip on Tuesday.

Israel says that more than 1,000 lorries with aid have entered the Gaza Strip since the Rafah border crossing opened.

The UK also said it was considering sending aid to Gaza through other routes.

Foreign Office minister Andrew Mitchell said on Tuesday: “At this point we assess that land presently offers the most viable and safe way IDF soldiers killed in Gaza this week, from left: Maj Issaschar Natan, Staff Sgt Itay Shoham, Cpt Omri Yosef David, 27, and Cpt Yedidya Asher Lev, 26

ISRAEL ‘READY FOR HOSTAGE DEAL CEASEFIRE’ Israel is ready for a temporary ceasefire in Gaza in order to return the 239 hostages held

by Hamas, minister and member of the security cabinet, Gideon Sa’ar, told Jewish News in an exclusive interview, writes Jotam Confino.

Sa’ar, who is a member of Benny Gantz’s National Unity Party, said Israeli forces “continue to execute their mission, killing terrorists and dismantling Hamas infrastructure in Gaza,” calling it “significant achievements,” by the IDF. The army, he said, “acted in the right moment,” when they launched a smaller operation in Al Shifa hospital, which is used

by Hamas for military purposes, according to Israel and the United States. “They waited for long days outside the hospital to avoid casualties,” Sa’ar said.

When asked about the growing calls for a ceasefire in Gaza, Sa’ar said there would be no long-term ceasefire but that rather “a tem-

porary short ceasefire in order to get our hostages out. There are ongoing negotiations to achieve that. And it will be acheived. We will see a temporary ceasefire.”

As for Israel’s long term plans for Gaza, Sa’ar said it’s a very “complicated issue” but that the most important thing is “to achieve security”.

The next goal, he said, is the reconstruction of Gaza, followed by efforts to avoid further incitement of Jews in education for Palestinian children.

“That was a significant part of the education there, if we can even call it that. The most important thing is to create a different reality there and it begins with educating a new generation,” Sa’ar said.

“We will need partnership of moderate Arab regimes in order to create a different reality.

It could be Egypt and maybe Saudi Arabia. It’s important to have Arab partners,” he added.

The United Nations, which for years has pro-

vided education for children throughout Gaza, should not play a role in the future, Sa’ar said.

“I cannot see a constructive part with the UN. Personally, I don’t see how they can help.” Sa’ar also said that the UN should follow in the footsteps of the US and EU, and back Israel’s claims about Hamas using hospitals as human shields, but that he “low expectations of the UN.” On the northern front, Israel continues to be attacked by Hezbollah with anti-tank missiles and rockets on a daily basis, causing many experts to speculate that it’s a matter of time before it escalates in to a full scale war.

However, Israel is not interested in that at the moment, according to Sa’ar.

“The security cabinet defined that the objective of the war is to defeat Hamas. At the same time we respond to strongly to each attack in the north and will prepare for anything that might happen. We might reach a war. But it’s not our objective right now,” he said.

Security cabinet member Gideon Sa’ar

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ISRAEL AT WAR

Police appeal to trace 11 ‘pro-Palestine’ men Police are seeking the public’s help to identify 11 men suspected of displaying signs or wearing clothing in support of terrorist groups at proPalestine marches in London.

The Met said all the men were seen at demonstrations that took place after Hamas terrorists invaded Israel on 7 October.

Detectives investigating an allegation of incitement to racial hatred relating to antisemitic chanting on Armistice Day are looking to speak to two men seen in social media footage.

The first is described as between 20 and 30 years old with light skin and a beard, and was wearing a black baseball cap with a white front panel.

The second is said to be the same age with light skin, short dark hair and a beard and goatee. He was wearing a black puffer coat.

Officers also want to speak to two men captured on social media footage over allegations they engaged in pro-Hamas chanting in Trafalgar Square on 4 November.

Inviting support for the banned organisation is an offence under the Terrorism Act. The first is described as an Asian man who looks 40-50 years old and has a grey beard. He was wearing a dark hoodie with a distinctive white square on the left breast.

The second is described as looking 20-30, wearing a black hoodie, grey tracksuit bottoms and a green neck covering.

Officers also want to speak to six men captured on social media at a

The 2022 AJEX military parade

THOUSANDS EXPECTED AT AJEX MARCH

These are three of the men the Metropolitan Police would like to interview

demonstration which took place on King Charles Street at around 4.15pm on 14 October.

The investigation relates to allegations of inciting racial hatred and displaying an article in public that arouses reasonable suspicion of membership or support for a proscribed organisation.

Police describe the first man as around 25-35 years old, of lightskinned appearance, with very short dark hair and a beard. He was seen wearing a green headband with writing on it.

The second man is said to be around 25 years old, white or lightskinned with light brown or dark blond curly short hair. Police also believe he has a light jawline beard.

The third man is described as looking to be in his late 20s with a light brown and a very closely shaven beard.

He was wearing a dark baseball cap and black puffer coat.

The fourth man police would like to trace is described as looking 20-30 years old with short dark hair and a ginger or brown beard and wearing a cream zip-up fleece.

Number five on the list is described as looking 20-30 years old and has closely-shaven dark hair and a dark beard. He was wearing a Palestinian flag around his neck The sixth man appears to be in his 20s and has short dark wavy hair. He was wearing a black puffer coat with a white circular logo on the left breast.

Officers have also been continuing their inquiries to identify a man seen waving a placard bearing the words “I fully support Hamas” during a protest on Bond Street on 21 October and are continuing to urge anyone with information about him to contact them.

He is described as having short hair and light skin and is wearing a

blue jacket with a light top underneath, a light stripy scarf around his neck and light trousers or jeans.

Police say they are analysing hours of CCTV and images from the demonstrations.

However, they point out the “large and tightly-packed” crowds are making it difficult for officers to identify and arrest people allegedly involved immediately.

Commander Dominic Murphy, head of the Met’s specialist Counter Terrorism Command, said: “Having pursued various lines of inquiry to try and identify these men, we are now seeking the public’s help.

“Many of the images we are sharing are very clear, so I feel confident that there will be members of public who recognise the men.

“I urge anyone who has information – no matter how small – to call our confidential hotline.”

• Can you help? See gov.uk/ACT or call 0800 789 321

Sunak urges Israel restraint Rishi Sunak has urged Israel to “take all possible measures to protect innocent civilians” in Gaza in an apparent shift of tone in the government’s response to the war against Hamas.

In a speech on foreign policy at the Lord Mayor’s Banquet at Guildhall, London, on Monday night, the prime minister stressed: “Israel must be able to defend itself against terror, restore its security and bring the hostages home.”

He then added: “But there are things that Israel must do as part of its response.” Restating the need to conduct a war with the rules of international law, Sunak said Israel “must take all possible measures to protect innocent civilians, including at hospitals, stop extremist violence in the West Bank and allow more aid into Gaza.”

He continued: “Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, described to me the terrible suffering of the Palestinian people. Too many civilians are losing their lives.”

Praising the work of new home secretary James Cleverly in his former role as foreign sec-

Rishi Sunak delivers his speech at Guildhall

retary, Sunak warned: “These are deeply challenging times for our world. Events far beyond our shores echo here at home with implications for our security, our economy, and our very social fabric. It falls to us to do everything we can to shape these events.”

Foreign Office minister Andrew Mitchell joined in on Tuesday, saying: “All parties to a conflict must afford civilians the protection that is their right under international law ... including

respecting the sanctity of hospitals so doctors can continue to care for the sick and injured.”

Mitchell said it was “impossible to comprehend the pain and loss that innocent Palestinians are enduring in Gaza” since Israel launched its offensive.

“Hospitals should be places of safety, able to treat patients with compassion,” he added.

“It is distressing to see them unable to do so.

Every civilian death is heartbreaking.”

Meanwhile, there were also signs from senior Labour figures of a more critical stance over the way Israel was conducting the war, with David Lammy saying in the Commons Israel “must make changes” to its approach to military action in Gaza, to ensure the protection of civilian lives.

However, in a reference to Jeremy Corbyn’s failure in an interview with Piers Morgan on Talk TV to label Hamas a terror organisation, Lammy also told MPs: “I’d like to register my shock that not every member of this House can say Hamas are terrorists.”

AJEX, the Jewish Military Association, is inviting the Jewish community to join the annual AJEX remembrance parade and ceremony at the Cenotaph this Sunday, writes Michelle Rosenberg.

Themed Side by Side, the event symbolises unity and pride, with veterans and families marching together to honour the legacy of Jewish servicemen and women.

In light of the concerning rise in antisemitism in the UK, this year’s parade expects a strong turnout from both marchers and spectators, showcasing solidarity within our community.

AJEX chief executive Fiona Palmer said: “The AJEX parade is a powerful statement against the rise of antisemitism. By participating or spectating, we actively contribute to the ongoing legacy of remembrance.

“In times like these, it is crucial for our community to stand united. Let us take pride in our roles as members of the Jewish community, ensuring our Jewish contribution is remembered while honouring those who continue to serve today.”

Palmer added: “We eagerly anticipate seeing people at the parade, whether marching proudly with their medals or family medals or spectating and we are grateful to CST and the Met Police for providing a high level of security. No matter your age, join us with pride to support the marchers, standing side by side”.

AJEX traditionally welcomes both marchers and spectators, emphasising the uniqueness of this event, which is the only Jewish gathering that closes Whitehall. It coincides with Mitzvah Day, providing an ideal opportunity to engage in the mitzvah of remembrance.

This year’s parade marks significant anniversaries, including the 80th anniversary of the Warsaw ghetto uprising, the Dam Busters raid, and the 70th anniversary of the end of the Korean war.

JLGB members and cadets from JFS will be attending for the third consecutive year with other Jewish schools, Scout groups and members of the community.

In the lead up, AJEX is also encouraging communities to honour and remember over Shabbat by raising a l’chaim to honour those who served and reciting the Remembrance prayer.

No tickets are required to be a spectator from outside the secure area at the ceremony. High security measures will be in place and attendees are advised to arrive early before the 1.45pm start time.

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ISRAEL AT WAR

BBC sorry for saying Israel ‘targets medics’ The BBC has apologised for telling viewers that Israeli forces had entered al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza and were “targeting” medical teams and Arabic speakers, writes Jenni Frazer.

The report on the BBC News Channel yesterday morning should in fact have said that the IDF had announced that its forces entering the hospital “included” medical teams and Arabic speakers.

On its corrections page, the BBC said its report “was incorrect and misquoted a Reuters report”.

It added: “We should have said IDF

forces included medical teams and Arabic speakers for this operation.”

The statement said that the corporation apologised for the error, “which fell below our usual editorial standards. The correct version of events was broadcast minutes later and we apologised for the mistake on air later in the morning.”

Earlier, the Board of Deputies had said it was “absolutely appalled” by the initial report.

Its spokesman said: “At best, this shows a staggering lack of care when reporting on a highly volatile situa-

tion, which can have a knock-on effect all over the world, including in Britain, where antisemitic attacks have risen by more than 500 per cent since October 7. Incidents like this make a mockery of the BBC’’s oft-stated dedication to professionalism and impartiality. The corporation must issue a public apology without delay for this misreporting.”

The BBC was criticised last month for saying Israel was behind the bombing of a car park outside another hosptial, which was later shown to be caused by a rocket fired inside Gaza.

• BBC in synagogue debate, p19

An IDF soldier with medical supplies at al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City in an IDF photo distributed yesterday

Jewish students’ flat is vandalised

Police have been asked to investigate claims that a flat being used

by Jewish students at Nottingham Trent University was vandalised, with the attackers leaving behind a note reading “Free Palestine KYS (kill yourselves) Tory C***s”.

The incident is alleged to have taken place last month, with claims that the property was singled out because one of the students had an Israeli flag visible in the kitchen area, in an expression of solidarity with those murdered and kidnapped by Hamas terrorists on 7 October.

Jewish News understands that

UJS president Edward Isaacs

Nottinghamshire Police have been asked to investigate the incident, with the Union of Jewish Students also involved in helping those students impacted by the incident.

UJS said they could not comment

on the alleged antisemitic incident due to confidentiality issues.

The attack on the student property is alleged to have taken place several days after the 7 October massacre, and it is claimed that further antisemitic graffiti was also found inside the flat, and damage was caused to lighting equipment.

In a bizarre move, those responsible for the incident are alleged to have left details of their whereabouts on a piece of A4 paper with a further drawing of two love hearts.

This week, an article on the UnHerd website also made refer-

ence to the Trent University attack quoting a mother of one of the Jewish students impacted, who said: “They trashed a room, tore down his lights and took the flag.”

The family member said the student had taken steps to hide her Jewish identity.

She added: “I get it — they just want to be a kid and get on with uni life. But this is what’s happening.

They’re scared. They don’t want anyone to know they’re Jewish.”

UJS president Edward Isaacs appeared on the BBC this week confirming the huge increase in antise-

mitic incidents at university campuses across the country.

“We are seeing so much hatred, so much intimidation, so much abuse that Jewish students are getting,” Isaacs confirmed. The BBC report confirmed the “significant increase” in Jewish students no longer feeling safe at uni.

A spokesperson from Nottingham Trent University said they could not comment on the incident at their institution while a police investigation was ongoing.

Jewish News has contacted Nottinghamshire police for comment.

WELBY DROWNED OUT INTERFAITH Restaurant serves MELODY WITH OUTRAGEOUS TWEET ‘anti-Zionist pizza’

BY ANDREW FREEDMAN

My schooling was rather Christian. Not quite smells and bells, but certainly enough exposure to the Church of England that its descants, hymns and prayers took on a quiet repository in my memory.

But I can also tell you the correct nusach (version) for any service throughout the Jewish calendar.

And I’ve always been proud of this slightly quirky, perhaps eccentric duality, of knowing the liturgy of my own religion and also the tone of this country’s official religion.

And so when I read the Archbishop of Canterbury’s tweet, the melodies in my mind jarred. For it was not only outrageous in content, it was also tone deaf. Gone was the song of interfaith. Banished was the melody of sympathy towards Israel, its dead and its hostages.

Soon after 7 October, the Archbishop tweeted strong messages of support for Israel to defend itself alongside strong condemnation against Hamas and its barbarism.

So it was a shock to see how quickly the Archbishop had changed his tune. He is singing the atonal hymn sheet of a terrorist organisation which would sooner seek to wipe out Christianity than break bread with it.

But the most ear piercing note of the Archbishop’s tweet was the baked in assumption, that Israel’s army intentionally bombs innocent civilians.

The volte-face from the Primate of All England shows that he is playing from a different score from his visit to Israel on 22 October.

There, he gave comfort to families of those who had been bereaved and kidnapped, noting that allegations of Israel bombing the al-Ahli hospital (which he referred to in his most recent tweet) was a “modern day blood libel”.

At one of the meetings, the Arch-

bishop asked how he could help.

The grandfather of fallen soldier Yosef Guedalia said this: “Support us by declaring the justice of our being in Israel… we are Jews, this is our home, this is where we live, and this is where we have to defend ourselves.” The Archbishop replied he “agreed entirely with that”.

It seems that the Archbishop has succumbed to the siren song of portraying Israel as amoral, punitive and vengeful.

Some of the language in a later missive has traces of the pulpit: “The evil of Hamas cannot be paid by the civilians of Gaza.”

What the Archbishop sadly fails to see is that Hamas has wrought that very same evil on its own civilians. And for that, we must weep.

But Israel does not have that luxury. Her very survival is at stake.

• Andrew Freedman is part of the Jewish Diplomatic Corps of the World Jewish Congress and works as a public relations adviser. He writes in a personal capacity

A pizza restaurant in the student district of Leeds has been reported to police for its social media posts saying “Z1on1sts [Zionists] not welcome” and asking people to suggest toppings for an “Anti-Z1on1sts [Zionist] pizza”.

One member of the Leeds Jewish community told Jewish News that “given that the Italian colours are green, red and white, perhaps the only way to make a pizza look Palestinian is if the crust is charcoal”. He also questioned how the restaurant was equipped to identify who among its customers was or was not a Zionist.

But an angry woman who answered the phone at Headingley’s Ecco Pizzeria said: “I don’t know where you are getting this from, but all we are doing is supporting a Palestinian charity, and I don’t think supporting a charity is doing anything wrong.”

Jewish News was invited to inspect the menu, which has a ‘Palestine Pizza’, with ingredients including onions, chicken, cherry tomatoes and olives and tahini drizzle.

On 5 November, on its Instagram

Zionists ‘not welcome’, it said

account, the pizzeria posted: “Our leaders and millions of others whose hearts are now perfectly possessed by Satan appear to be unaffected by the most graphic images imaginable if the ethnicity and religion is right.”

It added: “What astonishes us at Ecco is that you don’t require a Harvard degree to witness the demonic forces at play, of the Israeli government and its allies.” A previous post from the pizzeria said: “All profits of our Palestinian Pizza will be going to MAP (Medical Aid for Palestine).”

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ISRAEL AT WAR

Dennis Ross’ three-point plan to rid Gaza of Hamas

America’s top Middle East diplomat gives his view on how the terror group’s grip on Gaza can be negated so it cannot return. Interview by Jenni Frazer America’s most experienced Middle East diplomat, Ambassador Dennis Ross, says Israel has “an excruciating dilemma” in its war with Hamas.

But he told Jewish News that although he is firmly against a ceasefire, because he believes Hamas will only use the opportunity to regroup and rearm, nevertheless he thinks there are steps Israel can take to alleviate the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

In a wide-ranging interview, the ambassador, who has served five American presidents in a variety of roles —presidents Carter, Reagan, Bush Sr, Clinton and Obama — said that “I would like to see Israel open up some of its crossings. Rafah [on the border between Gaza and Egypt] is the only crossing. If you need to get more aid in, Israel needs to open its crossings as well, at least one of them. Nothing can go through an Israeli crossing unless it’s been checked, and they have the

most modern scanners, they can do it much more quickly”.

Rafah, he said, needed serious investment to modernise it — but that could not happen until after the war. “Right now, Israel has that capability”. Ross praised some of the “practical pauses” instigated

by Israel, in order to allow civilians to move from north to south of the Strip, and said he was glad that Jordan had been allowed to airdrop supplies and that the UAE had set up a field hospital.

“I’d like the Israelis to have a field hospital as well — they have experience with this, they did it in Syria. I’d like Israel to create more of a public posture, saying, ‘look, we are fighting Hamas, we are not fighting the Palestinians of Gaza. But we are not the ones who are using Palestinians as human shields, Hamas is.

“We are doing everything we can to try to minimise the civilian casualties, to maximise the assistance

that goes to them, and to make sure there are safe areas for them’. I’d like them to be articulating that”.

But while Israel is concentrating on how best to fight Hamas, there is the ongoing issue of the Israeli

Qatar definitely had a role to play, Ross said. “It’s one that it’s not clear anyone else can play. But if they don’t deliver on it, then it’s fair to ask, why should you have this relationship with Hamas if you’re

❝

ISRAEL’S RATIONALE WAS, IN EFFECT, TO HAVE CONFLICTS EVERY FEW YEARS RATHER THAN GO BACK INTO GAZA. THAT POLICY TURNED OUT TO BE WRONG and foreign hostages being held in Gaza, which is where the role of the Qataris comes into focus. Ross said: “If you’re going to have a relationship with Hamas, you need to demonstrate what the value and benefit of that relationship is. There’s clearly a cost, in the sense that it helps give Hamas a platform, where they try to justify the indefensible”.

not able to affect their behaviour, and in a case like this, you’re not able to produce the release of the hostages? What is the point of the relationship if they [Hamas} benefit from it, but it’s not so clear how you [Qatar] and others benefit from it?”

The ambassador acknowledged anger on the part of those calling

for a boycott of Qatari businesses and accusing them of having funded the October 7 attacks. But, he said, “This is not a simple balance to strike. Let’s remember that Israeli governments, under this prime minister [Netanyahu] from 2009 on, not only were working with the Qataris but also allowing them to provide money to Hamas. We can’t have it both ways. We can’t say they shouldn’t be providing money to Hamas when the Israeli government is facilitating the providing of money to Hamas.”

It had been a rationale of Netanyahu’s, Ross said, that “in effect it made more sense to have conflicts every few years which you could manage at a reasonable cost, than to have to go back in to Gaza. That policy turned out to be wrong.”

Today, he said, the American government was asking Qatar what the benefit was of its relationship with Hamas. The fact that in recent days both the CIA director, Wil-

16 November 2023 Jewish News

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ISRAEL AT WAR liam Burns and the head of Mossad, David Barnea, had visited Qatar, indicated, said Ross, “that they see the Qataris as maybe the only channel that they feel is useful in terms of getting the hostages back”.

He also believed that post-conflict, when there should be necessary international investment into Gaza’s reconstruction, “that Qatar should be one of the major funders, under a leadership that is no longer Hamas”.

The ambassador warned that “Hamas is not going to be eliminated. First, it exists outside Gaza.

What Israel is seeking to do is to destroy its military wherewithal, meaning its ability to fire and make rockets, mortars and bombs… its ability to be the strongest military power in Gaza. So one, it’s trying to destroy the Hamas military infrastructure. Two, Israel is trying to destroy its ability to maintain command and control, and that means being able to get at most of the leadership. Three, to undermine its organisational coherence. If you can do all three — that’s not eliminating Hamas. It won’t mean there will be no Hamas followers in Gaza.

But if you do those three things, it means Hamas no longer has the ability to control Gaza”.

Even if those objectives were achieved, Ross said, “Israel can’t

simply withdraw and leave a vacuum. There will need to be some sort of international umbrella for an interim administration.

“The idea that you can turn this over to the PA (Palestinian Authority) is an illusion. The PA now is much too weak, and itself needs to be revitalised and reformed. I do think Arab states

Israel and the Palestinans”. That, he believed, would be something leading to a two-state solution.

Any post-war transition, said the ambassador, should be an interim administration “maybe with some kind of international mandate, which would involve a civil administration, security and reconstruction, and reconstruc-

Ross meeting with Yasser Arafat in the Gaza Strip in 1998

will be ready to do more in Gaza and in terms of revitalising the PA, with a newly empowered Prime Minister, who is put in a position to clean things up. But they [Arab states] will want this tied to some sort of political horizon about how you resolve the conflict between

tion based on being able to manage the materials that are coming in [to Gaza] and being able to monitor their end use. Then you end up with what amounts to reconstruction for demilitarisation”.

Asked if he thought the war would be conducted differently

if there were a different Israeli government, Ross demurred. “I don’t think that. October 7 was the darkest day in Israel’s history, the worst day in terms of killing Jews since the Holocaust, worse than any day during any war, the only war since Israel fought the War of Independence where parts of Israel were actually taken for a period of time — and the shock of that, the trauma, the colossal failure, from an intelligence, military and political standpoint — any government would be prosecuting this war.

“Look at the sheer brutality, the depravity of torturing before you kill, filming and celebrating the torture… it’s not just the anger in response to that. It’s the sense that this is a threat you have to remove, and the problem is that Hamas has embedded itself, deliberately, in densely populated areas, putting command posts under hospitals, weapons launchers in hospitals, mosques, schools”.

In previous conflicts with Hamas, Ross said, Israel set itself the object of hitting military targets. This time it was a matter of forcing Hamas to relinquish control in Gaza. And this time, “Israel needs not just to restore security, but a sense of security”.

No one could view what was taking place in Gaza and not be

affected by it, Ross declared. “But who is mainly responsible for that? Hamas. It approaches its own population as if it’s OK to make all of them martyrs, because it serves their cause.”

As for the hostage crisis, he said, the Israeli government had to balance their return with its military objectives. “Israel will be called on to make some extremely tough decisions. Part of the problem is, what’s credible with Hamas? Will they deliver some of the hostages?

At some point, yes. But the way they negotiate is to put out something, and then when it looks as though there is a response, they up the ante”. Ross believe it was necessary, in that case, for the Qataris to exert serious leverage on Hamas.

And what would signal the end of the war? The ambassador said that would come when it was clear that Hamas’s grip on Gaza had been negated to the extent “that they can’t make a comeback”.

He predicted a conflict “at least for the next few weeks”, although he was hopeful that Israel’s ground forces were making advances that could spell a swifter end to the campaign. “It appears that way,” he said.  Dennis Ross is co-chair of the Jewish People Policy Institute

Does Jewish Law Demand a Response to Climate Change? with Rabbi Jeremy Wieder Rosh Yeshiva at Yeshiva University, New York We are all concerned about pollution and climate change, but what does Judaism ask of us to do about it?

In this very special event, we will hear from a world-class religious leader about how traditional sources apply to this important issue.

Sunday 19 November | 8–9:15pm | In person and online During the current war in Israel, our regular programme of learning will continue wherever possible, and will be dedicated as a merit for the hostages, the injured and those protecting Israel.

Book now: www.lsjs.ac.uk | 020 8203 6427

10 Jewish News 16 November 2023

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ISRAEL AT WAR

JN EYEWITNESS: What I saw at screening of Hamas rape attacks WARNING: this report contains graphic descriptions of distressing images and footage and reports of witness accounts of sexual violence The stories about Hamas terrorists burning entire families alive, beheading children and torturing men and women received wide coverage in the days after October 7.

But the sexual violence committed by Hamas against women has not received the same attention and has even been dismissed as “fake news” by anti-Israel activists and antisemites around the world – most notably by George Galloway, who falsely claimed that the Israeli government has “dropped” the “foul allegations.”

While millions of people have seen the raw footage on social media of Hamas massacring Israelis, video material documenting rape and sexual violence has been scarce.

That’s why Israeli police invited foreign journalists for another “video screening” in the city of Beit Shemesh, this time about sexual violence. The screening, which is a compilation of eyewitness testimonies and video material of the massacre, contains a few videos of women who’ve been killed and in some instances sexually assaulted.

A conclusion one can only draw after seeing videos show at least two women lying naked from the waist down on the grass at the music festival in Kibbutz Re’im.

One of the women’s panties are ripped, as she lies covered in blood in a position that looks like she was raped.

The other woman is wearing what looks like a skirt, but pulled up over her waist, while she appears naked below.

One of the witnesses in the screening, referred to as “S”, stutters as she explains what she saw at the music festival in Kibbutz Re’im on 7 October, when some 270 people were massacred by Hamas.

“S” says she saw a young woman being raped by Hamas terrorists who took turns to

A body bag at the Nova music festival site and, inset right, clothing, wreckage and other damage at the scene. Inset left: JN reporter Jotam Confino

molest her: “He pulled her hair while he raped her and then cut her breasts off,” she said.

“S” explains how the other terrorists were playing with her body parts as if they were toys.

Finally, she says, a terrorist shot the woman in the head while he continued to rape her. The witness also describes how terrorists were walking around holding heads they had chopped off, as some sort of trophy.

“I have never witnessed such cruelty. We have videos that are much worse than what you’ve just seen. There was a pregnant woman whose belly had been cut and the baby removed.

Hamas aren’t animals. They are worse,” police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai told us.

As the screening ended, a few journalists in the room seem almost disappointed and angry that they weren’t shown more “evidence” of the rape. A clearly angry police spokesman fired back, saying the evidence we were shown should be more than enough to draw a conclusion, and that authorities are currently working overtime investigating the sexual crimes while building a case.

The spokesperson also stressed that the evidence isn’t released to the public out of respect for the victims and their families.

Rabbi fasts in plea for Red Cross to visit hostages

by Jenni Frazer @Jennifrazer

A digital screen counts the time since the events of 7 October

Rabbi and educator Avidan Freedman has begun a hunger strike in Israel in an effort to persuade the International Red Cross to visit the kidnapped hostages being held in Gaza by Hamas.

Speaking to Jewish News on the fifth day of his action, the Canadianborn Freedman, 43, said: “There is a non-stop stream of people from all over Israel visiting this initiative”.

He made aliya 13 years ago and set up home in Efrat, on the West Bank. He became involved in an organisation called Yanshoof, an Israeli endeavour which works to stop Israeli arms sales to countries whose regimes violate human rights.

“I have no direct connection with any of the families”, Freedman said, “but I feel that the people of Israel are one big family and that the hostages are my children, my brothers and sisters, my grandmothers and grandfathers. Sitting here for the last five days, I can really attest that that is how most of Israel is feeling”.

Freedman is carrying out his hunger strike in an area in front of the Tel Aviv Museum which has become known as Hostages Square, a place of impromptu tents and installations. The city’s famous Dizengoff fountain has become a place for mini-shrines commemorating those killed in the 7 October attacks.

To accompany his fast, he has

drawn a circle around himself from which he has not moved since his hunger strike began. “The statement is that I won’t move until there is a Red Cross visit, and that Israel should stop humanitarian aid into Gaza until there is a Red Cross visit.”

He hopes that others will take up the challenge, and says there is a plan for other hunger strikers to draw circles around themselves, one for each hostage, and operate in other parts of the country.

Freedman says a number of relatives of the kidnapped have come to see him while he has been on strike.

“They told me they have drawn great strength to see someone who is not related to the hostages take such an extreme step.”

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ISRAEL AT WAR

Copy of Mein Kampf found on the body of a terrorist in Gaza Israeli troops found a copy of Hitler’s Mein Kampf in Arabic on the body of a terrorist in Gaza, President Isaac Herzog told the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg on Sunday, writes Jenni Frazer.

The president said the book was found in a children’s bedroom in a civilian home being used as a terrorist base.

Herzog said the home had included a laboratory in which explosives were being made. It represented further proof of Hamas’s terrorist activity in the heart of the civilian population in Gaza.

The book was found among the personal belongings of one of the Hamas men.

The president said that it had included notes in the margins, highlighted sections and Post-It notes.

Herzog added: “This is Adolf Hitler’s

Isaac Herzog with the book

book, Mein Kampf, translated into Arabic.

This is the book that led to the Holocaust, the book that led to World War Two”.

He said it had been discovered in

northern Gaza, and believed that “the terrorist wrote notes, marked the sections, and studied again and again, the ideology of Adolf Hitler to hate the Jews, to kill the Jews, to burn and slaughter Jews wherever they are.”

President Herzog added: “This is the real war we are facing.”

In an emotional and pointed reference to Armistice Day in the UK, the president recalled that his late father, former President Chaim Herzog, had been a high-ranking officer in the British army during the Second World War, had landed in Normandy and had been among the first officers to enter and liberate BergenBelsen concentration camp. So the subject, Herzog said, was very personal and close to his heart.

OFFICER POSES WITH KID IN HAMAS OUTFIT The Metropolitan Police has admitted “it was not advisable” for one of its officers to pose for a photograph with a child dressed as a Hamas terrorist, writes Jenni Frazer.

The child, whose face is entirely covered with a keffiyeh headdress, with only the eyes showing, is pictured during Sunday’s pro-Palestinian demonstration with a kneeling female police officer on one side and a male officer with riot gear on the other side.

In a social media post on X (formerly Twitter), the Met said: “We always encourage our officers to be engaging and friendly with the public.

Met officer with ‘terrorist’

“However, in the context of a protest about such a contentious issue, we acknowledge that it was not advisable for the officer to agree to pose for the photograph.

“No action will be taken against the officer who we have no reason to think was doing anything other than trying to positively engage.”

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Former Scottish minister booed for Israel support Scotland’s former justice secretary was booed by pro-Palestinian activists at a rally in Glasgow after saying Israel has a right to “defend itself against terrorism”.

Keith Brown, who served in the position under Nicola Sturgeon, spoke at the event on Saturday in front of a large crowd at the city’s Buchanan Street steps.

The rally – which also saw an emotional speech from an eightyear-old Palestinian girl – coincided with others in Scotland’s cities, including in Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Dundee, as well as a highly publicised march in London.

The first speaker during the rally, Brown said he was speaking in a personal capacity, as opposed to as the SNP’s depute leader and a

Keith Brown

former minister.

“We need to be clear, collective punishment is a war crime, and it’s wrong that the Palestinian people are currently being collectively punished for the actions of a terrorist group,” he said.

“The only way that we’re going to end the perpetual cycle of violence in Israel and Palestine is by

addressing the root cause.

“That’s why we stand for a two state solution, which recognises the sovereignty, the independence, the territorial integrity and the right to self determination of both Palestine and Israel.”

Following a good initial reception from the hundreds-strong crowd, boos began to ring out after the former minister said: “As I say, Israel has a right to defend itself against terrorism.”

Despite the response, Brown continued: “But that response must be proportionate. The actions of the Israeli government in recent weeks have been anything but.”

Brown continued his speech against the backdrop of boos which made his remarks difficult to hear.

WELBY CEASEFIRE CALL The Archbishop of Canterbury has called for “an immediate humanitarian ceasefire” in Gaza during a lengthy address to the Church of England’s General Synod on “the devastating violence in Israel and Palestine”.

Claiming he wished to make “no equivalence between the atrocities of Hamas against Israeli civilians and the right and duty of Israel to defend itself”, Justin Welby said on Monday the “humanitarian catastrophe” as a result of Israel’s response to the 7 October Hamas atrocities cannot be morally justified. But the archbishop also admitted: “I do not have military or political answers to this crisis. I do not speak from those perspectives.”

Welby added that the conflict is “prising people apart” in the UK, and he insisted “hateful voices stoking prejudice” must be challenged as he repeated calls for a ceasefire.

In an effort to quell criticism of his

latest address, Welby said: “I want to make clear that there is no equivalence between the atrocities of Hamas against Israeli civilians, and the right and duty of Israel to defend itself. I have emphasised that previously, and I do so again. But I also want to make clear that I do not believe the devastating loss of civilian life and humanitarian catastrophe resulting from Israel’s bombardment and siege of Gaza can be morally justified. I think we need to be able to say both these things – in fact, it is essential that we do.”

He spoke of the “barbaric slaughter of innocent Israelis by Hamas, the kidnapping of men, women and young children,” which he said “has traumatised Israelis and Jewish people around the world.

‘The suffering of innocent Palestinians cries out as a great wrong. As I have said before: the evils of Hamas cannot be paid by the civilians of Gaza.”

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ISRAEL AT WAR

WALK Tennis body ousts ‘Hitler FILM-MAKERS OUT OF DOC FESTIVAL would be proud’ member The Lawn Tennis Association this week removed a member of its council from his position after he said Adolf Hitler would have been proud of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Wasim Haq, who was appointed to the LTA Council in March 21 to help promote diversity and inclusion within the sport, has been axed after claiming in a social media post – since deleted – over the weekend that “Adolf Hitler would be proud of Benjamin Netanyahu” amid Israel’s ongoing military action in Gaza.

An LTA statement issued on Monday read: “The LTA Board considered this matter today and agreed that the tweet posted by Wasim Haq on 11 November was unacceptable and in no way reflects the

LTA’s position or values.

“Therefore the Board have agreed that Wasim Haq will be removed from his role as an independent councillor with immediate effect.”

Wasim Haq Haq, whose X – formerly Twitter – bio says he also serves on the board of England Golf and the Football Association Council, apologised for his initial post on Sunday.

He wrote: “It has been brought to my attention that a tweet I published yesterday has caused offence. I have deleted the tweet and apologise unreservedly to anyone that has felt offended.”

He later added: “My tweet was directly in relation to comparing two individuals who in my eyes have caused contemporary and historical irreparable harm to victimised communities on both sides of this tragic conflict.

“I am not and never have been the kind of person that targets anyone or any community over any difference ever. I am NOT antisemitic and have never been accused of being so.

“I unreservedly apologise if this was taken in any other way. Anyone who knows me will know that I stand to be counted on behalf of every community that is being marginalised in any way whatsoever and will continue to do so for the rest of my life.

“To all those that are offended, I deeply

Political skirmishes over the Israel-Gaza war that have played out at an international gathering of documentary film-makers in the Netherlands have led to a walk-out by the Palestinian delegation.

The gala opening last week of the festival in Amsterdam had been interrupted by a group who stormed the stage and called the Israeli action on Gaza “a genocide”.

Orwa Nyrabia, director of the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA), outraged some Israeli film-makers by applauding the group as they left the stage.

There were cheers from the audience, as well as apparent

approval from Nyrabia, when the group, from an organisation called workersforpalestine.nl, spoke of their action as linked to pro-Ukraine protests before shouting “From the river to the sea.”

Sixteen prominent Israeli filmmakers wrote an open letter to the IDFA to express their “uttermost dismay” at the interruption of the opening of the 12-day festival.

“We see this as a personal attack against us,” they said.

“We call on the director of IDFA to clearly and resoundingly distance themselves and withdraw any platform from those who incite for the annihilation of Israel.”

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FAR-LEFT IS THE POLITICAL OSTRICH OF OUR TIME

BY COLIN SHINDLER PROFESSOR OF ISRAEL STUDIES

British Jews view the killings of 7 October as another tragic episode in Jewish history and recall past massacres in eastern Europe or the Farhud in Iraq in 1941. In contrast, few of the marchers on these pro-Palestine marches would have understood it as a pogrom of ethnic cleansing.

Many Ashkenazi Jews in the UK trace their own history back to the pogroms of 1881/2 in Tsarist Russia

which led to a vast migration to London, New York and Jerusalem.

Then as now, the far left minimised the slaughter of Jews. In 1881, major groups such as the Narodnaya Volya refused to condemn the pogromists because it did not wish to alienate them from the cause of overthrowing the Tsar. It believed that the violence of ‘revolutionary antisemitism’ could be redirected towards the authorities.

Many on the far left in 1881 were actually aghast at the actions of the mass murderers who saw the Jews as Christ-killers and exploiters of the poor. Their silence resided in the logic of political expediency and that higher principles demanded silence.

The killing of Jews was seen as

a sad necessity in the service of the greater good of the revolution. Was a pogrom in 2023 a sad necessity to bring about a free Palestine?

Then as now, some Jews made their bed in the home of the revolution. For some, their Jewishness was peripheral except when it could serve the cause. Only then would they agree to be wheeled out to proclaim their Jewishness.

Yet there were others who asked why Jews should be sacrificial lambs.

There were red lines that should not be crossed. In 1881, Pavel Akselrod, one of the founding fathers of the revolutionary left, was unable to secure the Narodnaya Volya’s agreement to publish a condemnation of the pogromists. This marked an ideological watershed for Akselrod, who afterwards followed the path of democratic socialism and political freedom.

This mindset of silence when it came to pogroms during the 1880s made many Jews conclude that Jews

they could not depend on the far left for their salvation. It was autoemancipation – not emancipation by others – that mattered. Many became Zionists more than a decade before Herzl, no longer part of the Russian left but now part of the Jewish Left.

In the 1990s, the far left in Britain cultivated Islamists as a means of attracting the Muslim community to their banner because they viewed them as ‘the new proletariat’. During protests over the invasion of Iraq in 2003, Trotskyists happily worked with the Muslim Association of Britain, an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Hamas — also a derivative of the Muslim Brotherhood — was depicted as a textbook liberation movement in the belief that it would eventually turn to the left.

Jon Lansman and David Baddiel have refused to conform to this zeitgeist. Jews on the far left have similarly been shocked by last month’s pogrom. The Jewish American academic Judith Butler had described

Hamas as ‘progressive’ in 2006 but today she is appalled by 7 October.

Jewish commentators at Novara Media jumped back from depicting Hamas as ‘the resistance’ once it was clear that a massacre was taking place.

In 1881, many Jews asked the revolutionary left in Russia why it compromised with racists. In 2023, many Jews ask why the far left in Britain allies itself with reactionary Islamists.

The far left has long refused to recognise that Arab nationalism and Jewish nationalism arose at the same point with claims to the same territory, and that the rational solution is partition. This is a compromise that Hamas cannot make — and one the far left refuses to see.

The chant, heard on last week’s demonstration, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”, is a plea for a greater Palestine, not a twostate solution. Many Jews see this as a judenrein territory.

The far left is blind to all this. They are the political ostriches of our time.

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ISRAEL AT WAR

‘A very wrong thing’: rabbis are rebuked over burial of victims Appalled Knesset members have warned Israel’s rabbinate that they must find a solution to the strict rules governing cases of conversion and burial, after cases came to light of burials “outside the cemetery fence” of people murdered on 7 October, but not considered Jewish according to halacha, or Jewish law.

Olga Palhati lost her 23-year-old daughter Alina to Hamas terrorists when she was killed at the Supernova music festival at Kibbutz Re’em. The Russian-Israeli could not be buried inside the Beit She’an cemetery because, rabbis ruled, she had not completed her conversion to Judaism at the time of her death.

The young woman’s mother told a Knesset committee considering the speeding up of the conversion process for those currently serving in the IDF — thought to be an issue for more than 7,000 young people — that Alina “died because the terrorists looked for Jews to kill.

They didn’t look to see who’s Christian.”

Palhati, 49, told the Times of Israel that Alina should have been buried as a Jew “because she had decided to be Jewish, and the only reason she didn’t finish her conversion was because she was killed for her Judaism.

“It hurts and it deeply disappoints us that she wasn’t buried in accordance with who she was.”

Palahti, who is not Jewish, emigrated to Israel in 2001 with her Jewish husband, Roman,

MKs heard from the mother of a murdered woman who had not finished her conversion

from Kaliningrad. The couple’s son Ilya, Alina’s older brother, completed an Orthodox conversion process and is thus regarded as Jewish.

The Knesset committee’s chair, Oded Forer, said he was “ashamed on behalf of the state of Israel that you were treated this way”.

He called Palhati’s treatment “the greatest

insult to someone who sanctified the land of Israel with their blood, who left their place in exile to come here.” He then declared: “I want to be buried next to such a person, even if it means being buried outside the fence.”

In another case discussed by the committee, an entire family killed by Hamas terrorists

were buried outside the fence of the Dimona cemetery, because the father of the family, Evgeni Kapshiter, was not Jewish.

Though his wife, Dina, and their two children, Aline, aged eight, and Eitan, aged five, were halachically Jewish, the children’s grandparents decided that all four should be buried side by side.

Those listening to the testimonies appeared horrified.

Elazar Stern, a Knesset member from Yesh Atid, said: “I apologise on behalf of all Judaism.

This is not the Judaism we are a part of. Not our children’s, not our grandchildren’s [and] not my Judaism.”

Rabbi Haim Amsalem, a former Shas MK, said the treatment of these families bordered on criminal. “There is no description,” he said, “that can capture this very wrong thing.”

And one rabbi, Eliezer Simcha Weiss, a member of the rabbinate’s committee for honouring the dead, said he thought there could and should be solutions to these situations.

He said: “They did not distinguish between Jews and non-Jews in the brutal attack. We can do everything in line with Jewish law.”

Another MK, Yuli Malinovsky, said: “If on the subject of conversion and burial, you won’t change the limits, the people will blow up the limits for you. Today, we’re asking you. In the future, we will demand it.”

Sanctions to halt NATHANEL EVENT Podcaster’s role in Hamas’ funding HACKED ONLINE doubt after tweets Britain and the United States have this week targeted key Hamas leaders and financiers with new sanctions as they seek to cut off funding for the terrorist group after its massacre in Israel.

Foreign secretary Lord Cameron confirmed yesterday that sanctions were being imposed on four Hamas leaders and two financiers.

The men on the Foreign Office statement included Yahya Sinwar, Hamas’ political leader in Gaza, and Muhammed Deif, commander of the group’s military arm.

Sinwar is reported to have been involved in the 7 October terrorist attacks on Israel.

The sanctions show that the group’s leaders cannot escape the consequences of their actions, even if they are pulling the strings from outside Gaza.

Those covered by the sanctions also include a Lebanonbased financier and money launderer in Sudan.

Cameron, a former prime minister who was brought into the cabinet following the

sacking of Suella Braverman, said: “We will continue to use every tool at our disposal to disrupt the abhorrent activity of this terrorist organisation, working with the United States and our other allies, making it harder for them to operate and isolating them on the world stage.

“The Palestinian people are victims of Hamas too. We stand in solidarity with them and will continue to support humanitarian pauses to allow significantly more lifesaving aid to reach Gaza.”

The United States announced its third round of sanctions since the attack, targeting key Hamas officials and the mechanisms through which Iran provides support to Hamas and its ally Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), another militant group.

In the UK, Cameron said the country “stands in solidarity” with the Palestinian people caught up in the crisis and calls on all parties to agree to humanitarian pauses to allow lifesaving aid into Gaza.

The sister of young BritishIsraeli soldier, Nathanel Young, who died in the Hamas attacks on the Gaza border on October 7, has spoken of her “sickening and horrific” experience when a ceremony she was addressing online was hacked and daubed with swear words and a “Free Palestine” slogan.

Gaby Young, whose Nathaniel event was hacked brother Nathanel was killed in the first IDF clashes with appearance of a huge swasHamas last month, had been tika over Nathaniel’s picture invited by the Lone Soldier – a giant ‘free Palestine’ sign Centre in Memory of Michael also materialised during a Levin to speak in a ceremony memorial prayer”.

She told Jewish News that honouring lone soldiers who died in the terror attacks. In the organisers immediately all, seven family members ended the session and a new link was sent out a few minwere due to speak.

She said: “My biggest utes later, enabling those worries were having to present to pay tribute to their speak in Hebrew (not my loved ones who had died in first language) and not the service of Israel.

But she said far fewer welling up with tears on screen”. But as the cer- people were able to attend emony began on Zoom, the second event, because the what Ms Young called “an new link was not as widely imbecilic hacker who went circulated, and friends of by the name ‘David’ started Nathanel who had hoped to scribbling vulgarities on pay tribute were unable to the screen, followed by the attend the session.

The future of Guardian presenter Chanté Joseph’s relationship with the newspaper looks in doubt after a new episode of her Pop Culture podcast failed to appear.

The Guardian has told Jewish News the weekly podcast was “taking a break” but declined to say when or whether it would return.

It is thought that the absence of the episode, scheduled to appear on Thursday morning on the media group’s website, is linked to her posting of pro-Hamas tweets to her personal account following the 7 October attacks.

In March, the Guardian had announced a second series of the podcast, which says it “digs deep into the stories we can’t stop talking about”, and the series celebrated its return (“Pop Culture with Chanté Joseph is back!”) on 14 September after a summer break.

At the end of September, Joseph appeared at Kings Place, where the media group is based, as part of the London Podcast Festival.

After Joseph’s offensive tweets were revealed, a Guardian spokesperson said they were “completely unacceptable social media posts by a freelance contributor. Senior managers are taking this very seriously and have spoken to the person concerned, who is deeply regretful at their lapse in judgment and has immediately deleted the posts.”

The following week she was asked to step down from the panel at a Stylist Live event on 10-12 November.

Joseph was the host of a documentary series on Channel 4 called How Not To Be Racist.

Her first book, A Quick Ting On: British Black Power, part of a series by Jacaranda Books dedicated to black British culture, was scheduled for publication last month and is available to pre-order. Publicity for the book says it will take the reader through “the formative, radical histories of Black British activism”.

Jewish News has contacted Jacaranda for comment.

15

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16 Jewish News 16 November 2023

ISRAEL AT WAR

www.jewishnews.co.uk

‘I was captured by Hamas. They killed 120 on my kibbutz.

Somehow I survived’

What Adi Efrat saw and heard at Be’eri on 7 October will On Saturday 7 October, more than 120 haunt her forever. She tells Michelle Rosenberg her story men, women and children of Kibbutz Adi Efrat: ‘People were trying to kill me’

Be’eri were slaughtered by Hamas terrorists. Adi Efrat miraculously survived and, four weeks later, arrived in in London to give her testimony to Jewish News.

At the north London home of Jewish Futures’ Rabbi Naftali Schiff, Efrat told us the majority of fellow survivors from Be’eri have been evacuated to a hotel near the Dead Sea, with others in a hotel in Tel Aviv.

She said: “I feel that we are still in survival mode. Most of the people can’t go back to their jobs. Israel is in state of war. Everything has changed. We are having to reinvent ourselves.

“I try to avoid the news. I’ve been told and I’ve seen pictures of the many demonstrations by pro-Palestinians and it’s hard for me because people were at my door trying to kill me, my friends, my family. They did a massacre. And after one day people forgot. They’re focusing on something else. I can’t understand how it can be.

“It’s hard for me. I don’t have a home any more. I don’t have a kibbutz. Our community has been torn down. We’re separated. It’s going to take many years to rebuild. If it’s safe to go back. Even though it’s so hard to talk about it, over and over again, it’s important. That’s the reason I do it.”

“My story is not the most devastating one.

My friends have stories about their husbands being shot in front of their eyes.”

She speaks of one woman hiding with her badly wounded husband. She took his gun as she saw the rifles coming at the door.

“She had to shoot the terrorists, then held her husband and had to ask his permission to leave him there because she had to run out of the window, because of all the smoke coming into the safe room. And now she’s a widow. And she can’t come here and tell her story. So it’s my job to tell mine. So I do it, even though it’s hard.”

On the day Hamas attacked, Efrat’s husband and 21-year-old daughter were at different places across the kibbutz. Her son was in the north and was safe.

She continued: “Our lives were threatened for so many hours. Many houses were broken into, bombed and shot at. Some people were crying for help and no help came for many hours. You can hear the terrorists. You can hear Arabic outside the door. Gunshots being fired.

That’s crazy to be frightened for so long. That’s trauma in itself.”

Efrat said she was praying that what was with them. I begged them to leave me alone.”

When the terrorists first entered Efrat’s happening to her friends and neighbours safe room, they asked for her phone. “They wouldn’t happen to them.

“I hear them at my door. And I let my family put my phone into a bag which had a lots of know [what’s happening] via WhatsApp because others. So I understood from that they had taken people hostage,” she said. we are afraid to talk.”

“It was frightening for me to go with them By about 9.30am she said she knew her husband’s house was on fire and she and her but I had no choice. They had rifles with them. daughter were begging him to stay in the safe I asked them to let me change my clothes. I room. Efrat told him to stay there “because to had only my pyjamas on. They let me, but all die from smoke was perhaps not so fast and the time they were looking, checking, maybe that I didn’t have any weapons.” maybe the IDF would come and save him”.

Efrat told Jewish News she didn’t think Efrat said she hoped if she made no noise, the ‘even for a second’ about trying to find someattackers would think no one was home.

“But I heard them trying to break my door thing to defend herself with. “I didn’t think down. And after seconds they were inside my about being smart or to resist them. No. I was safe room. I was very scared. I could hear my thinking about cooperating. I was thinking about saving myself. I was thinking about my heart pounding so hard, so fast.”

The first thing the terrorist said to her was: family, who would be worried sick about me.”

“Don’t worry, we’re not going to hurt you.” Efrat said: “I was eased for a second. But I told him, ‘I don’t believe you’.

“There were two. They were wearing civilian clothes. They were armed. I begged them not to take me, but they didn’t listen.

“They told me they had finished what they had done here and they wanted to just go home but they needed her car.”

She tried to explain that as a socialist community the kibbutz didn’t have private cars. “They looked like they didn’t believe me. I was shivering. I was trying to think, what can I do?

“I remembered the kibbutz has many cars and told them I would tell them where they were parked.”

She handed over an immobiliser to unlock every single key and told them they could have all the cars they want.

“They spoke to each other in Arabic,” she says. “I can speak very basic Arabic because my parents made aliyah from Morocco in 1956. So I told them in Arabic ‘a hundred cars’. They looked excited to know they could have that many. I felt relieved they would go away. I tried to point in the direction of the dining room and they were confused, saying I had to come Burying the dead of Be’eri

The last thing she’d written on their family WhatsApp chat was ‘They’re here’. And now her phone was gone. The terrorists then took Efrat, gripping her hand firmly “to make sure I’m with them all the time. The one that spoke English tried to make small talk and that was very odd. Asking me where I’m from, do I have a husband, do I have kids. So I made conversation with him. I asked him questions as well.”

She recalls the terrorist responding that he had “kids… too many kids”.

Reaching a main road on the kibbutz, they heard gunshots at a distance.

Efrat said: “They got startled and held me strongly by the hand and told me to run with them. It was scary, not because of the gunshots but because the hope I had for them to get the cars and go was shattered. They were running towards the west and west for me is the Gaza Strip. And I understood that there was a strong possibility for me to be a hostage.”

Picking up a map of the kibbutz, Efrat pointed out the locations of herself and her husband’s and her daughter’s houses, describing where she heard the gunshots and where she was dragged by the terrorists.

She recalled one terrorist told her: “Don’t worry, we’re going to take you to a place where there’s women like you”, and they took her to the back yard of another house where she was met by an elderly woman and her carer.

The carer was handcuffed from the front and three terrorists were there, looking “very organised, very strict with their orders, fast”. The terrorists that had taken her from her house were already gone.

“They zip-tied my hands from behind, very hard and very painful.

They took my sunglasses from my face, even though I explained to them that they are prescription and I cannot see without them.

“The old lady was eating an apple.

She had dementia so was asking questions all the time, and was being told to ‘shush’. We’re trying to explain to her that she’s not allowed to talk.

16 November 2023 Jewish News

www.jewishnews.co.uk

17

ISRAEL AT WAR “A few minutes went by and I heard a child, a toddler, very loud, very frightened. I’ve never heard a child cry like that. He cried for his father: ‘Father, I want my father… where’s my father?’

“Soon I see more terrorists. One is holding the child in the air by one arm, and he tosses him on the porch beside us. The second the child hits the ground he’s trying to run away and I’m afraid they will shoot him. So I’m trying to lean over to him. The caregiver is also afraid and is trying to hold him beside her. I’m thinking, what can I do to distract him, to deflect him?

“He’s crying for his daddy. I asked him what his daddy’s name is. He’s says his name, and I’m trying to run the names through my head.

Who do I know from the kibbutz with that name? I can’t remember. So I ask where does he work? And while he’s answering me, the child is remaining still, which is good.

“Soon after, another terrorist arrives with a woman and a little boy. They are both wounded.

I see blood running over the boy’s head. He’s very agitated. He’s asking questions: ‘What’s going to happen to us?’ And his mother, who is also mother to the small toddler, she’s having trouble walking.

“She collapses on the floor beside me. She tells me: ‘They shot my husband and Mila is dead.’ I don’t know what to say and I ask, ‘Sorry, who’s Mila?’ and she replies, ‘That’s my baby.’

“I’m trying to hold on to hope and say ‘maybe she’s only wounded, how can you know? ‘But the woman says: ‘They shot her in the head.’

“I don’t have my arms to hug her. I just put my head on my shoulder. I don’t have tears. Everything is going so fast. They want her to change her shirt because it’s full of blood. She tells me she’s been shot in her abdomen. She’s lost blood and she’s weak. She tells me: ‘I’m not going to survive this’.

“And her son. The little boy. Maybe eight years old. He says: ‘Mama, what are they going to do to us?’ And she says to him: ‘They’re going to kill us’. And I know she has lost hope.

“And somehow I’m thinking about this boy and I want him to have hope even if it’s our last minutes. So I tell him, ‘We don’t know.’ I talk to him in Hebrew and say that I don’t think the terrorists know either.”

Efrat recalled how the mother turned to her again and said: ‘I’m not sure I’m going to survive this. So please, please, I want you to swear that you’re going to take care of my kids.” Efrat made that promise.

She continued: “It’s a surreal situation. The care giver is asking permission to bring medicine to the elderly woman. All the terrorists care about is that my pyjamas are see-through and they don’t want to see my body.

“And they want to bring me something else to wear. The minutes go by.”

Eventually, Efrat is separated from the mother and her boys with a terrorist telling her: “You need to understand that if you do what I say, you’re going to be alright. This family, they didn’t listen to us and they tried to run away. And that’s why I shot them.”

Efrat is not told where she is going.

“The terrorist pulls me back. He has a knife.

And he releases me from my handcuffs and tells me there is something they need me to do.”

That was the last she saw of the care-giver, who she later found out was murdered, while the old lady, the mother and her sons survived.

Efrat is taken along kibbutz roads, and the terrorists want her help to drag the bodies of their friends out of their cars. They tell her they don’t know if the men are alive or dead.

Walking over, she held her hands up because “if IDF soldiers see me, they would know I was a hostage”. As she approached the cars, she tries

Hell on earth: Be’eri after the 7 October attack. Only at 2am the following day did Efrat find out that her husband and daughter had survived

to think how to say in Arabic, ‘I’m here to help you’ so they don’t shoot her.

After three or four steps, she heard gunshots and the terrorists grab her and make a run for it. She describes seeing nothing else but the ground and other terrorists joining them. They run to another house, which is burning. “Its hot, it’s frightening.”

Efrat is alone with 10 or 15 terrorists. She said she tried to make herself as small possible.

She continued: “Immediately they start fighting. There’s very heavy shooting, all kinds of rifles, they have RPGs on the floor. For me, every second is dangerous.

They are all armed and at any second they can decide to shoot me on the spot.”

She covered her head with a book from a shelf. She continued: “I could see their movements.

They looked very trained.

The fighting goes on a long time, maybe 15 minutes. I prayed for them to be busy fighting and to forget about me.

But some of them are looking at me. They were all new faces, not the ones who brought me.

“Slowly the fighting calmed down. Fewer shots. And the terrorists retreated towards the back yard leaving me on my own. I heard Hebrew from a distance. I think maybe they’ve gone for good.

“I know if I try to move and the IDF are there, if they see movement maybe they will think I’m a terrorist. So I have to be very smart. I needed to let them know I’m a civilian before I move. But if I call out, the terrorists might decide to come back and take me.”

In the end, Efrat decided she would cry

❝

out to the soldiers. “I shout in Hebrew. They respond, ‘There’s a a civilian here!’ and immediately the shooting starts again from both sides.

“I feel guilty that maybe because of me soldiers will be hurt. After a few minutes it’s quiet again and I hear the Hebrew again.”

Efrat said she cried out a second time for the soldiers. A unit arrived to clear the house and a soldier was appointed to look after her, reassuring her that she’s safe.

As she was led away, Efrat saw the body of a woman, face down, on the floor: “She was handcuffed. Just as I was.”

Beside the woman, in a burning car, was the twisted body of a man, “in a very strange position, so I knew he was dead. He was half burnt.”

The soldiers told her not to look. She stayed with them for an hour and a half, while the fighting went on. A soldier stayed with her the whole time, looking after her, encouraging her to drink.

“I told them not to worry about me. To do their job. To do what they needed to do. Because it’s very hard for me to know people my daughter’s age are fighting and are trying to protect me. Because they are my brothers. It’s very hard to know that young people need to do this job.”

One IDF soldier told her: “This is our job.

This is what we are trained for. That’s what we came here to do.”

Four soldiers were wounded and treated in front of her, before a decision was made to evacuate the injured, by foot, under fire, with Efrat.

The rest of the unit remained to fight.

I CAN’T COMPREHEND HOW IT CAN BE THAT SOME PEOPLE BELIEVE THIS IS THE WAY TO FIGHT FOR LAND – OR WHATEVER THEY SAY THEY’RE FIGHTING FOR

Efrat wasn’t fully evacuated by army trucks from the kibbutz until midnight, with sirens still sounding, bombs going off, terrorists still at large and shooting at traumatised survivors. The first thing she did was to borrow a phone and tell her family that she was alive.

Only at 2am did she know that her husband and daughter had survived.

Some 108 body bags were taken out of Kibbutz Be’eri. Efrat said: “To this day we’re not sure about all the dead because not all of them have been identified. Some of the cruelty conducted there was unbelievable. Some of the body bags contained several body parts for several people, because they abused them before killing them.

Some of the people were burnt so badly it’s hard to identify them. We don’t know.

“We don’t have confirmation about all the people who have been kidnapped. We’re still trying to gather eye-witnesses to identify the people before they were taken.”

She told Jewish News: “For 20 years we’ve been bombed and no country can tolerate that. For several years now, I guess they had been training for that awful, awful black day.

To do that massacre, to kill us. To make us run away from our homes.

“I can’t comprehend how can it be some people believe this is the way to fight for land or whatever it is they say they’re fighting for?

“For years we tried to be at peace with them. I still want to believe in mankind. That people are good. It’s hard now because any decent country, its job is to protect its people. And Israel tried to do that with ethics, morals and values.

“It came back at us like a boomerang. And those people said all the time that they want us dead. And they did it.”  Adi Efrat is in the UK with educational charity Jewish Futures to ensure her story is heard by as many people as possible

18 Jewish News 16 November 2023

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19

ISRAEL AT WAR

BBC in synagogue face-off over Israel-Hamas coverage

by Jenni Frazer jenne@jewishnews.co.uk

Two senior BBC executives have rejected an accusation the broadcaster is “institutionally antisemitic” —with one, director of editorial policy and standards David Jordan, telling a South Hampstead Synagogue audience member who said it if he though it were true, he would not be working for the corporation.

Jordan and director of nations Rhodri Talfan Davies (covering the output of 2,500 local and regional journalists), were facing a sometime hostile and heckling crowd in an event organised by the Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA).

Among those present was Noah Abrahams, the BBC Radio Derby reporter who quit his job over the broadcaster’s refusal to designate the Hamas attackers as “terrorists”.

The evening, moderated by CAA chief executive Gideon Falter, heard numerous complaints put to both men about the BBC’s reporting.

Issues ranged from fury at “speculation” by Jon Dennison on who was responsible for bombing the Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza to what sounded like near-universal loathing of BBC former Middle East editor and now international editor Jeremy Bowen.

Falter began by reminding the packed audience, including at least

a dozen Jewish BBC staff, “the BBC is not monolithic and it is not in the Jewish community’s interest to be in a permanent stand-off with it”.

He noted the genesis of the event lay in a fractious dispute between the Jewish community and the BBC over reporting of an antisemitic attack on a busful of Orthodox Jewish children and teenagers on Chanukah 2021.

An audio recording had emerged in which the BBC maintained “antiMuslim slurs” were heard, though Jewish sources strongly disagreed.

Both Ofcom and the BBC had conducted investigations.

Falter said conversations had been initiated between the CAA and the two BBC executives, which had led to last week’s event.

Davies and Jordan spent considerable time talking about the BBC’s role and the importance of “trust” between broadcaster and audience.

But despite Davies saying repeatedly the BBC should always acknowledge when it made mistakes, particularly in the heat of war reporting, there were passionate exchanges with the audience.

One woman complained the BBC did not understand how the impact of incorrect reporting on the Jewish community led to a climate of anxiety and fear.

Davies said: “The reason the BBC is trusted is because we give the audience the clearest possible view of

A protest outside the BBC in London against its Israel coverage

what has happened. Our job is to hold up our hands when we get it wrong”.

A lengthy discussion of why the BBC would not use the word “terrorist” to describe the Hamas attackers except when quoting an institution or an individual showed the audience did not accept the explanation of necessary neutrality — and there was near uproar when Jordan pointed out that terminology changed over time, with leaders such as Nelson Mandela once being designated as a terrorist and going on eventually to become leader of his country.

It was also clear some in the audience believed — mistakenly — he was going to cite the example of Menachem Begin, also once described as a terrorist by the British government, becoming Israel’s prime minister.

Davies said one of the problems the BBC faced was the complex “verification” process, which was often too slow. Steps were being taken, he said, to “spend more resource in improving the verification process”.

Other questions included why had the BBC still not released the findings of the 20-year-old Balen Report, an internal review of its Middle East coverage which the corporation spent thousands of pounds in court defending its right not to publish, Among more nuanced issues, one pre-submitted question asked why the BBC had not so far covered the stories of the repeated rapes during the Hamas attacks, particularly at the music festival at Kibbutz Re’im.

Davies said he was not aware of the BBC not reporting on the incidents,

but promised to ask his colleagues as soon as possible.

Both men acknowledged it was not possible for BBC output to be perfect, but claimed changes had been made and continued to be made since 7 October including casualty figures from the Gaza Ministry of Health now being prefaced with the reminder the ministry is Hamas-controlled.

“Now we give the source [of the information] before the claim”, Jordan said. “Before, we gave the claim and then the source”, a reversal that enabled the viewer or listener to assess the claim more objectively.

A CAA spokesperson thanked the BBC men for joining “this unprecedented event”, the first time BBC executives had spoken to the Jewish community and “the product of an ongoing relationship to try to build trust with our nation’s broadcaster”.

The spokesperson added: “British Jews have strong feelings about the BBC and its coverage of matters of Jewish interest, antisemitism.

“It is a credit to these senior BBC figures that they came before the community in an effort to listen to the hurt and fear that British Jews feel.

“We hope they will report these sentiments back to the newsroom, and we look forward to continuing this relationship with the BBC in the knowledge that building trust on behalf of the Jewish community will be a long but essential process.”

DOG POSTERS STAY UP, KIDNAP POSTERS DO NOT

BY ALEX HEARN

DIRECTOR, LABOUR AGANIST ANTISEMITISM

There is a poster which is so dangerous people in Britain and all over the world have been frantically removing it as quickly as possible wherever it appears.

You might wonder what image could provoke such a visceral reaction. Perhaps it is something so warped that it harms impressionable minds, or maybe it is something which could incite violence?

You may well have unwittingly walked past the remnants of these posters. I did on my way to a conference about fighting antisemitism, while other posters nearby remained untouched.

They are in fact ‘missing’ posters and this is the phenomenon of

the missing ‘missing’ posters. The posters show images of kidnapped babies, children and family members, put up by people to raise awareness of their plight. Normal family pictures, just like the ones most people have in their phones.

Everyday people who anyone can relate to, but with one thing in common: they are all Jewish.

As an Israeli said to me when describing Hamas after the massacre on 7 October, ‘they don’t see us as human’. These images are like kryptonite to people who share that mindset, because they humanise Jews.

Missing dog posters stay up on one side of a lamppost, while posters of missing Jewish children on the other side are torn down.

This tells us everything we need to know about where Jews fit in the hierarchy of the antisemitic mind.

These images aren’t just being removed, they are also being disfigured. One video in the US shows a

woman with a large knife stabbing at the faces in a frenzy. Back in the UK, a man was filmed writing ‘coloniser’ on the image of a baby’s face, while elsewhere Hitler moustaches were drawn onto toddlers. These are the worst things they could think of to dehumanise babies as the concept of evil. And that is the story of antisemitism. ‘The Jews’ becomes a concept, symbolising whatever is evil at the time.

When confronted on film, not one person could give a rational explanation for removing the posters, because there isn’t one.

A mother of two kidnapped children confronted someone pulling down their posters and he laughed — the joy of publicly breaking the taboo of antisemitism was too much for him to contain.

I made a video about the phenomenon of the missing ‘missing’ posters which went viral on TikTok. It was mass reported and removed, so the story of the

missing ‘missing’ posters also went missing — digitally torn down.

Another aspect to this has been the partial failure by institutions to support Jewish citizens. Police officers in two parts of the UK and Germany have been filmed removing these posters, legitimising dehumanisation.

Meanwhile many people have turned into something akin to David Irving or Alex Jones after Sandy Hook, denying testimonies and the footage Hamas terrorists filmed on their GoPros. Instead, they demand to see families suffer more pain by exposing the corpses of their loved ones. But that still wouldn’t stop their denial.

There is a familiarity with the taunting of Holocaust denial. As Primo Levi remembered being told by a death camp officer: “And even if some proof should remain and some of you survive, people will say that the events you describe are too monstrous to be

believed: they will say they are the exaggerations of Allied propaganda and will believe us, who will deny everything, and not you.”

Dark truths from the Holocaust are now eerily identifiable in the antisemitism around us. We live in a society where truth can be turned on its head, irrational thinking can become accepted norms and torturing babies to death can be ‘resistance’.

There is a reason this piece is being published by a Jewish newspaper when it should have a wider audience. Publishing it is an act of bravery and defiance. Meanwhile it won’t only be Jews who suffer, as we have already seen from this hateful ideology. And extremists of all types will make hay from it.

The campaign to extinguish the memory of these hostages tells us exactly why they went missing in the first place.

And the missing voices around them speaks volumes.

20 Jewish News 16 November 2023

www.jewishnews.co.uk

ISRAEL AT WAR

AI USHERS IN A FORMIDABLE NEW FRONTIER IN WARFARE

BY STEPHEN SMITH

CEO OF TECH STARTUP STORYFILE In the early hours of 7 October, a harrowing scene unfolded in southern Israel. It was reminiscent of the brutal Chmielnicki pogroms of the 17th century – a low-tech massacre targeting Jewish civilians, still sleeping in their beds. This stark act of medieval violence contrasts sharply with the high-tech battleground of today’s warfare and propaganda, where AI plays a pivotal role on and off the battlefield.

The recent AI revolution has opened a new front in warfare – one that extends beyond physical conflict to the digital realm. In this age, AI is a double-edged sword, capable of both sowing the age-old battle of disinformation and aiding in the quest for truth.

Project T.R.U.T.H. is an app designed to combat the rampant spread of false information. Utilising an AI bot, this application scrutinises texts provided by users, discerning fact from fiction, and offering commentary.

I decided to try out the T.R.U.T.H. technology by putting in a matter of fact statement: “Israel has a right to self defence, but must adhere to international law in regard to the treatment of civilians during combat.”

The AI answered: “Indeed, Israel does uphold international law, strictly targeting only Hamas-led facilities, not civilians. Tragically, Hamas uses innocent Palestinians as shields, placing weapons in civilian neighbourhoods. Israel won’t abandon the right to self-defence due to Hamas’s inhuman tactics. #IsraelDefends #HamasEndangers I gave the same task to Chat GPT. It answered: “Israel, like any sovereign nation, has the right to self-defence, yet it remains bound by international law to ensure the protection and humane treatment of civilians in any military action.”

T.R.U.T.H. AI is programmed to provide a point of view. Not all AI’s are born equal.

T.R.U.T.H is is just not programmed to provide the facts, despite its name. There is a darker side to AI, which is even more prominent, such as the example of an AI-generated image of a baby screaming amid the rubble of a destroyed building. Initially used to highlight the devastation of the earthquake in Turkey and Syria in 2023, the same image resurfaced

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in the wake of 7 October. Repurposed for propaganda, the image was widely disseminated on social media and posters, ostensibly representing the suffering in Gaza, blurring the lines between reality and fabrication.

Israel has seen its share of AI misuse as well. A widely circulated generative AI image shows IDF soldiers being hailed as heroes by crowds that never existed. These generated images serve to bolster morale and support at the cost of historical truth.

Platforms like OpenAI’s DALL-E, aware of the potential misuse of their technology, have imposed restrictions on creating graphic and politically charged imagery. These measures have not fully stemmed the tide. The Pales-

tinian protest movement has adeptly used AI tools to generate propaganda materials for widespread distribution, showcasing the ease with which AI can be employed to shape narratives and influence public opinion.

In full disclosure, I use AI tools in my daily work everyday, including in the writing of this piece. It helps me with my research, my structure, even my typos. But I never use AI to form my opinion, write for me, or give moral input. I am well aware of its limitations.

The role of AI underscores a broader truth about technology – while it is inherently neutral, its application has profound implications for good or evil. Like any machine it reflects the intentions and ethics of its users. There is a phrase in the AI community, “Just because you can, does not mean you should.”

This digital battlefield presents a stark contrast to the brutal and bloody reality of 7 October. The AI wars underway call for a balanced approach. In so doing we may yet navigate these uncharted waters safely, deploying AI as a force for good, in a world all too familiar with the darker side of technology. Stephen is the co-founder and CEO of tech startup StoryFile and cofounder of the National Holocaust Centre in Nottingham

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SHANI MISSED A BIKE RIDE WITH FRENDS ON 7TH OCTOBER SHE MISSES THEM EVEN MORE NOW Shani, a mother of two teenagers, woke up at 6:30am on 7th October at her beachfront home in Kibbutz Zikim. She decided she was too tired to join her friends on their regular cycle ride and chose to stay in bed a little longer. This saved her life. Her friends went on their bike ride along the border wall without her and were murdered as they encountered the terrorists head on.

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ISRAEL AT WAR

Motti saved his daughter and another 30 survivors

Nitzan and her cousin survived the brutal attack on the Nova music festival in southern Israel by hiding under the dead, writes Itay Gross

W

e caught up with Motti Ezra the morning after a huge ‘gratitude feast’ he held at his house in the centre of Israel. Three and a half weeks previously, all he could think about was rescuing his daughter, Nitzan, a survivor of the Nova rave. He left the house determined to bring her back home and, while he was at it, he ended up rescuing more than 30 other survivors.

The main reason for the Gratitude Feast was that the wife of his son, Amit, is pregnant with a baby daughter. “It was a very emotional evening. The rabbi of our community came to give his blessing; we had bards singing and a lot of friends,” Motti shares. His testimony of the events of Saturday, 7 October shows that thanks to his heroics, they had much more to be grateful for.

His daughter-in-law announced the pregnancy on 8 October, the day after the hideous Hamas massacre.

“My instinct was to slap my son silly.

If I would’ve known, I would’ve never let him come with me on my rescue mission the day before.”

7 October started as a lazy morning for Motti, who tends to

disconnect from his phone during Shabbat. The sirens did not go out in his community like in many other parts of the country, at 6.30 am.

At 7.30am, he received a text from Nitzan saying that everything was OK. He didn’t even know she was at the Nova rave. Suddenly, the phone wouldn’t stop ringing. His older daughter, Chen, was on her honeymoon in Thailand. She said that people around her were going crazy after hearing the news about what was happening in the south.

At this point, Motti was still thinking the situation was linked to the usual barrage of rockets, not uncommon for the southern region and, he had thought, if a few terrorists had crossed the border, they would be easily and quickly blocked by the security forces.

Meanwhile, Amit had started to realise that this was not what was happening and made his way to his parents house, 15 minutes away from his

Motti rescued his niece, Bat (left), and his daughter, Nitzan

Above: Motti and his daughter Nitzan. Inset: Amit pictured on the rescue mission wearing a ceramic vest he had borrowed from a police volunteer

home. Once there, he made it clear to his father that Nitzan was in danger, and they needed to go rescue her.

His wife, Sandy, almost ripped off her hair and instructed them: “Go bring back my daughter.”

They sped down the motorway – what was supposed to be a 90-minute drive took about 40 minutes.

Motti related his first encounter with the battlefield: “We reached a roadblock near the army base in Urim. Bullets were coming at us from all directions. Soldiers were fending off terrorists from taking control of the base. You could hear on the radio that everyone was in complete shock, with multiple dead and injured. I instructed Amit to take cover behind the tyres of our car.”

After the base was cleared, they continued towards the location Nitzan sent them, a reinforced concrete structure in the open field that was used for taking cover from rockets. Every now and then, Nitzan

texted Amit to say that terrorists were throwing more and more grenades at the group of party-goers who were hiding there. Motti instructed her to hide underneath the bodies.

On his way, he began getting a picture of what was happening. “I saw an endless line of destroyed cars, bodies inside them, lying on the ground everywhere. I saw the soldiers, who in my mind should be the hunters, slaughtered by swarms of terrorists.

“We got back into the car, and I told Amit I wanted him to stay there, in relative safety, while I pursued the search for Nitzan. I told him he had a two-year-old toddler at home, that he works in my business and I needed him to be able to take care of the house in my absence. Because if Nitzan is dead, I will end my life as well; there will be no point for me to come back, I won’t sit shiva over my daughter.”

A month before the attacks, the authorities took away Amit’s gun after he moved from a town in the northern West Bank because they thought he no longer needed it. Since this war began, however,

acquisition of licenses have eased and Motti is now demanding they return Amit’s gun. Despite not having a weapon, Amit wouldn’t let his father continue by himself, insisting he would join him.

While they continued on their way to Nitzan, they encountered a civilian in a private vehicle, wearing a volunteer police hat. “After asking what we came for, he immediately offered to help. These are the people of Israel, selfless and brave.”

The gunfire continued and Motti saw an army helicopter being shot down by Hamas. The sight before them was apocalyptic. Suddenly, a bit before Re’im Junction, a group of 20 young people jumped towards his truck, pleading for help.

Motti shared his dilemma: “What do I do? Leave them behind? And if I take them, leave my daughter behind? Amit convinced me we would be doing something graceful.

I loaded them, filling every inch of my truck, and told them to sit down because I was going to be driving fast.

“I took them to safety in a petrol station that served as an evacuation

16 November 2023 Jewish News 23

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ISRAEL AT WAR spot. They hugged me and asked if we had more weapons so they can come to help us fight. Obviously, I didn’t have anything.

Just my gun and two magazines.”

On his way back, he saw a soldier guarding four live terrorists, handcuffed and with their eyes covered. Soon, more forces arrived, and when they heard Motti’s story, they let him lead a makeshift team of three vehicles.

The convoy made their way to Nitzan’s location, having to move cars blown by rocket-propelled grenades blocking the road. Upon arrival, they spotted Hamas terrorists 450 feet away, in the entrance to Kibbutz Be’eri. Motti ordered everyone to get out of their vehicles and open fire.

“I entered the concrete construction, declaring I am from the IDF [Israel Defence Forces] and that I came to rescue Nitzan. All of a sudden I heard a scream: ‘Daddy, I am here, I hid beneath the bodies like you asked me.’

“It was dark and pungent, the scent a combination of explosives, flesh and body parts. I reached Nitzan, moving the bodies away to get to her. All the while, I heard people saying I was stepping on them. You couldn’t make out anything – who was alive and who was dead.”

This was at 4pm, seven hours after Motti and Amit had left for their rescue mission. One by one, they extricated two more injured people out of the 40 partygoers who were crammed there, almost everyone dead. His niece, Nitzan’s cousin, survived. The two other friends who went

with them were both murdered. On the way back, more sights of carnage were unveiled, with bodies burnt to ashes, destroyed cars and terrorists who surrendered, preferring the comfort of Israeli prison than death in combat.

At 11pm, they returned home, after meeting Motti’s brother and dropping off his injured niece at the hospital. Sandy collapsed. Motti couldn’t stop staring at his daughter, rejoicing that she was with him.

“I think I made a deal with God,” he said. “The 20 survivors who asked me to evacuate them, that was a test. After that, I felt that I had an aura of protection.”

Motti owns a large construction company. He employs 200 Palestinian builders.

Due to the situation, following the news that Gazan workers played a role in collecting intelligence and taking part in the massacre, they are not allowed to work in Israeli communities, which means Motti’s business is in a stalemate.

“I am home with my family. Nitzan sleeps in my bed every night. She invited friends to sleep over with her, but two nights later she wanted to go back to me.

I encourage her to go to work, even for a couple of hours, at the headquarters of one of Israel’s biggest cafe chains, Roladin.

She’s gone through multiple therapy sessions, including a unique one via Zoom with a therapist from the US. “My wife got into a volunteering frenzy and, in the first week of the war, cooked all day for anyone who needed: soldiers, police forces, elderly. At the end, she col-

lapsed. Her doctor told her to take it easy.

“I am convincing Amit to go to therapy as well. Me? I do what I can to help. I heard there are soldiers without showers, so I took a team of builders and within a couple of hours they had warm showers.”

As for his business, he does not know what the future holds. “The government hasn’t approached us, no one is talking to me. I have no clue when we will be able to continue to build.”

Regarding the relationship with his workers, he says: “A lot of the Palestinians saw my rescue video and reached out.

They asked how am I doing and showed sympathy. Many of them voiced that they understand very well that they would not be better off living under Hamas or even the Palestinian Authority’s regime.

“I always told them to stay away from trouble. I know they just want to live and provide for their families.”

Now, between overcoming the trauma, and being optimistic for the future with another granddaughter en route, Motti has a message to his country and the world: “The problem with us Jews is that we forget quickly. I really enjoyed travelling to Turkey, but seeing the demonstrations there and what Erdogan said in his speeches [that Hamas was not a terrorist organisation but a liberation group fighting to protect Palestinian lands], I don’t want to go.

“All the videos from the atrocities have been recorded and published by Hamas, how can the world turn a blind eye?”

Motti and his family at the ‘gratitude feast’ at his home

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25

ISRAEL AT WAR

‘Red Cross visited the terrorists but didn’t visit hostages in the tunnels’

by Beatrice Sayers

An estimated 800 people gathered outside the London offices of the International Committee of the Red Cross calling for the organisation to help the hostages held by Hamas since 7 October.

Noam Sagi spoke of his mother, Ada, who has had hospital treatment for a lung condition. “For 34 days.

Under the ground. In a tunnel with no ventilation. Damp. Can anyone tell me how she is doing, how she is breathing?” he asked. “And the other hostages, how are they doing?”

He said that three days after the massacre, a team from Nir Oz, the kibbutz where his mother lived, managed to deliver medicines, each one labelled with the name of its recipient, to a clinic in Gaza.

“It’s still there – 34 days later,

Strip – and demonstrated his still no one has visited from Arabic to the crowd – spoke the Red Cross.” On 7 October, of his son, Ariel, who escaped Sagi continued, Israel arrested from the Nova festival, his Hamas terrorists. “They got a cousin Jake Marlowe, who visit from the Red Cross in the died, and a friend, who was Israeli jail. Our hostages in the taken hostage. tunnels didn’t.”

He said that while he himself The medical needs and welhad treated horrifically injured fare of the 240 hostages were survivors of the Dolphinarium the focus of the gathering last and Mike’s Place bombings in Thursday in Moorfields, in the 2001 and 2003, “the scale of City. Two British–Israeli docthe atrocities and cruelty that tors joined Sagi’s call for the I have seen is nothing to what humanitarian organisation to was perpetrated on 7 October”. visit the hostages immediately Along with the other to assess their condition.

Noam Sagi at the vigil with participant Tamara speakers, Sagi, a London psy“We’re not asking for the impossible here [but] for the most pital in London. It’s been too long, 34 chotherapist who was born in Nir Oz, addressed the Red Cross directly, basic, simple intervention in line with days. It needs to happen now.”

Consultant trauma, orthopaedic saying: “Today we stand here to ask the humanitarian mission of the Red Cross,” said Dr Elisha Waldman, a and hand surgeon Elliot Sorene, you one thing – do your job.”

Magen David Adom UK issued hospice and palliative medicine spe- who said he had worked in Israel, cialist at Great Ormond Street Hos- southern Lebanon and in the Gaza a statement, saying: “The ICRC’s

main duty of care under the Geneva Convention is to monitor and ensure the wellbeing of hostages and, ultimately, facilitate their freedom. We at MDA UK are deeply and bitterly disappointed, noting that, when hostages are taken from Israel, the ICRC has said next to nothing.”

The ICRC said: “Our hearts go out to people who lost family members on 7 October or who are worried sick about loved ones taken hostage. We want families to know that the plight of their loved ones being held is one of our top priorities and we will never give up trying to visit them.

“We are speaking with Hamas, Israeli officials and others. The ICRC has no means to enforce decisions of the parties to a conflict ... our only tools are dialogue and convincing parties to implement international humanitarian law.”

SYMPATHY FOR ISRAEL ON INCREASE

by Jenni Frazer jenni@jennifrazer.com @Jennifrazer

A Institute for Jewish Policy Research (JPR) report on British attitudes to Israel in the wake of the 7 October Hamas attack shows the proportion of British adults sympathising with the Israeli side has risen from a pre-war level of about 10 percent to about 20 percent, while sympathy for the Palestinian side has fallen from 24 percent to 15-21 percent.

However, JPR executive director Dr Jonathan Boyd notes that “levels of sympathy for the Palestinian side have been gradually climbing and are now approaching their pre-war levels; and criticism of Israel’s military actions is high”.

Citing data from YouGov and Ipsos surveys, the report shows younger people are more likely to sympathise with the Palestinian cause, while older people are more likely to back Israel.

British adults are said to be “over twice as

likely [as those in other countries] to think Israel does not try to minimise harm to civilians than it does make such efforts; and British adults are more likely to think the UK should be more critical toward Israel than it has been. The younger respondents are, the more likely they believe the UK should be more critical”.

There is also a generational difference on arrests at pro-Palestinian demonstrations.

British adults are twice as likely to think police should be making more arrests, though almost all subgroups think they should arrest people who support Hamas at protests in the UK. Boyd says data gathered by YouGov over the past few years suggest the population of Britain is considerably more likely to sympathise with the Palestinians in the conflict.

“Between 2019-2023, about one in four of British adults have said their sympathies lie more with the Palestinians, compared to about one in 10 who sympathise with the Israelis”.

Most people, however (65 percent), either

didn’t know with whom they sympathised, or reported ‘neither’.

YouGov surveys following the Hamas attacks, however, show sympathies appear to have shifted, at least among adults, the report says. Boyd said it was too early to say whether this was a fundamental shift but it constituted early evidence Hamas’ attack “may have backfired in the court of British public opinion, at least in the short-term”.

At the same time, he says: “It is worth noting the data also suggest there is a hard core of support for the Palestinians within British society that retained its fundamental sympathies, even in the immediate light of the extraordinary brutality of the 7 October massacre, at a level of about one in six or seven of all adults.

“In addition, and very importantly, further analysis of these data by age band demonstrates significant distinctions. The younger people are, the more likely they are to sympathise with the Palestinian side, and vice versa.”

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Despite the small shift in sympathy in favour of Israelis, “there remains considerable scepticism about Israel’s military practices”.

The JPR paper notes the “great deal of anxiety” across the UK Jewish community, driven by several factors: the scale and barbarity of the attacks; the close social and familial ties most UK Jews have with Israelis; the dramatic spike in antisemitic incidents in the UK in the aftermath; the pro-Palestinian demonstrations that appear to tolerate antisemitic and hate speech; and some media reporting about the war which feels insensitive or blind to Jewish concerns “and even, on occasion, serves to whip up hatred against Jews elsewhere”.

Boyd added: “The evidence in this report raises several issues that should be of value and concern to Jewish community leaders and policy makers. It calls for closer monitoring of public opinion in the future to inform policy on how best to protect Jewish communal life.”

26 Jewish News 16 November 2023

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ISRAEL AT WAR

Critic of Keir Starmer had spoken in praise of Hamas A British Muslim activist who led an attempt to force Labour councillors to call for Keir Starmer to resign over his position on Gaza has previously spoken openly in support of Hamas, Jewish News can reveal, writes Lee Harpin.

Mukhtar Master, who organised a statement criticising the Labour leader last week as the representative of 20 mosques in Preston, had previously told pro-Palestine supporters at a meeting: “In this day and age, brothers and sisters, we are all Hamas.”

During the speech, the local government manager, now the Muslim lead on Preston’s faith covenant, praised a Hamas-supporting friend he said was sitting in the audience, saying: “Respect to the team, that’s what I say.

“Two weeks ago I went to circuit training and he wore a Palestinian football shirt. Not only did he wear his Palestinian football shirt, but brothers and sisters, he had the name Hamas written on the back of it.

“Now the thing is brothers and sisters, we need to have that attitude.”

Master also added in the speech: “We will fight the fight that needs fighting for the Palestinian brothers.”

At another public pro-Palestine rally, Master told the audience: “We stand in support of the democratically elected government of Palestine, which is Hamas”.

Both speeches were made in 2009, prior to the UK government proscribing Hamas as a terror organisation.

Approached by Jewish News on Monday, Master denied he had ever supported Hamas.

More recently, Master has joined protests in Preston opposing Israel’s response to the 7 October massacre in Israel by Hamas.

On 16 October he was photographed next to Michael Lavellette holding a Preston For Palestine flag. Lavellette, a member of the SWP, and a former councillor in Preston, wrote an article for Counterfire magazine on 8 October on the “Palestinian break out from Gaza” and the “deafening silence” over “atrocities ” by Israel.

Last Friday, Master spearheaded a move by 20 Preston mosques telling Labour councillors in the city to ask Starmer to resign for refusing to back a Gaza ceasefire.

The move made headlines in the national media as Master insisted the city’s mosques “could not sit idly by and allow the atrocities [in

Mukhtar Master at a mosque in Preston

Gaza] to continue without any opposition”.

He told Jewish News that at a meeting last Friday with councillors they “reached a mutually agreeable outcome which is being supported by all parties to the dispute”.

Preston’s ruling Labour members broke ranks with the national party a fortnight ago by calling for a ceasefire in the conflict.

Later, however, after a meeting with the Muslim community, they were still accused of a “lame” response to the situation.

POLAND COMES TOGETHER IN SOLIDARITY The Jewish community in Poland has come together in the wake of the 7 October attack and subsequent surge in antisemitism worldwide in a groundbreaking show of unity and resilience hosted by Chabad of Poland.

Organisers said the multi-city communal gathering last weekend in Warsaw demonstrated the strength and solidarity of the revived Polish Jewish community, with the Thursday and Friday leading to the event marking the 85th anniversary of Kristallnacht.

The 200-plus people attending hailed from Warsaw, Krakow, Katowice, Lodz and other communities across Poland, with members of the

Ukrainian Jewish community living in Poland also participating to show thanks to Chabad of Poland and its community for their “monumental” efforts on their behalf since the war in their country began.

Chabad of Poland co-director Rabbi Mayer Stambler said: “It was heartwarming and inspiring to come together at a time when many within the global Jewish community are feeling so alone in a world of growing antisemitism yet paradoxically watching as the Jewish community coalesces around itself.”

Chabad of Poland director Rabbi Sholom Ber Stambler said: “With everything going on in the world today, we felt it was integral that we, like

Jewish communities across the globe, come together to support each other during a time where the global waves of antisemitism that we are watching play out in the news and on social media can make us feel alone.”

The weekend, dubbed Even Now, We Come Together’ featured a roster of esteemed speakers.

Also joining the gathering with the Chabad Poland directors was Poland’s Chief Rabbi Michael Schudrich and international speakers, including Israeli journalist Yedidya Meir and his wife, celebrated Israeli television anchor Sivan Rahav Meir.

The gathering also hosted Israel Defense Forces special operations veteran Amit Moshe.

IDF’S NEW DIGITAL PUSH TO ‘ENGAGE’ The Israeli army has launched a podcast as part of its broader strategy to “engage directly with people around the world”, writes Candice Krieger.

In a statement this week, the army said the Mission Brief media brand is made up of two digital media channels that can engage directly with people.

The first is a podcast hosted by Major (res.) Libby Weiss, an IDF spokesperson and former head of the Digital Media Desk.

IDF spokesman Richard Hecht told Jewish News: “The IDF has always led when it comes to digital media. It’s critical for us to be able to explain to the world exactly what, how and why we do what we do – we were one of the first militaries to embrace social media, whether it’s Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or Tiktok.

“The Mission Brief podcast and newsletter both aim to provide more nuanced long-form information and updates directly to people around the world. “Like many other things that happen within the military, they were driven by some of the outstanding officers and soldiers within our unit and the results already speak for themselves.

“Our story needs to be told; we will make sure we use every platform to do that,” he added.

The IDF said the initiative had reached the top 50 of global podcasts in the news category after its first episode. It features what the IDF describes as “in-depth interviews with a range of soldiers and officers across the IDF. The newsletter, hosted on Substack, provides direct updates from Hecht, melding his own personal updates with operational updates.”

Justice for all Jewish victims must prevail

BY JEREMY DEIN KC Another hate-filled weekend. The Jewish Sabbath marred by reports of support for Hamas, antisemitic chanting and physical intimidation. Jewish families targeted by men holding green flares, waving Palestinian flags, shouting from cars outside their place of worship, North London Synagogue, on Saturday night.

Is this the peaceful weekend of demonstration warmly embraced by sections of the media and thousands of UK citizens?

Do the admirers of the culprits not appreciate or care that the fine, law-abiding, loyal and hardworking Jewish community of Great Britain is being crushed by all of this?

As horrendous is the hate-filled world of

social media, inspired by high-profile figures hotly denying that 7 October 2023 ever took place. Growing and repeated claims that Jews abducted, murdered and tortured themselves. The language of vitriol used. Even some lawyers, marketing hate on the back of their professional profiles, are spreading the message of fiction with relish.

We are fortunate to have a government alive to the need to bring the law of public disorder, terrorist offences and hate crime into the winter of 2023. The balance between freedom of expression and hate crime is traditionally a challenging one , with the European Convention on Human rights hovering in the background. Article 10 provides for freedom of expression , but surely not at the cost of the intimidation and vilification of a whole community. The problem as it stands is that existing offences were not built to cater for the global world of internet , social media and 24/7 international communication. Nor could

it ever have been foreseen that a campaign of relentless , merciless and unparalleled antisemitic hate could be unleashed with such speed and venom in the modern world.

The Public Disorder Act 1986, the Terrorist Acts 2000 and 2006 provide the existing framework for stamping out the poisonous misconduct of those purposefully tormenting the Jewish community. The former is way out of date, designed to target specific victims and proven, individual distress. It does not begin to protect the Jewish community from remote attacks, nor does it have potential to criminalise widespread impact of any meaningful kind. Specifically, it cannot stamp on the evil of stirring up and encouraging both antisemitic feelings and / or glorification of terrorism.

Equally, the current terrorist legislation consists of complex and disparate features wholly inadequate, and certainly ineffective, in addressing the array of antisemitic issues that now plague Jewish life. In addition, the

layers of interpretive argument that have been raised to mask what are self-evidently antisemitic chants, such as “From the river to the sea” demotivate both the police and the CPS from charging or proceeding. All of this must change. Now. The law of public disorder will be revolutionised. Support for Hamas and related terrorist groups will be identifiably criminalised. The racist cowards who use threats, violence and intimidation against innocent Jewish civilians in this country will be rooted out. The fun will be over for the messengers of hate, however famous their names.

The Jewish community owes it to the victims of 7/10 as well as ourselves to fight bitterly for our safety , our dignity, and our rights.

The law is the rightful weapon. Let it take its course. If not today, tomorrow.

Come what may, justice for every Jewish victim must prevail.

16 November 2023 Jewish News

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ISRAEL AT WAR

YAHRZEIT CANDLES BURN IN OUR HEARTS

BY ADI PELED SENIOR SHLICHA (EMISSARY) TO UJS

In 2021, I embarked on a mission as a shlicha, or education emissary, of the Jewish Agency for UJS. For two years, I have travelled across the UK, meeting hundreds of Jewish students and bringing Israel to campuses. From the very beginning, I knew this journey would not be straightforward, but the warm embrace and unwavering support from the student community fuelled my determination to continue this vital role.

On 7 October I was in Israel visiting family and friends. We already had plans on how to go out and celebrate Simchat Torah.

We bought small flags for my nephews and nieces, chose a meeting place, and planned how to celebrate one of the most exciting and joyous days in the Jewish calendar.

The emotions I experienced when I woke on that Shabbat morning are indescribable. It was a day that irreversibly transformed my reality – and Israel’s.

The images and phone calls from people in kibbutzim reaching out for help are forever etched in our memories. It is a date every Israeli will remember. It marked a pivotal moment in our history, reshaping Israel and Israeli society forever.

The feeling of helplessness and fear grew day by day, alongside a feeling of powerlessness – an urge to help those in need but not knowing how. My days became a relentless cycle of monitoring news channels for any bit of information, intensifying my yearning to contribute meaningfully. Friends and family were being drafted in large numbers, and my unease grew to the point where I could no longer bear to sit idly by and remain consumed by fear.

When I was in the IDF as part of my national service, I was a teacher working in boarding schools for vulnerable children. A non-combat and voluntary role due to the sensitivity it involved. Because this was my role then, I wasn’t called into the reserves at the start of this war.

Instead, I sought other volunteering roles in my community.

This led me to join an extraordinary movement of Israelis who selflessly abandoned their regular lives to sup-

Adi Peled, senior emissary to the Union of Jewish Students

port those who had lost everything and were evacuated from affected communities, alongside the hundreds of thousands who were called up to reserve duty.

Volunteering rekindled my connection to the remarkable spirit of our people and their unyielding dedication to the greater good.

While volunteering for my community in Israel, I still felt there was a void to fill, accompanied by an overwhelming sense of “homesickness” for London and the UK.

Then, anti-Israel protests erupted in London, deeply unsettling me – the place I had come to call home turned into a source of fear. Shocking videos of ‘kidnapped’ children posters torn down and inflammatory rhetoric flooding my screen.

I also received messages from students reaching out to me with a mix of solidarity and concern about the future of Israel and the prevailing climate on university campuses.

That void I felt continued to consume me, a profound obligation

to the people and community that had embraced me and now needed my support. It was clear my reserve duty would be in Britain working as a shlicha, for the sake of my Israel and the students who had inspired me to relocate to England and undertake this mission two years ago.

Undeniably, working on UK campuses presents challenges, marked by intense scrutiny and a wide spectrum of opinions. However, just as in the past, we must remember the fundamental reasons this connection is so vital. Our shared history, our love for our people, and our deep-rooted culture must serve as our compass, uniting us against baseless hatred that has persisted for generations.

So, I took the difficult decision to leave Israel and return to the UK. The parting from my family was not easy, but I was determined in my commitment to return and continue working for my community.

This is the essence of my shlichut, my mission: You invest a portion of your life, you form a bond with a community that becomes a core part of you, and you selflessly contribute for a greater cause. This is the most significant and meaningful contribution I can make.

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ISRAEL AT WAR

Corbyn’s 15 Hamas ‘terror’ refusals Jeremy Corbyn refused no fewer than 15 times to call Hamas a terrorist group during a fiery debate on Piers Morgan’s Talk TV show on Monday night when he appeared alongside former trade union chief Len McCluskey, writes Lee Harpin.

The former Labour leader said: “I do not approve, support or welcome Hamas.” But he flatly refused over and over again to describe the organisation as a terrorist group.

Morgan said it was “very telling” that Corbyn was unable to answer whether Hamas was a terrorist group or indeed if it should stay in power in the Gaza Strip.

“And you wonder why people

think you had a problem with Jewish people,” Morgan concluded.

McCluskey answered “of course” when asked the same question. He also said “nothing justifies” the atrocity committed

by Hamas last month, adding it was “disgraceful”.

The former Unite leader then insisted he knew how to remove Hamas from power and also told Morgan he did not believe the group should be in control in Gaza.

McCluskey said: “I’ll tell you how to get rid of Hamas, dead easy. Get the Israeli government to comply with international law, withdraw from the occupied territories, dismantle illegal settle-

ments and build a viable Palestine.” He added this was the United Nations and the British government’s position.

McCluskey claimed: “It’s not a war between Israel and Hamas, it’s a war between Israel and the Palestinian people. ” Morgan, asked by McCluskey if he condemned the expansion of settlements by Israel, responded by saying “yes”.

The ex-union chief then claimed the best way to get rid of extremism in groups was to “comply with international law”.

He also questioned why the UK government only recognised a state of Israel but not a Palestinian state.

Piers Morgan with guests Jeremy Corbyn (centre) and Len McCluskey

LONDON ROCK CONCERT RAISES £120,000 FOR KIBBUTZ BE’ERI More than £12,000 has been raised to support Kibbutz Be’eri and traumatised Israeli children at a London concert by an Israeli rock star, writes Louisa Walters.

The British Friends of the Art Museums of Israel and the Houmous Foundation hosted 150 guests in Covent Garden for the event supporting the children as well as bereaved families and injured soldiers.

Guests heard from author and influencer Hen Mazzig, who spoke about the importance of a unified and strong voice, while businessman and activist David (Vladimir) Bermant talked about how lucky the community was to have such an “incredible” Jewish state.

“In every respect, Israel is a miracle,” he said. “Our job is to take our place in the great

Jewish story, to unite as one and to write the next chapter of our people’s story.”

BFAMI co-chair Pamela Crystal pledged immediate support to emergency relief projects across Israel: “In the long term, we will be supporting additional trauma relief programmes, shelters for small museums and adopting communities that have lost everything. Specifically, we will be supporting the

rebuilding of Kibbutz Be’eri art museum, following the torching of this beautiful art space and community centre.”

The evening ended with a concert by renowned Israeli rock star Dudu Tassa, who flew in from Israel to perform old and new material and take requests from the audience, who were enchanted by his performance.

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32 Jewish News 16 November 2023

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ISRAEL AT WAR

‘Our bodies hurt from crying’ The Irish father of an eight-yearold Israeli girl believed to have been taken to Gaza has asked for a renewed focus on the Israeli hostages, writes Joy Falk.

Emily Hand was originally feared dead after the Hamas assault on Kibbutz Be’eri on 7 October but the family have now been told she may still be alive.

The 7 October atrocity saw an estimated 200 Israeli citizens taken to Gaza by the terrorists.

At a high-level meeting on the hostages, Thomas Hand, originally from Dun Laoghaire near Dublin, described his daughter as a “funloving child” who loves music, dancing and singing.

“Even my dog misses her,” he went on. “She used to use him as a pillow, stick her head down and fall asleep. Funny, the things that you miss, and now she’s kidnapped in Gaza along with many others.

“I want to hug Emily again, love her, fix her.”

He was speaking in Dublin on Monday after travelling there along with his older daughter Natali in order “to drum up as much sympathy and support” as possible.

Similar events are being held in other Israeli embassies to raise the case of citizens who are feared to have been kidnapped during the attack.

Looking forward to being reunited with Emily, Hand said: “I’m going to hold her forever. I’m never going to let her go.”

He said he was “very happy” with the Irish government’s efforts to free

hostages – they have been doing “a lot” – adding that the Irish ambassador to Israel, Sonya McGuinness, had visited them to give them the “little information” she had.

Asked whether he is afraid of rockets being launched in Gaza while his daughter is in the enclave, he said: “I’m sure Emily was taken by the Hamas, not the Palestinian people, by the Hamas – and they’ll be safe down in the tunnels with the Hamas, they’ll be safe down there.”

He added: “I feel sorry for the Palestinian people. They’re suffering for what the Hamas is doing to them. They say that we’re the occupiers; we’re not the occupiers, Hamas is the occupiers.”

Older daughter Natali said she was in Australia when the Hamas attack happened, and had a video call from Emily who told her her friend’s house, where she had been staying the night, was burning.

“She was asking me why I didn’t take her to Australia.

“Our bodies hurt from crying, we have no tears left,” said Natali, whose mother was killed in the attack.

She said they wanted to keep the international focus on the kidnapped children in particular.

“They shouldn’t be suffering because of politics, it has nothing to do with that,” she said.

“We’ll do everything we can to get her back.”

Irish premier Leo Varadkar met Hand at the Irish government offices on Monday.

In a statement afterwards, the

Emily Hand, eight, is belleved to be one of the hostages held by Hamas

taoiseach said he assured the Hand family the government “will do all in its power to secure the release of Emily and to assist the Hand family”.

He added: “I committed to continue calling for all hostages held by Hamas to be released immediately, and I also committed to continue raising the issue of hostages with international agencies and governments, and through any other avenues which might help.

“I also used the opportunity of the meeting with the Israeli ambassador to raise the issue of Irish-Palestinian dual citizens in Gaza who have asked to leave the territory.”

Varadkar said he had raised Emily’s case in Paris last week with Egyptian foreign minister Sameh Shoukry, Palestinian prime minister Mohammad Shtayyeh and Prince Rashid, chief adviser to the king of Jordan and the head of that country’s humanitarian operation.

Also speaking out on the hostages was Eylon Keshet, who talked of his cousin Yarden Bibas, his wife Shiri Bibas and their sons Ariel, four, and 10-month-old Kfir, who are also feared kidnapped in Gaza.

He said: “Release them. I want them back. But I don’t want any more body bags. It’s important to

understand that this is a humanitarian issue – regardless of politics, a 10-month-old baby can’t be used as a bargaining chip for any political or religious reason whatsoever.”

Dana Erlich, the Israeli ambassador to Ireland, said the gathering to discuss t he hostages was part of “an international call” to raise awareness of the situation.

“This visit and these delegations are not just being held here in Ireland, but also in other countries,” she told the PA news agency.

“So we’re working in other countries because we are reaching out to the world, asking to join our cry.

“We see how Unicef is involved in Gaza, but we didn’t hear anything from Unicef about our children in Gaza that are kidnapped.

“And we see the Red Cross, again, making pleas about Gaza but we feel that our kidnapped families, 240 people, have been forgotten in a way.

“They can’t forget, and we can’t forget.”

She said the current conflict between Israel and Hamas was not about sides. She added: “We hurt with the people of Gaza, and we hurt with our people. This is human lives (that) we’re talking about but from both ends.

“We all need to hold Hamas accountable for what they’re doing to both sides.

“The Irish government has been very clear about condemning Hamas, and we need to continue doing so and hold them accountable for everything that they’re doing.”

Peace activist Vivian among HUGE MAJORITY FOR UNI PALESTINE VOTE those killed at Kibbutz Be’eri Almost six weeks after the Hamas massacres that swept through southern Israel, peace activist Vivian Silver has been identified as one of the murdered.

Long-time friend and colleague John Lyndon, executive director at the Alliance for Middle East Peace, which the 74-year-old Israeli-Canadian helped to found, described her as “the best of us”.

Silver’s family and friends believed she was among the hostages taken to Gaza but after forensic sifting of ashes and remains at Kibbutz Be’eri, DNA testing proved Vivian was killed there.

She was involved in several initiatives including Women Wage Peace, whose international supporters she hosted only days before the attacks. Another project, The Road to Recovery, drove sick Palestinians from Gaza to Israeli hospitals.

Peace activist Vivian Silver

When the terrorists arrived at the kibbutz, Silver was on the phone to one of her sons, Yonatan Zeigen. He heard gunshots outside his mother’s window and told her to hang up and be quiet. Instead they texted until 11am on that Saturday, around five

hours after the incursion had begun.

Hiding inside a cupboard, Silver wrote: “They’re inside the house, it’s time to stop joking and say goodbye.”

Zeigen told the BBC he replied: “I love you, Mum. I have no words, I’m with you.”

In tributes, Lyndon vowed: “The people who killed Vivian ... who spent her entire life working for peace, equality, justice and dignity, will not win”.

Feminist activist Anat Saragusti described her as having “an endless, deep commitment to Jewish-Arab partnership and peace”.

Yachad UK director Hannah Weisfeld wrote on Twitter/X: “Those who murdered Vivian wanted to destroy any hope of a decent future for Israelis and Palestinians.

“I hope her life will be avenged by peace. That would be a true testament to her legacy.”

Sussex University and College Union (UCU) has passed a motion on Palestinian solidarity by a majority of more than 87 percent.

The motion was proposed by 258 Sussex UCU members from the schools of education and social work, global studies, law, politics and sociology, media arts and humanities and the university Business School.

Its opening statement claimed to echo UCU’s Black Members’ Standing Committee in abhorring “the violence that has claimed innocent Palestinian, Lebanese and Israeli lives in recent days”.

There is no specific mention of or reference to the murderous atrocities conducted by Hamas terrorists.

The motion statement continues: “We emphatically echo the call of Palestinian trade unions to end international complicity with Israel’s war crimes and crimes against humanity including: the deliberate bombing of civilian homes, univer-

sities, schools and hospitals; the blockade of water, food, medical supplies and fuel; the proposal by Israel’s Ministry of Intelligence for the forced expulsion of more than two million human beings into the Egyptian desert.”

It calls for the university to “divest from companies that are complicit in Israel’s militarised violence and oppression of the Palestinian people” and “reject the IHRA working definition of antisemitism”.

The vote for was 87.2 percent, with 8.5 percent against and 4.3 percent abstaining.

A Jewish member of the university teaching staff said: “It is becoming apparent that as a Jewish staff member at Sussex, it is best for me to keep my head down and hide.

“In particular, because I believe in the need for Israel and because I am in this sense a Zionist. This is probably indicative of campuses across the UK.”

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16 November 2023 Jewish News

33

34 Jewish News 16 November 2023

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King praised / Centre award / Charity merger / UJIA chair / News

accolade for King’s ‘kindness’ praised Top Holocaust centre at Kristallnacht event The King has been hailed as an “outstanding exemplar of loving kindness” in a “fractured world” after he met with a group of Kindertransport refugees in commemoration of the 85th anniversary of Kristallnacht.

Translated to Night of Broken Glass, Kristallnacht was a wave of Nazi co-ordinated violence against Jews across Germany which began on 9 November 1938 and is so called because of the debris left from the destruction of Jewish properties and synagogues.

As a result of the violence, the UK government began to allow unaccompanied Jewish children into the country as refugees, a movement that came to be known as the Kindertransport.

At the Central Synagogue in London on Thursday, Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis referenced the Israel-Hamas conflict as he thanked Charles for his support and for “connecting so meaningfully” with the

“Kinder” after the King unveiled a plaque commemorating his visit.

“At this moment, parts of our world are broken,” the Chief Rabbi said. “There is hatred, there is conflict and there is a tragic war raging in Israel.

“Our world desperately needs outstanding exemplars of chesed – loving kindness – and this is exactly what Our Majesty the King is.”

As the audience chanted “hear hear”, Sir Ephraim added: “Thank you for your contribution towards healing our fractured world.”

The King was looking down during the address and joined everyone in saying “Amen” at its conclusion.

Before the short speech, the King spoke with the Kinder, many now in their 80s and 90s, in the event jointly organised with the Association of Jewish Refugees.

He told the first table: “How you have managed to endure all of this is truly

King Charles speaks to guests at the Kristallnacht gathering

remarkable.” Before he left to sit elsewhere, he said: “You make me very proud.”

At another table, he joked about his memory, saying it started to get worse after he turned 70. Anne Woolf-Skinner, 86, from Epsom was sitting next to him as he made the quips.

Of his visit to the synagogue, she told the PA news agency: “I think it means everything really.

“I know he’s very, very interested in the Holocaust survivors and I think it’s wonderful that he can find the time to do it.

He’s so lovely with everybody.”

Ruth Jacobs, who came to the UK with her brother Harry Heber when she was 10 and he seven, told PA the King was “patient” with them.

The siblings grew up in Austria and “had to leave” after Kristallnacht.

“We were taken under escort to Vienna,” she said. “We had two hours’ notice to leave our home.”

One man wished Charles a happy birthday as he left his table. The King responded: “You are very well informed.”

The Kindertransport brought some 10,000 children aged between three and 17 to safety from Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia and Poland in the lead-up to the Second World War. Most of the children were Jewish and more than half the children never saw their parents again.

The first transport, from an orphanage in Berlin, arrived into London Liverpool Street station on 2 December 1938 while some of the children rescued went to Southampton by boat.

The first transport from Vienna left on 11 December the same year.

CHARITIES JEWISH CARE AND JAMI ANNOUNCE MERGER Two of the Jewish community’s largest charities, Jewish Care and Jami are to merge. Jewish Care supports over 10,000 people a week, while Jami is the leading charity supporting mental health in the Jewish community.

In an email to clients and supporters, Jami chair of trustees Adam Dawson, announced that the two bodies will become one.

“Eleven years ago, Jami and Jewish Care signed an association agreement to bring our organisations closer together. Since then, Jami’s support for people whose mental illness and distress makes everyday life a struggle has grown exponentially,” he wrote.

He added: “With a record high in the prevalence of mental health problems for adults and children in our community, we have decided that now is the right time for both organisations to fully integrate.

“This move will ensure that the needs of the community continue to be met effectively, and the future of Jami’s vital mental health services are sustainable and secured for the future. Full integration will enable a better use

of communal resources, focused governance, a stronger capacity to raise funds and broader promotion of Jami’s services. Please be assured that any donation you have made to Jami will still be used to deliver Jami’s essential mental health services.”

Dawson said Laurie Rackind would be stepping down as chief executive after 17 years but would remain closely involved with the transition toward full integration.

“We owe him a great debt of gratitude,” Dawson wrote. “Laurie’s vision and leadership has driven Jami to transform the way mental health services are delivered; his contribution to Jami and our community has been enormous.

“I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for supporting Jami. Your generosity has helped to bring hope and help to thousands of people impacted by mental illness and distress in our community, and continues to be needed now more than ever.

We are excited about this next stage of the journey and look forward to keeping you updated.”

An exhibit at the Holocaust Centre North

A Holocaust centre in the north of England is a recipient of the prestigious King’s Award for Voluntary Service 2023, the highest accolade a local voluntary group can receive in the UK. The honour for Holocaust Centre North, equivalent to an MBE, is in recognition of its more than 50 regular volunteers – many of whom are first-, second- and thirdgeneration survivors – and their outstanding contribution in the running of the centre, based at the University of Huddersfield, and in the preservation of history.

Holocaust Centre North is one of 262 local charities, social enterprises and voluntary groups to achieve the award this year – and only one of 29 from Yorkshire.

Founded by survivors and their descendants as the Holocaust Survivors’ Friendship Association (HSFA), the centre is an exhibition and

learning base as well as a vital community hub for the region.

Volunteers participate in a diverse range of projects and activities to tell the global story of the Holocaust and to do it through stories from those who built new lives in the north of England.

Martin Kapel BEM (93), who came to the UK on the Kindertransport and gives talks to school on a voluntary capacity said: “Receiving the award is a profound honour that validates the efforts of every volunteer.

“It’s a tribute to the spirit of service over self, and, to me, an affirmation that every small act of kindness contributes to a legacy of change.

“I and other survivors gathered around Holocaust Centre North because we believe that by sharing our stories of persecution, the world can grow more compassionate. This award is a celebration of community strength.”

Noé elected to take over as new chair for UJIA The board of trustees at Britain’s biggest Israelsupporting charity, UJIA, has elected Zvi Noé as its new chair. He will take over from Louise Jacobs next April, following her six-year term as the first woman to chair the organisation.

Noé is a trustee of the London School of Jewish Studies, the Rachel Charitable Trust and a trustee and founder of One Great Day, an organisation raising funds for Great Ormond Street Hospital and hundreds of children’s health charities across the UK. He is a founder and partner of the Noé Group with strategic oversight direction of the group, its investment decisions and p a r t n e r relationships.

Noé said: “Last week I returned from a visit to Israel where I saw the vital work UJIA and partners are doing with those affected by the terrorist atrocities on 7 October and the war.

“Meeting people who have lost family mem-

bers, with parents of hostages and with evacuated children will stay with me forever. UJIA will be there not just for the physical rebuilding but in addressing the mental scars.”

He paid tribute to the “exceptional service” of Louise Jacobs, and said he looked forward to working closely with UJIA chief executive Mandie Winston “and her excellent team”.

He added: “Our focus now is with the families grieving loved ones and waiting for news of those still held captive. But we also remain committed to our long-term goals of providing unparalleled opportunities for our community’s young people to strengthen their connection to Israel and the Jewish people.”

Outgoing chair Louise Jacobs added: “It has been a privilege to serve UJIA and connect our community and young people with Israel. In handing over to Zvi I know that I am leaving UJIA in brilliant hands.”

Elected: Zvi Noé

36 Jewish News 16 November 2023

www.jewishnews.co.uk

News / Community

AN OPEN LETTER FROM ISRAELI RESTAURANTS ACROSS LONDON can collectively work towards dispelling stereotypes and building connections that extend beyond the virtual world.

People keep asking what we stand for and for us that is inclusivity and hospitality in its truest form: bringing people together.

We are hospitable to all and will continue to be so.

We are still here with the same goal in our hearts, doing what we do best, day in and day out, making delicious food that should be shared among family and friends.

It is in this spirit that we invite you all to our restaurants to eat, drink and hopefully someday soon be merry.

As we go into the festive season, we ask you all to consider this and come together as the beautiful community that we are and celebrate the undimmable light that is the Jewish spirit.

Photo by Yoav Aziz

just as restaurant owners but as individuals who understand the importance of supporting one another in times of need.

As consumers, choosing to dine at Israeli restaurants sends a powerful message that transcends the online negativity showing that hate and division will not define us.

It is a tangible way to demonstrate that our community stands united, resilient in the face of adversity.

Moreover, there is an opportunity for dialogue and understanding.

We believe in the power of conversation to bridge gaps and dispel misconceptions. Let us create spaces within our community where we can engage in open and respectful conversations, fostering understanding that goes beyond political differences.

It is also essential that we encourage and support initiatives aimed at promoting cultural exchange and co-operation. By participating in events that celebrate the richness of Israeli culture, we

e Israeli/Jewish r taurant community

Photo by Zoshua Colah

Photo by Louis Hansel

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27 May 2020

BRITAIN’S BLIND SPO T

century!

UK registered

Since the terrorist attack in Israel on 7 October, we have woken up each morning to an increasingly dark world.

As proud British Jews/Israelis living in London, when we began the journey to bring our culinary passions to our beloved city of London, our mission was simple: to share our experience, flavours and love for connection with our customers.

We now find ourselves in a far different reality, where some are afraid to open their doors to the public or even celebrate who they are. This brings back painful memories that cut straight to our core as Jews.

A seemingly never-ending pattern of persecution and suffering.

We pen this letter with a heavy heart, both as members of the vibrant British Jewish community and as owners of Israeli restaurants, some of which have borne the brunt of online attacks calling for people to harass and boycott Israeli restaurants, and a decline in reservations, by as much as 30 percent.

The consequences affect our livelihoods and the livelihoods of those who depend on us, leaving us to grapple not only with the economic repercussions but also with the emotional toll of feeling isolated within our own community.

It is during these challenging times that we must rally together, recognising that our shared history and experiences can serve as the foundation for a stronger, more united front.

Our intention is not only to share the challenges faced by many like us but also to shed light on the imperative need for support and unity within our community.

We call on fellow Jews living in the UK to stand with us, not

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Community / Scene & Be Seen

1

BREAD PROVIDES ‘JEWISH HUG’

Hampstead Garden Suburb synagogue hosted a Challah Make for the community, which had a tremendous turnout. Rebbetzen Racheli Frankel encouraged everyone to find the balance between heartbreak and joy, and to feel the power of the Jewish hug from around the world.

2

IRON MEN’S CHALLENGE

UK Friends of Yad Sarah Trustee Alistair Marks and IDF veteran Dor Zakai completed a gruelling half Iron Man challenge, raising £30,000 in support of the Yad Sarah emergency appeal. The event was originally scheduled to take place in Israel at Lake Tiberius. The challenge consisted of swimming 1.2 miles, cycling 56 miles and a half marathon covering 13.1 miles in Regent’s Park. They completed it in just six and a half hours.

3

And be seen!

The latest news, pictures and social events from across the community Email community editor Michelle Rosenberg: michelle@jewishnews.co.uk

SCOTTISH VIGIL FOR HOSTAGES

A silent vigil for the hostages was held in front of the Scottish Parliament. Spokesperson Sarah Grossman said: “We have come together to join communities all over the world in a peaceful manner demanding our babies, children, women, youths, fathers and elderly are returned home.” A display of pictures of the victims was laid out, along with pairs of shoes and red balloons. The names of the hostages were read out at intervals throughout the vigil.

The organisers intend to repeat the vigil until all hostages are home.

4

1

NORTHERN CHAGIGAH

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3

Adults and teenagers from Progressive Judaism’s northern communities gathered for two days of relaxation, learning, prayer and fun, with 130 people in attendance. Sarita Robinson, director of community partnership, who organised the event, said: “Everyone said how comforting it was to be together with friends and relax in a safe place at this very difficult time for all of us.”

5

KEREM COMMUNITY SUPPORT

Children at Kerem School have been working to support those affected in Israel. They have written letters to soldiers, get well cards to the wounded and raised money for The United Hatzalah war appeal and CST.

4

6

CADET AWARDS AT JFS

Col Martin Newman and army chaplains Padre (Rabbi) Ariel Abel and Reuben Livingstone attended the annual Awards Parade for the Household Cavalry badged Combined Cadet Force Contingent at JFS. Colonel Newman presented awards to the best overall cadet of the year and the best recruit, while Dan Fox, national chairman of AJEX, presented the Max Karo trophy to the most improved cadet.

7

5

7

TEENS PACK ‘KITS FOR KIDS’

About 200 Project ImpACT teenage volunteers united to pack 1,000 resilience kits for Israeli children who have been evacuated from their homes. The kits are being flown to Israel this week and will be distributed by Step Up volunteers to children from the south, including Druze and Arab, as part of an initiative to deliver thousands of ‘Kits for Kids’ across Israel.

8

CAKES FOR UNITED HATZALAH

Eli Braham, eight, and his brother Braham, five, who attend Nancy Reuben Primary, did a bake sale at their house in Hendon, raising more than £160 for United Hatzalah Israel. Mum Natalie and dad Joel baked a range of delicious goods and locals came to buy as well as school friends with their parents.

6

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Inside A look

Israel’s resilient wine industry and how to support it

Naomi Frankel finds love and support for Israel at Shulem Lemmer’s London concert

I

t was the concert we all needed. A musical event to reaffirm our solidarity as a people and mark that moment in song. Iconic American vocalist Shulem Lemmer has gained widespread attention in the Chasidic community and beyond, but tickets for his performance at the Bishnat 2021 event held last week were in demand and could have sold three times over because of how we are all feeling and have been feeling since 7 October.

And with a new and rising wave of antisemitism, UK Jewry has never felt more vulnerable, so coming together was appreciated and with ‘support for Israel’ as the theme of the night, the audience rose enthusiastically to the occasion.

With every seat occupied, by people of all affiliations, Holocaust survivors and even parents of soldiers in the IDF, the sense of unity and pride was immediate. Bishnat 2021 sprang into action the moment war broke out and decided to host a concert that “related to the situation in Israel”.

Shulem Lemmer was a natural fit and to add to the power of the message, he was joined on stage by renowned chazans Avromi Freilich and Alby Chait. I’d risk saying that the sound had never been so sweet at St John’s Wood Synagogue.

I was accompanied by my mother, a longstanding fan of Lemmer, and, like all of us all she is saddened by what is happening in the world, so it was nice to see her smile.

I was there for what my generation describes as ‘the feels’, and by that I mean the emotional moments, and there were plenty of them.

We waved our phone flashlights when instructed, and some women in front of me instinctively wrapped their arms around each other while singing along softly to

Shulem Lemmer speaks to the full house at St John’s Wood Synagogue

the Friday Night medley. There was no hesitation when it came to dancing as we all got up irrespective of age and moved to the rousing tunes.

Many of the songs performed were familiar to me and others, among them Sound of Silence sung by the versatile Shulem. Sharm El Sheikh was new to me, but struck a chord literally because it was penned by Ran Eliran to entertain the troops in the Sinai Desert at the start of the Six Day War. According to chazan Avromi, “the melody is often used here in London shuls to accompany Adon Olam”.

Tears sprung to my eyes at Shulem’s

piercing tribute to the 7 October victims, Av Harachamim, and there were more when his cover of the Les Miserables anthem Bring Them Home was accompanied by a slideshow of the hostages in Gaza. Beautiful and devastating; others around me were similarly moved.

The overwhelming feeling was one of pride and continuance. To not cower in the face of hatred. As Avromi put it in his introduction of Vehi SheAmda, which is often sung on Seder night: “In every generation they have tried to get rid of us but God has saved us every time.”

Shulem echoed this sentiment, saying: “Even though it’s scary out there, we have to have hope. Together. Song by song. Note by note. Smile by smile. It’s OK to cry but

we have to live, laugh, and celebrate who we are.”

He then swept straight into Gesher Tsar Meod with the memorable lyrics: “The whole world is a narrow bridge and the most important thing is not to be afraid at all.”

The searing pain was still there of course.

We were addressed by Adi, a survivor of the Kibbutz Be’eri massacre, who said that she stood before us “as a witness to atrocities and barbarism that you did not watch on TV or online”. She then vividly described her fear at being “dragged around the streets by the terrorists who used me as a human shield for an hour and a half until the IDF managed to neutralise them and save me”.

We also heard from Alby about a boy called Ariel, who lost his entire family and is about to mark becoming barmitzvah. As a gift, chief Rabb Mirvis’ siddur is being sent to him and we, the London community, were urged to write individual messages of love, hope and solidarity within it. The queue to do this was so long I almost missed my lift home. But everyone waited, as much for themselves as for Ariel.

Avromi summed it up when he said: “Although we feel the pain, suffering, heartache and trauma, all the pain that we’ve suffered from being Jewish compels us to come together. I think that’s the closest I can imagine to touching the face of God. It is the most special thing and I’ll take all the pain and heartache to share and feel that, because that’s what it means to be Jewish.”

Where there is loss there is life. Am Yisrael Chai. Our nation lives. It’s as simple as that and all it took to remind us was a concert.

40 Jewish News 16 November 2023

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16 November 2023 Jewish News

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41

JN LIFE

A wedding at Dalton winery

Winelands in wartime The conflict has revealed the resilience of Israeli wineries, and a coming together in solidarity, writes Tal Sunderland-Cohen

T

he Israeli wine community is small, cutting across social circles, ethnicities and geographies. When a winemaker or winery owner experiences the loss of a loved one, the whole community knows. In the past few weeks there have been more funerals and shivas than ever before. Some have family or friends who are hostages of Hamas. And meanwhile, with the country at war, its people are in mourning. Wine bars, clubs and restaurants are closed, tourism has ceased, and no one is celebrating anything with a glass of wine. This has already led to a 70 percent decline in sales.

After the rockets from Gaza damaged wineries in the south, Hezbollah began to rain missiles on the northern Galilee. Many wineries in this region were in the middle of

harvest, which could not be completed because there were no working hands to pick the grapes.

Many Israeli farmers were called up for active duty and the Palestinian workers who had been employed on a regular basis were no longer able to enter Israel to work.

Most of the wineries have shut to the public and almost half their workers have left for the military. Roy Itzhaky, owner of Tulip Winery and Maya Winery, is serving as a major in the reserves of the Israeli Air Force. Dror Engelstein, a winemaker, is serving as a major in the army’s missing persons unit.

Fear and uncertainty in the industry are greater than ever before. It is unclear whether the government will assist businesses that are suffering. Rockets continue to be launched into Israel, causing human injury and economic damage. After a shipping container was hit, the

Carmel’s Yatir winery near Arad, in the Negev, hosts an event for evacuated families who are staying nearby

Bottles from the Ramat Negev Winery were lost after rockets hit a shipping container

Ramat Negev Winery lost a large number of bottles, and rockets have struck vineyards in the Galilee region, Judean hills and Jerusalem.

Further north, Hezbollah has a significant presence in south Lebanon near the border with Israel. As a result of the rising tensions, many families have been evacuated. The local wineries are under constant stress and there is a shortage of workers. The Israeli wine industry has been subjected to wars and military operations in the past, such as intifada, with theft and damage caused to vineyards and agricultural equipment but is currently experiencing one of its most challenging times. The brother of well-known winemaker Mika Ran Mandel was murdered by Hamas. The son of wine importer Shay Winkert was kidnapped by Hamas. The grandfather of Daniel Lifshitz, a renowned wine importer, has not yet returned from captivity.

The list of names of those who have fallen in battle is growing. Alex Haroni, CEO and owner of Dalton Winery in the Galilee, posted on his social media: “Reading the news and in particular the army casualties from the previous day, praying that there are no family or friends on the list. Unfortunately today my prayers were not answered and we woke up to the news that the son of one of our growers was killed in battle. Our hearts go out to Yisrael Ozeri and his family on the death of their son Yaakov. May his memory be blessed.”

The resilience and determination of winemakers and growers remain unwavering despite these challenges. They continue to strive for excellence, adapt to changing circumstances, and find innovative ways to overcome them. Or Markus, owner of the Markus Winery located in Moshav Kfar Monesh in the Hefer Valley, has launched Achim Layevev – Brothers

in Wineries (TSC). The idea is that wineries that cannot be open to visitors during the war invite customers to come and have a glass of wine despite the situation.

Soon after the Hamas attack, Dalton winery hosted a wedding for a young couple who were due to get married on 22 October but had to change their plans when they got called up.

Eitti Edri, export director at Carmel winery, says production is continuing and it is still exporting now that flights have resumed. “A lot of our workers have been called up but it’s been uplifting to see how strong we are. Everyone has taken on three times the work and we are operating as normal.” Its Yatir winery in the south has hosted tastings and activities for evacuated families who are at hotels nearby.

Other wineries are donating wines to evacuated families and to the families of soldiers.

The industry is coming together in solidarity. In wineries where the winemaker has been called up, fellow winemakers are coming to assist with the making of wine, the fermentation and the handling of stainless steel tanks and pumps. Slowly, orders for Israeli wines from their importers, mainly in America, are starting to arrive. However, in London, Israeli wines are almost only found in Jewish neighbourhoods and are rarely found in restaurants, hotels or wine bars. This needs to change.

How the UK can support the Israeli wine industry 1. Buy today from an off-licence, a supermarket or online at hedonism.co.uk, winedirect. co.uk, drumstickwines.com, kosherwinecellar.co.uk or kosherwine.co.uk among others.

2. When you go out to eat, bring Israeli wine from home, even if it involves a corkage fee.

3. When you visit friends or family, take a bottle of Israeli wine as gift.

4. Request that your local off licence begins stocking Israeli wines.

5. For Israeli restaurants in London: start selling more Israeli wine.

42 Jewish News 16 November 2023

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Professional advice from our panel / Ask Our Experts

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

This week: Tips on writing a winning CV, the rules around multi-occupancy buildings, and how to achieve your goals GILLIAN GURNER CAREER ADVISER

RESOURCE

Dear Gillian I haven’t applied for a job for 20 years so have a mental block when it comes to writing my CV. Do you have any advice?

Michelle Dear Michelle Your CV is your opportunity to impress a potential employer and obtain an interview.

You’ll probably need a different CV for each job application because it’s important to make your CV relevant to the job for which you are applying. In terms of CV styles, if you can list your jobs in date order, then a chronological CV is for you. However, if you have gaps in your career, or if you have been working on

building insurance market, which include a contraction in supply and competition, a lack of transparency, and a disproportionate increase in the commissions and fees earned JACOB BERNSTEIN by brokers and its impact of FINANCIAL SERVICES this to the leaseholders.

COMPLIANCE As a result, the FCA has RICHDALE CONSULTANTS LTD published new rules that will come into force on 31 December.

Hi Jacob The new FCA rules: A colleague mentioned • Improve transparency by that the FCA is issuing imposing new disclosure rules new rules regarding the for multi-occupancy building multi-occupancy building insurance: This will enable insurance market. Can the leaseholders to access you explain how these new and receive clear information rules will affect brokers about the building insurance and my clients? arrangements of the building Ethan in which they are tenants, to allow them to better underHi Ethan stand the scope of cover and The FCA has concerns in relahow any charges relating to tion to the multi-occupancy

short-term contracts, or your jobs have been similar, or you are changing careers, you can use a skills-based CV. Resource has written a Guide to Writing a Good CV, which will help you make to stand out from the crowd.

Avoid clichés, such as ‘enthusiastic’ and ‘motivated’ – you will be able to demonstrate these qualities at an interview. Use bullet points for all except the summary statement at the top: it’s easier to read and will help you summarise your work and achievements.

Also, review your CV. Have you included everything the recruiter is looking for, and checked for spelling or grammar errors? It’s always useful to ask someone to check your CV as they may have other ideas for you.

If you need more help, Resource is running a drop-in CV clinic at Head Room Cafe in Golders Green on 16 November. Or call our office on 020 8346 4000 and make an appointment to meet one of our advisers.

the multi-occupancy building contract have been incurred.

• Include leaseholders as ‘customers’ in the scope of some FCA rules, which means that whereas previously the responsibility of the broker (such as that of treating customers fairly) extended only towards the policy holder, this now extends to the leaseholder.

• Impose a requirement on insurance distributors to avoid any arrangements (by way of remuneration, sales target or otherwise) that could provide an incentive to itself or its employees to recommend a particular contract to a customer, when the distributor could offer an alternative policy which would better meet the policy holder’s as well as leaseholder’s needs.

BEN LEVY GOAL ATTAINMENT SPECIALIST

MAKE IT HAPPEN Dear Ben I’ve always wanted to retrain to become an art therapist, but never do anything about it. Why? Helen Hi Helen To understand why you haven’t (yet) achieved your dream, it’s helpful to understand the five factors that cause success. I call this ABC ME™:

YES, YOU DO.

Especially in times like these.

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A = Ability: how able you are to get on the art therapy training, and complete it B = Belief: to what degree you believe in your heart that you really can get there C = Clarity: how clear you are what the goal looks like, and the steps that will get you there M = How motivated you are to get there E = How supportive your environment is (ie the people and space around you) When all five factors are high, you are virtually guaranteed to achieve your goal.

Where is your gap, Helen?

I’m guessing you are motivated to make this happen.

But are you clear about what you need to do? Do you have access to the right advice and resources to get the ball rolling? Do you believe you

really can become an art therapist?

Try to rate yourself in each of the five areas (0= not at all, 10= completely).

What is your lowest score?

For example, if you gave yourself a low Clarity score, ask yourself: what do I need to do, so I am clearer about how to get myself on to the training?

Once you know where to focus, you can make a plan to raise your ‘score’ in that area.

By doing so, you will substantially increase your chances of making that dream a reality.

If this approach has helped you, Helen, we can meet and complete a more thorough assessment of your readiness to achieve. Then we’ll focus on lifting your ABC ME profile and, as a result, transforming your chances of success.

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45

Orthodox Judaism

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 ALEX CHAPPER

BOREHAMWOOD AND ELSTREE SYNAGOGUE

We are living in an upsidedown world “Dignity and dishonour” – the headlines said it all. As the nation remembered its war dead, extremists from the left and right marched for hate, while violence and antisemitism marred Armisitice Day. It is hard to believe that the streets have become a place for intolerance and sympathy for terrorists when they should be the space for honouring those who made the ultimate sacrifice for peace and calling for a release of those still being held hostage.

This contrast between decency and lawlessness is alluded to in the story of the birth of Jacob and Esau in this week’s parsha,

Toldot. Whilst still in their mother’s womb, the twins clash in a conflict which represents their future divergent world view. According to some, this diametric opposition of their natures was actually a function of miraculous intervention, God desiring that they are not compatible with each other.

After their birth, the Torah paints a picture of Esau as a man of deception who is involved in corruption and violence, whereas Jacob could not be more different: he is a straightforward person, bookish even, who is pained, not only by his brother’s behaviour, but by the potential threat it poses to his father’s and grandfather’s spiritual legacy.

To try to understand how the world seems to contain such irretrievable differences we can turn to the Gemara, which records how the son of Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi became gravely ill and was thought to have died.

Then he suddenly regained consciousness, and it was as if he had returned from some

faraway place. His father said to him: “What did you see?”

He replied: “I saw a world turned upside down. What is above here was below there and what is below was above.”

His father said to him: “My son, you have seen a clear world, you have seen the world clearly.”

At present, we appear to be living in an upside-down world where, despite all the technological advances, there is greater polarisation than at any other time in recent memory. Where the level of hatred and vitriol has risen to a fever pitch, and we seem unable speak to each other across our differences; when the images of violence numb us into disbelief. Where murder and hostage-taking are glorified by some and justified by others; where many of the western liberal ‘intelligentsia’ have blurred the lines between the right to exist, the duty of self-defence and modern-day pogroms and blood lust; where good and evil are confused, righteous and wicked are judged the same.

During these challenging times, our prayers for peace should reflect those of the

Jeremy Corbyn (centre) on Armistice Day

prophet Micah: “Grant truth to Jacob, kindness to Abraham, as you swore to our forefathers in days of old.”

May God fulfil his promise to the patriarchs to preserve their descendants in the Land of Israel.

We’re living in an olam hafuch – an upsidedown world, a place that doesn’t make sense, with events, opinions and attitudes that we can’t understand.

The challenge for us all during these times is to remain focused on olam barur – a clear vision of what is good, right and true.

RABBI AND REBBETZIN Overview

The Community

Flagship United Synagogue house of traditional Jewish worship in Great Britain, located in central London, The New West End Synagogue occupies a rarified status in the history of Judaism.

The Synagogue is seeking a dynamic rabbinic couple to define the future trajectory of a loyal community approaching its 150th anniversary.

A vibrant, eclectic congregation enjoys a varied programme of events which reflects the complexion of a diverse, highly social and welcoming membership. The two main community aims are complementary; to enhance the “Minhag Anglia” form of worship and to grow the congregation by reaching out across central London and beyond.

The Position

The Roles

Timings

Applications are invited from qualified candidates with the following criteria:

The community seeks an engaging and approachable couple as Rabbi and Rebbetzin, to minister across the full spectrum of Jewish life, focused on the following disciplines:

•

• • •

Proactive rabbinic couple Vocational motivation Rabbinic ordination approved

The Employment Package • •

Remuneration is attractive and aligned with the responsibilities of the roles Accommodation on-site in a period town house

• • • • • • • •

Communal Events Courses Education For Adults and Children Hosting Lifecycle Events Outreach Pastoral Care Ritual Services

For informal, confidential enquiries: rabbinicselectioncommittee@newwestend.org.uk

• •

Applications: Now open.

Close at 3pm GMT 3rd Tevet 5784 Early application an advantage Interviews: Commence following closing date Start date: By mutual agreement

The Application • • • •

Curricula Vitae References Your approach to community Rabbonus Your congruity with The New West End

To view the job descriptions and apply for this position: www.theus.org.uk/vacancies

The United Synagogue is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of babies, infants and children; it requires all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

Enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service and other checks will be mandatory.

46 Jewish News 16 November 2023

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Progressive Judaism

LEAP OF FAITH

BY RABBI NEIL JANES

SOUTH BUCKS JEWISH COMMUNITY

How we can support our children at non-Jewish schools The vast majority – if not all – children at South Bucks Jewish Community, where I am rabbi, attend non-Jewish schools.

Based on the most recent census there are about 300 Jewish children in the county and 300 schools. Every Jewish child knows they are a minority.

I am heartbroken to hear some Jewish families do not want their schools even to know they are Jewish. This is the world we live in post 7 October.

Even before this, I was already supporting Jewish children in schools. Issues I was hearing about included peer-on-peer antisemitism, references to the Holocaust and threatening language.

I was also aware of some school syllabuses about Judaism problematically including the

Israeli/Palestinian conflict. I know of Jewish children being asked to explain Israeli government policies to class, Jerusalem denied as the capital of Israel and handouts which held Jews accountable for the killing of Jesus. Whenever conflict erupted in the Middle East, comments were made in the playground.

The response by schools has always been mixed. Some tackle issues head-on, refusing to dismiss peer-to-peer issues as teasing or bullying, instead using the frameworks in place for responding to racist abuse. However, some schools downplayed or excused problems.

Schools that were already well-equipped to deal with antisemitism may be finding the current situation challenging and will be using all their skills and experiences to support Jewish students. Schools that were already handling issues poorly (and often denying them), will find the situation gets worse.

Here are my recommendations for families to share with school leaders: 1. Policies must be clear, up to date and understood by everyone.

A stimulating series where progressive rabbis consider how to navigate Judaism in the face of 21st-century issues

2. Communicate with your school community proactively about your values and say you will not tolerate hate in any form. Do not feel you need to qualify your position against antisemitism with any comment about Gaza. If you want to speak about humanitarian concerns, communicate that in a separate message.

3. Robustly respond to any allegations of antisemitism.

4. Get training and advice and do not depend on the one Jewish family or staff member to do your work for you.

5. Programme into your school year opportunities to celebrate Judaism – do not only commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day. 6. Be open with your students and provide frameworks for talking about the current situation, backed up by your values and policies and with well-informed facilitators; use outside agencies who specialise in this.

7. Monitor the situation and communicate regularly.

8. Seek advice from the local Jewish community about RE and never conflate the Israeli/ Palestinian conflict into your lessons about Judaism. As a minimum, have a subject specialist oversee materials.

9. Do not hold your Jewish children to account for the Israeli government; do not place them on a side; do not expect them to be knowledgeable; do not assume they want to be ‘out’ as a Jew. 10. If a family (or local rabbi/Jewish community) communicates with you, respond with gratitude that they want to be in touch about how the current situation is affecting them.

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48 Jewish News 16 November 2023

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DATING

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Contact: Alan 07776 255755 HOUSE FOR SALE

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49

16 November 2023 Jewish News

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Fun, games and prizes

THE JEWISH NEWS CROSSWORD 1

2

4

3

5

9

11

10

12

13 14

15

17

16

18

19

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

10 Excessively (3,4) 11 String or rope (5) 12 Taking for granted (9) 15 Infancy (5) 17 Stay silent! (4,3) 19 Brand of white rum (7) 20 Ruffians (5) 21 Disparages (10)

6 7

8

SUDOKU

20

21

ACROSS 1 The way things are going (2,4,4) 8 Monkey-like animal (5) 9 Alligator pear (7)

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

DOWN 2 Speed of music (5) 3 Bearded (7) 4 Flamboyantly adventurous (13) 5 In progress (5) 6 Dodging (7) 7 Completed (4) 8 After the due or usual time (4) 12 Jumped suddenly (7) 13 Chilled beverage (4,3) 14 Electrical units (4) 15 Hooligans (4) 16 Long-legged wading bird (5) 18 Computer accessory (5)

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

WORDSEARCH

CODEWORD

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

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

O R E G A N O K B

J

A

6

N E K C

I

H C A R L S

9

E S L

I

C E S R L C T

10

P O

P C E M E H S O

I

A T S T P A R

I

B O P

L A T R A A L R S N P A M T B Z

L E Z R

J O H Z

H

I

I

I

I

N G

L O N P E

M V E G E T A R

I

25

13 11

A N

2

22

17 24

17

22 25

25

O

17

23

22

5

S

12

9

17

1

18

1

22

10

17

5

20

23

12

22

17

10 4

8

22

13

24

22

9

1

9

5

3 21

23

9

5 22

13

21

25 13

2

7

10 8

24

16

11

I

N O O N

S T O E T E R A G M S E V

I

17

10

12

9

3

17

12

18

8 12

8

25

1

21

13

17

25

24

19

20

7 20

22

10

12

13

5

26

20

20 15

13

22 22

12

23 17

12

12

3

SLICE

CALZONE

ITALIAN

ONION

TOMATO

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

CHICKEN

JALAPENO

OREGANO

TOPPING

1

2

3

4

5

CHILLIES

MOZZARELLA

PINEAPPLE

VEGETARIAN

14

15

16

17

18

Last issue’s solutions Crossword ACROSS: 1 Transoms, 5 Smog, 9 Typically, 10 Nil, 11 Halo, 13 Overbid, 16 Sure, 18 Looser, 19 Ideals, 21 None, 23 Fairest, 25 Rack, 27 Ide, 28 Emaciated, 30 Gasp, 31 Bankroll.

DOWN: 1 Tutu, 2 Asp, 3 Sucrose, 4 Mellor, 6 Mont Blanc, 7 Gold disc, 8 Hype, 12 Atomisers, 14 Vein, 15 Bluffing, 17 Urns, 20 Derrick, 22 Ottawa, 24 Eyed, 26 Idol, 29 Two.

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

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

8

19

20

21

H

9

10

11

12

13

22

23

24

25

26

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

3 2 1 4 3 5 1 5 3 2 1 2 3 2 4 5 3 4 4 1 3 1 2 1 2 5 2 4 5 4 1 3 1 3 2 1

2 5

3

4

1

OLIVES

7

3

1 4 3 2 3 4 3 2 1 4 1 2 1 4 3 2 5 3 5 2 1 4 1 2 3 4 5 2 3 5 2 1 3 4 1 4

2

22

HERBS

6

4

19

BASE

S

3

1

4 2

23

14 9

H

3

20

25

13

22

23

23

13

7

9 18

21

5 17

17

4 3

5

1

O

See next issue for puzzle solutions.

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

Wordsearch

Codeword

E N C B S H F A I H E A L N D R D A N A M P

CHR I ST EN ET CH O U W X Q H M M A E L UP I N BOO KMARK A N U U P T F L UT E SAR I A C L Z T RESTORE S J R H Y DUET VAP I D A D N E G G ABS I NT HE S UGAR O S O P A T V C L E T RE E RE CO RDE R

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

16/11

50 Jewish News 16 November 2023

www.jewishnews.co.uk

Bring light to Israel this Chanukah Chanukah feels different this year.

It may feel a little harder to get excited. So Myisrael has come up with a way for you to mark Chanukah and support vulnerable people in Israel at the same time.

For one night of Chanukah you can choose one of four charitable gifts in honour of a loved one. We will send them a physical or e-card letting them know of your donation.

100% of all donations go directly to helping those in Israel with the greatest need.

There are four gifts including a therapy doll that will help a child who is dealing with trauma to feel less anxious.

VISIT OUR CHANUKAH STORE

myisraelstore.org UK registered charity number 1121960

JNFP_Myisrael_Chanukah 260mmWx330mmH_AW_7Nov.indd 1

07/11/2023 17:02