1322 - 6th July 2023

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Beckham’s call-up FREE WEEKLY NEWSPAPER OF THE YEAR

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Red Shield

BRITS GIVING BLOOD IN ISRAEL ONCE AGAIN

Magen David Adom UK launched its Blood Drive for British olim in Israel with two landmark events in February. The events came just a fortnight a er it was announced that, for the first time in a generation, those that lived in the UK were now eligible to give blood in Israel. The ban had been in place since 1999 due to the ‘Mad Cow Disease’ outbreak of the mid-90s.

In conjunction with the British Embassy in Israel, a reception was held at the Peres Center for Peace & Innovation in Ja a. Guests were given the opportunity to give blood and heard from Simon O’Donnell, Head of Political at the British Embassy, Sharon Napchan-Lavon, External Relations Coordinator of the Peres Center, Professor Eilat Shinar (Director of Israel’s National

Blood Services) and Daniel Burger, CEO of MDA UK. Fleur Hassan Nahoum, Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem and a Brit herself, was delighted to be able to give blood again.

Speaking at the event, O’Donnell said, “The embassy is very happy to be here today and celebrate this important decision. I know it has been long awaited and I have no doubt the British community in Israel will be taking full advantage of this meaningful opportunity. I am more than honoured to be one of the first Brits to donate blood and help save lives”.

This was echoed by the Director General of the Peres Center for Peace and Innovation, Efrat Duvdevani, who noted, “We are proud to take part in the event of an important organization like MDA. The Peres Center for Peace and Innovation maintains extensive ties with the British Embassy in Israel and we are happy to be

the home where it is possible for British citizens living in Israel to donate blood a er years when this was not possible.”

Closing the event, Daniel Burger said, “With the announcement that, for the first time in a generation, Brits can give blood in Israel, MDA UK is delighted to host this blood-drive launch event at The Peres Center. For all those that can, giving blood is not only a duty but also an honour. When you give blood, you give hope and help to whoever is in need without prejudice or question. The change in legislation marks a milestone both for the British-Israeli community and for the wider population in removing a longstanding barrier and allowing us to save more lives.”

To find out more about donating blood to Magen David Adom, Israel’s o cial national blood service in Israel, visit mdauk.org/giveblood

MDA UK CEO Daniel Burger was amongst the first Brits to give blood in Israel this century

MDA UK Vice President Judy Saphra and CEO Daniel Burger

Simon O’Donnell with Professor Eilat Shinar

Girls shine in dance extravaganza P20-21

75 YEARS YOUNG

Over the past couple of months, people in Israel and across the Jewish world have marked a special Yom Ha’atzmaut, the 75th in Israel’s short history. This year, the celebrations have occurred alongside political turmoil which has spilt into the streets of cities across Israel. For us, this brings into sharp focus the role of Magen David Adom as Israel’s only national medical emergency and blood service.

As a member of the Red Cross family, MDA sits above politics, above the issues of the day. We simply exist to save the lives of all the people of Israel. Le or right, Jewish or not, irrespective of gender and race. MDA is there for you. And this has been the story for the past 75 years.

At every major event in Israel’s history, Magen David Adom has been present. Even over the past few months, we have had our teams on standby, through Operation Shield and Arrow, or as thousands took to the streets in Tel Aviv and simultaneously ensured that those attending the nearby Robbie Williams concert were also able to do so with our protection in place. Of course, it is not just in Israel that MDA saves lives. As Israel’s national Red Cross society, we have a responsibility to respond internationally too. Recently, this has included a response to the earthquake in Turkey but over the past 75 years our role has taken us to every corner of the globe - even places where Israel does not have formal ties.

We would not be able to save lives without you. So on behalf of everyone at MDAthank you.

MDA ON HAND AT HOME AND ABROAD

In February of this year, a 7.8 magnitude earthquake rocked south-central Turkey and northern Syria. Soon a er the disaster struck, MDA Director General Eli Bin approached the President of the Turkish Red Crescent, Dr. Kinik and o ered humanitarian and medical aid. Operation Olive Branch was launched.

Magen David Adom, Israel’s Red Cross Society, has a great deal of experience in providing medical and humanitarian assistance to many countries around the world that have experienced natural disasters.

A er deployment to the a ected areas, Lieutenant Colonel (ret.) Felix Lotan’s team from MDA, who operated in the city of Kahramanmaras, succeeded in rescuing a 12-year-old boy by drilling a hole through the basement and dragging him out. He received medical treatment from MDA on-site and was then sent to a hospital.

Furthermore, MDA UK joined forces with crisis response charity Goods for Good, medicines supplier Durbin and Virgin Atlantic.

In less than seven days, the fi rst of two cargo-only fl ights departed from Heathrow to Adana. They transported 64 pallets of clothing and other

essential supplies, including 31,000 coats and blankets and almost a tonne of infant milk powder.

On the Israeli home front, in May this year, MDA was put on Level 4 Red Alert, and Operation Shield and Arrow was activated. This was in response to a barrage of rocket fi re attacks from Gaza, which lasted several days.

Throughout that tense period, MDA medics and paramedics were manning 100% of their lifesaving vehicles 24/7 and were ready to respond at any given minute. They provided medical treatment to a total of 71 individuals which sadly included 2 fatalities – an 80-year-old woman from a direct hit in Rehovot and a 35-year-old man (a Gaza resident) in the Sdot Negev Regional Council. There were also 7 injuries from shrapnel and debris.

The operational ready costs during this time reached in excess of 1 million shekels per day.

Daniel Burger Chief Executive Magen David Adom UK

As ever, the response from the UK community was immense. So much of Magen David Adom’s work depends on international support. Donations quite literally save lives.

Virgin cargo plane with medical and essential supplies destined for Turkey Credit: Virgin Atlantic

Head of MDA Delegation Felix Lotan in Turkey

Battle on two fronts

BBC presenter: IDF are happy to kill children

Corporation apologises over claim during interview on Jenin operation

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

A BBC television presenter has provoked fury after claiming that “Israeli forces are happy to kill children” during an interview with former prime minister Naftali Bennett about the military operation in Jenin.

The corporation apologised for Anjana Gadgil’s comments as she interviewed the

former prime minister on BBC World News when she attempted to counter his claim that Palestinian deaths as a result of the military action were those of “young terrorists”. Gadgil, who is also a BBC One host, said to Bennett: “Terrorists, but children. The Israeli forces are happy to kill children.”

A BBC spokesperson told Jewish News the language Gadgil used in the interview on Tuesday “was not phrased well and was inappropriate”. They confirmed they had received

“comments and complaints” about her interview but defended the corporation’s overall coverage of the military operation in Jenin as “impartial and robust”. The Board of Deputies, the Jewish Leadership Council and Bennett himself had condemned Gadgil’s comments.

Speaking to Gadgil from a studio in Jerusalem, the former prime minister had told her: “You know, it’s quite remarkable that you’d say that, because they’re killing us.

“If it was a 17-year-old Palestinian shooting

at your family Anjana, what is he?”

The presenter responded: “Under your definition you are calling them ‘terrorists’. The UN are calling them children.”

Bennett replied: “No, actually, what would you call a 17-year-old citizen with a rifle shooting at your family and murdering your own family. How would you define that person?”

Gadgil added: “We are not talking about that. The UN has defined them as children and we Continued on page 8

SEVEN INJURED IN TEL AVIV RAMMING

At least seven people were hurt in a car ramming attack in Tel Aviv on Tuesday. Among the injured is a pregnant woman who lost her baby as a result of injuries and a 76-year old man who is in intensive care.

The assailant, a 23-yearold Palestinian from the West Bank, drove at people on the pavement on Pinchas Rosen Street and then got out of his vehicle and began to stab others.

Some reports suggested the attacker ran into a bus stop before taking out a knife. He was eventually shot dead by a civilian at the scene, who has now been named as Kobi Yekutiel.

Paramedics from Magen David Adom arrived at the scene and treated the injured. Tel Aviv Police District Commander Ami Eshed said the incident was an act of terror carried out by a resident of the West Bank.

A 46-year-old woman was among the injured, and

Dust settles in Jenin

Benjamin Netanyahu has warned that there is more to come after Israeli troops withdrew from Jenin at the end of its biggest military operation in the West Bank for 20 years.

Soldiers left the city of Jenin on Tuesday evening after a two-day operation against an armed group that Israeli leaders say were based in the city’s UN refugee camp, home to between 17,000-24,000 people.

Yehudah Yitzchak, died during an exchange of gunfire on Tuesday. The Yesha Council, which described him as “brave”, said he had been raised in Beit El, an Israeli settlement deep in the heart of the West Bank, just north of Ramallah.

reports said she had sustained serious injuries and had been evacuated to nearby hospital along with other victims.

Others were also taken to hospital with stab wounds, or injuries caused by impact with the car.

Hamas spokesperson Hazem Kassem said in response to the attack: “The heroic action in Tel Aviv is the first response to Israel’s crimes against our people in the Jenin refugee camp.

“As the [Palestinian] resistance has already put it – Israel will pay the price for its crimes.”

The Israeli prime minister, visiting an army command near Jenin to oversee the withdrawal, promised that the operation would not be a “one-time action”.

Five rockets were later fired at Israel from Gaza in the early hours of yesterday, all of which were intercepted. In response, Israeli aircraft fired on an underground target in the Gaza Strip.

The Jenin operation involved more than 1,000 troops and 15 bulldozers to combat the improvised explosive devices (IEDs) planted along roads.

Soldiers used loudspeakers to tell residents to stay indoors for their own safety, but about 3,000 were reported to have fled.

One Israeli soldier, David

Yesterday, thousands of Jenin residents lined the streets for the funerals of 12 Palestinians killed in the two-day operation. At least eight are known to have been armed combatants. Four of the 12 were under the age of 18. No civilians are believed to have died. More than 140 others were injured, 30 seriously, according to Palestinian health officials.

Residents recalled how Israel Defense Forces (IDF) troops commandeered their houses to place snipers on the roof, something an army spokesman later confirmed.

The target was an armed group called the Jenin Battalion. The city of 50,000 has been dubbed an “asylum for terrorists” by Israeli ministers. The Palestinian Authority is widely acknowledged to have no control or credibility in the city, which is effectively self-governed.

Israel’s foreign ministry said: “Jenin is laced with explosives

AIR PASSENGERS ARRIVE TO ‘DEMOCRACY’ CHANTS

A protest by up to 15,000 Israelis in support of judicial independence took place across Ben Gurion Airport on Monday as police made several arrests.

Chants of “democracy” and “this government is criminal” rang through the arrivals hall at Terminal 3, with passengers arriving into Israel greeted by the deafening sound of horns and drums, and the waving of hundreds of Israeli flags.

Among those arriving in the protest was a group of British university students visiting Israel for the first time with the Taglit Birthright programme. Ella Cohen, 18, from London, said: “I’ve never experienced anything like this before.”

According to the Times of Israel, protesters said Israeli police ordered them to leave the arrivals hall “because of our Israeli flags”, an order they described as “illegal”.

Police units, some on horseback, blocked the entrance to the airport and began removing protesters from inside, with 52 people arrested for disturbing the peace after overrunning blockades and blocking roads. All were later released from Ramle police station, where hundreds of protesters were moved on to from the airport.

Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid refused to criticise the anti-government protests against a planned law that critics insist will curb the power of Israeli judges.

“What should have happened today is for the government to stop the legislation,” said Lapid.

“Then there would be space to end the

demonstration at Ben Gurion. This is what the organisers said, too. Protesters have a full right to demonstrate in a democratic country – as long as we are a democratic country.”

Right-wing Israeli politician Simcha Rothman, who heads the Knesset constitution committee, said the bill would be approved and advanced to the Knesset, ahead of its first reading early next week.

The planned changes will allow politicians to legally override Israel’s most senior courts if they deem ministers’ plans unconstitutional.

There have now been 26 consecutive weekends of nationwide protests against the judicial overhaul, centring on Tel Aviv’s Kaplan Street. This weekend some 130,000-150,000 took part in demonstrations in the city, with 280,000 in total across the country.

Scene of Tuesday’s attack

Demonstrators at Ben Gurion Airport on Monday

but tensions high

planted by Palestinian terrorists. Under homes, hospitals and mosques hide deadly weapons with the intent to harm Israeli and Palestinian civilians. The goal of the IDF’s activity in Jenin was to dismantle this dangerous terrorism base.”

Israel’s chief military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said forces targeted labs used for making IEDs and weapons. In the early hours of Monday, the IDF attacked what it described as a “joint terror command post” in the heart of the UN refugee camp near a school, a clinic, and a food distribution centre.

A relatively new military umbrella organisation, the Jenin Battalion is known to draw its recruits from Palestinian groups such as Fatah, Hamas, and Islamic Jihad. In a statement, it said its members would fight “until the last breath and bullet”.

The buildings were described as a meeting point for arming terrorists with weapons and explosive devices, a communication centre for operatives, and a shelter for wanted operatives for terror attacks in the last few months.

Hagari said on Tuesday that 120 wanted Palestinian men had been

arrested and were being interrogated by the security services, adding: “There is no point in the camp that we have not reached, including its core.”

Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant said: “We will take an o ensive and aggressive stance against terrorism. Anyone who attacks Israeli citizens will pay a high price. The security establishment is prepared for any scenario.”

Tension had been mounting after four Israelis were killed and another four were wounded, one seriously, in a shooting attack 10 days ago at a petrol station next to the Eli settlement in the northern West Bank.

Israel’s western allies, such as the UK and the United States, this week reiterated Israel’s right to defend itself, but there was some criticism of the military action from Jerusalem’s new regional friends, including the United Arab Emirates.

The United Nations Security Council is now due to meet tomorrow to discuss the situation in the Palestinian territories at the request of the UAE, which is one of the founding signatories to the Abraham Accords.

What will you leave behind?

BY RICHARD PATER CHIEF EXECUTIVE OF BICOM & AN ANALYST BASED IN JERUSALEM

As Operation House and Garden in Jenin comes to an end the IDF is satisfied that most objectives were achieved.

The top priority was to destroy the terror infrastructure, particularly the explosives factories, weapon storage facilities and command and control centres.

The second priority was ensuring the IDF’s freedom of movement – that was quickly accomplished, giving it control of the whole area. The IDF also dismantled the terror groups’ CCTV, which had enabled them to monitor and attack previous IDF incursions.

Allies recognised the limited scope of the operation and Israel’s need to degrade terrorist capability. It was also noteworthy that not one Palestinian civilian was killed. In other realms the army only achieved partial success. It ‘only’ killed 12 terrorists, and did not arrest as many as hoped.

When the operation began the IDF made clear that the Palestinian Authority was not the target. Incursions into Jenin have been regular over the last 18 months, as Operation Breakwater filled the vacuum vacated by the PA. The IDF hoped that a return to full coordination with their security forces could be mutually advantageous; this has not happened. As a result of these partial successes, and Iran’s continued funding and support of terrorists, it is highly likely that sooner rather than later the IDF will again need to return to the streets of Jenin.

News / Terrorism case / Sacks Scholars / Mitzvah Day

Charged teen ‘researched shul’

A teenager charged with terrorism o ences had allegedly been researching a synagogue in Hove, Sussex, the Community Security Trust has revealed.

Mason Reynolds was charged on Monday following an investigation by police.

CST then confirmed police had informed them that that the 18 year-old’s online activities included researching Holland Road synagogue in Hove.

Reynolds, 18, of Moulsecoomb Way, Brighton, appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday. Among the charges he faces are five counts of collecting information which could be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism.

A spokesperson for Counter

Terrorism Policing Southeast said the charges against Reynolds were linked to an “extreme right-wing ideology”.

The CST said in a statement: “After his arrest this week, we were informed by the police that the defendant had allegedly con-

INSPIRED BY RABBI SACKS

ducted online research into Hove Hebrew Congregation (Holland Road synagogue). The defendant has been remanded in custody and at this stage, there is no indication that anybody else was involved.

“The threat of terrorism faced by Jewish communities is the reason why security remains an essential part of Jewish communal life.

“We have been working closely with counter-terrorism police, Hove Hebrew Congregation and Sussex Jewish Representative Council to ensure appropriate measures are in place.”

Holland Road synagogue was built as a gymnasium in 1883 by George Fuller, and was converted to a synagogue in 1929 by Marcus Glass.

Mitzvah Day will focus on tikkun olam

More than 55,000 volunteers will ‘repair the world’ on Mitzvah Day 2023, as the theme for the UK’s largest faith-based day of social action was announced at a launch event in Brighton.

Mitzvah Day chair Laura Marks (pictured) told the gathering of clergy, civic leaders and volunteers at BNJC

(Brighton and Hove Jewish Community Centre): “Tikkun olam, the Jewish value to repair the world, is integral to all faiths and belief systems. That is why this year we aim to give our time, collectively, to address the human-inflicted damage both on vulnerable people and on our precious fragile environment.”

Mitzvah Day will take place on and around 19 November. Projects will be focused on tackling loneliness, hunger and damage to our planet.

Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis commented: “We cannot solve all of the world’s problems in one day, but every small step helps.”

Twenty-six Jewish educators and communal professionals who had personal connections with Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks convened in Jerusalem last week for a four-day learning experience led by the Rabbi Sacks Legacy.

The inaugural cohort of Sacks Scholars explored Rabbi Sacks’ teachings, preparing to promulgate his wisdom through innovative programming with their communities.

The retreat also launched a year-long initiative to cultivate a network of Rabbi Sacksinspired scholars. The group will now partake in 10 monthly online seminars by leaders in education, academia and politics. These seminars will be guided by Rabbi Sacks’ philosophy that “leadership at its highest transforms those who exercise and those who are influenced by it”.

Lady Elaine said: “My family and I are so appreciative of these wonderful educators from around the world who are committed to transmitting the Torah of my dear husband. They will be able to share his teachings with even more people, particularly with the next generation, adding to his legacy and impact.”

Holland Road Synagogue is the home of Hove Hebrew Congregation

The 26 Sacks Scholars with Lady Sacks

Now it’s ‘our’ story: Shoah centre founder converts

The founder of the UK’s National Holocaust Centre and one of world Jewry’s greatest allies for the past three decades has converted to Judaism.

Stephen Smith was born and raised in Nottinghamshire to a family of devout Christians; together with brother James and mother Marina, they established England’s National Holocaust Museum and Centre. It is the only site of its kind in the country.

Internationally esteemed as a scholar, theologian and supporter of the Jewish community, Smith ran the centre from 1995 until he left for LA in 2009 to head the USC (University of Southern California) Shoah Foundation, the archive founded by Steven Spielberg to document and teach from the testimonies of survivors of the Holcoaust and genocide.

After stepping down in 2021, it was on a visit to Israel that he had his conversion moment at the Western Wall in Jerusalem. It was there, as his Jewish wife Heather Maio-Smith returned from her own prayers, that he told her he had decided to convert. “What, now?” she asked.

Smith embarked on a conservative

conversion, “probably closest to Masorti in the UK”, he says, adding that his journey has been both a mission and a calling.

Shortly after deciding to convert, he was invited to write a book on Jewish ethics as a Christian theologian. “I went into my study, and came out later in the day, saying to my wife, ‘I think I just wrote my first chapter as a Jewish theologian.’ ”

Smith says that suddenly seeing

HEAD ‘BLOWN AWAY’ AS JFS RAISES £1M

Judaism as ‘our history’ and ‘our story’ was “life changing”. There were “no rituals. No classes. No bris. No mikvah. But a complete change of perspective.”

He tells Jewish News that he no longer feels alone. “I feel very much a part of something. And I have never felt safer in my life being Jewish. Jewish people need to know that. That they are safe because they have one another. If I do one thing with my conversion, I’m going to remind Jews just how special it is to be Jewish and to have one another.”

About today’s antisemites, he says: “Most of them are acting out of fear and ignorance. And we are not ignorant. We should not be fearful. We have nothing to fear. I say that as a genocide scholar and a scholar of the Holocaust. We have nothing to fear because we have one another. And we have to use that to our advantage. That’s what’s changed for me.”

Smith is most recently co-founder and CEO of StoryFile, a conversational video AI company providing digital innovation for high-profile figures and those less well known to share their stories in future generations.

JFS raised more than £1m in its 36-hour More Than fundraising campaign.

The school in Kenton, Europe’s largest Jewish secondary school, needs the funds to tackle rapidly rising costs and a big deficit.

The school, established nearly 300 years ago in 1732, teaches more than 2,000 students across the religious spectrum.

Headteacher Dr David Moody said: “I’m blown away by the generosity of the JFS community.

“I can’t tell you how much we appreciate every single donation and the dedica-

tion of our parent body. We’re delighted to have hit our target. It’s an incredible achievement.”

The money raised will help to support areas across pastoral care, wellbeing provision, enhanced special educational needs facilities, Jewish studies activities and events, sports amenities, after school clubs, school trips and the fully sta ed team of expert lead practitioners.

Moody added: “JFS provides so much more than an ordinary state school could ever do, which is why it is called the More Than campaign.”

Stephen Smith (left), survivor Edward Mosberg and the Shoah Foundation’s Steven Spielberg

Dr David Moody and pupils hail the ‘incredble achievement’

The gifT of care

Breast cancer gene test breakthrough

Scientists in UK and Israel have made a breakthrough in the accuracy of genetic testing for breast cancer risk in Ashkenazi Jewish women that will reduce the need for screening and even surgery.

New forms of genetic tests can tell women their personal risk of developing breast cancer, but there is a lack of accuracy for black, Asian or Ashkenazi Jewish women, or women with a mixed-ethnic background.

Medicine, the British and Israeli researchers showed that after adjusting for Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry, they were able to generate much more accurate predictions.

The work was carried out by teams from the University of Manchester, Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust, Carmel Medical Center in Israel, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Christie NHS Foundation Trust, and Queen Mary University of London.

E: DTerret@nightingalehammerson.org

T: 020 8673 3495 nightingalehammerson.org/legacy • nightingalehammerson.org

Researchers in Manchester and Israel looked at how to improve the tests for Ashkenazi Jewish women by looking for tiny genetic variations all humans carry – called single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs).

Depending on their unique combination, SNPs can increase or decrease the risk of breast cancer. It generates a score which tells a woman whether she has a low, average, or high risk of developing breast cancer in the next ten years.

The problem was that the genetic data used to create the scores came from mainstream white European populations, meaning that the risk for black, Asian or Ashkenazi Jewish women, or women with a mixed-ethnic background, was often exaggerated.

Now, in findings published by Genetics in

The research team used genetic information from Ashkenazi Jewish women in both Manchester and Israel, with data from studies in Greater Manchester, Northern Israel and a regional genetics database.

Professor Gareth Evans, a consultant in medical genetics and cancer epidemiology who co-led the study, said Jewish women being told that they are at an exaggerated risk of breast cancer could suffer “undue stress or concern and unnecessary screening and preventative measures that they don’t need”.

He said that future scores for Ashkenazi Jewish women “should be based on their genetic data to provide a more accurate risk prediction”, adding: “This study is an important step forward.”

Accurate testing ‘gives women confidence’

Among the Jewish women to learn of their risk is Vicky Lee, 56, from Manchester. She grew up with a family history of female cancers and lost her mother to ovarian cancer aged 47.

As genetic sequencing became available, she tested positive for the BRCA gene and opted for a preventive hysterectomy and later a bilateral mastectomy. She was a patient at Saint Mary’s, Withington and Wythenshawe Hospitals.

“Before I was tested, I’d decided that I would have preventive surgery if I was a BRCA carrier,” she said. “I’d watched my mum and other members of my family go

through ovarian cancers and I knew I had to do everything in my power to prevent my own daughters from watching me fight the same disease.

“The ability to accurately test for gene fragments that might be the cause of family cancers is so important for

allowing women to make informed choices about their future health.

“One size never fits all in medicine and medical advancements that allow women in specific communities to understand their own health picture properly are massively important.

“Preventive surgeries are significant procedures that no woman would undergo lightly. Accurate testing gives women the confidence to make these decisions based on precise insight and, conversely, allows other women to know with confidence that their risk is low, giving them freedom to go and live their lives.”

KORSKI QUITS HIS JLC ROLE

Former Conservative Party London may oral hopeful Daniel Korski has stepped down as a vice-president at the Jewish Leadership Council. The decision comes after the tech entrepreneur dropped out of the race to become Mayor of London following claims he had groped a woman, which he denies.

In a statement, the JLC confirmed: “Daniel Korski offered his resignation as a JLC vice-president and this was accepted.

“JLC vice-presidents are honorary posi-

tions, acting in an unpaid advisory role, and without a vote.”

Korski had been made a JLC vicepresident in June 2019, a role with the communal organisation that comes with a five-year term.

But the co-founder of Public, a tech venture capital firm, has now been removed from the list of vicepresidents on the JLC website, who continue to include Baroness Ros Altmann, Luciana Berger, Sir Victor Blank and the MP Robert Halfon.

Vicky Lee

Daniel Korski

Prof Gareth Evans

Honours await young techies and creatives Catholic life line for Hasmo Boys

The deadline for nominations for the community’s young tech titans and creative wizards has been extended to the end of July following a flood of entries since the project’s launch by Jewish News

Names are being accepted until 31 July through our website for two Forty under 40 lists: Creatives40 sponsored by Dangoor Education and Tech40 sponsored by LabTech.

Nominations will also come from two expert panels – facilitated by fashion business leader Andrew Gilbert – who will select the 40-strong lists to be profiled in JN in the autumn.

Justin Cohen, co-publisher of Jewish News, said: “The calibre of our judges is testament to the contributions made by our small community in these areas and the nominations received already shows that this is set to continue for years to come.”

Nominees can be business owners, practitioners, funders or contribute in other ways across any part of the tech or creativity arenas (the online nomination form features a breakdown). Potential listees must have live in the UK and be aged under 40 on 1 October.

Two further lists, property and business services, will be launched later this year.

Nominate at www.jewishnews.co.uk/creatives40 and www.jewishnews.co.uk/tech40

Students on the waiting list for Year 7 at Hasmonean Boys’ School this September have been o ered an unexpected life line by the Catholic Diocese of Westminster.

The district, under the pastoral care of the Christian Church, has stepped in at the 11th hour to ensure pupils who meet the admissions criteria will be o ered a place in a leased school property for the next academic year.

In an email to parents seen by Jewish News, Gary Swabel, chair of Trustees, Yossi Halberstadt, chair of Governors at Hasmonean High School for Boys and Andrew McClusky, CEO at Hasmonean MAT wrote: “Thanks to the won-

derful support of Barnet’s o cers and councillors and the very generous support from the community, we are poised to sign a contract with the Catholic Diocese of Westminster to lease a primary school a short walk away from Belsize Park Tube which will allow us to accommodate all of Year 7 there from September.

Hasmonean Boys’ in Hendon has been looking for a solution for the families on the waiting list for some time. This week’s announcement comes after plans for pupils at the Jewish boys’ and girls’ schools to study in Portakabins on the same premises were blocked for the second time as a remit of the Green Belt.

CRYSTAL LEADS TRIBUTES TO ACTOR ALAN ARKIN

“He was one of our greatest actors. Hilarious, heartbreaking, and the ability to be terrifying.” This was Billy Crystal’s tribute to

American actor Alan Arkin, who died last week at his home in San Marcos, California, aged 89.

The Oscar nomination he received for The Russians Are Coming in 1966 was the starting

point of a career that spanned seven decades. Memorable as the Manhattan dentist drawn into an espionage scheme in The In-Laws (1979), the Brooklyn-born Jewish actor of Ukrainian/German her-

itage studied the Stanislavski method with Benjamin Zemach, and this teaching framed his performances in The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (1968), Glengarry Glen Ross (1992) and Catch-22. More

recently he voiced JD Salinger in Netflix’s BoJack Horseman, and played retired agent and widower Norman Newlander alongside Michael Douglas in Chuck Lorre’s The Kominsky Method

Up to 90pc of Jews forecast to leave Russia and Ukraine COMMENTS ARE ‘OUTRAGEOUS’

Russia war in Ukraine has led to “signs of a Jewish exodus” from both nations, with migration five times its pre-2022 level, according to a report published this week.

Statisticians at the Institute for Jewish Policy Research (JPR) said that, on current trends, up to 90 percent of the countries’ Jews will have emigrated by 2030.

The figures were released as Moscow’s former chief rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt was branded a “foreign agent” by Russia’s security forces, a jibe greeted with contempt by the rabbi, who now lives in Israel.

“Russia has turned for the worse,” Goldschmidt said. “This is the first time since the beginning of the war that a religious leader has been declared a foreign agent and defined by the Russian government as a hostile threat.

“It’s very likely this will mean the start of a new antisemitic campaign against the Jewish community in Russia. I’ve previously called on the local Jewish community to leave the country before it’s too late.”

The JPR report, published yesterday, said 2022 was a “watershed year” for Russian and Ukrainian Jews. “The number of migrants to Israel that year was five times higher than in 2021.

“Similarly high levels of migration per-

sisted in early 2023. If [this] continues for seven years… then the critical value indicating an ongoing exodus will be reached and, arguably, surpassed.”

At that point, up to 90 percent of the Jewish population of Ukraine will have emigrated, JPR said, as would 50-60 percent of Jews in Russia. By contrast, if the emigration of French Jews continues at its current rates for the next seven years, the country would lose only 2-5 percent of its Jewish population.

A wave of Jewish immigration followed the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the collapse of communism in Soviet satellites. On average, 16,000 to 20,000 Jews

a year came to Israel from each of Russia and Ukraine between 1995 and 2003.

By the early 2000s, this migration had exhausted itself, dwindling to about 3,500 Jews making aliyah each year from Russia between 2003 and 2013, and about 2,000 a year from Ukraine over the same period.

However, “new political developments over the last eight years have clearly manifested themselves in patterns of migration,” said JPR author Daniel Staetsky, referencing Russia’s annexation of Crimea and areas of the Donbas in 2014.

“In Ukraine, the number of Jewish migrants in 2014 was three times the number in 2013. A further rise, with migration figures stabilising at this new, higher level, was observed in later years,” he said. In Russia, a similar rise in migration took place. Given the timing and the sharpness of this increase in Jewish migration, it can be unambiguously linked to the start of Russo-Ukrainian hostilities and, more particularly, to the annexation of Crimea by Russia.

“The upward trend in Jewish migration from Russia from 2014 to 2021 is a specific response to the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, rather than to internal Russian developments in political stability.”

Continued from page 1 know that four people between the ages of 16 and 18 have been killed in this targeted attack.

“Let’s not forget it’s a targeted attack. The Israeli forces are going in looking for these people.”

“Quite to the contrary,”

Bennett replied. “All 11 people dead there are militants. The fact that there are young terrorists who decide to hold arms is their responsibility.”

The Board said yesterday it was “appalled” by the presenter’s remarks in the interview, adding: “The comments, including the charge that

‘Israeli forces are happy to kill children’ when discussing armed terrorists under the age of 18, is simply disgraceful.”

“This is a clear breach of the corporation’s own editorial guidelines, and we will be contacting the director-general personally to protest in the strongest possible terms.”

Co-chief executive of the Jewish Leadership Council Claudia Mendoza said: “Naftali Bennett was right to expose the false moral equivalence in the frankly outrageous line of questioning.” Bennett said the interview “undermined” the BBC’s impartiality.

Ukrainian immigrants at Ben Gurion

Naftali Bennett is interviewed by the BBC’s Anjana Gadgil

Support ‘deli’ opens for Jews with breast cancer

A support group for Jewish breast cancer patients has been launched as a continued legacy to a mother and daughter who died from the disease, writes Candice Krieger.

Bagel Deli, which launches on 25 July and is run by the breast cancer charity Future Dreams, will be a monthly meet-up providing a space for women to speak about the challenges faced during and after a breast cancer diagnosis.

Future Dreams was started by Sylvie Henry and her daughter Danielle Leslie. They were both diagnosed with breast cancer and died of the disease within a year of each other in 2009. Their dream was to make sure nobody should have to face breast cancer alone.

The meet ups will take place at Future Dreams House in Kings Cross, London. Opened in 2021, Future Dreams House is the UK’s only dedicated breast cancer support centre. All refreshments provided will be kosher.

Future Dreams trustee Sam Jacobs said: “We want everyone to recognise themselves at Future

Dreams House – we have several diverse community groups, and we felt it was impor tant to include a Jewish community support group.

“We are looking forward to welcoming members of the Jewish community, who have been touched by breast cancer, to have a safe space at Future Dreams House, every month, and a relaxed envi ronment to share their stories and find peer to peer support at our Bagel Deli.” Bagel Deli is the latest of several support groups that Future Dreams runs.

There is a Samosa Chaat & Chat for women from the South Asian community, Black Women Rising, Secondary Sisters for those with secondary cancer, a

Mother and daughter Sylvie Henry and Danielle Leslie founded Future Dreams. They both died in 2009

BRCA community group, a supporters meet up for partners and carers whose loved ones have

SHUL’S 111 YEARS

The independent Orthodox synagogue in Walford Road, Stoke Newington, celebrated its 111th anniversary last month when 150 members gathered with key leaders and members of the Jewish community.

been affected by breast cancer, a young person’s meet up and a regular coffee morning hosted by Amanda Hanison, the Future Dreams Support and Awareness Ambassador, who has had her own breast cancer journey.

The charity is also hoping to launch a group for the LGBTQ community next year.

Bagel Deli will be run by Hanison and breast cancer clinical nurse specialist Jackie Wright. Topics discussed with guest speakers will include coping strategies, treatment experiences, lifestyle and wellness support and the available resources at the House and online.

Hanison said: “Based on what we have seen in our other groups, these meet ups are so beneficial and can really make a difference to a breast cancer patient’s journey.”

Walford Road synagogue chairman Ike Albert said: “This is a very special place. When people come here, they feel happy, they feel wanted, they feel welcome.”

Those present at the celebration included Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis, Lord (Michael) Levy, Board of Deputies president Marie van der Zyl and TV personality Vanessa Feltz.

Lord Levy shared his memories of the time he and his family were members of the shul, where his father, Sam, had been shamash for many years. He said that both his barmitzvah and his wedding had been held there.

CHARITY DRIVE

A charity in Hendon that supports vulnerable young Jewish men is campaigning for funds to continue its work, writes Michelle Rosenberg.

Most of those supported by The Boys Clubhouse in Hendon, established in 2009, have suffered from domestic or sexual abuse. Since 2021 it has helped over 180 young men, of whom 65 percent come from dysfunctional homes; a third came to it for help as they were homeless.

Karin Elkorchi, campaign co-ordinator, tells Jewish News the Clubhouse is often the place of last resort for adolescents across the community. It aims to raise £750,000 over the 36 hours from 10am on 9 July to 10pm on 10 July.

MPs vote through Gove’s BDS bill after giving it a bashing

Michael Gove’s bill to ban public bodies from boycotting Israel has passed its second reading in the Commons, but only after sustained criticism of the scope of the legislation from Tory backbenchers and from opposition MPs, writes Lee Harpin.

During a four-hour debate on Monday evening, the communities secretary said the government’s economic activity of public bodies bill would “critically” provide protection “for minority communities, especially the Jewish community, against campaigns that harm community cohesion and fuel antisemitism”.

Gove said action was necessary against BDS “because there is an existing, organised and malign campaign that aims to target and delegitimise the world’s only Jewish state”.

At one point in his speech the secretary of state named supporters of the bill from outside the Conservative Party: Labour Friends of Israel, Luke Akehurst, “a member of Labour’s NEC”, and the Board of Deputies and Jewish Leadership Council “all of whom back this bill”.

“I agree with Labour Friends of Israel,” said Gove. “I agree with Luke Akehurst. I agree with the Board of Deputies. I agree with the Jewish Leadership Council, all of whom back this bill.” The French and German governments had also acted against the BDS movement, he added.

Gove tried to cast doubts about the credibility of a barrister on issues relating to Israel, who gave legal advice to Labour about the bill.

He said Richard Hermer was “a distinguished KC” who “has a record in this area— a record of political commitments that everyone can see clearly predispose him towards a political and particular view on this question”. In a comment that sparked some anger, Gove added: “The question for every member of this House is whether they stand with us against antisemitism or not.”

Later in the debate, Dame Margaret Hodge said: “This bill reflects what is wrong in politics today. The government has put forward legislation that is flawed, poorly drafted and will have damaging consequences here and abroad.”

The Jewish MP then added: “They haven’t done this to support Israel or to demonstrate solidarity with the Jewish community, or to show they really care about undermining the BDS movement. They simply want to set a political trap for Labour. This bill is not an attempt to bring about peace, provide better security for Israel… it’s about using Jews as a pawn in the government’s political game.”

Labour’s Lisa Nandy told MPs that her party “recognise the problem which Gove says the bill is designed to tackle” and confirmed her longstanding opposition to BDS, which she said “o ers no meaningful route to peace either for the Palestinians or for the Israelis”.

She added: “When BDS is used as an argument for the total economic, social and cultural isolation of the world’s only Jewish state, not only will I speak out but I have spoken out time and time again. There is at least one example of a publicly funded body that has taken a stance against the state of Israel that has e ectively cancelled Jewish culture here in the UK. We will always stand against that.”

But Nandy then gave a series of objections Labour had to the bill, as outlined in her interview with Jewish News last week. Many chimed with those raised by Conservative MPs in the debate – notably the chair of the foreign a airs select committee Alicia Kearns, who argued that the bill’s conflation between Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories (OPT) was a “departure from our foreign policy” that “undermines our commitments as a UN security council member”. Later, she told the Commons that even the foreign o ce’s “own legal advice” was that this conflation between Israel and the OPT was a breach of a UN security council resolution. She said: “The UK recognises the Golan Heights is annexed, and the West Bank and east Jerusalem as occupied Palestinian territories. This is a departure from our foreign policy.”

Kearns later claimed the bill “essentially gives exceptional impunity to Israel”, adding: “This is something we should not give to any country and I would be standing here making the same request if any country was named.”

Tory former education secretary Kit Malt-

house argued that as an investor in a local authority pension, it was his right and not the government’s to decide where his money was invested. His colleague Desmond Swayne said the bill restrained freedom of expression, introducing what he described as “thought crime”.

Other Tory and Labour MPs said the bill would hurt attempts to stand up to China over Uyghur rights. Further Conservatives noted that the party’s 2019 manifesto had not named Israel in the promise to tackle boycotts.

Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn was among the MPs to support BDS, while former chancellor John McDonnell launched a scathing attack on claims that support for the boycott movement equated to antisemitism.

Among those to back the bill was Andrew Percy, vice-chair of the all-party parliamentary group on antisemitism, who said: “The BDS campaign is an antisemitic racist campaign, there is no doubt about that.”

Labour Friends of Israel’s parliamentary chair Steve McCabe said: “I had been looking forward to this legislation. As the chair of Labour Friends of Israel, I am against e orts to destabilise, delegitimise and destroy Israel, the world’s only Jewish state.”

The Labour MP added: “The purpose of the BDS movement, with its talk of apartheid, genocide and ghettos, is to demonise and, ultimately, destroy Israel. I had hoped we might see a simple bill designed to restrain the ambitions of BDS, with its single target, the state of Israel.”

Tory MP Bob Blackman said the bill was “long-awaited” and “takes on the BDS movement directly”.

In the vote on the bill’s second reading, Labour abstained, allowing it to pass by 268 votes to 70, with 84 of the party’s MPs not voting; it was unclear how many of these were paired with opposition MPs unable to vote on the night.

Labour sources said 10 of their MPs had rebelled. Two Tories, William Wragg and Crispin Blunt, voted against the bill.

Conservative sources suggested that changes would have to be made to the bill as it progressed further through parliament to stave o further rebellions.

Michael Gove argues for his bill on Tuesday, but Lisa Nandy (inset) expresses objections

New culture club for German Jews

Chabad

opens Germany’s largest Jewish centre since the war in a ‘positive celebration of life’

Germany’s largest Jewish centre since the 1930s and one of the largest of its kind in the world opened last week in Berlin with a dedication ceremony that included diplomats and communal leaders, writes Toby Axelrod.

The Pears Jewish Campus, which covers 80,000 square feet and cost $43.7m (£34.4m) to build, will be run by Berlin’s Chabad-Lubavitch community. By the next school year in the autumn, all the community’s current

pupils — some 550 in all — will move out of their current locations around the city and into the new building.

The campus has a basketball court and gym that can double as a lecture or reception hall, cinema, music studio and even a kosher deli. With its blue glazed brickwork on a curved facade, the seven-storey building, which is open to the public, stands out on an otherwise typical Berlin street.

Local Chabad director Rabbi Yehuda Teichtal said he was grateful

to see the campus open after four years of construction, which continued during the Covid pandemic.

“It’s very beautiful, it’s a place for exchange,” he said. The idea was “to create awareness and knowledge of what Jewish life is about. It’s not just about fighting antisemitism – it has to be connected with positivity.”

At Sunday’s ceremony, he said: “There are millions of Germans who don’t even know what Jews are. Let’s have positive cooperation, face

to face, through dialogue, through shared, positive, joyful, lively, futureoriented Jewish life.”

About 90,000 Jews in Germany

are members of congregations under the umbrella of the Central Council of Jews in Germany; another 100,000 who identify as Jews are unaffiliated.

WHITE HOUSE INVITES: HERZOG YES, NETANYAHU NO

Republican and Democratic leaders invited Israel’s President Isaac Herzog to address Congress to mark 75 years of the US-Israel relationship. The invitation, which will

almost certainly include a White House visit with President Biden, is unusual as it comes before prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been asked to meet the president.

Herzog will speak to the Congress on 19 July. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, a California Republican, said Herzog’s visit would mirror a recent bipartisan trip he under-

took to Israel to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the statehood of Israel and “reaffirm the special relationship between our two nations”.

Biden has not invited Net-

anyahu to visit since the Israeli prime minister began his most recent term in office in December, and has said it won’t happen soon.

Biden has a decades-long

friendship with Netanyahu, but is maintaining distance while the Israeli leader continues to support legislation that opponents say would sap the courts of much of their independence.

The Pears Jewish Campus in Berlin holds its inauguration ceremony

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Holocaust memorial in Paris vandalised ISRAELI MUSEUM’S AUCTION PROTEST

Benjamin Netanyahu has “strongly condemned” the vandalism of a Paris Holocaust memorial and the antisemitic chanting during football matches as part of nationwide protests across France last week.

According to Radio Shalom, Jewish businesses were also ransacked in the Paris suburb of Sarcelles, dubbed Little Jerusalem owing to its large Jewish population.

The violence prompted the Israeli prime minister to use his Sunday cabinet meeting to criticise the “wave of antisemitism sweeping France”, adding that Israel was monitoring the situation.

Thousands of French protesters have been arrested after communities reacted angrily to the police killing of an unarmed 17-year-old boy of Algerian descent in the Paris suburb of Nanterre on Tuesday. The shooting was filmed and posted online.

In the ensuing mayhem, vandals daubed “police scum” across

the Memorial to the Martyrs of the Deportation in Nanterre, which commemorates Holocaust victims and Jewish members of the French Resistance.

In a tweet, the European Jewish Congress said it was “truly horrifying to witness [the memorial] being vandalised…

“This shameful act of disrespect for the memory of Holocaust victims must be unequivocally condemned and those responsible held accountable.”

Antisemitic violence flared in

France in 2014 as war was waged between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. In 2015, a terrorist attacked a kosher supermarket in Paris, killing four and holding 15 hostages.

In 2019, after a Jewish cemetery was desecrated, thousands marched through the streets of Paris, shouting: “Enough is enough!”

This week, the Jewish human rights organisation and Holocaust research establishment the Wiesenthal Centre called on French president Emmanuel Macron to “place the military on the steps of most Jewish institutions, especially in and around Paris”, and equip all Jewish cemeteries and memorials with CCTV and an alarm linked to the police.

Speaking to the Times of Israel, the Marseille leader of CRIF, an umbrella French Jewish group, said: “There are no special security directives for the city’s Jews, but it’s a bad idea to go walking around at night for anyone now.”

The Tel Aviv Museum of Art has withdrawn from an event with Christie’s after the auctioneer sold £150m of jewellery for a family whose wealth was partly built on the Nazi plunder of Jewish businesses.

The museum pulled out of the Reflecting on Restitution conference planned for December amid anger from some survivors about the sale of gems belonging to Austrian heiress Heidi Horten, who died last year.

She was the widow of Helmut Horten, owner of a department store chain and member of the Nazi party who took over Jewish firms as their owners fled the country. He was 32 years older than her and died in 1987.

David Schaecter, 94, president of the Holocaust Survivors Foundation USA, had earlier written to Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai, who also chairs the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, urging him not to host Christie’s, whom he accuses of “a disgraceful pattern of whitewashing Holocaust profiteers”.

The jewellery sold for $202m, a record. It included pieces by Cartier, Harry Winston, Boivin and Van Cleef & Arpels, alongside pearls, jade, and Bulgari creations from the 1970s, 80s and 90s. Her jewellery

box even came to hold Marie Antoinette’s pearl, which Horten bought in 2018 for $36m.

Christie’s was criticised for initially not including information about how Horten acquired his wealth. It later added that his wealth was derived in part by buying Jewish businesses “sold under duress”.

Responding to reaction, Christie’s sought to make amends, saying a “significant contribution” from the sale would be made to advance Holocaust education and research. But Schaecter said the foundation had still been against the sale, warning Christie’s “against glorifying the shameful history of Helmut Horten’s participation and profit from Nazi crimes against the Jewish people”.

He added: “Christie’s bought into the narrative – which we’ve seen over and over – that the passage of time and the ‘charitable purposes’ of the ex-Nazi’s foundation made it OK for Christies’ to hold the sale.”

The Tel Aviv Art Museum said it was “bound by public sentiment” so had decided not to host the conference with Christie’s, which would have included families of survivors, historians, and legal experts.

The memorial in Nanterre to those deported from France

ISSUE

Whoever suggested Jews don’t do sport at the highest levels would have been eating their words this week amid a hat-trick of positive footballrelated stories, providing some refreshing good news amid the bad.

To kick off, Israel won the right to play football at the Olympics for the first time in nearly 50 years after qualifying for Paris 2024 following a penalty shoot-out in the UEFA European Under-21 Championship.

Talking of Israeli stars, at the time of going to press, Tottenham were poised to sign 23-year-old winger Manor Solomon from Shakhtar Donetsk. Solomon was in Kyiv when the Russians invaded and the club’s Jewish supporters will welcome him with open arms.

Finally, David Beckham appeared at St John’s Wood Synagogue on Sunday in front of 700 shul-goers who hung off his every word. The former Manchester United midfielder was interviewed by Ben Winston, son of Lord Robert and the late Lady Lira, who was such a driving force in Jewish education. The pair were launching the Lira Winston Fellowships. The occasion and its message could not have been a better tribute to such an inspirational yet humble pillar of the community.

A footballing hat trick Tech and creative titans

The list of judges in Jewish News’ search for 40 leading young Jewish tech and creative figures is a testament to the wide-ranging contribution of British Jews in this area and the nominations we’ve received so far show this impressive record isn’t going to end anytime soon.

Alongside the Jewish mother’s traditional boasts – ‘my son the dentist’, ‘my daughter the lawyer’ – can now be added ‘my son the social media whizz’, ‘my daughter the tech entrepreneur’.

It is shaping up to be a tough task to select our two Top 40s after the closing date for nominations on 31 July. Is your creative in the mix? If not, there’s still time to nominate, but hurry.

Sales Manager Marc Jacobs 020 8148 9701 marc@jewishnews.co.uk

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At wits’ end over East End

While I love Jay Blades’ TV programmes, his recent foray into a deeply flawed East End history (Channel 5 East End Through Time) reveals that he has ignored or been badly advised to ignore and obliterate the huge Jewish contribution to the East End story, with our presence there since the 1650s.

Despite our nation-changing contributions in commerce, employment, science ad the arts since the times of the return of the Jews to East London, permitted and encouraged by Oliver Cromwell, and except for a brief mention by one guest about Jewish boxers, the Jewish roots in the area

HEARTS AND MINDS SHIFT

Commitment to Israel and the democratic right to express opposition peacefully are fundamental values of Jews young and old, not just of the Zionist youth movements. While agreeing to disagree at times, we need to express our concerns when organisations want to boycott Israel. We are to teach, educate and try to change poisoned minds. We must not sacrifice the essential value of the right to express views and news. The BDS bill uses a sledgehammer to crack a nut.

Irith Sassoo, Finchley

We’ve thankfully come a long way from the bad old days of Corbyn’s Labour Party. It was reassuring to read your interview with frontbencher Lisa Nandy in which she said the party “absolutely shared” the government’s belief that the BDS campaign against Israel is being ussed to whip up hostility against the Jewish state and community.

Simmy Melpin, By email

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were completely air-brushed out during the programme.

As a descendant of Stepney and Whitechapel Jews (like tens of thousands of other Jews in the UK and around the world), from an area where over 130 synagogues once stood, and an organiser of many of the early Jewish East End walking tours in the 1980s, I was horrified by the total omission of our history. Instead, we got beach-combing and the Isle of Dogs – a part of London that is not even technically the East End. Now they should make a programme about the Jewish history of the East End.

Martin Sugarman, By email

100 REASONS TO

CHEER

What a joy it was to read about Holocaust survivor Henny Franks receiving medals for her service to the British Army during the Second World War to mark her 100th birthday. AJEX’s initiative to ensure servicemen and women and their families receive the recognition they are due is a great service to community.

Emma Hayman, By email

FITTING TRIBUTE TO AMAZING SERVICE

How wonderful to see the positive news story about Henny Franks on your front page last week – and on the TV news too.

I have realised that many don’t know about the amazing service that British Jews gave for their adopted country

It is therefore all the more fitting that we should have been given such a public reminder

BLINDBRITAIN’SSPOT We’ve never been so focused on fighting racism, so why the deafening silence as antisemitism spirals out of control? ANTI-JEWISH RACISM MADNESS SPREADS: Pages 6, 7, 23 Hospital probes ‘cutthroat gesture’ to Jewish patient Driver with Israeli ag attacked in Golders Green Crucifixion banner at huge pro-Palestinian demo BBC journalist’s #Hitlerwasright tweet revealed Nearly 300 antisemitic incidents in under 3 weeks ONLINE ORTUK.ORG/BOOKS Alternatively, ‘It’s okay not to be okay’ BOOK DRIVE Journey’s end second Page FREE COMMUNITY Freddie’s century! birthday Landmark review of racism in the Jewish community calls for: Time to end the divide End racial profiling at communal events Synagogues create ‘welcoming‘Shvartzer’committees’ be understood as slur Sephardi, Mizrahi and Yemenite songs in Ashkenazi synagogues Schools colonialismincrease and black history ...and Facebook group Jewish Britain and REPORT ANALYSIS PAGES committees’ Magazine News LIFE DRESSING HAART: Inside Julia’s unorthodox wardrobe Pink Rabbit turns 50 New Beginnings YIZKOR–Livingwithloss

– it is very much to be welcomed, even if it was because the incredible Henny had to wait 80 years to receive her medals for her wartime efforts in the Auxiliary Territorial Service.

Great job Jewish Care and AJEX in arranging last week’s party and happy birthday, Henny! I only hope I’m as spritely at 100.

Anon, By Email

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Letter to Grandpa Zigi changed countless lives

DARREN RICHMAN JOURNALIST AND AUTHOR

When my late grandfather, Zigi Shipper, was convalescing in a children’s home in Germany after the war, he was surprised to receive a letter with a British postmark. It was from a woman who had found his name on a Red Cross list and believed that she was his mother, something he could confirm if he checked for a burn mark on his left wrist. This simple communication, black words on a white background, invited Zigi to live in England and, ultimately, changed countless lives.

I couldn’t help thinking of those words on a recent visit to the Holocaust Letters exhibition at the Wiener Holocaust Library with Zigi’s daughter (or, as I prefer to think of her, Mum), my wife and my daughter. It would seem fair to suggest that three of the four of us would not exist were it not for that particular correspondence, and it seems somehow apposite that Zigi devoted his working life to running a stationery shop in

the heart of London’s West End.

The Wiener Library, the world’s oldest institution devoted to the study of the Holocaust, was founded in 1933 as an information bureau that informed Jewish communities and governments worldwide about the persecution of the Jews. These days it holds one of the most extensive archives on the Holocaust, the Nazi era and genocide. It has a collection of more than a million items, including published and unpublished works, press cuttings, photographs and eyewitness testimony. Truth can be lost in darkness and this institution does an admirable job of shining a light on one of the darkest periods in human history.

The exhibition exploded the myth that Jews were somehow unaware of the scale of what was happening during those years. Letter after letter hummed with urgency as Jews attempted to

warn their family and friends of the true spectre stalking Europe. Postcards and letters, the most everyday items imaginable, seem gargantuan in dimension when preserved for almost a century and meaning life or death to those on either end of the communication.

Zigi received word from his mother after the war, having not seen her since early childhood, but, as he insisted was the case with so many of the things in his life, he was lucky. Letters sent during the years of Nazi persecution had to be euphemistic, couched in vague language to avoid censorship. One plea written by a Dr Hedwig Leibetseder to her family from within the confines of a Lichtenburg concentration camp contains more power in just a few words than many novels do in hundreds of pages: “I love you, kiss and hug you. Stay brave and healthy. Emigrate. And write.”

Fourteen words, since Dr Leibetseder knew better than anyone that she could not a ord to be verbose. Another of her letters, written in September 1938, reads: “I am prepared to tolerate hunger and despair and everything imaginable if only I could be together with the people whom I personally love and value.”

The message concludes with a list of items the doctor wants her family to pack but is cut short by an incision in the paper where the camp authorities have excised something clearly not to their liking. Occasionally, it is clear throughout the collection, even coded language was not enough to escape the watchful eye of the oppressor.

Dr Leibetseder lived well into her eighties, and Zigi died earlier this year, on his 93rd birthday.

The letters housed in the Wiener Holocaust Library tell a story of resistance and defiance in the most hopeless of circumstances but also the individual decisions that can have repercussions felt through the decades; a tale of those who lived and those who did not. Six million is an impossible number to compute and anything that helps us to understand that these victims were living, breathing people with hopes and dreams has value beyond words.

Contrast between settlers provides a lesson for us all

JENNI FRAZER

Iwas going to write this week about the widening split in Israel, which is as bad as I have ever seen it. Twenty-six weeks of street protests every Saturday night appear to have had little or no e ect on a government determined to push ahead with its hard-line judicial reforms.

Meanwhile, the violence in and around northern Israel is getting worse, with settlers rampaging through Arab towns, burning cars and attacking homes and businesses. This is all by way of retaliation for the mid-June murders of four Israelis at a hummus restaurant and petrol station near the settlement of Eli.

But, to be clear, settler violence is so depressing, not least because the tiny level of condemnation from the Israeli government is so lacklustre as to be unworthy of consideration, that I can barely bear to contemplate it.

A friend just returned from three weeks in Israel dealt with the situation by deliberately choosing not to read papers or watch TV – a sort of “la-la, I can’t hear you” response.

All of which is all very fine for tourists but

not for the citizens of Israel, being pushed further and further apart from each other and the common good.

So instead, I want to take a look at something happening on our doorstep and that is the situation regarding Ukrainian refugees. It must be said our community responded magnificently to the appeal to take in Ukrainians (primarily women and children, because men eligible for army service were not allowed to leave after the Russian invasion.

Britain said those opening their homes to Ukrainian families ought to expect to house them for at least six months. Government minister Grant Shapps took in a mother, a grandmother, a seven-year-old child and their lively dog — and hosted them for ten months or more.

The Shapps response was mirrored all over the Jewish community, whose eagerness to help was guided by the hands-on work of World Jewish Relief, one of the few organisations chosen by the government to be Recognised Providers on the UK government’s Homes for Ukraine Scheme.

The parallels with the refugee status of a

good part of Anglo-Jewry before, during and after the Second World War scarcely need to be spelled out to JN readers.

But, for the large part, Jewish refugees, except for the young children and teens who arrived on the Kindertranport or were members of The Boys, were expected to leave their host families sooner rather than later, and make lives for themselves in Britain.

Not everyone succeeded in this; indeed, numbers of those who attend the 45 Aid Society annual reunions are those who left

the UK for America, Australia, Canada or Israel.

By contrast, I am told, there is no end game for the Ukrainians. Or, for that matter, for their generous hosts.

After six months, the government website suggests, the refugees should be moving on, finding alternative accommodation, settling in to their choice of community. They are “house guests”, yes, but no-one has house guests for six months or more.

They can’t go back to Ukraine, even if the Russians haven’t bombed their homes to bits. They can work, but not everyone will achieve the requisite level of English necessary to get a half-decent job.

Now, World Jewish Relief is urgently seeking rental properties in the areas where the Ukrainians have tentatively and fearfully put down their new roots — though such properties may prove di cult to find in the wealthy areas where the refugees have been living up to date.

Still, I think that these are the sort of settlers we can all get behind — people whose only mission is to live peaceful lives.

500 days of the Ukraine war – and scapegoating

COLIN SHINDLER PROFESSOR OF ISRAEL STUDIES

It is now 500 days since Vladimir Putin launched his war against the civilian population of Ukraine, days that have been peppered with anti-Jewish comments and imagery. In a search for a scapegoat for last week’s mutiny by Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner mercenaries, Putin looked back into Russian history and repeated the claim that revolution and retreat in the First World War was ‘a stab in the back’ by disloyal forces. For Hitler, that scapegoat was the Jews.

Putin has been eager to retain the support of the Russian far-right — and antisemitism has been weaponised to further this agenda. The bizarre comment and carefully chosen words of Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s urbane foreign minister, in suddenly asserting that Hitler was of “Jewish blood” and that ‘the most ardent antisemites are, as a rule, Jews’ was a clear example of this.

Putin himself recently declared that Volodomyr Zelensky, according to “Jewish friends”, really wasn’t Jewish — and therefore the claim that he was little more than a neo-Nazi committing genocide against Russians in the Donbas could be justified. This throwaway comment

was designed to appeal to both nationalists and antisemites.

There were two sharp reactions to such deranged utterings — one was from Zelensky himself and the other was from the Chabad Ukrainian Chief Rabbi Moshe Azman. Both have used their powers of persuasion and expertise at public relations to secure support, both military and financial, for Ukraine’s struggle against the Russian aggressor.

Both men — one an acculturated Jew, the other a Lubavitcher Chasid — share a childhood of growing up in the Soviet Union. Russian was their first language. Both follow in the tradition of Jewish dissidents and iconoclasts.

While Zelensky came of age in Kryvyi Rih (Krivoy Rog) in Soviet Ukraine, Azman was born in Leningrad (now St Petersburg). Zelensky lost relatives when the Nazis invaded the USSR while Azman recalled the Stalinist Great Purge in the 1930s when many Jewish

communists went to their deaths. What unites them is the experience of living in a totalitarian environment, defined by the KGB.

Zelensky refused to leave Kyiv at the outset of the invasion. Azman also declined to leave, making a passionate appeal, clutching a Torah scroll, to both Jews and non-Jews in Russia — to “those who are not indi erent”. He recalled his background as a Jew in Leningrad and said he could not believe that he might now die by Russian shells. He charged that those who remained indi erent were “partners in crime”.

His denunciation of the war put him at odds with Chabad’s Chief Rabbi in Russia, Berel Lazar, who has traditionally followed the Chabad approach of cultivating authoritarian figures while remaining silent about rights abuses to develop Jewish life in di cult situations. In an interview with the Moscow Times in 2001, Lazar said he believed that antisemitism at a government level was a thing of the past.

Chief Rabbi Azman has distinguished between Israeli attacks on Gaza, where precautions were taken to eliminate civilian casualties, and Russian actions such as the Iskander missile attack on a family pizza parlour in Kramatorsk last week. His dislike of Russian interference in Ukraine stretches back nearly two decades to his support for the Orange Revolution and its candidate for president, Viktor Yushchenko while other Ukrainian rabbis were happy to endorse pro-Kremlin figures.

Azman has left the safety of his Kyiv synagogue and visited the sites of devastation, bringing food, clothes, phone chargers and medical equipment. He has been able to fund his endeavours by using traditional Chabad methods in approaching often non-religious Jewish philanthropists in the US and elsewhere. He has also tried to soften Israel’s neutral stand on the war by cultivating the coalition which includes Kahanist Itamar Ben-Gvir and Religious Zionism’s Bezalel Smotrich. He was not averse to congratulating Netanyahu and the far-right straight after last year’s election.

Following the recent destruction of the Kakhovka dam, he visited the Kherson region to ascertain what was needed. Azman has been both bold and public – unafraid to act as a Jew for non-Jews. For many, his example embodies how Jews should act in dark times.

PEOPLE WHOSE ONLY MISSION IS TO LIVE PEACEFUL LIVES ARE THE SORT WE SHOULD ALL GET BEHIND

PUTIN HAS BEEN EAGER TO RETAIN THE SUPPORT OF THE FAR-RIGHT, AND ANTISEMITISM HAS BEEN USED TO FURTHER THIS AGENDA

Scene & Be Seen / Community

Dance stars shine brightly

A performing arts school brought a touch of Hollywood to north London last week with a dance show featuring more than 100 dancers aged 4 to 18.

Kidanza Dance School in Golders Green created a contemporary celebration of Hollywood, showcasing dance classics from musicals that included Mary Poppins, Oliver, Fiddler on the Roof and FunnyGirl, as well as more recent hits from shows such as Toy Story and Hairspray

The sold-out performances of CityofStars featured more than 2,000 costumes and props by designer Michal Agmon, video art and lighting designed by Alon Bercovic, who supported Tali Tzemach from Tzemach Productions.

Dance school director Hila Moussaio , who worked alongside her two daughters, Judi and Mia Moussaio , her right hand assistants said: “The talent and enthusiasm on stage was palpable. The audience included proud parents, relatives, industry professionals and other members of the Kidanza community, at the core of which is a love of dance.”

Photos by Deborah Jaffe and Guy Ivesha

Jew it Like

Beckham Beckham

Work hard. Be humble. Go with your gut and have the right values.” These were David Beckham’s lessons to the audience at ‘Lessons in Leadership’, the launch of the Lira Winston Fellowships at St John’s Wood Synagogue, in partnership with JW3.

Nearly 700 people packed into the shul on Sunday evening – not only that, but they arrived early, took their seats promptly and didn’t say one word during the ‘sermon’. Move over rabbis, the way to get some decorum in your shul is to wheel in a footballing legend.

Ben Winston, son of Lord Robert and the late Lady Lira, interviewing David, kickstarted the proceedings by offering the audience a photo opportunity, then asked us to put our phones away so that “David will be able to speak more openly. And he can smile and look gorgeous,” adding: “I’ve never felt less good-looking on a stage.”

Producer Ben and David met in 2009 when working on a Comic Relief sketch with James Corden, and have been friends since. After proudly announcing that this was the night when David Beckham got called up in shul, Ben asked the question on all our lips: “How Jewish are you?”

“My grandfather was Jewish on my mum’s side. So I do have a real connection. My grandfather always made sure that we kept up with certain traditions and whenever I used to go to barmitzvahs and weddings he made sure I wore a kippah. I used to see my grandma preparing the chicken soup and the matzah balls and the latkes. It was always about the family coming together so I’m part of the community, which I’m proud of.”

Ben tested David out on the bracha for bread and he finished it off perfectly in Hebrew. He can come to my house for Shabbat dinner any time.

He painted a warm picture of life as a young boy at home in Leytonstone with his “working class” parents, making tea for his hairdresser mum’s clients and explaining that his dad, who was a gas fitter, was a massive Manchester United fan. “My dad was always pretty hard on me as a kid, and I’m glad. He’d always pick on the things I wasn’t doing right, or I didn’t do enough of. I used to end up in tears every time I got in the car after a game. Whether I played good or bad, he’d always tell me the things I should be doing. But when I became a professional footballer and had difficult moments the only way I got through them was because my dad was so hard on me. And I’m thankful for that. There was so much love within our family and our family home.”

It’s no secret that David parents in a different way. “I’ve tried to be as firm with the kids as possible but it’s nowhere near what my dad was like. I’ve only said no to my daughter

once and her bottom lip started to quiver and I was like ‘never again’. Whatever they [my kids] want to do I support them. I just want them to be happy and polite and humble.”

David’s passion for the beautiful game, and in particular for Manchester United, shone through. “Football was always the thing that I wanted to do – there was never anything else. I never wanted to play for any other English team. Ever. Manchester United was my team.“

Ben mused that the tough love David got from his father was his style of leadership. “Alex Ferguson was a leader on and off the field,” said David. “One of the reasons why I wanted to play for Manchester United was because he was so hands-on with everyone who was part of the club – the cleaning lady, the chef – he knew everyone’s first name, their siblings. He would ring my mum and dad on a Saturday evening and say, ‘How did David train this week? Is he ready for tomorrow? What time is he in bed?’”

The highs and lows of David’s football career formed a big part of the evening, including the famous (if you know about these things) goal against Wimbledon when he scored from the halfway line, which launched his career. “One of my heroes was Eric Cantona. He doesn’t say much but he came up to me after that goal and literally went ‘David, what a goal.’ That was almost as good as actually scoring it. And then I came up to the Boss (Alex Ferguson) and I thought he was gonna say great, and put his arms around me but he said, ‘Straight on the bus. Don’t talk to anyone.’

“But that was his way of protecting us. He knew what that goal was going to do for me, in the media, but he wouldn’t let me speak for quite a few months after that.”

A few months later he met Victoria and things exploded. “There was a lot of attention around me and I think Sir Alex was always worried that was going to affect me on the field. But luckily it didn’t.”

Back on the subject of leadership, Ben pointed out that David became a leader of culture – his hair would define

David Beckham tells a packed St John’s Wood Synagogue this week that he is proud to be part of the Jewish community. Louisa Walters was there

David Beckham (right) at the synagogue with his interviewer Ben Winston

everybody else’s hairstyle. “I wasn’t doing it for the attention,” David laughs. “The only thing I regret is that in all the pictures that I got with Nelson Mandela, I had cornrows.”

The 1998 World Cup match against Argentina when David famously got sent o and England crashed out still haunts him. “Without doubt it still a ects me. It was very tough and the hardest thing was the impact on my family. I will never forget when my grandpa called me and said he had people knocking on his door saying that I’d let the whole country down. But I’m 48 years old, a bit more experienced and I understand things a little bit more. It happened for a reason.”

Fours years later he was England captain and scored the iconic goal against Greece which took the squad into the tournament. “I always wanted to play for my country. That was my biggest thing in my whole career. I wanted to wear that shirt. I wanted to play at Wembley.”

It was once rare for a British player to play abroad and yet David has played for Real Madrid, Inter Milan, LA Galaxy and PSG. “How does that feel for you as a Jewish boy from Leytonstone?” asked Ben.

“It was amazing. But in all honesty, I always felt that I would start my career at Manchester United and end my career at Manchester United. I had no intention of leaving at any point.”

David was on holiday with Victoria and the kids when he discovered that he’d been sold and would be leaving the club he loved. He manages to put a positive spin on the “amazing opportunities” that working and living abroad a orded him and adds: “I always hoped it didn’t a ect my kids because that was the most important thing to me.”

What’s next for David? He’s working on a life story for Netflix and he’s excitedly anticipating Lionel Messi joining his football club in Miami. “My dream from the word go in Miami was to bring the best players in the game to the team. So when I hear one of the best players, if not the best player, who has won everything and is still young wants to come and play for my team, it was a massive moment. It’s still not been announced. But we are also building a new stadium so there’s a lot going on. It’s exciting times.”

David answered questions from the floor about the dangers of social media, whether he thinks standards have dropped at Manchester United (“we are still the greatest, the biggest club in the world”), how to get kids to do their school work when they’d rather be playing football (“boys – you’re always going to love football”) and, from Ben’s father Lord (Robert) Winston, whether he thinks the tribal nature of the game has changed: “I would like to think that it has not – no matter where we are in the game, no matter what money is brought into the game and what owners have bought into, this is the game that we all love.”

Speaking of which, I think 700 people in St John’s Wood this week fell more than a little in love with David Beckham.

Lira Winston Fellowships

Ben Winston explains why the school education initiative in his mother’s name is so important

Sometimes it’s while I’m trying to resolve an issue at work. Occasionally it’s while I’m handling a tricky situation with a friend. O en it’s while I’m negotiating how many more spoonfuls I can get my six-year-old to eat for breakfast. There’s only one thought worth thinking – what would my mum do here? What would she have said? She always had the answer.

It was only a er she passed away that I realised I wasn’t alone in relying on my mum; I was just the one blessed to be at the front of a very long queue. So many people looked to my mother, Lira, for her leadership and guidance.

But hers wasn’t the traditional leadership we o en hear about. It was never about being the loudest in the room. Mum’s leadership was rather of the ‘speak a little, do a lot’ type, as Shammai advises in Pirkei Avot.

Her professional life was dedicated to education throughout the Jewish community. In 2020, she received a lifetime achievement award from Rabbi Lord (Jonathan) Sacks for her work with PaJes (Partnerships for Jewish Schools), an award she didn’t know about until he said her name, otherwise it is something she would never have allowed. She was equal parts mortified and embarrassed, honoured and proud.

That is why we are so excited to inaugurate, in conjunction with PaJes, the Lira Winston Fellowships, which will identify and train the future leaders of our schools, the future leaders of our children; teachers who can instill a love for Jewish education in their pupils.

The nature of education has changed radically over the past few years. The expectations, demands, even regulations, have made the job of teaching harder. A third of headteachers drop out of their job a er three years.

With this new investment, guidance, and training that the Lira Winston fellows will receive, we hope that the values my mum stood for live on in the next generation of great leaders and beyond, creating a lasting legacy befitting of the greatest person I’ll ever know.

• For more information or to donate please visit peoplesfundraising.com/donation/lira-winstonfellowship

Photography by Sofi Adams

to the A Loser’s Guide

EDINBURGH FESTIVAL

To be a comedian you have to be one part egotist, one part narcissist and one part masochist. Why else would you want to stand in front of a room full of strangers with the sole intention of trying to make them laugh? It’s a ridiculous job. And this month I will have been doing it professionally for 25 years.

And in August, after a five-year break, I will be returning to the Edinburgh Festival to set up my stall at the annual Performance Trade Show.

As I am both Jewish and Welsh, and this is my Silver Jewbilee, my show was initially going to be called Mazel Ta but I’ve now changed it. The show is now called Loser

Why Loser you ask? Well, first, thanks for asking. There are a number of reasons I went with this title. On a personal/vanity level it’s because I have lost my hair, lost my youthfulness and lost my ability to drink a pint of beer without going to the toilet 58 times.

I am also a loser because, over the years, I have lost my jobs as a wine waiter, pizza deliverer and grave digger. I have also lost my identity (it was stolen, which left me penniless and homeless), lost out on winning a Bafta (I was shortlisted) and I lost the chance to have my own sitcom on TV (long story, it’s in the show).

And of course, only a loser would spend thousands of pounds to take their show to the Edinburgh Festival on the o -chance that people will come and see it. And thousands is no exaggeration. Allow me to explain. First, a show should be listed in the Festival magazine. This will cost between £300 and £500. Posters and leaflets are another £200/£300. Then there is PR. I always do my own (what a loser!) but others spend between £2,000 and £5,000. Is it worth it? Well if you receive a lot of press interest and it leads to a tour and appearing on TV then yes. But there

are a lot of PR companies all reaching out to the same people. Then there’s the venue hire. Again, thousands. This year I am performing at the Free Fringe, which I have done several times in the past. I love the ethos of it. The fact that the artists don’t pay for the venue and the punters (that’s you) don’t have to pay to see the show is a lovely concept. Yes a performer has to make a ‘bucket speech’ at the end when they beg the audience for money, but most audiences are understanding of the costs and donate generously. (This year, as I do with all my book sales, I will be giving a percentage of my takings to Dementia UK.)

Then, of course, there is the cost of accommodation. This can range from overpriced to infinity. People let out their houses/flats/studios/caravans/tents for a month and make a fortune. There is a hotel in Edinburgh which normally charges £45

a night. During the festival it charges over £300. And people pay.

It’s also incredibly stressful, scary and nerve-racking. The definition of the Yiddish word shpilkes is ‘to perform a new show at the Edinburgh Festival’. Of course, I’m not the only Jewish person performing there this year – there will be a few of us. Not enough

for a minyan but enough to meet up together and complain about everything.

So why am I bothering? Well, the festival has been pretty good to me over the years. My first ever show, It Wasn’t Me It Was Bennett Arron, led to my writing, directing and presenting a Channel 4 documentary. My next show, Jewelsh, led to two Radio series, both of which were nominated for the Celtic Media Awards (I was a finalist, not the winner. So… a ‘loser’). It also resulted in the BBC Wales documentary The Kosher Comedian, in which I traced my family’s roots from Lithuania to South Wales and found out a reason for the decline of Jews in Wales. I wanted to call the programme Jew Do You Think You Are? But they wouldn’t let me.

and, since lockdown I enjoyment in it. And the fact that I have made family through making a household name, and

that really make me a

Also, this is my job and, since lockdown I have discovered a new enjoyment in it. And the fact that I have made a living and raised a family through making people laugh is a lovely feeling. I know I’m not a household name, and I’ve never performed on Live at The Apollo or Have I Got News For You? but that’s genuinely out of choice. Not my choice of course. But does that really make me a loser? Come and find out…

• Bennett Arron: Loser will be at the Liquid Rooms Annexe at 4.15pm from 5 to 28 August inclusive. But you’ll probably forget… bennettarron.com

Comedian Bennett Arron explains why it’s crazy to perform at the Fringe – and why he’s doing it anyway

Jewish News picks out 10 of the best Jewish shows at the Edinburgh Fringe

Anything That We Wanted To Be

Renowned Jewish theatre director and producer Adam Lenson (Public Domain, Vaudeville Theatre; Wasted, Southwark Playhouse) fuses his own battle with skin cancer in an exploration of parallel universes to create an interdisciplinary work. Using his personal experiences, Lenson presents a life-a irming new show about learning to accept the choices you made, instead of worrying about the ones you didn’t, and depicts his journey from training to be a doctor and then becoming a theatre director, to being confronted with lifechanging news.

Summerhall 2-27 August (not 14 or 21) at 12.30

SHTICK Yourself

Millwall Jew

Ivor Dembina is well-known at the Edinburgh Fringe for his comedy hit Old Jewish Jokes. In this new show, Dembina, a south London Jew who is tired of people assuming he supports ‘Jewish’ football team Tottenham Hotspur, decides to swear allegiance to his local club instead – Millwall FC.

Laughing Horse @ Bar 50

3-7, 9-14, 16-21, 23-27 August at 14.15

Showgirls and Spies

The highly acclaimed Young Pleasance ensemble will bring to life the thrilling true story of Florence Waren, an intrepid Jewish resistance fighter and dazzling showgirl leading a perilous double-life in World War II. Pleasance Dome 3–13 August at 15.00

Magic for Animals

As a queer American Jewish female magician and animal rights activist, Liz Toonkel felt the magic show format needed a fresh approach. So you’ll see no live animals or seedy sexism, but lots of ‘wow’ moments, laughter and incisive wit. Joyful, funny, and thought-provoking, illusions flow seamlessly through a narrative that revels in finding fun ways to look at human agency, consent and animal rights. Liz brings Jewish values to the show, having been inspired by Maimonides’ five steps for the process of repentance.

Greenside @ Infirmary Street 4-5, 7-12, 14-19, 21-26 August at 23.25

Daniel Cainer’s Jewish Chronicles

This multi award-winning Edinburgh storyteller is much loved for his stories in song. Cainer’s stories are about all our families and all our foibles, lovingly and intelligently depicted – smart, funny, timely and deeply moving.

Underbelly George Square 2-28 August at 11.50

hearted stu about hip-hop and dating in your early 40s. Fake Jews is for anyone who simultaneously feels like a member and an outsider of any community.

Laughing Horse @ The Raging Bull 16-27 August at 18.30

Normal Schmormal

Rachel

Creeger: Ultimate Jewish Mother

Whether it’s a relationship problem, how to word a sensitive work email or the best way to cook a brisket, a Jewish mother has all the answers you need. Who gives the best advice? Who deserves the title of Ultimate Jewish Mother? You decide!

This new interactive comedy show is from multi award-winning stand-up comedian Rachel Creeger, also a TV and radio star and co-host of popular podcasts Jew Talkin’ To Me? and LeavingErinsborough

PNH’s Free Fringe @ Whistlebinkies Aug 6-11, 13-18, 20-25, 27 August at 13.30

Fake Jews

Stand-up comedy from Luke Messina Meginsky (USA) and James Regal (UK), two of the Barcelona scene’s most prolific comedians. James and Luke come from Jewish families but have never practiced Judaism. Watch them attempt to reconcile their current lives with the weight of their cultural past, take a surreal look at 21st century antisemitism, plus do some light-

This new stand-up show from the star of the Radio 4 series AshleyBlaker:6.5Children and author of the book Normal Schmormal is about the joys of raising children with special needs. Ashley Blaker has six kids, three of whom have an SEN diagnosis. Between endless meetings, countless therapists, public humiliations, failed playdates, surreal monologues and occasional violence, it’s certainly not what anyone would call a ‘normal’ household – but would he want it any other way?

Underbelly Bristo Square 2-27 August at 16.15

Rules Schmules

Suzie Depreli’s passive aggressive mission to educate the world about what it means to have an Orthodox family that ate dubious sausages, an Asian Catholic husband who uses more Yiddish words than her nana, and celebrate Passover without believing in God. With original songs performed live and anecdotes that will have Jewish and gentile audiences alike feeling like they were present for it all, Suzie claims this is how to be Jew-ish in Britain today.

Hill Street Theatre 21-27 August at 10.40

The Brief Life & Mysterious Death of Boris III, King of Bulgaria

The final day of the Festival will mark 80 years since the death of Boris III. This energetic production comes to the Edinburgh Fringe to share a largely forgotten story of the Second World War – the suspicious circumstances of the King of Bulgaria’s demise, how 50,000 Jewish people were saved from deportation and death, and how the world forgot all about it.

Pleasance Dome 2–28 August (not 14) at 17.20

The Edinburgh Fringe runs from 4 to 28 August. Tickets for all shows are available at tickets.edfringe.com

The Great Scottish Summer

Louisa Walters enjoys a family weekend in Edinburgh

Scotland to grow the fruit, that Prestonfield shines most of all. This unmissable experience offers a huge range of cold and hot dishes including Omelette Arnold Bennett, which has to be the most sinful, sensational, spectacular breakfast treat of all time... apart from the twice-baked smoked cheddar souffle that is also on offer. I’d like to tell you that I stuck to yoghurt with rhubarb compote... but delicious as that was, it would have been sacrilege.

Festival or no Festival, Edinburgh is a joy to visit at any time of the year and when my whisky-loving husband turned 60 earlier this year, it was a no-brainer to take him, en famille, to his spiritual home – Johnnie Walker Princes Street.

Six of us were collected from home in north London very early in the morning by the super-efficient and super-smart Blacklane chauffeur service in blissfully quiet luxury electric cars and deposited an hour later at Stansted. A breeze through security and a 45-minute flight meant that we were sauntering through the doors of Prestonfield House before 10.30am. This opulent and truly gorgeous boutique hotel (18 bedrooms) is set in 20 acres of gardens yet is just a few minutes by car from the city centre. The 17th-century building has an illustrious history as a destination for artistic, social, business and political life. The Queen was a regular visitor, taking tea in the yellow drawing room, and as one of the only places in the area with a helipad it has long been the hotel of choice for many visiting dignitaries and celebrities.

No room is alike but they are all superluxurious and romantic with antique furniture, feature beds and the fluffiest towels you ever did see. In-room treats are generous, including champagne, chocolates, homemade cookies and Penhaligons toiletries in the wonderfully old- fashioned (clawtub bath, high-cistern loo) bathrooms. There’s a pretty standalone bar in the gardens and the Circular Stables provides a quirky function venue. There is a series of events at Prestonfield during the Fringe, including talks by actor and presenter Christopher Biggins and actress Stephanie Beacham. But first, brunch. With a foodie daughter on board this had been carefully researched and booked at Urban Angel on Hanover Street, in the heart of Edinburgh’s shopping area. After

a quick visit to Greyfriars Bobby (statue in tribute to the 19th-century terrier who spent 14 years guarding the grave of his owner), we walked there along the Royal Mile. Seated in the little courtyard garden we enjoyed elderflower fizz and halloumi frittata, baked eggs in tomato sauce with Scottish goats’ cheese, hummus on sourdough and za’atar-spiced scrambled eggs with spicy hollandaise. We walked that off through the beautiful Princes Street Gardens and arrived at Johnnie Walker Princes Street, which

the chance to try a few cocktails. You need to be over 18, of course, but it suits all ages. The only thing to do after that was to drink more whisky so we headed back to Prestonfield House, which has an entire room dedicated to the brown stuff (those of us not converted stuck to Prestonfield’s extremely quaffable own-label champagne in the magnificent Tapestry Room) before heading off to The Witchery for dinner. Located by the castle in buildings dating back to 1595, the restaurant takes its name from the witches burned at the stake on Castlehill. The restaurant opened in 1979, and 20 years ago launched a second dining room, The Secret Garden, accessed through a little courtyard. It has been named The Most Civilised Dining Room in Scotland; it’s certainly The Most Enchanting Dining Room I’ve ever been to, with a painted ceiling, flower-filled urns and a beautiful terrace. Sumptuous grilled asparagus, a highly unusual pistachio parfait and Balmoral Estate pigeon with raisin puree started us all off nicely. Lamb Wellington was the winning main dish among us, but the north Atlantic halibut was great and so too was the chateaubriand.

It’s at breakfast in the Rhubarb restaurant, so named because this was the first hotel in

We made our way across town to The Royal Yacht Britannia, moored here since her retirement in 1987. To walk around this magnificent ship, to see the rooms where Her Majesty the Queen slept, worked and entertained was a pinch-me experience. Former royal photographer Reginald Davis, a member of Hendon synagogue, travelled on it on three occasions. “Working with our Queen was wonderful,” he said in 2017. “She creates a tremendous amount of aura and it excites you to do better things.” That aura and excitement could be palpably felt on her much-loved boat, and indeed in her much-loved Edinburgh. This week Charles was presented with the keys to the city. I’ll drink a whisky toast to that.

 Prestonfield House from £375 per night prestonfield.com

 Journey of Flavour Tour £30pp johnniewalkerprincesstreet.com

 blacklane.com; urbanangel.co.uk; thewitchery.com; royalyachtbritannia. co.uk

Exclusively yours

combines tours, tastings and a stunning shop all under one roof. Only two of the six of us are whisky drinkers but we all loved the 90-minute Journey of Flavour tour. This high-tech Disneyesque interactive activity began with a taste test to discover what type of flavours we like, which would in turn help us choose our whisky type later on. We were taken through the story of the man himself, the founding of the brand, how the whisky is made and finally

Macleod House is a 10-bedroom exclusive-use house on the dramatic North Sea coast, on a 1,500-acre estate that is home to an abundance of wildlife. Built in 1835, the house is brimming with character, grand rooms, open fires, secret stairways, opulent furnishings and sumptuous fabrics. Woodland walks, beach runs and clay pigeon shooting form part of the experience, plus there is a Beauty Retreat, the Clavis Whisky Bar stocking 200 whiskies and remarkable fine dining, with a kosher kitchen on site. Perfect for large family celebrations or small weddings. It’s just a short drive to Aberdeen airport.

 trumpgolfscotland.com

Entrance hall, Prestonfield House

The Secret Garden at The Witchery

State Dining Room, The Royal Yacht Britannia

Johnnie Walker Princes Street

Bedroom, Prestonfield House

The ultimate Scottish

MAKING SENSE OF THE SEDRA

BY SHIRA JACKSON UNITED SYNAGOGUE EDUCATOR

this week. There were two beautiful impalas with very long horns fighting.

You know that feeling, when you’re in a situation or conversation that makes you uncomfortable but everybody else seems fine with it? Should you say something or let it go? What if everyone disagrees with you?

Last week, I went on safari in the Kruger National Park. I saw herds of elephants, a crocodile sunbathing, monkeys playing, but one scene stuck in my mind as I read the sedra

They kept head-butting each other and locking horns; then disengaging and charging again. As it went on, it dawned on me that they didn’t seem to be fighting over anything in particular. There wasn’t a female nearby, or any food, so what was the point? It occurred to me that if you spend a lifetime with horns on your head, you’ll naturally always be up for a fight, and there doesn’t need to be any particular cause.

At the end of last week’s sedra, a national tragedy occurred. Society had broken down to the extent that the

tribe of Shimon was unashamedly serving idols and publicly having immoral relationships with Midianite women. Everybody was mortified but nobody reacted, until one man, Pinchas, the grandson of Aaron the High Priest, bravely stepped forward.

Pinchas killed Zimri, the head of the tribe of Shimon, and Kozbi, the Midianite woman he was with, by impaling them both with a spear. This halted the plague that had ravaged the camp, killing 24,000 people, and put an end to the situation. Everyone who’d felt uncomfortable but immobile then rallied around in support of Pinchas.

In this week’s sedra, Pinchas receives a covenant of peace from God and is promised that his descendants will inherit the priesthood from him. It seems ironic to reward someone with a covenant of peace for carrying out such a violent act.

What we have to understand is that Pinchas was not a violent man by nature. This is not an impala with horns, or a serial impaler wandering round with a spear, looking for a fight.

Pinchas was so incensed on God’s behalf by what he’d witnessed that he was compelled to go looking for a spear and take this violent course of action that was

wholly unnatural to him. The Chizkuni, a 13th-century commentary, explains that Pinchas was worried that as a killer, he might have to forgo his status as a priest. God reassured him that as his intention was to glorify His name, he need not fear such consequences and Pinchas is therefore promised an ever-

lasting covenant of Priesthood (Numbers 25:13).

In life, we shouldn’t look for a fight but also should never be afraid to stand up for our principles. Pinchas’ reward shows us that voicing one’s beliefs does not negate one’s inherent pacifism, and you may find that yours is not a lone opinion after all.

If you have horns, arguably you’ll always be up for a fight

Progressive Judaism

LEAP OF FAITH

BY RABBI MARK GOLDSMITH EDGWARE AND HENDON REFORM SYNAGOGUE

Our texts tell us to hold our leaders accountable for their own actions

A recent former prime minister has been caught lying and failing to uphold the laws that he himself promulgated. A president of the United States accused of multiple felony charges and encouraging insurrection against the government (which he denies) still claims the right to stand for re-election. What has happened to the standards of honesty and integrity that we should expect of our leaders?

Jewish tradition combines a healthy cynicism about those whom we elevate to leadership positions with a demand that they be accountable to the people who put them there.

On every Jewish festival, we include the Hallel psalms in our worship. These include the verse: “It is better to take refuge in God than to trust in people, it is better to

take refuge in God than to trust in princes” (Psalm 118:8-9). The message here is that our religious values are eternal while the people who lead us can easily be flawed.

The Torah issues a warning against a leader who is not guided by strong values. It cautions that when you give a person great power, such as appointing a King, they are likely to “take many wives and amass silver and gold to excess” unless they are constantly guided by a copy of the Torah and the learning within (Deuteronomy 17:17-19). Without a strong and constant moral code, power will corrupt.

It is necessary for everyone in leadership positions to be accountable for their actions. The Book of Kings (2 Kings 12) records what happened when people brought donations into the Temple for a building restoration

A stimulating series where our progressive

consider how Biblical figures might act when faced with 21st-century issues

project. It became clear that the priestly leaders were siphoning o the money and failing to use it for the purposes intended.

The High Priest, Jehoiada, under the instructions of King Jehoash, made sure that all donations were instead placed in a sealed box which would be double-counted by the royal scribe and the high priest in order to ensure that nothing went missing.

Despite the cynicism about leaders in these texts, Jewish tradition also recognises that we do need leadership and government. It does not advocate anarchy.

Rabbi Chanina in Pirke Avot (3:2) from the second century said: “Pray for the welfare of the government, for were it not for the fear of it, one person would eat the other alive.”

We have an undoubted right to expect high standards of honesty and integrity in our leaders.

Where are our standards of integrity?

When we vote, we need to be careful not to follow the blandishments of charisma and populism. Instead, we should take care to encourage and promote only those leaders who have demonstrated strong values and an ethos of service, rather than of self-aggrandisement.

Our trusty team of advisers answers your questions about everything from law and finance to dating and dentistry. This week: Starting your dream job, choosing the right private heatlh insurance and fi nding a new mortgage

CLAIRE STRAUS CAREER ADVISOR RESORCE

tion before you actually begin by looking through the organisation’s website and social channels.

Dear Claire

I have just been offered my dream job but have been out of the workplace for some time. How can I make a positive impression?

Michelle

Dear Michelle

Congratulations on your new appointment! The first 100 days in your new role are critical. They are also likely to be both exciting and challenging as you look to make a good first impression.

To start with, I recommend you learn as much as you can about the organisa-

receive treatment and hope your recovery is going well.

PATIENT HEALTH

PRIVATE HEALTHCARE

SPECIALIST

TREVOR GEE

Dear Trevor

I see that you provide private health cover. Will the NHS cover for us for some ongoing issues if we now start a plan, as I waited over eight months for some minor treatment and would rather not stop it if we take out a policy?

Dear David I am sorry that you had to wait such a long time to

On your first day ensure you look the part. Meet with your line manager to agree priorities. Then talk to as many key people as you can. Concentrate on listening and learning, and resist telling them how things were done in your old job.

Think about quick wins. You might have big ideas to succeed in a new role but those usually take time. So, focus on some small early wins that build momentum and establish your credibility.

Continue to network outside of the organisation to keep in touch with others, to keep up to date and to ensure that people are still there when you need them. At Resource we continue to help clients make an impact in their new role through regular networking and developmental events.

The major reason taking out private health cover is for exactly these type of situations, where waiting for tests and consultations may take months and for some operations, years.

The public pay for the NHS but the NHS can’t always be there for us, so if you have treatment in place now then you should continue it.

Also, in this case a new plan would not cover the current condition. Since December 2022, more than 500,000 appointments have been cancelled under the NHS, with strikes certainly causing massive disruption and anxiety.

The NHS can be

outstanding and helps millions of people each year, but reality dictates that if you can bypass the NHS queues, and see highly qualified consultants, then it is eminently sensible to consider doing that with a private plan.

I had a client in my o ce today who runs his own removals and storage company, who told me that his daughter woke up yesterday with a bad stomach ache and could not get an appointment with her GP. He now wants to avoid that problem next time, as most insurers now provide 24/7 Virtual GP access.

So, it’s worthwhile to look at the options for private health cover, and we would be pleased to advise.

Dear Jacob I will shortly be requiring a new mortgage and accompanying buildings insurance, and am hoping you will be able to advise me on whether it’s better for me to use a local broker or to source these myself using an equivalent online tool?

Dan

Dear Dan

There is no definitive answer to this question as both routes have their pros and cons which depend on a variety of factors, but mainly your personal circumstances.

What I believe to be a key consideration is the panel of lenders/insurers the broker or online tool has access to.

You may be familiar with a term used by brokers in that they are a ‘whole of the market’ broker. This means that the list of products they have access to represents the whole of the market, but does not mean they have access to and/or advise on every product on the market. You may find that an online tool will have access to a greater variety of products but may

not have access to some of the very niche providers. Therefore, the benefit of a broker versus an online tool would be dependent on your personal circumstances.

An additional consideration is that you are likely to benefit from the human element of using a broker rather as the broker should understand the intricacies of each provider, which is likely to save you much time and potential aggravation in the long run. I tend to use a broker that I know and trust, whilst also performing my own research online.

On the rare occasion I see a product online that I believe to be more suitable than the product recommended by the broker, I would always query this with my broker.

Ask Our Experts / Professional advice from our panel

MENOPAUSE CHAMPION LABALANCE

ANGELA DAY-MOORE

Qualifications:

• Founder & CEO Sassy La Femme Women’s Wellness

• Passionate about women’s wellbeing

• Home to LaBalance

• Recommended by fellow women for period, perimenopause & menopause

MENOPAUSE CHAMPION LABALANCE 0333 188 6580 www.sassylafemme.com hello@sassylafemme.com

HUMAN RESOURCES / EMPLOYMENT LAW

DONNA OBSTFELD

Qualifications:

• FCIPD Chartered HR Professional

• 25 years in HR and business management.

• Mediator, business coach, trainer, author and speaker

• Supporting businesses and charities with the hiring, managing, inspiring and firing of their staff

DOHR LTD 020 8088 8958 www.dohr.co.uk donna@dohr.co.uk

ACCOUNTANT

FINANCIAL SERVICES (FCA) COMPLIANCE

JACOB BERNSTEIN

Qualifications:

• A member of the APCC, specialising in financial services compliance for:

• Mortgage, protection and general insurance intermediaries;

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

• Alternative Investment Fund managers;

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

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

PRIVATE HEALTHCARE SPECIALIST

TREVOR GEE

Qualifications:

• Managing director, consultant specialists in affordable family health insurance

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

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

• LLB solicitors finals

• Member of Chartered Insurance Institute

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

ADAM SHELLEY

Qualifications:

• FCCA chartered certified accountant

• Accounting, taxation and business advisory services

• Entrepreneurial business specialist including start-up businesses

• Specialises in charities; personal tax returns

• Maurice Wohl Charitable Foundation Volunteer of the Year JVN award

SOBELL RHODES LLP

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

CHARITY EXECUTIVE

JEWELLER

CHILD AND ADOLESCENT PSYCHIATRIST

DR MONICA QUADIR

Qualifications:

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

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

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

PSYMPLICITY HEALTHCARE 020 3733 5277 www.psymplicity.com enquiries@psymplicity.com

FINANCIAL SERVICES

LISA WIMBORNE

Qualifications:

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

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

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

• Understanding of the impact of a disability diagnosis

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

CAREER ADVISER

JONATHAN WILLIAMS

Qualifications:

• Jewellery manufacturer since 1980s

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

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

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

DIRECTOR OF LEGACIES

CAROLYN ADDLEMAN

Qualifications:

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

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

• Member of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners

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

REMOVALS MANAGING DIRECTOR

STEPHEN MORRIS

LESLEY TRENNER

Qualifications:

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

• Offers mock interviews and workshops to maximise job prospects

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

RESOURCE

020 8346 4000

www.resource-centre.org office@resource-centre.org

Qualifications:

• Managing director of Stephen Morris Shipping Ltd

• 45 years’ experience in shipping household and personal effects

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

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

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

JOE OZER

Qualifications:

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

• Worked in finance for more than 20 years

• Specialists in distribution and promotion of Israel Bonds

DEVELOPMENT COMPANY FOR ISRAEL 020 3936 2712

www.israelbondsintl.com

joe.ozer@israelbondsintl.com

GOAL ATTAINMENT SPECIALIST

DR BEN LEVY

Qualifications:

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

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

• Works with clients individually to maximise success

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

CHARITY EXECUTIVE

SUE CIPIN OBE

Qualifications:

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

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

• Extensive services for people affected by hearing loss/tinnitus

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

• Hearing aid advice, support and maintenance

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

PRINCIPAL, PERFORMING ARTS SCHOOL

LOUISE LEACH

Qualifications:

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

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

• Set up Dancing with Louise 19 years ago

DANCING WITH LOUISE 075 0621 7833

www.dancingwithlouise.co.uk

Info@dancingwithlouise.com

R e t r e a t e x p e r i e n c e - S p a & W e l l n e s s ( K o s h e r ) 3 6 5 d a y s a y e a r i n t h e m o u n t a i n s o f C y p r u s

+357-26814-000

Rooms, suites & villas with private pools

• Kosher healthy & rich Pescatarian meals

• Daily wellness programs

• The largest SPA in Cyprus

• Energizing walks in the forest

• Wine tasting in our cava

• Music & Social gatherings

• Synagogue

• Mindfulness workshops

• Complimentary Tea & Coffee 24/07

• For adults only!

ANTIQUES

Top prices paid

Antique – Reproduction – Retro Furniture (any condition)

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

House clearances

Single items to complete homes

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

0207 723 7415 (SHOP)

closed Sunday & Monday

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

MAKE SURE YOU CONTACT US BEFORE SELLING

Dave & Eve House Clearance

garages etc. No job too big or too small! Rubbish cleared as part of a full clearance. We have a waste licence. We buy items including furniture bric a brac.

For a free quote please phone Dave on 07913405315 any time.

HOME & MAINTENANCE

LAW MENTOR

Thinking of a career in law?

Already in law but need a change?

• CVs and personal statements

• interviews and assessment days

• coping with stress and workload

Costume jewellery and watches etc 01277 352560

• promotion and new opportunities

For more information contact Tom lawmentor@btinternet.com / 07590 057097

LAW MENTOR

Thinking of a career in law?

WEB DESIGN

Already in law but need a change?

• CVs and personal statements

• interviews and assessment days

• coping with stress and workload

• promotion and new opportunities

For more inform ation contact Tom lawmentor@btinternet.com / 07590 057097

Fun, games and prizes

THE JEWISH NEWS CROSSWORD

SUDOKU

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

ACROSS

1 Peaks plus troughs (3,3,5)

9 Section of an orchestra (5)

10 The Four ___, Vivaldi work (7)

3

4

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 words to do with vets 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.

See next issue for puzzle solutions.

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

Last issue’s solutions

ARTWORK COLLECTION KEEPS ON GIVING

Gisela Martin was a housekeeper who died with a modest estate. Little did she know that her former employer, the late Harry Fuld Jr - an industrialist who lost everything to the Nazis - had le her a collection of art and sculptures. By the time Fuld’s gi to his former employee was discovered, both were long gone. However, the Fuld estate passed to Martin and this became her estate. What happened next was and indeed continues to be, truly incredible. Gisela Martin, unbeknownst to anyone, le what she believed to be her inconsequential assets and belongings to Magen David Adom UK. At the time of her death, this barely registered on the radar. However, once the Fuld link was made, her estate became both life-changing and life-saving.

Fuld Jr had le his former housekeeper piece a er piece of valuable and highly sought a er objets d’art which were inherited from his father. Furthermore, Fuld’s former possessions continue to be tracked down by lawyers and returned to their now rightful owners.

A restitution ceremony was held in April of this year at the French Ministry of Culture in Paris. The French Minister of Culture, Rima Abdul Malik, returned a prized sculpture to Magen David Adom UK.

The La Vierge de Pitié, 1495 / 1500 (Fin du XVe siècle), Gil de Siloe, Atelier de Espagne was recovered a er World War II; retrieved by the O ce des Biens et Intérêts Privés (OBIP); and has been part of the Louvre collection until such time as the legal owners were located. A er intense research, the Fuld family estate was identifi ed as the rightful owner. The renaissance sculpture was auctioned o by Christie’s on behalf of MDA UK, and the money will be used towards the lifesaving services provided by MDA in Israel.

This is just the most recent piece of restituted art returned to Magen David Adom UK. Previously, pieces included the famous Le Mur Rose (1898), a painting by Henri Matisse. This was recovered by the French police from a cache of art stored near the notorious Nazi SS O cer Kurt Gerstein’s home in Germany. It was restituted in 2008 and now hangs in the Jewish Museum in Frankfurt.

OUR DONOR DEDICATIONS

So far this year, MDA UK together with its donors have held several dedications in Israel.

Even long a er the passing of Harry Fuld

CELEBRATING ISRAEL’S TOP CHRISTIAN ALLIES

Lord Reading, Pastor E.A.

and Christine Darg’s nominations to Israel’s Top 50 Christian Allies 2022 list.

These key supporters of Israel have strong ties with Magen David Adom UK in particular, have enabled so many more people from di erent communities across the world to become supporters. Their recognition is well-deserved.

Junior, his expansive art collection is slowly being restituted to the benefit of Magen David Adom UK and the saving of lives in Israel and across the globe.

MDA UK’s Brenda & Maurice Geller, together with Christian Friends of Magen David Adom UK, celebrated

Adeboye,

Jean & Bernard Russell z”l – Ambulance

Locker Foundation – Julis Station

Estelle Waterman z”l – First Responder Car

CFMDA – Bloodmobile

MDA UK Co-President Lord Reading entertained guests. Credit: Yakir Zur

The La Vierge de Pitié, 1495 / 1500 (Fin du XVe siècle) by Gil de Siloe, Atelier de Espagne

Le Mur Rose (Paysage, le mur rose; Landscape, the Pink Wall) by Henri Matisse

Daniel Burger, MDA UK Chief Executive; and the French Minister of Culture, Rima Abdul Malik

SONGS OF A LIFESAVER

Magen David Adom UK hosted a dinner with Shai Abramson, the world renowned Chief Cantor of the Israel Defence Forces and an MDA volunteer medic.

The fundraising event was held in support of the lifesaving work of Magen David Adom in Israel and the £30,000 raised will go towards a muchneeded new MDA ambulance.

MDA UK Vice President, Judy Saphra, and Adrian Jacobs organised the dinner, which took place at The Pillar Hotel on 6th June.

Guest speaker, Fleur Hassan-Nahoum, Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem, addressed the attendees, sharing her pride in being associated with Magen David Adom.

“As Jews, the highest value there is, is Pikuach Nefesh - saving a life. And there’s not one organisation that you can point to that saves more lives day-to-day than Magen David Adom. Blood is blood. It doesn’t matter where you come from, which part of the country you come from - If you are Jewish, if you are not Jewish, the volunteers help the people who need the help - you are all saving lives.”

The dinner concluded with a spectacular performance by Cantor Abramson, as he serenaded the guests with his emotive and powerful voice, whilst sharing stories and personal pride in his time as a MDA volunteer.

FROM LAGOS WITH LOVE

In May of this year, the Redeemed Christian Church of God, based in Lagos, Nigeria, returned to Israel for the first time since before the Covid-19 pandemic. The General Overseer, Pastor E.A. Adeboye, commissioned the church’s third donation to MDA, this time the gift of two ambulances. These were dedicated at a special ceremony held in the newly opened Marcus National Blood Services Centre, in Ramle.

The ceremony opened with a prayer from the Chairman of RCCG UK, Pastor Leke Sanusi, after which the MC, Senior Paramedic Aryeh Myers, introduced Prof. Eilat Shinar, the director of Magen David Adom’s National Blood Services Division.

In attendance were Senior Pastors from RCCG worldwide, the Nigerian Ambassador to Israel and his representatives, Mr. Daniel Burger - Chief Executive of MDA UK, senior personnel of Magen David Adom in Israel, and Mrs. Tobi Lovv, President of Sharelovv International.

Pastor F.A. Adeboye and Pastor E.A. Adeboye

Shai Abramson, Judy Saphra, Fleur Hassan-Nahoum, Daniel Burger, Adrian Jacobs.

Credit: Yakir Zur

Shai Abramson and Judy Saphra.

Credit: Yakir Zur

Fleur Hassan-Nahoum, Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem. Credit: Yakir Zur