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Sunday, November 24, 2024 at 6PM JLM Time
A dad has urged Lego to “do better” after a manager at one of its largest stores refused to print a custom figurine featuring a yellow hostages ribbon, writes Jenni Frazer.
Shai Davidai, a Columbia University professor, was told when he visited the store in Manhattan with his eight-year-old son, that the ribbon was a “political” issue.
While designing a mini-figure to match his appearance, including a black T-shirt with a yellow hostages ribbon and the slogan ‘bring them home’ on the back, the shop manager intervened.
“The hostages are a political issue,” the manager reportedly said, adding that company policy prohibited political content. Davidai countered that hostages were a humanitarian issue. “I was shocked,” he said,
Davidai recounted: “You create your mini-figurines and while you wait for them to be printed out, you choose things like what kind of legs you want them to have, all the fun stu about Lego.
adding that the exchange happened in front of his young son.
“As we were doing that, the manager came up to me –obviously he recognised me because I looked just like the figurine I had made – and he said I couldn’t have what I had picked.”
because I looked just like the
The manager gave Davidai
two options: to modify the figurine’s design or to accept a refund. Reluctantly, Davidai chose the latter, feeling “astonished, hurt, and depressed” at the experience.
At the cash desk, he challenged the manager, saying: “This is unacceptable – there are hostages who are children, who would be playing with Lego if they were free.”
According to Davidai, the
manager responded: “I think you know that it is [a political issue].”
Davidai later shared his encounter at the Fifth Avenue store on social media, where it sparked responses from others who had successfully created similar figurines in Lego stores in Germany and Israel.
The Israeli store, in particular, prominently displays hostage yellow ribbons and Lego figures.
“This may mean that the manager in New York was making his own decision and that it is not against company policy,” Davidai said. “But in any case, I don’t want people to protest against Lego, I just want Lego to do better.”
Jewish News has contacted Lego in the United States as well as in the UK to request comment and to clarify its policy but is yet to receive a reply.
Keir Starmer held an early telephone conversation with Donald Trump after last week’s US election in which the pair discussed the situation in the Middle East, writes Lee Harpin.
Downing Street said Starmer “underscored the importance of regional stability” as he reflected on the deadly conflict in the region.
The prime minister offered his “hearty congratulations” to Trump after his “historic victory” and said he looked forward to working closely with him, Downing Street confirmed.
Benjamin Netanyahu also spoke with Trump and said the pair had discussed the “Iranian threat” as part of a conversation about Israel’s security.
The pair “agreed to work together for Israel’s security” and “discussed the Iranian threat”, the Israeli prime minister’s office said in a statement.
Saudi Arabian state media reported that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had spoken to Trump to congratulate him.
Iran’s foreign ministry responded to the presidential election result in the US by claiming it was a chance for a new administration to “review the wrong approaches of the past”. A ministry spokesman, Esmaeil Baghaei, claimed: “We had bitter experiences with various US governments’ past policies and approaches. Elections are an opportunity to review the wrong approaches of the past.
What is important for Iran will be how we evaluate the actions of the US government,”
Reuters reported.
Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas also congratulated Trump on his victory, expressing confidence that the presi-
dent-elect would support Palestinians’ “legitimate aspirations” for statehood.
The Palestinian Authority’s ambassador to the UK, Husam Zomlot, called on Trump to act immediately to intervene in the Middle East conflict, and not wait until he takes office
Two rising stars of human rights activism in Israel have been honoured at a ceremony in London, writes Lee Harpin.
At the annual New Israel Fund UK’s Human Rights Awards, Rawyah Handaqlu, head of the Emergency Headquarters to Combat Crime and Violence in Arab Society, and Eran Nissan, CEO of the digital activism movement Mehazkim, were honoured for their work .
Handaqlu, a lawyer and Palestinian citizen from Jatt, was recognised for her work leading a new task force devoted to combating crime and violence in Arab society.
Nissan, a Jewish Israeli, was recognised for his work with Mehazkim, a digital movement reaching 1.5 million Israelis a month to strengthen progressive opinion.
Handaqlu said: “Receiving this award is not only my personal honour, it is also a mission, so I want to dedicate this to everyone who has to struggle every day to be heard, to achieve justice and safety.
“I’m a girl from the Jatt triangle, a minority Arab woman, so I never
dreamed I’d be here,” she added. “I’m an Arab, I’m Palestinian, I live in Israel. I belong to this place. I can’t emigrate. There is something about the warmth of the people here that attracts me.”
Nissan said: “We have a leadership deficit in Israel in the last couple of decades, and when you don’t have someone to look up to, you lower your sights and you look around you.
“There are a lot of good, inspiring people around who are doing
amazing work.” The NIF event was hosted by the Israeli comedian and activist Noam Shuster-Eliassi.
David Davidi-Brown, chief executive of NIF UK, said: “When many are divisive and hateful, when people insist we choose a side, supporting our work with Eran and Rawyah and hundreds of leaders from all different communities across Israeli civil society shows determination to be on the side of all people, Israelis and Palestinians.”
in January. “There is no time to waste now.” Zomlot said.
While there was no reference to talk about Russia’s war on Ukraine when Starmer spoke with Trump, the leaders agreed that “from defence and security to growth and prosperity the relationship between the UK and the US was incredibly strong and would continue to thrive for many years to come”.
“The leaders fondly recalled their meeting in September, and President-elect Trump’s close connections and affinity to the United Kingdom and looked forward to working with one another,” a spokeswoman added.
Starmer and his foreign secretary held a dinner with Trump in New York in September, when the pair met for the first time.
Earlier, the prime minister’s spokeswoman was pressed on whether Lammy would keep his job for the entire parliament in light of his past comments about the US leader, and he replied: “Yes, he is the foreign secretary.”
Rachel Reeves also told MPs on the crossparty Treasury select committee that the UK’s trading relationship with the US was “crucial”, but she was “confident those trade flows will continue under President Trump”.
She added: “He’s been president before, we continue to have a good and strong economic relationship… I’m optimistic about our ability to shape the global economic agenda.”
• Can Trump shift course of war? Page 15
A serving Gloucestershire Police officer has been arrested by officers from Counter Terrorism Policing South West on suspicion of offering support to Hamas, writes Lee Harpin.
In a statement Gloucestershire Police said the officer, a constable aged in his thirties, was arrested at an address in Gloucester on suspicion of giving support to a proscribed organisation contrary to Section 12 of the Terrorism Act 2000 – namely Harakat al-Muqawamah al-Islamiyyah (Hamas).
The officer was subsequently taken to a police custody unit outside of the local Gloucestershire area.
Specialist officers are carrying out searches in relation to this investigation, including of a vehicle and an address in Gloucester.
Gloucestershire Police Asst Chief Constable Arman Mathieson said: “The arrest of a serving officer on suspicion of such a serious offence will no doubt cause our communities concern, as it does everyone who works for Glouces-
tershire Police.
“It’s important to note the suspected support relates to activity taking place online and the searches we are conducting are predominately to locate digital devices for analysis.
“The arrest has been made to allow for a prompt and effective investigation to take place and we must not draw any conclusions at this stage.”
•
Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis this week warned that the proposed law on assisted dying “will have the unintended consequence of creating at least as much anguish as it alleviates”, writes Jenni Frazer.
His comments were made as the details of the Assisted Dying Bill, said to be “the most robust” in the world, were unveiled on Monday night. The prime minister, Sir Keir Starmer, who has previously supported assisted dying, now says he will not pressure his MPs on the issue – on which the government has pledged to remain neutral.
The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill has been sponsored by the Labour MP Kim Leadbeater, who says hers is the only Bill in the world with “three layers of scrutiny” in the form of sign-off by two doctors and a High Court judge.
Leadbeater said the proposed legislation for England and Wales would offer the “safest choice” for mentally competent adults at the end of their lives, and is capable of protecting against coercion.
But the Chief Rabbi said he believed that the passing of the Bill, should it become law, had “the potential to fundamentally alter the way we regard life as uniquely precious”.
Though he acknowledged that “the quest to bring peace to those who are suffering unimaginable pain is a noble one – undoubtedly rooted in compassion and empathy”, he said that “the devastating evidence” from other countries was clear: “when we numb, or remove altogether, our reverence for the precious gift of life itself, we withdraw from a moral standard, to which we might never return”.
Leadbeater’s Bill is due to have its first
debate at the end of the month. It will be the first time assisted dying has been debated and voted on in the Commons in almost a decade.
Only terminally ill adults with less than six months to live who have a settled wish to end their lives would be eligible under the new law.
Critics say the Bill is being “rushed with indecent haste” and that MPs will not have adequate time to scrutinise the legislation before the November 29 debate and vote.
But Leadbeater rejected this argument, saying almost three weeks was “plenty of time to look at the Bill” and was normal within par-
liamentary timeframes.
She also suggested any new law would not take effect for another two to three years, with “even more consultation to make sure we get it right”.
life or to induce someone to self-administer drugs to die.
Anyone found guilty of doing so would face a maximum prison sentence of 14 years.
In an interview with the PA news agency, Leadbeater said: “Throughout the process there are layers and layers of safeguards and protections which I believe will probably make it the most robust piece of legislation in the world.”
It is thought the shortest timeframe for the process from first making a declaration to ending a life would be around a month. Terminally ill people who have been resident in England and Wales for at least 12 months would have to take the prescribed medication themselves.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting has already said he intends to vote against the Bill, voicing his fears about coercion and people feeling a “duty to die”, while the outgoing Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, has warned of legalisation leading to a “slippery slope” in terms of who is eligible.
She acknowledged this would be “heartbreaking” for people and families for whom change could come too late.
Leadbeater said her private member’s bill would make it illegal for someone to persuade a person through dishonesty, coercion or pressure to declare they wanted to end their
High-profile supporters of a change in the law include Dame Esther Rantzen, who is terminally ill and revealed in December that she had joined Dignitas due to the current law. The broadcaster has hailed the “wonderful” Bill, but acknowledged it would probably come into effect too late for her, and recognised that its narrow criteria would not help people enduring unbearable pain and distress through chronic illness.
• Rabbi Shulamit Ambalu, page 22
A campaign for the UK to implement immediate sanctions against two far-right Israeli ministers is receiving growing support in the community, writes Lee Harpin.
Yachad launched its latest campaign, calling for sanctions against Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich and national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir (pictured), in response to reports from the Middle East on Israel’s forcible evacuation of residents from northern Gaza with a permanent ban on them returning.
In a speech to lawmakers in his own party this week, Smotrich said: “The new Nazis need to pay a price through land that will be permanently taken from them, both in Gaza and in Judea and Samaria.”
Yachad, which advocates peace and equality for Israelis and Palestinans, has now urged supporters to contact their local MPs with an emailed letter stating: “I am writing as your constituent to ask you to implore the UK government to immediately implement sanctions against Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich and national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.
“Israel is under the grip of far-right extrem-
ists who are endangering the lives of Palestinians and gravely changing the character of Israel.
“As a British Jew, who remains committed to ensuring freedom, dignity and security for Israelis and Palestinians alike, I fully support the UK government taking robust action to ensure their extremist agenda cannot be implemented. ”
Smotrich said on Monday at a Religious Zionism party meeting that during presidentelect Donald Trump’s previous term, “We were just a step away from applying sovereignty over the settlements in Judea and Samaria [the West Bank], and now the time has come to do it.”
Trump’s latest election victory also brings an important opportunity,” Smotrich said, adding that “2025 is the year of sovereignty in Judea and Samaria. The new Nazis need to pay a price through land that will be permanently taken from them, both in Gaza and in Judea and Samaria.”
Jewish News understands that more than 300 letters have been sent to MPs so far, with Yachad launching a further campaign push this week.
The letter continues: “At the heart of the Israeli government are finance minister Bezalel Smotrich and national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who long ago abandoned the hostages and openly support transferring Palestinians out of Gaza with the intention of resettling it.
“Just a few weeks ago Itamar Ben-Gvir attended a conference about resettling Gaza stating: ‘We will encourage the voluntary transfer of all Gazan citizens… we will offer them the opportunity to move to other countries because that land belongs to us.’
“Prime minister Keir Starmer has suggested the UK is considering sanctions against BenGvir and Smotrich to counter these extremist policies, but decisive action has yet to be taken.
“It is essential that the UK government implement sanctions now. Israeli law permits Israeli banks to freeze accounts of individuals and entities sanctioned by the UK, immediately marginalising them and limiting their influence.
“It would also encourage other western allies to follow suit creating a groundswell against their extremism. This is an immediate action the UK government could take tomorrow that would have an immediate impact.”
Last month Keir Starmer confirmed the government was “looking at” possible sanctions against the two far-right minister in response to “abhorrent comments, along with other really concerning activity in the West Bank but also across the region”.
Former foreign secretary David Cameron had earlier revealed that he was considering sanctioning the two men under the previous government.
Keir Starmer has criticised an MP elected on a pro-Gaza ticket for failing to reference either Hamas or the 7 October terror attack after he quizzed him in the Commons, writes Lee Harpin.
During Prime Minister’s Questions yesterday afternoon, Ayoub Khan, the independent MP for Birmingham Perry Barr, told MPs: “Over the past 400 days, more than 45,000 innocent men, women and children have been killed” during the conflict in Gaza.
The MP, previously exposed by Jewish News over his attempt, when a local councillor, to question the extent of the crimes committed by Hamas during the October massacre, then added: “The foreign secretary denied that a genocide has even taken place, and suggested that the Israeli army had not yet killed enough Palestinians to constitute a genocide.
“And last week, at PMQs, the Prime Minister started that he has never referred to the atrocities hap-
pening in Gaza as a genocide. Will the Prime Minister share his definition of genocide with this House?”
But in a firm response, the PM said: “It would be wise to start a question like that by reference to what happened in October of last year. I’m well aware of the definition of genocide, and that is why I’ve never described this as and referred to it as genocide.”
Elsewhere in PMQs, Reform
leader and MP Nigel Farage asked when the UK would be proscribing Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. He said: “I’m sure the prime minister and the whole House would wish to congratulate Donald Trump on his landslide victory last week. But within a couple of days we learned of a third assassination attempt, charges have been laid, and behind it are Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC). Has the time not come, Prime Minister, to proscribe what is so obviously a terrorist organisation?
“And in doing so, not just do the right thing, but maybe mend some fences between this Government and the incoming presidency of Donald Trump’s, given that the whole Cabinet has been so rude about him over the last few years.”
Starmer replied: “The point he makes about Iran is very serious and we will work across the House and with our allies on it. Obviously, on the question of proscription we keep them under review.”
The British-German artist Frank Auerbach died peacefully at his home in London on Monday, aged 93. The Kindertransport refugee from Nazi Germany arrived in Britain in 1939. His acclaimed career spanned seven decades and his works, including this 1958 self-portrait, have been displayed at galleries around the world
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The government is to appoint “ministerial envoys” to oversee Tower Hamlets Council after inspectors found a “toxic” political environment which included a failure to manage tensions caused by the ongoing conflict in Gaza, writes Lee Harpin.
Decisions made by the east London town hall will now be monitored following a series of controversies under the borough’s independent executive mayor Lutfur Rahman.
A best value inspection of the council, published on Tuesday, noted that: “Since 7 October 2023, some members of the small Jewish community have found the issue of Palestinian flags to be a major worry.”
After receiving a letter from lawyers about “serious concerns on behalf of the Jewish residents in Tower Hamlets” over the flags, as well as concerns about Facebook and WhatsApp groups, there was an unexplained delay in the council’s response, after it sought legal advice.
The inspectors’ report states: “The council received legal advice on this matter initially, from its in-house legal team shortly after the flags had started to be displayed.
“On 12 February 2024, a conference was held with King’s Counsel, the mayor and o cers to discuss the legal advice received. We have been provided with the King’s Counsel legal advice on a strictly confidential basis, but it does seem to us that the matter was not overly legally complex... We were informed there were delays in sending the brief to the barrister, due to a number of o cers, and the mayor, wanting an opportunity to make comments. In any event, it is unclear to us as to why there were such large
gaps between the issue arising, advice being sought and received and action being taken.”
On 5 January, the council received an email from UK Lawyers for Israel outlining concerns, including the flying of Palestinian flags throughout the borough.
The inspectors’ report continues: “Clearly the Gaza conflict has been a di cult time for many and it is not within the power of a single council to remedy matters. However, it is not clear that the council has acted particularly e ectively to manage tensions.
“We are not aware of any corporate communications from the council’s leadership to its sta or with schools about the conflict and impacts in the local area, and understand some Jewish sta members to have felt uneasy as a result of this omission.”
Local government minister Jim McMahon said the council was “failing to comply with its best value duty” and he would appoint a “ministerial envoy and assistant envoy to act as advisor, mentor and monitor to the council, and to oversee its improvement work”.
SUNDAY 17TH NOVEMBER | PARADE BEGINS 2PM | THE CENOTAPH, LONDON SW1
Together, we will honour and Remember the thousands of Jewish servicemen and women who served for our freedom, ensuring their legacy continues to inspire us today.
Come and support the marchers, Remember, honour and stand against antisemitism.
To support the Parade as a spectator from the East Whitehall Pavement no booking required. The Parade marches down Whitehall at 2pm.
WE WILL BE ‘STANDING TALL’ IN SOLIDARITY, HONOURING THEIR LEGACY.
There will be a high level of security provided by CST and the Police. Please allow enough time to arrive at the event and do not bring large bags.
A 33-year-old Jewish man has recalled how he was attacked and needed hospital treatment after stepping in to stop a gang assault on an Israeli man in Amsterdam, writes Michelle Rosenberg..
The incident followed a Europa FC match between Maccabi Tel Aviv and AFC Ajax, during which Maccabi fans were targeted by thugs shouting pro-Palestinian slogans.
The father of two from Hendon recounted the ordeal to Jewish News
“We left the game early to meet a friend. As we walked towards the bar area, chaos broke out—mopeds appeared from alleyways and a crowd surrounded an Israeli man.”
He described the scene: “The man was on the ground, his head pinned between a kerb and a metal gate, being viciously kicked.”
Aaron and his friend Jacob intervened, managing to push the attackers away and help the victim. “We thought it was over,” he said. But moments later, the gang returned and confronted them, asking, “Are you Yehudi? Are you Jewish?”
Jacob, a father of three from Golders Green, said the attackers asked to see their passports to check whether they were Jewish.
Despite denying they were Israeli and pleading to be left alone, the gang continued their intimidation, grabbing Aaron’s friend’s coat before the situation escalated further.
“I told him to leave him alone, and the next thing I know he punched me in the face. It was so unexpected. My
glasses were broken, my nose split. Blood everywhere. After he punched me, about 20 more came out of their hiding places to e ectively finish me o . But I stood my ground. I said what you’re doing is why you’re not getting any support.”
When the leader of the gang said: “He’s British, leave him alone,” another responded: “Yes, but he helped a Jew.”
“That,” says Aaron, “is why they were angry. Because I helped a Jew.”
He said police turned up after about 45 minutes. “Before the game there was a massive police presence. They were taking it seriously. But after the game I think they were scared. I saw this poor dad with his
kid running towards the hotel. They probably got him. They weren’t looking for Israelis. They were looking for Jews. They knew what they were doing. It wasn’t a random ‘Oh, let’s get an Israeli’. It was organised. It was ‘We want Jews. We want Jewish blood.’”
and we need to get the Zionists”. He adds: “I’m not one to be afraid but it was a dangerous situation. It was gangs of people looking for blood.”
He adds: “It’s completely ridiculous to say that the Maccabi Tel Aviv fans were riling people up. This is a wake up call because it can happen here in the UK too. They wanted to kill that guy I helped. They were just stamping on his head. I think he went to the police.
I just picked him up and shouted ‘leave him alone’ and they ran o .”
Aaron, who was given stitches in hospital, told Jewish News he was glad to have stepped in to help but also glad not to have been badly wounded. “I felt very bad for the Israelis. One of the guys then came over to apologise, saying, ‘Sorry we thought you were Zionist.’”
After the apology, one of the gang said: “The streets are full of Zionists
In a statement CST said it was “disgusted by the violence directed at Maccabi Tel Aviv fans in Amsterdam last night and we want to express our support and solidarity for the Dutch Jewish community”.
Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis issued a statement saying: “Utterly devastating scenes from The Netherlands. Hateful mobs have chased down Jewish & Israeli football fans on the streets of Amsterdam after a match, violently beating them and proudly posting the footage on social media. Many are injured and three people are currently missing.
“This should be a watershed moment for the world, when it realises how severe the scourge of antiJewish hatred has become. Sadly, I fear it will not be and this will not be the last such attack, God forbid.”
• Comment and analysis, p20-21
The government has said it will “not allow cultural and sporting events to be hijacked” after Israel warned its citizens abroad to avoid such occasions in the wake of violence against Israeli football fans in Amsterdam.
Police in the Dutch capital launched a large-scale investigation after gangs of youths conducted what Amsterdam’s mayor called “hit and run” attacks on Maccabi Tel Aviv fans that were apparently inspired by calls on social media to target Jewish people.
In response, the UK government said police and security services were working “to ensure the safety of every community in this country”.
A government spokesperson said: “There is no place for antisemitism on our streets and we will not allow cultural and sporting events to be hijacked by those who seek to promote hate. Those who push this poison – o ine and online – will face the full force of the law. Police and the security services continue to work to ensure the safety of every community in this country.”
Before the clashes, Dutch authorities had considered postponing the match between Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv as tensions between proPalestine activists and Israeli fans simmered.
BY AHMED FOUAD ALKHATIB FELLOW AT THE ATLANTIC COUNCIL
Many Tel Aviv Maccabi fans acted in a disgusting, racist, and hateful manner in Amsterdam last week. Some of them spewed hateful slogans, ripped up Palestinian flags, acted in a lawless manner, and screamed racist, anti-Arab chants that certainly escalated the tensions.
The narrative among many is that these soccer fans “started it” with their behaviour, and that this wouldn’t have happened had it not been for the hooliganism of the Israeli fans.
The extent to which many have been justifying random acts of violence against suspected Israelis and Jews has been grotesque, mirroring ways in which many justified and excused Hamas’s 7 October massacre. Many are overlooking that there appear to have
been preparations, including ones that Dutch authorities were warned about, to confront the Israeli fans by “pro-Palestine” protesters well before the game and the arrival of these fans.
We’ve seen instances throughout the Gaza war in which Israeli and Jewish-themed events and activities are targeted by activists who seek to disrupt and undermine; as though all Jews or Israelis are responsible for the actions of the Israeli government. Some of the Maccabi fans were probably provoked before the game and going into the stadium, making many react in an equally hostile and racist manner.
However, this doesn’t justify a large, random counterattack by local “pro-Palestine” Arab and Muslim residents, who went out looking or “hunting” for Israeli and Jewish fans. We saw footage of people being approached, asked to prove that they were not Israeli or Jewish, and some struck, punched and chased.
There have been many forms of hateful and aggressive protests and actions by “pro-Palestine” groups and individuals since the Gaza
war broke out – does that mean random Arabs, Muslims, and Palestinians in Amsterdam should fear attacks because some in their communities did violent or hateful acts? Absolutely not. Jews and Israelis should be a orded the same humanity and consideration.
Any act, retribution or pre-meditated, against a group of people based on ethnicity, religion or politics is inexcusable and harmful to whatever cause one champions. The United States has done terrible things in the Muslim world, but that doesn’t justify al-Qaeda’s 9/11 attacks. Europe has done some awful things, but that doesn’t justify Isis’ attacks on France, Britain and Germany. Israel has/is engaged in horrendous policies and actions against Palestinians, but that doesn’t justify suicide bombings, Hamas’s 7 October massacre, or random acts of antisemitism and violence against suspected Israelis or Jews anywhere.
Violence begets more violence; violence does not justify random counter-violence; violence weakens one’s moral, political and social
standing; violence is not an acceptable social change or advocacy strategy; random and emotionally-driven violence is not resistance; violence that is driven by and fuels antisemitism is extremely harmful to the Palestinian people’s just and urgent cause and aspirations. I’m tired of people being ready to excuse such detrimental and extraordinarily harmful behaviour. When will those who actually care about the Palestinian people’s cause realise that they and the “pro-Palestine” community have a responsibility to be good custodians of the message and that actions have consequences and implications? I am tired of the Palestinian people being associated with the actions of non-Palestinians in the diaspora who act and speak on our behalf in the most unhelpful ways. I was in Amsterdam recently and drove by one of the Palestinian flags that was ripped up by Maccabi fans. While talking to people, this issue came up as a cause of tension in the city, which, as in many parts of Europe, is a source of immense divisiveness. This cannot go on.
The Liberal Democrats have tabled an early day motion urging the government to “take all actions within their power” to secure the release of Hamas hostage and British citizen Emily Damari, writes Lee Harpin.
The motion, signed by foreign affairs spokesperson Calum Miller and his predecessor Layla Moran, also urges the government to support Britons abroad, including introducing a right to consular assistance in the case of rights violations.
It notes “the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza” while Hamas continues to hold Damari.
The motion goes on to urge “the government and foreign secretary to take all actions
within their power to secure Emily’s release and the release of all remaining hostages; further urges the government to engage in international efforts to secure a ceasefire so the hostages can be released and to get aid into Gaza; and also urges the government to advocate for British citizens abroad; including introducing a right to consular assistance in the case of human rights violations.”
Mandy Damari said last month her 28-yearold daughter was “still in hell” a year after being taken from her apartment near the border with Gaza. Damari told a rally in Hyde Park that she feared her plight had been “forgotten”.
She said: “One year has passed and she is
still in hell. On the morning of 7 October, Emily was in her own apartment on Kfar Aza, our peaceful kibbutz, but that day Hamas turned our home into a place of terror.
“Sixty-four of our neighbours – men, women, children and elderly – were sadistically murdered, 19 were kidnapped, 12 women were eventually released, two of our hostages were killed in friendly fire while trying to escape and five are still held in Gaza, including my Emily.
“My beautiful, charismatic daughter, with the cheeky smile, was shot and taken by force from her home. Her beloved dog Choocha, who was with her, was killed with a gunshot to the neck.”
Keir Starmer has invited Jewish and Muslim leaders to Downing Street as part of his commitment to overcoming divisions in UK society.
While next week’s interfaith breakfast event will be an opportunity for leaders of all faiths to meet, it will also provide a high-profile opportunity for senior Jewish and Muslim representatives to engage with one another as concerns grow about the
gulf between the two communities in the aftermath of 7 October 2023.
Starmer has previously spoken of his concern that mutual understanding between some communities in the UK is not as deep as he had thought and that existing structures are not strong enough to withstand current pressures placed on them.
The interfaith event takes place days after one senior government
adviser told Jewish News of their concern about the growing gulf between Jewish and Muslim organisations in this country as a result of differing responses to the Gaza conflict.
The adviser said they feared some leaders had “forgotten the many things that previously brought the two communities together through similar experience in this country” and instead were focusing instead on
sustaining increasingly hardline positions on conflict in the Middle East. Meanwhile, in a letter sent to Board of Deputies president Phil Rosenberg this week, Starmer references what he says has been an “incredibly challenging” time for the country, including for Jewish and Muslim communities and stresses his commitment to “building a Britain where all communities feel safe”.
by Jenni Frazer jenni@jennifrazer.com
The man who claims to have been the last Jew in Afghanistan arrived in Israel last week under the auspices of the Jewish Agency, after spending three years in Istanbul.
He is understood to have gone first to Holon, outside Tel Aviv, and is now settling in Ashdod.
Zebulon Simantov, 72, was rescued from Kabul in September 2021 by the American-Israeli businessman and philanthropist, Moti Kahana, along with 30 Afghan neighbours. The group first went to a safe house in Islamabad, Pakistan, before Simantov decided to go to Turkey rather than Israel.
Afghan-born Simantov was the self-appointed curator of the dilapidated synagogue in Kabul’s Flower Street, where he lived in a level of grandiose squalor, charging foreign journalists for interviews and glorying in his “victory” over his former rival for the title of last Jew, Isaak Levi.
The pair squabbled so much over ownership of the land on which the synagogue stood that they were first imprisoned by the Taliban, and then ejected from prison because of the constant verbal battles.
But Levi died in 2005, leaving Simantov king of the castle. His wife and daughters had emigrated to Israel – where his five siblings also lived –years before, but for a long time Simantov refused to grant his wife a get, or Jewish divorce.
When the Taliban, which had ruled Afghanistan between 1996 and 2001, took over the country for a second time in August 2021, Simantov insisted that he had “protected” status as the last Jew and kept telling anyone who asked that he would not move.
But Kahana told him that he faced a gruesome end, not from the Taliban, but from Al-Qaeda and Isis. With reluctance, Simantov agreed to leave.
Once in Islamabad, Rabbi Mendy Chitrik, director of the Alliance of Rabbis in Islamic States, facilitated a Zoom get in order for Simantov to give his wife a kosher divorce. Kahana said he had spent “two weeks of being a shrink, a psychiatrist, talking to him like 10 times a day, and his neighbour at the same time to translate” to persuade the recalcitrant Simantov to go through with the get.
Originally the plan was for the Afghani to stay only temporarily in Turkey, but he decided he liked living in Istanbul and rejected attempts to
persuade him to move to Israel.
Finally, however, it seems to have been ill-health that triggered his move. Kahana told Jewish News that Simantov was now in a wheelchair and was finding it increasingly dicult to live in Turkey.
Israel’s Walla News reported that Simantov’s brother Benjamin had received a call from another sibling. He said: “My younger brother called me on Thursday around 9-10pm and said, ‘Mazaltov, your brother is in Israel.’ I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. By Saturday night, we were already on our way to see him at the place where he’s staying in southern Israel.”
Now Kahana says he hopes to fulfil his promise to Simantov to take him to the Western Wall in Jerusalem.
A UK-registered medical doctor who praised Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar as a “legend” and speculated about Israel harvesting human organs has quizzed a Jewish News journalist about their “dual Israeli citizenship” and asked if Jewish News readers are “normal human beings”, writes Michelle Rosenberg.
In an extraordinary volley of questions following an email to ask if she stands by her endorsement of the architect of the 7 October attacks, Dr Rehiana Ali asked a Jewish News reporter: “What is the nature of your readership?
“Are they normal human beings or are they extremist in their outlook? What’s the nature of your relationship with Israel? What’s the source of your funding for Jewish News? Do you have dual Israeli citizenship? What proportion
of your readership have dual Israeli citizenship? What proportion of your readership have completed service in the IOF [Israel Occupation Force]? What’s your definition of a “conspiracy theory”? Do you/Jewish News endorse extremist views against nonJews [in the Talmud]?”
Dr Ali is a consultant neurologist who has worked for the NHS for 21 years and spent a decade at London’s Imperial College. She is also a former parliamentary candidate, standing in Bradford South as an independent earlier this year. She received 3,345 votes, placing her fifth out of nine candidates. She has:
• Responded to tweets detailing the injuries sus-
tained by Sinwar by saying: “Many will view him as a superhero” having had “no food for 3 days… and still fighting.” She also reposted tweets stating “these facts only steel-reinforce Sinwar’s stature as a martyr who fought and starved with his people” and another claiming “it just makes him seen like more of a legend”.
• Reposted a claim by Palestine Action that Israelis are “dripping in the blood of Palestinians”
• Retweeted praise for Hassan Nasrallah, former leader of terror group Hezbollah: “The heroic and resilient children of Seyed Hassan Nasrallah are humiliating the Zionist enemy on the battlefield”
• Retweeted a post claiming Sinwar “seems like more of a legend”
• Responded to a post claiming 800 IDF soldiers have been killed in the conflict with “Music to one’s ears. Fewer child-killing demons”
• Reposted conspiracy theories claiming “4,000 Jews did not show up to work” on 9/11
• Responded “Excellent post. Spot on” to a comment suggesting that Israel should be wiped o the map, and claiming “I don’t want a ‘two-state’ solution. I want a ‘one-state solution’ and Iwant it to be Palestine”
• Referred to Israel’s actions in Gaza as a “Holocaust”, adding “Israel needs dismantling. It is a terrorist entity.”
A spokesperson for the General Medical Council told Jewish News that Dr Rehiana Ali is registered with a licence to practise and that it “can and will investigate serious concerns that suggest patient safety or the public’s confidence in doctors may be at risk. We are clear that the standards expected of doctors do not change when they are communicating online. We consider all concerns that are raised with us and we take this responsibility very seriously.”
UJIA is o ering financial assistance to Israel tour applicants who have never visited the country before.
The charity, in partnership with Masorti’s Mosaic Teens, will o er a subsidy of £2,200 to youngsters when applications for the summer open on 9 December.
Qualifying recipients for the match-funded grant will include those who have never been to Israel before, have not previously been on a youth movement residential experience, or who live outside the main Jewish communal centres in the United Kingdom and there-
fore have limited access to Jewish communal life.
Adam Waters, of UJIA Israel Experience, said: “We are continuously looking for new ways to support this key rite of passage experience and are delighted to be able to add this new funding opportunity.
“Israel Tour has been
one of the formative experiences in our community for decades, and we want to ensure this programme and the positive impact it has is safeguarded for all.”
UJIA’s chief executive, Mandie Winston, said: “It remains as vital as ever to ensuring the future leadership pipeline of the Jewish community.
“That is why UJIA has been working with key partners to enable impactful volunteering and educational experiences in Israel since the attacks of 7 October, including a full summer of Israel Experiences in 2024.”
The 2024 Jewish Volunteering Network’s annual awards will be the biggest yet, the charity has said.
More than 50 community charities – 50 percent up on last year – have made 100 submissions, a rise of 18 percent over the previous year.
Jewish Volunteering Network told Jewish News the charity had seen a “significant increase” in interest in volunteering since the 7 October attacks: a 69 percent rise in registrations on its site, 22 percent rise in applications and 48 percent rise in volunteer placements with charities.
“We believe it shows that people simply want to do something to help, on an individual and community level,” the charity said.
The JVN awards event will take place in Hertfordshire on 19 January 2025. Jewish News is the media partner for the awards, which will be in four categories: volunteer of the year, volunteer team of the year, young adult volunteer of the year, and lifetime achievement award.
An independent panel of judges will select an outstanding achiever in each category, with the winners to be announced during the awards ceremony.
This added recognition celebrates the impact of a select few whose contributions stand out even among this incredible group.
Nicky Goldman, chief executive of JVN, said: “This year’s nominations reflect the inspiring work of individuals across a wide range of roles.”
An exhibition in a council-funded museum in Cambridgeshire features is a map of ‘Palestine’, dated 2022, that covers the whole of the State of Israel, writes Lianne Kolirin.
The Exhibition of Palestinian History & Culture in Peterborough also refers to the destruction of Gaza as a result of IDF bombing without any mention of the unprecedented Hamas assault from Gaza on 7 October 2023.
The Peterborough Museum and Art Gallery display is supported by three pro-Palestinian groups: Peterborough Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Palestinian Voices and The Hands Up Project. It had been due to take place in the spring but the council postponed it, saying at the time the decision was to “minimise any increase in community tensions”.
There is no mention of the monthlong exhibition on the museum’s website, but outside the building, whose permanent collection celebrates Peterborough’s history, a small sign advertises the free display.
According to the poster, the exhibition outlines the “rich history and culture of life in Palestine, from the Bronze Age to the present day with poetry from the children of Gaza”.
The walls outside the community room in which it is located are covered with pictures and poems by children from Gaza; inside are examples of traditional clothing and crafts.
According to the social media pages of the Peterborough Palestine Solidarity Campaign, the exhibition “aims to share a fuller narrative of who [the Palestinians] are and what they
have endured.” However, the “fuller narrative” is political and one-sided. The closest the exhibition comes to
mentioning the attack by Hamas, in which 1,200 people were murdered and about 250 taken hostage – 97 of
Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg is stepping down as senior rabbi of New North London Synagogue after 40 years.
He will retire at the end of 2025, becoming rabbi emeritus.
Rabbi Wittenberg, who was the Finchley community’s first fulltime rabbi, said he was “deeply grateful” to the synagogue for “many years of partnership. The congregation was generous enough to hire me as their youth worker, encourage me to study for the rabbinate, and
then to appoint me, and keep me on, as rabbi.
“For all these years, countless members of the community have inspired, encouraged, supported, challenged and motivated me to try to live what I hope has been, and will continue to be, a worthwhile life, following the faith, practices and values of Judaism.”
He added that he had
whom remain in Gaza – is in an introduction to the children’s artworks.
Folders with further information are on hand around the museum. Included in one of these is a section entitled ‘Global Jews for Palestine’; a page about Peterborough Palestine Solidarity Campaign states that it is “incorrect” to say that criticising Zionism amounts to antisemitism.
Jewish News was told by Peterborough council, which runs the museum, that public money had not gone into the display. But a brochure thanks the museum for “its invaluable support in hosting the exhibition”.
The museum said: “We aim to be a neutral space which provides our visitors with knowledge about a diverse range of subjects in order to open up conversations.”
confidence in the community’s future, with its “excellent lay, professional and rabbinic leadership”. He looked forward to working in other fields, especially interfaith and environment, “as well as to continuing to care for the community I love as rabbi emeritus”.
Shul chairs, Vicky Fox and Bruce Rigal, paid tribute to Rabbi
Wittenberg’s “kindness, wisdom, and indefatigable energy”. They added: “His deep love of Judaism, care for others, his integrity and passion for social justice have touched us profoundly. He will leave a lasting legacy of a community that prays not only with their hearts but also with their actions. We express our deep appreciation for his leadership and service to the community.” They added that NNLS’s “strong foundations” would enable it to continue to thrive.
Keir Starmer and his wife Victoria joined the 500-strong congregation at South Hampstead Synagogue –with the prime minister also delivering a speech – as part of the centenary Shabbat celebrations.
Starmer spoke warmly of his long friendship with Rabbi Shlomo and Rebbetzin Dr Lynndy Levin, who announced this year that they are stepping down from the helm of the shul after 40 years of service.
The prime minister also reflected on how he took inspiration from the community, which is in his parliamentary constituency of Holborn and St Pancras.
He also referenced the need to stay vigilant against antisemitic incidents and referenced the 2019 Chanukah gra ti daubing on the shul’s building. As he addressed the congregation on its centenary Shabbat, Rabbi Shlomo also praised the Starmer and his wife for their continued friendship over the years.
The Starmers stayed in shul after the service, where they were seen enjoying the kiddish, with the prime minister tucking into smoked salmon.
He was also surrounded by children wishing to engage with the country’s leader, and spent about 30 minutes answering their questions.
Confusion surrounds the future of Chelsea Synagogue, with management touting record post-Covid membership while members point to a sharp decline in Shabbat service attendance, writes Jenni Frazer.
Concerned members of the shul, which also serves Westminster and South Kensington, say it no longer holds Friday night services and often struggles to get a Shabbat minyan.
Chelsea, founded in 1913, is an affiliate of the United Synagogue rather than a full member. Its affiliate status allows it autonomy. The community owns the synagogue building and a small flat nearby, which serves as the rabbi’s living quarters.
Jewish News has seen attendance figures at Chelsea, prepared by a resident who has often been the tenth man to enable a minyan to be formed. These figures show the shul failed to form a minyan on six dates between January and July, or at any Shabbat between 20 July and 7 September. It is understood that at Rosh Hashanah only 19 men attended on the first day and 11 on the second.
Every Thursday Chelsea holds a Zoom on the week’s parsha, usually addressed by its rabbi, Yehuda Efune.
Aron Freedman, who lives 10 minutes’ walk from the site, no longer attends on Shabbat as he cannot guarantee that there will be a minyan. He told Jewish News the shul was “a wonderful building, steeped in Jewish history, but its present state is a shadow of what it could be”.
War veterans and a Holocaust survivor took part in Jewish Care’s Remembrance Sunday and Kristallnacht commemorations.
Jack Mann, 99, was a wartime radio operator and is the last surviving member of his regiment. Moishe Freeman, also 99, a leading navy signalman, laid a wreath at Jewish Care’s Betty Asher Loftus Centre.
Michael Clifton, a resident, was a senior air-craftsman during the 1950s. Sheila Golding’s father served in the trenches and brother served in the Second World War. Melvin Goldberg, who did his National Ser-
vice in the 1950s, played Last Post on trumpet.
At Jewish Care’s Sandringham campus, Leslie Bernard, who was awarded the Legion d’Honneur for his military conduct, laid a wreath during the service, with songs from The Shabbaton Choir.
Mann was part of a special forces unit that carried out missions behind enemy lines. He said: “I can’t say I’m a hero. My job was communications, and that’s what I did. I tell everyone, my children, my grandchildren, to never forget because war is terrible, I know because I was in it.”
Freedman said other local Jewish communities flourish “without the benefit of physical centres”. His reference is understood to be to Chabad services in Battersea and Belgravia. Freedman, who stood unsuccessfully to become chairman in 2021, tried to launch a rival presence later that year by hosting breakaway Shabbat services under the title SW3, featuring lavish catering and a social
element to post-Shabbat services.
Though the first event attracted 83 people, the initiative did not last, mainly, he said, for financial reasons.
Another concerned community member is the synagogue’s former treasurer, Alan Jay, who estimates that Chelsea has about 70 members.
The shul was “an opportunity that is being missed”, he said, adding: “There are people who might be interested in coming if it was a bit more dynamic.”
In June 2023, Jewish News understands, the Chief Rabbi held a meeting with Chelsea’s chairman, Nigel Gee, and others. The meeting is said to have been inconclusive.
A spokesman for Chelsea said: “Despite being one of the smaller modern Orthodox synagogues in London, we are proud to stand on our own two feet, being financially sound and democratically run.
“Rather than nitpick the numbers attending on any particular day, let’s celebrate this small, historic and unique shul which continues to punch above its weight.”
Six hundred guests helped raise £2m for Norwood, the UK’s oldest Jewish charity, at its gala dinner.
Chair of trustees Miles Webber said: “Only one of our four services receives any kind of statutory funding, and that is under the most serious pressure in decades.”
As he outlined the charity’s plans to refresh its support for “these vulnerable children and families, proudly building on our legacy of serving our community”, he added: “Having spent the past year scoping the needs of our community, working with some of the UK’s leading social care experts,
we are ripe to adapt with a new refocused strategy to best support them.”
Speakers at the dinner included Nicolas Hamilton, the first racing driver with a disability to compete in the British Touring Car Championship and half-brother of Formula 1 racing driver Lewis Hamilton. He said children and families supported by Norwood feel “at home, a part of their community”.
Norwood needs to raise £12m in voluntary donations every year and estimates that the government’s recent budget will increase its costs by up to £2m annually.
Dame Maureen Lipman was among 350 guests at Camp Simcha’s ladies’ lunch, which raised £120,000 for families with seriously ill children.
Rachely Plancey, a co-founder, revealed a “crucial and muchneeded” extension of the charity’s services to existing families beyond the age of 18, to help young adults through the transition from paediatric to adult services.
For some families, the adjustment of losing Camp Simcha’s support when their child turned 18 was overwhelming, she said. “This is why Camp Simcha [is] ensuring continuity of care to the whole family where and when it is needed.”
Dame Maureen said: “Today is about altruism and sympathy and, more than that, empathy and just kindness. I have seen that already and I have learnt more here today.”
Abigail Marin, 19, was supported from the age of six following a facial tumour diagnosis.
The charity helped her entire family throughout her childhood, she said. “Even though I was going through multiple surgeries, my whole family also had to bear the stress of it all.
“Camp Simcha found a way to give bespoke help to everyone in my family, making me feel less alone and scared of the problems I felt I caused the people around me.”
you or someone you know has been
call Chai on 0808 808 4567 or visit
performed by RABBI LIONEL ROSENFELD and CHAZAN JONNY TURGEL accompanied by STEPHEN LEVEY
On October 7th, 2023, the unimaginable struck Israel. Over 1,200 innocent lives were brutally taken, and 235 people were kidnapped by terrorists. Many remain unaccounted for. In the face of such tragedy, Yad Sarah, Israel’s leading social welfare organization, has tirelessly cared for the elderly, disabled, and displaced citizens in Israel throughout the ongoing crisis.
This December, we invite you to a special evening of reflection, solidarity, and hope. Following their unforgettable performance last year, Rabbi Chazzan Lionel Rosenfeld, Chazzan Jonny Turgel, and maestro Stephen Levey will once again grace us with their powerful music.
YOU WOULD
Date: 2ND DECEMBER 2024
Venue: NW LONDON
Tickets: £95 (includes dinner with wine and whiskey)
please follow the link - https://yadsarah.org.uk/donations/charity-event/ or get in contact with Michael Marks 020 3397 3363, michael@yadsarah.org.uk
Reg. Charity No. 294801
“I’m happy here and I can relax, knowing I will be looked after really well. I enjoy the Jewish atmosphere and everyone is jolly. I particularly like the concerts and the quizzes, I do really well in the quizzes.”
For months on the campaign trail, Donald Trump said he wanted the war in Gaza to end — and even reportedly setting a timeline for Israel to finish its campaign against Hamas in the territory by his inauguration, writes Ron Kampeas.
He also issued a warning at the Republican convention that if Hamas did not release its hostages before 20 January, it will pay “a very big price”.
But will the campaign pledge translate into real-world results? And will it deliver on the return of the hostages — a goal shared across Israelis and Jews of all political persuasions?
The answers depend, according to experts on Middle East policy, on specifics that Trump has not yet offered: on Benjamin Netanyahu, who faces pressures that extend well beyond Trump; and, to a degree, on the definitions of the words “war” and “end”.
Multiple analysts said they expected fighting to continue in some form despite Trump’s warnings.
“The war in Gaza, the intensive fighting, ended months ago. What we have now is a counter-insurgency,” said Shira Efron, senior director of policy research at the Israel Policy Forum, an organisation that seeks the establishment of a Palestinian State alongside Israel.
“Israel could say, OK, we ended the war in Gaza, but we are staying here for, I don’t know, 10 years until we can hand it over to a trusted partner,’” she said. “And this is something that Trump might be fine with.”
Mark Dubowitz, president of the Foundation for the Defence of Democracies, which favours a confrontational posture in dealing with Iran and its proxies, thought Trump understood Israel would continue to engage militarily with its enemies.
Dubowitz comments: “I don’t think the incoming Trump administration is under any delusions that ‘ending the war’ essentially means no continued Israeli operations in Gaza or in southern Lebanon or against Iran. I think what[Trump is] talking about are major ground operations in Lebanon and major ground operations in Gaza.”
Whether Trump would count the war as having ended if there are ongoing military operations in Gaza and Lebanon is unclear.
“I would say he expects them to end it by winning it, 100 percent, that’s how he always talks about ending wars,” a Republican spokeswoman who is Jewish, Elizabeth Pipko, told an Israeli broadcaster last week. Pressed to explain how a decisive win could come quickly now after
Israeli forces have fought a gruelling war in Gaza for more than a year, she blamed the Biden administration for preventing “decisive” action.
Hamas, which remains nominally in charge of Gaza despite having been decapitated by Israeli forces, has so far been unequivocal that it will not agree to any ceasefire deal that would include the release of the hostages without a full cessation of hostilities and withdrawal of all Israeli troops.
Efron noted that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have been specific in outlining how they want the war to end. That solution includes a release of the hostages and a surge of humanitarian assistance to Palestinians in Gaza. In contrast, she said, “I’m not sure that we know where Trump and his folks are going to be.”
Jeremy Ben-Ami, the president of J Street — a liberal Jewish Middle East lobby that has called for a ceasefire for months, endorsed Harris and criticised Netanyahu’s government — said he could not predict whether Trump’s election would accelerate an end to the war. Before the election, Ben-Ami said that he believed Netanyahu was positioning himself to declare victory if Trump won.
“‘Who knows?’ is the honest answer,” he said. “There is no such thing as a coherent foreign policy. There’s no coherence to anything that happens around Donald Trump.”
That has left ample room for Middle East insiders to speculate about what both Trump and Netanyahu might be thinking, and where the daylight between them might be.
“On the Netanyahu side, I think
he is hoping he has a freer hand with Trump on Gaza in general,” said David Makovsky, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a think tank that consults with both the United States and Israeli governments. He added: “He probably feels that the Trump administration will not will not put him under the same sort of scrutiny.”
But Makovsky said that if Netanyahu thought he had fully alleviated pressure from the US with Trump’s election, he could soon face a rude awakening. Trump told audiences on the campaign trail that they could expect “peace in the Middle East” if he was elected. Trump also faces pressure from the Republican Party’s isolationist flank – including vice-president-elect JD Vance – that opposes foreign entanglements and has cautioned against conflict with Iran.
“I think Trump is thinking about the Middle East breakthrough he would like, which is what the Saudis want,” he said. “But the Saudis say: ‘You can’t have a breakthrough, Abraham Accords 2.0, if Israel is in a war in Gaza.’ I don’t think Netanyahu is as certain on his relationship with Trump as some people think.”
Offir Gutelzon, an Israeli expat who founded a group, UnXeptable, that protests against Netanyahu in solidarity with Israeli antigovernment activists, said he did not believe Trump would be any more successful than Biden was in pressuring Netanyahu to end the war in Gaza.
Trump or not, Netanyahu faces pressure from his right-wing, which favours continued war until Hamas
a clash with Trump, who is popular among Israelis, wouldn’t carry the same benefits for the prime minister.
For the families of the remaining hostages – who include four Americans – the election is a jolt to a stalemate that has not returned their loved ones. They exhorted Trump to work with the Biden administration during the transition period to secure the hostages’ release. “This is an urgent, catastrophic humanitarian crisis, not a partisan issue,” they said in a statement issued by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum.
It’s unclear if that message will be heeded. In Trump’s first transition to the White House, he and his team rejected coordination with the
is crushed and which plays down the return of the hostages.
Gutelzon said: “Netanyahu needs to hold this government until the end of the budget [which must be approved by 31 December], and therefore he is unable to execute anything, unfortunately, due to his political survival needs.” He pointed to the fact that Netanyahu recently sacked Yoav Gallant as defence minister –who argued that Israel had achieved its goals in Gaza and pushed for a postwar plan – as a sign that no end to the war, or hostage deal, is in sight, with or without Trump’s pressure.
“Firing Gallant is not a good sign for the hostages,” said Gutelzon. “I honestly don’t know what Trump can do that Biden didn’t do — we hear from the hostage families, that the main block for the deal is Netanyahu and his government. And therefore it’s up to the government in Israel, not up to the president in the US.”
Netanyahu has clashed with Democratic presidents throughout his career, something that is thought to play well with his base of voters. But Helit Barel, a former director at Israel’s National Security Council, said
exiting Obama administration.
Ben-Ami sees Trump’s antagonism against the war as the only glimmer of hope following the election.
“If there is any chance that Donald Trump will be an effective messenger to convince Prime Minister Netanyahu and this radical right government that the time has come to declare victory and stop this war and bring the hostages home, that will be a positive,” Ben-Ami said. “But it doesn’t change the fact that this is an unmitigated disaster for the United States and for the cause of democracy around the world.”
Efron said Trump’s record of unpredictability could nudge all parties – including Iran, which has backed Hamas and is threatening a third direct attack on Israel right now – toward ending the conflict.
“Because he’s unpredictable he’s creating a deterrence effect,” she said. “I’m sure conversations are happening now in Ukraine and China, Taiwan and North Korea and in Iran and Israel: ‘What is he going to do?’ And we don’t know. And because of this deterrent effect, [Trump] might have leverage on the players.”
The first in a series of 10 videos aimed at educating young people about Jewish life and culture has been launched by the European Jewish Congress, writes Michelle Rosenberg.
Part of a European Union-funded project called Glad You Asked, the 90-second cartoons target young people using social media.
They are designed to raise awareness of antisemitism, and inform about Jewish identity, Shabbat and festivals, as well as the Holocaust and Jewish history. In the animation, three characters, Emma, Alex and Nathan, ask and answer questions.
The cartoons are set in European cities, Jewish homes and synagogues.
Raya Kalenova, executive vice-president of the European Jewish Congress, said: “If we want to educate people about Jews and to reduce ignorance and stereotypes which so often lie at the root of antisemitism, we need to start now in reaching out to young people in forms that are relevant to their daily lives.”
She added: “It’s a lot to pack into 90 seconds but that is what most messaging today requires. It’s also part of a
2,000-year-old Jewish tradition that began when Hillel was challenged to explain Judaism to an interlocutor standing on one leg.”
90-second clip. Kalenova said: “These videos challenge young people about their conceptions about Jews and Judaism in their own language but they also challenge us as Jewish organisations.
“We too need to adapt and innovate our own messaging to meet an audience which is not where we would necessarily expect it to be.”
The first cartoon focuses on the diversity of the Jewish people, highlighting the rich tapestry of cultures, traditions, and backgrounds that make up the Jewish community in Europe and across the world. It will be followed by nine episodes, each comprising a
She adds that “it’s not one-way tra c” and that the organisation wants to encourage people to interact with the cartoons. “We all seek answers and we believe this is an ideal way to get over these important messages to a new generation of European citizens.”
Immanuel College students have been commended for their resilience following an anti-Israel incident during a visit to Auschwitz.
A Year 12 group from the Bushey school encountered chants of “free, free Palestine” from Swedish students while touring the memorial site.
According to trip leader and deputy head teacher Rabbi Golker, the remarks targeted students who were displaying Israeli symbols.
The incident involved a small number of Swedish students making comments such as “Why are you wearing those disgusting flags?”
Security o cers intervened, issuing a verbal warning to the group and Swedish teachers later apologised.
Golker praised the maturity of the Immanuel College students, stating that they handled the situation with pride and resilience, choosing not to engage.
He also noted that the incident reinforced the educational value of the trip, highlighting the ongoing need to confront antisemitism.
“The students processed the antisemitic views they encountered, leaving with a stronger belief in the power of education,” he said.
The National Library of Israel has unveiled a set of photographs of the Jewish paratrooper Hannah Senesh (Szenes) to mark the 80th anniversary of her execution.
In 1944, Senesh was deployed by the British into occupied Europe in a last-ditch e ort to rescue Hungarian Jews from death camps. After her capture and death, her story has become a part of Jewish, Israeli and Zionist culture.
In 2020, the National Library, in Jerusalem, was gifted her archive and legacy by Ori and Mirit Eisen from Arizona in the United States; since then, archivists have been going through the collection, which includes manuscripts, notebooks, photos, documents and personal items, digitising and making it publicly available.
Matan Barzilai, the library’s head of archives and special collections, notes that, in addition to being a paratrooper and gifted poet, Senesh was also a talented photographer..
In a letter to her mother while at the Nahalal Agricultural School for Girls in the Jezreel Valley, she wrote: “Everyone wants me to photograph them, as if they’ve appointed me the court photographer.” And she wrote in her diary: “Now I will go arrange my photographs and reproductions. This activity gives me great pleasure.”
Senesh wrote short descriptions on the back of some photos; some were attached to letters sent to her family in Hungary, others preserved neatly in albums with typewritten captions.
Born in Budapest in 1921, at a young age, Senesh received an Agfa camera, which she took everywhere she went. She photographed her home in Budapest, family holidays, and after, making aliya in 1939, her life in pre-state Israel.
After studying at the Nahalal school for two years, she joined Kibbutz Sdot Yam, where she worked while writing poetry and a play about life on the kibbutz. In 1943, she enlisted in the British army and volunteered to join a paratrooper unit. The mission’s goals were to help Allied pilots who had fallen behind enemy lines flee to safety, and to work with partisan forces to rescue Jewish communities under Nazi occupation.
In March 1944, Senesh and three fellow paratroopers parachuted into Slovenia. On 9 June she was caught by the Hungarian police and imprisoned. Despite months of interrogation and torture, she refused to cooperate with her captors. She was charged with spying and treason and sentenced to death. She was executed on 7 November, 1944, aged 23.
In 1945, at Kibbutz Sdot Yam, a suitcase was found containing Senesh’s letters, diaries and photo. Later, her poetry also came to light.
In 1950, Senesh was re-interred in the national military cemetery on Mt Herzl in Jerusalem.
Gaza’s most prominent Islamic scholar this week issued a fatwa condemning Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack on Israel.
Prof Dr Salman al-Dayah, former dean of the Faculty of Sharia and Law at the Islamic University of Gaza, accused the terror group of “violating Islamic principles governing jihad”.
His fatwa – a non-binding Islamic legal ruling – was published in a six-page document.
It also accuses Hamas of a failure in “keeping fighters away from the homes of defenceless [Palestinian] civilians and their shelters, and providing security and safety as much as possible in the various aspects of life… security, economic, health, and education, and saving enough supplies for them.” Jihad means “struggle” in Arabic and
can be a personal struggle for spiritual improvement in Islam or hostile struggle against unbelievers.
The professor is an influential figure amongst the citizens of Gaza and his fatwa points to Quranic verses setting strict conditions for the conduct of jihad.
This includes avoiding actions that provoke an excessive and disproportionate response by an opponent.
Dr Dayah adds: “If the pillars, causes, or conditions of jihad are not met, it must be avoided in order to avoid destroying people’s lives.
“This is something that is easy to guess for our country’s politicians, so the attack must have been avoided.”
US president-elect Donald Trump has named as Middle East envoy Steve Witko , a realtor and golf buddy who was present at a recent foiled assassination of Trump.
“Steve is a highly respected leader in business and philanthropy, who has made every
project and community he has been involved with stronger and more prosperous,” Trump said this week.
“Steve will be an unrelenting voice for peace, and make us all proud.”
Witko , who is Jewish and who has been friends with
Trump since the 1980s when he bought Trump a sandwich after they worked on a real estate transaction, has no Middle East diplomatic experience. In that sense, he is similar to his counterpart from Trump’s first term, Jason Greenblatt, the special rep-
resentative for international negotiations, who was a lawyer for Trump before becoming his envoy, and served in the role until 2019.
Witko has bought several New York City landmarks, including the Woolworth Building.
Benjamin Netanyahu has appointed Yechiel Leiter, an AmericanIsraeli former settler leader whose son was killed fighting in Gaza, as the next Israeli ambassador to the United States.
The prime minister announced the appointment last week, saying Leiter is “a highly capable diplomat, an eloquent speaker and possesses a deep understanding of American culture and politics”.
His appointment signals that Netanyahu expects the Trump administration to take a friendlier approach to Israeli West Bank settlements than President Biden.
Trump unveiled a peace plan in the final year of his first term that would have left Israel in control of vast swaths of the West Bank, and his ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, was also a supporter of settlements. Friedman has remained close to Trump.
Leiter was born in Pennsylvania and moved to Israel in 1978, according to Hebrew media reports. Decades ago, he was among the leaders of the Israeli settlement in the West Bank flashpoint city of Hebron, and later served in the Yesha Council, an umbrella body for the settlements, or communities built on land mostly controlled by but not annexed by Israel. He currently lives in the West Bank and has long been involved in the settlement enterprise and Netanyahu’s Likud party.
He was Netanyahu’s chief of sta in 2004, when Netanyahu was finance minister.
Leiter has been a liated with right-wing groups including the Shiloh Policy Forum. He has a doctorate from the University of Haifa. His son, Maj Moshe Yedidya Leiter, was killed in combat in Gaza in November 2023.
The terrorist attacks of 7 October last year changed our world in so many ways. One has undoubtedly been interfaith relations.
Gone are supposedly dreamy, flu y, samosa and bagel eating days. Just this week, at an interfaith event, a fellow panellist launched into the narrative of “genocide” in Gaza followed by an explanation of the international Zionist conspiracy.
Both the beliefs held by this speaker and the language he adopted was enough to make even me wonder what future we have in the interfaith space. But while I do sometimes despair, giving up the space is not an option.
Knowing our neighbours, building connections, being able to hear other perspectives and living side by side in safety and harmony is the only way to build the social cohesion that we all crave and need in these troubled times.
The alternative, pulling up the drawbridge and locking the gate, may feel safe
but it deprives our children of a future and, importantly, precludes us from making the human connections which we know, from personal experience and from research, make us less excluded.
It’s not easy to reach out to our neighbours especially if they look or sound di erent from us. We need to educate children about each other better and ensure they meet. Our Jewish students (many from Jewish schools) need support, information and encouragement to connect with young people from backgrounds which seem very di erent from their own. Even at work, we steer towards the familiar.
All of this is made massively worse following 7 October and the ongoing, tragic war between Israel and Hamas. Narratives have hardened, divisions have deepened and tensions have tightened on our streets, in schools, on campus and in businesses.
Both anti-Jewish and anti-Muslim hatred have rocketed as British Jews and Muslims are blamed for the conflict making connections feeling harder than ever. In this, I must admit, rather unpromising climate, we approach
Mitzvah Day 2024 – a Jewish-led day when we specifically try to put division aside and come together to good deeds In our local communities and strengthen our society. So with this in mind, my top tips for reaching out and for building bridges during Mitzvah Day – on Sunday 24 November – and well beyond.
• Focus on the positives. Our faith communities, individually and collectively bring texture, vitality, culture and a willingness to give back and contribute – all characteristics we can appreciate and celebrate.
• Engage the women who are an untapped resource in bridge building. Often underseen and under heard, particularly in all faith
communities, women have a unique ability to cross divides and their role in peace building is well documented.
• Focus on what we have in common. Right now it may be grief, anger, frustration and fear. For many people that is our reality and it is a place to connect. Within these emotions we may share some hope even around the very act of coming together.
• Do, rather than talk. Cleaning a brook, filling the shelves of a foodbank or singing to seniors – on Mitzvah Day – focuses the mind and body on the shared task. The politics can gladly be shelved until relationships are strong and the tensions lowered. Starting o with ‘dialogue’ rarely gets past the first bagel.
• Watch the language – prejudice, blame and othering serve no purpose.
Interfaith isn’t a hobby, it’s a way of life, an essential tool for our tomorrow, and crucially, a powerful weapon against antisemitism. Despite the odd out of place panellist, it is also a joy and for me, an endless source of hope, friendship, deep filled bagels and spicy samosas.
DANIEL SUGARMAN DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS, BOARD OF DEPUTIES
It’s about a 20-minute drive in Amsterdam from 263 Prinsengracht to the Johan Cruy Stadium. The former is where, for two years in the 1940s, a Jewish family hid from those intent on running them down. The latter is where, last week, Jewish people fled from those trying to hunt them.
Perhaps you believe that the above paragraph is an exaggeration, or hysterical, or hyperbolic. If so, please forgive me. You see, over the last few months I have frequently seen pictures of Anne Frank with a ke yeh around her neck, or wearing Palestinian colours. Perhaps you can understand why, given Jewish people were being hunted on the streets of Amsterdam last week, a Jew might feel justified in saying her name, given that certain non-Jews now appear to feel no hesitation about doing so.
The stadium was hosting a Europa League
match between Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv.
Reports indicate that groups of people were waiting for the Maccabi fans to exit the stadium after the game, which is when the hunting began. I saw many Jewish people describe this as a pogrom, and honestly, who can blame them? Days later it was the anniversary of Kristallnacht, after all.
It is at this point that I should tell you that I have seen footage of some people in Amsterdam, presumably Maccabi Tel Aviv fans, tearing down a Palestinian flag. I have seen other footage of Maccabi Ultras singing “To f*** the Arabs; Ole Ole Ole Ole Ole; Let the IDF win – To f*** the Arabs.”
That’s disgusting, racist behaviour. However, many people seem to think that it is justification for what we then saw: people being hunted down and beaten senseless, and being physically harassed for their passports to ‘prove’ that they do not come from the Jewish State. There is video footage of small children encouraged to kick bodies that are lying facedown, and of a man screaming “I’m not Jewish” as he is set upon by multiple assailants.
In the past 13 months, Jewish communi-
ties around the world have had to endure regular marches through the cities in which they live. Some of the remarks made by attendees at these marches have been hideous; supporting the massacre of the men, women and children on 7 October. We have seen the tearing down of tens of thousands of posters of those taken hostage by Hamas.
I have not seen, nor would I ever wish to see, the people engaging in such behaviour targeted by furious Jewish people and physically beaten unconscious. I do not think this would happen and I would never wish it to happen; I do wonder, however, whether those now attempting to justify the scenes in Amsterdam would be quite as sanguine if it did.
You might wonder where the Dutch police were in all this. That’s an excellent question.
Last month the Jerusalem Post reported that Dutch police were refusing to guard Jewish sites becausae of “moral dilemmas”.
Presumably the Dutch police experienced those same “moral dilemmas” in the 1940s, when the German occupation forces rounded up more than 100,000 Jews and sent them to the gas chambers.
Again, forgive me for the bitterness which I know is coming across here. We are, after all, talking about Amsterdam, the place where, when the few Jews who had survived the Holocaust returned, found that the city authorities expected them to pay back taxes on the properties which had been seized from them when they were deported to the death camps.
I don’t know where this is going for Jewish people. But I do know that in the past 13 months, taboos have been continually broken. For 78 years it was almost unthinkable in the western world for synagogues to be surrounded by mobs, or for the mass murder of Jews to be openly celebrated. That is no longer true.
Here in the UK, the organisation I work for, the Board of Deputies, will be speaking to police and government to ensure that there will be no similar behaviour here. We will also be engaging with the Dutch Embassy to ensure that it understands the gravity of what has occurred.
This is undoubtedly a dark period for us all.
The Board of Deputies, together with other Jewish organisations in this country, will do all we can to prevent it becoming darker still.
JEREMY HAVARDI
JOURNALIST & HISTORIAN
Last week, dozens of Maccabi Tel Aviv fans came under sustained assault from Arab and Muslim rioters in Amsterdam. Horrifying videos emerged showing Israelis being hounded in the streets, kicked on the ground and attacked with weapons. One fan su ered injuries after being hit by a car and another fan, who was forced into a canal, was only allowed out after shouting “free Palestine”.
At least 10 Israelis were hospitalised after the ambush and though others were reportedly missing, all are now accounted for. In homage to the Hamas murderers on 7 October, the mobs filmed this vile behaviour so they could showcase their hatred and bigotry.
The onslaught appeared organised rather than spontaneous, according to eyewitness accounts, and the Israeli authorities reportedly warned their Dutch counterparts that an incident like this was coming. In other
words, these sickening assaults had all the hallmarks of premeditation. This gives the lie to the idea that this was merely a “clash” between hot-headed fans. While there are videos of Israeli fans chanting anti-Arab slurs prior to the match, there is no evidence that it contributed to the later violence.
The most deeply disturbing accounts speak of Israelis feeling abandoned by the Dutch authorities while the pogrom unfolded.
Likud MK and journalist Boaz Bismuth wrote in a post that he was receiving calls and messages from people in Amsterdam who said that the Dutch authorities were “not helping them at all” and were “not taking action to control the situation”. As a result, Jews were “forced to barricade themselves and hide” as the violence unfolded. The police later made dozens of arrests and the government has promised to hold perpetrators to account.
Yet in view of a recent statement by two individuals from the Netherlands’ Jewish Police Network that there were colleagues who “no longer wanted to protect Jewish targets or events” because of “moral dilemmas”, the Dutch authorities must
urgently restate their commitment to protecting all such sites, as well as all Jews, resident or visiting, without fear or favour.
This is all the more urgent amid the surge in antisemitic incidents across the country. According to the Dutch Centre for Information and Documentation on Israel, there was an 800 percent spike in antisemitic incidents in the month after 7 October, including attacks on schools, swastikas sprayed on windows, and many instances of online abuse.
The Netherlands’ Chief Rabbi has said that “it is now normal for Jews to be screamed at on the street” and has admitted to not using public transportation due to the fear of being targeted. In August of this year, the Anne
Frank statue in Merwedeplein Square was defaced with the words ‘Free Gaza’, demonstrating that no Jewish symbol is too sacred to be spared. That the Amsterdam attack could take place days before the o cial commemoration of Kristallnacht is both telling and sickening in equal measure.
As to last week’s events, it is now profoundly clear what ‘globalising the intifada’ actually means. It is no mere academic exercise or soundbite designed to stir popular protest about Gaza. Instead, it is a rallying cry for extreme violence against Israelis, and a continuation of the 7 October savagery.
Such assaults are designed to sow fear and anxiety within Jewish communities en route to driving them out altogether. The deep concern now is that such tactics are replicated in other European cities where there is a strong Israeli presence.
The attacks on Israelis in Amsterdam must serve as a wake-up call to authorities across Europe. Unless they clamp down hard on expressions of hate from the antiIsrael mobs, more people will come under attack and lives may even be lost.
NORTH LONDON
REFORM SYNAGOGUE
Kim Leadbetter’s private member’s bill is aimed at tackling one of the most troubling questions we face today. Advances in medicine and science can prolong life but cannot remove all su ering. We know more about the genetic origins of many illnesses, some of which have no cure. We expect answers. Doctors may, with a strong degree of accuracy, be able to predict how long we have left, but does that knowledge help us in the face of the dying and their su ering?
Of course not. There are no answers, when you are faced with the anger of someone you love, a partner or your parent, or perhaps a child. The justified rage against the sheer random unfairness of pain and an unwanted end of life.
It is no coincidence that demands for a change to the law are driven by individuals with direct, desperate and personal experience; arguments in support of the proposed
legislation are driven by empathy. These responses are natural, because how else should one respond to ultimate human pain? No one could ever wish to see such su ering. I cannot imagine how I might react in the face of my own terminal illness.
Yet, I believe that empathy must have its limits, and that placing limits on the human capacity for self-destruction and harm is the role of the larger structures that define our common values, as well as how society behaves. This includes parliament, the medical and nursing professions, and religious as well as secular communities.
I describe this focus on individual experience as fatal empathy. We must not allow our natural care in the face of su ering to open the gates to the inevitable unintended consequences for others: those who are naturally vulnerable, who occupy less powerful positions, who do not have privileged access to politicians.
This includes, of course, people who face a lifetime of discrimination and struggle, people with long-term disabilities. And let’s not forget the natural vulnerability that we are unlikely to escape as we become old, less resilient, and living in a world that is disinclined to value our presence or our inherent worth.
JEWISH TEACHINGS AROUND SUICIDE ARE ALREADY INCREDIBLY
Jewish teachings around suicide and end of life are in fact already incredibly progressive. The very first rabbinic rulings concerning suspected suicide were written more than 1200 years ago in a post Talmudic text called Semachot
Its authors define a new category, enabling us to assume that anyone who has taken their own life, did so without full intention or awareness. The rabbis create this distinction in order to enable the deceased’s relatives to fulfil all of the duties of mourning (such as sitting shiva and reciting kaddish). These duties are suspended if someone is proven (according to a very strict set of measures) to have ended their life with full capacity and intent. Over the next 700 or more years, Jewish thinkers strive to prove
that one cannot understand the mind of another human being, and that wherever one takes one’s own life, there must have been an element of fear, distress, ignorance or persecution that would account for the act.
My view is that this compassionate approach forms the foundation of the principle that, from a Jewish perspective, one cannot and should not enable any person to end their life with medical assistance, following their written declaration of full mental capacity and settled intention, as the proposed legislation states.
We are living in complicated times; the individual and their rights must be balanced against the potential impact on everybody else. This requires debate and serious thinking, together with the knowledge that sometimes compassion for the many must come before fatal empathy for the individual. A stronger ‘no’ is kinder than a well-meaning ‘yes’.
• Shulamit Ambalu is rabbi of Sha’arei Tsedek North London Reform synagogue. She was part of the Assembly of Rabbis Working Group on Assisted Dying. Her analysis of the Jewish legal sources on the subject, Thinking the Unthinkable, is published in Assisted Dying – Rabbinic Responses, edited by J Romain 2014
DANIEL CARMEL-BROWN CHIEF EXECUTIVE, JEWISH CARE
One of the great benefits of Jewish Care’s membership of the Jewish Leadership Council is the connection we make with communities across the UK. I tend to spend more time in the summer visiting Jewish Care resources and communities away from London. In August, the JLC’s Yorkshire & East Coast Regional Manager Leo Brosh, organised a day visit to Leeds which was an eye-opening experience that underscored the strength and resilience of the Jewish community in this vibrant city. My time spent at local organisations reaffirmed our shared mission of care, support, and integration within our communities. One of the highlights of my visit was touring the MAZCC, a community hub that bridges the gap between generations. The MAZCC is more than just a centre; it is a thriving space where the old and young come together,
fostering inter-generational relationships that enrich the community. The atmosphere was filled with energy, laughter, and a genuine sense of belonging, reflecting the community’s commitment to inclusivity.
I was particularly impressed by Leeds Jewish Housing Association’s supported living options, a testament to the foresight of those who invested in large plots of land to create a sustainable living environment for the community. The sheltered schemes linked to the community centre provide essential services, and make it easier for tenants to engage with one another. Furthermore, plans for the building of family homes show a forward-thinking approach to community development.
Another feature of the Leeds community is the Henry Cohen Campus, which o ers education and care from early childhood through adulthood. The integration of welfare and services with youth support exemplifies a holistic approach to community well-being. The innovation and commitment of those working in these services were inspiring, showcasing a dedication to Jewish values
I LOOK FORWARD TO STRENGTHENING OUR TIES WITH LOCAL ORGANISATIONS
and pride. It was especially interesting to see the continued success of the Zone, the city’s place for young people, something even most communities across London have lost. As a youth and community worker, I spent my formative years in such places and that Leeds has managed to retain such a provision is testament to the great leadership of the community. During my discussions, it became clear that the challenges faced by my counterparts in Leeds mirror those of Jewish Care. This similarity opens the door to collaborative problemsolving. Tackling issues such as planning for care can benefit from a united front, ensuring that we leverage our collective strengths to support the wider community e ectively.
I also witnessed the tangible benefits of collaboration during my visit. The partnership between the sta of Jewish Care and LJWB, particularly those who took part in the Dangoor Senior Leadership Programme, is fostering a new generation of middle leaders. These individuals are stepping into greater responsibilities and creating connections that will elevate both organisations to new heights. Leeds is a city rich with opportunities. Ranking second only to London in financial services in the UK, it has a thriving cultural scene, diverse retail options and excellent transport links, including fast trains to London. The Jewish community in Leeds is vibrant, with many young families settling here due to a ordability of housing, access to schools and synagogues, and the overall safety of the neighbourhoods. The community’s commitment to care, innovation and collaboration is inspiring. I look forward to strengthening our ties with local organisations and continuing to address the needs of the Jewish community together. The future is bright for Leeds and other Jewish communities would do well to model their futures on Leeds.
ENJOY THE UNIQUENESS. EMBRACE THE HOLINESS.
Please reach out to schedule an appointment Email: moshe@irolam.com | Mobile: +44 741 8353611
Our European representative will be in London from the 19th till the 29th of November, and then in Manchester from the 2nd till the 5th of December
Escape to the shores of Brighton & Hove this winter for a unique seaside getaway.
Just moments from the beach and a quick trip from London, our holiday homes offer a cosy retreat. Secure parking, an on-site gym, and daily synagogue services are just steps away. Plus, enjoy delicious meals at our Kosher restaurant & deli throughout Chanukah and New Year’s.
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Choose cosy apartments, spacious houses, or penthouses. Go to bnjc.co.uk/stay or scan here for more information
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Waddesdon Manor and Strawberry Hill House are among Jewish homes showcased in a stunning book and exhibition, writes Michelle Rosenberg
An extraordinary group of country houses owned, built or renovated by Jews features in a photography exhibition on display at two of them until spring next year.
The exhbition of more than 20 works by the renowned photographer Hélène Binet features nine houses, two mausoleums and a synagogue, including Waddesdon Manor in Buckinghamshire and the gothic castle Strawberry Hill House in Twickenham, which are hosting the exhibit.
It also includes images of Villa Kérylos on the Côte d’Azur and Villa Tugendhat in the Czech city of Brno and Villa Montesca in Perugia.
The exhbition was inspired by the new book Jewish Country Houses, which sheds light on an overlooked category of country houses owned, renovated and at times built by Jews and individuals of Jewish descent.
Waddesdon Manor was built at the end of the 19th century by Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild (1839-1898) in the style of a French 16th-century château. Baron Ferdinand was an inspired collector, and the house was designed to showcase his exceptional collection of English portraits and Dutch 17th-century paintings, French 18th-century furniture, Sèvres porcelain and other decorative arts.
Strawberry Hill was created by the
writer Horace Walpole (1717-1797) and was later owned by Frances, Countess Waldegrave (1821-1879), whose father John Braham was an internationally famous Jewish opera singer; and Herbert Stern, 1st Baron Michelham (1851-1919), who belonged to a European Jewish dynasty of bankers.
A spokesperson for the exhibition describes country houses as “powerful symbols of national identity, evoking the glamorous world of the landowning aristocracy. Jewish country houses tell a more complex story of prejudice and integration, difference and connection”.
With many of the houses having had spectacular art collections and gardens and some set as stages for lavish entertaining, the spokesperson added: “A few are now museums of international importance; many more are hidden treasures: all were beloved homes that bear witness to the remarkable achievements of newly emancipated Jews across Europe - and to a dream of belonging that mostly came to a brutal end with the Holocaust.”
Binet says: “Photography can do something that architecture cannot: it can be displaced; it can be brought together on a wall or in a book, creating a dialogue that is imaginary and personal. These photographs explore the meeting point between the early dream for the house,
and the literal vision of that house shaped by inhabiting. Through photography, I work to combine these two visions and to communicate this to an audience.”
Waddesdon curator and Jewish Country Houses co-editor Juliet Carey says: “Binet recaptures something of a world now distant from our own and teases out the identity and material nature of each place in searching and beautiful ways.”
Strawberry Hill curator Silvia Davoli says: “Hélène Binet’s photographs are revealing; her refined gaze and unusual perspectives transport us back in time to when these houses were places of life and memory.”
Davoli explains that Jewish people being able to purchase land and build country houses, not only in the UK but across Europe “was a highly symbolic moment when a people whose lives had been marked by restrictions and constant movement could finally put down roots and participate in a country’s political life. In the UK particularly, country houses hold greater political and art-historical significance than in other European nations.”
She adds that many houses that were owned, renovated or built by Jewish families “have historically avoided using the word ‘Jewish’ or highlighting any connections to their Jewish heritage, particularly those open to the public.
A look
Bob Dylan Modi Live
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“Calling Strawberry Hill a ‘Jewish country house’ is deliberately provocative – Strawberry Hill obviously isn’t strictly a Jewish country house, but the Jewish story within its multilayered history makes it, among many other things, a Jewish country house too.”
She says that her favourite image from the exhibition is of the cabinet at Strawberry Hill with its stars on the ceiling. “This little closet, not visible to the public, shows how Lady Waldegrave associated the medieval period with blue vaults decorated with golden stars - a visual concept that became popular after the 18th century and into the 19th century. One wonders whether Walpole would have approved of this interpretation – perhaps he might have! More generally, what I love about Helene’s photography is her ability to capture that detail, that fragment which, like a Proustian madeleine,
takes us back to when these people lived in, used and loved these
takes us back to when these people lived in, used and loved these houses.
deeply admire is the floor
Kerylos in the south of France, one of the most
“Another image I deeply admire is the mosaic floor at Villa Kerylos in the south of France, one of the most beautiful houses I’ve ever visited. It’s a vision that has become reality. The Reinach brothers were committed French Republicans and great scholars. I’ve always been fascinated by their story and how their destiny and identity became so symbiotically intertwined with that of the French Republic.”
The exhibition is at Strawberry Hill until 8 January, and then at Waddesdon Manor
Jewish Country Houses is by Juliet Carey, senior curator at Waddesdon Manor, and Abigail Green, professor of modern European history at Brasenose College, Oxford with photography by Hèlene
Bob Dylan, forever the voice of protest, returned to the Royal Albert Hall this week. Superfan Darren Richman wonders whether this will be the singer’s last hurrah
The first time I saw Bob Dylan live I had an outof-body experience. I was high up in the rafters of the Royal Albert Hall watching a croaky old man caterwaul his way through Frank Sinatra songs with stunning inaccuracy.
In the front row, I could see a woman genuinely averting her gaze as though in the presence of her lord and saviour. It occurred to me in that moment that were aliens to come down and be told that the performer was generally regarded as
the most important pop musician of the last century they’d laugh in our faces. At the interval I received a text message from a friend seated elsewhere in the venue explaining that he’d seen Dylan 23 times and this was by far the best he’d ever been. The aliens would have a field day but if they just allowed me enough time to make them a compilation… Dylan returned to the Albert Hall this month, older and croakier. He did, as ever, sing songs you know and songs you don’t as well as songs you know in ways you don’t. He has reached his final form as a kind of Old Testament prophet with a voice that, at this point, feels like a direct challenge to the impressionists. He has retained an other-worldly aura despite steadfastly refusing to die; or, at the very least, stop. His last album, released when he was in his late seventies, is one of his best. The tour of the same name, Rough and Rowdy Ways, came to London in 2022 and was a triumph. Dylan and his
fastly refusing to best.
backing band gave the whole thing the air of a smoke-filled bar in an old film noir and it was actually good, not just good by the standards of a Dylan show.
At that Palladium show two years ago we were speculating as to whether this would be the final Dylan concert in London but my friend felt if anyone was too obstinate to die then it was our Bob. For context, he is one of just five people on the cover of Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band still around and has lived long enough to see his story get the lavish Hollywood biopic treatment. A Complete Unknown, starring Timothée Chalamet, will be released in December and it is worth noting that the film’s star was born just two years before the release of Time Out of Mind, Dylan’s 30th studio album and one concerned primarily with death’s proximity.
the Heart, a seasonal collection of Christian hymns and carols. Dylan is enduringly fascinating because he refuses to play the game and thus retains the kind of mystique we associate with those musical icons who die young. He is equally happy releasing a 17-minute song about the JFK assassination as he is
subjects as banal as bumping into ice hockey players and good places to eat in New Orleans. And, after a lifetime of conditioning, we dissect every utterance as though it might contain a clue as to where the genius comes from or what is contained at the heart of Bob Dylan. One suspects he finds all this very funny.
Perhaps the man who has spent his entire life confounding expectations will simply refuse to die. At the conclusion of that last London run, his exaggerated bows were interpreted as a final farewell to a city central to the Dylan mythos. He’s back a couple of years later and perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised. This is a man who wrote an autobiography that left readers knowing less about its protagonist than they did before they started. A man who exhibits paintings he claims depict significant locations from his youth, only for it to transpire that most of them are reproductions of stills lifted from old Hollywood films. A man born Robert Zimmerman, who nonetheless released Christmas in
telling mother-in-law jokes during his glorious stint as a DJ hosting his very own Theme Time Radio Hour. He doesn’t seem concerned with calculated moves or what his legacy might be and simply follows his instincts. Sometimes they lead to Highway 61 and at other times we end up with Masked and Anonymous, a mess of a movie written by and starring Dylan that, improbably, shares a director with Borat. In recent months, with Elon Musk’s X seemingly in its death throes and users abandoning the platform in their droves, perhaps the greatest songwriter in the history of popular music has suddenly decided to tweet about
There’s a rule in improvisation that you don’t think twice. Not only has the expression proved useful as a song title for Dylan but it also seems to sum up his world view. There are albums where the photographs on the cover seem to have been the first ones taken, the kind of holiday snaps you would delete from your phone, and yet this cultural behemoth seems as unfussed as he did when he went electric. His standard response to questions about word choices in his lyrics is to say: “It rhymed.” Or to put it another way, he seems content to leave the analysis to the rest of us.
In a 1965 press conference, Dylan said: “I think of myself more as a song and dance man.” It is always hard to determine exactly how ironic Dylan is being but he does genuinely seem to see himself in a lineage with Sinatra and Fred Astaire. It stands to reason that, at some point, the Never Ending Tour, like the film series The NeverEnding Story, will have to come to an end. But because of that cornucopia of remarkable songs, he has already taken his place with Fred and Frank in the ranks of the immortals.
• Bob Dylan’s final London performance is tonight at the Royal
Bringer of moshiach energy deals with texters, explains that Christians can stop being Christian but Jews... and ends the evening in song By
Debbie Collins
The obvious question bound to divide opinion among an auditorium of Jews at The London Palladium for a 7pm show by Modi, an American Jew, the night after the US elections, was: “Should we eat before or after the show?”
Modi’s sell-out show Pause For Laughter delivered the expected levels of his “moshiach energy” catchphrase, kicking off with the most beshert of coincidences, some poor goy in the front row called Rafa. All eyes were on him for much of the show, with asides to explain how Christians can ‘stop’ being Christian, but a Jew can’t just stop being Jewish. Plus Modi’s devastatingly accurate definition of antisemitism: “hating Jews more than you’re allowed”.
There was a mix of ages in the audience, Modi’s shows having grown in popularity with the younger generation glued to his regular TikToks and his weekly podcast breaking down important decisions such as “whether to eat the jar of opened peanut butter left by the previous guest in your house rental”.
Israeli-born Modi (his family emigrated to the United States when he was seven) mentioned Trump’s win and an audience member asked what he thought. “What did I think about Trump winning? I think I’m glad you bought tickets. And I think you should buy again in February.”
Sometimes Modi just has to give a ‘look’ and the room erupts with laughter and where he excels is with calling out members of the audience – woe betide anyone caught texting during the show.
He spoke about the ‘yentas’ on ‘missions’ to Israel since 7 October, jesting that it sounds as if they are flying F16s over targets. This got an uproarious response although the same shtick on TikTok generated comments about it being distasteful.
Before coming to London, Modi said: “With everything going on in the world right now – especially given what my predominately Jewish fanbase is experiencing – I feel so lucky to share some joy and humour with the London community.”
As a gay man married to a Catholic (his husband Leo produces the show), Modi is expertly able to weave societal issues into his shtick, which includes anecdotes about his elderly parents, his own experience of growing older and the associated medical issues.
The rumours about the show’s closing tradition are true – a standing ovation for the Hatikvah led by Modi, known for his cantorial skills, followed by an energetic encore of Am Yisrael Chai. Many a tear was shed.
Most of the material is new although his army of followers on social media may have heard one or two gags before. It matters not. Seeing Modi live is an entirely uplifting experience – the medicine we all need right now – and people were belly laughing throughout, by their tchitshkes, as he puts it.
Tickets are selling fast for his return to the Palladium, on 27 February 2025, but if you need a Modi fix before that, check out his Know your Audience at ModiLive.com or on YouTube.
For the record, I ate after.
By Candice Krieger candicekrieger@googlemail.com
e’ve all been there: queuing up in store to return a faulty or unwanted item only to be told that you can’t as you have lost the receipt. This is exactly what happened to Tash Grossman and it became the lightbulb moment for her award-winning retail tech startup, Slip.
The self-confessed shopaholic was on a date when she popped into Zara to exchange her pair of damaged trousers but, after a half-hour wait, the assistant told her that she was unable to because she did not have the receipt.
Fortunately for Grossman, her date was not put o – he is now her husband (the couple got married in July) and the idea for Slip was born.
Slip is a mobile app that is revolutionising the retail experience for both consumers and
retailers. Consumers can use the app to store their receipts all in one place, and shops can o er the customers a digital receipt without having to ask for, and type in, an email address.
But Slip isn’t just about “ditching paper for digital”, says Tash, 27. It provides retailers with valuable insights into the consumer’s shopping habits and preferences, in turn allowing them to provide targeted marketing and personalised rewards.
A former management consultant at KPMG, Tash tells Jewish News: “I became fixated on this problem of paper receipts and there being a better way, so I decided to brainstorm. I wrote down ‘receipt app for shopping’ on a whiteboard.”
Tash, who was working at the leading digital and business transformation consultancy Gate One at the time, spoke to some retailers in her network and “quickly realised that the problem wasn’t just about lost receipts but also about working out a way for retailers to gain information about consumers”, and so she built an omnichannel proposition around that.
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Leaving Gate One in 2021, Tash spent 18 months building the business, which she launched in April 2023 together with CTO Eddy Herman, 29. The business is chaired by Brian Kalms, the retail and technology expert with more than 30 years of experience in the industry.
Earlier this year, Slip raised £2.5m in seed funding, adding to the pre-seed £750,000 round it secured in 2022.
It is not alone in seeing the potential. Slip has partnered with big retailers including JD Sports, which has rolled out the technology in 400 of its stores, as well as Beyond Retro, which witnessed a 226 percent increase in newsletter sign-ups in a month as a result.
The round was led by Adjuvo and joined by Haatch Ventures, Unbundled VC, the Side by Side Partnership, and a range of angels including ASOS’ executive vice-president of customer and marketing Dan Elton, and former CIO at Frasers and former CTO at John Lewis Julian Burnett.
Tash says: “I think retailers are really buying into that post-purchase experience and being able to access data about the consumer.”
She was recognised this year as one of the Top 10 Disruptors and Innovators in Retail by the Retail Technology Show and Retail Insider.
UK retail has faced a challenging 12 months. The high street has seen the collapse of a number of well-known brands due to rising costs and shoppers spending less. Yet while physical retail is su ering, the sector in general is facing a technological renaissance, with a variety of AI and machine-learning
innovations redefining consumer and brand experiences. From self-checkouts and mobile and voice ordering, to augmented reality trybefore-you-buy solutions and digital receipts, the value of automated retail is expected to reach $33bn by 2030, according to Statista and estimates provided by Next Move Strategy Consulting.
Tash says retailers in the UK risk falling behind when comes to tech and digitisation as they have so many other challenges to contend with such as Brexit, regulation and rising business rates.
“It’s definitely an interesting time to be selling into retail,” she addes. “Almost no customer shops exclusively instore or online – it’s an omnichannel approach and that is where the future lies. We at Slip want to find out the reasoning behind consumer decisions.” slipreceipts.com
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In our thought-provoking series, rabbis, rebbetzins and educators relate the week’s parsha to the way we live today
BY RABBI JEFF BERGER GRADUATE, THE JUDITH LADY MONTEFIORE COLLEGE SEMICHA PROGRAMME
We must check by whom we are being influenced
Parshat Vayeira opens with a 99-year-old man recuperating from surgery rushing to host three visitors – who turned out to be Divine beings, bearing some good and some not-so-good tidings. The good news for Abraham was that he would again father a son, this time with his wife Sarah. The not-so-good-news was that God was planning to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah and the other cities of the Dead Sea plain, where his nephew Lot was living.
While the sedra casts Abraham in a positive light, it does the opposite for Lot. Where Abraham was seen as a person of principle who lived a Divinely inspired life, his nephew by
the end of the Sodom and Gomorrah episode couldn’t have been more discredited. What, if any, are the moral messages of this contrast?
As background, Abraham adopted Lot after Haran (Lot’s father and Abraham’s brother) died prematurely in Mesopotamia. Though the two had lived and travelled together extensively, a uence led to territorial arguments, causing a parting of their ways.
Lot chose the more fertile Jordan valley for his grazing flocks, and eventually settled in Sodom, a town inhabited by the “wicked, and sinners against the Lord, exceedingly” (Gen. 13:13). Yet, despite his surroundings, Lot was perceived as righteous in the eyes of Abraham and God. Even as his town of choice was about to be destroyed, Lot hesitated to flee.
The late Rabbi Jonathan Sacks pointed out that in a world created by a universal God, Abraham, though not without and flaws, was an example of moral leadership, religious devotion and conviction to a higher ideal.
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Lot, who was tutored by his uncle, began that way but his convictions seem to have diminished over time. He still knew to o er hospitality to strangers (Genesis 19:2). However, what occurred with his surviving daughters is horrifying and inexplicable. (They both became pregnant by him.)
Despite our revulsion towards Lot, his descendants perplexingly merited to be the ancestors of Ruth the Moabite, whose example set a precedent for Jewish conversion, and whose descendent David is the progenitor of the Messianic line.
As a tale of contrasts, the Torah reader wants to identify with Abraham and to shun Lot. But, in fact, during our lifetimes we regrettably become a combination of both –behaviour we are proud of and the opposite. Environment, and the company we keep, whether real or virtual, plays a much larger part in our decision making and character formation than we are willing to admit.
We live in an age of siloing and echo chambers, and the constant exposure to corrosive social media. Like the detrimental influence of Sodom and Gomorrah, for our spiritual and mental wellbeing, it is even more important to manage where we spend our time and to check by whom we are being influenced.
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We are an inclusive orthodox community in Edgbaston, Birmingham, with a modern synagogue, banqueting suite, community deli, and mikvah.
We seek a Rabbi or Rabbinic Couple to inspire and engage our diverse congregation. Candidates should be energetic, selfmotivated, organised, and personable, with a commitment to fostering orthodox Jewish life.
A secular degree is preferred, and the Rabbi must have recognised Semicha. This is a unique career opportunity with excellent professional mentoring and personal development opportunities.
For an informal, confidential discussion, contact Leonard Jacobs at ljacobs@centralshul.com
For more information and to apply please scan the QR code or visit: www.theus.org.uk/jobs
CLOSING DATE FOR APPLICATIONS: MONDAY 2ND DECEMBER 2024
BY RABBI DANNY RICH SOUTHGATE PROGRESSIVE SYNAGOGUE
At last, it is over. After perhaps the most consequential election for the world today, Donald Trump will become the 47th president of the United States of America in January 2025.
The traditional question, ‘Is it good for the Jews?’, is arguably less important than three other matters from a Jewish perspective: democracy, the State of Israel, and age.
Trump’s success at winning both the popular vote and the electoral college vote – coupled with Republican gains in the Senate and the House of Representatives – demonstrates a result that is indisputable.
Even if we consider the personal life, language, views and policies of Trump to be, and I will put it generously, “unsavoury”, his achievement is
impressive and he deserves recognition of his success and, more importantly, the good wishes of all who a rm democratic values.
Although Trump perhaps did much to undermine the democratic system, it has given him the result he campaigned for and it is imperative that his actions now strengthen it.
Democracy is not in itself a Jewish value (although the rabbis made decisions by majority vote), but it seems to me an undeniable historical truth that Jews and their interests are usually best served where liberal, democratic values underpinned by individual freedom are held in high regard.
Liberal democracy is common to the United States of America, the United Kingdom and the State of Israel, and Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, was one of the first world leaders to speak to Trump after the election.
The president-elect appears, by his previous actions – including the moving of the American Embassy to Jerusalem, the sanctioning of the annexation of the Golan Heights, the encouragement of settlement building and the more credit-
A stimulating series where our progressive rabbis consider how Biblical figures might act when faced with 21st-century issues
able Abraham Accords with Arab nations – to share what might be described as a “maximalist rightwing programme” concerning Israel.
However, Trump’s unpredictability and his expressed desire to end wars, particularly those supported by the dollars of American taxpayers, may yet challenge whomsoever governs Israel.
I confess a sneaking admiration for Trump in one aspect: his apparent boundless energy.
His initial opponent, the 81-year-old Joe Biden, has appeared positively tortoise-like as the 78-yearold Trump has criss-crossed the United States, speaking at more than 900 rallies.
I suspect that the world is in for an interesting, turbulent couple of years with Trump at the helm of its most powerful nation.
However, whether you are a fan or not, I suggest that we must redouble our e orts in advocating democratic values and human rights; that we should promulgate and encourage the path of moderation and compromise in dealing with Israel and her neighbours; and that we should delight in reminding ourselves that age is no barrier to whatever we wish to achieve.
We are the largest provider of sheltered housing to the Jewish community in the UK. We deliver services to around 550 properties; primarily sheltered housing with some other supported housing and general needs homes.
As we look to the future and in line with our commitment to strong governance, we are now seeking to recruit additional nonexecutive members for our various Subcommittees and the main Board. These are voluntary roles and require a commitment to attend quarterly meetings throughout the year. Meetings are held in the early evening.
Many of our Subcommittee members have progressed to become duly elected members of the main Board. All non-executive members receive the support of the established senior executive team, and we are proud that our non-executive and executive members enjoy strong and positive working relationships. We are looking for individuals who want to make a difference, understand our business and our regulatory framework, and share our commitment to providing quality accommodation and associated services to our community. We need individuals who want to make an impact, understand the contribution that they can make but also have a strong understanding of risk. We are interested to hear from individuals who work or have expertise in any of the following fields:
l Social Housing Finance
l Social Housing Property and Development
l HR
l IT
l Social Housing Management
To find out more or for an informal conversation about the role please contact the Chief Executive –jgoodman@jliving.org.uk
Applicants will be required to submit a full CV, Supporting Statement and will be required to participate in an interview.
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Qualifications:
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020 8088 8958
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donna@dohr.co.uk
ADAM SHELLEY
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• 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
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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:
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Lisa@jbd.org
ILAN RUBINSTEIN
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I.L.A.N. ESTATES & INVESTMENTS “Bringing Jews Home” UK: 0203-807-0878 ISRAEL: +972-504-910-604 www.ilanrealestate.com nadlan@hotmail.com
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KKL EXECUTOR AND TRUSTEE COMPANY 020 8732 6101 www.kkl.org.uk enquiries@kkl.org.uk
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STEPHEN MORRIS SHIPPING LTD 020 8832 2222 www.shipsms.co.uk stephen@shipsms.co.uk
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Qualifications:
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Top prices paid
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MARYLEBONE ANTIQUES - 8 CHURCH STREET NW8 8ED 07866 614 744 (ANYTIME) 0207 723 7415 (SHOP)
- e-mail -
@maryleboneantiques.co.uk
SURE YOU CONTACT US BEFORE SELLING
ARTICLES WANTED
CHARITY & WELFARE
Friendly Family Company established for 30 years
We clear houses, flats, sheds, 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.
Confidential Bereavement Counselling for adults and children individually. Support Groups available. We offer in person, online and telephone counselling. Contact Jewish Bereavement Counselling Service in confidence. 0208 951 3881 enquiries@jbcs.org.uk | www.jbcs.org.uk
LAW MENTOR
Former “Magic Circle” solicitor offers help with:
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954144 LAW MENTOR
Sheltered Accommodation
We have an open waiting list in our friendly and comfortable warden assisted sheltered housing schemes in Ealing, East Finchley and Hendon. We provide 24-hour warden support, seven days a
and
For
and
LAW MENTOR
Former “Magic Circle” solicitor offers help with:
• CVs and personal statements
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For more information contact Tom lawmentor@btinternet.com / 07590 057097
For more information contact Tom lawmentor@btinternet.com / 07590 057097
Furs, Jewellery, Old Costume Jewellery, Watches, Silver, Designer Bags, anything vintage. 01277 352560
Suits from £79.50
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TROUSERS ARE DOWN! £20 ANY 2 PAIRS £30
Trouser Bargains £25
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10 Golders Green Road
London NW11 8LL
Opposite Cafe Nero
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We accept Large Sizes a speciality
Wanted all Antiques & furniture including Lounge Dining and Bedroom Suites. Chests of drawers. Display and Cocktail Cabinets. Furniture by Hille. Epstein. Archie shine. G plan etc in Walnut. Mahogany. Teak and Rosewood.
We also buy Diamonds & Jewellery. Gold. Silverware. Paintings. Glass. Porcelain. Bronzes etc.
All Antiques considered. Full house clearances organised. Very high prices paid, free home visits.
Check our website for more details www.antiquesbuyers.co.uk
Email: info@antiquesbuyers.co.uk
Please call Sue Davis on Freephone: 08008402035 WhatsApp Mobile: 07956268290
Portobello Rd London. By appointments only.
Please note rather than acting as agents for other organisations and charging you commission. Please be assured that in dealing with Antiques Buyers we deal directly with our clients and pay in full at the time of the transaction.
BACK AGAIN FOR A SECOND YEAR
JEWISH CHILD’S DAY NATIONAL DAY OF GIVING
A HEARTWARMING EVENT, RAISING FUNDS TO REBUILD THE LIVES OF CHILDREN IN ISRAEL.
SUNDAY 15 TH DECEMBER | 10AM–2PM NORTH LONDON VENUE | £10 ENTRY TICKET
SPACES ARE LIMITED
BOOK NOW TO AVOID DISAPPOINTMENT
Proceeds from sales with go towards rebuilding the lives of children in Israel
This year we have chosen a ‘Myth vs Reality’ theme, because despite the information overload we all experience daily, many core myths about domestic abuse continue to exist.
Myth or reality?
Domestic abuse only happens to certain kinds of people.
Myth
Domestic abuse can affect anyone, regardless of background. However, it disproportionately impacts women—1 in 4 will experience it— and Jewish women are not exempt. Abuse exists across all communities, and women seeking help come from diverse religious and socio-economic backgrounds.
Myth or reality?
If it’s not physical - it’s not domestic abuse.
Myth
Domestic abuse includes coercive control, a pattern of psychological, emotional, financial, or other abuse, which may not be physical. This form of abuse manipulates, isolates, and controls the victim, creating a power imbalance and causing long-term harm, even without physical violence.
To help break the cycle Jewish Women’s Aid have collated 8 key myths surrounding domestic abuse. For more information and to view the digital toolkit please visit jwa.org.uk/shabbat or scan the QR code.