1397 LIFE magazine - 12th Dec 2024 by Jewish News

L IFE

Winter 2024/25

College tragedy

The graduates lost on October 7

PLUS

Soup season

Sabbath queen

Travel time

Modi operandi

Face to face with a stand-up guy

Christmas or Chanukah?

Caprice calls the festive shots

Lighting up our lives

America’s Got Talent stars Roni and Rhythm

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16

31 RHYTHM OF LIFE PUT A LITTLE FAITH IN THE PANTO 22

THE

DAY AFTER

MODI OPERANDI INSIDE

Editor’s letter

This year we witnessed strikingly different audience reactions to performances by two Israeli women.

In May Eden Golan was Israel’s entry at the Eurovision Song Contest in Sweden, where she was snubbed by fellow contestants, forced to hide from protesting crowds and booed on stage by anti-Israel mobs. Only 21, Eden stoically delivered a performance of the song Hurricane that shamed her detractors.

Several months after October 7, Roni Sagi and her Border Collie, Rhythm, auditioned for America’s Got Talent in Los Angeles.Walking out on stage with Rhythm on a lead, the audience

41 A SOUPER STORY 65 28

cooed. Then she announced: “I’m from Israel.”

I held my breath and waited for the jeers, but the only sound was a cheer from the balcony. Both of these women gave faultless performances – with Rhythm raising the bar in dog dancing.

Both women are beautiful, talented and brave enough to represent their grief-stricken homeland.

But while one was warmly welcomed with applause, the other was bullied and ostracised.

Horrible to watch, this repugnant and divisive behaviour is constant and has has risen to scary heights in 2024.

I thought about this a lot when we did our cover shoot with Roni and Rhythm, as Eden was our cover star before Eurovision. Victoriously taking fourth place, she was mocked by Ireland’s dystopian entrant, Bambie Thug, who was then ridiculed with the biting wit of Instagram sensation Yechiel Jacobs.

Yechiel aappears in this festive issue, which

brings Chanukah and Christmas together on 25 December, though it’s hard to twinkle when Jewish donors to the arts are being cancelled because of their support for Israel. Of course, we have content to make you smile: the artist who does crazy things with challah; stand-up Modi who brings hilarity before closing his act with the Hatikvah.

Photographer Moses Pini Siluk did an incredible job capturing Rhythm by a lit menorah, but the dog’s good behaviour is down to trainer Roni who told me when he dances with other people, “it just doesn’t look the same”. Nothing is the same, especially for desperate Mandy Damari who prays for the return of her daughter Emily and the other hostages still in Gaza. We pray for them too.

Be safe and stand strong in 2025.

Chag Sameach WINTER 2024/25

200,000

Since its founding in 2004, Masa has served more than young professionals from over 60 countries, and its network continues to grow. Make this year stand out and see where your Masa can take you.

Masa Israel Journey is more than just a physical journey to Israel. It’s an opportunity to explore oneself in new surroundings while gaining a transformative experience.

4 - 10 months for fellows between the ages of 18 - 40 in Israel, that allows fellows to shape their own futures.

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ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

IT’S ALL NEW COMING TO YOU

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW FOR THE FESTIVE SEASON

We’re off to see...

Jeff Goldblum, the Jewish Wizard of Oz. It won’t have dawned on the multitude flocking to see the film version of musical Wicked, but we know the man bedecked in emerald green is played by Pittsburgh’s most famous Jew. Jeff decided at his barmitzvah – a performance lauded by his mother –that acting would be his ‘yellow brick road’. Raised Orthodox, Jeff’s great-grandfather left for America in 1911, but his family who remained in his village, Starobin, in what was then Russia, were all murdered. Growing up in Philadelphia’s West Homestead, where there were few Jewish families, Jeff felt like an outsider ( like Wicked’s green-skinned Elphaba). But these days he is an insider, modelling for Loewe and Prada, and performing as pianist and front man of The Mildred Snitzer Orchestra. In time for the holidays, Jeff and the orchestra have released a jazzy version of Jule Styne and Sammy Cahn’s Let it Snow and although he hasn’t shared his Chrismakah list, his most prized gift ever is the 1958 record Katz Puts OntheDogby Yiddish-fluent musician Mickey Katz, father of Cabaretstar Joel Grey. Jeff as Oz is inspired casting for us, as finally, a member of the tribe is described as “great and powerful”.

Mrs Shylock

The indefatigable Tracy-Ann Oberman brings her acclaimed The Merchant of Venice 1936 back to the West End on 28 December, so this is your chance to see what so many have talked about. In a year in which she has returned to EastEnders as Chrissie Watts, brought her radio play Bette and Joan and Baby Jane to JW3 as a musical and hosted the October 7 memorial in Hyde Park, Tracy-Ann is summoning the energy to take the lead in her adaptation of Shakespeare’s much-debated play. Playing a version of Shylock inspired by her great-grandmother, the play, which “makes theatre history” (The Telegraph) runs at Trafalgar Studios until 25 January.

WINTER WATCH WITH SUN

Channel 4’s hit reality show A New Life in the Sun begins again in January and the tenth series, which follows expats as they flee the UK in search of a better life abroad, features Casa de Mondo in Portugal. Run by Jewish hostess with the mostest H and her sculptor husband Mondo, the production team followed life at their beautiful Algarve home this summer, as guests stayed in the idyllic standalone rooms or joined cookery classes, spa days and bespoke events. It is now hosting singing retreats with SoundBunker recording studios (the first is 5-11 January). If you are desperate to record songs this winter, gain invaluable industry insight and get one-on-one mentorship while warming your vocal chords in the sun, visit soundbunker.pt or CasaDeMondo on booking.com

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

CAKE IT TO MAKE IT

Jenny Pasha has been making cakes to order from her home in St John’s Wood for 10 years. Then she discovered the joy of gingerbread and uses it to make replicas of real houses and, last month, won first place at the Cake International competition.

With Chanukah landing on Christmas Day this year, it made sense to get even further into the gingerbread groove and make Chanukah-themed gingerbread – cue biscuits, dreidels, a menorah and even a Chanukah house kit – a perfect gi for the children. “I’ve been doing Jewish-themed things for myself for fun, and then other people got interested,” says Jenny, 36, who sometimes makes Rosh Hashanah biscuit boxes. She used to work in real estate but says: “I’ve always had this creativity.” She sidestepped into doing nail art and then the cakes came along and she transitioned

HEAR THE MUSIC

Redknapp commissioned her to make

from traditional work to the creative stu , setting up her business Canvas Cake Company. Jenny is highly skilled at cake sculptures of real things –some are so good that in photographs the two are indistinguishable. Footballer Jamie Redknapp commissioned her to make a giant Bisco jar cake and YouTube superstars The Sidemen ordered a sculpture of a teapot and fruit cake for one of their videos. “They said they cut that up, so I made them an even better one,” she says. canvascakecompany.com

The Indian place to party

Bhageecha restaurant in Elstree has long been the place to go for a family dinner, a date night or a night out with friends as it always promises amazing Indian fusion food with incredible service in a gorgeously glam setting with brightlycoloured floral designs. But did you know that the team behind arguably the best Indian restaurant in north London/Hertfordshire used to work in events? Or that you can host your own event at the restaurant? Now that the front conservatory area – the Glass Room – has been fully internalised, the venue can hold 150 people for a sit-down party. There’s also a semi-private area that holds 45 and oﬀers a lot of flexibility for smaller gatherings. “We have lots of Jewish customers, so we are well-versed in the dietary requirements,” says owner Sundeep. “Non-oﬀensive menus, fishonly menus or veggie menus – we can provide them all.” And, of course, the cocktails speak for themselves! bhageecha.com

Born partially deaf, Nadav Sivan had an operation when he was four that restored his hearing. His parents bought him a piano and he became a top-tier classically-trained pianist, performing and competing throughout his childhood and teenage years. Now the flamboyant Tel Aviv/London-based singer-songwriter, along with his band members Omri and Idi, performs concerts all over the world and his single U So Hot was featured in the Kardashians’ Balenciaga fashion show episode.

His new single Perfume, from his debut album Till The Day We Die, was inspired by a student on a children’s music project where he was the musical director. The student had arrived in Israel from Ethiopia as a young girl, after facing complex challenges during her life. “She is one of the most remarkable singers I have ever encountered,” he says. “I wanted nothing more than for her to soar far beyond the circumstances she faced. That’s why, in the chorus of the song, I wrote : ‘Run away, run away, leave everything behind, run away, run away, like the sun, you will surely rise.’” The live performance video was filmed in Tel Aviv.

The Children’s Music Project brings together children from diverse cultures: Jews, Muslims, Christians, children of foreign workers, migrant children and asylum seekers, all united through music. Nadav is also involved with Soul Key, music education that helps people grappling with post-traumatic stress from wars. Next up – a new album and a collaboration with rappers Alissa Janine Wollmann and Joelong.

Some of my best friends are...

Valentine’s Day 2025 will be about feeling the love for Bridget, the infamous British singleton and diarist as that’s when Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy opens. Now a widow, as dear Mr Darcy has shuffled off his mortal coil (so Colin Firth in flashback), the film is about navigating single life again, albeit not for long as the leaked kiss with the much younger Roxster McDuff (Leo Woodall) is a clue. More importantly, Bridge’s friendship group has survived: that’s Jude, Shazzer and Tom, who for our purposes is her Jewish friend, as James Callis, who has played the role since the first movie in 2001, is of Russian, Polish and Ukrainian Jewish descent. We’re pushing it, but it’s not to the ‘edge of reason’.

A funny thing happened

It takes a brave man to mess with El Al security, but Instagram star Zach Margolin will do pretty much anything to make people laugh. And so he’s spent the past year flitting between London and Tel Aviv making brilliantly clever funny videos in which he slips into his one of his Israeli alter egos – the taxi driver, the beach waiter, the slimy singleton looking for love and the El Al security o icial.

“The security sta at Ben Gurion recognise me,” he says. “I’ve become quite good friends with a couple of them and so I thought it was a great content idea to make videos about El Al security. And then, literally the next time I went to Israel a er doing it, they were waiting for me. ‘Mr Funny Man. Okay, you think my job is a joke for you?’ and I was like, ‘No, no. You know, I take it quite seriously.’ “I was worried they weren’t going to let me in the country, so I explained, ‘It’s not a joke. It’s just comedy.’ And she said, ‘You don’t think I have a sense of humour?’

“I didn’t know what to say, and sort of panicked, but it was all good – and now I make more content every time something happens with El Al. I think they do their background research, so it’s become a running joke – like one time they asked me outrageous questions on purpose.”

Zach has been pursuing a career in comedy since he was a little boy watching Only Fools and Horses and Sgt Bilko with his grandfather,

Wash in the warm

A well-heated bathroom is your sanctuary from the cold, but a combination of humidity and moisture can make it di icult to keep it at the right temperature and even harder to keep mould at bay. Senior designer Jo from Ripples London says there are three options. “Underfloor heating is the epitome of bathroom luxury providing a consistent, even warmth that rises gently from the floor, ensuring your toes never have to touch a cold surface again. A heated towel rail is a dualpurpose marvel, keeping towels toasty warm and adding a stylish element to your bathroom décor in a range of finishes, from sleek chrome to elegant matte black. Electric radiators are a flexible heating solution for bathrooms without access to a central heating system, and come in various designs to suit contemporary or traditional bathrooms.” Ripples London can show you all three options and transform your bathroom into a cozy, inviting retreat. ripplesbathrooms.com

who was a stand-up comedian. Having gained 130,000 followers on Instagram (@zachmargs) over the past year, he is venturing into stand-up and last month performed in New York. “We’ve had such a di icult year fighting so much as Jews, we just want that relief, even if it’s just for 30 seconds. My biggest audience is in America and that is the beauty of social media – you’re able to reach the whole world. That’s how my success has happened so fast, because I’m making relatable content for Jews everywhere.”

There are big things in store for Zach next year and he may be coming to perform at a venue near you. Read more about him in next week’s Jewish News.

Superheroes R US

Marvel Studios prides itself on presenting its comic book superheroes accurately for the fans. So Captain America: Brave New World, which opens on 14 February, will surely disappoint them, as superhero Sabra, an ex-Mossad agent, has been rebranded as a former Russian operative. But the fans are among the group who demanded all ties to Israel be removed from the character played by Shira Haas. An Israeli. How nice of Marvel to appease its audience. We can only wonder how they will present the heritage of Benjamin Jacob Grimm, aka The Thing, who was born on New York City’s Lower East Side to Jewish parents. Jewish actor Ebon Moss-Bachrach from The Bear is The Thing in The Fantastic Four: First Steps, but the production did film in a former London synagogue. We won’t know until July 2025 if The Thing says the Shema or has his barmitzvah as he did in the comic. Haas, meanwhile, is playing Ethel Stark, pioneer founder of the Montreal Women’s Symphonic Orchestra in upcoming movie Ethel. Stark was Jewish, but that could be changed.

LIFE OF BRIAN

From party nights to large celebrations, Village London Elstree is the perfect venue for any special occasion. There is a range of stylish function rooms and private spaces for every size of celebration; the Inspiration Suite is the largest, holding up to 300 people with a separate reception area. The minimalist décor is ready to be transformed by the in-house team who are bursting with inspiring ideas to suit your theme. Bring in your own caterer or use one of the flexible in-house options. village-hotels.co.uk/parties-events

Now on Amazon Prime, Midas Man, the biopic about Beatles manager Brian Epstein, will open the New York Jewish Film Festival on 15 January with a gala première at the Lincoln Centre. Whether Jay Leno, who plays the film’s Ed Sullivan, will be there has not been confirmed, but the Fab Four broke into America on his show to a TV audience of 73 million. Here’s hoping Midas Man gets the same, and if you fancy hearing more from Brian’s band, the tribute act The Upbeat Beatles is at the Radlett Centre on Saturday 11

Village people

Shira Haas

Ebon Moss-Bachrach

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

8 Chanukah GIFTS

Alex Galbinski chooses feel-good gifts for the festival of lights

Make memories with family and friends and instantly retain the keepsakes with this Polaroid Go Generation 2 instant analogue camera. polaroid.com £79.99

Your child and pup will love this festive moose! brownsnaturalpetstore.co.uk £18.95

Tag the targets as quickly as possible in this electronic reaction race game that can be used indoors or out. very.co.uk £24.99

Put your strength to the test with the Electronic Arcade Strongman. Menkind.co.uk £45.

READING ON…

Make your own treats with this mini Giles & Posner doughnut maker. amazon.co.uk £29.99

You’re My Little Latke A board book for babies and toddlers with clever cut-out shapes and cute images of smiling dreidels, doughnuts and latkes.

Hanukkah Bear is a very amusing tale for nursery and early years children about Bubba Brayna, the best latke maker in the village, who tempts a hungry bear out of hibernation with the scent of her cooking. Unfortunately Bubba Brayna doesn’t see or hear too well and mistakes him for her rabbi.

Little Red Ruthie takes the classic fairytale and adds lively illustrations and a Chanukah twist. The hungry wolf is still there, but gets tricked into eating latkes instead of the heroine’s granny.

common than they thought.

This pocket Tonie featuring presenter Rachel Riley promises to make maths magic (and musical). For age 5+. (Requires Tonie box bought separately). tonies.com £8.99

“Do You Really Know Your Family?” See who really knows the family best as you answer fun trivia questions. smyths.co.uk £19.99

Hanukkah Upside Down is about two cousins who live on opposite sides of the world comparing similarities and diﬀerences of Hanukkah in their countries. With eight chances to prove who celebrates the festival in the best way before crowning a winner, they soon realise they have more in common than they thought.

To sign up your child for a free monthly Jewish book, visit pjlibrary.org.uk and head to the online Hanukkah Hub for a latke recipe

Talk through the ANIMALS

Keep them busy with this DIY 3D chanukiah craft set. judaicawebstore.co.uk £38.40

At this time of year when only sleigh bells are ringing, a little Jewish pride won’t go amiss and books are where to find it. PJ Library always has a great selection to buy online and at Jewish bookshops and lots of new Chanukah (or Hanukkah if you prefer) titles. Latkes feature large in all, so pop over to the online Hanukkah Hub for a recipe and have a go at making them together with the child in your life. if the

During the pandemic while working with families and schools, South African dramatherapist Talya Bruck was asked the best way to tell children what was happening. This is when she decided to write a series of cute animal-centred therapeutic stories to help parents open conversations with their children about issues that may be aﬀecting them.

Using the metaphor of animals living on the savanna, Talya wrote Silo’s Sadness as the pandemic ended, introducing Young Silo the lion cub who lost his grandfather to the ‘pesky illness’. Seeing the need for such books, Talya wrote Talulah’s Rules, which is about autism, while Tiana’s Tale about a young zebra fleeing her home because of bigoted wildebeest cleverly presents racism. Gerry the Giraﬀe, in Is It Me?, is aﬀected by his father’s mental health and for Hugo the Hippo (Hugo’s Hops), born with one leg, issues of inclusion and understanding are addressed with his longing to join in on the savanna Sports Day. Worry, disappointment and bullying are also presented in the most sympathetic way, so if your child feels like Georgie the Elf, who gets forgotten by his friends, Talya has the books to help. savanna-therapeutic.org.uk

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Grim fairy story

Be sure to see Disney’s reboot of Snow White when it is released on 21 March. Gal Gadot, who plays the Evil Queen, has become Snow White’s nemesis for real and needs our support. West Side Story’s Rachel Zegler, the film’s Snow White, had already branded the fairytale prince in the original 1937 film a stalker, and wokeism removed the seven dwarves, so the last thing producers needed was division over beliefs between the leading ladies or calls to boycott the film by anti-Zionists. America’s right wing have issues with Zegler’s Latin heritage and skin ‘not pale enough’ to be Ms White, which suggests the haters would support an Israeli portraying the Evil Queen, or are they just upset about her being ‘fairest in the land’? Face it, with Gal Gadot on the scene, Snow White will never get that title or the prince. Not that she wants him.

Springer in the spotlight

Jerry Springer, producer, journalist, pop culture icon and Mayor of Cincinnati, died in April 2023, but his history as host of America’s most controversial TV show is being resurrected. The two-part documentary series Jerry Springer: Fights, Camera, Action premieres on Netflix on 7 January and by all accounts is a jaw-dropping behindthe-scenes exposé, as told by insiders, and raises questions about who was responsible. We’re hoping it wasn’t Jerry, as he raised significant funding for the charity World Jewish Relief, which brought his German parents to safety in the UK in 1939. Our advice? Blame the producers!

LIVE AND LEARN

Get into the spirit of Chanukah by joining LSJS’ online tour In Search of the Maccabees & Ancient Modiin on Tuesday 17 December at 8pm, which looks for evidence of the story’s heroes and Modiin’s most famous residents, the Maccabees. They are said to have been interned in an elaborate burial site in Modiin, where the Chanukah story began, and many attempts have been made to discover the ancient sites in the modern city. Michael Rainsbury, head of adult education at LSJS, will explore various archaeological discoveries, enabling you to learn more about the Maccabees and their impact on Jewish history.

LSJS oﬀers a range of courses and events. On Monday mornings there’s an online modern Jewish literature class with Dr Aviva Dautch of Jewish Renaissance and on Wednesday evenings you can catch a stimulating class on the weekly Torah reading or join hundreds of students from around the world on the free Covenant & Continuity course. Based on Rabbi Sacks’ unique insights, and taught by some of his closest students, the course connects ancient texts to our modern-day lives. Improve your modern Hebrew at the fun and interactive classes of LSJS’ Ulpan or, if you prefer to do your learning on the go, look for Joanne Greenaway’s Women’s Gallery podcast or Rabbi Dr Raphael Zarum’s Big Questions of Jewish Belief.

lsjs.ac.uk

Educate against hate

Between the attacks on JFS students, the hospitalisation of a teenage girl after a suspected antisemitic attack in Stamford Hill and countless other incidents, antisemitism feels alarmingly close to home. Rabbi Akiva Tatz explains that there are three types of people in the world: those who love or accept Jews without prejudice; those who harbour baseless hatred, whose minds cannot be changed; and the third group – everyone in between – who are willing to listen and learn.

The Rabbi Sacks Legacy draws on Rabbi Sacks’ teachings, which emphasise building bridges, drawing on his profound understanding of the evolving nature of antisemitism to develop a new PSHE (personal, social, health and economic education) curriculum, which is aimed at this third group – the majority of British people today.

This programme, which is being piloted in schools and will be rolled out nationwide in the spring term, is designed to educate non-Jewish secondary school students about what antisemitism is and why it is wrong. The programme consists of four teacher-led sessions, providing students with opportunities to reflect on their own identities while fostering an understanding of the Jewish experience in Britain today.

Rabbi Sacks taught: “If we want to fight antisemitism, let us walk tall and proud as Jews, and let us work with all humanity to banish hatred forever.”

To find out more visit rabbisacks.org

NEW PEER SUPPORT GROUPS

Jewish Blind & Disabled are excited to announce our new monthly Peer Support Groups for people with visual impairments.

Finchley

The second Thursday of each month 11.30am – 1.00pm

Borehamwood

The second Tuesday of each month 11.30am – 1.00pm

Sessions are designed for meeting new people and sharing experiences of living with sight loss in a safe environment. Family members, friends or carers are welcome to join.

To join a session or find out more information, please contact Toni Lewis on toni@jbd.org or 020 8371 6611 ext 620 Please help us bring light into the lives of those who need it this

As people in our community live longer, the need for care and support is greater than ever before. We are here not only for older adults who face loneliness, isolation, and the challenges of ageing, but also for younger individuals and families who need mental health support.

However, we are facing an additional cost of £1.1million each year, as a result of the rise in employers’ National Insurance outlined in the recent Budget.

Your donation, now more than ever, will bring light into the lives of the 12,000 people we touch every single week.

To donate, please call 020 8922 2600 or visit www.jewishcare.org/chanucare

Thank you for your continued generosity, we wish you and your family a happy Chanucare.

Charity No. 259480

Charity Reg. No. 802559 you can also donate here!

T‘IF

HAMAS, ISIS AND THE TALIBAN

ARE ON YOUR SIDE, YOU’RE PROBABLY ON THE

WRONG SIDE’

A rising Instagram star signalled it was OK to laugh again, finds Brigit Grant

here have been four-letter rants from @LeeKern, hurled curses from @MichaelRappaport, and implored understanding from @LizzySavetsky and @ZehavaBracha warning antisemites to expect bagels in their mailbox. Their delivery and messages of defiance could not be more diﬀerent but their support for Israel unites them. This year has delivered too much of what we would sooner forget, but the explosion of driven, uncompromising mouthy Jews on social media is worth toasting. In fact, we should buy all the savvy responders a drink as they – @andrewgoldheretics, @ konstantinkisin and @ douglasmurray and many others –have stood guard while hitting back on behalf of the Holy Land. Their informed ripostes to the vitriolic swarm on X and antagonists on YouTube raise a smile, but after October 7 we knew it would take more than a finger to the wind to

signal when we could laugh again.

Yechiel Jacobs made that decision on his own and his 170,000 followers on Instagram proved he was right.

That he was a real estate agent and not a trepidatious comedian probably worked in his favour, as his only funny guy credits a year ago were earned at the Friday night dinner table. “The idea of being a comedian on social media was not on the radar at all,” he says, but suggests he was bred to perform as he was only eight when he joined his father Sam, a Manchesterborn magician, on stage. “He would make me disappear and we did a juggling act together, but the humour comes from my mom’s side.”

On October 7, Yechiel, who is Orthodox, was in synagogue in Florida enjoying Simchat Torah until someone with a security phone was

notified about the attacks in Israel.

“At first he said 200 people had been murdered, but the numbers kept going up. Later we saw the Hamas video of the young girl being pushed into the Jeep.”

Yechiel has always been passionate about Israel as he was born there, as was his mother, Danielle, and family members have fought in every war. “My great-grandfather was born in Old Jerusalem before the state was established, so we’re very connected to the land.”

His older sister Yocheved is in the army and he is so connected that seeing his people being taken hostage into Gaza in real time tore Yechiel apart. “At that very moment people were bleeding out and dying. It was horrible. Then almost immediately it was Israel’s fault. Worse still, some people denied it entirely”.

Aged 23, Yechiel is a digital veteran and the anti-Israel videos he saw sickened him into action.

“The video that triggered me was posted by a girl who said: ‘If you have Ben Shapiro and Amy Schumer on your side, you’re probably on the wrong side.’ In other words the Jewish side. So I responded with my own.”

In that video of Yechiel at the wheel of his car he replies: “If you have Hamas, Isis and the Taliban on your side, you’re probably on the wrong side,” and it dropped on Instagram on 12 November 2023.

stupidity allowed me to bring in facts, but what I did wasn’t planned. It was my natural response to what I saw.”

Yechiel then turned his Instagram account from private to public. Bingo!

“In a week it had 300,000 views. People were loving the video, so I figured OK, I’ll do another, and that got half a million views and so, to cut a long story short, here we are.”

His thousands of followers were intrigued and then obsessed with Yechiel’s overtly theatrical, pointed and hilarious takedowns of woke Hamas supporters and university protesters on hunger strikes. To see him killing them with comedy was exactly what young Jews needed and still do.

“I say what they are thinking. To mock and belittle the people who poured salt on our wounds after the worst things happened to us is satisfying and supportive,” notes Yechiel. “A lot of people aren’t interested when they see a video about Israel, but I’m reaching a diﬀerent group with videos that are funny and everybody wants to laugh. But I’m also bringing facts, so those who don’t know walk away knowing a little bit more about Israel.”

“I realised the only response to blatant lies was sarcasm and humour. Laughing at her

Biting back at the Eurovision Song Contest remains Yechiel at his best and his description of Ireland entrant Bambi – “You make Freddy Kreuger look like a Smurf”– is much-quoted

and his dance routines to bolshie reworded songs are copied. Some skits also include his mum, who is his ‘momager’, as Yechiel is now doing live comedy in the US and got an invite to Mexico City. But his newfound internet fame in defence of Israel comes at a price.

“As I got more followers, there was a lot of hate and death threats. They found out who my mom was and messaged her saying, ‘Your son’s not safe, you’re not safe. We’re coming for you.’ It made me nervous, so I considered stopping, but realised by giving up I’d be letting them win.”

Israelis had seen Yechiel verbally shredding terrorist sympathisers and, on a recent visit, they knew his face. “In the States people ask for a picture, but in Israel they came over to say thank you. To be genuinely appreciated there meant something because Israelis, my own family included, have been through so much pain and agony and the entire world said nothing so they feel alone.”

For that reason Yechiel has no guilt about success in the wake of October 7 sorrow, as an invite to perform at the Laugh Factory in LA or the New York Comedy Club is an invitation to stand up for his people. “I was super nervous as I’d never done stand-up, but once I got going I absolutely loved it,” he says. “I’m coming from a place of wanting to do something good.”

Clockwise from top: Michael Rapaport with Yechiel; with his mum Danielle; and in character

Jewish comedian Modi Rosenfeld can’t get enough of London and, it seems, we can’t get enough of him either, as he returns in February to the London Palladium for his second

Pause For Laughter show. Debbie Collins has questions –important ones – all of which need answering…

DEBBIE COLLINS (DC)

You’re positively glowing oﬀ the back of the recent [November] London Palladium Show. I was sitting next to a very frum man (a seat in between us, of course). And my friend took an entire row for her extended family. Would you say your demographic has changed?

Modi smiles, flashing a perfect set of white teeth.

MODI (M)

For sure. We’re diversifying. One of the things I always tell myself is ‘be true to your audience and the rest will follow’. We’ve been getting a lot of ‘goyim, gays and theys’, which I love. You saw the guy Rafa up front at the Palladium?

‘All eyes on Rafa’? You couldn’t make it up. Debbie recalls how things played out at his show between Modi and the Christian Iraqi man, serendipitously called Rafa.

DC Did you?

Modi looks puzzled.

M Did I what?

DC Make it up? Rafa was a plant, surely?

M [eyes wide, faux-o ended] I swear – no! You couldn’t make that up. I spoke to him after the show and he was the sweetest guy. His friends sent him my comedy links and he wanted to come to the show. He was an amazing sport. For me it’s ‘be the friend that brings a friend’, especially if they’re Muslim! That’s where you’re really going to get Moshiach energy.

DC This show runs until March 2025. How do you plan it?

M We did Zurich and then came to London – an amazing way to start the tour. It really is show business. Leo [Veiga], my husband, manager, producer and UTA (United Talent Agency), just knows how to time things. One of the main things determining where we go is Instagram, so when we post ‘Hey we’re in Chicago!’ all of a sudden you see messages in the DMs: ‘Come to London!’ With Australia, we knew right away it was going to be a

huge event because we had such interest beforehand.

DC Big or small venues – do you have a preference?

M Even with a smaller venue, things happen that let me know I needed to be there. Cute little things where people tell me, ‘We just lost my mother and we’re so happy to see you here to bring laughter.’ When we were somewhere in middle America, Jews came from a bunch of places – it was like building a community in a 500-capacity club and it’s worth the pick-up on the way to a 2,000-capacity show.

DC The Palladium was big, but somehow felt intimate.

Modi beams

M Our last tour we played Leicester Square Theatre. It was unbelievable –Leo produced the whole thing alone, calling direct, paying up front. To play a bigger venue like the Palladium? That wave of laughter – PHOOM! –

Modi Debbie Collins

back and forth between the comic and audience? It’s amazing.

Modi is hand gesturing as only Jews know how.

DC Who told you that you were funny or did you just know?

A wave of nostalgia sweeps over him.

M A friend of mine, 30 years ago, when I was working in investment banking said, ‘The imitations you do of the secretaries? That’s what you should do on stage’. They weren’t Jewish or anything; that voice came much later. They were just overthe-top characters, but when you develop the voice it becomes Jewish.

DC You mentioned having a little ‘tweakment’ in your recent show –was that shtick or for real?

Modi gives a wry smile.

M When you’re a comedian you’re always thinking, ‘How can I work this into a funny bit?’ but yeah, I had an amazing little procedure and fortunately don’t look like some crazy person with my face wrapped around my head.

DC I’d love to know more about your show rituals aside from laying tefillin Do you wear the same suit for each show ?

M I mix it up. A double-breasted suit for the UK, with a beautiful

people won’t remember the great show, just your bad breath.

DC You end your shows beautifully with Hatikvah. When did this ritual begin?

Modi is solemn.

M Since October 7 when we were doing the Know Your Audience tour. We just thought, ‘What are we going to do a er an hour and a half of laughter while the world is falling apart? Let’s organise our thoughts and prayers and where our hearts are.’ It regrouped everyone and you go back out there with a little bit more strength.

DC Do you have a favourite melodic section? I’d love you to sing it, but can’t make you do that this early in the morning…

Modi in a black T-shirt and greets me with a grin

M We have a lovely home in Connecticut where we just sit and look at the trees and have friends over and go for walks. That’s the best thing in the world.

tie featuring colours of the English flag. In the States, I’m going dark single-breasted, a nice white shirt, sometimes a black shirt for a smaller venue on a Monday night. I always wear a suit though – it’s easier and I feel more comfortable performing in it. I say a few little prayers before I go on, give Leo a big hug and walk out there.

DC You wear a ‘proper’ watch – are you not into smartwatches?

M I’m always and forever a ‘real’ watch wearer. I love a beautiful watch. I also know how to ‘look at my watch during the show’. I can throw my hands up [he motions] and glance at my watch so I know where I am in the show. Every comic has their way – a light in the back or a clock running down on time.

DC Do you eat the same thing before a show? What’s on your rider [dressing room request list]?

M I’m very easy: Celsius drinks power drink. I have that right before and by the middle of the show – BAM! – it kicks in. Then chicken caesar salad because it’s easy for whoever has to get it. And... a foam roller. Get the back balanced out. Oh, and then, very important, Listerine mouthwash.

DC What colour?

M I’m not that picky – as long as it’s a mouthwash. You can’t go to the meet and greet with bad breath, otherwise

M I think the bit ‘Od lo avdah tikvatenu’ [our hope is not yet lost]. That’s a nice key change. Everyone can hit it – it’s not a crazy high note, so it’s like this…

Modi sings the line e ortlessly, rivalling any cantor. He is almost bashful at his ability to sing on command.

DC How has the reception been on your travels with rising antisemitism?

DC My closing question to you. The big one. Nobody Wants This – did you watch it?

Modi is confused

M Did I what?

DC Nobody Wants This. Netflix. The rabbi and the shiksa?

M No. I didn’t watch it. I’m sorry. That’s your big question...?

The sarcasm cuts deep. Modi recovers

a moment and laugh.

M Security has been heightened, but we’ve been lucky as we’ve only ever had to cancel one show, which the police requested because of an illegal protest out front. The tour name says it all – Pause for Laughter – there’s never been more of a need to take a moment and laugh.

DC Will the February show contain new material?

M It’s still part of Pause a lot of things will have changed, added, subtracted. That’s the great part of going on tour – you tweak the show and who knows who the ‘Rafa’ will be and what current events are happening?

Will the February show contain but, by then, a lot of things will have changed, who you

DC Have you booked somewhere fabulous for you and Leo to wind down a er the final date?

M I don’t really watch Jewish shows. I love The Crown. It’s one of my favourites. We were staying recently at the Chiltern Firehouse and I walked around speaking with an English accent, like I was King George himself.

Leo appears on the visit

Leo appears on the Zoom, dressed like

For more information about Modi and his upcoming gigs, modilive.com and follow modi_live

Modi on stage at the London Palladium

Modi with husband and manager Leo Veiga

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FESTIVALS

IARTHUR’S CHRISTMAKAH

According to Arthur Weiss we’ll have double the fun on 25 December

magine it’s 1826 in a Polish shtetl on Christmas Eve. It also happens to be the first night of Chanukah. Snow blankets the ground, but what chills you is the fear of your neighbours’ “warm” hearts, warmed by too much vodka or an antisemitic sermon at church. To avoid drawing attention with your usual studies (since Christmas is for fun), you turn to Kleine Shas (small Talmud), a traditional card game played on Nittel Nacht (Christmas Eve). The game uses numbered cards (no face cards to avoid idolatry) and resembles Pontoon or Twenty-one. While there appear to be parallels between some Christmas and Chanukah practices, their origins are diﬀerent. We light candles during Chanukah and place them in our windows to “publicise the miracle”, while in some

Christian homes a seven-branched candle “bridge” appears. There is no clear consensus on what the candles represent but it’s a Scandinavian custom marking stages towards Christmas.

Although both holidays begin on the 25th day of the midwinter month, the reasons diﬀer. Scholars suggest 25 December was chosen for Christmas to counteract the Roman festival of Saturnalia, which ended on 23 December. However, Chanukah has no possible link to Saturnalia; its date, 25 Kislev, was recorded in the Book of Maccabees in the 2nd century BCE. This year marks a rare occurrence – the first night of Chanukah is on Christmas Day itself! The two holidays coincide again in 2035 and 2054 but after that we’ll have to wait more than 50 years for it to happen again.

Christmas isn’t a Jewish holiday, of course, but some of us have taken it on and there are Jewish homes with trees to rival Trafalgar Square but with more lights and baubles. Chrismakah and the ‘Chanukah Bush’ are both decried by rabbis in the USA, who would sooner see their congregants in a Chinese restaurant, which is the norm across the pond.

The popular joke about how Jews spent Christmas used to feature the little boy who spent the day looking at the empty shelves in his father’s toy

factory. But that was then; be Rick Rosenthal

now children are just as likely to tell a Jewish Santa what they want for Christmas and in

Atlanta it may as the Orthodox Jew has turned playing Santa

into his profession. He runs the Northern Lights Santa Academy, working as a professional Claus and training others. Rick sees Santa as a non-religious figure spreading joy across all backgrounds and views this as his contribution to tikkun olam – repairing the world. His beard? It’s oﬀicially listed

Jewish accoutrements for Christmas trees

Your favourite Santa might be of our faith

The traditional card game of Kleine Shas

FESTIVALS

with the National Beard Registry, and he’s a proud member of the Fraternal Order of Real Bearded Santas.

Jewish influence on Christmas culture has been surprisingly significant, with Newsweek and Vogue magazines crediting Jews as the providers of the best Christmas songs, namely Johnny Marks’ Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Let it Snow by Sammy and Jule Styne. Movies? Obviously we’re involved and to get you started there is the hit Christmas film, Elf, written by David Berenbaum, with Ed Asner playing Santa, and Mara Wilson of Matilda fame took on the Natalie Wood role in the 1994 remake of the classic Miracle on 34th Street. Steven Spielberg’s Gremlins

(1984) is set at Christmas, telling of a young Billy Peltzer who receives a strange creature as a pet – along with strict instructions not to feed it a er midnight, keep it out of the light and away from water. The pet, a “mogwai” named Gizmo, was voiced by Jewish actor Howie Mandel.

Comedienne Joan Rivers once quipped that, to be “properly Jewish”, nativity scenes would include a nanny for the baby Jesus, and Mary wouldn’t be dressed in schmattes but in

clothes to reflect her importance in the Christmas story – a Chanel suit, Manolo Blahnik shoes and a Hermes bag. The Israeli satire TV show, Eretz Nehederet (Wonderful Country) is an odd one for Christmas but may work for Chanukah. Featuring a di erent kind of nativity scene, the infant Jesus is visited by three “wise persons” of the West, from Berkeley – who claim Jesus is not Jewish but Palestinian and Muslim.

For more Chanukah specific films, check out Lucy DeVito, Jonah Platt and Sarah Silverman in Menorah in the Middle, which has Sarah returning home to introduce her fiancé, only to discover the family bakery is going m’khuleh (bankrupt). More romantic still and on Hulu is Mistletoe and Menorahs, the tale of the hard-working toy exec who has to learn about Chanukah – fast – to seal the deal with a new account, so he seeks help from a Jewish expert.

If Christmas were a Jewish holiday, the rabbis would have added as many new laws as possible. Such as: “Any species of tree is kosher for use as a Christmas tree, provided it has needles and not leaves.”

On how and when to decorate the tree: “Additional lights are set up around the outside of the home, each according to his own ability. The more lights and

other decorations one sets up, the more praiseworthy he is.”

As for the Christmas meal, the rules would state: “In the evening, a er three stars appear in the sky, the family gathers for the Erev Christmas meal. Opinions di er on what should be served.”

Accompanying the meal would be traditional songs:

“Who knows one? I know one!

One is a partridge in a pear tree Who knows two? I know two! Two are the turtledoves….”

Wishing all our readers a merry 25 December, whatever you celebrate.

Clockwise from far le : Ed Asner as Santa and Will Ferrel as Elf; Menorah In The Middle; Howie Mandel as Gizmo; Mara Wilson in Miracle on 34th Street; the cast of Eretz Nehederet; and Mary as imagined by Joan Rivers

Johnny Marks’ many hits included Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer

It’s good to be part of the Christmas tradition, writes Debbie Collins

We’ve never thought of Red Riding Hood or Goldilocks as typical Jewish females, but that was before they both got a makeover. And no, we’re not talking Botox top-ups and lash extensions. The beloved characters of our childhood stories have been given the panto treatment – Jewish style.

Last year Little Red saw her wolf swapped for a pig when JW3 ventured into the spirit of the season with what was billed as the first Jewish panto. Oy, the excitement at being allowed to participate in such a

Christmas tradition and, let’s face it, Jews are all about tradition. Of course, we all went – and still go – to watch the annual pantos across the capital

and beyond to see such troopers as Julian Clary (starring this year as Robin Hood at the Palladium) or Samantha Womack (Cinderella in St Albans) in sequins and tights. But suddenly we were unwrapping a present of our own – Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Pig.

There’s no need to tell you that it was a hit as the curtain has just risen on this year’s Jewish panto Goldie Frocks and the Bear Mitzvah. Slipping seamlessly from Goldilocks to Goldie, the character who had the temerity to sleep in the most comfortable of the bears’ beds, has now been reimagined as a dressmaker and not just any couturier, but the best in all the land. No surprise then that the evil fashion designer Calvin Brine has kept her trapped in his workshop for all her young life.

The man responsible for this oh-so-Jewish jaunt is playwright Nick Cassenbaum, who also gave us Red last year and he brings a solid background in street performing and a clear love for Jewishisms.

Woodford and learnt Yiddish for a few years in my 20s,” says Nick, who was able to fit in some work at Edinburgh fringe – REVENGE: After the Levoyah – before picking up the panto. “Hearing Yiddish from my parents and grandparents, we used it freely in our community, thinking certain words were common vernacular so I’m not particularly shy of using it in my work.

“Lots of non-Jews came to see the panto last year – people aren’t afraid of learning something new and seeing something not so familiar to them. It’s an all-Jewish cast this year – I think that’s our first port of call because the material is so specific that by having Jewish performers, there’s a level of explaining that doesn’t need to happen. They just lean into certain rhythms and are

Shiderella

“I grew up culturally Jewish in

Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Pig

exceptionally artistic regardless of being Jewish. That said, our director isn’t Jewish but is a panto expert, and neither is our musical director, but he’s devoted his life to Jewish music.

“There’s certainly a democracy in panto – you have to impress people immediately,” says Nick thoughtfully. “I watched a lot of Disney as a kid and loved fairytales like The Three Little Pigs, loving the ‘talking animals’ aspect, which is incorporated into Goldie.”

While the role of the Dame is usually an extroverted male, Debbie Chazen returns as the Dame, only this time instead of Mother Hoodman she is Mama Bear.

“Panto is from my youth and actually what drew me to become an actor,” she says. “It’s got such appeal on so many generational levels, especially for kids who have never experienced any sort of theatre, and I adore the audience participation and the shouting out. However, there are rules –there has to be a goodie, a baddie, a chase scene, a slosh scene – that’s ‘getting messy’. Last year in Red Riding Hood it was water pistols and we had people begging to get soaked. O en there’s a ghost or monster of some sort that takes someone away each time they’re on stage. Nick writes this all in so cleverly.”

comedians Bennett Arron and Mark Maier would argue that the first Jewish panto was their very own Shinderella, which debuted at Muswell Hill Synagogue. “I grew up very Orthodox in the only Jewish family in Port Talbot and was a panto regular as a kid ,” says Aaron.

“Mark and I have been friends forever and o en work together, most recently on Rabbi Santa’s Night of Comedy at the Radlett Centre, now in its seventh year. But a drunken conversation got us into writing Shinderella and that was five or six years ago. But it’s still talked about.”

For all our standing on the sidelines of Christmas traditions, there has been no shortage of Jewish performers headlining in pantos and many of them unexpected. I mean who would expect to see Dynasty diva and superstar Joan Collins as ‘Queen Rat’ in Dick Whittington? “Oh no she wasn’t,” you shout. Well she was at the Birmingham Hippodrome in 2010. And what’s good enough for Alexis was good enough for her fellow Dynasty co-star Emma Samms (I wanted to change my name to ‘Fallon’), playing ‘Fairy Twinkletoes’ in Jack and the Beanstalk in Cheltenham.

From the moment JW3 chief executive Raymond Simonson hu ed and pu ed about blowing the house down with the first Jewish panto we were (Captain) hooked but, without wishing to steal their (cue) thunder, awardwinning writers and

Much-loved Sixties singer and friend of The Beatles Helen Shapiro had a real penchant for panto and notably principal

boy as she played Dick Whittington multiple times, as well as Robin Hood, and did a fabulous turn as the genie in Aladdin

More recently, real-life friends Lesley Joseph and Rob Rinder starred in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs at the Milton Keynes theatre last December and they are back from tomorrow (13 December) at the Theatre Royal Plymouth with Rob reprising his role of the Man in the Mirror. Rob, who makes no secret of his love for a glittery costume, is never more at home than on a stage, but he has also worked out why we have such an a inity with panto.

“I think because, from Jewish religious ritual to Yiddish theatre, community has been at the heart of all performance and panto is the ultimate intergenerational knees-up.

“Pantomime is about families

from every background and age being alongside one another, to enjoy not just as entertainment, but to have a moment of escapism. It’s fun, it’s silly and, above all else, it’s inclusive, and Jewish cultural life is all about that.”

Goldie Frocks and the Bear Mitzvah runs until Sunday 5 January 2025. For tickets: jw3.org.uk/panto

Watch your pickles and greens

DISHING UP EVEN MORE YIDDISHKEIT PANTO this December is Yankl & Der Beanstalk. With an LGBTQ+ twist, Manchester Jewish Museum brings audiences to magical lands including… Hampstead, following Yankl the pickle-seller, who swaps some pickles for beans and grows a beanstalk. As director Samuel Ranger says: “There is no story too serious or deep to be ‘panto-fied’.”

So, for those looking for something di erent this December, including a Christmas Day show when there are perhaps too many cooks and the head chef needs some space, what better way to sit back, boo, hiss and cheer.

Emma Samms

The musical star reclaiming Fagin’s heritage talks to Brigit Grant

Simon Lipkin was at Musical Con when he shared the secret about his kippah. The one that is “halfway between a yarmulke and a smoking hat”, which he wears as Fagin in Oliver! “And it has my Hebrew name embroidered inside.” It’s certainly a kippah par excellence, as is the patchwork coat that Simon would wear with jeans. But donning a Jewish skull cap is about more than a costume choice for Simon, as his portrayal of Dickens’ problematic character is a bold reclamation of Fagin’s Jewish heritage.

“I asked for my name to be in the kippah because it was important to me,” says the actor, keenly aware of the historical baggage. “When I got the part, a lot of people asked if I felt uncomfortable about the antisemitism, and my honest answer is that Fagin being Jewish has got nothing to do with his life choices. Yes, it was written with an antisemitic tone reflecting the times, but Dickens acknowledged that and redacted a lot – taking out the term ‘the Jew’ and replacing it with the name in the second edition. But that was how people

felt and that’s okay – it’s about how we portray him now.”

Famously played by Ron Moody in the 1968 film of Lionel Bart’s musical, Simon’s portrayal of the “receiver of stolen goods” is very diﬀerent. Primarily because he thinks there are two ways to look at what Fagin does in the story. “There’s the way he’s kind of building a criminal underworld using children, and that is true. But the way I see him is as an immigrant who lost his own family and is desperate to create another.

“He cares about the children and wants to provide them with a sense of belonging, to create a tribe, but the only way he knows how is through crime. He can’t change who he is because of his past, but at the end of the show when everything has gone very wrong for a lot of people – as it has for Jews throughout history – he walks oﬀ into the sunset. Not into a happy ending, but with hope.”

Accordingly director and choreographer Matthew Bourne and Cameron Mackintosh, who have reconceived the musical, were “inspiringly supportive” of what Simon thought and said. So much so that the classic Reviewing the Situation no longer shows Fagin stressed, but celebrating.

“It’s wonderful,” smiles Simon. “The band plays a beautiful four bars of this klezmer music, then I just celebrate and dance.”

Simon first saw Oliver! at The London Palladium in 1994 when he was eight, then four years later got to be Fagin at Bancroft School in Woodford Green. Stepping into the role again as an adult feels like a natural progression, although not necessarily a matter of destiny. “No, I was just rubbish at everything else so I didn’t have a choice,” he laughs, reflecting on his path to the stage, which includes handling and being the vocal for puppet Trekkie Monster as part of the original UK cast of Avenue Q

Cameron’s production, which opened first in Chichester, raises the curtain at The Gielgud on 14 December and is currently

booking until September 2025. Simon’s parents, Ruth and Matthew, love the show and, as he signed up for the run, they’ll be popping back. “Hopefully it will go on beyond that,” muses Simon. “The show is deeply personal to Cameron as he had his first assistant manager job with Oliver! and later produced it. He also got the rights back for Lionel and still looks after and does stuﬀ for his family. He cares about Oliver! very, very much.” As does Simon, who recently got engaged to Georgina Castle, who was Regina George in Mean Girls, and is quick to deflect praise, instead highlighting fellow cast members. “Everyone is so talented and brilliant, from the youngest, who I think is nine years old, all the way up to those in their late sixties. It’s a real actor’s show. You have to really commit to this story.”

Simon is 100 percent committed and his “extraordinary stage presence” has been mentioned. But the reviewer @therealchrisparkle, who wrote: “Fagin is totally believable, as much a victim as those from whom he steals”, is the one Simon is most likely to buy a drink for. Simon will be the one in the kippah.

For Oliver! tickets: delfontmackintosh.co.uk

Photo: Johan Persson

Simon Lipkin as Fagin when he was 12

Simon in Avenue Q

Inset: Fagin and Oliver (Jack Philpott) met the King at this year’s Royal Variety Performance

•

A funny thing happened on the way to...

Sitcom writer Gary Sinyor looks back on a year of what they laughingly call

The original headline for this opus was A Year in the Life of Hit Comedy Hapless. Hit comedy, my tuchus, as the Ashkenazim say.

The year 2024 started o positively. British Airways, who initially refused to show Hapless because it didn’t “want to take sides in the war” admitted its error and apologised to “the Jewish community”. The wording was o – because it wasn’t only Jews who complained! But we had just signed a deal with Peacock in the USA, who would stream both series – 14 episodes in total. Things were looking sweet.

Then, I kept running into people in the UK community who had never heard of it. At shul, at parties, even at shivahs. Hapless was on Prime, it had five-star reviews from the Daily Mail and Daily Express, and The Sun called it “painfully funny”. But, despite the praise, it hadn’t even caught a breeze.

In February, I flew to Los Angeles to discuss the US release with the distributor. I landed in the worst rainstorms to hit the City of Angels in decades. It was wetter than Manchester, with roads that couldn’t cope. My phone pinged with urgent government warnings to stay inside. The meetings I had flown over for became Zoom calls I could have had from Finchley. Still, we nailed down a release date, I hired a PR company, and I began exploring a US version with an American cast.

Why a US version for this quintessentially British series? I’d come to the conclusion that the UK’s film and TV world is a wasteland for comedy. My theory goes back to my first film, Leon the Pig Farmer, in 1992, which was turned down by

every distributor before it was made – and even a er it won awards. This doubled down with Hapless, which was rejected by the BBC despite the rave reviews. Rejected at the head of comedy commissioner level, first by Shane Allen, then by Jon Petrie (who had rejected it at C4 too!), and even by the BBC director-general Tim Davie, despite my o ering it to him for a pittance.

They argue it’s their remit to follow their tastes. My reply: when the sitcoms you make pull in incredibly small numbers and get poor reviews, if you’re o ered a well-reviewed series at a low cost, you’re doing a disservice to the British public by refusing to show it. You’re prioritising repeats of Last of the Summer Wine over a modern, challenging sitcom. That’s not what the licence fee is for.

The nub of the problem, of course, is that it’s a comedy with a Jewish character. There are only about 230,000 of us in the UK. If my lead had been Muslim, there’d be millions of potential viewers. Ditto a Black lead. But I didn’t make Hapless for Jews. I made it for the 60 million non-Jews. That’s why the non-Jewish critics loved it.

Sadly, broadcasters are obsessed with making comedies for targeted audiences – BAME writers for BAME viewers, LGBT+ comedies for LGBT+ viewers, menopausal comedies for menopausal women. It’s one reason society is so divided: targeted comedy appealing to tribal groups. They’re wrong. Saying Muslims won’t get British satire or that we have to avoid Islamic jokes isn’t doing anyone any favours. It assumes a monolithic reaction from a community, which is the

comedy

definition of Islamophobia. Fear of a negative reaction from the LGBTQ+ community to gaythemed jokes is homophobia. We shouldn’t pigeon-hole minorities – Jews included – as “humourphobic”. We shouldn’t pander to lobby groups who’ve forgotten the point of satire, which works best when it targets everyone equally.

What would a fearless Spitting Image have made of Yahya Sinwar and Benjamin Netanyahu?

By October, a major earthquake hit the Jewish TV world. Yes, it’s the must-watch, binge-worthy show that no one can remember the name of. Let’s call it The Hot Rabbi Series. A romcom written by Erin Foster with a Jewish lead, played by Adam Brody, it was enjoyed by Jewish women (and men) but also watched by non-Jewish women. It reminds me of Leon the Pig Farmer and the dashing lead Mark Frankel. I’m not saying women only watched because of him, but casting him was key to the film’s success. Now, it’s the Hot Rabbi, the Hot Priest from Fleabag, and soon enough, the Hot Imam and Hot Dalai Lama

ended up with Gina Bellman’s Jewish character, not Maryam D’Abo’s sex bomb – probably why the media establishment hated it.

Jewish friends have watched Hot Rabbi, too, and voiced reservations. I share them. They use the S-word (shiksa) freely—something I would never do. It’s like the N-word for non-Jewish women. Then there’s the scene where Hot Rabbi’s mum secretly eats ham. If this is Hollywood’s take on interfaith relationships, they’re missing the mark. They’ve reduced Judaism to food and tradition, when real Jewish life has far more depth.

funny programmes. This from the head of comedy. I look forward to hearing from the head of drama about making truly dramatic TV. Their new plan is to commission more Welsh, Scottish and Cornish comedies. The audience won’t care where it’s made as long as it’s funny. The way to fix a broken society is to get all the groups laughing at the same thing. It’s time for a comedy revolution. A YouTube comedy channel could bypass the system and bring an end to mediocre sitcoms and non-existent satire.

Hollywood generally has two types of Jews: Liberals who marry out and Chabad. That might reflect the US Jewish experience, but what is Fiddler on the Roof if not a movement from Orthodoxy to Liberalism? Woody Allen’s films? Film a er film features a sexy nonJewish woman falling for the funny, intellectual nebbish. It happens, but it feels idealised, not representative. So, where does that leave our Jewish sisters?

In Leon, I made sure the hero

The US release of Hapless went well, with glowing reviews. Critics even compared it to Curb Your Enthusiasm, but we faced challenges – mainly a lack of star power. Also, there seemed to be limited support from the Jewish community, who were preoccupied with Hamas. The solution isn’t more tours preaching to the converted; it’s making genuinely funny comedy with Jews who engage with the broader community. Jews who care about their traditions but also the world beyond. That’s the US Hapless I’m now working on.

As for the BBC, Jon Petrie has admitted that audiences have not been well served by comedy. He’s now pledging to make genuinely

Making humour in the style of Fawlty Towers isn’t di icult – we just haven’t tried. I watched it again recently before writing my new sitcom Jew free. No, it’s not called Jew Free... that would be ridiculous. It simply is Jew free. Trying to get the UK’s 70 million (including Jews) to laugh together is more important to me than pandering to the Jewish community.

A er Leon and Hapless, it’s clear that the UK will only allow neurotic American Jews, hot Jews, or Liberal Jews. Holocaust stories are fine, but Israeli Jews with guns won’t be seen again for some time. That leaves the issues we face in the hands of the same broadcasters, writers and commentators who got us here in the first place.

Mazeltov on that.

Writer and director Gary Sinyor with actor David Berry on the set of Hapless

A scene from the second series of Hapless A scene from Leon the Pig Farmer

Jeany Spark and Tim Downie in Hapless Bell and Brody in Nobody Wants This

JENNI FRAZER MEETS THE CAKE HEIRESS WHO TURNED CHALLAH INTO ART

Traditionally,” says artist and ﬁlmmaker Danielle Durchslag, with a grin, “challah does not want to be a hat.”

But the joyful Danielle has made an exception for her newest art project, the Sabbath Queen, in which she has styled herself into a jaw-dropping version of Queen Elizabeth I, with a magniﬁcent challah headdress to represent the monared hair of the monarch.

New York-based and Chicago-raised Danielle is quite the phenomenon. Fiercely, and secularly, Jewish in every aspect of her identity – and happily married to a Muslim man – she is the antithesis of a starving artist in a garret. This is because on one side of her family there is great wealth, derived from her great-grandfather Nathan Cummings, who, in 1935, bought an iconic company that became Sara Lee Cakes.

Sara Lee became the calling card of

American convenience desserts, even inspiring a love song to cake for a commercial, written by Kander and Ebb, the great composers of Cabaret.

Even though Sara Lee itself became the focus of many commercial takeovers and buyouts, the cake heritage enabled Danielle to practise her art, which is inventive, playful and creative. She has said that “without the money I have, I wouldn’t be able to create the art I do; and also, in America, if you’re making work that has any challenging content about Jewish life, it’s basically impossible to get funding from Jewish institutions. So I’m doubly lucky”.

Jewish institutions. So I’m doubly lucky”.

One of her early projects was an answer to New York’s famous Easter Parade in which it became traditional to wear specially designed – and frequently overthe-top – Easter bonnets. Why, thought Danielle, shouldn’t there be a way for Jews to participate on their own terms in the Easter Parade? Thus was born her Seder Bonnet, with the aim of “bringing Jews into a public space, as celebrants”. The unashamedly Jewish headgear was an instant and popular hit on the streets of New York – bringing Danielle plaudits from Jews and non-Jews alike. She’s also transformed herself into a magniﬁcent Elizabeth Taylor, and even dressed up as a mechitza divider in a synagogue to separate men and women.

The Seder Bonnet was just the start of Danielle’s

The artist as herself

mild hat obsession, which she says began with an entire hat wardrobe belonging to her grandmother. “I discovered these during a less-than-sanctioned exploration of her closet when I was a little girl. I said, ‘What are these?’ One was covered in coins, one had embroidered swans with a dramatic veil. And she said, ‘Oh, no one wears these any more, I used to wear them on airplanes.’”

Danielle asked her grandmother to give the hats to her if she ever thought of getting rid of them. They sit in Danielle’s apartment today, a source of inspiration for her various art works.

But back to Elizabeth I and that headdress. If there is a running theme connecting Danielle’s art, she says, “the thing I really insist on is joy and comedy, both for myself and hopefully for my audience”.

While looking at 16th-century portraits of the queen, the artist suddenly realised that the shape and “undulation” of the sleeves resembled challah. This made her laugh, but then she turned her attention to Elizabeth’s hair.

“It took me three months to ﬁgure out how to construct the headpiece. Even though it looks like a single piece of challah, it is actually dozens of individual pieces from different bakeries around New York. As you know, challah can be different colours depending on the recipe, and I wanted [the headdress] to have differences to represent the subtleties of colour in real hair”.

To pick out the right challah for her queen, Danielle began visiting bakeries in Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens, then she ﬁgured out how to apply resin to the different pieces and somehow weld them together. To retain the shine of the bread she re-resins the structure every couple of months, but so far her imperious Shabbat Queen has only had one outing – at the conclusion of the Jewish Currents

annual conference in New York.

“One of the lovely things that came out of this is that when you go to bakeries repeatedly, and buy between six and 12 challahs, on the third or fourth visit they have questions for you. I would tell them I am just very passionate about Shabbat – because I felt that telling them I was making a headdress based on the aesthetics of Elizabeth I seemed like a lot for that kind of conversation!”

There was no question of making her own challah, not least because she claims to be “a very bad baker”. But she adds: “I am fascinated by challenging materials that already exist into a place that’s beyond what we think they do.”

For the bodice and sleeves of the queen’s dress, Danielle used challah covers. A recurring part of her work, she says, is how Jews mimic the styles and behaviours of the non-Jewish world. She believes the newly-rich Jews of the 20th century

took their cues as to how to behave from their white Anglo-Saxon Protestant counterparts. “I joke and say, ‘Oh, our angora was softer, our pearls whiter, our wood darker… we really borrowed and emulated rituals from people who didn’t want Jews in their echelon.”

In a similar way, she says, “Jewish ritual objects – particularly in Ashkenazi life, which is what I can speak to – tend to copy the aesthetics of Christian royalty.” Jewish museums worldwide display candlesticks and Kiddush cups styled after what royal families use, she says. “Once I went into a strictly-Orthodox store here in New York that sold only Shabbat ﬁnery. And the tables were dressed as though for a king and queen. So the challah covers I used were right at home with the Tudor-inspired embroidery I designed, the Tudor rose, obviously, and its pearl adornments.”

The character of Elizabeth, Danielle says, “is my comedic critique of right-

wing Jewish power” – and, indeed, when we meet her, the queen, borne aloft by a crack team of Broadway male dancers – is ﬂaying her audience with tongue-incheek satire and royal irony.

“This is a character who is haughty and imperious and intolerant – and when I performed as her I was communicating all those traits to the audience, through jokes”. Absent from Elizabeth’s side is her Jewish doctor, Roderigo Lopes, whom the real queen had executed for his alleged attempt to poison her. Danielle says she considered using him but decided against it because scholars are still arguing, centuries later, about whether he was guilty or innocent.

But she does admit that disagreement is central to Jewish life and believes that it should “not only be allowed, but celebrated. I was brought up being told that we [Jews] are angel wrestlers – we are presented with tough questions, and we engage with them”.

presented with tough questions, and we them”.

effort: just her make-up takes between Broadway dancers there are 15 people

Her Challah Diva is a massive team effort: just her make-up takes between two and three hours, and including the Broadway dancers there are 15 people involved in getting the Shabbat Queen on her feet.

Lee to challah – is not just a central of

We agree that food – from Sara Lee to challah – is not just a central expression of Jewish life, but a central expression of Danielle’s art. With great glee, she tells me her next project will be the Pesach punk. “She is heavily inspired by the aesthetics of the punk movement, speciﬁcally in London, right at the beginning of punk fashion. I’m playing around with the idea of a matzah print and using it instead of a leopard print. And she will sport an enormous Mohawk hairstyle”.

I just hope it’s edible, in keeping with Danielle’s alter ego as Foodie Queen of Art.

Elizabeth I

Sabbath Queen

Danielle as Elizabeth I is held alo by Broadway dancers

Challah fit for a queen

the newly-rich Jews of the 20th century

OF LIFE Rhythm

BEING ISRAELI DIDN’T STOP THE CHEERS WHEN RONI SAGI AND HER DOG

APPEARED ON AMERICA’S GOT TALENT . ON THE CONTRARY, THE PAIR WENT VIRAL AND ARE NOW COVER STARS. BY BRIGIT GRANT

Simon Cowell is furtive about many things, but not about his love for the four-legged and furry. A supporter of the RSPCA and Battersea, Cowell has always been more receptive to auditions by hopeful hounds than humans, and we knew who he was rooting for when fluffy Pudsy won Britain’s Got Talent in 2012. UK audiences love animal acts and it’s the same across the pond – but this summer on America’s Got Talent a dog danced to California Dreamin’ and a star was born.

That dog is Rhythm, and he moved in perfect sync with eyes ﬁxed on partner Roni as he leapt, ﬂipped and cross stepped to the beat. Both audience and judges were on their feet cheering, with Cowell confessing he had fallen in

love and Sofía Vergara wanting to buy the dazzling Border Collie.

But Rhythm is not for sale and never will be, as the canine equivalent of Nureyev belongs to Roni Sagi, a dog trainer from Israel who is as devoted to him as he is to her. Roni, 32, from Kfar Saba taught Rhythm everything he knows and believes all dogs have the same dance potential, which she proves

Photographs by Moses Pini Siluk

self-explanatory and inherited from her musician mother, Galia, who has always homed strays.

with Keta Tov, the online home of her oversubscribed training courses.

Soft voiced, almost dove-like, Roni has a connection with dogs that is

Roni and her sister Sol were born in Hong Kong, where their father Moshe had a business, but he agreed to commute when Galia wanted to move back to Israel – and then came the dogs. “I was six when I woke up to ﬁnd the dog I’d always wanted,” says Roni, who named it Levana (white). “My Mom has a very big heart and wasn’t allowed dogs as a child, so when we left Hong Kong and had to give away our dog there was a missing piece of the puzzle.”

Roni ran and played with Levana but, bored by her ofﬁce job aged 25, she returned to her passion and became a dog trainer and therapist and then discovered dog dancing. “No one taught it in Israel, so I learnt online for two years,” says Roni, who then tried teaching moves to three of her dogs, one of whom, Blondie, died a few months ago. All were good students, but Roni was searching for a special dog. A dog who would be energised by a certain song and move to a tempo. That dog was Rhythm, who was born in Poland

in 2022. On the recommendation of a trusted friend, who did a character examination, Roni’s ﬁrst meeting with the ﬁve-month-old pup was at Ben Gurion airport. And he already had a name. “I have a very strong belief in manifesting what you want and the breeder organised the litter by letters and he was ‘R’ – we were always going to have a special connection.”

To be clear, the full name of Roni’s dance partner is Rhythm Makes My Heart Go Wow – “Because I want that to be everyone’s reaction when they see him dance,” says his proud teacher, who played multiple songs before choosing Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody for the America’s Got Talent quarter ﬁnal.

By then, the pair had two billion clicks on social media and Simon’s 10-year-old son Eric – whose mother is Lauren Silverman – had asked to meet Rhythm. “If I can make another kid happy...” chimes Roni. “I don’t think the judges were paying him more attention than the other contestants, but because he can’t answer when they talk to him, they just kept going.”

It was on that night that judge Howie Mandel referenced the deteriorating health of Roni’s father and, after the high scores that took them to the ﬁnal, Roni asked a friend in Israel to show a recording of the dance to her dad.

“I knew his situation was getting worse and he could not react to me, but I wanted him to see we did our best.”

During their ﬁnal dance, to Alessia Cara’s Scars To Your Beautiful, Roni’s sister watched from the wings.

“For the ﬁrst time in my life, I was really nervous,” admits Roni. “We do lots of competitions in other countries, but I never knew if Rhythm would be

able to perform on TV with all the chaos and in front of so many. I just trusted him.”

On cue, Rhythm joins our Zoom call. He of the lustrous coat maintained by an athlete’s diet of measured protein and supplements has jumped on to the table and put his head against Roni’s.

“When it came to the ﬁnal result, I was holding Rhythm and crying. I couldn’t understand why I felt so bad and not feeling amazing to be in the top ﬁve.”

Singer Richard Goodall won the show, with Roni and Rhythm in second place but, as she left the stage, Roni saw her sister’s face and knew the worst had happened. “I wanted to congratulate Richard, but I was sobbing and people who saw me said, ‘Second place is amazing.’ All I was thinking was my dad is dead. For a moment it felt like everything was being taken away, but it wasn’t about winning or the million-dollar prize as that was never mine. My father was.”

Obviously offers have been pouring in for Rhythm, but the pair come as a package and, for Roni, collaborations are about shared values. “I already think of myself as the luckiest person in the world because I do the thing I love with the creature I love most, so it isn’t about who can pay the most. Anything we do will come from a good place to beneﬁt dogs or humanity in general as it’s not about being famous.”

But they are both famous and Roni is chuffed that she is recognised in Israel without her sidekick while he can’t go anywhere without shouts of “oh, my God, it’s Rhythm, whoah!” So much has happened since Roni returned to Israel on 5 October from a European

Above and top: Little Roni with the stray dogs to whom her mother Galia gave a home

dog show championship. “I was full of ideas about teaching seminars around the world, then two days later, what the hell? Then we were at war.”

Had the Nova festival happened a few years ago when Roni was still partying with her peers, she would have been there dancing and she feels blessed that her friends who were there survived.

“Friends of friends and their family were murdered – it’s devastating. But it’s not like, ‘Oh, it happened to them.’ Just because we weren’t physically there

doesn’t mean it didn’t happen to us. Israel is so small, it happened to us all.”

A week into the war, while hiding in a safe with her friend, a new mother to twins, Roni lost vision in her left eye and for three months could only see black. A known medical reaction to stressful situations, she stopped listening to the news, fearing she would lose sight in both eyes. In the midst of all the sirens and casualties, Roni got the call from America’s Got Talent to confirm her audition in Los Angeles.

“I didn’t know what to do, but asked myself the existential question – if I died tomorrow what would my legacy be? I realised I needed to leave behind something beautiful to let people know that sometimes love is enough; that’s what I share with Rhythm and I wanted the world to see to see him dance.”

Roni’s sight is fully restored and she will be bringing Rhythm to Crufts in March to compete in the Freestyle International – a first for Israel in this

category. An excited and undaunted Roni says: “Even though times are hard we will make it.” Her trust in her homeland, like her trust in Rhythm, is incontestable. “Before we perform, I kiss him and tell him ‘you can do it’ and if it isn’t perfect it doesn’t matter, we can improve as we go. The most important thing is that he wants to be there with me.”

• For Roni’s dog dancing lessons visit: ketatov.com

Being vertically challenged (5 2in) is seldom an issue unless I’m at the back of a standing-only concert or crowded li . Both can be handled with dignity and even top shelves in supermarkets are conquerable, but walking beside a glamorous 5 7 blonde triggers height envy in a short brunette.

That was my experience 25 years ago, when I was doing four steps for every one Caprice took, as her head-turning beauty left Soho spinning. As flawless in person as she was on the covers of Vogue , FHM and countless other titles, an appreciative builder craned his neck so far he almost fell out a window.

If we took that stroll today, the reaction would be the same – I haven’t grown and she still looks incredible, but wolf whistles of admiration? Totally o -limits. But we should admire Caprice Bourret – the LA-born model known by her first name alone – as her reinvention is nothing short of impressive. From darling of the lads’ mags to Hollywood bit-parts, reality TV star, then founder of her own successful homeware range and a lingerie brand (she models herself) at 53.Caprice is a survivor.

Why would a nice Jewish girl make a

Producer Caprice chats to Brigit Grant about her new approach to life and the rabbi she calls ‘Babes’

Overused in recent years, the term truly resonates with Caprice, as seven years ago she survived gruelling surgery to remove a brain tumour. The shocking diagnosis and her subsequent recovery made the mother of two re-evaluate her life, which led to more family time, more charitable work and, now, producing as well as starring in the film A European Christmas So even though we’ve not spoken for

two decades, my first question had to be:

“Why would a nice Jewish girl as first-time producer make a Christmas movie?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” she laughs. “Christmas sells. I wanted to be a producer and I love all the creativity of the job, but it’s also about making money, and who doesn’t love a Christmas film? Everyone is jumping on the bandwagon as it’s not just Hallmark making those films anymore. Channel Five

has been showing Christmas movies every day since November.”

Channel Five is where to find A European Christmas, in which Caprice plays Ivy, a failing director of festive films who, while searching for a new star, finds romance in snowy Serbia.

Appearing briefly in Hollyoaks and a Roger Moore thriller, Caprice always longed for meatier acting roles. “But I was stereotyped or never asked, and I’d be the first to admit I did some really crap reality shows.”

Sheepishly, I tell her I rather enjoyed the catfighting in Bravo TV’s Ladies of London, which she quit in season one.

“Poor you!” she sympathises with a frown. “Isn’t the world we’re living in toxic enough? I don’t want to do toxic programming and I’m fortunate enough to be able to pick and choose. I choose to deliver feelgood movies.”

I tell her my late mother was all about feel-good films, only watching musicals and classic romance.

“She was right,” smiles Caprice. “They are good for the soul.”

“Like chicken soup?” I volunteer, as we are getting on so famously, and she feels comfortable enough to confess that she can’t

Producer Caprice on the snowy Serbian set of A European Christmas

make chicken soup and is a terrible cook, but her mum’s brisket is so good. “It’s not even normal. All my family are great cooks except for me, so I simply tell my kids you’ve got to take the good with the bad.”

And there’s a lot of good this month

as Jett and Jax, her sons with financier husband Ty Comfort, get to celebrate Chanukah and Christmas in equal measure. “Which we didn’t do until three years ago when the boys were older and felt they were missing out. Now we have Santa stu everywhere, but they still get more excited about Chanukah –sadly for the presents only.”

Shooting starts on Caprice’s next Christmas film – “it’s a slam dunk” – in January in Scotland, which she hopes will be snowy as she doesn’t have the budget for the fake kind. But a er so much Chanukah chat, has she not considered producing and being the Jewish star in a menorah-laden movie?

“I did look into it, but it’s a bit risky for someone as green to this as me, so I’m doing it slowly and the next film has a scene in a room decked out with Christmas trees, but there also a menorah and it’s not hidden.”

Not content with only a chanukiah among the ferns, when filming begins in Scotland there will be a mezuzah on the door of every house on the set.

These admirable and somewhat brave prop additions are what the producer wants, and are very much in keeping with the schleps she makes her family do on Shabbat from their home in Notting Hill to the Jewish Leadership Exchange (JLE) in Golders Green. That’s where Caprice has found the services she likes, as do her sons and where she calls the CEO ‘Rabbi Babes’. “He makes fun of me because I call everyone ‘babes’ but I love the JLE as it’s small but growing and attracts young people who don’t want to go to shul.”

is excited, according to Caprice. “He’s very business for goodness sake and he said ‘I

‘Rabbi Babes’, aka Rabbi Benjy Morgan, does know about the Christmas film and is excited, according to Caprice. “He’s very cool, very modern, and I told him it’s about business for goodness sake and he said ‘I get it.’ But it’s also my small way of unifying people. So many Christians have stuck up

people. So many Christians have stuck up for us since the war began.”

Caprice also wants to see Israel promoted more – “like Dubai is,” she says. “Promote the fact that Israel is the most amazing place to visit and welcomes everyone.”

On a visit to Israel four months ago, attacked on October 7. “I saw what those the families. I also watched the 47-minute

On a visit to Israel four months ago, Caprice went to Kibbutz Be’eri, which was attacked on October 7. “I saw what those freakin’ monsters did and met with some of the families. I also watched the 47-minute movie of the Hamas atrocities and have

As a proud Jew and equally proud Zionist,

At a dinner with President Isaac Herzog, Douglas Murray was also a guest. “And I was struck by his answer when someone asked him, as a non-Jew, to recommend what we should do? He said we need to stop being so silent as he has spoken up more for us than we do ourselves.”

horrible dreams about what I saw.”

Conversations with ‘Rabbi Babes’ have also convinced Caprice that from something so bad has come good. “I’ve never felt closer to my community, appreciated it more or fought for it more and that’s true for a lot of my friends. We need to let people in to see how wonderful our community is and, if they want to join us, invite them, as we’re very closed o and make it so di icult. But I guess that’s what makes us special.”

‘Special’ is another overused word, but feels true of Caprice, who tells me as we reach the end of our chat: “Whatever happened is what Hashem wanted for us. It teaches us resilience. We are survivors.”

To this short brunette she had never looked taller.

A European Christmas is available to view on Channel 5

Caprice and her husband, Ty Comfort

Caprice at the Nova festival memorial, Israel

Real snow as Caprice has no budget for the faux kind

Christmas as created by the Jewish producer and star for her film

OUT BUT NOT DOWN

THIS CHAMPION BOXER WHO FLED UKRAINE IS BACK IN THE FIGHT THANKS TO WORLD

JEWISH RELIEF, SAYS JENNI FRAZER

We are inside what is, for me, unfamiliar territory – a boxing gym in the Sheffield suburb of Darnall, home to a large Muslim population. About 30 small boys (and one little girl dressed in headto-toe Barbie pink) are jumping in star shapes, practising sit-ups, or vigorously hitting punchbags suspended from the ceiling.

There’s another group of slightly older teens in the corner, mooching about in time-honoured adolescent fashion.

Then the man they’ve all been waiting for strides in. Oleksandr Pohodin. This is his gym and he was a prize-winning boxer in his home town of Chernivtsi, south-west Ukraine. He simply oozes

As for the fathers who hang around the doors of the gym – they are one big grin of admiration.

Yes, one father tells me, they love Oleksandr, 34, and what he is doing for their sons (and a couple of daughters).

The journey from Chernivtsi to Sheﬀield is not a straightforward one, but it has taken place with the help of World Jewish Relief (WJR) and its groundbreaking STEP programme.

When Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, millions of Ukrainian civilians were forced to flee their homes.

Many of them came to Britain, and it is estimated that by March 2023 there were 170,000 Ukrainians who arrived in the UK in this new wave of immigration, joining a robust Ukrainian population who had

charisma and all the kids, young and old, pay attention as he tells them what the training programme will be for the evening.

But the new arrivals had huge problems that, in many cases, the government farmed out to specialist agencies to tackle. Foremost among these diﬀiculties was limited English proficiency, which prevented access to decent employment and the ability to resettle in Britain.

WJR is, of course, the successor organisation to the Central British Fund, which brought large numbers of Jewish children and adults to the UK as they fled the horrors of the Holocaust.

a robust Ukrainian population who had been here for many years. and adults work of helping people

in distress, but always in the most practical way possible. Recognising the challenges of absorbing the Ukrainians successfully, in August 2023 WJR launched its STEP Ukraine programme to provide them with intensive English language and employment training.

STEP Ukraine, run by WJR in partnership with the British Council and funded by the UK government, has become Britain’s largest employment programme for Ukrainians displaced by war. In one year, more than 10,000 people have taken part in the programme, and around 1,000 of them have already secured meaningful employment.

Oleksandr is one of the many successful STEP Ukraine graduates. Three months of English sessions gave him the language skills and confidence he needed to start his own business.

By coincidence, Oleksandr’s hometown of Chernivtsi, once known as Chernowitz, had a prewar population that was a quarter Jewish. All of Oleksandr’s father’s schoolteachers were Jewish, so he is familiar with the community.

The present-day WJR has built on its historic work of helping people

He also had a dedicated employment adviser supporting him in the development of his business plan.

Oleksandr has lived in Britain for just over two and a half years. He is married with four children aged between five and 15 – and, when we met, his wife was expecting their fifth child. Ukraine has become famous for producing worldclass fighters and Oleksandr won 126 of his 149 fights, and had his own gym in his home town. But he also has a degree in political science and worked in government as the director of sports of all kinds and activities for young people in the region. Although it comprises more than a million people, it is the smallest region in Ukraine. As we speak, his work with young people makes complete sense: he has a natural aﬀinity with children and teenagers, understanding

Oleksandr Pohodin, who fled the war in Ukraine, has opened a gym in Sheﬀield

Oleksandr has more than 70 children at his gym

BOXING

how to build their confidence and encourage them.

On our way to his gym, he stops the car to speak to a young boy of about 10, dressed in traditional white and clearly not headed for exercise. Why, Oleksandr asks the boy, was he not coming to training? The boy wriggles, and then says his father wanted him to go to the mosque that evening. Oleksandr nods, then says, “Okay, go to the mosque tonight, but I will want to see you Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, right?” Without a doubt, the boy will be there. Some nights, Oleksandr says, there are as many as 70, so popular are his classes.

Sheﬀield and Ukraine were linked long before the war. The Yorkshire city has been twinned with the city of Donetsk, also a steel town, since 1956.

Oleksandr and his family lived a comfortable life in Chernivtsi but, as Russia began to attack, the raids centred on the local airport – just 100 metres from the family’s apartment building –and were too close for comfort.

“My wife started to have panic attacks when the sirens went oﬀ,” Oleksandr tells me. Sometimes there were alarms multiple times a night and they would have to rush for shelter with the children.

At this point the couple decided it was time to remove themselves – even if that were to be a temporary solution.

Oleksandr has a strong social media presence, and he saw the Homes for Ukraine programme advertised online.

He began trying to source a new location for his family, initially in London – he hadn’t thought of Sheﬀield at that

point. A successful online conversation with some people in London almost brought him to the capital, but the plan fell through when the potential British hosts oﬀered a home to Ukrainians who were more strongly under attack than Oleksandr and his family.

Oleksandr was exempt from army service because he had more than three

children. When shops and businesses in Chernivtsi began to close, with no state benefits the couple had to sell their car in order to live. Leaving Ukraine became much more pressing.

Oleksandr had already – with the help of someone in the UK – completed the necessary paperwork and so the family left Ukraine and went to Sheﬀield.

Both Oleksandr and his wife, who was a director in insurance, took jobs far below their skill set when they arrived. His wife began working as a cleaner, while he volunteered at Sheﬀield City Boxing Club, where the head coach was Brendan Warburton, who was appointed MBE in 2022 for his work with disadvantaged young people.

Brendan encouraged Oleksandr, giving him cleaning and security work and doing some coaching. Right from the oﬀ, the young Ukrainian told him: “If I stay, I want to open my own academy”.

Oleksandr knew he couldn’t do anything without improving his English –and this is where STEP Ukraine came in.

Three months of intensive lessons gave him the confidence to open his own gym in May. If his English is not yet top-notch, it’s certainly good enough for him to make himself understood by the heroworshipping Darnall kids who throng the gym. STEP Ukraine also showed him how to create a business plan and provided a mentor to help him launch his training academy. Brendan helped him to buy some of the equipment.

In an ante-room of the gym sits a member of the Sheﬀield Jewish community, Dr Maurice Mann, who provides the constant medical checks necessary for the trainees. He tells me: “Professional boxing is showbusiness with blood.”

Few, if any, of the little children crowded around Oleksandr Pohodin are likely to become professional boxers. But they will undoubtedly benefit from his calm leadership and determination to do well in Sheﬀield. His is an unexpected success story in the fallout from the war in Ukraine – and the human face of World Jewish Relief’s work.

Oleksandr with his wife and three of their children, pictured in London. They had to take jobs below their skill set on arrival in the UK

Oleksandr’s boxing classes are hugely popular and help to build up children’s confidence

Oleksandr (left) with Brendan Warburton of Sheffield City Boxing Club

“We

- Kieran’s Mum

Kieran was born without ears and profoundly deaf, due to a rare condition.

His parents were heartbroken and overwhelmed, unsure how to navigate his future until they found JDA. Giving them expert guidance and holding their hands every step of the way, JDA showed them that, even without ears, Kieran could have hearing aids and enjoy life, like any other deaf child.

At age 11, Kieran’s dream came true. Through pioneering surgery, he received the ears he had always wanted. Seeing his face light up in the mirror for the first time was unforgettable!

Now 19, Kieran is honoured to serve in the Israeli Navy. His parents couldn’t be prouder of their son, nor more grateful to JDA for their ongoing support.

•

The Day After

Eyal Waldman, whose daughter was killed on October 7, tells Candice Krieger why he is disappointed in the government and calling for lasting co-existence

Prominent Israeli entrepreneur

Eyal Waldman, whose daughter Danielle was killed on October 7, hopes to see a change in government and the peaceful coexistence of Israelis and Palestinians, but this, he says, is for “the day after”. His immediate focus is on bringing back all of the remaining hostages taken during that catastrophic day.

Eyal, one of the most respected entrepreneurs in Israeli high-tech, is the co-founder of Mellanox Technologies, a semi-conductor company that was bought by Nvidia in 2020 for more than $7 billion (£6bn).

“We still have 101 hostages being

held and it’s not over until all of these hostages are brought home,” he says.

“This is our number one priority and we need to focus 100 percent on that.

After we bring them back and eliminate Hamas, then we need to work out how to build back Gaza and establish the right government to ensure we can have a peaceful neighbouring state and a sustainable and stable environment.”

A critic of Benjamin Netanyahu, Eyal has made no secret of his disapproval of the Israeli government, particularly regarding its policies and actions that he deems detrimental to the country’s tech industry. A few days after October 7, Eyal uploaded a photo of Netanyahu

to Facebook with a bloodied handprint on his face, and asked everyone to share it. He posted: “Every additional day that this person sits in his chair, all parties will suffer.” Just days earlier, he had found out that Danielle, 24, and her boyfriend Noam Shay had been murdered by Hamas at the Nova musical festival.

Earlier this year, Eyal, 64, was awarded the Israel Prize for Entrepreneurship and Technological Innovation – Israel’s highest civilian honour, but the award sparked controversy.

Eyal found out that the Minister of Education, Yoav Kisch, had attempted to block the award intended for him, causing widespread backlash. Kisch had planned to restrict the prize ceremony to only the heroism and mutual responsibility category. This led to a public outcry, a Supreme Court petition, and Eyal’s fight to challenge the decision, which

he viewed as “political manipulation”.

After significant pressure, including testimonies from Eyal and his advocacy for proper governance, Kisch withdrew his opposition, allowing Eyal to receive the award, which he did in honour of Danielle.

‘We still have 101 hostages being held and it’s not over until all of these hostages are brought home’

He said: “I think Danielle would have been very proud of me winning this campaign and would definitely have supported me. She was the kind of girl who didn’t give up on what she believed in. She was a fighter.” Danielle and Eyal enjoyed taking part in sports together. He is a keen skier, scuba diver and wakesurfer. “I did all those things with Danielle, and also horse riding. Everything I did, and her older brother and sister did, she joined. She was amazing in all those sports.”

Eyal was in Indonesia on October 7 when he found out about the terror

INTERVIEW

attack in southern Israel, where Danielle (pictured right with Eyal and inset) and Noam were at the Nova music festival. Initially, Danielle messaged to say they were safe, but about 35 minutes later, the family received a distress call pinpointing her phone location.

Eyal immediately flew back to Tel Aviv and enlisted the help of an Israeli army general to enter a dangerous area in search of his daughter. He eventually found the couple’s bullet-riddled car at the location of the phone’s signal, having realised they had been shot during the terror attack. It was later confirmed that their bodies were among the casualties identified from the violence.

Her father is widely regarded as a leading figure among Israel’s tech ecosystem. An electrical engineer, in 1993 he founded the chip company Galileo, issued it on the Nasdaq and left shortly before it was sold to the American company Marvel for about $2.7 billion. He started Mellanox in 1999 and has since served as the company’s CEO, chairman and president. He left shortly after its sale to Nvidia. Today, he is the chairman of Waldo Holdings, a family office that invests in private and public companies, funds, real estate and other financial platforms and vehicles.

He has invested in more than 40 businesses and is actively involved in Speedata, Pliops, AIRIS Labs and Ar-51.

Does he worry about Israel’s position as a tech powerhouse amid the war? “With Bibi as prime minister I am worried about all aspects of the country. I think he’s lost it – ﬁring the minister of defence [Yoav Gallant] in the middle of a war and the person who was co-ordinating with the US and the rest of our allies is unacceptable.”

As for the new defence minister, Israel Katz, Eyal says: “He is deﬁnitely not the right guy. I count on the army to do the right thing and I don’t think they will let Katz impact our defence.”

economy is robust and resilient. Yes,

exchange and the shekel-dollar exchange rate is not collapsing in the same way you see in Iran. Our exchange rate is pretty robust. Sometimes we don’t even understand how it’s so robust!”

He adds: “Over the next ﬁve to 10 years, defence budgets around the world will double or triple, and Israel is very strong when it comes to defence and military technology. Investors will continue to invest in Israel for the right products. High-tech will be the number one element that keeps the economy robust and defence the second.”

He adds: “Over the next ﬁve to 10 years, technology. Investors will continue to products. High-tech will

‘With Bibi as prime minister I am worried about all aspects of the country. I think he’s lost it’

can work together ‘the day after’ for Gaza. We are very fortunate to have the Abraham Accords and to have peace with Jordan and Egypt and need to make it stronger. Those four countries, together with the Saudis, will make ‘the day after’ work and take responsibility, along with the US and other European countries, for securing the transformation of Gaza. We are already working on this.”

The downgrading of Israel’s credit score since the war is likely to impact the country’s banking systems and bonds in a signiﬁcant way. “We will have to pay tens of billions more to cover our debt.

Many have called for Eyal to take his public activity further and go into politics. Would he? “There are people who want me to. I hope there are enough good people so that I don’t need to but if not, maybe I would consider it.”

He is, however, not too concerned about Israel’s economy. “The Israeli economy is robust and resilient. Yes, SMEs are having issues but, overall, the economy and the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) are not suffering. The TASE is roughly tracking the US stock

Exchange (TASE) are not suffering. The

ﬁnance [Bezalel Smotrich] and that we will be able to get our cares about, such as supporting

“I hope we change the government and the minister of ﬁnance [Bezalel Smotrich] and that we will be able to get our credit score higher. I think the minister is clueless and tries to use the budget for what he cares about, such as supporting settlers in the West Bank.”

Eyal says he is still hearing hopeful noises about the Abraham Accords. “I am in touch with both Bahrain and the Emirates and how we

Abraham Accords. “I am in touch with both Bahrain and the Emirates and how we

Speedata, Pliops, AIRIS Labs

Eyal received the Israel Prize for Entrepreneurship and Technological Innovation

Beila

THE SURVIVOR SCHOOL

LESS THAN TWO MILES FROM THE GAZA BORDER, SAPIR COLLEGE LOST 47 OF ITS STAFF AND STUDENTS ON OCTOBER 7. BUT TRAGEDY WILL NOT DEFINE ITS FUTURE. BY JENNI FRAZER

We are only a few minutes into our Zoom interview when Professor Nir Kedar’s screen goes dark and, apologetically, he says there are sirens and he needs to run to a shelter.

This is the sad reality of life in Israel today – but the remarkable upside is that Nir, the president of Sapir Academic College in the south of the country, remains relentlessly positive

–and, even more than that, determined to rebuild and extend the institution.

For most people it might be an uphill struggle, but Nir is not most people. A law professor who has been president of Sapir for just over two years, the 56-year-

old is a blizzard of facts and ﬁgures, the content of which, I am left in no doubt, he made clear to the government in the ﬁrst chaotic days after October 7.

Sapir, whose campus is less than two miles from the Gaza border, is not just the only academic institution in the surrounding area, but also the region’s biggest employer.

But on October 7 2023, Nir was nowhere near. He was in Quebec, where something woke him in the middle of the night and he looked at his phone and discovered disaster had overtaken the country.

Unable to get a ﬂight back from Montreal for two days, Nir spent that time in a frantic series of calls and texts, trying to ﬁnd out what had happened to his staff and the faculty.

“I also wanted to know about my students. So I called the head of the student association, but she was in Sri Lanka”. The two Israelis put together a ﬁrst desperate list of all those who lived in student villages in the nearby kibbutzim, and began calling.

“Some didn’t answer; some said they could not talk, only text, since they had to be silent as there were still terrorists outside. Some had already been murdered. And we [Nir and the student leader] created some kind of information centre in the chaos of those ﬁrst few days”.

Nir was shocked to learn of the death of a close friend and colleague, Ofir Libstein, mayor of the Sha’ar Hanegev regional council, where the college is situated. “He was a member of the Sapir board, he came to weekly meetings…” Ofir had been killed in fighting at Kibbutz Kfar Aza on October 7, but his was only the first name Nir recognised, as more and more bad news came rolling in, of deaths and kidnappings.

In those ﬁrst terrible hours, Nir sat in his hotel room making calls and sending hundreds of texts in an effort to understand what was going on. Some people were still observing Shabbat and Simchat Torah and did not respond; others were hiding in shelters.

Eventually Nir learned that 270

ProfessorNirKedar

staff and faculty members and 1,200 students had been evacuated. “It was awful”, he says, simply, “and we had to figure out how to deal with it.”

In ‘normal’ times, Sapir had up to 8,000 students studying a variety of courses, from a thriving engineering faculty, a law faculty and a wellregarded film school.

Nir finally got back to Israel on October 10 and realised the monumental task ahead of him. As bodies were still being identified from the kibbutz and Sderot attacks, more and more names were added to the Sapir database of the murdered, injured, kidnapped and evacuated.

Not the least of the problems was that Sapir had been placed in a no-entry military zone by the army and there was no electricity on the campus. Nir sent staffers to start generators in one of the buildings so he and his colleagues could continue with the vital work of creating a definitive database of what had happened to everyone.

“The news kept coming” about the dead and casualties, says Nir. One member of staff, Lishay Miran Lavi, is Sapir’s director of pre-academic programmes. She and her husband Omri lived with their two small children, now aged three and 18 months, on Kibbutz Nahal Oz. For hours on October 7 she and her family were held at gunpoint, but Omri was taken to Gaza where he still, at the time of writing, remains a hostage. Lishay has become a passionate advocate for his release and that of all the hostages.

In all, Sapir lost 47 members of its community. The survivors were scattered all over the country and Nir faced new problems, such as paying

TRIBUTE

and laptops, mental health sessions for the survivors and to find therapists to provide treatment.

Tel Aviv University opened an emergency centre that Sapir students could use; and ultimately, at Sapir itself, Nir and his team have created a “resilience centre”. Not long after its launch, Nir says, “we ran two huge Zoom meetings for staff and faculty”. He adds: “So many live near Sapir and very many were inside shelters for 10 to 12 hours. Most of them came from communities in which dozens of people were murdered. I began the meetings expressing thanks that we were there, but then people started crying. And they were crying for five minutes – 150 people – each telling their stories. I have tears in my eyes now just thinking about it.”

heartbreaking occasion.

“Even now”, he says, “I get up every morning and I say, ‘No, it’s too much.’

But I have no other choice. I told the students, I promised them, ‘You will have your degree. I don’t know how, but you will have it.’ That was the promise.”

He likens Sapir to a small town and reckons around 10,000 people enter the campus on a daily basis. So he and his colleagues drew up plans to make Sapir work in a new, post-October 7 reality, bearing in mind the economic and social impact of the college on the region. “Look,” says Nir, “we can’t continue as though this were an academic ivory tower.”

1,300 salaries with a largely suspended teaching system and what to do about the hundreds of students called up for reserve duty in the military.

Like the rest of Israeli universities, Sapir’s academic year – which would normally have started just after the

Because Sapir “is a symbol for the area”, Nir’s first pledge was that the college would continue, perhaps in different spaces initially, but definitely “the vision was, from the beginning, that we would return”.

And then the funerals and shivas began. Nir had to draw himself a literal road map as to which he could attend, from the north to the south of Israel, and where was en route to the next

2023 High Holy Days – was postponed until December.

Nir and his colleagues then had to make a lot of decisions that they knew would affect the long-term future of Sapir. To his great consternation, he found himself dealing with “lots of red tape and bureaucracy” from the government, which, to be fair, had also never had to face such distressing chaos before.

Visiting evacuated staff and students, Nir began to make lists of what they needed, from clothes to basic toiletries; he then started to raise money for other vital services, such as phones

Instead – and remarkably – Sapir, rather than drawing in its horns after the massacre, is expanding. “We need to build back better,” he says.

Accordingly, next year, the college is opening two new faculties – one for medical sciences, in a joint programme with the Hebrew University, and another in engineering and advanced technology. And Nir also hopes to have a third faculty that will offer courses in environment and water climate studies.

After a year of upheaval, during which students were being taught remotely, it is now hoped that most subjects will be studied face to face.

If he has one wish after dealing with such unthinkable challenges, Professor Nir would love there to be a British Friends group, to help the regrowth of the Gaza Envelope. Slowly but inexorably, with Sapir College at its heart, the wounded region is bouncing back.

Sapir College is located in the western Negev, less than two miles from the Gaza border

Memorial plaques for the 47 people who died from Sapir College

Chanukah Lunch

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Own a kosher slice of

Cyprus

The first Jewish community project on the island

PROPERTY ENTREPRENEUR DANIEL

Morris Goldberg, founder of DRL Real Estate, has teamed up with the Chief Rabbi of Cyprus, Rabbi Ziv Raskin, to develop a holiday home complex and Jewish community centre in Cyprus. Carob Gardens will comprise more than 250 apartments and villas with a number of communal amenities, alongside a Jewish community centre featuring a synagogue, a mikveh, a kosher kitchen, a convenience store, an events space and a cigar lounge. We asked Daniel about the development.

Why Cyprus?

I saw the speed at which this island is evolving, along with the capital appreciation of real estate, and felt inclined to invest.

How many houses are on the complex and how many have you sold so far?

The first phase consists of 52 apartments in a gated complex. We started o -plan sales in midSeptember and have already sold 19 apartments.

How much do the apartments cost?

They range from €175,000 (£146,000) (one bedroom) to €360,000 (three bedrooms).

What do buyers get for their buck?

My belief in Cyprus stems from its favourable tax regime, climate, safety and growing tech scene.

What is Carob Gardens?

Carob Gardens is our flagship development in a beachfront fishing village called Zygi, which is strategically located on the island between Limassol, Larnaca and Nicosia.

The name is significant as Zygi used to be the centre of the carob (previously referred to as black gold) trade in Cyprus, and the original storehouses are still a feature in the village centre.

The complex itself o ers a number of communal facilities including swimming pools (adults and children’s), a fitness centre, beautifully-landscaped gardens and a children’s playground.

The apartments are generous in size, o ering a variety of views, ranging from communal gardens to the sea, and will be finished to a very high standard.

When will the development be ready?

We aim to begin construction at the start of February 2025, with a 24-month completion window.

Can people buy off-plan now?

Yes, we are planning to sell all apartments o -plan during the construction process.

Why is Cyprus a prime choice for UK Jews to buy a property?

I believe Cyprus should be a strong consideration due to its close proximity/ connectivity to Israel (up to 10 flights daily from Larnaca Airport during peak season) and a ordability.

It is also the most neutral European country that I’ve visited in recent years, where Jews of all levels and backgrounds can feel comfortable to practise their rituals.

Is the development suitable for those from all levels of Jewish observance?

For sure. The Jewish Community Centre is a standalone project that will feature within the neighbourhood but outside of any housing complex.

The idea is to create a hub where Jews from all walks of life can convene and engage, irrespective of their religious standards.

Do you think there will be an increase in British Jews buying holiday homes in Cyprus?

I believe that there should be and we would like to be at the forefront of this trend.

This is why I felt so strongly about creating the community centre with Rabbi Ziv Raskin, as a means of providing every Jew with the chance to continue their traditions away from home, whether it’s on Shabbat, during the Jewish holidays or simply to fill their fridge with kosher foods.

Why should British Jews consider purchasing a property in Cyprus?

Rabbi Raskin said: “We are extremely proud and excited to partner with DRL on this project. A er more than 20 years of e ort, we are becoming one of the fastest-growing communities across Europe and I see this trend continuing, especially once the new

Jewish school opens in 2026 that will eventually cater for up to 1,500 students.”

What is the minimum down payment for foreign buyers?

Typically, there is an initial reservation fee of €10,000 plus VAT, and the balance is paid according to the progress of construction across multiple stages.

Are there any additional costs associated with purchasing property in Cyprus?

For new-build properties, there is VAT applied at a 5 percent rate if you are a firsttime buyer on the island. In addition, there are legal fees (although DRL Real Estate is covering these locally for all prospective buyers) and stamp duty/ transfer fees.

What would you say to those thinking about making the move?

Do not hesitate. Cyprus is a beautiful island with so much to o er. It’s within the EU (the rumours are that it will join the Schengen Zone in 2025), it’s a 40-minute flight from Israel and it’s a great place to live, work and play.

For more information, visit carobgardens.com or email info@drl-re.com

Rabbi Raskin

Daniel Goldberg

Yallagan Connecting Jewish people worldwide through community and events

AN INNOVATIVE ONLINE PLATFORM is creating opportunities for Jewish individuals to connect and engage with one another, wherever they are in the world. When Michael Stern, Lucie Ashkenazi and Alan Mekibel realised that they and other young adults were potentially missing out on Jewish events, they developed a platform to make sure this would never happen again. We asked them to tell us more...

What is Yallagan?

Yallagan serves as an aggregator of global events that brings Jewish communities closer together. It is a website on which Jewish organisations worldwide can list their activities and Jewish individuals can find them. Combining the spirit of the words “yalla” (let’s go), with “balagan” (chaos), Yallagan embodies the vibrant and dynamic nature of Jewish events. It not only unifies all Jewish social, religious, cultural and educational events on one platform but ensures a safe and user-friendly experience for both individuals and organisations,

Why do Jews need help finding events?

There are a lot of amazing things happening but often you don’t get to know about them because you haven’t signed up to the right newsletters or maybe you’re not even part of a community. Our goal is to help those who are tirelessly working to engage their community reach more people and

expose them to more things. We aim to bring Jewish people together to foster meaningful connections and shared experiences.”

How vital is it to have a platform like Yallagan?

With 15 million Jews worldwide and 250,000 annual Jewish events, many people struggle to stay connected due to fragmented communication channels. Yallagan addresses this gap by creating a digital space that strengthens Jewish identity and brings communities together. More than 70 percent of Jews struggle to find events online and 96 percent have concerns about safety, so a secure, closed platform that aggregates Jewish events globally is a much-needed resource.

How did you go about launching Yallagan?

With the help of seed grants and some savings, we launched the platform in 2022 and since then we have onboarded more than 190 organisations from 35 countries, and listed more than 1,700 events. Yallagan is a non-profit organisation registered in Germany. The Yallagan Team has attended more than 60 major Jewish conferences worldwide to learn what’s needed and to spread awareness of the vision of the project.

What is the next stage for Yallagan?

There are exciting plans for the future of Yallagan as a booking platform and a service management system where anyone organising an event will be able to find a venue, caterers, lecturers, musicians, and so on meaning that

you support Jewish businesses and your community, but also find the right deal. An app for android and iOS is in development.

How secure is the platform?

Security is paramount and Yallagan is a closed platform, inaccessible without registering. We check through each registration.

Where is Yallagan available?

All over the world. We are especially keen to reach all communities in Europe, not just the larger markets like France and the UK. People in small communities are willing to travel to other cities for events – and Yallagan can help them do that. Eitan Bergman, executive eirector of the European Union of Jewish Students, says: “By showcasing diverse Jewish programming, Yallagan empowers students to strengthen their Jewish identity and build vibrant communities across Europe.”

How does it work?

The platform knows where the user is based and will show events happening in the locality. Users can also filter in terms of location and the type of event they want to attend – from a small Shabbat dinner to youth gatherings, lectures or even a large concert. Organisations can put a link to their event or booking can be done through the platform. There is a button to

click that will release the address of the event when the organiser is ready.

Last word?

The biggest challenge we have as Jews is that although we’re connected and unified over a cause, which is Israel, we’re disconnected from one another, internationally and even locally. Yallagan is here to change that.

Discover more at yallagan.com and follow @yallagan_

Yallagan founders Lucie Ashkenazi, Alan Mekibel and Michael Stern

Yallagan is a digital space that aims to strengthen Jewish identity

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PERSONAL STORY OF MIRI AND HER GRANDMOTHER

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“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.”

Lighting up

Nothing reflects the miracle of Chanukah more than the dedication and commitment of our communal charities.

Louisa Walters reflects on the incredible work they have done this year and looks ahead to their plans for 2025

Love and light

Bringing light and joy to seriously ill children has been the mission for Camp Simcha this December.

Its children’s residential retreat, Chanukah parties in London and Manchester, and its Toy Drive have been designed to ensure today’s treat feels more important than tomorrow’s treatment.

In the children’s retreat, 27 children with serious medical conditions enjoyed a lifechanging few days with 24/7 medical care and a schedule of fun and empowering activities.

Camp Simcha’s chief executive, Daniel Gillis, says: “Our mission is to bring a little light into the lives of children who face extraordinary challenges. For many of them, the retreat is their first time away from home.

“Seeing what they can achieve and being with other children experiencing their own challenges really helps grow their self-confidence and self-esteem. For their parents, it oﬀers vital respite and a chance to spend quality time with their other children.”

More than 400 family members will have attended the two Chanukah parties, with all the traditional Camp Simcha fun.

The annual Toy Drive has seen an outpouring of generosity, with

thousands of new toys collected by schools, nurseries, businesses, synagogues and community groups, as well as donated by individuals, to be distributed to children in more than 120 hospital wards and hospices.

• campsimcha.org.uk

Home and happy

Jewish Blind and Disabled’s eighth development of adapted mobility apartments, Ephraim Court, in Mill Hill, will be completed next year. Through housing and support, Jewish Blind and Disabled transforms the lives of Jewish adults who have a physical disability or vision impairment, enabling them to live independently. This year, the charity has

expanded its community-based services. The Independent Living Advisory Service is an occupational therapist-led service that oﬀers advice on the aids, technologies and home adaptations that can help people to maintain their independence in their own home. The charity also provides monthly support groups for people with visual impairments or sight loss and another group, JEMS, in partnership with Jewish Care, for people aﬀected by multiple sclerosis.

• jbd.org

Hope and rebuilding

For decades, WIZO has been a guiding light for individuals and families in need, providing support, education and opportunities to build a brighter future. This year, the story of Ami and his family reminds us why WIZO’s work is more vital than ever. Ami, a father of five, who is a teacher at WIZO Nir HaEmek Youth Village, tragically lost his son Roi Tal in battle in Gaza on 8 January. Roi, only

was a proud graduate of WIZO Nahalal Youth Village, as are all of his siblings. WIZO’s Breeze of Healing Trauma and Grief Recovery Programme has supported Ami and many others with workshops, tailored support and specialised training for staﬀ to help families cope with grief, process trauma and begin to heal. It is a lifeline for

19,

Children got cra ing at a Camp Simcha Chanukah event held in Manchester

Camp Simcha retreats benefit the children as well as their families

A tenant of one of JBD’s independent living complexes

An artist’s impression of Ephraim Court, the new JBD complex in Mill Hill WIZO provides support and education to people in need

CHARITY

those navigating the darkness of loss, oﬀering hope and the strength to carry on. WIZO has launched a Chanukah Appeal to be able to help more families find the strength to rebuild.

• wizouk.org

Lifeline in War

Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem has had to bear its share of an immense national burden this year.

In a war that requires trauma specialists to treat severely injured victims, both military and civilian, the work has been relentless and the devoted nurses and doctors are labouring around the clock, often with their children serving in the army and at risk. The staﬀ are so committed to their jobs, that even when they lost family members on October 7, and since, they have immediately returned to the hospital, something they see as their duty. The financial and emotional

cost of this is significant, so your support of the Shaare Zedek Chanukah Campaign matters. To donate, visit shaarezedek.org.uk

Shining on Shabbat

Following the eight days of candle lighting during Chanukah, Jami, now part of Jewish Care, will be shining its own light on the community’s mental health at the start of the new year. From 31 January to 1 February 2025, the ninth Jami Mental Health Shabbat will raise awareness of mental illness and distress in the community by encouraging conversations on mental health and sharing ideas on how to support ourselves and each other. TV presenter and barrister Rob Rinder suggests the community can mark this special Shabbat by hosting a meal. “Ask your guests to donate to Jami instead of bringing gifts,” he says. “What a lovely way to spend Shabbat to support some of the most important work we do as a community.”

Synagogues will be arranging for members of their congregation to share their lived experience or inviting mental health professionals to lead a talk, discussion or panel event.

Meanwhile, schools and youth groups, with support from Jami’s specially-produced toolkit, will be oﬀering everything from

self-care bingo for primary schoolchildren to conversation starters for university students, plus much more.

• jamiuk.org

Chanukah Party

Jewish Care Families is inviting the community’s one to seven-year-olds, along with their families, to a Chanukah-

themed intergenerational party on 15 December. The party will combine celebrating the festival of lights with raising funds to support older people in the community. There will be music, songs, face-painting, balloons and bubbles, as well as interactive Chanukah stories, followed by creative arts and crafts activities with Debutots, which runs intergenerational activities for children and older people at Jewish Care’s care homes.

The event follows the Jewish Care Families Intergenerational

Teddy Bears Picnic in the summer. Shoshana Cohen, who attended with her son, says: “It was a really good community party, mixing the ages with music and activities. I think it’s really lovely that Jewish Care Families arranges this for everyone.”

The charity’s director of fundraising and marketing, Ellisa Estrin, says: “These intergenerational community events and activities across our care homes and community centres are so important, and people of all ages benefit from making these connections.”

Jewish Care Families Intergenerational Chanukah Party is on 15 December 3pm –5pm in NW11. £15 per child, £5 per adult. For more information, email Muriel at muriel.stempel@jcare.org

Beacon of hope

We learn that Chanukah is the time of year for miracles, yet the volunteer medics of United Hatzalah perform miracles every single day. Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, these incredible 7,000+ individuals drop what they are doing to save the lives of those

WIZO has launched a Chanukah appeal

All ages attend Jewish Care Families’ intergenerational Chanukah party

Rob Rinder

Jami’s Mental Health Shabbat aims to raise awareness of mental illness and distress in the community

United Hatzalah’s volunteer medics come from all walks of life

Shaare Zedek workers are putting in long hours looking a er severely injured civilians and soldiers

Sunday 15 June 2025 – Wednesday 18 June 2025

This 3.5-day road-bike Challenge, set in a beautiful and unspoilt part of the world, will take you past granite rock formations and along picturesque coastal roads, the preserved archipelago La Maddelena and across to Corsica with 257km of climbs and sweeping descents. If you have adventure in your soul, a huge sense of camaraderie and a passion to support and empower neurodiverse children, their families and people with neurodevelopmental disabilities to live their best lives, then book now. Places are limited.

REGISTER NOW via the QR code or via our website. For more details talk to Julie on 07718 969138 or email julie.braithwaite@norwood.org.uk

Scan me or visit norwood.org.uk/ sardiniachallenge

closest to them. Whether it’s a choking incident, a car accident, a traumatic incident or even emotional and mental distress from witnessing an incident, United Hatzalah’s volunteers have the skill and knowledge to take necessary action.

The past 15 months have been some of Israel’s most challenging, but the work of United Hatzalah volunteers has been an opportunity to bring light into people’s lives. The organisation truly embodies the spirit of community and togetherness as the volunteer medics come from all walks of life and all backgrounds – religious and secular Jews, Muslims, Christians and Druze – and serve everyone, regardless of race, religion, financial means or medical insurance status, for free.

• israelrescue.org

The sound of miracles

Kieran’s story truly reflects the miracle of Chanukah. He was born without ears and he had a rare condition – bilateral microtia – leaving him profoundly deaf.

When they met Jody, JDA’s family services manager, they felt truly heard. She provided practical help and a safe space to share their hopes and fears, introduced them to other Jewish

Compassion and community

Generally held a month before Chanukah, Mitzvah Day aligns with the festival’s ethos of light, hope and miracles. By empowering individuals to make a diﬀerence and building stronger communities, it is a driving force for positive change.

connect with their heritage and values. By participating in acts of kindness and social justice, participants strengthen their Jewish identity and contribute to the broader community.

Mitzvah Day celebrates its 20th anniversary in 2025.

• mitzvahday.org.uk

families with deaf children, helped them to raise funds for Kieran to have pioneering ear surgery and oﬀered expert guidance and emotional support.

When Kieran was 11, surgeons used cartilage from his ribs to craft a pair of ears and fit a bone-anchored hearing aid.

Three years later, the family made aliyah and, more recently, Kieran underwent more surgery to reconstruct his jawline and fit a cochlear implant. Jody and Louise maintained contact throughout.

Now 19, Kieran has been recruited into the Israeli Navy, despite his deafness; the Navy recognised his brilliant potential, determination and resilience.

Louise and David couldn’t be prouder of their son, nor more grateful for JDA’s role in his life.

• jdeaf.org.uk

Mitzvah Day 2024 brought together people from all walks of life – all giving their time to make their corner of the world a little better and supporting those in need. One of the highlights was the inspiring collaboration between diﬀerent faith communities to address issues in their communities.

There were 2,500+ projects taking place. Among those, Northwood and Ruislip United Synagogue delivered homegrown vegetables to a food bank, packed fresh food packs and recipes for GIFT, and hosted a Mitzvah Day tea for local families. In Cumbria, volunteers came together to support refugees, organising walks in the Lake District and a sumptuous tea at Rose Castle, attended by the High Sheriﬀ of Cumbria and the Archdeacon of Carlisle, highlighting the importance of interfaith cooperation and community support. Check out Mitzvah Day on social media to see more of what took place all over the country.

Mitzvah Day also oﬀers a unique opportunity for Jewish individuals and communities to

Chanukah at home

Mary van Gelder, 107, will be spending Chanukah at Hammerson House, where she is a resident.

“I was born on 22 October 1917,” she says. “I still remember the sound of bombs falling on the city. I lived in Stoke Newington most of my life and worked as a dressmaker in Hackney in my brother’s factory. Living kept me going. You must keep living even when the going gets tough. The Second World War was very hard for me and my family. I had a daughter, but she died tragically at the age of 42. I had to keep going.

“I have no hearing aids, I

don’t wear glasses, and I am still mobile. I think my siblings and I have good genes – my eldest brother died at 100. I arrived at Hammerson House in October 2023, two weeks before my 106th birthday. Before that I was living on my own at home with an occasional carer but I realised it was too much for me to look after myself.

“I’m happy here, this is my home now. I can relax and I know I will be looked after. It’s jolly here and I like the quizzes –I do really well in them. I’ve not played for years, but recently I took part in a game of Kaluki and I beat all the other residents. I also enjoy the concerts and in the last one, the musicians even sang me a special happy birthday song!”

Nightingale House and Hammerson House, Wohl Campus provide outstanding residential, nursing, dementia and palliative care to more than 200 members of the community.

• nightingalehammerson.org

JDA supported Kieran, now 19, who has been able to pursue his dreams

This year, more than 2,500 social justice and kindness projects took place for Mitzvah Day

People of all faiths unite to help others for Mitzvah Day

Mary van Gelder with staﬀ at Hammerson House

JSAS is the only UK Jewish charity supporting children, women and men who have experienced sexual abuse. We’re here to listen, support and advise you on your healing journey. Our service is free and completely confidential.

“ Our priority is that victims feel believed from the start. Many have not experienced that before. We also provide them with a safe environment, which quite often is a new experience.

Erica Marks CEO, JSAS

Please consider supporting our work – to donate, call us, visit our website, or scan the QR code.

FOOD

Tackling hunger and loneliness is the objective of a new cookbook. Alex Galbinski speaks to the women making it happen

Within walking distance of bustling King’s Cross and a world away from its fancy restaurants and chi-chi coffee shops is a social enterprise called Cook for Good. Located on the Priory Green Estate, the organisation tackles food insecurity, social isolation and barriers to work. As I am shown around the surplus food Pantry (it is not a food bank), I hear the gentle chatter of its members who greet each other like long-lost friends.

Some of the people frequenting the Pantry feature in the notfor-profit’s recently-published cookbook, Soup for Good, which is filled with soup recipes, including a Jewish chicken soup. There are 50 recipes in fact, and extra ones for bread, interspersed with stories about the Peabody estate’s much-loved characters. Recipes have also been donated by supporters Nigella Lawson, Ed Balls, Karan Gokani, Wichet Khongphoon and Gordon Brown.

The concern people show for each other is testament to the social connection Cook for Good has achieved in its short life span. Established on the site of an abandoned laundry building in 2021, the Pantry gives its 400 members – who live on or around the estate – the opportunity of a shop worth around £35 for just £3.50. They can also have a cup

of tea or coﬀee and a morning pastry and, later a bowl of soup with bread.

Cook for Good was co-founded by CEO Karen Mattison MBE and events director Robinne Collie and it runs team cooking experiences where participants make food to share with residents and outreach organisations. Profits are then used to fund a community programme that includes free cooking classes, employment programmes and the Pantry, which is beautifully laid out with produce.

The impetus for the enterprise was Karen’s 50th birthday which, as it approached, got her thinking about the ‘big project’ she had to do, based around her passion for food. She was also aﬀected by Ken Loach’s 2016 film I, Daniel Blake, about a man’s travails with the benefits system, and wanted to make a diﬀerence. While she doesn’t see the provision and sharing of food as a singularly Jewish value, she says it is “a fundamental part of our culture to use and share food at key moments”. She adds: “To cook for people, break bread with them… I obsess about food and recipes.”

Robinne, meanwhile, has a background in running cookingfocused team-building events and has worked in charitable endeavours. The pair met as WIZO award judges and while

volunteering for Muswell Hill Synagogue’s Kiddush rota, which led to idea discussions and the social enterprise model was born.

Punctuating our conversation with concerned chats with members about their welfare, Karen explains the history of the soup project, which was sparked by a flask of her own homemade tomato and lentil soup. Sampled by a volunteer called Mary who loved it, within a month the Pantry was serving members two soups every Thursday. And now after three years of successful soup, the team has produced a handsome hardback cookbook.

“We didn’t want it to look like a charity cookbook,” says Karen, who previously set up award-winning social enterprises Timewise and Women Like Us.

“We wanted it to stand on its own as a really good recipe book that is accessible and looks beautiful on your coﬀee table.”

Cook for Good also addresses loneliness. “A lot of the older people here talk about how things used to be, when you knew your neighbours and everyone went to the same shop,” shares Karen.

“They talk about how that went away and Covid exacerbated it.

“We know social isolation and loneliness are massive everywhere. If you don’t have the money to do the social things that connect you with others, you become more and more isolated.

“It shouldn’t be a luxury to have a cup of tea with a friend, but some of the members can’t do that, and really look forward to coming here. Some just come for a chat, particularly the older ones.

“It is really hard work, but you feel the impact on a daily basis. I love chatting to people and can see how it’s impacting people,” says Karen. “We did some research among our membership, and nine out of 10 said that, since joining the Pantry, they feel less isolated and more connected to the community.

“Food brings people in and then we oﬀer them things that suit their needs.”

The estate is a diverse one, Karen tells me, with high levels of diabetes, obesity and poor diets.

So one of the courses Cook for Good runs with a GP and resident chef Simone Krieger is a healthy eating class that has been “gamechanging” for members.

There is also an older men’s Grub Club and courses, advice workshops from various organisations and a monthly three-course communal meal, with the corporate team serving the community.

As well as the impression the organisation has made on the community members, the teambuilding exercises connect the corporate patrons.

“I really enjoy helping to develop the community we work with and also seeing how much fun our corporate clients have,” says Robinne.

“It’s a good legacy for us and for our children to see what we are doing and they get involved. I really feel like the

timing with Karen was beshert.” Cook for Good is now more than 80 percent self-revenue generating through the corporate team-building, partnerships and the book, with the remaining 20 percent coming from grants from charitable foundations – a great result in just three years.

Simone says: “Our community doesn’t care where you’re from, what language you speak or what colour your skin is – we all work together and respect each other.”

With plans to open another Cook for Good in London, Karen leaves me with a pertinent thought. “Imagine if, on every housing estate, there was a community shop, a café and a place where you could learn some skills, connect with people and eat good food. A place where businesses could do their social good and feel it, not just give money – imagine what that could do.”

Soup for Good is available from Amazon, £25.

To donate to Cook for Good or to find out about team-building opportunities, visit cookforgood.uk

Karen Mattison and Robinne Collie

A member of the Pantry social enterprise

The Pantry is beautifully laid out

FOOD

A modern twist on the traditional Italian wedding soup, which you don’t have to be getting married to enjoy. We first made this for our Pantry members on a cold February day, and they absolutely loved it. Juicy meatballs combined with filling orzo pasta and flavoured with aromatic dill and parsley… it’s a bowl full of comfort and joy. If you’re making this soup ahead of time, leave the orzo out, then pop it in for 10 minutes while you’re warming it up to serve.

SERVES: 4-6 PREP TIME: 25 MINUTES COOKING TIME: 50 MINUTES

INGREDIENTS

500g chicken mince

85g breadcrumbs

1 egg

30g flat-leaf parsley

A pinch of garlic salt

2 tbsp vegetable oil 1 onion 2 garlic cloves 2 carrots

1. Preheat oven to 180°C/Gas mark 4.

2. Put the chicken mince, breadcrumbs, and egg in a large bowl. Finely chop the parsley, put half in the bowl with the chicken, and reserve the rest for later. Add a pinch of garlic salt, salt and black pepper to the chicken and combine everything well. Shape small meatballs from the mix, roughly 1 heaped tablespoon per meatball, and place them on a baking tray lined with nonstick baking paper. The mix should yield between 25 and 30 meatballs. Bake on the top shelf of the oven for 15 minutes until golden.

3. Peel and finely chop the onion and garlic. Peel and cut the carrots into 1cm dice.

4. Place a large saucepan or shallow casserole pan over a medium heat. Once warm, add

1.2 litres chicken stock 1 bay leaf 15 g dill

140g orzo Salt and pepper

the oil and the chopped onion and carrot. Sauté for 10–15 minutes until they begin to caramelise, stirring o en. When it’s nicely golden, add the garlic, lower the heat to medium and sauté for a minute longer or until fragrant. Finely chop the dill and set aside.

5. Once the meatballs are out of the oven, add them to the pan with the so ened veg and pour in the stock. Season with salt and pepper. Add three quarters of the chopped dill, the bay leaf and half of the remaining parsley.

6. Reserve the rest of the chopped herbs for garnish. Cover the pan with a lid and cook for 10 minutes. Stir in the orzo and cook for another 10–12 minutes until tender. Serve garnished with the reserved parsley and chopped dill.

Prep time: 15 minutes

Cooking time: 40 minutes

Serves 4 – 6

BROCCOLI STALK

We run regular Use It Up cooking demos to help our community about using food – or parts of otherwise be thrown away. This example, turning the unloved into the star of the show. It produces colour and nuttier flavour than the broccoli but is every bit as cost-effective.

We run regular Use It Up cooking classes and demos to help our community feel more confident about using food – or parts of food – that might otherwise be thrown away. This recipe is a classic example, turning the unloved broccoli stalk into the star of the show. It produces a lighter colour and nuttier flavour than using the head of the broccoli but is every bit as delicious and so cost-e ective.

INGREDIENTS

1 onion

2 garlic cloves

METHOD

SERVES: 4-6

PREP TIME: 15 MINUTES COOKING TIME: 40 MINUTES

INGREDIENTS

1 onion

2 garlic cloves

1 small leek

1 celery stick

1 small leek

1 celery stick

500g broccoli stalks

375g potatoes

500 g broccoli stalks

2 tbsp olive oil

375 g potatoes

2 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp butter 1.5 – 2 litres vegetable stock

2 tbsp butter

Peel and finely chop the onion and garlic. the toughest part of the green leaves, and rest. Cut the celery into 1 cm dice. Trim just part of the broccoli stalks and cut the remainder into 2 cm dice. Peel the potatoes and cut

100ml double cream

½ lemon Salt and pepper

Set a large saucepan or shallow casserole heat. Add the oil and butter. Once the butter onion, and cook until soft but not coloured. and celery and cook for a further 5 minutes starting to soften.

starting to so en.

1.5 – 2 litres vegetable stock

½ lemon

1. Peel and finely chop the onion and garlic. Clean the leek, discard the toughest part of the green leaves, and then roughly chop the rest. Cut the celery into 1cm dice. Trim just the very toughest part of the broccoli stalks and cut the remainder of the stalks into 2cm dice. Peel the potatoes and cut into 2cm dice.

100 ml double cream

Salt and pepper

2. Set a large saucepan or shallow casserole pan on a medium heat. Add the oil and butter. Once the butter is melted, add the onion, and cook until so but not coloured. Add the garlic, leek and celery and cook for a further 5 minutes or until fragrant and

3. Add 1.5 litres of vegetable stock followed by the broccoli stalks and potatoes. Bring to a boil and then reduce the heat to simmer the soup until the broccoli and potatoes are tender. Once cooked, blend the soup until very smooth, adding more stock, if needed.

Add 1.5 litres of vegetable stock followed and potatoes. Bring to a boil and then reduce the soup until the broccoli and potatoes blend the soup until very smooth, adding Stir in the cream and season to taste with good squeeze of lemon juice.

TOP IT OFF Wonderful with a swirl crunchy finish of garlic and herb croutons.

4. Stir in the cream and season to taste with salt, pepper and a good squeeze of lemon juice.

TOP IT OFF: Wonderful with a swirl of cream and the crunchy finish of garlic and herb croutons.

RESTAURANTS

New openings, old favourites and an Israeli food tour.

MASTERCHEF

Claro in Tel Aviv remains one of my favourite dining experiences, so I’m just a little excited that it has now opened in London. Is it ever possible to replicate the Tel Aviv vibe somewhere else? In truth… no. But nor should we go looking for that. Because, this being London, there are other things in its place. An absolutely stunning listed building for one. Sophistication for another. And a gentle frizzante, a ripple of bonhomie with really cool background music just loud enough that lively chatter is still possible. It’s a lovely big space, in a highceilinged former bank, but feels really intimate, and an open brick wall and industrial steel columns have been added to inject a Tel Aviv ‘edge’. The food is simply wonderful. Fried Brussels sprouts – a vegetable I loathe but dipped into caper aioli, Claro-style, I now love! Go for venison tartare with pickled apples, kohlrabi steak with ricotta sauce, short rib tortellini with a foamy, creamy onion sauce, and smoked pink trout atop crunchy potatoes with spring onions and a punchy horseradish cream, a magnificent lamb platter and a fabulous frena (a rich olive oil-infused pita) board, both with all manner of dips and pickles. Leave room for date pudding with pecan crumble and whisky caramel – the ultimate winter dessert – the richness cut through with a coconut sorbet. Who even thinks of such things?! Ran Shmueli, that’s who, chef-owner, who has had the vision to bring his Tel Aviv masterpiece to our city and show us what we’re missing.

BACK FOR GOOD

Cacao Tree was one of the best things to happen to Borehamwood. And then chefowner Kushan Marthelis sold it. But he’s bought it back and visiting feels like coming home. The vibe, the energy and the food are as good as they ever were, with superb cocktails, amazing flavours and sumptuous portions. All the classic dishes are on the menu, including my favourite, the chilli beef taco and teriyaki chicken. There are some exciting plans afoot, including exciting tapas dishes, and the return of the amazing Sunday roast. The restaurant is a sideline to the hugely successful catering business that Kushan launched five years ago and on which he is very much focused for weddings, barmitzvahs, private and corporate parties, yet he manages to run both businesses, going to the flower market at 5am to do the arrangement in the restaurant himself. A man of many talents!

HOLY BAGELS

The oh-so-genteel Primrose Hill set have had to contend with queues round the block ever since It’s Bagels opened. New Yorker Dan Martensen started selling bagels at Caravan in Islington before opening this unit (then another in Notting Hill, plus a third in Soho). What makes this bagel di erent to all others, you ask. Notably the price – an ‘everything’ bagel with sesame and poppy seeds, dried onion, salt and garlic filled with ‘the works’ –cream cheese, salmon, capers, onion, lemon and tomato will set you back £14, although the plain bagel with lox is ‘just’ £7.50. But the main di erence is they are boiled with a dash of malt, which pu s them up and makes them crunchy on the outside and so on the inside. Also on the bagel front, there’s the new Kleinsky’s on North Audley Street in Mayfair. It’s New York deli-style but comes here from Cape Town. As well as seven types of bagel – plain, poppy seed, sesame, onion, pretzel, pumpernickel and the ‘everything’ – which you can have filled with anything from smoked salmon and cream cheese to salt beef, there is also a ‘breakfast banger’, a lamb BLT with lamb bacon, schnitzel and epic pastries, including cinnamon buns and chocolate pistachio swirls.

HOUSE GUEST

Sopwell House has been slowly undergoing a

By Louisa Walters

transformation. A visit to the newly refurbished Octagon Bar, with luxurious velvet seating, pretty lamps and stylish marble-topped tables, is the way to kick o a wonderful evening with one of the just-launched seasonal cocktails inspired by the Quality Street tin. The Purple One is a smooth blend of rum, chocolate liqueur, butterscotch and vanilla syrup, while the zesty Orange Crème is made with Cointreau, Grand Marnier, chocolate liqueur and lemon. Cheers to that and, just a few steps away, Asian restaurant Omboo has the hallmark of a special dining experience with exotic oriental décor, attentive service and a hushed but gently fizzing ambience. Large, deep-filled mushroom and tru le spring rolls and tender seared tuna set the scene for a magnificent flow of dishes, including succulent blackened cod with just a hint of miso and beef short rib served o the bone and finely sliced, and a pile of tenderstem broccoli brought to life with garlic. It goes without saying that the sushi rolls would be exceptional in a restaurant of this calibre, but perhaps the biggest revelation of all is a heap of deep-fried crispy mushrooms – move over zucchini fries, there’s a new indulgence in town. To finish this feast there’s a Valrhona dark chocolate mousse with miso caramel – easily enough for two but good enough to warrant one each.

a recipe book (My Tel Aviv Table) Limor Chen, together with husband Amir, has opened a third site, Delamina Townhouse in Covent Garden. Set across several spaces on two floors, the décor manages to be cosy, pretty and minimalist all at the same time, accentuated with artwork and sculptures made by Limor herself. The food is equally pretty, with punchy flavours that belie its refinement. Start with the beautiful kubaneh bread with dips, then surprisingly spicy courgette two ways, delicate arak-cured trout with foamed labneh, lamb tagliata with glazed shallots and dukka, and a magnificent whole crispy seabass with chilli-date molasses is the crowning glory. If you’ve never tried olive oil chocolate mousse now is the time to do it, while the kadayif cheesecake dessert is the best I’ve had.

DONUT DELIGHT

The Israelis say Roladin but we say Donutelier, because that’s what founder Arik Waiss opened here in London’s Charing Cross Road. A second branch, this time in Carnaby Street, opened last

month. Vanessa Feltz was there to indulge in decadent donuts, including the new Carnaby To ee Pudding Donut. A box from this bakery, which likens itself to a fashion atelier with doughnuts as its muse, makes a gorgeous Chanukah gi for patisserie aficionados.

ISRAELI FOOD TOUR

for two but good enough to

TEL AVIV TABLE

Not content with running two restaurants and publishing

restaurants and publishing

If you’re looking for a family or friends activity for Chol Hamoed Chanukah (the days between Christmas and New Year), an Israeli food tour around Camden or Soho is a seriously tasty option. Delicious Cities has arrived from Tel Aviv to o er three-hour walking tours, during which you will be taken to five Israeli restaurants to nosh on up to three dishes in each, with lots of interesting facts and tips shared along the way. Find out more at deliciouscities.com

It’s Bagels

Claro

Donutelier’s Carnaby Toﬀee Pudding Donut

Drinks at Omboo

Delamina’s kubaneh

Kleinsky’s pumpernickel with pastrami

Cacao Tree

Leave a gift in your Will to Jewish Women’s Aid and help to ensure that no Jewish woman or girl should face domestic abuse or sexual violence alone.

To find out more about the life-changing difference that your legacy can have, please get in touch with Nicola@jwa.org.uk, call 020 8445 8060 or visit jwa.org.uk/legacy

BEAUTY & FASHION

EDITOR’S & FASHION

BEAUTY BOX

Even with the 20 mile per hour enforcement and too many overzealous tra ic wardens, you have to love London at this time of year. All that extra hanging lighting is a real boost for those with dimming sight, as it illuminates pothole pavements and gets you to the shops with a seasonal aura.

Ray of

light

In London, on Marylebone Lane, the glittering decorations herald the arrival of a new store and the return of Ted Baker founder Ray Kelvin. An inspiration to high street fashion for longer than he cares to remember, Kelvin, still surrounded by the Ted Baker team, has brought his expertise to Sealskinz, a company that has been around for 20 years, but now feels brand new. Sealskinz, with its history of partnerships with the world’s greatest mountaineers, cyclists, skiers, runners, sailors and explorers, has inspired Kelvin to channel the spirit of adventure into a line of ni y clothing and accessories that keep the wearer protected from snow, sand, mud, dirt and anything else that can “get in the way of doing your thing in the outdoors”. What matters most about Sealskinz for UK dwellers is that the gear is completely waterproof, including the beanies and bobble hats – and we all know what rain does to a bobble! Thanks to the tech, Aquasealz™ – an eco-friendly Teflon coating – your head, body and hands (they also do good gloves) stay dry, can breathe and

Even those with a connection to the faith are in festive mode, and it’s hard not to be on Old Bond Street, where The Royal Arcade is home to revered Ormonde Jayne founder ‘the nose’ Linda Pilkington, who has created an exclusive 8 Days of Christmas gi box that works just as well for Chanukah. Each of the eight

(BECAUSE THEY BELONG TOGETHER)

days reveals a luxury surprise, be it a handpicked fragrance or candle sitting in the customised calendar. So take your pick or tell the gi buyer whether you are more woody or citrus and Linda will do the rest. It is worth noting Ormonde Jayne fragrance is available as travel spray (£50). ormondejayne.com

excess heat and perspiration can escape. A er conquering the world’s wardrobes with Ted Baker clothing over three decades, Kelvin’s departure meant the same for the brand, so he was only ever going to reappear with something special and as timely as a clothing range linked to the global obsession with climate change. Wearing a hat/jacket or socks with microfleece insulated lining that elevates comfort in cold temperatures is a comfort buy for outdoors, and with the cost of heating indoors, too. “We want to enable you to defy the great outdoors” is the mantra at the Sealskinz store, which began as a pop-up and from February, will have the out-the-box décor details that made shopping at Ted Baker an experience.

Welcome back Ted – sorry, Ray!

Manchester doesn’t slack when it comes to baubles, and Dan Rothschild is creative director of his own perfume brand Soma. Dan’s descriptions of the inspiration for his fragrances are like Nordic Noir trailers – “A drawing room adorned with miles of books, dark oak floorboards and a deep velvet chair. You sit. Relaxed but ready. The warm glow of the dying embers of a fire. The phone rings in the distance. Someone answers. There’s a whisper in your ear. It’s time.” – unisex and also available as travel spray (£149).

somaparfums.com

Wh she wants

If you’re stuck for gi ideas, Studio10 – founded by Grace Fodor – the best beauty brand for grown-up women, is the site to shop at. Who wouldn’t want Glow Bright (£26), a radiance crème illuminator to raise lustre for parties, or the Lip Perfecting Plumper (£25), the dual-ended conditioning ‘lip-touring’ pencil. You can always settle for a candle and set the tone for 2025.

Studio10beauty.com

That’s Halcyon

Lip Perfecting Plumper by Studio10

Glow Bright by Studio10

Waterproof cold weather scenic bobble hat

New year y

When your nickname has always been The Body, letting it go isn’t an option and Elle Macpherson has not. On the contrary, she is still worthy of fronting her own beauty brand Welleco and, if you want to look like her – or, more realistically, feel like her – in the new year, drink what she drinks: The Super Elixir (£63). Elle has pioneered ingestible beauty and two spoonfuls daily of the all-in-one greens powder in water or juice boosts your energy, cognitive and digestive functions, immune system and metabolism. It also supports hair, skin and nail growth and has a cult following in Australia. Sourced and curated from the world’s most resilient and nutrient-rich plants, it is also kosher and there are di erent powders for the menopause, sleep and skin. Giving your body the innate nourishment to thrive against all odds is the claim, and you only have to look at Elle to see it does something and, unlike other health drinks, it has a subtle taste of mixed berry. Read the reviews on welleco.co.uk

POLISH POLISH

A cult brand in Poland, Tolpa Dermo Face Sebio Max E ect 4 Molecule Serum (£9.99) has just launched exclusively at Boots and it’s a skincare treatment in three ranges for dryness, rosacea and acne. The key active ingredient is peat, which reduces sebum secretion, so stops the recurrence of spots, calms skin to regain its balance and increases hydration levels. Great for troublesome teen skin, post-acne discolouration is lightened and skin looks smoother, while in older skin it minimises the visibility of pores a er one week of use. boots.com

Lots of bo le

Large and too vivid in colour to miss, SBC SKINCARE has produced two kinds of gels that are value for money and do the job. The Arnica Moisturising Gel (£15 ) is an overall relaxant that can be massaged into muscles and also ease pain a er falls or bumps. The Hydra-Collagen Moisturising Gel (£18) is a multi-tasker, suitable for all skin types, that works as a moisturiser, mask, primer or serum and, best of all, has an ionised formula that can be used with beauty tools. sbcskincare.co.uk

Israel has always been the place to go for bridal gowns, and long may that continue. But if you want the Israeli style and fittings closer to home, Inbal Erez can provide it in Golders Green. Her new studio is filled with the latest collections and exclusive gowns and she can also create bespoke designs based on something spotted in a mag or in Tel Aviv.

Inbal also has a curated selection of beautifullypreserved vintage wedding dresses, each meticulously restored with the greatest care, a skill she acquired while working at the V&A Museum and doing an MA programme in history of design at the Royal College of Art, where she specialised in wedding dresses.

A lot of tools come with brand serums, but using this gel with the Newa device, which is made in Israel, has been just as e ective. We’ve written about the Newa a lot because it’s an impressive little device that has big li ing power for the lower face and jowls. The electrodes send a current 3mm deep into the dermis layer and these super-speedy warming sessions tighten and rebuild collagen and elastin, to li your skin. Used regularly, there’s visible change, so feel free to use it while lying in bed. aestheticare.co.uk

And while we’re on the subject of age-defying gadgets, there is much being said about the XCellarisPro range by Dermaroller (which is for microneedling at home). You would get this done typically at a specialist salon but, in the age of DIY, reducing your own wrinkles by creating micro channels with 0.2mm needles rolled across your skin is no big deal. The needle length ensures optimal penetration for serums without damaging living tissue and you will no doubt look better than ever. dermaroller-uk.com

@Inbalerezbridal

NB: There is more wedding inspiration from Israeli Omer Polak, a graduate of the Academy of Art and Design, who created a small handmade glass vase that is attached to the lapel of a jacket with a brass tie pin. This is the way to stop wilted boutonnieres forever.

The Arnica Moisturising Gel

SBC’s HydraCollagen Gel

The Newa radio frequency device

The Newa in action

XCellarisPro Dermaroller

Ablack labrador sat beside an Israeli soldier blinded in the Lebanon war of 1982. The passing of a much-loved chief executive who had so much more to give.

The presence of the former – dog Rolly with Dany Layani – and absence of the latter – Martin Segal – brought tears to the Israel Guide Dog Centre (IGDC) UK’s annual reception.

Rob Rinder was perfect as the empathetic host as he not only loves dogs but is a proud Zionist who understands the IGDC, telling the audience: “By enabling resilience, freedom and independence to people from across the political, religious and racial divide, the Israel Guide Dog Centre is all that is good about our wonderful state of Israel.”

On stage with Rolly, Dany shared the details of the day in Lebanon on which he lost his sight. He was sheltering in a trench when a bomb exploded. He recalled: “That sense of darkness and despair – I was 20 –and couldn’t accept the blindness. To be guided by a person or use a stick made me feel like people looked at me as a poor man.”

But these were his choices until Noach Braun opened the first guide dog centre in 1991, giving the muchlonged-for independence to Israel’s sight-impaired. For Dany, this meant everything. A guide dog enabled him to go to university, get a degree in social work, then another in Islamic fundamentalist studies, which, with his language skills in French, English and Arabic, got him an adviser’s job in the Prime Minister’s Oﬀice.

Married with four children and grandchildren, for the past three years Dany has worked with disabled veterans and is now helping soldiers who have been blinded since October 7. “They struggle, as I did with, a new reality, but I tell them they must not give up on life.”

Dany never gave up. He skis and tandem cycles and, next year, will compete in a triathlon. This is possible because of his five guide dog partnerships and although they are typically rehomed after service, Dany kept

his with him. “When I retired my dog Norman, he still came to the door when I put the harness on Rolly. ”

Dany’s kindness was not lost on the tearful audience or on Rolly, who, by pure coincidence, was looked after by IGDC UK chair Jon Benjamin as a puppy. On another visit to London, Rolly met Martin Segal, who died in January, and Dany’s lasting memory of the executive director was his commitment to IGDC.

Lisa Haet Baron, the centre’s international liaison oﬀicer whose father was blind, has that commitment and came from Israel with Dany and Rolly to encourage more support. “Fifteen percent of all injuries in the current conflict are vision-related,” said Lisa. “More service dogs are also needed for civilians, for children who are suﬀering with PTSD [post-traumatic

stress disorder]. We have ambitious plans to breed and train significantly more dogs each year to meet this everincreasing demand.”

After an interlude of songs by Immanuel Primary School pupils, Rob was gifted sponsorship of Teddy, Jewish ’ community guide dog named in memory of Martin ‘Edward’ Segal. Now seven months old, Teddy can be left alone for a few hours without chewing on furniture and he responds to food rewards and commands. Teddy’s high energy requires extra activities and longer walks so he doesn’t get bored or mischievous. Rob Rinder will now be invested in Teddy’s progress, along with Martin’s stoic widow Rebecca, who gave out packs of gift cards that are replacing the charity’s annual calendar. It’s a cost measure, but the cards are a must-have as

they feature puppies who will one day restore independence to Israeli citizens, irrespective of race or faith. Could there be a better seasonal message? To shop, visit israelguidedog.org.uk

Bring Them Home Hounds

There’s nothing special about dog walking in Hampstead on Sunday mornings, but since January there has been a standout pack wearing bandanas. The red bandanas imprinted with the words Bring Them Home are worn by regulars Samson the Westie, Lennon the Australian Doodle and Arnie the bull terrier, who wears blue. Until 31 August, Kira, the Rhodesian Ridgeback, wore the bandana Bring Hersh Home, but the murder of 23-year-old Hersh Goldberg-Polin destroyed that hope. The Kenwood Bring Them Home meet-up continues for Marli, Margot and all their four-legged friends, led by Avi Djanogoly, who brings Israelborn Kira and rescue Luna. Avi lived in Israel for nine years and his son Josh and grandchildren still do, so he felt compelled to do something. “Post-October 7, the least we could do was proclaim our love and support for the hostages deprived of their liberty who could not walk freely.”

As Avi’s brother is friends with Hersh’s parents Rachel and John, he felt a personal connection. “I put his name on Kira’s bandana and it was amazing how many people stopped to ask about Hersh.”

The group of 10 walking regulars have received nasty comments too but, Avi says, the response has been largely positive, with a special nod to Ricky Gervais, who wanted to know more. “We know people in Israel are walking with a huge sack of despair on their shoulders. In a small way we can lighten that sack with a little measure of support.”

Avi recalls being taught the importance of dogs at the Pesach seder table as a child. “Dogs in Egypt were given special credit by Hashem as they did not bark and wake the Egyptians when the children of

invested in Teddy’s progress, widow Rebecca, who gave that are replacing the calendar. It’s a but the cards are the

Avi and Kira

slaughtered because they were Jewish targeted by terrorists who killed their The

Israel escaped. On October 7, people were slaughtered because they were Jewish and the kibbutzim who kept dogs were targeted by terrorists who killed their dogs. The script has not changed in 3,000 years.”

Avi says dogs (and owners) are send

Avi says dogs (and owners) are welcome to join Kenwood Bring Them Home. “We send photos and short videos of our walk to hostage families. Amazingly they reply thanking us.”

Teddy is named a er Martin Segal

Lisa, Dany and Rob with Rolly

with Anna and Samson

IGDC gi cards are available for purchase

country house hotel which is part of Intercontinental Hotels (IHG) and dates back to the 17th century. It is located near Junction 9 A1. The hotel provides an attractive setting with landscaped grounds and has:

• 7 modern event suites which hosts up to 180 guests

• An External Catering Kitchen, free car parking

• 87 Bedrooms, Nuffield Fitness Center this includes a gym, sauna and steam rooms, and a 20m swimming pool for guests. Letchworth Hall is a great venue for hosting celebratory events like Bar/Bat Mitzvahs, parties and weddings. To find out more and arrange a site visit contact the events team on 01462 683 747 | sales@LHhotel.co.uk

Washington DC Heart of the USA

Louisa Walters was wowed by the vast scale of everything in America’s capital, but also its warmth towards Jews

What I did not expect to see while queueing to order breakfast at Tatte café on my first morning in Washington DC was a leaflet listing Rosh Hashanah oﬀerings. So I fell in love with the city instantly. For all its undeniable grandeur, majesty and awesomeness, with everything on a grand scale, it is surprisingly welcoming and inclusive, and home to 400,000 Jews. They are respectfully honoured at the National Holocaust Museum, where we spent five hours enveloped in a remarkable retelling of the story we know so well. The tour starts with a video of the liberation of the camps by the Americans, reminding us we have much to be grateful to them for, but the museum does not shy away from the fact that during the war they could have done much more.

Our base for four action-packed days was the Conrad Hilton, located downtown just a few blocks from the White House. Rising to 10 storeys, the all-glass building has spectacular city views from rooms that are spacious and well-appointed with streamlined contemporary décor and huge marble bathrooms with double vanities and Byredo toiletries. The Sakura Club lounge gave us a really good buffet breakfast with pancakes to order, all-day snacks and an astonishing collection of Japanese whiskies, while the rooftop bar affords more views while drinking surprisingly affordable cocktails. No building is allowed to be taller than the needleshaped Washington monument, so vistas are uninterrupted almost everywhere.

We jumped aboard the hop-on hop-oﬀ

Big Bus tour to see the landmarks. The guide explained why each museum and government building is worth a visit, but not the IRS (tax authority) headquarters, saying: “You wanna hope you never have to go in there. Their motto is: ‘We’ve got what it takes to take what you’ve got’”.

We got oﬀ at Arlington National Cemetery, where nearly half a million fallen soldiers are buried. It’s deeply moving to see how the USA honours its dead, with row upon row of neat white headstones across acres of green space, and also the grave of John F. Kennedy and his family. There are several memorials in the city to those who have lost their lives fighting for the country and we found ourselves drawn to them and the deep sense of patriotism they evoke. But we felt this most strongly at the Lincoln Memorial, where the giant carving towered above us as we read the Declaration of Independence inscribed on the wall.

On a free walking tour organised by the Capital Jewish Museum, we learnt that Washington’s main synagogue, Adas Israel, has been in three locations. Literally. It was constructed in 1908. In 1969 and then in 2016, they loaded the entire building in one piece onto a massive truck and moved it. The Jewish community has long since moved out to the ’burbs but, once upon a time, there were many thriving Jewish-owned businesses in the centre, mostly furniture or fashion. Triangle Park is notable for being at the crossroads to what was once two churches and two synagogues and children of attendees at all of them happily played together while their parents were at services.

Museums in Washington are mind-blowing – each one so vast you could easily spend a day. They are also free and we visited the National Museum of African American History and Culture, which has an entire floor dedicated to slavery and the Civil Rights movement; the National Gallery of Art, which displays portraits of all 45 presidents and the fascinating National Air and Space Museum. But we spent much time outdoors, too, in the warm autumn sunshine, clocking up tens of thousands of steps along the National Mall, which is lined with all the Smithsonian museums.

The White House is behind rather more barriers than I recall from my last visit in the seventies, but you are allowed right inside the Capitol Building and the Supreme Court, both of which are awe-inspiring in both size and significance. It’s not all wide roads and huge buildings though. In Georgetown, we wandered along quaint streets with pretty shops, cafes and restaurants – it has a remarkably European feel – and then down to the harbour. It comes alive at night, with al fresco dining and promenade walks.

We headed to Yellow in the Union Market area that is, as food and travel presenter Phil Rosenthal says, a great pitstop for kebab-stuﬀed pita on the go. This is known as the NoMa neighbourhood (North of Massachusetts). Union Market is a former grocery store-turned indoor food court with global cuisine. Close by is La Cosecha Latin American Market, which has shopping and eateries as well. Nearby

is the REI flagship store where The Beatles held their first US concert.

Tatte was my favourite breakfast/ pop-in-at-any-time-of-day spot. It’s an Israeli-owned chain with stunning pastries, sandwiches, brunch items and drinks. We went to L’Ardente so my lasagne-obsessed husband could try the 40-layer lasagne. Other memorable dishes at this fabulous modern Italian restaurant were miniature duck and truﬀle ravioli and an incredibly good Caesar salad, plus the Fig Cobbler vodka cocktail. Imperfecto is a new-ish Michelin-starred restaurant with outstanding innovation, food, presentation and service from a Venezuelan chef who peppers his cooking with Latin American style. We dined on savoury lamb Moroccan cigars and an exquisitely delicate yet zesty tomato dish with white asparagus gazpacho, followed by an extremely refined steak tartare, an indulgent foie gras with shaved truﬀle, duck with a white sweet potato purée, and branzino with teeny chanterelles and a sunchoke kebab. Dessert was a mesmerising Sauternes-poached Golden Pear.

On my first visit to Washington as a 10-yearold I was overawed by how huge everything was. And I still am. It feels like the heart of America – and it’s beating loud and clear for me.

Washington info : Hilton (hilton.com) and Destination DC (washington.org) with luxury airport transfers by Blacklane (blacklane.com)

Moving Adas Israel

L’Ardente’s lasagne

A room at the Conrad Hilton

Supreme Court building

SUN, SHOPPING, SPICES AND A SUMPTUOUS HOTEL MAKE FOR A WONDERFUL BREAK IN MARRAKECH.

BY ALEX GALBINSKI

Walking in the souk in the Medina in Marrakech can be an assault on the senses. In the labyrinth of tiny alleyways and shops, some of which look indistinguishable from one another, it would be very easy to lose one’s way. You share the narrow paths with cyclists and scooters and you might be jostled along during busy times. You’ll smell baked goods and spices and see, among other items, colourful ceramics, clothes, custommade leather shoes and carpets, all tightly packed, along with stallholders who will attempt to cajole you into purchasing their wares. I absolutely loved it!

However, I had travelled only with hand luggage so had to be circumspect about what to bring home. I attempted to haggle but, being British, found it painfully hard, eventually choosing a Moroccan platter. Luckily, I could not spend all afternoon shopping, for we had hired a guide.

Younos Ajana steered us to the stunning Dar El Bacha museum, an 18th century palace that used to be home to Marrakech’s Pasha. While the traditional Moroccan architecture and artifacts it showcases inside are fascinating, equally beautiful – and Instagrammable – is its courtyard, full of luscious orange trees and fountains.

If you’re not one for shopping and would prefer some R & R, the hotel we stayed at is a must. Beloved by celebrities including Cristiano Ronaldo, Amanda Holden and Constance Jablonski, and just a 20-minute car ride from the Medina (free shuttles are every two hours) and the airport, the five-star Fairmont Royal Palm Marrakech is a panacea

for the hubbub of the souk. We arrived at the hotel – which is set in an olive grove, with trees lining its paths – in time for a cocktail at the magnificent jazz-inspired Le Bar (it also serves delicious sushi). At Al Aïn oriental restaurant, we were served beautifully presented Lebanese dishes with a Moroccan twist, such as spinach fatayer and sayadieh samak. By rights, we shouldn’t have been hungry the next morning, but the hotel – which is set in 231 hectares and impresses with its impossibly high ceilings, moody interiors and tastefully luxe décor – is a haven for foodies. The buﬀet breakfast was a smorgasbord of cereals and yoghurt, fresh and dried fruit, fish, pastries and Moroccan Msemen breads.

With four restaurants on the complex – and the option of in-room dining – you won’t go hungry. If you’re one for fine dining, Italian restaurant Capricci is a feast for the eyes and stomach. Stand-out dishes included grilled salmon served with avocado in a basil sauce and a saﬀron-infused risotto with caramelised onions and sautéed almonds. Meals at Le Sabra at the Country Club are a lighter aﬀair, with options including quinoa salad and roasted sea bream.

bike, taking in the 18-hole golf course and its two swimming pools, one of which is the city’s largest and meanders through the site.

The hotel is wonderfully family-friendly, with a Kids’ Club for children aged three to 12. For the fitness fan, options include a dedicated centre, a squash court, clay tennis and padel courts – and we did have lots of fun trying out this new-to-us racquet sport.

We booked in for a hammam treatment at the stunning spa, which is designed like a modern riad and oozes a sense of tranquillity. Iqbal scrubbed my skin with the traditional black soap and a kessa glove and, after the application of a Ghassoul clay mask and marocMaroc products, I felt like a lizard, with my new skin revealed. This was followed by a wonderful vitamin C facial by Fatima using Natura Bissé products and I left with my skin glowing.

The 134 guest rooms, suites and villas, oﬀer stunning views of the Atlas Mountains or the gardens. Mine was an extremely spacious deluxe suite decked out in dark wood and moucharabieh panels, Berber rugs and bespoke furniture, a sunken marble bath and a separate shower room with beijmat tiled floors, plus a patio from which I could watch the beautiful golden sunrise.

Golf buggies are available to transport you around the vast complex, but we explored by

It is easy to see why the hotel plays host not just to holidays but also to weddings, including around 10 Jewish weddings annually, mostly to couples with roots in Morocco. Jews are recorded as present in Morocco since before Roman times, with many moving there after the Iberian expulsion. Indeed, Morocco was once home to the largest number of Jews in a Muslim country, with more than 250,000 living there at one time. Now only around 2,500 remain, a few hundred of whom are in Marrakech.

The historic ongoing presence of Jews in Morocco is noted in the Constitution of 2011, and the Kingdom (as well as private entities) has instigated archaeological and restoration projects of Jewish places of interest. Morocco normalised relations with Israel in 2020 with the signing of the Abraham Accords. There are several synagogues in Marrakech,

including the 16th century Slat Lazama Synagogue in the Mellah, the historic Jewish quarter. Located less than 10 minutes away from Jemaa El Fna, the main square in the heart of the Medina, it was built by Sephardi Jews and features a garden courtyard and museum. You can visit this synagogue as well as the Jewish cemetery, and Jewish heritage tours are also available.

It is warm and sunny in the red city (so called because of the red walls of its houses) right into the autumn. There is so much to see and do, including visiting the Bahia Palace, the Yves Saint Laurent museum, the Jardin Majorelle and trekking in the Atlas mountains. But if, like me, you are looking for some downtime, the luxurious Fairmont Royal Palm Marrakech is a discreet and wonderful place in which to recharge.

Fairmont Royal Palm Marrakech, from £390 per night B&B. fairmont.com Younos Ajana is with @specialtours_ marrakech. For an English-language talk about Jewish Marrakech, email Kati Roumani at saltandochre@gmail.com

Alex at Dar El Bacha

Handmade shoes (top) and Jewish-themed artefacts

A deluxe suite at the Fairmont Royal Palm

The

Grave of Rabbi Judah the Patriarch

Statue of Alexander Zeid

ANU Museum

Cave of the Warrior and his Menorah

Bet She’arim Park

Village of Zichron Yaakov

need for Israel

Charlotte Henry connects with our story in the Holy Land and puts forward many reasons we must continue to visit

Whether we get to visit regularly or rarely, Israel holds a special place in the hearts of Jews around the world. That’s just not because of the great beaches, fantastic hiking or delicious food. It’s because we have a profound, ancient connection with the country. Stepping off the plane at Ben Gurion always feels special.

For many of us, these feelings have intensified since the horrors of October 7. Going to Israel is now not just a nice holiday, but one of the best things we can do for the country. In the midst of so much anti-Israel hatred, being there matters. What is more, being reminded of the history of the Jewish people is an uplifting experience. Those connections with the land is what we explore in this latest part of a series from Jewish News with the Israel Government Tourist Oﬀice.

A great way to start when trying to understand the history of the Jews and Israel is the Anu Museum – The Museum of the Jewish People. Opened three years ago, it feels fresh and new, but tells a long story. As the name suggests, the museum gives details of Jews from across the world. This includes outlining how British Jews were twice expelled from their home country and how Oliver Cromwell invited them back.

There is also the moving account of how 30,000 people were reunited after the Holocaust. Elsewhere, there are tales of Jews from Arab countries and also large amounts of Russian immigration, underlining the diversity of Israeli society.

The Anu Museum is also home to an incredible collection of model synagogues in the Hallelujah! Assemble, Pray, Study –Synagogues Past and Present exhibition. Inside are 21 intricately detailed models. They help to remind us of diﬀerent communities around the world and important aspects of Jewish life. It seems right that while sitting in Israel, the centre of Jewish life, we can also glimpse the diaspora. Each model is accompanied by an original artefact that comes from the synagogue itself or the associated community.

Tragically, October 7 is now also a crucial part of the story of the Jewish people and there is an exhibition commemorating it at the museum. Indeed, it includes an AI-generated heart and records of the attack from “while it was happening”, our guide explains. Reading the thoughts of people aﬀected really knocks you back, but it’s crucial to do so.

My favourite segment of the museum is much lighter in tone. It is an exhibition recording the long and proud history of Jewish comedy. It does a good job of explaining why jokes and humour are so important to our culture and highlights some oﬀ the great protagonists of the craft. The exhibition covers Jewish comedy right up to the modern day. Every family member will have aﬀection for someone featured there. Recently, comedian Modi was given a dedicated spot in the highly enjoyable exhibition.

As much as anywhere else, the Bet She’arim National Park outlines the long connection between Jews and the land of Israel. Going there is as meaningful as visiting Masada.

The Necropolis of Bet She’arim, designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2015, is in the Lower Galilee, east of Haifa. Despite its importance to Jewish history, it is somewhat of the beaten track for tourists. It is, though, both a beautiful park and a deeply important site.

I am not a particularly religious person, but I was taken aback when I was told that I was standing by the grave of Rabbi Judah the Patriarch. He not only led the Jewish revival after 135 AD, but also wrote the Mishnah, bringing together in writing what were previously oral explanations of Jewish law. Despite this, his actual sarcophagus is very modest. It gives no indication of the significance of the person buried there. And you can just walk up to it.

Elsewhere in the park are the burial sites of more great Jewish leaders and others. Many of the ancient sarcophagi are well preserved, although they were clearly looted long, long ago. They often have clear Jewish markings on them – symbols such as menorahs and stars of David. It all emphasises once again the

long Jewish connection with this part of the world. There is also the statue of Alexander Zeid, a leading figure in the Second Aliyah, who founded the secret Jewish defence movements Bar Giora and then Hashomer. He was killed in 1938, but is depicted sitting on horseback, looking out onto the Jezreel Valley, perhaps marvelling at what the country he helped protect has now become.

The village of Zichron Yaakov, meanwhile, “was one of the important milestones and basis of modern-time Israel”, explains our guide. It is to the south of Haifa and the museum there tells the story of a collection of families who emigrated from Romania in 1882. “The beginning was really rough,” our guide says, “because the Romanians did not have any knowledge in agriculture.” There were also tensions with the Ottomans and a malaria outbreak to contend with. That virus eventually killed 10 percent of the area’s population in just the first two to three years.

The village was, however, home to the first Jewish spy network, NILI, with the Aaronsohn family at the heart of it. They tried to work with the British to defeat the Ottomans. It took a long time to build trust and there was plenty of diﬀiculty and loss on the way. It’s an incredible tale that involves family members fleeing and even dying. Sarah Aaronsohn led the organisation at one point, but was tortured and took her own life before she could be hung.

Due to the work of this spy network, the British got crucial intelligence that helped General Allenby in the Battle of Beersheva, from which he went on to Jerusalem. The NILI spy network, inspired by the notion of practical Zionism, ultimately helped create the situation that led to the Balfour Declaration, bringing about modern Israel.

The whole tale would be appropriate for a thriller, but the museum tells it in an enlightening manner. Interestingly, the story is not widely shared outside of Israel, but being able to see and walk through some of the original houses helps to take it all in.

Many of us know instinctively that we have a connection to Israel, but we live in a time when people are trying to rewrite history. Places such as the Anu Museum, Zichron Yaakov and Bet She’arim give meaningful context and help to explain why we feel this way. They give any trip to Israel even greater meaning.