“He who gives salvation to kings and dominion to princes, Whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom – may He bless Our Sovereign lord, King Charles, our gracious Queen Camilla, the Prince and Princess of Wales, and all the Royal Family.”
Saturday 6 May 2023
“Can you hear her heart beat?” Lital asked Keren Dee, the daughter of Lucy Dee who was killed in a terror attack last month. “Yes,” Keren replied and started crying.
Jewish News was at the scene during a highly emotional meeting this week at Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikva, where the Dee family met for the first time the donor patients who each received organs from the Lucy .
Both surviving daughters, Keren and Tali, listened to 51-year-old Lital Valenci’s heart beat through a stethoscope.
“Listening to my mother’s heartbeat made me feel like I am with her,” said Keren. “It was moving meeting Lital and all the recipients. We have lost so much but are comforted that so many families were saved
from similar pain.” Tali added: “Nobody can understand what it is like losing a mother and two sisters at once and to hear my mother’s heartbeat was comforting.”
Their father, Rabbi Leo Dee, said he had been “in tears” all morning in anticipation of the meeting with the patients, but that seeing them all made him feel happy again. “
Valenci told the family: “You saved my life. Thank you so much.”
The recipient, who su ered from heart failure for five years, waited eight agonising months for a new heart, with doctors telling her she had months to live without a transplant. Lucy Dee saved her.
Rabbi Dee told Valenci: “I actually thought I was going to burst into tears when I saw you. And I didn’t. I felt joy. So thank you for bringing us back up.”
The doctors who had taken part in three
Continued on page 3
Jews, on behalf of all its affiliated congregations and organisations, congratulates Their Majesties ahead of the coronation.
God Save the King and Queen. Long Live the King and Queen.
45 Aid Society • Aberdeen Hebrew Congregation • AJEX • Alei Tzion Synagogue • Alliance of Jewish Women and their Organisations (AJWO) • Armed Forces Jewish Community • Association of Jewish Refugees • B'nai B'rith UK • B'nai B'rith Youth Organisation • Barnet Synagogue • Bedfordshire
Progressive Synagogue • Belmont Synagogue • Belsize Square Synagogue • Bevis Marks Synagogue • Birmingham Central Synagogue • Birmingham
Hebrew Congregation • Birmingham Progressive Synagogue • Bnei Akiva • Board of Deputies of British Jews • Borehamwood and Elstree Synagogue
• Bournemouth Hebrew Congregation • Bournemouth Reform Synagogue • Bridge Lane Beth Hamedresh • Brighton & Hove Hebrew Congregation •
Brighton & Hove Progressive Synagogue • Brighton & Hove Reform Synagogue • Bristol and West Progressive Jewish Congregation • Bristol Hebrew Congregation • Bromley Reform Synagogue • Brondesbury Park Synagogue • Bushey and District Synagogue • Cambridge Traditional Jewish
Congregation • Cambridge - Beth Shalom Reform Synagogue • Cardiff Reform Synagogue • Cardiff United Synagogue • Catford and Bromley
Synagogue • Central Synagogue • Cheltenham Hebrew Congregation • Chigwell and Hainault Synagogue • Cockfosters and North Southgate
Synagogue • Community Security Trust • Cranbrook United Synagogue • Crouch End Liberal Jewish Chavurah • Croydon Federation Synagogue •
Darlington Hebrew Congregation • David Ishag Synagogue - Neveh Shalom Sephardi Community • Ealing Liberal Synagogue • Ealing United Synagogue • East London and Essex Liberal Synagogue • Edgware Adath Yisroel Congregation • Edgware and Hendon Reform Synagogue • Edgware
Masorti Synagogue • Edgware United Synagogue • Edinburgh Hebrew Congregation • Emunah • Exeter Hebrew Congregation • Federation of Zionist
Youth • Finchley Progressive Synagogue • Finchley Reform Synagogue • Finchley Synagogue • Gibraltar Jewish Community •
Glasgow - Garnethill Hebrew Congregation • Glasgow - Giffnock
Newton Mearns Synagogue • Glasgow Jewish Representative
Council • Glasgow Reform Synagogue • Habonim Dror UK • Hadley Wood Jewish Community • Hampstead Garden Suburb
Synagogue • Hampstead Synagogue • Harif • Harlow Jewish Community • Harrogate Hebrew Congregation • Hendon
United Synagogue • Highgate Synagogue • Hull Hebrew Congregation • Ilford Federation Synagogue • JAMI • Jewish
Action for Mental Health (JAMH) • Jewish Care • Jewish Labour Movement • Jewish Lads & Girls Brigade • Jewish
Police Association • Jewish Small Communities Network (JSCN) • Jewish
Womens Aid • jLiving • Kehillat Kernow • Kenton Synagogue •
Kingsbury Synagogue • Kingston, Surbiton and District Synagogue •
Kisharon • Kol Chai - Hatch End Jewish Community • Kol Nefesh
Masorti Synagogue • Lancaster and Lakes Jewish Community •
Lauderdale Road Synagogue • League of Jewish Women •
Leeds - Sinai Synagogue • Leeds
Jewish Representative Council •
Leicester Hebrew Congregation • Liberal Jewish Synagogue •
Liberal Judaism
• Liberal Synagogue Elstree • Limmud •
Lincolnshire Jewish Community • Liverpool - Allerton Hebrew
Congregation • Liverpool - Childwall Hebrew Congregation • Liverpool
Old Hebrew Congregation • Liverpool Reform Synagogue • LJY Netzer •
Loughton, Chigwell and District Synagogue • Luton United Synagogue
• Maccabi GB
• Machzike Hadath V'Shomrei Shabbat Synagogue •
Magen Avot • Magen David Adom UK • Maidenhead Synagogue • Manchester -
Cheetham Hebrew Congregation • Manchester - Great, New and Central
Manchester Synagogue • Manchester - Holy Law South Broughton Congregation
• Manchester - Jewish Representative
Council of Greater Manchester & Region •
Manchester - Manchester Reform Synagogue • Manchester - Menorah
Synagogue • Manchester - North Salford Synagogue • Manchester - Sale and District Hebrew Congregation • Manchester - Shaare Hayim
Congregation • Manchester - The Shrubberies - Prestwich Hebrew
Congregation • Manchester - Whitefield Hebrew Congregation • Manchester -
Yeshurun Hebrew Congregation • Manchester United Synagogue • Masorti
Judaism • Memorial Scrolls Trust • Mill Hill Synagogue • Mitzvah Day • Mosaic Liberal Synagogue • Mosaic Masorti Synagogue • Mosaic Reform
Synagogue • Movement for Reform Judaism • Muswell Hill Synagogue • Ner Yisrael Community • New Essex Masorti Synagogue • New London Synagogue • New North London Synagogue • New West End Synagogue • Newcastle Reform Synagogue • Newcastle United Hebrew Congregation
• Noam • North West Surrey Synagogue • North Western Reform Synagogue • Northampton Hebrew Congregation • Northwood and Pinner Liberal Synagogue • Northwood United Synagogue • Norwich Hebrew Congregation • Nottingham Hebrew Congregation • Nottingham Liberal Synagogue • Oxford Jewish Congregation • Pinner Synagogue • Plymouth Hebrew Congregation • Portsmouth and Southsea Hebrew Congregation • Potters Bar & Brookmans Park United Synagogue • Pro-Zion • Radlett Reform Synagogue • Radlett United Synagogue • Reading Hebrew Congregation • Redbridge Synagogue • Richmond Synagogue • RSY Netzer • Sadeh Farm • Sandy's Row Synagogue • Scottish Council of Jewish Communities • Sha'arei Tsedek, North London Reform Synagogue • Sheffield - Kingfield Synagogue • Shenley United Synagogue • Shomrei Hadath Congregation •
South Hampstead Synagogue • South Herts and Edgware Masorti (SHEMA) • South London Liberal Synagogue • South Tottenham Synagogue • Southampton Hebrew Congregation • Southgate Progressive Synagogue • Southport Hebrew Congregation • Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue, Holland Park • St Albans Masorti Synagogue • St Albans United Synagogue • St Annes Hebrew Congregation • St Johns Wood Synagogue • Staines and District Synagogue • Stanmore and Canons Park Synagogue • Stoke-on-Trent and North Staffordshire Hebrew Congregation • Sukkat Shalom Reform Synagogue • Sutton and District Synagogue • Thanet and District Reform Synagogue • The Friendship Circle • The S&P Sephardi Community • Tsur Yisrael - The Gibraltar Minyan
University Jewish Chaplaincy Board • Watford and District Synagogue
The Board of Deputies of British
Israeli special forces have killed two Palestinians suspected of murdering Lucy, Maia and Rina Dee in the West Bank, writes Jotam Confino.
The IDF, Shin Bet security agency, and Israel Police released a statement yesterday saying forces had operated in the city of Nablus in the West Bank in the early hours, killing two members of Hamas and a third senior operative who aided the two terrorists.
“This morning, during a joint ISA, Israel Border Police and IDF counterterrorism activity, the Hamas terrorist operatives Hassan Ktnani and Maed Mitsri were killed.
“The terrorists murdered Leah (Lucy), Maia and Rina Dee on 7 April in a shooting attack adjacent to the community of Hamra,” the statement said.
The forces raided the apartment where the terrorist were hiding, where they found two M-16 rifles and an AK-47.
Prime Minister Netanyahu issued a statement after the raid, saying: “This morning, we settled accounts with the murderers of Lucy, Maya and Rina Dee, may their memories be blessed. Our message to those who harm us, and those who want to harm us, is that whether it takes a day, a week or a month – you can be certain that we will settle accounts with you.
“It does not matter where you try to hide – we will find you. Whoever attacks us will pay the price. I would like to thank the security agencies and our brave soldiers who worked night and day to settle accounts with the murderers,” Netanyahu added.
Defence Minister Gallant said: “Just as I promised Leo Dee – Israel’s defence establishment will reach any terrorist that harms our citizens.”
Continued from page 1
patients’ organ transplants also described how emotional and extraordinary the situation had been for them. “There was not a dry eye in the room as Keren and Tali raised their hands to Lital’s chest to hear their mother’s heartbeat,” said Prof Dan Aravot.
“We often talk about the physical recovery after a transplant but there is an emotional component that comes with it, and it was very important to Lital to meet the Dee family and share her condolences with them and how appreciative she is to have the gift of life and watch her children grow up because of Lucy Dee,” added Prof Aravot, who performed the heart transplant. Daniel Geresh, 25, who received a liver transplant from Lucy, also came to thank the family. “Daniel was very sick,” Dr Eviatar Nesher told the Dee family. “If he hadn’t received the transplant, his situation would’ve continued to deteriorate. Your actions simply saved him. Your courage moved us all.”
Editorial comment, page 38
Become a donor: organdonation.nhs.uk
A respected Jewish communal leader has revealed he was warned by two counter-terrorism o cers of a plot to assassinate him, writes Lee
The man, who spoke to the i newspaper, said the two o cers had read out the sinister details of the threat to him in front of his wife.
While there was no o cial confir-
mation of who was behind the threat, the man said he could think that the only people wishing to murder him would be those linked to the Iranian regime of Ali Hosseini Khamenei (pictured) and the ruling Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Recalling the visit from the o cers in November, the man told the i: “They were reading from notes and they
said they have reason to believe that my life is in danger.” He said that 10 months before the visit he had received a warning from counter-terrorism o cers “that I should not go to a particular country in the Middle East”. Without confirming to him the threat was from Iran, the man said the o cers “sort of nodded and winked” when he
named the country “but they did not say it themselves”. He said his wife “freaked out” after she was advised to avoid walking familiar routes with their grandchildren.
Jewish News understands that other communal leaders have been told to remain vigilant, but also that they should not be fearful in their everyday lives of a specific threat to them.
Highgate’s Waterlow Park rang to unaccustomed chants of demokratia! (democracy) and busha! (disgrace) on Sunday as hundreds of Israelis and British Jews joined in a bittersweet celebration of Israel’s 75th anniversary, writes Jenni Frazer.
In an event organised by the London arm of the Defend Israeli Democracy movement, five fiery speakers recalled the events of the past four months and the impact the weekly street demonstrations were having on Israel’s government.
They were led by the London movement’s founder, Sharon Shochat, who told the 500-strong crowd of families the demonstrations were “not a question of right and left, but a question of right and wrong”.
Quoting from the Declaration of Independence, UJIA and Jewish Leadership Council former chair Sir Mick Davis said: “How sad that the inspirational words of Israel’s own foundational document have become words of protest.”
In trenchant comments, Sir Mick
declared: “Those who wrote and signed the Declaration of Independence knew what it was to be powerless: to be a minority at the mercy of mercurial rulers.
“They understood our rights, our freedoms, our liberty cannot simply be entrusted to leaders, even if they are elected; they must be protected by the institutions and safeguards that guarantee free societies”.
To be a free people, Sir Mick said, the only safeguard was an independent legal system.“Without restraints – without checks and balances — bad actors will use their power to do bad things”.
He said there had been a metaphorical shrugging of shoulders for too long while “we have watched cynical figures promote a politics of hate. With malice in their hearts and malevolence in their minds, they have weaponised the sense of unfairness felt by those left behind in Israel’s economic success.”
To cheers, he added: “Let us express a difficult truth: the conflict
with the Palestinians is not incidental; it is fundamental.”
Leading Reform rabbi Laura Janner-Klausner had a similarly tough message: “To those pursuing the destruction of Israel’s democracy and fragmentation of our Jewish soul, we say, ‘You’re messing with the wrong generation’.
“To the same voices who call for wiping out Palestinian villages, who threaten hard-won gender equality and LGBTQ+ rights, the same voices who stir inter-Jewish, intra-denominational strife ... who call IDF reservists and those putting their lives at risk for the state of Israel “anarchists” ... who scoff at experts from Moody’s to Nobel laureates: these are the same people who are driving this attempt to depose the guardians of democracy and dispose of its safeguards”
The two British leaders were followed by lawyer Dr Eliad Shraga, founder and chair of the Movement for Quality Government in Israel and a leading voice in Israel against the government there.
He said he did not expect the weekly demonstrations to have an instant effect on the Knesset – but “thousands of people being on the streets, I believe, is giving strength to the judges, to the Supreme Court.
“If the legislation for judicial reform does go through, the Movement for Quality Government will immediately submit a petition to the High Court of Justice, and my hope is that the judges will abolish the law. And in that case we will face a grave constitutional crisis. That’s our big-
gest problem, not having a constitution because they [the government] change things every morning”.
Shraga said his organisation was pressing for a proper written constitution for Israel, adding that he hoped British Jews would press the government in the UK to express clear opposition to Israel’s present policies.
He described the current coalition as “crooks who have hijacked the country”, with particular contempt for Arie Deri, Yariv Levin, Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir.
Matthew Offord is to stand down as MP for Hendon at the next election, writes Lee Harpin.
In a surprise statement the 53-year-old, who has been MP in the north-west London seat since 2010, announced that he was stepping back to “pursue other interests in my life”.
Offord said the next election was the time “to leave the baton for someone else to take up”.
In a lengthy statement, the Conservative praised the “religious diversity” in Hendon, which he added “means that a successful representative does not pander to one demographic or another, acknowledges that faith remains important in the daily lives of many.”
Among the highlights of his career in Westminster, Offord said he was “proud” to have
“won security funding for faith schools” and to have “supported free school status for Etz Chaim, one of the first free schools in the country”. He also noted that he was proud “to have led the campaign to proscribe Hezbollah”.
Last June, Offord said he had received conflicting opinions from constituents in regard to their support for former prime minister Boris Johnson.
During his political career, Offord had been outspoken in his support for Israel, and was an officer in the Conservative Friends of Israel group.
At the last election, he won a 4,230 majority against the Labour candidate David PintoDuschinsky, a Jewish former adviser to former chancellor Alistair Darling.
Pinto-Duschinsky has been selected to fight the seat again at the next election for Labour.
A crowdfunding campaign for the community’s leading learning disabilities charity has raised more than £570,000 in just 37 hours.
More than 3,000 donors ensured that Kisharon can continue to fund its essential services for the children and adults they support with learning disabilities and autism.
The money raised from the campaign, which had an original target of £500,000, will go towards an annual voluntary income budget of £2.4m, which goes towards ensuring that essential Kisharon services are maintained – vital with the recent cuts to social care funding.
One of the 120 successful fundraising teams was created by a group of people supported by Kisharon who formed the Enterprise Packing team and raised over £13,000 from more than 200 donors.
North West London Jewish Day School has been shortlisted in the primary of the year category at the TES (Times Educational Supplement) School Awards 2023.
The nod is another achievement for the Willesden school, which has had a busy year, completing successful Ofsted and Section 48 Kodesh inspections,
as well as being awarded ADHDfriendly school status and been given SENDIA (special educational needs and disabilities inclusion award) and WAS (wellbeing award for schools) accreditation.
Headteacher Judith Caplan says she is “thrilled and honoured” that the school has been shortlisted. “This recognition
is a testament to the hard work and dedication of our staff, trustees and governors, parents and pupils who have all contributed to creating a positive and nurturing learning environment where children can thrive academically and personally.
“I am incredibly proud of our staff and their dedication and
hard work, which makes a difference to the education of our pupils. Being shortlisted for this prestigious award is a wonderful achievement, one we are all very proud of.”
Awards winners will be announced on Friday 23 June at a gala ceremony at the Grosvenor Park Hotel in London.
Jewish Care’s Life President, President, Honorary Presidents, Chairman, Trustees, staff and volunteers wish His Majesty King Charles III, Her Majesty Queen Camilla, and the entire Royal Family a hearty Mazel Tov on the occasion of the Coronation. We are delighted to celebrate this wonderful event across our resources and services together with our residents, tenants, members and clients and gladly share this joyous time with so many across the community and the country.
British-Israeli citizen Adam Russel was among 120 “outstanding” soldiers honoured by Israel’s president on Independence Day, writes Jotam Confino.
Russel (pictured) was awarded for service as a member of an IDF tank unit. He is a “loader”, carrying ammunition and loading it on to the vehicle.
Russel’s family immigrated to Israel from Edgware in 2014 when he was 11, two months before the Gaza war broke out.
Despite the harsh new reality of war, Russel said his family dealt “quite well” with adapting to life in Talmei Yosef settlement near the Gaza border.
When it was time to enlist, his memories of the tanks protecting his family and the rest of the citizens in the town decided him which unit he wanted to be in.
He said being in the armoured corps was no “walk in the park” as it is not a pop-
ular unit due to the physical and mental hardship the soldiers endure.
“There is also stigma about the unit, with some saying you don’t get to go home and you are always dirty,” he added. “But I can say it’s no worse than any other place.”
After eight months of training, Russel was certified as a fighter and went straight into a commander’s course and sent to the unit that protects the Gaza border, just 10 minutes from his family’s house.
One of the most challenging experiences for Russel was a week of war simulation, where his unit was under extreme physical and mental duress.
“For about four or five days we don’t change our clothes in the tank, it’s in the middle of the summer, so it’s extremely hot. You just wear your overalls and a Kevlar vest, which gives you a rash and it’s hard to move in it,” he said.
“Each person has a fan in there but when it’s 40 degrees it doesn’t help much. To be inside the tank for a full week is really hard. I got to a breaking point but I passed it to understand what your body can actually do.”
Despite the difficulties and hardship, Russel is proud of what he does: “Not many people get to do what I do, to be in an amazing combat unit and to guard my home,” he said. “Every day is a threat, but just us being there helps them live in peace. It’s an amazing experience to me.” Russel is still close to his family in England, but moving to Israel was the right decision he says: “It’s a big contrast. Apart from the threat from Gaza, there’s huge freedom here and there’s barely any crime. Your parents let you go out and play at the playground by yourself. And if you want to meet your friend, you just to do it.”
The oldest former Nazi camp guard ever put on trial in Germany has died while waiting for an appeal after being sentenced to five years in prison. He was 102.
Josef Schütz was found guilty last year of more than
3,500 counts of accessory to murder for serving as a guard at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp north of Berlin between 1942 and 1945.
During the hearings, Schütz, a non-commissioned officer of the Waffen-SS,
repeatedly denied the charges against him, but prosecutors presented evidence placing him at the camp and showing that he shot and killed Soviet prisoners of war and assisted in murders using Zyklon B poison gas. Schütz was also
accused of keeping prisoners in inhumane conditions.
Sachsenhausen opened in 1936 and initially held political prisoners. By the time it was liberated in 1945, some 200,000 prisoners had been held there.
Germany has boosted the annual subsidy to the country’s Jewish umbrella organisation by 70 percent, in a move intended to shore up security and support a new centre for Jewish life inspired by one closed by the Nazis.
The Central Council of Jews, which distributes government funds to Jewish communities and institutions, will get €22m (about $24m) starting next year, up from €13m this year.
Most of the increase – €16m – will benefit the Jewish Academy in Frankfurt, a new institution envisioned as an inheritor of the Jewish House of Free Study, or Lehrhaus, founded in 1920 by Jewish philosopher Franz Rosenzweig
It has been in the works for more than a decade and is scheduled to open next year with the aim to “formulate Jewish perspectives on debates in society at large” and within Jewish contexts.
Guardian editor Katharine
Viner has emailed sta to say “failures in our editorial processes” led to publication of what she described as “a completely unacceptable cartoon” containing “a number of o ensive antisemitic tropes”, writes Lee Harpin.
In an email to editorial sta and contractors in response to Martin Rowson’s sketch, Viner (pictured below) said she had been “working in the US” when the cartoon was published last Saturday.
“As soon as I saw the cartoon on Saturday morning I decided with senior editors that we should remove it from our website,” she wrote.
Her email on Wednesday added: “I know many colleagues were as shocked and upset as I was by the cartoon. There is no place for this type of image in the Guardian.”
Viner praised an article written by the Community Security Trust’s Dave Rich following the outcry about Rowson’s cartoon, drawn in response to the resignation of BBC chair Richard Sharp, who is Jewish.
The “problems” with the cartoon, wrote Viner, were “laid out well” by “antisemitism expert” Rich.
“The publication of
this cartoon highlights failures in our editorial processes which we are determined to address.” She said she and the editorial team were working on “changes” that she said would ensure “something like this won’t happen again”.
Viner is to meet the Board of Deputies to discuss cartoons in the paper containing antisemitic tropes, including, it is understood, previous sketches by Steve
BellHome secretary Suella Braverman
“demeaned” herself by using a speech at a communal dinner to attack the Board of Deputies, Dame Louise Ellman has claimed.
The former Labour MP and Jewish Labour Movement deputy also praised the Board president for raising concerns about the government’s Illegal Migration Bill.
She said: “The Jewish community has a very special role in dealing with refugee and immigration issues. It is important we use our experience to speak out.”
Ellman was addressing a Board ple-
nary, referring to Braverman’s attack on the Board when the home secretary spoke at last month’s Community Security Trust dinner.
Without naming the Board, Braverman had claimed “communal organisations” should not enter debates such as the one over the government’s policy towards those attempting to cross the Channel on small boats, because opinion was split on “left” and “right” political grounds.
But Ellman said she “applauded” the Board president after the organisation issued a statement questioning the validity of the migration bill on legal issues around international law.
Sir Keir Starmer has denied he is targeting leftwingers in Labour after Diane Abbott was suspended over comments about racism.
The Hackney North and Stoke Newington MP suggested Jews, Irish and Travellers were not subject to racism “all their lives”.
It came after Labour’s National Executive Committee backed Starmer’s proposal not to endorse ex-leader Jeremy Corbyn to contest Islington North for Labour at the next election.
Abbott said in a letter in the Observer that although white people “with points of di erence” experienced prejudice, they did not su er the same racism as black people.
She has been an MP since 1987, was the first black woman elected to parliament and served as Corbyn’s shadow home secretary.
Appearing on Jeremy Vine’s show on BBC Radio 2, Starmer rejected suggestions he was trying to get rid of left-wingers.
“I was very clear, I think it was the first thing I said as Labour leader, which was I would tear antisemitism out by its roots from our party.
“And I asked all those that had lost confi-
dence in Labour because of antisemitism to judge me by my actions, not by my words. In both of those cases, Jeremy and Diane, it’s an antisemitism issue.
“And I make no apologies for the fact that we are changing and have changed our party. And I think in the end, what they say speaks for itself.
“There aren’t many people going out saying that it’s possible to defend what Diane Abbott said last weekend. Most people including Diane, who of course apologised, recognised just how wrong and o ensive it was.”
Israel education charity Stand
WithUs UK has raised more than £600,000 in a 72hour fundraising drive, writes Michelle Rosenberg.
The support from more than 1,000 donors will enable the north Londonbased organisation to continue to advance its mission and commitment to fighting antisemitism and Israel misinformation.
Executive director Isaac Zarfati said: “As a charity that empowers and educates students and communities, this campaign’s success is a powerful affirmation of the value
of our work and the trust the public has instilled in us.
Most importantly, the campaign’s success is a resounding assertion of the strong ties between
the British community and the people of Israel.”
Lana Saffrin Betesh, the chair, added: “We believe education is the key to building a better future for all. By providing students with the tools they need to navigate complex issues and promoting dialogue
and collaboration, we empower the next generation of leaders.”
As reported by Jewish News, a burning yahrzeit memorial candle was left alongside one of the charity’s campaign Tshirts when the headquarters were broken into on Tuesday 25 April.
Social action charity GIFT has partnered with an historic London synagogue to launch a food kitchen initiative.
The Giving Kitchen at Central Synagogue in Great Portland Street will provide meals for GIFT recipients on a monthly basis.
The expansion will help more people in need and is supported by a new group of volunteers.
Rebbetzin Naomi Lerer of Central Synagogue said: “When we first discussed the idea of the Giving Kitchen at Central Synagogue, we couldn’t think of a better partner than GIFT to turn our vision into reality. With the passion of our incredible Central volunteers and GIFT’s experience, it makes the perfect partnership.”
The Giving Kitchen will provide 50 meals including fruit salad, soup and a main course to GIFT recipients, plus 50 soups to a women’s shelter. The meals are created by Sarah Isaac, the project’s kitchen manager and head chef.
A caseworker from a charity that offers advice, support and education to sexual abuse victims has been shortlisted for an award.
Eve Selfridge is an independent sexual violence adviser (ISVA) who works with men, women and children across Migdal Emunah’s Manchester base at the Nicky Alliance Centre.
The nomination, from safeguarding organisation LimeCulture, acknowledges the outstanding contributions and achievements of individual ISVAs, ISVA teams and ISVA managers in their work supporting victims of sexual violence.
All Selfridge’s clients have experienced some form of sexual violence or are close to someone who has. As an ISVA, she offers clients emotional and practical support, information about reporting to the police and the different stages of the criminal justice process.
Migdal Emunah CEO Erica Marks said she was thrilled Selfridge’s outstanding work had been recognised by a leading national organisation: “Eve works tirelessly to improve the lives of Jewish children and families in Manchester, which is a Kiddush Hashem.”
The winners across all four award categories will be announced by Edward Argar MP, Minister for Victims, at the National ISVA Conference on 11 May in Leamington Spa.
At the launch event, attended by Chief Rabbi Mirvis, volunteer Jane Keisner said: “The first session exceeded my expectations of what we were able to produce for people in need and how much fun we had together as a group. There’s no better joy than that of giving to others.”
The provisional inquest into the death of JFS pupil Mia Janin will be held at Barnet Coroner’s Court on 23 June.
The 14yearold is believed to have killed herself after receiving a series of bullying messages on social media from pupils at her school.
She took her own life on 12 March 2021. The case of the Year 10 pupil has been com
pared to that of Molly Russell, who a coroner in a ruling which was hailed as the first of its type concluded died from the “negative effects of online content”.
Mia’s father Mariano has pleaded with the school’s parents to come forward to help him discover what happened in the months leading up to the tragedy.
Mia became the third student since 2017 at the Jewish state school in north London to die by apparent suicide when she passed away one day after returning to work there at the end of the Covid lockdown last year.
She had reportedly asked her parents the night before her death if she could move to a different school.
Tributes have flooded in from across the Jewish world following the death of Jerry Springer at the aged of 79, writes Michelle Rosenberg.
The talk show host was best known for showcasing dysfunctional families on The Jerry Springer Show, which ran from 1991 until 2018.
He was born in Highgate London Underground station on 13 February 1944, while it was being used as a bomb shelter. His parents, Margot and Richard Springer – who had in 1939 fled from Germany to England – later settled in the Queens borough of New York City.
Springer traced his family roots in a 2008 episode of BBC family tree research programme Who Do You Think You Are?, in which he visited Landsberg (now Gorzów, part of Poland), where his father once owned a successful shoe shop.
He discovered that 27 other members of his family, including his widowed grandmothers, Selma Springer and Marie Kallman, were murdered in the Holocaust.
The family tried and failed to
help Marie escape to the US; sent to the Lodz ghetto in Poland, she was crammed into a cattle wagon and sent to her death at Chelmno extermination camp. Selma was deported to Theresienstadt, a Jewish ghetto outside Prague in 1942, dying aged 72, in the ghetto hospital.
Dr Tony Grenville, the historian from the Association of Jewish Refugees, (AJR) who appeared on Jerry’s episode of Who Do you Think You Are? told Jewish News: “My impression of him was completely different from his public persona. He was very pleasant, very sensitive and generally rather a pleasure to deal with, which was not what I was expecting.”
Grenville says that “one thing, to my amazement, they left out of the programme, was the three or four minutes I was asking him about his parents’ move to the US.
“Jerry said to me: ‘I’ll tell you a story. When my father got older, he wasn’t safe to drive. And every time he got into the car, my mother got very anxious. So, I spoke to him
and said “Dad, you really ought not to drive any more.”’ The father said to Jerry: ‘Listen, we’ve survived two world wars in Europe. We didn’t want to survive a third. So, I’m never going to sell that car. You never know when you will have to escape.’
“And Jerry then burst into tears and I wondered what I had done. I thought it was a very moving moment and showed how this anxiety, this deep anxiety had affected his parents. The father’s constant sense of never knowing when he’d have to escape – and how it had passed on to Jerry – inter-generational transmission. And I had reduced Jerry Springer to tears. But they cut it out.”
In 2016, Springer thanked the “amazing efforts of so many” at the launch of the World Jewish Relief archives project, which digitised and made publicly available the personal records of more than 40,000 refugees for the first time.
Within those documents were ones pertaining to his own parents, a revelation at the time he said left
The American singer, actress and director Barbra Streisand has been named winner of the annual $1m Genesis Prize, writes Joy Faulk.
Known as the ‘Jewish Nobel’, the prize honours individuals for their professional achievements, contributions to humanity and commitment to Jewish values.
Streisand said: “I am delighted to be honoured by the special 10th Anniversary Genesis Prize and to work with the Genesis Prize Foundation to support organisations that seek to better society and our shared humanity.
him “blown away”. In an article written in Jewish News, Springer said: “They showed my parents got out just four weeks before the war started and, based on the number at the top of their document, they were among the last 100 Jews to leave Germany. There was a name written on the card of their sponsor, someone called Goldberg.
“They didn’t know this person –they were probably just a member of the agency signing these to get as many Jews out as possible – but basically these people saved my parents’ lives and my sister, who was
born a month later. Without them, I wouldn’t have been born. These people reached out to us – even though they didn’t know who we were.”
He spoke further on his family history when interviewed by Emily Maitlis at the World Jewish Relief annual business dinner in 2017, writing: “A general rule I always follow: if somebody saves my life, I’ll always show up at their dinner.”
On his own social media profile, Springer aptly referred to himself as “talk show host, ringmaster of civilisation’s end”.
“I am very proud of my Jewish heritage, and have always been moved by the tradition of tikkun olam, to repair the world.” Streisand has donated – and raised – millions of dollars to help worthy causes in the US and around the world. She and her eponymous foundation have provided funding to more than 2,000 non-profit organisations and causes over the past 37 years. Shows about the Holocaust and a notorious American antisemitic incident picked up several Tony Award nominations this week, as Broadway’s biggest honours made room for a sizable Jewish presence.
The prize committee judges unanimously endorsed Streisand as the 10th Anniversary Genesis Prize laureate. She will be hon oured at a ceremony in Los Angeles in October, 10 years after the announcement of Michael R Bloomberg, 108th mayor of New York and founder of Bloomberg, as the Inaugural Genesis Prize laureate.
A revival of the 1998 musical Parade, starring Ben Platt as the early 20th-century Jewish lynching victim Leo Frank, received six nominations, including best revival of a musical and a best actor for Platt.
Leopoldstadt, the epic, highly personal play by British writer Tom Stoppard (pictured) about multiple generations of a Jewish Viennese family before, during and after the Holocaust, also received six nominations.
Those include a nod for best play, and a nod for best actor in a featured role in a play for Brandon Uranowitz. Patrick Marber scored a best direction nomination. Both Uranowitz and Marber are Jewish.
Protecting and securing the Jewish community in the UK against antisemitism is what we do. From the streets of London in the 1950s through to the hate-filled internet chatrooms of today, CST will leave no stone unturned in the fight against those who wish to do us harm. This is not something that we can do without your ongoing and long-term support.
A legacy to CST will ensure that our community is not only protected against the continuous threat of antisemitism but is also given the security necessary to flourish in the future. Contact us on 020 8457 3700 or email legacy@cst.org.uk.
“He who giv salvation to kings and dominion to princ , Wh e kingdom is an everlasting kingdom – may He bl s
Our Sovereign lord, King Charl , our gracious Queen Camilla, the Prince and Princ s of Wal , and all the Royal Family.”
Saturday 6 May 2023
The community is coming out in force to mark the ascension of King Charles III. London charity Food Bank Aid tells Jewish News: “We are encouraging people to collect a bag of coronation goodies at their street parties and have set-up a virtual shopping website so people can buy them.”
The King’s patronage of World Jewish Relief is long-standing; six members of the charity’s sta will attend the Buckingham Palace Garden Party, and another six will attend the Coronation Concert in Windsor.
In a unique musical tribute that has gone viral on YouTube with more than 50,000 views, 200 primary school children from five Jewish schools across London have recorded a new hymn composition of Adon Olam, while Mathilda Marks-Kennedy kicked o its celebrations by creating bunting and flags, before practising the National Anthem and singing at the whole-school coronation assembly, dressed in the colours of the Union Flag. Gesher School had a week of activities with a baking day, arts and cra s and secondary students creating a commemorative coin.
The London Jewish Family Centre in Golders Green has celebrated with royal fancy dress and arts and cra s activities, making coronation bookmarks, teddy bears and flags.
The United Hebrew Congregation in Leeds (UHC) held a cross-communal service of celebration to mark the coronation. Rabbi Albert Chait told Jewish News: “We are very proud to mark this huge milestone in British history and we o er our sincerest mazal tov to King Charles III.”
Finchley Reform Synagogue will be learning with their long-time member and warden David Jacobs, a leading expert on Jewish history. He will be sharing liturgies written for previous coronations as well as showing the development of the prayer for the Royal family. St Albans Masorti synagogue is celebrating by volunteering at a community garden in the centre of St Albans.
Jewish Care’s residents, day centre members, volunteers and sta are planting King Charles III rose bushes and holding tea parties across the campuses and care homes.
Tenants at Jewish Blind & Disabled (JBD) Hilary Dennis Court development in Wanstead, east London, are planning a coronation party, whilst Head Room, the mental health cafe run by Jewish community mental health service Jami, is holding a coronation tea on Sunday 7 May.
Rabbi Yossi and Rachel Jacobs of Singers Hill Synagogue met King Charles at the Coronation Garden Party at Buckingham Palace this week. Rabbi Jacobs told him that the community will be praying for him on Saturday and the King joked that they had chosen the wrong day for the event.
Kisharon is celebrating with a party that people supported by the learning disability charity organised themselves and AJEX JMA members are taking part in local celebrations over the bank holiday weekend. GIFT has declared the bank holiday Monday May 8 May as a day to give back by with a special GIVEFEST for 2023. The charity promises it will be “a day full of fun for the entire family”.
JLiving is celebrating in style with parties, a ernoon teas and plenty of bunting. The Jewish Museum has created a spotlight case display with a selection of special objects from its designated collections that celebrate ties between the Jewish community in the UK and the royal family.
From lighting Chanukah candles with kids to becoming the first monarch to attend the installation of a Chief Rabbi, from supporting Holocaust survivors to a visit to Yavneh school where he fashioned a crown out of balloons, King Charles III has been at the forefront of the Firm’s close ties with Anglo-Jewry.
In recent years he’s also been joined on the communal scene by Camilla, the new Queen, whose dancing hand in hand with Lord Levy to Hava Nagila at Jewish Care won’t be forgotten in a hurry.
It was with Charles’ role in Krakow’s Jewish community centre that his association with Shoah survivors began in 2008.
So moved was he by the plight of the city’s elderly residents, who faced poverty after living through the horrors of the Shoah, that he returned to the UK with the idea of creating a care home for them.
World Jewish Relief was approached for help and, after extensive research, recommended to the then Prince of Wales that his vision would best be met with a new community hub where survivors could meet in comfort while mingling with younger people.
Charles put his “heart and soul” into the project, according to Nigel Layton, the charity’s former chair. That included
“talking about it all the time and holding events” and even flying to Poland to help to fix a mezuzah at the opening in April 2008.
Current WJR chair Maurice Helfgott tells Jewish News that the patronage of His Majesty is personal: “His passion for
our mission, wholly authentic. His energy and engagement, electrifying.
“We are extremely grateful to celebrate the coronation of a monarch who we have come to know well – and trust completely.”
Helfgott calls the coronation a moment of “profound celebration” for the organisation and for the Jewish community.
“We are grateful,” he continues, “for their majesties’ remarkable friendship to the Jewish community, and particularly for the eight years the former Prince of Wales has spent as World Jewish Relief’s committed and actively engaged Royal Patron.
“Whether speaking at our annual dinner, celebrating Chanukah at Clarence House, or, as recently, taking the initiative to visit our humble o ces to thank us (!) for our response to the war in Ukraine, his majesty’s conviction in the value of our global work, and his unwavering commitment to actively supporting us, is a great source of motivation and inspiration to our team, trustees and global partners – but very, very much also to the whole Jewish community.”
This paper’s news editor, Justin Cohen, was present when the King told a WJR dinner that his family’s links with the community – including his grandmother’s saving of Jews during the Holocaust and attending a school in the 1960s where he learnt from Jewish immigrants – helped to
inspire his e orts to reach across communities. As with the Krakow project, it was Charles’ idea to commission leading artists to produce paintings of seven camp survivors for the Royal Collection.
Recognising that the number of survivors is dwindling fast, he and the new Queen Consort invited the subjects and their families to the Queen’s Gallery in January and spoke of his hope the artworks would serve as “a guiding light for society” – a light many will be hoping he continues to perpetuate now he is King.
Along with WJR, Holocaust Memorial Day Trust and the Jewish Museum, the Jewish Lads’ and Girls’ Brigade (JLGB) has enjoyed his patronage.
Neil Martin OBE, chief executive of JLGB, tells Jewish News that the coronation marks an “historic day” as King Charles is crowned the new monarch of our great nation: “As members, leaders, sta , and trustees of the JLGB and on behalf of our President, we extend our heartfelt mazel tov to King Charles on this momentous occasion.”
Martin says the King’s decision to become JLGB’s patron in 2020 has “inspired a whole new generation of British Jewish children and young people to be a credit to their country and community, as they strive to be their best selves as worthy and useful citizens”.
As British Jews, he continues, “we celebrate the diversity and respect for di erent faiths that our nation embraces. We look forward to a future filled with hope, unity and progress under King Charles’ reign. As our JLGB motto says may he ‘go from strength to strength’.
“We wish King Charles a long and prosperous reign, filled with wisdom, compassion, and leadership. As he as already shown our community on so many occasions, may he be a shining example of dignity and forethought to us all.”
His Majesty has been patron of the Jewish Museum since 2008 when it became the former Prince of Wales’ first patronage of a Jewish Community organisation with a remit in the United Kingdom.
“This long-standing relationship,” the museum told
Jewish News, “reflects King Charles’s deep commitment to promoting and preserving British Jewish Heritage and the Jewish faith.”
If a man should be judged by his friends, then Charles can count on the e usive support of the Sun newspaper’s veteran photographer Arthur Edwards.
Arthur said the “self-deprecating” royal didn’t get the praise he deserved as prince for supporting those in need, including the fact his charities raise more than £100m annually.
Another friend was Lord (Jonathan) Sacks. The King first got to know the then Chief Rabbi on the flight back from Yitzchak Rabin’s funeral in Israel in 1995 and would later attend a gala event that marked his retirement as Chief Rabbi.
They became so close that Charles sent him a six-page handwritten note following his father’s death and, when the renowned author passed away in 2020, led tributes to “an
inspired teacher and true friend” who he’d “miss more than words can say”.
Clarifying HM’s pledge to be defender of faith when he becomes King, Lord Sacks told Jewish News in 2018: “He is saying that because of his own Christian beliefs he can respect other people’s di erent religious beliefs. He’s reflecting the diversity of Britain. The Queen has in her own way reflected this so he’s continuing a fine family tradition.”
His work as a bridge was recognised with the presentation of an award from the Council of Christians and Jews last year.
Not that there haven’t been challenging moments. In 2018, Charles faced questions after the emergence of a private letter from 1986 in which he appeared to blame “an influx of foreign Jews” for Middle East unrest and urged the US to “take on the Jewish lobby”.
Clarence House moved quickly to clarify that he was simply reflecting the views of some he had met in the region, rather than his own.
One ongoing bone of contention – the absence of an ocial Royal visit to Israel (foreign trips are determined by the Foreign O ce) – was decisively ended with visits by Prince William in 2018 and then Charles himself in 2020, when he marked the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz at Yad Vashem. During that visit, he hailed the Israeli geniuses maintaining the entire structure of the NHS.
At a Buckingham Palace reception organised with the Board of Deputies shortly before the pandemic, he said his support for communal causes was the least “I can do to repay” the “blessings” brought to Britain by its Jews and described being touched to have grown up knowing synagogues include a prayer for his family every week. That prayer may have now changed to reflect this accession last week – but the relationship between British Jews and the new monarch is likely to remain one of mutual appreciation.
Likewise with his heir, the new Prince of Wales, who we can expect to see continue with some of his trailblazing work.
On 5 July 1939, Ingelore Czarlinski, 15, and her sister Marion, 11, two Jewish girls from Berlin, arrived in the Essex port town of Harwich, on the Kindertransport. Just nine years later, Ingelore (now Susan) was the first person in the world to hold the future King Charles in her arms.
Susan, who had coincidentally changed her surname to Charles, had followed in the footsteps of two of her aunts and trained to become a nurse. She secured a job working for obstetrician Sir William Gilliatt, who was chosen by the young Princess Elizabeth to attend the birth of her first baby, which was by caesarean section.
Marion wrote in the Association of Jewish Refugees magazine in September 2005: “On 14 November 1948 I invited my sister to tea at my flat in Clapham. The phone rang and an o cial voice asked her to ring a Whitehall number immediately.
“Soon after, a car came for her. When she arrived at Buckingham Palace she prepared the princess for delivery. The senior nurse assisted Sir William with the operation and Susan waited in an anteroom with Prince Philip, who told her she reminded him of the beautiful Greek girls he had known when he was a young man.
“Eventually she was called into the delivery room and given Prince Charles to hold until his grandmother, the Queen Mother, took him from her.”
Charles was born at 9.14pm in the music room at the palace, which had been converted into an operating theatre. He weighed 7lb 6oz. Obstetrician Sir John Peel and midwife Helen Rowe were also in attendance.
Marion explained that Susan was chosen for this role because she was not only a dedi-
anything
cated nurse but also incredibly discreet. So discreet in fact that her two daughters, Rebecca and Debra, didn’t know anything about their mother’s important role in the future King’s life until she and their father were invited to Princess Anne’s wedding in 1973.
Debra says: “We were naturally surprised and very curious as to why our parents were invited to a royal wedding, so our mother sat us down and explained.”
Susan died in 1994, so when Prince Charles hosted a reception at Clarence House on 5 July 2005 for Kindertransport children Marion had to go alone. “I told him I was lucky to arrive in England 66 years earlier, but that my sister was even luckier as she was the first person in the world to hold him,” wrote Marion.
“He seemed fascinated, so I told him the whole story. At the end of the reception, he said: ‘What a small world it is. Here is the sister of the nurse who looked after me when I was born. She even saw me being bathed. What a sight I must have been!’”
Susan was also called on to be at the birth of Princess Anne, but that was a natural delivery, which meant that in the end she was not needed.
Aged 15, Susan was only just within the age limit for the Kindertransport. “If she had been any older she would not have been allowed to come in on it,” Debra explains. “She would have had to come over as domestic help, which would have been a totally a di erent mechanism.”
The sisters were separated and sent to live with di erent families in Cambridge, but they were very much in touch. “We
have lots of documenta-
tion between our aunt
have lots of documentation from World Jewish Relief of communication between our aunt and our mother,”
Susan always had a keen interest in the royal family. “I definitely think she felt a connection,” Debra says.
Debra says. “As our mother was older,
Debra says. “As our mother was older, if anything needed to be decided for our aunt, Susan was always contacted.”
always contacted.” The sisters’
Was Charles perhaps named after her, I wonder? “Maybe!” Debra says, laughing, “I never thought of that!”
When their mother died, Rebecca and Debra told some of her friends about her special role in the life of the future King and discovered that the friends had not known either.
Germany during the
War. And then, sadly, because daughters, who were his life, he died of a
The sisters’ parents remained in Germany during the war. “Our grandfather was wounded in the First World War. And then, sadly, because he had to say goodbye to both his daughters, who were his life, he died of a broken heart,” Rebecca says.
“Our grandmother was hidden by a German family but somehow she still managed to go out and about in Berlin. She dyed her hair blond, so she didn’t look Jewish, and she dressed up as a nurse. Eventually she came to the UK in 1947. She lived until she was 85.”
Susan rarely spoke about what happened in Germany and why she had to leave. Debra says: “She didn’t want to talk about it, but she gave us snippets over the years.”
Susan and her husband-to-be Manny were dating at the time of Charles’ delivery. “Our father always tells the story that he went to the palace gates to meet her when she came out. She later went for tea with the Queen and the physician, and they just sat in the palace having sandwiches,” says Rebecca.
Coincidentally, Rebecca has her own connection with the royal family: “I am a caterer and once catered a private event for Prince Andrew. I told him that my mother had been at the birth of his brother, which he thought was a real coincidence.”
Susan gave up nursing to look after her daughters when they were young. When they were old enough go to school, she went on to become a location nurse in the film industry, often working on set with her husband, who was a stunt man. She was also sometimes called upon to be an extra, and appeared in her nurse’s uniform in the film
In September 2022, the two women were invited to the unveiling in Harwich of Safe Haven, a memorial sculpture to the Kindertransport.
“It’s an amazing statue, Debra says. “It’s so moving. It features five children, each facing a di erent way so they represent the coming, the going, the happiness, the sadness.”
The statue pays homage to Harwich’s
A German-Jewish refugee was the first person to hold the King when he was born, writes Louisa Walters
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From the riveting historical saga of Wolf Hall to the sultry jazz tones of The Andrew Marr Show, the sweeping drama of Stephen Fry’s Wilde and the mystery-evoking Father Brown, there’s a good chance you will be familiar with at least one of the more than 200 theme tunes that Debbie Wiseman has composed for film and television.
The award-winning talent, voted in last year’s Classic FM’s Hall of Fame the most popular living composer, has achieved many accolades over the past 20 years, including nominations for Grammy and Ivor Novello awards and an OBE for services to music.
But her latest commission could prove to be the crowning glory of her career so far –quite literally. For Debbie is one of a handful of musicians chosen personally by King Charles III to compose 12 new pieces of music for his coronation service. Her work will be heard alongside that of the likes of Lord ( Andrew) Lloyd-Webber, who has been asked to create a new anthem, and film composer Patrick Doyle, who is writing a coronation march.
The King is said to have been keen to incorporate a range of musical styles and traditions into the ceremony, so there’s something duly fitting about a leading British-Jewish composer writing a composition for the first gospel choir to sing at a coronation.
Debbie’s Alleluia (O Sing Praises) will be performed by the Ascension Choir, while a second part to her work, Alleluia (O Clap Your Hands) will be sung by an expanded Westminster Abbey choir.
Debbie knows that when her compositions are heard for the first time in the Abbey, which has hosted coronation ceremonies since William the Conqueror was crowned in 1066, it will be “incredibly special”.
Speaking from her home in London, Debbie, who will celebrate her 60th birthday just days after the coronation and has a new album, Signature, being released next month, says: “It’s an immense honour and I feel so thrilled to have been commissioned. My two pieces are linked musically, but come from two very di erent choral traditions, which is wonderful. All the new compositions repre-
sent the very colourful musical culture that we have in this country, which is very special.”
This weekend will not, however, mark Debbie’s first brush with royalty. Indeed, she wrote the moving piece Elizabeth Remembered, which was used in the BBC’s coverage of the death of Elizabeth II, while just a year ago she served as the musical director and composer for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations.
“That was, as we know, pretty much the last event her majesty attended, and she enjoyed it thoroughly,” Debbie reveals. “The programme was designed to be things she would love and she really did. It was thrilling to be a part of that.”
Debbie also had a key role at the Diamond Jubilee in 2012, when she was invited to write for the Thames Pageant, which took place in June. She was one of 10 composers chosen to write a movement inspired by the original titles of Handel’s Water Music, which was played on the royal barge amid pouring rain.
“It was a really British occasion,” she laughs. “People came out in their millions
and I remember going along the Thames and seeing everybody really wrapped up in their rain covers and their brollies, but beaming and smiling away. It was fantastic.
“Even the musicians, who normally worry about temperature because it a ects their hands and the way they play, couldn’t have cared less, even though they were rained on and the wind was blowing!”
Debbie has met Charles several times, receiving her OBE from him in 2018 and in 2020 when she was awarded a fellowship from the Royal College of Music. She recalls being struck by the king’s clear “passion” for music.
“I remember as students performed for him he sat there in awe. You could see his passion for classical music shine through that day, and I thought this is somebody who really engages with the classical genre.
“The fact he’s commissioned so many diverse composers shows the range of music he’s interested in and how he wants that to be part of his special service.”
What is the starting point for a composer writing music heralding a new monarchy? As Debbie explains, with film and television work she gets to watch scenes, read scripts and collaborate with directors, but this time she is relying solely on “a picture in my mind”, which she then translates not into words but into “little black dots on a manuscript page”.
She adds: “I imagine the scene in Westminster Abbey, I’m imagining the choir, the glorious acoustics, but most of all I’m simply imagining the man and what we know about him and what we have experienced over the years. We feel like we know King Charles –even if we’ve never met him – and that picture in my head is usually enough to inspire music.”
Speaking of inspiration, I ask Debbie, who was born and bred in north London and attended Henrietta Barnett School in Hampstead Garden Suburb, if her Jewishness has shaped any of her compositions over the years. There’s little hesitation as she tells me about the time she composed music for the Museum of the Diaspora in Tel Aviv.
“It came so naturally to me,” she says. “The Jewish melodies, the Jewish scales so wellknown in traditional music came completely naturally. I remembered thinking this was probably the easiest-flowing composition I’ve ever written. There was, without a doubt, something in my DNA that has been there from birth.”
She also credits her mother with encouraging her love for music. Debbie smiles as she recalls how her practical-thinking father did not want a piano because “we lived in a very small house and there wasn’t enough room –but my mother was determined”.
He was eventually persuaded to take a piano on hire purchase, with the reasoning that it could go back if Debbie, then aged seven, didn’t get on with the instrument.
“But when I got the piano, I just did not move away from it. Very shortly after, it was clear that piano wouldn’t be going anywhere.”
She still has the same upright Monington & Weston instrument today, even though she has grand pianos at which to compose.
“I love sitting at my piano,” she tells me. “That’s my o ce, that’s where I always write, that’s where I feel most at home.”
And no doubt that’s where Debbie is also putting those finishing touches to a composition fit for a king.
Sarah Miller talks to Debbie Wiseman, whose work will be played in Westminster AbbeyDebbie Wiseman says King Charles has a real passion for classical music
Given the challenge of creating a yarmulke worthy of a monarch, Year 4 pupils at Yavneh Primary in Borehamwood, led by class teacher Ivana Levy, were inspired.
Their kippahs are bursting with royal symbols, Union flags and more than a few Stars of David. Here are some of the designs from young students who were not yet at the school when King Charles, then Prince of Wales, visited in 2017. He was invited by Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis, who had recognised Yavneh College’s outstanding work in the community.
The Chief Rabbi was knighted this year and will attend the coronation tomorrow.
Last month we were visiting the Scottish Highlands for the first time. We happened to be driving through Ballater, which is the closest village to Balmoral, and noticed one or two policemen on the street. We thought this might mean that the King was in the area so decided to park up and take a look. It turned out that King Charles and Queen Camilla were o icially opening a new restaurant in the village called The Fish Shop. Around 12 people, mainly locals, were waiting for them to come out so we joined the crowd. The King came out and was about to get straight into his car when Richard, my husband, congratulated him on the upcoming coronation and he came over to shake his hand and have an impromptu chat with the crowd. I also congratulated him and he said: “What for?” My response was: “We are waiting to see!”
Laura Barnett
I met Prince Charles when I was a teacher at Yavneh College. He made a visit to the school in 2017. It’s easy to forget that, while our whole school community had been building up to this day with immense excitement, this could have been just another royal engagement for the then-prince. Instead, I was struck by how he seemed to make a conscious decision to buy into the special atmosphere. I will never forget his positive energy and the careful attention that he gave to every individual, whether sta or student, he encountered on that day.
Adam Cohen
Back in 2017, just before my 18th birthday, I was extremely privileged to meet King Charles whilst representing JLGB at Yavneh College. At the time, I was Sergeants’ Mess president and was given the honour of taking him round the hall, showing him the incredible work that JLGB does for the community. He
It was a very important night for me as it was the first time I met my girlfriend Nina, so I suppose that Charles is actually our shadchan.
Nathan Borodawas very engaging and I was taken aback by how friendly and approachable he appeared. He genuinely seemed interested in the work we were doing as well as my role in the organisation.
Shira Conway
I met Prince Charles at a reception at for just 50 people Clarence House in October 2013.
I was one of three people chosen from more than 1,000 who were volunteering for the Rugby League World Cup, which was being staged in England. The other attendees were mainly rugby players, o icials and people from the tournament organising committee. Prince Charles spent a few minutes with each group. I remember we were speaking about the tournament itself, what we were doing to volunteer and so on – it was a very special moment and one which I will never forget. The whole event lasted about 90 minutes and His Royal Highness was in the room for an hour.
Daniel MusikantI was invited to Buckingham Palace for a drinks reception to meet Prince Charles in January 2018. This was an evening for a select few Macmillan Cancer Support volunteers (I’ve been a volunteer for over 20 years). We were put into small groups and he came round to shake our hands and say hello.
I was honoured that he stopped to chat with me; he asked what I do for the charity and what prompted me to volunteer, so I told him my background story as briefly as I could. He then asked me quite a few questions and we had some banter back and forth. He showed a sincere interest in my story and had a brilliant sense of humour. He definitely had a cheeky twinkle in his eye! We chatted for well over five minutes – it was a fantastic experience and a memory for life.
Julia Fenton HodesIn July 2005, my husband Geo rey and I were invited by the then Prince of Wales to lunch and a tour of the gardens at Highrove. This was a thank you from him to employers who had kept jobs open for employees who volunteered to fight in Iraq. It was a wonderful and memorable day.
Stella Sternbergworked for Help the Aged for around as
In 2009 there was a reception at Clarence House for a selection of Help the Aged sta . That was the year the charity merged with Age Concern to create Age UK. I had worked for Help the Aged for around 12 years, mostly as PA to the director of fundraising. I remember mentioning to Prince Charles how long I had worked for the charity. I can’t remember his comments but I was thrilled that he actually spoke to me! I took home a few sheets of ‘royal’ lavatory paper from Clarence House (although it didn’t look particularly special!).
Zila GolbertIn November 1970 Prince Charles came to Leeds to open the new Yorkshire Post building. The secretaries were lined up along the open space and Charles strolled past, stopping at me. He asked what I did and if I was bored. With the CEO right behind him, I meekly lied: “Not at all.” The next day my mum bought 36 newspapers.
Prince Charles visited my school, North London Collegiate, in 2005. Before he arrived, we were given hours of lessons on how to refer to him, how to curtsy and how to wave flags – but of course, that goes out the window when you’re dealing with sevenyear-olds. He came into our design and technology lesson and I remember trying to tell him that my great grandfather cut the Williamson pink diamond for his mum when she was a princess in 1948.
I met Prince Charles at a Board of Deputies reception at Buckingham Palace in 2019. I was still a university student and he told me that we didn’t work as hard he did at university!
I’m sure that he couldn’t understand a word of my seven-yearold mumbles but made the e ort to listen regardless. He seemed very friendly and kind.
Georgia BronOver the years many Jewish News readers have had the privilege of chatting with the man who would be King. These are some of their stories
On Saturday, Sir Lloyd Dorfman will join more than 2,000 world leaders, royals and other dignitaries at Westminster Abbey to watch a man he has known for over 20 years be crowned King.
The businessman, who founded worldleading currency exchange platform Travelex in 1976, first met our now King in 2002, when he was asked to help fundraise for the Prince’s Trust – the youth charity founded by Charles in 1976 with £7,500 of his Navy severance pay. Sir Lloyd soon joined the board, later becoming chair, and the start of a long association with the future King was born.
The Prince’s Trust is a venture that, Sir Lloyd believes, reveals a lot about Charles’ character. “He’s always been a philanthropic pioneer,” he says. “He was talking about climate change and organic food and a lot of other things that are very much in the forefront of people’s minds today, a long time before they became fashionable. All those years he was Prince of Wales, he wanted to use his position to change lives and to make the world a better place.”
When Charles wanted to make the charity global, it was to Sir Lloyd that he turned. “He said to me, ‘Lloyd, you’re good at building things – could you really concentrate on building me Prince’s Trust international?’” he recalls.
Since then, the two men’s paths have crossed in multiple guises, from the Royal Opera House,
where King Charles is the patron and Sir Lloyd chairs the board of trustees, to St Paul’s Cathedral, where Sir Lloyd recently helped plan and construct a memorial to the victims of Covid-19.
This latest endeavour culminated in a memorial concert at the cathedral, at which Sir Lloyd was asked to speak. Struggling to find the right words to comfort the bereaved families in attendance, he alighted on the ones that Jews have long used in such circumstances – he wished them long life. It is not a phrase one imagines has been oft uttered from the pulpit of St Paul’s.
Of all the charitable causes they have worked on together, it is the King’s interfaith work and his relationship with the Jewish community that Sir Lloyd speaks most passionately about.
the organisation for himself. He’d also become aware of JW3 and the incredible vision and generosity that Vivien Du eld, who he’d known for many years, had put into founding it. The whole thing came together and we had an incredible morning.”
At JW3, the new King was videoed dancing joyfully with a group of Holocaust survivors – a moment Sir Lloyd recalls with fondness.
“It was a very spontaneous thing,” he says. “There was a bit of music, and I suddenly looked round and there he was dancing with them. He was brilliant. He has huge admiration and huge a ection for Holocaust survivors. It was heartfelt on his part and a moment of magic for them.”
“Bearing in mind the origins of Jewish defence, symbolically the monarch coming to visit the headquarters of Jewish defence was a historic and poignant moment. It’s di cult to overestimate the impact that his visit had on everybody that day. For the individual organisations it was terrific but for the whole community, for him to take that sort of interest, especially now that he is King, was quite special.”
Asked about the long-standing relationship between Charles and the community, Sir Lloyd recalls a reception the then Prince of Wales hosted for the Jewish community days before the 2019 general election. The prospect of Jeremy Corbyn entering Downing Street was at the forefront of many people’s minds.
visiting both CST and JW3
Last December, just three months after taking the throne, Charles spent a morning visiting both CST and JW3 – visits that Sir Lloyd was instrumental in bringing about.
“He’d become concerned, Wales, with the increase in “He was very intrigued to
“He’d become concerned, back when he was Prince of Wales, with the increase in hate crime,” Sir Lloyd recalls.
“He was very intrigued to know more about CST’s work and wanted to come and see
qualities”. He says: “I’ve witnessed countless
He also has an enormous and infec-
It was also an example of what Sir Lloyd describes as Charles’ “abundant personal qualities”. He says: “I’ve witnessed countless instances of his kindness, generosity and thoughtfulness. He is gifted at putting people at ease and has an elephantine memory, with an exceptional ability to remember people he has met before. He also has an enormous and infectious sense of humour.”
“It was a time when people were feeling more insecure and unsettled than they had for a long time,” he says. “At very short notice, he organised a reception for about 500 people at Buckingham Palace and made an incredible speech that was very reassuring and heartening to the community. Over many decades he’s been very supportive, very interested. I don’t think the Jewish community could have a greater friend than King Charles.”
being forced to fight antisemitism
Sir Lloyd found the King’s visit to CST similarly powerful, after many decades of the community being forced to fight antisemitism virtually alone.
Sir Lloyd DorfmanSir Lloyd says his invitation to the coronation is “a huge honour”. But being part of history involves important practical considerations too. “We’ve been told that the toilet facilities aren’t very plentiful,” he says. “So I’m thinking about it like Kol Nidre going into Yom Kippur: not drinking anything at all.”
Lloyd Dorfman will attend the coronation of a man whose Prince's Trust he helped turn global, writes Ben Kentish
“I never thought I would survive the hell of Auschwitz-Birkenau. How amazing it is to now be here, with the King, in the palace.”
Ahead of Holocaust Memorial Day in January 2022, my great-grandmother Lily Ebert and I were invited to Buckingham Palace for the unveiling of seven portraits commissioned by the Prince of Wales.
Each portrayed a di erent Holocaust survivor, including my great-grandmother.
We were invited to the palace with the families of the other survivors, where we were immediately struck by how warm the Prince of Wales was, and the e ort he made to interact with each family and each survivor, taking enormous care to be patient and attentive to all they had to say.
We were privileged to see how much the prince cared for and invested in this project when the portraits were unveiled, each one depicting a unique story, reflecting the six million stories, most of which we will never get to hear. Prince Charles was also involved in the commissioning of a BBC documentary centred on these stories.
It is this kind of initiative, which the Prince of Wales, took entirely upon himself, that fostered our hope and trust in him, knowing he would one day be our King.
Another opportunity we had to meet him was when my great-grandmother was honoured with receiving an MBE in January this year. King Charles treated her and me
with the utmost kindness and respect.
He was extremely considerate, listening intently to me recite the Jewish blessing – said on meeting a King – and commenting that he viewed it as a beautiful
custom. I took note of how he interacted with Lily: he bent down to speak to her in her wheelchair, spoke to her graciously, and held her hands to reassure her of his presence on account of her partial blindness. I will never forget my great-grandmother saying to him:
Following this, we had the chance to speak with members of the press; the King and his team requested that we conduct press meetings in the Queen Esther Room at Windsor Castle – a sign of respect for our culture and religion, but also significantly poignant: Queen Esther defied the odds and used her voice fighting for Jewish survival, as my greatgrandmother Lily has been fighting so hard to do for so much of her life. This gesture made us feel even more welcome, and reassured me once again that the King genuinely believes in our cause, and sees Lily and other survivors as the special kind of heroes that they are.
I must also acknowledge the support that the King has granted us from afar, ensuring that his contributions to our cause, and to Holocaust education more broadly, remain ongoing.
When Lily was in hospital recently, the King wrote a warm, thoughtful letter that was sent directly to the hospital, along with flowers. Lily was incredibly moved by the gesture and still talks about it.
The King also honoured us by contributing the foreword to my great-grandmother’s book Lily’s Promise. He wrote: “It is the Holocaust survivors who help us transform history into memory by their ability to humanise the inhumane. It is them and their words that make the past present.”
We live in a time of urgency. As time passes, we are left with fewer survivors to speak to, fewer heroes like my great-grandmother to turn to, and fewer primary sources to rely on; and this is happening while rates of antisemitism continue rising.
My great-grandmother and I feel hugely grateful to have a King who is so supportive of the Jewish community and all that we stand for; to have someone as head of state who is so diligently standing by our community, reassuring us that such evil really will never be allowed to happen again.
Shoah and a Muslim survivor of one of the failures of the resolution ‘never again’ that had been pronounced at the Shoah’s end.
with her on this topic was itself a public act, demonstrating to the perpetrators that their crimes are not a secret.
On Holocaust Memorial Day in January I was having tea with King Charles III and Queen Camilla at Buckingham Palace, together with the wonderful Amouna Adam, a refugee from the genocidal horrors in Darfur in the Western Sudan. It would be easy to imagine a superficial exchange of polite platitudes. But as the
Prince of Wales, Charles has for years been active as patron of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust and he has gone out of his way to meet Holocaust survivors.
His questions and comments showed knowledge and personal concern about humanity’s mass murder.
Fleeting as my encounter with the late Queen Elizabeth II had been, the flash in her eyes during our brief exchange about Holocaust education had struck me deeply, showing that this was an issue about which she cared with passion.
But here we were, a survivor of the
It struck me that Charles has innumerable other options to which to allocate his time. But with his wife Camilla, he was showing publicly and for the record his concern for this issue confronting humanity. Because the encounter was being filmed and will be part of the historical record. Although the conversation was almost entirely with King Charles, it was noticeable that his wife was obviously listening with intense concentration.
In her conversation with the King, Amouna Adam asked him what he could do for the people of Darfur, where genocide is still going on. Of course the fact that he had arranged to be filmed talking
After the conversation we filed into an adjacent room for a brief ceremony in which the King and Queen Camilla each lit a candle provided by the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust in commemoration of the two genocides Amouna and I represented. Afterwards, Queen Camilla spoke briefly with me, making a friendly comment which I found touching.
Although this event had been meticulously planned and choreographed, it was far from a formality. It was an event of historical importance, asserting the King’s concern and intention to do what he can in terms of recognising and acting on genocide, whatever the religion of the victims.
The King has shown a deep interest in survivors and their families, writes Dov Forman
When I met Charles and Camilla at the palace I saw his personal concern, writes Martin Stern
Dr Martin Sternwith each family and each survivor, taking the portraits were unveiled,
On 3 September 1189, Richard I was crowned King in Westminster Abbey. Jews were barred from attending, but in a spirit of heartfelt goodwill some Jewish leaders arrived bearing gifts for the new King. They were informed that Jews were not welcome, whereupon Richard’s courtiers stripped and flogged them, and then flung them out of court.
A rumour spread that the King had given an order for all Jews to be attacked. While some Jews escaped, arsonists set fire to many Jewish homes some Jews were forcibly converted, while others were given sanctuary in the Tower of London. Some 30 innocent Jews were senselessly murdered on the day of the coronation, including Rabbi Jacob of Orleans, the most senior rabbi in England at that time.
These tragic events stand in contrast to our experience as Jews in 21st-century Britain.
King Charles III has made it clear that he wants representatives of the Jewish community and other minority faith communities to be present for the coronation service. In addition, he has established an unprecedented opportunity, following the service itself, for faith leaders to be incorporated into the formal proceedings. I will be privileged, together with
four other senior faith leaders, to greet the King with words of tribute and blessing. At every stage, the Palace has been sensitive to the requirements of halacha (Jewish law) when considering how best to include us. With this in mind, in accordance with the laws of Shabbat, I will not be using a microphone.
This is in addition to the King and Queen’s gracious invitation to host Valerie and me at St James’ Palace over Shabbat, when we will cherish the extraordinary opportunity to light Shabbat candles, make kiddush, eat our specially catered Shabbat meals, sing zemirot and chant Havdalah within regal surroundings.
We are blessed to have a monarch who holds a deep, personal conviction that there is strength in the diversity of our country, and who cherishes his warm relationship with British Jews. In the Book of Ecclesiastes, we are taught that, “There is a time to weep and a time to laugh; a time to cry and a time to dance with joy.” Nearly a thousand years ago, the coronation of a monarch was a time to weep for the Jewish community, but today, thank God, it is a time for great celebration.
As we enter this Carolean era, may our country be blessed to know many more moments of such celebration, and may
Sa ron, renowned for being loved by royalty down the ages from India to ancient Persia, is o en referred to as the king of spices. Majestic sa ron chicken served over rice bejewelled with onions and barberries would be the crowning glory of any coronation banquet, while bastani, an ice-cream adorned with pistachio, rose and the regal spice, is a royal treat – constituting a feast fit for a king, for a royal family and for your own family and friends
1 whole chicken (cut into pieces if you wish)
1 tsp of bloomed sa ron
1 carton of passata
Salt and pepper to taste
1 large onion, sliced
Olive oil for frying
1 Fry the onions in the olive oil in a large shallow dish that can go into the oven.
2 When the onions are half done, put in the chicken and begin to brown together.
3 In a pestle and mortar, grind a teaspoon of sa ron. Add an ice cube and grind until it melts and you have an infused liquid.
4 Once the onions are cooked and the chicken is brown, take the chicken out of the pan and set to one side.
5 Pour over the passata, the bloomed sa ron, salt and pepper. The liquid should be about 1-1½ cm deep. Add a little water if needed.
6 Put the chicken back into the pan and spoon the sauce over.
7 Put into a pre-heated oven at 190 degrees for one hour. Baste the chicken with the sauce and check it isn’t burning. If it is, cover with foil for the remainder of the cooking time. Serve over rice.
3 cups of washed basmati rice
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
A heaped tsp of salt
6 cups of water
3 large onions
Olive oil for frying
1 Wash the rice well until the water runs clear.
2 Put into a round dish that can go into the oven.
Half a cup of barberries
2 tsp of sugar (use more or less to your taste preference)
3 Cover the rice with the six cups of boiling water, plenty of salt and the olive oil.
4 Mix well and cover with foil and then a lid.
5 Put into the oven on 140 for three hours. It can sit in the oven longer until it is served
6 Fork through the rice to flu up before serving and tip into a large serving dish.
7 While the chicken and rice are cooking, slice the onions and fry in plenty of olive oil with the barberries and sugar until they have melded together and the onions are dark and caramelised.
8 Once you have turned out the rice on to your serving platter, scatter the onions on top and serve.
½ cup of ground pistachio (plus more for presentation)
1 Place a mixing bowl in the freezer.
2 In a separate bowl, mix the condensed milk, bloomed sa ron, rosewater and ground cardamom.
3 Take the bowl out of the freezer. Pour in the two cups of cream and whisk until sti peaks form.
4 Fold in the sa ron mixture and the ground pistachio.
5 Pour the mixture into a loaf tin and freeze for at least eight hours.
6 Serve with more of the ground pistachio mixture sprinkled on top.
JEWISH NEWS and BONJOUR BAKERY
have teamed up to create a challah t for a King, in partnership with the United Synagogue and 1070 kitchen.
120 limited-edition coronation crown challahs will be available from Bonjour in Hendon and Sababa in Borehamwood for this Shabbat only in popular plain, cinnamon and raisin avours.
To adapt the Jewish greeting, may King Charles III reign until he is 120!
Russell Kashket is expert at working in secret. In the lead up to Prince William’s wedding, the Jewish tailor – rather than the usual suspect Gieves & Hawkes – was quietly visiting the palace to fit not only the now Prince of Wales, but also his brother Harry and the page boys, writesBrigitGrant.
Choosing Russell to provide his Big Day attire was an indication that William did not want to be bound by a tradition that restricted him to shopping in Savile Row, but switching to a Tottenham-based factory could have raised the alarm at the palace. Except it didn’t. Kashket & Partners is the bespoke providers of the king’s uniform for the coronation as well as 6,000 other uniforms being made for the occasion. Keen to plough his own furrow as a monarch, this new approach may be reflected in his choice for coronation garb, though his sartorial choices have historically been traditional.
And when it comes to tradition, who better than the Kashket clan to observe it? The company can trace its lineage to 1655. Russell is the third generation to run a company that started as the hatters at the court of the Tsar in Russia in the early 1900s. It has become one
of the top makers of uniforms in the UK, supplying clients around the world. Its tailoring base is in Sta ord Street, Mayfair, where John Kent used to be based. Kashket’s sister company, Firmin, is older than any other in Savile Row. It made uniforms for Admiral Nelson, supplied both sides at Gettysburg, and has held royal warrants since 1796.
Assisted by his semi-retired father Bernard and responsible for dra ing the designs for the page boys’ uniforms at William’s wedding, the triumvirate is completed by younger son Marlon, who is an embroidery specialist.
Russell Kashket had to think twice before agreeing to appear in the BBC documentary CoronationTailors:FitforaKing, which follows the making of the King’s
uniform, especially when the company was so busy. However, the firm welcomed in bespoke menswear designer and Sewing Bee judge Patrick Grant to observe its meticulous work and that of its partner, the Birmingham metalwork specialist Firmin & Sons, as they produced the uniforms.
Russell, who was invited to the royal wedding, said: “When I saw the prince wearing the uniform we had made, that’s when it really hit me. I’m very, very proud. It was such a joyous occasion.”
It’s unlikely we will see him arriving at Westminster Abbey with a suit bag, but it’s good to know a Jewish tradition is playing its part in a very British tradition.
• Coronation Tailors: Fit for a King was shown on BBC2 Wednesday night and is available on catchup
BIGGER THAN EVER BEFORE WITH A NEW SPONSORED BIKE CHALLENGE!
11.00am
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Stage performances Bungee Jump
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Everyone is welcome, this is an inclusive and accessible event
Coronations are a time for celebration and contemplation since they connect all citizens with their own family history, stretching back through time. Yet Jews have a complex relationship with monarchy. As the rabbi tells Tevye and Leibesh in Fiddler on the Roof: ‘God bless the Tsar – and keep him far away from us!’
The Hebrew Bible speaks of stubborn prophets challenging powerful kings in the Land of Israel, while Diaspora Jews in more modern times pray each Shabbat for the welfare of the monarch and the Royal family.
Even so, given recent Jewish history, the actions of both republics and monarchies have emphasised a more traditional, cautious scepticism about the rulers and the ruled. As Rabban Gamliel, the third-century sage, noted long ago in Ethics of the Fathers: “Be careful in your dealings with the ruling power, for they only befriend a man when it serves their needs. They appear as friends when it is to their advantage, but do not stand by a man in his hour of his need.”
Britain, however, was always regarded as an island of stability and fair play which stood out from the rest. It was in this light that the early Zionists, Chaim Weizmann and Vladimir Jabotinsky, campaigned – o en in the depths of great frustration with British policy – for a state for the Jews a century ago.
In Britain, a constitutional monarchy and a parliamentary democracy has allowed Jews
to be di erent while being loyal. Jews have fought in the British Army from Waterloo and Ypres to El Alamein. When the Duke of Wellington died during the early years of Queen Victoria’s reign, the Jewish press commented: “We cannot forget that we are Englishmen in whom the fire of patriotism burns as fervently and as purely as in the greatest and the proudest in the land.” It was not only non-Jews who wished to build Jerusalem in England’s green and pleasant land.
Yet this year not only celebrates the coronation of a new monarch; 2023 also marks another important, hardly publicised watershed in the history of the Jewish community in this country. Jews have now spent more time as free citizens in this country, initiated by the English Republic of Oliver Cromwell, than the previous banishment and exile from it by the English monarchy.
Cromwell, the Lord Protector, allowed the return of the Jews in 1656 following Edward I’s decree of expulsion in 1290. Cromwell had orchestrated the execution of Charles I, abolished the monarchy and unknowingly set the scene for the emergence of the constitutional monarchy and parliamentary democracy, governed by the rule of law and a judiciary, independent of the whims of politicians, which exists today. Cromwell believed that he was a latter-day Moses, leading the chosen Protestant people of England out of the House of Bondage, the Stuart dynasty of Charles I, towards a truly promised land.
In Amsterdam, Menasseh ben Israel – born Manoel Dias Soeiro in Lisbon to a Converso father who had escaped the Portuguese Inquisition – wrote TheHopeofIsrael and dedicated its Latin version to the new government of the English Republic.
Throughout the decade of the Republic, the 1650s, Cromwell pushed for the return of the Jews. He was driven by a Protestant millenarianism, which paralleled Menasseh ben Israel’s Jewish messianism. Cromwell believed that the Jews would eventually convert, but in the meantime their expertise as traders to the New World, Africa and India would benefit the new English Republic.
Cromwell refused to accept the crown, but he was king in all but name – and while he lived, he protected the Jews who entered these shores. It is believed that Jews first celebrated Succot in this country by constructing a succah on the banks of the Thames during Cromwell’s time. Following Cromwell’s death, Charles II was restored to the throne in the name of stability by a fatigued country. The ‘Merry Monarch’ was astute enough to cultivate former republicans and to permit the Jews to remain.
Jews sought refuge in Protestant Eng-
land a er the centuries of persecution and humiliation by Catholic monarchs in other parts of Europe. Jews subsequently opposed any possible return to Catholicism in this country, preferring Protestant tolerance. For this reason, figures such as the financier Samson Gideon strongly opposed the rebellion of Bonnie Prince Charlie in 1745. If the Young Pretender had succeeded in his revolt, Britain would have reverted to Catholicism and in time the prince would have been proclaimed – as King Charles III.
More than 20 years ago, the BBC held a poll to mark a new millennium. It asked: ‘Who was the greatest Briton?’ Headed by Churchill, it was remarkable that almost 350 years a er his death, Cromwell was listed at number 10, just a few steps behind Elizabeth I.
Amid all the wonderful pageantry of the coronation of King Charles III, the statue of Oliver Cromwell outside the Houses of Parliament continues to look down sternly on us – still the initiator of the readmission of the Jews to this country. Even in a time of great acclaim on the accession of a new monarch, the Jews of this country will not forget how much is owed to him and to the puritans of the English Republic.
2023 is a big year for us thanks to the man who founded the English Republic, writes Colin ShindlerCromwell, to whom Jews owe so much, looks down on us from outside Parliament Campaigners for a Jewish state: Chaim Weizmann (left) and Vladimir Jabotinsky
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When Israel celebrated its 65th birthday, there was residual disappointment that despite growing bilateral ties there had never been an o cial royal visit. In December 2015, a British government source explained to the Telegraph: “Until there is a settlement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, the royal family can’t really go there.
In Israel so much politics is caught up in the land itself that it’s best to avoid those complications altogether by not going there.”
However, in the decade since, liked the proverbial London bus, we have seen three royal visits in quick succession. Charles followed his attendance at President Peres’ funeral with an o cial visit in 2020, while William also came on an o cial visit in 2018.
Why the dramatic change? The royal family’s new approach to Israel is based on two fundamental changes to UK government policy and two personal connections for King Charles himself. The King’s Coronation is an apt time to celebrate these connections.
Post-Brexit, the UK government’s foreign policy approach is reorienting itself to meaningfully engage with allies beyond Europe, ideally those that also o er added value to the British economy. Israel, the ‘innovation nation’, and with its advanced technology, is the perfect partner for the UK. No longer should the intransigence of the Palestinian leadership act as a barrier to enhancing bilateral relations that serve the UK national interest. It is in this spirit that the British and Israeli foreign ministers earlier this year
signed a new seven-year commitment, which the UK government described as containing “detailed commitments for deepening cooperation across the breadth of the Israel-UK relationship, including on trade, cyber, science and tech, research and development, security, health, climate and gender”. The two governments are also working to conclude an upgraded free trade agreement, with focus on tech and innovation.
Israel and the UK are also more aligned than ever when it comes to security cooperation. The two countries share a similar analysis of the geostrategic map of the Middle East. Israel and the UK understand the threats posed by both Sunni Muslim extremism and Iran (though clearly Israel sees the threat more acutely). On more than one occasion, Israeli intelligence has alerted British partners to terror threats inside the UK, thus helping to save British lives. Complimenting advanced intel and cyber expertise, Israel also provides the UK military with valuable kit that helps protect UK servicemen and women during deployment in combat zones. Furthermore, the successful reshaping of the region thanks to the Abraham Accords is further proof that advancing peace with the Arab world also does not have to be beholden to Palestinian rejectionism. His Majesty’s government has been a strong supporter of the Accords, and along with King Charles’ personal ties with other regional leaders can be a positive force multiplier in the region.
For the new King it is also personal. Despite a small wobble during the 1980s following a trip to various Arab states, Charles, no doubt
guided by his long, personal friendship with both the former and current Chief Rabbis, has come to appreciate the profound Jewish connection to the Land of Israel.
Lest we forget, King Charles also has mishpocha buried in Israel. His grandmother (Prince Philip’s mother Alice), honoured as one of the Righteous Among the Nations by the Yad Vashem World Holocaust Remembrance Centre, is buried on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem.
Fourth, the King and Israel share a love of the environment and protecting the planet. As Charles heard when he met then prime minister Naftali Bennett at the Cop26 Summit in Glasgow, Israel is the world leader in water innovation and shares its irrigation and desertification tech with developing countries. King Charles also saw this for himself during his 2020 trip and received presentations on Israeli e orts towards a creating a sustainable global future.
I am no expert in ecclesiastical protocol but I imagine there is a strong chance Jerusalem will receive a mention or two during the coronation ceremony. Psalm 122, with its implication that the House of Windsor is the successor to the House of David, was read at his mother’s coronation and includes the line: “Jerusalem is built as a city that is at unity in itself. O pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee. Peace be within thy walls, and plenteousness within thy palaces.” Also, perhaps Blake’s Jerusalem, which the King’s ancestor George V was said to prefer to the national anthem ‘God save the King’.
Having visited relatively recently, and no doubt having to prioritise the Commonwealth countries, it’s not clear whether King Charles, as monarch, will get to visit Israel again.
However, if he were to do so, he could become the first reigning monarch to visit since Richard the Lionheart with the Crusades at the end of the 12th century.
Charles III has visited Israel twice and has strong links with the country but may not visit as monarch, writes Richard PaterPhotos by JBen Kelmer / British Embassy Israel With President Rivlin and Chief Rabbi Ephaim Mirvis Charles on his official visit to Israel in 2020 Then Prince Charles meets with then President Reuven Rivlin
Britain today operates firmly on the principles of democracy and equality. They are our basic values. We view nations that diverge from these principles as despotic and tyrannical. And yet, while belief in the divine right of kings is a historical relic, there remains strong support for the monarchy.
The coronation gives us pause to reflect. What is this modern day national support for royalty? Is it mass nostalgia or populist enjoyment of the pomp and glamour?
In Judaism, a monarch is no small matter. Each week, we pray communally for the sovereign’s wellbeing; and we recite a special blessing on seeing a monarch.
To mark the coronation, Jewish organisations across the UK will hold events over the next fortnight. For a number of reasons, our collective testimony makes us feel something very meaningful is happening.
First, the King supports national cohesion. In his function as head of state he gives expression to British nationhood and binds people
together. He does not hold political views, so cannot be divisive. He is not elected, so does not electioneer. He stands for One Britain that we all can belong to. Has this ever been more necessary than now?
Second, the King and the royal family are an expression of Britain’s roots, history and traditions. And what a glorious tradition the coronation is. In an age of statue-
toppling, healthy pride in our national identity is a good thing.
Third, and specific to Jewish people, is gratitude. The royal family has been good to the Jewish people and o ered us sanctuary during our time of need. The King has perhaps gone further than any of his predecessors in emphasising his inclusive role as leader for all faiths.
There is no shortage in either our past or present of oppression and exclusion and the coronation is a fitting time to acknowledge the blessing we have in our royal family.
A YouGov poll tells us that support for the monarchy is waning among young people; only a third of 18 to 24-year-olds support it.
That is a sad loss. I am sure that Jewish communities like my own buck that trend, and people of every age will be wishing King Charles a long and happy reign.
Long live the King!
Chaya Spitz is CEO of Agudas Israel Housing Association and the Interlink Foundation and is a member of the Pinter Trust steering group
1 July 1969 was my 10th birthday and I remember it well.Not because I was the centre of attention but because it was also day of the investiture of the Prince of Wales.
I still recall the images; the young nervous prince, the grandeur of the pageantry, the vivid intensity of the colours, the promise of continuity and tradition that the prince represented.
It was a magnificent day and for the first time in my life I felt that I was living in a remarkable country and that feeling has never left me.
On 6 May we will all share the wonder of his coronation, celebrate the enduring nature of the monarchy and how in its own way it casts a protective embrace over the entire nation.
Honouring victims of the Shoah has been an important cause of the Prince of Wales and he has engaged with the community on countless levels ever since that July day I remember from my childhood.
Two of our JLC members hold patronages from the King – World Jewish Relief and the Jewish Museum of London, as well as the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust. And the Board of Deputies is one of the few privileged bodies of the crown who have the right to present an address to the British sovereign in person.
We, of course, recite a prayer for the royal family every Shabbat, and this Shabbat many will be reciting a special prayer written for this occasion by the Chief Rabbi.
The King has very close to
The King has very close ties to the Jewish people. His grandmother, Princess Alice of Greece, saved Jews during the Holocaust, is recognised as a Righteous Among the Nations and is buried in Jerusalem.
sion by the Chief Rabbi. friend to our community.
We know King Charles III will lead our nation with his customary humility, integrity and decency and will always be a friend to our community.
Keith Black chairs the Jewish Leadership Council
1 Lord Macaulay (historian) and Lord John Russell (prime minister) were supporters of the admission of Jews to parliament
2 Benjamin Disraeli was the first – and so far only – prime minister of Jewish birth
3 Jewish poets are commemorated on a memorial to First World War poets: Siegfried Sassoon (officer from upper-class Jewish family) and Isaac Rosenberg (private from poor East End family)
4 Oliver Cromwell was responsible for the readmission of Jews to England in 1656. Originally buried in the Abbey, his body was dug up when the monarchy was restored, and his head exhibited on a stake. There is now a memorial plaque in his honour
5 General Allenby (British soldier who captured Jerusalem from the Turks) and Ernest Bevin (foreign secretary who opposed Jewish immigration into Palestine) were hugely influential in the Zionism/British Mandate in Palestine.
6 Fiction writers who portrayed Jews sympathetically: Richard Cumberland (18th-century playwright and author of the play The Jew), George Eliot (19th-century novelist and author of the early Zionist novel Daniel Deronda)
7 Samuel Taylor Coleridge: poet who translated into English Hebrew dirges produced by Hyman Hurwitz (first Anglo–Jewish professor) on the deaths of George lll and Princess Charlotte
8 Jewish philanthropists commemorated with an individual stained-glass window recording their support for Abbey restoration projects: Holocaust survivor Leopold Muller and Sir Harry Djanogly (with Hebrew inscription gam zu l’tova – this is also for good)
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More than 3,000 people are buried or commemorated in Westminster Abbey. Many played an important role in the development of Jewish life in Britain, writes Professor David Latchman
ISSUE
NO. 1313
One can only imagine what went through Keren and Tali Dee’s minds when they heard their mother, Lucy’s, heart beat in the chest of another woman at Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikva. The look on their faces revealed a mixture of deep pain and spiritual meaning.
Nothing symbolises life more than the human heart. Metaphorically, it is what makes human beings compassionate and loving toward one another. Literally, it is what makes us live.
Watching Lital Valenci, whose chest Keren was listening to, console the bereaved daughter, was not only highly emotional for everyone in the room, who all witnessed something extremely unique. It somehow illustrated life in its cruelest and, at the same time, purest form.
For why was Lucy and her two children killed? What was was the meaning of that, other than terror? The trauma will forever be part of the family.
But to know that Lucy’s organs helped save five people’s lives –five! – is not only extraordinary.
It helps alleviate the pain, as Rabbi Leo said when he met three of the patients. From tears to joy, as he put it.
They say there is no greater gift than life. Nothing was more true on that day in Petah Tikva where Lital Valenci was given another chance at life.
Because of Lucy Dee and her surviving family, Lital’s two children won’t suffer the same pain of losing their mother.
And Lucy will live on in Lital until the day she dies.
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Shabbat comes in Friday night 8.16pm Shabbat goes out Saturday night 9.27pm Sedra: Emor
I write concerning your article about the nowclosed Greenbank Drive synagogue in Liverpool. The article quotes Gillian Baum as saying there are only two synagogues in Liverpool and names Childwall and Princes Road (Liverpool Old Hebrew Congregation). I’m afraid she has her facts wrong.
Since the 1950s there has also been the Allerton Hebrew Congregation (see www.allertonshul.org.uk), who in 2008 rebuilt a new modern synagogue on their site and is today, together with Childwall synagogue, one of the two major and well attended Orthodox synagogues.
Also Princes Road does hold services every Shabbat and Yom Tov morning.
Liverpool is not as dying as your article might imply, As well as three Orthodox synagogues, there are the King David schools from kinder-
garten through to sixth form, Merseyside Jewish Community Care and Stapely Care Residential Home, also with its own small synagogue, plus the Merseyside Jewish Representative Council. We also have a kosher deli and butcher shop.
Just recently, hundreds of people attended our communal Yom HaZikaron commemoration leading into our Yom Ha’atzmaut celebration.
Yes, many of our young people have left for other larger communities but Liverpool and Merseyside in general is still a very viable Jewish community.
Liverpool is also now one of the UK’s major tourist destinations and well worth a visit. There is a great Jewish heritage here – our community dates back to the 1770s – and many other tourist attractions too numerous to mention.
David A Coleman, By emailYet another issue around antisemitism from The Guardian, this time an editorial cartoon. After this and Diane Abbott’s outpouring on how Jews don’t face racism, are we really supposed to flood back to vote Labour? We should think very carefully who we wish to be in power in this country. Labour and leftwing ideology has a long way to go before we can trust it.
Sidney Sands, FinchleyIt was very sad that only two or three out of 75 reasons you listed for visiting Israel to celebrate its 75th anniversary were connected with Judaism.
Ann Cohen, Golders GreenThank you for helping to make Jewish News the leading source of news and opinion for the UK Jewish community. Unlike other Jewish media, we do not charge for content. That won’t change. Because we are charity-owned and free, we rely on advertising to cover our costs. This vital lifeline, which has dropped in recent years, has fallen further due to coronavirus.
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Columnist Colin Shindler suggests that Zionism prevailed over all other ideologies that wished to resolve the Jewish problem. But Israel’s existence did not prevent 40 percent of British Jews considering fleeing the UK in the event of Jeremy Corbyn’s ascension to power.
So how has Zionism solved the Jewish problem? Ironically, the same issue carried an advert claiming antisemitism and anti-Israel hatred are at an all-time high and our youth are struggling with their Jewish identity! Is this Zionism prevailing?
Prof Shindler further views Israel’s population of 10 million as a “remarkable achievement”. Really? He knows most Israeli Jews are descended from refugees driven out from the Middle East and North Africa as a direct consequence of Israel’s creation!
That there are now no Jews living in Iraq is indeed “remarkable”, but I would not call extinguishing an ancient, vibrant Jewish community, the associated human trauma and loss of billions in Jewish property an “achievement”.
Jewish News is owned by The Jacob Foundation, a registered UK charity promoting cohesion and common ground across the UK Jewish community and between British Jews and wider society. Jewish News promotes these aims by delivering dependable and balanced news reporting and analysis and celebrating the achievements of its vibrant and varied readership. Through the Jacob Foundation, Jewish News acts as a reliable and independent advocate for British Jews and a crucial communication vehicle for other communal charities.
I read with interest and dismay your article (Jewish News 20 April) headlined Antisemitism still 48 percent of Labour cases
The figures relate to cases in the first two months of this year considered by the Labour Party’s body that deals with disciplinary matters, showing most still involved claims of, “anti-Jewish racism”. The figures are lower than the 80 percent in May and 65 percent in November last year, cause perhaps for
some relief and even optimism, but 48 percent is still just under half of all cases!
We read regularly in this and other Jewish newspapers and the national media of new cases of antisemitic behaviour among members, officials, MPs and the like, in the Labour Party. Yes, Sir Keir Starmer has made a good start dealing with this toxic issue and the figures are going in the right direction but do Jewish people believe enough has been done to
root out antisemitism to trust them again if they form a government after the next general election? Do we feel safe as Jewish people living, working and enjoying our pastimes in Britain? Would many who deserted the party in recent years return as members, officials etc?
My verdict when it comes to Labour’s efforts to remove the stain of antisemitism is that it is still a problem and a work in progress.
J D Milaric, By emailColumnist Derek Taylor asks: “Whatever happened to the Hippocratic oath?” He should have Googled it. No UK graduate has said these outdated words for decades. Modern versions are sometimes said. However, there is a long-standing position that Jews should not swear oaths. In the UK, we are bound by the GMC Duties of a Doctor regardless. Mr Taylor then misconstrues one of the pillars of medical ethics. Non-maleficence, often described as “First, do no harm” is not a literal commandment. If it were, piercing the skin for blood tests and operations, or giving any drug with side-effects – such as chemotherapy or ibuprofen – would be immoral. This is also entirely in keeping with Jewish
teachings. We are taught to “build a fence” to protect our capacity to perform mitzvot. In this analogy, the capacity of the NHS to provide care is limited by a staffing crisis.
Fair pay forms part of the solution to a retention crisis. It could be argued that there is a moral obligation to strike to “build a fence”.
We are taught to desecrate nearly every other mitzvah to save a life that is imminently in danger – the derogations provided for in the strikes do just that.
I stand full-square behind my colleagues striking for full pay restoration and for the future of the profession, and I submit that it is the Jewish thing to do too.
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Idon’t expect you to believe me but “kakistocracy” is a real word, dating, depending on who you trust, from the 17th or 19th centuries. It means, I discover, a government run by the worst and most ill-suited of its citizens.
Naturally, when I was in Israel for Pesach, I found “kakistocracy” on many lips – and I’m sure most JN readers are more than familiar with the reasons for its use.
Who but a kakistocracy, I wonder, could appoint a self-professed “proud racist” like May Golan to be Israel’s consul-general in New York, succeeding Asaf Zamir? He resigned last month after expressing “deep concern” about Israel’s future direction.
May Golan is a product of the extreme right — despite being an MK for the Likud, many of whose members have expressed similar concerns to that of Asaf Zamir.
Her appointment has yet to be ratified by the Knesset and may still not happen – a familiar and wearying theme these days, when prime minister Netanyahu announces something self-evidently stupid and counterproductive, and is then obliged to row back. Witness, for example, his firing of defence
minister Yoav Gallant, which drew thousands of Israelis on to the streets all over the country, forcing Netanyahu to reinstate Gallant. Utterly kakistocratic, right?
The truly depressing thing about this, as Israel celebrates its 75th anniversary, is that the Jewish state has achieved the most remarkable things, stu at which its founders could only wonder. From flourishing status as the Start-Up Nation to slew of Nobel Prize winners, from pioneering work in agriculture, science and the creative arts, Israel provides the world with extraordinary stories.
But more and more people, like Zamir, are wondering just what Israel’s future direction might be. Moti Kahana, an Israeli philanthropist who lives in America, is currently asking this question, and is coming up with some o -the-wall answers.
Kahana is not just any philanthropist. He is a humanitarian who has spent thousands of dollars of his own money rescuing Jews and non-Jews alike from devastating war situations in Syria, Afghanistan and Ukraine.
He has made and lost fortunes during his time in America and presently runs a large and prosperous farm in New Jersey, where he has become a major supplier of chickens to the Latino community in the area.
Now Kahana reckons Israel, if it is to
survive beyond 75 or 80 years, needs to reconsider its position as “or l’goyim” – a light unto the nations. His thesis is if Israel ceases to be a democratic and tolerant state, it has no realistic future.
“As Jews”, posits Kahana, “we haven’t been able to run our own country for more than about 80 years.” He draws a line from the crowning of King David in 1010 BCE to the death of his son, King Solomon, and the subsequent insurrection 79 years later dividing David’s kingdom into two states.
During the time of the Second Temple, the Maccabees held power for only 75-80 years before the Jewish state was taken over by external rule.
Perhaps, Kahana suggests, our destiny as Jews is not to have a Jewish state but instead to give our seichel and expertise to the world. To that end, he and others, including some respected Israeli politicians, are helping some start-ups to move their businesses to America and even the UK. He also o ers space on his farm for potential American
Warning: Moti Kahana
“kibbutzniks” who want to leave Israel.
I’m really not sure whether Kahana’s answer is the correct one.
I would far prefer that the Jewish state, even at 75, is no longer an experiment or a work in progress.
At the moment, however, it looks like a kakistocracy is a sadly realistic option.
Last week, I had the honour of accompanying the ambassadors of Spain and Portugal to the UK, José Pascual Marco and Nuno Brito, on a tour of Bevis Marks synagogue, led by Rabbi Joseph Dweck of the S&P Sephardi community. No Spanish or Portuguese ambassador had visited the synagogue before, and as a descendant of some early members of Bevis Marks – my ancestor Aaron Mendoza married there in 1730 – I was especially moved by the occasion.
The synagogue is a symbol of the community’s resilience, built by Jews forced to flee the Iberian peninsula centuries ago. As my ancestors number among those, I feel a sense of responsibility to honour their legacy in the work I do for the Board of Deputies of British Jews – the Board has its origins in the Spanish and Portuguese community, having been estab-
lished in 1760 when a group of representatives, or “Deputados”, paid homage to George III upon his accession to the throne.
During the tour, Rabbi Dweck showcased the community’s heritage, still evident in the use of Judeo-Spanish for aliyot, and the use of Portuguese and Ladino in the liturgy. Rabbi Dweck also drew our attention to the benches in the synagogue, which have remained unchanged since the site opened in 1701.
Both ambassadors shared their experiences of working with Jewish communities in their countries and stressed the importance of their relationship with the Board. Nuno Brito spoke of visiting the Great Synagogue in Amsterdam and the similarities between the two buildings (Bevis Marks is modelled on the Dutch Esnoga), while José Pascal Marco asked Rabbi Dweck about Spinoza, having long had a personal interest in the Jewish philosopher.
Upstairs, we examined the names of the historical trustees of Bevis Marks. Ambassador Brito was delighted to see the name de Britto, while his Spanish counterpart remarked on familiar surnames that were personal to him. The list includes a fair few Mendozas too.
This tour is just one of many ways the Board is working to engage with London’s diplomatic community and strengthen international ties.
Our community is rich in cultural diversity — our families have connections with countries around the globe. While we have, understandably, often focused on the tragedies that have befallen our people, we should also celebrate the incredible, rich and diverse history of our community and keep front of mind what we can do to reinvigorate our connections with the lands of our past.
As chair of the Board’s International
Division, creating a programme of cultural engagement is one of my top priorities. That is why I am working on several projects to highlight the histories and ancestral connections of our communities, including a planned twinning project to link synagogues from di erent denominations in the UK and Germany. For me, the opportunity to explore a vital part of my community’s heritage with representatives of two countries that acknowledge the need to explore a challenging part of their own histories was incredibly powerful. I thank the ambassadors for helping to strengthen the bonds between us and Rabbi Dweck, the S&P Sephardi community, and the o cers at Bevis Marks for making the visit possible.
This visit was a reminder of the enduring ties between our community and the countries and cultures from which they emanated.
The synagogue stands testament to the strength and resilience of the Jewish people, which has endured, evolved and accomplished so much through the struggles of many centuries to remain the vibrant community the Board represents today.
WE OFTEN FOCUS ON TRAGEDY BUT SHOULD ALSO CELEBRATE OUR INCREDIBLY RICH HISTORY
❝
Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis and Israeli Ambassador Tzipi Hotovely joined close to 1,000 people at Bnei Akiva’s annual Yom Hazikaron and Yom Ha’atzmaut service at Kinloss. This was followed by dancing and a celebratory dinner to mark the 75 years of the State of Israel. Bnei Akiva mazkir (national director) Gidon Schwartz said: “It was tremendous to see so many chaverim united celebrating Medinat Yisrael and thanking God for it. The ruach was truly off the charts.”
Borehamwood United synagogue marked Yom HaZikaron and Yom Ha’Atzmaut with a ceremony featuring music from the band Shir, Rafi Sweiry and Stephen Levey. Two members (Cllr Simon Rubner and Gilad Goodman) spoke, giving their accounts of time spent in the IDF. Candles in the shape of a Magen David were lit by Borehamwood shul members. The Yom Ha’atzmaut service followed this with the flag being raised, and then a Yom Ha’atzmaut party with food from Balagan and Israeli dancing with music from Shir.
The 20th Finchley Scout group was delighted to hold camp over the first May Bank Holiday weekend. Seventyfive campers with children from age six to 13 including Beavers, Cubs and Scouts enjoyed a packed weekend. Activities included, archery, aeroball, crate stacking, fire lighting, pioneering and of course a group campfire where everyone enjoyed roasting marshmallows and drinking hot chocolate. Coronation-themed activities took place too, including making Lego crowns and an invitation treasure hunt. A group of Scouts took part in an expedition challenge and a presentation was made for the group’s first ever King’s Scout award.
The Immanuel College Primary School Choir was honoured to take part in the Mill Hill Synagogue and Beit Halochem Yom Hazikaron Remembrance Ceremony for Israeli Fallen Soldiers and Victims of Terrorism this year. The children sang at various points during the ceremony, behaving respectfully throughout the readings, prayers and to the speakers. They were truly impressive ambassadors for the school.
Nearly 200 people packed Bushey United synagogue to attend a moving Yom HaZikaron ceremony. Rabbi Elchonon Feldman solemnly introduced the customary minute’s silence and guests heard from a veteran of the Yom Kippur War, marking its 50th anniversary, then youth members paid tribute to Israel’s Fallen Soldiers and Victims of Terror. The community heard a poignant but powerful video from the recently bereaved Rabbi Dee. Prayers were read and kaddish was recited. Demonstrating Israel’s resilience and our hopes for the future, the audience then heard about the exciting tours of Israel their youngsters are making, and from three siblings who have chosen to build their futures there as they finalise their education and proudly enlist in the IDF.
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The Jewish community in the UK is situated in what has been deemed ‘a kingdom of kindness’ by Jewish sages, following a history of persecution at the hands of numerous other kingdoms. The coronation of King Charles III and Queen Camilla amid such acceptance and welcoming is a significant event in the tradition of the Jewish community.
The origins of British antisemitism can be traced back to 1189, when a group of rabbis, led by the presiding Rabbi Yaakov of Orleans, o ered their congratulations to King Richard the Lionheart upon his coronation. The
delegation was attacked by a rioting mob, and there was a subsequent pogrom in London. This event ultimately led to the start of the demise of the first settlement of British Jews.
It resulted in the infamous York massacre of 1190, an incident that destroyed the entire York Jewish community. The events harkened the eventual expulsion of the Jews – an edict issued by King Edward in 1290.
This weekend’s coronation of Charles and Camilla provides a stark contrast to these tragic events of the past. The Chief Rabbi, Sir Ephraim Mirvis, has been invited as a personal guest of the royal family to a ‘royal sleepover’ in Clarence House; in addition, King Charles has shown support for Jewish charities and Holocaust survivors, commissioning their portraits.
In this week’s sedra, Emor, the Jews are taught about the mitzvah of Kiddush Hashem. In the history of the diaspora, this has been illustrated primarily by the readiness of Jews to show their commitment to their faith in the face of persecution.
Subsequently, Jews throughout the ages have shown a deep respect for Jewish martyrdom, a concept that is rooted deeply in the Torah’s ideal of Kiddush Hashem, or sanctifying God’s name.
According to Maimonides, this is achieved when one is killed at the hand of oppressors for the sole reason of being a Jew.
While this may seem fundamentalist, it is based on the principle of protecting life above all else, save for three cardinal sins rooted in the very core principles of Judaism.
The tragic events surrounding Richard the Lionheart’s coronation provide just one of many examples of such martyrdom which inadvertently brought about the sanctification of God’s name.
Today, we are blessed to be citizens of a country in which we can practise our religion freely; note - the Chief Rabbi’s public call for the importance of Judaism and Shabbat.
This is an achievement that is
upheld by British society to the extent that their majesties have personally invited Sir Ephraim as their guest. This is an example of how the community can continue to sanctify God’s name in our present age. By looking to history and learning from past events, the Jewish community can continue to thrive in the UK’s ‘kingdom of kindness’ and go on to build a brighter future for generations to come.
An exceptional career opportunity
Competitive salary including family house
After 20 years of Rabbi Dr Harvey and Rebetzen Vicki Belovski’s dedicated service, Golders Green United Synagogue (GGS) is looking to recruit an outstanding new Senior Rabbi/Rabbinic Couple. We are seeking a dynamic, charismatic and inspirational Senior Rabbi/ Rabbinic Couple with a passion to drive and implement a strategic vision for our community post-pandemic.
Applicants will be engaging, inspiring, non-judgmental and hardworking with a love of community. They will immerse themselves in GGS and engage all members with warmth enthusiasm and empathy and cater to their pastoral, spiritual and educational needs.
The past decade has seen an extraordinary regeneration of GGS, with the opening of Rimon Jewish Primary School. In 2015, GGS appointed Rabbi Sam and Rebbetzen Dr Hadassah Fromson with a specific responsibility for building a warm and welcoming environment for young families and young adults. Our beautiful and recently-renovated Grade II listed Shul building now has additional and much-needed spaces for our enhanced programming.
This is a role which will excite and challenge. It offers huge potential to grow GGS sustainably and to make a lasting contribution to a community which welcomes change and opens its arms to new ideas and initiatives. For an informal confidential conversation about the positions, please contact David Vaughan, GGS Chair at david@ggshul.org.uk Closing date for receipt of applications is Wednesday, 31 May, 2023. To view the job description and apply, please visit: www.theus.org.uk/jobs
Are you passionate about Jewish education?
Are you able to inspire and motivate children, families and colleagues?
Would you like the opportunity to join the leadership team in an outstanding school, who prioritise staff development, wellbeing and work-life balance?
If you want an exciting, new opportunity, to join a vibrant forward-thinking staff, we are the school for you!
Start Date: September 2023 (flexible for the right candidate)
Salary: Dependent on experience
Contract Type: Permanent. Full time or part time.
Closing Date for Applications: Tuesday 16th May
Who are we?
Wolfson Hillel Primary School is an outstanding, thriving United Synagogue school. We are passionate about instilling in our children a love and commitment for their Judaism, and our Jewish ethos and core values permeate our school
We have a very low staff turnover because we are committed to the health and well-being of our staff. At Wolfson Hillel, we believe in nurturing all our children and staff to develop to the best of their abilities. We are proud to be part of each child's journey, assisting them to become knowledgeable, skilled, confident and responsible members of our local and wider community.
Interested applicants are encouraged to contact Mrs Angela Bass, PA to the Headteacher, on (020) 8882-6487 or by email on angela.bass@WHJPS.jcat.co.uk if they would like to know more about the school or the role or to be emailed an application form.
A full job description and application forms can also be downloaded from the school website: https://www.wolfsonhillel.enfield.sch.uk/enfield/primary/wolfsonhillel/site/pages/newpage/vacanci es
Wolfson Hillel is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and families, and expects all staff to share this commitment. This post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (1974) and is subject to an Enhanced DBS Disclosure. We are an equal opportunities employer.
In our thought-provoking series, rabbisKing Charles will host Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis at Clarence House
gorically human, with their flaws documented.
The Book of Deuteronomy sets out the exemplar of how a King should behave. We read that a King should be one of his own people, not a stranger. He should not keep many horses, should not send people back to Egypt, should not have many wives nor amass material possessions to excess. And the King should have a copy of the Torah written for him, which will stay with him at all times and which he will read throughout his life, “so that he may learn to revere God, to observe faithfully every word of this teaching as well as these laws. Thus he will not act
haughtily toward his fellows or deviate from the instruction to the right or to the left.” (Deut 17:14-20)
The Torah recognises the possibilities of abuse of power and sets limits to the monarchy, making clear that while the King may be the leader of the people, he is still the subject of God.
The directive to “not send the people back to Egypt” can be understood as not putting the people back into the servitude from which God had freed them, or maybe that Egyptian sovereigns perceived themselves to be divine, whereas Hebrew kings were cate-
Biblical Kings often behaved as if they – not God – were the most important. King David’s selfcentredness, his callous behaviour around Batsheva, his illegal census-taking – designed to show his own military power – are all recorded. The Bible appears to be telling us that there is no such thing as a completely trustable sovereign.
Yet the Kings of Israel did have an important role in history, evolving a di erent kind of leadership from that of the Judges who preceded them. Each of the Judges was an individual whose personality drove him. Each represented not the whole people, but himself and his tribe.
With the monarchy something di erent was established – the
unity of the people in a nationstate. The sovereign was the leader of the whole, and the existence of a separate priesthood meant that the sovereign’s power was limited to the political arena, the priests regulating the religious one. With the added phenomenon of prophets arising to speak truth to power, the biblical world balanced communal leadership between three distinct roles.
What can a modern King learn from the Bible? Besides the many examples of what not to do, Torah reminds us of the ideal. Someone of the people – who understands them, who does not set himself apart or amass wealth or power, who allows the people their freedoms. A person who reviews God’s word and follows God’s will. Monarch, priest or politician, this remains the ideal for all.
where our progressive rabbis consider how Biblical
might act when faced with
Our trusty team of advisers answers your questions about everything from law and finance to dating and dentistry. This week: Running the London Marathon, preparing a will and applying for a new mortgage
DR BEN LEVY GOAL ATTAINMENT SPECIALIST MAKE IT HAPPENDear Ben
I’ve decided I want to run the London Marathon next year. I’ve never done anything like it before. Can you help me prepare?
StephenDear Stephen
Congratulations on aiming for such an ambitious goal! I’m guessing the excitement of last week’s marathon rubbed o on you. Did a friend or family member run?
My goal is to ensure you get there next April. We’ll meet together three times and, by the end of our third session, you’ll be totally clear, confident and energised to make this exciting ambition a reality.
in respect of having or not having a valid will in place.
Our first Make it Happen session is the most important one: we’ll carry out several rather fun activities designed to make sure you make the perfect, practical plan to go from where you are now, all the way to the start (and finish) line next year.
One of these activities is a personal favourite: the Picture of Success. Quite simply, describe in detail everything that will happen, when your dream becomes a reality. What exactly will you be doing? What expression will be on your face? How will you feel? How will your friends and family feel, when they see you running? Crossing the finishing line? Your answers to these questions is your Picture of Success. Put this picture up somewhere prominent in your house. It will serve as a reminder and motivator throughout your journey, and it’ll set you up for success. After that, we’ll get into the nitty gritty and create a winning plan.
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Dear Carolyn
Do I need to make a will when everything will go to my wife and children?
Robert
Dear Robert
Everyone’s family circumstances are di erent. I don’t know yours, however there are a number of important considerations to bear in mind
If you don’t make a will, the Intestacy Rules will govern where your assets end up. There is an order of priority starting with spouse, then children, then parents, siblings, nephews, nieces down to nearest surviving relatives who could be a remote cousin several times and many miles removed.
Additionally, even if you die leaving a spouse and children, your estate isn’t necessarily going to pass to your spouse in its entirety.
Without a will, you lose the choice of executors, the people who administer your estate and the freedom to govern the destination of your estate.
By not making a will you give up the chance to do some
estate planning and save inheritance tax by making use of exemptions and reliefs and perhaps leave a lasting legacy to your favourite charities.
You may believe that your estate can always be rearranged after your death by a deed of variation even if you make no will.
This may be possible, but it requires the consent of parties otherwise entitled under the rules of intestacy if they are giving up a share.
If they are under 18, then an expensive court application is required. What’s more, there has been talk that the Treasury is going to look at deeds of variation in the context of tax avoidance.
So please consider obtaining professional advice and make a will.
Dear Jacob
I will shortly require a new mortgage and accompanying buildings insurance, and was hoping you could advise whether it’s better to use a local broker or to source these myself using an equivalent online tool?
Dear Dan
There is no definitive answer to this question as both routes have their pros and cons which depend on a variety of factors, but mainly your personal circumstances.
What I believe to be a key consideration is the panel of lenders/insurers which the broker or “online tool” has access to. You may be familiar with a term used by brokers in that they are a “Whole of the Market” broker. This means that the list of products they have access to represents the whole of the market, but this does not mean they have access to and/or advise on absolutely every product on the market. You may find that an “online tool” will have access to a greater variety of products but may not have
access to some of the very niche providers. Therefore, the benefit of a broker versus an “online tool” would be dependent on your personal circumstances.
An additional consideration is that you are likely to benefit from the human element of using a broker rather than an “online tool” as the broker should understand the intricacies of each provider, which is likely to save you significant time and potential aggravation in the long run. I tend to use a broker that I know and trust, whilst also performing my own research online. On the rare occasion I see a product online that I believe to be more suitable than the product recommended by the broker, I would always query this with my broker.
Got
Got a question for a member of our team?
Email: editorial@jewishnews.co.uk
PRIVATE HEALTHCARE SPECIALIST
TREVOR GEE
Qualifications:
• Managing director, consultant specialists in affordable family health insurance
• Advising on maximising cover, lower premiums, pre-existing conditions
• Excellent knowledge of health insurers, cover levels and hospital lists
• LLB solicitors finals
• Member of Chartered Insurance Institute
PATIENT HEALTH 020 3146 3444/5/6 www.patienthealth.co.uk trevor.gee@patienthealth.co.uk
JONATHAN WILLIAMS
Qualifications:
JEWELLER
• Jewellery manufacturer since 1980s
• Expert in the manufacture and supply of diamond jewellery, wedding rings and general jewellery
• Specialist in supply of diamonds to the public at trade prices
JEWELLERY CAVE LTD 020 8446 8538 www.jewellerycave.co.uk jonathan@jewellerycave.co.uk
DIRECTOR OF LEGACIES
CAROLYN ADDLEMAN
Qualifications:
• Lawyer with over 20 years’ experience in will drafting and trust and estate administration. Last 14 years at KKL Executor and Trustee Company
• In close contact with clients to ensure all legal and pastoral needs are cared for
• Member of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners
KKL EXECUTOR AND TRUSTEE COMPANY 020 8732 6101 www.kkl.org.uk enquiries@kkl.org.uk
REMOVALS MANAGING DIRECTOR
STEPHEN MORRIS
Qualifications:
• Managing director of Stephen Morris Shipping Ltd
• 45 years’ experience in shipping household and personal effects
• Chosen mover for four royal families and three UK prime ministers
• Offering proven quality specialist advice for moving anyone across the world or round the corner
STEPHEN MORRIS SHIPPING LTD 020 8832 2222 www.shipsms.co.uk stephen@shipsms.co.uk
DR MONICA QUADIR
Qualifications:
• Consultant child and adolescent psychiatrist with more than 12 years of experience in treating young people and their families, both in the NHS and privately
• Expertise in assessing neurodevelopmental conditions, such as ADHD and autism, and supporting families to manage these conditions
• Medical director at Psymplicity Healthcare, a private mental health clinic based in London, with a national online presence
PSYMPLICITY HEALTHCARE 020 3733 5277
www.psymplicity.com
enquiries@psymplicity.com
JOE OZER
Qualifications:
• Executive director for the United Kingdom at DCI (Intl) Ltd
• Worked in finance for more than 20 years
• Specialists in distribution and promotion of Israel Bonds
DEVELOPMENT COMPANY FOR ISRAEL 020 3936 2712
www.israelbondsintl.com
joe.ozer@israelbondsintl.com
DR BEN LEVY
Qualifications:
• Doctor of psychology with 15 years’ experience in education and corporate sectors
• Uses robust, evidence-based methods to help you achieve your goals, whatever they may be
• Works with clients individually to maximise success
MAKE IT HAPPEN 07779 619 597
www.makeit-happen.co.uk ben@makeit-happen.co.uk
SUE CIPIN
Qualifications:
• 20 years+ hands-on experience, leading JDA in significant growth and development.
• Understanding of the impact of deafness on people, including children, at all stages
• Extensive services for people affected by hearing loss/tinnitus
• Technology room with expert advice on and facilities to try out the latest equipment.
• Hearing aid advice, support and maintenance
JEWISH DEAF ASSOCIATION 020 8446 0502
www.jdeaf.org.uk mail@jdeaf.org.uk
LOUISE LEACH
Qualifications:
• Professional choreographer qualified in dance, drama and Zumba (ZIN, ISTD & LAMDA), gaining an honours degree at Birmingham University
• Former contestant on ITV’s Popstars, reaching bootcamp with Myleene Klass, Suzanne Shaw and Kym Marsh
• Set up Dancing with Louise 19 years ago
DANCING WITH LOUISE 075 0621 7833
www.dancingwithlouise.co.uk
Info@dancingwithlouise.com
JACOB BERNSTEIN
Qualifications:
• A member of the APCC, specialising in financial services compliance for:
• Mortgage, protection and general insurance intermediaries;
• Lenders, credit brokers, debt counsellors and debt managers;
• Alternative Investment Fund managers;
• E-Money, payment services, PISP, AISP and grant-making charities.
RICHDALE CONSULTANTS LTD
020 7781 8019 www.richdale.co.uk jacob@richdale.co.uk
MENOPAUSE CHAMPION LABALANCE
ANGELA DAY-MOORE
Qualifications:
• Founder & CEO Sassy La Femme Women’s Wellness
• Passionate about women’s wellbeing
• Home to LaBalance
• Recommended by fellow women for period, perimenopause & menopause
MENOPAUSE CHAMPION LABALANCE 0333 188 6580 www.sassylafemme.com hello@sassylafemme.com
DONNA OBSTFELD
Qualifications:
• FCIPD Chartered HR Professional
• 25 years in HR and business management.
• Mediator, business coach, trainer, author and speaker
• Supporting businesses and charities with the hiring, managing, inspiring and firing of their staff
DOHR LTD
020 8088 8958 www.dohr.co.uk donna@dohr.co.uk
DOV NEWMARK
Qualifications:
ALIYAH ADVISER
• Director of UK Aliyah for Nefesh B’Nefesh, an organisation that helps facilitate aliyah from the UK
• Conducts monthly seminars and personal aliyah meetings in London
• An expert in working together with clients to help plan a successful aliyah
NEFESH B’NEFESH 0800 075 7200 www.nbn.org.il dov@nbn.org.il
VANESSA LLOYD PLATT
Qualifications:
• Qualification: 40 years’ experience as a matrimonial and divorce solicitor and mediator, specialising in all aspects of family matrimonial law, including:
• Divorce, pre/post-nuptial agreements, cohabitation agreements, domestic violence, children’s cases, grandparents’ rights to see grandchildren, pet disputes, family disputes
• Frequent broadcaster on national and International radio and television
LLOYD PLATT & COMPANY SOLICITORS 020 8343 2998
www.divorcesolicitors.com lloydplatt@divorcesolicitors.com
ADAM SHELLEY
Qualifications:
• FCCA chartered certified accountant
• Accounting, taxation and business advisory services
• Entrepreneurial business specialist including start-up businesses
• Specialises in charities; personal tax returns
• Maurice Wohl Charitable Foundation Volunteer of the Year JVN award
SOBELL RHODES LLP 020 8429 8800 www.sobellrhodes.co.uk a.shelley@sobellrhodes.co.uk
LISA WIMBORNE
Qualifications:
Able to draw on the charity’s 50 years of experience in enabling people with physical disabilities or impaired vision to live independently, including:
• The provision of specialist accommodation with 24/7 on-site support
• Knowledge of the innovations that empower people and the benefits available
• Understanding of the impact of a disability diagnosis
JEWISH BLIND & DISABLED 020 8371 6611
www.jbd.org
Lisa@jbd.org If
IAN GREEN
Qualifications:
• Launched Man on a Bike IT consultancy 15 years ago to provide computer support for the home and small businesses
• Clients range from legal firms in the City to families, small business owners and synagogues
• More than 18 years’ experience
MAN ON A BIKE 020 8731 6171 www.manonabike.co.uk mail@manonabike.co.uk
ASHLEY PRAGER
Qualifications:
• Professional insurance and reinsurance broker. Offering PI/D&O cover, marine and aviation, property owners, ATE insurance, home and contents, fine art, HNW
• Specialist in insurance and reinsurance disputes, utilising Insurance backed products. (Including non insurance business disputes)
• Ensuring clients do not pay more than required
RISK RESOLUTIONS 020 3411 4050 www.risk-resolutions.com ashley.prager@risk-resolutions.com
Email: sales@jewishnews.co.uk
Qualifications:
• Provides free professional one-to-one advice at Resource to help unemployed into work
• Offers mock interviews and workshops to maximise job prospects
• Expert in corporate management holding director level marketing, commercial and general management roles
RESOURCE 020 8346 4000 www.resource-centre.org office@resource-centre.org
BENJAMIN ALBERT
Qualifications:
• Co-founder and technical director of ADWConnect – a specialist in business telecommunications, serving customers worldwide
• Independent consultant and supplier of telephone and internet services
• Client satisfaction is at the heart of everything my team and I do, always striving to find the most cost-effective solutions
ADWCONNECT 0208 089 1111
www.adwconnect.com hello@adwconnect.com
ANTIQUES
Top prices paid
Antique – Reproduction – Retro Furniture (any condition)
Epstein, Archie Shine, Hille, G Plan, etc. Dining Suites, Lounges Suites, Bookcases, Desks, Cabinets, Mirrors, Lights, etc.
House clearances
Single items to complete homes
MARYLEBONE ANTIQUES - 8 CHURCH STREET NW8 8ED 07866 614 744 (ANYTIME) 0207 723 7415 (SHOP)
closed Sunday & Monday
STUART SHUSTER - e-mail - info@maryleboneantiques.co.uk
MAKE SURE YOU CONTACT US BEFORE SELLING
Sheltered Accommodation
We have an open waiting list in our friendly and comfortable warden assisted sheltered housing schemes in Ealing, East Finchley and Hendon. We provide 24-hour warden support, seven days a week; a residents’ lounge and kitchen, laundry, a sunny patio and garden. For further details and application forms, please contact Westlon Housing Association on 020 8201 8484 or email: johnsilverman@btconnect.com
Are
9 Earning a monthly wage (8)
10 Centre of rotation (4)
11 Length of twine (6)
12 Moscow’s country (6)
15 Starts again (6)
18 African country, capital Lilongwe (6)
20 Perfume ingredient (4)
22 Unrepresentative (8)
23 Closed up (6)
24 Archimedes’ bath-time cry (6)
25 ___ Browne, military belt (3)
DOWN
1 ___ Little, mouse movie (6)
2 Disquisition (8)
3 Bending from the waist (6)
4 Chillier, frostier (6)
5 Ultra (4)
6 Castor and Pollux in the sky (6)
11 Baronet’s title (3)
13 Military men and women (8)
14 ___ Baba, panto character (3)
16 Avoids (6)
Fill the grid with the numbers 1 to 9 so that each row, column and 3x3 block contains the numbers 1 to 9.
ACROSS
3 EastEnders’ TV channel (inits) (3)
7 Twin sound system (6)
8 Unlatched (6)
The listed words related to dressing rooms can all be found in the grid. Words may run either forwards or backwards, in a horizontal, vertical or diagonal direction, but always in a straight, unbroken line.
FJ DR AOB EC IT ON
EM UT SO C EPA CM S
PU LI PS TI CK IT C
HE S NUN Y NURH LN
OJ NS AC TO RG ESE
TS EO ID IOI AE GC
OR SW HT RL NH MM A
G ESSEPBS TN EA L
RW EP FL EO DU SSK
AO RO AR LL WI SC C
PL DRNC EE EI AAE
HF TP IR CS RT GR N
DW A RDR O BEYEAY
ACTOR
CAPE
CELEBRITY
CLEANSER
CLOTHES
COSTUME
DIARY DRESS FLOWERS
JEWELLERY LIGHTS LIPSTICK
MASCARA
MESSAGE
MIRROR
NECKLACE
NOTICEBOARD
PHOTOGRAPH
Crossword
ACROSS: 1 Idol 4 Catapult 8 Psyche 9 Parade
10 Yeti 11 Puppy fat 13 Lady Bountiful 16 Headland
19 Play 20 Poncho 22 Zoom in 23 Dewy-eyed 24 Sons.
DOWN: 2 Desperate 3 Luckily 4 Cheap 5 Topspin
6 Perky 7 Lad 12 Adulation 14 Oratory 15 Impious
17 Decay 18 Dazed 21 One.
17 Tolerates (6)
18 Chaos, havoc (6)
19 Thumps (6)
21 To ___ a Mockingbird, Harper Lee novel (4)
Learning Hebrew can be fun and sometimes hilarious! Join one of the WZO's Ulpan classes near you and find out for yourself! The subsidised Ulpanim are based in North West and East London, Manchester, Brighton, Borehamwood and Bushy. Contact- ulpanuk@wzo.org.il or call 020 83715336
Each cell in an outlined block must contain a digit: a two-cell block contains the digits 1 and 2, a three-cell block contains the digits 1, 2 and 3; and so on. The same digit must not appear in neighbouring cells, not even diagonally.
From the book Hilarious Hebrew- the Fun and Fast Way to Learn the Language, available on Amazon and in book and gift shops throughout London. www.hilarioushebrew.com
See next issue for puzzle solutions.
All puzzles © Puzzler Media Ltd - www.puzzler.com