1331 - 7th Sept 2023

week!

Israeli minister’s UK visit heightens communal rift

Chikliophobia

•

Amichai Chikli booed and heckled by furious protesters

•

‘Frank and frosty’ meetings held with Jewish community leaders

marred by bitter protests, fraught talks with community leaders and being barred by the JW3 community centre.

Jewish News understands that Tuesday’s

• JW3 abruptly disinvites far-right minister after ‘internal pressure’

• Board of Deputies president avoids being pictured with him

scheduled engagement at JW3, during a two-day visit to the UK, was called o at the 11th hour following “internal pressure” and “long-running concerns”.

These centre on Chikli’s record of making inflammatory statements promoting “vitriol” against protesters opposing Benjamin Netanyahu’s judicial overhaul, his record of speaking out against reform Jews and LGBT equality and spreading conspiracy theories and anti-Palestinian rhetoric.

Protesters from the Defend Israeli Democracy UK group had been scheduled – as part of a number of anti-Chikli demonstrations planned to challenge Chikli’s presence to gather outside JW3 – to show their disapproval of the Likud government minister ahead of his Tuesday afternoon visit.

However, sources confirmed to that JW3 bosses had faced growing questions and “internal pressure” about the decision to allow such a divisive political figure to go ahead with a visit to the community centre.

One insider confirmed: “It was internal pressure that eventually led to the visit being cancelled.”

Chikli later held meetings at the Israeli embassy headquarters in west London with representatives from the Board of Deputies, the Jewish Leadership Council, the Community Security Trust,

Democracy UK group had been scheduled Jewish News internal pressure that eventually led the Leadership Council, the Comthe Union of Jewish

Students and the Reform, Liberal and Masorti movements.

Protesters from Defend Israeli Democracy UK, and from Jewish youth groups including Noam Masorti Youth, RSY Netzer and Habonim were present throughout the day, openly expressing their opposition both to the Netanyahu government and to Chikli’s lengthy record of inflammatory rhetoric.

Students and the Reform, Liberal and including Noam Masorti Youth, RSY Netzer of were among those to “stress how the Israeli

Board of Deputies president Marie van der Zyl and chief executive Michael Wegier were among those to “stress how the Israeli government’s planned judicial overhaul had

sparked significant concern among many in the community in this country”.

Van der Zyl said that at the meeting: “We made it clear that British Jews have a deep love of Israel, which is why it is so painful to see the deep internal divisions which have risen to the surface there.”

It is understood their conversation with Chikli also focused on the pressures faced by the Israeli LGBT community, the rights of reform Jews in Israel and the severe challenges facing Arab citizens of Israel.

The two Board representatives urged the Continued on page 2

Rabbi gives Chikli a lesson

Continued from page 1

minister to share these concerns with his colleagues in government.

Another communal source, who had been present at the meeting, said Van der Zyl and UJS president Edward Isaacs had both been “robust, direct, but fair”, as they engaged with Chikli and made the frustrations felt by many Jews in this country “crystal clear”. Van der Zyl appeared to avoid posing for a publicity photo of the meeting.

Jewish News understands that Chikli staggered his meetings with communal representatives, rather than having them all in the room at the same time.

Rabbi Jeremy Gordon confirmed to Jewish News that there had been pressure from “significant voices” in his Masorti movement as well as in progressive Jewish circles for a boycott of the meeting with Chikli. But the New London Synagogue rabbi said he opted to express concerns and anger about the hard-right Israeli government directly to the minister, and revealed that at the talks he shared a d’var Torah, framing “opposition to many of the policies of the current [Israeli] government as grounded in our faith and specifically the texts of our faith”.

Rabbis Josh Levy and Charley Baginsky, chief executives of the Movement for Reform Judaism and Liberal Judaism, said: “We met with Amichai Chikli. We expressed to him the impact that the actions and rhetoric of the cur-

rent Israeli government are having on this relationship and the fracture that is being created between Israel and Jews in this country.

“The meeting was frank, and not always comfortable. We hope the minister will take heed of our concerns and bring them into his thinking and that of the government moving forward.”

Rabbi Gordon confirmed: “Before the meeting, we were aware of significant voices within and beyond our movements who wished us not to take the meeting with the minister.”

He said of the d’var Torah he shared: “Several verses and their rabbinic commentary in this week’s parsha speak of the importance of oftenexcluded sectors of society in the creation of a State of Israel, and the parsha has a warning for those who confuse having power and acting on that power with acting with decency.”

JLC co-chief executive Claudia Mendoza said: “We held a productive meeting with minister Chikli. We thanked him for the education projects in the UK his department supports and we raised the serious concerns shared across the community about the turmoil in Israel.”

Yachad declined an invitation to an embassy reception event, citing Chikli’s record of “promoting vitriol against pro-democracy protesters, supporting the spreading of George Soros-related conspiracy theories, speaking out against LGBTQ equality, and promoting antiPalestinian rhetoric”.

AMICHAI

CHIKLI IN HIS OWN WORDS

‘A neo-Nazi entity’

On the Palestinian Authority

‘Harming the interests of the state of Israel’

On American le -wing Jewish groups

‘Disgraceful vulgarity’

On Tel Aviv’s Gay Pride parade

‘One of this generation’s biggest Israel-haters’

On George Soros

‘There’s coordination between Biden, Lapid and Ehud Barak’

Accusing the US of fanning the flames at anti-judicial reform protests

‘Mind your own business’

To the US ambassador to Israel

Rayner communities role

Angela Rayner has replaced Lisa Nandy as Labour’s shadow communities secretary, a post that involves a number of issues directly impacting on Britain’s Jewish population.

The expected move was confirmed on Monday as part of Sir Keir Starmer’s shadow cabinet reshu e.

Rayner, now the shadow secretary for levelling up, housing and communities, also remains shadow deputy prime minister.

Nandy, the Jewish Labour

Movement’s first choice to succeed Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader three years ago, has been handed the international development brief.

In her new role, Rayner will handle Labour’s response to the government’s controversial anti-BDS legislation. She will also meet regularly with communal organisations to discuss forthcoming issues.

Nandy built good relations with most communal groups, showing understanding of the issues around

antisemitism, and was an outspoken critic of the former party leader.

Rayner was Corbyn’s deputy and criticised for not speaking out strongly enough under his leadership, but in later meetings including a JLM conference in November 2020 was more outspoken. She once said of antisemitic members: “If I have to suspend thousands and thousands of members, we will do that because we cannot and we will not accept an

LAMMY PRAISES JEWISH ROLE

injury to one, because an injury to one is an injury to all.”

In April 2022, Rayner joined Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis and Sajid Javid to take part in the Jewish News-backed challah bake o .

With the government’s longpromised anti-BDS bill reachingcommittee stage this week, several communal figures told Jewish News that they would wait before making judgment on Rayner’s move to the communities role.

OVER IMMIGRATION ELLMAN BACK IN ISRAEL FOR LARGEST LFI TOUR

Shadow foreign secretary David Lammy has praised the “humble Jewish, Caribbean, Irish and Cypriot” families he grew up with in his home constituency of Tottenham in north London, writes Lee Harpin.

The MP added that for him “it is so important to understand the enterprise and hard work of the immigrant story in this country”.

In a speech to a Labour Equalities event in Southwark, Lammy also admitted that Keir Starmer’s shadow cabinet reshu e had brought the prospect, should the party win at the next election, of him becoming a “black foreign secretary”.

Refencing the success immigrant families had achieved owing to their hard work and aspiration, the Tottenham MP said “all

of us know how humble those who came to this country from somewhere else and made something of themselves, how humble they are about their achievements”.

Labour understood that many of the communities wanted the best for their children from the education system, he added.

from the education system, he added. media.

The shadow minister also noted that for many years the success of minority communities went unreported in mainstream

Dame Louise Ellman has joined the largest-yet Labour Friends of Israel delegation to visit the Jewish state and Palestinian territories alongside vice-chair Sharon Hodgson MP and seven prospective parliamentary candidates from Sir Keir Starmer’s party, writes Lee Harpin.

The five-day trip was the first time former Liverpool Riverside MP Ellman had been part of an LFI delegation since she was director of the organisation over 10 years ago.

an LFI delegation as director. I rejoined Labour at the 2021 party conference because of Keir’s progress in rooting out the antisemitism that festered under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership.

“I have been heartened by the continued progress Labour has made with the Jewish community and returning to its position as a friend of Israel and honest broker on the Middle East.

Voice along with other publications such as with the “social cohesion” that was David Lammy

He praised the black newspaper The along with other publications Jewish News and Eastern Eye for reporting these success stories along with the “social cohesion” that was enjoyed between di erent communities.

It also o ered candidates standing for Labour at the next election, including Chipping Barnet’s Dan Tomlinson, an opportunity to learn more about the situation on the ground in Israel and the Middle East.

Ellman said: “I am pleased to have joined this delegation of Labour parliamentary candidates, more than a decade since I last attended

“The parliamentary candidates on this trip are very impressive. They will have benefited hugely from this experience, coming away with a much deeper understanding of the complexities of Israel and the wider region.”

The group included MP hopefuls Primesh Patel (Harrow West), Jo Platt (Leigh), Jake Richards (Rother Valley), Melanie Onn (Grimsby), Danny Beales (Uxbridge and South Ruislip) and Graeme Downie (Dunfermline and West Fife).

Communal bodies back anti-BDS bill

The Board of Deputies and Jewish Leadership Council have given their firm support to a government bill aimed at preventing public bodies from engaging in economic boycotts against Israel as the proposed legislation was scrutinised by a committee in parliament.

Daniel Sugarman, the Board’s director of public a airs, told the cross-party committee of MPs that the legislation would “certainly make things better for Jewish communities, particularly small Jewish communities who have been in positions where they sometimes feel that unless they vocally criticise Israel as Jews, they will not get a hearing”.

He told the committee the “history of boycotts against Jews is a very painful one”, adding: “It links back to Nazi Germany, and for at least a significant percentage of the commu-

nity when we hear about boycotts of Israel that link is raised.”

Speaking in Westminster alongside his communal colleague, Russell Langer, head of policy at the JLC, agreed that the proposed legislation “will have a positive impact on communities here in the UK”.

Langer added: “Unfortunately, in the UK – and it happens with other foreign issues, but specifically with the Israeli/Palestinian issue – we see a foreign conflict a ecting inter-community relations in the UK. Worst of all, we then see public bodies getting involved in that debate and making these tensions worse.”

Giving evidence to the public bills committee on Tuesday, Yachad director Hannah Weisfeld expressed her organisation’s opposition to the Economic Activity of Public Bodies (Overseas Matters) Bill, that would impose fines on public bodies, including local councils, that seek to mount boycotts against Israel.

She told MPs: “If you crack down

on the ability of people to express their opinion in local democracies, rather than bring people together, you can create real disharmony among communities.

“There has been a tiny number of examples of what we would refer to as BDS motions at local government and public body level.

“If this legislation passes in its current form, I don’t think it would be overstating to say there would be BDS motions in public bodies all across the country were people try and test this legislation because they are so frustrated their right to express an opinion has been clamped down on.”

The bill passed its second reading in the Commons in July, but after a sizeable rebellion from Tory MPs who argued that as it stands, it impacted freedom of speech, and ignored Foreign O ce warnings about a conflation between Israel and the Occupied Palestinian territories.

Labour had also argued, under former communities secretary Lisa

Nandy, that why the party was firmly opposed to the boycott, sanctions and divestment (BDS) movement, the bill had been poorly drafted and was a “political trap” set by the Tories for the party, after the Jeremy Corbyn antisemitism crisis.

Anti-BDS legislation has long been called for by the main communal bodies, but the drafting of the bill has prompted further concerns.

Weisfeld added: “There are members of the Board of Deputies and of the Jewish Leadership Council who have been very opposed to this legislation. I draw your attention particularly to the Union of Jewish Students who at their last conference passed a unanimous motion from all 400 students, without a dissenting voice, which said UJS…. ‘opposes this government’s proposed boycott bill…. presenting a risk to British Jewish

communities and is a setback to Israeli/Palestinian peace’.”

There were further concerns about the apparent conflation of Israel with the Occupied Palestinian territories within the bill. Labour’s Wayne David, joined by MPs including Bob Blackman on the committee, raised this concern with the Board and JLC representatives. Also giving evidence at the first session, in a three-day committee hearing, was James Gurd, of Conservative Friends of Israel.

He told the committee “[BDS] ... seeks to delegitimise the state of Israel in the UK, and the UK Government should have absolutely no truck with it.”

The journalist Melanie Phillips will today speak in favour of the bill, and the KC Richard Hermer will outline his concerns about it.

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Labour remains “confident of the case it has presented to the court” as part of a lawsuit against five former sta ers accused of leaking an internal report on antisemitism.

Jewish News understands there is still “overwhelming” support from the party’s ruling national executive committee (NEC) for Labour to pursue the case “robustly” in the High Court.

Recent accounts published by the

Election Commission also show that as a result of increased revenue from commercial sources, fundraising and donations, Labour is in an exceptionally healthy state, erasing fears that a costly legal fight could impact on its general election campaign.

A report in The Guardian revealed Labour had spent at least £503,260 in its dispute with ex-sta members, including Jeremy Corbyn’s former chief of sta , Karie Murphy, and his former director of communications, Seumas Milne. This figure was said to relate only to the total costs accrued for a recent

hearing, which involved an attempt to force Murphy to disclose private phone messages.

In a High Court order handed down this month, Mr Justice Chamberlain refused to allow this, and ordered the party to pay £90,000 as an interim contribution towards Murphy’s costs.

Murphy, Milne and the three others – Georgie Robertson, Laura Murray and Harry Hayball – all deny leaking the report by Labour’s governance and legal unit in April 2020.

But senior party sources rejected claims that continuing with the case

represented a “monumental waste of members’ and a liates’ money pursuing what appears to be a pointless political vendetta”, as one NEC member has reportedly claimed.

They pointed out that the leaking of the report – titled The work of the Labour party’s governance and Legal Unit in Relation to Antisemitism, 2014–2019 – was an “exceptionally serious matter” that included the

leaking of private data relating to members of the party, some of whom were Jewish, who had raised concerns about the failure to stamp out anti-Jewish racism in the party. A Labour party spokesperson said: “The party has conducted a wide-ranging and appropriately thorough investigation following the leak and is confident of the case it has presented to the court.”

GREENS NAME JO BIRD AS MP CANDIDATE

The Green Party have selected a councillor embroiled in antisemitism claims before she was expelled by Labour as one of their parliamentary candidates.

Jo Bird – expelled from Labour over her support for a proscribed organisation that downplayed or denied anti-Jewish

racism allegations – has been confirmed as the Greens’ “prospective parliamentary candidate for Birkenhead.”

The announcement, made on the Wirral Green social media pages, sparked alarm the Greens were willing to welcome high-profile expulsions from

Labour is ‘confident’ in leaked report case WHEN THEY NEED US MOST

Labour. Bird was expelled by Labour in November 2021 after she spoke at a Labour Against the Witchhunt meeting in 2018 and signing their petition in 2020.

Mike Katz, national chair of the Jewish Labour Movement, said: “This is a terrible decision and will o end Jews in

Merseyside and beyond.” Zack Polanski, the deputy leader of the Green Party, who is Jewish, said: “As the first Jewish deputy leader in British politics, I’m really proud of the work of Jewish Greens in the Green Party, working together to tackle antisemitism in society.”

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The General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) fitness-to-practise (FtP) committee has ruled comments made by pharmacist Nazim Ali at a 2017 Al Quds Day protest in London were antisemitic, but has simply warned him about his future conduct.

Ali, a former director of the Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC), was recorded making inflammatory statements, including false claims “Zionists” were “responsible for the murder of the people” in the Grenfell Tower fire tragedy.

Shouting through a loudspeaker days after the fire, Ali claimed: “They are responsible for the murder of the people in Grenfell. The Zionist supporters of the Tory Party.

“Any Zionist, any Jew coming into your centre supporting Israel, any Jew coming into your centre who is a Zionist. Any Jew coming into your centre who is a member for the Board of Deputies, is not a rabbi, he’s an imposter.”

Ali’s conduct, uncovered by Jewish News

Notorious anti-Zionist activist Tony Greenstein has avoided prison, despite being found guilty of planning to damage a drone factory he believed supplies arms to Israel.

High Honour Judge Chambers KC sentenced Greenstein to nine months, suspended for two years

journalist Lee Harpin who joined the 2017 demo under cover, was deemed serious enough to be reported to the Metropolitan Police but the CPS declined to proceed with prosecution.

After complaints from communal organisations, the GPhC initially found Ali’s statements

were not antisemitic but this was overturned by the High Court, which directed the committee to consider the “cumulative impact” of his words.

Ali admitted his comments were offensive but was cleared of accusations they were antisemitic and given a first warning in November 2020.

A re-hearing by the FtP has now accepted two statements – on Grenfell and the Board of Deputies – out of four submitted were antisemitic and has issued the latest warning to Ali.

The decision prompted strong condemnation from the Board, with vice-president Amanda Bowman expressing “deep concern” and branding the verdict “totally irresponsible”.

She added: “The Board of Deputies is steadfast in its work to combat hate speech and antisemitism in all parts of society... we believe this case raises important questions about the standards and values upheld by the GPhC and its Fitness to Practise Committee.”

Wrist slap for chemist Ali Guilty Greenstein escapes prison

on Wednesday for his involvement in an action with five members of the Palestine Action group, who aim was to to shut down Israeli arms company Elbit Systems.

Setting out the basis for sentencing the judge said Greenstein, and three others who were found

guilty, “intended to cause serious criminal damage with sledgehammers and crowbars” which could have cost the factory at least £30,000 to repair.

Judge Chambers said Greenstein, and the others hold an “unswerving blinkered commitment to their

NEO-NAZI JAILED FOR 13 YEARS

A former prison officer and self-confessed neo-Nazi who recruited disillusioned white men to a racist organisation “masquerading” as a sports club has been jailed for 13 years.

Ashley Podsiad-Sharp, 42, was found guilty of possessing terrorist material after a document called The White Resistance Manual was found on his computer by counter-terrorism police officers.

Sheffield Crown Court heard the manual contained information about how to kill people, use various weapons, build bombs and evade detection by police.

Jurors were told it opened with a white supremacist mantra, calling for armed resistance to the “threat to the white race” from Jews and non-white people.

cause” and that each of the four found guilty were “unrepentant.”

Greenstein’s defence counsel had earlier argued that when arrested he had failed to take his daily medication and this his ill health and age meant there was a “low risk” of him reoffending.

Judge Jeremy Richardson said “it was necessary to be a racist” to join Podsiad-Sharp’s club and that potential members were asked as part of the vetting procedure if they were homosexual, mixed race or had Jewish or Muslim heritage

Podsiad-Sharp’s sentence is made up of a custodial term of eight years and an extension period of five years.

Flood deaths inquest opens

Questions need to be answered over the deaths of a couple who drove into a flooded road in Liverpool, a court has heard.

Andre Rebello, senior coroner for Liverpool and Wirral, also said he wanted a monthly update report from detectives at Merseyside Police who are investigating the deaths of grandparents Elaine, 76, and Philip Marco, 77.

Mr and Mrs Marco died days before their 54th wedding anni-

versary when their black Mercedes drove into floodwater in Queens Drive in the Mossley Hill area of Liverpool, at about 9.20pm on Saturday 26 August.

During a short hearing at Liverpool coroner’s court where inquests into their deaths were opened and adjourned until next year, brief details were given about the incident.

The court heard emergency services were called by members of the public at 9.22pm reporting a vehicle submerged in water on the road going under the railway bridge, with people believed to be inside.

Police, fire and ambulance crews responded with firefighters locating the body of Mrs Marco. She was given first aid at the scene and then transported to the Royal Liverpool University Hospital where she was pronounced dead, the court heard.

The black Mercedes car was located later and the body of Mr Marco also found. He was also treated at the scene and taken to the same hospital where death was confirmed. Their identities were confirmed by their sons, Joshua and Simon.

Mr Rebello said: “This is a complex investigation. There

43 universities yet to adopt IHRA

A total of 43 universities in Britain have still not properly adopted or have expressly refused to adopt, the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) international definition of antisemitism, new research suggests.

According to Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA), some of the universities that have not adopted the definition did not provide cogent reasons, such as the University of Brighton and

the University of Wales Trinity Saint David. Around 134 universities have adopted it.

Other universities – including Ravensbourne University London, Swansea University and the University for the Creative Arts – have not adopted the definition because it does not cover all faith group. Kingston University, Robert Gordon University and SOAS University of London said their existing policies already cov-

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ered antisemitism and therefore adoption of the definition was not necessary.

“While SOAS University of London has not adopted the IHRA definition, we stand firmly against antisemitism, as we do against all forms of discrimination,” SOAS, for example, told CAA.

A CAA spokesperson said: “It is appalling that a minority of universities... persist in providing excuses that have been debunked years ago.”

are questions that will need to be answered with regard to the highway authority, the system of work, maintenance of the road, vigilance with regard to inclement weather.”

The coroner also said liaison would be need with United Utilities, the area’s water supplier and Network Rail, responsible for the railway bridge over the road.

Earlier, the hearing was told Philip was originally from London and Elaine from Liverpool. Friends described them as a “kind and generous” couple whose catering business was popular in the local Jewish community.

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Yeshiva the bridging divide between Orthodox and IDF

“We are building a bridge between the ultraOrthodox community in Israel and the secular world,” Rabbi Yonathan Reiss says, as he proudly surveys Yeshiva Chedvata.

Reiss, who grew up in the strictly-Orthodox Beltz sect in Jerusalem, founded Chedvata 10 years ago in an attempt to solve one of the most contentious issues in Israel; the growing rift between the strictly-Orthodox and the secular communities over enlistment in the Israel Defence Forces (IDF).

The “status quo” agreement in Israel has exempted strictly-Orthodox young men and women from the army for decades, whereas their secular and less religious Israeli Jewish counterparts have to serve roughly two and three years in the IDF respectively.

Rabbi Reiss is among the few strictlyOrthodox who were drafted into the army, having left the country aged 18. He did not study at a yeshiva, which is required in order to avoid being drafted. He was arrested at the age of 26 when he returned to Israel and forced to join the army. It was there he realised his calling; to build a bridge between the IDF and the strictly-Orthodox.

“For many ultra-Orthodox, the IDF is a secular institution where everyone (men and women) is together – the opposite of where they come from. The army wants to integrate the ultra-Orthodox, so they promise their religious life can continue. But for many years it wasn’t properly geared for it. And I saw an opportunity to change that,” Rabbi Reiss told Jewish News.

In 2013, he decided to launch his own yeshiva based on the philosophy that it is possible to combine Torah studies with work and army.

Chedvata, located in the central Israeli city of

Gan Yavneh, o ers a variety of BA degrees, such as computer science and software engineering, preparing students for specific units in the IDF.

There are two groups of young men at the yeshiva; those who were brought up strictlyOrthodox, only studying Torah and not the core curriculum, such as maths and English, like the rest of Israeli students.

“This group is being taught basic studies the first year to prepare them for the bachelor’s degree. Many of them don’t even know the [Latin] alphabet,” Rabbi Reiss said.

The second group is made of less religious young men, who studied the core curriculum alongside Torah. “This group can go straight to the degree,” Rabbi Reiss said.

For Akiva Beninson, 18, Chedvata is the perfect solution for the way he wants to live his life.

“I think it’s a waste of time to go straight to the army. My brothers did that and they are on a different salary than when I finish my degree and army. I could get into 8200 (elite cyber unit), but I will probably end up in the air force,” he said.

The students enjoying their break in the yeshiva courtyard come from all corners of the country. Eighty-five percent of them are enrolled in a BA computer science degree, which means many of them will go straight into cyber units in the IDF. But others, like Eliyakum Neves, 18, from Jerusalem, is in a programme specifically to prepare them for combat service.

“We get up at 6am and start our day running and work out all day. We are with the yeshiva in the morning hours where we study Torah but from 1pm we separate. Then we study Arabic and Krav Maga,” said Neves who, like other religious youth, has met resistance from the strictly-Orthodox community over his decision

to join a yeshiva that prepares for army service.

“People around me weren’t too happy about it, but it’s my choice. I used to be ‘black and white’ a few years ago, and when I stopped being that they were okay with it. But when it comes to the army they are like ‘hey, stop here’,” he said.

Rabbi Ari Netanel Maor, who teaches Torah and halacha (Talmud), said: “The combination of studying the Torah and secular studies is something that was always frowned upon. When it started, it was unheard of. We had to keep everything under the radar because a lot of people were against it. Today it’s more acceptable, but not as much as it should be.”

“We try to prepare our students for life, [giving them] all the tools they need to become an observant Jew, how to be a giving person, a husband and the relationship in a workplace. So it’s all encompassing,” he added.

Rabbi Maor said there would always be an elite group who learn Torah a full day. “People have to realise the army has to be professional. Drafting everybody is not good for anybody. Once we come to that realisation I’m sure a lot of people in the Orthodox community would

like to become professional soldiers,” he said. The Yeshiva Chedvata concept has become very popular, enrolling more than 300 students in three yeshivot across the country: Gan Yavneh, Jerusalem and Haifa. The fourth is set to open in Haifa later this year.

And it is not just the students who have found Rabbi Reiss’ initiative interesting. Former defence minister and leader of the National Unity Party, Benny Gantz, has allied with Reiss, making him a sort of uno cial liaison to the strictly-Orthodox community and using his knowledge to draft the ‘Gantz Plan’, under which strictly-Orthodox and Arab Israelis will have to choose to do either army or civil service.

“This way, for example, the ultra-Orthodox could join charity organisations and learn a profession in the emergency, health and welfare organisations. Arab citizens could give back to the community, develop education organisations within it and help combat crime,” Gantz said in 2021 when he presented the plan.

“I wrote Gantz’s plan. And I think, in the end, the ultra-Orthodox will choose this path. There is no other choice,” Reiss said.

Jotam Confino visitsYeshiva Chedvata

which offers strictly-Orthodox boys BA degrees before they enlist in the army

Nose makeup artist ‘sorry’

The makeup artist who styled Bradley Cooper as Leonard Bernstein has apologised for creating the prosthetic nose that some say perpetuates stereotypes about Jews, writes Gabe Friedman.

Kazu Hiro said at a Venice International Film Festival press conference on Saturday that he was not expecting the swift backlash to early images of Cooper in character that surfaced last year and intensified this month when the trailer for Maestro, a Bernstein biopic, was released.

“I feel sorry that I hurt some people’s feelings,” said Hiro, who has won two Oscars, including for his work transforming Gary Oldman into Winston Churchill for 2017’s The Darkest Hour

He said he and Cooper would show up at 2am most days to start early on pre-filming makeup sessions that took anywhere from three to five hours. “My goal was and Bradley’s goal was to portray

Lenny as authentic as possible,” Hiro said.

“Lenny had a really iconic look that everybody knows — there’s so many pictures out there because he’s photogenic, too — such a great person and also

inspired so many people. So we wanted to respect the look too, on the inside. So that’s why we did several di erent tests and went through lots of decisions and that was the outcome in the movie.”

Both Bernstein’s family and the AntiDefamation League defended Cooper, who also directed the film, and said they did not consider the elongated nose antisemitic.

Also at the festival, where the film debuted, Bernstein’s daughter Jamie called the uproar over the prosthetic nose “an annoying distraction”. She told Vanity Fair: “The people who were waiting to get mad about something were just waiting to pounce.”

The film, which will receive a limited theatrical release on 22 November before debuting on Netflix on 20 December, drew seven standing ovations during its premiere at the festival.

STANDWITHUS UK HONOURS LORD AUSTIN

Israel-focused educational charity StandWithUs UK has honoured Lord (Ian) Austin for his support.

He received a Beacon of Light award at a private reception at JW3 in north London, hosted by Israeli Ambassador Tzipi Hotovely.

In his speech, Austin said that,

“because of some of the appalling things we see on campuses, the work StandWithUs do has never been more important”. He praised it for equipping students with “the arguments and skills you need to tell the truth about the world’s only Jewish state and the Middle East’s only democracy”.

Gathered at the reception were close friends as well as students of the charity, who were recognised for their activism on campuses across the UK. Hotovely told the students they were “telling Israel’s story”. She commented that people often debate what it means for Israel to be a Jewish State,

but we mustn’t forget that, “being a democracy is what it means to be Jewish and we must be proud of it”. The evening was part of a conference for the Emerson Fellowship, an annual student leadership programme which empowers and inspires student leaders at UK universities.

Strictly-Orthodox men arrested

Four strictly-Orthodox men were arrested on Wednesday morning in Stamford Hill as part of a Revenue and Customs-led operation. Several property searches were also carried out. An HMRC spokesperson said: “Four men have been arrested in north London on suspicion of tax fraud offences. “Officers from HMRC searched eight properties today. All four of those arrested remain in custody. Inquiries are ongoing.”

Chaplains gather for training seminar

The national organisation of chaplains who support Jewish students at university has held its annual training seminar. University Jewish Chaplaincy brought together 16 dedicated chaplains, four head office staff members and 12 of the chaplains’ children for the event. Spanning 13 UK regions, UJC plays a crucial role in providing spiritual guidance and support to students.

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Pupils at Charedi schools outnumber Jewish kids in secular Jewish schools

The number of Jewish children attending Jewish schools is set to reach 40,000 by 2025, writes Michelle Rosenberg.

This is according to a new report released this week by London-based think tank the Institute for Jewish Policy Research (JPR).

The research paper – A Jewish or a nonJewish school: What lies behind parents’ decisions about how to educate their children? – looks into that state of Jewish education in the UK and the rest of Europe.

It aims to highlight parents’ motives when choosing a Jewish or non-Jewish school for their children. Key findings include:

1. The number of Jewish children attending Jewish schools has increased significantly over time and is expected to reach about 40,000 by the mid-2020s.

2. Developing a strong Jewish identity is a huge driver for parents in the UK, France and across Europe for registering their children to a Jewish school

3. Jewish identity is followed in most places by a desire for their children to have friends with similar values, with the exception of France, where concern about antisemitism in non-Jewish schools is a more common motive.

4. In the UK and France, the most common motive for parents to send their children to a

non-Jewish school is actively preferring a nonJewish (integrated) environment, a factor cited by about two-thirds of all such parents in both countries.

Convenience also commonly features as a reason not to send children to a Jewish school, coming second on the list in the UK and France and topping it elsewhere in Europe.

Academic standards and availability are also marked highly in the report as reasons parents prefer a non-Jewish school for their children, particularly in the UK.

Dr Boyd said: “To ensure that parents are able to secure places for their children in their preferred schools, community planners must

have access to the latest data on Jewish school enrolment numbers and the motives underpinning parental choice.”

He added that while the paper shares “some of what we currently know”, there is an urgent need for more community investment in this type of research in order to “accurately project levels of demand for Jewish schooling in the years to come.”

In the mid-1950s, 5,200 Jewish children were registered as pupils in Jewish schools; by the mid-1990s that number had risen to 16,700.

Between 2015 and 2016, the figure had risen again to 32,000.

The paper draws data from three sources: Previous JPR research on school registration numbers, a 2018 pan-European study sponsored by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA), conducted by a joint JPR-Ipsos team, and JPR’s spring 2023 survey of Jews in the UK.

 For more information, go online to www.jpr.org.uk

Star pupils hope for record

JCoSS students have attempted to break the world record for the largest human Star of David, writes Candice Krieger.

Some 531 people, comprising JCoSS students, teachers and TV personality Rob Rinder, stood together to create a giant Magen David in the attempt yesterday, organised by the school’s head student team in partnership with Jewish News.

It could take up to 12 weeks for Guinness to come back with ocial confirmation. But the attempt,

which had two independent witnesses, more than doubles the previous record of 250 people, held in Hong Kong since 2011. Everyone in the JCoSS star wore white t-shirts and hats and and even the weather got the memo: the sun shone brightly.

The event was the brainchild of JCoSS deputy head boy Luke Godfrey. He told Jewish News: “The aim was to make JCoSS ‘o cially’ amazing and to stand up to antisemitism, and show the world that we won’t back down.”

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Beloved Holocaust orphan dies at 94

Tributes have been made to Holocaust survivor Frank Bright, following his death at the age of 94, writes Michelle Rosenberg.

Born Frank Brichta in Berlin in 1928, he was four years old when the Nazis came to power. He remembered antisemitism on the streets of Berlin and fearing for their safety the family moved to Prague in 1938. These fears increased when the Sudetenland was ceded to Germany as part of the Munich Agreement.

After the May 1942 assassination of Reinhard Heydrich of the SS, a chief architect of the Final Solution, Frank remembered door-todoor searches by the Gestapo and deportations of his neighbours to their deaths.

In July 1943, the family were deported at night to Terezin, where Frank worked in the vegetable garden and later in a metal factory. His mother mended sheets; his father worked in a timber yard, then became a ghetto policeman and was later deported again. Frank never saw him again.

In autumn 1944, he and his mother were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau. On arrival, his mother was sent straight to the gas chambers and Frank was sent on a cattle truck to a factory in the Sudetenland where he worked on the manufacture of aircraft propellers.

As liberation neared, Frank had to dig trenches in the frozen ground to bury the bodies of those who had died on the notorious death marches from the East. In early 1945, French labourers unlocked the camp gates and turned o the electric barbed wire fence around the camp. Later, the Russians arrived.

Frank returned to Prague then to Teplice for an apprenticeship. He arrived in London in 1946, became a civil and municipal engineer and dedicated years to telling others of his experiences. He was a patron of the Dora Love Prize, given by Essex University to students creating the best Holocaust awareness project each year and also featured in the BBC documentary The Last Survivors in 2019.

His wife Cynthia passed away in 2021. The couple had two children.

Association of Jewish Refugees (AJR) chief executive Michael Newman said: “Frank came to Britain after liberation, took night classes to become a civil engineer and dedicated much of his life to educate young people about the horrors of discrimination, hatred and genocide.

“We feel privileged to have captured his testimony for our Refugee Voices archive and he was also a regular contributor to the AJR Journal and a popular presence at AJR events.”

The Holocaust Educational Trust said it was “deeply saddened” at Frank’s passing, adding: “Frank was unwavering in his determination to honour the memory of those who perished, and spoke to schools and other organisations across the UK for many years.

“He always showed a very poignant example of all that was lost during the Holocaust whenever he shared his testimony – a photo of his 1942 school class on which he had indicated the many young children who never survived the Nazi occupation.”

Frank was awarded an MBE last year in Queen Elizabeth’s final New Year Honours List for services to Holocaust education.

Sacks education boost

For Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, the organisation has developed a PDF collection of reading material from Rabbi Sacks’ Rosh Hashanah messages to Jewish communities during his tenure as chief rabbi from the 1990s.

The brief annual essays were written to provoke thought and conversation surrounding the great issues of the day and are intended to provide inspiration for the Jewish New Year.

The second resource is a series of six posters with inspirational quotes from Rabbi Sacks about the Sukkot holiday, intended to adorn the walls of the sukkah.

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The Rabbi Sacks Legacy charitable trust, which honours the life and legacy of the former Chief Rabbi, has launched free educational resources to enhance the high holiday season.

The print-at-home materials, in English, Hebrew and Spanish, can be downloaded from www.rabbisacks.org and are intended to be printed before the holidays begin.

Legacy director of communications Jonny Lipczer said: “Every year, when Rosh Hashanah approached, Rabbi Sacks would craft a message to Jewish communities worldwide, drawing from key moments of the previous year to o er inspiration for the upcoming year.

“We have delved into the archives to bring these messages together and share them ahead of Rosh Hashanah, which serve as a reminder of the enduring brilliance of Rabbi Sacks’ wisdom.”

Rabbi Sacks died in November 2020.

My dad was the local Rabbi when I was growing up. He’s no longer around, but living in a Norwood home enables me to keep up the traditions he taught me, my brothers and my sister. Like putting on my tallit to say the Shema, which I learned by heart. But most of all, this Rosh Hashanah I’m looking forward to hearing the shofar, sharing a meal and passing round some apple and honey to my friends.

I’m Norman. And I am Norwood.

Fun run celebrates diversity

The third London Interfaith Fun Run welcomed 100 runners and hundreds of spectators to StoneX Stadium in north London on Sunday, writes Michelle Rosenberg.

The family event unites runners and spectators from diverse faith and belief communities.

Runners chose between non-competitive 1km, 5km or 10km routes, returning to a buzzing festival area which featured dance and music performances from a wide range of cultures and food from diverse cuisines.

A charity fair showcased the incredible work of all participating cross-communal charities.

David Dangoor, the chair of His Majesty’s LordLieutenant of Greater London’s Council on Faith, whose eldest granddaughter took part alongside her mother, has described the Fun Run as “an opportunity for Londoners, whatever their ethnic group or

faith, to come together and send a message of unity and friendship”. Rabbi Daniel Epstein, of Western Marble Arch synagogue, took on the 5k alongside his 16-year-old son Jacob, having raised £2k for interfaith work in their shul community.

He told Jewish News that they were “looking forward to putting that into action with some wonderful interfaith activities over the next few months”.

Phil Champain, the director of the Faith & Belief Forum, told Jewish News that the event was important in “celebrating the huge diversity of faiths, particularly in London which is an extremely diverse city”.

He added: “I think 70 percent of Londoners identify with a religious faith, which is more than the national average. By celebrating that, we also build bridges between those communities to strengthen community resilience and social cohesion.”

Michael Zi , president of Maccabi GB, treasurer of the Board of Deputies and a trustee of the Faith & Belief Forum, told Jewish News fun runs are important in terms of bringing people together. “One thing a fun run does compared to a sports game is that you don’t compete with each other head on. You’re all actually going in the same direction.

“It’s one of my great beliefs that if we’re all looking at the same picture going forward rather than facing each other, we have a better chance of getting people to work together. That to me is important, particularly in the area of interfaith work.”

The event was organised by the Faith & Belief Forum and Maccabi GB with the generous support of Dangoor Education, EasternEye, Jewish News, Jewish Volunteering Network, Voice of Islam Radio and Greater London Lieutenancy’s Council of Faith.

“This time last

‘This story of Nicky’s life matters so much’

James Hawes has known about Nicholas Winton almost his entire career, so it is fitting that the television director’s big-screen directorial debut is a biopic of the man he calls Nicky, writes Jenni Frazer.

One Life, the story of Winton’s rescue of 669 children, mostly Jewish, from 1939 Czechoslovakia, will be a gala feature at the London Film Festival next month and go on general release on 1 January.

Hawes, who began his career in factual TV programming, reveals that his “second ever job” at the BBC was as a trainee researcher on That’s Life, the consumer programme

which e ectively introduced Winton to the British public.

In a now famous episode, presenter Esther Rantzen gathered a studio audience of those who were among the kinder (children) saved by Winton and his colleagues.

Winton, seated in the front row and unaware of what was about to happen, began to cry when ‘his children’ stood up and applauded him. Behind them sat the children’s own families, all of whom owed their existence to Winton.

Hawes recalls: “I was trained, inspired and put in my place by Dame Esther, with whom I now have a vibrant text relationship, many years

later.” He has watched the clip from That’s Life many times on social media “with huge a ection and emotion”.

When he was invited to direct One Life, he was sent a script — by Lucinda Coxon and Nick Drake — and the link to the That’s Life episode. In the months since, he has studied

everything he could lay his hands on about Winton, then a young British stockbroker, and what he did in Prague on the eve of the Nazi invasion of Czechoslovakia.

Hawes was helped in his first big-screen film by his stellar cast. Sir Anthony Hopkins’ craggy features look made for the part of the Winton the public knew in his later years, and Johnny Flynn plays the young man involved in the daring rescue. Helena Bonham Carter plays Babette, Winton’s mother, who worked with him in a tiny London o ce, assembling the paperwork associated with bringing the children to Britain.

Other key roles — such as Martin Blake, who first invited Winton out to Prague in January 1939, to assess the situation of refugee children, or academic Doreen Warriner, already involved in adult rescue work with the British Refugee Committee of Czechoslovakia, and who asked him to form a committee to help the children — are played by Jonathan Pryce and Romola Garai. Samantha Spiro is pitch-perfect as Rantzen.

How di erent is it working in film from his TV work?

“There is the expectation, and the scope,” Hawes says.

“In your head you are constantly thinking of the details and how that’s going to project on to a much bigger visual. So whether it’s the performance pitch, or the framing of how something will play — there’s quite a lot for a director to recalibrate. But in terms of the running of the production and the directing of the cast, it’s largely the same as highend TV, because television has become so ambitious these

days. I think it’s about detail, and pacing and scope”.

In TV, Hawes has worked on the Emmy and Bafta-winning Black Mirror, and Slow Horses, starring Gary Oldman, based on the Mick Herron spy thrillers, whose first season he directed.

Of One Life, he says: “It’s the sort of film people will want to come and see on the big screen, because it’s about the collective experience. It’s important to remind ourselves of the joy of screening, crying, laughing, in a room with several hundred other human beings.”What struck Hawes about Winton, he says, “is that he lived so painfully, for so many years, with a sense of hurt and guilt [about the children he did not manage to save]”. Winton, he believes, “was of that generation of ‘not talking about it’, whether they were fighting or surviving”.

For the 50 years after Winton and his colleagues organised to bring the children into Britain he never spoke about the rescue. Even after his wife Grete found notebooks and albums in the attic, with hundreds of pictures of the children, he was still modest and deprecating.

“It was such an active, onthe-ground operation that Winton inspired and led,” says Hawes. “He did all sorts of other things — he drove an ambulance in the war, he was involved in the reparations programme, he tried to become a pilot but was turned down because of his eyesight and became a trainer of airmen instead. Extraordinary things in one life. That’s not why we called it One Life, but it’s not

an unsuitable re-interpretation of the phrase.”

A key part of the film background was Winton’s daughter, who died suddenly last September, aged 69. She had written his story, If It’s Not Impossible, and was, says Hawes, “thrilled” that One Life was being made and had met members of the cast.

“Nicky would be the first person to underplay what he achieved,” Hawes says. “The key thing is that, but for Nicky saying that ‘We have to do something about the children’ and initiating that whole project, it wasn’t going to happen. What we show is not a hagiography, but a much more measured account, as a history.”

Winton died in 2015, aged 106. He had in fact been born to German Jewish parents, though they converted and he himself was baptised. Does Hawes think his origins had led to his motivation to rescue Jewish children?

“If you were interviewing Nicky now, he’d say ‘I did it because I consider myself a European, a humanitarian, and the impact my heritage had was to make me aware of what was happening in Europe — and of the risks.’”

He adds: “When you make a film that matters as much as this and the days turn into 18-hour days, you keep going. Because it’s a privilege to tell stories and it’s magnificent when you tell a story as important as this one.”

Musk targets legal action against ADL

Elon Musk has threatened to take legal action against the Anti-Defamation League, the US-based antisemitism and extremism campaign group, accusing it of “trying to kill” his digital platform X.

He said the ADL had “falsely accused” both him and the social media site (formerly Twitter) of being antisemitic, causing a substantial drop in its advertising revenue.

In a series of posts on Monday night, Musk said X’s ad revenue in the United States was down 60 percent, a fall he said was “primarily due to pressure on advertisers by the ADL”.

“To clear our platform’s name on the matter of antisemitism, it looks like we have no choice but to file a defamation lawsuit against the Anti-Defamation League … oh the irony!” the billionaire owner of the platform said.

He accused the group of “destroying half the value of the company, so roughly $22bn” and of making “unfounded accusations” which spark controversy and cause advertisers to pause working with X.

“Advertisers avoid controversy, so all that is needed for ADL to crush our US & European ad revenue is to make unfounded accusations. They have much less power in Asia, so our ad revenue there is still strong.

“This ‘controversy’ causes advertisers to ‘pause’, but that pause is permanent until ADL gives the green light, which they will not do without us agreeing to secretly suspend or shadowban any account they don’t like.”

“To be super clear, I’m pro free speech, but against antisemitism of any kind,” Musk added.

In response, the ADL said it does not comment on legal threats, but did comment on a campaign, #BanTheADL, which has circulated recently on X and with which Musk has engaged.

“Such insidious e orts don’t daunt us,” the ADL said. “Instead, they drive us to be unflinching in our commitment to fight hate in all its forms and ensure the safety of Jewish communities and other marginalised groups.”

A number of civil rights and other campaign groups have raised concerns about content on X since Musk completed his takeover of the site last year, with many warning that his support of absolute free speech and the reinstatement of previously suspended accounts would allow more hateful content to spread on the platform.

Following Musk’s takeover, a number of companies withdrew or reduced their advertising on X over their concerns about these issues.

According to research published last month by the Community Security Trust (CST), incidents of anti-Jewish hate online rose by more than a third in the first six months of 2023 – with two thirds of those incidents taking place on X.

Also last month, X launched legal action against the Center for Countering Digital Hate over similar claims that it was driving advertisers away by publishing research about hate speech on the platform.

‘FIVE ISRAELIS GANG RAPED ME’ – BRITON

A 20-year-old woman claims to have been gang-raped by five Israeli men while on holiday in Cyprus, writes Joy Faulk.

The five men, all between the ages of 19 and 20, allegedly took the woman by force from the pool area to her hotel room in Ayia Napa where they proceed to rape her.

Police arrested the five Israelis, from the town of Majd al-Krum, whose detention was extended for a further eight days to allow law enforcement to investigate the circumstances.

“They will be kept in custody in our holding cells in Paralimni,” a police o cer in

Ayia Napa told the Guardian “We take these allegations seriously.”

The woman was described as “highly distressed”.

“The CCTV footage should show whether she was taken against her will, and by force to the room,” the o cer added.

In 2020 in the same city in Cyprus, another British woman accused 12 Israeli men of raping her.

The woman, from Derbyshire, was jailed for six weeks for fabricating the claims but was later released after the Supreme Court overturned her conviction.

The Israeli men returned to Israel and denied any wrongdoing.

Historic gig / Feminist project / Cemetery retreat / News

Israeli tops the bill at Madison Square Gdn Heartfelt art by activist women

A feminist organisation fighting extremism and sexism in the Orthodox community has launched an art project honouring historic Jewish women. Seen: Jewish Women

Illustrate Jewish Women is a project of Chochmat Nashim, in collaboration with Jewish artists Miriam Anzovin, Sefira Lightstone, Micol Rubin Bayer, Yael Harris Resnick, Judy Rubin and Diana Leonie Simon.

Using a range of media, including papercut, illustration, digital art,

silk and acrylic, the project takes on modern and biblical historical female Jewish figures for “your home, sukka, shul or classroom”.

Shoshanna Keats Jaskoll, an American-Israeli who co-founded Chochmat Nashim, told Jewish News it was a “double win” to be able to highlight artists as well as Biblical and modern-day Jewish heroines. The project’s aim was to normalise seeing women as heroines in pictures as “a good and normal thing”.

WRITING RETREAT AT HISTORIC CEMETERY

Willesden Jewish cemetery is running a four-day writers’ retreat in November.

An Orthodox singer-songwriter made history this week as the first Israeli to top the bill at New York City music venue Madison Square Garden.

Ishay Ribo performed to a sell-out crowd of 15,000, following in the footsteps of performers such as Bruce Springsteen, Elvis Presley and the Rolling Stones.

Songs included Lashuv Habaita (‘To Return Home’) and, in honour of the religious date of Chai Elul, the most significant date in the Chasidic calendar, he welcomed

Orthodox entertainer Avraham Fried to sing with him on stage to rapturous applause.

Ribo, 34, is a Sephardic Jew born in Marseille, France. His parents are from Algeria and Morocco and the family moved to the Israeli West Bank settlement of Kfar Adumim when he was eight.

He released his first album in 2014 and commands fans across the religious spectrum. His 2019 album, Elul 5779, features songs from the High Holy Days.

The event at the 150-year old cemetery will be facilitated by Prof Nadia Valman, senior lecturer in English at Queen Mary, University of London. She is also the author of The Jewess in Nineteenth-Century British Literary Culture

The retreat is billed as a beautiful, quiet and warm space, ideal

“whether you are a student finishing a dissertation, writing a funding application or a creative writer”. Writers can book one, two, three or four full days. Miriam Marson, the United Synagogue’s head of heritage, said: “Our beautiful and tranquil space provides the perfect space for contemplation and creativity. The sessions run between 10am and 4pm each day and tickets start at £25.

Judicial battle / Rioters warned / Embassy opens

Strike down this law says attorney-general

Israel’s attorney-general this week called on the Supreme Court to strike down the judicial reform passed in July, which removes judicial oversight over government decisions, writes Jotam Confino.

The “reasonableness law” is an amendment to the Basic Law on the use of the reasonableness clause, which up until now has given the Supreme Court power to overrule government decision and appointments of ministers.

Attorney-general Gali BaharavMiara said the amendment, passed in a 64-0 vote after the entire opposition walked out of Knesset in protest, “locks the gates of the court to every person and group who might be harmed should the government or one of its ministers act toward them in an extremely unreasonable manner.

“The public is therefore being denied an important means for defending itself from arbitrary exercise of power by the government that is not for the public good,”

Later this month, the Supreme

Court will hear a petition against the judicial reform, after which it will make a decision on whether to strike it down or dismiss the petition.

The “reasonableness law” has been widely criticised by opposition lawmakers, the protest movement and former attorneys-general and Supreme Court judges, who all argue it damages Israel’s democracy by removing crucial judicial oversight over the government.

The reasonableness clause was last used by the court in January when it ruled that prime minister Netanyahu’s appointment of Shas party leader Arieh Dery as interior

REFUGEE RIOTERS COULD FACE BEING DEPORTED

Benjamin Netanyahu has said the solution to last weekend’s violent clashes between Eritrean refugees in Tel Aviv is deportation.

and health minister was unreasonable in the “extreme” due to Dery’s criminal past.

Baharav-Miara has been at odds with Netanyahu’s government from the beginning of its term, with several ministers and lawmakers calling her incompetent and demanding she should be fired.

Likud minister David Amsalem called her the “most dangerous person in Israel” and a clear threat to democracy, while Jewish Power lawmaker Zvika Fogel joined the criticism, calling Baharav-Miara an “existential threat to the Jewish people in the State of Israel”.

The Eritrean embassy on Saturday was set to mark the 30th anniversary of the country’s regime, causing widespread anger among Eritrean refugees in Israel.

Eritrean refugees in Israel.

Opponents and supporters of the regime began demonstrating from early morning, with more than 150 people injured and property attacked.

from early morning, with

Netanyahu said massive infiltration of illegal workers from Africa “is a tangible threat to the character and future of the State of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state”. One solution was “expatriation, voluntarily or by other means” of 1,000 supporters of the regime who participated in the disturbances ... “they have no claim to refugee status and would do well to return to their country of origin,” Netanyahu concluded.

regime who participated in status and would do well concluded.

Bahrain embassy opens

Israel foreign minister Eli Cohen inaugurated the country’s new permanent embassy in Bahrain on Monday.

Inaugurated by the then-foreign minister Yair Lapid, the embassy has been operating from a temporary o ce in the Bahrain World Trade Centre since 2021.

Cohen said relations

with Bahrain were an example of the prosperity and achievements brought by the Abraham Accords.

He added. “In the last year, we managed to double the trade between the countries, but the enormous potential is still far from being exhausted, especially when the distance between the

countries is less than three hours by flight.” Bahrain foreign minister Abdullatif Al Zayani said the inauguration signified “shared commitment to security and prosperity for people of our region”, and reiterated the importance of the two-state solution for the conflict betweeen Israel and Palestine.

US urges Yad Vashem autonomy

American o cials charged with combating antisemitism and Holocaust denial this week called on Israel to sustain the independence of Yad Vashem amid reports its chair could be fired.

Public statements by Ellen Germain, the State Department’s special envoy on Holocaust issues, and Deborah Lipstadt, the State Department’s special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, represent an unusual intervention in Israeli governance.

They come as the Biden administration has expressed unease about the recent leadership of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Israeli media reported last week that Netanyahu’s government is

planning on firing Dani Dayan, the incumbent chairman of Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust memorial museum and research institute.

Dayan was appointed under the previous government and does not come from Netanyahu’s political party. Yoav Kisch, Netanyahu’s education minister, has acknowledged his unhappiness with Dayan’s performance, but has so far denied plans to fire him.

party. Yoav Kisch, Netanyahu’s edu-

“The US values the crucial work of @YadVashem & its director’s leadership as we work together on Holocaust education, remembrance & research,”

Germain said on Saturday on X, formerly known as Twitter. Germain’s job, created more than 20 years ago to encourage compliance with Holocaust compensation, has transitioned in recent years into combating Holocaust denial. “Maintaining the independence of such institutions around the world is key as we face e orts to deny the facts of the Holocaust.”

Lipstadt, a noted Holocaust historian, quoted Germain’s tweet on Sunday. “My research and advocacy about the Holocaust dates back to the 1980s. Yad Vashem’s painstaking and invaluable research on the Shoah is in

no small part due to its professionalism and independence.”

Dayan has drawn support from the Holocaust scholarship community.

Yad Vashem Holocaust History Museum

attempt to seek political control over Yad Vashem is a clear threat to the memory of six million victims... and a challenge to the legitimacy of an institution which enjoys tremendous and well-deserved prestige worldwide.”

MAN, 98, ON NAZI CHARGES PORTUGUESE CITIZENSHIP RISE

A 98-year-old German man accused of working as a guard at a Nazi concentration camp is being charged with 3,300 counts of accessory to murder.

Prosecutors in the town of Giessen, north of Frankfurt, are accusing the man of having

“supported the cruel and malicious killing of thousands of prisoners as a member of the SS” at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp near Berlin between July 1943 and February 1945, according to the Associated Press. Prosecutors did not release

the suspect’s name but a psychiatric report conducted on him last year determined he is at least partially fit to stand trial, the AP reported. Because he was under 21 at the time, the suspect is being charged under juvenile criminal law at Hanau Regional Court.

The number of Israelis seeking a Portuguese passport through a 2015 law passed

Hunter

for the descendants of Jews expelled during the Inquisition reached 20,975 in 2022, according to statistics from the Portuguese Immigration and Border Service.

That exceeded the 18,591 applicants from Brazil, whose population is more than 20

times larger than Israel’s and has long-standing cultural ties to Portugal, including a shared language. Israelis were also the largest group in 2021, when 21,263 people applied.

The surge in Israeli applicants began after Portugal passed its 2015 “law of return”.

The first Jew to serve

A lawyer who is now president of the Association of Jewish Communities of Lower Saxony, has spoken of the “big” decision he made in becoming the first Jew since the Second World War to join the German armed forces.

Michael Fürst, who signed up to the German military – the Bundeswehr – in 1966 admitted making the controversial move even though two of his grandparents had perished in concentration camps.

Speaking to BBC World Service’s Heart and Soul programme, he said: “It was a big thing to decide, whether you were more German or more Jewish. I decided to be German and Jew.”

Fürst said he only once encountered antisemitism in the military, from a commanding

o cer, whose remarks he reported to his captain. He recalled the captain telling him: “I’m glad you’ve come to see me, Fürst. I wanted to speak to you. I am an antisemite. My parents were sent during the Nazi time to the east of Germany, to make their new life there. And all the problems we had in that period came from the worldwide Jews.” Now aged 76, Fürst said

his decision to join the army shocked friends, some of whom called him the “schmuck from Hanover”. He was among a number of Jews of a similar age to join the Bundeswehr.

Anne, 36, converted to Judaism as a teenager and attended a Jewish high school in Germany. She also spoke of her determination to join the German army, where she still serves.

“The Bundeswehr is an armed force that exists to defend values we share as a society – protecting human rights, protecting the constitution, based on a free and democratic order,” she told the BBC.

Johannes, a 24-year-old technician in the air force, also said. “There’s a lot of crossover between Jewish teachings and the values of the Bundeswehr,” he argues. “For me, being Jewish is very compatible with being a soldier.”  www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/ w3ct4pjv

CHANNELING HISTORY

A worker is pictured at the site of a an ancient channel installation, in use around 2,800 years ago. The discovery – unveiled this week by Israel’s Antiquities Authority – dates back to the First Temple period, in the City of David National Park in Jerusalem.

A SUMMER TASTE OF JEWISH HERITAGE

Around 170 young Jewish boys and girls from Europe, Africa and Asia gathered in Warsaw for a summer camp at Hilton Hotel, marking the first such camp since the Holocaust.

The camp was organised by the Yael Foundation, which advances Jewish education worldwide by strengthening youth connection to

their Jewish identity and tradition. Participants included Jews from Ukraine, who had travelled over 30 hours to get to the Polish capital.

This year marks the camp’s third year in a row, with attendance doubling each year. The Yael Foundation said that for some children, like those from remote locations

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such as Morocco and Georgia, it was their first interaction with their Jewish heritage

“Creating unique and fun experiences for children who come from di erent cultures and languages is an amazing challenge.

“I have no doubt the children are returning to their countries full

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of experiences, lessons and friendships that will stay with them the rest of their lives,” said foundation chairman Rabbi Shmuel Azman.

One Jewish father from Ukraine said: “For a year and a half, [my son] has been walking around with downcast eyes. You have restored the light to his eyes.”

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World News / Unilever lawsuit / Athlete banned / Palestinian attack

Unilever wins cold war over ice cream boycott

An American judge has dismissed a lawsuit against food company Unilever tied to Ben and Jerry’s 2021 announcement that it would stop selling ice cream in what it calls “Occupied Palestinian Territory”.

Unilever is the ice cream maker’s parent company. The lawsuit, which was thrown out last week in a New York City federal courtroom, claimed Unilever misled US investors by not immediately sharing the news of the boycott with them.

In December 2022, following a separate, lengthy legal battle, Ben & Jerry’s independent board reached a settlement

with Unilever ensuring the ice cream would continue to be sold across Israel and the West Bank.

The lawsuit was brought last year by a police and fire pension fund in St. Clair Shores, a suburb of Detroit. The plainti s sought damages from the company due to a drop in Unilever stock price after the boycott announcement in July 2021.

“We believe it is inconsistent with our values for Ben & Jerry’s ice cream to be sold in the Occupied Palestinian Territory,” Ben & Jerry’s had said in a statement announcing the boycott.

After the announcement, multiple state pension funds divested their funds from Unilever or decreased their business with the company or with Ben & Jerry’s.

The lawsuit sought damages for people whose shares in the company fell after those divestments and after some Jewish and pro-Israel groups accused Ben & Jerry’s of antisemitism.

But US District Judge Lorna Schofield ruled Unilever was not required to disclose the boycott because it retained operational control over whether to institute the boycott, which it did not do.

IRAN BANS WEIGHTLIFTER Israeli killed in car ramming

Iran’s weightlifting federation has banned one of its athletes for life after he shook hands and posed for a picture with an Israeli athlete at an international competition in Poland.

Mostafa Rajaei finished second in his category at the 2023 World Master Weightlifting Championships last week.

Rajaei, standing on the podium wrapped in an Iranian flag, shook hands and took a picture with Israeli Maksim Svirsky, who finished third.

“The Weightlifting Federation bans Mostafa Rajaei for life from entering all sports facilities in the country and dismisses the head of the delegation for the competi-

tion, Hamid Salehinia,” it said in a statement, according to Agence France-Presse.

Iran, whose leaders regularly call for violence against Israel, forbids its athletes from competing against Israelis The country’s athletes have forfeited or cited medical complications in e orts to avoid facing Israeli athletes.

One Israeli was killed and several others were injured in a car ramming attack at a West Bank checkpoint last Thursday morning.

According to Israeli authorities, a 41-yearold Palestinian rammed his truck into a group of Israeli soldiers in the Israeli side of the Maccabim Checkpoint leading into the West Bank. One of the injured was an Arab-Israeli man selling bagels at the checkpoint.

An IDF o cial said the suspect had a working permit to Israel and had been in the city of

Gedera earlier that day. When he saw the Israeli soldiers at the bus stop near the checkpoint, he did a U-turn and rammed into the group. He managed to escape but was “neutralised” by security forces about four miles away.

Commander of the Central Police District, Superintendent Avi Biton, said there was “no doubt” the car ramming was a terror attack.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said Israel would not accept a situation in which it had to bury terror victims every few days.

Schools research is prep for future

This week’s report from the Institute for Jewish Policy Research (JPR) on the growing number of Jewish children attending, and projected to attend, Jewish schools in this country (40,000 by 2025) sheds fresh and fascinating light on the motives driving parents’ choices.

The importance of fostering connections to Jewish cultural and religious roots is beyond measure. Our schools are instrumental in this regard. However, the effectiveness of these schools is not solely determined by their ability to instil values; academic excellence is equally crucial.

Jewish schools have earned a reputation for high academic standards, as evidenced by last month’s exceptional GCSE and A-level results.

A combination of committed teachers, diligent students and a robust emphasis on learning has consistently yielded topnotch performances across all subjects.

As parents seek to cultivate strong values and community connections, our faith schools play an integral role in shaping the future. JPR’s call for more research investment in understanding parental choices and projecting future demand for faith-based education is a crucial one.

By acknowledging the motivations behind these choices of school and investing in further research, we can better prepare to meet the evolving educational needs of our community.

Treasured memories of Hove

About 25 years ago, I spent one year as locum rav at Hove shul. In those times, they retained regular attendance by Chazan Kalman Faussner and the big cheeses were Dr Sless and Mr Perl, all of whom are long since gone to a better world. I have fond recollections of the late Michael Brummer, who led mincha on Friday afternoons.

The article by Alex Brummer (31 August) brought back many happy memories. Holland Road synagogue was built with exquisite taste and the interior is a grand style. Not in the Byzantine style of Middle

EDUCATION PLUS

The Institute for Jewish Policy Research reports that Jewish school enrolment is projected to reach 40,000 by 2025, with Charedi students contributing significantly, is fascinating and insightful. It underscores the resilience and vibrancy of our community’s commitment to education, exemplifying the strength and unity of our shared journey.

RHYME AND REASON

I’ve read all the honey cake recipes in the Jewish pres,s but last time I tried to make one I landed in a big mess. Besides, the ingredients cost me an arm and a leg and I can buy a choice of cakes off the peg. Walking down to my local shops I see every kind of cake – why would I spend hours in the kitchen when I can’t even bake?

My friends say they love my food. It’s so very tasty and I use lots of vegetables cooked in shortcrust pastry.

My soups are quite good and I have (usually) a big stock in my freezer but when my family visits, there’s not even a pizza! We are blessed in this country with Bramley apples to make a pie and I do make gefilte fish for Yomtov. Some I cook, some I fry.

Street, it nonetheless has a unique decorative presentation and a warm atmosphere. I was offered a full-time position as their rabbi but declined.

Even if the number of worshippers has dropped, if a minyan still remains then it would undoubtedly be a tragedy for the town to lose such a historic Jewish edifice, which will probably be turned into another apartment block, making some developer a fat profit.

BRAVO TO THE PROSECUTORS

It is refreshing to see the old adage about there being no sell-by date when it comes to justice still holds sway.

We learn this week a 98-year-old German man accused of working as a guard at Sachsenhausen is being charged with 3,300 counts of accessory to murder between July 1943 and February 1945. Indeed: 3,300 murders to be accounted for.

Bravo to the prosecutors, who are accusing the man of having “supported the cruel

and malicious killing of prisoners” as a member of the camp’s SS guard detail. Prosecutors did not release the suspect’s name. I suppose I am old-fashioned enough to ask why not, but because he was younger than 21 at the time of the crimes, he is being charged under juvenile criminal law. The law prevails, but some of us may think the fact this guard was so young makes it worse, not better.

TRANS ‘RIGHTS’? WRONG

The excesses of the trans activist movement are clear for all to see. On a weekly –and sometimes daily – basis women’s sporting records are being broken, not by women but by men!

equally bonkers that Orthodox Judaism doesn’t even accept homosexuality. The rest of the world has moved so far from the dark ages when same-sex attracted people were shunned.

Shabbat comes in Friday night 7.17pm Shabbat goes out Saturday night 8.17pm Sedra: Nitzavim + Vayeilech

May we all have a good year ahead and enjoy the festivities that are provided by our shul with all its activities.

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Trans women are males, and if they’ve gone through male puberty it’s completely bonkers to ask females to compete against them.

What has all this got to do with Judaism? Well, it is

Great if Orthodox Judaism thinks people can’t change sex, because they can’t. But won’t it accept that some people aren’t heterosexual?

THE JACOB FOUNDATION

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.

‘So, you think maybe the next set shouldn’t be made from RAAC?’

Misguided Melanie can’t see the danger and dishonesty

are “merely correcting” this. She goes on to besmirch the protesters as a bunch of elites who are themselves anti-democratic because the government was elected. Here is the truth.

Writing in recently the Jewish Chronicle and The Times, Melanie Phillips argued that it was the Israeli democratic protest movement, not the benighted government, that’s a danger to democracy.

Not only is the opposite true, but it is critical that UK Jews and other communities in the diaspora understand this and make their positions known, because Israel is on the precipice.

As someone who lived in Britain for years, I understand the reluctance of many in the Jewish community to engage with Israeli politics for fear of stirring up charges of dual loyalties and being seen as anti-Israel. Ms Phillips is telling her readers that what we have is business as usual. But nothing could be further from the truth.

As with other enablers of the government, the centre of her argument is that the Supreme Court over the years has amassed too much power and the government’s reforms

According to the Israel Democracy Institute, in the 75 years of Israel’s existence, the court challenged laws 22 times. As chairman of the Foreign Press Association, I was involved in several appeals to the Supreme Court to overrule the authorities on various matters involving access; it generally proved a rubber stamp for the government’s actions.

Whereas Benjamin Netanyahu has argued Israel’s judges are “self-selected”, in truth judges are appointed by a committee that includes three sitting judges, two members of the Bar Association and five politicians from the coalition and opposition. In a country with no other meaningful checks against government power, it is critical the government not control the court.

Beyond the notion that democracy is more than just a tyranny of the majority, the election was essentially a tie, in which the current coalition parties received just over 49 percent.

An eighth of the opposition vote was lost

dues to splits – a fluke. And Netanyahu hid his intentions to carry out the “reform”. Moreover, the so-called reform goes far beyond government control over judicial appointments and a globally unique “override clause” that would enable a simple majority of parliament to overrule any Supreme Court judgment.

There is a breathtaking pipeline of 225 laws that have entered the legislative process or are planned that, if passed, would verily make Israel into a thoroughly authoritarian theocracy. These laws follow the authoritarian road map: control over the judiciary, control over public and private media, politicising the civil service and law enforcement, erosion of basic freedoms of speech, religion and assembly, even taking e ective control over the election process without any judicial or other review. Bills proposed include:

• Enabling legislators – meaning the coalition – to prevent other parties from running in elections without the possibility of judicial review;

• Forbidding investigations of the prime minister (such as the one that ensnared Netanyahu) and repealing from the law

books two of the three criminal o ences he is currently facing in court;

• Transferring powers from regular courts to rabbinical ones;

• Enabling the national security minister to make arbitrary “administrative” arrests;

• Allowing the Shin Bet to monitor teachers to suppress critical thinking;

• Granting strictly-Orthodox Jewish students permanent clearance from the draft.

It is no surprise this onslaught is opposed not just by the “elites” but also by a solid twothirds of the entire population.

The opposition includes almost the entirety of Israel’s (retired) security leadership, the business and tech leadership, the academics, as well as grassroots organisations from all over the country, including Orthodox Jews, Mizrahim and settlers.

Ms Phillips swallows whole the government’s deeply dishonest populist tale that insists on dismissal and ridicule of opponents. Shame on those who would abet such a disgrace to Judaism, even if their ranks have now been joined by a well-known British journalist.

Israelis coming to UK will be a boon for our communities

More and more Israelis say they are considering relocation due to the country’s turmoil. Previous data suggest thousands of them will arrive in the UK soon enough.

According to the Israel Democracy Institute, 58 percent of all Israelis now think Israel is in a state of emergency, “on the verge of economic, social and political collapse”. Among those who voted for opposition parties in the 2022 election, that proportion is 87 percent.

Moreover, just 11 percent of opposition party voters are optimistic about the future of democratic rule in Israel, and only two percent think that the ‘reasonableness law’ – which will restrict the Israeli Supreme Court’s ability to place limits on government appointments and plans – is good for Israeli democracy.

Perhaps even more significantly, 59 percent of opposition party voters think the judicial reforms will cause significant damage to

their own financial circumstances, and only 4 percent of them think it will cause no harm.

But we should note that these data are based on people’s perceptions, not on an objective assessment of reality. And there are often vast di erences between perception and reality –just because people think something, doesn’t necessarily make it true.

So the recent Israeli Channel 13 poll, which found that 28 percent of Israelis are considering leaving the country, should be taken with a pinch of salt – ‘considering leaving’ is very di erent from actually leaving. Yet despite this, we should still expect to see more Israelis arriving in the UK over the coming years. There are at least three reasons why.

First, the population of Israel is growing. It has climbed from 3.3 million in 1973 to approaching 9.8 million today. A larger population is likely to generate a larger number of émigrés. We should expect a proportion of them to come to the UK.

The second reason is that the number of Israelis living here has more than doubled over the past 20 years. The 2001 Census found 6,903 people here who recorded Israel as their

country of birth; in 2021, it found 15,239. The UK has attracted Israelis in increasing numbers and, despite the UK’s various political and economic challenges, there is little reason to think this will change in the near future.

Finally, while hard data aren’t yet available, there is increasing ‘noise’ about emigration. Initiatives are being set up to encourage Israelis to migrate; relocation companies are reporting increases in demand for services; accounts of secular Israelis – and they are almost all secular – are actually leaving in response to their concerns about growing illiberalism in Israel.

That said, the main force driving emigration is almost always economic. And even though Moody’s recently downgraded Israel’s credit outlook, the country still has one of the world’s lowest unemployment rates at around 3.7 percent and a Human Development Index

score of 0.919, the 22nd highest in the world, better than all but eight EU member states and on a par with the US. Given this, nowhere near 28 percent of all Israelis – the equivalent of more than 2.7 million people – will leave Israel in the coming years; the numbers migrating will be a tiny fraction of that. But even a tiny fraction of that number arriving in the UK could soon leave a mark on community life here. And they will arrive, not least because any economic challenges that occur will confirm the fears we see captured in the data above.

So we should be ready to welcome them into our schools, youth movements, community centres and synagogues. If we prepare well, they could be a genuine boon for our community. If we don’t, we’ll not only run into di culties with service demands, but also miss an all-too-valuable opportunity to enhance Jewish life here.

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THE NUMBER OF ISRAELIS LIVING HERE HAS MORE THAN DOUBLED IN 20 YEARS

Israel and Palestine both deserve new leadership

Irecently had the privilege of joining a Labour Friends of Israel delegation on a visit to Israel and Palestine.

Among the parliamentary candidates and local councillors on the delegation was former MP Luciana Berger. It was her first trip to Israel since rejoining Labour, having left the party due to antisemitism under the previous leadership.

Her return shows the progress Labour has made in the battle against antisemitism under Keir Starmer’s firm and e ective leadership.

But the fight against Jew hate in all its ugly forms is ongoing: I was struck during the trip by the disturbing and ignorant responses from predominantly anonymous trolls on social media regarding our delegation and, indeed, our visit to the Yad Vashem memorial. I sincerely hope that such individuals are not a liated with the Labour Party.

Walking through the narrow alleys of the

Old City of Jerusalem, we saw the proximity of Christian, Jewish and Muslim holy sites –including the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Western Wall and Al-Aqsa Mosque – highlighting the intricate tapestry of beliefs, indelible impact of history and the complexities of the conflict in this deeply contested city.

At a refugee camp near Ramallah, we met a group of men in a smoky cafe who interrupted a game of cards to o er their perspectives.

Their daily struggle, living conditions and fear emphasised the urgency of finding a resolution that provides dignity to Palestinians and Israelis alike.

Tragically, their deep anger, lack of trust in the process and in Israel, and disturbing comments gave a sobering reminder as to why there appears little hope of progress.

This lack of optimism and hope was evident when we also met with a Palestinian NGO working with young people. The stalled peace process, the Palestinian Authority’s neglect and lack of vision and the absence of positive role models for the younger generation is creating a truly combustible and a dangerous mix.

Unfortunately, the current security situ-

ation meant we were unable to visit Gaza. However, we did spend time at a kibbutz near the Gaza border. Like the Palestinians we met in Ramallah, its residents expressed deep-seated fear and vulnerability due to their proximity to the conflict zones.

As well as telling us about their constant fear of rocket attacks, they also spoke about their struggle to maintain a semblance of normalcy.

Having served in Iraq during a period of high-tempo rocket attacks, I can empathise with the stress and trauma they experienced. However, the resilience of the kibbutz families, particularly the children, in coping with this psychological strain is truly remarkable.

Between visits we held meetings with Israeli politicians. Our meeting with President Isaac Herzog primarily focused on the current upheaval in Israeli politics, as the Netanyahu government continues to push through judicial reforms that threaten to curtail the important checks and balances provided by the courts.

This attempt by the hard-right to consolidate power not only risks weakening Israel's democratic values, it’s a huge distraction from

the challenges and opportunities the country faces. It has, for instance, already slowed the momentum provided by the Abraham Accords, which Israel’s more moderate, “change government” had been pursuing before Netanyahu’s return to power in January.

But a Labour government under Keir Starmer can play a part too. A balanced approach towards the conflict can help Britain foster an open and honest dialogue between Israel and Palestine, working towards a comprehensive and sustainable solution. We also need a greater emphasis on civic society action. That’s why I welcome Labour’s commitment to drive forward an International Fund for Israeli Palestinian Peace – one modelled on the International Fund for Ireland – to invest in grassroots peace initiatives.

Ultimately, both Israel and Palestine need new leadership. The Palestinians need real democracy and a younger generation of politicians untarnished by the failings of the PA.

Israel needs a revival of the centre-left, including our friends in the Labor party, and an end to the cynical politics of the Netanyahu era.

date.

they

From Iraq to Ireland, a onestate warning from history

Israel is approaching a crossroads in its history. The current government seems determined – either officially or unofficially – to annex all or most of the West Bank.

If that happens, Israel and the West Bank will de facto become one country, at least temporarily.

The only fair and realistic alternative to that one-state outcome is still a two-state solution (ie, an independent Palestinian state existing alongside Israel).

However, implementation of the current Israeli government’s massive settlement expansion plans (and any annexations the government may carry out) will weaken the chances of any future ‘two-state’ solution –and strengthen the Israeli right’s dream of a one-state, ‘Greater Israel’ future.

But there’s a big problem: The track record of past one-state experiments across the world (especially when the two communities involved don’t particularly like each other) is not very encouraging, to say the least.

Our only guide to the future is to see what we can learn from history and how disasters can therefore be avoided.

So, here’s the track record of past onestate experiments that politicians from Israel, the Palestinian community and the world in general would do well to study:

Iraq and Kurdistan

For most of the period 1924 to 1991, the Kurdish part of Iraq was ruled by the Arab part. The Kurds wanted a ‘two-state’ solution – but the British, and then Iraq’s Arab rulers, did not like the idea. Their insistence on a ‘one-state’ solution led to more than half a dozen terrible wars and more than 200,000 deaths. Since 1991 there has been a form of ‘two-state’ solution – and a very substantially reduced level of violence.

North and South Sudan

In the mid-1950s, the British and Egyptian governments imposed a ‘one-state’ constitution on the whole of Sudan against the wishes of the (mainly non-Arab non-Muslim) people in the south of the country. That ‘one-state’ experiment led to intense north/south conflict and the deaths of 2.5 million people. Finally in 2011 a ‘two-state’ solution was agreed.

Pakistan and Bangladesh

In 1947, at the end of British rule in India, Britain’s Indian empire broke into two parts – India and Pakistan. But Pakistan consisted of two totally di erent territories (East and West Pakistan, located on either side of India itself). It was a disastrous ‘one-state’ experiment. West Pakistan dominated East Pakistan – and the latter soon wanted independence (ie, a ‘two-state’ solution). West Pakistan refused – and the ensuing terrible

oppression and the struggle for independence cost up to a million lives. Finally, in 1972, in a ‘two-state’ solution, East Pakistan became Bangladesh.

Serbia/Kosovo

Serbia (much of the time as part of Yugoslavia) ruled Kosovo in a fraught ‘one-state’ ‘experiment’ for most of the period 19121999. During it, in around 50 massacres, tens of thousands of Kosovars and Serbs died. Since 2008, Kosovo has been independent, but Serbia does not yet recognise Kosovo’s

independence. But the ‘two-state’ solution has delivered relative peace.

Ireland/Britain

Over most of the past 800 years, all or much of Ireland has been ultimately ruled by England/Britain. Over those centuries, around 800,000 people have died as a result of intercommunal violence and war and a further 1.2 million have died as a consequence of deliberate British neglect. Largely through bribery, Great Britain ‘imposed’ a fraught ‘one-state’ experiment on Ireland between 1801 and 1922 (during which time Ireland was part of the UK) – an experiment which ended with the 1919-1921 Irish War of Independence that ultimately produced a ‘two-state’ solution (ie, the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland).

Cyprus

Ever since the Ottoman (Turkish) Empire conquered Cyprus in 1570, the island has been bi-cultural, with a Greek-speaking Christian population and a Turkish-speaking Muslim one. When the British withdrew from Cyprus in 1960, they insisted, against Turkish Cypriot wishes, on a ‘one-state’ system. It was a disaster. Intercommunal conflict caused some 3,000 deaths. Ultimately (courtesy of a mainland Greek attempt to annex Cyprus and two subsequent Turkish invasions), Cyprus split into two states – a southern Greek Cypriot one and a northern Turkish Cypriot one. At present only Turkey recognises the latter, and yet that Cypriot ‘two-state’ outcome has brought relative peace, if not universal political contentment

Syria

What is now Syria used to consist of a large Sunni-Muslim-dominated state and a smaller Alawite-Muslim-dominated one (a Syrian ‘two-state’ solution). The Sunnis had always

regarded the Alawites as heretics. But the French colonial administration of the region ultimately decided to impose a ‘one-state’ system (ie, a single unified Syrian state). It led to Sunni/Alawite competition for power (a rivalry that the Alawites ultimately won) and a subsequent series of Sunni uprisings and past (and still ongoing) governmental oppressions/slaughter which have cost more than half a million lives. The 78-year-old Syrian ‘one-state’ ‘experiment’ has been a blood-soaked disaster.

The Israeli right’s vision of a de facto ‘one-state’ ‘solution’ to the Israel/Palestine situation is, as it is stated in the current Israeli government’s coalition agreement, an arrangement in which “sovereignty will be applied to Judea and Samaria [ie, the West

‘two-state’ arrangement in which Palestinians and Israelis both have fully independent sovereign states and where the likelihood of civil conflict is minimised and the prospect of prosperity, justice and peace is maximised.

The chances of a genuine ‘two-state’ solution coming about under the current Israeli government are sadly zero.

However, the huge pro-democracy demonstrations that have taken place in Israel have shown that large numbers of Israelis reject the extreme right-wing ethos of the current administration.

The current Israeli government won’t last forever – and when it finally expires, progressive Israelis, progressive Palestinians and the international community have to be ready to revive immediately negotiations for a ‘twostate’ solution.

Indeed, that is the only way forward that can ultimately produce justice, national selfdetermination, democracy, stability, peace and prosperity for both Israelis and Palestinians.

But to help achieve it, the diaspora must do all we can to oppose annexation and settlement expansion and support dialogue, democracy and a ‘two-state’ future.

Bank]” because, in the view of the government, “the Jewish people have the exclusive and indisputable right to all parts of the Land of Israel”.

It would establish a de facto single state between the River Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea, in which most Palestinians would be denied citizenship and voting rights in that de facto state.

For those reasons, and also as demonstrated by the historical parallels outlined above, it would neither be just nor sustainable. It (or any camouflaged equivalent) would almost certainly end in tears.

At the end of the day, the solution least likely to end disastrously is still a genuine

A ‘two-state’ solution is still possiblebecause most Israeli settlers in the West Bank live near the ‘Green Line’ border between the Occupied Territory and Israel itself (so with land swaps, in the event of a ‘two-state’ deal, it may not be necessary to evacuate most settlers).

What’s more, apart from the current government coalition, most Israeli and Palestinian political parties (significantly, including Hamas) do still support the ‘twostate’ concept.

But without a ‘two-state’ vision, the medium-to-long-term future for Israelis and Palestinians is likely to be bleak.

The historical ‘one-state’ parallels, outlined above, give a daunting indication of what could lie ahead if the ‘two-state’ dream is allowed to die.

THE CHANCES OF A SOLUTION UNDER THE CURRENT ISRAELI COALITION GOVERNMENT? ZERO

THE RECORD OF PAST EXPERIMENTS ACROSS THE WORLD IS CLEARLY NOT VERY ENCOURAGING

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I Charity number: 1101329 I

Jewish heritage – but for others to showcase

Something very peculiar is going on in the world vis-a-vis Jews, although it’s not a new phenomenon. It is a general feeling that – to use a much-derided term – cultural appropriation is not just acceptable in relation to Jews, but mandatory, as in “why are you Jews making a fuss about being Jews”?

In the past week, apart from the now infamous Jewish nose debate surrounding Bradley Cooper’s impersonation of Leonard Bernstein, in his biopic of the conductor/ musician, there have been two very odd manifestations. First was the announcement, by a public university in Switzerland, that in seeking to appoint a Jewish studies professor, the only applicants to be considered had to be... Catholic.

I nearly wrote apoplectic rather than applicant. Yes, indeed, the job spec from the University of Lucerne’s faculty of theology states clearly that any future Jewish studies and theology professor must be Catholic

This is apparently because the faculty is, separately, directly a liated with the Catholic Church, and so anyone who is not of that religion cannot teach “doctrinal” courses.

These include philosophy, liturgy, scripture, Catholic theology and fundamental theology. And Judaism, it seems.

No one seemed to think it was anything but normal for a public university to be advertising for a Jewish studies professor who must absolutely not be Jewish. To be fair, he or she must not be Protestant, either – equal opportunities discrimination there.

Now, it may well be that someone who is Catholic might be better qualified academically than a Jewish candidate for this particular post. But, come on, University of Lucerne. Make it an even playing field. Allow anyone of any religion to apply.

Other universities in Switzerland seem to have no problem.

Over in Egypt, I learn, is yet another Jew-free zone. This time it’s an even more egregious situation: the re-dedication and opening of Cairo’s famed Ben Ezra syna-

gogue, restored to glory in a project spearheaded by Egypt’s Tourism and Antiquities Ministry.

And guess what? Although the great and the good, including the Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly, attended the ceremony marking the completion of the year-long restoration work – there were NO JEWS o cially present.

It is certainly true that in the wake of the Six-Day and Yom Kippur Wars, when many Jews fled Egypt for fear of their lives, there has only been a tiny Jewish community in the country. After the 2019 death of its long-time leader, Marcelle Haroun, aged 93, there were said to be only five Jews known to be living in Cairo. Agence-France Presse reported in 2017 that there were also 12 Jews living in Alexandria.

So home-grown Jews are definitely thin on the ground. But there have been endless foreign Jewish visitors to Egypt, often under American Jewish auspices, including those with Egyptian heritage seeking information about their ancestors.

What was to prevent the government

inviting someone from abroad to represent world Jewry at the Ben Ezra reopening?

After all, the Ben Ezra is not just any old synagogue. It is, in fact, an extremely old synagogue, having been built an estimated 1,200 years ago. It is also the site of the famous Cairo Geniza, the primary source for writing the history of Middle East Jewish communities.

And it’s not like the Egyptians don’t recognise its importance. The Tourism and Antiquities Minister Ahmed Issa declared: “The synagogue is one of the most important and oldest Jewish temples in Egypt, housing numerous valuable books about the customs, traditions and social life of the Jewish community in Egypt.”

The problem, I think, is that the Egyptians regard the Ben Ezra as part of Egypt’s cultural heritage, rather than its Jewish heritage.

It will never be a working synagogue again, I suppose – but as one cross Cairo Jew told the Israeli Kan broadcaster: “This is like restoring a great mosque and having no Muslims present.”

Hasmonean Primary School A Proud Past, A Bright Future

Calling all prospective Nursery & Reception families... on Wednesday 11th October 2023, we will be holding an open morning at 10am.

You will have personal tours of our wonderful school, get to meet our Head Teacher and see the school in action.

To attend, please email admin@ hasmonean-pri.barnet.sch.uk

Some mid-year places available in KS1 and Nursery.

Please enquire with the office on 0208 202 7704

1CARRY ON CAMPING

Camp Gan Israel for boys in the UK welcomed an unprecedented number of campers from across the world, including Europe, Ukraine, Israel and the USA, to England’s Peak District. The camp was directed by rabbi Shmuli Brown of Chabad of Liverpool Universities and spiritual director rabbi Folly Dubov of New York (originally from Wimbledon). Over 165 boys and staff enjoyed a funpacked summer of learning and activities.

2 SCOUTS’ HONOUR

The 20th Finchley Scout Group wrapped up a summer of activities and adventures, from constructing miniature tent villages to mastering culinary skills. The Scouts crafted rafts, navigated in kata canoes, stacked crates, enjoyed archery and conquered the heights through climbing and abseiling. Scout leader Debra Morris said: “This summer odyssey stands as testament to the power of camaraderie, self-discovery, and the thrill of embracing new challenges.”

3 MOISHE HOUSE CONFERENCE

UK residents attended the annual Moishe House Global Resident Conference, GlobalCon in Belgrade. The flagship events link Moishe House community builders from across the world, with attendees from Europe, Israel, Australasia, Asia and the former Soviet Union. This year’s gathering united 104 residents and 15 staff, including Moishe House CEO and founder David Cygielman, who said: “Moishe House’s mission is to connect young Jewish adults from around the world and empowering them to create impactful change within their communities.”

4 YOUNG LEADER’S GIANT LEAP

Abigail Saltman has raised more than £3k in a 10,000ft skydive for Jewish Care’s new development in Redbridge. Saltman, 18, is a senior leader in Jewish Care’s MIKE youth leadership programme which motivates, inspires and educates young people in Redbridge and is celebrating its 40th year. A MIKE programme for Stanmore/Bushey at Sandringham campus is coming soon.

5

DOUBLE INDUCTION AT MOSAIC

Mosaic Liberal synagogue (MLS) held a delayed service on Sunday 20 August to formally induct both Rabbi Rachel Benjamin and Rabbi Anna Wolfson to serve the congregation. Rabbi Rachel joined MLS in 2019, before the community moved into the Stanmore Hill building that it now shares with Mosaic Reform and Mosaic Masorti synagogues, making up the Mosaic Jewish Community, a unique association of progressive synagogues in north-west London. Rabbi Dr Charles H Middleburgh, dean and director of Jewish Studies at Leo Baeck College, carried out Rabbi Rachel’s induction, alongside that of Rabbi Anna, appointed to serve both Mosaic Liberal synagogue and Mosaic Jewish Community as development rabbi.

6 FINCHLEY -STRASSE BY FOOT

Association of Jewish Refugees (AJR) members enjoyed a guided tour of Finchleystrasse – the Jewish refugee shops, restaurants and other institutions that flourished in the post-war years in the area between Swiss Cottage and Arkwright Road in north London. The group, AJR Next Generations, enables members of the community to come together and share experiences.

Scrumptious sweet and milky recipes New Year gi s

Angie Jacobs meets two chefs sharing their family’s Mediterranean cooking in new recipe books

Call me old-fashioned (and my kids often do), but I like my recipes in a book. Over the summer, joyously, I got my hands on two new Mediterranean-style cookery books and had the pleasure of trying out many flavour-filled dishes on my family.

Samantha Ferraro, author of One-Pot Mediterranean, was born in New York to a Sephardi mother and an Ashkenazi father. When she was 14, she and her mum moved to Hawaii, which had only a small Jewish population. It was not until she met her Californian husband Joe that she moved back to the Pacific Northwest and wanted to reconnect with her Jewish roots. She did this by asking her family for recipes and making all the things she’d missed, like her mum’s latkes.

Chatting to me over Zoom from Washington, where she now lives, she beamed as she reminisced: “Oldschool moms, they never measure. They say ‘add a few eggs and some matzah meal and you just feel it.’” Nowadays she takes inspiration from her mum’s recipes and has fun with them, adding dried fruit and lemon to grape leaves previously only stu ed with meat and rice.

Samantha, who started her website, The Little Ferraro Kitchen, in 2011 and published her first book, Weeknight Mediterranean Kitchen in 2018, now also does live events and classes. It is, she says, all about getting excited about new flavours. Indeed, the recipes are approachable, but use really vibrant spices and fresh herbs. “It’s one-pot, but it’s not throw it all in and walk away. We’re building flavour, you want to sear the chicken and get that flavour and then add the rice and toast it into the fat.”

I had to come clean; I confessed that I cut all the corners and throw everything into a tinfoil tray and stick it in the oven. She smiled kindly and said: “I write recipes that have measurements, but do what feels right to you. If you’re a

comfortable cook and know how to play around with it, go for it. My goal is to get you excited about cooking something di erent.”

For once I’ve had no complaints from my family (not about food, anyway). They demolished the smoky vegetable bean stew with ‘broiled’ halloumi and I’ve got chicken marinating for the Greek chicken and olives recipe tonight.

Limor Chen, artist, cook and owner of Israeli restaurants Delamina and Delamina East in London, grew up in Tel Aviv. Her beautiful book My Tel Aviv Table: A Journey of Flavours and Aromas from a Sun-Soaked City intersperses colourful, mouth-watering recipes with chapters on her childhood and life.

Before our chat I listened to the Tel Aviv playlist on the Delamina website to get in the mood.

Speaking from her London

Delamina. “Flavours and aromas take you back to your childhood and memories. Those recipes are more than just food; it’s who you are,” she explains.

home, Limor reinforced the feeling

home, Limor reinforced the feeling for me: “I miss Tel Aviv… the sea, the spirit, the vibe, there is something very special about Tel Aviv.” And of course the food: “I think the food in Tel Aviv is one of the most interesting culinary experiences people can have.”

With two successful restaurants where she is very involved in the food development, Limor’s experience of compiling her recipe book was nostalgic and thoughtprovoking for her. She shared with me how interesting it was to go back to her roots and how it was more than just taking recipes from

Not only does her book have stunning photos of Tel Aviv, but the food shots are so inviting and tempting that one wants to get straight in the kitchen and try out the recipes. Indeed, the first recipe, shakshuka, is one we all know and love. Limor oozes with passion for this dish, saying: “Shakshuka is my go-to brunch dish. It’s full of flavour and made with my favourite vegetables: tomatoes and red peppers. It’s hearty but not heavy, velvety with a touch of heat and perfect to scoop with pita bread. It always transports me to Tel Aviv.”

Among the other recipes are fig and goats cheese salad, cod chermoula with Israeli couscous, and a legendary family recipe for vine leaves stu ed with venison and fruit.

Like Samantha, Limor was also very influenced by her family’s cooking. She talks about her father’s big flavours, throwing his passion into his dishes, and her mother’s avant-garde approach to healthy eating – grilled food, lots of vegetables, less frying and using olive oil instead of butter. Her grandma’s kitchen was also special.

I told her that I recently made my family her whole sea bass with herbs, lime and orange zest and that I have my eye on a Persian stew next. She said she also tries out her recipes on her family. I would imagine they get a better deal.

• One-Pot Mediterranean by Samantha Ferraro is published by Page Street Publishing, at £14.99

• My Tel Aviv Table by Limor Chen is published by Nourish and can be pre-ordered, £28 (available from 14 November)

Set a sweet standard for Rosh Hashanah cooking this year

Talmudic sources draw a connection between food and delight, and implore us to eat the finest meals within our means. Historically, when fish and meat were costly luxuries, these became the standards for a fine meal, reserved for days of celebration. Many have assumed the custom of eating a heavily meaty diet on Shabbat and Yom Tov but, in 2023, when meat and fish are abundantly available, and good cheese costs almost as much as a chicken, a dairy meal can be every bit as delightful and luxurious. Here are some delicious honey-infused dairy dishes drawing inspiration from traditional Rosh Hashanah dishes whose history can be traced back centuries

Spiced Honey Halloumi ‘Teiglach’

Serves 6-8

Prep time: 5 mins | Cooking time: 10-15 mins

Teiglach is a traditional Ashkenazi sweet treat served at Rosh Hashanah, Succot, Simchat Torah and Purim. True teiglach are morsels of fried dough coated in a sticky-sweet syrup and piled together into mounds. The tradition of serving fried dough in honey dates back over 2,000 years and has been seen in the repertoires of Jews across Europe throughout the centuries, with 12th century rabbis referencing a similar dish, vermilish, served at the start of a Shabbat meal. This recipe swaps out the dough, pairing sweet, spiced honey syrup with mounds of salty, fried halloumi nuggets.

Ingredients

400g-500g halloumi, cut into bite-size chunks and patted dry

7 tbsp honey

1 tsp chilli, finely chopped (optional)

¼ tsp ground ginger

Light olive oil, for frying

Rocket (optional, for serving)

1. Cut halloumi into small chunks (about 15-20mm) and pat dry.

2. Heat a little oil over a high heat, then add the halloumi chunks in batches of around 10 at a time, turning each one over carefully as they brown on the bottom. Once both sides are goldenbrown, remove and set aside.

3. Repeat until all batches of halloumi are cooked.

4. Reduce the heat to medium, then add honey, ground ginger and finely chopped

chilli to the empty pan, mixing together to create a runny syrup (this will happen quickly).

5. Add all the fried halloumi pieces back to the pan and stir to coat in syrup.

6. Remove from heat and allow to cool a little, then serve in small mounds. For colour, freshness and a subtle peppery note, serve on a bed of rocket. Rocket will wilt under intense heat, so make sure your halloumi ‘teiglach’ have cooled enough before serving.

Fish

Ingredients

Fish

2-3 tbsp honey

Juice of 2 limes

1 tbsp oil

1 tbsp dried oregano

Makes 10-12 tacos

Prep time: approx 30 mins total | Cooking time: approx 2 hours total

Eating sweet and sour fish for Rosh Hashanah is an Italian-Jewish custom. PesceAll’Ebraicais normally made with fillets of white fish cooked in oil, honey or sugar and vinegar, and flavoured with raisins or sultanas and toasted pine nuts. This version is seasoned with South American flavours of agave and lime, bringing sugar and vinegar into the dish with pickled onions, and throwing juicy sultanas and tart green apples through a crunchy red cabbage slaw. All this is stu ed into tacos for the perfect mouthful. Serve alongside sweet potato and squash chips with oregano to include one of the simanim (traditional symbolic foods) and to add a further hit of Mexican flavour.

1. Preheat oven to 200°C / 180°C fan (Gas Mark 6 / 400°F)

2. In a bowl mix honey, lime juice, oil and oregano and season to taste with salt and pepper.

3. Place the cod fillets into an ovenproof dish, then pour over the honey-lime mixture, thoroughly coating both sides of the fish.

4. Bake for 10-12 minutes until cooked through and ready to gently flake into tacos.

5. You may wish to pop the fish under a grill for a couple of minutes (keeping a close eye on it) to char the top a little.

Chips

1. Preheat oven to 200°C / 180°C fan (Gas Mark 6 / 400°F)

2. Mix all ingredients together in an ovenproof dish and roast for 45 mins – 1 hour, shaking halfway, until cooked to the desired level.

Sweet and Sour Fish Tacos Honey Bourbon Tiramisu

Makes 6-8 ramekins or one medium-sized dish

Prep time: 20 mins | Chilling time: 2 hours

Sweet, warming and heady, these little Tiramisu pots are the perfect dessert to round o a dairy meal. You could add in a layer of apple purée or serve with caramelised apples for an extra nod to tradition. This can also be made in one dish.

Slaw

1. Combine the shredded cabbage, lime juice, chopped coriander, agave nectar and pre-soaked sultanas in a bowl and mix together. For a creamier consistency, add mayonnaise.

2. Refrigerate until ready to serve. This can be prepared up to a day before.

3. When ready to serve, julienne a Granny Smith apple and mix into the slaw.

Pickled Onions

1. In a small bowl or airtight container add the onions, sugar and rice vinegar. If needed, add a little water to ensure the onions are completely covered.

2. Cover and leave to pickle for at least 1 hour, but longer if possible.

3. When ready, drain liquid and serve.

Optional extra

Spicy Chipotle Mayo

2 tbsp mayo mixed with 1 tbsp chipotle sauce, or ¼ tsp chipotle chilli powder.

Ingredients

397g can condensed milk

500g carton mascarpone

100ml honey bourbon (or substitute with 150ml strong black co ee

75ml bourbon and 1 tbsp honey mixed together)

1 pack sponge fingers

Cocoa powder, for dusting

Milk chocolate, for grating

1. In a mixing bowl, whisk together the condensed milk and mascarpone.

2. In a separate, shallow bowl, mix together the co ee and bourbon.

3. Take one sponge finger at a time, dip it in the co ee and whisky mixture for a few seconds, allowing it to absorb liquid, but taking care not to make the biscuit soggy.

4. Line the base of your ramekins (or one medium-sized dish) with a layer of the dipped sponge fingers, then evenly distribute half the cream mixture between your ramekins and spread into a smooth layer on top of the biscuits.

5. Grate in a layer of milk chocolate and then repeat steps

3 and 4.

6. Finish by si ing a generous layer of cocoa over the top and refrigerate for at least 2 hours before serving.

Salt and pepper

6 cod fillets, patted dry

Chips

2-3 large sweet potatoes, cut into bite-size cubes

1 butternut squash, cut into bite-size cubes

2 tbsp oil

½ tbsp garlic powder

¼ tbsp onion powder

1 tbsp dried oregano

Salt and pepper

Slaw

1 small red cabbage, shredded and salted

Juice of 2 limes

½ cup fresh coriander, finely chopped

1½ to 2 tbsp agave nectar or honey

½ cup of sultanas, soaked in hot water for 30 mins then drained and patted dry Mayonnaise (optional)

1 Granny Smith apple

Pickled Onions

2 red onions, ribboned and salted

1½ tbsp sugar

1/3 cup rice vinegar

12 shop-bought tortillas

A member of the Jewish Futures family, Ta’amim is all about engaging Jews with their culture and heritage through food. For the High Holy Days, the organisation has created sweet, seasonal and stu ed dishes incorporating the traditional symbolic foods (simanim). The latest recipe booklet is available for free in print at kosher stores around London and Manchester, and downloadable at wearetaamim.com.

For more Jewish ideas and recipes, subscribe to wearetaamim.com

SWEET. Seasonal. StuffeD.

FILL-A-FRIDGE

THIS ROSH HASHANA

Yael and her mum struggle daily, uncertain about their next meal. A donation of £108 (500 ₪ ) will fill a family’s fridge, giving them a better start to the New Year. Please donate this New Year, knowing that you’ve given struggling families a positive start to theirs.

supporting amazing causes for

YEARS

SWEET LIKE NECTAR

gifts

Alex Galbinski goes in search of apple- and-honey-themed presents to sweeten the new year

COOL AS ICE

This goldcoloured apple double-walled ice bucket made of dolomite is a stylish way to keep your bottle of wine chilled.

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New company 3dmygi s designs and prints (in 3D) gi s, including these three Rosh Hashanah designs of an apple, shofar or honey pot filled with your choice of chocolates, vegetarian or kosher sweets. Order via 3dmygi s on Facebook or Instagram or email info@3dmygi s.co.uk for collection from Bushey or Edgware (delivery also available).

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IT’S A WRAP

Ward o the autumn chill with this cotton and viscose scarf in charcoal that features metallic gold bee prints (measures 170cm x 90cm). Other colours available as is the bee brooch, pictured. £16 at myposhshop.com

GIFTS WITH HEART

PERFECT SCENT

Enjoy a quiet moment with the aurora pomegranate and rose-scented candle in a pretty pink glass.

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BASKET OF GOODIES

The wonderful team at Honey & Co have put together some beautiful hampers for a sweet new year. The Essentials Hamper contains sumac shortbread in a signature pomegranate-patterned tin, a honey cake, orange blossom honey, a pomegranate tea towel and dates.

£75 from shop.honeyandco.co.uk

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

Pomegranates & Artichokes, Saghar Setareh’s debut cookbook, tells the story of her culinary journey from Iran to Italy and explores the parallels that link Middle Eastern and Mediterranean food cultures.

Murdoch Books, £25

TOWELLING BRILLIANCE

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Honey: Recipes from a Beekeeper’s Kitchen by Amy Newsome includes wonderful recipes but also describes the beekeeper’s year and how honey is made. Amy also shares how to create the perfect bee-friendly garden. £27 from waterstones.com

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Kisharon Langdon’s gi and homeware store, Equal, is selling gorgeous items for the New Year. Personalised honey jars can be ordered online until 12 September (from £2) and other products, including bowls, decorative pomegranates and artisanal popcorn and confectionery, are available in the Temple Fortune shop. equalbykisharon.

and confectionery,

TREASURED TRINKETS

Keep your small items safe in this cute ceramic pomegranate-shaped ring holder. £6.50 at oliverbonas.com

PIECE OF CAKE

Serve your honey cake in this extra-special Nordic Ware honeycomb pull-apart dessert pan made from cast aluminium and with a non-stick coating for easy release. It’s the bee’s knees – and I say that truthfully, having made a beautiful cake with it! £48.99 from souschef.co.uk

COSY GLOW

These personalised candles featuring a Manchester worker bee are filled with a scented natural wax and make a great gi . £39 from kindredfires.com

Bournemouth Hotel OFFERS

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IT ENDED WITH A JOB AT THE BBC

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IT STARTED WITH A CALL TO RESOURCE

MAKING SENSE OF THE SEDRA

In

We’re

As we watch with the rest of the world the ongoings in Ukraine in stories that are straight out of film scripts (such as the recent ‘crash’ of the Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin’s aircraft), sometimes helpless and at other times frustrated and always deeply saddened, I am often asked: “What has this got to do with us?”

We are living through one of the tightest financial squeezes that our generation has known. Young people are struggling post-Covid and therefore the question often surfaces: why is there this obsession with problems thousands of

miles away when we have so many of our own?

In this week’s parsha, Nitzavim Vayeilech, the Torah sheds some light on this. The Torah calls all Jews from every walk of life, from the water carrier to the woodcutter, and says: “You are all responsible for one another.” The Kli Yakar (Rabbi Shlomo Ephraim ben Aaron Luntschitz) goes one step further and explains that our responsibility to one another goes to a whole di erent level. If your neighbour has not heard kiddush on Shabbat, then you can recite it all over again. Why? The answer is because a part of you has not heard kiddush.

The Torah is teaching us that the level of responsibility that we have for each other is not a luxury, but it is a vital part of our survival as a nation

and in the world. The analogy I once heard, which is apt here, is about a man on a cruise ship.He starts drilling a hole to the ocean in his cabin. When he is confronted by the captain and sta on the ship, he exclaims: “This is my cabin – leave me alone.” The crew explain that his cabin is connected to all of us. If he is going down, then we all are.

Our leaders understand that by battling the good battles, which are sometimes thousands of miles away, we are actually fighting our own, because the level of responsibility we have for each other goes a long way beyond what we see and what we know.

When we heed that call of responsibility, the whole world becomes a safer and better place.

22 Beehive Lane, Ilford, Essex, IG1 3RT

Rabbi Steven & Rebbetzen Siobhan Dansky, Reverend Gary & Gillian Newman, the Executive and Synagogue Council look forward to seeing you and wish the whole Community Shana Tova

V’Gmar Chatima Tova.

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all in this together

our thought-provoking series, rabbis and educators relate the week’s parsha to the way we live today

Progressive Judaism

LEAP OF FAITH

I love my kids – they are wonderful! But being a parent is hard work, especially in the summer holidays, and even more so when your children are small. Now that mine have grown older this was the first year that I felt bereft as school started again.

It has been wonderful this year spending time with them over the holidays as well watching them be mature enough to make their own plans and entertain themselves.

Then there were also the two weeks when all three of them were on LJY-Netzer’s summer camp,

Kadimah. Not only was that a chance to run to my own clock for two weeks, to work without guilt, even to go out and see friends, but they had the most amazing time, and watching them come back more Jewishly articulate, more socially confident and just tired and happy is a gift for which I am so grateful.

And now... they’re back at school and I am back at work, or rather back at balancing and juggling and the perpetual guilt cycle.

At this time of year, as we stand on the edge of a new year looking backwards and forwards at the same time, we so often feel guilty about what we got wrong and feel optimism for the chance we have to get it right this year.

Now I wouldn’t dare compare myself to Moses – who after all had hundreds of children and not just three (plus two cats and a dog) and

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his job was arguably even more full-on than mine. But... as Moses stood there on the edge of the Promised Land, looking backwards and forwards between yesterday and tomorrow, he took time to reflect, to really pause (a whole Torah book of a pause) and that’s the gift we too are given in this season.

So, like Moses, let’s take a break – take a breath, breathe in the things that were good this year and breathe out the things you need to let go. Remember, all of us are balancing the guilt of being present for our children and present for ourselves; Moses became a great leader when he realised that he could not do it all on his own and gave himself a break.

The summer is good/bad because it is not the whole year; because it contrasts with the rest of the year. Freedom is the sweeter because of

slavery, life because of death, joy because of sadness – let’s embrace all the diversity of l’chaim as we

enter this new year and ultimately commit to this being the year that we give ourselves a break.

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A stimulating series where our progressive rabbis consider how Biblical figures might act when faced with 21st-century issues

Ask our

Our trusty team of advisers answers your questions about everything from law and finance to dating and dentistry.

This week: How long will it take to ship to Israel, shall I apply for a Jewish Blind & Disabled flat and hormone replacement

Dear Stephen

Exactly how long will it take for our shipment to arrive in Israel?

Susan

Dear Susan

It depends whether you are shipping your own container or just a groupage (part) shipment.

If you have a sole-use container, the ships sail from the UK to Israel every week usually. Currently, however, as demand for space has increased, shipping lines are re-routing vessels according to orders from the ports on the route to and from Israel. ZIM, for example, our preferred carrier, has cancelled two sailings from Felixstowe to Ashdod due to increased

to adults who have a physical disability and /or vision impairment, who want to maintain an independent life in a communal setting.

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Call now 020 8731 6171

demand in India. Consequently, it is o ering a weekly service from the UK but says this is liable to change or cancellation at short notice. It has agreed to give us as much notice of cancellation as possible and so we are still o ering a weekly service, with a twoweek transit to Ashdod, subject to possible changes. We can, of course, use other shipping lines. Once in Israel, customs clearance can take up to five working days.

If you are using a groupage shipment, the timing for a container is as above but please allow us time to fill that container with the various groupage shipments on hand. This can take an extra week or two, depending on demand and the time of year. Once in Israel, the groupage shipments are placed into a warehouse and clearance can take place.

So, overall, allow packing + 3 weeks for a sole-use container and packing + 4 weeks for a groupage shipment.

www.manonabike.co.uk

We o er a warm, supportive community in which people can continue to be independent while feeling safe and secure. Our on-site house managers are on duty 24/7 for emergencies and can o er support to tenants at any time of day or night.

If this sounds of interest to you then the first step is to complete an application form which you can find at www.jbd.org .

If you are not online then please call us on 020 8371 6611 and we will arrange to post a form to you.

Once you’ve submitted an application form, our

lettings co-ordinator will contact you to arrange a home visit. The visit will give you the opportunity to find out more about our service and for you to ask any questions.

Unfortunately, we do have a waiting list. We allocate our apartments based on a person’s urgency of need. Every person on our waiting list is experiencing their own unique set of health and/or accommodation issues, so each of these factors is taken into consideration.

If a suitable apartment is identified, we will invite you to a viewing. If you like what you see, and the apartment meets your needs, your tenancy can start as soon as is convenient.

Dear Angela

Is hormone replacement therapy the only way forward?

Dear Jenny

I’m often asked about alternatives to HRT, especially by those women who are not able to take HRT for medical reasons. For many women HRT works well, but not necessarily for all their symptoms.

There are a number of other options which may help alleviate some of the common menopausal symptoms, such as regular exercise, yoga, hypnotherapy and/or herbal remedies.

As always, it’s good to bear in mind the general things to help your wellbeing such as avoiding alcohol, ca eine and cigarettes. And certain things you can do to help the discomfort of hot flushes, including dressing in layers so these can be removed when you experience a hot flush. Also, carrying a portable fan to help cool you down.

Of course, I’m a firm believer in magnetic therapy. It’s safe and easy to use and one of – if not

the – best alternative or complement to HRT during menopause.

LaBalance by Sassy La Femme is drug-free, has no known long term sidee ects, though some women do feel a bit nauseous for the first two weeks of wearing, it’s worth sticking it out. I thought of giving up on my trial of LaBalance and am so pleased I didn’t as I am now one of many women who tell us they are symptom-free.

For professional menopause advice you should always contact your medical practitioner if you decide to stop taking HRT.

If you have found anything you’ve tried helps your menopause symptoms, please let me know at hello@ sassylafemme.com

Ask our experts / Professional advice from our panel

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

HUMAN RESOURCES / EMPLOYMENT LAW

DONNA OBSTFELD

Qualifications:

• FCIPD Chartered HR Professional

• 25 years in HR and business management.

• Mediator, business coach, trainer, author and speaker

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

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

ACCOUNTANT

FINANCIAL SERVICES (FCA) COMPLIANCE

JACOB BERNSTEIN

Qualifications:

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

• Mortgage, protection and general insurance intermediaries;

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

• Alternative Investment Fund managers;

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

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

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

JEWELLER

CHILD AND ADOLESCENT PSYCHIATRIST

DR MONICA QUADIR

Qualifications:

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

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

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

PSYMPLICITY HEALTHCARE 020 3733 5277

www.psymplicity.com enquiries@psymplicity.com

FINANCIAL SERVICES

ADAM SHELLEY

Qualifications:

• FCCA chartered certified accountant

• Accounting, taxation and business advisory services

• Entrepreneurial business specialist including start-up businesses

• Specialises in charities; personal tax returns

• Maurice Wohl Charitable Foundation Volunteer of the Year JVN award

SOBELL RHODES LLP 020 8429 8800 www.sobellrhodes.co.uk a.shelley@sobellrhodes.co.uk

CHARITY EXECUTIVE

JONATHAN WILLIAMS

Qualifications:

• Jewellery manufacturer since 1980s

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

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

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

DIRECTOR OF LEGACIES

JOE OZER

Qualifications:

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

• Worked in finance for more than 20 years

• Specialists in distribution and promotion of Israel Bonds

DEVELOPMENT COMPANY FOR ISRAEL 020 3936 2712

www.israelbondsintl.com

joe.ozer@israelbondsintl.com

GOAL ATTAINMENT SPECIALIST

DR BEN LEVY

Qualifications:

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

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

• Works with clients individually to maximise success

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

CHARITY EXECUTIVE

LISA WIMBORNE

Qualifications:

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

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

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

• Understanding of the impact of a disability diagnosis

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

CAREER ADVISER

CAROLYN ADDLEMAN

Qualifications:

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

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

• Member of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners

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

REMOVALS MANAGING DIRECTOR

STEPHEN MORRIS

LESLEY TRENNER

Qualifications:

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

• Offers mock interviews and workshops to maximise job prospects

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

RESOURCE 020 8346 4000

www.resource-centre.org

office@resource-centre.org

Qualifications:

• Managing director of Stephen Morris Shipping Ltd

• 45 years’ experience in shipping household and personal effects

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

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

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

SUE CIPIN OBE

Qualifications:

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

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

• Extensive services for people affected by hearing loss/tinnitus

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

• Hearing aid advice, support and maintenance

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

PRINCIPAL, PERFORMING ARTS SCHOOL

LOUISE LEACH

Qualifications:

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

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

• Set up Dancing with Louise 19 years ago

DANCING WITH LOUISE 075 0621 7833

www.dancingwithlouise.co.uk

Info@dancingwithlouise.com

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

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

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

LAW MENTOR

Costume jewellery and watches etc 01277 352560

Former “Magic Circle” solicitor offers help with:

• CVs and personal statements

• interviews and assessment days

• coping with stress and workload

• promotion and new opportunities

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

LEGACY- LEAVE A GIFT IN YOUR MEMORY

HOME & MAINTENANCE

LAW MENTOR

Former “Magic Circle” solicitor offers help with:

• CVs and personal statements

• interviews and assessment days

• coping with stress and workload

• promotion and new opportunities

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

WEB DESIGN

THE JEWISH NEWS CROSSWORD

11 UK media company (inits) (3)

12 Variety of unleavened bread (5)

13 Dark purplish blue (6)

14 Shrill (4-7)

18 Canadian city and province (6)

20 Release (3,2)

23 Atom or molecule with an electric charge (3)

24 To the point of disgust (2,7)

25 Aid (6)

26 Stools, benches etc (5)

DOWN

2 Is morally obliged (to) (5)

3 Vehicle cleaning machine (3,4)

5 Gave relief (5)

6 Tiny shore pebbles (7)

7 Propel (4)

8 Quick looks (5)

9 Talking about old times (11)

15 Grey-green lizards of tropical America (7)

16 Refinement (7)

Fun, games and prizes

SUDOKU

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

SUGURU

ACROSS

1

17 Mid-sentence break (5)

19 Male pigs (5)

21 Burglary (5)

22 ___ McKee, Notting Hill actress (4)

WORDSEARCH CODEWORD

The listed Welsh surnames can all be found in the grid. Words may run either forwards or backwards, in a horizontal, vertical or diagonal direction, but always in a straight, unbroken line.

In this finished crossword, every letter of the alphabet appears as a code number. All you have to do is crack the code and fill in the grid. Replacing the decoded numbers with their letters in the grid will help you to guess the identity of other letters.

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.

O

TI NN ESS DO AT

APTED

Last issue’s solutions

See next issue for puzzle solutions.

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

Donations made to Kisharon Langdon this Rosh Hashanah are core to our future together

As one unified organisation, dedicated to offering the best possible opportunities to people within the Jewish learning disability and autism community, we need your support.

To find out more or to make a donation, please visit kisharonlangdon.org.uk or scan the QR code.