Kindertransport refugee remembered

Members of the Birmingham Jewish community gathered at a local churchyard last week to dedicate a memorial plaque to a five-year-old Kindertransport refugee from Prague who died in a bombing raid in December 1940.

Suzanne Marburg had been taken in and adopted by the Lloyds, a non-Jewish family, whose members died with her in the bombing.

They were all buried in the Lloyd family grave at Kingswood Unitarian Chapel, Wythall. Suzanne's mother, who had survived the concentration camps, learned of her fate when she came to England look for her after the war.

More..

Heart op boy’s mum in a rush to help hospital

A Hertsmere Jewish Primary School teacher is running her first charity race as a thank you to Great Ormond Street Hospital doctors and nurses who saved her son's life.

By taking part in next month's Adidas 5km Women's Challenge in Hyde Park, Sarah Jacobs hopes to raise at least £3,000 towards the hospital's new heart and lung centre, helping children like her son Eitan with major cardiac problems.

More..

Prestwich shul expands

Construction has begun on a synagogue building in Prestwich for the Shaarei Tefilla strictly Orthodox congregation.

The two-storey synagogue is a £675,000 redevelopment of a disused Methodist church, whose hall has housed the community since 1994.

Nine people attended its first service in 1992, held in the living room of founder Rabbi Moshe Segal. There are now 115 predominantly young member families, who are meeting the building costs. A further influx of members is expected with the opening of the synagogue.

More..

Positive dialogue as mosque group joins youth camp

In a first for Liberal Judaism's Kadimah summer camp, participants were joined by a group of boys from Luton Central Mosque for a day of learning and games.

The Jews and Muslims played football and board games and enjoyed lunch in a tent on the lawns of the camp at Cottesmore School, near Crawley, West Sussex. They then spent more than an hour in a large informal discussion, asking one another questions about the differences - and similarities - between Judaism and Islam.

More..

Brits party with Ethiopian twins

UJIA marked the the tenth year of its British and Ethiopian bar and batmitzvah programme with its largest-ever celebration in Jerusalem.

Forty Ethiopian immigrant children from a Jewish Agency absorption centre joined their British "twins". Eight families made the trip from London, four from Manchester and four from Scotland.

The ceremony was held at Jerusalem's Great Synagogue and Israel's Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger blessed the celebrants.

More..

Lib-Dem defends ‘Nazi’ traffic charge remark

A Stockport Lib-Dem councillor is standing by his comparison of the proposed Manchester congestion charge with Nazi propaganda.

Manchester Jewish leaders were outraged by the comment by Councillor Kevin Hogg, made in the context of his claim that the city's transport authority was misinforming the public to win support for the plans. "As propaganda, it is nearly as bad as the Nazis in the Second World War," he said.

More..

Kind kid is rewarded

Twelve-year-old Dani Jacobson was runner-up in the Channel Five search for "Britain's Kindest Kids", presented by Natasha Kaplinsky.

The North London Collegiate pupil received 35 per cent of the vote for a 22-mile swim with her learning disabled sister Talya which raised over £23,000, mostly for Norwood.

And as the contest winner, Liam Fairhurst, offered to share his £1,000 prize with the four other finalists, Dani will be handing over a further £200 to the charity.

More..

King David fights drug centre plan

Manchester's King David schools are fighting plans to turn a nursing home on the edge of the KD campus into a drug-rehabilitation centre.

Owners of the Westwood private nursing home on Polygon Road, Crumpsall - which has many Jewish residents - want to close it down and redevelop it as a residential drug- and alcohol-rehabilitation centre. Local residents were alerted to the plans at a meeting last Thursday.

More..

Enfield Syanagogue appoints Sufrin

Enfield and Winchmore Hill Synagogue has appointed Rabbi Yitzchok Sufrin as its part-time minister.

After the former Highgate Synagogue rabbi spent a Shabbat with the community, the Enfield board unanimously decided to offer him the post, which has been vacant since January.

More..

Woodside Park split on rabbi

The troubled Woodside Park Synagogue will continue to operate without a full-time rabbi after failing to agree on a candidate to replace Rabbi Hershel Rader, who departed controversially at the end of last year.

Two candidates shortlisted by a selection committee took part in an assessment day, including second interviews and practical tests, at the end of July.

More..