JC news

Iranian troops are fighting in Syria, says US

Anshel Pfeffer — Fri, 24 May 2013 18:00:43 +0100

The US State Department finally acknowledged this week what has been common knowledge in the Middle East for months — that the Syrian civil war has become a conflict between regional and global players in which foreign fighters and proxies are playing a growing role.

An unnamed American official confirmed claims that have been made regularly over the past two years, that the Al-Qods force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps is fighting alongside Syrian troops to prop up the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

Russia has already announced that it is standing by its Syrian ally and will continue sending him advanced weapons.

The Russian government has insisted that the S-300 anti-aircraft missiles and the P-800 Yakhont anti-shipping cruise missiles are for “defensive purposes”, and that Moscow is merely completing contracts signed years ago.

Russia’s commitment to the al-Assad cause was emphasised this week when 11 of its warships performed manoeuvres off the Syrian coast. It was the largest exercise in the Mediterranean undertaken by the Russian navy since the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

If Russia supplies Syria with the S-300 missiles, capable of hitting multiple targets at ranges of up to 200 kilometres, retaliatory air-strikes against regime targets will become more difficult.

However former Israeli military intelligence chief, retired general Amos Yadlin, commented that Israel could defend itself against the S-300.

Many experts believe that in its current state, the Syrian army is not capable of operating such a complex system.

But the threat was deemed serious enough by Israel for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to urge Russian President Vladimir Putin at a brief meeting at the Black Sea resort of Sochi two weeks ago, not to transfer the missiles to Syria.

The Russians have so far refused the Israeli and western appeals.

Hague says UK ready to 'assist in any way' in quest for Middle East peace

Zoe Winograd — Fri, 24 May 2013 13:05:13 +0100

British Foreign Secretary William Hague has told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the UK “stands ready to assist in any way” in advancing the peace process.

The two leaders met as part of Mr Hague’s visit to Israel this week alongside US Secretary of State John Kerry.

Mr Netanyahu and Mr Hague discussed peace negotiations , security concerns over Iran and Syria, and relations between the UK and Israel.

Mr Hague said after the meeting: “I reiterated the UK’s strong support for Mr Kerry’s efforts to relaunch the peace process and I welcomed Prime Minister Netanyahu’s commitment to a two-state solution. The UK’s position is well known, we want to see a two-state solution, with a secure and universally recognised Israel living alongside a viable State of Palestine, with Jerusalem as a shared capital. We stand ready to assist in any way we can to help make progress to this end.

“The UK and Israel are close friends and allies and I attach great importance to our bilateral relationship. Our collaboration on hi-tech and science is second to none and today we affirmed the UK and Israel’s co - operation on security issues, including Iran. As a friend and ally, Britain is fully committed to Israel’s security needs.”

Before he met Mr Netanyahu, Mr Hague told reporters that the building of settlements “on occupied land” was to blame for the decline in British support for Israel.

Mr Hague told reporters: “Israel has lost some of its support in Britain and in other European countries over time — this is something I’ve often pointed out to Israeli leaders — because of settlement activity, which we condemn.”

“We strongly disagree with settlements on occupied land. Israel is a country we work with in many ways, but we do disapprove of settlements.”

He added: “We want to see both Israelis and Palestinians really commit themselves to the peace process while there is still a chance of a two-state solution.”

In a meeting with the Israeli president, Shimon Peres, Mr Hague emphasised his determination to make progress in securing a peace deal.

He said : “It is a crucial time in the entire region with the Iranian nuclear programme , the tragic situation in Syria , and our hope that we can, through supporting Mr Kerry and his work, really help to make some decisive moves forward for permanent peace.”

Mr Peres commended Mr Hague for making Britain's position on Iran, terror and peace extremely clear.

"In spite of all the difficulties the time is right for peace. I can see positive developments on our side, on the Palestinian side and on the Arab side.”

Mr Hague also stressed his support for Mr Kerry's efforts to relaunch the peace process at a meeting with Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah.

Meanwhile Mr Kerry has expressed his hope “to surprise people” in making positive steps towards peace.

Mr Kerry said: “There have been bitter years of disappointment. It is our hope that by being methodical, careful, patient - but detailed and tenacious - that we can lay on a path ahead that can conceivably surprise people and certainly exhaust the possibilities of peace."

Minister to rule on alleged sex offender Grynhaus’s deportation

Jonathan Kalmus — Fri, 24 May 2013 10:30:59 +0100

A British man is waiting for Israel’s interior minister to decide whether he will be deported to face trial for sex offences in the UK.

Todros Grynhaus, 48, from Salford, fled to Israel on a false passport shortly after he pleaded not guilty to seven counts of the historic sexual or indecent assault of three children.

He was arrested in Jerusalem in February but has appealed against his deportation under Israel’s Law of Return.

This week, a Jerusalem judge gave interior minister Gideon Sa’ar until Sunday to decide whether concerns about public safety are strong enough to deny him Israeli citizenship. The ministry confirmed the decision would be made within “a few days”.

Mr Grynhaus would have to be released if his appeal for citizenship were granted. However, his lawyer has said that he expects the British Home Office to request an immediate re-arrest to return the former teacher to the UK under its bilateral extradition agreement with Israel.

Scottish Jews condemn the Church of Scotland

JCReporter — Fri, 24 May 2013 10:06:00 +0100

Scottish Jews have condemned the Church of Scotlands decision to approve a controversial report on Israel, calling it an unacceptable attack on Judaism.

The Scottish Council of Jewish Communities said the Church had provided a veneer of theological respectability for what is effectively a call for the destruction of the state of Israel.

The Church adopted the report at its general assembly attended by more than 700 ministers and elders.

Welcoming the move, convener Rev Sally Foster-Fulton said the document highlighted the continued occupation by the state of Israel and injustices faced by the Palestinian people as a consequence.

She stressed it was not an attack on the Jewish people.

An initial version had questioned Jewish claims to the land of Israel but was rewritten after criticism from the Jewish community. Mrs Foster-Fulton acknowledged that some of the original language had been misguided.

Expert on settlers settles at Oxford University

Simon Rocker — Fri, 24 May 2013 09:30:59 +0100

The Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies has finally filled a prestigious academic post after a previous candidate pulled out because of new immigration rules.

Dr Sara Hirschhorn, a post-doctoral fellow in Israel studies at Brandeis University in the United States, is due to become the new Sidney Brichto Fellow in Israel studies in September.

An expert on the settler movement, she will combine the role with a research lectureship at Oxford University.

Israeli academic, Dr Hizky Shoham, from Tel Aviv University, had initially been appointed to the post. But, according to the centre’s president, Dr David Ariel, regulations introduced by the UK Border Agency had meant it was “impossible” to obtain a work permit in time for him to start the job in January.

The university had then been required by the Border Agency to re-advertise the post. “At that point, Dr Shoham decided not to reapply and accepted a position in Israel,” Dr Ariel said. “This allowed the selection committee to consider a strong pool of new applicants, of which Dr Hirschhorn was the first choice.”

He said: “We are confident we have, at last, found the right candidate and look forward to her arrival in Oxford.”

Arab students aided by Pears Foundation £100,000 grant

Simon Rocker — Fri, 24 May 2013 08:30:59 +0100

A Jewish-run charity in the UK has pledged £100,000 to a project benefiting Arab students, one that a leading Israeli economist has described as vital to the future of his country.

The Pears Foundation is the first such organisation to contribute to a new scholarship fund for Arab students in Israel. The fund, to be jointly financed by the Israeli government and Jewish philanthropists, has a target of around £3.2 million a year, from which up to 1,800 students will benefit.

Professor Manuel Trajtenberg — who chairs the planning and budget committee of the Council for Higher Education in Israel — said that helping more students into degree-level education was “crucial for the future of Israel”.

Speaking at a lecture in London, he said the contribution of Jewish communities around the world “may make a big difference, not just because of the money, but the message that goes with it; which says the Jewish people in Israel and abroad understand that the Arab citizens of Israel are part and parcel of Israeli society, and we want to treat them as such”.

The key to improving the lot of less well-off groups in Israel such as the Charedim and Arab communities, was encouraging greater access to higher education, he said. “Nothing else will work if you don’t do that… In the 21st century, you cannot enter the labour force just by finishing high school.”

The number of Charedim in higher education institutions has risen from a handful to more than 7,000 in 12 years. Israel’s Arabs, while forming more than a quarter of the student-age population, represented only 12 per cent of students actually in higher education.

Prof Trajtenberg was in Britain to attend an event organised by the UK Task Force on issues relating to Arab citizens of Israel, and to meet philanthropists.

The joint chairmen of the task force, Trevor Pears — who is executive chairman of the Pears Foundation — and UJIA chief executive Michael Wegier, said that the scholarship fund was “a fantastic opportunity for the British Jewish community to address an issue which is fundamental to Israel’s future prosperity.”

Rabbi Chaim Halpern conducting a wedding a ‘serious error’, says United Synagogue

Simon Rocker — Fri, 24 May 2013 07:30:00 +0100

The United Synagogue has strongly criticised the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations for allowing Rabbi Chaim Halpern, who is under police investigation over alleged sexual abuse of women, to officiate at a wedding.

Rabbi Halpern, the leader of the Divrei Chaim community, took part in a ceremony under the UOHC’s auspices on Wednesday afternoon at Finchley United Synagogue, which houses the Kinloss banqueting suite.

In a statement, a spokesman for the US said that it considered the UOHC’s approval of Rabbi Halpern’s participation as “wrong and a serious error of judgment”.

Rabbi Halpern, who has denied any wrongdoing in connection with counselling sessions for women, has been bailed to return to a police station in July.

A special Beth Din set up by the UOHC to look into the allegations against him has been suspended pending police inquiries.

No one was available from the UOHC to comment.

The US said that its synagogues were hired out for dozens of weddings each year under the Union’s auspices.

“The United Synagogue is not involved in the authorisation or solemnisation of such marriages and relies on the UOHC to ensure that a suitable person officiates,” a US spokesman said.

“The former head of the London Beth Din and two current dayanim in their capacity as north-west London rabbonim have already publicly made their views very clear concerning Rabbi Halpern.

“Rabbi Halpern’s own governing body, the UOHC, has seen fit to initiate a high-profile investigation that has not yet been concluded. In addition to which, he is under police investigation.

“We therefore consider his authorisation by the UOHC to officiate at this marriage wrong and a serious error of judgment.”

Culture Minister bid to keep tapestries in the UK

Zoe Winograd — Thu, 23 May 2013 23:30:59 +0100

Culture minister ed Vaizey has extended an export ban on rare silk tapestries depicting Jerusalem’s first and second temples. The move comes after a British buyer expressed a serious interest in purchasing the hangings which are on sale for £120,000. The ban will run until August 20.

Orthodox child-rape case back in court

Anna Sheinman — Thu, 23 May 2013 21:30:43 +0100

The retrial of a Chasidic man charged with the rape and sexual assault of a young Orthodox woman, opened this week, after an earlier jury failed to return a verdict.

Father of five Menachem Mendel Levy, 41, has pleaded not guilty to sexually abusing the young woman when she was aged between 14 and 21.

He claims that he had a consensual, extramarital affair with the young woman — who cannot be identified for legal reasons — and that the affair began when she was over the age of 16.

The prosecution alleges there was a “course of sexual abuse”. It was argued in court this week that what began as indecent assault escalated into a “continuous course of rape” that started when the young woman was legally a child.

David Markham, prosecuting, said: “Whenever the opportunity presented itself Mr Levy would, in her words, ‘pounce’, treating her ‘as if I were nothing’.”

He told Wood Green Crown Court that the young woman did not complain because “she thought she was to blame”.

This belief was “rooted in her upbringing in the Orthodox Jewish community”, and that Mr Levy exploited her naivety and fears.

Mr Markham said that, when the woman complained of abuse, she faced hostility from the community for having a relationship with a married man. “She found herself vilified for disclosing years of sexual abuse,” he said.

The trial continues.

Ashton’s Iran talks produce nothing

Thu, 23 May 2013 21:00:43 +0100

Nuclear talks between Iran and six world powers in Istanbul last week ended without producing any concrete results.

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, who met Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili, described the talks as “useful” although she was unable to report any substantive development.

Labour councillor joins the Co-operative Group

Thu, 23 May 2013 20:30:43 +0100

Munir Malik, a supporter of the boycott of Israel, has joined the board of the Co-operative Group.

A Labour councillor in the London Borough of Bexley and twice an MEP candidate, in his campaign statement Mr Malik disclosed that he had been at the heart of the group’s policies on “international issues like banning products from illegal settlements in Palestine”.

Last year, the Co-op board agreed to boycott goods from four companies producing fruit and vegetables in West Bank settlements.

Hamas, fatah flirt with unity deal

Thu, 23 May 2013 20:00:43 +0100

Fatah and Hamas agreed to form a unity government within three months at talks in Cairo last week.

Similar agreements have been reached on several occasions over the past few years, but none have been implemented.

A Fatah official said both sides had agreed on a timetable that begins with creating laws to govern elections.

Hugo Bieber new chief at UK Israel Business

Sandy Rashty — Thu, 23 May 2013 19:30:59 +0100

A 29-year-old marketing expert has been named as the new chief executive of the leading organisation promoting trade links between Britain and Israel.

Hugo Bieber will take over at UK Israel Business on June 1. He said: “I am excited and feel honoured that the board of directors has given me the chance to continue to grow the organisation, creating opportunities for businesses in the UK and Israel.”

Mr Bieber, who was in charge of marketing for a US investment bank in London, is the current chair of the Young Norwood Business, Finance and Entrepreneurs fundraising committee.

He takes over at UK Israel Business from Daniel Seal, who will stand down at the end of June after a month-long handover to become the chief executive of AcreWhite, a company advising businesses on emerging markets.

Mr Seal said: “I am confident that Hugo Bieber will continue to grow the organisation.”

Gaza tunnels used to smuggle KFC

Thu, 23 May 2013 19:00:43 +0100

Palestinians have started smuggling Kentucky Fried Chicken into Gaza, Haaretz has reported.

Yamama, a Gaza-based delivery service, employs motorcycle couriers to pick the chicken up from the border tunnels and deliver it to customers. The meals are made at KFC outlets in cities around the Sinai Peninsula.

UK calls for EU to ban Hizbollah

Marcus Dysch — Thu, 23 May 2013 18:30:00 +0100

Anglo-Jewish leaders have welcomed Britain’s formal request to the European Union to outlaw Hizbollah as a terrorist organisation.

The government’s move increases the likelihood of the EU taking action against the Iranian-backed group and follows months of pressure from the Jewish community.

Prime Minister David Cameron requested that British Jews “make a noise” and help him persuade the EU to ban Hizbollah following a meeting with community leaders in January.

Board of Deputies vice-president Alex Brummer said Britain had now taken “a really important step” that would provide a “serious boost” to those seeking Hizbollah’s proscription.

Jeremy Newmark, Jewish Leadership Council chief executive, said Mr Cameron and Foreign Secretary William Hague must be “congratulated for taking a lead in pressing the EU to deliver this long-overdue designation as part of the fight against terror”.

The EU currently classifies Hizbollah as a social welfare organisation. To proscribe the organisation requires consensus among all 27 EU members. The move would freeze the group’s accounts and funding, hitting its European operations and terrorist activities. A special EU working group is due to meet next month, with a ban on the organisation possibly being introduced by the end of June.

A Foreign Office spokesman said: “We firmly believe that an appropriate EU response would be to designate Hizbollah’s military wing as a terrorist organisation.”

Board of Deputies leader admits: We can do better

Marcus Dysch — Thu, 23 May 2013 17:30:00 +0100

Chief Rabbi Lord Sacks has defended the Board of Deputies and predicted it will emerge “strengthened” following a period of “turbulence”.

In his final address to the Board, Lord Sacks praised the organisation’s work and paid tribute to former chief executive Jon Benjamin who left his post earlier this month.

The Board’s former senior vice-president Jerry Lewis launched a scathing attack on Mr Benjamin and the Board’s current leaders last week, claiming the organisation was “in a complete mess” and “increasingly irrelevant”.

But Lord Sacks backed the Board’s work to defend Israel, combat antisemitism and maintain standards of Jewish day schools, but acknowledged that it was “in a process of transition and of change”.

At Sunday’s plenary meeting he said: “The Board will rise, I predict and promise, to greater heights than it has known before. These are the birth pangs of something new. Turbulence is OK. The Board will come out of it strengthened.”

He said the organisation would “thrive” under a “new Anglo-Jewry” led by his successor, Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis.

President Vivian Wineman told deputies that the criticisms made by Mr Lewis were “unfortunate and crossed a red line”. He said the Board should “not be apologetic for doing terrific work. We are glueing the community together”.

He acknowledged that “there are areas where we can raise our game”, but said the community was “not about to witness the demise of the Board”.

During the meeting deputies repeatedly criticised Mr Lewis. Adrian Cohen, deputy for Highgate Synagogue, said: “There’s a tendency to play the man rather than the ball and to demonise people. We should be trying to avoid that kind of language. We should be discussing the issues, not having a go at individual deputies.”

Mr Wineman was asked about talks being held by the Board and Jewish Leadership Council over how the two organisations can work more closely together.

He said: “It has not gone very far at all. Details will have to be worked out with deputies. Nothing is going to happen unless deputies actually buy into it.”

Mr Benjamin last week declined to respond to Mr Lewis’s remarks, but on Twitter replied to deputies offering support , saying he “wasn’t about to start taking lessons from Jerry on people skills”.

During his address Lord Sacks also spoke of his “sadness” at the rise of antisemitism and criticism of Israel.

He said: “Ordinary, decent human beings who ought to know better — including some of our churches and academics — are picking up an attitude that’s out there and they do not realise how unacceptable and tragic that is.”

Historians would record current anti-Zionism as the antisemitism of the 21st century, claimed Lord Sacks.

The Board has appointed management consultant Andrea Kelmanson as interim chief of operations following the departure of chief executive Jon Benjamin.

Ms Kelmanson specialises in organisational development at not-for-profit organisations. She previously worked with Age Concern, the Alzheimer's Society and Liberty.

Described as a "troubleshooter", the former Jewish Aids Trust chair will start work next week.

Charity Commission rejects claim against JNF

Marcus Dysch — Thu, 23 May 2013 16:30:00 +0100

The Charity Commission has rejected a campaign group’s claim that the JNF should be stripped of its charitable status.

But the Commission will question JNF trustees on whether aspects of its work breach equality laws by dealing differently with Israelis and Palestinians.

After reviewing a complaint from Stop the JNF, the Commission concluded there were no grounds to remove the JNF, or a subsidiary group from its Israeli associate Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael (KKL), from the charities register.

However it agreed that there were “matters of potential regulatory interest” which should be considered.

The Commission will ask trustees to explain “operational and administrative issues” relating to restrictions on services available “to people defined by a protected characteristic”. It is thought the questions will refer to how JNF’s work affects Palestinians.

Stop the JNF had complained that JNF should not have been granted charitable status in Britain, had been set up for “improper use”, and had been involved in “violations of human rights and international law”. The Commission said Stop the JNF had provided no evidence to back up those claims.

Stop the JNF had accused the charity of being “complicit in the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians” and claimed the JNF’s “primary purpose” was to “remove Palestinians from their land and replace them with Jewish-only settlements”. More than 500 Stop the JNF supporters wrote to the Commission.

Stop the JNF’s Sofiah Macleod accused the Commission of “a wilful blindness”.The campaign group would take legal action to “force the Charity Commission to do its job”.

JNF spokesman Ari Soffer said: “As the Commission’s response clearly states, there were absolutely no grounds for the application. Any claims that JNF UK somehow discriminates in its operations are dispelled by even a curory glance at the work we do.”

Hague signs scientific collaboration deal between the UK and Israel

Sandy Rashty — Thu, 23 May 2013 16:19:05 +0100

UK Foreign Secretary William Hague has agreed an initiative that will promote co-operation on scientific issues between the UK and Israel.

The Today Memorandum of Understand on Scientific Cooperation was signed by Mr Hague and Yaakov Peri, the Israeli minister for science, technology and space.

Israel is well established in the scientific field. Four Israelis have won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry and Israel has the highest number of scientists and engineers per capital than any other country.

Mr Hague said: “Both the UK and Israel are scientific superpowers, and many of our universities and academics are already doing tremendous work together."

He also expressed support for the Britain Israel Research and Academic Exchange Partnership (BIRAX).

Mr Peri said: "Despite the fact that there are people in British academia who call to boycott Israel, the British government shows that it acknowledges the importance of scientific collaboration with Israel.”

Earlier this month, noted scientist Stephen Hawking said he would boycott the President's Conference in Israel.

The agreement outlined five areas of co-operation: neuroscience, space research, technology, regenerative medicine, agricultural science and nano-technology.

Football star’s campaign for murdered journalist

Jonathan Gilbert — Thu, 23 May 2013 16:00:43 +0100

A sporting legend is demanding the resignation of Brazil’s football chief for inciting the murder of a Jewish journalist.

Romario, who scored 1,000 goals in a celebrated international career, has accused Jose Maria Marin, the president of the CBF, Brazilian football’s governing body, over the death of former BBC reporter Vladimir Herzog in 1975.

Together with Herzog’s son, Ivo, Romario, who is now a member of the Brazilian parliament, handed in a petition last month of 55,000 signatures calling on Mr Marin to step down.

Mr Marin, who is in charge of Brazil’s preparations for hosting the 2014 World Cup, responded by heading to the courts, where he accused Romario of defamation and slander.

Vladimir Herzog was a renowned journalist who, aged just 38, was tortured to death by intelligence agents working for the country’s military dictatorship of the time.

He was born in Yugoslavia to Jewish parents who fled to Italy, and then Brazil, to escape the Nazis. He lived in London for three years in the 1960s, where he worked for the BBC.

In 1975, he was director of journalism at Sao Paolo-based network TV Cultura when agents summoned him for questioning about his links to the Communist Party, which was outlawed. At the interrogation Mr Herzog was alleged to have been tortured to death, though his original death certificate indicated he had committed suicide.

Mr Marin, now 81, had criticised Mr Herzog in a speech he delivered at the Sao Paolo state legislature two weeks before his interrogation. The following year he made a speech praising Sergio Fleury, the head of a repressive police division who was reportedly involved in Mr Herzog’s torture. Mr Marin was a congressman for ARENA, which supported the military government.

“His past is linked to the dictatorship,” said Romario.

Ivo Herzog said: “It would be unacceptable for Marin to head the inaugural ceremony of our World Cup, watched by millions worldwide.”

The CBF has defended Mr Marin, branding the allegations “absolutely false”.

Temple Fortune jewellery burglary suspect charged

Anna Sheinman — Thu, 23 May 2013 15:12:38 +0100

Police have arrested and charged a 19-year-old man following Thursday’s burglary of a jewellery shop in Temple Fortune, north London.

D & M Cohen was raided by what community security group Shomrim called a “smash and grab motorcycle gang”.

Owner Robert Cohen confirmed that the thieves had broken into the shop by smashing in its front door.

Barnet police reported that an officer on patrol had made an arrest and that the property had been recovered and the suspect has now been charged.

The shop was previously targeted by thieves in 2009 when its windows were smashed and rings and necklaces stolen.

Expense probe won’t let Bibi sleep easily

Anshel Pfeffer — Thu, 23 May 2013 15:00:43 +0100

The Israeli State Comptroller is investigating the sharp rise in the taxpayer-funded expenses of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his family.

The investigation was prompted by the emergence of new details on the costs of maintaining the Prime Minister’s family.

A lengthy freedom of information campaign — which was led by an individual student — yielded the entire expense budget for the Prime Minister’s personal needs.

This revealed that more than half-a-million shekels (nearly £100,000) had been spent on providing a bed for Mr Netanyahu’s use on the plane that flew him to Baroness Thatcher’s funeral, which took place in London last month.

According to the figures published this week, in 2012 the government paid 5.4 million shekels (just under £1 million) for the maintenance of the official Jerusalem residence used by Mr Netanyahu and his family and their two private homes in Jerusalem and Caesarea.

The sum included a variety of items such as hospitality, clothing and cosmetics. It was 80 per cent more than the Prime Minister’s personal budget in 2009 and more than double that of any of Israel’s other recent prime ministers, Ehud Olmert, Ariel Sharon and Ehud Barak.

The revelations prompted the State Comptroller — former judge, Yossef Shapira — to begin a series of consultations on regulating prime minister’s expenses, which could potentially lead to an official investigation over whether Mr Netanyahu misused public funds for his personal needs.

The Prime Minister’s Office, which initially tried to block the publication of the figures, has given a range of responses to the reports.

In relation to the bed that was fitted in the aircraft to London, his office initially responded that the expense was justified as the Prime Minister needed to arrive refreshed for his meetings with David Cameron and the Prime Minister of Canada, Stephen Harper, taking place after Baroness Thatcher’s funeral.

Explaining the other, personal expenses, the PM’s office said that “the figures include the cost of hosting official events in the prime minister’s residence and the cost of the many official meetings that are held there.”

Since the release of the figures, allies of the Netanyahu family gave interviews in which they talked about the family’s “frugal” lifestyle.

The high costs of maintaining the residence, they argued, were incurred as a result of the Prime Minister working late into the night and constantly holding meetings there.

Man convicted for sexual assault

Dan Goldberg — Thu, 23 May 2013 15:00:43 +0100

An Australian man who sexually assaulted an elderly Holocaust survivor in 1991 has been jailed for between three and five years. Robert Webb, 39, was arrested and charged in 2011, but has only now been convicted by a Sydney court. He could be released within a year given the time he has already served.

The victim, who was 71 at the time, has since died. She was attacked in a car park in Sydney by Webb, and ordered into the back seat of her car where he sexually assaulted her.

Police reopened the case in 2011, identifying Webb as a suspect through DNA testing.

“The victim’s ordeal must have been terrifying,” Judge Ian McClintock told the court.

“And the conduct of the offender was calculated to humiliate her.”

Call for security review after Woolwich attack

Zoe Winograd — Thu, 23 May 2013 14:50:31 +0100

The Community Security Trust has issued a warning to Jewish organisations over security arrangements in the wake of the terror attack in Woolwich.

In a bulletin sent to over 1,000 groups, the CST urged that procedures at all communal buildings and events should be reviewed and fully implemented following the brutal murder of a soldier in a London street by Islamist terrorists.

While it stressed there was no evidence to suggest that the community would be targeted, it noted that “those who are willing to attack soldiers can also move to attacking Jews”.

In Toulouse, in March 2012, the murder of French soldiers by an Islamist terrorist was followed by his killing of three children and a rabbi at a Jewish school.

CST said it had been consulting with police and Minister for Communities Don Foster over possible tensions between Jews and Muslims.

Meanwhile Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has emphasised Israel's solidarity with Britain in the aftermath of the attack.

"We've experienced such horrors here, and we sympathise deeply. We are both facing this battle against this savagery and terrorism in our own countries and throughout the world," he told visiting British Foreign Minister William Hague.

President Shimon Peres sent a letter of condolence to the Queen.

In the UK, Board of Deputies President Vivian Wineman expressed sympathy with the family of the murdered soldier. He said: "Our thoughts are with the victim of the horrific and barbaric murder, and with his family. We stand with other faith groups in deploring violence in the name of religion."

Foreign Office fears for Palestine prompted by intercepted Ben-Gurion papers

Jennifer Lipman — Thu, 23 May 2013 14:48:50 +0100

Foreign Office hopes that a resolution to the situation in Palestine could be delayed until after the war were shattered in 1941 after they intercepted the private papers of David Ben-Gurion detailing Zionist objectives and his discussions with Anglo-Jewish leaders.

Secret records released this week at the National Archives reveal that in late 1941 as he set off for America, against a climate of growing British suspicion toward the Zionists, the censorship authorities "removed from Mr Ben Gurion's luggage" papers relating to his time in the UK.

The Foreign Office described the papers as of "first class interest and importance" and circulated them around senior officials, the High Commissioner and later to officials in the United States.

The seized papers included a lengthy study of the status-quo in Mandate Palestine, "Outlines of Zionist policy," in which Ben-Gurion detailed the need for a Jewish army to help the Allied effort (which was never realised) and discussed longer-term strategy for the Zionists. They also included the minutes from a meeting he and Chaim Weizmann had held that September with prominent British Jews, among them Anthony de Rothschild and Sir Robert Waley-Cohen.

The meeting yielded little agreement between the parties – indeed, in a March 1942 letter to Chaim Weizmann, also found in the files, de Rothschild said he remained "unalterably opposed to the establishment of a Jewish state" - but the minutes raised fears in the Foreign Office that these individuals, who had previously been avowedly anti-Zionist, were coming round to the Zionist cause.

In a letter of warning, Foreign Office official SEV Luke noted that while de Rothschild and Waley-Cohen, "who no doubt represent a strong body of opinion among British Jewry, showed themselves frankly hostile and apprehensive of the conception of a Jewish state" it was still "not possible to draw much comfort from the cleavage of opinion".

"All those present at the meeting were united on the need for large scale immigration of Jews into Palestine at the first possible opportunity, and were therefore equally united on the need for smashing irrevocably the White Paper policy," he said.

And after reading Mr Ben-Gurion's study he concluded "there is no hope that the question will be allowed to rest where it is… there is now no hope that they would agree to anything less than the whole of Palestine".

Luke explained that it was clear "that we must expect that from now on the Zionist's campaign will steadily increase in intensity irrespective of any embarrassment that it may be likely to cause the British war effort.

"It has hitherto been our assumption that the Palestine question will remain in abeyance until the end of the war," he said. "It is fairly clear from this memorandum that the Zionist leaders will not permit this. They will make every effort henceforth to exert pressure to marshal public opinion on behalf of their programme, and it is specifically stated in the memorandum that the question of immigration of Jews on a large scale to Palestine need not necessarily be deferred until after the war. They consider that, if the military situation permits, there is no reason to await the return of peace".

Although Luke's view of Ben-Gurion's report was that it was "a typical Jewish Agency document, detailed, lucid and logical", Oliver Lyttelton, a minister of state in the Middle East, described it as "the work of a fanatic idealist" and warned that if his scheme was carried out "it would inevitably lead to rebellion from Iraq to the Suez Canal, with strong repercussions in India, Saudi Arabia and Egypt".

The newly released documents also include warnings from between 1941 and 1943 about the tactics of the Stern gang, and discussion of the activities of illegal Jewish organisations operating in Mandate Palestine. "These organisations… constitute a potential danger far more serious than Arab violence," wrote Sir William Battershill, assistant under-secretary of state at the Colonial Office, in March 1942, "since it would be infinitely less easy to meet by the methods which were employed against Arabs".

The documents emphasise the hostility felt by some in the Foreign Office towards the Zionists, with Luke writing in a document in December 1941: "It is impossible not to feel… that in the Zionist organisation we are faced with a most formidable power, fascist in conception, tireless and ruthless in the attainment of its objectives, with great powers of organisation and backed by very important international political support.

"The political ideas and methods described in this memorandum are those which created the Fascist Govt. in Italy, the Communist Govt. in Russia and the National Socialist Govt. in Germany."

Baby-death case doctor speaks of prison ordeal

Sandy Rashty — Thu, 23 May 2013 14:45:43 +0100

A doctor imprisoned in the United Arab Emirates on a manslaughter charge has spoken of his joy and relief at being home.

Professor Cyril Karabus, a 78-year-old paediatric oncologist from Cape Town, said it was “fantastic” to be free after a nine-month ordeal in which he had witnessed the effects of beatings and despaired of ever being released.

He was arrested at Dubai Airport in August as he attempted to transfer from a flight from Toronto where he had been celebrating his son’s wedding.

He didn’t know he had been convicted in absentia for the manslaughter of a terminally ill three-year-old Yemini girl he had treated for leukaemia at the Sheikh Khalifa Medical Centre in Abu Dhabi more than a decade earlier.

“As soon as I landed in Dubai they took me away and shouted ‘you’re a murderer’,” he said at his home in Kenilworth. “My passport was taken. I didn’t know what was going on.”

He spent the night at the airport’s prison before being transferred to two others. “It was an empty room with just a metal bench to sleep on. At the Al Wathbah prison we were four men in a cell. Two were 25-year-old boys who were accused of murder. They were Emirates students and one of them had studied at Cambridge.

“They had been beaten by a drunken policeman they got into a fight with. One was hit so badly that he was paralysed down the right side of his body. He had to learn to write with his left hand.”

Prof Karabus was cleared in March after 17 court hearings. He said: “It was a complete shambles. The people they said had given evidence against me never appeared in court. At times I didn’t know what was going on – sometimes they had no translator and sometimes they would only translate one or two sentences. When the judge said I was free to go, I just cheered.”

He said he had been surprised by the number of well-wishers who had greeted him on his return. “It was amazing. I expected some, but not that many.”

Now he just wants to get to know his three-month-old grandson, Gabriel, who was born while he was in prison.

Harrods says ‘I do’ to kosher wedding service

Anna Sheinman — Thu, 23 May 2013 14:30:00 +0100

Harrods, the department store fit for royals, is now targeting every Jewish princess by advertising kosher weddings.

The store formerly owned by the
Al Fayed brothers, until it was bought by the Qatari royal family in 2010, has previously held several royal warrants.It has now gained another stamp of approval in the form of kosher certification from the Sephardi Kashrut authority.

Couples can expect lavish package offers from its shelves, including dresses, jewellery, honeymoons and even weddings inside Harrods itself.

Kosher caterer Philip Small has been advising the company for two years, training staff, including chefs and senior management, on how to handle simchas.

He said: “The Harrods brand is global and the standards are very high. For the most recognised store in the world to say: ‘Yes, we want to do kosher catering’, is just amazing.”

A Harrods spokesperson said: “The resource is truly unique, pulling together the extensive range of departments and services available at Harrods.

“And, by this token, Harrods wanted to ensure that no stone was left unturned for the services offered to couples, with the same exceptional quality and creativity applied to kosher weddings.”

Two weddings are already in the pipeline.

Hitler love letter auctioned but paintings do not sell

Thu, 23 May 2013 14:15:33 +0100

A love letter from Hitler to his niece has sold for £2,800 at an auction in Shropshire. But five paintings by the Nazi leader expected to fetch over £24,000 failed to find a buyer at the Mullock’s sale at Ludlow Racecourse on Tuesday. Documents bearing signatures of Hitler’s deputy, Rudolf Hess, and right-hand man, Hermann Goering, also went under the hammer.

Charedi school budget cuts on hold

Anshel Pfeffer — Thu, 23 May 2013 14:00:43 +0100

Some of the more drastic cuts in the budgets of strictly Orthodox education have been dropped at the last moment from the new Israeli state budget.

The new finance minister, Yair Lapid, had pledged that Charedi schools and yeshivas that do not teach the state curriculum would have their funding slashed. But the leader of the strictly Orthodox Shas party, Aryeh Deri, has managed to get the cuts cancelled after a legal challenge.

The original budget proposed last month by Mr Lapid included a decision not to fund Charedi schools that refuse to teach the “core subjects” — including grammar, mathematics, history and English — as mandated by the Education Ministry.

The cut caused an uproar among the Charedi leadership, who accused the minister of trying to “defile the pure education of the children of Israel”.

However, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, resisted their demands that the proposal be dropped.

Mr Deri sent the Education Ministry a legal opinion that the government could not cut school funding without offering an alternative curriculum for hundreds of thousands of Charedi children.

Following this move, and at the last moment before the budget was debated in the Knesset at the end of last week, the funding reduction proposal was dropped.

While the Shas leader was quick to announce that the cuts to the Charedi school budget had been scrapped, Mr Lapid and Education Minister, Shai Piron, responded angrily that the cuts were only being frozen temporarily.

They said that, in six months, once an alternative framework is set up for Charedi students where the core subjects are taught, the cuts will be reinstated.

In a message on Facebook, the Finance Minister wrote that, “I forgot who we are dealing with,” and that “Deri sold to the media the idea that we had given in to him.” He said that by doing so, Mr Deri, now in opposition, “prevented the possibility of us ever working together on matters of importance for his community.”

Chief Rabbi Lord Sacks talks to David Frost in leaving tribute

Simon Rocker — Thu, 23 May 2013 13:30:00 +0100

When veteran broadcaster Sir David Frost uttered his trademark introduction, “Hello, good evening and welcome”, shortly after a set of Hebrew songs by the Shabbaton Choir, the auditorium erupted in applause. Facing the interviewer of prime ministers and presidents this time was a different kind of leader, the Chief Rabbi, Lord Sacks.

Probably few events in Jewish communal history have sold out as quickly as the United Synagogue’s tribute to its spiritual leader, who retires in three months’ time. All 2,000 tickets for the event at the Barbican Centre in London were snapped up in just three days.

The Chief Rabbi, who a few hours earlier celebrated the birth of his latest grandchild, was on song, too, drawing frequent laughter as he shared anecdotes and reminiscences from the celebrity armchair.

As an undergraduate at Caius College Cambridge, he had enjoyed the same suite of rooms once occupied by Sir David — “magnificent rooms with huge French windows looking out on a croquet lawn. I spent the whole year playing croquet and nearly failed my exams.”

At Cambridge, too, he and his friend Philip Skelker (later head of Immanuel College) had invited a couple of young women to dinner. “I did something for the first and last time in my life,” revealed the Chief Rabbi: “I cooked a chicken.”

Three weeks later, he proposed to one of them, Elaine, his wife — “the best thing I have done in my entire life”.

Asked about religious politics, he noted the abundance of words in Hebrew for “argue” and suggested that God had chosen the Jews “because He loves a good argument”. When Sir David wondered what he would tell atheist Jews who could not get along with synagogue, he said: “Come after the service and enjoy the whisky”.

The first of Lord Sacks’s visits to
10 Downing Street had been at the behest of John Major. “He said: ‘Jonathan, what should I do about crime?’ I think I said: ‘Be against it, Prime Minister’.”

After he became the first Chief Rabbi to decide to retire before 70, the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams also announced his retirement, “then the Pope retired”.

“We have started a fashion,” Lord Sacks had told the archbishop. “He replied: ‘I know, I’m worried about the Dalai Lama.’ Then we heard about Alex Ferguson.”

The relaxed exchanges took a sharper turn when Sir David brought up Israel, suggesting that the death toll after Israel’s Gaza incursion four years ago — more than 1,300 Palestinians compared with 13 Israelis — amounted to a “slaughter”.

The Chief Rabbi responded: “I don’t know how many tens, or thousands of civilians died as a result of the Western campaign in Iraq and Afghanistan and I don’t see the same moral odium attached to it.”

Sustained applause greeted a succession of comments in defence of Israel.

As it had begun, the Sacksfest ended with music: a new setting of the Shabbat song Anim Zmirot sung by 300 children from 11 Jewish schools, and then the Chief Rabbi taking the stage again to join them for a final Oseh Shalom.

On Gay Marriage

The Chief Rabbi has distanced himself from critics of the legalisation of gay marriage. During his interview with Sir David Frost, Lord Sacks rejected a suggestion that he had “come out strongly” against same-sex unions.

He stated: “We have strongly defined sexual ethics in Judaism more than 3,000 years old. But I think religions should never seek to impose their view on society as a whole.”

A Bill paving the way for same-sex marriage is to be debated in the House of Lords. A year ago, a submission sent to the government on behalf of Lord Sacks and his rabbinical court, the London Beth Din, made clear Orthodox opposition to gay marriage.

London protest planned against Israel hosting Uefa Under-21s

Jennifer Lipman — Thu, 23 May 2013 13:15:33 +0100

Anti-Israel protesters are planning a demonstration in central London on Friday in the latest bid to prevent Israel from hosting the European Under-21 football championship next month.

Red Card Israeli Racism has called for boycott supporters to protest outside the Grosvenor House Hotel, where European football’s governing body, Uefa, is holding its annual conference.

They want Uefa to strip Israel of the tournament, which kicks off on June 5. The campaign is supported by figures such as film director Ken Loach, MP Jeremy Corbyn and comedian Alexei Sayle.

The protesters are also demanding that Uefa president Michel Platini meets Mahmoud Sarsak, a Palestinian footballer who was released in 2012 after three years in an Israeli prison.

Uefa has consistently rejected calls to relocate the tournament.

In a show of support for Uefa, StandWithUs UK, the Zionist Federation and the Fair Play Campaign Group are asking England fans to write to Under-21 players to wish them luck, and express the hope “that they enjoy their experience of Israel, without reference to anything political or the attempted boycotts of this tournament”.

Temple Fortune jeweller raided by smash and grab gang

Anna Sheinman — Thu, 23 May 2013 12:56:59 +0100

A jewellery shop in Temple Fortune, north London was burgled on Thursday morning .

D & M Cohen was raided by what community security group Shomrim called a “smash and grab motorcycle gang”.

Owner Robert Cohen confirmed that the thieves had broken into the shop by smashing in its front door

The shop was previously targeted by thieves in 2009 when its windows were smashed and rings and necklaces stolen.

Israeli report: Muhammad al Durah not killed by Israeli soldiers

Anshel Pfeffer — Thu, 23 May 2013 12:30:00 +0100

An Israeli government report published this week rebuts claims that Israeli troops killed a 12-year-old Palestinian boy, Muhammad al Durah, in 2000. The report has once again focused attention on the case that became a symbol of the second Palestinian Intifada.

Jamal al Durah and his son Muhammad, 12, were pinned down by fighting around the Netzarim Junction in the Gaza Strip in September 2000. A report by the France2 TV channel purported to show Mr al Durah being hit from shots fired from an IDF observation tower while trying to shield his son. According to the report, further shots killed Muhammad.

The footage was broadcast around the world and Muhammad al Durah became an icon for the Palestinian resistance movement. Israel initially admitted that its soldiers had fired the shots that killed him but subsequent investigations by Israeli civilians and officers placed doubt on some of the main points in the report.

Among the question marks were the claim that the soldiers in the tower did not have a direct line of fire to the point where the al Durahs were sheltering; that the wounds Mr al Durah claimed to have sustained in the incident were old ones and that the full footage seemed to show Muhammad moving after he was allegedly killed.

Claims and counter-claims over the veracity of the report have prompted a series of libel hearings, still ongoing in French courts. Last September, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu instructed the Ministry for Strategic Affairs to hold an official investigation and on Sunday it delivered its findings. It concluded that the raw footage proved that at the end of the incident, al Durah was still alive and there was no proof that he had been hit. The report accused the Palestinian cameraman and French reporter Charles Enderlin of a “misleading” report.

Mr Netanyahu said: “It was important to focus on this case. It libelled Israel and is an example of the delegitimisation we experience all the time. There is only one way to fight lies and that is with truth.”

Rejecting the conclusions, Mr al Durah called for the establishment of an international commission and said he was prepared to exhume his son’s body. Mr Enderlin said: “How can the report’s authors omit the fact that Jamal al Durah was hospitalised the next day in the Jordanian capital of Amman? How can they claim that the IDF did not open fire?”

Church acts to ease fears over Israel report

Marcus Dysch — Thu, 23 May 2013 11:42:28 +0100

A rewritten version of a controversial report about Israel was due to be voted on by Church of Scotland leaders this week.

Phrases questioning Jewish claims to the land of Israel were removed from the document, compiled by the Church’s church and society council, following complaints from Jewish communal organisations.

Among the points inserted into the new version were condemnations of terrorism and antisemitism, and recognition of Israel’s right to exist.

The church and society council said it had made the alterations because its original document had been “misunderstood”.

One of the passages in the original report which had drawn criticism had asked: “Would the Jewish people today have a fairer claim to the land if they dealt justly with the Palestinians?” It was removed from the new document.

A Board of Deputies spokesman said: “The new document confirms a number of views that the Church has assured us always formed part of its policy.” But he added that the revised report “still lacks balance” and was “unlikely to be embraced by mainstream views in the Jewish community.

“We do not consider that it will advance the cause of the peace in the Middle East that we all; Jews, Christians, and Muslims, so fervently pray for.”

More than 700 ministers and Church elders were due to vote on whether to adopt the report as Church policy at its general assembly yesterday.

Reverend Sally Foster-Fulton, convener of the church and society council, said: “We believe that this new version has paid attention to the concern some of the language of the previous version caused among the Jewish community, while holding true to our concerns about the injustices being perpetrated because of policies of the government of Israel against the Palestinian people.”

Angela Merkel honoured for opposing antisemitism

Zoe Winograd — Thu, 23 May 2013 11:27:36 +0100

German chancellor Angela Merkel has been awarded the Lord Jakobovits Prize for European Jewry by the Conference of European Rabbis.

At a ceremony in Brussels on Wednesday Ms Merkel was honoured for her support of the German Jewish community and her outspoken denunciation of anti s emitism throughout Europe.

CER president, Chief Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt said: "Chancellor Merkel is a worthy recipient in recognition of her continuing efforts of inter-communal harmony across Europe, her friendship towards the Jewish community and outstanding contributions to the promotion of tolerance and understanding."

Receiving the award , Ms Merkel said: “We must learn to talk to one another and not to about one another... Freedom needs to be defended anew every day. I am deeply moved to have received this prize and I see it as an encouragement as there is much work still to be done across Europe.”

She also stressed the importance of Holocaust education. "The fight against anti-semitism is a paramount duty of a free democratic state."

Ms Merkel has been recognised for her efforts to protect the religious practice of circumcision which has been under threat in Germany.

Reach for the stars: Milky Way Magic Stars now kosher

Anna Sheinman — Thu, 23 May 2013 11:08:06 +0100

Milky Way Magic stars are just one of over 30 products which have received kosher certification from the London Beth Din since the beginning of the year according to an update to the Really Jewish Food Guide 2013. Hubba Bubba bubblegum is now approved parev and two varieties of Duchy original shortbread are approved dairy.

MP Lee Scott: I cried over death threat

Marcus Dysch — Thu, 23 May 2013 10:56:33 +0100

A Jewish MP has described how he cried after being subjected to an antisemitic death threat while campaigning for re-election.

Tory Lee Scott said he needed police protection in his Ilford North constituency following the incident during the general election in 2010.

“I was going back to my car when I was approached by two people who called me a ‘dirty Jewish pig’ and said they were going to kill me. I legged it as fast as I could,” he said.

“I went home and I cried, not because someone had threatened me but because I felt that I loved my job and I was just not sure it was worth it for my family. It was a horrendous position. No candidate of any religion, race or sexuality should go through it.

“At the next hustings I turned up with two police officers for protection.”

Mr Scott, 57, was speaking at the first session of the All-Party Parliamentary Inquiry into Electoral Conduct. A panel of 12 cross-party MPs and peers was set up by Labour MP John Mann earlier this year to investigate misconduct during election campaigns, including incidents of racism and discrimination.

During the 2010 campaign, leaflets were distributed by an unnamed group branding Mr Scott an “enemy of Muslims”.

While campaigning, he said, a man approached him and made abusive, antisemitic comments. “He was holding a leaflet saying I was not favourable to Islam, which is not true. There was a picture of me in a skullcap which must have been taken in a synagogue.”

Police fitted a panic alarm at the MP’s home, and members of the Muslim community in his constituency put up banners supporting him.

The panel also heard evidence from Ukip secretary Michael Greaves. A number of Ukip candidates were ejected by the party ahead of the local elections earlier this month amid claims that they had made racist comments during their campaigns or had links with far-right groups.

Mr Greaves explained that the party was “ramping up” its selection procedures. “We have to do better,” he said.

Nazi propaganda on show at the British Library

Jennifer Lipman — Thu, 23 May 2013 10:51:08 +0100

Antisemitic Nazi posters have gone on show in London this week as part of a British Library exhibition on propaganda.

One poster, originally displayed in occupied France in 1943, is titled Behind everything the Jew, while another, from Czechoslovakia, shows a caricature of the Jewish banker exposed by an honest Aryan worker (above). Both examples are from the collection of art dealer Anthony d’Offay.

Ian Cooke, co-curator of the exhibition, said “We often think of Nazi propaganda as clumsy, but it got into the whole of society.”

The display runs until September 17.

Jordan and Israel 'as one' over Syria and Iran attack

Stephen Pollard — Thu, 23 May 2013 10:00:43 +0100

A senior Jordanian official has confirmed that the Hashemite Kingdom is allowing the Israelis to fly unmanned drones over its air space as part of the Israeli monitoring of the situation in Syria.

The official, who is close to King Abdullah, told the JC that the two countries are “working as one over Syria”. He also said that, if the need arose, “of course we will allow Israel to use Jordanian air space for another attack on Syria”.

Without such permission, Israeli planes would have to fly over southern Lebanon, a Hizbollah stronghold.

The JC has also learned that Jordan is “in deep discussions” with Israel over a route map for any Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear weapons programme.

Although the official said that the Jordanians have yet to make a final decision on the level of its co-operation, he indicated that it was “near certain” that they would help facilitate any Israeli attack.

“Although we will of course condemn it publicly”, he added.

In recent weeks there have been a number of unconfirmed reports of co-operation over Syria but this is believed to be the first time a senior Jordanian source has spoken openly about such links.

Jordan is currently receiving 3-4000 Syrian refugees a day and Islamist opposition to King Abdullah is gaining in strength.

The Jordanians are almost as concerned as Israel at the possibility of the Syrian regime’s weapons arsenal falling into the hands of terrorist and splinter groups which would
further destabilise an already uncertain
picture.

According to the Jordanian official: “Syria is a crisis whatever happens. Assad is no longer a force for stability. And the rebels are dominated by jihadists. The Israelis don’t mess about and that’s what we need. We are working as one over Syria.”

It is widely believed that in February Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu held secret talks with King Abdullah in Jordan.

Los Angeles elects first Jewish mayor

Zoe Winograd — Wed, 22 May 2013 18:14:44 +0100

Los Angeles has elected its first Jewish mayor.

Eric Garcetti, 42, defeated his opponent Wendy Greuel by six percentage points.

The Liberal Democrat tweeted after hearing the result : “Thank you Los Angeles – the hard work begins but I am honored to lead this city for the next four years. Let’s make this a great city again.”

Other city positions were won by members of the Jewish community, including newly-elected city attorney Mike Feuer and Ron Galperin in his bid to be city controller.

Los Angeles has the second largest Jewish community in America with 600,000 Jews residing there.

Two men deny harassment charges

Marcus Dysch — Wed, 22 May 2013 16:21:54 +0100

Two Orthodox men have appeared in court to deny harassment charges.

Samuel Erlanger, 38, and Shlomo Feldman, 29, were charged by police last month during an ongoing investigation which saw Golders Green rabbi Chaim Halpern questioned in connection with alleged sexual assault and perverting the course of justice

At Hendon Magistrates Court on Monday, Mr Feldman, of Lynmouth Road, Stamford Hill, denied three charges of harassment without violence.

He was bailed to reappear at Willesden Magistrates Court on July 26.

Mr Erlanger, of Powis Gardens, Golders Green, denied one count of the same charge at Hendon earlier this month. He will appear at the Willesden court on July 23.

Rabbi Halpern, head of the Divrei Chaim Synagogue, has not been charged, denies all allegations of wrongdoing and is on bail until July.

Israel plans to restrict gun ownership

Zoe Winograd — Wed, 22 May 2013 14:23:02 +0100

The Israeli Public Security Ministry has announced new regulations to limit the number of guns in the country.

According to the ministry, school security guards will have to hand in weapons during school holidays , security companies will have to put in place more stringent rules on monitoring weapons, diamond dealers and gold-shop owners will no longer be able to carry firearms and licensed gun owners will have to store their weapon in a safe at home.

It has also been suggested that a special panel will administer mental and physical examinations of all firearm licence applicants.

The announcement has come after five Israelis were killed during a bank robbery in Beer Sheva on Monday.

Public security minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch said in a statement: "Limiting gun ownership is at the top of our agenda and I intend to hold a weekly follow-up meeting on the subject."

He added: "The security situation in Israel in recent decades has led to the granting of numerous gun licences. We intend to restrict this while protecting necessary balance.”

According to Mr Aharonovitch, in the last 10 years firearm licences have been reduced from 300,000 to 160,000.

The Public Security Ministry has recently launched a campaign to collect weapons from individuals whose licences have expired. Reportedly, the Israeli authorities have received names of 6,500 people who have not renewed their licences.

Israeli military chief warns Syria of 'consequences' over attacks

Zoe Winograd — Wed, 22 May 2013 10:26:18 +0100

Israeli military’s chief of staff Lieutenant General Benny Gantz has warned Syria’s President Bashar Al-Assad that he will “bear the consequences” if Syria continues to attack Israel.

Lt Gen Gantz told an audience at Haifa University on Tuesday: “We will not allow the area of the Golan Heights to become a comfortable place for Mr Assad.”

“If Mr Assad impairs the situation in the Golan Heights, he will have to bear the consequences.”

The military chief’s speech came hours after Syria attacked an Israeli army jeep in the Golan Heights. This was followed by an Israeli missile attack targeting the source of Syrian gunfire. It was the third incident across the border this week.

Britain asks EU to ban Hizbollah

Marcus Dysch — Tue, 21 May 2013 18:26:13 +0100

Britain has formally asked the European Union to outlaw Hizbollah as a terrorist organisation.

The move increases the likelihood of the EU taking action against the Iranian-backed group and follows months of pressure from Anglo-Jewish groups.

Prime Minister David Cameron requested that British Jews "make a noise" and help him persuade the EU to ban Hizbollah following a meeting with community leaders in January.

To proscribe Hizbollah requires consensus among all 27 EU members. The move would freeze the group's accounts and funding, hitting its European operations and terrorist activities.

It is understood that Hizbollah's increasing role in the Syrian Civil War led the Foreign Office to make the formal request.

A special EU working group is now due to discuss what steps to take against the group at a meeting next month with a ban on the organisation possibly being introduced by the end of June.

A Foreign Office spokesman said: “We are calling for Europe to respond collectively and robustly following the atrocious terrorist attack at Bourgas airport and in light of the recent conviction of an Hizbollah operative in Cyprus.

“We firmly believe that an appropriate EU response would be to designate Hizballah’s military wing as a terrorist organisation. This would be in line with our national proscription of Hizballah’s military wing.

“We continue to work closely with our European partners on this issue to reach a robust, collective EU position."

Middle East minister Alistair Burt said last week that the government was eager to see a “robust response” from the EU to the suicide bombing carried out by Hizbollah in the Bulgarian resort of Bourgas last July which killed five Israeli tourists and a Bulgarian bus driver.

The EU currently classifies Hizbollah as a social welfare organisation. The US, Israel, Canada and the Netherlands are the only countries which currently list Hizbollah as a terrorist organisation in its entirety — both its political and military wings.

A delegation of British Jewish community representatives met Helga Schmid, deputy head of the EU’s external action service last month to push for a Europe-wide ban.

Foreign Secretary William Hague is due to visit Israel on Thursday.

Chabad aids victims of Oklahoma tornado

Zoe Winograd — Tue, 21 May 2013 17:00:28 +0100

A Chabad centre in Oklahoma has opened its doors for families affected by yesterday’s devastating tornado.

The tornado, which hit Oklahoma City on Monday afternoon, has left at least 91 people dead , including 20 children , and hundreds injured.

The Chabad community centre of southern Oklahoma is provid ing shelter and supplies for those left homeless.

Rabbi Ovadia Goldman, co-director of southern Oklahoma Chabad, said: “While we feel the pain of others, we’re very thankful that we’re able to respond – to use all our energy and all our resources to let the community know we’re here to help.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sent a letter to US President Barack Obama on Tuesday morning.

Mr Netanyahu wrote: “On behalf of the government and people of Israel, I offer our heartfelt condolences to you and to the people of the United States on the massive tornado that struck in Oklahoma and exacted such a horrific toll in human life.”

“Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims of this tragedy and their families at this difficult time.”

The Union for Reform Judaism has also started to collect funds which will be donated to relief groups on the ground.

President of the union Rabbi Rick Jacobs said: “We are numb with grief, and yet inspired by the heroic resilience of the people of Oklahoma.”

“Our thoughts and prayers go out to all those impacted by this horrific tragedy."

The Jewish Federations of North America and B'nai B'rith International have also started funds to aid the relief effort.

Israel and Syria exchange fire in the Golan Heights

Marcus Dysch — Tue, 21 May 2013 15:01:52 +0100

Israeli and Syrian forces have exchanged fire in the Golan Heights in the latest in a series of incidents on the border.

The Syrian army claimed it had destroyed an IDF jeep that it said had infiltrated into Syrian territory in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

No Israelis are thought to have been injured in the incident. An IDF spokesman confirmed a vehicle had been damaged by "light weapons fire" and that a rocket had been fired in retaliation, scoring a "direct hit" on Syrian forces.

It was the third time an Israeli Tammuz rocket was fired back into Syria.

The clashes follow a number of similar skirmishes and increasing tension in the border region in recent weeks.

Syrian shells have hit Israel twice this week. It is not known whether Syrian forces directly targeted Israeli army positions or had unsuccessfully aimed at rebels.

Israeli Defence Minister Moshe Ya’alon reiterated Israel's position and said: “We do not interfere in the civil war, but we will not allow it to enter our territory.”

Israel bank raider and victims identified

Sandy Rashty — Tue, 21 May 2013 14:16:35 +0100

Israeli police have identified the man responsible for the bank raid shootings that led to the death of four civilians in Be'er Sheva on Monday.

Itamar Alon, a reservist captain for the Israeli Defence Force, took a number of hostages during the attack at the Hapoalim Bank on Jabotinsky Street.

Alon, 40, had been refused an overdraft loan by the bank for around £1,000 (NIS 6,000).

The Be'er Sheva resident killed four people, released one woman hostage and then shot himself after failed negotiations with police.

Another victim, shot four times in the back and stomach, is said to be in critical condition.

The victims include two bank employees who are thought to have been specifically targeted by the shooter - branch manager Avner Cohen, a 44-year-old father-of-three; and deputy manager Meir Alon, a 40-year-old father-of-three.

Idan Savri, 22, was also killed. He had been opening an account at the bank. Mother-of-three Anat Ben-Haim, 34, was killed by the gunman as she attempted to deposit money into an account.

At least three people were injured and treated at the city's Soroka Medical Center. Magen David Adom emergency service workers attended the scene.

Alon, a former school security guard, was once decorated for shooting a terrorist who attacked an IDF base in 2002.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the incident as a “great tragedy”.

Hague and Kerry due in Israel for peace talks

Marcus Dysch — Tue, 21 May 2013 10:03:07 +0100

Foreign Secretary William Hague is due to visit Israel this week during a short tour of the Middle East.

He is expected to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for talks on the peace process.

The trip has been planned for some time and is being made in an effort to support US Secretary of State John Kerry's work to encourage Israelis and Palestinians to return to negotiations.

Mr Kerry will also be in Israel - his fourth visit in two months as he works to turn around reluctance on both sides and looks to boost the Palestinian economy.

Mr Hague will attend a meeting of the core group nations in Jordan on Wednesday before travelling to Israel the following day.

He is also due to meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah.

Five killed in bank raid in Israel

Sandy Rashty — Mon, 20 May 2013 12:42:58 +0100

At least five Israelis have been killed in what appears to be a bank robbery in Israel this morning.

Another person is in critical condition after the attack, in which hostages were held, at the Hapoalim Bank on Jabotinsky street in Be’er Sheva.

According to a report on Haaretz news, police are investigating the possibility that a Jewish man in his forties instigated the attack after being denied a loan for his mortgage by the bank manager.

Police Commissioner Yohanan Danino told Haaretz that the robber, who has shot himself, was a Be'er Sheva resident.

Civilians have been evacuated from the area.

One woman hostage was released.

At least three people are believed to be injured and are being treated at the Soroka Medical Center in Be'er Sheva. Magen David Adom emergency service workers were at the scene.

Protest targets Israel's Eurovision singer

Mon, 20 May 2013 09:52:58 +0100

Israeli singer Moran Mazor was under heavy security protection during her stay in Malmö, Sweden, where she competed in the Eurovision Song Contest. Israeli journalists told Swedish radio that they were followed by a group of young men who said they wanted to bomb the Israelis' hotel rooms.

They got away by telling the men they were from Cyprus. A taxi driver who picked up six passengers from the Israeli delegation's party reportedly called them "damn Jews" and "Jewish whores" in Arabic.

Before Saturday's final, hundreds of Swedes and Danes took part in pro-Palestine rallies in Malmö in which local politicians called for a cultural and economic boycott of Israel under the slogan "Israel, welcome back when Palestine's free".

Daniel Sestrajcic, chair for the Left Party in Malmö and of the Malmö Board of Culture, claimed that Israel does not live up to the Eurovision Song Contest's values of peace, democracy and solidarity.

"Israel is denying the Palestinians from experiencing all that so today we are telling the EBU [the European Broadcasting Union]: You should not to allow Israel to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest," Sestrajcic said in his speech.

On Saturday, the day of the Eurovision final, Sestrajcic took part in a “kippah march” organised to protest against antisemitism and intolerance.

Around 300 people participated in the march, which was rerouted after police granted the Malmö Palestine network permission to set up a protest tent camp on a central square which previous kippah marches have passed through.

According to local media reports, priests, imams, rabbis, politicians, top businessmen and members of the public took part.

Moran Mazor, who celebrated her twenty-second birthday on the day of the semi-final, did not make it through to Saturday's final.

Immigrant problem? We should be flattered they choose the UK

Jennifer Lipman — Sun, 19 May 2013 09:00:28 +0100

The British should be flattered that so many refugees and immigrants want to settle in the UK. That is the view of one of the country’s best-loved children’s authors, seven decades after she herself found refuge from the Nazis in London.

Speaking in the week that tougher rules on immigrants were included in the Queen’s Speech, Judith Kerr noted the growing public mood against new arrivals, but said: “It’s nothing to do with immigration, just to do with the number of people who all have to go somewhere, and it’s rather flattering that they all want to come here.”

She insisted that immigrants should not be deterred from coming to Britain but that they would do well to follow the example of the Jews who arrived in the 1930s and learn English and adopt British customs as quickly as possible.

Mrs Kerr is famous for her two classic works for children — The Tiger Who Came to Tea and the Mog the cat series, — and for When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit, the fictionalised memoir of her Jewish family’s escape from Berlin to Switzerland, France and finally Britain. The book is considered a good way of introducing children to the events of the Holocaust.

The writer turns 90 at the start of next month and to mark the event, publisher Harper Collins is releasing Judith Kerr’s Creatures, a book bringing together her biography and hundreds of her illustrations, including early drawings that formed the basis of The Tiger Who Came to Tea and Mog.

Mrs Kerr was made an OBE last year, an honour she welcomed, “because I came here as a refugee and to put it simply, it’s very nice to know that nobody regrets having let me in.

“I keep coming across Jewish refugees [who got similar honours], and I’m terribly pleased because it means that we did good.”

The author quickly became fluent in English when she arrived in London and is adamant that all immigrants should learn the language.

She said: “You should learn it as fast as you can and you should abide by what is normal in the country, even if it is different from what you are used to, because it’s only polite.

“The people who came here in the 1930s were ready to follow the rules as it were. My father used to say: ‘We are guests in this country’ which is a good attitude.”

The new book chronicles the period from the Kerr family’s frantic departure from Germany in 1933 to her time as a BBC employee and her marriage to screenwriter Nigel Kneale in the early ’50s. It is, she says a chance to “put right” a previous depiction of her father, Alfred.

In the Bombs on Aunt Daisy trilogy, “Papa” is portrayed as inactive, even passive, a representation Mrs Kerr now knows to be untrue, having discovered his private papers.

“I’ve found out a lot of things since I wrote the book about my father, which worried me, because I totally misrepresented him. I thought I must write about what really happened.”

One letter she found was Alfred Kerr’s plea to Albert Einstein in 1936. “My father said: ‘There’s going to be a war in Europe, I must get my children out’. So he knew then what was at stake,” said Mrs Kerr.

She puts her continued popularity as a writer down to “luck”, although she wishes people would remember her for more than Tiger. “It’s the first thing I ever did and I worked terribly hard to get better,” she said.

Gefiltefest 2013 - 'biggest yet'

Zoe Winograd — Sun, 19 May 2013 06:00:57 +0100

Gefiltefest, the annual celebration of Jewish food, takes place today, with around 600 people expected to attend.

The event includes cooking demonstrations, learning sessions, hands-on activities and a children’s programme.

It is the fourth time the event has been run and promises to be the “biggest yet", according to founder Michael Leventhal. Highlights are an Ashkenazi versus Sephardi cook-off, hands-on challah baking and the Gefiltefest Food Awards 2013 , which recognise the public's favourite kosher shops and restaurants.

More than 75 volunteers from across the community have been involved in preparing the kosher festival , which takes place at the London Jewish Cultural Centre's Ivy House, in Golders Green.

Mr Leventhal said: “Food is one thing that can unite people . There are very few things that can do that – food can bring people together.”

In historic ruling, judge calls Palestinian rock attack murder

Nathan Jeffay — Fri, 17 May 2013 19:00:28 +0100

Earlier this month, a Palestinian man began a 98-year jail term for murdering young father Asher Palmer and his baby son by throwing a rock.

The ruling against Waal al-Arja is unusual in the Israeli military courts that deal with Palestinian crime, and a coup for the British-born lawyer who represents the victims’ family.

While Palestinian stone-throwers are often prosecuted, they are rarely sentenced to murder because there is a lack of legal precedent for defining rocks as a murder weapon and, historically, judges have tended not to rule premeditation in rock attacks.

The attacker threw a rock from an oncoming vehicle at Asher Palmer’s car in the West Bank, injuring him and causing him to lose control of the car, which subsequently overturned.

“Only I believed there would be a sentence for murder,” said Adrian Agassi, lawyer for Michael Palmer, whose son and grandson were killed a year and a half ago.

Mr Agassi, a Carmel College graduate who made aliyah in 1986 and went on to stints as an army lawyer and a military judge, pushed the military prosecution to demand a murder sentence, instead of taking the normal approach that stone throwing is wrong but the aim is not to kill.

He believes that the sentence will have a deterrent effect on other stone throwers who realise that the stakes have been raised, sending out a message that “enough is enough”.

He also hopes that, with a stone defined in the Palmer case as a murder weapon, civilians will be provided with the same justification for opening fire on stone throwers as those who shoot back at those wielding guns — a suggestion that will meet with controversy in the Israeli legal establishment.

The sentencing of al-Arja at Ofer Military Court was unusually emotional, as the father of the victim took the unusual step of addressing the bench. He spoke of how he saw “Asher’s body wrapped in a tallit, and a little box on top, in the box was Yonatan’s body.”

Mr Palmer, who made aliyah from America, talked about how his grandson’s life was cut short just as he was starting to speak. In an interview after the hearing, he said: “When you have a murder trial, the victim can’t be there and I’ve seen that there’s a tendency for the murderer, with their family crying in the court, can be seen as a kind of victim.” He “wanted it to be clear what was now missing from the world,” and to humanise the victims before a sentence was passed.

Asher Palmer, a settler who lived in Kiryat Arba, had studied in yeshivah, married, and was starting to study engineering in Jerusalem, his father said.

On an Atlantic isle, Morocco honours its lost Sephardim

Bernard Josephs — Fri, 17 May 2013 18:30:28 +0100

It was an unlikely setting for a Jewish cemetery and the group, there to attend a rededication ceremony, was also out of the ordinary.

Among those gathered at the event in Cape Verde, an archipelago of islands 300 miles off the coast of Senegal, were high ranking Americans, Europeans and Moroccans, including a representative of King Mohammed VI, a major benefactor of the project.

Four cemeteries are almost all that is left of a community of Sephardic Jews who settled in Cape Verde in the late 19th century, when it was a Portuguese colony. They arrived following the abolition of the inquisition in Portugal and the signing of a commercial treaty between Portugal and Britain.

Individuals with surnames such Benros, Cohen, Levy and Wahnon immigrated to the islands from Morocco searching for greater economic stability. Many passed first through Gibraltar, where they obtained British citizenship.

The Jews prospered in Cape Verde but because they were few in number and mostly men, they assimilated over time with the mainly Catholic population. As a result, Cape Verde has virtually no practising Jews.

However, the original immigrants took care to bury their dead according to Jewish law. The typical Sephardic headstones bear Portuguese and Hebrew inscriptions and are among the few vestiges of their presence.

Restoration of the cemeteries began in 2007 under the auspices of the Cape Verde Jewish Heritage Project with major funding coming from the Moroccan monarchy and other non-Jewish and Jewish benefactors, with the support of the Cape Verde government.

The completion of the first stage of the project took place on May 2 at the Varzea cemetery in Praia, the Cape Verde capital. Attending the rededication were envoys from Portugal, America, France and Morocco and the Chief Rabbi of Lisbon, Eliezer Shai di Martino.

A Moroccan diplomat, Abdellah Boutadghart, praised the initiative. It was, he said, a reminder to descendants of Cape Verde Jews of their ties to Morocco. Also at the meeting were around 50 descendants of the original Cape Verde Jewish community.

The head of the Jewish Heritage Project, Carol Castiel, praised the role played by Morocco’s King Mohammed VI. She said: “We find it very symbolic and important that a Muslim monarch saw fit to support restoring Jewish heritage in a predominantly Catholic country. We just think that this is a message that has to go out to the world.”

EU faces ‘great risk’ if it fails to curb Hizbollah

Marcus Dysch — Fri, 17 May 2013 18:15:28 +0100

Iran’s provision of money, military equipment and training to Hizbollah and terror groups, including Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hamas, is of “serious concern”, Middle East Minister Alistair Burt has told Parliament.

He said the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ involvement in terror attacks in Thailand, India, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Kenya was increasingly worrying.

Mr Burt said the government was eager to see a “robust response” from the European Union to the suicide bombing carried out by Hizbollah in Bulgaria last July which killed five Israeli tourists and a Bulgarian bus driver.

Europe faces a “great risk” in failing to respond to that attack, he said, and should not fear instability in Lebanon if the EU was to proscribe Hizbollah’s military wing as a terrorist organisation.

Mr Burt was speaking in a Commons debate on Hizbollah brought by Labour Friends of Israel vice-chair Michael McCann last Thursday.

Mr McCann called on the government to take “decisive action” and praised Israel’s air strike on a Syrian missile depot and chemical weapons sites.

He said that while a “full ban on Hizbollah may be difficult to achieve, Britain must send a powerful message that we do not tolerate Hizbollah’s and Iran’s terrorism, and that we will work hard to curtail terrorist fundraising and recruitment across Europe”.

A delegation of British Jewish community representatives met Helga Schmid, deputy head of the EU’s external action service last month to push for a Europe-wide ban on Hizbollah.

Their visit followed Prime Minister David Cameron’s request for the community to help him persuade the EU to outlaw the group.

Heroic spy was inspiration for Bond girl Vesper Lynd

Jennifer Lipman — Fri, 17 May 2013 18:00:28 +0100

The daring exploits of a Jewish-born secret agent who was parachuted into France during the Second World War have been celebrated at a ceremony in London.

Krystyna Skarbek, whose mother was from an assimilated Jewish family, left her home in Poland after the Nazi invasion and made her way to Britain. She volunteered to work as an agent from British intelligence, returning to Poland on numerous missions to recruit couriers.

Towards the end of the war she was dispatched to France to gather intelligence and boost the Allied war effort, for which she was decorated with the George Medal for bravery.

Known in Britain by the name Christine Granville, she mixed in glamorous circles and allegedly had an affair with James Bond author Ian Fleming, reportedly even inspiring the character Vesper Lyn in Casino Royale.

But in 1952 she was stabbed to death by a man who had become obsessed with her, and was buried in relative anonymity in Kensal Green, west London.

On Friday, 61 years after her death, her courage was saluted at an event organised by the Polish Heritage Society, which is planning to renovate her grave and restore her name to prominence.

Mazeltov! Sitcom to feature a wedding under the chupah

Jennifer Lipman — Fri, 17 May 2013 17:30:28 +0100

A Jewish wedding is on the cards for British television audiences next year after Channel 4 announced that a third series of the hit comedy Friday Night Dinner has been commissioned.

The sitcom, starring Tamsin Greig and Simon Bird, follows the Jewish Goodman family at their weekly Shabbat meals. A spokesman has confirmed that an episode will feature a wedding with a Jewish bride and groom, although he declined to reveal who the family might be wishing mazeltov to under the chupah.

The third outing of the Bafta-nominated series will be filmed on location in north London over the summer and is scheduled to air next year.

Writer Robert Popper has admitted drawing on his own family life in creating the series, which draws much of its comedy from awkward and often uncomfortable situations, and from troublesome visitors to the Goodman home.

Storylines in the new series will involve sex education lectures, inappropriate admirers and tattoos.

Mr Popper, whose previous credits include Peep Show, Bo’Selecta and South Park, said: “I’m so excited to be making a new series with such a fantastic cast once again. I really could not be happier,” he said.

Nerys Evans, deputy head of comedy for Channel 4, said: “Roberts’s created such a brilliantly warm and funny world, and the cast are just sublime.”

The man putting the cycling into recycling

Zoe Winograd — Fri, 17 May 2013 17:00:44 +0100

Every year, over 27,000 bicycles are abandoned in London. Most are turned into scrap metal but, thanks to a former Habonim Dror member, some are now being salvaged as part of a scheme to help refugees.

Twenty-five-year-old Jem Stein runs The Bike Project — a group which collects abandoned bikes from around London, fixes them at a workshop in Hackney and donates them to a drop-in centre for asylum-seekers.

He relies on police and councils to report abandoned machines. Since the project started, he and his team of volunteers have repaired over 300 bikes.

Mr Stein was inspired by two brothers from Darfur who he mentored at university. The brothers — who had sought refuge in the UK after their parents were killed — lived on the outskirts of London and could not afford to use public transport. Mr Stein, an enthusiastic cyclist himself, found them two bikes which, he said, “changed their lives”.

Asylum-seekers also come to the workshop and fix their own bikes, allowing them to develop skills and a sense of self-worth, according to Mr Stein.

“These people come from terrible circumstances. Fixing the bikes can feel quite empowering and offers a real sense of hope,” he said.

Facebook rabbi voted in as Sephardi leader

Simon Rocker — Fri, 17 May 2013 16:30:28 +0100

Britain’s oldest Orthodox community has at last found a senior rabbi after a search that began more than three years ago.

Rabbi Joseph Dweck, 37, of New York, was endorsed as the new rabbinic leader of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews’ Congregation by a massive majority of 270 votes to four in a ballot of its members last week.

Adam Musikant, a member of the executive, said; “I doubt whether in the history of Anglo-Jewry any elected rabbi has had a 98.5 per cent vote.

“He is exceptionally dynamic and a breath of fresh air. He will be a great representative on the ambassadorial stage of our community.”

Rabbi Dweck, who was born in Los Angeles to parents of Syrian roots, has seen his Sephardi congregation, Shaare Shalom, increase from a few dozen members to some 800 over the past 14 years.

He has also been head of a Jewish school for two- to 13-year-olds, Barkai Yeshivah, for four years.

He and his wife Margalit, who is the granddaughter of the world’s leading Sephardi rabbi, Ovadia Yosef, have five children, aged from six to 15.

“I am not going to move my family officially till July 2014. But I will be coming in and out periodically over the next year,” he said, with his next visit likely to be shortly after the High Holy Days.

“I’m looking forward to upholding the traditions of the ‘S and P’ which I have a tremendous respect for,” he added.

The 1,250-strong Spanish and Portuguese community in London offered a unique combination of the warmth and passion of the Sephardi tradition derived from the experience of living in the West for nearly 400 years, he explained.

“To me, it’s an amazing confluence of culture and it creates a unique philosophy, which is a fantastic approach to the world and to Judaism that I’d like to cultivate and to publicise,” he said. “I think the ‘S and P’ approach is one that hasn’t been capitalised upon enough.”

But while “a stickler for history”, he also sees the benefits of new social media.

“Facebook, Twitter, internet communications need to be used, first of all to be able to reach out to the youth in their arena.”

One of his ambitions is to create “a young ambassadors programme, where we’ll have young people from all of the different shuls in the kahal [community] to be able to work with me directly and plan events.

“That will give them an incentive to feel there is something they can do personally to affect the kahal and to have a hand in developing what they’d like to see happen.”

But new media is not only for the youth; he also hopes to use it to “try to create a cohesiveness among the entire community”.

Sephardi leaders began their attempt to recruit a successor to Rabbi Abraham Levy — who retired as spiritual head last July — early in 2010.

But their efforts floundered when their chosen candidate pulled out early last year with the community split and the election result contested. They went back to the drawing board, resuming the search this time for a “senior rabbi” rather than “spiritual head”.

After a week-long visit ahead of the vote, Rabbi Dweck said he and his wife had found “a warm and welcoming community, which was excited about the future”. He added: “I was in the UK during a week when the skies were blue. It was a nice feeling — even though people told me not to get used to it.”

Cost of ﬂights set to tumble

Fri, 17 May 2013 16:00:28 +0100

Holidaymakers received a double dose of good news this week with a prediction that the cost of flights to Israel are set to be slashed, and a U-turn by the Israeli government over its proposal to levy 18 per cent VAT on tourism.

According to a senior Israeli tourism official, the price of an air ticket from the UK to Israel may fall by up to 30 per cent when the new open-skies policy comes into force in April next year.

Naama Oryan-Kaplan, director of the Israel Government Tourism Office in the UK and Ireland, said she anticipated prices would be reduced by between 20 and 30 per cent under the new rules which will open up routes to airlines in the European Union.

Carriers are expected to reduce their prices to attract an additional 250,000 tourists from the EU.

“This is a positive development in the Israel tourism industry,” said Ms Oryan-Kaplan. “There will be many options for new carriers to enter the Israeli market, including low-cost airlines.”

A pre-booked return ticket from London to Tel Aviv on El Al currently costs between around £400 and £430 for an adult flying economy class. If the anticipated reduction takes place, the price could fall to as low as £280.

Ms Oryan-Kaplan said: “There has been already an interest from airlines, and new routes should be announced soon.”

The chief executive of Ryanair has told tourism industry figures that the budget airline would consider flying to Israel under the open skies agreement.

Speaking at a UK Israel Business event, Michael O’Leary promised to route Ryanair flights to Israel if there was a level playing field for competition. “We would like a significant portion of our growth to go to places where it needs it — like Israel,” he said.

He noted that more airlines flying to Israel would make travel more affordable for passengers and boost the tourism market. Because of high prices, “tourists avoid Israel”, he said. “It’s a shame because it’s a beautiful country with enormous opportunities.”

He complained that only two of the country’s six airports were being used for international flights. “Israel is a very rich country — build some jet runways and fulfil the enormous tourism potential. We want to open up bases in Israel and put our jets there.”

Meanwhile, UK groups organising trips to Israel have reacted with relief to the Israeli government’s decision to not push forward Finance Minister Yair Lapid’s proposal to levy 18 per cent VAT on hotels and travel services.

“We’re very happy,” said Ilan Scorah, UJIA co-ordinator for tours and gap year programmes. The cost of a UJIA tour, currently £2650, “would have leapt by 12 per cent”, he said.

Harry Jardine, national director of the Federation of Zionist Youth which runs educational tour groups to Israel, welcomed the decision which, he said, followed “great lobby work from organisations across the Jewish world”.

The proposed tax was expected to reduce tourism in Israel by 14 per cent. Last year, 200,000 British tourists out of a record total of 3.4 million visited the country — which was named the eighth most expensive tourist destination by a World Economic Forum report.

Prize author: Hawking is wrong over boycott

Jennifer Lipman — Fri, 17 May 2013 15:50:28 +0100

Two writers with links to the Hebrew University in Jerusalem have been nominated for a major British-based literary prize.

Croatian-born author Josip Novakovich, who is a visiting professor of creative writing at the university, and Israeli novelist Aharon Appelfeld, who studied there, are among the 10 nominees in the running for the £60,000 international Man Booker Award, which is due to be presented in London next week.

The prize was last claimed by Phillip Roth and is open to writers working in any language.

Speaking ahead of the award ceremony, Mr Novakovich said he disagreed with fellow academic Stephen Hawking’s decision to boycott a conference in Jerusalem next month.

“In general I don’t believe in boycotts,” he said.

“No matter what anyone thinks of the politics the only way to resolve an impasse is through dialogue, so it is always better to come and discuss it.”

Mr Nova-kovich, who teaches both Hebrew- and Arabic-speakers at the university, added that academics would do better to adopt a policy of talking to everyone.

“It would make it easier to reach a common solution,” he said. “Going to Israel is far better than saying no to dialogue — no dialogue actually resolves nothing.”

Living in Jerusalem, he said he was struck by how well the different religious groups co-existed in the Old City — something, he noted, which was too rarely acknowledged by the media.

“My attitude in literature is to look at a story and see what is working and then do it more, and I think politically it should be the same — let’s see what is working and let’s try to make it stronger.”

He said he did not expect to win the award, because the other nominees “have been published way more than I have”, but he was looking forward to meeting other writers, including Mr Appelfeld.