The Diary

Out of tune with school choir

May 19, 2013

National Theatre director, Sir Nicholas Hytner, speaking at the London Jewish Culture Centre this week, was clear about his opposition to boycotts. When his institution embarked on collaborations with the Israeli theatre company Habima, he said: “None of my colleagues said, let’s not work with them.”

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Good sport over pin-up status

May 19, 2013

Sky Sports presenter Olivia Godfrey has been voted one of the 100 sexiest women in the world, according to a poll of lads’ magazine FHM.

The New London Synagogue member said of her pin-up status, “It’s very flattering although a little random because I am a sports journalist.”

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Restoring Freud's couch

May 19, 2013

It’s one of the most famous pieces of furniture in the world but the couch where Sigmund Freud psychoanalysed his patients has been showing its age.

London’s Freud Museum last week launched a £5,000 appeal to conserve the historic seat which was bought in Vienna in 1891 and came over here with its owner in 1938.

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Kosher enough for the church

May 12, 2013

ITV’s Strictly Kosher series has one fan in high places, Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby. Calling for better religious broadcasting, he wrote in the Radio Times that “the marvellous portrait of Manchester’s Jewish community is one example of how the media can help us to see the people around us as they really are.”

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West London's flower power

May 12, 2013

The early advent of Shavuot, and a cold April, has left Rabbi Julia Neuberger with a headache: will she find enough roses this year for the festival.

At her West London Synagogue, children scatter baskets of rose petals during shul and then dance over them, releasing the scent.

“The idea is to represent the sweet smell of Torah,” she said. “It looks lovely and the smell is amazing.”

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Jazz band's fighting spirit

May 12, 2013

The film Defiance dramatised the story of the Bielski Otriad (Brigade), the partisans led by four Jewish brothers who resisted the Nazis in occupied Poland. Now their heroism has inspired a different work — a “jazztronica” composition, The Bielski Suite, from London guitarist, Alex Roth.

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Dig this

May 12, 2013

The Jewish Leadership Council’s report on community vitality quoted this from one contributor: “Why are people members of synagogues? It’s for burial — let’s call a spade a spade.” Methinks he speaks with forked tongue.

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Getting your kicks out of shul

May 12, 2013

It was a tricky situation for Northwood United Synagogue; their annual meeting last night clashed with a Championship play-off game for local team Watford.

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The wrong kind of spectacle

By Simon Rocker, May 6, 2013

The one thing you could say about Woody Allen’s glasses is that they are not making a fashion statement. But according to website FailedMessiah, the style of specs worn by the director have been deemed too “modern” and “goyishe” by one Chasidic yeshivah and its students have been told not to wear them.

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JFS boy's Premier League bid

May 6, 2013

Here’s a Premier League fixture that you may not know about. Twelve-year-old JFS student Naftali Wolfson from Mill Hill plans to visit the grounds of all 20 Premiership clubs in just two days as a fundraising challenge for his bar-mitzvah.

He is due to set off with his parents on Saturday night after Shabbat for the first stop, Southampton, ending at Wembley on Monday.

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