While the Palestinian economy is in a state of "severe fiscal crisis", wages for Palestinian Authority staff eat up a staggering 20 per cent of GDP, according to a World Bank report released on Wednesday.

The report also points out that international aid has kept the Palestinian welfare state running but has not succeeded in kick-starting the private sector.

The Tunisian president has extended the hand of friendship to the Jewish community.

The North African country was once home to 100,000 Jews but after independence from France and the Six Day War in Israel many fled, fearful of their safety. The population now stands at around 1,500 Jews and is concentrated on the island of Djerba.

Strict discipline, a love of dance and creative ways to use small spaces were the key impressions brought back by three Jewish teachers from a week working in Ghanaian schools.

The trio went to West Africa with international development charity, Tzedek, which runs twinning programmes between Ghanaian schools and their British-Jewish counterparts.

It was the first time Tzedek had taken Britis

This week, we come in from the cold. A midrash suggests that our time spent out of the house living in a temporary hut is a kind of divinely imposed exile. It is an opportunity for reflection before the final judgment which takes place tomorrow on the festival of Shemini Atzeret (Yalkut, Emor 753).

High end fashion companies including Prada have donated valuable items to a Jewish group raising money for famine relief efforts in East Africa.

The Closet Den committee, who earlier this year raised more than £12,000 for the Bet Hayeled foster home in northern Israel, are hoping to raise at least £5,000 this week for World Jewish Relief's appeal.

Around £170,000 has been raised to help those affected by the famine in East Africa through a World Jewish Relief campaign.

WJR launched a fundraising drive last month in response to reports of draught and malnutrition in Somalia.