Leadership, the economy and faith in times of crisis were among topics discussed by Gordon Brown and the Chief Rabbi before the 250 guests at a Hendon Synagogue gala dinner.

The former prime minister was participating in the inaugural Hardman Conversation, in memory of the community's long-time minister, Reverend Leslie Hardman.

Sarah Brown has spoken of her pride in supporting Jewish charities and her desire to take her family on holiday to Israel.

The wife of the former prime minister addressed a full house of 350 people at Finchley Synagogue on Tuesday in the launch event of the five-week Kinloss Learning Centre programme.

The government is working to allay fears that its counter-extremism policy is floundering, three months after the coalition came to power.

Jewish leaders have expressed concern that not enough is being done to tackle the threat posed by extremists in Britain.

The Tories are thought to be ideologically split on the issue, with ministers also facing a backlash from civil servants opposed to Conservative policy.

Gordon Brown has accused the Conservatives of compromising British values and British influence by allying with “marginalised” figures in Europe accused of holding extremist antisemitic and homophobic views.

In a fiercely worded attack in an interview with the JC, the Prime Minister said the Opposition leader had abandoned the mainstream grouping of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, in order to appease a section of “fanatical” Eurosceptic backbenchers.

Britain’s expulsion of an Israeli diplomat this week did not prevent Prime Minister Gordon Brown sending the Jewish community a cheerful message of goodwill for Pesach.

Mr Brown sent a personal letter to wish the community “best wishes for a Pesach Sameach”, signed in his trademark black felt tip.

The letter reads: “This Pesach families will gather, just as they have for centuries, to eat around seder tables and read the Haggadah. The story they will tell is of course unique to the Jewish community – but it is one with lessons for us all.

Gordon Brown will commemorate more than 20 British heroes of the Holocaust with a new award at a ceremony in Downing Street tomorrow.

The Prime Minister will hold a reception honouring those that risked their lives to help Jews during the Holocaust.

Of those awarded, only two are still alive and will attend the reception: Denis Avey, now 91, who saved an Auschwitz prisoner’s life after temporarily swapping places with an inmate and “British Schindler” Sir Nicholas Winton, who rescued 669 children from Czechoslovakia.

The Justice Secretary Jack Straw has postponed immediate legislation to stop Israeli ministers being threatened with “politically motivated” arrest warrants when they visit Britain, until after the general election.

The justice secretary’s remarks contravene the promise made by Prime Minister Gordon Brown yesterday.

Mr Brown proposed that the Crown Prosecution Service should take the responsibility for prosecuting for war crimes, after reading a leader comment in the JC showing him the strength of feeling over the issue within the Jewish community.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown has announced an imminent change in universal jurisdiction law, as predicted exclusively by the JC last week.

The Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations has opposed plans to replace Greenwich Mean Time with all-year summertime, believing it will cause “tremendous hardship” for those observing religiously prescribed prayer times.

Joe Lobenstein, vice president of the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations, has written to Gordon Brown objecting to proposals to shift Britain’s whole time system forward by an hour, known as Single Double Saving Time (SDST).

Campaigners for the change believe that it will boost the tourist trade and reduce traffic accidents.

Gordon Brown has personally intervened to unblock the logjam over a change in the law that allows local magistrates to issue arrest warrants for visiting foreign politicians accused of war crimes.

The JC understands the Prime Minister is determined to press ahead with the law change before the election.

Last December, Foreign Secretary David Miliband promised to amend legislation after a warrant was issued for former Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni over her role in planning Operation Cast Lead in Gaza.

Gordon Brown has called for an inquiry into how British passports were used by assassins who killed a senior Hamas leader in Dubai.

At least seven of the members of the Dubai assassination team, who killed Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, had passports with the names of real people, six British and one German. Most of the “real names” were men who had made aliyah to Israel.

Prime Minister Brown said: “We have to carry out a full investigation into this. The evidence has to be assembled about what actually happened, about how it happened and why.

The Community Security Trust recorded more antisemitic incidents in 2009 than in any other year since records began 26 years ago.

Releasing its annual figures for last year, the CST confirmed that 924 incidents were reported, including violent assaults, desecration of property and death threats.

The 69 per cent rise on 2008 followed an “unprecedented” number of antisemitic attacks recorded in January and February last year, during and after the conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. Around a quarter of cases included references to Gaza.

Youth club leader Raina Sheaf was among community heroes hosted by Gordon Brown at a 10 Downing Street reception.

Leeds North-East MP Fabian Hamilton nominated Mrs Sheaf, chief executive of local club the Zone, as someone “widely respected in the Jewish community”.

She was “thrilled to be invited. It was good to realise that Mr Hamilton values what I do at the Zone.”

Mrs Sheaf, 43, travelled to London with Mr Hamilton’s other nomination, Abid Hussain, owner of a local chain of stores and an active supporter of the Leeds Islamic Centre.

Gordon Brown has met Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at Downing Street to discuss the peace process in the Middle East.

The two met for an hour in Downing Street where their discussion included the Arab Peace Initiative and the Palestinian economy.

A spokesman for Number 10 said: "They focused their discussions on the need to renew efforts towards a lasting peace agreement.

Gordon Brown has praised the “brave and courageous” 91-year-old Denis Avey, who swapped places with a Jewish prisoner at Auschwitz, as he marked Holocaust Memorial Day.

Mr Avey, along with Holocaust survivor Ben Helfgott and members of the Holocaust Educational Trust, visited Downing Street today as part of the lead-up to HMD on Wednesday.

Mr Brown, watched by his wife Sarah, signed the Holocaust memorial book and spoke to the group, which also included two non-Jewish sixth-form pupils who visited Auschwitz last year, for 45 minutes.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown and the Universities Minister, David Lammy, expressed concern this week as it emerged that Birmingham University was refusing to ban a speaker who has advocated suicide bombing, supports Hizbollah and is widely known as Hamas’s representative in the UK.

Labour MP Denis MacShane, chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group Against Antisemitism, protested to the university’s vice-chancellor Prof David Eastwood about the appearance of Dr Azzam Tamimi, who told BBC TV he would be happy to be a suicide bomber.

The Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation has called on Gordon Brown to fulfill his promise to donate some of the £110m needed to save the former concentration camp from decay and ruin.

The camp has been built on marshland between two rivers and damp is seeping into the barracks, which are rotting and splintering.

Restoration experts have warned that the camp has less than two years before some parts are beyond repair.

In early December, the infamous ‘Arbeit Macht Frei’ sign was stolen by vandals, highlighting the vulnerability of the site.