North needed for shechitah fight

Shechita UK has said it cannot succeed without northern Jewish communities joining the fight against proposed EU labelling regulations which could spell the end to kosher meat in Britain.

Launching its northern public campaign in Manchester on Monday night, Shechita UK's campaign director, Shimon Cohen, urged the entire community to "be on the ball" in lobbying MEPs. Earlier, a meeting of 25 Orthodox Manchester rabbis agreed to mobilise their communities to the cause. Special information packs have also been sent to kosher butchers and synagogues in Leeds, Liverpool and Newcastle.

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School's kosher concerns answered

Hertsmere Jewish Primary School is to appoint a shomer after parents voiced concern about kashrut supervision.

The school announced it was working with the London Beth Din to find someone to oversee kashrut.

New head Steven Isaacs said: "The school has followed strict guidelines and taken advice regarding the appropriate supervision of food at all times." However, "as a stringent measure", it was moving towards engaging a shomer.

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Rogue burger

Drew Barrymore's new comedy Going the Distance, due for released next month, has a scene in which co-star Justin Long eats a burger.

A bit of a problem for the New York Jewish couple who lent their home as a location: they are kosher, but the burger, cooked in their kitchen, most certainly was not. The studio had to replace the grill.

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Kosher guide goes mobile

It can be hard to keep up with the ins and outs of kashrut. Bounty bars recently returned to the approved list after many years off it - but how would you know?

Help is at hand with a new mobile phone app from Arta Creative Solutions, which can give the run-down on 8,000 products from the London Beth Din's kashrut guide.

A handy device when your child is pestering you to buy something in the sweetshop.

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Harrow halal plan raises Jewish shechitah fears

Shechita UK have expressed concerns over a backlash against kosher meat after parents and animal rights groups protested against the new halal school dinners offered by Harrow Council.

Newspaper reports claimed that residents were worried about "the methods used to slaughter animals in this way".

Parent Sheila Murphy told the Harrow Observer: "The Farm Animal Welfare Council has lobbied the government to get kosher and halal slaughter banned. The method is deemed cruel by some animal-lovers."

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Interim agreement on New Zealand shechitah ban

New Zealand's small Jewish community has won a minor victory in its legal battle against a government ban on kosher slaughtering.

In the High Court in Wellington on Monday, Justice Denis Clifford approved a consent order to permit shechitah until the trial reaches court, which is not expected until next year.

The decision comes as UK Jewish leaders step up efforts to prevent the European Parliament from passing a law that will mean kosher meat must be labelled "meat from slaughter without stunning".

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Kidnappers ‘forced man to issue a get’

Strictly orthodox rabbis are fighting claims that a woman's marriage is invalid because her husband was forced to issue a get under duress.

Friends of her ex-husband have started a campaign claiming he gave it after he had been kidnapped.

But the Union of Hebrew Congregations dismissed the claims and insisted he had been paid nearly £16,000 to give it.

"This man abandoned his family and now wants to get revenge and stir up trouble," said a UOHC source.

Neither the man or the woman can be identified but he is an American living in New York and she lives in London.

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Israel boycotters pitch up in Waitrose

Security guards were forced to remove protesters who pitched a tent in the aisle of a Waitrose store and spent an hour urging shoppers not to buy Israeli goods.

The protest was organised by Brighton Jordan Valley Solidarity and its supporters included Simon Levin, one of the seven activists cleared last month of damaging an arms factory after successfully claiming they had acted to prevent Israeli "war crimes".

Staff called police after 10 protesters refused to move from the store in Western Road, Brighton.

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Shtetl show for Leeds children

Leeds is opening a Jewish educational centre where children can take a walk through time into a 19th century eastern European shtetl.

The Jewish Heritage Centre for Children, due to open in October, is the brainchild of Leeds Lubavitch education director Shoshana Angyalfi and her project co-ordinator Ruth Bell, who gave the JC a sneak preview of the museum.

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