Stephen Hawking has announced that his decision to not attend the Israeli President’s Conference is due to “health reasons” and “not an academic boycott” as previously claimed by the British Committee for the Universities of Palestine.

Facebook has named prominent advertising executive Nicola Mendelsohn as its new head of European operations.

Ms Mendelsohn is the owner of advertising agency Karmarama and formerly the first female president of the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA).

Now living in Finchley, she was born in Manchester, where her mother, kosher caterer Celia Klein is still based.

Professor Stephen Hawking has pulled out of a conference to be held in Jerusalem as part of an academic boycott of Israel.

Reportedly, the well-known physicist told Israeli President Shimon Peres that he will not be attending the ‘Facing Tomorrow’ conference in June “based on his knowledge of Palestine.”

The next Chief Rabbi, Ephraim Mirvis, is to live in Hendon, rather than St Johns’ Wood as his predecessor, it was announced today.

The Central Synagogue in the West End of London will serve as his city base, with plans to provide a reception and other meeting rooms for him.

V When 18-year-old Hortense arrived in Surrey to work as a domestic cook, she suffered a huge culture shock. The educated daughter of a Jewish doctor in Breslau, Germany, she was used to having servants, not being one.

The benefits of the arts cannot always be measured in economic terms, leading figures in the Jewish cultural sphere warned this week.