Versatility is the hook that shoppers love

A few hours in the tiny office at Stoller’s offers a beginner’s guide to Anglo-Jewry’s affinity with salmon.

Last Thursday lunchtime, a never-ending stream of customers were entering the shop in Temple Fortune, north-west London.

“You can see that almost every customer buys salmon in one form or another,” said director Kim Williams. “It’s a fish used mostly by Jews because they can cook it ahead and eat it on Shabbat. It’s easy to prepare, very versatile and nutritious with omega-3 oil.”

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Fears over salmon market forces

It is Friday morning in Billingsgate. Fish of all shapes and sizes, gleaming and glistening, from many parts of the world. White-coated porters scurrying about their business. With the exception of some stands offering shellfish, salmon is the predominant species.

Some stalls sell it by the fish — £10 for smaller, £12 for larger. Sold by the kilo, prices ranged from £3.90 to £4.80 last Friday for a two- to three-kilo salmon. But an upward trend was anticipated.

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Salmon Producer is counting the cost

A letter from his main salmon supplier prompted Ian Goldstein to highlight the problems facing the salmon industry. The letter set out the reasons behind escalating prices and Mr Goldstein passed it on to clients at his Stanmore smokery.
“We have absorbed too many increases,” said Mr Goldstein, who has run the smoked salmon business — started by his grandfather in Stepney — operating under London Beth Din and Kedassia supervision. “Whatever our price is, someone will always undercut us.

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Interview: Shimon Peres

In an exclusive interview for the JC, Shimon Peres talks to Anshel Pfeffer about hecklers, boycotts and his relationship with Gordon Brown.

Here is the full text:

Mr President, all the red carpets are being rolled out for your visit to Britain. You are being awarded a knighthood and a doctorate and everyone you meet is making pro-Israel statements. But at the same time, we are seeing reports of unprecedented levels of hostility towards Israel in academia and parts of the British media. How do you explain the dissonance?

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Special Report: The great schlep

Sky News's coverage over the US election - www.skynews.com. You can see Adam Boulton's report on Sky News this Sunday, at 10amIt's clear how fierce the battle is the moment you leave the freeway. A group of demonstrators have gathered at the side of the main road into Boca Raton, a smart city 40 miles outside Miami, Florida. They're not shouting, they're not marching, they're not beating drums. But they are carrying placards, some of them depicting stars of David, others with three bald words: "McCain not Hussein"

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Your silver, baroness. I hid it in the garden

In June, we reported Ruth Deech's plans to sue Poland's government over family property lost in the war. She has now returned - and had an emotional reunion in Krakow.

It was a story of two Polish families that had not been told for almost seven decades. One Jewish, the other Catholic - the Frankels and the Wanieks; living just a street away from each other, with children of similar ages playing together, the mother of the Catholic family giving private piano lessons to the Jewish children.

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The secret life of the free-living Israeli traveller

A study suggests why young Israeli backpackers are unwelcome in some countries - and it's nothing to do with Mid-East politics.

It was in Nepal at 17,700ft, high up on the Himalayan Annapurna ridge, when 25-year-old Galit realised how deeply machismo culture affected Israeli men. "I and my boyfriend were trekking with a group of fellow Israelis, all of them ex-combat soldiers," she recalls. The equipment they had with them was immensely heavy, but the men, including Galit's boyfriend, insisted on carrying it themselves.

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Back to school, back to crisis

On September 1, nearly 1.5 million Israeli schoolchildren went back to school after two months of summer holidays.

In a country accustomed to annual teachers' strikes, the fact that 99 per cent of the Israel's 4,021 schools re-opened on time was described as a resounding success by Education Minister Yuli Tamir. But a closer look at what those children do at school leaves little room for celebration.

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My missing son Gilad

Noam Shalit has not seen his son since his kidnap in 2006. Now, as he launches a new campaign for his release, he is pinning his one hope of contact on getting a letter to Hamas

Three weeks ago, Noam Shalit sat down to write a letter to his son, Gilad. It was not the normal kind of family letter -how could it be? Noam has not seen his son since Sunday June 25 2006, the day when Gilad, a soldier in the Israeli army, was taken captive by a group of Hamas militants raiding a border crossing with the Gaza Strip.

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I fought the Nazis with the Bielski brothers

Sixty-five years ago this month, Jack Kagan escaped a death camp and joined the famous band of Jewish resistance fighters. Here, he tells his story.

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The Georgian Jews who expected the worst

There were emotional scenes at Ben Gurion airport on Tuesday night as 30 new immigrants arrived from Georgia along with 300 Israelis on special government flights.

Twenty of the olim were from Gori, the city north west of Tblisi battered by Russian missiles. The Jewish Agency had brought the community of some 200 people to the relative safety of Tblisi.

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They who survived the Holocaust

Photographer Matt Writtle set out to capture and preserve images of those who lived through the Holocaust and went on to settle in Britain. Below is a selection of their photos - and remarkable stories of endurance

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Jordan’s man: ‘Time is running out’

A two-state solution can only be possible if Jerusalem pursues a rapid, comprehensive peace deal with all its Arab adversaries, according to Jordan’s former top man in negotiations with Israel.

“When the time comes for an agreement, it will have to be comprehensive,” Marwan Muasher, Jordan’s first ambassador to Israel, told the JC. The previous failure of an incremental peace process meant that a deal could only work if concluded in a matter of months. “A year is too long in today’s Middle East,” he said.

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Could this car drive oil power to a stop?

Software millionaire Shai Agassi is determined to make Israel the world’s first country to abandon petrol for electric cars. He has Shimon Peres as well as Renault-Nissan backing him — and Gordon Brown is showing interest

When Gordon Brown visits Israel this weekend, the talk will not be exclusively about conflict resolution and peace negotiations. For some of the time at least, the British Prime Minister will be focusing on, of all things, electric cars.

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