Bone marrow group wants more screen tests

A year-long global fundraising campaign supporting Jews needing bone marrow matches has reached London.

Volunteers from the British Friends of Ezer Mizion, which organises bone marrow testing in Israel, were outside north-west London synagogues and shops seeking donations towards a £2.5 million UK target.

Simon Maurer of the British Friends says the campaign will enable “many more Israelis to go for a bone marrow test, which will improve the chances of Jews worldwide finding a match”.

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Cosgrove Care exhibits at Maccabi Centre

Cosgrove Care concluded its “Faces of Art” project with an exhibition at the Maccabi Centre. Two hundred people viewed “Faces of Art”, a culmination of six months of work by eight people aged 18 to 22.

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BBC awards Cosgrove Care £42,000

Glasgow-based learning disabilities charity Cosgrove Care has been awarded £42,000 over three years by the BBC’s Children in Need appeal to fund a summer creative activities programme.

The project, In My Hands, will give children with learning difficulties the chance to get involved in the arts, developing new skills and interests and expressing themselves through non-verbal means.

An exhibition showcasing their achievements will be open to the public.

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Rabbi rocks for Scots

Danny Bergson is the new rabbi of Glasgow’s Newton Mearns Hebrew Congregation, filling the vacancy created by the move of Rabbi Pinchas Hackenbroch to the Woodside Park community in North London.

It is the first ministerial appointment for Rabbi Bergson, who has been director of Ignite the Soul, providing events for young adults across Manchester. He studied at the Royal Northern College of Music and plays guitar in a rock band.

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Ninety-year-old Ida Schuster became the first woman to lay a wreath on behalf of Glasgow Ajex

Ninety-year-old Ida Schuster became the first woman to lay a wreath on behalf of Glasgow Ajex at its annual Remembrance parade on Sunday. Mrs Schuster, a former WAF, said: "My late husband, Dr Alan Berkeley, was a prisoner of war in Japan and I was delighted to be asked to lay the wreath." The parade of about 80 people was led by the Glasgow Jewish Lads' and Girls' Brigade band. It marched from the cenotaph at Mearns Cross to Newton Mearns Synagogue where Rabbi Raphael Bokov of Queens Park and Clarkston Synagogue, led the service.

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Torrential rain forces Giffnock and Newlands Synagogue to move Glasgow Jewish Education Forum meeting.

Torrential rain and a leaky ceiling forced Giffnock and Newlands Synagogue to move a Glasgow Jewish Education Forum meeting to a dry part of the shul. Guest speaker Antony Lerman, executive director of the Institute for Jewish Policy Research, spoke on the topic "Does the Jewish Community Get the Leaders it Deserves?" Mr Lerman discussed the good and bad sides of Jewish leaders worldwide and felt that those with "financial clout" and time were the ones to hold leadership roles.

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Sandymount Cemetery Regeneration Project needs to raise £100,000 for repairs

Sandymount Cemetery Regeneration Project needs to raise £100,000 to complete repairs.

Stanley Coorsh, chair of the trustees of the project, which has raised more than £131,000 since its formation four years ago, said: "A further 173 headstones are going to be repaired and this is scheduled to start in November.

We have had tremendous support from the community and from ex-Glaswegians as well as from the City Council and the Glasgow Hebrew Burial Society."

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Stone Setting for baby twin brothers

A stone-setting was held for twin brothers who died in 1925, aged two months.

Maurice and Bernard Pearlman were found to be buried in Sandymount cemetery by their Hove-based sister, Freda Brisbar, after she was in contact with her cousin, Leonard Pearlman, who lives in Oregon.

Mr Pearlman contacted Harvey Kaplan at the Scottish Jewish Archives Centre who discovered where the twins were buried. Rev Aharon Soudry of Garnethill Synagogue said prayers for the twins at the service.

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Limmud founder speaks at Glasgow Jewish Community Centre

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