Education Secretary Michael Gove told 700 UJIA supporters at the charity's annual dinner on Monday: "I'm proud to be a friend of Israel."

Mr Gove was the guest of honour at the London Hilton event, which raised £2.76 million for the charity's work in Israel and the UK.

He told an admiring audience that he had been a socialist in his teens and a journalist in his twenties, but one thing had

Plans for a modern Orthodox free school in Golders Green are a step closer with the announcement that it has reached the final stage of the application process.

The Golders Green Jewish Primary School has met the criteria set by the government's free schools programme and is now through to the interview stage.

It might not quite have been Take That, but there was only one boy band capturing the screaming attention of scores of teenage girls in Mill Hill on Sunday.

They were among the 600 fans of all ages who turned out for a concert by New York group the Maccabeats, organised by Bnei Akiva.

There was no Father's Day lie-in for Norwood-supporting dads who joined the charity's annual junior bike ride for seven-to-14-year-olds and their families.

The start time was 10am for the 450-plus riders at the Haberdashers' Boys' School in Elstree as they set off on a 10-mile off-road course.

First-time entrants included nine-year-old Jack Adler from Mill Hill, whose father Dan also took pa