Cheetham's president to attend Queen's garden party

Bernard Stone, president of Cheetham Hebrew Congregation, has been nominated by Manchester Jewish Representative Council to attend the Queen’s garden party at Buckingham Palace. He will be accompanied by his brother Philip. The shul is housed in the Manchester Jewish Community Centre.

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Leonard Cohen tickets up for grabs

Manchester Jewish Community Care has two tickets to auction for the Leonard Cohen concert on June 17 at the Opera House. This is a special event in advance of the 2009 International Festival. To bid for the tickets, contact Shelley Blackston, MJCC fundraising executive, on 0161 740 0111. All proceeds in aid of The Nicky Alliance Day Centre.

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Father killed on way to buy bagels

Klezmer violinist and father-of-three Michael Kahan was stabbed to death on his way to buy bagels in Crumpsall, Manchester, on Sunday morning.

The stabbing took place close to the State Fayre kosher bakery and was captured on the CCTV cameras of Heaton Park synagogue, which overlooks the murder scene.

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Developer in kosher revival

A property developer has undertaken a mission to bring kosher food back to South Manchester.

David Jebreel owns a non-kosher restaurant in the area that has closed down. Now he is seeking a tenant who will turn it into a kosher restaurant.

“There is a big Jewish community but there is nowhere for them to eat kosher. If people want to eat in a kosher restaurant, they have to travel up to 20 miles to north Manchester,” he said.

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Manchester shuls to merge to stem 'decline'

Faced with an ageing and declining congregation, the Central and North Manchester Synagogue is to close its building and merge with the nearby Stenecourt community.

Central members voted to vacate their premises, a converted church in Salford, because of dwindling numbers. Minister Rabbi Jacob Rubinstein will also make the move to Stenecourt, where the long-serving Rev Gabriel Brodie, 83, joined in 1944.

Discussions will be held between the two communities over the coming weeks to agree the timescale.

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Battle begins as Nazis drop in for a beer

Manchester Jewish leaders have accused a local organisation of breaking a promise by allowing participants in a 1940s weekend to wear Nazi uniforms.

Bolton Street station in Bury, an area with a large Jewish community, was turned by the East Lancashire Railway society into a re-creation of a 1940s war zone at the weekend, with British “Tommies” rubbing shoulders with “Yanks” and “Germans”.

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Academics’ motion seen as a boycott by the back door

The University and College Union lived up to expectations on Wednesday by carrying a motion at its annual conference in Manchester that has been challenged as an attempt to reintroduce a boycott of Israeli academics by the back door.

Tom Hickey, the philosophy lecturer from the University of Brighton behind the motion, said the UCU was “urging people to reflect on whether it was appropriate for them to maintain their links with Israeli institutions”.

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Anti-Israel views on the fringe

UCU academics called for a boycott of Israel’s universities at an unofficial fringe meeting on Tuesday despite the union’s official rejection of an outright boycott.

The meeting, held by pro-boycott group BRICUP on the eve of the UCU congress, saw Israeli-born academic Professor Haim Bresheeth and Birmingham University’s Kamel Hawwash state the case for cutting ties with Israeli universities whose academics are “complicit in the occupation of Palestinians”.

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Volunteers pack thousands of goods for Belarus

More than 50 volunteers packed 180 boxes of 3,600 donated goods to be sent to the Jewish community in Belarus. The event, held at Maccabi Brooklands, was a joint initiative between World Jewish Relief, Maccabi and the United Synagogue, with support from Bnei Akiva, FZY, Habonim and the Whitefield Jewish Youth Club. Rosalind Bluestone, who heads WJR’s Gifts in Kind programme, said: “The response was overwhelming.”

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Murder mystery evening for Jewish Community Care

Manchester Jewish Community Care held a “Murder in the Big Brother House” at the Nicky Alliance Day Centre. The 10 actors from the B’nai B’rith Cheshire Unity Players presented the murder mystery evening. More than 70 guests attended and raised £1,000 for the centre.

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