People

Daniel Harris loves United but won't go to home games

Candice Krieger — Thu, 26 May 2011 11:09:56 +0100

Avid Manchester United supporter Daniel Harris refuses to go to Old Trafford. Why? In protest of the way that the owners, the Glazer family, finance the club, this year's Premier League champions. Mr Harris, 32, has strong views on the Glazer takeover, which he shares in his award-nominated publication, On the Road: A season in the life of a Man United fan who will follow them anywhere… except Old Trafford.

The book was recently shortlisted for the new best writer category at the British Sports Book Awards, sponsored by The Wisden Cricketer. But he tells People that he hopes the book will appeal to not just sports fans. "It started as a blog about me following the team but became much more than that.

"It looks at why people love United, why people love football and why people love anything." A former City lawyer, Mr Harris turned to writing in 2006 after a stint at Herbert Smith. "Law was never really for me. I wanted to write but I wasn't ready yet so I did two years at law school and two years at Herbert Smith." On the Road is his debut publication.

"It's about human behaviour and I hope people will find it funny. And hopefully, at the same time, it gives a good shoeing to the people making a mess of football."

A Manchester United fan since the age of six, Mr Harris stopped going to home games when the Glazers took control of the club in 2005.

Laura Jacobs goes on television to prove she has what it takes to make it as a successful artist

Candice Krieger — Thu, 26 May 2011 11:09:49 +0100

Art enthusiasts may recognise this woman. Laura Jacobs recently appeared on the BBC2 Show Me The Monet. It was a 10-part art series in which aspiring artists attempted to win a chance to sell their work in a prestigious exhibition.

Ms Jacobs was one of just 35 chosen from thousands of applicants by the panel of renowned experts to exhibit her work at the Royal College of Art in London. What's more, she successfully sold her work - a poignant photographic piece of two figures titled Between 'me' and 'you'- History Series -- for £1,750.

Currently on a scholarship at art school in the United States, Ms Jacobs, from north London, tells People: "The piece is very personal to me but I think other people can relate to it. It was great to be picked - I was delighted. And exhibiting at the Royal College was a surreal experience. The course I am on in America is very intense and I had come over for a day. It was interesting to hear what people in the art world thought about my work. It's one thing being in a studio and another being in a public arena."

With a background in theatre design, Ms Jacobs graduated in fine art from the Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in London. She is now on a three-year advanced painting and drawing course in New York. "I wanted to see how far I could push my ideas using painting." She is particularly interested in the interplay between photography, film, drawing and painting.

Her winning piece, she says, "involves the use of multiple spaces, light, the photograph and text and how they work together to evoke a sense of memory and time, loss and longing, presence and absence. There is an emphasis on the mark made by the passage of one person through another person's life, the gap between the self and the other, and the space that exists between 'me' and 'you'."

The judges --aka the "Hanging Committee" - on the show comprised Charlotte Mullins, contemporary art specialist, writer and broadcaster, art critic David Lee and art historian Roy Bolton.

Vivienne Glaser shows off her charitable strokes

Candice Krieger — Thu, 26 May 2011 11:09:45 +0100

Forget the marathons. Swimming enthusiast Vivienne Glaser has come up with an off-land challenge to raise funds for charity. Last year, she founded Swim4Sadna, a 3.5 km swimathon across the Kinneret, Israel's largest freshwater lake.

On Wednesday, Mrs Glaser, a mother-of-six, will take part in the challenge for the second year running. The aim is to raise money for Sadnat Shiluv, a centre for special needs children and young adults, which her 20-year-old son Elchie attends. It is located in the community of Rosh Tzurim in Gush Etzion.

British-born, now based in Israel, Mrs Glaser, 51, tells People: "I would like to see Sadnat Shiluv become an international model, inspiring full integration of all types of the special needs population as the norm."

Mrs Glaser was inspired by the Kinneret Swim, one of the largest popular annual sports events in Israel. However, it takes place on Shabbat. "Women who have always wanted to participate in a Kinneret Swim but were unable to do so because of the mixed swimming or Shabbat scheduling can now join in," she says.

Mrs Glaser made aliyah 37 years ago and last year, swam alongside her 75-year-old mother, Sylvia Wallis, Elchie's grandmother. Next week, she will be joined by 200 others and hopes they will raise enough money to create two new living spaces for Sadna students.

Yehuda Gruenfeld leads Israel's Euro chess debut

Candice Krieger — Thu, 26 May 2011 11:09:36 +0100

Check this out. Israeli chess champion Yehuda Gruenfeld hopes to be in Liverpool next month, captaining the national team at the European Chess Cup for the Deaf.

Mr Gruenfeld, 55, is ranked number one in the world by the International Committee of Silent Chess (ICSC), the global governing body for the deaf and hard of hearing chess. It will be the first time that Israel has taken part in the competition. This year's contest takes place between June 8 – 13 and the team would welcome any assistance from the UK. Mr Gruenfeld has been playing chess since the age of five - he was Israel's Junior Chess Champion in 1974. He tells People that it gives him "peace of mind and is a challenge in life for a person who has a hearing loss."

What is the difference between deaf chess and regular chess? "There is no big difference," he says. "Deaf players can play regular tournaments too. I have played all my life in standard format. An advantage of deaf chess is the opportunity to connect with other people with similar needs, conditions and create better communication."

Planning to bring the team to the UK is Rafael Pinchas, chairman and president of the Israel Deaf Chess Council and secretary general of the ICSC. Mr Gruenfeld says: "My point with this championship is to put the team on the map." He is no stranger to competing having represented Israel in several Chess Olympiads and is twice a national champion of among the hearing, in 1982 and 1990.

Last year, he played on the first board for the ICSC World All Star Team, which finished 48th out of 149 places.

Roy Etherton will finally stage his play on antisemitism

Candice Krieger — Thu, 26 May 2011 11:09:29 +0100

Concerned about the growing tide of antisemitism, award-winning producer Roy Etherton is on a mission.

Four years ago, he wrote Dreyfus, about Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish captain in the French army, who was stripped of his military honours in 1895 after being wrongly convicted of treason - he was falsely accused of selling military secrets to Germany.

Mr Etherton, currently touring with his 25th musical, has been sitting on the play but believes now is the right time to stage it, telling People: "I really want to raise the issues of the Dreyfus case and how the principals of injustice are still very much alive today. I think it is important that people - and drama groups - know this play is there."

Although not Jewish himself, he says: "I am concerned about the rise in antisemtism that I am seeing across the world. Whenever Israel is in the news it is always seen as the perpetrator and the bad guy." Kent-based, Mr Etherton, 64, first took an interest in the Dreyfus Affair six years ago.

"As a producer I am always looking for inspiring themes." His fascination took him to the École Militaire in Paris, where Dreyfus was stripped of his rank.

"I wanted to write a play to show the injustice that happened and how it can still happen to so many Jewish people.

"When I completed the play four-and-a-half years ago, I didn't have time to stage it and it's been sitting on the shelf, but now is the time.

" I am not looking at this from a commercial perspective but I think it is something that rings a bell with lots of people. I want to take it forward."

Rivkie Baum creates a plus-size fashion magazine

Candice Krieger — Thu, 12 May 2011 11:28:41 +0100

Calling all women. There is a new online fashion and lifestyle magazine aimed at those sized 14 and up. The bi-monthly publication, titled SLiNK, is the brainchild of former fashion stylist and freelance journalist Rivkie Baum.

Miss Baum, 25, was working as a personal shopper specialising in plus sizes when she realised there was a gap in the market for a plus-size magazine that had the same aspirational qualities of the mainstream glossies.

She tells People: "Many of the magazines use skinny models and even if they do use 'plus size', they are usually a size 12.

"I think there is a bit of a media emphasis that implies we should be a certain slim size and I think that's awful. We have had a lot of 'regular-sized' girls reading the magazine commenting that it is nice to see someone that's curvy." Launched last month, SLiNK features fashion, beauty, hair and make-up trends with top tips from industry leaders including celebrity hairdresser Lee Stafford and Dior's Andrew Gallimore. In addition to fashion, there are articles on travel, arts, reviews, technology, music and television, plus a recipe section run by the head chef of the Flemings Hotel in Mayfair, London.

Ms Baum studied fashion design at the London College of Fashion before working on various independent and mainstream publications, and commercial and celebrity shoots.

She says: "I became aware that lots of plus-size women didn't even pay attention to trends as there was no media format that showed them in an obtainable yet aspirational format. Plus size is such a hot topic in the media, yet it still carries so many negative connotations. I wasn't sure how the industry would feel about a plus-size glossy but to date, it has nearly all been incredibly positive." Based on the success so far, Miss Baum, who lives in Golders Green, north London, hopes to put SLiNK into print by the end of the year.

Jonathan Young hopes to become music's next big thing

Candice Krieger — Thu, 12 May 2011 11:28:36 +0100

Look out for Jonathan Young. The musician and actor (pictured right) is the lead singer of multi-ethnic band Myernark, which has made it through to the area finals of Live and Unsigned, the biggest music contest in the UK for unsigned acts.

The group, which also comprises Mr Young's brother Michael on bass, Spain's Eduardo Sanches-Seco on drums and guitarist Rion Willard, of Indo-Anglo Guyanese descent, were selected from more than 10,000 entries and will battle it out tomorrow for a place in the grand final.

Mr Young, 30, set up Myernark last July. He tells People: "We play our self-branded 'animalistic sexy pop'.

"We started out doing Middle-Eastern kind of grooves but now there is the more popular influence of Michael Jackson, David Bowie and Prince. Rhythm is very important to us." The band host their own monthly event in Clerkenwell, London, but are fully focused on the contest. "This is very important to us. We have got jobs aswell; Michael is a conductor, Rion is an architect and Eduardo is studying, but we want the music to become a full-time thing."

Mr Young, who lives in Hackney, adds: "This is the first competition we have entered and I'm really excited." Is he nervous? "I'm used to performing and the semi-final is taking place in a theatre so it's kind of my comfort zone."

Besides, they have been rehearsing around three times a week. If successful, the band could be offered a recording and management contract with Future Music, an investment of up to £50,000 and a world tour.

Also trying their luck this weekend is The Undecided (pictured left), a rock band comprising 12-year-olds Jake Adams on drums, Louis Slater, guitarist and lead vocalist, and Niall Logue, bass player - all pupils at Aldenham School in Hertfordshire.

Mike Reinstein returns to his roots with a debut album

Candice Krieger — Thu, 12 May 2011 11:28:32 +0100

Acclaimed musician Mike Reinstein has released his debut CD. Titled More To Be Revealed, it features 14 tracks, which he says are in part influenced by his Jewish background.

Mr Reinstein, who is married to Carry On star Sid James's daughter Reina, tells People: "There are songs about Jews in Kabul and also about my own experiences of prejudice and being an outsider. When I was at school in Potters Bar, there was a lot of anti-Jewish feeling around and I received some antisemtitism from one teacher in particular."

Reina James plays piano and sings on the album. "She is a very good editor of my songs."

The 57-year-old says the CD is "quite a mix. There's a lot of acoustic singer/songwriter stuff but also some Americano, guitar and djembe drums."

Mr Reinstein is also a composer of children's songs, a music teacher and workshop leader in primary and special schools.

Marilyn Kernoff finds therapy through painting

Candice Krieger — Thu, 12 May 2011 11:28:27 +0100

When psychotherapist Marilyn Kernoff was diagnosed with ovarian cancer two years ago, she decided to close down her practice to pursue what she loves - painting. Now, she is displaying her creations at her first solo exhibition, taking place at Corman Arts in north London.

Ms Kernoff, 62, tells People: "I have been painting for about 12 years but when I was diagnosed I wasn't in a state to work so I decided to throw myself into my art." Although still undergoing treatment, she says she is still able to paint. It's been a God-send. It's therapeutic and there is the element of distraction. It gives me a sense of meaning and purpose.

"It is a way of turning this ghastly cancer situation into a creative use. It's kept me going."

South-African born, Ms Kernoff describes her pieces as primarily semi-abstract landscapes and figure painting. She has achieved considerable success with commissioned portraits. Some of her work was selected by well-known curator Dr Jonathan Miller as part of the Discerning Eye Exhibition at the Mall Galleries in London.

A member of South Hampstead Synagogue in north London, Ms Kernoff will be exhibiting around 30 paintings at the exhibition, which opened yesterday and runs until the end of June.

Asaf Rozin helps you to shop... using your phone

Candice Krieger — Thu, 12 May 2011 11:28:26 +0100

According to current predictions, 80 per cent of the UK population will be using iPhones, Androids and BlackBerries by 2012. Good news for Israeli entrepreneur Asaf Rozin and his business partner Nir Ozeri.

They have created Stampfeet, a mobile loyalty card application. The app, free to download, enable users to store all their loyalty cards in one place and receive information about deals and points in addition to discovering new offers. The duo, both based in north London, are working with leading chains, The Tanning Shop, Samurai Sushi, The Bread Shop and Fine Burger Co, and are in talks with others firms.

Mr Rozin, 37, tells People: "We believe it's a cool service that's missing in the market. Merchants need to run loyalty schemes and now consumers can keep all their cards in one place." He says the app could in time replace the need for the plastic loyalty cards.