Posts by Jessica Elgot

Special needs pupils gain new skills

Jessica Elgot — Fri, 25 May 2012 16:21:39 +0100

Special-needs pupils at the strictly Orthodox Side by Side school are learning more than tikkun olam when delivering weekly food parcels to people in need.

They bring packages of soup, hot dishes such as schnitzel and meatballs, plus desserts, to Hackney clients of Charedi charity, Hotline. The weekly delivery is also an opportunity for the pupils — who have varying, severe special needs — to pick up life skills like checking addresses.

Accompanying the boys to the charity kitchen and the delivery point, fundraiser David Mendelovitz said they really looked forward to the task.

“Of course, every child likes leaving school and going out and about, but they have to match the addresses on the parcels to the house numbers and find the houses themselves.”

Side by Side stems from the vision of founder, Rebecca Rumpler, who established the nursery in her front room.The current premises are two grey semi-permanent cabins with space for 35 nursery children, both mainstream and special needs, and 25 school-age boys with special needs.

The school will move to purpose-built accommodation, provided the Agudas Israel Housing Association can obtain planning permission.

The AIHA will contribute land worth £1.5 million if consent is given for flats above the new building — and the school meets the £4 million construction costs. AIHA chief executive Ita Symons hoped Hackney Council would “have the stomach” to approve the project.

Although headmaster Gerald Lebrechtt acknowledged the need to move, he stressed: “We can stay here as long as we need. The trustees are looking at a lot of different options.

“At the moment, we are meeting demand — we’ve never had to turn any special-needs children away. But we are only able to take boys up to the age of 16. We would like to extend it to 19 in time for when the national school leaving age becomes 18 in 2015.”

Mr Mendelovitz said Side by Side had an annual £600,000 fundraising target. Even on a shoestring budget, it managed to offer sensory soft play rooms, physiotherapy, voice therapy and one-to-one help for children with the most complex needs.

Pupils’ conditions range from Down’s Syndrome to autism. Some children are wheelchair-bound, others are blind and some have to be fed by tube.

Senior teacher Sue Gerrard said it was sometimes hard for parents to accept that the children needed to progress at their own pace. “It causes so much anxiety and pain. Some parents think that if they push their children, maybe they will eventually be normal.”

Yet some will go on to lead semi-independent lives and hold down a basic job. Mr Lebrecht said it was “vital” the children grew up to be part of the community. “We have given them various opportunities for work experience.

“We teach them life skills like cookery and some of the boys run a café, with a price list and the parents come in.

The last one was a fruit café for Tu Bishvat. A Jubilee-themed fete is planned for the school, where the boys will prepare finger sandwiches and afternoon tea.”

Rivka Schlesinger, special educational needs co-ordinator in the nursery, said the job satisfaction of a special needs teacher was second to none.

Ruby Wax wins Jewish Care award

Jessica Elgot — Thu, 24 May 2012 15:10:47 +0100

Although Ruby Wax declared herself thrilled to have won “Jew of the Year award”, it was actually the Jewish Care Woman of Distinction accolade, presented at a central-London lunch on Wednesday.

Honoured for raising awareness of mental health issues, the comedienne told the 150 women at Phillips de Pury and Company about her battle with depression. She had been the “poster girl for mental illness”, but did not deserve sympathy because “I got a show out of it”. She toured the show, Losing It, internationally after performing it in mental hospitals.

The lunch, which raised £65,000, was in aid of Jewish Care mental health facilities Sydney Corob House in West Hampstead and Jack Gardner House in Golders Green. Sydney Corob was named Care Home of the Year at the British Care Awards last week.

A Woman of Distinction award also went to Jill Shaw Ruddock, a former investment banker, who wrote The Second Half of Your Life, giving women post-menopausal guidance, encouraging them to use that time to reach their intellectual, cultural and professional goals. Ms Shaw Ruddock said she had “talked to many organisations about provision for the elderly and Jewish Care is the best in the country”.

She is working to open a day centre for over-50s, the Second Half centre, teaching people new skills and giving them a place to socialise. “We have much more time than we think we do,” she said. “If you are a healthy woman at 50, the likelihood is that you are going to live to 96.”

There was a standing ovation for Sydney Corob resident Susan Schlaen — a former PE teacher who has bipolar disorder — who made the appeal.

She said Jewish Care had “rescued” her after an unhappy experience elsewhere.

“I had terrible bronchitis and all my top teeth had fallen out. I watched my whole world fall apart. Jewish Care fought the council for three months to change my funding and bring me to this beautiful care home.”

Gefiltefest Jewish food festival attracts 500 people

Jessica Elgot — Thu, 24 May 2012 14:43:03 +0100

Challah baking, home-brewed kiddush wine and a controversial fish were part of an eclectic menu at the third Gefiltefest Jewish food festival, held on Sunday at Ivy House, Hampstead.
Run by Michael Leventhal in collaboration with the London Jewish Cultural Centre and the JCC, it attracted 500 people for a programme of tastings, demonstrations, restaurant awards and debates — including a heated discussion on whether Jewish food “really exists”.
Jewish Museum chief executive Abigal Morris chaired the debate, at which Michael Pollak of the London School of Jewish Studies argued that gefilte fish and other popular delicacies had been created to ensure diners did not pick bones out of their fish on Friday night, which would break Shabbat.
“Kugel and cholent come from the necessity of cooking something for 24 hours to eat on Shabbat. Smoked salmon and herring come from the necessity of Jewish merchants needing to carry something kosher with them on long journeys.”
But cookery writer Judy Jackson contended that many of the recipes thought to be traditionally Jewish were “made up” by modern chefs and writers. “I invented many in my book. I put in my mother-in-law’s Scottish recipe for stuffed chicken, using porridge oats. That’s not Jewish cooking, but it’s traditional in our family.”
Upstairs, children and adults pummelled homemade challah dough into misshapen plaits, supervised by Ariella Levy. They were encouraged to make two breads, one to take home, the other to donate to charity. Other demonstrations included Tali Levine’s Israeli salads and Italian chef Silvia Nacamulli’s aubergine caponata. Alexi Charkham showed how to “he-brew your own” kiddush wine. The JCC organised the children’s activities, which included petting live chickens and a kids’ café.
Among the lecturers was Rabbi Harvey Belovski, whose fishy tale was the long controversy over whether certain types of turbot have “scales” and can be considered kosher. The story of Chief Rabbi Israel Brodie refusing to eat turbot at an Anglo-Jewish Association dinner was headline news in the JC in the 1950s. “I was going to buy a turbot for us to examine,” he said. “But they are very expensive and as we will see, you won’t be able to eat it at the end.”
A post-lunch highlight was an interview with Gefiltefest founding patron Claudia Roden by food blogger Anthony Silverman.
Rabbi Eiran Davies and Limmud programming chair Dan Jacobs unveiled plans for a kosher vegetarian café, the Ruchot community café, which they hope will eventually sell organic produce from a sustainable farm they intend to open. “Jewish vegetarians are under-served by the current quality of milk restaurants,” said Mr Jacobs, a self-described “militant vegetarian”. The idea was for people to volunteer once a month to “cook whatever they want”.
Mr Leventhal — who quit his job in publishing to run Gefiltefest full-time — explained that it raised money for food poverty charities including Gift, the Bet Shean Food Bank and Leket. Food was “central to Judaism and it’s inspiring to see so many people sharing and celebrating together”.
The kosher restaurant award was won for the second year running by Kaifeng in Hendon, which serves Chinese fare.

Gay rights challenge to Chief Rabbi Lord Sacks

Jessica Elgot — Thu, 24 May 2012 14:34:30 +0100

A gay rights campaign, in which a Jewish journalist is prominent, is to force each member of the House of Lords, including the Chief Rabbi, to record their position on gay marriage.

The "Out4marriage" campaign will ask every MP and peer to record a video, send a tweet or add their name to a list of those who back equal marriage. Those who do not respond or issue no comment will be added to a public list of those who do not support the move.

Lord Sacks has been under pressure to take a stand on government plans to introduce marriage for same-sex couples, being urged to "speak out" against the proposals by head of the Federation Beth Din Dayan Yisroel Lichtenstein.

The Chief Rabbi's Office has so far refused to comment on the issue. Both the Reform and Liberal movements have backed a plan to allow same-sex couples to have a civil marriage.

Ben Cohen, founder of gay news website Pink News, has been part of the team running the Out4Marriage campaign. This week, volunteers filmed supportive MPs, including Golders Green's Mike Freer.

Design firm reinstates Israel on wall maps

Jessica Elgot — Thu, 24 May 2012 14:30:09 +0100

An interior design company has had to "re-draw" a wall world map which omitted Israel for being "too small."

Customer Joanna Koenigsberg, of Sidcup, planned to decorate walls in her new home with panels in different designs from online company Binary Box. But two of the company's map designs, one labelled with country names and one covered in different flags in the shapes of countries, each omitted Israel, giving Jordan a Mediterranean coastline.

Ms Koenigsberg said: "I was saddened because I really liked these designs, but I can't accept this fiddling with the truth."

After being contacted by the JC, the company said it was an "error" and was not politically motivated. Aidan Stonehouse, graphic designer at Binary Box, said the sticker panel had been redesigned to include Israel.

Ms Koenigsberg said she was pleased with the response, and said the company had sent her the new designs. "Of course we have no idea how many were sold of the old ones, or who designed them, but it was a decent response. I don't feel there was any political element to the oversight."

Writer aims for Seinfeld star's approval

Jessica Elgot — Thu, 24 May 2012 14:21:37 +0100

An aspiring filmmaker from Chingford is one step away from having her film professionally critiqued by Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm writer Larry Charles, having reached the finals of a national competition.

Actress and comedy writer Alexis Strum has previously starred in Persona, a drama series only available on mobile phones, and has acted alongside Sir Ian McKellen and Richard E Grant.

She wrote and starred in the surreal six-minute comedy Shoes, about a terrible waitress, after becoming disheartened by comedy scripts she was sent.

The film is now in the finals for Shooting People's Film of the Month. The winner, determined by viewer votes, will be announced next Friday.

She said: "I wrote the film after having some terrible experiences with bad customer service. And I was sick of reading unfunny scripts I was sent to act in, so I decided that like Miranda and Ricky Gervais before me, I would write a role for myself. I wrote the script, then approached Jewish actor Steve Furst, who has appeared in Little Britain and Skins.

"I then courted a few directors before I secured BBC director Dermot Canterbury to make the short film and I am currently entering it into worldwide film festivals."

Ms Strum said she was desperate for Borat writer Mr Charles to see her film, describing him as "my idol."

She added: "However, the real plan for Shoes is to find a producer to help me turn it into a TV series."

Gap years in Israel...and Africa?

Jessica Elgot — Fri, 18 May 2012 13:03:14 +0100

New Tzedek chief executive Jude Williams wants young Jews on gap years to gain a more rounded experience by visiting both Israel and a developing country.

Ms Williams — the former director of young adult group Jeneration — wants to take the international development charity “into every home of the Jewish community”. That includes putting it on the agenda of people looking to do volunteering and seeking a meaningful Jewish experience.

“It would be wonderful if there was a project where you could spend time in Eastern Europe, Israel and in Africa as well,” she said. “Three different ways to experience being Jewish. Israelis who go travelling are now having these profound Jewish experiences outside of Israel.”

Tzedek will move out of the Pears Foundation’s start-up space JHub this summer into new premises. The plan is to continue to grow. “We are perceived as a young persons’ charity. We want to work more with professionals and retirees,” Ms Williams explained.

Southend's Raymond House closure put on hold

Jessica Elgot — Fri, 18 May 2012 13:00:01 +0100

Supporters of the closure-threatened Jewish Care home in Southend have persuaded the charity to delay its plans in the hope of finding a buyer.

A working group of three representatives apiece of Jewish Care and the Southend community will explore the viability of keeping Raymond House open if sufficient investment can be generated.

Since Jewish Care’s announcement of closure a fortnight ago, relatives of some of the home’s 25 residents have expressed interest in moving them to other Jewish Care facilities. The 38-place home is losing £300,000
a year.

Five Southend community members met Jewish Care trustees at the charity’s Rubens House in Ilford on
Monday.

Southend and Westcliff Hebrew Congregation president Alan Gershlick and vice-president Stephen Salt had prepared a presentation on the potential for finding a buyer — but with no concrete proposal in place. no
timeframe has been set for the working group to report back.

Jewish Care chief executive Simon Morris said: “We are working collaboratively with the Southend Jewish
community and would, of course, be pleased if the community can identify a viable option that would permit us
to keep the home open. There is no certainty that this will be the outcome but we are ready to explore the position through the joint working group.”

Mr Gershlick was “hopeful a longterm solution can be achieved”.

Stuart Levinson, whose mother-in-law is a Raymond House resident, said that as long as relatives were kept
informed, the working group was a “positive step.” his family had no plans to move his mother-in-law. “We are still keeping the faith that Jewish Care will stay looking after her.”

Poverty action on the menu

Jessica Elgot — Fri, 18 May 2012 12:57:20 +0100

Choreographer Arlene Phillips is among Jewish anti-poverty campaigners who have spent this week existing on a food budget of £1 or less a day to draw attention to the plight of the world’s poorest people.

Ms Phillips has tweeted about her experience of surviving on cabbage soup, rice, tins of beans and crackers —forgoing her favourite espresso. The former Strictly Come Dancing judge has raised £3,800 in sponsorship for Malaria No More.

Filmmaker Lara Smallman and Oxford University postgraduate student Asia Lindsay also spent five days on the £1 budget — the amount 1.4 billion people worldwide have to exist on.

Ms Smallman, 25, from Hendon, has raised more than £400 for the Positive Women charity, supporting women with HIV in Swaziland. “I didn’t expect it to be this difficult,” she said. “I thought that being Jewish it would be fine to restrict what I ate because we’re used to having rules governing what we can and can’t eat. But by day three my energy had totally gone. The most delicious thing I ate was egg fried rice,
using a quarter of an onion.”

Ms Lindsay, 24, who is completing the challenge with friend Phil Bull, accepted that it could not replicate the lifestyle of those starving in the Third World, but wanted to experience how people in poverty in the UK had
to manage.

“We planned our budget very precisely and went to three different supermarkets to get the best deal. No real family would have time to do that.

“What struck me was how unhealthy everything was. We bought some frozen vegetables and a tin of mushy peas but you can’t buy anything fresh.”

The duo have been raising money for Health Poverty Action and are currently the top of the league of Oxford University participants, having raised £650.

Eliana Mann thriving after removal of 3kg tumour

Jessica Elgot — Fri, 18 May 2012 11:56:38 +0100

The life of a 10-year-old Kerem Primary pupil has been transformed by the removal of a 3kg tumour from her abdomen.
Eliana Mann’s tumour was discovered in 2009 after her parents Tara and Paul became concerned that she was not eating and was constantly tired. Mr Mann also noticed that Eliana’s feet had not grown and that her stomach was unusually hard.
Surgeon Edward Kiely told the BBC that doctors found a “benign tumour” which “grows relentlessly”. Attempts were made to shrink the tumour over the next 18 months through chemotherapy but it continued to grow, taking up 50 per cent of her abdomen.
Last July, the tumour was removed in pieces in a nine-hour operation at Great Ormond Street Hospital. The Manns, members of Finchley Synagogue, were featured this week in a BBC2 documentary series about the hospital.
Mrs Mann said her daughter was now “a new child”, adding: “We didn’t really have much option — it was a life-saving operation.”
Back at school and growing stronger, Eliana will take part in Sunday’s Maccabi-organised Community Fun Run with her older sister and thee younger brothers in aid of British Friends of Tikva Odessa.
“She’s really getting on well with ev-erything at school,” Mr Mann said. “We couldn’t be happier. She will be off to Hasmonean next year.” Kerem had been “very supportive of her”.

Jewish Women's Aid's supporters hear harrowing stoires of abuse

Jessica Elgot — Fri, 18 May 2012 11:12:38 +0100

The 300-plus crowd at Jewish Women’s Aid’s annual lunch heard heartrending testimony from women and children who had fled domestic violence.

There was silence in the banqueting suite at Lord’s cricket ground as JWA trustees and staff read out statements from those helped by the charity. A 55-year-old said: “The physical abuse gave me something to concentrate on, because the pain was unbearable. But it was the emotional pain, the belittling and the stalking that made me try to kill myself. I could run from his slaps but not from his words.”

In other testimony, a 36-year-old recalled that, when pregnant, her partner “looked me straight in the eyes and said: ‘I hope you die in childbirth and leave me my son to myself’”.

Also read out were the words of a 12-year-old, who approached JWA after a talk at school about domestic violence. “It sounded a lot like the stuff my mum’s boyfriend did, but I wasn’t sure, so I asked lots of questions. Then at the end, she [the JWA volunteer] came up to me and asked if there was anything else still worrying me. It was such a relief to tell someone.”

The lunch raised £110,000 for the charity, which has seen demand for its services rise by more than 50 per cent over the past year — from 139 women to 210.

JWA’s Emma Bell attributed this “to increased awareness of the issue and of our services, particularly in Manchester, where we now have a part-time worker covering the north. Over 50 women received counselling from our counsellors and 48 children were supported by our children’s worker. We’ve also reached out to more young people than ever before through our schools work — 2,809 children attended our sessions this year, compared to 2,146 the year before.”

The guest speaker was American Holocaust expert and Jewish studies academic Professor Deborah Lipstadt, who changed her travel schedule to Israel for her niece’s batmitzvah to accommodate a stop-off in the UK.

Professor Lipstadt spoke of the reluctance of Jews to savour the positive aspects of identity and practice, criticising those who focused purely on such negatives as antisemitism and anti-Zionism.

“Even Jewish comedians are uniquely miserable as only a Jew can be,” she reflected. “We focus on the ‘oys’ and not the joys.”

She was “more concerned about antisemitism now than I have ever been. Those who would have apologised for antisemitic slip-ups now defend them. But antisemitism is too often the first mechanism used to motivate young people to fulfil our traditions. We cannot give the oppressor power over our identity as Jews.”

Outrage over honour for Lithuanian Nazi leader

Jessica Elgot — Thu, 17 May 2012 15:29:34 +0100

The puppet prime minister installed in Lithuania during the Nazi occupation is to be commemorated in the capital this week, and reinterred with full honours.

The remains of Juozas Ambrazevicius will be returned from the US to Vilnius for a ceremony this weekend, before being reinterred in Kaunas, in central Lithuania.

Mr Ambrazevicius became prime minister in June 1941, after the Nazi invasion, but was removed just two months later after the government was dismantled.

The Simon Wiesenthal Centre’s Holocaust historian Efraim Zuroff said the Lithuanian government had tried to distance themselves from the ceremony. “But we now understand the government has paid for the transportation of the remains,” he added.

The former professor of Yiddish Studies at Vilnius University, Dovid Katz, now editor of website Defending History, said: “Jewish people in Lithuania, who have excellent relations with Lithuanian neighbours and friends, are in a state of shock that the government and parliament could do this to them: financing the reburial with full honours.

“The duplicitous policy of honouring the victims, for the consumption of naive Jewish foreigners, as well as the perpetrators, to satisfy the local antisemitic far right base, is just not on.”

Mr Ambrazevicius — who died in the US in 1974 — has been linked to the establishment of the Kovna ghetto to imprison Kaunas’s Jews, and to the setting up of a concentration camp.

Strong support for quotas on women leaders

Jessica Elgot — Thu, 17 May 2012 11:31:38 +0100

A third of British Jews believe Jewish organisations should positively discriminate in favour of senior female candidates in top positions through set quotas, a survey has found.

And almost 90 per cent of British Jews believe women should be able to chair and be trustees of synagogues - despite a continued stalemate on the issue.

Responding to the survey of 1,600 people by the Jewish Leadership Council's Commission on Women in Jewish Leadership, a US spokesperson acknowledged "broad communal agreement" on the issue. This was reflected in the survey, in which 88 per cent of respondents believed women should be able to chair synagogues.

Former US president Simon Hochhauser, who has been outspoken in his support for further equality, said in March last year: "The Chief Rabbi has said that he does not wish to change the situation during his current chief rabbinate." Both candidates for US president made manifesto pledges to allow female chairs.

Chief Rabbi Lord Sacks said he commended the commission's efforts, adding: "In the past 20 years, there has been more progress than ever before in relation to the involvement of women across a variety of areas."

CWJL chair Laura Marks said the commission would not be directly addressing the issue of shul chairmanships. "We included it in the survey because it's indicative of a desire for change."

Appetite for major change is strong among British Jews, according to the survey. Ms Marks said she was "surprised" by how many people would be willing to support quotas and said it showed the strength of feeling.

Shift on ethnicity rules signals new dawn for adopters

Jessica Elgot — Thu, 17 May 2012 11:28:46 +0100

Changes to the law will help Jewish families to adopt a child in the UK - as most are currently deemed "unsuitable" by local authorities.

Councils still insist that prospective parents match the ethnicity of the children they are adopting - and halachically Jewish children are rarely put up for adoption. Under the current system, wanting to raise a Jewish family can be enough to strike parents off the waiting list.

Education Secretary Michael Gove, who was adopted when he was four months old, has spoken of the need for legislation because councils were not following new government advice on adoption and ethnicity. Last week, the Queen's speech proposed to "stop damaging delays by social workers in matching parents to ethnic minority children".

Gillian Kirsch, head of adoption at Norwood, which acts as a Jewish adoption agency, said just six Jewish children had been placed for adoption in the past three years.

"People would not be encouraged to go to the local authority and say 'I want to adopt a non-Jewish child and [have the child] go through a conversion'."

She welcomed the proposed legislation, and explained: "The local authority must now look, in the first instance, for a family that matches the child's ethnic background and culture. If a family cannot be found, the authority will look for families that will meet the holistic needs of that child.

"It can help Jewish prospective adopters be considered for non-Jewish children. But a Jewish family will always be considered a priority if a Jewish child comes up for adoption. So it will work both ways."

But she added: "The child must feel part of the family they are joining. At age three or four, children will have memories of events like Christmas and, if they went to an observant Jewish home, they might feel they do not belong."

Ort aids tribute to an ex-pupil who died alone

Jessica Elgot — Thu, 10 May 2012 20:12:23 +0100

Long-lost family of a German-Jewish refugee who died alone in his Maida Vale flat will gather on Sunday for the stone-setting.

In December 2010, British Ort was contacted by police searching for relatives of Franz Joseph Nebel, whose body had been found some months earlier.

British Ort executive director Dr Noga Zivan said police had found a reference to Ort at the flat - Mr Nebel had attended an Ort school in Berlin. Although Ort was unable to help the police, it "arranged the funeral for Mr Nebel, which took place on Boxing Day 2010 in the presence of only a British Ort staff member and her husband, as well as one old boy and his wife."

But relatives have since been located and the stone-setting will commemorate Mr Nebel, his two brothers, parents and wife.

"His neighbours, friends and newly-discovered family have been invited, so that we can give him the proper ceremony he deserved," Dr Zivan said.

Among those at the stone-setting will be Israel-based civil engineer Uri Nebel Inbal, a second cousin. "I have done a lot of research into family history and found people living in Brazil, Argentina, Sweden, all over the world. It's quite amazing," he said.

"I have visited England maybe 20 times on business but I never thought to check the phone book to see if I recognised any names."

The Berlin school was set up for German-Jewish children who could not attend mainstream schools in the Hitler era.

It was eventually decided to move the 215 pupils to the UK and a group of 104 boys and seven teachers left three days before the outbreak of war. The second group never made it out of Berlin.

Care chiefs press Cameron over welfare reform delays

Jessica Elgot — Thu, 10 May 2012 20:12:20 +0100

Fundamental reforms to address a crisis in the care of the elderly have been delayed again, despite pleas from charity chiefs.

The Jewish Care and Nightingale Hammerson chief executives, Simon Morris and Leon Smith, were among the 78 signatories of a letter to David Cameron this week, calling on him to urgently address "the devastating impact of years of failure to reform".

The letter continued: "While we know decisions, particularly on the funding of care, will be difficult, they must be made now. Older and disabled people and their families cannot wait and will not accept half-measures."

Last year's Dilnot Commission proposed a cap of between £35,000 and £50,000 on the amount elderly people pay towards their care. Those with assets of under £100,000 would not contribute. Under the current system, many people have to sell their homes to fund their care. Implementing the Dilnot recommendations would cost an extra £1.7 billion annually.

But Wednesday's Queen's Speech made no mention of financial reform, frustrating campaigners. It left Mr Smith fearing "that this government, like the last government, will feel this whole issue is too big to handle. Something must happen, but I am not optimistic.The current funding regime is no longer sustainable."

Mr Morris pointed out: "Every day at Jewish Care we are made aware of the massive pressure brought to bear on individuals and their families. We will continue to do everything that we can to ensure that this matter remains high on the political agenda."

Southend seeking a buyer to save home

Jessica Elgot — Thu, 10 May 2012 20:12:18 +0100

Families of residents at the Southend home Jewish Care plans to close are pinning their hopes on finding a buyer.

Fifty relatives and community members attended a meeting last week with senior Jewish Care staff to discuss the future of Raymond House.

Southend and Westcliff Hebrew Congregation vice-president Stephen Salt said afterwards that he was working with president Alan Gershlick to attract a purchaser. "We have several possibilities in the pipeline to stop the home from closing."

The hope was to have a proposal to present to a meeting on Monday with Jewish Care trustees and concerned relatives being held at the charity's Vi and John Rubens home in Ilford. "We are acting not just on behalf of the residents but the whole community of Southend."

Stuart Levinson, whose mother-in-law is one of the 25 Raymond House residents, has written to Lord Sugar, Gerald Ronson and Sir Philip Green appealing for financial help to keep the home open. "I feel that if the home was improved cosmetically, more people would be interested in going there," he said. "The care is wonderful. We really don't want to think of what would happen to my mother-in-law if the home closes. We don't want her to have non-kosher food or be in a non-Jewish environment. But the closest Jewish home is Rubens House and it's an hour's drive."

Jewish Care chief executive Simon Morris said the charity had gone to "extraordinary lengths to secure a purchaser for the home", but had been unsuccessful.

"A viable alternative to closure would have to demonstrate the securing of £300,000 per year for a minimum of three years. In the meantime, Jewish Care will continue with plans to close the home and families who wish to start discussing options for moving a resident to another home have been informed of the process for doing so."

Outrage over SS poem on memorial day

Jessica Elgot — Thu, 10 May 2012 16:20:54 +0100

A poem honouring a Dutch Waffen SS volunteer, which was to be read at the Dutch Second World War memorial event in Amsterdam, has been withdrawn after fierce opposition.

The poem, written by a 15-year-old boy about his uncle, was to be read at the commemoration last week in Dam Square, attended by the Dutch Royal Family.

The plan met fierce resistance from the Centre for Information and Documentation on Israel (CIDI), which monitors antisemitism and anti-Zionism in Holland.

"A poem which says a Waffen SS 'just made the wrong choice' is absolutely not appropriate for memorial day," said CIDI's spokeswoman Esther Voet. "It was originally intended to be read at Westerbork, the camp where Jews were taken to be transported to concentration camps. And Westerbork, rightfully, refused to have it read there. Then the committee then decided that it should be part of the commemorations in Dam Square."

The poem, written by 15-year-old Auke de Leeuw, was the winner of a schools' poetry competition organised by the official May 4 and 5 committee.

On May 4, the Netherlands remembers those killed in the Second World War and other military conflicts, and celebrates its liberation by the Allies the following day. Mr de Leeuw's uncle volunteered to fight with the SS and was killed on the Eastern Front.

In a separate development, Jewish activist group Federatie Joods Nederland sued the council of Vorden, a town on the German border, which had planned a commemorative march past graves of German soldiers. The lawsuit was led by attorney Herman Loonstein, who said: "We consider this form of commemoration as an unlawful act against victims, dead and alive."

British National Party bucks far-right trend in Europe - by losing

Jessica Elgot — Thu, 10 May 2012 14:38:01 +0100

Support for the British National Party has "collapsed" in all of its former strongholds, losing 10 of the 12 council seats it was defending.

The far-right party lost its seat in the London Assembly and all its candidates lost their deposits, according to Hope Not Hate. The anti-fascist group calculated that the BNP lost around £200,000 fielding candidates in the London elections, having spent more than UKIP. In London, it polled just 2.1 per cent of the vote.

Hope Not Hate's Matthew Collins said: "Across Europe, it's apparent that the far right is gaining support, but in Britain they are doing very badly.

"The party picked a pidgin-English speaking mayoral candidate [Carlos Cortiglia] who was second only to [BNP leader] Nick Griffin in his unpopularity."

The party has no seats on Burnley Council for the first time in a decade. Seats were lost in Calderdale, Heanor, Nuneaton, Bedworth, Rotherham, Epping Forest and South Tyneside.

Rival right-wing parties have split some of the traditional BNP vote, with the National Front and the English Democrats fielding candidates.

"In Basildon and Dudley, the BNP had less support than their old rivals, the more extreme National Front.

The English Democrats put up just one candidate in London, former BNP activist Mark Twiddy, compared to 13 in 2008.

Top vet denounces shechitah

Jessica Elgot — Thu, 10 May 2012 14:37:59 +0100

The former president of the British Veterinary Association has criticised kosher slaughter for causing "unacceptable suffering to animals" and called for the practice to be curbed.

Shechita UK said it was preparing a response to the claims by Professor Bill Reilly in the Veterinary Record.

Prof Reilly said he had visited a kosher slaughterhouse in the 1970s, and was appalled at how "the distress, fear and pain were there for all to see (and hear) in the abattoir".

He argued in favour of "restricting the use of halal and kosher meat to those communities that require it for their religious beliefs, and where possible, convincing them of the acceptability of the stunned alternatives."

Shimon Cohen, spokesman for Shechita UK, said: "Prof Reilly's deeply flawed article seems to be based upon science which has been comprehensively discredited."

A "learned response" is being prepared for the Veterinary Record by vet Dr Simon Hayes and Stuart Rosen of Shechita UK.