Orthodox get a tonic from NHS

A £100,000 NHS pilot scheme to offer culturally sensitive healthcare to strictly Orthodox Salford families was rolled out to local health professionals on Tuesday at the Hershel Weiss Surestart family centre.

They were told that imminent trial services would include a post-natal counsellor and a male health worker recruited from the local community.

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Manchester King David aims to avoid points entry system

Admissions to Manchester’s King David schools in 2010 will depend upon synagogue affiliation, rather than attendance at services.

Governors’ chair Joshua Rowe believes the “points for observance” entry policy announced by JFS following a Court of Appeal ruling in June is “too cumbersome. We want to keep it as unintrusive and as transparent as possible. Instead of using a birth test for being Jewish or not being Jewish, we are using affiliation to a synagogue for admissions.”

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School expansion cash

A £500,000 grant will facilitate the completion of a major building project at Broughton Jewish Primary to add a new floor and hall to the premises.

The Salford school, which has a growing pupil population, received another local authority grant last September to begin a two-phase expansion with ground floor classrooms and a refurbished entrance area. Now a second floor of classrooms will be added over its single-storey entrance building. A small hall will also be a much needed addition, according to governor Leonard Seitler.

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The Project loses out on lottery

Manchester’s Jewish Youth Project is to shut down with redundancies for its director and administrator after a £415,000 lottery funding bid was unsuccessful.

Known as The Project, it has, since 1994, provided support for youth groups, leadership training and counselling on issues such as bullying and drugs. Funded mainly via grants, it lost its then lottery backing two years ago. A local Jewish trust fund stepped in with support.

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How a TV documentary helped one woman get a divorce

A couple who came before the Manchester Beth Din speak anonymously in the documentary about the problems that led to the husband refusing to give his wife a get.

The 49-year-old wife, who has three children from her first marriage, claimed that her husband had become abusive when she told him she wanted a divorce and that he would give her a get only if she paid his court fees.

“The final dissolution took just a year. We gained our civil divorce in 1998. But it’s taken 11 years for the get, which was received in April at the Manchester Beth Din.

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Star charity

The northern branch of Charedi welfare charity Interlink has received recognition for its advice and adult learning services. The Matrix Standard — a nationally accepted mark of good practice commonly awarded to employment agencies and higher education institutions — puts Interlink in a stronger position to apply for government funding.

Director Nava Kestenbaum hopes the formal acknowledgement of “Interlink’s high standards” will increase opportunities to assist the community.

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Welfare charity is transparently the best

Manchester welfare organisation The Fed has been ranked among the UK’s most transparent charities by independent watchdog Intelligent Giving.

The Fed’s latest rating of 80 per cent places it 15th in the national list, alongside charities such as Children in Need and the Samaritans. It is a huge advance on the 29 per cent assessment of the Fed for 2004/05.

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MP urges teenage dialogue with Muslims

Muslims and Jews as young as 13 should be mixing on a regular basis according to Ivan Lewis, the Foreign Office Minister and Bury South MP.

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Corrie star remembers Manchester campaigner

Coronation Street star Julie Hesmondhalgh was among friends and family who remembered a radical-left Manchester Jewish campaigner whose book spurred MP John Mann to chair the Parliamentary Committee against Antisemitism.

Steve Cohen, who died in March, described himself politically as a “dangerous Jew”. An immigration-law barrister from Prestwich, he set up the Greater Manchester Immigration Aid Unit, fighting legal battles for asylum seekers.

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Bonus for favourite builder

The non-Jewish construction boss responsible for many key Manchester Jewish organisational buildings was honoured by communal leaders on Wednesday.

Harry Johnston’s company built the Brookvale special needs home, sections of the Heathlands care village and Broughton Jewish Primary School.

Over 40 people were at the surprise ceremony at the Bnei Akiva bayit in Salford, another of his builds. Mr Johnston had attended under the misconception that he was being consulted over a leaky roof.

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US fights swine flu

Contingency plans for Orthodox communities to deal with a swine flu pandemic will be released by the United Synagogue on Monday.

An advice document with guidance for synagogues, communal groups and schools will be sent out to communities and published on the US website. It also covers contingency arrangements for burials if deaths increase. Plans are in place to maintain essential community services if large numbers of staff fall ill.

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King David safety drive

A street awareness drive was launched in conjunction with Greater Manchester Police on Monday at King David High School.

Assistant Chief Constable Terry Sweeney addressed around 400 pupils at a special assembly to launch a joint partnership scheme with the CST and Maccabi Streetwise project. “This pilot could transfer to other areas of Greater Manchester,” he said afterwards.

Some 3,000 safety cards will be handed out to young Jews across the city offering advice on drugs, alcohol, bullying and internet safety. GMP has jointly funded the £10,000 project.

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Vigils held for Shalit

Vigils to raise awareness and mark the third anniversary of the capture of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit took place in three cities.

Manchester saw the highest profile event in the city centre’s main shopping area. Organisers outside Marks & Spencer held placards and wore T-shirts calling for Gilad Shalit’s release. Members of the public were invited to sign a petition for Shalit’s release. Hundreds of people took part, while Rebecca Ryan, star of Channel 4 drama Shameless, offered her support.

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New site for school refused

Planning permission to relocate Bury and Whitefield Primary School to a greenbelt site was unanimously refused by the council planning committee on Tuesday.

The school’s governors had been hoping the proposed new site would raise intake to the currently undersubscribed 165-pupil school by relocating on the doorstep of the Whitefield Jewish community from its current Unsworth site three miles away.

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Manchester legend dies at 106

The Manchester woman believed to be Britain’s oldest Jew has died three weeks after her 106th birthday.

Dolly Phillips devoted most of her life to helping others, running the Manchester Jewish Soup Kitchen and introducing a kosher meals-on-wheels service. She was awarded a British Empire Medal for her welfare efforts.

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Machete robbers slash jeweller’s arms to get gold and cash

Manchester police are hunting a machete-wielding robber with piercing blue eyes after a Jewish jeweller had his arms slashed during a raid on his car outside Prestwich’s main post office last Friday.

David Singer, 54, who lives in Whitefield, needed an operation to reattach an arm muscle which was sliced during his ordeal. Three men in black balaclavas surrounded his blue BMW at around 8.15am, smashing windows with bats and launching themselves through the openings.

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