If you were looking for someone qualified to lead an initiative to improve the standard of education for under-privileged children, Brett Wigdortz would not be that man. At least, 10 years ago he was not that man — he did not have any relevant skills or experience and he was only 28.

Adam Richman could eat for America.

In fact that is more or less what Richman's job has been for the past few years. As presenter of the massively popular Man v. Food show, which has aired on Dave, The Food Network and UK TV Food, Richman has become a cult figure for taking on some of the most insane food challenges in a country renowned for unhealthy portion sizes.

Sera Hersham-Loftus’s parents must have despaired of her when she was a child. She had two off-putting habits.

Sadly, there are not many Jews who fought in the Second World War who are still able to march. But those who can will be polishing their medals to parade down Whitehall on Sunday, in honour of their comrades who fell in the 1939-45 conflict and those before and since.

Sadly, there are not many Jews who fought in the Second World War who are still able to march. But those who can will be polishing their medals to parade down Whitehall on Sunday, in honour of their comrades who fell in the 1939-45 conflict and those before and since.

Simchahs come and go, but somehow the cast of characters remains the same. There are types who find their way into just about every bar- and batmitzvah or wedding - people whom you instantly recognise. Here is a small selection.

The Kvetcher

When Amos Oz sits down to write at his desk in the study of his Arad home, he does not use a computer. Rather, he has two pens — a black one and a blue one. Each has a different function, he says.

“I use one pen to tell stories and the other to tell the government to go to hell.”

Steven Berkoff grew up in the East End and lives there now. He was, for a time, “rehoused in north London,” he says, but even then the East End remained his spiritual home. So much so in fact that during the 1960s the actor/writer would travel back to Stepney and Whitechapel with his camera to take photos of a world that was already beginning to disappear.

For all of you who think that klezmer is simply Jewish wedding music, this excellent documentary in the Timeshift strand proved that, well, you were absolutely right.

However, what you might not know was that klezmer was possibly the first and certainly the most enduring incidence of the musical mash-up.

Everyone has been attempting to get Jews into light entertainment and reality programmes recently, What with Grandma’s House, Strictly Kosher, Jewish Mum of the Year and Friday Night Dinner, the stereotypes have been flowing freely.

Without Woody Allen, Sophie Lellouche’s life would have been very different. She might never have discovered literature, music or philosophy, and she would definitely not be attending the London gala premiere of her movie Paris-Manhattan, which opens this year’s UK Jewish Film Festival — a debut rom-com which features a cameo appearance by Allen himself.

The multi-award winning American drama Homeland, based on Gideon Raff’s equally superb Israeli series Prisoners of War, has returned for a second series.

In the week in which Jewish stereotypes were spattered all over our screens in the kosher car crash that was Jewish Mum of the Year, Channel 4 presented the flip-side with Friday Night Dinner.
This sitcom, which attracted decent viewing figures in its previous, er, Friday-night slot, is the Jewish show that dare not speak its name.

When Yasmin Levy was signed up by her manager Paul Burger more than a decade ago, he joked that she would be unlikely to sell more than 128 records. You could understand why. After all, here was an unknown vocalist who specialised in singing half-forgotten songs in the language of Ladino — the Judeo-Spanish of the Sephardi world which is spoken by fewer than 150,000 people.

Mark Glanville is nothing if not eclectic. There cannot be many who have sung a Yiddish song cycle at the Kennedy Centre in Washington DC and written a first-hand account of what it was like to be a football hooligan with Manchester United’s notorious Cockney reds.

H ow many Jewish mothers does it take to change a lightbulb? According to the old joke, the answer is none. “Don’t worry about me,” she says “I’ll just sit here in the dark.”

Michael Chabon was brought up in a place called Columbia, Maryland. It was what was known in America as a planned community — a 1970s concept of a racially integrated, egalitarian, ecumenical community.