Charitable DNA

Week after week, the pages of the JC are full of reports of charitable giving of a generosity that we can too often take for granted. Whether it’s the coffee morning that raises £50 or the dinner that raises £5 million, charity is fundamental to Judaism.

The likes of Norwood, whose CEO Elaine Kerr has this week announced her departure, and Jewish Care are world leaders in their field. But it is not just the giants of the charity world that show our community at its best. On the same page as we report Ms Kerr’s departure, for example, we also cover a £30,000 Children In Need grant to Kisharon school for its music therapy project, and the skydiving Goldstein sisters, who have raised £2,000 for Camp Simcha.

Elsewhere, our report on the wonderful ‘Sock Drop’ idea shows how anyone with a good idea can turn it into something worthwhile. All it takes is some energy and initiative.

And those are two qualities that are in our DNA.

A royal shidduch

It is, almost certainly, the first royal shidduch. If the news has somehow escaped you, Meghan Markle and Prince Harry were introduced by their mutual friend Misha Nonoo, the Jewish dress designer.

By some oversight, the engagement is not in our Social and Personal column this week. This is, we are sure, simply because the two families have had their minds elsewhere, caught in a global whirlwind of mazeltovs.

To which we add our own.