A purge at West London Synagogue where three of its five serving delegates to the Board of Deputies were ousted in an election. One who did keep his seat was Robert (aka Anthony) Feather.

A metallurgist with an interest in Middle Eastern antiquities, he has just turned his hand to fiction, publishing a thriller, A Clash of Steel, about two sacred relics. One is the Spear of Longinus, which was said to have pierced Jesus on the cross; the other, the Sabre of Uthman, was reputedly wielded by the Prophet Mohammed.

He was once asked to examine the putative spear, housed in a Vienna Museum, for a TV documentary.