My favourite story of the week comes from Rabbi Gerald Skolnik, president of the Conservative Rabbinical Assembly, who was over here for the Masorti movement’s annual learning day.

He recalled many years ago, as a Jewish school teacher, taking a lunch-break in an ice-cream parlour in Manhattan when an elderly man walked in. “I will have a vanilla,” said the man in a Yiddish-flavoured accent.
“Cone?” asked the shop assistant.

“No,” the man shrugged. “I’m a Levite.”