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Forget the flotilla, and the increasing mess of admissions to Jewish schools. The real story for British Jews this week is the closure of Bloom's restaurant in Golders Green, an Anglo-Jewish treasure if ever there was one. And not in a good way.
As food critic Jay Rayner put it a couple of years back: "Bloom's is an institution. Mind you, so is Broadmoor [prison], and nobody ever went there for dinner."
Read the rest of his classic review. It is hilarious.
But then we all have outrageous Bloom's stories. One of my favourites concerns friends of my husband's family, who both ordered chicken legs. Much to their annoyance, the waiter kept on pushing the husband to try the chicken breast instead. Finally, he confessed that because so many people ordered chicken legs and 'not enough' people were ordering chicken breasts, they instituted a policy of one chicken leg per table.
The couple got up and left. But years later, they went to Bloom's again. Remembering what had happened last time, they sat at seperate tables and both ordered chicken legs. Once they were safely served, they greeted each other like lost friends and moved to the same table....
Another friend of the family ordered lemon tea. Having been there before, they told the waiter to make sure they used a clean glass. When the waiter finally came out with several drinks he couldn't remember who had ordered what, so he yelled out to the entire restaurant: "Who ordered the clean glass?"
Feel free to share your own memories below......