The JC Letters Page September 1 2017

While on holiday in Israel during the first week of July, I was amazed to watch a programme on Israeli TV called “Ensnared” (my translation of the Hebrew). It described the agonies of Jewish husbands living in Israel whose wives refuse to accept the get.

These men are in limbo and cannot legally marry in Israel since the rabbis refuse to carry out the marriage ceremony until they are divorced.

I wonder whether there are Jewish men in the diaspora in a similar predicament, suffering in embarrassing silence, or could it be that Jewish women outside Israel are more compassionate than their Israeli sisters.

Michael Brill, 
Wembley, Middx.

Cerebral palsy help

As the parent of a child with cerebral palsy, now aged 38, married with three children and working as a walking tour guide on the Freedom Trail in Boston USA, and a trustee of the Bobath Centre for the treatment of Children and Adults with Cerebral Palsy, I can easily identify with Emma’s story (JC, Aug 25).

There is a huge gulf between the treatment available for children and adults with CP.  

However, I am sure she is aware that on her doorstep in East Finchley the Bobath Centre for the Treatment of Adults has been operating for over 60 years. The Bobath team of specialist Physios is led by Christine Barber, a globally acknowledged expert in the field of Cerebral Palsy Treatment .

Emma, please get in contact with Christine and pop in for a chat at the Bobath Centre on East End Road. She is looking forward to hearing from you

Stuart Soloway
Trustee of the Bobath Centre for the treatment of Children and Adults with Cerebral Palsy,

Nobody’s idiot

I note with interest the assumptions of M Schachter about Progressive Jews. While it would take a better number-cruncher than myself to come up with a coherent picture of how religious affiliation relates to political party,  most of us have friends to the left of us politically but to the right theologically or halachically or vice versa.

More importantly, most of us have the wit and intelligence to know when we are being used as somebody’s useful idiot by either left or right-wing extremists and to refuse to play along, while, we hope, refraining from using epithets as a substitute for debate, either of the political or theological kind.  

Perhaps, with the Yom Ha Din approaching, Mr or Ms Schachter should apologise to everybody whom s/he called Pavlov’s dogs.

Ruth Hart, 
Edgware, Middlesex

Waste not, want not

Having been taught at a very early age by both my grandmother and mother that it’s a sin to waste food, I was shocked to read Levi Shapiro, a Jewish Community Council Founder, claiming that a bin meant to collect a week’s worth of food waste, “wouldn’t last a day in a Charedi household”. (Council urge Charedim to recycle food waste, JC Aug 11). While appreciating Charedi families cook a very large amount of meals from scratch, that doesn’t forgive wasting food, as was suggested by Hackney’s recycling officer. 

The majority of food waste is avoidable by better planning, storage, packaging and, dare I say, creative use of leftovers. 

Rather than answer the problem by increasing the size of the bins why not eliminate the problem in the first place? Hackney Council should focus on encouraging a reduction in food waste. 

The Charedi community must, as indeed we should all, play a part in helping the UK reach its challenging recycling targets of which the separation of food from the rest of waste is essential. I therefore urge Mr Shapiro to take the lead and make food waste reduction a priority in his community.  As the Hackney recycling officer states, it is a halachic duty to recycle but it is an even greater one not to waste food in the first place.

Martin Kersh, 
Bletchingdon, Oxon

Seeking soldiers

We are seeking surviving family of Pte Abraham Bernstein of Liverpool (son of Barney and Gertrude) who was killed in WW1.

The CWGC have a cross on his grave and are arguing that records show it was not objected to by the family. So they will not change it. If we find family who want this change, it MAY work but I need to find and talk to them. 

We are also searching for the family of WW1 soldier H (maybe Hyman) Arlick. A distant relative who knew his parents contacted me and says he was killed but we can only find a brief record of him in the British Jewry Book of Honour (BJBH) in the Ox and Bucks Light Infantry with his brother Reuben. It is possible he is thus unrecognised and we need family to discover more.

Please click on my name below to send me an email

Martin Sugarman, AJEX Archives

An investment

With reference to your article “Shul seeks investors for refugee housing plan” (JC August 25), if anyone is interested in further details in how to become an investing partner, they can contact me. I will be pleased to send an emailed information pack and draft partnership agreement.

Gillian Dawson, 
Wimborne, Dorset

Balfour memories

I am due to give a talk to the Jerusalem Branch of the Jewish Historical Society on the reaction of London Jewry to the Balfour Declaration following its publication in November 1917. 

I would welcome any information from your readers who may have relevant knowledge about the response — official and personal  —expressed to the Declaration in the form of anecdotes, correspondence, documents, newspaper cuttings, sermons, public speeches etc. In particular, anything pertaining to the rally described as The Great Thanksgiving Meeting on 2 December 1917 in the London Opera House and Kingsway Theatre would also be very useful.

Please click on my name below to send me an email

Raymond Cannon, 
Netanya, Israel